Brand: MacNews

Sorenson, whose Sorenson Video 3 codec is included with QuickTime 5.0.2, has begun shipping Sorenson Video 3 Professional Edition for US$499. The Professional Edition allows users to encode video in the Sorenson 3 format. Version 3 includes support for two-pass VBR compression, support for a binary alpha channel, automatic scene change detection, compression time packetization for error resiliency to packet loss, and chroma-key segmentation compression.

Proteron, creators of the N2MP3 encoding software, today announced EasyMP3 for Mac, a US$24.95 MP2/MP3 encoder. The Carbonized software features the LAME encoder, G4-optimized MPegger encoder, and an Ogg Vorbis encoder. Additionally, the software can covert audio files to WAV and AAIF formats. N2MP3 Pro, the company’s high-end encoding solution, sells for $59.95.

In a move that many predicted would happen eventually, Napster — the beleaguered music-sharing service — has suspended the ability for users to trade songs and said that they were not clear when it would reopen to its users. A note on the company’s Web site states, “File transfers have been temporarily suspended while Napster upgrades the databases that support our new file identification technology.” Looks like it is back to the drawing board for Napster.

An interesting article by Bambi Francisco of CBS MarketWatch takes a look at the comparisons that can be drawn between the damage inflicted by Microsoft to Netscape in their WWW browser war and the current status of RealNetworks’ media player and Microsoft’s encroaching Windows Media Player. Apple’s QuickTime solution is mentioned, albeit briefly.

Our friends at About This Particular Macintosh (ATPM) let us know that their July issue is hot off the griddle and ready to be served. ATPM is a Webzine that features opinion columns, reviews, features and more.