Brand: MacNews

Tales of the Sword Coast, an expansion pack for Baldur’s Gate, has begun shipping for Mac OS, although the page still reflects its prior “Pre-Order” status. The pack features “more powerful spells, talkative NPC’s, and additional enchanted items to be found” and sells for US$29.95. It requires the full-version of Baldur’s Gate (also $29.95).

ZDnet has compiled a list of top developers and their Mac OS X plans, following WWDC last week, where Macromedia demonstrated Freehand 10 for OS X (now shipping); Corel showed off Bryce 5, Painter 7, KPT 7 and others (due later this summer); and several other companies showcased their current and forthcoming wares.

An eWeek article takes a look at last week’s Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, gauging the opinion of attendees. Developers noted a de-emphasis on Java, while Cocoa (Objective C) received top billing. The article also quotes Mark Adams, president of game porting company Westlake Interactive as stating that he is “very happy with where Mac OS X is right now.”

Troi Dialog Plug-in 2.1 adds FileMaker 5.5 and Mac OS X compatibility to the FileMaker plug-in for creating powerful Dialog functions. The software can show dialogs with variable text and up to four buttons, show temporary flash screens and progress bars, and more. Troi Dialog Plug-in sells for US$29; a demo is available.

Terra Soft has begun shipping Yellow Dog Linux 2.0 for PowerPC, a new version of its Linux package that features a multilingual graphical installer, KDE 2.1 graphical interface, and over 900 applications, including Mac-on-Linux, which allows the Mac OS to run under Linux. The software is available for US$59.95 with installation support, or $29.95 without. Users can also order a hard drive with the software pre-installed for $289.