Aladdin Systems is now shipping StuffIt Deluxe 8.0, a new Mac OS X version of the access and compression utility. The update lets you schedule backups and burn to CD/DVD, adds plug-ins for Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator and offers a performance boost.
You can now schedule backups automatically, as well as expand or archive by adding or removing .sit, .sitx, .zip, or .tgz to the file name. With version 8.0, StuffIt Deluxe accesses .yenc (popular with newsgroups) and .cab (a Windows archive format) files and boasts a new user interface.
The new Archive Assistant automatically handles the task of splitting large backup archives across multiple CDs; you can track down the data you need via the search-and-retrieve features. In addition to the plug-ins for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator (which lets you open or create archives and Stuff and Mail) StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 comes with a Microsoft Word plug-in.
Archive Via Rename (AVR), available in the previous classic version for pre-OS X operating systems, is now available for Mac OS X. You can compress a file or folder by adding the .sit, .sitx, .tgz, or .zip extension to the file name. You can also create one-step archives with StuffIt's MagicMenu and Contextual Menu capabilities.
StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 compresses files up to 98 per cent, so e-mail attachments don't bounce back when they exceed the size limits imposed by many e-mail systems, according to Aladdin Systems. Additionally, there's a Drop Segment feature that lets you compress a large file into smaller, more manageable, segments to e-mail, post online or burn across multiple CD/DVDs.
StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 provides 512-bit encryption and password protection. For further protection of your data, you can use the application's options to add redundancy information to archives, so they can be rebuilt in case of transfer errors.
StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 has a suggested retail price of $79.99 (around £55). Registered users of StuffIt Deluxe and StuffIt Standard Edition can upgrade for $29.99 (around £20) until March 3 directly from Aladdin. UK pricing is yet to be announced. StuffIt Deluxe 8.0 requires Mac OS X, 10.1.5, or higher (10.2 for CD-burning and AVR). Version 7.0.3 is still available for users of Mac OS 8.6-9.2.
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