Toon Boom Studio (http://www.toonboom.com) has released Toon Boom Studio 6, a new version of its 2D animation software that adds bone rigging features. As a bonus, Toon Boom Studio 6 comes with several bone-ready templates that users will be able to incorporate into their own projects. Valued at US$29.99, this template pack speeds up the animation creation process. In addition, Studio 6 includes a 62 minute How To Video that covers step by step instructions on how to create bone animation. This How To Video is offered for a limited time only to all Studio 6 customers and is valued at $59.99. You can buy Toon Boom Studio 6 now at the special pre-launch price of $279.99instead of $329.99, valid until Sept. 30. Upgrades from version 4.5 and 5 to version 6 can be purchased at $99.99.

KavaSoft has released HyperImage 3.5 (http://www.kavasoft.com/HyperImage/), an update of the US$25 Mac OS X app that lets you download images from web sites. It's now a full featured Tumblr client. Tumblr is a community for blogging and reblogging photos. HyperImage helps you do everything you can do on the Tumblr web site. Just enter the address of a Tumblr blog, and HyperImage will download all of the photos HyperImage includes a built-in image browser. You can skip over unwanted images and choose which links to follow. With HyperImage you can also include or exclude images with certain names and choose which image formats to download. HyperImage is available for US$25. You can try it for free, and images downloaded with an unlicensed copy will contain a watermark. HyperImage requires Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") and is 64-bit optimized.

Quanta has reportedly landed orders for 11.6-inch MacBooks from Apple, reports "DigiTimes" (http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20100923PD222.html). Shipments of 11.6-inch MacBooks are expected to top 400,000-500,000 units in 2010, the article says. Quanta is expected to ship a total of 13-13.2 million notebooks in the third quarter, says "DigiTimes." That's down 3-5% from 13.7 million units shipped in the second quarter. The company shipped 3.6 million notebooks in July and 4.4 million units in August.

Our next Category Review will look at account management software for the Mac. If you use or know of such goodies, drop me a line (dsellers@applecentral.com) no later than Wednesday, Sept. 29. Migration Kits appear on Friday and round-up Mac solutions for specific industries and areas as dentistry, engineering, sales, etc. Also, if you have a particular migration topic you'd like us to cover, drop me a line, as well.

Clarkwood Software's (http://clarkwood.com) Multisite for iWeb 2.0, a Mac OS X utility for users of iWeb, has been updated to version 2.5.3. iWeb is part of Apple's iLife suite of software. Apple built iWeb to manage a site going to a single server. If you need to build several sites that go to more than a single web server then Multisite solves your dilemma, according to the folks at Clarkwood Software. It also speeds up iWeb’s publishing by putting sites into individual files behind the scenes so you don't have to publish every site each time. Multisite 2.5.3 provides better feedback for cases where iWeb was renamed. In cases where a folder isn't created it now displays the path. Version 2.5.3 also improves: internal counts when tracking number of sites; permission checking in the file system; licensing feedback; and the automated build process for better version number coordination. Multisite for iWeb costs US$19.95, though version 2.5.3 is a free update for registered users. It...

St. Clair Software has released App Tamer 1.0.1 (http://www.stclairsoft.com/AppTamer/), an update of the app for Mac OS X 10.5 and higher that gives you control over your applications so you can save battery and CPU power.The new version increases efficiency and addresses several issues that have been reported since version 1.0 was released. Some Mac applications, especially web browsers, continue running tasks or animations even when they're supposed to be idle in the background. This can consume valuable processing power and reduce battery life. App Tamer's AutoStop capability automatically pauses these applications when you switch away from them, and then restarts them when you click back to them. This frees your CPU and reduces power consumption, according to the folks at St. Clair. App Tamer shows the average percentage of your processor(s) being used by each app, and graphically displays a history of CPU usage. You can enable AutoStop for any application, as well as change its...

Apple and a startup called Sector Labs (http://www.sectorlabs.com/) are apparently going to do legal battle over the 'Pod' trademark, reports "Gadget Lab" (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/09/apple-goes-to-trial-with-startup-...). Sector Labs is developing a video projector dubbed the Video Pod -- and Apple doesn't like that moniker. Apple and Sector Labs are undergoing a paper trial, in which each party has 30 days to gather and present evidence in paper form, to be submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Apple filed its 873-page paper on Sept. 20, and Sector Labs’ testimony begins Oct. 18, the article adds. “My team started working on the Video Pod in 2000, and it took us years to go from prototype to funded,” Kokin told "Gadget Lab." “At that time, Apple didn’t even enter our minds as a competitor. Now it’s 2010 and I still don’t think Apple is interested in video projection, but I’m supposed to rename our product because Apple also uses ‘pod’?” The VideoPod...

Apple is set to open a new retail store in Spokane, Washington, on Saturday, Sept. 25, at 10 am. Apple Store River Park Square (http://www.apple.com/retail/riverparksquare/) is located at 808 West Main Avenue, Spokane, Washington 99201. The grand opening will start at 10 am. Regular store hours will be Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm. Apple Store Haywood Mall will be the company's 304rd retail store. Apple plans to open another 17 or so during this fiscal year, with about half of those outside the U.S.

For a fourth consecutive time, Apple ranks highest in customer satisfaction among manufacturers of smartphones with a score of 800 on a 1,000-point scale, and performs particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design, according to the J.D. Power and Associates' (http://www.JDPower.com) 2010 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study. Motorola (791) and HTC (781) follow Apple in the rankings. The study measures customer satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets and smartphones across several key factors among owners who have used their current mobile phone for less than two years. In order of importance, the key factors of overall satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets are: operation (30%); physical design (30%); features (20%); and battery function (20%). For smartphones, the key factors are: ease of operation (26%); operating system (24%); physical design (23%); features (19%); and battery function (8%). What's more, the...

Macware has updated Logo Design Studio Pro (http://www.macwareinc.com/products/LDSPro/overview.html), a vector based logo design application for Mac OS X, to version 2.0. The upgrade doubles the number of included logo templates and SVG graphic objects, adds new design options, improves overall usability, and fixes all bugs reported from the previous version. Logo Design Studio Pro lets you design logo objects, then add or change text, shapes, color gradients and more to get the look right. Vector design tools allow you to scale logos to any size without losing their sharpness and clarity. You can even make your logo background transparent to blend in on any web or print-based project. Logo Design Studio Pro is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. The software costs US$59.99.

Raidon Technology (www.RAIDON.com.tw) has released the iR2620, an internal, two-bay, 3.5-inch RAID storage module offering RAID 0 and RAID 1 functions, with an integrated RS232 port for connection to industrial controls and IPC facilities.    The iR2620 integrates with the Raidon self-developed RAID chip and gives stable RAID 1 real-time backup to help maintain continuous operation of the system, according to the folks at Raidson. Its front panel LCD display provides initial  configuration and status monitoring. The iR2620 is made available for data integration through the embedded RS232 port to facilitate with the management demands of industrial control systems. System status is provided via e-mail notification from the RAIDGuide software to instantly report any malfunction which may occur.   The iR2620 is designed to fit into two of the 5.25-inch CD-ROM bays with swappable trays and can be installed into any general IPC case. This RAID storage module also supports hot-swap and auto...

He said nothing about an iPhone for the company's current network, but said he hopes Apple will come around and allow Verizon to sell the phone for a new network it is building, reports the "Associated Press" (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100923/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_verizon_iphone?). The "4G" network hasn't yet opened for service and won't be complete next year. "We don't feel like we have an iPhone deficit. We would love to carry it when we get there, but we have to earn it," Seidenberg said. "I think 4G will accelerate the process, and any other decisions Apple makes would be fine with us. Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program."

According to the annual list of the 400 richest Americans, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is 42nd on the list with a net worth of US$6.1 billion. Last year he had a net worth of $5.1 billion. 
The CEO only draws one buck a year in salary, but makes a bundle of cash from Apple stock options. Globally, Jobs ranks 136 on the list of billionaires, according to "Forbes." Here's what "Forbes" has to say about Jobs: "In January he unveiled Apple's iPad tablet amid a media frenzy; the device has so far beaten the hype with more than 3 million sold since April. In May Apple's market cap overtook Microsoft's to become the most valuable tech company in the world. Despite a super-publicized antenna problem, Apple's latest iPhone sold 1.7 million units 3 days after launch. Majority of fortune comes from Disney; as largest shareholder owns about $4.4 billion of stock. Reed College dropout founded Apple 1976." Bill Gates is ranks number one among the 400 riches Americans with a net worth of $54 billion. Also...

Vemedio has updated Snowtape (http://www.snowtape.com) for Mac OS X -- which enables users to listen and record live Internet radio with the touch of one button -- to version 2.0. You can now record from multiple radio stations in the background at once. Snowtape 2 also introduces Recording Schedules. You can program the new recording engine to record at a certain time in the future or to record a favorite weekly show. Snowtape even wakes up the Mac, starts itself and records the show. After it has finished the Mac goes to sleep again. The editor has been re-imagined from the ground up. Not only has Vemedio added audio waveforms but also zooming, scrolling and selecting. Extracting individual tracks form a recording is now also possible because Snowtape uses Last.fm Audio Fingerprints to identify a song based on the audio samples. What's more, Snowtape 2 now fully supports the AirTunes protocol and is able to stream radio and recordings to an Airport Express or an Apple TV. The Apple...

Akvis has released Akvis Retoucher 4.5 (http://akvis.com/en/retoucher) for Mac OS X and Windows systems, an update of the app for restoring damaged photos by removing dust, scratches, stains, and by reconstructing the missing parts of a photo automatically. The new version adds a new feature to the Stamp tool. Now it's possible to mirror a clone horizontally and vertically. It can be helpful, for example, when you need to add a mirror of the restored object to water, glass, etc. Akvis Retoucher is available in plug-in and  standalone versions. The plug-in version is compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS5 64 bit. The software runs on Mac OS X 10.4 and higher and Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/Win7. AKVIS Retoucher sells for $87. A demo is available for download.

GTA TeleGuam (http://www.gta.net) says it will launch iPhone 4 in Guam on Sept. 24 with a range of service plans tailored for iPhone customers. Full pricing will be announced soon. "Customer response to iPhone in Guam has been overwhelming and we are confident the unique features of iPhone 4 will be received with great excitement by our customers," says Roland Certeza, executive vice president of sales for GTA TeleGuam. "GTA customers will find it easy and affordable to enjoy the great new innovations of iPhone 4 with our range of plans and pricing."

Tekserve, New York City's largest independent Apple specialist, will hold a day of workshops supporting retail businesses. The event will be held on Sept. 30 at Tekserve's Manhattan retail location. It is the latest in their ongoing program, Tekserve Means Business, aimed at small- and medium-sized business and focusing on practical, affordable productivity and security solutions from Tekserve and Apple. Four workshop sessions will be held throughout the day at noon, 2, 4, and 6 p.m. A networking reception will be held before the 6:00 p.m. session. To register, or for more info, visit: tekserve.com/meansbusiness .

Wireless high-definition (HD) video technologies represent the next frontier in consumer electronic (CE) connectivity,replacing the nest of wires in the living room with high-bandwidth wireless technologies capable of transmitting HD video streams, according to a new study by Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com). The primary candidate technologies include: wireless home digital interface (WHDI), WirelessHD, and Wireless Gigabit (WiGig). WHDI and WirelessHD are new, uncompressed HD video transmission technologies, each of which is primarily promoted by start-up chip companies. Although each has significant potential, both face significant market obstacles. WiGig has broad-based industry participation, but silicon is still a long way from the market, says Research and Markets.

Apple has released version 1.2 updates to its three iWork apps for the iPad: Pages, Numbers and Keynote. They're available at the Apple App Store. According to Apple, the updates offer improvements to file-format support and file transferring, add the ability to transfer files to and from remote servers and beef up support for exporting files in Microsoft Office-compatible file formats. They also support transferring documents to and from iDisk, a feature of Apple's MobileMe US$99-per-year suite of online services/tools.

NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker says the network isn't likely to follow rivals to make its TV shows available for new US$0.99 rental service unveiled earlier this month in conjunction with the new Apple TV, reports "Reuters" (http://www.reuters.com/article/idCNN2219136720100922). "We do not think 99 cents is the right price point for our content. ... We thought it would devalue our content," Zucker said at a Goldman Sachs investor conference. And he noted that NBC shows are already available for $1.99 for download at iTunes. The new $99 Apple TV was introduced on Sept. 1 and should ship within the next 2-4 weeks. With it you rent a TV episode for $0.99, and you have up to 30 days to start watching and then 48 hours to finish it -- or watch multiple times.

Future Media Concepts (http://www.FMCtraining.com), an Apple Gold Level training Center, is expanding its Mac IT Academy offerings with two workshops for creating, publishing and selling iPhone and iPad applications.   The workshops are taught in small class size to maximize student/instructor interaction and provide the most conducive learning environment, according to the folks at Future Media Concepts. The teaching methodology consists of a combination of instructor demonstration and hands-on supervised practice sessions. Contact Future Media Concepts for times and pricing.

The Apple supply manager charged with selling company secrets for more than a million dollars in kickbacks has proposed posting a bond of more than US$600,000 from foreign bank accounts to be released from jail, reports "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com). Paul Devine has offered $612,407 apparently held in foreign bank accounts for bail, the article adds. The Apple global supply manager, has been accused of trading confidential Apple information in return for more than $1 million in payments, bribes and kickbacks. He purportedly had over $150,000 stored in shoe boxes in his house. Devine had a further $20,000 worth of foreign currency in his possession, according to Department of Justice Attorney Michelle Kane.

Noise Industries (http://www.noiseindustries.com) has announced that FxFactory development partner SUGARfx has released a new collection of video editing tools and plug-ins in the form of LensPack, "lens effects with a twist." FxFactory powered plug-ins are designed by Noise Industries and their development partners to extend the visual effects capabilities of Adobe After Effects, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion and Apple Final Cut Express applications. SUGARfx’s latest boasts capabilities for users looking to distort, straighten, magnify, loupe, and purposely flaw pristine video footage. Priced at US$99, it comes with five image enhancement and distortion tools. Optico improves and increases normal lens distortion when shooting in wide-angle mod. Horizon Line straightens footage with an auto-rotation tool. Distorium distorts footage to make it appear as if it is “literally” coming out of the screen. Loupe automatically emulates the magnification effect in any part of your video...

NewBay Media says the Digital Video Expo (http://www.dvexpo.com) is opening its doors next week at the Pasadena Convention Center, where the conference will run from Tuesday, Sept. 28, through Thursday, Sept. 30, with two days of exhibits on Sept. 29 and 30. According to David Williams, conference chair, Digital Video Expo, and editor, "DV Magazine," highlights of this year’s Digital Video Expo include: ° Apple Certification Training from Weynand Training International; ° Multiple educational tracks focusing on web & mobile video, DSLR filmmaking, 3D production, and editing; ° Full-day workshops including Lighting, Canon 5D/7D Training, Digital Cinematography Training, and RED POST The Easy Way; ° Free Lighting Master Classes with cinematographers from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), led by veteran director of photography George Spiro Dibie; ° Keynotes by leading filmmakers, including Greg Le Duc, Bernie Laramie, Keefe Kaupanger-Swacker, Tom Funk, and Robert...

Amp (http://www.ableton.com/amp) is a new Ableton 8 audio effect designed to add warmth and drive. Co-developed with Softube, Amp delivers the sound and simplicity of legendary amplifiers and cabinets, according to the folks at Ableton. Amp comes with Cabinet, a separate effect that provides a selection of classic guitar cabs, with optimized mics and mic positioning. Ableton has also included a range of sounds that transform Ableton’s instruments and effects with Amp’s new sonic character. These include Instrument and Effect Racks, Live Clips and over 400 presets. Amp is included with Ableton Suite 8 and is available separately for US$129 from the Ableton web shop. Live 8 users can also take advantage of a free collection of new Instrument and Audio Effect Racks that use Amp's technology when they download the latest Live update, 8.2.

Sales of the iPhone passed one million within about nine months of its debut in South Korea, reports "Yonhap News" (http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/techscience/2010/09/19/8/0601000000AEN20...). KT Corp., the local carrier for the iPhone, said that 1.02 million iPhones were activated as of Aug. 16. Furthermore, KT says it expects iPhone sales to reach 1.2 million in early October. The company received 350,000 advanced orders for the iPhone 4, the latest model from Apple, which arrived in the country Sept. 10.

AirWatch (http://www.air‐watch.com), a provider of enterprise-grade Mobile Device Management (MDM) software, today has announced the commercial availability of AirWatch 5.12. This new version of the AirWatch solution includes mobile device management capabilities for iPhone and iPod touch devices using iOS 4. It's available in three delivery options: Software as a Service (US$2 per device per month), a dedicated software appliance ($30 per device) and software deployed on premise behind a corporate firewall (with pricing starting at $4,995). Delivery options allow for flexibility to transition easily across the different models. According to AirWatch CEO John Marshall, iOS 4’s expanded enterprise integration technologies, coupled with the AirWatch MDM solution, let organizations deploy and manage both corporate- and employee-liable iPhone and iPod touch iOS4 devices; protect sensitive corporate data; secure access to enterprise resources; monitor compliance with corporate policies;...

Nokia today released Qt 4.7, the latest version of the cross-platform application and UI (user interface) framework. It's available for download now for all of Qt¬πs supported platforms, with upgrades for Nokia and customer solutions expected over the coming months. A key feature of Qt 4.7 is QML (Qt Meta-Object-Language), a declarative language that describes the interface of a program and how it behaves. The new version also includes performance improvements that make applications and user interfaces run faster and smoother. An updated Qt SDK is now available for download. It contains Qt 4.7, Qt Creator 2.0.1 and everything developers need to create applications and to re-use the code across the Qt supported platforms. It can be downloaded at http://get.qt.nokia.com .

The PandaWare Company (http://www.pandaware.com) has updated TimeCache -- its time and expense billing app for Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher -- to version 8.0.10. The update offers improvements to reports, invoices and analysis charts, and several bug fixes. In addition, it provides support for several new features in TimeCache Manager, a companion application for workgroups that allows managers to consolidate billing information. TimeCache offers support for timed or manual entries, retainer billing, customizable invoices and reports, printing options, and flexible data entry options. It also offers tracking of all a user's computer activity, the ability to save fine-grained details with time and expense entries, can use Apple Address Book entries for client contact information, can produce charts of billable time and expenses, and can import from and export to iCal calendars. What's more, PandaWare has updated TimeCache Manager, allows for streamlined management of a workgroup's...

Michael Walkley of the Canaccord Genuity group says Apple 17 million mobile handsets in the first half of 2010, compared with 400 million handsets sold by Nokia, Samsung and LG. Yet he told clients -- as reported by "Fortune" (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/09/21/pie-chart-apples-outrageous-share...) -- Apple pulled in 39% of the industry's profit during that period, more than the 32% earned by the world's three largest handset makers combined. "We are also impressed with Apple's ability to monetize its innovative products through selling high-margin consumer products that drive strong earnings results and growth trends for Apple shareholders," Walkley said. "A case in point is the mobile phone market, where most handset OEMs struggle to post a profit or even 10% operating margins (except RIM and recently HTC), while we estimate Apple boasts roughly 50% gross margin and 30%+ operating margin for its iPhone products."

Version 4.2 of aTV Flash (http://firecore.com/atvflash) -- an US$49.95 USB flash drive that inserts into the Apple TV and will upgrade it to do various kinds of new things -- has been released.  This version -- a free update to registered users of version 4.0 -- brings a certified Last.fm app to the Apple TV. It allows you to experience your favorite music and includes support for streaming Last.fm radio, artist bios, artist artwork and scrobbling recent plays back to Last.fm. As always, aTV Flash includes support for additional media formats that are not typically supported by the AppleTV. These formats included DivX, Xvid, AVI, WMV, VIDEO TS (DVD files) and many more. Additionally it adds a fully integrated WebKit based web browser, and the ability to expand the storage capacity through the use of an external USB hard drive.

ustomer satisfaction with personal computers surged 4.0% to match the industry’s all-time high of 78 in the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index. And Mac users were the most satisfied of all. Nearly all brands showed increases in satisfaction and no manufacturer declined. Lower prices, better service, and an emphasis on new, smaller systems and a variety of portable computers helped drive the improvement. However, Apple continued its dominance, leading the computer category by a wide margin for the seventh straight year. Customer satisfaction with Apple’s computer products, including the iPad, rose 2% to an ACSI of 86 -- the highest score ever for Apple. The company now has a 9-point lead over its nearest competitor. No other company in the ACSI has as formidable a lead within its own industry. Innovation and product diversification, along with strong customer service, have long been at the center of Apple’s success. At times, demand for Apple products has outstripped supply...

Apple shares rose to a 52-week high of US$283.78 on Monday. That was an all-time high during yesterday's trading, before Apple closed at $283.23. As noted by "BusinessWeek" (http://macosg.me/2/vc), Apple's share price has been climbing steadily since the stock market lows of March 2009. Despite the fall in consumer spending during the recession, Apple has continued to sell more Macs, iPods and iPhones.

MaBaSoft has released version 3.1.2 of Currency Assistant for Mac OS X. In the new version of the conversion calculator (http://www.mabasoft.net/products/currencyAssistant.htm), you can now automatically look for rates on the other web sites if they're temporarily unavailable on your favorite source.  To automatically look for rates on the other web sites, select the "Try other sources if the rate isn't available on favorite web site" checkbox in the Rates Update pane of the Preferences window. The maximum precision of exchange rates has been increased in Currency Assistant. Rates can now have up to 12 significant digits. Also, rates updated from the IMF web site now have the same precision as the published rates. Currency Assistant lets you convert between 174 world currencies (all major circulating currencies plus the 16 Eurozone legacy currencies) and automatically updates exchange rates over the Internet using the rates published by the European Central Bank, the Bank of Canada,...

Playrix Entertainment has launched Fishdom: Spooky Splash for Mac OS 10.4 and higher (http://www.playrix.com/games/mac/fishdom-spooky-splash.html). It costs US$19.95; a demo is available for download. Here's how the game is described: "Fishdom: Spooky Splash challenges players to complete tile-swapping levels and earn cash to create a Halloween-themed spooky aquarium of their own design. Players need to build up their spooky aquarium and create the eerie atmosphere of an underwater haunted house with witches, vampires and ghosts in it. While completing match-3 levels, they earn cash to buy exotic tropical fish and Halloween-themed ornaments." Features in Fishdom: Spooky Splash include: almost 100 themed fishies and accessories; an unlimited number of tanks to create and design; and a bonus screensaver.

Yazsoft has introduced Playback Media Server 1.7 (http://www.yazsoft.com/products/playback/information/), an update of their zero configuration media server for Mac OS X 10.5 and higher. The upgrade sports a new NGINX engine. Playback can share media stored in folders or even make entire disks available to a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. No configuration is required. By default, it will share almost any content on the users system. And Playback automatically integrates with iTunes, iPhoto, and Aperture. Users can share all content from these applications transparently or choose specific playlists and albums. Those who like to tinker will appreciate Playback's built-in Access Control List (ACL) and bandwidth throttling. The ACL allows users to control which devices have access to their media. Bandwidth throttling limits the transfer rate from the computer to their UPnP device. This allows others on the network to do other Internet related activities, such as surf the web and check their...

Seagate (http://www.seagate.com) has launched what it says is the world’s first 1.5TB, 2.5-inch portable external drive. Available immediately, the new 1.5TB FreeAgent GoFlex comes in black and has a suggested retail price of US$249.99. With 1.5TB of capacity people can now store and carry up to 60 HD movies, 750 video games, thousands of photos or tens of thousands hours of digital music, says Darcy Clarkson, vice president of Global Retail Sales and Marketing for Seagate. Shipping now in the United States and rolling out globally later this year, all 1.5TB GoFlex ultra-portable drives will ship with a USB 3.0 interface cable, accelerating the transfer speed of a drive up to 10x when connected to a USB 3.0 port, when compared to a USB 2.0 port. Unfortunately it will only run at USB 2.0 speeds on the Mac since it doesn't yet support USB 3.0. Each drive includes an NTFS driver for Mac, which allows the hard drive to store and access files from both Mac OS X and Windows computers...

Wolfram Research (http://www.wolfram.com) has announced a technical collaboration with NVidia (http://www.nvidia.com) to integrate GPU acceleration into Mathematica 8. Combining Mathematica's programming ease-of-use with the computational speed of the GPU-equipped hardware dramatically increases application performance and user productivity across industry, research, and education, according to Tom Wickham-Jones, Wolfram Research's director of Kernel Technology. He adds that Nvidia's GPU architecture can transform Mathematica's computing, modeling, simulation, and visualization performance, boosting speed by up to a factor of 100. Mathematica's CUDA GPU programming features along with its built-in examples for common application areas, such as image processing, medical imaging, statistics, and finance. Mathematica's CUDA programming capabilities will be showcased at the GPU Technology Conference Sept. 20-23 in San Jose, California.

"Silicon Alley Insider" (http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-att-credit-suisee-2010-9?utm_sourc...) notes that a new survey from Credit Suisse says 63% of iPhone owners will stick with AT&T, even if it loses the exclusive right to sell the Apple smartphone. So where would AT&T iPhone owners go if they had a choice? Approximately 23% will join Verizon, while 3% will go to Sprint, and 2% will go to T-Mobile, says Credit Suisse.

On Monday it was announced that Apple made a deal with a company called Rovi that could potentially see the firm's TV listings guide make its way to the Apple TV, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. Per a filing with the US Security and Exchange commission, Rovi Corp. -- a company that specializes in digital entertainment services -- has entered into a multi-year agreement with Apple whereby Apple shall license intellectual property from Rovi.  The specific terms of the license agreement are confidential. According to claims at the Rovi web site: ° Approximately 111 million subscribers and 91 million CE devices worldwide use their guidance technology. ° The Rovi content protection technology is on approximately nine billion DVDs and Blu-ray discs. ° More than 500 million devices are enabled with their protection technology. ° Rovi has active advertising rights in place with approximately 121 million guides worldwide. ° The company has a unique catalog of entertainment...

According to a filing with the US Security and Exchange commission (http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1424454/000142445410000030/form8-...) Rovi Corp. (http://www.rovicorp.com) -- a company that specializes in digital entertainment services -- has entered into a multi-year agreement with Apple whereby Apple shall license intellectual property from Rovi.  The specific terms of the license agreement are confidential. According to claims at the Rovi web site: ° Approximately 111 million subscribers and 91 million CE devices worldwide use their guidance technology. ° The Rovi content protection technology is on approximately nine billion DVDs and Blu-ray discs. ° More than 500 million devices are enabled with their protection technology. ° Rovi has active advertising rights in place with approximately 121 million guides worldwide. ° The company has a unique catalog of entertainment metadata for TV, movies, music and games that includes: more than 1.2 million TV series episodes since...

Zevrix Solutions has updated BatchOutput Server (http://zevrix.com/BatchOutputServer.php), an output workflow automation solution for Adobe InDesign, to version 4.5.6. The new version improves long queues handling and addresses several other issues. Under BatchOutput Server workflow, production artists and prepress operators simply submit files to hotfolders that reside on the network. BatchOutput Server automatically outputs the files from its dedicated station using hotfolder settings, and will auto-activate document fonts as well. BatchOutput 4.5.6 can be purchased from the Zevrix Solutions web site for US$699.95, as well as from authorized resellers. A demo is available for download. BatchOutput 4.5 is available for Mac OS X 10.4.2 and higher, a Universal Binary, and works with Adobe InDesign CS-CS4.

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com) says the adoption of SuperSpeed USB (3.0) will lag that of USB 2.0. The universal serial bus (USB) specification shipped in more than three billion devices in 2009, including the computer, computer peripheral, consumer electronics (CE), communications, and automotive segments. By 2012, the number of wired USB-enabled devices shipped will exceed four billion, according to Research and Markets. High-speed USB device shipments dominate the current market. However, in late 2009, the first 5Gbps SuperSpeed USB devices shipped. Initially, SuperSpeed USB will be found in computes and PC peripherals, such as external hard drives and flash drives, before migrating to portable devices requiring increasing amounts of storage, including digital cameras, portable media players, and high-end mobile phones. The primary limiting factor in SuperSpeed adoption is its integration into computer core logic chipsets, which is not expected until late...

Pentax Imaging Systems (http://www.Pentaximaging.com) has announced the Pentax K-5 digital SLR camera, which is targeted to high-end prosumers with features such as a: 16.3 megapixel CMOS sensor; up to seven FPS to capture fast action shots.; and an 80-12800 ISO range, expandable to 51200, with improved noise performance overall. The K-5 can also record widescreen 1080p HD video at 25 FPS with sound via built-in microphone or external 3.5mm stereo microphone jack. It sports an 11 point SAFOX IX+ autofocus system with dedicated AF assist lamp and light wavelength sensor. It also has: native support for both Pentax PEF and Adobe DNG 14 bit RAW files; an in-camera HDR image capture; SDXC memory card compatibility (via firmware update); a weather-sealed and coldproof design; a 3-inch LCD with 921,000 dots of resolution; and more. The Pentax K-5 digital SLR will ship in October as a body kit only for US$1,599.95 or as a lens kit with the 18-55mm WR for $1,749.95. Pentax Imaging also...

AT&T was raised to “outperform” at Credit Suisse Group AG, which said Verizon's anticipated introduction of the iPhone in the first quarter won’t hurt AT&T’s business as much as investors fear, reports "Bloomberg" http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-20/at-t-raised-at-credit-suisse-gi...). “The impact from the loss of iPhone exclusivity should be substantially less than current valuations imply,” Jonathan Chaplin, a Credit Suisse analyst, wrote in a report sent to clients today. AT&T is currently the only U.S. company that offer the iPhone.

Acclivity has released an international version of their accounting software for Mac small businesses, AccountEdge. The version is designed for countries that don't have a localized version of AccountEdge, with configurable sales tax and multi currency support. An international version of AccountEdge Network Edition is also available. "We have several localized versions of AccountEdge that separately support many different types of sales tax, including GST, VAT, and Sales Tax," says Tom Nash, Acclivity Managing Partner. "So we created a version that combines all tax types from our other versions." The international version of AccountEdge allows the user to create whatever tax is required for their country, with sales tax reports available to report on tax information for tax forms. The software has long supported multiple currencies. In this version of the software, the user doesn't need to lock in a currency. The user can select their home currency, and then set up as many...

Searchware Solutions (http://www.searchwaresolutions.com) has released Print Window 4.1, an update of the window printing utility for Mac OS X. Print Window lets you generate and print file/directory listings of the currently selected Finder window or folder. Version 4.1 adds: the option to print only folders and not any files contained in the folders; the option to use QuickLook to generate icons for supported file types (Print Window Advanced Only); the option to bold names of folders in file listings; services support for Mac OS X 10.6 or greater; an option, when using the "File" format, to use the full Unix path of a file in place of the name Print Window works with the Mac OS X Finder. You can create and print a file listing directly from the Finder using several different methods, including a contextual menu item, the Dock menu or using a keyboard shortcut. Print Window 4.0 is available in two versions: Standard and Advanced. Both versions are available from within the same...

Nuance Communication has unveiled Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.0, the newest addition to the Dragon family of speech recognition products that includes Dragon NaturallySpeaking for the PC and Dragon Mobile Apps.  Dragon Dictate for Mac -- the first major desktop product for Mac OS X from the Dragon family following Nuance’s acquisition of MacSpeech earlier this year -- makes it easier than ever to create documents and emails, search the web, navigate the Mac desktop, and interact with popular Mac applications -- all by voice, says Peter Mahoney, senior vice president and general manager for Dragon at Nuance. Dragon Dictate for Mac, version 2.0, improves on the accuracy and performance of MacSpeech Dictate 1.5, leveraging the new Dragon 11 engine, which also powers the recently-announced Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 for the PC, he says. Dictate 2.0 offers a more streamlined set-up, revamped Mac user interface, and new voice commands for dictation, editing, navigation and proofreading....

Hutchings Software has released Share from Meeting, screen sharing software optimized for meetings and presentations. It runs on your Mac, Windows or Linux computer and uses bandwidth you already pay for to share screens with participants in your online meeting. Participants can take turns presenting, whether they are on your local network or across the Internet. Besides being used for collaborative meetings, Share from Meeting is designed as a presentation tool for sales professionals and trainers. Sharing your screen lets you control the conversation, as participants need to watch in real time and can't jump ahead. S Share from Meeting is a client/server solution, where the "server" is deployed at a home or office. The server runs on low-end Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux systems, such as netbooks and decommissioned desktops. The server owner customizes the "client" with connection information, a logo, and usage agreement. Most home broadband Internet customers have adequate...