Bartas Technologies LLC and Apokalypse Software Corp. announced today the sale of two products from Bartas' line, Temporis and XTabulator, to Apokalypse Software (http://www.apokalypsesoftware.com) for undisclosed terms. The timeline compositor Temporis (US$24.95) offers point-and-click simplicity for crafting date-based and sequential data into sophisticated graphs for use in presentations, publishing for print or web, reports, etc. XTabulator ($9.95) provides a workflow for dealing with one of the most pervasive formats for sharing info today, tabulated data in the form of CSV and tabbed fields (TSV). Alfonso Guerra, president and founder of Apokalypse, says the two apps had just completed porting to the Blocks framework before the announcement was made, and that plug-in support is the primary new feature of their release by Apokalypse.

LaCie (http://www.lacie.com) has announced a new d2 Blu-ray Drive, with a speed boost to 8x. Engineered for professional video authoring, the LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive (US$449.99) records, rewrites, and plays back high-definition (HD) video. You can shoot HD videos from your camcorder, author the videos, and burn them without any quality loss using multiple video codecs (MPEG2, AVC, VC-1). The drive also comes bundled with the newly revised Easy Media Creator 10 and Toast 9 Titanium software. The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive packs up to 50GB of data, or four hours of high-definition video, on a single Blu-ray disc. It sports both FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces for high-speed throughput between the drive and a Mac or PC. The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive's bundled software lets Mac and Windows users master video and audio files onto Blu-ray, DVD and CD discs. With the tools customers can also schedule backups for data files, edit videos, create audio mixes and more. Plus, users can work with three...

Alesis (http://www.alesis.com), a manufacturer of professional audio equipment and studio electronics, has released the TapeLink USB, a digital-archiving cassette tape deck. It has an estimated street price of US$199.99. This dual-cassette deck enables musicians to store their recordings on hard disk or flash, burn them to CD or take them on the go on their iPod. Musicians can clean up their old tape recordings of band rehearsals, performances, demos, jam sessions and song ideas. TapeLink USB is a dubbing and playback deck that connects directly to a computer via USB. The plug-and-play USB-audio interface requires no drivers for use with most computers. TapeLink USB's CD-quality 16-bit, 44.1 kHz audio output captures tape recordings for secure digital archival. Normal and high-speed dubbing modes are designed to save time when copying music, while dynamic noise-reduction circuitry and Alesis' software suite assist in cleaning up aging tapes. TapeLink USB works with metal and CrO2...

The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (http://www.photoshopuser.com) (NAPP) has announced the winners of its 4th annual Photoshop User Awards (http://www.photoshopuserawards.com), a worldwide competition for Adobe Photoshop users. Winners were selected from more than 700 entries from 12 countries. Finalists in each of the 11 categories also competed for Best of Show to win an all expense paid, five-day trip for two to Barcelona, Spain. NAPP president Scott Kelby and Photoshop User magazine art director Felix Nelson chaired the judging panel for this year's competition. Winning images can be viewed at http://www.PhotoshopUserAwards.com/winners.php . Award winners for 2008: Best of Show: Ciro Marchetti -- Florida -- Gypsy Dancer Advertising Design: Jose Luis Santana -- Mexico -- Tough Chicken Composites/Collages: Mike Campau -- Michigan -- Stay Green. Go Red. General Photography: Michael Whitson -- Pennsylvania -- Day in the Life Artistic: Glenn Karlsen -- Norway --...

Square Wheel Software (http://www.squarewheelsoft.com) has released Next Read 2.0. It's an update of the iPhone and iPod touch app that allows users to build and manage their lists of desired books. It's available in the Apple App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299379...) for US$1.99. Next Read 2.0 builds upon the introduced in the first version of Next Read. Users are now given new options for adding and organizing books. Next Read 2.0 also introduces sharing capabilities to allow users to share their recommendations with friends. Next Read leverages search results and book detail from Amazon.com. Using Amazon permits Next Read to provide the user with the accurate information currently available for each book. For each book list entry, convenient links let the user to go directly to Amazon to view reviews, purchase the book, or add it to a wish list.

Virtual Programming has released A Vamprye Story for Mac OS X (http://www.vpltd.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=231). It's an adventure game that costs US$29.95 and has a "7+" rating. Here's how the game is described: "Deep within the walls of a gloomy castle in the equally gloomy land of Draxsylvania, the young, gifted opera singer Mona De Lafitte is held captive by her tormentor, vampire Baron Shrowdy von Kiefer. Ever since she was transformed into a vampire by Shrowdy and whisked off to Draxsylvania, her greatest wish has been to return to Paris, continue her singing career, and one day become a star at the Paris Opera. "When Shrowdy fails to return from a nightly foray, she at last sees an opportunity to flee. Together with her only friend and confidant, a cheeky bat named Froderick, she escapes from her prison and tries to find her way back to Paris. During her flight through Draxsylvania, where she encounters some strange inhabitants and some even stranger...

Objective Development (http://www.obdev.com/) has released WebYep 1.4, an update of the tool for editing web sites without having to have a knowledge of HTML. The upgrade offers full support for Dreamweaver CS4, the ability to hide/reveal loop blocks and various enhancements and fixes. The PHP-based CMS allows integration with Dreamweaver, RapidWeaver and Freeway, either via plug-ins or via direct source code editing. It can also be built into existing web sites. WebYep is platform independent and runs on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and Unix systems. The upgrade to WebYep 1.4 is free for all valid licensees; a new license costs approximately US$40.

ShaggyMac (http://www.shaggymac.com) is offering a new, US$16.95 screen protector for the new "unibody" 17-inch MacBook Pro. The ShaggyMac lays on the keyboard surface and cushions / protects the screen while the lid is closed. Using the ShaggyMac will prevent marks and scuffs on the LCD surface. In addition, The ShaggyMac Screen Protector is made from an optical polishing cloth, which is designed to keep the MacBook's Pro LCD screen and glass trackpad clean and smudge-free. Now also available for both the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros are a Firewire 800 9-pin Male to 6-pin Female adapter ($14.95) and Magsafe Replacement AC Adapter ($58.95).

Vaddio (http://www.vaddio.com), a manufacturer and distributor of specialty PTZ cameras and high-end camera control systems used in the broadcasting, audio/visual and videoconferencing industries, has released the PreVIEW HD Dual 7.0 and PreVIEW HD Triple 5.0 LCD Rack Mount Monitors. The monitors offer 16:9 aspect ratio LCD screens that are backlit by LEDs. In addition to component, composite and S-video inputs, they also sport a VGA input that allows a variety of resolutions up to SXGA. Both the Dual 7.0 and Triple 5.0 have 1.2 megapixel screens. The PreVIEW HD Dual 7.0 features two seven-inch high definition LCD monitors, while the PreVIEW HD Triple 5.0 features three five-inch high definition monitors. They provide 16:9 video images ideal for applications that require high resolution monitoring of HD and SD cameras. The native widescreen displays now have an internal menu to adjust each monitor's settings, which include brightness, contrast, color, tint, sharpness and several other...

Tycoon Games has released Heileen: A Trip To Bavaria, a historical-fiction visual novel game with multiple endings. It's a Flash-based game that requires the latest version (10) of Flash Player. "This is my first experiment in Flash" says Riva Celso, programmer/designer of Tycoon Games, "But I really wanted to write a sort of flash prequel to my main downlodable game Heileen which was released in autumn 2008, to give the players a more detailed background of the main character of the story". In A Trip To Bavaria we find Heileen on a short trip to a small unknown village near Munich, as a gift from her uncle Otto for her 16th birthday. The web game features manga graphics, has three different endings and is free to play. Go to http://www.tycoongames.eu/webgames/ to play the webgame.

Zevrix Solutions has released BatchOutput 3.4, its solution to automate printing and exporting from Adobe InDesign. The new version adds the ability to automate export of InDesign CS4 documents to the Adobe Flash CS4 Pro file format, XFL. With BatchOutput 3.4, users can repurpose multiple InDesign documents for Flash Pro with just a click of a button instead of opening and exporting each document manually. With BatchOutput, users only need to select the files to output and adjust the settings, instead of opening and printing each document manually. For example, BatchOutput can be left printing or exporting hundreds of InDesign files overnight, and the completed job can be picked up next morning. BatchOutput also allows users to output InDesign documents as single pages, update links automatically, and output files invisibly for the user. BatchOutput automatically composes complex variable file names, which makes it equally indispensable for export of single documents. The new version...

Workamajig (http://www.Workamajig.com) -- which makes web-based ad agency software and project management groupware for creative and design firms, says the next version of its self-titled software will include new general ledger functions, and Support for Apple's Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7. The general ledger functions will include cash-basis financial reporting and basis financial reporting. Even though all of Workamajig's general ledger operates in accrual, these new cash-basis reports will be available upon request, says Ron Ause, Workamajig's director of marketing. This release continues to build on the major foundation upgrade that Workamajig made to its ad agency management software last year, addressing interface improvements based on months of research, client interviews and user feedback. As before, all of the improvements are a direct result from many years of research and direct client feedback from actual users of the creative management software, Fuse says. As always with...

iPresentee, (http://www.ipresentee.com) a developer of add-ons for Apple's iWork and iLife applications, has released free iWeb Theme and enhanced package of iWeb themes to be used with Apple's web site building application, iWeb. iWeb is part of the US$79 iWorks suite. iWeb Themes 3.0 includes five new themes: Black and White, Flora, Mahogany, Ray and Tracery. iWeb users can download and try the free Treasure Theme. Each iWeb theme has 10 templates instead of the ordinary eight. iWeb Themes 3.0 includes following templates: Welcome, About Me, Photos, My Albums, Movie, Blog, Podcast, Blank, My Hobbies and News. New iWeb themes are compatible with iWeb 2.0 and iWeb 3.0 versions. iWeb Themes 3.0 can be customized; each theme incorporates a number of different graphic elements which can be removed, moved and changed in size, opacity or color. The themes contains several different page layouts to accommodate various information. In addition iPresentee has extended number of templates so...

Palringo (http://www.palringo.com) has updated its rich-messaging application for the iPhone. Now users looking down their contact lists see not only the location of their Palringo contacts -- typically a town name -- but also how far away those contacts are from them. In the next update (due soon), a further click will bring up a map showing the location of a contact and also the location of any other Palringo contacts within a 10km/6-mile radius. In the same update, the location function will allow a user to display his own location on a map. Location and proximity information adds an interesting new layer of social network connectivity, according to Palringo CEO Kerry Ritz. A Palringo user can choose to reveal her location to any, all or none of her contacts, changing this selection at any time. Location can be set manually by the user, or Palringo can detect location automatically, keeping it continuously updated. Palringo's rich messaging service already provides the option...

Mariner Software, developers and publishers of professional and personal software, has launched Writerspub.com, a web site designed for writers of all types -- from novelists, screenwriters, short story writers, to technical and casual writers -- to publicly share and critique their work and the work of others. Totally free, Writerspub.com is designed as an environment for the writer to engage with one another. Those who are new to writing are especially encouraged to participate, as it will allow them to interconnect with both amateur and professional writers. With a Writerspub.com account one can can upload a story or other written work, create groups and write reviews. To encourage involvement, Writerspub.com has a point-based reward system. The concept is simple -- the more the writer reviews others work, posts comments, etc., the more points are earned. After earning enough points, the writer will be able to post his or her own stories for review. There's also a Writers Forum...

Zevrix Solutions has released Instant Backup 1.0, a solution to back up selected files and folders on-line and locally. Instant Backup is designed to back up the most important and sensitive active projects. However, it's not a replacement for the complete backup systems, such as Time Machine. It's for times such as when you prefer to have a password protected copy of the project on an FTP site, in addition to all your regular local backups. Or when you wish to back up more than hourly. Instant Backup allows you to specify various backup locations. You can choose between an FTP or local disk backup location. Instant Backup will create a compressed disk image (.dmg) for each file or folder you drop on its icon. The disk image can be encrypted and password protected. You can choose to transfer all items to a default backup location automatically, or to show the list of backup locations to choose from. The number of previous backups to keep can also be specified. Instant Backup 1.0 can...

Native Instruments has introduced US$79 Acoustic Refractions (http://www.native-instruments.com/acousticrefractions.info), a new Kore SoundPack that combines organic and synthetic qualities. Based on unusual acoustic sample material and brought to life through sound programming, this new library for Kore 2 and the free Kore Player provides charismatic, highly original instruments for any musical project that benefits from weird and wonderful tones and textures, according to the folks at Native Instruments. Acoustic Refractions was created in collaboration with prolific sound design artist Jeremiah Savage, who recorded an assortment of unusual acoustic samples from "everyday objects" as the starting point. The sonic raw material at the heart of this Kore SoundPack comes from items such as light bulbs, blocks of ice, washing machines, spray cans, shredded paper, water, glass and stones, and even the Golden Gate Bridge. This source material is processed through the Kontakt sample engine...

MINI Financial Services has launched MINI Liquid Assets, a game for the iPhone and iPod touch. It's available for free at the Apple App Store. Here's how the game is described: "MINI Liquid Assets is a fun, interactive game modeled after the traditional encased water jet games we all played as children, infused with the MINI brand and intuitive controls that take full advantage of the advanced capabilities of the iPhone and iPod touch user interface. "Manipulating the face buttons on either side of the screen, players use streams of water -- fully accompanied by bubble sound effects and music -- to avoid obstacles and guide their precious coins into the safety and comfort of their beloved MINIs. Whether avoiding sharks in the fish tank-themed level "Don't Feed the MINI" or aliens in the Area 51-themed level 'Restricted,' MINI Liquid Assets offers easy-to-pick-up gaming with three difficulty settings: Easy, Medium and OMG." The game features the full model line of MINI vehicles...

EastWest (http://www.soundsonline.com), the exclusive US distributor of Best Service products, has released latest collection by leading producer Chris Hein, Chris Hein Horns Vol. 2 -- Section Horns. The new library looks to expand on the previous solo collections and offers 10 section combinations in addition to 17 solo instruments. With more than 34,000 samples of alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, trumpet, tenor trombone, and bass trombone, the instruments of Vol. 2 are equipped with the right size of clarity to produce brass sections for a small funk group or a complete band, according to the folks at EastWest. The interface allows for all instruments to be combined into small or large sections. Chris Hein Horns Vol. 2 features different legato and play mode features to allow for realistic note transitions. The collection offers key-vibrato, hotkeys and the new key-switch concept. In addition to the regular effect selection, Hein along with Sonic-Lab, the...

The team from MacTech Magazine ... the second oldest publication for the Mac ... would like to wish Mac a happy 25th birthday. Few things can sum up Macs 25 years best than to see both the Mac's introduction at Flint Center, or the famous Ridley Scott commercial, both of which are shown at: (http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/01/24/25th-anniversary-video-s...) Happy Birthday Mac.

Adobe has announced the immediate availability of Adobe InDesign CS4 Server, a scalable engine that offers the ability to automate the design, layout and typographical capabilities of Adobe InDesign CS4. With InDesign CS4 Server, developers and system integrators can create automated publishing solutions for a variety of markets including enterprise, finance, graphic design, government, newspaper, pharmaceutical, print and retail. New features and functionality in InDesign Server CS4 include: ° InDesign Markup Language (IDML), performance monitoring tools and dynamic content creation; ° Integration with new Adobe technologies, including Adobe Flex 3 and Adobe AIR, which enable developers to create online and offline rich Internet applications. "Beyond the core creative design, printing, and publishing markets, Adobe InDesign CS4 Server is well-suited for new markets like enterprise segments," says Karen Lelieveld, marketing and sales manager at Sabern. "Sabern has a proven track...

Chronos has released a free Winter Artwork Kit (an US$15 value) for use with its SOHO Labels 4 product. This collection of searchable artwork is designed for creating custom winter-time labels, envelopes, cards, letters, and more. The kit features 20 images that can be searched by title, tag, and color information. The kit includes a border, embellishments, background papers, word art, a frame, tags, and more. The Winter Artwork Kit can be downloaded at the Chronos Web site (http://www.chronosnet.com). The kit requires SOHO Labels version 4.

Enhance Technology (http://www.enhance-tech.com), which makes and implements hybrid input/output technology in the storage subsystems, has announced MetaSAN compatibiity with its iSCSI and Fibre SAN arrays. With Tiger Technology's metaSAN metaSAN, users can manage accesses to their shared storage the same way they normally would for any other local drive. Using metaSAN, video and film editors, digital artists, healthcare specialists, and corporate users can simultaneously access a common pool of data files such as video clips, databases, or medical archives as easily and transparently as if the content was stored on their local drive. Both the UltraStor RS8/RS16 iSCSI & Fibre Series were fully tested with metaSAN SAN Management Software and the results were impressive revealing the improved performance with SAN. MetaSAN 3.2 includes support for Mac OS X and Windows Server 2008.

OpenEdit has updated its open source digital asset management solution, OpenEdit DAM, to version 5.2014. OpenEdit DAM can be downloaded at http://www.openeditdam.com/dam/download/index.html. Version 5.2014 offers improvements and new features to the already fully functioning OpenEdit Digital Asset Management. Also, the Product Details page has been completely upgraded since the last release and now includes: ° Related Products -- Metadata associated with an original asset is now attached to the related version. When editing the original asset, you now have the option of updating all of the related assets as well. All related products can now be viewed from the product details page. ° Product versioning -- when uploading an updated asset OpenEdit will track all previous versions of the image. ° Improved media previews -- OpenEdit has updated the video and audio embedded previews to better support more browsers and file types. ° Improved security -- the update closes a vulnerability...

Intego (http://www.intego.com) says it's discovered a new Trojan horse, OSX.Trojan.iServices.A, which copies of Apple's iWork 09 found on BitTorrent trackers and other sites containing links to pirated software. The version of iWork 09, Apple's productivity suite, are complete and functional, but the installer contains an additional package called iWorkServices.pkg. When installing iWork 09, the iWorkServices package is installed. The installer for the Trojan horse is launched as soon as a user begins the installation of iWork, following the installer's request of an administrator password (in older versions of Mac OS X, 10.5.1 or earlier, there will be no password request). This software is installed as a startup item (in /System/Library/StartupItems/iWorkServices, a location reserved normally for Apple startup items), where it has read-write-execute permissions for root. Intego says the malicious software connects to a remote server over the Internet; this means that a malicious...

SmileOnMyMac has released an update for the Internet Productivity snippet group in TextExpander, its customizable typing shortcut tool for Mac OS X. With TextExpander, users can define abbreviations for frequently-used text strings and images, also known as snippets. When an abbreviation is typed, it expands automatically to the full snippet. The Internet Productivity snippet group offers predefined snippets that work with the URL shortening services via AppleScript to automatically shorten URLs copied to the Clipbard. A snippet for the shortening service is.gd has been added in this update, joining TinyURL, tr.im, and bit.ly snippets. Each of the Internet Productivity snippets, which use AppleScript, has its own assigned abbreviation, e.g. /tinyurl, /bitly. The user copies the long URL to the Clipboard, and then types the corresponding abbreviation for the desired URL shortener. The shortened link is automatically inserted. All the Internet Productivity snippets have been updated to...

Mireth Technology has released version 5.8.4 of ShredIt X (http://www.mireth.com/shredit.html), its file shredder and hard drive cleaner software for Mac OS X. Version 5.8.4 adds support for DOE standard compliance. With the addition of the Department of Energy standard, ShredIt X now provides support for the four most prominent security standards - Department of Defense 5220 standard, NSA standard, DoE standard and Gutmann standard. ShredIt is privacy software for Mac OS X that erases data so it can't be recovered. It can be used to erase files, folders, disk free space, previously deleted files, hard drives, external drives, network drives and CD-RWs. ShredIt comes with a wide range of features, including built in safety features along with advanced shredding features such as, government standards compliance and a configurable overwrite pattern. ShredIt X is available for immediate download, or on CD-ROM, starting at $24.95. Registered users of previous versions of ShredIt X can...

Bluelounge (http://www.bluelounge.com) has released The Sanctuary, an integrated chagring station, in a new dark wood color. In addition to charging electronic devices, Bluelounge's warm design provides a haven for credit cards, wallets, money clips, loose change, keys and other personal items. The new Dark Wood Sanctuary features an exclusive PU leather inner tray and retails for $149.95 US Dollars. It is available immediately at the Bluelounge web site. With The Sanctuary, users can now charge their cell phone, iPod, PDA and headset simultaneously in one location. It contains a universal cell-phone charger compatible with over 1,500 electronic devices from over 35 brands and hundreds more via a USB port. The Sanctuary is made from injection molded ABS, which is then coated for a high-end gloss finish. The inner tray is finished with flocking in black and tan (reversible) and the base is manufactured with a flat injection molded rubber plate.

Elgato (http://www.elgato.com) and Hauppauge Digital have teamed up to bring high definition TV recording using H.264 to the Mac. Using the Hauppauge HD PVR USB 2.0 personal video recorder and the latest version (3.1) of Elgato's EyeTV 3 software, users can watch and record HDTV from a cable or satellite set top box and create TV and movie libraries on their Mac using high definition H.264 encoding. HD PVR is the world's first consumer device for recording video from high definition cable TV and satellite set top boxes in resolutions up to 1080i. HD PVR compresses the recordings using high definition H.264 in real-time. It offers component video (YCrCb) inputs and records video at data rates from 1Mbit/second to 13.5Mbit/second. Audio is recorded using AAC or Dolby Digital from optical SPDIF. Audio and component video can be looped through so users can record and watch HD at the same time. EyeTV turns Macs into both a TV and a Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Users can watch, record,...

Canto partner Moksa, has announced Typetrax, software that links Canto Cumulus (http://www.canto.com) with Insider Software's FontAgent Pro for users of Adobe's InDesign and Illustrator. Typetrax enables Cumulus-based creative groups to see and manage the fonts used in their InDesign and Illustrator documents, right from within Cumulus. TypeTrax adds the missing link to digital design projects. Fully integrated with Canto Cumulus, a leader in digital asset management, TypeTrax allows a user to simply drag a document into Canto Cumulus and TypeTrax automatically detects and displays the project's font resources in WYSIWYG mode. TypeTrax also provides full access to font metadata with just a few clicks. In addition, native fonts and associated font data can be viewed from within Cumulus. When a user checks out an InDesign document, Cumulus and TypeTrax automatically preflight it to ensure inclusion of the fonts, images and all associated resources files that are needed to properly...

Redlex has released version 2.6 of Mellel (http://www.mellel.com/), its word processor. The company describes it as a "major update." "With Mac OS X 10.5 Apple introduced a wonderful new feature called QuickLook, which allow you to peep into documents without opening them," says Eyal Redler, RedleX's CTO. "The default for word processor documents, however, was only so-so: the document was not divided into pages, elements like footnotes were missing or misplaced, images were not placed correctly or, in short, it did not look like a PDF. We wanted our QuickLook previews to look like a PDF." A Mellel document viewed with QuickView look exactly like they would look in Mellel or in print, he adds. In addition, to save time waiting for the full preview, you can set in the preferences the number of pages you wish to preview. Another new feature in Mellel 2.6 is the new "Spread View." Mellel now support viewing documents in single page view, two page view, four page view and 'spread' (facing...

Weyland Training International (http://www.weynand.com) is offering an Advanced Final Cut Pro class this coming weekend (Jan. 23-25). It will be taught by Michael Wohl, author of the "Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Pro -- Beyond The Basics" and "Color" books. If you sign up by Jan. 21, you can save US$50. Call 818-995-1719 to register. The two day Color class (Jan. 31 and Feb. 1) will introduce participants to the new color grading program from Apple. The course will start with the basics of color balancing and correction, and move on to the fine points of secondary grading, including scene matching, creating advanced color effects and "looks," including skin tones, adjusting the composition and framing of a shot, and much more. The three-day course Advanced Final Cut Pro Class (Level 300) provides professional techniques for cutting dialogue scenes, action scenes, multi-camera projects, scene by scene color correction, and more. The class also covers Soundtrack Pro, audio...

TechRestore has begun offering the only Matte Finish screen replacement service for 15-inch MacBook Pro "unibody" systems. The new service offers an option for owners of the new 15-inch MacBook Pros, that, for personal or professional reasons, don't wish to use the high-gloss, shiny screen and glass that's factory installed. The Overnight MacBook Pro 15-inch Unibody Matte Finish Screen Replacement Service has a 24-hour turnaround time and flat-rate pricing of US$199 that includes installation of a new replacement LCD screen, free return shipping and a one-year warranty on parts and labor. Unlike simple anti-glare covers, which can distort images and skew colors, the TechRestore upgrade involves removing the glossy, glass screen cover and replacing the glossy LCD with a matte-finish screen that has the exact same specifications as the original, says TechRestore President Shannon Jean. "We install a custom black bezel around the edge of the screen that matches the finish of the MacBook...

Native Instruments has announced Maschine (http://www.native-instruments.com/Maschine.info), a next-generation groove production studio for beat creation and arrangement. It will be available in March at a suggested retail price of US$699. The system combines a software sequencer and sampler with an integrated performance controller. Maschine is built on a combination of groove box and drum machine workflows. It brings together step sequencing and real-time polyphonic recording in a pattern-based arrangement. There are 16 pressure-sensitive drum pads that illuminate to visualize sequence patterns and other crucial information. Eight rotary encoders, a concise layout of dedicated buttons and dual high-resolution displays give immediate access to all functions of Maschine without touching the computer mouse or keyboard. By design, all features are quickly accessible "on the surface" rather than hidden away in hierarchical sub menus. The Maschine hardware also doubles as an universal...

EastWest (http://www.soundsonline.com) has announced an update for its Quantum Leap SD virtual software instrument at this week's National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) show. The company has also introduced Play 2.0, an update of software that programs the EastWest virtual instrument collections. Quantum Leap SD2 offers a combination of new percussion sounds and a collection of the "best of sounds" from the SD1 package, according to producer Nick Phoenix. The update delivers 2.5GB of percussive sounds featuring a variety of strike and brush solos and ensemble recordings. New solo instruments include the mridangam, a two-headed Indian drum capable of dozens of tones like tablas, but with a different harmonic structure, played by a lifetime mridangam master. Following in the tradition of the brushed percussion from SD2, 10 new sampled drums played with a variety of brushed techniques enhance this sonic pallet, Phoenix says. The Indian stringed percussion instrument, the Khamak,...

Wolfram Research (http://www.wolframresearch.com) has released Mathematica Player Pro 7, an update of the professional platform for delivering interactive applications built with the new Mathematica 7 technology. It's a free download. With the recently released Mathematica 7, Wolfram Research added over 500 new functions and integrated parallel computing into its standard product. The new Player Pro 7 comes with the same built-in technology to parallelize computations over multiple cores. It also supports other application areas introduced in Mathematica 7, including image processing and on-demand curated data, while retaining all the features of the original Mathematica Player Pro 6 released with Mathematica 6. Player Pro 7 gives access to Mathematica 7 and 6 compatible applications, allowing full interaction with Mathematica's capabilities -- executing multicore computations at runtime, performing adaptive visualization, controlling dynamic interface elements, connecting to real-...

EastWest/Quantum Leap (http://www.soundsonline.com/home.php) has released Silk, a Mac compatible virtual software instrument that features a collection of historic and unique string and woodwind instruments from China, Persia and India. However, there's no info on pricing at the web site. All instruments featured in Sillk are multi-sampled and contain extensive articulations, interval sampling (where appropriate), round robin (alternate samples) and phrases. Some of the instruments featured in SILK include: China: erhu, zhonghu, gaohu, pipa, guzheng, yangqin, sheng, suona low, suona high, dizi low, dizi hi, xiao and bawu. Persia: electric cello, kemenche, nay, duduk, tar, qanun and 30 piece string section. India: dilruba, sarod, tanpura and bansuri.

Artman21 of Japan (http://www.artman21.com) has released a document comparison plug-in JDiff X Rev.1.0, a plugin for their Jedit X text editor Jedit X. The plug-in costs US$16. Jedit X also has been updated to Rev.2.10. Both English and Japanese versions are available.

Apple posted this on their web site earlier today. Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees: "Team, I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought. In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June. I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple's day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully...

Phidgets (http://www.Phidgets.com) has released the 1019 PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8 w/6 Port Hub. It allows you to connect devices to any of eight analog inputs, eight digital inputs and eight digital outputs. The on-board 6-port USB hub lets you expand the number of Phidgets and other devices on your USB bus. The PhidgetInterfaceKit provides a generic, convenient way to interface your computer with various devices such as analog sensors, push buttons, limit switches, relays, buzzers, lights, etc. Connecting additional USB devices to the PhidgetInterfaceKit is as easy as plugging them into the on-board 6-port hub. Power is not transferred from the PC-USB bus to the downstream ports, so a power supply is provided with the PhidgetInterfaceKit to supply power to additional USB devices. Each USB port on the hub has a maximum current supply of 500mA. The 1019 PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8 w/6 Port Hub is available now. The suggested resale price is $125 Canadian.

XChange International (http://www.xchangeuk.com) has released four database publishing plug-ins for Adobe InDesign CS4. They have previously been available for InDesign CS through CS3 and as XTensions for QuarkXPress -- Xdata and Xcatalog -- from version 3.0 and higher. InData is a document building tool that brings the layout, design, typographic and picture publishing power of InDesign to bear on all data-driven repetitive publishing tasks. InData's scripting language can be used to build simple or complex rules for including or excluding fields, pictures and static text. InCatalog is a bi-directional linking tool for creating transparent links between InDesign documents and databases. With these links in place, users never have to enter or update their data in two places (documents and database), but can simply update one or the other from the most current version. Xtags is an import and export text filter supporting the full Quark XPress Tags language plus its own extended tags....

iPresentee (http://www.ipresentee.com/) has released new Keynote Motion Themes 4.0 to be used with Apple's Keynote presentation software. iPresentee presents 12 new Keynote themes. Each theme incorporates background with animated flag of these countries: United States, European Union, Great Britain, Germany, Canada, Spain, France, Japan, Netherlands, Australia, Sweden and Italy. Keynote Motion Themes includes 17 master slide layouts and moving background graphics. Keynote Motion Themes with moving background graphics contains everything to create modern and dynamic presentation to share ideas with any audience. Keynote Motion Themes can stand alone to unify a presentation or can be mixed together with other non-motion themes to provide breakpoints. Creating a presentation using Keynote Motion Themes is exactly the same as creating a presentation using the usual themes -- you can add, edit, and format text; add photos or movies; and use Keynote's transitions and special effects. New...

Zevrix Solutions has announced the release of version 3.3 of BatchOutput, its professional solution to automate printing and exporting of Adobe InDesign documents to various formats. BatchOutput saves production time and simplifies workflows of service providers, printers, ad agencies and publishing houses by automating the output from InDesign. With BatchOutput, users only need to select the files to output and adjust the settings, instead of opening and printing each document manually. For example, BatchOutput can be left printing or exporting hundreds of InDesign files overnight, and the completed job can be picked up next morning. BatchOutput also allows users to output InDesign documents as single pages, update links automatically, and output files invisibly for the user. BatchOutput automatically composes complex variable file names. The new version adds the ability to export to the Adobe Flash file format (SWF), simplifying repurposing of InDesign CS4 documents for interactive...

Laurent Muller has updated Xupport (http://www.applicorn.com/download.php) a multipurpose system utility for Mac OS X, to version 3.5. This is a maintenance and performance update. It provides an entirely improved Optimization section, whereby the Network Optimizer increases the download speed even more, and the Virtual Memory Optimizer frees up more hard disk space on the boot volume. Beside that, it provides many other improvements and some minor bug fixes. Changes in Xupport 3.5.0 include; ° Faster application launch on Intel Macs; ° Increased application performance on Intel Macs; ° The Memory Optimizer now also moves the "sleepimage" to the swap partition (10.5) ; ° The Memory Optimizer fixes eventual problems with the main Volumes directory (10.5); ° The Network Optimizer settings are improved for an even better download performance (10.5); ° The file deletion process now can be interrupted anytime; ° The Maintenance section provides an improved cache files deletion (10.5); °...

Freeridecoding announces BurnAgain FS 1.2, a free update to the CD/DVD multisession burning utility for Mac OS X. BurnAgain FS makes it possible to repeatedly change the content of a data CD or DVD directly in the Finder. The user can re-mount the CD or DVD like a hard drive volume and add or remove files, or even edit and change files several times. Disks burned with BurnAgain FS are readable without additional software on all platforms. Special Mac file attributes are preserved automatically. Wellington, New Zealand - Freeridecoding announces BurnAgain FS 1.2, a free update of the CD/DVD multisession burning utility for Mac OS X. BurnAgain FS re-mounts a data CD or DVD in a writeable way on the desktop just like a hard drive volume, making it possible to change the content of the media directly in the Finder. Files can be added, removed or edited several times and the changes can repeatedly be burned to the disk until the media is full. Since BurnAgain FS doesn't erase the disk each...

Last week, MacTech Magazine and Macsimum News teamed up for the first time to announce their Best of Show awards for the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo. With so many products from over 450 exhibitors, editors from both publications combined forces to find interesting jewels on the show floor. For those not able to attend the show, this list gives you an idea of what each product is about, and where you can find out more. In alphabetical order by product, here are the winners: 1Password, by Agile Web Solutions. 1Password is a password manager and 'data safe' that can store bank account information, personal details, login credentials and secure notes. Thanks to plugins for Safari, Firefox and other browsers, these values can be automatically filled in on web-based forms. An iPhone app is also available that can sync with the desktop version (http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password). BlueStor by JMR. BlueStor is a new line of Mac-compatible 16- and 8-bay RAID storage...

At the 2009 BETT conference, AssistiveWare (http://www.assistiveware.com) will preview Proloquo2Go, which uses Acapela Group's forthcoming iPhone text-to-speech to provide a full-fledged communication solution on the iPhone and iPod touch for people who can't speak. Also previewed at BETT will be the upcoming version of Infovox iVox, which introduces new British, Italian, Greek, Norwegian and Russian voices for the Mac. BETT, the world's largest educational technology event, runs from Jan. 14-17 in the Olympia Hall in the heart of London, UK. Also demoed at AssistiveWare's BETT booth are the GhostReader document and selection reader used by struggling readers and for language learning, the KeyStrokes award-winning on-screen keyboard, the SwitchXS switch access solution to Mac OS X, the VisioVoice access solution for people with vision impairments, and the Mac-based Proloquo communication software. AssistiveWare will also be showcasing the Axiotron Modbook. Kallysta, a long-term...

GiantCrayon Games has released ShiveringKittens (http://www.shiveringkittens.com), a new iPhone game in which players rescue kittens from the ice blocks that formed around them in a tough Minnesota winter. It's available at the Apple App Store for US$2.99. Players free the kittens by arranging falling blocks in the right order. The more ice blocks players connect, the more kittens they rescue and the more points they earn. With each kitten that players rescue, the satisfying ice crunch and plaintive meows of the freed kittens reward players for their efforts, says Anne McElvain, GiantCrayon Games's vice president. ShiveringKittens comes in 10 increasingly difficult levels.

Smule has updated Zephyr (http://www.smule.com/products/zephyr/), a tool for "unlimited self-expression" for the iPhone. It's available at the Apple App Store for US$0.99. The update enhances the original app by allowing users to track their own messages, reply directly to messages they receive and to personalize how they view messages. With this app, users can express thoughts by writing or drawing on a snow covered screen. Zephyr senses every touch and tilt to supplement each message with a wind sound. Gently composed writing might be accompanied by the sound of a lightly blowing breeze. Quickly drawn designs might generate the sound of blustery winds. If a recipient likes a particular message, he or she can express "love" by tapping on a heart icon. A message that is "loved" will get passed on to another recipient.