BragIt has announced BragIt HTML Slideshow, a new Lightroom plug-in. Designed for web use, the app makes it possible to create a controllable slideshow with customizable descriptions or story points. It does not require any Flash plug-ins in order to work, and integrates output directly into a web page.
NewerTech has launched the NuPower Charge & Sync+, a pocket-sized charger. The unit can charge, power and sync iPhones and iPods, as well as simply charge and power USB-based cellphones, cameras and portable game consoles. It uses a rechargeable 1400mAh lithium-ion battery, and can charge both itself and another device when an AC connection is present.
Owners of Palm's newer phones have encountered a flaw in its online backup system that has wiped out contacts and calendars. A portion of users note that backups sent to Palm's Profile cloud service from a Pre (and now Pixi) are being corrupted and blank out any synchronized data when the phone has to be reset or restored. Those without a local backup, such as through an app like Missing Sync, have no choice but to recreate the data from scratch.
Following a recent legal victory, Apple is now calling for a permanent injunction against Psystar's operations. If granted the injunction would prevent Psystar from doing anything which might violate Apple copyrights, including bypassing controls in Mac OS X which prevent it from being freely installed on any Intel system. The company would similarly be banned from sharing the necessary decryption technology with others.
Razer on Tuesday introduced its latest gaming mouse, the Imperator. Designed specifically to give comfort to right-handed users, the ergonomic mouse's design is optimized for both palm and fingertip gamers. To this end, the Imperator is the first to sport side buttons that are adjustable and slide on a track to let users find the best position for their thumbs.
Microsoft made a tentative step into a retail presence on the East coast with a special section at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. The section replicates a small slice of Microsoft's retail shops in the West and shows notebooks running Windows 7. It will also have staff on hand to answer questions about both the notebooks and the OS.
LaCie on Tuesday introduced the LaCinema Classic HD, a media server capable of full 1080p video playback. Users can connect an HDTV using a standard HDMI cable, while Composite connectors are also available. Multichannel DTS audio is supported, sent via HDMI or a dedicated S/PDIF optical port. A 1TB hard drive is integrated for storing movies, music or photos, while a USB 2.0 connection is provided for interface with a computer.
Amazon today gave its regular-size Kindle a lift through a firmware upgrade. It now has the same native PDF support as the larger Kindle DX and no longer needs a conversion through e-mail. Active battery life is also a large 85 percent longer and should last for about a full week with 3G turned on versus four days with the previous firmware.
Apple has signed a deal with concert promoter Live Nation, in a deal that should see a number of recordings sold exclusively through iTunes. Both audio and video offerings are planned, which will be taken from concerts recorded in 80-plus venues equipped for capturing the material. Live Nation stages over 22,000 concerts annually, though it is likely that only a fraction will become available online.
eBay has launched Deals, a second free iPhone app. Likewise meant as a companion to the eBay website, the title differs from its sibling by concentrating exclusively on auctions with no bids and less than fours remaining. Users create custom searches, which screen matching listings for bidding. The app also highlights several categories, such as Daily Deals.
Some iPhone owners are still suffering from an issue preventing any kind of cellular connection, posters on Apple's support forums say. After entering an area with no carrier service, or simply at random, an iPhone may launch into a "searching for service" mode from which it does not return, even when back in a known coverage area. The only way of temporarily fixing the problem is said to be rebooting a phone.
GenArts has announced Sapphire 5, an upcoming upgrade for its signature plug-in suite. The current collection includes over 200 processing and synthesis effects, in categories such as lighting, film, warping and textures. Versions are available for several different editing platforms, including Avid, Autodesk, After Effects and Final Cut Pro.
A coalition of magazine publishers is getting close to producing a digital storefront of its own that would produce a centralized portal for their titles, a leak hinted late Tuesday. Anonymous sources for the New York Observer claim Condé Nast, Hearst and Time are within weeks of a deal for a store that would offer both digital versions of their publications as well as physical copies. Time executive VP John Squires would leave his company to head up the new venture and is believed to be the originator.
Some buyers of the 27-inch Core i7 iMac are receiving unusuable systems, threads on Apple's support forums indicate. In a collection of cases the systems are failing to even turn on properly, at best sounding the Mac startup chime, always failing to display anything more. Apple is reportedly offering replacement iMacs for affected customers, but this may involve a shipping time of two weeks, as Core i7 is an upgrade option not normally sold at retail.
Symbian has been dealt setbacks in recent days as both Nokia's N97 and Sony Ericsson's Satio appear to have been pulled due to likely quality concerns. The former isn't available on most carriers and is now no longer selectable through Vodafone UK; while visible online, choosing it redirects shoppers to the N97 mini. No explanation has been given, but it's suspected that the more stable Symbian release on the smaller, newer phone is the cause while the original N97's initial firmware was the cause of numerous complaints.
Epson on Tuesday catered to its bread-and-butter audience of meeting rooms and mid-size classrooms with a pair of 3LCD projectors. The PowerLite 1830 and PowerLite 1915 both have relatively high brightness levels of 3,500 and 4,000 lumens respectively. They also both output at 1024x768 and carry dual VGA inputs as well as Ethernet jacks for remote control and USB to play directly from a Windows PC.
IntelliScanner has released its Wine Collector mini, a software and hardware package for scanning barcodes and organizing wine collections. The scanner tracks wines based on the barcodes found on many wine bottles, while the software automatically recognizes wines, organizes them and visualizes collections in a virtual cellar. The scanner is USB-powered, rechargeable, and has memory for retaining scans until the data can be offloaded.
Twelve South has launched a new subwoofer for Mac notebooks, the BassJump. The sub is USB-powered and comes with software that allows the sub to blend with a MacBook's built-in speakers, beefing up the midrange and low frequencies to improve the overall sound. The sub supports gaming sound effects and any other sound-based activities such as Internet radio and streaming video.
Amidio has released a DJ-style MP3 mixing app for the iPhone and iPod touch, Touch DJ. The software allows users to manipulate two MP3 files and take advantage of ‘Visual Mixing,' a feature which provides side-by-side graphic displays of both track waveforms. Customization controls include scratch looping, positioning, equalization, or effects and pitching functions, all of which can be done in real-time from the device's interface.
Ashampoo has launched v2.0 of its Cover Studio software for Mac, delivering additional covers and an enhanced editor. The utility is designed to help create disc labels, covers and booklets, and supports both modern direct-to-disc printing and track importing. The upgrade improves the editor function with new geometric shapes, an integrated undo function, new auto-scroll controls when dragging an object, and the ability to freely rotate text or objects into any position.
In Brief: Although Apple only provides drivers to support the new Magic Mouse on Mac OS X or Windows via Boot Camp, a recent software update has been hacked and converted into an .exe for operating the mouse on ordinary Windows PCs. Meanwhile, a separate report suggests Apple has been rejecting warranty claims for Macs that have been used in smokers' homes.
Buffalo Technology has introduced the DriveStation HD-HXU3, a new series of external hard drives featuring USB 3.0 interfaces. The high speed connection option is claimed to support transfer rates of up to 625MB/s, beating USB 2.0 and even FireWire by a considerable margin. Users can still connect using the current USB standard, however the transfer rates drop to approximately 480Mb/s.
SideFX has announced a new cloud service, HQueue, that is designed to work with the company's Houdini animation software. The Python-based job manager utilizes Amazon's EC2 compute loud to process renderings and simulations, but without requiring the user to leave the Houdini interface. Intensive computing can be processed by EC2 while the workstation resources are left free for other work.
Google co-creator Sergey Brin followed up the introduction of Chrome OS with hints that the new operating system may eventually merge with Android. While the two are currently separate in most ways, the executive suggested the two could unite simply because smartphones and notebooks increasingly share common traits. He pointed out that both have Linux at the root and WebKit for their browsing engines.
The iPhone is slowly gaining momentum in the enterprise market, according to a recent report issued by TBI Research. The analysts believe employees have been a contributing factor, as many executives have first purchased iPhones for personal use before pushing the idea to their company's IT department.
HP this afternoon revealed mixed results for its quarter ended in October. The company's net earnings climbed 14 percent year-over-year to $2.4 billion, but its revenue dropped by 8 percent to $30.8 billion in the same time frame. It credits the profit boost to cost-cutting measures but saw its revenue drop across the board in every category, including the Personal Systems Group that handles its common PC business.
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