Apps: LilyPond, Wx, BasaOne, Cocktail, LazyMouse

• LilyPond 2.6 (free) is an open-source music notation program for creating music sheets that mimic traditional plate engraving. It offers text-based input, integration with LaTeX or HTML, automatic formatting, hand-engraved music fonts, extensibility through LISP, and more. Version 2.6 supports Unicode, creatiion of SVG files, and more. [Download - 12MB]


• Wx 2.5 ($10) is an update of the app that displays weather information from the US National Weather Service in a transparent main window and the dock. Version 2.5 adds watches, warnings, and advisories, a floating "MiniWx" remote panel, faster processing of XML observation and forecast data, font smoothing, and many other minor improvements. Wx 2.5 runs on Mac OS X 10.3/10.4. [Download - 424KB]


• BasaOne Classes 2.0 (free) adds new classes, including ones designed for Widget development. The new release includes a set of different types of boxes that can be used for widget foreground and backside. Also a custom popup has been included showing how to use the standard popup class to create popups with custom appearance. BasaOne Classes aid in the development of Web Applications and Dashboard Widgets with BasaOne 2.0.


• Cocktail 3.6.2 ($15) is a maintenance update to the system utility that allows users to modify system/filedisk setting and access a number of hidden Finder/System settings as well perform routine maitenance on your Mac. The update adds the ability to change your screenshot file format. Separate versions are available for Tiger, Panther and Jaguar. [Download - options]


• LazyMouse 1.1 ($7) updates the system utility for saving time mousing to dialog boxes. LazyMouse is a Preference Pane that moves the cursor to the default button whenever a dialog box appears on the screen. The update now recognizes when a user already using the mouse, offers application-based exceptions, fixes a compatibility issue with the Tiger Finder, and more. [Download - 1.1MB]


• zsDuplicateHunter 2.2 ($20) lets you easily find and safely remove duplicate files from a computer to save hard drive space. The Standard Edition of zsDuplicateHunter contains basic functionality (with instructional dialogs) and has been designed for ease of use and safety when deleting duplicate files, while the new Professional Edition ($40) adds additional features, including additional methods of deletion, filtering by regular expressions, XML export, new groupings, and more.

Briefly: WiFi review, Beatles songs, Photoshop Expo

In Brief: We've posted a review of Marware's WiFi Spy, a small device that easily locates wireless networks. The iTunes Music Store is selling a few Beatles songs as a result of Paul McCartney's Live 8 performance, despite on the ongoing lawsuit between Apple Corps and Apple Computer.... Photoshop World Conference & Expo is bringing three days of Photoshop and digital imaging education and training ($300) to the Northeast from Sept. 7-9 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.... Runtime Revolution today announced that Judy Perry will present the sixth online programming conference on 9th July and 15:30 GMT.... Netscape today released Netscape 8 browser for Windows only without any mention of a Mac version.

Imation launches 2GB Micro Hard Drive...

Imation Corp today launched its Imation Micro Hard Drive, an ultra-portable storage solution that features a 2GB capacity. Designed for on-the-go professionals, the Imation Micro Hard Drive padlock design features a unique, integrated locking USB cable that can be used to clip the sleek storage device to a belt loop or briefcase. The 1-oz device features Toshiba microdrive, which is less than one inch in diameter (i.e., smaller than the size of a quarter) as well as a USB 2.0 interface for high-speed data transfer. In addition, Imation offers software for file synchronization and 128-bit encryption to transparently create secure backup of multiple file versions and automatically synchronize data. The 2GB drive will ship in mid-July for $190.

HELIOS product line now supports Apple's Xsan

HELIOS Software today announced that all HELIOS products now support Apple Xsan, the enterprise-class storage area network (SAN) from Apple. HELIOS server solutions include WebShare, EtherShare, PCShare, ImageServer, PrintPreview, and PDF HandShake, which are all available for Mac OS X. HELIOS WebShare enables extremely secure high performance remote file access and management via any web browser. HELIOS EtherShare and PCShare provide integrated cross-platform networking, with advanced file and print server services, for Mac and Windows clients. HELIOS ImageServer, PDF HandShake and PrintPreview bring advanced capabilities to design, prepress and printing operations.

Toon Boom Studio v3 offers new UI, more tools

Toon Boom Animation today announced Toon Boom Studio v3, an update to its 2D animation software. Version 3 offers a number of new and enhanced features, including a simplified interface and new Text and Transform tools, as well as improvements to lip synching and enhancements to more easily create cut-out animation: it offers tools such as a new Free Transform tool, which can apply any combination of scaling, rotation, skewing to animate faster; the ability to add text in web presentations, comic strips, etc.; more automated lip sync tools; improved sound scrubbing; improved animation via key frames and interpolation; a new library to save drawings, animation cycles and motions for reuse; and more. Introductory pricing is $330, while upgrades are $100 from version 2.5 and $200 from v1 or v2.

Apple's move to Intel to lure developers to Mac OS X?

Apple's move to the Intel architecture will help lure developers to the Mac OS X platform, according to one columnist. Arnold Reinhold, a partner at Hurwitz & Associates, says that the move has both risks and opportunities and that "Apple will have to manage yet another major product transition, the fourth in its history if one counts the switch from Apple II to Macintosh. But Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, is good at it." The report says that despite Apple's reluctance to sell Mac OS X on other Intel-based PCs, a few carefully selected deals could greatly expand Mac OS X's marketshare: "The Intel product line, with its economy of scale, low power consumption, and integrated digital rights management will open up a range of possibilities for consumer products that offer what Apple does best: new capabilities that you never knew you wanted but can't wait to get once you see them in action."

Speed Reading III helps improve reading speed

Custom Solutions of Maryland has released version 1.0.0 of Speed Reading III, which it says lets users try one method to increase reading speed and comprehension. It features ten built-in practice text sources as well as allows readers to select any other text file as the source. Reading speed can be adjusted from approximately 50 words per minute to 1500 words per minute using four radio buttons (very slow, slow, medium and high) and a slider. However, the company says that comprehension is not tested. "This utility displays full text very dimly with snapshots of normal black text moving across the page." It is available as freeware.

Bare Bones releases TextWrangler 2.1

Bare Bones Software today released TextWrangler 2.1, an update to its free text editor. The updated version of this popular coder's and administrator's text processing tool includes fixes for reported issues, and various refinements and interface enhancements. "TextWrangler's powerful engine, approachable interface, and strong feature set represent, in our view, the standard for freely available Mac software," explained Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of Bare Bones Software. "TextWrangler 2.1 includes a number of enhancements and refinements, particularly to the Documents Drawer, which were inspired by customer feedback." The software is available for Mac OS X 10.3.5 or later.

Mediaboard ONE 1.1 supports XMP, more RAW formats

InterServices New Media today released Mediaboard ONE 1.1, an update to the media cataloging and asset management application built for Mac OS X. Mediaboard ONE enables creative professionals to manage their images and movies, tracking those on CD/DVD, on internal discs or on a network server). It also catalogs and organizes the lists to easily locate media assets. Version 1.1 brings enhanced support for metadata, including new support for Adobe XMP, IPTC Core for XMP, Dublin Core and Creative Commons metadata--in addition to EXIF support as well as expands RAW support by adding the dcraw import filter, which supports RAW formats from over 150 cameras. It is available for Mac OS X 10.3 or later for $40 (some features only supported in Tiger).

Briefly: Jobs reaches out, iPod stereo, Shuffle case

In Brief: Apple CEO Steve Jobs personally called the family of a 15-year-old New York teenager to offer his condolences after the teen was killed last week during a fight over an iPod.... VVI today released its Vvidget 10.1.6 graphing and drawing application suite as freeware and said the updated version brings many built-in support mechanisms including automated update detection, several free support facilities and fee-based support options.... Tunewear today announced its "clean removing" POPTUNE wearable wrapper for Apple's iPod shuffle.... Denon yesterday introduced two iPod-ready home stereo systems.... One user has created a "Real Wood iPod" and has created a step-by-step tutorial on the project.

Apps: Nine Figures, MacPoker Pro, iTMS Estimator, ...

• Nine Figures 2 (free) will countdown to 500 million songs sold in the menu bar. "It is semi-accurate, but is not intended for anything other than entertainment purposes. It is not intended for use to win one or more of Apple's prizes." [Download - 42KB]


• MacPoker Pro 1.1 ($40) is a Java-based online poker tracking and analysis solution that provides realtime info users and their opponents; it helps maker game-time decisions during poker hands and also collects and stores info for each opponent. This release includes support for 7 new Mac-compatible online Poker casinos. The free version is limited to 1000 hands. [Download - 3.2MB]


• iTMS Estimator 1.0 (free) shows the estimated current total of tracks sold on the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) as well as an estimate of the time of the next milestone sale (every 100,000th track). The application will automatically update its estimate every 5 minutes and, "when there are 10 seconds or less until the next estimated milestone sale, the application will beep each second." [Download - 98KB]


• TennisAce 3 ($25) is a FileMaker-based solution that can track performance against any number of players. Users can view and print a variety of statistics, track income and expenses, and print fun awards for your partners. It offers a number of shortcuts and customizable defaults to data entry as easy as clicking a mouse. Both a standalone app and FileMaker data file is available for both Macintosh (OS X and Classic) and Windows. [Download - 3.3MB]


• Professor Fizzwizzle ($20) is a "fun, mind-expanding puzzle game, where you take control of the diminutive genius, Professor Fizzwizzle. You must help the professor use his brains and his gadgets to solve each exciting level. Do you have what it takes to get past the Rage-Bots and bring the prof back to his lab?" It features 230 levels, a full-featured level editor, and a 60-day money-back guarantee. [Download - 9.9MB]


• AB Transfer 1.8 (€30) updates turingart’s contact data utility for import/export. Version 1.8 imports from MySQL database sources using a simple database browser directly and scans Tiger mailboxes of Apple.Mail to retrieve email addresses from saved emails. AB Transfer reads CSV-separated, TAB-separated, Act! DBF input files and MySQL databases and adds them to Mac OS X's Address Book; it also supports native Excel, WEB.DE, GMX and paxo.com export. [Download - 1.8MB]