This week: Apple in the spotlight, Software

This week Apple dominated Amazon's top-selling list of computers, and Steve Jobs was recognized as one of America's top 25 leaders, n that Jobs has been a commercial innovator, cultural inspiration, and entrepreneurial icon for nearly 30 years. Later, Apple's executives cashed in on the recent strength in Apple's stock, with CFO Peter Oppenheimer exercising 750,000 options to gross $32 million. Apple was cited as a top pick for investors despite the "difficult" fourth-quarter looming ahead, and the company's wireless routers received this years highest overall score of 8.9 in a survey on home networking routers. Apple also reduced pricing on some its refurb Macs, including its 12-inch iBook; the 12-inch 1.2GHz/Combo iBook (with AirPort Extreme), its 23- and 30-inch Cinema Displays, etc.

Apple posted Final Cut Pro 5 Updates, which it says provides improved reliability; and released Backup 3.01, updating the data protection application to address file restoration issues. FileMaker announced that FileMaker Pro 8 will be featured in selected Apple U.S. retail stores every Wednesday during the month of November, during "business days," to be held on November 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th. Aspyr announced that it will publish Sid Meier's Civilization III: Complete for Macintosh, with an anticipated release in December; and also announced plans to publish Sid Meier's Civilization IV for the Mac in early 2006.

Filed under: Apple