AAPL stock reaches all-time high

Apple stock price reached to an all-time high on Wednesday, boosted by its decision to use Intel microprocessors. Pushing the major indexes to new highs for the third day in a row, Apple stock was trading near $84, up nearly 4 percent. Steve Jobs, who said that Apple hopes to complete the Intel transition by end of 2006, also announced several record-setting milestones achieved by the company in the December/holiday quarter: "Apple brought in a record $5.7 billion in sales during the holiday quarter as it sold 14 million iPods -- nearly three times as many units as it did in the same period a year ago, Jobs said. Meanwhile, Apple's online iTunes store has sold more than 850 million songs and 8 million videos to date," according to the AP. Apple's December quarter financial results and quarterly conference call are expected on January 18th.

Apple does computer retailing right

Apple's retail stores are the real success behind the company, according to one MarketWatch columnist. At his Expo keynote, Steve Jobs announced that the stores had their first $1 billion sales quarter from 135 stores and over 26 million visitors to their stoy. Industry Pundit John Dvorak writes: "Amongst the successes is the somewhat overlooked locomotive that pulls the Apple train: the Apple Store. Apple has proven, hopefully once and for all, that the branded retail specialty store is the key to success in high margin design-oriented high technology sales. It works with cars; it works with clothes; it works with shoes. Why not computers?" While looking at the various manufacturer-owned stores that sold a single brand, he concludes: "After decades of computer store missteps it's apparent that Apple has a winning formula that can now be used to leverage sales of anything it wants to sell. And, unlike the multi-brand department style of computer store, it can control the sales pitch. That's the key."

Briefly: iLife '06 ships, 'Vingle' mark

In Brief: Apple has begun shipping iLife '06 from the Apple Store, following its introduction yesterday, according a MacNN reader who received shipment confirmation.... Apple today used its 'Vingle' trademark, which it filed for in October, in its weekly iTunes mailer, when referring to a video single.... Apple will announce its financial results for the December Quarter next week on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 at market close, followed by its quarterly conference call at 5 pm ETfor shareholders, press, and analysts with Apple exectives.... Apple last week asked the United States Patent and Trademark Office to grant it a trademark on the term "Mobile Me".... Audi Japan is offering a free Apple iPod nano and integration kit with the purchase of an Audi TT now through March 31st.... Tunewear has debuted several new iPod cases at this week's Expo. [updated]

SilverStorm launches InfiniBand products

SilverStorm Technologies has launched its family of InfiniBand products for Mac OS X Server 10.4, delivering a wide range of InfiniBand switching and Virtual I/O products to support high-performance fabric configurations from two to thousands of nodes. The solution offers a 10 or 20 Gb/sec, low latency interconnect with multi-protocol support, providing cluster inter-process communication, storage and networking access through a single server connection to improve performance and simplify data centers (pricing was unavailable).

VersaCAD 2006 for Intel-Macs available...

Archway Systems today announced that it will ship its newest product, VersaCAD 2006 for Macintosh, for the new dual-core Intel-based Macs. The version provides a design/drafting software for the Mac-based architect, designer, engineer or drafter. Archway Systems' VersaCAD is also now available in an Unlimited Corporate License, which allows for users to install VersaCAD on every computer within an organization, even those used at home by company employees. The Unlimited Corporate License provides all VersaCAD versions to the licensee including older Macs, PowerMacs, and the new Intel-based Mac plus Windows versions if requested. Single copies of VersaCAD 2006 for Macintosh are priced at $800. Premium Service (software updates, new releases and tech support) is available at $600 per year.

Absoft to offer Intel-Mac developer tools...

Absoft today announced plans to offer software development solutions designed for Apple's new Intel-based Macs, and will extend the company's already-existing products for PowerPC-based systems from Apple to include tools from Intel optimized specifically for Apple computers using Intel processors. The new solution will combine compilers, debuggers, and libraries from Intel, Absoft, and third party manufacturers. The tools are to be bundled into different configurations, based on needs. The new software development solutions will be made available for free trial in special beta programs to qualified customers who apply online, and will be available commercially in the second quarter of this year (pricing was unavailable).

mProjector for Flash 8, Mac OS X...

Screentime Media today announced the release of mProjector for Flash 8, for Mac OS X and Windows. The new version brings all the features of Flash 8 as well as Flash-shaped windows, and an enhanced set of cross-platform APIs to Mac and Windows Applications. mProjector extends Flash 8 into a full-featured cross-platform application development environment, enabling Flash users to develop connected widgets and applications for the Mac and Windows desktop. Projector helps users create multi-platform windowless widgets that have Flash Shaped Windows or multiple-window applications with Menus, File IO, Window Handling and more.

EZQuest intros three storage devices

EZQuest today unveiled its Thunder Pro Audio/Video storage devices at the Expo in San Francisco. The new line of storage solutions boast plug-and-play setup, hot-swapping capability, smart on/off power switches, an EZport FireWire 400 front-access port, two FireWire 800 ports, and one USB 2.0 port for connectivity. The Thunder Pro A/V Studio QUAD Interface external drive offers storage capacities from 160GB to 500GB, the Thunder Pro A/V Studio RAID and RAID-plus Triple Interface offers capacities from 500GB to 1TB, and the The Studio Rack 8 offers 19-inches of space that can be loaded with up to eight Thunder Pro A/V Studio Quad Interface drives. All three solutions are expected to ship in May of 2006 (pricing was unavailable).

InfiniBand for Mac OS X Server Tiger

SilverStorm Technologies announced availability of its family of InfiniBand products products for Mac OS X Server Tiger. SilverStorm's Mac OS X Tiger Server offering delivers the full range of InfiniBand switching and Virtual I/O products to support high performance fabric configurations from two to thousands of nodes. SilverStorm's InfiniBand solution for Tiger Server provides high performance networking for the Apple platform, including a 10 or 20Gb/sec, low latency interconnect with multi-protocol support, providing cluster inter-process communication, storage and networking access through a single server connection, improving performance and simplifying the data center. Mac OS X Tiger Server InfiniBand support is generally available today for data center and HPC configurations (pricing was unavailable).

imeem social networking tool for Mac

imeem consumer software today announced the beta launch of its free, social media platform designed specifically for Mac users. Available today, imeem's platform gives Mac users the ability to share rich media and recommend new music, films, video and digital photos to friends, easily create and subscribe to blogs, send instant messages, find new friends and form public and private groups, called "meems." Meems give users the space to share rich media such as photos, play lists and ideas and insights with others both privately and publicly -- dependent upon preference. imeem's software is available for free download, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

Digital Storage Manager 1.5 released...

MetaCommunications today released Digital Storage Manager 1.5, an intranet search and archive management system designed for groups of people in the creative profession. The software is designed to help users find files, manage metadata, and archive important information. Users can index online servers, archive files within a production environment, and automatically apply job/folder/file metadata that can later be used in searches. The update adds a Mac OS X development environment, plug-in support for Adobe's Creative Suite 2, and integration with Rimage CD/DVD duplication equipment (pricing and system requirements were unavailable).

Fetch 5.1 beta works with Intel Macs

Fetch Softworks today released a public beta of its Macintosh file transfer application--Fetch 5.1. Version 5.1 is a Universal Binary, providing compatibility with Apple's new Intel-based Macs, while offering support for the Dashboard and Automator technologies of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Fetch 5.1's Dashboard widget allows users to upload files and monitor file transfer progress, as well as upload, download, move, filter, delete and set permissions of files on FTP and SFTP servers. Fetch 5.1 requires Mac OS X 10.2.4 or later, and is available for download as a beta release. Version 5.05 is available now for $25.

BookEndz debuts 17-inch docking station

BookEndz today announced its 17-inch docking station designed for Apple's PowerBook G4 notebook computers. Once the peripheral devices are plugged into the dock, they can remain in and the PowerBook can be connected or disconnected as needed. The dock provides an easy-to-use ejection system which removes the notebook in one simple movement (pricing and availability information was unavailable).

Stone Design bundle for Intel-Macs

Stone Design announced immediate availability of fourteen of its applications optimized to run on either Intel- or PowerPC-based Macs. Available in one download, these applications run natively on both architectures. Included in the download are Create, iMaginator, PhotoToWeb, PStill, TimeEqualsMoney, SliceAndDice, FontSight, Global Warmth, StampInStone, PreferenceCommander, iPhoto to PhotoToWeb plugin, PackUpAndGo, and TrueBlue. Applications may still be purchased separately, with free, 30-day trial downloads available (prices vary according to package choice and liscense status).

Atempo SCM now supports Mac OS X

Atempo (booth 2342) announced that its storage security solution-- Time Navigator Security and Compliance Manager- now supports Mac OS X Tiger and Mac OS X Server Tiger. In addition, Time Navigator data proteection software includes an intuitive installer for Mac OS X, a new native Mac OS X Graphic User Interface and a Dashboard widget for monitoring backup activity on the desktop. Atempo's Time Navigator SCM storage security solution integrates multiple layers of security technologies to protect 'in-flight' and 'at-rest' digital information and secure it against eavesdropping, tampering and impersonation (availability and pricing were unavailable).

Briefly: iDive, PGP show specials,

In brief: Publicspace.net today announced that it is supporting Apple's new Intel-based Macs.... Aquafadas today announced special pricing ($60) for single-user licenses of the latest iDive version until January 15th.... PGP is offering a 20 percent discount ($80) on its PGP Desktop 9 Home edition for Mac OS X through January 13th in recognition of this week's Expo.... MicroOptical has introduced its myvu personal media viewer, which comprises eyewear with built in video viewing and audio.... XtremeMac announced the MicroMemo, its new voice recorder for the iPod video at this week's Expo.... Splasm Software has released Podner 1.3 as a Universal Binary, and ready for the new Intel-based Macs.

Apple offers DTK for iMac free exchange

Apple announced the DTK Exchange Program for developers who have ordered a Developer Transition Kit. Each Developer Transition Kit may be exchanged for a new Intel-based iMac for free, which will arrive prior to the return of the DTK to allow moving of resources from the DTK to the iMac. ADC Members who ordered a DTK system from Apple between June 6, 2005 and January 10, 2006 are eligible for the DTK Exchange Program. A DTK Exchange Request must be submitted and received by March 31, 2006. The iMac will be shipped after the Request has been processed. Further details are available to developers who have ordered DTK systems.

GizMac unveils 25U XRackPro

GizMac Accessories today unveiled its 25U XRackPro Noise Reduction Enclosure at the Expo. The 25U XRackPro is on display at booth 2211 alongside GizMac's current 12U model. "Our XRackPro reduces noise up to 75 percent when multiple pieces of equipment are mounted inside," said Tim Cave, founder of GizMac. "The new 25U rack mount enclosure cabinet will have features and accessories similar to the current 12U model while providing more than twice the rack mount capacity." The enclosure holds up to 25 Apple Xserve servers, or up to two G5 towers and some additional Xserve RAID systems. The 25U XRackPro is available for $1,800.

OpenSolaris kernel ported to PowerPC...

Developers of the OpenSolaris project have released the first OpenSolaris kernel for the PowerPC architecture on Blastware.org, bringing Mac users one step closer to running the UNIX variant on their systems. This marks the first time that part of the Solaris operating system has been publicly released for the PowerPC architecture, which drives all recently-released Macintosh systems except the late Intel Macs that began shipping yesterday. The project, codenamed "Polaris," offers developers a strong base upon which they can create a full-fledged version of Solaris for the PowerPC, according to Techworld.com.

New Intel tools for CoreDuo Macs

Intel Corporation today announced new software development tools and resources through its Intel Software Network. These tools and resources will help Apple developers take advantage of Intel Core Duo processor technologies to maximize application performance on the new Intel-based Mac platforms, available for free, beta-version download. The special versions of the Intel Fortran Compiler, Intel C++ Compiler, Intel Math Kernel Library and Intel Integrated Performance Primitives are available now. Intel will also provide other resources to assist with software optimization, dualcore threading and migration information. Based on Intel's suite of software development products for other platforms, each product has been transitioned to Mac OS X's Xcode development environment to ensure complete fidelity with other Intel platforms, giving Mac OS X developers a familiar base to use Intel's development tools.

Pangea debuts Enigmo 2

Pangea Software today debuted Enigmo 2, a 3D puzzle game offering players the ability to manipulate flowing water, plasma, and laser beams to reach the final destination. Players toggle switches, deactivate force-fields, use magneto-spheres to attract charged particles, and other tasks related to physics. "For Engimo 2 we really wanted to do something different," said Brian Greenstone, President of Pangea Software. The game will also include a built-in level editor, allowing players to build their own games to share with friends. Enigmo 2 is slated for release in mid-February, and will requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later (pricing was unavailable).

Jaws PDF Creator v.4.0 released

Global Graphics released Jaws PDF Creator version 4.0 for creating PDF files. New features include the ability to produce files that are fully compliant with the PDF 1.5 specification, extended Mac OS X support, up to 10.4, and creation settings that comply with Version 3 of the Ghent PDF Workgroup profiles in addition to PDF/X - 1a: 2001 and PDF/X - 3: 2002 standards. Jaws PDF Creator lets users 'print' to a PDF file, or convert PostScript or EPS files directly to PDF by drag-and-drop to te Jaws PDF Creator icon on the desktop. PDF files created using Jaws PDF Creator v.4.0 can be used with Jaws PDF Editor and Adobe Acrobat products. Jaws PDF Creator v.4.0 costs $85, available for immediate download for Windows or Mac OS X. Existing Jaws PDF Creator registered users can upgrade to v.4.0 for $45.

AMCC offers RAID for Power Mac G5

Applied Micro Circuits Corporation (booth 511) today announced its entrance into the Macintosh storage market with RAID technology for Apple's PowerMac G5 Quad workstation. Its new Sidecar external RAID solution leverages the company's 3ware StorSwitch architecture, which integrates custom-designed firmware, hardware and management software optimized for high bandwidth applications and solves the problem of how to provide terabytes of highly reliable storage expansion to individual G5 workstations. AMCC will showcase the technology at this week's Expo, due for release in the second quarter of 2006 (pricing was unavailable).

Griffin debuts TuneCenter iPod dock...

Griffin today announced TuneCenter docking and charging station for iPods, which it says is the "most advanced docking" yet. TuneCenter can be attached to a television and stereo for viewing photos, watching video, or listening to your iPod music library or internet radio. It also features a 14-button remote that enables the iPod as a complete Home Media Center. TuneCenter can display iPod playlists and song information on your TV screen, allowing the entire room to view the song title, artist, album and progress of the current song.

Morgan Stanley, UBS raise AAPL target...

Morgan Stanley (MS) today set a $90 price target on Apple stock and raised esitmates, while maintaing an "overweight" rating on the stock and UBS raised its target on Apple to $100, following yesterday's Macworld announcements. MS analyst Rebecca Runkle named Apple her "top pick" coming out of the MacWorld 2006 keynote yesterday, according to Forbes: "iPod momentum is stronger now than it’s ever been," wrote the analyst in a research note Wednesday. "Apple’s system lineup is also stronger than it’s ever been — these two factors alone give us plenty of reason to stay long the stock despite the run it’s enjoyed over the last 15 plus months."

iPod software supports new FM remote

Apple today released iPod Updater 2006-01-10, a new version of the software updater for iPods. It adds support for the new iPod Radio Remote for iPod with video and iPod nano as well as a number of bug fixes for iPod with video, iPod nano, iPod with color display, iPod mini, and iPod with Click Wheel, according to Apple's support pages. It includes iPod Software 1.1 for the iPod video, iPod nano Software 1.1, iPod Software 1.2.1 for color display/Photo, iPod shuffle Software 1.1.3, iPod mini Software 1.4.1, iPod Software 3.1.1 for clickwheel, and iPod Software 2.3 for iPods with dock connector as well as iPod Software 1.5 for touch/scroll wheel iPods.

DEVONagent 2.0 announced at MWSF...

DEVONtechnologies (booth 436), announced its version 2.0 of DEVONagent, its intelligent Internet research assistant, available immediately as a public beta version, and showcasing at this week's Expo. Version 2.0 of DEVONagent features a completely overhauled user interface, a topics visualizer and hundreds of new features and detail enhancements. The installation of add-on scripts has been simplified as well, and all additional items are installed automatically if needed. A new contextual menu extension inserts a "Search with DEVONagent" item into other applications' contextual menus. A Dashboard widget gives access to DEVONagent from any application by activating the Dashboard.

LANDesk to support Intel-based Macs

LANDesk Software today announced that it will offer Mac OS X support for its "Trusted Access" solution, and will provide full compatibility/management support for Apple's Intel-based Macs. The LANDesk Security Suite uses "Trusted Access" technology can stop infected or unprotected systems from connecting to a corporate network, as well as protect corporate resources from connected systems that become corrupt. Quarantined systems are stepped through the appropriate remediation steps to bring them into compliance with company policies before being granted access and released onto the network (pricing and shipping date were not available).

G-Tech rolls out FireWire 800 HBA

G-Technology today unveiled a FireWire 800 host bus adapter (HBA) that works with the latest Power Mac G5 systems featuring PCI-Express expansion slots. The adapter enables users to connect G-Tech G-RAID and G-DRIVE storage solutions to any new Power Mac G5 while freeing up the onboard FireWire ports for use with other peripherals, including tape decks and video editing equipment such as AJA's Io. Features include two external FireWire 800 ports, one external FireWire 400 port, and single lane PCI-Express transfer rates up to 2.5Gbps. The adapter supports DV, HDV, DVCPRO HD, and 8-bit uncompressed video editing. The G-Tech FireWire 800 PCI-Express adapter ships with a one-year warranty, and is available for $130.

New Keynote Adventurer Themes

Keynote Adventurer introduced two new Keynote themes, Serenity and Folio. Included in the themes are sample Keynote files with elements to use or reuse such as floating photo frames, charts, tables, and bulleted text. Folio style offers a front magazine cover and back cover, nine photo masters, pre-positioned object placeholders, and 26 master slides. Serenity style includes 13 master slides, and seven photo masters. Keynote Adventurer is completely integrated with Apple's Keynote for creating presentations. Both new themes are available now for $25.

Image Portal X (Lite) for Mac OS X

NetXposure announced today the immediate release of the fourth editions of Image Portal X and Image Portal Lite, built for Mac OS X Tiger. Image Portal X and Image Portal Lite are feature a new user interface, Spotlight technology, and integration with Adobe Creative Suite 2. They are optimized for Open LDAP, WebDAV, Apache Tomcat and Apache Axis. Performance and storage capability can be additionally enhanced when run on Apple Xserve and Xserve RAID. The fourth versions of Image Portal X and Lite are entry-level, Web-based solutions for managing large libraries of digital images, documents and rich media files (pricing was unavailable).

Timbuktu Pro 8.6 supports Intel Macs

Netopia today announced that its Timbuktu Pro 8.6 software supports Apple's new Intel-based Macs. The new version of Timbuktu Pro--based on Apple's universal binary strategy--will run natively on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macintoshes, and is designed to deliver optimal performance for both architectures in a single package. Demonstrations of Timbuktu Pro 8.6 are available at Netopia's Expo booth 2628. Timbuktu Pro 8.6 requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later, and is available for $160 for a twin-pack license bundle.

REALbasic 2006 for Mac OS X available

REAL Software announced today that REALbasic 2006 Release 1 is shipping. The new release features enhanced compatibility with Visual Basic, simplified localization and improved reliability and stability. New features include: a new Lingua utility, IDE Scripting, draggable events, nine new databases including signed and unsigned integers up to 64 bits, allowing integers greater than 2 billion to be stored, enumerations, structures for creating user-defined types, better Linux desktop support, and over 70 specific fixes. Any REALbasic 2005 user with a current update plan can download REALbasic 2006 Release 1 for Mac OS X now for free. REALbasic 2006 Standard Edition starts at $100 while REALbasic 2006 Professional Edition is priced at $400 for a limited time; list price is $500.