College promo ends, new refurb iPods

&subidApple's College promotion offering students a free iPod nano with the purchase of any Mac will come to a close tomorrow (Saturday, September 16). Users get a free iPod nano along with the traditional education discounts of about 10 percent on laptops and Desktops. In addition, Apple has updated its listings of refurbished digital media players following the debut of its revamped iPods, lowering prices on its fifth-generation video iPod, iPod nano, and iPod shuffle models. Apple's refurbished video iPods include the 30GB model in white as well as black for $179 that stores up to 7,500 songs, and its 60GB model in white as well as black for $229 that stores up to 15,000 songs. Apple is currently only offering refurbished 2GB iPod nanos in white as well as black for $99, storing up to 500 songs. Refurbished iPod shuffles include the 512MB model with a free Apple armband or external battery pack for $49, holding up to 120 songs; as well as the 1GB model for $79 that stores up to 240 songs. Apple's refurbished iPods come with free shipping as always, and a one-year warranty. The Apple Store Canada is also offering refurbished iPods, pricing the 30GB video iPod at $209; the 60GB video iPod at $259; the 2GB iPod nano at $119; the 512MB iPod shuffle with a free Apple armband or External Battery Pack at $59; and the 1GB iPod shuffle at $95.

Apple.com ranks No. 14 among US users...

Apple.com ranked No. 14 among all Web properties during the month of August with more than 31.5 million unqiue visitors, according to a new report, while Yahoo! Sites maintained the number one ranking, attracting more than 131.3 million visitors. Apple's PC Rival Dell jumped 12 spots to number 35, drawing 18.1 million unique visitors, a 23- percent increase from the previous month--in part due to the recall of Dell laptops. comScore Media Metrix also noted that Youtube.com continued its rise, increasing 19 percent to reach 19.1 million unique visitors, making it the 32nd most-visited Web property in the U.S., an eight-spot increase from July when it debuted in the comScore Media Metrix Top 50 for the first time. comScore said that the total number of US internet users was just over 173 million from work, home, and university locations. The Time Warner Network (121 million, Microsoft (119 million), Google (108 million), and eBay (80 million) rounded out the top 5, respectively.

New touch-enabled 24-inch iMac

Troll Touch, a custom touchscreen system provider, today announced the immediate availability of the company’s internally integrated touch solution for the 24-inch iMac. Troll Touch customers can purchase complete touch-enabled machines directly from the company or supply their own previously purchased iMacs for touch-enabling. Touchscreen conversion turnaround time is currently 10-15 business days, according to the company. Integration of the company’s custom designed touch components is accomplished at Troll Touch's Valencia, CA. facilities. Troll Touch seamlessly integrates its PSR-1 touch technology on a variety of Macs including the iMac, eMac, MacBook and iBook laptops and the 20-, 23- and 30-inch Cinema displays. The company’s touchscreen technology operates with any non-sharp pointing device, such as a stylus, fingertip or gloved hand. Cost of the touchscreen system on the new 24-inch iMac, including installation, is $1350.00.

Hearts of Iron II - Doomsday ships

Virtual Programming has released Hearts of Iron II - Doomsday as a digital download with a boxed version expected to follow in the near future. "As the German war machine falls, two great nations rise to claim power. In the West, there is the United States, leader of the allied nations, and in the East lies the Soviet Union under communist rule. As both nations attempt to claim superiority, a new war is waiting around the corner; this time, the conflict will decide who will be the remaining superpower. Play as the ruler of one of 175 countries through World Wars II and III. As the Allies and the Soviet Union clash in Europe, the fate of the world hangs in the balance." In addition to the four grand campaigns (1936, 1939, 1941 and 1944) of the original game, one extra "what if" scenario (1945) has been added; it features a continuation war between the United States and the Soviet Union. The time limit has also been extended to 1953 and additional warfare and diplomatic options have been included. It is available for $25.

Analyst tears down new video iPod...

Apple's revamped video iPod may produce high margins for the company, according to a tear-down of the device performed by analyst Craig Berger of Wedbush Morgan Securities. The tear-down revealed potential gross margins between 45 and 50 percent on Apple's revamped iPod video, with consideration for continued hard drive price drops, according to AppleInsider. "Apple should see strong gross margins on these devices in the mid-40 percent range, per our [bill-of-material] cost estimates," said Berger. "Apple is not scaling the capacity of the iPods that fast, and with the hard drives used in the iPods getting cheaper as time goes on, Apple can lower the price point on its 30GB iPod while still maintaining gross margins."

Tables spreadsheet software released

One Mac developer today released Tables 1.0, a new spreadsheet application for Mac OS X enabling users to organize and present data in a simple manner. The software supports calculations to add and multiply numbers, as well as the ability to process data using various functions. Supported column formats include numbers, dates, and currency. Tables also features extensive formatting options, and allows users to create invoices, lists or reports with support for photos as well as PDF documents. Tables 1.0 is priced at $50, and requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.

Apple VP Jonathan Ive's portfolio

Apple vice president of design Jonathan Ive plays a critical role at the Cupertino-based company, forging new product designs with his close crew of about a dozen designers. Ive's list of achievements begins with a vertical fax machine that he never sold, followed by Apple's Newton MessagePad 110 in 1994, which was dubbed far ahead of its time. Ives helped Apple to recover from its long slump with the creation of the original iMac in 1998, according to BusinessWeek, and designed the elegant Apple Cinema Display which made its debut in 1999. The tiny G4 Cube followed shortly afterward, preceding the company's debut of its industry-leading iPod digital music player in 2001. Ives and his team went on to design the Titanium PowerBook in 2002, the "lamp" or "half-an-egg" iMac, the Mac mini, the new panel-style iMac, and even the iPod nano. Ive's is also responsible for designing the Apple remote, the 13.3-inch widescreen MacBook, and the iPod Hi-Fi speaker system.

Briefly: Apple Expo's "best"; Belkin

In brief: The staff at Macitynet and iPodnet have selected their acclaimed best products shown at Apple expo in Paris among software, hardware, and accessories updated or announced in 2006.... Graphicxtras.com has released an update to the plug-in set 20 'Randomtouch' ($15), a set of four plug-ins for Adobe Illustrator.... Belkin today announced that its existing accessories -- such as the Tunetalk Stereo, TuneCOmmand AV, and TuneBase FM -- are compatible with Apple's new second-generation iPod nano.... MacSpeech today released a new ScriptPak for GarageBand 3, adding more than 100 commands to iListen that offer virtually the same functionality via voice command as provided by keyboard shortcuts and menus.... The latest EMUG meeting revealed that one of its own members, iDubai, will be racing in the Gulf Radical Cup series, and has offered to display EmiratesMac on his car.

New iPod pricing surprises Microsoft

Apple's decision to aggressively price its 30GB video iPod at $249 likely took Microsoft by surprise, according to American Technology Research senior analyst Shaw Wu. "We believe Microsoft is re-thinking its pricing strategy amid potential wider losses to stay competitive in the marketplace," Wu said. Microsoft yesterday officially unveiled its Zune player alongside an online store, announcing further details of the portable player's specifications and capabilities. "We remain underwhelmed with the much-hyped Zune, which is essentially a repackaged Toshiba Gigabeat, with limited differentiation vs. existing Windows Media devices," the analyst said. Wu suspects Zune will still see modest success due to Microsoft's vast resources and strong brand name, but at the expense of its Windows Media partners such as Sony, iRiver, and Toshiba. Microsoft also hinted that it is working on a Zune cell phone, following widespread rumors that Apple is placing the finishing touches on its own mobile handset.

Yasu 2.0 offers new task options

One Mac developer has released Yasu 2.0, updating the maintenance utility for Mac OS X 10.4. The update features a new icon, several new task options, a new "Finish" menu for improved control over tasks performed when Yasu completes all tasks, and administrator accounts that can store their password in the keychain. Yasu 2.0 also offers the option to quit other running applications while it performs tasks, includes the ability to securely delete internet-related files, and provides several other enhancements to make the application more stable and easier to use. Yasu is no longer freeware, costing $3.50 and requiring Mac OS X 10.4 or later. An earlier version is also available for users running Mac OS X 10.2 or 10.3.

8GB Nano earns PC Mag Editors' Choice

PC Magazine has reviewed Apple's new 8GB iPod nano, and honored the tiny player with its Editor's Choice award. Noting the new Nano's thickness, aluminum enclosure, brighter screen, search functionality, and extended battery life, the new Nano is still "trumped" on features when compared to the Sansa e200 -- which offers an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and video playback capability. Nevertheless, Apple's new 8GB Nano offers features unavailable with Sansa's e200, such as gapless playback and lossless compression. "It's a good bet that this will be Apple's most popular iPod yet, and with good reason." While the matte black finish "picks up tons of fingerprints," the new Nano feels smaller in-hand and features a slightly concave center select button. "The iPod's navigation system is still the best in the business," according to PC Magazine, and aside from the "Scrub problem" which can cause various glitches, the new Nano "is another solid digital audio player from Apple."

MaxSink memory heat sink ships

MaxUpgrades today began shipping MaxSink, a heat sink designed to provide effective heat dissipation of fully buffered DIMM memory modules operating at 533MHz or 667MHz. MaxSink's design can effectively dissipate heat generated from memory chips and Advance Memory Buffer on fully buffered modules while keeping the temperature within operating limits, according to MaxUpgrades. The heat sink is precision machined aluminum, and features unique mounting for uniform pressure distribution. The company boasts the lowest thermal resistance between DRAM chips (BGA) and the heat sink for optimized heat transfer with thermal conductive interface pads. The heat sink is designed for fluctuating memory module temperature variations with a step design to incorporate thickness variation of AMB and FBGA memory chips, and features a surface that is treated to minimize thermal resistance. MaxSink is available for $40.

Casper Suite 4.0 enhances security

JAMF Software has released Casper Suite 4.0, an update to the Casper client management suite. Casper Suite is currently the only Mac software that can push as well as pull updates, creating .PKG as well as .DMG packages, according to the company. The new release is designed to decrease liability and security risks by blacklisting unwanted applications, email notifications to alert administrators of unwanted changes on client computers, and automate software update delivery from one or more internal software update servers. Casper Suite 4.0 also enables smart computer groups based on various criteria, and manages local accounts as well as directory bindings through remote policy-based management. The latest iteration of Casper Suite requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later, and adds pilot projects for extended evaluations at low cost as well as subscription-based pricing.

Apple updates Bootcamp 1.1.1 beta

Apple has released Bootcamp 1.1.1 beta, an update to its software that allows users of the Intel-based Macs to run Windows. Released earlier this year as a beta and expected as part of the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard system release next year, the software allows Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP (although support for Vista is expected when it is released). Version 1.1.1 adds support for Apple's recently Core 2 Duo-based Macs, including the new 24-inch iMac. It also improves support for Apple keyboards and wireless connectivity on Mac minis, according to the company. The update is 186MB. Apple notes that "If you previously installed Boot Camp beta, you can easily update to Boot Camp 1.1.1 beta. You don't need to partition your hard drive again (unless you want to change its size) or reinstall your Macintosh and Windows software or documents, but it's very important to update the Boot Camp Assistant software, create a new Macintosh Drivers for Windows CD and install the updated software it contains on Windows XP." [updated]

TinyBooks 4.0 for simple biz accounting

Ken Winograd and Space-Time Associates announced today the release of a new version of their Mac accounting and bookkeeping program called TinyBooks 4.0. The simple, flexible, non-bloated, single-entry bookkeeping and accounting system is designed for Sole Proprietors, home and other small businesses, and family finances. It offers current and year-to-date "on-the-fly" totals, fully automatic bar-charting of all expense and income accounts, a non-modal Reports Window for easy standard and custom reporting and searching, easy export of all transactions, support for non-fiscal years and recurring expenses, and more. TinyBooks includes a Professional Invoice Printer for quickly creating invoices on plain white paper and intuitive support for handling virtually any kind of taxes from any country, including State Sales Taxes, GST (Goods and Service Taxes), PST (Provincial Sales Taxes), VAT (Value Added Taxes) and more. A single-user license is $50.

MacMice ships matte black DangerMouse

MacMice today began shipping Danger Mouse BLK, the new matte black version of its flagship USB laser mouse. The black Danger Mouse has a matte black outer shell with two button, scroll button, and scroll wheel functions. The new device features a 1,600dpi laser pickup mechanism for tracking on difficult surfaces. The black Danger Mouse also features a notchless "MicroScroll" mini scroll wheel, providing users with an enhanced sense of precision, according to MacMice. The mouse includes a five-foot black USB cable, and is compatible with the standard mouse drivers included in either Mac OS X or Win XP systems. The Danger Mouse BLK is available for $30.

Boot Camp 1.1.1 supports newest Macs

Apple has updated its Boot Camp public beta to include support for the latest Intel-based Macs. The company's Boot Camp software allows Intel Mac owners to boot Mac OS X or another operating system such as Microsoft Windows with a simple restart. Boot Camp 1.1.1 beta includes easier partitioning using presets for popular sizes, the ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk, and support for built-in iSight cameras as well as microphones. The update also executes a right-click when pressing the right-hand Apple key on Apple keyboards, and offers improved Apple keyboard support for the Delete, PrintScreen, NumLock, and ScrollLock keys. Users can update to Boot Camp 1.1.1 beta without re-partitioning the hard drive or reinstalling any software. Boot Camp 1.1.1 requires Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later, and is available as a free download.