Toolfarm re-engineers Tinderbox line...

Toolfarm today announced the availability of completely re-engineered versions of Tinderbox products, including a new product called Tinderbox 4. Tinderbox is a collection of 2D visual effects plug-ins, delivering unlimited creative possibilities for artists involved in producing digital images for film and video. It offers a vast array of fast, organic effects, several every day tools and a host of blurs, generators and warpers--with hundreds of presets and a multitude of adjustable parameters. The updated Tinderbox 1, 2, and 3 supports 32 bpc and the After Effects camera and lights, as well as provides speed enhancements. The updated Tinderbox products, which are available for After Effects 7 only for both Mac OS X and Windows, are available now, while the boxed versions are expected to ship in late October.

Forums: MBP, remastered Nanos

Forums roundup: Members are discussing the possible signs of an upcoming MacBook Pro revision.... Other users discuss the recently released iPod nano 'remastered', investigating build quality and new improvements.... Another user looks for some insight into why his Mac Pro never uses its fans.... One member looks for advice on the current value of a Titanium PowerBook and whether it is worth the quoted price.... Meanwhile, another user shares an experience of switching from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X in the modern era of operating systems.

PGP expands support for Mac OS X

PGP today released new versions of its PGP Whole Disk Encryption as well as PGP Desktop Home software for Mac OS X. PGP Whole Disk Encryption provides non-stop disk encryption for quick, cost-effective data protection. The update is the first official support for Mac OS X, but is limited to non-startup volumes. PGP Desktop Personal is an easy-to-use desktop encryption application that secures confidential data with automatic email encryption, as well as the ability to lock down files in automatically expanding virtual drives or shared archives. The update brings native support to Intel-based Macs as a Universal Binary. PHP Whole Disk Encryption and PGP Desktop software require Mac OS X 10.4 or later, and run natively as Universal Binaries on Intel-based Macs as well as PowerPC-based systems (pricing was unavailable).

Stock options: Jobs knew, apologizes...

Apple today announced that its current CEO Steve Jobs knew about some of the stock option irregularities that has drawn much attention from the media (as well as investor lawsuits), but said it found no evidence of misconduct of the current management team; however, Jobs did offer a formal apology for the accounting irregularities "under his watch and the company did announce the resignation of former CFO Fred Anderson from Apple's Board of Directors: "I apologize to Apple's shareholders and employees for these problems, which happened on my watch. They are completely out of character for Apple," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We will now work to resolve the remaining issues as quickly as possible and to put the proper remedial measures in place to ensure that this never happens again." Anderson, who served as Apple's CFO from 1996 until 2004, said that he believed that it is in Apple's best interests that he resign from the board at this time.

Apple, others sued for music copyrights...

The Knack -- the rock band that created "My Sharona" -- is suing Apple and several other online music distributors including Amazon and Yahoo for copyright infringement. The band claims those sites distributed copies of Run DMC's 1986 hit song "It's Tricky," which allegedly contains an unauthorized sample of The Knack's "My Sharona." While the statute of limitations for copyright infringement is set at three years, band front man Doug Fieger and lead guitarist Berton Averre claim that they had never heard of Run DMC's song -- which is one of the most famous rap songs of all time -- until August of 2005, according to eWeek.com. Amazon, Apple, and Yahoo are targeted in the lawsuit for distributing "It's Tricky" via their websites, along with other online music retailers such as Napster and RealNetworks. Band members are targeting $150,000 for each infringement of their work. Brick-and-mortar retailers such as Wal-Mart, however, were not named in the complaint.

Apple reports on stock option issues...

Apple today announced that the special committee of its board of directors has reported its findings after a three month investigation into Apple's stock option practices. The special committee of outside directors, together with independent counsel and accountants, examined more than 650,000 emails and documents, and conducted interviews with more than 40 current and former employees, directors and advisors. Apple initiated this voluntary independent investigation after a management review discovered irregularities in past stock option grants. The investigation found no misconduct by any member of Apple's current management team and that the most recent evidence of irregularities relates to a January 2002 grant.

PocketMac 4.0 for BlackBerry released

The PocketMac Team has released PocketMac 4.0 for BlackBerry, revealing a change in the user interface that looks more like Apple's iSync software. PocketMac for BlackBerry offers Mac users an easy way to safely sync their BlackBerry handheld devices, supporting many of the popular Mac applications that track or maintain important information. The updated PocketMac software can sync entire Entourage Calendars, Contacts, Tasks, and emails as well as Apple's iCal, Address Book, and Mail Apps. PocketMac 4.0 also syncs DayLite, Meeting Maker, and more. Research In Motion is offering PocketMac 4.0 as a free 24.3MB download, as well as the accompanying documentation via a 6.9MB PDF download.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 due in May 2007?...

Adobe's next product refresh cycle could mean significant growth for the company, but Mac users may have wait until May of next year until the release of Creative Suite 3, the much-anticipated Universal version of professional graphics suite. While the "Universal" Acrobat 8 version is expected to ship in November, one analyst says that next major version of the company's flaghship Creative Suite, expected in first half of 2007, may not be ready until the latter part of that period: May 1st. Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital says that Adobe executives are guiding analysts lower in their financial targets for the firm ahead of the CS3 launch. The report says Adobe shares, now at $36.75, have been rising ahead of the new Acrobat and Creative Suite releases, up 39 percent since late July, but is 10 percent off its 52-week high.

Briefly: review; free FM Themes Pack

In brief: MacNN has reviewed the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid ($150, shown at right), offering users full access to analog and digital transmissions over-the-air.... FileMaker is offering users who purchase and register FileMaker Pro 8.5 a free FileMaker Themes Pack from now until December 22nd.... Apple has posted directions to correct an issue where after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4.8, some Intel-based Macs may not auto-connect to remembered networks that use WPA2 security.... Apple has also posted correctional steps for MacBook and MacBook Pro users experiencing an issue where running Microsoft Windows XP using Apple's Boot Camp Beta software results in failure to turn off the notebook's built-in display when the lid is closed and an external display is connected.... Apple also admitted that its Boot Camp Beta software will not run on Macs with hard drives partitioned into two or more volumes using a disk partitioning utility other than Boot Camp Beta, and offered directions for users with previously-partitioned disks to take before installing Boot Camp Beta.

Maxon debuts Cinema 4D Release 10...

Maxon today announced Cinema 4D Release 10, an update to its flagship 3D modeling, animation and rendering software that bring additional ease-of-use enhancements along with several workflow improvements, interface improvements, and new functionality to aid in character animation. Release 10 features enhanced object and animation managers, which have been optimized for quicker workflow. The company said that objects can now be easily filtered, searched, bookmarked and arranged in layers to aid in dealing with large scenes. It also features a completely rewritten timeline that can be organized in the same way as the Object Manager, and now offers ripple and region editing tools as well as improved automatic and manual controls over keyframe interpolation. The company did not provide details on the release date or pricing.

FireWire Depot expands SATA storage

FireWire Depot today unveiled its PCI-X SeriTek/1VE2+2 2-port internal/2-port external SATA adapter, as well as its MB561 series 4-bay SATA removable hard drive enclosure. The PCI-X SeriTek/1VE2+2 adapter features two external Serial ATA ports and two internal Serial ATA ports, each boasting a 1.5Gbps transfer rate. The adapter is compatible with PCI-X, supporting Power Mac G5 users while offering backward compatibility with older Power Macs. The MB561 (shown at right) combines hot-swap functionality with support for up to four SATA I/II hard drives. The enclosure features interchangeable trays, an interchangeable fan, and lightweight construction with solid aluminum and a mirrored finish. FireWire Depot's PCI-X SeriTek/1VE2+2 is priced at $140, while the MB561 is available for $320.

BackTrack 3.0 keystroke recorder ships

Modesitt Software has released BackTrack 3.0, an application designed to bring Mac users a new level of safety by logging all text typed from all applications. Logged information includes the application name, window name, date as well as time, and how long the window was active as the front window. "Suppose you're working on a Microsoft Word document, you haven't saved the document for awhile, and Word crashes. Normally you would have lost all the text you typed since your last save, however, since the text is also in the BackTrack file, the text you typed has been saved. Simply copy the text from BackTrack to the clipboard, and paste it onto your Word document," says Modesitt Software. BackTrack 3.0 is available for $15, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

Apps: Troi Serial Plug-in, Lineform

• Troi Serial Plug-in 3.0b1 beta for FileMaker Pro 8.5 ($1,100) offers access to one or more of the computer's serial ports, allowing users to read from and write to those ports directly from FileMaker Pro. The update is compatible with FileMaker Pro 8.5, and runs natively on PowerPC as well as Intel-based Macs as a Universal Binary. [Download - 1.1MB]


• Lineform 1.2.2 ($80) updates the drawing and illustration program for Mac OS X, adding new transform and layout palettes. Lineform 1.2.2 includes new filters for reflection as well as drop shadows, retains styles in palettes after deselection, improves the outline view, and fixes problems for Mac OS X 10.3.9. [Download - 4.1MB]


• Nutrition and Diet Manager 4.0 ($45) is a $6 upgrade for registered users of the health and weight loss application for Mac OS X, bringing native compatibility to Intel-based Macs as a Universal Binary. The CalorieKing.com proprietary food database stores more than 50,000 foods offering constant access to various facts about those foods. [Download - 18.6MB]


• FlexoStep plug-in for Illustrator CS2 ($300) brings the act of stepping, repeating, and distorting label as well as packaging work to Adobe Illustrator CS2 on Mac OS X systems. Users can create custom die configurations and completely automate the task of stepping, repeating, distorting, and adding printer's marks as well as job info. [Download - 639KB]


• DV Monitor 1.1 ($150) serves as a field monitor without the need to carry an actual device along during shoots. The software is designed to improve shot quality by viewing video at full resolution, and features "Over and Under" exposure zebra's, image flipping magnification up to 250 percent, and computer screen calibration. [Download - 1.6MB]


• EasyTask Manager 1.7.0 ($20) is a task management application designed to increase productivity. The update offers online sync for multiple Macs, and allows users to delete, complete, or edit multiple tasks simultaneously. The update also adds a project page. [Download - 561KB]

SoundFlavor DJ for iTunes coming to Mac

Soundflavor today released Soundflavor DJ iTunes Edition, its digital music companion for Apple's iTunes software. Powered by the company's Music Recommendation Engine, Soundflavor DJ's song recommendations are based on more than six years of research that includes the analysis of hundreds of thousands of songs, spanning nearly every genre of music. Users play a few songs in iTunes, which immediately appear in the application's PlayStream. The software then takes over and begins showing album artwork for upcoming songs. Users can adjust the "Flavorizer" knob to control how often the utility makes song recommendations to enhance the playlist. Set to "Mild Flavor," the option attempts to refresh an existing playlist, while "Full Flavor" lets Soundflavor DJ take over to play tracks by itself. The application works as a companion to iTunes and is available for free to Windows XP users. A Mac version, as well as support for additional digital music software such as Windows Media Player, is planned.

Sonnet ships eSATA ExpressCard adapter

Sonnet today began shipping its Tempo SATA Express 34 host adapter for MacBook Pro owners or users of laptops with ExpressCard slots, according to Electronista. The card features two 3Gbps external SATA (eSATA) ports that can be used to connect hard drives that use the high-speed interface. When two drives are connected in a RAID 0 stripe the sustained transfer rate is better than any USB 2 or FireWire setup -- it can write at 100MB per second, according to Sonnet. The new Tempo card can additionally support up to 10 drives if each port is connected to an external enclosure with a built-in port multiplier. The card includes drive activity LEDs. The Tempo SATA Express 34 now for $130. It is with MacBook Pro (15-inch and 17-inch) and any Windows notebook with an ExpressCard (54) or ExpressCard 34 slot.

Google CEO speaks on Apple

Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed his views on Apple in a recent interview with Time Magazine, noting his personal commitment to the Cupertino-based company. "Apple is engaged in probably the most remarkable second act ever seen in technology. Its resurgence is simply phenomenal and extremely impressive," said Schmidt. Despite the fact that Schmidt sits on Apple's board of directors, coupled with Apple and Google's existing partnership, the executive confirmed his desire to see more partnering between the two tech giants. Schmidt also commented on Microsoft's competitive stance, saying that "Microsoft continues to claim to enter the market, but we really haven't seen them yet, they're just getting started. I'm sure eventually Microsoft will be a competitor."

Briefly: Greece cries out; My Dream App

In brief: Greek Apple owners are crying out to the Cupertino-based company for fair treatment, pointing to free iPod engraving for other Europeans and the Applecare Protection Plan -- also not available to Greek customers.... Apple has issued a note revealing that PowerPC G3-based Macs do not support Mac OS X Server 10.4.7 (Universal), but adds that Mac OS X Server 10.4 (non-Universal) updated to version 10.4.7 does offer support to PowerPC G3-based Macs.... The My Dream App contest is beginning its third round of voting, offering free Musicast licenses to voters as contestant elimination continues.... Nova Media today released Nova Media Phone plug-in 3.3.1 with iSync compatibility for the Nokia E62 as well as the Sony Ericsson K790i, W710i, and W850i mobile phones.... Iconfactory has released a new freeware icon set inspired by Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) featuring brightly colored skulls, hard drives, folders, and more.... Graphicxtras.com has released a new update to its "starburst" plug-in (vol 22.2.5) for Adobe Illustrator CS2, 12, 11, CS1, and 10 for Mac OS X as well as Microsoft Windows.

Mori 1.4 improves smart folders, more

Hog Bay has released Mori 1.4, a digital notebook that makes it easy to record and organize notes. It features a built-in search engine as well as Spotlight support and uses a familiar Mail.app-style interface. Version 1.4 has more powerful smart folders and an improved user interface. Smart folders now have more flexible date queries, can be limited to certain folders, can be nested to form more complex queries, and can now quickly query against the entire text content of entries. In addition, the interface has been modernized with new icons and a cleaner Mail.app-style look, the company said. The company provides access to the source code and offers a user-powered development scheme that allows users to vote on and choose the upcoming features. The $40 application requires Mac OS X 10.4.

Pokemon offers Web-based learning...

Pokemon USA, Inc. has launched the Pokemon Learning League, a Web-based educational suite of animated, interactive lessons in language arts, math, science, and life skills for children ages 8 through 12. "Parents can now embrace their children's enthusiasm for animation and interactive technology while motivating them to learn academic concepts and problem-solving skills." Pokemon USA is offering the program as a free trial to families, as well as educators, through December 31. The Flash-based site enables both Mac and Windows users to take advantage of the online program based on the current education research. A yearly subscription rate of $95.00 per household will begin in January 2007, while education subscription rates will be $145 per classroom and $1000 per school building.

Polyex ships Arcadrome game for OS X

Polyex has released Arcadrome, a new game for Mac OS X: "The Aliens have settled over Earth and are now in orbit. In response Earthlings quickly build an armed spaceship and equip an expedition to give battle. It becomes known that the alien energy is contained in crystals scattered all around the Arcadrome (their vehicle launching site). The only way to neutralize their hordes is to capture all crystals and to leave the enemy without energy.... Your goal is to pickup all the crystals scattered over the field. When you are finished you get to go up the next level. There are many monsters in Arcadrome, each one has its own tactics to prevent you from completing your noble work." The game features 100 levels and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later (as well as a 64MB OpenGL-enabled GPU and 1GHz G4 processor). A limited demo of the $18 application offers nag screens, limited levels, and other restrictions.

Imation ships D20 Disc Publisher...

Imation today announced a complete solution for optical disc publishing: the Imation D20 Disc Publisher is an all-in-one CD and DVD publishing system that automates the copying of up to 20 discs at once. About the size of a standard inkjet printer, the Imation D20 Disc Publisher automates the entire disc duplication process. The solution delivers full-color, high resolution prints at 4800 dpi in up to 16.7 million colors using a single ink cartridge and includes DVD/CD burning and printing software for use with PC and Mac systems, an integrated Pioneer DVD/CD Recorder with recording speeds of up to 16X for DVD+R/-R, up to 8X for DVD+/-R DL, and up to 40X for CD-R, and a USB 2.0 interface. It is available for $1,500 and includes a package of 10 Imation Inkjet Printable CDs with AquaGuard surface, image creation software and ink. Imation Inkjet Printable Media with AquaGuard surface is available in 45-pack spindles for a MSRP of $50 for 52x CD-Rs, and $60 for 8x DVD-Rs or 8x DVD+Rs.

REALbasic 2006 R4 goes "Universal"

REAL Software today announced that REALbasic 2006 Release 4 is now shipping. The software development solution enables REALbasic users to build Universal Binaries for Mac OS X for native application execution on both Intel-based Macs as well as legacy PowerPC-based Macs. In addition, REALbasic itself is now a Universal Binary, delivering much greater performance on Intel-based Macs: in most cases, it compiles more than twice as fast than the previous release when running on an Intel-based Mac, according to REAL. Release 4 also includes cross-platform toolbars, large file support (removes the 2GB limit), can now check for errors without building an application, adds a new currency datatype, offers extended 64-bit integer support, and includes over 100 fixes and improvements to existing features. REALbasic Professional Edition also now supports database encryption using AES 256-bit ciphers and improves SSL Sockets. It is a free upgrade to existing customers with support plans. Upgrades start at $50, while the full version starts at $100.