UK Apple store, notMac

In brief: Apple is preparing to open its latest UK store at the Bentall Centre in Kingston on Saturday, February 17th at 9:00 a.m. As usual, the company will give out free T-shirts to the first 1,000 people through the doors, and is holding a digital lifestyle sweepstake as well as a variety of presentations.... Intuit's Quicken 2004 is scheduled for discontinuation on April 30th, signaling the end of updates for users of that version. Intuit notes on its website that it only supports the latest three versions of its finance software (with a few exceptions) in order to focus resources on the most recent products.... The noMac Challenge for developers to create an easy-to-use replacement for Apple's dotMac service has grown with a prize pool of more than $6,000, coming nearer the challenge founder's offer to match the first $10,000 dollar-for-dollar.

Apple's year-over-year sales in Southern Africa have ballooned over the past 24 months, doubling Mac sales between 2004 and 2005 and again between 2005 and 2006. The company also now holds more than 70 percent of the market share in digital music players in South Africa, according to one report.... Smart Loops has released SL MultiTracks, its new 24-bit Multitrack Drum Loop Series allowing users to control volumes, EQ, and FX on individual drum and cymbal loops. Each MultiTrack groove and one-shot is provided either as a sest of multitrack drum and cymbal loops or as a complete stereo mix loop.

by MacNN Staff