Prosoft releases Data Backup 3

Prosoft Engineering today released Data Backup 3, an update to its easy and flexible backup software for Mac OS X. Data Backup 3 enables users to backup, restore, and synchronize data with minimal effort, according to the company, and features a new user interface with the ability to backup to CDs as well as DVDs spanning multiple disks. A new fast start feature skips scanning and speeds up backups, while built-in backup sets support quick backups of the iTunes and iPhoto libraries, as well as other important data on the entire system. The software can automatically wake from sleep to perform backups, and can automatically power off after the backup completes. Data Backup 3 is priced at $60, and requires Mac OS X 10.2.9 or later.

The Missing Sync for BlackBerry 1.0 released

Mark/Space has released The Missing Sync for BlackBerry 1.0, providing reliable synchronization for Mac users with BlackBerry handhelds. BlackBerry owners can synchronize contacts, email, calendar events, music, notes, photos, and tasks to and from their Mac computers with the new software. Tested BlackBerry models include the 7100 series, 7290, 7250, 7520, 7130, 8700, 8707, 8703, 8705, 8100 series (Pearl), and 8800 series. New licenses of The Missing Sync for BlackBerry 1.0 are priced at $40, and require Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later. The company is also offering owners of qualifying Missing Sync products, including the Palm OS and Windows Mobile editions a 50 percent off "crossgrade" price.

iPhone makes rare appearance at CTIA...

Apple's iPhone has surfaced in the public eye after a long absence, photographers noted Tuesday at the CTIA phone expo. During his keynote speech earlier today, AT&T Chief Operations Officer Randall Stephenson brought out the elusive device when discussing the success of the carrier's e-mail sign-up program.

The device was tightly guarded at the event, according to the report, but Stephenson joked that a brief tryout before the presentation by FCC chariman Kevin Martin demonstrated both how easily people could adapt to the iPhone and how desirable it was compared to most other phones.

MoboVivo brings content to Apple TV

MoboVivo and its content providers today announced that the thousands of hours of lifestyle, documentary, and entertainment TV shows that were already available for iPod, PSP, and other portable device owners are coming to the Apple TV. "We are very proud to be providing a solution to Canadians and others outside of the United States," said Trevor Doerksen CEO and Co-Founder of MoboVivo. "For so many people the right shows or the rights clearances to shows make programming unavailable in their area. MoboVivo is working hard to change that." Content channels include entertainment, lifestyle, kids, education, "MoboDiva," current events, and more. Programs are available from mobovivo.com for $1.99 per full episode, and work on personal computers as well as iPods and the new Apple TV.

20m Vista copies sold, outpaces Windows XP

Microsoft on Monday said it sold more than 20 million copies of Windows Vista in the first month since its debut in late January, revealing that customers are adopting the new operating system at more than double the rate of its predecessor -- Windows XP. "It's a little bit better than what we were expecting," said Windows marketing group director Bill Mannion. The speedy adoption of Windows Vista comes just before Apple plans to release Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, the next generation of its own operating system that will serve as the company's answer to Microsoft and bring Intel-based Mac owners the ability to install as well as boot Windows on their Macs. Microsoft was surprised by how many Vista customers chose to purchase the premium versions of Vista, according to Reuters, as company chief Steve Ballmer said analysts' forecasts for revenue from the new operating system were "overly aggressive." Some industry watchers expect Apple to launch Mac OS X Leopard at a special event planned for the NAB convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

AT&T tops 1 million inquiries for iPhones...

AT&T's cellular division has fielded over a million questions about the iPhone's availability, according to the company COO Randall Stephenson. The executive opened his keynote at the CTIA phone expo in Orlando by touting the sheer number of website visitors that had visited AT&T's special iPhone page and chosen to be contacted when the Apple device is ready to order.

"One million people have asked us to call when this phone is available," Stephenson said.

Apps: xBack, Barcode Producer, Mac Restart

• xBack 3.7 ($10) improves the utility that allows users to replace the desktop with a screen saver. xBack brings the desktop to life by loading any Mac OS X screen saver as the background image via an easy pull-down menu in the menubar. xBack 3.7 fixes an issue with iPhoto support, and works with some Quartz Composer Animations. The software requires mac OS X 10.2 or later. [Download - 947KB]


• Barcode Producer 4.3 ($150) updates the barcode generation suite for Mac OS X with bar width reduction. Barcode Producer 4.3 features bar width adjustment to compensate for "dot gain" or "ink spread" anomalies from certain output devices. Users can set the option to any value to ensure optimal scanning performance, and the application supports custom colored barcodes using CMYK or RGB color values for both the barcode itself and the background area. [Download - 10.7MB]


• Mac Restart X 1.1 ($10) restarts a Mac on a regular basis, at scheduled times, or via iCal events. The software uses the new Calendar control available in Mac OS X 10.4, and warns current users before a restart occurs. Mac Restart X 1.1 doesn't cause slowdowns when running in the background, and uses native Mac OS X Date, Time, and Calendar controls. [Download - 122KB]


• Firedoodle 0.5b (free) is a Firefox Web browser add-on that enables users to treat every Web page as a whiteboard. The software is designed for jotting ideas, creating reviews, and random doodling. Registered users can also save highlights or placemarks that don't disappear when Firefox closes. [Download - Firefox add-on]


• DiskLibrary 1.4 ($30) is designed as an easy-to-use media cataloging application for Mac OS X 10.4. The update adds support for XMP metadata, as well as the ability to import DiskTracker 2.3 export files. The latest release also adds duration as well as dimension tags for movie files, improves CDFinder import functionality, and includes several bug fixes. [Download - 2.2MB]


• EazyDraw 2.3 ($20 for 9-month license, $100 for permanent license) enhances the easy-to-use vector drawing application for Mac OS X. The latest release includes User Libraries with a new tool mode that allows users to create custom tool palettes. Custom palettes can include standard EazyDraw tools or graphic tools created by users, and ClarisDraw import is improved to include palettes that streamline many drawing tasks. [Download - 16.1MB]

BBC Motion Gallery adopts QuickTime 7

The BBC Motion Gallery has announced the adoption of QuickTime 7 on its website, enabling customers to purchase archive clips in Apple's native format. The BBC Motion gallery offers media professionals access to more than 500,000 hours of video footage covering a wide variety of content from natural history and sports to art and music. BBC Motion Gallery preview clips now take advantage of the efficient H.264 video codec in QuickTime 7, delivering high quality video at low data rates for clearer video in smaller files. BBC Motion Gallery previews in QuickTime 7 will also contain a rich body of metadata, searchable via Spotlight in Mac OS X 10.4 or later. "Apple continues to develop industry leading tools to service digital video professionals and QuickTime 7 is no exception. BBC Motion Gallery is tapping into the strengths of this video format to offer premiere quality online preview clips with more robust search capabilities than ever before," said Simon Gibbs, managing director of BBC Motion Gallery.

Adobe updates Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Pro...

Adobe today updated Illustrator CS3 and Flash CS3 in conjunction with updates to Dreamweaver CS3, Fireworks CS3, and Contribute CS3 as well as Photoshop CS3, InDesign CS3, and the entire Adobe CS3 family. The company today announced that its Photoshop CS3 software is due in April, which is expected to boost Intel-based Mac sales due to pent up demand from professional users. Adobe Illustrator CS3 allows users to create sophisticated artwork for virtually any medium with industry-standard drawing tools, flexible color controls, and professional type controls. The latest release of Adobe Illustrator CS3, now a Universal Binary, offers Live Color, integration with Adobe Flash, improved operating performance, a control panel, and an eraser tool. The update also features new document profiles, a crop area tool, an isolation mode, and Symbols for Flash. Adobe Illustrator CS3 is available for pre-order for $600, with upgrades priced from $200.

Briefly: Apple TV upgrade; TRAKTOR tutorial...

In brief: TechRestore has begun offering a storage upgrade service for the new Apple TV, Native Instruments has released its new TRAKTOR Tutorial DVD, tickets are available for the 6th Annual NAB FCPUG Network SuperMeet, and EmiratesMac User Group (EMUG) is inviting Apple fans in the UAE to attend a demonstration of the Apple TV. Faronics is offering its intelligent energy management software in five global languages, and Malleable Devices has unveiled a new dual charger that replenishes the battery life of two mobile devices simultaneously. TechRestore is offering an overnight storage upgrade service for the new Apple TV that brings up to 160GB of storage capacity to the set top box device. Pricing for the new service, which ranges from $100 to $220, includes all parts and installation.

Apple TV OS successfully booted on Macs...

The customized version of Mac OS X used on the Apple TV will boot on other Macs, users have confirmed today. Taking advantage of news that the customized version of Mac OS X is portable to other hardware, one owner of the media hub has successfully used the software on an external USB drive and run the OS from a MacBook rather than the Apple TV's native components -- including authorization and streaming. The launch indicates that many of Apple's drivers for graphics, networking, and other elements are intact. (More details and a video follow after the break)

Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Contribute updated...

In addition to Photoshop CS3 and InDesign CS3, Adobe today launched new versions of Dreamweaver CS3 for Web-design and layout, Fireworks CS3 for Web graphics, and Contribute CS3 for easily updating Web content. The company's Dreamweaver CS3 brings new tools to visually design, develop, and deploy dynamic user interfaces using the Spry framework for Ajax. The framework for Ajax is a JavaScript library for Web designers that supports building pages that provide a richer experience for users. "Unlike other Ajax frameworks, Spry is accessible to both designers and developers alike, as 99 percent of it is actually HTML," the company claims. The new version of Dreamweaver also features Spry widgets (common user interface components) and effects, advanced Photoshop CS3 integration, browser compatibility check, a CSS Advisor, new CSS starter layouts, advanced CSS management, Adobe Device Center and Adobe Bridge CS3.

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium...

As part of its Creative Suite 3 announcement, Adobe on Tuesday announced the new version of its video editing and post-production application suite, Creative Suite 3 Production Premium. It includes both Universal Binary (After Effects CS3 Professional, Photoshop CS3 Extended, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Device Central CS3, and Bridge CS3) and Intel-only applications (Premiere Pro CS3, Soundbooth CS3, and Encore CS3) as well as two Windows-only applications as well as OnLocation CS3 for direct-to-disk recording and Adobe's Ultra CS3 keying tool. Encore CS3 offers DVD and Blu-ray Disc authoring and SWF export to the Web, while Soundbooth offers audio-editing for film, video, and Adobe Flash software projects.

PhoneValet 5.1 updates telephony solution...

Parliant Corp today began shipping version 5.1 of PhoneValet Message Center, its Mac telephony product for small businesses, homes, and home offices. PhoneValet's software and hardware platform turns a Mac into a virtual call center with automated attendant, unlimited voice mail call tree, call blocking, recording, logging and screening, automated dialing and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capabilities. It offers full Address Book integration, using standard telephone lines. Version 5.1 improves the automated attendant by allowing a user-selected number of rings to answer on specific lines at specific times of day.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 due in April...

Ahead of its NYC launch event/webcast on Tuesday, Adobe today formally announced Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended, two new editions of the professional industry standard for digital imaging. Photoshop CS3 software is called a "major upgrade," offering new innovations in editing power and productivity for designers and photographers as well as an entirely new version, Photoshop CS3 Extended that brings tools for 3-D, motion graphics, image measurement and analysis for professionals in architecture, engineering, medicine, and science. Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended will be available as stand-alone applications or key components of Adobe’s expanded Creative Suite 3 family. The software will be available as a Universal application for both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. Photoshop CS3 brings new features for advanced compositing, including the ability to automatically align multiple Photoshop layers or images based on similar content, while the new Auto-blend Layers command blends the color and the shading to create a smooth, editable result.

Adobe debuts "Universal" InDesign CS3...

Adobe today announced InDesign CS3 software, the latest version of its professional page layout program. InDesign CS3, available as a stand-alone application or as a component of Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium and Standard editions, will be available as a Universal application for both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. The application will be highlighted at its NYC launch event/webcast on Tuesday. InDesign CS3 offers new features including Multi-file Place, expanded Quick Apply, Advanced Find/Change, and fast frame fitting, eliminate time consuming and repetitive design tasks; new table and cell styles allow users to quickly format an entire table or apply design to a regional area, such as a header or footer. It also delivers standards-based XHTML export to Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, enabling print content to be repurposed for web publishing.

Adobe announces Creative Suite 3...

Adobe today announced the much-anticipated release of its Creative Suite 3 product line. As the largest release in Adobe’s history, the rollout features six all-new configurations of Adobe Creative Suite 3– Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium and Design Standard editions; Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium and Web Standard editions; and Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium. Finally, the company also announced Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection, which combines all of Adobe’s new design and development applications in a single box. Adobe Creative Suite 3 offers design and development tools for virtually every creative workflow and combines the Adobe and Macromedia product lines to offer tools for print, web, mobile, interactive, film, and video production. Photoshop CS3, InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, and Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 will all be all Universal Binary applications for native performance on PowerPC and Intel-based Macs; they are scheduled to ship in April.