Brevisys plans direct iPhone copy...

IP communications firm Brevisys today generated controversy with news of its upcoming deeda handhelds. Each of the company's three new devices not only shares the same philosophy of an exclusively touchscreen-based interface but shares similar features and clear visual cues inspired by the Apple phone's interface.

[digg this] The most obvious parallel is the Pi, according to even the company's own claims. A 3.6-inch, 800x480 touchscreen controls both a phone as well as Wi-Fi Internet access, music, and video on 8GB of flash storage.

Sonnet debuts SATA RAID storage systems...

Sonnet today debuted its desktop Fusion D400Q and 1U rackmount Fusion R400Q SATA storage systems at NAB 2007, as well as its Fusion D500P desktop SATA storage system. Sonnet today also unveiled its Fusion D800RAID 8-drive and Fusion D400RAID 4-drive SATA disk array storage systems. The company's Fusion D400Q and 1U rackmount Fusion R400Q SATA storage systems feature four swappable hard drive modules that provide a total of 2-3TB of storage and connect to virtually any computer via eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, or USB 2.0. The Fusion D500P desktop SATA storage system includes a port multiplier alongside five swappable hard drive modules for a total of 2.5-3.75TB of storage. Sonnet's Fusion D800RAID 8-drive and Fusion D400RAID 4-drive SATA disk array storage systems each feature a PCI Express RAID host adapter with support for RAID 0, 1, 4, 5, 10, 50, and JBOD configurations in a quiet enclosure.

iPhone hitting development snags?...

The Leopard delay announced last week may be a sign of software development trouble for the iPhone, according to checks with component makers by research firm iSuppli. The group found that part suppliers are still slated to deliver the ingredients for the Apple device on time, suggesting that all the problems with the device rest with its software alone. Apple reportedly pushed the iPhone's release ahead slightly from the rumored June 11 launch to late June to overcome the difficulty.

"We're hearing it's mostly an issue with the complexity of the device," said iSuppli analyst Jagdish Rebello.

Maxon ships Cinema 4D R10 for architects...

Maxon Computer today launched its Cinema 4D package for architectural visualizations with seamless connectivity to Allplan, ArchiCAD and VectorWorks. In addition, the new Architecture Edition boasts extensive object and material libraries and the new Virtual Walkthrough tool, offering architects a powerful tool for creating impressive visualizations. The company said that the new interface offers more concise and easier to recognize icons, and includes practical new features such as collapsible manager windows as well as enhanced OpenGL display and greatly improved scene management and the layer management system. The Architecture Extension Kit includes libraries that are displayed directly in the Content Browser and contain over 300 furniture and decor items -- along with Human silhouettes, numerous useful outdoor objects and over 400 specially selected and optimized materials.

Newtek debuts Rendition for Photoshop CS3...

NewTek today announced LightWave Rendition for Adobe® Photoshop, a new tool that provides photorealistic 3D render output for Adobe's Photoshop CS3 Extended. Leveraging the same technology as used in the feature film 300, NewTek's new tool will use the same render engine native to LightWave 3D to creative artists the ability to render models imported through Photoshop CS3 and deliver the richness of detail, textures and lighting attributes found in the original 3D object format. LightWave Rendition for Adobe Photoshop will be available for beta test participation beginning in May 2007. An early beta sign-up request form is available online.

Blackmagic debuts 3 new products at NAB...

Blackmagic Design on Monday made three announcements at NAB 2007, including its Multibridge Eclipse editing solution (pictured at right), Intensity Pro high-definition editing card with HDMI, and HDLink Pro for monitoring of DVI/HDMI displays. Blackmagic says that As the third product in its external PCI Express capture and playback product line, it instantly switches between SD, HD and 2K, in 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 video quality. Multibridge Eclipse is the first editing system with 3Gb/s SDI, HDMI and analog video capture and playback, 16 channel audio, and 2K film via SDI resolution capture and playback.

Microsoft debuts Silverlight media player

Microsoft has unveiled a new online media platform dubbed Silverlight in an effort to take on Adobe's Flash player and its new Adobe Media Player. The Redmond-based company's new offering aims to serve as a platform for games as well as videos and animation, working on most Web browsers -- including Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox applications. The software is scheduled for demonstration at the NAB conference in Las Vegas as Microsoft attempts to appeal to content companies with lower costs for media delivery, according to Reuters, as Silverlight already integrates with existing Web technology. Microsoft has already recruited Major League Baseball and Netflix to support its new technology.

G-Tech's ultra-high capacity external storage...

G-Technology has announced a pair of external storage enclosures with extremely high capacities. Peak storage belongs to the G-Speed eS, which supports up to 4TB using 7200rpm SATA II drives, and has a 3Gbps interface. A four-lane PCIe adapter is included. Reflecting the target audience of media producers, the enclosure is capable of multistream 1080/60i workflows, including 10-bit, 1080i protected-mode playback using two units and a RAID 5 configuration. It is both Mac OS X and Windows XP compatible, and should ship in June for prices starting at $999.

Aspyr updates The Sims 2 Pets...

Aspyr Media today released a free update to The Sims 2 Pets, fixing an install issue with later expansions and object packs in the Sims 2 series. The patch also fixes a setting where changes to a Sims lot or neighborhood name would not be saved and wouldn't show up on the next launch. The update repairs color problems with several pieces of furniture, improves performance by adding multithreaded Open GL support, and fixes an issue where user settings would reset to default upon launching the game. Priced at $35, The Sims 2 Pets requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.

OSCAR offers direct-to-QuickTime streaming...

HaiVision Systems today announced that its OSCAR H.264 encoder now supports direct-to-QuickTime audio video streaming. The OSCAR is a compact H.264 MPEG-4 AVC encoder designed specifically for video streaming and IPTV applications that offers CIF, half resolution, and full resolution (SD or D1) encoding or decoding at up to 1.5Mbps. Users can direct the OSCAR to a QuickTime Streaming Server to accommodate a large number of unicast streams. Both the OSCAR encoder and decoder are already available, with the encoder priced at $3,700.

CalDigit unveils HDPro 8-bay storage

CalDigit today unveiled its HDPro 8-bay storage solution (site not updated) with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6. The HDPro delivers up to 370MB/sec via RAID 5 and up to 400MB/sec in a RAID 0 configuration. The device offers from 2TB to 8TB of storage, and comes bundled with a host interface card as well as all the necessary accessories. The rack mount enclosure features swappable functionality for easy upgrades, coming standard with 3Gb/sec 7,200rpm SATA hard drives with up to 16MB of cache for high-speed applications. Each hard drive connects to a dedicated SATA channel to avoid bottlenecks and maximize the SATA connection, while a 10Gb interface to the host offers 2.5 times the bandwidth of 4Gb fibre-channel. CalDigit's 8-bay HDPro RAID storage solution is priced from $4,000 for a 2TB system, and includes a 3-year warranty.

Briefly: review; Mac Office XML converters...

In brief: MacNN has reviewed the iSkin Duo for Apple's second-generation iPod nano, Apple has filed for its Apple TV trademark in the U.S., and Vietnam's largest company has opened the country's first store specializing in the distribution of Apple products. One MacBook Pro owner has posted instructions on modifying the portable notebook to take advantage of its newer graphics card, and Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (MacBU) is on track to release a beta set of Office 2007 Open XML to Mac binary Office converters next month, but says it will ship the final converters 6-8 weeks after Office 2008 launches. The iSkin Duo case ($30, shown at right) for Apple's second-generation iPod nano features an external hard plastic layer while offering access to all buttons and connectors on the portable player.

Intel demos new dual, quad-core mobile CPUs...

Intel kicked off its Developer Forum this morning by discussing its upcoming 45-nanometer Core 2 Duo mobile processors. Based on the Penryn architecture due late this year, the smaller manufacturing process allows for processors that run cooler, faster, and for longer than today's 65nm chips. The design will also bring SSE4 vector extensions for better media performance as well as improved power-saving technology. Despite the collection of advancements, however, Microsoft says the technology is in such an advanced state that its dual-core version of the chip was demonstrated today in a working notebook.

Nokia targets iPhone with widget support

Nokia today claimed to beat its rivals to an important release with the introduction of Widgets, its own approach to mini applications on its Symbian 60-based cellphones. Much as with the iPhone and its Mac OS X roots, the Nokia Widget solution uses a combination of Ajax and other web technology to provide single-purpose mini applications: a WeatherBug tracker monitors temperatures and weather radar, while others cover Amazon shopping, chat, and other common online tasks.

Although demonstrated today, Nokia's technology will reach third-party developers by the summer and should result in finished widgets for the N95 and other phones running the more advanced Symbian version.

Apple jumps to No. 121 on Fortune 500

Apple jumped 38 spots to No. 121 on Fortune's annual listing of the top 500 US corporations. The company, which saw its revenues increase nearly 40 percent and its and profits surge by almost 50 percent from 2005, has a market value of $80.6 billion. Apple ranks fourth in its industry behind Hewlett-Packard (No. 14), IBM (No. 15), and Dell (NO. 34), but ahead of Xerox (No. 145), Sun (No. 187), and Gateway (No. 529). Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, reclaimed its spot as America's largest corporation on this year's Fortune 500 list, according to the most recent issue of Fortune Magazine. The retailer edged out Exxon Mobil, marking the fifth time in the last six years it has claimed the No. 1 spot. General Motors, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips rounded out the top 5, while Internet search giant Google jumped 112 spots to No. 241.

2006: Apple CEO Steve Jobs earns $1

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, once again, took home $1 as salary in 2006 and received no bonus, while Apple's chief financial officer took home millions, according to new SEC filings by Apple. The bulk of the Cupertino-based company's CEO compensation is from a 2003 equity stock grant that fully vested in 2006 and is worth nearly $1 billion. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer earned $56 million from the exercise of options during 2006 and also received a $615,000 salary along with a $450,000 bonus and restricted stock valued at $14 million. Apple's Chief Operating Officer Timothy D. Cook received restricted stock valued at $22 million, a salary of $697,000 and a $525,000 bonus for 2006, the filings reveal. Filings reveal that Apple received six shareholder proposals, including a proposal to urge Apple's board to adopt a policy allowing shareholders to vote annually on executive compensation. Apple's shareholder meeting is scheduled for May 10.

Toshiba debuts 200GB external notebook HD

Toshiba claimed to set records on Monday by launching its 200GB Portable External Drive. The storage figure is the highest ever achieved for a notebook-sized hard disk and can hold the entire media library of most users: Toshiba estimates as many as 52,000 songs or 88 DVD-quality movies. As with earlier storage, the 200GB model is bus-powered and comes with NTI Shadow backup software for automatically preserving files.

The 200GB black aluminum drive works with both Mac OS X Panther and Windows 2000 systems or later, and sells today for $230; Toshiba also sells lower storage capacities starting at 100GB for $130.

Sony intros flash-based XDCAM EX...

Sony launched its efforts at the NAB video expo today with the XDCAM EX, a new budget pro video camera that marks one of the company's first high-end cameras with movement-free storage. The new XDCAM records raw MPEG-2 video at up to 50Mbps 4:2:2 to flash memory by using the faster ExpressCard 34 format found in modern Mac and Windows notebooks. Sony's own SxS high-speed cards can store up to two hours of HD video on a 16GB card (8GB will also be available) that can then be transferred to a portable in the field. Video is recordable at a full 60Hz in either 1080i or 720p with 1080p possible at 30Hz or a film-grade 24Hz.

Adobe showcases Adobe Media Player at NAB...

Adobe today announced the Adobe Media Player, a new desktop application that expands the company's internet video solutions. Leveraging Adobe’s Flash architecture, the Adobe Media Player delivers more engaging video experiences to viewers while offering content publishers new abilities to distribute, track and build businesses around their media assets. A preview of the new player will be shown during NAB tradeshow in Las Vegas. Offered as a lightweight download, Adobe Media Player enables higher quality Flash format playback, the ability to download and view videos offline, full screen playback, one-click viewer ratings, and a powerful Favorites feature that automatically downloads new episodes of favorite TV shows or video podcasts. The cross-platform player is based on open standards, including RSS and SMIL.

Adobe CS3 betas: Premiere Pro, After Effects...

In addition to shipping Creative Suite 3 and introducing its new Adobe Media Player, Adobe on Monday announced free public previews of Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional and Adobe Soundbooth CS3 software, components of the recently announced Creative Suite 3 Production Premium, which is expected to be available worldwide in the third quarter of 2007. Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 is a major upgrade to the company’s nonlinear video editing software tool. Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 is a major upgrade to the company’s nonlinear video editing software tool for visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing for film, video, DVD, the Web, and mobile devices. Adobe Soundbooth CS3, released last October as a beta, is a new innovative and intuitive audio software tool for creating and editing audio and fixing common audio flaws using visually-oriented tools. All products support Intel-based Macs, while Adobe After Effects CS3 is also available for Macintosh as a Universal Binary application.

Adobe ships Creative Suite 3...

[Buy from Adobe] Following last month's launch, Adobe today announced the immediate availability of the highly-anticipated Creative Suite 3 Design Premium and Standard editions and Creative Suite 3 Web Premium and Standard editions. Available from Amazon.com, new releases feature tightly integrated, design and development software, bringing together Adobe and former Macromedia technologies. The company is now shipping the standalone versions of Adobe creative applications: Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS3 Extended, InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, Dreamweaver CS3, Fireworks CS3, and Contribute CS3. The new Adobe CS3 applications and Adobe Creative Suite 3 editions are available as Universal applications for both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs. Adobe also introduced its new Adobe Media Player and released public betas of Premier Pro CS3 and After Effects CS3.