SEC won't file options case against Apple...

Despite finger pointing by Apple's CFO Fred Anderson, the SEC today said that it would not file an enforcement action against Apple in connection with the agency's stock-options dating investigation. Following public claims that Apple's chief executive knew about backdated stock options, the SEC said that Apple's "extraordinary" cooperation has won it points with the US regulatory agency and that the SEC will not seek formal action the Cupertino-based company, after the SEC filed two civil lawsuits against former Apple executives and agreed to a $3.5 million settlement with Anderson. Earlier this week, reports indicated that Jobs would likely avoid criminal charges in connection with the option scandal.

Apps: Posterino, SubEthaEdit, Daydreamer

• Posterino 1.1 ($25) is a free update to the life poster, postcard, and photo frame composing application. The latest release supports sending real postcards that include printing, postage, and shipping from within the application for $4 to any destination. Each license of Posterino includes a coupon to create three free postcards. [Download - 7.6MB]


• SubEthaEdit 2.6.3 ($35) fixes issues regarding collaboration and stability while bringing several minor improvements to the collaborative text editor for developers. SubEthaEdit features a tabbed interface that users can optionally disable, allowing several networked participants to simultaneously edit one document while viewing changes made by others live in the editor. [Download - 4MB]


• Daydreamer 2.1 ($20) signals the latest edition of the Web camera capture utility that enables users to take pictures of current conditions at specific locations and post them to the Web at regular intervals. The update expands the picture-saving feature introduced in Daydreamer 2.0 by allowing users to save all downloaded pictures, not just those pictures taken most recently. [Download - 2.5MB]


• Ovolab Geophoto 1.1 ($20) enhances the geotagging application that displays photos on a three-dimensional representation of the Earth. The latest release introduces the 'Loupe,' which uses Google Maps to provide a close-up view of the area below the mouse, as well as the 'Tag cloud' to serve as a display of the terms used to tag every picture. [Download - 42.3MB]


• logSheet 2.0.3 (unknown) introduces a fix for a printing bug present in QuarkXPress 7.0.1 which caused some systems monitored by logSheet to either stop the print queue or print without tracking. The software is designed to serve as a cross-platform accounting system that helps analyze printing costs by tracking and storing all required print job information. [Download - 733KB]

Aspyr releases iQuiz Maker for Apple's iQuiz

Aspyr Media today released iQuiz Maker as a complement for Apple's newly-released iQuiz game for fifth-generation iPod owners. iQuiz Maker is designed to offer users an easy way to write, create, and package custom quizzes. A Quiz installer easily loads quizzes onto an iPod, and is also included with iQuiz Maker. The software supports varying themes to add to iQuiz Maker, and the utility's homepage offers several downloadable quizzes. iQuiz Maker is available for free, and requires a fifth-generation video-capable iPod to play or install quizzes.

New multifunction printers from Lexmark...

Printing giant Lexmark has introduced five new five new color laser printers aimed at businesses of varying sizes. The most powerful is the X945e, which is aimed at workgroups, and is capable of a dramatic 40 pages per minute (ppm) in color mode and 45 in monochrome. The X940e is a step down at 30ppm color and 40ppm monochrome, while the X782e (pictured) is slightly faster at 35 and 40ppm, but does not offer things such as the A3 ledger size, or finishing options such as folding. Lowest to highest, prices for the above three printers are $4,500, $16,000 and $19,000.

Former Apple CFO points finger at Jobs...

Apple's former Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Fred Anderson, who has agreed to pay approximately $3.5 million to make up for his personal gains in Apple's illegal stock options scandal, has pointed a finger at company CEO Steve Jobs. The ex-executive told his attorney that he warned Jobs in late January of 2001 that the options grant in question would need to be priced based on the date of the actual agreement from the board of directors, according to Marketwatch. Anderson's attorney, Jerome Roth, said Apple's chief assured Anderson that the board had already approved the options grant. Anderson says that he now believes the Apple board may not have given the necessary prior approval to the grants issued in February of 2001, according to the report. SEC officials wouldn't say whether Jobs has been implicated throughout their lengthy investigation, but industry experts agree that Apple will suffer greatly if its chief is forced to step down as CEO of the company. [updated]

Apple releases iQuiz game for iPod

Apple has released iQuiz via its iTunes Store, the company's latest game designed for iPod to challenge players while allowing users to create custom trivia packs. "Get your trivia fix with iQuiz, the fast-paced entertainment trivia game designed in a portable format," said Apple. "Put your pop culture knowledge to the test with questions about music, movies, and TV shows." Players can alternatively choose Music Quiz 2 to test their knowledge of songs, albums, and artists on a particular iPod. "You can keep the challenges coming by creating your own custom trivia packs to share, or add trivia packs created by other players." iQuiz also features four built-in games and tracks personal statistics as well as those of other players. iQuiz is available for $4.99, and works with Apple's fifth-generation video-capable iPod running iPod software 1.2 or later.

miniOne sheds some iPhone looks...

Meizu's now-infamous miniOne is gradually veering away from the iPhone in terms of style, accoring to freshly updated concept images the company has released to the web. While still heavily influenced by the Apple design, the China-made phone removes obvious parallels to the iPhone's speaker and home button while also changing more of the apps and icons to reflect Meizu's own graphics and programs.

Briefly: Maxwell plug-in update; MBP upgrade...

In brief: Next Limit Technologies has released an updated version of its Maxwell Render plug-in for SketchUp, and an online tutorial has surfaced on replacing the hard drive in a MacBook Pro. M-Audio has begun shipping the X-Session Pro MIDI controller with its Torq LE software, and PeachPit Press has introduced several new books related to Adobe's recently-released CS3 software. The updated version of Maxwell Render plug-in for SketchUp makes the camera, environment, and HDRI parameters easier to set for each scene. The update also assigns Maxwell material parameters to SketchUp materials, and users can specify basic Maxwell material parameters directly inside SketchUp dialogs without the need to use MXM files. The latest release of the plug-in also adds HTML-based panels for Maxwell Render parameters.

Analyst reinforces stance on SEC probe

Recent reports suggest that the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) is unlikely to press charges against Apple boss Steve Jobs for his alleged role in backdating stock option grants. Senior analyst Gene Munster of research firm Piper Jaffray today in a research note obtained by MacNN expressed little surprise as a result of the new development. "We are not surprised with these developments as it has been our position throughout this investigation that Steve Jobs isn't liable as the compensation committee at Apple is run by an independent board that is not comprised of Apple employees," Munster wrote. The analyst also expressed a positive view regarding the decision of former Apple CFO Fred Anderson to settle with the SEC. "We are glad to see Fred Anderson, former CFO, settle with the SEC with no admission of wrongdoing and hope that former chief legal counsel Nancy Heinen does the same." Piper Jaffray maintains its 'Buy' rating on Apple shares with a $145 price target.

Extend Studio releases Creative MovieFX

Extend Studio today released Creative MovieFX, a flash component designed to help users create professional MovieClip effects and transitions from Adobe Flash. The software includes more than 70 unique effects that are fully customizable, and enables users to create tailored effects visually. Users can apply effects -- such as animate in, animate out, passing by effects, mask & advanced mask effects, overlay, and in place -- on any kind of movie clip. Creative MovieFX requires almost no flash knowledge to use, providing a user interface that eases the process of combining any two effects to create professional transitions. The software is priced at $50 (system requirements were unavailable).

The Shiira Project releases Shiira 2.0

The Shiira Project has released Shiira 2.0, the latest revision of the alternative Web browser written in Cocoa. Shiira uses the KHTML rendering engine provided with Apple's Web Kit, rendering HTML in the same fashion as Apple's own Safari browser. The Shiira Project is an attempt to develop a Web browser using Web Kit, with all source code made publicly available under the BSD license. Details of the latest release are not yet available, but the previous release -- Shiira 2.0b2 -- offered numerous bug fixes and introduced several new features. Shiira 2.0 is available for free via the Shiira Project website, requiring Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

PDFClerk 2.6 ships, pdfCorrect embeds fonts

Sintraworks has released PDFClerk 2.6, an update to its PDF manipulation tool that enables users to export pages as graphic files and apply automatic trim and bleed mark extraction from PDF display boxes. The update also supports automated application updates using Sparkle, and includes numerous bug fixes. The software allows users to join multiple PDF documents together, rearrange page order, delete individual pages, impose multiple pages onto a sheet of paper, and rotate pages on imposed sheets. PDFClerk 2.6 is priced at $41 and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. Callas Software also announced that its pdfCorrect ($205) plug-in and command-line tool for Adobe Acrobat 6, 7, and 8 now embeds fonts into existing PDF files.

AT&T pitching iPhone at business?...

AT&T (formerly Cingular) hopes to expand the appeal of the iPhone to businesses, sources near the cell provider claim. Although the iPhone has been typically promoted as an entertainment device, the carrier has reportedly changed its billing and support systems for business to handle the Apple device for companies that want to deploy it on a wider scale. An AT&T representative declined to provide additional details, but the news has nevertheless prompted a backlash from analysts, many of whom point to the phone's non-expandability as a red flag for businesses.

NEC rolls out widescreen media LCDs [U]...

(Updated with new photos) Display maker NEC today upgraded its AccuSync series with its first widescreen models. The new 19-inch LCD193WXM, 20-inch LCD203WXM, and 22-inch LCD223WXM are all tailored to home users as well as the traditional business and school crowds of the AccuSync line: each has chin-mounted speakers and features a brighter-than-average picture with a 1,000:1 contrast ratio for every model versus the 800:1 more common to rival LCDs.

Each has both analog (VGA) and digital (DVI) video input and fits to VESA wall mount kits for particularly tight spaces. The 19-inch model is available now from NEC for $230; its larger 20- and 22-inch counterparts will ship in May at respective prices of $290 and $360.

Faber ships Electroacoustics Toolbox 1.2...

Faber Acoustical on Tuesday released Electroacoustics Toolbox 1.2, its modularized, multi-channel dynamic signal analyzer and data acquisition platform for the Mac. With version 1.2, the software now includes support for AppleScript, enabling users to automate their measurements. In addition, the Dual FFT Analyzer now includes a built-in excitation signal generator, which simplifies measurement configuration and allows for pre-sending the excitation signal through the device or system under test. Other new features include MAT-file data export, controls for starting, stopping, capturing and exporting all tools in the project toolbox, and an enhanced user interface.