Mac consulting team chooses NTRsupport

OnDeckTech, a help desk and server installer team that works to integrate Mac solutions and resolve Mac-related troubleshooting issues, has chosen NTRglobal's remote support solution, NTRsupport, to solve IT issues and train its customers. OnDeckTech said compatibility with Macs is one of the main factors that persuaded it to use NTRsupport. The 10-member IT support team uses the Software as a Service (SaaS) version of NTRsupport to assist customers in the U.S., Japan, UK, Australia, Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates. Other companies also hire the team to support and train their help desks. Officials said "On an average day, the IT support team receives more than 100 tickets or requests for IT help from a wide range of customers -- Fortune 500 companies to high-tech specialists to governmental agencies and school districts. Typical tickets an IT support team member receives include requests to configure an e-mail client to access calendars, contact sharing, and training on Apple Keynote, Excel formulas and Word document formatting."

USB WiFi adapter claims 1,000 ft range...

hField Technologies has begun shipping the Wi-Fire, a USB WiFi adapter for the Mac that purportedly allows users to to connect to a wireless networks from up to 1,000 feet, more than three times the range of Airport cards and other 802.11 adapters, at "significantly higher speeds, and even in locations where no wireless signal could be detected previously." The Wi-Fire is 3" by 4" with a 3/8" thickness, and folds up with its mounting device and USB cable for portability. It's also USB bus-powered. hField officials stated "The Wi-Fire draws very little power from your laptop battery. It comes complete with everything you need to connect wirelessly to the Internet. Just install the driver software, plug in the Wi-Fire to a USB port and you're ready to start. It can rest flat on any surface or clip securely to a laptop display or flat screen monitor." Retail price for Wi-Fire is $80 and it is available immediately.

Apple retail: burglary, Boston update, more...

Many of Apple's retail stores are undergoing major renovations, construction on the new Boston store is progressing nicely, the company has promised to bring a new store to San Antonio, and burglars managed to make off with a load of stolen loot from a store in Missouri. The Country Club Plaza Apple Store in Kansas City, Missouri, was burglarized at around 3:38 a.m. Monday morning. Suspects reportedly broke the store's front window and made off with $17,000 worth of products which included eight notebooks, three iPods, and two iPhones. Local police are examining surveillance footage collected from the store, according to ifoAppleStore.com.

New iPhone Ad: "Like This/All These Years"...

A new iPhone television commercial has hit the airwaves. Dubbed "Like This/All These Years," the spot shows off Mail, Safari, the Stocks application stating "All these years, you've gone through the day without email like this in your pocket, or stocks like this in your pocket, or Internet like this in your pocket; and you survived. The question is: How?" The new ad joins "Surprised, Calamari, Watered Down, Never been an iPod, How To, Instead and Amazing," in Apple's iPhone television arsenal, though it hasn't yet been posted to the corporate site. Instead, it's available via YouTube (embedded below)

LightScribe launches free travel kit...

LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling today rolled out its LightScribe Travel Kit, allowing users to add a personal touch to vacation or trip-oriented DVD and CD label designs. Owners of LightScribe-enabled drives can download travel DVD and CD label designs, mailers, and disc sleeve designs that reflect favorite trip memories to share with family and friends. The kit allows travelers to create personalized custom designs that integrate travel photos with text, and can label photo as well as video CDs/DVDs with a photo from the vacation to quickly identify a favorite visual memory. The LightScribe Travel Kit's DVD/CD label tips, templates, and resources are available for free via lightscribe.com.

QuartzCube 1.0 rotates six movies, photos...

JS8 Media today released QuartzCube 1.0, a configurable rotating wide-angle video cube. The free software displays up to six videos or photos, one on each face of the cube, and allows users to adjust the tension of the roll axis to manipulate the cube's rotation. Designed as a "lava lamp for the modern day," QuartzCube 1.0 supports various video formats -- including QuickTime, MPEG4, AVI, and others. Users can save as well as reload cube configurations, and the application supports all of the popular image formats, according to JS8 Media. QuartzCube 1.0 is available for free, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

Widgetbox Showcase for iTunes debuts...

Widgetbox has added Widgetbox Showcase for iTunes to its online widget marketplace. Widgetbox Showcase for iTunes allows users to network with one another using iTunes-related Web widgets for sharing music and movie tastes via the internet. My iTunes widgets serve to share top reviews, favorite artists, new music, movies, and TV shows from the iTunes Store. The widgets reflect the way iTunes is used, so each one is unique like the user's taste in music and movies. My iTunes feeds are also usable with any standard feed reader, keeping Web pages up to date with music and TV shows from the iTunes Store.

Woz on new energy efficient homes...

Apple co-founder Steve 'Woz' Wozniak in an interview with ECN Magazine has explained his ambition to build an energy efficient home to set an example for others. "I have a long dream to build my own house in a very energy-efficient approach. That's going to be very soon," Woz wrote. "It uses the right kind of wood that serves as a heater and as an air conditioner, combined with some other techniques in how the wood is assembled to operate energy life pressure. You don't have to add energy into a house after you build it. I love that concept." Wozniak, who designed the first Apple computers while working for Hewlett Packard, explains his motivation stemming from his engineering background. "It's like the way I used to make computers. I want to build it myself. That's a project that could be finished this summer, next summer, but not too far from now."

Dolet 4 adds MusicXML 2.0

Recordare has released the fourth version of Dolet, a plug-in for the company's Finale music notation software. Dolet translates files for other music notation programs; version 4 now reads and creates MusicXML 2.0 files, in theory providing the best translation possible through improved formatting, media support and file compression. To speed up the process of converting sheet music files, the plug-in now allows batch processing. Dolet 4 requires Finale 2000 or later and is a Universal Binary; to run on an Intel Mac, users must have Finale 2007 or higher. The app is $150 new or $100 as an upgrade from Dolet 3.

Skype 2.7 beta adds Address Book features

A new beta version of the Skype VoIP application has been released for Mac OS X. New to v2.7 is the ability to sort contacts into an unlimited number of groups, including both user-defined ones and pre-made categories such as Online and Waiting Authorization. Users can now also create public chats, auto-redial busy or unconnected numbers, and transfer multiple files with fewer performance problems. A specific Mac OS X addition is the ability to view Address Book contacts within Skype, to whom users can make calls or send text messages. Skype itself is free, but calling landline phones requires a paid subscription. The beta can be downloaded here. On Monday, Shape Services debuted Skype for iPhone, finally bringing the software to Apple's latest platform.

Share 1.0 extends mobile file access

Concentrate Software has released v1.0 of Share, a basic web server that allows users to to access files from their home computers while on a remote system. Users can for instance view their iTunes libraries, and play songs, videos and playlists. The program also gives access to images from iPhoto, as well as contact data from Address Book, complete with groups. One of the most important abilities is file sharing, which goes beyond the single-folder scheme of Mac OS X to open up any folder viewable by Finder, including those on external media. A wiki application allows the creation and viewing of notes. The full version of Share requires Mac OS X 10.4 and costs $20, but can be had as a free trial that operates for just three hours per launch.

Facebook, book previews for iPhone...

Two major companies have launched new Web areas designed specifically for Apple's iPhone. Facebook, the ubiquitous social networking site, now now has an iPhone-specific version with a suitably-designed interface. Buttons are larger, and the interface "slides" in keeping with the style of other iPhone apps. In some regards the new version may be easier to use than the standard site, as essential functions like Profile and the Inbox are located on quick-access tabs. A counter shows the number of new messages received.

Apple discontinues AppleWorks...

Without grand publicity, Apple has decided to stop all development on AppleWorks, its formerly iconic productivity suite. The information was quietly passed on to resellers last week, who were told that the software had reached an "End of Life" stage. Sales have been officially stopped, and trying to visit the AppleWorks website redirects visitors to the page for the recently-launched iWork '08. iWork handles many of the same tasks as AppleWorks (spreadsheets, presentations et al.), while the latter has not been updated for some time.

Apps: Jotter, ProjectForum, JigSaw

• Jotter 1.3 ($13) simple and to the point note taking. No overcomplicated interfaces. No unnecessary features. Just jot down what you want to remember. The new release adds a hot key preference for creating new notes - default is F1 and a preference to hide toolbar. [Download - 925KB]


• ProjectForum 5.5 ($80) professional wiki software solution for workgroup collaboration. Version 5.5 includes a number of new features, enhancements and bug fixes. The new "web views" feature provides a new option for workgroups to publish external web sites that mirror the contents of an internal wiki. Other enhancements were made to search, HTML export, and various user interfaces. [Download - 2MB]


• JigSaw 3.0. ($25) for joining multipart files, and accessing the power of RAR and PAR. This new version offers an improved interface including Join/Split and PAR verify queues. JigSaw 3.0 is easier to use the previous versions but remains feature rich. [Download - 4.3MB]


• PDFpen 3.3 ($50) PDF editing and form-filling tool for Mac OS X. The update adds greater compatibility with Adobe Acrobat mark-up by displaying additional drawn annotations, including stamps. It also features a new preference to lock large images automatically, simplifying the task of editing scanned document pages, which are images. [Download - 7.9MB]


• MMQuery 1.0 ($35) a Plug-in for FileMaker Pro that lets you work with your data through the calculation engine.  MMQuery allows you to perform SQL queries on your own database or use the many helper functions in the plug-in to do the same types of queries without actually having to know SQL. There is also a function for direct SQL access if you are fluent in SQL.[Download - form]

MacFamilyTree 5: Revamped GUI...

Synium Software has announced the upcoming release of MacFamilyTree 5, the latest release of the popular genealogy software for the Mac. The company also announced that with this release, it will complete the acquisition of all rights to the software and be responsible for development, distribution and support. Version 5 will be completely redesigned and rewritten application, and Synium claims it will provide biggest leap in performance and product design so far. The entire GUI as well as the underlying database have been dramatically changed while maintaining true backwards compatibility and adding a vast number of new features. Pricing has not yet been announced, but if you purchase MacFamilyTree 4 on or after August 14th, 2007, you will receive a free update to MacFamilyTree 5.