Apps: Sticky Windows, Billings

• Sticky Windows 2.3.3 ($16) shrinks your windows into tabs when you drag a window towards the edge of your screen, providing you with a completely clutter-free workspace. The tab can be created by dragging a window to any edge of the screen (Sticky Windows also supports multiple screens). When the mouse reaches the margin of the screen a tab will appear. The new release has better support for fullscreen applications and better performance and minor bug fixes. [Download - 1MB]


• Billings 2.5.1 ($60) time tracking and invoicing software from Marketcircle Inc. that delivers professional invoices in minutes. Enhancements in this release include the ability to bulk edit comments in working slips, automatic notification on potentially invalid time slips, better client list sorting, projects list status bar updates when a new time slip is added, when switching between clients, or when project selection index changes. [Download - 18MB]


• Text Count 1.2 ($70) plug-in for InDesign and InCopy CS-CS3. Offers a broad range of copy fitting tools, overset management including overset preflight, tools for text-related accounting, and estimate features for text space planning. The new release has frames that display overset now have a user-defined position, color, and opacity. [Download - 2.6MB]


• 24U SimpleChart Plug-In to version 1.1 ($50) allows you to generate different kinds of charts from your data into standard container fields. It generates pie charts, horizontal and vertical bar charts and line charts/area charts. The new update works on FileMaker Server 9 and inside Instant Web Publishing. [Download - 5MB]


• Aperture to Archive plug-in 1.1 ($15) Aperture export plug-in. Allows you to quickly generate an archive of images in several different compression formats. It features support for Disk Image, Tar Bzip, Tar Gzip, and Zip formats. The new release has an improved plug-in UI and a new Introduction Guide. [Download - 3MB]

PC Mag chief editor tires of Windows Vista...

PC Magazine editor-in-chief Jim Louderback today chose to express his frustration with Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system as he passed down the publication's leadership to his successor, Lance Ulanoff. Louderback said he is tired of Vista's broken features, and that he may even switch to Linux moving forward. "The litany of what doesn't work and what still frustrates me stretches on endlessly," Louderback wrote. The former editor-in-chief, who is assuming a position as CEO of a company called Revision3 to experience a change in scenery, lists numerous buggy features in Vista which include sleep mode, unreliable networking, and general slugishness when compared to the older Windows XP in many areas.

Apple's expanding tech influence...

Apple's influence in the technological community continues to rise as a wide array of businesses and individuals alike utilize as well as discuss the company's innovations. WSJ.com today introduced a free video podcast titled "Tech Diary" aimed at documenting the results of people and technology coming together, with one of the first episodes following a man as he tries to start conversation with people around him using an iPhone. While the iPhone fails to attract attention in the named episode, the facts that the test centered around Apple's cellular phone and that the video was published as a video podcast hint at Apple's growing presence among consumers, whether or not the hype surrounding its products persists.

Lotus Notes Domino 8 coming to Leopard in '08...

On Friday, IBM released Lotus Notes Domino 8 for Windows Vista and XP, but said that the Mac version would not be released until next year. The new release features a redesigned user experience, a new look and feel, as well as dramatically enhanced functionality for organizing messages and threads with the intent of structuring inboxes to deal with floods of email. A Mac OS X release was conspicuously absent from the announcement, however. We spoke with IBM the story behind current Mac development of Lotus ND8, when we can expect a release, and what users look forward to in the update. The IBM executives we spoke with said that Louts Notes Domino's stronghold in the Mac universe is with advertising/publishing agencies and educational institutions. However, they described a "new cachet" surrounding Macs in business, and says they "see the growth" already underway on an enterprise level. To that end, the company is investing heavily in developing the next release, ND8, for the Mac. "We want to get it right," IBM told MacNN. "In fact, the version we're currently running on a widescreen iMac looks better than the Windows release."

AAPL shares on a rollercoaster ride

Shares of Apple Inc. are on a rollercoaster ride this week, fluctuating wildly. The shares went from ~$124 on Wednesday to ~$112 on Thursday, then back up to ~$122 on Friday. The reason for the dip may have been pure profit taking by investors who have seen tremendous gains in the stock this year. The shares are up nearly 80% from a year ago. American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu told Macworld UK. "The stock's been a huge outperformer, and I think it's just [investors] taking some profits. It's probably one of the few names people have made a lot of money on." The recent surge, meanwhile, is likely due to an overall bump in the market brought about by Federal Reserve Board's announcement Friday that it was cutting its discount rate by 50 basis points, to 5.75%, from 6.25%. "Banks use the so-called discount window to borrow money directly from the Fed, rather than from eachother, which is the more common way that they obtain short-term financing." The Fed also lengthened the period of borrowing at the discount to a 30-day term, renewable by the borrower, from the previous overnight loans. Just before the close of trading, Apple's shares were up about 4 percent.

Apple's secret: teen marketing mastery

A BusinessWeek editorial opines that one of the secrets to Apple's success is the efficacy with which it markets to teenagers, generating a "unique cultural cachet. "[...] widespread teen affection for the iPod didn't happen overnight. Like most trends among youth, it began with the cool hunters and early adopters telling everyone this would be the next big thing and it spread until it became a cultural phenomenon." The article says that Apple accomplished this cachet by fulfilling several requirements: meeting a real need ("Music has always been teens' No. 1 love. It's the soundtrack to their lives."), knowing that design matters ("Other brands teens love extend the aesthetic in their advertising to physical stores, too"), and letting the media do their marketing ("whenever Apple began to get lots of media attention, it would scale back on marketing").

Vodafone deal for iPhone just weeks away?...

Apple and Vodafone are in the final stages of negotiating a deal to provide the iPhone in Europe, says an anonymous but reportedly well-informed source. The two companies are claimed to be ready to introduce their deal within the next two weeks but still have software bugs and other technical details to address before the cellphone can be introduced to the public. The formal introduction may take place significantly in advance of actual shipments, according to the report, though the purported insider would not say when the phone would be in stores or whether pricing had been established.

Apple faces another class-action suit...

Apple is being slapped with another class-action lawsuit over the battery in its iPhone, this time by a Northern California resident who is echoing claims of a similar suit filed in the state of Illinois. Sydney Leung is accusing both Apple and AT&T of fraud because the companies neglected to inform potential iPhone buyers of the costs related to maintaining a working battery for the device over the course of the iPhone's lifespan, according to AppleInsider.

Briefly: iPhone horror story; Woz dating...

In brief: An iPhone owner who was billed nearly $5,000 in data roaming charges is telling the tale online, Apple co-founder Steve 'Woz' Wozniak is reportedly dating comedian Kathy Griffin, AT&T has announced the iPhone is in stock at all of its U.S. stores, and GizMac today began its "Replace Your Case" trade-in promo. An iPhone owner who received a bill from AT&T for more than $5,000 says he apparently racked up the charges by using the carrier's EDGE network internationally. AT&T charged the customer $0.2 cents per kilobyte of data transferred while overseas, amounting to a total cost of $4,953.37. The shocked customer notes that surfing to a 1,000KB Web page cost him a whopping $20.

Analyst: iPhone demand, Mac sales strong...

Apple is still likely selling iPhones in greater than expected quantities, even as signs point to increased Back-to-School Mac sales for the Cupertino-based company. RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky says the RBC's "technology adoption panel," which is made up of 3,665 technology-oriented users, found that 17 percent purchased a Mac laptop within the last 90 days for a 12 percent jump over the previous quarter. The analyst expects shipments of 2 million Macs in the September quarter, according to Barron's, for a rise of 27 percent year-over-year. RBC Capital is maintaining a $175 price target on Apple shares, and views the recent 20 percent decline in price as a buying opportunity.

Sketch 5.5 adds color strokes

AKVIS has released the v5.5 update to Sketch, a program that helps convert photos into mock pencil, charcoal and watercolor illustrations. The major addition in the update is the "Color Strokes" effect, which differs from the normal Coloration option by imitating the style of color pencils. The program now also has better color profile handling, and is available not just as a plug-in for titles like Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, but as a piece of stand-alone software. The Mac version is a Universal Binary for Mac OS X 10.3.9; all versions cost $72.

iPhone slow to run Javascript?...

A site makes the claim that the iPhone's handling of Javascript is substantially slower than that of desktop systems, and even the code used in Apple's native iPhone applications. Running a simple benchmark test of the iPhone versus a 1.83GHz, Intel Core Duo Mac, the iPhone is on average more than 80 times slower at Javascript functions, sometimes as much as 90 times. As further proof, a simple plotting app is said to provide a tangible end-user difference.

Pdf-Office Professional ramps Java 6 support

Universe Software has released pdf-Office Professional 7.0, extending functionality of the PDF form creation software and incorporating a Windows Vista look/feel. Pdf-Office Professional aims to provide an intuitive way of making interactive PDF forms without the need for training, producing forms that users can simply fill out electronically on the screen and print. The software supports up to 128-bit encryption for data protection, and the technological software platform is updated to use the latest version of Java 6 to ensure absolute independence from hardware as well as software constraints. Pdf-Office Professional 7.0 is available for Mac, Linux, and Windows systems. The Mac edition requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later and is priced at $135.

Mossberg: iWork slick, but second to Office...

Apple's iWork '08 is a good productivity suite, but still inferior to Microsoft Office, says tech columnist Walt Mossberg in a new review. He observes for example that despite upgrades, iWork still lacks an equivalent to Outlook, a program which combines mail and calendar functions and is integrated throughout Office, as opposed to Apple's separate Mail, iCal and Address Book functions.

Samsung only meeting 85% of flash needs?...

Samsung's plant power outage will only give it enough NAND flash memory to provide 85 percent of the chips its primary customers will need for the second half of August, according to the head of memory device maker PQI. General manager Jance Lu noted that while her company is already secure, a shortfall is likely to occur for other companies and that the total amount of flash available would dip by about 3 percent. The sudden fluctuation in prices for the memory could force Samsung to change its prices in September to make up the difference, Lu said.

MS VPC 7.03, Premiere Pro 3.01, iWeb 2.01...

Apple today posted iWeb 2.01, an update to its recently released software for easily publishing websites: "iWeb makes it easy to create a website that’s stunningly beautiful — and totally you. Start with an Apple-designed theme, then customize it with your own text, photos, movies, and podcasts until it’s exactly what you want. And switch themes with a click anytime." Apple said that the update addresses issues with upgrading and publishing iWeb 1.x websites. Separately, Adobe has also released an "strongly recommend" Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 3.0.1 update for its professional video editing application. According to the company, the update provides important bug fixes for encoding and decoding H.264-encoded content. Microsoft also released Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac 7.0.3 Update to address a vulnerability in which an attacker can overwrite the contents of the computer's memory with malicious code. Microsoft, however, said the update does not support Windows Vista.

Popcorn 3 debuts: Pause and resume, TiVo...

Roxio has debuted a new version of their video conversion, recording, DVD duplication and burning tool, Popcorn 3. We spoke with Vito Salvaggio, Vice President of the Mac division at Roxio about the new release, what it means for current users of the program, and how first time users will benefit from its significant changes. Like previous releases, Popcorn 3 allows you to take a Video_TS disc and encode video for the iPod, Sony PSP, and other platforms. Also, like, previous iterations, it allows you to modify the DVD options for disc/video output; you can choose from among the various choices for languages, subtitles, etc, for instance. New in this release, however, is TiVo to Go support, allowing you to automatically convert your TiVo recordings to the format of your choice. It also sports compatibility with Elgato's EyeTV.