Briefly: Milan Apple store, Digieffects

In brief: Another Apple reseller location opens in Italy, Digieffects plug-ins get CS3 compatibility, Avid is offering back-to-school pricing specials and a student contest, MacTech's MacForge database now has over 45,000 open-source projects, and Griffin is holding a back-to-school sale. The third Apple reseller opened in Italy on Monday. The new store, which resides on the second floor of Fnac store on via Torino in downtown Milan, will include new Apple products announced two weeks ago -- including the Mid-2007 iMacs. The shop is due to receive the new products today, and Apple Italy is reportedly planning to open three or four more locations before 2008.

Digieffects plug-ins get CS3 compatibility

Digieffects, a developer of software plug-ins for Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, and Autodesk Combustion is now offering its products as electronic software downloads in addition to the standard box-copy versions. The company has also drastically reduced the prices of many of its software plug-ins, and will shortly release a free compatibility update providing native Mac Intel Universal Binary support for Delirium, Aurorix, Berserk, Fantasm, and Euphoria. This update will add full Adobe CS3 compatibility on the Mac.

Avid school specials, contest

Avid is offering special pricing on its products and a student contest to celebrate back-to-school. Through November 1, Avid Xpress Pro Academic with Sorenson Squeeze Academic is priced at $245 after a $50 mail-in rebate. SOFTIMAGE|XSI Academic software is also priced at $245, a $50 discount. Pro Tools MobilePre and Pro Tools Ozone, Mbox 2 and Sibelius 5 software are also specially priced for students. The company has also announced the "Expose Yourself" contest, in which student contestants will use Avid Xpress Pro Academic along with Sorenson Squeeze Academic (or other Avid product) to create a one-minute reel.

MacForge now houses 45,000 projects

MacForge.net now has over 45,000 Mac open source projects in its database. The compendium indexes open source projects that either have already been built for/tested on the Mac, or are likely to run on the Mac, without major porting work. The site also features the ability to filter projects further, search, browse categories, and sort in a variety of different ways. "MacForge was originally created out of necessity, but has quickly become popular among thousands of users looking for open source solutions on the Mac," said Neil Ticktin, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, MacTech Magazine.

Griffin's back-to-school sale

Griffin Technology is offering 20% discounts on several of its products to "take the sting out of the annual back-to-school spendfest." The Elevator Desktop Stand for laptops is sale priced at $32. The Couriercase, with which you can carry an iPod, ear phones and lots more on a bag or backpack strap is sale priced at $24, and th PowerMate, a do-it-all computer control knob that's part mouse, part keyboard carries a sale price of $36.