Briefly: The Filter; O'Reilly security guide

In brief: The Filter improves its music management interface, O'Reilly publishes a new guide to security, Graphisoft hands out free ArchiCAD licenses, and Navicast announces H.264 compatibility. The makers of The Filter have upgraded their software to v2.4.3, bringing with it two important enhancements. Filter is used to generate playlists of mutually compatible songs, sourced from Macs, PCs, iPods and Nokia phones. The latest version has a streamlined interface, which is said to simplify the process of filling iPods, iPhones and Apple TVs. There is also a companion Facebook application, which shares music profiles and recommendations with other users.

O'Reilly Media offers more security tips

Book publisher O'Reilly Media has released a new title, Security Power Tools. With help from guests and members of Juniper Networks' Security Engineering group, readers learn about using and tweaking network security applications, whether on Mac, Unix, Linux or Windows platforms. An introductory chapter also addresses legal and ethical issues. The book is selling for $60.

Graphisoft distributes free architecture software

Graphisoft is offering free educational licenses for ArchiCAD 11, the newest version of its architectural design software. Both students and teachers are eligible, but they must register through the Graphisoft website, and the license is only valid for one year. New features of ArchiCAD 11, available for both Intel and PowerPC-based Macs, include the Interior Elevations tool, and the Worksheet Tool, which transforms model views into documents or creates new documents from scratch.

Navicast promotes H.264 Flash support

A maker of Internet and mobile broadcast software, Navicast, has announced that its software is fully compatible with Adobe's latest Flash standard. The Flash Player is now capable of MPEG-4 video, using the H.264 and AAC codecs; this means that Navicast's software can now output to Flash directly, without any re-encoding or other changes. An example of the technology can be seen at Method.tv.