iFixit: Tear-down photos of iPod touch...

In addition to our unboxing photos, iFixit very kindly provided MacNN with some hi-res photos of the tear-down of the iPod touch. The Touch, which has shipped to many retail locations ahead of customers who pre-ordered the item, is now available at many Best Buy locations as well as some Apple retail locations.

Apple begins shipping iPod touch to retail [photos]...

Apple's new iPod touch began shipping to its retail stores (as well as very few customers) this weekend -- but iPhones were still the popular ticket at its San Francisco flagship location. Apple's retail stores began receiving shipments of the 16GB model on Thursday, but by Friday had still not put them on display. Representatives said that they didn't know when to expect shipments of the 8GB model. Built around the iPhone design, the new iPod touch is thinner and more compact as well as sports few new features not yet available to iPhone users, including the iTunes mobile music store. However, it does uses the same multi-touch interface. We have the traditional unboxing photos and a quick look at the over-the-air purchase process. Update: While few customers report receiving their iPod touch, some Apple retail stores and some Best Buy stores have received both 8GB and 16GB models.

Apple back-to-school promo ends Sunday

Apple's back to school promo for college students is coming to an end this Sunday, September 16th. The promo allows users who buy a Mac before the deadline to get a free iPod nano by mail-in rebate. Education prices include basic MacBooks for $999 ($100 off normal retail), MacBook Pros for $1799 ($200 off retail), iMacs for $1149 ($200 off retail) and Mac Pros for $2299 ($200 off retail). In order to receive the promo, users must choose a new MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, or Mac Pro, then buy an iPod, and then complete a rebate form to receive $149 back.

Apps: Videator, Sitemap Automator

• Videator 4.1 ($50) Vee-Jaying, movie-making and video processing application. This release uses new QuickTime 7.2 (Tiger/Leopard) capture classes, has a new Slide Editor tool, can export Movies easily to iPhone and AppleTV as well as iPod and other formats, and includes Andrew's VJ Effects for a mandalic trance vision. [Download - 11.6MB]


• Google Sitemap Automator 1.8 ($30) helps web-masters get their web site listed in Google, Yahoo and MSN search. This free update includes a new and improved user interface, a filter results search field so you can quickly find a web site after scanning is complete, and improvements to help support larger web sites. [Download - 7.9MB]


• SoftRAID 3.6.4 ($130) software RAID application. This version of SoftRAID fully supports startup volumes under Leopard, the forthcoming major update of Mac OS X. Users will be able to migrate SoftRAID volumes to Leopard machines, update their SoftRAID boot volumes to Leopard, and install Leopard onto SoftRAID volumes seamlessly. [Download - 3.3MB]


• Nisus Writer Pro 1.0.1 ($80) easy to use word processor for Mac OS X. This new version, which is a free upgrade for existing Nisus Writer Pro users, contains many fixes and enhancements to the Nisus Macro language, Find and Replace engine, and the application in general. [Download - 61MB]


• DropWaterMark 4.0.1 ($17) has two basic mode for either a single image or folder of images. You can setup two different one line text marks, an image (image on image), or set borders for your pictures. You can also set the font, font properties, rotation, position, transparency (or brightness and color) and now shadow, bevel, and emboss. The new release tweaks all major windows and fixes a bug where watermarks might appear partially offscreen. [Download - 4.4MB]


• Conjure 1.2 ($35) free-form Desktop replacement, that brings project management, sketchbook, video capture, and note taking to the desktop arena. It lets you build and interact with any media, in an unstructured and touch screen-like manner, via the MightyMouse scroll wheel and MacBook touchpads. [Download - 6.7MB]
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Jewel Quest II for Mac released...

Macgamestore.com today announced the release of iWin's Jewel Quest II for Mac, the third title in the Jewel Quest series of games where players complete a series of match-three puzzles in an Indiana Jones-like setting. "Africa, 1944. Join Professor Pack on the ultimate jewel matching adventure across the world's richest continent. Rearrange precious relics to turn tiles into gold as you advance through relentlessly challenging puzzles. The wilds of the safari, the history of the Zimbabwe ruins, and the majesty of Victoria Falls await your discovery. Filled with puzzles of skill, treasure, and twists, Jewel Quest 2 is the adventure you've been waiting for." Jewel Quest II is priced at $20, and requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.

Fastmac offers 8x slim SuperDrive upgrade

Fastmac today announced what it says is the first and only 8x SuperDrive upgrade for Apple's 13-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro notebooks. The new drive provides single-layer DVD burning at up to 8x speeds and dual-layer burning at up to 4X. The 9.5mm ultra slim slot loading 8x SuperDrive is built specifically for Apple's MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops with a chassis thin enough to fit inside the computers without modification. The drive replaces Apple's original slow speed Combo or SuperDrve with an entirely compatible plug-and-play internal drive that is eight times faster than the MacBook Pro's original optical drive. FastMac offers the upgrade as a user-installable kit, and provides professional installations within 24 hours. The drive self-installation upgrade is priced at $180, while 24-hour professional upgrades are available for $270. The company also offers combined hard drive upgrades from $100 (160GB) for 5,400RPM SATA drives boasting 8MB of data buffer cache.

VRAYforC4D for OS X debuts, 3dsmax engine...

LaubLab has released, VRAYforC4D a 3D-rendering tool, based on the Vray 1.5 engine from Chaosgroup, who also produces the well known VRAY renderplugin for 3dsMax. This is the first VRAY release that runs natively under Mac OS X. The tool uses all available CPU Cores available and also can render via unlimited cinema4d NET clients with one license. The tool features full FI rendering for animation and still frames, several anti-aliasing methods, physical sun and sky, a physical camera, multipass support, colormapping methods, and real micropolydisplacement with low memory consumption. The tool is priced at 790 euros, or about $1100.

Samsung iPhone killer prepped for Vodafone...

Samsung's vaunted F700 touchscreen phone will likely go head-to-head with the iPhone during its European launch, according to an announcement by the company. Now called the F700V Croix based on the cross-like shape of its interface, the phone will be headed to Vodafone and offer the pan-European carrier an opportunity to compete with Apple's device. The completed version runs on a slightly larger, 3.2-inch touchscreen and still includes 3G access using HSDPA, albeit with a slower theoretical 3.6Mbps peak download rate. Its front and rear cameras will also remain for video calling and capture.

Sans Digital unveils NAS with iTunes support...

Sans Digital has unveiled its MN2L two-bay network storage enclosure that allows users to share documents and files on a home or office network. The device features FTP support to access files remotely over the internet, and offers built-in account management to keep data safe by giving read-only or full read/write permissions to specific users or groups. The device uses the latest SATA II technology and supports hot-swapping hard drives with RAID 1 (mirroring) and RAID 0 (striping) to guard against failures or expand usable storage space. The MN2L supports Mac, Linux, and Windows systems on the network and features built-in iTunes server support for sharing music to a Mac or PC. A built-in BitTorrent download station also allows users to download BitTorrent files without a powered-on computer. The MN2L is priced at $300.

Razer ships precise Pro|Click Mobile...

Razer today began shipping the Pro|Click Mobile, one of its first mice designed for portables. The compact design is billed as the most precise wireless notebook mouse in the world due to its gaming heritage: the same 1200DPI optical tracking engine behind many of the company's performance mice is in place for the new model, Razer says. Bluetooth 2.0 with adaptive frequency hopping also cuts down on lag and interference near Wi-Fi and other wireless devices.

Briefly: Unreleased iPhone firmware shown...

In brief: A new, unreleased version of the iPhone firmware is displayed on Apple's $100 rebate page, Apple Pro Training Series: Soundtrack Pro 2 has been released, a designer puts forth some iPod touch Billboard ad designs, MacMusic has announced plans for a 10th anniversary party, and Aqua Data Studio plans to offer free Open Source Software Developer Licenses ... Apple's page detailing the $100 store credit for early iPhone buyers displays an iPhone that shows firmware version 1.1.1, which has not yet been released. The image seems to be an indication of a shortly forthcoming update. The $100 credit -- which Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised early adopters after receiving "hundreds of emails" from upset customers -- is available only to iPhone owners who have activated the device with AT&T. Early adopters who purchased iPhones without a service plan from AT&T will not be able to cash in on Apple's $100 in-store credit.

Meizu already planning iPod touch clone...

Chinese media player designer Meizu is already developing a clone of the just released iPod touch, according to a brief statement by company president J. Wong on the official forums. While details are minimal and are accompanied by a quick mockup, Wong promises that the new device will have a 3-inch, wide-aspect touchscreen interface as well as a home button on the front face, much as with the new Apple player. The white coloring of the concept image is drawn directly from a source image for the existing M6 and might not reflect the finished design.

Apple posts $100 store credit details...

Apple today made its $100 credit available to early iPhone adopters who paid the full introductory price for the device less than three months prior to its hefty cost reduction earlier this month. The $100 credit -- which Apple CEO Steve Jobs promised early adopters after receiving "hundreds of emails" from upset customers -- is available only to iPhone owners who have activated the device with AT&T. Early adopters who purchased iPhones without a service plan from AT&T will not be able to cash in on Apple's $100 in-store credit, which the company says is available to iPhone owners who purchased their devices before August 22nd and who meet other specified requirements.

Adobe posts Lightroom 1.2, Camera Raw 4.2...

Adobe has updated two of its critical photography-related applications. The Photoshop Lightroom workflow software is now at v1.2, and fixes several problems, such as XMP auto-write performance, and noise reduction for Bayer-patterned sensors; quality has been raised at the default settings. The patch also increases camera compatibility, incorporating the Canon EOS-40D, Fuji FinePix IS-1, Olympus EVOLT E-510, Panasonic DMC-FZ18 and others. The download is 40.8 MB.

Social.FM gains Mac support

Mercora has rebranded itself and its website under a new moniker, Social.FM, and increased its compatibility. Thanks to new code, it is now compatible with Mac OS X and Linux, and can stream in MP3 and Flash formats. Similar in concept to sites like Last.fm, Social.FM allows users to search for music and play it instantly, whether as individual tracks or as part of a playlist. Users can further set themselves up as a DJ, streaming their own music choices to others. Other new features of the site include shuffling, an increased number of tracks (about 3.5 million), and background material such as charts, biographies and music videos.

Verizon sues FCC over 700MHz open access terms...

Verizon late Thursday revealed that it was contesting the FCC's rules for the upcoming 700MHz wireless auction through a lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, potentially sabotaging the bidding process. The rules, which demand that companies allow open access to devices and software on the frequency when it becomes available in early 2009, were labeled "arbitrary" and "capricious" by Verizon, which has typically preferred a model that locked customers to its own cellphones and services. The provider's specific legal case accused the FCC of violating the US Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act by imposing the open-access rule on the auction, preventing Verizon and others from using their own business models.

Nisus ships Writer Express 3.0...

Nisus is now shipping Writer Express 3.0, its latest word processor. The program is a scaled-back version of Writer Pro, missing features such as indexing and tables of contents; it nevertheless shares common elements, such as the ability to open Word, WordPerfect and AbiWord documents, as well as view text in scripts such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Hebrew. One of the major upgrades from earlier versions of Express is "floating" graphics, enabling text wrap around them. Users can also create glossaries, insert small caps, and more easily find and replace text. Writer Express costs $45 and is a Universal Binary for Mac OS X 10.3.9; 10.4 is needed for right-to-left input.

T-Mobile Germany confirmed for iPhone next week?...

Deutsche Telekom's cellular carrier T-Mobile will be officially confirmed as the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in Germany next week, according to an unnamed industry insider speaking with Reuters. Apple will allegedly use its London press event next week to announce the deal and has privately negotiated a revenue sharing deal similar to that with AT&T, in which Apple collects a portion of the monthly subscription fees. Pricing will reportedly be set at 399 Euros ($554) for an 8GB model, reflecting typically high European costs. T-Mobile has so far declined comment.

iRAPP merges Mac apps into Windows...

Code Rebel has debuted with iRAPP 1.0, a program that lets PC owners run applications residing on their Mac systems. Users can choose to see fused, Mac-only or PC-only desktops, with the former two displaying both Mac OS X icons and the Menu Bar. Text and images can be copied between the two operating systems, and iRAPP also grants access to any peripherals that might be attached to a Mac. Users are further able to access multiple accounts on a single Mac, and multiple Macs hooked up to a network; these can be assigned to separate screens on multi-monitor PCs. On the PC side, Windows 2000, XP or Vista is required; Macs must be running Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher, installed on iMacs, Mac minis, MacBooks or Mac Pros. iRAPP costs $80.

Apple posts iMac Software Update 1.1

Apple is offering a new iMac Software Update to its customers, through the Software Update utility in Mac OS X, or alternately via the Apple website. The v1.1 file is aimed at "20-inch and 24-inch iMac models with 2.0, 2.4, or 2.8GHz processors" -- the new aluminum iMacs -- but is only described as providing "important bug fixes." The file is 5.1MB; no other official information is available, but some accounts suggest that it may address monitor issues, as well as provide driver updates for the Radeon HD 2400 XT and Radeon HD 2600 PRO video cards.