Canadian appeals court cancels "iPod levy"...

Canada's Federal Court of Appeal has reversed a decision that would have imposed a levy on iPods and other removable devices with memory installed, says Retail Board of Canada lawyer Howard Knopf. The court took less than 24 hours to reach the decision and ruled primarily on technical grounds, referring to a previous case when arguing that the Copyright Board of Canada had overstepped its boundaries in asking for as much as a $75 levy on each removable memory device.

Opera Mini gaining popularity, partly due to iPhone...

Opera CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner recently made available details about the upcoming Opera 9.5 web browser, and expressed optimism for the future of Opera Mini for mobile devices, partially due to the iPhone’s popularity. While Opera only accounts for 2-percent of the US web browser marketshare, the company’s popularity is on the rise thanks to the mobile version of its web browser, PC Magazine learned in an interview. Opera Mini has a user base of 30 million worldwide, and approximately 100,000 new downloads per day.

iPhone guide takes users through Macworld

i.Zami has released a new directory service formatted for iPhones and iPod touches, designed to help users through next week's Macworld Expo. The guide primarily lists all of the exhibitors, sorting them alphabetically, or by what part of the Moscone Center they will be in, whether West or South. Tapping on a developer's entry provides Macworld contact information, along with the ability to leave messages, ratings and reviews. Users can further access an interactive map of the expo, or check information on nearby hotels, restaurants and other services. Access to the guide is free.

iClipboard 1.1 brings in Spaces support...

Chronos has produced a new update for iClipboard, its integrated Mac utility. The program extends the usefulness of the Leopard clipboard, keeping a history of items so that they can be retrieved later. Quick Look support lets users preview contents, and items are listed on a shelf that slides out from the side of the screen. Users can specify the cut-off size for items to avoid consuming memory.

PDF Shrink 4.2 due at Macworld Expo...

Apago has announced that the next version of its PDF Shrink program will be released January 15th, in time to coincide with San Francisco's Macworld Expo. The software is used to drastically reduce the size of PDF files, so that they can more easily be loaded and viewed; files can be shrunk by as much as 90 percent. It does this mainly by scaling the resolution and compression of images, as well as removing base 14 fonts when desired. Input for the program can come not just from Adobe's Creative Suite but Apple's iWork and Microsoft's Office.

Primate Labs: New Mac Pro is a better value...

Primate Labs today released figures regarding performance of the new Mac Pro versus the old eight-core model. The old model is configured with the eight-core Xeon X5365, running at 3GHz, while the newer model features the Xeon W5462 running at 2.8GHz per core. Both machines were tested using Mac OS X 10.5.1, with the new Mac Pro using 2GB of RAM, versus the former that uses 1GB. Primate Labs says that the tests that GeekBench 2 uses to calculate RAM scores relies more on the speed of the memory rather than the quantity, so it was deemed a fair test.

Amazon to sell unprotected Sony BMG music...

Amazon.com today said it is now selling unprotected music from Sony BMG, making the online retailer the first store to offer DRM-free songs from all four major music labels in MP3 format, according to a report from Reuters. Apple's iTunes Store announced the availability of iTunes Plus in early April, with unprotected MP3 music files from EMI's catalog at a slightly higher price.

HighPoint adds Leopard support to RAID adapter...

HighPoint Technologies today updated its RocketRAID 3120 to support Apple's Power Mac G5 and Mac Pro systems under both Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard. The RocketRAID 3120 is a PCI-Express x1 dual port SATA RAID controller featuring the Marvell 5182 (400MHz) hardware RAID engine and with 128MB of DDR2 local memory. The RocketRAID 3120 is available for $170.

Penumbra: Overture released for Macs...

Frictional Games has released the Mac port of Penumbra: Overture, its first-person horror game. Players assume the role of Philip, a man who suddenly receives a letter from his dead father. Seeking to investigate its significance, Philip travels to Greenland, where he encounters unexpected threats. The game is rendered in real-time, physics-driven 3D, and players must use their intelligence to fight enemies as well as solve puzzles.

Key deal-maker leaves Microsoft; Yahoo deal coming?...

An executive responsible for some of Microsoft's biggest acquisitions has declared his intentions to leave the company, reports indicate. Bruce Jaffe, Microsoft's VP of corporate development, has announced that he will leave his position in February, with the stated goal of starting his own business. Jaffe has been with Microsoft since 1995, and is said to have been involved in the $240 million investment into Facebook, and the $6 billion purchase of the ad firm aQuantive. Microsoft just this week made an offer of $1.2 billion for the Norwegian search firm Fast Search and Transfer.

Analyst: ATT stock plunge saved by Apple...

Investor jitters over statements by AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson about the home phone business are "overdone" and neglect the likely growth triggered by the iPhone, says a new research note from financial institution Cowen and Company. The group contends that a 10 percent drop in AT&T's stock value triggered by warnings about sagging landline subscriptions are exaggerated and that the company's cellular service is more than compensating for the drop. The carrier will outgrow its rivals by as much as 15 percent over the next year, Cowen predicts.

Hess Memorial Macworld Events List goes live...

The Hess Memorial Macworld Events List has gone live, detailing more than 100 events at the forthcoming Expo in San Francisco. Touted as the only source for events and press functions held during Macworld Conference & Expo week, January 14-18, the Web page serves as a place for visitors to get a head start on the best places to visit at the show. "The Hess Memorial Events List is updated every time a new event is received, so please let us know about your events at Macworld," said Mac consultant, writer, and photographer Ilene Hoffman. "Users should check the page every day during the show, so that you don't miss a thing."

Analysts wary of Apple-Akamai, Google rumor...

Akamai, the company in charge on most of Apple’s content delivery for iTunes and most of its online services, was falsely reported to being dumped by the company, in favor of a switch to Google. Seeking Alpha writes that Swiss American subsidiary Credit Suisse, despite the fact that they are not Akamai’s financial representatives, was blamed for initiated the rumor. Swiss American later denied that they gave any information regarding Apple’s supposed plans, even though technologist Dan Rayburn received the update from several different analysts.

Ricoh intros new color laser printers, MFPs...

Ricoh today introduced the Aficio SP C222DN color laser printer alongside the Aficio SP C222SF series of color laser multifunction products (MFPs, shown at right). The six new models feature a sleek and compact design to provide a more personal look and feel for small offices requiring color documents, according to Ricoh. The SP C220DN, SP C221DN, and SP C222DN are priced at $530, $630 and $760, respectively. The Aficio SP C220S is available for $830, while the SP C221SF is priced at $950 and the SP C222SF sells for $1,050.

Vodafone offers 7.2Mbps USB 3G modem...

Vodafone UK today supplied frequent travelers subscribed to its cellular service with a new USB adapter to bring most any computer or UMPC online. Nicknamed the Stick, the white and red device provides Internet access on the most recent incarnation of HSDPA which just went live on the carrier's network. In peak conditions, the modem can download as quickly as 7.2Mbps and upload at 1.44Mbps, or more than 20 times faster than the company's original third-generation network from just three years ago. The entire device is also shorter than many past modems and more easily fits in a bag.

Universal HD DVD exclusive already expired...

Universal's obligation to support HD DVD alone has already ended and may see Blu-ray titles soon, according to a claim by the Hollywood magazine Variety. Though not hinting at its sources, the publication's online edition says that Universal's commitment "has ended" and that the studio can publish Blu-ray titles at any time. A run of multiple promotions is likely to keep the studio producing HD DVD titles for the next few months, according to the report. However, no details have been provided as to whether Universal will opt to release movies in both formats or remain with HD DVD alone until the promotional campaign is over.

Intel to be challenged in New York antitrust case...

New York has officially begun an investigation into Intel antitrust allegations, Reuters reports. The state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, says his office has subpoenaed Intel for a variety of information, following preliminary indications that Intel may have forced companies to exclude rival chipmaker AMD from the CPU market. "Our investigation is focused on determining whether Intel has improperly used monopoly power to exclude competitors or stifle innovation," says Cuomo. "We will also look at whether Intel abused its power to remove competitive threats or harm competition in violation of New York and federal antitrust laws."

Fujitsu to demo new scanner at Macworld...

Fujitsu has promised to showcase its newest ScanSnap Scanner for Mac at the Macworld 2008 Conference and Expo from January 14-18 in San Francisco, CA. The company also said it will announce a forthcoming device to address the mobile document imaging needs of the Mac community. Fujitsu's new ScanSnap S510M is one of the only single-pass duplex automatic document feeder (ADF) scanners available today for the Apple community, according to the company, and comes bundled with ABBYY FineReader 3.0 optical character recognition (OCR) software. Live demonstrations of the S510M will take place at booth no. S308.

Pyro debuts PCI Express-based video encoder...

Pyro AV has unveiled Pyro Kompressor HD, a PCI Express-based accelerator solution that encodes HD MPEG-2 and HD H.264/AVC up to eight times faster than software-only video compression. The single-slot PYRO Kompressor HD board is powered by the Ambric Am2045, a parallel processor with 336 RISC processors delivering 1.2 teraOPS-class of video horsepower for consistently high throughput encoding. Pyro Kompressor HD for the Mac platform will be available this spring for $3,500.

OLPC's XO: early hands-on...

Electronista has received its own XO notebook from the One Laptop Per Child project and is about to put the notebook for the developing world through tests to see whether it works well for its stated goal of bringing computers to those who may never have used (or seen) a computer before -- as well as whether the small Linux-based system can co-exist with a world of more complex Mac and Windows PCs. So far, the device is promising and even shows a relatively Apple-like simplicity, but may almost prove too simple for some purposes.

Microsoft planning to buy Logitech?...

Logitech, the maker of popular mice, speakers and other peripherals, may be on the verge of acquisition by Microsoft. Reuters reports that shares rose 12 percent early Thursday morning, fueled partly by trader speculation surrounding a possible takeover. In theory, Logitech -- which has a market capitalization of 7 billion Swiss francs ($6.3 billion US) -- would be bought for 48 francs per share, a premium of 38 percent on Wednesday's closing stock price of 34.80 francs. Logitech would thus become worth 9.16 billion francs.

MacATM parodies Mac software industry...

Comedy site The Daily Grind has released MacATM 1.0, an app meant to parody the sometimes ridiculous world of Mac business and development software. "Mac OS X users have previously labored under the platform's lack of a comprehensive ATM simulation solution," Grind president Joe Stella is quoted as saying. Once installed on a Mac, says VP Damian Prendergast, users can "enjoy the excitement and immersion of an ATM on the move or at home. You need never again ram-raid a shopping center or take a tow-truck to the bank."

Sprint to get Samsung M800 as 'iPhone killer'...

Sprint's first device to directly compare against the iPhone will be a lower-cost variant of Samsung's just-announced F490, according to a new leak. The handset will be known as the M800 in Sprint guise but should keep much of the same design, which includes an extra-wide 3.2-inch screen with largely the same touch interface as the Vodafone Croix but without the more expensive phone's slide-out keyboard. Some icons and the overall look will change to reflect the American carrier, the leak shows. Sprint's version will also use its 3G EVDO link for its Sprint TV Internet video streaming service, buying songs from the Sprint Music Store, and navigating using assisted GPS.

SmileOnMyMac releases pre-Expo updates...

In order to clean up its software for presentation at Macworld, SmileOnMyMac has released updates for five of its applications. PDFpen and PDFpenPro, which create fillable PDF forms, are now at v3.3.2; aside from minor improvements and fixes, the programs now have better support for protected documents. DiscLabel 5.1.1 makes improvements to printing, and v4.2.1 of PageSender, the fax application, fixes a cover-page hang in Carbon software such as Word or Adobe Reader.

Analysts: Apple #2 in supply chain study...

Apple has placed second in a list of companies with superior supply chains, according to a research group. AMR Research has once again compiled its annual "Supply Chain Top 25," a list of major retailers and manufacturers said to display the best "performance, capabilities, and leadership." The data used is collected from public information, such as growth, inventory turns and return on assets (ROA); AMR cautions however that the list does not directly take into account customer satisfaction, particularly as companies can manipulate ROA and inventory turns at the cost of delivery dates. DSO, or "days sales outstanding," is used as an alternative on the assumption that unhappy customers delay payment.

BT, Comcast vow 100Mbps+ Internet in 2008...

At least two major Western Internet providers will have Internet access topping the 100 megabit per second (Mbps) mark before the end of the year, according to announcements. American cable provider Comcast has confirmed at CES that it is readying a service based on the new DOCSIS 3 cable modem standard that will bond together multiple cable channels to achieve Internet speeds far in excess of the version 2 speeds available today. Under good conditions, the technology translates to about 160Mbps for downloads and 120Mbps for uploads. This has led to full-length HD movie downloads in under four minutes during demonstrations, Comcast says.

WWDC 2007 session videos go online...

Though its Developer Connection sub-site, Apple is now selling a new video bundle intended for IT developers. The collection gathers together recordings of over 100 sessions from last year's WWDC conference, and addresses topics such as exploiting the new features of Mac OS X Leopard Server, implementing "best practices" in web or network administration, and designing, coding and testing IT projects. The videos also deal with meshing the Mac with other platforms; this includes deploying Mac clients on Microsoft Active Directory networks, or racking Mac servers alongside various other types.

Adobe unveils Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac...

Adobe today unveiled Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac, a major update to its simplified photo editing software. The new version introduces many new features, such as a “group merge” tool that allows users to pick the best facial expressions and body language from a series of shots, combining them into a master image. Photoshop Elements 6 provides users with three editing modes, tuned for different levels of experience; the new Guided Edit mode walks beginners through various image improvement steps, for example. Adobe will ship Photoshop Elements 6 early in the second quarter of 2008 for $90, and will be showing the software at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.