Macs in 80% of US businesses; VM, reliability key...

Apple's exposure in the corporate world is exploding according to a recent survey by Yankee Group Research, finding that Macs reside in one form or another at almost 80-percent of US companies. According to Computerworld, the figure has almost doubled in two years, with 47-percent of corporate IT departments claiming the use of Macs in early 2006. The increase comes mainly from Apple's well-documented reliability, as well as the virtualization capabilities that the Intel migration has opened.

Missing Sync for iPhone now on Windows...

Mark/Space on Thursday unveiled a new product for Windows that allows iPhone users to transfer contacts and calendar information from most BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Palm OS devices, as well as select units from Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola that use the Symbian OS. Mark/Space says that The Missing Sync for iPhone works with both current generation and 3G iPhones. The Missing Sync for iPhone is available from the company's website for $40.

Palm takes loss in spring despite Centro...

Palm today reported a loss in the last quarter of its financial year that suggests a continued downturn at the company despite recent efforts to improve the company's lineup. The smartphone maker reported a year-over-year change from a $15.4 million net gain in spring 2007 to a $43.4 million loss in the latest quarter, while the company posted a significant $110.9 million loss for the past 12 months. Roughly a third of the loss could be attributed to restructuring charges as well as stocks and patents.

Apple sets date for third-quarter earnings call...

A time has been set for Apple's third-quarter earnings conference call, the company has announced. The call is currently scheduled for July 21, 2008, at 2PM Pacific time; Apple says it will eventually link the appropriate webcast relay in advance of the event. Figures announced in the report could prove critical to Apple, but would not incorporate sales from the iPhone 3G, which launches on July 11st; investors should not expect detailed figures however, as Apple has elected to amortize iPhone revenue, delaying full reporting until 2009.

PlumChoice adds remote support for Macs, iPods...

PlumChoice, a remote technical-support service for home, home/office and small business customers, has announced support for Apple products, including Macs running Mac OS X 10.4 and above, and iPods and iPhones. They will also support AirPort wireless routers, firewalls and printers. The company has previously supported Windows products and consumer electronics for eight years, and is looking to expand to Mac customers. It provides full-service, monitored, enterprise-style support for technology problems, including equipment set up, training, ongoing support, monitoring, and repair on PCs andMacs.

Icahn Yahoo statement still insists on MS buyout...

Activist investor Carl Icahn today filed a proxy statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that still insists Yahoo offer itself to Microsoft for a takeover. The filing appears to ignore recent statements by Microsoft that it's now uninterested in a full deal and asks that Yahoo shareholders vote on August 1st for Icahn's takeover-friendly board of directors, who would remove Yahoo head Jerry Yang from his CEO position and directly offer the search engine firm to Microsoft.

Apple mice to add optical trackpads?...

Future mice from Apple may incorporate optical scrollwheels, a new patent application suggests. Simply entitled Mouse having an optically-based scrolling feature, the application depicts a mouse similar to Apple's current Mighty Mouse, but with an oval trackpad in place of the current mechanical ball unit. According to Apple this is not only more aesthetically pleasing, but more intuitive, as it requires no force to scroll or click, and it becomes obvious that people can scroll both horizontally and vertically.

Alltel teams up with Boingo to offer Wi-Fi access...

Cell phone network provider Alltel today announced it teamed up with Wi-Fi network hotspot provider Boingo to expand Wi-Fi access to over 25,000 hotspots in stores, coffee shops and hotels across the US. Plans will be offered to existing Alltel subscribers, or anyone else on a daily or monthly basis without a contract. The company is also offering a Premium service for frequent travelers, which expands those hotspots to include hundreds of airports in the US and thousands more hotspots in Canada, Mexico and Europe.

Apps: RAGE SERank, Today, Fetch Art

• RAGE SERank 1.7 ($60) Mac OS X search engine rank checker for website owners to track and monitor their search engine rankings. RAGE SERank will monitor search engine rankings for any number of keywords and display changes in a website's search engine rankings over any point in time. RAGE SERank 1.7 now lets you check up to 1000 search results so you can easily see if you are making improvements in your search engine rankings, even if you have not made it to the first 10 pages of search results yet. It also adds speed optimization options to the RAGE SERank database so you can make sure you are always operating at peak performance. [Download - 13.2MB]


• Today 1.2 ($15) a event and task management application for Mac OS X. Today shows you all the events and tasks that are stored in Apple's iCal in a small, easily navigable window. Today 1.0.1 is a maintenance release that addresses several minor issues reported users who downloaded the application since launch last week. This release adds the ability to double-click on an event or task to open it in iCal. [Download - 1.2MB]


• Fetch Art 2.0 (free) tool for adding cover art to your iTunes library. Useful if you've ripped your own music or don't have an iTunes Store account. The new release has fixes for compatibility with Amazon's new ECS 4.0 web service and improvements in accuracy logic in searching for art. It also removed dependency on Perl which should improve compatibility with future Mac OS X updates.[Download - 717KB]
 

• PDFpen 3.4.2 ($50) PDF editing and form-filling tool for Mac OS X. The update offers improved handling of font widths for fonts used frequently in optical character recognition (OCR), as well as a number of bug fixes. All the new features of PDFpen 3.4.2 have also been added to PDFpenPro 3.4.2, the Pro version that has the ability to create fillable PDF forms in addition to all the features of PDFpen. [Download - 5.3MB]


• Mailings 1.9.37 ($25) application for batch emailing that delivers any web page or plain text document with attachments to multiple recipients for marketing, news announcements, product updates etc. Mailings facilitates the task of delivering regular bulk email distributions with such features as logging, progress monitoring, scheduling, error recovery, throttling, personalization and much more. [Download - 4.8MB]

First Look: RapidWeaver 4.0, web page editor...

Generally, there are two ways to design a webpage. First you can learn the arcane commands of HTML, and pump codes out one after another to define the appearance of text and graphics. This gives you ultimate control, but is extremely slow and tedious. Your second option is a WYSIWYG editor that lets you drag-and-drop elements on a page, greatly simplifying the process. High-end web page editors like Dreamweaver combine both features so you can choose which method works best for you; since Dreamweaver is fairly pricey ($399) however, a less expensive, but equally capable choice is Realmac Software’s $79 RapidWeaver.

OWC first with 320GB, 7,200RPM portable drive...

Other World Computing says it has set a newer record with the launch of the Mercury On-the-Go 320GB 7200RPM drive. The disk uses a newer 2.5-inch Hitachi TravelStar drive that makes it the largest-capacity portable drive to spin at the same 7,200RPM speed as desktop models; the 320GB of space is 60 percent more than current 200GB disks at the same physical size. The translucent drive also has multiple interface options that can include external SATA and FireWire 800, either of which ensures the port is never a bottleneck.

AccountEdge Network Edition gets speed update...

MYOB US has announced the latest update to AccountEdge Network Edition for Mac, which will enhance the speed of recording transactions in the small business accounting software's network version. The July 2008 product update is the first of two sets of major speed enhancements for the Network Edition. Benchmarking conducted by MYOB showed an average of 20x speed increases over six categories with the phase one changes. One transaction type reached 28x and the slowest of the six categories still reached 14x times faster than in Network Edition version 2008. The product update is free to all version 2008 customers.

Maxtor offers up 1TB network media server...

Seagate through its Maxtor label late Wednesday launched the Central Axis as its entry into network-attached storage for home use. The 1TB device serves as both group storage space for Mac OS X and Windows systems on the same local network but also as a remote storage server over the web. It also serves as an automatic media server for certain devices: any DLNA- or UPnP-based device, including the PS3, Xbox 360, and some Nokia Nseries phones will automatically find the Central Axis and can stream content directly from its hard drive.

Telefonica plans big iPhone 3G launch...

Spanish carrier Telefonica has large plans for the debut of the iPhone 3G, sources say. At the heart of this is Telefonica's building in the Gran Via shopping district of Madrid, which is having its first floor completely redone in time for July 11th, the official release date of the 3G in 22 countries. Window displays have been emptied out, and installed video signage currently remains non-functional. Both Apple and Telefonica are said to want a "media extravaganza" around the world in advance of the 3G's availability.

Chrysler's in-car 3G, Wi-Fi official...

Chrysler through its Mopar parts division today made official its uconnect web service. The feature briefly previewed yesterday provides a 3G cellular Internet connection to any Wi-Fi equipped device in a car and effectively gives constant, rolling Internet access to notebooks and handhelds. The network runs over EVDO and gives users downloads between 400Kbps to 800Kbps and uploads at roughly 400Kbps. The speed is enough to allow live streaming video and online gaming, Mopar claims.

Linksys announces new setup Wizard for Mac OS X...

Linksys has announced its Linksys EasyLink Advisor (LELA) Setup Wizard for configuring its wireless routers on Mac OS X. It will ship with all new products and will be available for download for select current routers, including the WRT310N, WRT160N, WRT110N and the WRT54G2. Linksys is committing to expanding its support for Mac customers using Linksys products. "Linksys is launching LELA setup and technical support for Mac OS X because we recognize the need to better support the ever-growing number of Macs users," said Greg Memo, vice president and general manager, Linksys Consumer Business Organization.

NewerTech announces 300GB RAID drive...

Newertech has announced its Guardian MAXimus RAID-1 Mirror triple interface model. The FireWire 800/400+USB 2.0 drive has two 300GB 10,000RPM drives in a RAID-1 (mirror) for redundant, high-speed storage. The company claims data rates up to 100MB per second and utilizes Western Digital VelociRaptor SATA drives. The MAXimus is ready for Time Machine and geared toward Audio/Video and photo editing, as well as 3D rendering projects. The drive is available immediately for $900 and is compatible with Mac OS X 10.1 and later (as well as legacy Macs on OS 8.6-9.2), requiring Mac OS X 10.2 and later for FireWire 800 and USB 2.0.

PDO announces new iPhone 3G accessories ...

PDO has announced three new products for Apple's upcoming iPhone 3G, the TopSkin for iPhone 3G, the Flipp Leather Case for iPhone 3G and Screen Protector sets for iPhone 3G. All will ship in early July. The TopSkin for iPhone 3G is a play-through design that covers the power, volume, and home buttons, with cut-outs that allow access to the phone’s camera, vibrate switch, speakers, and microphone. It includes a slim-profile belt clip and full frontal screen protector and 3G will sell for $20, available in black, blue, pink, and white.

iPhone 3G activation to involve two steps?...

The activation process for iPhone 3Gs may actually be a two-step process, an Italian site claims to have learned. Anonymous sources suggest that the first part, the forced in-store activation, will involve getting each user signed up to their respective carrier, and their contracts started; the second, however, is believed to involve the App Store and iTunes, because of special billing information needed to download software. 3G owners will be able to buy and download programs through cellular broadband as well as local connections, though a size limit is being imposed on HSPA transfers.

Lower-cost iPod nano soon, 15m new iPhones...

Apple is preparing significant changes to the iPod nano as it prepares a dramatic ramp-up in iPhone 3G shipments, according to a report by FBR Research analyst Craig Berger. The investment expert now anticipates an updated, lower-priced iPod nano in the near future on top of refreshes for both the iPod classic and iPod touch. Further details are unavailble, though Apple has traditionally increased capacities of the iPod in August or September as flash memory and hard drive technology improves; the company took the unusual step this year of doubling iPod touch capacity to 32GB just a few months after the product was introduced.

Telecom Italia iPhone plans leaked? ...

Telecom Italia's planned iPhone contracts have been leaked, an Italian site claims. A new memo, allegedly circulated amongst sales managers at TIM, suggests that there will be four two-year contract options beginning with the Starter, which costs €29 per month but does not have any voice or SMS messages included, and instead charges 15 cents per minute or text. More conventional plans begin with the TIM 250, which incorporates 250 minutes and 100 texts at a price of €49.

Sony confirms PS3 video store in summer...

Sony will expand its PlayStation 3 system with a video download service in the summer, the company has confirmed both through an official document on its company strategy as well as statements made by Sony Computer Enteraintment chief Kaz Hirai. The electronics giant's PlayStation Network will be one of its first services to start offering downloadable video and should start with a US-based service for the PS3 in the summer; the PSP will also have access to a service available later this year.

France, Sweden, Belgium learn iPhone 3G details...

New details for the release of the iPhone 3G have been published in several European countries. French carrier Orange has announced that the 8GB model will cost €149 in tandem with an iPhone-specific contract and high-end options such as Origami, First and Jet. Under the same arrangement, a 16GB phone will cost €199. Owners of present 2.5G iPhones will be able to upgrade for €99 and €149, though only people who bought before June 12th will eligible, and the discount is through a €100 rebate and a renewed, two-year iPhone contract.

Innolux nabs new Apple touchscreen orders...

Taiwan display maker Innolux has landed new orders for touchscreens from Apple, say claims from those inside the industry. While few details are available, the company is expected to start shipments soon; the company itself declines to either confirm or deny orders from Apple but says it will soon ship a production run of touch panels using capacitive input like that of Apple's handhelds.

OpenOSX Grass 6.3.0 offers native OS X GUI...

Coinciding with its seventh birthday, OpenOSX this week released its latest version of OpenOSX Grass 6.3.0. OpenOSX Grass is based on the longstanding open-source GRASS project (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System), a geographical information system that combines 'raster, vector and geo-spacial processing engines into a unified software suite... allowing for the processing of satellite and aerial imagery into presentation graphics and maps'.

Instinct "fastest-selling" Sprint 3G phone...

Sprint today boasted that the Samsung Instinct is its fastest-selling device ever for the company's 3G network. The company notes that the touchscreen device is "breaking records" for first-week sales and touts that Samsung has had to step up production of the phone to meet a surge in demand; there are ongoing but allegedly temporary shortages of the Instinct at various locations in the US, according to Sprint.

USBfever reveals 3 new iPhone 3G cases...

USBfever has announced three new cases designed exclusively for the iPhone 3G. Up first is the iPhone Silicone Case, a basic lightweight Rubberized Silicone case, offering 'stretch to fit' protection for the device. The case protects all four corners of the iPhone from bumps and scratches, while allowing full access to the iPhone's expansive display and all ports. It is designed with 'two-tone' colors and is priced at $13. USBfever's next offeringm made from high-grade textured leather, offers enhanced protection from dings and wear and tear. The iPhone 3G leather case is available in black, brown, white or orange leather, and again features an easy to use design that preserves access to the iPhone screen and ports. Complete with a belt clip for added portability, the case is priced at $20.

Extensis: Universal Type Server ships...

Longstanding Mac software developer Extensis this week began shipping Universal Type Server, its new centralized font management solution. Released in 2 versions, 'Lite' for teams of up to 10 people, and 'Pro' for 10 users or more, Universal Type Server is a direct evolution of Extensis's Suitcase and Font Reserve Server product lines. Sporting a modern intuitive UI, Universal Type Server acts as a repository for all fonts across a whole workgroup, listing them in a single centralized library. When a font is needed, a user 'activates' a font and assigns it to a project, ensuring there are no font conflicts and complete font consistency across all users who work on the project.

Magma ships ExpressBox4 PCIe Expansion

Magma this week announced the immediate availability of ExpressBox4, an external PCI-Express Expansion box for desktop or laptop computers. Offering users four hot-swappable, full-size PCI Express expansion slots, the Expressbox4 connects to desktop machines via an existing x8 PCI Express slot, or to laptops via an ExpressCard slot. The ExpressBox4 ships with its own 400W power-supply, and is available in either desktop or 2U rack mountable version. Offering seamless integration (with the expansion slots appearing completely transparent to the host system without need of additional software), it works with Mac OS X 10.3 or later and costs $2,400.

T-Mobile picks up ROKR E8, sets launch...

T-Mobile on Thursday set the 7th of July as the launch date of its version of Motorola's ROKR E8 music phone. First seen at the 2008 CES show at the start of the year, the bar phone is unique in its dynamic touch-sensitive interface: different controls light up depending on the immediate context, with phone controls switching to camera or music controls as those programs become available. A similarly touch-sensitive wheel active in most apps helps users scroll through tracks quickly. Most controls are also haptic and vibrate to simulate a button press.

Yahoo letter clarifies Google, Microsoft deals...

Yahoo CEO Jerry Wang and Chairman Roy Bostock on Wednesday sent a letter to shareholders explaining the June 12th deal with Google, as well as clarifying its negotiations with Microsoft, who recently made a bid for the search and advertising giant. Yahoo writes that the "carefully structured" agreement with Google will add $250 to $450 million in incremental operating cash flow for the company during its first year of operation.