Laughingbird Software has launched Business Card Creator, a new app for developing logos and creating modifiable business cards, postcards or letterhead templates. The program includes over 95 matching templates, with customization options for scaling, rotation, colors or adding new text and images.
Oranged has released Studiometry 7, upgrading the business management software with new tools for project planning, estimate creation and more. Project stages allow users to track progress from beginning to end, with automated alerts and to-dos shown at important points. The new estimates feature includes a creation wizard that supports itemizing and provides numerous templates.
iPhoneAppQuotes' analysis shows new trends in iPhone development, with a focus on medical, business and book apps. The developer network is also reporting that there has been a 30 percent increase in new members over the past three months, during which time the number of available titles on the iTunes App Store has increased to 65,000.
CampSoftware has included 31 updates in its FMSmallBusiness 1.4.1 release. Most of the changes are user-requested additions, including support for common documents and copying to the clipboard. FMSmallBusiness (FMSB) is based on the FileMaker Pro database platform and geared toward running a small business, with tools for tracking contacts, calendars, schedules, activities, projects, documents and more. The software works with Mac and Windows systems or the iPhone, along with most web browsers, and can be configured for single- or multiple-user configurations on up to 250 workstations.
Synectics Business Solutions has announced a new business-version of its BackJack web-based backup service. The new product, version 5.1, was built from the previous enterprise variant but offers an improved account manager for controlling account information, internal support, storage and user-privilege management. The service features 128-bit CAST encryption for data protection, a single-window interface, block-level incremental backups and automatic software updates.
Kerio Technologies says it is seeing significant -- even surprising -- growth in iPhone users of its MailServer products for small-to-medium-sized businesses. Worldwide Marketing VP Dusan Vitek tells MacNN says the introduction of the iPhone 3G led to a significant increase in demand in recent months.
Oracle has announced Oracle Business Approvals, Mobile Sales Assistant and Mobile Sales Forecast for the iPhone, coming in November. Oracle Business Approvals includes Oracle Business Approvals for Managers and Oracle Business Approvals for Sales Managers, each providing actionable intelligence for on the go decisions, including info on expenses, purchase requisitions, HR vacancies and job offers for managers and sales info such as pending sales quotes.
CardScan on Monday unveiled the CardScan Executive for Mac, a set which includes a business card scanner, coupled with contact management and synchronization software. The scanner itself is capable of reading 20 color cards per minute, while the software is able to take information from the scanner, email signatures, files, and more. CardScan Executive for Mac is available at select Apple Stores, Apple's website, and a number of retailers for $260.
Oranged Software has published Studiometry 6.0, the latest version of its client and project management software. Version 6 adds features such as a new SQL database for storing program data, multi-project GANTT charts, and debt/credit modes. Along with this the company has gone back and optimized old features: the software now launches faster, and all changes are saved instantly. Filesizes have meanwhile been reduced, and the software also closes faster than in previous versions.
blue banana software has released Project Calculator 3, a major update to its project time-tracking software. The new upgrade features Quick Filters, a single-click option for frequently-used filters, as well as a menu bar icon, for quick access to the software without its main window. Also present are Growl notifications and a pause-period editor.
Developer Ken Winograd says he has released v6.0.0 of TinyBooks, a Mac-based accounting and bookkeeping program aimed at families and small businesses. In using the software the program only asks for incomes and expenses, and calculates everything else based on how this data is categorized. The sixth edition introduces extra automation features, such as Auto-Comment option for commonly-used entry descriptions, and a similar option for checks. Multi-country tax support has been improved with automatic tax calculations.
Business shoppers can now buy the iPhone 3G online, AT&T has announced. Although the carrier has offered deals for business clients since the phone's July 11th launch, people ordering outside of large-scale enterprise deals have typically had to travel in person to an AT&T shop, and cope with lineups despite potentially urgent needs. Regular iPhone buyers must always shop in person.
Minieconomy has announced the launch of an official iPhone version of Informatist. Informatist is an online business simulation that has been designed to be as realistic as possible. The game is played through a web browser and is free to play. The game looks to prepare players with the skills needed to succeed in todays business world, including property development, stocks and shares, the manufacturing industry and more. By making players compete against each other they will also learn how all of these components work together in the marketplace.
Kerio says it has added wireless iPhone "push" compatability to its MailServer software, and the company says small businesses have been eager to embrace the iPhone 3G. In an interview with MacNN, Dusan Vitek, VP of Worldwide Marketing for Kerio Technologies, said he's seeing strong demand for iPhone support from typical customers in small to medium-sized companies.
Sun Microsystems recently unveiled OpenOffice 3.0b2, a new beta preview release of the next major version of its business productivity suite, adding a number of optimizations, features, and fixes. The new version introduces new regional grammar and numeric standards for Indian customers, as well as refined behaviour of editing filtered rows. Sun also introduced 'y axis' error bars, allowing users to define a range of error for estimated figures.
Early signs point to a warm reception for the new iPhone from enterprise software and IT firms. Since Friday's launch, MindSHIFT Technologies and TransMedia have announced support for the iPhone 3G. TransMedia is says it will provide Microsoft Word document support and storage at GlideOS.com. MindShift says it has made the "strategic move" to support the iPhone with its enterprise-class remote messaging and managed IT services. The company says it also plans to support Macs as well.
Marketcircle Inc this week released Daylite 3.7.4, a new update to its established productivity suite. Aimed at easing Windows to Mac transitions -- especially in the small business arena -- this latest version of Daylite offers a host of new features. Boasting a Mac OS X-style interface, version 3.7.4 introduces full integration with Apple's Pages, Numbers and Keynote to ensure professional business correspondence. The software also combines improved Microsoft Word support with established features such as iCal, iSync and Mail integration, time-tracking and sharable schedules -- in an effort to to be a central hub for user's daily workflow.
Microsoft says it is working on briging Solver functionality to its latest Excel 2008 release, after removing the functionality that was available in its previous Excel 2004 version. Solver enables linear programming within Excel, useful for capacities, minimums and maximums and scheduling loads; it is commonly used in both business and higher education applications. The company said it had to remove the functionality because it relied on Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which was removed from the latest Office 2008 release. "We definitely hear you, and we’re working on it" says the Office for Mac Team Blog in an update on Solver, an Excel add-in users are clamoring for.
4D Inc on Tuesday debuted 4D Server v11 SQL, bringing native SQL support to its established server product line. Now a Universal Binary application, the latest version of 4D Server boasts increased processing speed, capacity and power as well as new features, functionality and improved administration tools."4D v11 SQL represents over three years of dedicated development, resulting in a complete transformation of the core of 4D...The release of v11 SQL marks the completion of our transition, bringing more power and speed to the creators and users of today's business applications," President and founder of 4D, Laurent Ribardičre commented.
CS Odessa on Tuesday unveiled its ConceptDraw Office business productivity software suite, offering users access to the company's key applications in one package. Included in the suite are ConceptDraw MINDMAP, ConceptDraw PROJECT, and ConceptDraw PRO, providing users with various flow chart, office graphic, and project planning capabilities. CS Odessa is selling ConceptDraw Office for $500, available from its online web store.
United Airlines on Monday said it is the first U.S. Carrier to offer iPod and iPhone connectivity to its in-flight entertainment systems. The hook-ups will allow passengers to view video content on their own 15.4 inch “personal television” as their iPod or iPhone charges. United says the upgrades will be installed in first and business class in its entire international widebody fleet over the next two years.
IPresentee is hoping to bring the simplicity of iWeb to small business. The company has released five iWeb themes -- Office, Global, Money, Illusion and Papery -- targeting small business entrepreneurs looking for an inexpensive Web presence. Each theme contains seven templates: Home, About Us, Services, Support, Clients, Contact Us and a blank template. The company says the themes can be built in minutes to “create a beautiful site with a minimum of effort."
Object Decision has released Contactizer 3.6, an upgrade to its personal information manager. It features a new view that lets Leopard users view contact information as a series of "business cards" in Cover Flow -- designed to simulate users flipping through a paper Rolodex. The upgrade, which is free to registered users of Contactizer 3 and above, brings full Leopard compatibility, along with a dozen other improvements. The personal organizer supports multiple-calendar syncing and sports an easily customized interface.
Redcort Software, publisher of Virtual TimeClock, a time & attendance software for Windows and Macintosh computers, has announced details on their upcoming Virtual TimeClock Pro 6.0 release. Virtual TimeClock Pro is employee time clock software that enables businesses of any size to track employee time and attendance; the timesheet software is a secure replacement for mechanical employee time clocks and paper employee timesheets.
IGG Software has announced iBank 3.1 the latest release of its personal and small business financial manager made exclusively for Mac OS X. Among the most important changes in the iBank 3.1 upgrade is the ability to preview direct downloads for matching transactions; users are alerted if a duplicate transaction has already been imported to iBank, or advised to proceed when no matching transaction is found. iBank's internal browser, which allows users to log in to online accounts without leaving the application, has been enhanced with improved page loading and more banks' websites available to users
Marketcircle has updated two of its key business applications, including the Daylite suite, and one of its add-on components, Delivery. Daylite 3.7.3 is said to improve the speed of online and offline database syncs by as much as five to 10 times, particularly in the case of some offline syncs. The software can additionally archive or strip attachments for e-mail, letters and notes, and schedule multi-day appointments in its calendar, as opposed to just multi-day events. Licenses for Daylite start at approximately $187 per user, with discounts in bulk.
HP on Monday added two new desktop PCs for business users to its range, with the Compaq dc5850 and Compaq dx2450. The two are some of the first HP PCs to use AMD's triple- and quad-core Phenom X3 processors. The latter is the value-oriented offering, and can be configured with a choice of AMD processors, ranging from the 2.1GHz Sempron, through the 2.8GHz Athlon and to the 2.5GHz Phenom. Four memory slots allow for expansion up to 4GB while NVIDIA and ATI graphics cards are offered as options. Operating systems are Windows offerings that include a range of Vista and XP Professional interfaces, as well as FreeDOS.
Sony Corporation of America has signed a merger agreement with Gracenote, Inc, and will pay approximately $260 million plus other contingent consideration for the digital media information warehouse. Formerly known as CDDB, Gracenote delivers information -- including lyrics -- on music to various services including Apple iTunes and Yahoo! Music Jukebox. The companies say that Gracenote's existing business will continue to operate separately as a wholly owned Sony subsidiary, and that the senior management team will remain with the company.
Apple's growing marketshare among end-users is helping push the Mac's acceptance in corporate America. InfoWorld notes the Macs are spilling out of its traditional areas of marketing departments and media companies and into wider array of business environments, thanks to, what it calls, "the confluence of a number of computing trends, not the least among them a rising tide of end-user affinity for the Apple experience." The trends, the column says, are "making it easier for tech departments to say yes to the Mac by facilitating IT's ability to provide enterprise-grade Mac management and support." In particular, the article cites growing browser competition, a move toward universal Web-based computing, virtualization, more standard connectivity, advanced enterprise management software, and more, but concludes that Macs are "close, not equal."
CS Odessa today released ConceptDraw 7.6 an update to its drawing and business diagramming software package. The professional business graphics software permits users to create sophisticated and high-quality organization charts, flowcharts and business graphics as well as the ability to create network and database diagrams. Version 7.6 includes a specialized flowchart library as well as traditional flowcharting shapes with more than 150 objects available for use. ConceptDraw 7.6 also significantly improves text editing performance and support of Chinese and Arabic characters. ConceptDraw 7.6 is a no charge update for all registered users of ConceptDraw 7.x. Owners of earlier versions can upgrade for only $150; the full version is $300.
Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter Research has published an article addressing the suitability of Apple products -- the Mac and iPhone in particular -- for business purposes. Noting that Most IT departments are not deploying Macintosh systems in large numbers and those that are are deploying are usually in niche spaces such as graphic arts, Gartenberg says that the Mac OS has changed significantly in the last few years and says that Apple's systems now offer a reasonable alternative for Windows systems used in businesses.
Hewlett Packard, with some assistance from DreamWorks, is announcing a new technology dubbed "HP DreamColor" that the company says will be a "disruptive" force in the market place. MacNN spoke with Jim Zafarana is Vice President, Worldwide Marketing for Hewlett-Packard Company's Workstation Global Business Unit and Jeff Wood, Director Product Marketing at HP about the new technology, which will purportedly pave the way for displays with accurate, predictable color reproduction at a fraction of the cost of similarly capable monitors and finally offer a transition route to flat-panel displays for graphic design firms (like DreamWorks) that have thus far been stuck with CRT displays.
Late last month, Cisco's WebEx division announced expanded Mac OS X support across its suite of business process collaboration applications, saying that Mac use has doubled in the last year. The online collaboration services--including WebEx Meeting Center, WebEx WebOffice, WebEx Event Center, WebEx Training Center, WebEx Sales Center and WebEx Support Center -- now offer cross-platform support for Mac OS X Leopard and Safari 3, as part of Cisco WebEx's ongoing attention to multi-platform support and its growing customer base of Mac users.
In brief: We have a review of the LAbeace Classic 13" MacBook shoulder bag, the iLEVL holder for iMac has debuted, a Desktop Transporter unlimited license has been unveiled, VMware Fusion is holding a video contest, a Desktop Transporter unlimited license is available, and we've postd a MacFamilyTree review ... We have posted a review of the LAbeace Classic 13" MacBook shoulder bag from French company, Be•ez (be easy). It's a less expensive, but fine looking bag. The quality construction combined with its unique design makes it a good fit for students and others with lightweight needs. From the outside, it looks remarkably similar to Booq bag products, but that's as far as the similarity goes. The 1682D nylon outer fabric wears well and all the stitching is finished off nicely. This black bag comes with a variety of interior fashion colors, but simple black or white piping gives it an outward business look.
Baidu.com, the leading Chinese search engine, has hired Apple Inc's head of China operations for the role of chief operating officer. Reuters reports that Peng Ye, who oversaw all business operations in China for Apple as the U.S. firm's country general manager, is joining Baidu, right after ex-General Motors executive Jennifer Li accepted the post of chief financial officer. Ye will officially joing the company on April 25. Baidu is bigger than Google in China, the number 2 Internet market in the world behind the United States.
Apple has been planning a second business campus in Cupertino for some time now, but completion of the project may take a little longer than originally planned by CEO Steve Jobs. Two years ago, at a Cupertino City Council meeting, Jobs announced that Apple put together several pieces of land about a mile from its current campus and decided to break ground on the new location as a new separate but connected set of buildings. At the time, Jobs said "It'll take us, you know, three or four years to design it, get all the approvals and get it built." However, two years after the announcement, Apple has not applied for any permits to build on the land, according to Fortune.
As part of his "3 Cylinder Engine" report on Apple's three core product lines, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster recently looked at Apple's iPod, discussing the business unit's growth trajectory, upcoming iPods and more. Saying that the iPod will be a slower growing segment than the Mac or iPhone, Munster expects iPod unit growth to be flat in the calendar year 2008, but also thinks that Apple can maintain iPod unit growth and slightly exceed street expectations. Munster believes that the iPhone will replace the iPod as a driver of significant growth for the company.
CatalystWeb has announced that its CatalystOffice suite is now compatible with the Mac, through the operating system's custom version of Mozilla Firefox. CatalystOffice is actually a web-based suite, and is thus compatible with multi-platform businesses; it incorporates e-mail, calendar, document management and IM software all together, and can be accessed from home as well as the office. Administrators can manage permissions for various tasks, such as event scheduling and file access.
The OpenOffice Mac porting team is reportedly working on a native Aqua version of its business productivity software suite, rather than simply porting the platform-independent Java version. The software is listed as being the third development snapshot, announcing a number of bug fixes and interface optimizations. OpenOffice says the newest version now uses a Mac OS X native print dialogue, and that extensions are installable through the improved GUI.
Apple shareholders today produced a plethora of questions for company executives at its annual shareholders meeting in Cupertino, CA. Taking that stand was CEO Steve Jobs, COO Tim Cook, and Ron Johnson -- Apple's head of retail operations. Jobs and others answered questions regarding the prospect of entering into direct competition with Microsoft in the PC gaming industry, potential .Mac expansion, iTunes media availability, the idea of a successor to Steve Jobs, iPhone availability in Asia, Macs in the business realm, Apple retail stores, and more, according to AppleInsider.
Apple's cash reserve of $18.5 billion could benefit shareholders in a big way moving forward, according to BusinessWeekcolumnist Arik Hesseldahl. The cash amounts to $21 for each share of company stock, and Hesseldahl believes Apple should return some of that money to shareholders in the form of a buyback. "The time to buy back Apple stock is now," he writes. Shares are 40 percent below a historic high, and Wall Street is focusing on concerns that Apple will suffer as the economy slumps.
Numerous illegal businessmen in Shenzhen, China are said to be producing counterfeit iPhones and other hot mobile devices alongside alleged 'new model' iPhones at ever increasing rates. Apple's iPhone swept onto the smartphone market after its launch in June of last year, surprising many analysts and rival phone makers alike. Chinese factories counterfeit famous and non-famous brands alike, according to the Epoch Times, and even suffer from software piracy.
Yahoo's board of directors is torn between those seeking profit and others who would make an emotional decision to reject Microsoft's buyout attempt, according to sources cited by a report from the New York Post online. Yahoo chief Jerry Yang and several followers are allegedly seeking an alternative to Microsoft's takeover bid of $44.6 million, and could act out of emotion rather than their fiduciary duty to the company's shareholders. "The emotional part of Yang would rather do anything but sell to Microsoft, but he doesn't have the cards to come up with a value-creating, competitive alternative for shareholders," said one source.
Atelier has released v1.9 of Fanurio, its billing and time-tracking application for freelance businesses. When a new assignment is received, users create a new project and add invoices and expenses, charging flat or hourly rates, or nothing at all. Data can be imported from CSV files, or exported to CSV, Excel and HTML, the last used for printing or e-mailing invoices to clients.
A contract changed enacted by Apple may have a negative effect on Apple resellers in Australia and New Zealand. The shift would allow retailers to "multi source" Apple products, which means they could buy in tandem from suppliers and Apple. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Renaissance Corp is expecting the sales volume and profit from its Apple distribution business to fall following signing of the new contract. Changes to suppliers' margin structure will also be phased in between now and October.
Marketcircle has released Daylite 3.7, bringing three new product extensions -- MoneyWorks, LightSpeed and FileMaker -- as well as a time-saving report distribution tool called Daylite Delivery to the productivity suite. Daylite performs a variety of business functions, including identifying and qualifying opportunities to the delivery of projects and tracking/managing business activities and outcomes. In addition, Daylite takes advantage of Apple's Sync Services to bring Daylite contacts, appointments, tasks, and reminders to iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, Palm, Windows Mobile devices and many popular cellphones.
Major Hollywood content providers gave Apple and its iTunes Store a thumbs up during a panel discussion and Q&A session on Monday at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. The Cupertino-based company began offering hit TV shows and more than 2,000 music videos in October of 2005 after experiencing enormous success in the digital music industry. Deals with four Disney-owned studios -- Disney, Pixar, Miramax, and Touchstone Pictures -- were followed by a deal with Paramount Pictures and later Lionsgate films.
