July 30 - 7:55pm EDT   Readers of PC Magazine have awarded top scores to Apple Products, during a recent survey on electronic products. Apple received the highest ratings in all of the categories it was involved in, laptops, desktops, routers, cell phones, media players and tech support. In all of these categories Apple received Readers Choice status and performed "significantly better than average." This year the iPhone was named the "ultimate smartphone" and topped other competing smartphones such as the BlackBerry Curve and Pearl. [full story]

February 25 - 4:50pm EST   Following Adobe's announcement of the AIR application platform, AOL has unveiled Xdrive Desktop Lite, a backup application based on the AIR standard. Computerworld reports that AOL is offering users 5GB of backup for free, which is accessed using the downloadable Xdrive application – a first time offering for Mac users. Xdrive Desktop Lite gives users drag-and-drop functionality to backup any data. The service is also available in a 50GB flavor, which costs users a yearly fee of $100. [full story]

February 18 - 4:00pm EST   Conjurebunny today unveiled Conjure 2.3, an update for its replacement desktop front-end, bringing a number of changes related to contacts, Clusters, and Clothesline. Contacts within Conjure are now considered desktop entities, just like applications, folders and files, allowing them to be viewed directly from the desktop level. The upgrade is free for existing v2.x users, while new users can purchase the full version of Conjure 2.3 for $25. [full story]

February 8 - 7:25pm EST   Panda Systems today unveiled PandoCalendar 7.0.6, an update to its desktop calendar application, adding several new features and bug fixes. In addition to increased Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard compatibility, users can also browse through all recurring events by group in a dedicated window. Two new File menu options allow users to create new notes and appointments, while a popup menu with preset snooze times has been added to the reminder window. PandoCalendar is available for free from Panda Systems' web site. [full story]