August 14 - 11:10am EDT   Mister Retro has announced Permanent Press, a set of retro filters for Photoshop. The filters create a vintage look, providing offset-printing effects, letterpress effects, ink works and more. The filters process images, type and visual designs, the plug-in is customizable and settings can be saved to reproduce specific effects. Permanent Press requires Mac OS X 10.2.6 or higher, 256MB RAM (1GB RAM recommended) and works with Photoshop CS2 and CS 3, and Photoshop Elements 4.0 and higher. The plug-in is available now for $100. [full story]

August 12 - 8:50pm EDT   ContentWatch's venerable Net Nanny sofware has been a staple in the Windows world for many years. Apple's market share has apparently grown enough for the company to offer its subscription-based Internet filter to Mac users. ContentWatch says Mac use is "up 51 percent in the last year" and it became clear the product needed to be brought to Mac OS X. [full story]

January 7 - 11:05am EST   Targus today unveiled a set of new laptop-centric products – the Velos Messenger bag, the Stow-N-Go mouse, the HeatDefense pad, Travel Power Outlets, and DEFCON privacy filters – as well as LCD mounting arms, and a mobile speaker system for MP3 players. The Velos Messenger bag comes in three color styles: chocolate with a chocolate-aqua strap, charcoal with black-lime green strap, and wheat with mushroom-orange strap. Laptops are fully cushioned from both sides, and are protected by a neoprene sleeve. Up to a 15.4-inch laptop can be used with the bag, and the extra removable strap can be exchanged with other Velos owners to make new color combinations. Targus will sell ... [full story]

January 2 - 4:45pm EST   Bains Software today released SpamSweep 1.6, an application that utilizes an advanced Bayesian spam filter with a simple user interface. The update improves Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard compatibility, adds support for IMAP accounts as well as custom rule filters, and includes various bug fixes. SpamSweep 1.6 is priced at $25, and requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later. [full story]

November 26 - 11:05pm EST   Alien Skin Software recently unveiled a new version to its image-restoration Photoshop plugin, Image Doctor 2. The plugin is designed to fix erroneous photographs, by removing blemishes, dust and scratch damage, compression damage, or an unwanted party guests from photographs. By sampling from the surrounding area, Image Doctor can intelligently repair problematic areas on digital photos without requiring hours of input by the user. In addition to fixing blemishes and removing elements, Image Doctor is able to mend JPEG compression damage – blocky pixelations in an image that are caused from repeated saving in the format. Image Doctor 2 is currently shipping, available ... [full story]