April 22 - 4:40pm EDT   According to new data from Nielsen Online, Web traffic to the Apple Inc's sites collectivly grew 13 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2008, from a three-month average monthly unique audience of 42.9 million to 48.4 million. Total minutes spent on the site grew 12 percent year over year, from 9.4 billion in Q1 2007 to 10.5 billion in Q1 2008, while total purchases at The Apple Store grew 32 percent month over month, from 322,000 purchases in January 2008 to 424,000 purchases in February 2008. iTunes, Apple Store and QuickTime were the top three fastest growing Apple Computer Web channels year over year in Q1 2008 [full story]

April 14 - 7:35pm EDT   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. [full story]

March 27 - 4:40pm EDT   Objective Development, makers of LaunchBar, recently unveiled WebYep 1.2.2 - an update to its content management system designed for small and medium sized businesses. The product enables users to turn any existing site into a fully editable environment, creating and editing pages from within a web browser, on any platform. WebYep also integrates with popular web authoring tools such as Dreamweaver, RapidWeaver, and Freeway. [full story]

March 20 - 5:45pm EDT   In brief: Bookendz Docking Station review posted, Apple 12th in Web traffic, Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco announces Keynote Lineup, Cocktail discounts, prizes offered, and WWDC Scholarships for Australian University Staff and Students ... We have posted a review of the Bookendz Docking Station for 13" MacBook, which replicates all the ports on your MacBook and adds a hub for the USB devices, which gives you five USB 2.0 ports. The hub has its own power supply to add power to the extra USB ports and a green LED on the top of the dock indicates the power is working properly. You do not have to use the power supply, if your peripherals do not require power. [full story]

March 18 - 4:05pm EDT   M:Metrics, a mobile metrics research group, has found the iPhone to be the great game-changer for the wireless industry, saying that it effectively lives up to the hype surrounding the device. Mark Donovan, senior analyst for M:Metrics, said that the iPhone is "compelling consumers to interact with the mobile web," citing "off-the-charts" usage for tasks including text messaging and mobile video. The firm's figures show that 85-percent of all iPhone users access news and other remote information during January. [full story]

March 17 - 5:55pm EDT   Aspyr Media has released The Sims Castaway Stories for Mac, the third release in the product line. The title has begun shipping to retail stores throughout North America. This Sim Story takes place on a tropical island. "Help them make a new life in an unexplored paradise in this easy-to-play, laptop-friendly version of The Sims." This title features two ways to play: a directed Story mode, allowing users to fulfill goals as they explore the island, build a shelter, learn to find food and make life comfortable as possible and an open-ended Free play mode, in which you create your Sims and determine how they'll evolve on their new island home. The Sims Castaway Stories ... [full story]

March 5 - 6:40pm EST   Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8) beta, a test version of the company's free Web browser that will compete for dominance with Apple's Safari browser and Firefox. IE 8 features 'Activities,' or contextual services that provide quick access to a service -- such as 'look up' or 'send' -- from any Web page. Activities for example could allow a user to select the address of a restaurant and display an in-place view of the map using a favorite map service. [full story]

March 3 - 12:40pm EST   RAGE Software today released RAGE SEKeyword 1.1, a free application for website owners designed to discover niche keywords among Web searches. The software uses Yahoo! Search technology to find the most relevant keywords for a particular website, according to RAGE, and suggests the most popular searched keywords based on site content. RAGE SEKeyword 1.1 informs users about what search engine keywords competitors are targeting by reading the meta keywords of competing sites. The software is available for free, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. [full story]

February 26 - 2:55pm EST   Community chat service TalkShoe has come to iPhone, bringing live phone calls together with online chat. The service presents users with a Web-based interface to host live discussions, according to Yahoo News, and is designed to facilitate discussions about podcasts or other events in real time as they progress. TalkShoe's new iPhone interface allows users to take part in community calls, while registered users can use an iPhone to conduct as well as manage those calls. iPhone users have access to a link that automatically dials in and participates in a call, allowing up to 250 people to talk together simultaneously. [full story]

February 25 - 1:45pm EST   The Eye-Fi crew today released Eye-Fi Manager 1.5, an update to the Eye-Fi Card firmware that adds a new feature -- 'Smart Boost' -- to make wireless photo uploads more efficient and determine the most efficient way to upload photos to a desired location. "In the past, the Eye-Fi Card would first upload your photos from the camera to the Web, where they would then be sent to your online photo-sharing site and to your computer via the Web-based Eye-Fi Service," the Eye-Fi crew said. [full story]

February 14 - 2:00pm EST   Softpress Systems today announced that both Freeway 5 Pro and Freeway 5 Express will ship on March 27th, 2008. Freeway is designed for developers who prefer to focus on design issues, rather than coding. The update brings the ability to create CSS menus, personalized blogger templates, and a range of dynamic effects from fade to pulsate. Freeway 4 Pro users can upgrade to the latest release for $70, while upgrades from Freeway 4 Express to Freeway 5 Express are available for $40. A public beta version of the software is available from the company's website. [full story]

February 8 - 7:00pm EST   Web Help Desk is offering a sneak peek of version 9.0 of its self-titled software, which offers users a feature complete, cross-platform virtual help desk for their websites. The software features an entirely web-driven interface, and offers one-step connectivity with most database systems. Web Help Desk 9.0 can automatically assign tickets, and allows for two-way correspondence, LDAP synchronization, customized reporting, automated SLA email reminders and ticket updates. A free demo is available from the Web Help Desk website, while pricing is circumstantial. [full story]

January 24 - 7:55pm EST   WebAssist today announced the release of iRite, a cross-browser text editing plugin for DreamWeaver. Normally, DreamWeaver users are required to make manual adjustments for rich text formatting; iRite allows users to focus on written content by providing a number of word processor-like functions to DreamWeaver’s interface. WebAssist is currently selling iRite for $50, a $25 discount from its usual price, while users of WebAssist Super Suite, Developer Suite or Admin Suite can upgrade for $30. [full story]

January 15 - 10:35am EST   SeeFile today plans to unveil SeeFile 4.0 at a press release during Macworld. The Web server software enables companies to share media files, and boasts one-click installation with approval features alongside 3D, flash, and RAW support. SeeFile 4 works with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to offer one step installation with an embedded PostGres SQL database, and includes a new approval workflow designed to increase productivity as well as customer usage. SeeFile is priced from $500-$5,000, while complete bundled server systems running on a Mac mini server (1TB of storage) start at $1,500. [full story]

January 2 - 4:25pm EST   Sheep Systems today released Bookdog 5, an update to the bookmark management utility that adds integration with del.icio.us bookmarks alongside a new user interface and support for the new release of Netscape Navigator. Bookdog allows users to sort, import/export, migrate, and verify bookmark collections in Safari, Firefox 1-2.x, Camino, Google Bookmarks, del.icio.us, OmniWeb, Opera, Shiira 2.x, and Netscape Navigator. Bookdog 5 is priced at $20 for a 2-Mac license with one year of upgrades, and requires Mac OS X 10.3 or later for basic functionality. Mac OS X 10.4 or later is required for some features, such as del.icio.us support. [full story]