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Sun Apr 24 04:33:47 EDT 2011
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Sandy Bridge MacBook Airs coming in June? -

In May Apple next month will reportedly begin manufacturing the first updates to its rejuvenated MacBook Air line "as the company looks to maintain the impressive sales momentum generated by the ultra-thin notebooks and limit the market opportunity for would-be competitors hoping to wedge their foot in the door," says "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com).

Another day, another lawsuit. Samsung Electronics Co has filed patent lawsuits against Apple over the U.S. firm's iPhone and iPad after Apple claimed Samsung's smartphones and tablets "slavishly" copied its products, reports "Reuters" (http://macte.ch/Lh0Le).

Apple's lawsuit filed on April 15 in the U.S. claims Samsung's mobile phones and Galaxy Tab. Apple says Samsung "slavishly" copied the iPhone and iPad.

The controversy surrounding the security of Apple’s iPhone and iPad escalated Thursday as some European governments said they would investigate whether the company had violated privacy laws by collecting and storing users’ geographic location data, reports "The New York Times" (http://macte.ch/a2ggl).

Good Technology -- a provider of secure and managed enterprise mobility for iPhone, iPad, Android and other leading smartphone platforms -- has released its quarterly data report detailing the changing landscape of IT and mobile enterprise technology.

Conde Nast is slowing down -- but not abandoning -- its plans to deliver iPad editions of all its magazines, reports "Ad Age" (http://macte.ch/Y8g46), quoting company employees, who say that conditions aren't quite right yet to deliver the ideal app editions at the kind of scale that advertisers want.

Approximately 22% of customers who bought the iPhone on Verizon last quarter switched from another carrier, while about 23% of AT&T iPhone buyers were new to that company, according to "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com).

The launch of the iPhone on Verizon brought fewer than 500,000 new customers to the carrier in less than two months of availability in the first quarter of calendar 2011, the article says. However, on AT&T, more than 800,000 new customers joined because of the iPhone.

Peter Kafka of "All Things Digital" reports (http://macte.ch/SUOYY) says Apple has already procured deals from at least two of the big four labels (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony and EMI) within the last two months for its online music locker service.

“They’ve been very aggressive and thoughtful about it,” an "industry executive" tells Kafka. “It feels like they want to go pretty soon.”

Manufacturing issues at Apple led to a shortfall in iPad tablet shipments in the first quarter of the calendar year, prompting research firm IHS iSuppli to cut its forecast for the year, reports "Fox Business" (http://macte.ch/Yx5Fs).

IHS iSuppli now expects Apple to ship 39.7 million units for all models of the iPad this year, down from the February forecast of 43.7 million, a 9.1% reduction. Apple's first-quarter supply of the iPad 2 fell short of demand; the company shipped 4.69 million iPads during the quarter.

Shares of Apple are up US$8.59, or 2.5%, at $351 Friday morning following excellent second quarter 2011 fiscal results announced on Wednesday.

Apple has released iBooks 1.2.2, an update of its ebook reader app for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. According to Apple the update sports a number of important stability and performance improvements. More specifically, it:

��Addresses issues playing video included with enhanced books from the iBookstore;

��Resolves a problem where some books open with a different font than expected;

��Makes iBooks more responsive when navigating books with many items in their table of contents.

Stellar Technologies (http://www.stellar-technologies.com) says that support for its Flock social web browser will be discontinued as of April 26.

"Since no further security updates will be provided to keep you safe on the web, we encourage all Flock users to upgrade to either Chrome or Firefox. Both are based on the same reliable technologies as Flock, and both are being actively maintained and improved," says The Flock Team. "Also, each of these browsers has a broad selection of add-ons and extensions to customize and extend their capabilities."

FirmTek has announced their US$119.95, bootable, 2-port, SeriTek/6G eSATA 6Gb/s ExpressCard/34 adapter (http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-6g). It offers recorded read transfer rates of over 380MB/s when matched with the new 2011 Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro.

This 6 gigabit-per-second eSATA ExpressCard/34 adapter is designed to expand the external storage options available for the 2011 Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro and Windows PC notebooks with an available ExpressCard/34 expansion slot. Mac OS X 10.6.x (64-bit and 32-bit modes) are supported along with Windows 7, Vista and Windows XP.

Combat Mission is returning to the Mac. Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy, the first release, is now fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 and higher. It's available for pre-order immediately (http://www.battlefront.com/).

You can pre-order CM:BN in a special SteelBook Limited Collector Edition for US$55 (plus shipping and handling). It sports a retail-style package, fitting up to four discs inside (the game disc as well as up to three future modules that can be purchased separately at a later time) as well as the full, printed 200-page manual.

Eltima Software (http://mac.eltima.com/) says SyncMate 3 now fully supports data synchronization with Outlook 2011. The app requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. It costs US$39.95 for a personal license (for use with two Macs), though version 3 is a free update for registered users.

"Men's Fitness," a men's lifestyle magazine, has released its first, free, single-topic, custom publication digital magazine app for the iPad.

By 'Doctor Dave' Greenbaum

With a name like Ballistic (http://macte.ch/U7kij), you’d think this US$29.99 iPhone 4 case is bulletproof.  It isn’t, but it’s darn close. Its three layers of protection, combined with a great belt clip, could make the user feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof. The Ballistic HC (Hard Core) Series is
great protection without adding bulk.

Ambrosia Software has updated Soundboard (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/dl/soundboard) for Mac OS X to version 2.0.1. The updated Soundpipe now passes pass audio in discrete channels correctly for Soundboard plus the default mic.

Also, Soundpipe devices no longer report sample rate of 48kHz. Additionally, in version 2.0.1, there are keyboard shortcuts for "Pause all," "Duck," master pan controls, and master volume controls.

GarageBand is the digital music-making and recording application of choice for many Mac users, but up-to-date, real-world documentation is hard to find. To fill this gap, TidBITS Publishing (http://www.tidbits.com) has released a pair of ebooks--Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand '11 and Take Control of Recording with GarageBand '11.

Apple has completed work on an online music storage service and is set to launch it ahead of Google, "whose own music efforts have stalled," reports "Reuters" (http://macte.ch/TDvRe), quoting "several people familiar with both companies' plans."

Apple's plans will allow iTunes customers to store their songs on a remote server, and then access them from wherever they have an Internet connection, the article says. However, "Reuters" adds that Apple hasn't yet signed any new licenses for the service.

Verizon activated 2.2 million iPhones during its first fiscal 2011 quarter. It was the first quarter in which the company carried the Apple smartphone.

Verizon reported 51 cents in EPS in first-quarter 2011, compared with first-quarter 2010 earnings of 16 cents per share.� There are no adjustments to first-quarter 2011 earnings results.� Adjusted first-quarter 2010 earnings, excluding the impact of divestitures and non-operational charges (non-GAAP), were 48 cents per share.

"How dirty is your data?" (http://macte.ch/jYBqf) is a new report from the Greenpeace environmental agency on the energy choices made by IT companies including Apple, Akamai, Amazon.com (Amazon Web Services), Facebook, Google, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Twitter, and Yahoo. Apple doesn't fare well in the report.

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics (http://www.strategyanalytics.com), Apple overtook Nokia to become the world’s largest handset vendor in revenue terms during the first quarter of 2011. In revenue terms, Apple is now the world’s largest handset vendor, smartphone vendor and tablet vendor.

AViiQ (http://www.AViiQ.com) has released the US$39.99 AViiQ Portable Quick Stand for laptops. Weighing less than 3.4 ounces and measuring no more than 3/8 of an inch thick when folded, it fits in just about any bag and is designed to support laptops up to 17-inches in size.�

Inspired by the principles and flexibility of origami, an ancient Japanese art of paper folding, the AViiQ Portable Quick Stand transforms from a slim flat sheet to the optimal ergonomic angle by expanding and collapsing instantaneously when needed, says Alan Yeung, co-founder of AViiQ.�

Chimp Studios (http://glp.chimpstudios.com/) has introduced Guest List Planner 1.0 for Mac OS X (10.5 and higher). It's available for US$14.99 at the Mac App Store.

Little Worlds has released Color Cross for Mac OS X. It's available for US$5.99 on the Mac App Store.

Here's how the game is described: "Puzzle game fans can solve more than 200 puzzles in this version especially developed and adapted for the Mac, offering high definition graphics and a smooth and intuitive interface. The aim of the game is to reveal the mysterious image hidden behind a grid by filling each square with the right color and by simply deducting it from the numbers written on either side of the grid.

By 'Doctor Dave' Greenbaum

The US$99.99 ZAGGMate iPad Case and keyboard combo (http://macte.ch/NL4ua), upon first glance, is a brilliant idea: a combination bluetooth keyboard and iPad protective case. Unfortunately, the implementation of the design is flawed and for many this product simply won’t be a good fit.

WriteIt! Studios has updated CookieStumbler (http://www.writeitstudios.com), an application to keep your Mac's privacy safe, to version 1.1.3. It's a maintenance update.

Cookie Stumbler -- which requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher -- includes tools to detect ad/tracking cookies. It features schedules, on-click filter and automator actions to make the process customizable.

With Cookie Stumbler you can scan and track cookies, then remove them with a single click. It supports Google Chrome, Firefox, OmniWeb, Chromium, Safari and Flash cookies.

SmileOnMyMac (http://www.smileonmymac.com) has updated TextExpander, a Mac OS X utility that lets users define abbreviations for frequently-used text strings and images, to version 3.3 The new version introduces AppleScript support.

It also adds Backup Now, Restore, and Logging as customizable toolbar items. TextExpander 3.3 allows keypress macros (tab, return, escape, enter) to be nested in fill-in snippets. Also, automatic capitalization at sentence start now works with contractions of "I" (I'm, I'll, I'd, etc.),

Old Jewel Software has released LazyMouse 2.5 (http://www.old-jewel.com), a revision to its Mac OS X (10.5 and higher) utility for saving time dealing with dialog boxes and alerts.

LazyMouse is a Preference Pane that moves the cursor to the default button whenever a dialog box appears on the screen. Version 2.5 adds the ability to show an animation when the cursor is moved. The animation shows a ghosted cursor moving from the original mouse position to the new mouse position.

In collaboration with iPresentee and iWebThemesPro, iWebTemplate (http://www.iwebtemplate.com) has added nine new iWeb templates to be used with iWeb, the website creation component of Apple's iLife suite.

The new themes are: Mac Store, Underground, Tea Time, Retro, Mammoth, Drawing, Church Dark, Wedding and Church. They can be customized and include an installer to make sure the templates end up in the right place.

The templates require Mac OS X 10.4.3 or higher and iWeb 2.0 (iLife '08) or iWeb 3.0 (iLife '09 or iLife '11). Each iWeb template is available for US$4.99.

Tension Software has released URL Extractor 3.2.3 (http://pomola.com/products_urlextractor/urlextractor.html). URLs can be now launched from the URL extracted list double clicking them.

URL Extractor is a Mac OS X app for extracting emails address and generic URLs from files on the HD or directly from the web using a list of "starting" web addresses and working unattended after the startup. You can retrieve and start search from web pages using keywords from various international Google sites.

Amazon.de has announced that authors and publishers worldwide are now able to make their books available in the Amazon.de Kindle Store (http://www.amazon.de/kindlebuecher) using the Kindle Direct Publishing (http://kdp.amazon.de) service.

Cristallight and Don Kurt have released iBarcoder 3.3.4 (http://www.cristallight.com/iBarcoder/), the latest Mac barcode software for Mac OS X 10.4 or later. In the new version, a SMN barcode has been added, Code 128 sequential printing has been fixed and interface changes have been made. Now you have ability to make more then 25 barcode symbologies.

Zevrix Solutions (http://www.zevrix.com) has updated InPreflight Pro -- its quality control, packaging automation and preflight reporting solution for Adobe InDesign -- to version 2.9.1. The new version addresses stability and performance issues related to document packaging.

Apple sold 3.76 million Macs in its fiscal 2011 second quarter, which is 28% growth from the year-ago quarter. That's particularly impressive considering that the overall computer market contracted 3% in that time period, according to the IDC research group.

The growth was fueled mainly by the continued popularity of the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro revamp introduced in February, says Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer. Desktop units shipped numbered 1.009 million units; laptop units shipped numbered 2.751 million.

Apple retail stores -- which will celebrate their 10th anniversary in May -- will welcome their one billionth visitor soon, says Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer.

For the fiscal 2011 second quarter, Apple saw retail revenue of US$3.19 billion compared to the year-ago -- a growth of 90%. The stores saw a record 71 million visitors compared to 47 million in the year-ago quarter.

Oppenheimer says Apple will open 42 new stores in fiscal 2011. Three-fourths of those will be outside the US, including a fifth store in China.

For its fiscal 2011 second quarter Apple sold nine million iPods, which is down 10.9 million from the year-ago quarter. That's down but still ahead of Apple's expectations, according to Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer.

Of course, with the continuing phenomenal success of the iPhone and the iPad, it would be astounding if iPod sales continued to grow. However, that doesn't mean the products are on the way out. They'll be around for a looooong time.

Apple shipped a record 18.6 million iPhones in its fiscal 2011 second quarter; that's 113% year-over-year growth and beat just about everyone's predictions.

Recognized iPhone-related revenue was a staggering US$12.3 billion, compared to $5.45 billion in the year-ago quarter. That's an increase of 126%.

Sales in both the Americas and Asia Pacific doubled year-over-year. Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook says the company is seeing strong iPhone deployment in companies worldwide. There are now 196 carriers in 90 countries.

Apple has announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 second quarter ended March 26, 2011. The company posted record second quarter revenue of US$24.67 billion and record second quarter net profit of $5.99 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share.

These results compare to revenue of $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.4% compared to 41.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 59% of the quarter’s revenue.

In a conference call regarding its latest financial results, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook was asked about CEO Steve Jobs' status. Cook says Jobs remains on medical leave.

"But we see him on a regular basis," he added. "He remains involved in major decisions, and I know that he wants to be back full-time as soon as possible."

Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo tells clients -- as reported by "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) -- that shipments of the second-generation Apple TV remain strong, reaching more than two million estimated units since the device launched in late 2010.

Quark has announced QuarkXPress Server 9, the new version of the company's server for dynamic publishing that;s used by systems integrators and application developers.

QuarkXPress Server 9 features an entirely web-based user and administrator interface thich allows the server to be accessed from any web-enabled computer for configuration and management. This, along with complete compatibility with QuarkXPress 9, allows third-party developers to offer hosted software as a service (SaaS) solutions such as web-to-print offerings.



Apple’s iPad commanded 85% of the market for media tablets in 2010, according to full-year figures reported by ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com). The tablet market surged in the second half of the year, but it wasn’t just tablets: according to senior practice director Jeff Orr,

Security researchers at Privacy International (https://www.privacyinternational.org) keeps track of where you go and saves every detail of it to a secret file on the device which is then copied to the owner's computer when the two are synchronized, according to "The Guardian" (http://macte.ch/RcpCR).
The file contains the latitude and longitude of the phone's recorded coordinates along with a timestamp, meaning that anyone who stole the phone or the computer could discover details about the owner's movements using a simple program, the article adds.

AT&T (http://www.att.com) has reported first-quarter results, highlighted by continued robust mobile broadband growth with record first-quarter smartphone sales and a two-fold year-over-year increase in branded computing subscribers. �

AT&T had another strong quarter of smartphone sales. More than 5.5�million smartphones were sold in the first quarter, the third-highest quarter ever and an increase of more than 60% year-over-year. During the quarter, 3.6�million iPhones were activated. Approximately 65% of postpaid sales were smartphones.

Wacom (http://www.wacom.com) has announced the US$29.95 Bamboo Stylus, a new input device created specifically for use with the iPad. Due in mid-May, it will offer an "intuitive and natural way to experience note-taking, sketching, drawing, and other forms of creative expression on the iPad," says Rick Peterson, director of Consumer Brands at Wacom Technology Services.

The iPhone 5 will have a faster processor and will begin shipping in September, reports "Reuters" (http://macte.ch/qyOan), quoting "three people with direct knowledge of the company's supply chain."

The production of the new iPhone will start in July or August and the smartphone will look largely similar to the iPhone, the article adds. The current iPhone 4 was launched by Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs in June last year and began shipping the same month in 2010.

Sonivox (http://www.sonivoxmi.com/) has released their latest virtual instrument release Big Bang -- Universal Drums. Mac and Windows compatible, it features a deeply sampled custom made SJC drum kit played both with sticks and brushes, as well as two different snare drums and two bass drum beaters.

Noteboom Productions (http://www.noteboomproductions.com) has introduced Tutor for Keynote 1.0, their latest video tutorial, now available on the Mac App Store.

With it you can watch videos to learn how to use Keynote, the presentation component of Apple's US$79 iWork suite. The video tutorial consists of 27 video chapters on various subjects. These include using transitions, using builds, adding images and movies, masking images, creating actions, and securing your presentation.

InfiniteNIL Software has introduced Packrat Lite 1.0 (http://www.infinitenil.com/packrat), a free version of its Mac OS X desktop client for 37signals' Backpack web application. Packrat Lite uses the Backpack API [application programming interface] to download your Backpack data to your computer.

You can view �the data much like you do in Backpack, whether or not you'are connected to the Internet. The full version of Packrat lets you edit the data as well and keeps changes in sync with Backpack.