MacNews

Mar 10

Smartphone Market will eclipse computers by 2012

Demand for the iPhone and Google’s Nexus One will help propel smartphone sales past those of personal computers in two years, according to a new report by the Gartner research group. As reported by "Bloomberg" (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=AAPL%3AUS&sid=arm...), Gartner says smartphone sales will more than triple to 491.9 million units by 2012 from 139.3 million in 2008. The computer market will expand to 443.1 million units from 290.8 million in the same period. “Smartphones are headed towards that billion-unit category that handsets are in today,” says Jim McGregor, an analyst at research firm In-Stat in Scottsdale, Arizona. “The smartphone is the billion-unit pot of gold that everyone wants.”

Mar 10

PixelMags has 100-plus apps ready for the iPad

Since PixelMags (http://www.pixel-mags.com) launched in December, 60+ titles for iPhone and iPod touch have been sold in 77 countries through the Apple App Store. New magazine titles are releasing every day. As the launch date of iPad nears, anticipation is reaching a fever pitch. "Disney CEO Bob Iger and Wired Magazine Editor-In-Chief Chris Anderson have called the iPad a 'game-changer'. We couldn't agree more. When iPad launches, we will have more magazine titles optimized for iPad than any other vendor." says Ryan Marquis, founder and COO, PixelMags PixelMags has 100+ apps ready for Apple's iPad. PixelMags publications are releasing to top paid book app spots all over the world. 30% of readers are making subscriptions their top In App purchase. The release of the iPad is sure to increase this digital publishing phenomenon, says Marquis. Ryan Marquis describes the PixelMags platform as "a realistic digital magazine reproduction, with user-friendly bookmarking and search options,...

Mar 10

iPhone/iPod/iPad apps for March 10

Here are the latest iPhone/iPod touch/iPod/iPad apps announced. You can find 'em at the Apple App Store (http://www.itunes.com/appstore/). Rentals.com -- a resource for single-units, apartments and houses for rent nationwide -- has announced its Rentals.com App is now available from the Apple App Store. The free app gives users the ability to search Rentals.com listings from their iPhone or iPod touch. Augmented Reality has released Poynt for the iPhone. The free app connects iPhone users to local businesses, people, restaurants and movie theaters, offering detailed listings, location information and augmented reality. TruffleSoft has introduced xSolve 1.0, an US$0.99 custom calculator utility for the iPhone and iPod touch. It lets users automatically create their own custom solutions. Enter a formula, set any desired optional settings and xSolve will create a custom utility. Dejal Systems has rolled out Tweeps 1.0 for the iPhone and iPod touch, with an iPad edition in the works. The...

Mar 10

Apple excels in 'Consumer Reports' rankings

"Consumer Reports" has published results of its latest survey (http://blogs.consumerreports.org/electronics/2010/03/best-and-worst-tech...) on the best and worst companies for computer tech support. And Apple, as you might expect, excelled. Scores are based on an annual survey from the Consumer Reports National Research Center this past January of over 7,000 desktop- and laptop-owning subscribers to "Consumer Reports." Respondents weighed in on the ability of manufacturer's tech support to solve their problems, the communication and knowledge of phone support staff, how long they were placed on hold, and the quality of the company's online support. "Consumer Reports" grouped together computer labels made by the same company (HP and Compaq were ranked together, for example). Of the six major manufacturers, one earned top marks across the board (guess who?), and left the others in its wake in terms of overall satisfaction. In striking contrast, another manufacturer received...

Mar 10

Troi Automatisering releases Troi Dialog Plug-in 5.5 for...

Troi Automatisering has releasedTroi Dialog Plug-in 5.5 for FileMaker Pro 11. Troi Dialog Plug-in is a tool for displaying all sorts of dialogs in FileMaker Pro 11. The text of the dialog and of the buttons can be created dynamically by using a calculation. Troi Dialog Plug-in 5.5 is an update for FileMaker Pro 11. It adds support for the PNG image format, including support for transparency in the icon. The new version also implements Cococa versions of the Progress and InputDialog dialogs. A fully functional demo version of Troi Dialog Plug-in 5.5 is available for downloading at Troi's web site (http://www.troi.com/software/dialogplugin.html). It works with FileMaker Pro 9, 10 and 11. The plug-in can also be used with runtimes from FileMaker Pro Advanced 9, 10 or FileMaker Pro Advanced 11. The plug-in is available for Mac OS X and Windows.

Mar 10

WD introduces new My Passport AV Portable Media Drives

WD has introduced its new My Passport AV portable media drives (http://www.westerndigital.com/MyPassportAV), which are designed specifically for video storage and playback and come with 320GB of capacity for US$109.99. A large and increasing number of game consoles, camcorders, TVs, DVRs, Blu-ray players and media players, including the WD TV Media Player family, allow consumers to connect a USB drive and play the multimedia content from the drive on an HD TV. The My Passport AV portable media drive is designed to meet the requirements of this video streaming environment. The My Passport AV portable media drives operate with the Direct Copy feature offered in Sony's new Handycam video recorders. Direct Copy lets Handycam users offload and archive HD video directly to a My Passport AV portable media drive without a computer, creating room to shoot more HD videos when their Handycam hard drive becomes full. Consumers can then play back their stored videos using Sony's latest Blu-ray...

Mar 10

Markzware releases PageZephyr 2.0

Markzware has released PageZephyr 2.0 (http://www.pagezephyr.com), which is targeted to publishing companies, advertising firms, legal eDiscovery and other companies possessing so-called proprietary files. It captures, indexes, and converts content created in proprietary or non-common formats without the need for the original authoring application. This transformative technology substantially reduces the cost for time spent searching and cataloging unmanaged content residing within these file types on local or network drives, according to the folks at Markzware. Before PageZephyr, documents had to be opened by the original application and manually searched, one by one. Now PageZephyr 2.0, enables anyone to instantly find content in these documents by simply typing in a search term or phrase. This new release of PageZephyr includes expanded file support for: versions of QuarkXPress 4.0 to 8.x; Adobe InDesign CS through CS4; and Microsoft Publisher 2002 to 2007. Priced at US$199,...

Mar 10

Apple, others sued over smartphone related technologies

Another day, another lawsuit. Apple, AT&T, Research in Motion and other mobile companies are defendants in a new patent suit that covers a broad range of smartphone related technologies, including e-mail syncing and Bluetooth connectivity. According to "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/03/10/apple_iphone_targeted_in_p...) the suit was filed earlier this month in a U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas by a company called SmartPhone Technologies, based in Frisco, Texas. It accuses Apple of violating six patents owned by the company covering a range of topics, including Bluetooth connectivity, e-mail syncing, bandwidth conservation and general smartphone functionality. The suit alleges that Apple and its iPhone are liable for infringement of the patents and have caused damage to SmartPhone Technologies, notes "AppleInsider." In addition to Apple, a number of prominent smartphone companies and mobile operators are named as defendants, including...

Mar 10

OnLive to launch Mac compatible consumer game service in June

OnLive (http://www.onlive.com) -- which specializes in on-demand, instant-play games -- announced at this week's Game Developer Conference that Mac and PC versions of its game service will begin rolling out to consumers on June 17 during the E3 2010 show. The OnLive Game Service is a revolutionary, on-demand video game platform capable of delivering the latest and most advanced games instantly via a broadband connection on virtually any Mac or PC, via a small browser plug-in, or on an HDTV, via OnLive's MicroConsole TV Adapter. Additionally, the game service offers instant access to purchase or rent new release games on an à la carte basis from many publishers, including Electronic Arts, Ubisoft® 2K Games, THQ and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Starting on June 17, 2010, the OnLive Game Service will be available to early registrants throughout the 48 contiguous United States. The initial offering will be supported by a US$14.95 monthly service fee, which will provide access...

Mar 10

MySpace launches MySpace Neon iPhone app

At this week's at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, MySpace (http://www.myspace.com) announced the MySpace Neon iPhone application, giving users access to their MySpace games on the iPhone. MySpace also showcases new social games including Fish Isle (IGG), Hoop Fever Live (TheBroth), Kingdoms of Camelot (Watercooler), Paradise Paintball (CMUNE), SPP Ranch (Slide), Warlords (BitRhymes), Wild Ones (Playdom), and Zombie Revenge (DeezGames). MySpace has also announced a new MySpace Games experience that creates a more social gaming environment with new tools and functionality for users and developers. The site, available at myspace.com/games, launched today. These big steps are an evolution of the MySpace Platform to improve users’ gaming experience with a simple way to discover and share games, says Mike Jones, MySpace co-president. It also offers improved application engagement and analytics tools for developers on the MySpace Platform, he adds.

Mar 10

Icarus game developer launches Mac compatible MMO platform

Game developer, Icarus Studios, has announced the beta release of its Mac-compatible platform and the Fallen Earth MMO. The software, compatible with Intel Macs, will allow players to connect to the same live server as PC users with game features optimized for their resident operating system. Fallen Earth, co-developed by Icarus Studios and Fallen Earth, is Icarus's first title to support the Mac. With plans to keep the post-apocalyptic momentum going, Icarus Studios is utilizing the open source software Wine (http://www.winehq.com) to launch the Mac-compatible version of the game. “The Mac OS X compatibility project is something we’ve been excited to see implemented for quite a while,” says Brad Lineberger, chief technical officer of Icarus Studios. “Our goal for the project is to allow Mac users to run all of our existing and future games in their native OS.” For optimal play, Mac users will need to run OS X 10.5 Leopard or later, using an Intel-based system with dedicated graphics...

MacNews Blog

Mar 10

iPhone could overtake Blackberry in market share next year

New data from Trefis (http://www.trefis.com), a new financial platform that allows you to see how a company's products impact its stock, says the iPhone could overtake the Blackberry in market share in 2011. As reported by "Forbes" (http://blogs.forbes.com/greatspeculations/2010/03/05/iphone-could-overta...), Trefis says RIM’s market share lead over Apple has been shrinking and Apple will be able to overtake RIM market share by early 2011. Trefis believes sales of the iPhone will eventually outpace BlackBerry sales for the following reasons: ° Apple’s ecosystem of consumer products (Macs, iPad, Apple TV) and services (iTunes, iPhone apps) make the iPhone a more attractive phone for many consumers compared to the BlackBerry. ° The end of AT&T exclusivity will give Apple’s iPhone wider distribution in the US (comparable to BlackBerry distribution). ° The iPhone is making inroads with business customers that have traditionally preferred the BlackBerry.

Mar 10

Gaming on the Mac picking up Stream

Now that Vale is bringing its Steam, Valve’s gaming service, and Source, Valve’s gaming engine, to the Mac, the Mac gaming situation should improve. Not that it's been terrible. However, gamers have long complained about the lack of Mac games -- at least compared to the bazillion gaming titles for the PeeCee. Steamworks for the Mac supports all of the Steamworks application programming interfaces, and Valve has added a new feature, called Steam Play, which allows customers who purchase the product for the Mac or Windows to play on the other platform free of charge. For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. "The inclusion of WebKit into Steam, and of OpenGL into Source gives us a lot of flexibility in how we move these technologies forward," Steam development director John Cook told "IT Wire" (http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/entertainment/...

Mar 09

Analyst: iPad will beat Kindle's all-time sales in thre...

Apple could have the bestselling e-book reader of all time in just three months on the market, according to an estimate from FBR Capital analyst Craig Berger. In a note to clients -- as noted by the "Latest Electronics" site (http://www.latestelectronics-dennis.com/?p=3117) he thinks Apple is set to ship five million iPads just in the first half of 2010. At this rate, the tablet would push past Amazon’s unofficial lifetime record of three million Kindles in just the three-month span between early April and the end of June. Saturday, April 3 is when the iPad will go on sale in the U.S. At least the Wi-Fi only version will; the Wi-Fi + 3G model will hit US store sleeves in late April. In addition, all models of iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK in late April. Beginning a week from today, on March 12, US customers can pre-order both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + 3G models from Apple’s online store (http://www.apple.com) or...

Mar 09

EFF criticizes the iPhone Developer Program License Agreemen...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) -- an organization founded to promote rights in the online and networked world -- has blasted the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, saying that the "entire family of devices built on the iPhone OS (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad) have been designed to run only software that is approved by Apple - a major shift from the norms of the personal computer market." "Overall, the Agreement is a very one-sided contract, favoring Apple at every turn," says the EFI. "That's not unusual where end-user license agreements are concerned (and not all the terms may ultimately be enforceable), but it's a bit of a surprise as applied to the more than 100,000 developers for the iPhone, including many large public companies. How can Apple get away with it? Because it is the sole gateway to the more than 40 million iPhones that have been sold. In other words, it's only because Apple still "owns" the customer, long after each iPhone (and soon, iPad) is sold, that...

Mar 09

Apple wins design patents for iPod shuffle, MacBook Air

Apple has won three design patents from the US Patent & Trademark Office. They involve a power supply, the iPod shuffle and the MacBook Air Patent number D11,415 is for the ornamental design of a power supply. Patent number D611,470 is for the ornamental design of an electronic device (the Apple remote). Patent number D611,469 is for the ornamental design of another electronic device (the MacBook Air). The inventors on all the patents are Bartley K. Andrew, Daniel J. Coster, Daniele De Iuliis, Evans Hankey, Richard P. Howarth, Jonathan P. Ive, Steve Jobs, Robert Duncan Kerr, Shin Nishibori, Matthew Dean Rohrbach, Peter Russell-Clarke, Douglas B. Satzger, Christopher J. Stringer, Eugene Antony Whange and Rico Zorkendorfer. Three other patents by Apple have also appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Following is a summary of each. Patent number 7,675,529 is for a method and apparatus to scale graphical user interfaces. To scale a view component according to an arbitrary...

Mar 09

Analyst: iPad content to equal almost 30% of revenue from sa...

According to Broadpoint analyst Brian Marshall, the sale of applications, e-books, newspapers and magazines for the iPad is predicted to equal nearly 30% of the revenue Apple will earn from selling the hardware by the end of 2011. In a note to clients -- as noted by "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com), the analyst believes content revenue will top 10 percent of total iPad hardware revenue by December of 2010, and a year later that number will nearly triple. He's increased his forecast for iPad shipments in the 2010 calendar year to four million units, up from a previous prediction of 2.2 million. Marshall told clients that "if the device lives up to its potential," he could see it shipping more than seven million in this year alone. "We believe the iPad offers a rich media experience that will translate into a content-based recurring revenue stream over time," he says. Saturday, April 3 is when the iPad will go on sale in the U.S. At least the Wi-Fi only version will; the Wi...

Mar 09

Analyst: Apple's lawsuit against HTC a 'warning sh...

Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner has issued a behind-the-scenes report on the patent suits Apple filed last week against HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone maker. As noted by "Fortune" (http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/03/09/apple-talks-tough...), Reiner told clients: "Starting in January, Apple launched a series of C-Level discussions with tier-1 handset makers to underscore its growing displeasure at seeing its iPhone-related IP [intellectual property] infringed. The lawsuit filed against HTC thus appears to be Apple's way of putting a public, lawyered-up exclamation point on a series of blunt conversations that have been occurring behind closed doors. "Our checks also suggest that these warning shots are meaningfully disrupting the development roadmaps for would-be iPhone killers. Rival software and hardware teams are going back to the drawing board to look for work-arounds. Lawyers are redoubling efforts to gauge potential defensive and offensive responses. And strategy...

Mar 09

How about a division to help companies to integrate iPhone/i...

Recently I pondered (http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/is_closer_integration_betw...) whether closer integration between Mac OS X proper and the iPhone OS was coming. Regarding that convergence, I would like to see Apple either license or get into the business of helping a lot of different companies upgrade their interfaces. Like what? Home phones, office phone systems, auto information displays and controls, ATM machines, home information and security systems, etc. I could go on, but you get the idea. Now I don't think Apple will license the Mac or iPhone OS. However, there many areas where Apple isn't likely to get directly involved or where the company has little or no interest in making hardware/software. Instead of licensing one of their operating systems, perhaps Apple could create a division that specifically helps companies to integrate iPhone/iPod touch/iPad hardware into their systems. For example, I could easily see an iPod touch integrated as a controller for...

Mar 08

Analyst predicts continued upward swing in Mac sales

Using recent figures from the NPD research firm (http://www.npd.com) Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is predicting a continued upward swing in Mac sales in the months ahead. "We expect the strong year-over-year growth in NPD data that we saw in January to continue in the month of February," he wrote in a note on Monday -- as noted by "TheStreet.com" (http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/story/10697430/1/apple-dell-h-p-poised-f...). "We believe this represents a buying opportunity ahead of NPD data for the month of February on March 15." Mac shipments climbed 33% during the first fiscal quarter of this year reaching 3.36 million units. This surpassed the prior quarter's then-record shipments of just over three million. As noted by "TheStreet.com," Munster explained, however, that Apple experienced weak Mac sales in the first half of 2009, making its 2010 numbers appear particularly strong. Still, he expects the company to ship between 2.6 million and 2.8 million Macs in its seasonally...

Mar 08

IDC computer market predictions look good for the iMac, Appl...

Many of the trends that influenced the worldwide computer market in 2009 will continue to resonate in 2010, but their impact will change as new market forces come into play. The news is good for Apple laptops and the iMac and, well, not bad for the iPad. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the lower prices brought on by last year’s challenging economy will create new opportunities for emerging sub form factors, such as ultrathin portables and all-in-one desktops. “We’re expecting consumer and commercial personal computer buyers alike to be more experimental with new types of computer, especially because of their lower price points,” says Bob O’Donnell, program vice president, Clients and Displays. “Hardware vendors and software developers should seize the opportunity to promote differentiation by rewriting the computing experience to match the new variety of Personal Computer sub form factors arriving in the market.” IDC’s predictions for the personal computer...

Reviews and Kool Tools

Review: Gridiron Flow keeps you organized

Gridiron Software's Flow (http://www.gridironsoftware.com), which costs US$299) cannot be fully explained in this amount of space -- it’s too vast and too valuable. Instead, I’ll tell you what it does and what it’s good... Read more »

Real People Reviews: New WD My Passport Studio

Making an external hard drive stand out when there are so many to choose from can be quite a challenge, but Western Digital (http://www.westerndigital.com) has always been an innovator in this realm. In addition, they... Read more »

Review: Eos unveils Converge system for Macs, PCs, iPhones

If you want wireless audio throughout your house and office -- and don't mind spending some not-inconsiderable scratch to make it happen -- the Eos Converge from Eos Wireless (http://www.eoswireless.com) offers a... Read more »

Review: Mach Desktop can bring your Mac desktop to 'life'

If you want more than still images on your desktop, Mach Desktop (http://www.machsoftwaredesign.com/desktop.html) for Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 spruces up your screen with Quartz Compositions, QuickTime movies or even web... Read more »