CS Odessa (http://www.conceptdraw.com) says ConceptDraw Project 6 has gained the ability to work with Microsoft Project files in their native format. Now MindManager users will have access to the Project management capabilities of ConceptDraw Project. MS Project can now gain access to the full capabilities of ConceptDraw Office, says Olesya Gileva, project manager for ConceptDraw Project at CS Odessa. ConceptDraw Project is an integral component of ConceptDraw Office, because of INGYRE2 technology, the integration technology that ConceptDraw Office applications to work together smoothly, Gileva adds. ConceptDraw Project is a standalone product for Mac OS X and Windows and is also an application in the ConceptDraw Office suite. ConceptDraw Project also imports and exports Mindjet MindManager files. ConceptDraw Project retails for US$219; competitive upgrades from other paid Project products are available for $109.

Apple will “probably” lose its court bid to stop Amazon.com Inc. from using the term “App store” for a service selling programs for Android devices, reports "Bloomberg Businessweek" (http://macte.ch/evXDr). U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton said after a hearing in Oakland, California, Wednesday that she is “probably” going to deny the motion because Apple hasn’t demonstrated confusion among consumers, the article adds. Hamilton said she will review court filings before issuing a final decision. Apple’s difficulty demonstrating “real evidence of actual confusion” among consumers is a “stumbling block for Apple,” Hamilton said in court. “I’m troubled by the showing that you’ve made so far, but that’s where you’re likely not to prevail at this early juncture.” In March Apple sued Amazon, saying the online retailer is using Apple’s “App Store” trademark for a mobile-software developer program. In a complaint filed March 18 in federal court in northern California, Apple accused Amazon....

The US House of Representatives on Wednesday took up" the most far-reaching overhaul of the patent system in 60 years, a bill that leaders in both parties said would make it easier for inventors to get their innovations to market and help put people back to work," reports "The Mercury News" (http://macte.ch/9wxs8). The legislation, supported by the Obama administration and a broad range of business groups and high tech companies including Apple and Google, aims to ease the lengthy backlog in patent applications, clean up some of the procedures that can lead to costly litigation and put the U.S. under the same filing system as the rest of the industrialized world, the article adds. The Senate passed a similar bill last March. If the bill makes it to the White House for the President's signature, it could be one of the first congressional actions this year to have a concrete effect on business. A final vote is expected later in the week.

Meraki, which specializes in cloud networking, has announced results of a study of mobile data consumption on WiFi networks, showing that iPads use significantly more Wi-Fi data than the average mobile device. Additionally, the study found that mobile platforms overtook desktops, with a marked rise in Android devices. The study showed that: ° Between 2010 and 2011, mobile platforms overtook desktop platforms in percentage of Wi-Fi devices. ° The average iPad consumes over 400% more Wi-Fi data than the average Android, iPod, and iPhone. ° iOS and Android together now account for 58% of Wi-Fi devices, compared to 33% just one year ago. ° The iPhone is now the single most popular Wi-Fi device with 32% share. Meraki anonymously surveyed over 100,000 randomly selected devices accessing general use, public, and educational Wi-Fi networks across the US. The survey looked at bandwidth usage and operating system popularity over selected periods in 2010 and 2011. Meraki’s data shows iOS devices...

India's antitrust agency has received a complaint against Apple requesting that the body look into whether the U.S. smartphone maker violated local competition laws when selling the iPhone 4 to select mobile phone operators, reports "Fox Business" (http://macte.ch/Prx49). Quoting an unnamed senior official at the country's Competition Commission, the article says the agency may examine the complaint. However, it's not necessary for the commission to act on the complaint if no violation was found. Under India's Competition Act of 2002, the country bars agreements that are "likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India." "We may examine the complaint to see if it (Apple) is violating any law," the official told "Fox Business."

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced two new members to its board of directors from Apple and Nordic Semiconductor. They join Intel, Motorola, Lenovo, Nokia, Microsoft, Ericsson AB, and Toshiba on the Bluetooth SIG board. “We see the importance of platform development and ultra-low power sensor silicon for Bluetooth technology and believe guidance and board participation from Apple and Nordic, industry leaders in these perspective fields, is essential,” says Michael Foley, Ph.D., executive director of the Bluetooth SIG. “We have set the ambitious goal of shipping five billion devices in 2015 -- to get there we must continue to build a technology that will offer a simple and secure solution that can be found everywhere, in every type of device. These additions to our board will ensure we succeed in new markets we have targeted for growth.” The way consumers utilize digital devices is undergoing a fundamental shift – mobile phones, laptops and tablets, TVs and...

Tension Software has released AutoMailer 1.0.for Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. It's available for US$20 and can be downloaded at http://www.pomola.com/products_automailer/automailer.html . AutoMailer allows to send serialized emails to multiple users with a button click, starting from data imported from a text file and merging the data with a template email you can create. It merges data from the internal database with an email template creating for any recipient a personalized and custom email. AutoMailer doesn’t requires scripting or coding. All the settings, data and email templates can be saved inside documents and retrieved and reused at any time. AutoMailer offers a preview of any email to prepare. The user has the option to send just a selection, checked records or all the record in the imported data Serialized sending is performed in a separate thread, and is performed at a regular time interval you can set to avoid "sending locks" in case your provider doesn't allow to send...

X-Rite (http://www.xrite.com) -- which specializes in color management, measurement and communication technologies -- has released the i1Display Pro and ColorMunki Display, hardware and software solutions for color calibration and profiling of displays, laptops and projectors. The i1Display Pro is the designed for photographers, designers or "any imaging professionals looking for the highest on screen color accuracy." It sports "Advanced" user-defined settings and quality assurance tools for precise color control, as well as predefined "Basic" settings. The ColorMunki Display is a color solution for photographers and designers looking for professional color results in a format that doesn’t require in-depth knowledge of color science. ColorMunki Display features an "Easy" mode with a selection of one-click presets and an "Advanced" mode, with wizard-driven options for more control. The i1Display Pro and ColorMunki Display are now available from X-Rite (North America) and Pantone...

Monsoon Multimedia, a provider of video convergence products, has announced the addition of direct to mobile recording for its Vulkano line of products. Included with Direct Recording is full DVR, pause, rewind and fast forward features. The Vulkano line of devices now offers these features via Wi-Fi for iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Content is encrypted to avoid any possibility of infringement, says Colin Stiles, EVP sales and marketing at Monsoon. The Vulkano Flow gives consumers the freedom to watch their TV anywhere in the world using smartphones, tablets and computers, he adds. The Vulkano Flow (US$99.99) is now available at Fry's Electronics, Amazon, MicroCenter, other leading retailers and etailers as well as at http://www.myvulkano.com. iOS and Android apps can be purchased for $12.99 each in their respective app stores.

NewPCgadgets (http://newpcgadgets.com) has released the iPad 2 Display Dock, which lets you display your Apple tablet and iPhone "just like they do at the Apple Store." It's designed from clear acrylic and matches the look and feel of the Apple iPad 2 store display. This base provides the optimum viewing angle for an Apple tablet while also docking your iPhone (or iPod). The iPad2 Display Dock is available from the newPCgadgets website. It retails for US$74.95 (USD).

Ergonis Software has released four free snippet sets for Typinator, its tool for auto-typing text systemwide across all Mac OS X applications. Three of these sets are devoted to postal codes, the fourth set contains pairs of matching parentheses and quote characters. All in all, the three ZIP codes sets provide over 100,000 ZIP codes together with their city names for the US, Germany, and Austria. While it's possible to use the ZIP codes as a shortcut to quickly type city names, they display their full strengths when used in combination with Typinator's Quick Search function, says Ergonis CEO Christoph Reichenberger. Just enter "zip" and part of the city that you are looking for. For example, type "zip cup" to find Cupertino. To actually insert the desired city name and zip code into your document, just choose it from the list. The fourth set contains pairs of matching parentheses and quote characters. When you type one of the single opening parentheses or quote characters, Typinator...

Apparent Corp. has updated Barcode Producer (http://www.itsapparent.com/barcodeproducer/), its barcode creation software suite for Mac OS X, to version 6.6. Consistent with current standards, newly created ISBN barcodes now always default to 13-digit only human readable content above the barcode. You can still create older style barcodes by changing the ISBN Text option. Apparent has revised the QR Code generator in Barcode Producer 6.6 with some revisions and bug fixes. It's also now possible to re-open QR Code barcodes created with Barcode Producer to edit them. Version 6.6 delivers new and improved custom trim marks with a fully customizable weight and offset. It also adds a Symbol Check Character option to the Code 39 symbology for specialized scanners that require it. Barcode Producer is a tool for creating barcodes visually with one-click export for Adobe Creative Suite products, including Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat Distiller. It's Universal Binary so runs...

Noise Industries (http://www.noiseindustries.com) has announced FxFactory 2.6 for Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5. The upgrade makes more than 140 filters, generators and transitions from FxFactory Pro available inside Final Cut Pro X. All FxFactory-based plug-ins continue to be available in previous versions of Final Cut Pro and other hosts, including the new Motion 5. The upgrade is free for current FxFactory Pro customers. For new users the cost is US$399.

Zevrix Solutions (http://www.zevrix.com) has announced BatchOutput 3.12, an update to its solution to automate printing, exporting and post-processing from Adobe InDesign. BatchOutput offers output of multiple files, single pages output, link auto-update, PDF preflighting, variable file names, file delivery and other workflow automation solutions. The upgrade automates EPUB export from InDesign CS4 and later. BatchOutput is also available in a server version that processes InDesign files automatically from hot folders. BatchOutput can be purchased from the Zevrix web site for US$129.95, as well as from authorized resellers. A demo version is available for download. 
Version 3.12 is a free update for registered users of version 3.x, and $51.98 from earlier versions. It includes the free Deliver application for file delivery (a $19.95 value). BatchOutput is available for Mac OS X 10.4.2 and higher and works with Adobe InDesign CS2-CS5.5.

While in San Francisco, TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at Apple's WWDC 2011 about the keynote and how Apple's new technologies will help them and their customers. In the weeks following the event, we'll bring you those videos on TUAW, MacTech and MacNews. If you aren't currently a reader of MacTech Magazine, check out the special WWDC free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here. This video features Neil Ticktin (Editor-in-Chief, MacTech Magazine and MacNews) and Chris McSorley of WebIS, Inc. at WWDC. Chris was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements on WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward.

Not only has Apple updated its Time Capsule line, it's also updated its AirPort Extreme Base Station. However, the new model doesn't have a Thunderbolt port as some expected. Thunderbolt is a new high-speed computer connection technology that brings together high-speed data transfer and high-definition (HD) display on to a single cable. It's already appeared on the latest MacBook Pros and iMacs -- and is expected to appear on upcoming MacBook Airs, Mac Pros and Mac mini. As with previous versions, the new AirPort Extreme (US$179) operates in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and lets you share the Internet and your wireless network with up to 50 users. You can also turn an USB hard drive into a shared drive that’s accessible wirelessly on your network and over the Internet. -- Dennis Sellers

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky has published a report -- as reported by "MacRumors" (http://www.macrumors.com) -- sharing the results of a new survey of iPhone users that says 76% of surveyed users are planning to take advantage of Apple's free iCloud services. What's more, the survey offers the first look at the popularity of iTunes Match, with 30% of respondents indicating that they are somewhat likely or very likely to utilize the $24.99-per-year service. iCloud is an upcoming set of free new cloud services that work with applications on your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or PC to automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and automatically and wirelessly push it to all your devices. When anything changes on one of your devices, all of your devices are wirelessly updated almost instantly. iTunes Match will be available this fall. It lets you store your entire collection on the icloud, including music you’ve ripped from CDs or purchased somewhere other...

Apple has updated its Time Capsule line -- which combines storage with a Wi-fi base station -- with higher storage capacities of 2TB or 3TB of built-in storage. Previously, it was available in 1TB and 2TB models. The revamped Time Capsules cost the same as before, despite their beefed up capabilities. The 2TB version is $299; the 3TB model is $499. Time Capsule's wireless hard drive is designed to work with Time Machine in Mac OS X Leopard or later. Just set Time Capsule as the designated backup drive for Time Machine, and that’s it. Depending on how much data you have, your initial backup with Time Capsule could take overnight or longer. After it completes, only changed files are backed up -- automatically, wirelessly, and in the background. If you have multiple Mac computers in your house, Time Capsule can back up and store files for each Mac running Mac OS X Leopard or later on your wireless network. Time Capsule is also an AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n technology....

Apple, Microsoft, Google and other companies are lobbying Congress for a year-long income tax holiday that would allow them to transfer offshore cash to the United States at a lower tax rate, reports "The New York Times" (http://macte.ch/gU0RO). Apple purportedly has US$12 billion waiting offshore. Under the proposal, known as a repatriation holiday, the federal income tax owed on such profits returned to the United States would fall to 5.25% for one year, from 35%. In the short term, the measure could generate tens of billions in tax revenues as companies transfer money that would otherwise remain abroad, and it could help ease the huge budget deficit, according to the "Times." Corporations and their lobbyists say the tax break could help the US's struggling economy by inducing multinational corporations to inject $1 trillion or more into the economy, and they promoted the proposal as “the next stimulus” at a conference last Wednesday in Washington. However, critics point out that...

Security experts are warning Apple fans searching for more news about the firm's upcoming iCloud service to beware of poisoned search results that could lead them to fake anti-virus web pages, reports "V3" (http://macte.ch/ugMzA). Trend Micro fraud analyst Paul Pajares said in a post on the Trend Labs Malware blog (http://macte.ch/mKSZb) that his team had uncovered several attempts by cyber criminals to take advantage of the popularity of the search term. "Cybercriminals typically use search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning techniques to trigger malicious URLs hosting FAKEAV malware. These blackhat SEO techniques use Google as its referrer to run the malicious file download," he writes. "In this case, the file downloaded is one named SecurityScanner.exe, or what Trend Micro detects TROJ_FAKEAV.HKZ." He adds: "Using the keyword 'icloud mymobi'” results in a possibly malicious URL. MyMobi appears to be a compromised news site about gadget information. We’ve previously blocked the...

French technology company Withings has announced the US availability of its Blood Pressure Monitor (BPM) for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.  The Withings BPM, including blood pressure cuff and a companion Withings app, offers a way to measure and record blood pressure readings in the personal and professional arenas.  With the Withings BPM, users wrap the blood pressure cuff around their arm and plug it directly into their iPad, iPhone or iPod touch using the incorporated cable.  Once connected, the Withings App launches instantly on the iOS device and is ready to begin the measurement. When the reading is complete, the full results (Systole, Diastole and heart rate) are saved directly on the device, eliminating manual tracking. A user’s stats can be accessed instantly from their iOS device or from their personal Withings webpage. Results are saved denoting dates and time of day for each reading, to help when comparing morning, afternoon and evening readings, and readings over time...

Mr. Fridge Software has updated Papapapaya, a vocabulary trainer for Mac OS X (10.5 and higher), to version 1.4. The upgrade adds iPhone syncing. Papapapaya lets you organize and rehearse your words. It includes an intelligent quiz, a learning mode, graphic statistics, live search and import/export. It organizes your words in different memory levels instead of files and folders. Papapapaya is available from the Mr. Fridge website (http://mr-fridge.de/software/papapapaya) and in the Mac App Store for US$20. Education discounts are available for students (20% off), as well as in form of volume discounts for schools (20%-35%).

Devalipi Software has updated Imposition Studio with a full layout preview and complete creep settings. Imposition Studio creates output-ready print layouts for digital printers, image Setters and CTP systems. It creates the final output files in Adobe PDF format from single or multipage PDF files using the included layout templates or user created custom layouts with any number of pages, signature styles, binding method, printing styles, etc. Imposition Studio offers a live signature preview on a Mac or PC. It has a customizable layout editor, multiple PDF file in-put , hot folder droppable PDF format output, auto page overlap removal and more. A demo is available at the Devalipi Software website (http://www.devalipi.com/). Registration is US$99 for a single-user license.

Slappstick (http://www.slappstick.de) has updated AppyDays, a Mac OS X utility for tracking discounted apps, to version 1.0.1. The upgrade shows the star ratings of applications. With AppDays one click directs you to the Apple App Store or Mac App Store immediately. The small application window can be left open while people work on their computers. AppDays displays discounted apps in the stores. It sports filters available for price (Mac and iOS) and category (iOS only). AppyDays for Mac requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later. It costs US$0.99 and is available at the Mac App Store in the Reference category.