Troi Automatisering (http://www.troi.com/) has released Troi Dialog Plug-in 5.5.5 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 5.5.5 is a minor maintenance release with some bug fixes. A fully functional demo version of Troi Dialog Plug-in 5.5.5 is available for downloading at 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 (10.5.7 and higher) and Windows. Licenses cost US$59 per user. Upgrading to version 5.5.5 is free for all users of version 5.5.x. Troi Dialog Plug-in 5.5.5 works with the same 5.5 registration string. Users who bought a license for Troi Dialog Plug-in on or after Feb. 1, 2008, are entitled to a free upgrade...

Yesterday the ITC had a deadline in the investigation of S3 Graphics' complaint against Apple, but instead of a ruling, the U.S. trade agency and quasi-judicial authority announced that it pushed back the target date for its Commission determination by six days until Monday, Nov. 21. The Commission is the six-member decision-making body at the top of the ITC. Administrative Law Judges make preliminary decisions, but the Commission has the final say. What lends the case particular significance is that S3 Graphics is being acquired by HTC, so any headway it makes could give the Taiwanese handset maker leverage, "though I tend to doubt that the combined power of HTC and S3 Graphics is going to force Apple into a settlement anytime soon," Florien Mueller writes for "FOSS Patents" (http://macte.ch/YJF6O). Last week Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) failed to persuade a U.S. judge to halt a patent dispute S3 Graphics has against Apple at the U.S. International Trade Commission, according to a...

Consumers have revealed their holiday gift wishes according to a poll conducted by SodaHead.com, an opinion based social community. And it's good news for Apple. As the tablet wars heat up and consumers are presented with dozens of iOS and Android-based options, the clear winner on consumer's holiday wish lists is the Apple iPad 2, as 65% of those wanting a tablet hope to receive the top-selling device on the market. The latest entrants in the tablet market from Amazon and Barnes & Noble have not yet made a significant impact, as only 24% of respondents are hoping to receive a Kindle Fire and 11% desire the recently announced Nook Tablet.   Even though the iPad 2 is leading the tablet pack, Apple's tablet is not the top overall tech choice for the holidays, as 39% of respondents hope to receive an iPhone 4S, compared to 31% hoping for an iPad 2.  The Amazon Kindle Fire is the tech item of choice for 17% of respondents and 13% are hoping that Santa brings Xbox Kinect down the...

Worldwide sales of mobile devices totaled 440.5 million units in the third quarter of 2011, up 5.6% from the same period last year, according to Gartner (http://www.gartner.com). Smartphone sales to end users reached 115 million units in the third quarter of 2011, up 42% from the third quarter of 2010, according to the research group. Sequentially, smartphone sales slowed to 7% growth from the second quarter of 2011 to the third quarter of 2011. Smartphone sales accounted for 26% of all mobile phone sales, growing only marginally from 25% in the previous quarter.

" Some consumers held off upgrading in the third quarter because they were waiting for promotions on other new high-end models that were launched in the run-up to the fourth quarter holiday season," says Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Other consumers were waiting for a rumored new iPhone and associated price cuts on older iPhone models; this affected U.S. sales particularly."

 Despite a drop in...

Chinese environmental leaders offered "cautious praise" for Apple's attempts to meet their concerns, commending its efforts to increase scrutiny of suppliers but criticizing the company for a continued lack of "adequate transparency," notes the "Wall Street Journal" (http://macte.ch/cdFdg). Apple officials met with the leaders of five environmental groups on Tuesday. Apple told them that it has launched audits of 15 suppliers the groups had previously accused of polluting, says the "WSJ."

Realore Studios has introduced 3 Days: Zoo Mystery 1.0, a gaming title for Mac OS X 10.6.6 and higher. It costs US$0.99 and is available at the Mac App Store. Here's how the game is described: "In 3 Days: Zoo Mystery gamers play as the young and beautiful detective Anna. Someone has stolen all the animals from her uncle's zoo. Anna searches for clues, solves riddles, and uses her charm and wit to get the citizens of the town to help her find the criminals. 3 Days: Zoo Mystery combines classic hidden object gameplay with numerous mini games seamlessly tied into the main story. "The game features 27 levels set in different corners of the town such as the docks, old warehouse, circus and many others. Each level has several hidden object missions as well as various mini games to brake the pace and keep the players entertained all the way through Anna's adventure. After the player completes the level all the mini games become available from the main menu which adds to the replay value. "...

At this week's SC11 conference in Seattle, Intel (http://www.intel.com) evealed details about the company’s next-generation Intel Xeon processor-based and Intel Many Integrated Core (Intel MIC)-based platforms designed for high-performance computing (HPC). During his briefing at the conference, Rajeeb Hazra, general manager of Technical Computing, Intel Datacenter and Connected Systems Group, said that the Intel Xeon processor E5 family is the world’s first server processor to support full integration of the PCI Express 3.0 specification. PCIe 3.0 is estimated to double the interconnect bandwidth over the PCIe 2.0 specification while enabling lower power and higher density server implementations. New fabric controllers taking advantage of the PCI Express 3.0 specification will allow more efficient scaling of performance and data transfer with the growing number of nodes in HPC supercomputers, says Hazra. The early performance benchmarks revealed that the Intel Xeon E5 delivers up to...

Western Digital has introduced the WD Sentinel DX4000, a network storage solution designed specifically to meet the demands of small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs). The WD Sentinel DX4000 includes the Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials operating system software and the Intel D525 Dual Core Atom CPU. It offers centralized shared storage and automatic server-based backup and restore for up to 25 devices (Macs and PCs) in the network. The WD Sentinel DX4000 offers data protection with built-in hardware and software redundancy for all of the connected devices in the network. Capacities include 4 B and 8TB. The WD Sentinel DX4000 is certified to be compatible with a variety of operating systems including Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard for file sharing among Windows, Mac and Unix/Linux operating systems and allows businesses to share files with clients, consultants, and inter-office personnel regardless of the OS used. The WD Sentinel DX4000 small office storage server is...

Digital Film Tools (http://www.digitalfilmtools.com) says all its Avid plug-in product offerings -- including Composite Suite Pro, PhotoCopy, Rays and zMatte -- are now 64-bit and compatible with Media Composer and Symphony version 6.0, as well as NewsCutter version 10.0. A free update for existing customers, the new 64-bit DFT plug-ins provide both professional and casual editors alike with speed and memory advantages that streamline the entire visual effects process, according to Marco Paolini, founder and president, Digital Film Tools. Composite Suite Pro features a collection of visual effects plug-ins. DFT PhotoCopy lets you copy the brightness, color, tone, detail, grain and texture from one image and apply them to another. DFT Rays lets you create light ray effects. DFT zMatte offers blue and green screen keying. Avid AVX2 64-bit versions of Composite Suite Pro, PhotoCopy, Rays and zMatte are available now at the Digital Film Tools store. Prices range from US$99 to $39. In...

Noteboom Productions has introduced Tutor for Pages '09 version2.0, their latest video tutorial. It's available for US$4.99 at the Mac App Store. With Tutor for Pages, you can watch videos to learn how to use the word processor/document creation tool in iWork. The video tutorial consists of 49 video chapters on various subjects.

Apple has named Arthur D. Levinson (top photo) as the company’s non-executive Chairman of the Board. Levinson has been a co-lead director of Apple’s board since 2005, has served on all three board committees -- audit and finance, nominating and corporate governance, and compensation—and will continue to serve on the audit committee. Apple also announced that Robert A. Iger (bottom photo), president and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, will join Apple’s board and will serve on the audit committee. "Art has made enormous contributions to Apple since he joined the board in 2000,” says Apple CEO Tim Cook. "He has been our longest serving co-lead director, and his insight and leadership are incredibly valuable to Apple, our employees and our shareholders. Bob and I have gotten to know one another very well over the past few years and on behalf of the entire board, we think he is going to make an extraordinary addition to our already very strong board,. His strategic vision for Disney is...

In a note to clients -- as reported by "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) -- analyst Brian Marshall with the International Strategy & Investment Group said his firm's surveys have indicated most investors don't think Apple will initiate a dividend policy in 2012. However, he believes new CEO Tim Cook will make an effort to optimize his company's capital structure and will, in fact, pay out a dividend. Marshall says Apple could "easily" implement a dividend yield of 250 base points, amounting to about US$2.40 per quarter. A dividend payout would reduce Apple's free cash flow by between 20% and 25%, he says. However, Marshall estimates that a dividend yield would bring in more than $4 billion in incremental investments.

Apple has posted MacBook Pro Video Update 1.0 ("Snow Leopard"). It addresses an issue where MacBook Pro (15-inch Mid 2010) computers may intermittently freeze or stop displaying video. MacBook Pro Video Update 1.0 ("Snow Leopard") requires Mac OS X 10.6.8 or higher and is a 51.45MB download. You can obtain it via the Software Updates component of Mac OS X's Systems Preferences app. 


Appcelerator, a maker of cross-platform development tools, and research firm IDC polled more than 2,100 developers earlier this month to find that they still rank iOS as the top market for their work. Ninety-one percent of the developers surveyed said they were "very interested" in creating apps for the iPhone, while 88% said the same for the iPad. These numbers have changed little for a year or more in Appecelerator's tracking, notes "Computerworld" (http://macte.ch/E2YqO). The numbers for Android phones and tablets trail the iPhone and iPad by eight and 20 points, respectively. However, the most recent survey found new interest in Amazon's Kindle Fire and a "renewed, if weaker, focus on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7," notes "Computerworld."

According to The NPD Group (http://www.npdgroup.com), a market research company, the share of mobile phone handset sales that are smartphones continues to climb. The share of U.S. mobile handset sales that were smartphones reached 59% in the third quarter (Q3) of 2011, an increase of 13 percentage points since Q3 of 2010. Based on the latest data from NPD’s monthly Mobile Phone Track service, average selling prices for smartphones have declined for four consecutive quarters, reaching $135 in Q3. According to NPD’s new Smartphone Track service, prices are falling even though many consumers originally considered paying more. Among U.S. consumers who considered purchasing phones in the US$200 to $250 price range, 64% ended up purchasing a phone for less than $200. Led by continued steady sales for Apple’s iPhones, the top five best-selling mobile phone handsets in Q3 were as follows: Apple iPhone 4; Apple iPhone 3GS; HTC EVO 4G; Motorola Droid 3; and Samsung Intensity II. "Even as...

NoteCard (http://www.notecardosx.com/) is a new visual note-taking app for Mac OS X . The US$7.99 app was inspired by the OS X Stickies app. NoteCard lets you: make tabbed cards, stack cards in groups, add pages to cards, store cards in sheets for quick access and a full screen editing environment called Reader. A demo is available for download.

Veritas Prep, a GMAT prep and MBA admissions consulting provider, announced is offering the lessons from its r Veritas Prep On Demand online class as individual mobile modules for use on iPhone and iPad devices. The Veritas Prep GMAT On Demand mobile app is now available in the Apple iTunes App Store. The primary app is available as a free download in the Apple iTunes App Store. Each video module can then be downloaded via in-app purchase for US$24.99 each. From fundamental skills to more advanced approaches and strategies related to quantitative analysis, critical reasoning and problem solving, the 15 modules mirror each lesson available in the Veritas Prep On Demand online class and cover all the same topics as the 42-hour full course. Additionally, for students enrolled in any of Veritas Prep's GMAT courses, access to all 15 mobile modules is included at no additional charge. Existing students can download the app by logging into their Veritas Prep student accounts from the app,...

Texas Instruments, DLP Products and Brookstone have teamed up for an US$229.99 iPhone 4/4S miniature projector accessory case that includes TI's DLP Pico projector technology. The accessory acts as a thin sleeve that will allow iPhone 4 and 4S users to project video content from their phone or any app that allows for video output such as Netflix, YouTube and more on to any surface at a size of up to 50 inches. With this iPhone accessory case, DLP and Brookstone are showcasing the potential future of Pico as add-on or embedded within products, giving mobile phone users the power to show video content on-the-go, anywhere, says Frank J. Moizio, manager of DLP Pico Projection. "The partnership between Brookstone and Texas Instruments resulted in a remarkable accessory case that turns one's iPhone 4 and 4S player into a mobile home-theater unit," adds Ron Boire, president and CEO of Brookstone. The projector includes: 15-lumen LED illumination; a 640x360 native display resolution that...

Pogoplug (www.pogoplug.com), creators of a line of streaming and sharing devices, have unveiled a new service: Pogoplug Cloud. The service provides users with a secure online space to store personal content and instantly share and stream it from their mobile device. Users sign up directly from any mobile phone, tablet or web browser and immediately receive their free 5GB Pogoplug Cloud. Pogoplug offers 5GB of free cloud storage. 50GB and 100GB of additional cloud storage are available for US$9.95/month and $19.95/month, respectively.

DxO Labs has announced DxO FilmPack 3.1, the latest version of its silver halide simulation software. DxO FilmPack 3.1 adds a line of 25 new creative renderings and an improved user interface. According to the folks at DxO Labs, vintage effects, color nuances, sepia variations, partial desaturations: each rendering is based on a very subtle combination of grain intensity, film style, vignetting, and color filters -- "intelligent" renderings for outstanding images. Users can use the same settings as for film renderings to fully customize each creative rendering. A new import rendering function including in the Elite Edition of DxO FilmPack 3.1 lets DxO FilmPack users share one another’s customized film looks. Users can import custom renderings, rename them, and save the parameters of intensity, grain, contrast, and so on in their own settings library to apply to their own images. Thanks to its resizable filmstrip-style preview system, DxO FilmPack 3.1 allows users to better visualize...

MaBaSoft (http://www.mabasoft.net) has updated its World Clock Deluxe time tool to version 4.7.8. The upgrade -- free to registered users of version 4.x -- adds 24 new cities, updates daylight-saving time information for Cuba, Fiji, Ukraine, and the Brazilian State of Bahia, and addresses minor compatibility issues with Mac OS X 10.7 ("Lion"). With World Clock Deluxe you can display multiple clocks in a horizontal or vertical palette, in the menu bar and in the Dock, show Coordinated Universal Time and Internet Time, assign labels and colors to clocks, calculate date and time conversions across different time zones and show the current weather all over the world. The software is Universal Binary and runs in English, German, Dutch, French and Italian. World Clock Deluxe requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later and runs natively on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs. It costs US$19.

In a note to clients -- as reported by "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) -- Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says Apple should sell as many as 5.3 million Macs over the holidays. Extrapolating from data from the NPD Group, Munster thinks Mac sales are up 19% year-over-year in October. As sales continue to pick up leading up to Christmas, he sees Apple selling between 5.1 million and 5.3 million Macs during the December quarter. Those numbers would represent year over year growth of between 23 percent and 28%, notes "AppleInsider." Munster estimates that Mac revenue will represent about 18% of Apple's overall revenue during the company's December quarter.

The Mac now has over 7% of the personal computer market in western Europe, according to new data from the Gartner research group (http://www.gartner.com). For the third quarter of 2011 (Q311) Apple had 7.6% of the market. That compares to 5.7% of the market in the year-ago quarter for 19.6% year-over-year growth. HP is the number one computer vendor in western Europe with 22.7% (down 7.5% year-over-year). Also ahead of Apple are Acer (15.2%, down 45.1% year-over-year), ASUS (10.6%, up 20.3% year-over-year) and Dell (9.8%, down 10% year-over-year). For the entire United Kingdom, Apple has 7.8% market share, up 21.8% year-over-year, trailing only HP (19.2%), Dell (15.4%) and Acer (11.3%).

In a blog post (http://macte.ch/aNf5T), Adobe Flash developer relations chief Mike Chambers has Apple's unchanging stance against Flash has reduced Flash's chances of becoming a widespread platform for in-browser mobile apps. Another major factor was the rise of HTML5 on which Adobe is now placing more emphasis, he adds. Last week Adobe announced plans to cease developing Flash for mobile browsers to concentrate on HTML5. "Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores," an in-house Adobe email says. "We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations. Some of our source code licensees may opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations. We will continue to support the current Android and PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates." (Read more at http://www.zdnet.com/blog/...