With an estimated 8.5 million units sold to date, the iPad is now the best-selling tech gadget in history, according to Colin McGranahan of Bernstein Research. In a note to clients -- as reported by "InformationWeek" (http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/portable/showArticle.jhtml?a...) -- he called the Apple tablet "a runaway success of unprecedented proportion." Apple sold three million units of the iPad in its first 80 days on the market. Third quarter sales were in the range of 4.5 million units, and overall it's estimated that Apple has shipped about 8.5 million iPads to date worldwide.

Sheep Systems says BookMacster (http://sheepsystems.com/bookmacster/) has passed final testing with the release of version 1.2. This version supports automatic cross-browser bookmarks synchronization via the user's choice of file-syncing services in the cloud. It also rounds out BookMacster's web-browser support by adding iCab and Pinboard. The app supports tags, comments, and shortcuts. BookMacster users can add bookmarks directly from within browsers, and access all bookmarks while in any app from the menu bar. It merges and manages bookmarks in Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Camino, iCab, Opera and OmniWeb, and on the web with Delicious, Pinboard, and Google Bookmarks. When used with a file-syncing service in the cloud such as Dropbox or Jungle Disk, BookMacster takes cross-browser bookmark syncing on the road to any Mac. BookMacster keeps bookmarks alphabetized (sorted), verified, and checked for duplicates. It supports tags, comments, and shortcuts. BookMacster users can add...

Class on Demand, a provider of professional educational products for creative and IT markets, has announced "Complete Training for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5," the second of four Class on Demand titles centered around the Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5) family. Available in both DVD-ROM and streaming video delivery format through the Class on Demand Online Learning Platform, "Complete Training for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5" offers new and advanced users an in-depth training experience in the new CS5 workflow. Instructed by Emmy-winning Adobe expert, Tim Kolb, the 8.5-hour training is broken down into 10 logical segments, covering CS5 features ranging from editing, to audio, creating titles, new features, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Encore and Adobe Bridge. "Complete Training for Adobe Premiere Pro CS5" is sponsored by a variety of design and production giants, including Borix FX, Nvidia, Tiffen, and Suite Imagery. The course is available via the Class on Demand website (http://www.classondemand....

IntelliScanner Corp. has launched the US$299 IntelliScanner SOHO 150 ( http://www.intelliscanner.com/products/soho/), which is designed to make it easy for small businesses to keep track of business inventory and assets with barcode technology. By scanning the barcode, users can automatically create an inventory of what's in stock, where it is, and what they have invested. IntelliScanner's included software package provides reports, notifies when stock is running low, and totals the value of current inventory. Built for Mac and PC users, IntelliScanner SOHO 150 also integrates with third-party applications like FileMaker Pro, Xsilva LightSpeed, and Microsoft Office with dual USB interface options and a 4000 barcode memory chip. It works tethered to any Mac or PC, or on-the-go with standard AAA batteries. When reconnected via USB, IntelliScanner automatically downloads scans captured while roaming, just like a digital camera.

SmileOnMyMac has updated PDFPen (http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/download.html), its PDF editing and form-filling tool for Mac OS X, to version 5.0.2. The update reduces memory footprint for large PDF documents. Smile also added an AppleScript document property, "needs OCR," to PDFpen. This addition makes it easier to write AppleScripts for paperless document workflows. Other minor fixes and improvements have also been made. The changes in PDFpen 5.0.2 have also been made in PDFpenPro 5.0.2, the pro version that can also convert websites into PDFs, create fillable PDF forms, and construct document table of contents. PDFpen costs US$59.95, and PDFpenPro is $99.95. Family pack licenses, which cover up to five computers in one household, are $74.95 for PDFpen and $129.95 for PDFpenPro. Upgrades from earlier versions of either application are $25, and free to users who purchased after Feb. 14, 2010. Upgrades from any version of PDFpen to PDFpenPro 5.0 are $40. PDFpen 5.0.2 and PDFpen...

Apogee, makers of Kanex products (http://www.kanexlive.com/), has introduced the Kanex C Series, a line of products to help people who are looking for alternative connectivity solutions to connect an Apple Cinema Display. The US$129 Kanex C247m (pictured) is designed for previous generations of MacBook and Mac mini with mini-DVI video output. The C247m, due in November, combines audio and video to 24-inch and 27-inch Cinema Displays. The $129 Kanex C247d, also due in November, is designed for Macs or PCs with DVI video output. It converts and combines audio and video to 24-inch and 27-inch Cinema Displays. Designed for the 30-inch Apple Cinema Display 30-inch and other displays with Dual-Link DVI-D, the $99 Kanex C30 (available now) converts Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI-D at a max resolution 2560x1600. The 30-inch displays require larger resolutions due to the size of the screen, and the Kanex C30 can support the maximum resolution of Dual-Link displays.

Apple won five of 19 categories in the 2010 Gadget Awards by "T3" magazine (http://www.t3.com/news/apple-wins-big-at-t3-gadget-awards-2010?=49851). The iPhone won the Commuter Gadget of the Year, The iPad was named Innovation of the Year and Gadget of the Year. The MacBook Pro was dubbed Computer of the Year (for the second time). Apple was named Retailer of the Year. "With the iPad 2 and iPhone 5 expected to emerge from Apple’s compound in the next 12-months, expect the ever popular Apple to feature heavily again in next year’s T3 Gadget Awards," says "T3."

WiebeTech (http://www.wiebetech.com) has released the RTX200-QR HDD enclosure with RAID. As a direct replacement for the RTX200H-QR, the RTX220-QR provides a fast way to mirror (RAID 1), stripe (RAID 0) or create a quick backup disk. Additional features of the dual TrayFree bay enclosure include: an updated RAID controller with a new menu system, a handle for portability, quad interfaces (FireWire 400/800, USB 2.0 and eSATA) and a companion utility to customize fan and alarm behavior. The user-configurable audible and visual warnings are context-specific with alerts for both system and RAID status. System LEDs indicate power, hardware and RAID status. The RTX220-QR portable storage enclosure is available with base units starting at a manufacturer's suggested retail price of US$499. RTX220-QR TrayFree technology simplifies hard drive installation by merely inserting the drive into the sled and shutting the door, according to the folks at WiebeTech. Drive bays feature all-metal...

Cachet Financial Solutions (http://www.cachetfinancial.com), a provider of remote deposit capture (RDC) solutions, has filed a patent application for their new RDC platform for Mac OS X. Cachet will begin offering their entire RDC Select product suite to Mac users starting Oct. 15. "Today most financial institutions only offer their remote deposit capture (RDC) solution to PC users, but with Apple's growing popularity there is a large segment of the RDC marketplace that is being underserved," says Jeffrey Mack, president and CEO of Cachet Financial Solutions. The software behind Cachet's RDC Select solution is now Mac and PC compatible. The web-based solution allows financial institutions greater freedom and flexibility when providing RDC to their customers, says Mac. Not only is RDC Select more efficient for end users, it is also more cost-effective and requires less internal support from within financial institutions, he adds. The proprietary software solution enables merchants to...

Houdah Software (http://www.houdah.com/) has updated HoudahGeo, a geocoding solution for the Mac, to version 2.6.4. It's a maintenance update with some bug fixes and performance tweaks. HoudahGeo costs US$30 for a single-user license for new users. Version 2.6.4 is a free update for registered users. HoudahGeo requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.

iWinSoft has released an update (version 1.7.0) to its CD/DVD label design software for Mac OS X. The update adds Epson direct to disk printing functions. Also added in this release is the ability to add text table to labels. as well as interface improvements that simplify the creation of custom label formats. iWinSoft CD Label Maker for Mac costs US$29.95 and is available for download at the iWinSoft Web site (http://www.iwinsoft.com/). Version 1.7.0 is a free update for registered users. CD Label Maker 1.7.0 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later. A demo is available for download.

Both the "Wall Street Journal" and the "New York Times" are reporting that Verizon will sell a CDMA version of the iPhone in 2011. In the U.S., that could help Verizon maintain its lead of total subscribers over rival AT&T and boost iPhone sales figures by an estimated 10 million handsets per year in 2011, according to "GigaOM" (http://macosg.me/2/y5). Also, a CDMA iPhone offers Apple an even larger sales opportunity, as more than 543 million customers globally use CDMA networks. Adding a CDMA iPhone option, increases Apple’s addressable market for an iPhone by 16%, says Horace Dediu of asymco, a mobile research site. The estimated sales of 10 million Verizon iPhones account for only two percent of that potential market, affording Apple a big opportunity to boost iPhone sales outside of the U.S., he adds. "If Apple sold iPhones to only 10 percent of the total addressable CDMA market, it would gain 54 million additional iPhone sales over time," computes "GigaOM." "With an...

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), a consumer watchdog agency, has taken Apple to task over warranty issues as reports surface of new design problems relating to the iPhone 4's glass body, reports the "Sydney Morning Herald" (http://macosg.me/2/y3). Telstra, following discussions with the ACCC, has agreed to provide full two-year warranties for customers who buy handsets on two-year contracts. The agreement included all manufacturers except Apple. "Although nearly all major handset manufacturers have agreed to honour full warranties, the ACCC continues to have concerns in relation to warranty issues with the Apple iPhone," the organization told the "Herald." The consumer watchdog's concerns come as new reports surface of large cracks appearing in the iPhone 4's body when certain third-party slide-on cases are used, the article adds. The affected cases are purportedly Apple-approved third party products, not the rubber "bumper" sleeves that Apple gave away for...

After negotiations fell through, Apple has convinced the Chinese state Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) to stop Meizu's production of the Meizu M8, which Apple says looks too similar to its iPhone, reports -- "Meizu Me" (http://macosg.me/2/y1). Meizu CEO Jack Wong agreed to Apple and SIPO's terms to stop producing the phone in face of a potential factory closure. However, he tells "Meizu Me" that Apple wants even more and is now demanding that Meizu not only stop production, but also stop all display and sales of the remaining stock of Meizu M8 phones. China's SIPO has the right to close factories without a court order, which means that Meizu's factory could be shut down if they don't comply, says "Meizu Me." Wong says this is angry as he claims that this isn't part of the original deal, and also that this will force a lot of Meizu's franchised stores to go out of business.

Elevated Software Development has updated fScanX (http://www.elevated-dev.com/Products/fScanX/), their scanning solution for Mac OS X, to version 1.6. It adds support for new scanners, including hihg-speed Fujitsu scanners. fScanX was developed specifically to provide native Mac OS X support for high-speed Fujitsu scanners. Rather than requiring the application to launch in order to perform scanning, fScanX's command-line utility gives developers the ability to control the user interface completely. This opens up a host of possibilities for prepress operators, developers and graphic designers alike to build custom workflows involving scanning, according to Scott Ribe, founder of Elevated Software Development. Additionally, fScanX ships with an Automator action that enables creation of scanning workflows without scripting. fScanX also enables a host of alternative automation options. It takes only three lines of script code in FileMaker to scan a document, with similar setups available...

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (http://www.hitachigst.com) announced what it says is the industry’s fastest and most power-efficient, 10K RPM, 6Gb/s Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Enterprise hard drive, the Hitachi Ultrastar C10K600. The new 2.5-inch, 600GB Hitachi drive delivers up to 15% better random and 18% faster sequential performance than competitive products on the market today, according to Brendan Collins, vice president of Product Marketing, Hitachi GST. The Ultrastar C10K600 drive also sets a new standard for energy-efficiency with an operating power specification that is at least 22 percent lower than the competition, he adds. The Ultrastar drives are designed for tier 1, enterprise networked storage arrays, blades and other rack-mounted servers. The Ultrastar C10K600 drive family is offered in 300GB, 450GB and 600GB versions, providing capacity parity with 3.5-inch drives. The Ultrastar C10K600 is now shipping to customers worldwide, and has already been qualified by...

Target and Amazon are now carrying the iPad, and Walmart looks to be next, reports "Fortune" (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/09/target-and-amazon-have-the-ipad-i...). Rumors say the giant retail chain will begin carrying the Apple tablets this week and could have them in 1,000 stores before the end of October. In May, "Bloomberg Businessweek" reported that Walmart was expecting to offer the iPad for sale at "some U.S. stores" before the end of 2010, a move that could re-double the iPads' retail presence. The question is whether Apple can build the things fast enough to meet demand, notes "Fortune."

Target and Amazon are now carrying the iPad, and Walmart looks to be next, reports "Fortune" (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/09/target-and-amazon-have-the-ipad-i...). Rumors say the giant retail chain will begin carrying the Apple tablets this week and could have them in 1,000 stores before the end of October. In May, "Bloomberg Businessweek" reported that Walmart was expecting to offer the iPad for sale at "some U.S. stores" before the end of 2010, a move that could re-double the iPads' retail presence. The question is whether Apple can build the things fast enough to meet demand, notes "Fortune."

A pilot course has been created at Central Michigan University to teach students how to maximize the use of the iPad, according to the "Morning Sun" (http://themorningsun.com/articles/2010/10/08/news/doc4cae8206f0e24287939...).

 Professor Patricia Janes of Recreation, Parks and Leisure Services asked Mike Reuter, director of technology operations, to teach her parks and recreation students to be “dangerous” with the higher-level technology that is desired and expected by today’s employers.

 “The class I co-teach is RPL 400 N, digital media in recreation, parks and tourism,” Reuter told the "Morning Sun." “The class is designed to give our students the tools they need to go out and compete better in the corporate world or whereever they end up after they graduate.”

 The course, which is taught by Reuter and Dan Bracken, associate director for the Faculty Center for Innovative Teaching, teaches the business uses for social networking, and how to use the applications found on the iPad...

In a note to clients issued early Friday, Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner raised his Apple price target to US$345 in a note to clients Friday, as reported by "Fortune" (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/08/oppenheimer-raises-aapl-target-to...). However, the rumors of an impending Verizon iPhone causes him some concern. "Apple's stock has performed admirably this year (up 37% YTD), but it has significantly lagged the improvement in the company's fundamentals, which have driven FY10 consensus EPS estimates up by 75% since January," Reiner told clients. "If there's one thing making us nervous about Apple right now it's the mounting expectation that Verizon will launch the iPhone in 1Q11. We still don't see the motivation -- for Apple or Verizon -- for launching a CDMA phone midway through the iPhone 4's product cycle. A 2H11 release of a new LTE-VZ phone seems much more plausible."

China Telecom Corp., China’s third-largest mobile phone-company, may have held “intensive talks” with Apple Inc. to offer the iPhone early next year, according to Deutsche Bank AG analysts -- as reported by "Bloomberg" (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-08/china-telecom-in-iphone-talks-w...). Discussions to provide a version of iPhone that would work on China Telecom’s code-division-multiple-access network may have included talks with Qualcomm, Alan Hellawell and William Bratton, analysts at Deutsche Bank in Hong Kong, wrote in a report Thursday. This would tie in with reports/rumors that Apple plans to begin selling an iPhone that runs on Verizon Wireless’s CDMA network in the first quarter, ending AT&T’s exclusivity in the U.S. That would set the stage for China Telecom to end China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.’s run as the nation’s only carrier to offer the device, according to Deutsche Bank. If this actually happened, this would be the first time Apple has produced a version...

Apple is talking with the major record labels about a subscription music service that would give customers unlimited access to songs for a monthly fee, reports "The New York Post" (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/apple_is_changing_its_tune_on_musi...), quoting unnamed sources. The article adds that iTunes Vice President Eddie Cue was on the phone with music honchos as recently as a few weeks ago trying to figure out how the partners can move forward. One source said the service could have tiered pricing ranging from US$10 to $15. "The Post" notes that there are issues to be ironed out, including how much music would be included in each tier and how long consumers would be able to access that content. Of course, there have been rumors of Apple launching a music subscription services for years. For example, in 2007 Pacific Crest Securities analyst Andy Hargreaves said that Apple "is capable of launching a subscription music service to compete with cellular carriers that will...

Applications for Life Company has released Imposition Wizard 1.7.2 (http://www.impositionwizard.com), an update to their US$300, professional level, standalone imposition software for Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. As a standalone application, Imposition Wizard doesn't require any third-party software, it just reads and writes PDF files. Version 1.7.2 is a bugfix release aimed to fix problems with crop marks on booklets with creep feature enabled. Imposition Wizard supports all main imposition schemes: Booklet, N-Up, Step & Repeat, Cut Stack. It allows to reorder pages of source documents, supports custom crops and bleeds of source pages, allows to define padding for sheets and trim the unused space. Imposition Wizard supports creeps for booklets, it performs saddle stitched and perfect binded impositions and much more. This software can solve most imposition tasks and can be controlled using AppleScript. One feature of Imposition Wizard is its "real-time" nature. It displays results...

Our next Category Review will look at copywriting software for the Mac. If you use or know of such goodies, drop me a line (dsellers@applecentral.com) no later than Wednesday, Oct. 13. We had intended to run a column on copywriting software for the Mac -- but we found none. Category Reviews appear on Friday and round-up Mac solutions for specific industries and areas as dentistry, engineering, sales, etc. Also, if you have a particular category review topic you'd like us to cover, drop me a line, as well.