App Studio is introducing a new package that enables higher education institutions to incorporate digital publishing into curriculum and equip students to create apps for tablets and smartphones.

Customers can also use the new education plan to create digital marketing and campus communications. App Studio is software that uses HTML5 to transform InDesign and QuarkXPress projects into native apps for iOS, Kindle Fire, and Android devices.


The new App Studio Education Plan includes: 250 user subscriptions to App Studio; up to 100 course projects; 4 x Multi-Issue Pro plans (four different digital publications for the iPad and iPhone); 1 x Multi-Issue Premium plan (one digital publication for iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Android tablet, and Android smartphone); optional 250 QuarkXPress licenses; and Bronze App Studio support

The ongoing price of this package is US$4,995 per year. However, for a limited time App Studio is offering the package for a special launch...

Zevrix Solutions (http://zevrix.com) has announced Output Factory 1.3.19, an update to its professional output automation solution for Adobe InDesign. The new version lets users apply specific HTML export settings across batches of InDesign documents in addition to the option to export each file with its current HTML settings.

With Output Factory, users can output hundreds of documents or just single files with full control over batch printing, layer versioning, automatic preflighting, file delivery, and more. All they need to do is select the desired InDesign files and adjust workflow settings.

Output Factory can be purchased from the Zevrix website for US$169.95; a "lite" version costs $119.95), as well as from authorized resellers and Adobe Exchange. A demo is available for download. BatchOutput users can upgrade to Output Factory for 4.97. Output Factory is available for Mac OS X 10.5-10.8 on Intel-based...

CEO Ian Narev says the competitive threat posed to the Commonwealth Bank by the likes of Apple and Google is as great as that of its big three rivals, according to ZDNet" (http://tinyurl.com/q7qocyw).

"We consider we have got very, very good competitors in the major banks, we have got very good competitors in the next tier banks," Narev told the G100 Congress in Sydney on Tuesday. "We worry every day about all those competitors, but we worry equally about the niche players, many of them well resourced, many of them international. The Apples, the Googles, the Samsungs, the PayPals, the credit card companies, who can pick particular slivers as a result of the application of technology into financial services and compete. We need to be prepared for that."

According to "ZDNet," he says he welcomed competition. However, he added that it was unclear how regulation of the financial services sector...

Widget Press has announced an update to its FormEntry family (www.widgetpress.com/formentry) of software. FormEntry for Mac, FormEntry Server and the all new FormEntry Touch have all been updated to version 2.3. These applications are designed exclusively for iOS, Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server, and allow for custom iOS form app creation and deliver to any iPad, iPhone and iPod touch device.

FormEntry 2.3 features image, barcode, PIN, ratings, web browser controls and WebDAV, SFTP, Open In, Save Transmittal plug-ins. The software allows Mac authors can develop rich form based applications for their iOS users. Once created on a Mac, the authors can send their forms over Wi-Fi to any iOS device to be completed.

FormEntry for Mac 2.3 can be purchased for US$99 from the Mac App Store and FormEntry Server 2.3 can be purchased for $199. FormEntry Touch is the free iOS app that can be...

MacNews and MacTech will be running a limited update schedule today in honor of Memorial Day. Originally called Decoration Day, is a day to remember those who have died in our nation's service. Remember our soldiers, past and present, and have a safe and wonderful holiday.

LikeMac Group (www.likemac.ru/english/) has released Disk Order 3.2.4, an update of the double-pane file manager for OS X with advanced features. A Dropbox plug-in is now included.

It makes it possible to browse through files on a server, download and upload, or even view and edit them. Simple file dropping is also supported.

Disk Order is designed to makes file management easy. It lets you browse archives like regular folders, connect to FTP(S) servers, view/edit files and other. It's also supplied with plugins which allow to download music from iPod/iPhone/iPad, provide Dropbox support and enable other useful features.

Disk Order 3.2.4 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher and an Intel Mac. It can be downloaded free of charge on 30-day trial term basis. The full version can be purchased for US$29.95.

SintraWorks has updated PDF Nomad, a PDF editor for Mac OS X (10.7 and higher), to version 2.0. The upgrade adds scanning, OCR, AppleScript support, automatic page deskewing, bookmarks management and more.

PDF Nomad's features include simple text search and extraction, file merging, page splitting, form creation, markup and annotation, booklet/magazine creation and more. You can create and fill out PDF forms, mark-up text and annotate pages with rectangles, ovals, arrows, lines and more.

With PDF Nomad, you can resize whole documents to a different page size with a single command, or resize individual pages with drag and drop, shifting page contents as needed. You can export individual pages as bitmaps (jpg, png etc.) or create spoken audio files from the document's text.

PDF Nomad 2.0 is normally available as a single-user license for US$49.99 from both the Mac App Store and from the SintraWorks website (...

Apple today said the keynote address for its annual Worldwide Developers Conference will occur on Monday, June 10, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, reports "All Things D" (http://tinyurl.com/oqp7syh). However, the speakers haven't been announced.

Apple will hold WWDC 2013 June 10-14 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At the five-day conference, developers from around the world will learn about the future of iOS and OS X.

WWDC will also feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by over 1,000 Apple engineers, hands-on labs to help developers integrate new technologies, as well as the Apple Design Awards, a showcase of the most outstanding apps available through the Mac App Store and Apple App Store. For more info go to developer.apple.com/wwdc .

Remarking on a U.S. Senate investigation that claims Apple avoided taxes on tens of billions of dollars by holding significant profits in three Irish subsidiaries, Ireland’s Finance Minister Michael Noonan said the country did not work out special corporate tax rate of only 2% with Apple as rumored, according to "All Things D" (http://tinyurl.com/q52z832).

"I do not want to be the whipping boy for some misunderstanding in a hearing in the U.S. Congress," Noonan said during a parliamentary committee meeting on Wednesday.

In other words, if Apple was able to markedly reduce its tax bill in the U.S. and the rest of the world, "it was because of a gap between different tax jurisdictions, not some magic deal with Ireland," notes "All Things D."

"Maybe there was a magician, but the magician wasn’t living down in Cork,” Noonan said. "Because [Apple] is not tax resident in Ireland, [it is] not...

Econ Technologies has updated ChronoSync to version 4.3.8, which contains several new features and fixes. ChronoSync is the automated synchronization and backup application for Mac OS X that can synchronize, backup, and create bootable backups.

Version 4.3.8 changes the logic that tests to confirm an SMB volume is still mounted to improve compatibility with certain NAS devices.

All existing ChronoSync users update for free. For new users the cost is US$40. A demo is available for download from the Econ Technologies web site (http://www.econtechnologies.com).

The Omni Group has released OmniPresence, a new way for users to sync documents. This completes the effort to bring full synchronization to each of the Omni Group’s five applications.

OmniPresence syncs everything within a folder between many devices using a standard web server. Because of the way OmniPresence was designed, customers also have the advantage of being able to keep all data under their own control, says says Ken Case, CEO of the Omni Group. This is sometimes a necessity for confidential data within companies, he adds.

The Omni Group today also released a free and open-source framework for iOS developers to add support for OmniPresence to any document-based application on the iPad or iPhone. OmniPresence is a free download for the latest version of OS X, and is built into each of the Omni Group’s document-based apps on the iPad: OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner and OmniGraphSketcher.

These apps join OmniFocus and OmniPlan, bringing syncing to the Omni...

Apple wants to add the new Galaxy S4 to an ongoing case involving Apple and Samsung being heard in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division, according to a new filing with that court, reports "Macworld" (http://tinyurl.com/p4fww6e)

"Apple obtained the Galaxy S4 on April 27 and immediately began its infringement analysis, including Samsungs customizations of the Android Jelly Bean platform, covering the eight asserted patents," Apple stated in the filing, adding that it tested S4's sold by AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint. "That analysis revealed that the Galaxy S4 infringes five of Apples asserted patents in the same ways as Samsungs already accused products," it added.

This is all part of the ongoing, global legal battle. Apple and Samsung have filed more than 30 lawsuits against each other across four continents. For example, Apple alleges that Samsung copied...