Native Instruments has introduced Abbey Road 50s Drummer, a new Kontakt instrument featuring the sound of two classic drum kits from the 1950s.

The kits provide the distinctive drum sound of the era. Recorded with both state-of-the-art and period equipment at Abbey Road Studios in London, 50s Drummer also includes a groove library, mixer presets, and a new set of brush articulations, delivering the authentic feel of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country, and jazz from the 1950s.

Abbey Road 50s Drummer is available at the NI Online Shop for US$99. For more info go to http://tinyurl.com/mg2byeu .

RE:Vision Effects has released RE:Match for The Foundry's Nuke and eyeon Fusion. It addresses common problems on multicam and stereo shoots.

RE:Match is a set of plug-ins to match one view of video or film to another so that it looks as if it was shot with the same camera and settings. The software assumes that both image sequences are taken roughly at the same location, but perhaps were not shot at the same time or from the same point-of-view.

For general multicam shoots RE:Match matches, as best it can, one sequence's overall color appearance to match that of another. For stereo pairs, RE:Match can further refine the overall color match by taking into account that the two views are captured at the same time with a relatively small distance between the views.

In addition, RE:Match is also able to propagate color changes into areas that are present in only one view. RE:Match can also make other details, such as reflections, specular highlights, and lens...

CS Odessa has unveiled a new set of tools and features for ConceptDraw Project to give users more control over project views and resource-allocation. ConceptDraw Project 6.4 is being enhanced with the addition of new resource types, custom filter tools, and a new set of printing options.

The upgrade has enhanced options for selecting resource types. The newly defined resource types will allow users to better describe their resources and resource behavior within a project, according to Olin Reams, general manager, CS Odessa. The additional resource types provide better insight into the resource components that compromise a working project, he adds.

To complement the new task and resource features in ConceptDraw Project, there are newly designed filtering tool that allows users to make custom views for their projects. ConceptDraw Project 6.4 allows for custom views to be created and saved for use later on.

ConceptDraw Project 6.4 has also been updated to allow...

ZAGG has introduced two new keyboard accessories for the iPad mini. The ZAGGkeys Cover and ZAGGkeys Folio are "ultra-thin" Bluetooth keyboard accessories built with a patent-pending hinge system that offers a range of viewing angles up to 135 degrees.

The new ZAGGkeys Cover is the most versatile Bluetooth keyboard on the market and the thinnest at just 6.3mm, boasts Kent Wuthrich, executive vice president of marketing for ZAGG. It features a hinge that lets users position the screen at virtually any viewing angle as well as reverse the iPad mini for a one-piece reading and playing mode.

The ZAGGkeys Cover also features backlit keys in seven color options and three lighting levels. A battery purportedly keeps the Cover going for up to three months of normal use before it needs to be charged, while a magnetic closure protects the screen during transport. The ZAGGkeys Cover will be available in both silver and black, matching the back finish of the iPad mini. It's...

Reggie Ashworth (www.reggieashworth.com) has announced AppDelete 4.0.7, a new version of his application deletion utility. The upgrade sports an upgraded user interface and more.

You can drag any item that can be uninstalled onto AppDelete: spplications, widgets, preference panes, plugins, screensavers, etc. You can also activate AppDelete in many ways: dragging items onto main window, onto dock icon, selecting in menu, right-clicking using AppDelete workflow, dragging from Launchpad, and throwing items in the trash. When the preview screen appears you can uncheck any items you would like to exclude.

You also have several choices: delete the items, log only the items, or archive (copy) the items to a .zip file for safekeeping or reinstall at a later date. The items you delete will be moved to the trash and arranged in a folder so that you can see exactly what was deleted and you know exactly...

Noise Industries has added Andy Mees' free Safe Guides plug-in to the FxFactory family of plug-ins and generators. Designed for use in Final Cut Pro(R), Motion, Premiere Pro and After Effects, Safe Guides includes preset guides for 4:3, 14:9 and 16:9 title and action safe areas, an EBU/BBC compliance override and center cross marker.

The plug-in comes with full custom guide controls. Features include two freely adjustable user guides, the option to toggle on or off individual guides and the ability to choose ones own guide colors, plus dim or mask cropped regions. Editors can use the "Conform to 16:9" option to force the guides to display within a center cut 16:9 frame if and when working sequence settings aren't in the correct format.

Safe Guides is now available in FxFactory for free. FxFactory is a visual effects architecture powering plug-ins for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Premiere Pro and After Effects. For more info go to...

Eerie Studios' Junk Punk 3D is now available on the Mac App Store (http://tinyurl.com/me6te83). It requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or higher and costs US$1.99.


Here's how the game is described: "Junk Punk 3D is the successor to Junk Punk. It is a fast-paced action game about free running, fast reflexes and competition. As the player, your ultimate goal is to get as far as you can, without falling down, in which case your only option is to try again. Compete against yourself, your friends or the entire world."

Lifeware Solutions has announced Image Resizer Deluxe 1.1, an update to their photo editing app for Mac OS X. The upgrade adds text antialiasing and fixes the preview size.

Image Resizer Deluxe provides tools to resize and rename large numbers of photos to reduce their size, and make them ready to be sent over email or posted on the web. You can add text, watermarks, border effects, change color depth, apply color effects and more.

Image Resizer Deluxe requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later. It costs US$1.99 and is available worldwide exclusively through the Mac App Store in the Graphics & Design category (http://tinyurl.com/k9nzw5l).

Apple, which holds US$102 billion in cash and investments outside the U.S., will suggest changes to corporate tax laws to encourage companies to bring more cash into the country, reports "Bloomberg" (http://tinyurl.com/an63hjh).

In interviews with "The Washington Post" and "Politico," Apple CEO Tim Cook previewed testimony he will give on May 21 before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which has been examining companies that use various maneuvers to reduce their tax bills. The current 35% corporate-tax rate is too high for companies to pay when bringing money back from overseas, Cook was quoted as saying by "The Washington Post." Cook defended Apple’s practices and said the company doesn’t funnel domestic profits overseas, according to his "Politico."

Paddle has announced Paddle for Developers. It's a simple framework allowing Mac software developers to create trial and demo versions of their Mac applications.

The Paddle framework, in its basic installation, allows users to offer a trial/demo version and take payments in-app. The framework can purportedly be added to an existing Mac application in as little as five minutes.

Additional services are also provided for developers who decide to implement the framework, such as marketing and promotion services to Paddle's 150,000-plus active users, and a dedicated account manager to assist the developer with querie. Also, all order-related customer support for sales via the framework is managed by Paddle.

The framework, and functionality provided cost nothing for a developer to implement. There are no signup fees, or setup fees, and no monthly account maintenance fees. The only fee charged is at the point of sale within the app, Paddle takes a small commission...

Excel Software (www.excelsoftware.com) has announced enhancements to its MacA&D application for requirements management, system and software design, code generation and report generation.  

The newly added Business Process Model Notation supports Collaboration, Process, Choreography and Conversation diagrams. The new release includes color and editing features in the Table editor, improved integration between diagram and definition entries for requirements and use cases, plus usability enhancements to menu commands, toolbars, tool palettes, cursors and diagram drawing.

MacA&D 4.1 runs on all Mac OS X computers with an Intel processor. The Standard edition is US$495, the Desktop edition is $1,195 and a Developer edition costs $1995; site licenses are available. The product includes printed and PDF user guides, a help system and a growing library of free demonstration and training videos on...

Thursby Software Systems has released a free update of its PKard for Mac software, including support for CAC dual persona Mac users.
 
With an ever-increasing number of citizens working as contractors within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the government needed a way to represent both roles on one common identification card. Instead of the standard DoD identification smart card (called a CAC or Common Access Card by the U.S. government), the DoD developed a card that could represent the individual in both roles. Thus, a CAC card supporting a "dual persona" was developed.

More challenging to implement and support than the standard U.S. government CAC or Personal Identity Verification (PIV) cards, PKard for Mac is the first supported solution of its kind for Mac users, according to the folks at Thursby Software.

PKard for Mac together with its sister app for iPhone and iPad mobile devices, PKard Reader, supports tens of thousands of users across the...