Koingo Software (http://www.koingosw.com) has released MacPilot 4 and Librarian Pro 2 for Mac OS X. Upgrades are free for owners of the Utility Package or buyers within the past six months. For all others, the upgrade option is $$9.95.

Sporting numerous user interface enhancements and 91 new features, the main highlight of MacPilot 4 is the ability to create save points. You can now ssave the system state and restore later with only a few clicks.

Librarian Pro has gone from a personal home inventory solution to an advanced tool for any rental business, according to the folks at Koingo Software. Version 2.0 has a new borrowing system, the ability to track late fees, a borrowing history, and the ability to manage multiple copies of the same item. Coming soon in a free update for 2.0 users will be a completely revamped product gallery view mode where items appear on a bookshelf.

Paragon Software (http://www.paragon-software.com) has released Paragon Volume Snapshot for Mac OS X. It's an US$39.95 snapshot-based, back-up solution for protection of both data and systems.

With Paragon Volume Snapshot, you can ccreate an exact point-in-time copy of your data & system. When a disaster strikes, you can recover your data. Unlike Time Machine and other file-level backup utilities, our solution has very fast backup and restore capabilities, according to the folks at Paragon. Now you can back-up running applications and locked system files. If your system fails, there's no need re-install; just boot from the Mac OS X Install DVD and launch the restore operation.

Houdah Software (http://www.houdah.com/) has updated HoudahSpot, their Spotlight front end for Mac OS X, to version 2.7. With the upgrade, the "any text" criterion also matches text content of files.

HoudahSpot 2.7 now also offers the option to enable global shortcuts independently of the global menu (status bar item). Shortcuts allow for activating HoudahSpot and provide access to the popular BlitzSearch window.

HoudahSpot is a Spotlight front-end for Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard") and 10.6 ("Snow Leopard"). With it, users may create detailed queries to pinpoint the exact file they want to get to.

HoudahSpot costs US$30 for a single-user license. Version 2.7 is a free update for registered users.

Eltima Software has updated SyncMate (http://mac.eltima.com/sync-mac.html), software for syncing data between a Mac to Windows Mobile handheld devices The upgrade now lets you sync files between Macs and Android phones.

SyncMate lets you synchronize Favorites, Contacts, Calendar, Notes in mobile device with Bookmarks, Address Book, iCal, Stickies on Mac OS X. The software enables Internet sharing between the Mac and the mobile device. The connection can be made via USB cable or Wi Fi.

SyncMate is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.

SyncMate is available in two editions. SyncMate Free Edition is a synchronizer for Mac and Pocket PC/smartphone devices that will help you keep all your documents, text messages, contacts, calendar entries and events and other stuff organized. With the SyncMate Free edition...

Samsung Electronics (http://www.samsung.com) has announced the fastest external hard drive yet in its Story Station product portfolio -- the Story Station 3.0 with the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface.

The 3.5-inch external hard drive purportedly offers 10 times faster speed compared to the previous USB 2.0 interface.The USB 3.0 interface offers a maximum transfer rate of 5 gigabits per second (Gbps) compared to 480 megabits per second (Mbps) in USB 2.0. Users can now transfer 4 MB of music (equivalent of a 3-minute song) or image files (6megapixel camera in hi-resolution photos) in approximately 0.02 seconds and an HD movie in 2.3 minutes, says H.S. Lee, vice president, storage marketing, Samsung Electronics. The new interface is backward-compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 interfaces.

The minimalist design was inspired by retro electronics and combines a grey, brushed aluminum casing with the logo...

Each student enrolling in the new Mini-MBA: Digital Marketing Executive Certificate Program this summer at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, will receive an iPad. It will be an integral part of the 12-session program, customized with Apple’s help to provide a new dimension to executive education in a field that is defined by technology, says Eric Greenberg, a CMD faculty member who is program director of the digital marketing mini-MBA.

Rather than offering the program online, the Rutgers Center for Management Development (CMD) is seeking to merge the benefits of in-person classroom learning with the power and flexibility of digital technology, he says. Rutgers faculty are working with Apple to customize the iPad for use in the course, and with programmers to develop apps specific for each of the 12 three-hour modules.

“The Digital Marketing Mini-MBA is a perfect course to pilot since it is designed for marketers who have an interest in learning and...

Here are the latest iPhone/iPod touch/iPod/iPad apps announced. You can find 'em at the Apple App Store (http://www.itunes.com/appstore/).

As a thank you to baseball fans for making At Bat 2010 for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad the top paid sports app in the Apple Apple Store, MLB.com will offer free live streaming video on those mobile devices via MLB.TV on Saturday, April 24, and Sunday, April 25. This free weekend of MLB.TV will be made available exclusively to At Bat 2010 subscribers on the the Apple devices, subject to blackout restrictions

Zanisoft has announced Shopary for the iPhone and iPod touch. It's an US$3.99 shopping diary application with push notification deals, location/mapping, photos and barcode scanning.

Demansol has released Treasure Hunt: The Ultimate Memory Game 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch users. The $0.99 app is actually a memory puzzle, which users...

RE:Vision Effects (http://www.revisionfx.com) has announced that FxPlug versions of FieldsKit and ReelSmart Motion Blur are now available, and that new FxPlug versions of Twixtor and DE:Noise have been released. The Effections bundle for Final Cut Pro has also been updated.

FieldsKit (US$89.95 and now up to version 3.0) uses proprietary field reconstruction and adaptive motion techniques to build full frames from fields. You can upgrade the FieldsKit After Effects-compatible version to the FxPlug version for $29.97. Version 3.0 adds support for 8-bit and 10-bit YUV and floating point processing. It's compatible with Final Cut Pro 6.03 and up and Final Cut Express 4.0.1 and higher.

ReelSmart Motion Blur (RSMB) automatically adds more natural-looking motion blur to a sequence. It's designed to give video a more film-like feel, and is also useful to reintroduce motion blur for blue or green screen...

Apple’s iPhone shipments to Japan more than doubled in the past year, capturing 72%of the country’s smartphone market, reports "Bloomberg" (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-23/apple-iphone-captures-72-of-...).

Shipments of the iPhone, which began selling in Japan in July 2008, climbed to 1.69 million units in the year ended March 31, per Tokyo-based MM Research Institute Ltd. said in a report yesterday. That raised the total to 2.3 million, Hideaki Yokota, an analyst at the research firm, told "Bloomberg."

The iPhone helped smartphone sales more than double last fiscal year in Japan as shipments of regular mobile phones shrank, according to the report. Smartphone shipments will probably exceed three million units in the 12...

Amuse has released My Living Desktop 4.71 (http://www.mylivingdesktop.com/) for Mac OS X, a new version of their video desktop and screen saver utility. The app replaces the standard still desktop with a video desktop that plays high-definition movies of the user's choice. The new version.

Version 4.71 sports various under-the-hood improvements, as well as customer requested features. for example, there's now the ability to hide desktop icons, showing only the video that My Living Desktop is currently playing. Users can also now choose what displays on multiple screens.

My Living Desktop is a cross between a video desktop (moving wallpaper) and screen saver. With its built-in video importer, users can import their own movie scenes for use as video desktops. Anyone can now have family movies, movies of friends and special events, vacation movies and more as their desktop -- or as a...

iFunia says iFunia HD Video Converter for Mac now supports converting HD video to the iPad supported formats. Version 2.4 allows Mac consumers to convert HD and AVCHD video to iPad 720p H.264 HD video they need for the iPad’s high-resolution screen.

Besides iPad support, the new version 2.4 also fixes some minor bugs and improves overall performance. The HD Video Converter for Mac is available through the iFunia web site (http://www.ifunia.com/hd-video-converter-mac.html). Exclusively for the Mac platform, it requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher, and is available for US$32.

Apple's MagSafe power adapter has gotten safer, according to a "Wired" post (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/apple-makes-magsafe-magsafer/#ixz...). The company has updated MagSafe tips for the 85 Watt adapters which come with the 15 and 17-inch MacBooks, and the 65 Watt versions for the 13-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro.

"Wired" says the tip is aluminum and puts the plug in parallel with the cable instead of at right-angles, just like that of the MacBook Air. However, with this new design the aluminum extends past the rectangular tip and into a cable-coddling tube. This tube alone should fix a major failing point of the adapters, says "Wired."

Almost a year ago, a lawsuit was filed seeking class action status and accusing Apple of neglecting a flaw in the MagSafe power...