At this week's SuperSpeed USB Developers Conference in Taipei, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) announced the certification of 75 SuperSpeed USB products and multiple company demonstrations of new SuperSpeed USB consumer products.

Certified SuperSpeed USB products from industry-leading companies are available to consumers worldwide. Additionally, SuperSpeed USB products in new device classes, from display to hubs, are emerging.

“SuperSpeed USB momentum continues to explode, with new products rapidly entering the market, furthering the expansion of the SuperSpeed USB ecosystem,” says Jeff Ravencraft, president and chairman, USB-IF.

“SuperSpeed USB is tracking with IDC’s forecast from last year for its adoption,” adds Shane Rau, director of IDC’s Computing and Storage Semiconductors research. “Driven by the need for more and faster data storage capabilities in personal computers, we continue to forecast that SuperSpeed USB will ship in 45% of mobile computers...

Black Cat Systems has announced that version 4.0.0 of Morse Mania (http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/morsemania.html) has been released and is now available for immediate download. This version is a complete re-write in Cocoa, and adds Universal Binary support.

Morse Mania is a morse code tutor for the Macintosh. The software package helps you learn morse code at speeds ranging from five to 50 words per minute. Morse Mania is designed for amateur (ham) radio operators who want to learn or improve their morse code proficiency, especially in order to upgrade their license class. The generated morse code is played using the computer's speaker.

In addition to drills to help learn the various characters, Morse Mania also allows complete text files to be sent, so that "real life" messages can be used for practice. Simulated morse code...

In what may be good news for Apple's iWork apps, Microsoft has no plans to make Office products for the iPad, Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s business division, told "Bloomberg" (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=AAPL%3AUS&sid=auK...).. At least not yet.

Elop said the company would take a “wait and see” approach to tailoring software for the iPad, which goes on sale on April 3. “We never say never, but we have no current plans” to develop a version of Office for the Apple iPad, he added.

An iPad edition of Office would likely be built by a unit within Microsoft’s consumer business that creates versions of Office that work with Apple’s Macintosh personal computers. Kristen Woody, a spokesman for that unit, told "Bloomberg" it “doesn’t...

Black Cat Systems has announced that version 4.0.0 of Morse Mania (http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/morsemania.html) has been released and is now available for immediate download. This version is a complete re-write in Cocoa, and adds Universal Binary support.

Morse Mania is a morse code tutor for the Macintosh. The software package helps you learn morse code at speeds ranging from five to 50 words per minute. Morse Mania is designed for amateur (ham) radio operators who want to learn or improve their morse code proficiency, especially in order to upgrade their license class. The generated morse code is played using the computer's speaker.

In addition to drills to help learn the various characters, Morse Mania also allows complete text files to be sent, so that "real life" messages can be used for practice. Simulated morse code...

Sales of the iPhone broke the half-million mark in the four months since its South Korean market debut, reports the "Yonhap News Agency" (http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/techscience/2010/04/01/53/0601000000AEN2...).

KT, which sells the iPhone there, said South Korea was one of the seven countries in the world where sales of the smartphone topped 500,000 units in less than a year. The telecom operator, also the nation's second-largest mobile carrier, said it activates 4,000 new iPhones every day, notes the "Yonhap News Agency." The iPhone went on sale in South Korea on Nov. 28.

A U.S. trade agency will investigate Apple's patent-infringement claims against Taiwan’s HTC Corp. to determine if its phones using Google’s Android operating system should be banned from the U.S.

Last month Apple filed a lawsuit against HTC for infringing on 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. The lawsuit was filed concurrently with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

As many as 10 of those violations involve the Nexus One, Apple said in a complaint submitted to the ITC. The Delaware lawsuit, however, didn't specify the HTC-made phones that allegedly violated Apple's patents.

In a statement (http://www.usitc.gov/press_room/news_release/2010/er0331hh2.htm), the USITC says: "The U.S. International Trade...

Apple has released a list of "iPad ready" web sites. You can find it at http://www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad/ .

Here's what Apple has to say: "iPad features Safari, a mobile web browser that supports the latest web standards — including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. Here are just a few of the sites that take advantage of these web standards to deliver content that looks and functions beautifully on iPad."

Among the CNN, Reuters, New York Times, Vimeo, TIME, Major League Baseball, The White House, Virgin America, Sports Illustrated, Flickr, People Magazine, TED and more.

Uh oh. Apple has asked for reconsideration of its trademark application for the word “iPhone” by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court. They were denied, with the court maintaining that the term is a non-distinctive word for which Apple could not be granted a trademark.

The Court rejected the application for the class 9 goods on the grounds that "iPhone" will be immediately understood by consumers as describing a telephone with Internet or information technology-related functions, and accordingly represents a non-distinctive, descriptive indication.

Apple has argued that the prefix "i" can have numerous different meanings, all of which seem equally likely to the addressed market circles. The Managing Intellectual Property site (http://www.managingip.com/Article/2456399/...

Yamaha Electronics Corp. (http://www.yamaha.com) has introduced three new in-ear headphones for iPods, MP3 players, iPods and other portable entertainment devices.

The line, which includes the EPH-20 (US$29.95), EPH-30 ($49.95) and EPH-50 ($99.95), takes advantage of the company’s long-held expertise in audio and music products to provide Yamaha’s signature natural sound, noise isolation, comfort and durability to casual listeners and audiophiles, the company says. All models provide a set of three ear buds of various sizes.

The EPH-50 features a larger audio driver and a quarter-inch plug adapter for home stereo use The EPH-20 is available in five colors, including black, hot pink, indigo blue, lime green and red berry brown. The EPH-50 and EPH-30 are available in black and white.

Newer Technology has announced its new NewerTech Accessory Line for iPad consisting of four case and screen accessories that add protective style and functionality to the new iPad being introduced this Saturday, April 3.

The NewerTech Accessory Line for iPad features four products:

° NewerTech NuVue Screen Protector (US$9.99), which keeps the iPad screen clear and scratch-free;

° NewerTech NuGuard Soft Silicone Protective Case ($17.99) is available in six colors to preserve and protect the iPad;

° NewerTech NuGuard Hard Shell Polycarbonate Case ($24.99) is available in clear to highlight the iPad's design or in bycast black leather;

° NewerTech NuVue Screen Protector & Privacy Screen ($39.99) keeps the iPad screen clear and scratch-free while preventing others from viewing screen.

All of the announced NewerTech Accessories for iPad are available for pre-ordering from NewerTech's exclusive distributor, Other World Computing (...

Everyone knows that Best Buy will be selling the new iPad. However, most folks may not realize that select Apple Specialist locations in the US will also be selling the iPad on release
date.

Through a nondisclosure agreement, Apple is not allowing these resellers from doing any pre-advertising or tell customers they will be carrying the iPad products, Joe Weingarten, executive director, Macintosh Reseller Association, tells "MacNews."

Apple Specialists are locally owned and operated Apple resellers, most have been operating long before Apple opened their own retail stores.

"At this time we are unable to provide specific locations that have been approved by Apple, Inc.," to carry the iPad," Weingarten says.

Appcelerator -- a platform for developing native mobile, desktop, and iPad applications using web technologies -- has announced updated findings of its Mobile Developer Survey taken of application developers about their plans to build applications for various mobile and tablet platforms. And they find it's a tight race between Apple and Google.

Taken last week from a pool of Appcelerator’s 33,000+ application developers, 1,028 developers responded about their plans to prioritize iPad development within an increasingly fragmented and competitive landscape. This survey is posted at http://www.appcelerator.com/mobile-developer-survey .

The survey was taken as Appcelerator’s iPad beta concludes with a Titanium Tablet SDK officially rolling out on April 50. The Titanium Tablet will enable web developers to build 100% native iPad applications The...