Isotope 244 has released Machines at War 3 for Mac OS X and Windows. It's an US$19.99 sequel to Land Air Sea Warfare.

Here's how the game is described: "Machines at War 3 is the rare indie game that offers a full single-player campaign to compliment its multiplayer and random map modes.  It reminds many gamers of Red Alert and Total Annihilation.

"Using retro strategy and heart-pounding action, Machines at War 3 lets you battle and outsmart enemy forces as a military commander. You’re joined by a fiery officer named Samantha Vice, who helps you maneuver through 21 intriguing campaign missions. Your objective: Uncover why your country’s secret research team -- the Omicron Initiative -- has disappeared.

A demo is available for download. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/c9e63v4 .

Apple has been named by the Chinese publication, "The People's Daily," in an article listing web sites and app stores that have/are being investigated for allegedly providing pornographic content in China, reports "The Wall Street Journal" (http://tinyurl.com/cl6s6qc).

Apple's appearance on the list, which mostly includes relatively obscure websites, has spurred concern on the Chinese Internet that this may represent the beginning of another campaign by the government against Apple, says the "WSJ." However, this time around the bad publicity is "markedly different" from the March attacks, which blasted Apple's after-sales policies.

"The People’s Daily article is not featured prominently in Wednesday’s paper, nor does it make efforts to emphasize Apple, which is listed next to the names of other app stores singled out in the middle of the second paragraph of the article," the "Journal" points...

Enolsoft has announced EPUB Viewer for Mac OS X (10.6 and higher). It's available for US$29 at www.enolsoft.com . A demo is available for download.

Featuring zoom-in, zoom-out, bookmarks, scrolling, printing and more, EPUB Viewer helps anyone open and read non-DRM protected EPUB eBooks on a Mac, as well as convert EPUB docs to the Adobe PDF format.

You can open and view multiple EPUB files on a Mac in Tab mode. You can play embedded media files, audio and video in EPUB files. EPUB Viewer lets you manage EPUB eBooks on a bookshelf and much more.

The Lodys Group (www.lodsys.com) has posted a response to a response from Apple's legal department regarding a patent lawsuit. Hang on; we'll explain.

In 2011 Lodsys sued some iOS developers for using in-app purchasing systems that it claims violates patents it owns. The patent holding firm targeted small iOS developers with notices of patent infringement for providing in-app purchase and/or Apple App Store purchase links within their apps.

Apple's legal department has came to the defense of iOS app developers with a letter to Lodsys regarding its patent dispute with app developers. In the letter to Lodsys, Bruce Sewell, Apple senior vice president and general counsel said:

"Apple is undisputedly licensed to these patents and the App Makers are protected by that license. Thus the technology that is targeted in your notice letters is technology that Apple is expressly licensed under the Lodsys patents...

Logitech (www.logitech.com) has expanded its universal remote control lines with the Logitech Harmony Ultimate (pictured) and the Logitech Harmony Smart Control.

Both products feature Logitech’s Harmony Hub and Harmony Smartphone app to enable closed-cabinet control and one-touch entertainment access to game consoles from your universal remote or smartphone. The Harmony Hub takes personalizing your activities a step farther into home control with the ability to program your Philips Hue lights to the desired brightness and color with a tap of the Logitech Harmony Ultimate, says Joerg Tewes, vice president of Logitech's digital home business group.

The Logitech Harmony Ultimate and Logitech Harmony Smart Control are reportedly compatible with more than 225,000 home-entertainment devices and more than 5,000 brands. Both include the Harmony Hub, which uses Bluetooth wireless technology to power on game...

Apple has released Xcode 4.6.2, an update to its set of developer tools for Mac OS X.

Apple says it's been updated to improve LLDB performance when debugging Objective-C code. It also addresses several bugs that impacted stability including a problem that could cause the crash log database to bloat to a very large size.

Xcode 4.6.2 is a 1.65GB download. It's free at the Mac App Store.

Adobe has announced the availability of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 beta for Windows and Mac. Adobe Lightroom is a photography workflow application that allows photography enthusiasts and professionals to enhance, organize and share photos.

The Lightroom 5 beta offers a free, public preview of new features and tools that will be offered in the final release, expected later this year. Winston Hendrickson, vice president of digital imaging products, Adobe, says the Lightroom 5 beta offers photographers and enthusiasts many new features including:

° Advanced Healing Brush allows customers to heal imperfections and remove distracting elements;

° Upright tool analyzes an image to automatically level horizons and straighten objects like buildings to correct a keystone effect;

° Radial Gradient tool creates off-center or multiple vignette effects;

° Smart Previews allow customers to edit images without needing the original raw file;

° Video...

Troll Touch, a manufacturer of custom touchscreen solutions for Mac and PC computers and displays, ha sannounced the availability of its latest product offering: a custom designed touchscreen system for the new 21.5 and 27-inch ultra slim (2012) iMacs.

The latest iMac systems feature an internally integrated, analog resistive touchscreen overlay coupled with the company's high resolution 12-bit USB controller and custom cabling. Delivery is slated to begin on or before April 19. The price for factory installed, single unit orders is US$999 for the 21.5-inch and $1399 for the 27-inch. Quantity discounts and Troll Touch affiliate pricing is available.

Troll Touch factory installed internal touch conversions feature a proprietary, custom designed scratch resistant, contrast enhanced analog resistive touchscreen overlay. All Troll Touch products are warranted for one year, extendable to three years. For more info go to...

Foxconn Technology Group has resumed hiring at a Chinese factory as it prepares to make a new iPhone, reports "Bloomberg" (http://tinyurl.com/cajs4t9), quoting an unnamed "person familiar with the plans."

Workers have been recruited at Foxconn’s plant in Zhengzhou, eastern China, for the past month, ending a hiring freeze imposed in February, said the person, "who asked not to be named because the plans haven’t been made public." The extra workers will assemble the new device as well as existing models and have been added at Apple’s request to boost capacity, according to "Bloomberg."

Akvis has released Akvis AirBrush 1.0. The Mac OS X compatible software makes photos look as if they're airbrush paintings made with a special airbrush tool.

The program is designed to help users create a piece of art out of any picture. Akvis AirBrush is available in versions for Mac OS X (10.4 and higher) and Windows, and can be used as a standalone program and as a plug-in to photo editors.

Airbrushing is a painting technique based on the use of a special tool called an air brush or spraying gun. Since it’s a touch free technique, it allows the painter to add light strokes, minor details, and blurry edges.

Akvis AirBrush is equipped with 40 presets to help you get started. They can be applied "as is" or can be modified. The software lets you save your favorite photo-to-painting settings as a preset and use them further. It's possible to import and export your presets. You can share your favorite settings with other fans of this technique. What's more, the...

Sinusoid has released VideoSpeak, a new Mac OS X app for adding synthesized speech audio tracks to existing videos and movies. It allows you to create a voice-over without the use of a microphone or other audio equipment.

You can use as many voices as you wish within a video -- and even have different voices talking to each other. Novelty voices can be used to add interest to funny videos. VideoSpeak is designed for people producing instructional videos, according to the folks at Sinusoid.

Once the user has finished adding the voice tracks, the video is exported to a QuickTime movie file. The original video is never edited; it's only read and a new video produced with the new synthetic spoken voice tracks.

VideoSpeak uses Apple's Speech Synthesis system for Mac OS X, which has a wide range of voices available as standard from the operating system. In addition to the standard voices, users can download localized voices from Apple with accents for the local...

Powerocks (www.powerocks.com) has announced the US$34.99 Tarot, which it describes as the world’s thinnest portable power bank. It's designed to fit in a wallet, pocket, or small purse to provide an emergency charge for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

Available in black, silver, or pink, the Tarot is about the same size as a credit card (but thicker), weighing just 1.79 ounces with measurements of 3.5 x 2.1 x 0.28. Its 1500mAh capacity gives you power to recharge smartphones and tablets with one emergency charge.
 
To charge your devicet, just connect the included Micro USB cable from Tarot to the phone/device. For the iPhone or other devices that don’t use Micro USB, attach the device’s USB adapter to the Tarot’s USB cable to charge. To recharge the Tarot after use, connect its USB Cable to a USB computer or outlet.  The Tarot’s four blue LED lights will tell you how much power is...