MacNews Latest News

No one 'laid a glove' on Tim Cook at his Senate grilling

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:19:45 +0000

No one laid a glove on Apple CEO Tim Cook, not even the subcommittee's "hostile chairman," in his appearance before the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to explain the company's offshore tax practices, according to "CNNMoney" (http://tinyurl.com/lbfvd5x).

Cook's testimony was "calm and precise," and "the senators, for their part, were mostly respectful -- and on occasion fawning," the article adds.

Native Instruments introduces Abbey Road 50s Drummer

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:58:07 +0000

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.

I.R.I.S. releases IRISScan Book 3, Executive

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:46:23 +0000

I.R.I.S. has released the IRIScan Book 3 and IRIScan Book 3 Executive. These portable scanning solutions are battery‐powered, enabling mobile users to easily capture paper documents, receipts, photos and more without the use of a computer.

The IRIScan Book 3 and IRIScan Book 3 Executive scan directly to an included MicroSD card in black/white or color with 300, 600 and 900 dpi scanning resolutions. No driver installation is required; simply connect the scanner with the included USB cable or insert the MicroSD card into the computer.

RE:Vision Effects releases RE:Match for Nuke and Fusion

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:30:06 +0000

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.

Bracketron releases new USB charger

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:22:38 +0000

Bracketron has released the Twist & Charge USB Charger, a solution to overcrowded outlets that provides an USB charging port for mobile devices without blocking or taking up an AC outlet.

It allows users to add an USB charging port to any standard AC outlet. The design features one surge-protected USB outlet that rotates up to 270 degrees. The device is compact and small enough to toss into suitcases. The Twist & Charge USB Charger will be available for purchase on June 19 for US$17.95 at Bracketron.com .

CS Odessa rolls out new tools for ConceptDraw Project

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:10:23 +0000

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.

HGST introduces Travelstar 5K1500 for the mobile market

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 15:04:01 +0000

HGST says it's offering the highest storage density (MB/mm3) of any hard disk drive (HDD) today. The new Travelstar 5K1500 is the industry's first 9.5mm, 1.5TB mobile hard drive and features the industry's highest capacity in a standard 9.5mm design, the company says.

ZAGG debuts new iPad mini accessories

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:44:12 +0000

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.

Senate says Apple sheltered $44 billion from taxes

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:15:26 +0000

Senate investigators are accusing Apple of wiring together a complicated system to shield billions of dollars in international profits from both U.S. and foreign tax collectors, reports "Politico" (http://tinyurl.com/kp3hh77).

A report released ahead of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s inaugural Capitol Hill appearance today alleges the tech giant took advantage of numerous U.S. tax loopholes and avoided U.S. taxes on US$44 billion in offshore, taxable income between 2009 and 2012. Apple denies this.

AppDelete for Mac OS X adds updated user interface

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:39:32 +0000

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.

FMStudio Pro updated for Dreamweaver CS6, FileMaker Server 12

dsellers — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:29:30 +0000

FMWebschool has announced FMStudio Pro 1.1.3, bringing new updates for Dreamweaver CS6 and FileMaker Server 12. This combination of technologies enables a direct connection from FileMaker to Dreamweaver.

Experts will appreciate the ability to rapidly create and deploy FileMaker driven websites, according to the folks at FMWebschool. Beginners to web publishing can now build FileMaker websites without knowing PHP by using the simple drag and drop tool-set and live data features, they add.

Noise Industries offers Andy Mees Safe Guides plug-in

dsellers — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:11:57 +0000

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.

Apple releases Tim Cook's official statement to Senate

dsellers — Mon, 20 May 2013 21:46:12 +0000

Apple has released Tim Cook's official statement to the Senate ahead of his Tuesday appearance at a hearing on corporate tax payments.

Eerie Studios releases Junk Punk 3D for the Mac

dsellers — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:52:01 +0000

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."

matchTag 1.5 optimized for Mountain Lion

dsellers — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:47:34 +0000

Nominari has released matchTag 1.5 for Mac OS X (10.7.2 or higher). The app can update the title information in an iTunes music collection and amend, either completely or selectively, the missing data from the iTunes Store. Version 1.5 has been optimized for Mountain Lion.

matchTag facilitates the iTunes ID that was written into the new file during download and allows for either individual tags or for the whole set to be amended or replaced. MatchTag also has an option to download a cover image thumbnail.

Image Resizer Deluxe for Mac OS X gets text antialiasing, more

dsellers — Mon, 20 May 2013 13:35:17 +0000

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.

iStopMotion for Mac OS X gets screen capture feature

dsellers — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:23:37 +0000

Boinx Software has updated iStopMotion, its stop motion animation tool for Mac OS X (10.7.4), to version 3.1. The new version includes a screen capture feature that provides animators with a new medium for animating.

iStopMotion 3.1 is localized in English, German, French, Japanese and Russian. It's available for US$49.99 both from the Mac App Store and the Boinx Website (www.boinx.com/).

Apple to suggest changes to U.S. corporate tax laws

dsellers — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:15:34 +0000

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).

microLARGE Software Taskdesk for the Mac

dsellers — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:46:55 +0000

microLARGE Software has introduced Taskdeck, a task and to-do list app for Mac OS X (10.7.4 or higher). It costs US$7.99.

Taskdeck promises a minimalist, keyboard-driven user interface with features like tags, attachments, drag 'n drop prioritization, searching and filtering. Related tasks are grouped into lists, with each list showing a badge that indicates the number of open, due, or overdue tasks.

Paddle launches demo/trial framework for Mac developers

dsellers — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:31:38 +0000

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.

PDFpen for Mac OS X upgraded to version 6.0.3

dsellers — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:55:43 +0000

Smile (www.smilesoftware.com) has announced PDFpen 6.0.3, the latest version of its all-purpose PDF editing tool. The upgrade adds support for the Polish language OCR, and includes numerous fixes.

The changes in PDFpen 6.0.3 have also been made in PDFpenPro 6.0.3, the pro version that can also convert websites into PDFs, create fillable PDF forms, automatically create form fields in non-interactive PDF forms, construct document table of contents, and set document permission settings that restrict saving, printing, and copying.

MacA&D 4.1 adds business process models

dsellers — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:53:56 +0000

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.

PhotoBulk image editor for Mac OS X upgraded to version 1.5

dsellers — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:42:07 +0000

Eltima Software (http://mac.eltima.com) has updated PhotoBulk, a bulk image editor for Mac OS X (10.7 and higher), to version 1.5. The new version allows for faster changing of the watermark position int he preview window and the ability to choose the most precise position for your watermark per-pixel.

PKard for Mac includes support for CAD dual persona Mac users

dsellers — Fri, 17 May 2013 11:19:57 +0000

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.

Apple releases MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0

dsellers — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:28:16 +0000

Apple has rolled out MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0. It addresses a storage firmware issue that, in rare cases, may cause a system to fail to recover from a crash.

Apple says it's recommended for MacBook Air (mid 2012) models. MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0 is available via the Software Updates component of the Mac OS X Systems Preferences app.