CS Odessa (www.conceptdraw.com) has announced an infographics addition to ConceptDraw Pro 10, which is now available in the Business Infographics Area of the ConceptDraw Solution Park. The new Marketing Infographics Solution includes collections of templates, samples, and libraries of vector stencils that support many professional ways to show marketing data at a glance. The new section contains design infographics tools to illustrate business documents and presentations. The ConceptDraw Marketing Infographics Solution is a paid add-on to ConceptDraw Pro 10. The cost to purchase the infographics add-on is $25.

Music software and hardware developer and manufacturer, Arturia, has launched V Collection 4, a software collection of keyboards and drum machines, updated and expanded to include all of the company’s latest software instruments. All 12 of Arturia’s Analog Classics range of software recreations of classic analogue instruments are now included, including the latest VOX Continental V (Sixties-vintage VOX Continental 300 combo organ), Solina V (Seventies-vintage Solina String Ensemble string machine), and Matrix 12 V (Eighties-vintage Oberheim Matrix-12 polysynth) additions. Also new to V Collection 4 is SPARK 2, Arturia’s sound-sculpting and beat performance software featuring over 170 drum machines and over 5,500 patterns ranging from hip-hop to many of the latest EDM genres. Boxed versions of V Collection 4 are available to purchase for US$399 from any authorized Arturia dealer or online as a boxed version or download directly from Arturia (http://tinyurl.com/ldn4y8w).

Apple has updated Final Cut Pro X, its pro/prosumer video editing app, and Xcode, its integrated development environment (IDE) tool. Final Cut Pro X 10.1.4 offers native MXF import, edit, and export via a Pro Video Formats 2.0 software update. It also adds an option to export AVC-Intra MXF files and support for import and editing with Panasonic AVC-LongG media. Version 10.1.4 is a free update for registered users. For new users the cost is US$299. Final Cut Pro X is available at the Mac App Store. 
Xcode 6.1.1 includes software development kits for Mac OS X Yosemite, Mavericks and iOS 8.1. It's a free download at the Mac App Store.

Epson America (www.epson.com) has expanded its portfolio of workgroup printers with its two new A3 printing solutions powered by PrecisionCore – the WorkForce Pro WF-8590 and WF-8090. The WorkForce Pro 8000-Series printers are designed to deliver affordable color printing with low intervention for small and medium companies and corporate workgroups, says Larry Trevarthen, director, Business Imaging, Epson Americ. The WorkForce Pro 8000-Series features black and color print speeds up to 24 ppm, a duty cycle of up to 75,000 pages, and cost savings up to 40% lower than printing from color lasers, he adds. With the WorkForce Pro WF-8590 (multifunction) and WF-8090 (single function) color printers, workgroups can take advantage of versatile media handling to print up to 13 x 19 inches on a variety of media, including envelopes and labels. The printers' cartridges allow you to print or copy up to 7,000 color pages. They have a total paper capacity of up to 1,830 sheets with optional paper...

Sonnet Technologies has announced the Tempo PCIe SSD PCI Express (PCIe) solid state drive (SSD) card with a 512GB SSD module, as the newest member of the Sonnet Tempo family of high-performance storage cards. The Sonnet PCIe SSD card serves as an ultra-fast alternative to traditional storage solutions, mounting a high-performance PCIe SSD on a card that installs into a computer's PCIe expansion card slot, according to Robert Farnsworth, CEO of Sonnet Technologies. It's a low-profile PCIe 2.0 card with an attached M.2 PCIe SSD providing 512GB of storage. Its small form factor allows this card to be installed into any x4 mechanical or larger PCIe slot in a Mac Pro tower or Windows desktop or server computer, or into any Thunderbolt-to-PCIe card expansion system such as Sonnet's Echo Express line, xMac Pro Server, or xMac mini Server. The Tempo PCIe SSD is available now at a suggested retail price of US$799. More information on the Tempo PCIe SSD is available at http://tinyurl.com/...

Here are some of the latest apps available at the Apple App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. DynamicDust has announced Pyro. It's a free augmented reality app that "lets you set the world on fire." Point your iOS device's camera to something you would like to be in flames, draw the fire with a finger on the screen, and you can "burn" everything around you. Simon Peter Media has released Tap That Pic, a flash card app for preschoolers. Children can learn from many levels, including wild animals, vehicles, shapes, fish, and fruit. As well as aiding vocabulary, it's designed to help with memory and hand-eye coordination.Tap That Pic! 1.0 includes two categories. Free comes with four bundles with two more available for in-app purchase. The Animals & Colors Bundle, Fruit & Fish Bundle, Instruments & Vehicles Bundle and Wild Animals & Furniture Bundle are all $0.99 each. Mezmedia Pte has introduced Bamba Farm. Designed for kids aged two and above, the $4.99...

PipelineFX (pipelinefx.com) is bringing VRED batch render support to their flagship product, Qube!. With the ability to leverage real-time clusters for animation rendering, both automotive and industrial design users will experience greater efficiency while creating prototype and marketing materials, says Richard Lewis, CEO of PipelineFX. As the first render management software to support VRED, Qube! offers an optimized path from trusted visualization package to the final frame, he adds. With API [application programming interface] support, users can write pre and post scripts that Qube! will automatically run during jobs. This new capability began with an Autodesk request for VRED batch render support for two of North America’s largest auto manufacturers. Since many of PipelineFX’s automotive clients use VRED for real-time visualization and Qube! to manage Alias AutoStudio renders, an optimized solution for frame-based animations made a lot of sense, says Lewis. Design firms can also...

Apple and record labels abandoned digital rights management protection in iTunes Store music purchases years ago. Still, an antitrust lawsuit on the matter first filed in 2005 is set to go to trial this week, reports AppleInsider (http://tinyurl.com/l7vymkw). In October U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers denied Apple’s motion for summary judgment in a case that dates back to 2004 and involves the use of digital rights management for content sold through the iTunes Store, opening the suit to move to the trial phase. The class-action lawsuit was filed nearly a decade ago by Thomas Slattery, who alleged that Apple violated federal antitrust laws and California's unfair competition law by requiring that customers use an iPod to listen to music purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Apple managed to have some claims struck from the complaint in 2005, but wasn't successful in having the lawsuit dismissed.

Bensoftware has announced SecuritySpy 3.4.3, an update to the multi-camera video surveillance software for the Mac. SecuritySpy sports features such as motion detection, real-time compression of multiple camera feeds, and network video and audio streaming. New features in this version include improved motion detection, better network performance and support for more IP cameras. Pricing depends on the number of cameras used with the unlimited camera version costing approximately US$1,090. SecuritySpy requires OS X 10.5 or higher. A 30-day fully-featured trial of SecuritySpy is available at the Bensoftware web site (http://www.bensoftware.com/).

iWinSoft Barcode Maker has been upgraded for compatibility with Mac OS X Yosemite. The software allows users to create any number of individual or sequential barcode labels, and print them as barcode labels in any Mac-compatible printer, or save them as image files in all common image formats. v iWinSoft Barcode Maker requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. It's available for a limited-time price of US$49.95. A demo is available for download. For more info go to http://www.iwinsoft.com.

Troi Automatisering has rolled out Troi File Plug-in 7.5.2 for FileMaker Pro 13. It's an update of the tool for getting access to information outside the FileMaker Pro database. Any files or folders stored on the computer can be accessed through the functions of the plug-in. Troi File Plug-in 7.5.2 has several new functionality features, improvements and bug fixes. Details can be found at http://tinyurl.com/q98qmay . A fully functional demo version of Troi File Plug-in 7.5.2 is available for downloading at Troi's Web site (http://tinyurl.com/35alat6). It works with FileMaker Pro 11, 12 and 13. The plug-in can also be used with runtimes from FileMaker Pro Advanced 11, 12 or 13. The plug-in is available for Mac OS X 10.6.x or higher, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Licenses cost US$99 per user. Details on developer licenses and multi-user discounts can be found on the Troi web site. Troi File Plug-in 7.5.2 also works with FileMaker Server 11, 12 or 13 as a server...

The worldwide tablet market is expected to see a massive deceleration in 2014 with year-over-year growth slowing to 7.2%, down from 52.5% in 2013, according to a new forecast from the IDC research group (www.idc.com). At the core of this slowdown is the expectation that 2014 will represent the first full year of decline in Apple iPad shipments. Both the iPad and the overall market slowdown do not come as a surprise as device life cycles for tablets have continued to lengthen, increasingly resembling those of PCs more than smartphones. "The tablet market continues to be impacted by a few major trends happening in relevant markets," says Ryan Reith, program director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers. "In the early stages of the tablet market, device lifecycles were expected to resemble those of smartphones, with replacement occurring every 2-3 years. What has played out instead is that many tablet owners are holding onto their devices for more than 3 years and in...

Ergonis Software has announced PopChar X 7.0, an update to their tool for exploring fonts as well as finding and inserting special characters. The upgrade introduces a new "Shape Finder," which allows you to draw the shape of a character on the screen to tell PopChar what you are looking for. You just draw the approximate shape and click the Find button and PopChar comes up with all characters that resemble this shape. The Shape Finder can also be used with PopChar's new "Find Similar Shape" context command, which allows you to start with a character in the table, optionally add a few extra strokes, and quickly find characters that look similar. PopChar 7 also adds a new font filter for limiting the font list to fonts that match a given substring. It can export and import the favorite characters to and from a text file, and offers a new window layout with a permanently visible font list. PopChar X 7.0 requires Mac OS X 10.6 or newer. It can be purchased the Ergonis Software website (...

Apple, already the world’s largest company by market capitalization, has hit a new record value of US$700 billion, reports Bloomberg (http://bloom.bg/11SAqCE). Shares of the Cupertino, California-based company rose 0.8% to $119.59 at 9:35 a.m. in New York, giving it a valuation of more than $701 billion, a milestone that no other U.S. company has ever reached. That puts Apple at 1.7 times the capitalization of the world’s second-biggest company, Exxon Mobile, notes "Bloomberg."

Zevrix Solutions (http://www.zevrix.com) has updated ArtOptimizer, its workflow automation solution for Adobe Illustrator, to version 2.7.6. The new version makes ArtOptimizer compatible with Mac OS X Yosemite. ArtOptimizer eliminates the excess image data of document links and performs image adjustments, reducing the size of an Illustrator job. In order to eliminate excess image data, the app automatically scales the images in Photoshop to match their dimensions in Illustrator, changes resolution according to the target resolution specified, and reimports images to Illustrator at 100%. In addition, ArtOptimizer can automatically convert image colors, apply sharpening filters, merge and delete layers, and run Photoshop Actions during processing. ArtOptimizer can be purchased from the Zevrix Solutions web site for US$119.95, as well as from authorized resellers. A demo is available for download. ArtOptimizer is available for Mac OS X 10.5-10.10 and works with Adobe Illustrator CS3-CC...

MetaCase has released an embeddable version of its modeling and code generation tool, MetaEdit+.  Now companies can add top class modeling support to their products for a fraction of the time and cost of previous approaches, according to the folks at MetaCase. MetaEdit+ enables companies to improve development productivity and quality by generating full code directly from models. First you design the modeling language with MetaEdit+ Workbench and then other developers model with the language in MetaEdit+ Modeler. The resulting tooling runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. Embedding MetaEdit+ into a product is made easy with example code in a range of languages and full plug-ins for Visual Studio and Eclipse. The embedded user interface adapts to the company’s modeling language and branding, with a variety of user interface customizations and tool integration mechanisms possible The evaluation version for MetaEdit+ is available along with examples at www.metacase.com/store/oem.html.

To mark World AIDS Day 2014, Apple and app developers are inviting customers to help (RED) achieve the goal of an AIDS-free generation. For the next two weeks, a special section of the App Store called Apps for (RED) will offer 25 apps with exclusive new content where all proceeds will go directly to the Global Fund to fight AIDS. In addition, Apple will donate a portion of sales at Apple’s retail and online stores around the world on two of the biggest shopping days of the year: Friday, Nov. 28, and Monday, Dec. 1. "Apple is a proud supporter of (RED) because we believe the gift of life is the most important gift anyone can give," says Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. "For eight years, our customers have been helping fight AIDS in Africa by funding life-saving treatments which are having a profoundly positive impact. This year we are launching our biggest fundraising push yet with the participation of Apple’s retail and online stores, and some of the brightest minds in the App Store are...

Acrosync has released Acrosync for Mac, a new rsync client with a graphical user interface (GUI) that also supports Dropbox-like automatic upload and Time Machine style incremental backups. Acrosync for Mac is a folder synchronization tool based on the rsync protocol, so it can sync with any computer or device that has rsync installed, such as Mac and Linux computers, NAS boxes, and VPS or dedicated servers, or even rsync storage providers. Users may connect via SSH or Rsyncd and much more. Acrosync's interface lets you set up multiple sync or backup profiles. After the first sync, on subsequent syncs only the new and modified files will be transferred, and, for each modified file, only the changed parts will be transferred, thanks to the clever rsync algorithm. Like Dropbox, Acrosync for Mac also integrates a built-in file system monitor that can constantly watch local folders and automatically start transferring new or modified files once they're detected. Full backups can be...

DEVONtechnologies has updated all editions of its intelligent information and document manager DEVONthink, as well as the smart notebook DEVONnote. Version 2.8.2 of all editions of DEVONthink fully supports indexing files and folders stored in iCloud Drive. An additional script indexes all user-generated folders on iCloud Drive without manually adding folders or documents to the database. Users can install it with a single click from the built-in Support Assistant. DEVONthink 2.8.2 now indexes and searches documents created with the application Scapple. New preference options store an author name that the app reuses in various places where the user adds or creates metadata. Users can set a default image zoom and default PDF display modes, too. A new hidden preference option allows to disable the Dock icon badge. DEVONthink and DEVONnote 2.8.2 come with revised editing preferences. All HUD panels now appear optimized for OS X Yosemite. The new version improves DEVONthink's...

Satechi has released the US$59.99, 10-Port USB 3.0 Aluminum Hub for Mac OS X and Windows systems. The hub features seven SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports to connect devices and transfer data to a computer as well as three additional charging ports to provide power to smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. The additional ports on the hub include one 5V 2.1A port and two 5V 1A ports for charging tablets and smartphones efficiently. The 10-Port USB 3.0 Premium Aluminum Hub boasts a slim, strip-shape design. Additionally, the plug and play hub is equipped with a power supply to guarantee electric current stability and effective operation of connected devices without added software installation. The 10-Port USB 3.0 Premium Aluminum Hub is available now for an introductory price of $59.99 at Satechi.net and Amazon.com.

ConjureBunny Software (http://conjurebunny.com/) has unveiled a new responsive web page design tool for Mac OS X: Landscape. It's designed to help you build responsive websites that adapt to phone, tablet, and desktop displays. Landscape sites have automatic Facebook integration, Lightbox support for graphics, and native support for all major graphics formats, including Photoshop files. The tool lets you build web pages by dragging and dropping any type of file (including Photoshop) in a freeform environment to assemble web pages. To add text, just type anywhere. A Desktop/Tablet/Phone switch lets the user change layouts for each page. Landscape features integrated Google Font support, so if you're using any of over 600 Google Fonts, it will detect them and embed code in your page so the viewer's browser will display it properly. Landscape also automatically builds light boxes if you've designated any images as Lightbox images. What's more,, it features tight integration with...

AKVIS (www.akvis.com) has released AKVIS Sketch 16 for Mac OS X and Windows. The software turns photos into pencil drawings. The new version adds new features and lets a user make a snapshot during processing, add a watermark, erase pencil lines, etc. AKVIS Sketch comes as a standalone application and as a Photoshop plugin filter. With it you can create color drawings and black-and-white sketches from your photos, imitate the technique of graphite and color pencil. Version 16: ° Adds the Snapshot button to the progress bar for making a shot during the image processing; ° Adds the possibility to pin your favorite snapshots to save them in the Timeline when changing the parameters; ° Adds Pencil and Eraser post-processing tool; ° Adds the smart non-destructive Crop tool to the standalone version; ° Increases the quick preview area (now the default value is 500 px, the maximum value is 1,000 px; the size can be adjusted in the Preferences dialog); ° Improves the Text tab (you can not...

Here are some of the latest apps available at the Apple App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Touch Tech Kids has published Messy Mia and the Tale of Ancient Tech. It's an US$3.99 original storybook app about retro technology. Messy Mia tells the story of a young girl learning how her parents survived without modern technology such as laptops, tablets, broadband and mobile phones. JSV Ventures has announced Alchemy 1000. The puzzle app starts off with the four basic elements: earth, air, fire and water. Users mix elements to create new objects: a beer, a star, an ATM, etc. The object of the game is to find all 1000. Alchemy 1000 is free, but does offer in-app purchases. Liber Primus Games says its handheld fantasy adventure app, Narborion Saga is available as a free download. It's an epic fantasy story that writes itself as you play. Bekon has released a free, self-titled app designed to eliminate a dangerous type of texting-and-driving. When you are headed to meet someone...

BeLight Software has launched a new product called Printworks for Mac (http://tinyurl.com/pe2k9hj). It's a desktop publishing tool to help you design holiday cards, flyers, calendars, brochures, business cards, labels and envelopes. Printworks comes with over 400 pre-designed templates and 1,000 clipart images. You can up that number to 40,000 with an in-app purchase. To use you simply choose and customize a template — or design a document from scratch. Printworks costs US$49.95. It's available at the BeLight website or the Mac App Store. A demo is available at BeLight.