Posted by Chris Schafer Prosoft’s Data Rescue line is targeted toward the careless deleter. With their new version, Data Rescue 3 LE, they have simplified the process by modifying their application to meet the requirements of the Mac App Store. By making this product available on the App Store users can download and install the application in the security of the App Store, and without the otherwise necessary web browsing. Priced at $59.99, this software is for someone who has lost vital files on an external drive. Data Rescue 3 LE can recover files deleted on an external drive and can recover drives that will show up in Disk Utility yet refuse to mount. The rules of the Mac App Store prevent applications from requesting administrator access to run, so many features were limited. Two key limitations are that one may only recover files on an external non-startup drive, and that the boot up DVD image that comes with the full version is not included. However, if one decides they need the...

Posted by Greg Mills When updating to a new Operating System, one never knows what apps are going to be broken or lose some functionality. Mac OS X Lion is no different that way. While Apple has provided updates to most of the Apple apps they sell, third party apps are a hit and miss thing. Roaring Apps has provided a very extensive list of apps along with a rating as to compatibility with Lion. See: http://roaringapps.com/apps:table Lion was a long time coming and you have to know a lot of work was done under the hood that older apps are not able to work with. If you haven't upgraded to Lion due to questions as to which apps will work or not, the list Roaring Apps provides may be helpful to you. Apple continues to post updates for Apple apps as well as a new Java version that just went live... after loading the new Lion OS, be sure to check for softeware updates, they are coming fast and furious.

Apple today updated the MacBook Air with the latest Intel Core i5 and Core i7 processors, Thunderbolt I/O technology, a backlit keyboard and Mac OS X Lion. "With up to twice the performance of the previous generation, flash storage for instant-on responsiveness and a compact design so portable you can take it everywhere, the MacBook Air starts at $999 (US) and is available for order today and in stores tomorrow." MacBook Air is available in 11-inch and 13-inch models. The MacBook Air's aluminum unibody enclosure measures 0.11-inches at its thinnest point and 0.68-inches at its thickest. Flash storage allows MacBook Air to "turn on instantly and deliver fast data access, improved reliability and incredible energy efficiency." According to Apple, the 11-inch model weighs 2.38 pounds and provides up to 5 hours of battery life, while the 13-inch weighs 2.96 pounds and provides up to 7 hours of battery life. With the latest Intel Core i5 and Core i7 dual-core processors, the new MacBook...

Apple has today unveiled the new Apple Thunderbolt Display -- a combination of the first display with Thunderbolt I/O built in, and the "ultimate docking station" for Mac notebooks. "With just a single cable, users can connect a Thunderbolt-enabled Mac to the 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display and access its FaceTime camera, high quality audio, and Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, USB 2.0 and Thunderbolt ports. Designed specifically for Mac notebooks, the new display features an elegant, thin, aluminum and glass enclosure, and includes a MagSafe connector that charges your MacBook Pro or MacBook Air." With a 16:9 edge-to-edge glass design, the Thunderbolt Display uses IPS technology to provide an ultra wide 178 degree viewing angle. Any Thunderbolt-enabled Mac notebook can dock with the display to quickly create a full-fledged desktop solution. The Thunderbolt Display includes a built-in FaceTime HD video camera for video conferencing, a 2.1 speaker system for high quality audio, an...

Keeple, the Dutch developer of the iPad app, Flickr Studio, has updated it with features that are particularly aimed at vacationing iPad users. It's available for US$4.99 at the Apple App Store. "Combining Flickr Studio app with Apple's camera connection kit, it's easy to send your best photos to Flickr while traveling," says developer Robin van Mourik. "You can  import photos directly from your digital camera and into Flickr Studio, add desired titles and descriptions and decide who is allowed to see the pictures." The app allows you to build what's basicly an upload queue while you are still offline. Once you get access to a Wi-Finetwork, all you have to do is tap the "start" button and the queued images are sent directly to Flickr. All of this happens in the background leaving you time to answer your e-mail and working on your travel blog. During the upload, Flickr Studio handles the complex stuff, such as optionally reducing image size and categorizing photos into the right sets...

Appsbar has added appsCoupon for businesses as an added option for their free-to-build apps. Now anyone can develop and send coupons, incentives, or timely deals straight to their most loyal customers, says co-founder Scott Hirsch. The appsCoupon option can be added to any appsbar app at http://www.appsbar.com . Here a growing community of businesses are designing, publishing and sharing their own digital coupons. "We're excited that we're able to give businesses a free way to build and publish their own professional-level apps -- and this new opportunity to eliminate the third-party hassles has given a whole new way for businesses to serve their customers," Hirsch says. appsCoupon builds on the calendar, menus, soundboard, graphics and GPS capabilities of appsbar. Businesses can make coupons in real time, at any time, with whatever level of discount they want to offer on whatever products they choose. Within minutes, a business can alert their customers through their app of long-term...

Today, Bare Bones Software released BBEdit 10.0, the next major version of their popular HTML and text editor for Mac. BBEdit 10 adds new project and document editing windows, a new HTML Markup panel and palette, support for working within Zip archives, easy color scheme switching, preservation of documents across launches, support for preference syncing over Dropbox, and a redesigned Preferences window, along with various performance and interface enhancements. It is available immediately at a suggested retail price of $49.99, but through October 19, 2011, BBEdit 10 will be on sale for $39.99 from Bare Bones Software of the Mac App Store. Those who purchased BBEdit on or after January 1, 2011, are eligible for a free upgrade and will be automatically notified. "We have a long and distinguished history of delivering dramatic upgrades to BBEdit, and version 10 is no exception," said Rich Siegel, founder and CEO of Bare Bones Software, Inc. "Everything in this new version is designed to...

PlayFirst, a mobile game publisher, has announced the results of the Magid Media Futures: Mobile 2011 study revealing key insights into mobile computing trends. The study showed the dramatic shift to a "smartphone culture" continues with nearly half of non-smartphone owners considering purchase of a smartphone to replace their cell/feature phone in the next 12 months. The study shows that smartphones continue to redefine traditional phone use with playing games, social networking and accessing the internet being three to five times more prevalent among smartphone owners than traditional cell phone owners. The study also shows that 45% of smartphone owners play games on their phones, and with smartphone ownership increasing rapidly, up 35% over 2010 and projected to reach 50% penetration in the US in the next few years, smartphones will have a profound impact on the way people play games. In fact, the Magid study found that among those who play games on their smartphone, the...

Kyocera Mita America says its line-up of TASKalfa Color multifunctional products (MFPs) can now include an optional Fiery Printing System 11/12 by EFI, which specializes in customer-focused digital printing innovation. The Fiery Printing System offers additional advanced color adjustments, productivity, performance and security benefits to TASKalfa Color MFP end-users. Kyocera’s latest TASKalfa Color MFP lineup, introduced in May 2011, includes the TASKalfa 7550ci, 6550ci, 5550ci, 4550ci, 3550ci and 3050ci. Kyocera’s Color TASKalfa MFPs with Fiery Printing System 11/12 deliver high performance and increased productivity by automating color workflow. It's Mac and Windows compatible. The TASKalfa series of color MFPs embedded with the Fiery Printing System are available through authorized Kyocera Mita dealers. To find the nearest dealer, please Kyocera Mita America’s dealer locator at http://www.kyoceramita.com/us .

InMobi, an independent mobile ad network, has released its May 2011 Mobile Insights Report for Africa providing insights on mobile advertising trends on the continent. Data from the report shows that InMobi now serves 4.2 billion impressions a month in Africa, up 37.9% from 3.0 billion in February 2011. Key highlights of the South Africa data include: ° Growth in smartphone impressions was 34% for the period, with 223 million mobile ad impressions monthly now coming from smart devices. ° With almost 74% ad share, Samsung and Nokia dominate the market with RIM a far third with 13% share ° Android is present in the market with 9.7 million impressions monthly. ° Nokia remains the largest manufacturer with a 20% share, but it has lost 3.1 points in just 90 days to RIM (+3.6) South Africa shows 36% higher share of impressions on smart devices compared to other Africa countries. However, the relatively slow pickup of smart devices in Africa is highlighted by the fact that South Africa...

Apple racked up several honors in the 2011 Reader's Choice Survey by "PC Magazine" (http://macte.ch/Loyry). The company took first place in the overall laptop category. "Apple once again has incredibly high overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend ratings in every category it competed in," says "PC Mag." "This is despite a high number of units needing repairs." Apple also took the top spot in the desktop division. "No other company's satisfaction ratings come close to Apple," says "PC Mag." Even its satisfaction with repair rating is unmatched, despite a big drop this year." When it comes to mobile platforms, iOS took the top operating system honors, while the iPhone scored well, especially on the Verizon network. In the network router category, Apple customers give satisfaction ratings that can't be touched by any router company. "Despite a relatively high percentage of units needing repairs, respondents claim their devices to be very reliable and they're most likely to...

A new ChangeWave survey (http://www.changewave.com) of 4,163 consumers has taken a fresh look at smart phone demand trends – including mobile OS and smart phone preferences going forward. The June survey focused on key comparisons between the Apple iOS and Google Android OS – including the impact of Apple’s upcoming iCloud service -- along with the latest momentum trends for Motorola and Research in Motion. The survey focuses primarily on the North American smart phone market -- with the sample being 89% U.S. respondents and 11% outside the U.S. Firmly in second in the North American market, the Android OS (32%) has registered a slight uptick (up one point) in terms of future buyer preference. In contrast, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry OS (4%; down one point) has once again hit its lowest level ever in a ChangeWave survey. ChangeWave also looked at OS customer satisfaction ratings based upon the operating system consumers have on their smart phones. Once again Apple is the clear...

JNSoftware has updated Dialectic (http://www.jonn8.com/dialectic/), a telephony tool for the Mac, to version 1.8.1. Among the new features are a new Safari 5 extension, enhanced Firefox, Thunderbird, and Google Chrome extensions, and new or improved support for many devices and services. This version of Dialectic also adds improved Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) compatibility. Dialetic provides systemwide dialing of phone numbers using Bluetooth mobile phones, landlines, many VoIP services and more. It integrates with contact management applications such as Marketcircle Daylite, Microsoft Entourage, Now Contact, Palm Desktop, FileMaker Pro and other databases, as well as Apple's iCal and Address Book. In addition to dialing, the software provides a global Address Book menu for accessing your contact data including email, instant messaging, postal addresses, URLs, notes, and phone numbers. You can create new email messages, look up addresses on a map, copy data to the clipboard or insert it into...

Aspyr Media's upcoming Duke Nukem Forever is now available for pre-order from the Macgamestore (http://www.macgamestore.com). It requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher and costs US$44.95. Here's how the game is described: "Put on your shades and step into the boots of Duke Nukem. The alien hordes are invading and only Duke can save the world. Pig cops, alien shrink rays and enormous alien bosses can’t stop this epic hero from accomplishing his goal: to save the world, save the babes and to be a bad-ass while doing it. "The King arrives with an arsenal of over-the-top weapons, non-stop action, and unprecedented levels of interactivity. With hours and hours of action, and a range of bodacious multiplayer modes, rest assured knowing the fun goes on and on."

Yazsoft has updated ShareTool (http://www.yazsoft.com/st/) for Mac OS X, which lets you access all of your Bonjour services from anywhere in the world, to version 2.2.4. The new version is ready for Mac OS X 10.7 ("Lion"). Formerly known as Rendezvous, Bonjour lets you create an instant network of computers and smart devices by getting them connected to each other. ShareTool automatically configures routers supporting NAT-PMP or UPnP. Remote services automatically appear in the Finder, iTunes, and other applications. ShareTool 2.2.4 costs US$15 for a single license, $25 for a two-user license and $45 for a family pack (five licenses). Users that purchased ShareTool 1.x from April 13 to May 13, 2010 are entitled to a free 2.x upgrade. Also, with every ShareTools purchase you get two freebies: the Attachments Menu and Unblunder. The Attachments Menu indexes all Apple Mail messages that contain attachments and puts them in an organized, always accessible menu bar. Unblunder: protects...

Jendrik Bertram has announced iFlicks 1.4, an update to his video utility for Mac OS X. Featuring an easy-to-use interface, iFlicks will convert and optimize video files to play on iTunes, Front Row, iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Version 1.4 can create video files from H.264 content (.mkv, .flv) that will be directly playable on Apple devices without re-encoding. iFlicks lets you import video files into iTunes to play in the iTunes application, Front Row, iPod, iPhone and Apple TV. Bertram says it was developed from the ground up utilizing the latest Cocoa technologies and offers a range of functions to manage metadata of any movie or TV show library. iFlicks supports a variety of video formats, including QuickTime (.mov), Audio Video Interleave (.avi), H.264/MPEG-4 (.mp4) and Matroska (.mkv). Most features are directly accessible using the integrated iTunes Script menu. At any time, processed videos can automatically be added to the iTunes Library or any playlist. Additionally,...

Yazsoft has released Unblunder 1.2.1 (http://yazsoft.com/products/unblunder/), an update of its recovery solution for Mac OS X. It's a maintenance update with some performance tweaks and bug fixes. The Yazsoft says Unblunder was developed specifically to help protect against accidental data loss by offering Mac OS X a "Recently Deleted" feature, giving you time to recover files before they're gone forever. It uses Mac OS X's UNIX underpinnings to hang on to files after the Trash has been emptied. When started, it runs quietly in the background and stays out of your way, according to the folks at Yazsoft. For optimal file recovery and peace of mind, Unblunder needs to be running before an accident happens. By default, trashed files over 250 MB in size linger for five minutes and smaller files are kept for a day. Of course, you can tweak all these settings to match your work style. Unblunder requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later. It costs US$10 for a single-user license, though it's included...

Posted by Greg Mills Apple has posted an update to the iOS to defeat the recently disclosed PDF vulnerability. The update is 4.3.4 and can be downloaded through hooking up the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to a computer running iTunes, clicking on the device found in the left grey column and then clicking update. The update has an information page found at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222 The systems to be updated are: iOS 3.0 through 4.3.3 for iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 (GSM), iOS 3.1 through 4.3.3 for iPod touch (3rd generation) and later, iOS 3.2 through 4.3.3 for iPad. The security update is recomended for all users of the above devices. The exploit requires a PDF with malware in its code to be opened by the user. As is typical of most malware that affects Apple products, the user opens or downloads files from dubious sources.

Posted by Greg Mills Mexican Restaurants serve hot taco chips with salsa. Apple can't do that, serving "hot chips" in iPhone or iPad could result in very short life spans for such devices. Warranty and product recall nightmares must be avoided at all costs. Apple has a pretty good reputation for sturdy products and shaking out product quality problems early. The A5 Apple chip is expected to be used in the next iPhone. The A5 chip, a Samsung private label product, made exclusively for Apple, is 45 nanometers with two cores. The next generation, the A6 chip might be half the size, down to 28 nanometers with 2 to 4 cores. These Apple designed ARM chips, according to rumors may also go in MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, someday soon. Apple keeps Intel on their toes, so that makes sense. Apple is tending to grow vertically lately, manufacturing their own parts under private label contracts. Rumors are that Apple is punishing Samsung for patent infringement not only in court, but by also...

Posted by Greg Mills Microsoft is so inspired by Apple, they seem to copy everything Apple does. Ballmer has recently announced that Microsoft intends to launch at least 75 more Microsoft retail stores, within a couple of years. Ballmer presented a map of the US showing the cities that are soon to be graced with a Microsoft store in the coming year or so. Not only have previous Microsoft stores been nearly next door or just across the hall from Apple Stores, even the layout and architectural details are borrowed from Apple's successful retail stores. See: http://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-unveils-location-of-75-new-retail-s... Previous reports indicate that while Apple Stores are normally very busy, Microsoft stores are normally nearly empty. Microsoft is going ahead anyway, hoping to "expand the Microsoft story". Some people would consider empty stores embarassing to the brand and figure it just isn't a good idea for Microsoft to push the retail concept, considering...

Posted by Greg Mills When is a dollar not a dollar? It is when you make it overseas. International exchange rates vary and thus there has been some pressure on the price structure of apps and iTunes in international Apple app stores. Apple is very much an international company and they have to watch prices in all the countys they do business in. Currency and taxes fluctuate and Apple figured it would be a good time to raise prices in countries that have seen national currency valuation drops. By the same token they reduced prices where the national currency has gone up compared to the US Dollar. While apps and music prices have just been adjusted, Apple hardware may be next with price drops on MacBooks of up to $100 in some markets. http://www.macstories.net/news/apple-updates-prices-of-international-itu...

While in San Francisco, TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at Apple's WWDC 2011 about the keynote and how Apple's new technologies will help them and their customers. In the weeks following the event, we'll bring you those videos on TUAW, MacTech and MacNews. If you aren't currently a reader of MacTech Magazine, check out the special WWDC free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here. This video features Victor Agreda, Jr. (Editor-in-Chief, The Unofficial Apple Weblog) and Dan Treiman of GameSalad, Inc at WWDC. Dan was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements on WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward.

Posted by Greg Mills Apple has just announced a new policy for Developers who may now offer discounts for volume sales of Business apps. This will allow developers to amend their contracts with Apple to sell business apps in mass to businesses who want to provide such software across the board within their company. Developer should get a notice from Apple explaining how to take part in the new program and business app buyers should look for a discount on volume sales as soon as the program is launched. Developers should sign in at http://developer.apple.com for more information.

Posted by Greg Mills As a web site builder myself, though iWeb was like a breath of fresh air compare to DreamWeaver, iWeb has gotten a bit long on the tooth. I yearned for a more robust web site builder app that still had the drag and drop, easy publish features I had gotten used to. When the press release for a new program that makes migrating easy from iWeb to a more modern web site building program crossed my desk, I was drawn to find out more. http://www.karelia.com/sandvox/ Karelia Software today announced a limited-time Crossgrade Discount on Sandvox of 25% through July 31, 2011, by using the coupon code 'iWeb Graduate' on checkout. A 'Transitioning from iWeb to Sandvox' guide is available today from the Web site. Sandvox 2 represents a huge leap forward for anyone using a Mac to easily create powerful websites. The Sandvox 2.1 update is now available free to currently registered customers.