The ChangeWave research group (http://www.changewave.com) has completed two surveys on the Apple iPad -- including a May consumer survey measuring future iPad demand, and a second survey of new iPad owners on their actual reactions to the new tablet device.

Back in their February iPad survey report ChangeWave found that the pre-launch demand for the new iPad was greater than the pre-launch demand for the original iPhone. It wasn’t surprising, therefore, when in early May Apple announced one million iPads sold in the first month -- and reported that sales had outpaced those of the original iPhone.

But now that that the iDevice has been on the market for several weeks, ChangeWave has just completed two new surveys: a May survey of 3,174 consumers to measure future demand for the iPad, and a second survey of 153 new iPad owners to discover their actual impressions of the new tablet device.

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Apple's upcoming iPhone could be a blockbuster hit, according to RBC analyst Mike Abramsky. (One caveat: Apple hasn't officially announced such a device yet.)

Still, citing a survey of 1,000 people, Abramsky says 20% of the respondents intend to buy the fourth version of the iPhone, which is expected to debut at next month's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference. This is more than twice the number of eager buyers surveyed prior to the original iPhone three years ago, notes "TheStreet" (http://www.thestreet.com/story/10762460/1/apples-hd-iphone-reloads-deman...).

Abramsky estimates Apple will sell 23 million of the redesigned "HD" iPhone -- which is expected to have higher resolution and an improved camera -- this year, which is more than half of the 40 million iPhone sales estimate he has for...

A recent survey of 2,000 mobile users in China between the ages of 22 and 32 by China Market Research Group, or CMR, suggests that the cause of the iPhone's performance in China may stem from the relative unpopularity of Apple's partner, China Unicom, among its target users, as well as a lack of desire among those users to sign up for two-year contracts and subscribe to 3G services, reports the "Wall Street Journal" (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/05/20/why-iphone-hasn’t-sold-well-in-china/?mod=rss_whats_news_technology).

CMR found that while users really wanted the iPhone, less than 10% of respondents use China Unicom, and of those respondents, a majority said they were unhappy with the company’s service. In comparison, 95% of respondents said they felt competitor China Mobile was more stable and had better coverage when traveling around the country. CMR also found that 80% of respondents used prepaid mobile services rather than monthly subscription-based services...

A federal judge has dismissed a plaintiff's lawsuit against Apple that accused company employees of waiting like "vultures" to spy on her every time she used an Apple laptop to access the Internet, reports "Reuters" (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64I76D20100519).

In the lawsuit, Leslie Carr claimed every time time she used the laptop to go online, "there would be a mass number of Apple employees waiting greedily like vultures to survey and monitor my life." She was asking for US$60 million for trauma.

However, U.S. District Judge Richard Berman said the complaint "fails to state a plausible claim for relief. Where, as here, a complaint is asserting unrealistic and unsupportable claims, a court may dismiss it." The case was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

CableJive has released the US$25.95 dockXtender (http://www.cablejive.com/products/dockXtender.html) for the iPhone, iPod and iPad. It's a dock extender cable offers a 30-pin male-to-female extension and is available in two or six foot versions.

DockXtender passes all functionality through to your iPad, iPhone, or iPod. Anything your iPod can do when directly attached to your accessory, can also be done when connected with the dockXtender, according to the folks at Cablejive. And it purportedly works with all cases.

The nascent market for media tablets, fostered by the launch of Apple’s iPad, will be driven by the device's attributes as a content consumption platform and the compelling applications and services that will be created to take advantage of them, according to a new study by International Data Corp. (http://www.idc.com).

According to a the IDC research group, worldwide media tablet shipments will grow from 7.6 million units in 2010 to more than 46 million units in 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57.4%. In comparison, IDC expects 398 million portable computers will be shipped in 2014.

"These are early days for media tablets, an altogether new device category that takes its place between smartphones and portable personal computers," says Susan Kevorkian, program director, Digital Marketplace: Mobile Media & Entertainment. "IDC expects consumer demand for media tablets to be...

Pragmatic C Software Corp. (http://www.pragmatic-c.com) has released CVC, a Verilog 2005 simulator for the Mac OS X platform. It's been ported to the X86 Mac OS X platform allowing engineers to develop Verilog designs with the convenience and ease of Mac systems, says Pragmatic C President Steven Meyer.

CVC now fills a void in the market making it the only high performance Verilog simulator for Mac OS X, he adds. In addition to the new support for Mac OS X, various speed improvements have been made to CVC's native code compiler.

CVC is a full IEEE 1364-2005 32-bit and 64-bit native code, compiled Verilog simulator. It has a one executable compilation process and also supports an interpreted mode.

To learn more or for info on how to evaluate CVC, contact Pragmatic C Software Corp.

DAZ 3D-Gizmoz has released Carrara 8 (http://www.daz3d.com/i/software/carrara8?), an update of the all-in-one 3D solution. The new version provides improved animation tools, enhanced lighting, new vegetation tools and optimized rendering, says DAZ 3D-Gizmoz CEO Dan Farr.

Artists utilizing the Carrara 8 Pro toolset will gain access to 64-bit compatibility for Mac and Windows, as well as the Bullet Physics Library. This open-source, advanced physics toolkit allows artists to use e rigid and soft body dynamics. Combined with the speed improvements achieved from the new support for multi-threading and 64-bit hardware, Carrara 8 Pro drastically improves productivity, says Farr.


Additionally, updated export capabilities allow game developers to transfer custom figures, environments and/or animations directly into the Unity game engine via the FBX file format. 
In...

Pro Sound Effects (http://www.prosoundeffects.com) has announced an agreement with BBC Information & Archives to distribute the BBC Sound Effects Archive. 

Pro Sound Effects has prepared the BBC’s sound effect CD collection 1-165, BBC’s Natural History archive and additional BBC sound content for distribution as royalty-free sound effects libraries on hard drive and via download. There are a variety of bundles; contact Pro Sound Effects for pricing.

Quark will be onsite at the Department of Defense Intelligence Information Systems (DoDIIS) worldwide conference next week, May 23-27, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Quark will demonstrate Quark XML Author for Microsoft Word, a COTS solution that helps government organizations meet Intelligence Community Directive Number 501.Combined with the Quark XML MSP Accelerator 3.0, Quark XML Author allows for XML encoding for classification, declassification, handling, and dissemination, and readies content for delivery to HTML, Wiki, PDF, and RTF formats.

Quark XML Author offers readymade adaptors to leading content management systems such as Microsoft SharePoint, EMC Documentum, IBM FileNet Content Manager, and Alfresco. Quark is a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner, recipient of the Office Solution Builder Grand Prize, and Member of the Microsoft Office 14 Developer Advisory Council.
 
For more info about how Quark XML Author can benefit governmental and intelligence...

Square Box Systems (http://www.squarebox.co.uk/) has released version 8.1.2 of CatDV, the media asset database and professional video logger for Mac OS X. The new version works with CatDV Server 6.1.5 and later.

Also, user fields can now be locked so only specified users can edit the field. CatDV is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. A demo of version is available for download. For new users the cost is $95 for the Standard Edition and $340 for the Professional Edition. Version 8.1.2 is a free update for registered users of version 8.x.

Dare to be Creative has released ReSizeMe 2.2 (http://resize-me.com), an update of the batch image and photo editor for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. The upgrade adds presets and fixes some bugs,

ResizeMe can resize, scale, rotate and flip many images and photos at once, and is the latest tool by Dare to be Creative aimed at creative professionals. With it, users can resize, scale, rotate and flip many images at once. Resizing allows users to reduce the size of their photos for emailing, or creating thumbnails for images to post on web sites. Users can rotate images to switch from portrait mode to landscape, or vice versa. By flipping images horizontally or vertically users can create mirror effects.

Resize Me is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. It costs US$30, though version 2.2 is a free update for registered users. A 15-day demo is available for download.