A note at the Lala web site (http://www.lala.com) says "The Lala service will be shutting down on May 31" and "unfortunately, we are no longer accepting new users."

Lala -- which offered "the first and only free fully licensed service to instantly provide anywhere web access to an existing music library such as iTunes" -- was purchased by Apple earlier this year. The goal is probably to allow Apple to implement a new iTunes feature that would allow users to stream their purchased media content remotely. In fact, rumors of such a service surfaced earlier this year.

Purportedly, the service would allow iTunes shoppers to build up a digital video collection (music, movies, TV shows, etc.) without having to worry about the intensive storage space involved. iTunes Replay would, per the rumors, stream music, TV shows and movies purchased on iTunes, so you wouldn't have to download them after purchasing, freeing...

lynda.com, an online training provider of computer skills education for consumers, businesses and schools, has released10 courses covering the products in Adobe Creative Suite, which was released today.

Course topics include Photoshop CS5, Dreamweaver CS5, Flash Professional CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, After Effects CS5, Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, Fireworks CS5, Encore CS5, and Soundbooth CS5 tutorials. Registered users of all Adobe Creative Suite 5 products receive a free 30-day trial membership to lynda.com, which unlocks 1005 of the lynda.com course offerings in addition to the Creative Suite 5 tutorials.

lynda.com now has over 100 hours of Adobe CS5 training available, with more being released in the coming weeks. To view the free segments of all the Adobe Creative Suite training tutorials, and to view more detailed product info, go to http://www.lynda.com/AdobeCS5 . Monthly...

Mac users who have long been at the mercy of arcane permissions from Mac OS X's Unix underpinnings can now regain mastery of their Macs with "Take Control of Permissions in Snow Leopard," the latest title in the Take Control library about Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard").

Written by Unix guru and Mac aficionado Brian Tanaka, the 91-page ebook mixes how-to details and troubleshooting tips with just a certain amount of theory as it explains permissions in relation to how to keep files private, copy files to and from servers effectively, work with accounts and groups, configure ACLs, set the Ignore Permissions option for external disks, repair default permissions, and delete those files that just won't die. The ebook may be purchased for US$10 at http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/snow-leopard-permissions .

For those who want to learn...

Yazsoft (http://www.yazsoft.com) has released Speed Download 5.2.16, the latest version of its Mac OS X download manager that combines four products: a download manager with auto-resuming downloads, a secure FTP client, a file sharing utility with full encryption, and .Mac/iDisk/WEBDAV connectivity.

The upgrade offers offers optimized performance, better compatibility and more. Speed Download requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher. It costs US$25 for a single-user license. Speed Download is available in US English, French and Polish localizations.

Monkeybread Software has released version 2.5 of the REALbasic DynaPDF plug-in (http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/realbasic/plugin-dynapdf.shtml), which adds professional PDF support to REAL Studio. With it you can reate, import and modify PDF files on Mac, Windows and Linux systems.

This includes features like PDF split and merge, fonts embedding and text extraction. With DynaPDF 2.5 such features are added as support for OpenType fonts, improved font handling, better colorspace support and functions to use external signatures. All this features are available in the version 10.2 MBS REALbasic DynaPDF Plugin. Available with the download are more than 50 example projects to show you how to use the plug-in with REAL Studio.

With the recent introduction of the Starter license, the entry license is available for US$199....

Adobe has announced the availability of the Adobe Creative Suite 5 product family, which the company says has more than 250 new product features.

The Adobe CS5 product family is powering the creation of content and applications for the upcoming releases of Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR 2, which are optimized for high performance on mobile screens and designed to take advantage of native device capabilities for a richer, more immersive user experience, according to John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe. Featuring integration with online content and digital marketing measurement and optimization capabilities for the first time, Creative Suite 5 products include access to signature Omniture technologies, to capture, store and analyze information generated by web sites and other sources.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 products also integrate with Adobe CS Live, a set of five innovative online services that accelerate key aspects of the creative...

John Shegerian, chairman and CEO of Electronic Recyclers International (http://1800recycling.com), a recycler of electronics and e-waste, has issued a statement about the success of the iPad. In his statement, he refers to the iPad as a “perfect example of a future trend” of the electronic waste recycling and urban mining industries.

Shegerian said that Apple’s massively popular tablet device is the kind of significant innovation that creates enormous new opportunities across multiple industries while it triggers the public to discard older devices now rendered obsolete by the newer, user friendly technology the iPad provides.

“It’s a rare occurrence, but once in a while a consumer electronics product comes along --he flat screen television for example – that captures the imagination and interest of the public so well that the product immediately becomes a ‘must have’ item and part of modern...

Many Tricks has released version 3.1 of Witch (http://manytricks.com/witch), its window switching utility for Mac OS X. The new version adds a couple of new features, improves on many behaviors, and fixes a few bugs.

In version 3.1, the Witch panel appears after a very short delay, so it can be used (as with Command-Tab) to toggle between two open windows without seeing the Witch panel flash onscreen. A major memory leak has been identified and plugged. Witch no longer uses increasing amounts of RAM over time, and uses less RAM overall than version 3.0.

Updated help files explain all of Witch 3's features. Version 3.1 handles Parallels' windows more gracefully when Parallels is running in Coherence or Crystal view modes. Hidden windows are now shown with a translucent icon, so they can be easily identified at a glance.

Witch 3.1 is a free update for all Witch 3 users. Witch 3 is US$...

Apple has released version 3.0.3 of Aperture (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1040) its software for professional photographers. This update improves overall stability and fixes issues in a number of areas.

According to Apple, the key areas addressed include:

° Applying adjustments such as Retouch or Chromatic Aberration;

° Creating and using Raw Fine Tuning presets;

° Viewing, adding and removing detected faces;

° Switching target printers and paper sizes when printing;

° Duplicating Smart Albums;

° Repairing and rebuilding Aperture libraries;

° Reconnecting referenced files;

° Working with GPS track files in Places;

° Searching for keywords in the Query HUD or Keyword Controls.

Aperture 3.0.3 is a 69.4MB download. It requires Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher.

Here are the latest iPhone/iPod touch/iPod/iPad apps announced. You can find 'em at the Apple App Store (http://www.itunes.com/appstore/).

MyRegistry.com, which specializes in online gift registry technology, has released an US$1.99 iPhone app that offers a new method of building a gift registry. It employs barcode scanning technology to allow users to add any item imaginable to their gift registries or wishlists with a single zap of their iPhones.

idealSky Software has announced PaperFinance 1.0, a $2.99 personal finance tracker for iPhone OS devices. It features an outside-the-box interface, skipping the standard tap-to-do-everything paradigm in favor of a swipe-based design.

Go! Tax Canada has created a free iPhone app for filing your personal income taxes, anytime, anywhere. Personal information is submitted through the app and tax documents are photographed by the iPhone...

In an interview with the "Wall Street Journal," Adobev CEO Shantau Narayen offered a rebuttal to Apple CEO Steve Jobs' thoughts on Flash (http://www.macnews.com/2010/04/29/what-steve-jobs-really-thinks-about-flash). You can read the entire article at http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/04/29/live-blogging-the-journals-interv..., but here are some highlights.

Narayen says:

° Adobe believes in open content and support for multiple operating systems, while Apple/Jobs is apparently concerned about technology that works across multiple platforms.

° The technology problems that Jobs mentions in...

EastWest/Quantum Leap is shipping its Hollywood Strings (http://www.soundsonline.com/hollywood-strings) virtual (software) instrument. It's a collection of orchestral string instruments with multiple finger positions for all sections, including open strings.

The range of positions purportedly allows composers to realize the true voicing and emotional content of a string section. Vibrato intensity and extensive dynamics, including five dynamics of up- and down-bowed sustains and notes, are also controllable by the composer. Multi-dynamic true legato has been sampled for all sections in three different categories: slurred, portamento and bow change.

Hollywood Strings comes supplied on a pre-configured hard drive. The list price is US$1,695; an introductory price of $1,495 expires May 15.