PA Semi founder and CEO, Dan Dobberpuhl, has apparently left Apple to join a Silicon Valley startup company founded by other former PA Semi employee, although exactly when he left is uncertain, as reported by CNET (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10465618-64.html).

Dobberpuhl isn't alone. Other key PA Semi team members have left Apple, including one of PA Semi's leading members, Mark Hayter, adds "CNET."

On April 22, 2008, it was made public that Apple had agreed to buy a boutique microprocessor design company called PA Semi. The company was known for its design of sophisticated, low-power chips.

PA Semi is a fabless semiconductor company that makes PWRficient processors for the embedded-computing markets. It was established in 2003 by industry veterans, including Dan Dobberpuhl, lead designer of the DEC Alpha series of microprocessors,...

Small Tree (http://www.small-tree.com) will introduce its new 2TB GraniteSTOR ST-RAID direct attached shared storage system at NAB 2010.

Offering real time editing for Final Cut users while supporting 12 streams of ProRes 422HQ with no dropped frames, ST-RAID provides consistent performance over Ethernet networks. The 2TB system is available in eight, 12 or 16-drive configurations. 
 
GraniteSTOR ST-RAID enables instant availability and background initialization along with automatic insertion/removal detection and rebuild. For greater flexibility, more storage can be added for system expansion. Contact Small Tree for pricing options.
 

This week's MUG Event Calendar features a variety of topics, presentations and guests.

Apple’s Dave Marra continues his user group presentation run at a Maryland group, and Prosoft Engineering will be presenting to a California group. California would seem to be the place to be this week, since Peter Christenson of Strider Software will show off TypeStyler to another California group, another will feature a presentation by Suzanne Cabellero of Blurb.com, and yet another will receive a visit from Endicia.

Other presentations this week include iPhone app localization, Macworld 2010, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, USB wall sockets, iWeb, QuickBooks and more.

"The MUG Event Calendar" can be found at The MUG Center (http://www.mugcenter.com), an online resource for Mac User Groups, Mac User Groups are starting to officially celebrate the holiday season.

MUGs are good places for making new...

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/).

Pariahware has released Biblicious 1.0, a $2.99 game for the iPhone and iPod touch. Players can choose a single player game, a practice game, or a fill in the blank game, called Mix and Match. The player can choose from a 10 question game to a 50 question game, as well as questions from the Old or New Testaments, or the entire Bible. After a game mode is chosen, Flip Ant will ask you the number of questions you wish to play, and from where in the Bible you'd like the questions to originate.

Techno Gurus has announced iBrr Bluetooth Receiver and Remote 1.0 for the iPhone and iPod touch. This is an $4.99 app that uses peer-to-peer networking via WiFi or Bluetooth technology to transform an iDevice into a remote control.

Marco De Girolamo has...

Zevrix Solutions has announced a public beta of Package Central 1.0 (http://zevrix.com/PackageCentral.php), a new document packaging workflow automation solution for Adobe InDesign.

Originally developed for a publisher in the United States, the software automates InDesign packaging by processing files from hotfolders. Package Central offloads packaging to a central system, leaving operator workstations free from the output process. Package Central offers font auto-activation, e-mail notifications, detailed logs and much more.

Everyone who downloads Package Central public beta and registers with Zevrix Solutions can purchase Package Central with a 30% discount once it's released. Estimated release time and pricing are March 22 for US$499.95.

Package Central is a Universal Binary and runs on Mac OS X 10.4.2-10.6. Remember: beta software is unfinished software so use...

Apple's shares have surged on iPad pre-orders, making Apple America's third most valuable company, reports "CNN Money" (http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/03/12/apple-overtakes-w...).

Ninety minutes after Apple opened its online store for iPad pre-orders Friday morning, a burst of trading -- roughly 2 million shares in 30 minutes -- pushed its stock price to US$227.73 and its market cap to $206.5 billion.

Apple has moved, at least for now, ahead of Wal-Mart to become America's third largest company by market capitalization. It only trails Exxon and Microsoft.

BKeeney Software has updated Task Timer (http://www.bkeeney.com/products/tasktimer4), a project management and time-tracking tool for Mac OS X (10.4 and 10.5), to version 4.3.3. The new version adds the daily total to the dock and status menus for Mac OS X users and fixes some minor bugs.

Task Timer allows users to track time spent on individual tasks and projects to the minute. It generates a variety of reports using relative and specific date ranges and other filters. Users may also synchronize their data on their local machine with a database server.

New users can purchase Task Timer for US$24.95 A free 14-day trial may be downloaded from the BKeeney Software web site. Upgrade pricing for existing customers is $12.50 and may be obtained by sending an email to support requesting an upgrade coupon code. Version 4.3.3 is a free update for registered users of...

Aye yi yi! No, make that "i, i, i." Apple has been told that it no longer has a monopoly on the letter "i" when trademarking its products.

As reported by the "Sydney Morning Herald" (http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/mp3s/apples-future-wont-be-brought-to...), IP Australia -- the government body that oversees trademark applications-- has knocked back Apple's bid to stop a small company from trademarking the name DOPi for use on its laptop bags and cases for Apple products. Apple argued that the DOPi name -- which is, in case you hadn't noticed -- iPod spelt backwards -- was too similar to its own product.

IP Australia says that (...

Apple has released Safari Security Update (APPLE-SA-2010-03-11-1) for Mac and Windows, which brings the web browser to version 4.0.5.

According to the Apple, the update is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to performance, stability, and security including:
° Performance improvements for Top Sites;

° Stability improvements for third party plug-ins;

° Stability improvements for web sites with online forms and Scalable Vector Graphics;

° Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from changing settings on some Linksys routers;

° Fixes an issue that prevented some iWork.com users from commenting on documents.

Mac users can obtain the update via the Software Updates component of the Mac OS X Systems Preferences app.

Mac-Chi has updated WhoPaste (http://www.whopaste.com/), a contact acquisition utility for the Mac OS X Address Book, to version 4.5. The upgrade adds instant iCal To Dos.

The new iCal To Dos can be created with just a control click on Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") or with a user configurable hot key on Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard"). Mac-Chi has also enhanced the underlying data model and simplified the installation process. The older two-step installation process has been replaced with the more familiar and customer-friendly "drop a file on a folder"process.

With WhoPaste installed Mac users can simply copy any contact information (e.g. just a phone number in a Sticky note, a whole signature block in an email, or even multiple rows from a spreadsheet) and without switching applications or navigating to a web site, with a single keystroke they can create a new contact in their address book.

...

The next meeting of The Macintosh Business Users Society of Greater Philadelphia -- or MacBUS (http://www.macbus.org) -- will be held on Tuesday, March 30, at 6:30 pm. MacBUS member Ben Romney will demonstrate how to manage your business finances with Intuit QuickBooks.

In addition, Irv Herzog will demonstrate Stuffit Deluxe 2010, which incorporates the functionality of StuffIt Expander, DropStuff, DropZip, and DropTar into one convenient program. A general Mac troubleshooting Q&A session will also be held. Attendees are encouraged to bring questions and invite friends or coworkers who may find the meeting beneficial.

MacBUS was the first user group in the United States to focus on the business and professional uses of the Macintosh operating system. The group of approximately 75 members meets this month at:

Hunt Room
Dorrance Hamilton Hall
University of the Arts
320 South...

USA Solar and Digital Communications Technologies, aka Muzatch, have developed a 9.8 ounce solar power station specifically for the iPhone series as well as the iPod nano.

The MZH-1200 iPhone power station is now available worldwide through the Muzatch web site (http://www.muzatch.com).  It comes in five colors -- white, black, blue, silver and green -- and is available at the introductory price of US$49.59.