Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Mac Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for March 5, 2010: Macintosh iPod Macintosh Hyperbolic Software has announced Tidy Up! 2.2.0 , the latest version of the award-winning duplicate finder and disk tidying utility. Tidy Up! has become a must-have utility to reclaim disk space being taken up by duplicate files and packages. Tidy Up! locates duplicate items using a wide range of criteria including owner application, time created or modified, name, label, extension and content. Version 2 introduces nearly 50 new features to this already comprehensive tool. Zenopolis has released Tiptoe 1.0 , a new privacy application for Mac OS X. Tiptoe is the first Mac privacy application to bring a “private browsing” like feature to all sorts of applications. This initial release supports 15 popular Mac applications, enabling users to run these applications without a trail of their actions being stored. The ability to reset (remove) existing privacy data is also included. Tiptoe is $19.95 (USD), a Universal Binary for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or later. St. Clair Software has announced the release of Default Folder X 4.3.6 . Default Folder X enhances the file dialogs in all Mac OS X applications.

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Filed under: Hardware , Software , Apple With all of the furor around the gigantic patent lawsuit that Apple dropped on HTC this week , you might be forgiven for forgetting about the first big patent smackdown of the year, the lawsuit that Nokia laid at Apple’s door . But a judge in Delaware hasn’t — he ordered a suspension to both the case and its countersuit while the International Trade Commission works out the complaints between the two companies. Clearly Nokia and Apple have it out for one another, but apparently they’re going to take it one step at a time. Once the ITC has completed its probe, which was scheduled to take 45 days after it agreed to perform the investigation on February 22nd, then the lawsuit will presumably move forward. That’s if it’s still on and not settled by then, although Nokia seems in it to win it, and Apple apparently has enough bandwidth (and legal fees) to pick two fights at once anyway. So bring it, ITC, and then let’s get this show on the road. [via Macworld ] Judge suspends Apple/Nokia lawsuit pending ITC investigation originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Judge suspends Apple/Nokia lawsuit pending ITC investigation originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Section: Apple Business , iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPhone Competitors In a written email statement sent to TechCrunch after the news of Apple’s patent infringement lawsuit against HTC came out, Google has this to say: “We are not a party to this lawsuit. However, we stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.” This is interesting simply because Google took the time to make a statement in response to the news when their company technically isn’t being sued. That being said, HTC does make many phones that run Google’s mobile operating system: Android. The most notable of these phones for Google is the Nexus One, their own branded phone. Therefore, a lawsuit against HTC is technically also an attack against Google, who relies heavily upon HTC for the hardware that many of their phones uses. While Google is still not actually named in the suit, it will be interesting to see to what extent they get themselves involved. I suppose it’s all just part of the ongoing “battle” between Google and Apple that they aren’t really admitting exists in the mobile operating system space. Keep watching for news on this one, people, it’s going to be fun. Via [ TechCrunch ] Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell . | Comment on this Article »

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Filed under: Apple Corporate , Software , Apple , Security A few Apple employees played some musical chairs this week. Executive Pablo Calamera, who was in charge of MobileMe while at Apple, is off to work as the CTO of Thumbplay , a company that peddles ringtones and music to mobile devices. HR shouldn’t have to change the big “35,000 employed worldwide” sign, though: former Mozilla security chief Window Snyder was picked up by Apple this week. She’ll jump in as a senior security product manager, a job that will take advantage of her work both at Mozilla and previously at Microsoft, where she worked on both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Sure, she’s got the experience, but has she ever worked for a company that does this for its incoming employees? Didn’t think so. Incoming, outgoing Apple employees originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Incoming, outgoing Apple employees originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Mac Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for March 4, 2010: Macintosh iPod Macintosh app4mac has released Projector 2.0.8 , an update to their powerful project management application for Mac OS X. Projector provides all the tools you need for professional project management. It is designed to keep track of tasks and calculate a project’s cost. Projector is an easy-to-learn, cost-effective tool that simplifies project scheduling. Projector is also coming soon on iPad and iPhone. Cocoamug Software has released CosmoPod 4.2.1 , an update to their bright application for Mac OS X. CosmoPod is a one-click simple extension to Apple Safari browser that helps you saving and converting internet media content to your Mac, iPhone, AppleTV or iPod. It’s just like an extra Download window for your media. CosmoPod supports most popular web video formats, including FLV, DivX, WMV, MMS, RM, and RTSP. This update mainly improves the application capability to easily import DVD.

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Us Mac gamers are a much abused, much maligned lot. We get titles late, and most never at all. By the time most titles do come to the Mac, we’ve probably already broken down and played them using Boot Camp or that gaming PC we hide in the closet that we bought specifically for the purpose. Today, things are looking up. PC game maker and distributor Valve is dropping all kinds of hints, which are by no means ambiguous, that Steam and many of its titles are headed to the Mac sometime in the near future. MacRumors and various other Mac news sites received teaser images direct from Valve themselves, all of which point to that very same conclusion. The teaser received by MacRumors features Half-Life protagonist Gordon Freeman wielding a crowbar and wearing an Apple logo on his chest. The image was sent “in anticipation of an upcoming announcement from Valve.” No timeframe or additional details about this announcement were included, however, so we’re left to speculate about that, although next week sees the annual Game Developers Conference taking place in San Francisco, so that’s a good candidate for a potential date. Other sites also received tantalizing teaser images in a similar vein, which, when you notice the iPhone-like selector control at the bottom of the images, gives a pretty good indication that all are from the same series and further evidence of a Mac connection. MacNN received one using turrets from Team Fortress 2 and Portal acting as Mac and PC from the Justin Long/John Hodgman series of ads: Shacknews got this image of a Team Fortress 2 Heavy class character as an iPod silhouette: Eurogamer received this one, featuring a Left 4 Dead character and the “Hate Different” twist on Apple’s longtime slogan: Rock, Paper, Shotgun got another promo, which plays off of the ad for the first Mac and seems the most clear about Valve’s intentions: Finally, Macworld received this picture of Half-Life 2’s Alyx Vance character reenacting Apple’s instantly recognizable 1984 commercial: Additional evidence for the introduction of some kind of Mac version of Steam can be found in the inclusion of Mac elements in the latest beta builds of the game marketplace software. For Mac users who’ve maybe shut out all gaming news out of bitterness or jealousy, Steam is Valve’s digital game distribution software for the PC. It also provides digital rights management (DRM) services for developers, and multiplayer services for users. So far, only Mac Games Arcade provides a similar service for the Mac, but that’s honestly like comparing an aircraft carrier (Steam) to a dinghy (Mac Games Arcade).

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I saw some great products at the recent Macworld expo. Here are a few items that grabbed my attention. Navigon for iPhone: The latest release of Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone has added a new panorama 3D view that uses terrain elevation data from NASA. The feature is available via in-app purchase. I also got a hands-on demo of the MyRoutes feature which will show you three different route choices to find the best combination of speed and distance for you. DJay Software with Spin Controller: The thing I love about the Djay Software with the Spin hardware controller is that it is a real DJ system for the Mac. It’s not a game like DJ Hero or something. You can spin records right from your iTunes library. You get some added digital benefits like automatic tempo matching so you can concentrate more on the music and less on the technical bits of DJ-ing. Here Karim of algoriddim (and the man behind the DJay software) demonstrates a few aspects of the controller. MacSpeech Scribe: This new product from MacSpeech lets you transcribe recordings to text.

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Filed under: Hardware , Multimedia , Software , Apple , Developer We met them while they were shooting on the Apple Campus, and now the creators of the Dutch site onemorething.nl have posted their interview with Apple sound designer Jim Reekes (who also appears in Welcome To Macintosh ). They met up with Reekes while at Macworld in San Francisco a little while back — he’s the guy that programmed most of the sound in the early days, including the famous Mac startup chime and the legendary “sosumi” chime. What’s most interesting to me is all of the math behind it — while making music is traditionally seen as an art, there’s a lot of technical know how and information that actually went into the sound’s creation. Essentially, you’re creating a beep that has to represent a brand, and that mix of technical data with artistic representation is fascinating. Plus, Reekes definitely seems like a guy who’s been around both the technical and musical blocks a few times before, and it’s cool to hear him pontificate on all of the hard work he did back in the day. It’s also interesting to see someone who has such a personal tie to a sound that is so ubiquitous and means so much to so many people — an “ear-con,” he calls it. Very nice interview. Interview with the creator of the Apple startup sound originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Interview with the creator of the Apple startup sound originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Section: Haven’t caught all of the Appletell news this week?  Here’s your chance to catch up on this week’s top 10 articles! The mystery of the five missing iPad apps “We are living in that fun time between the announcement of a big Apple product and its actual release. We’ve been here many times before, but it’s always interesting. During this period, we all get to spend a lot of time discussing, evaluating and…” MORE » Appletell reviews the Technocel PowerPak portable battery and home charger ” Provides: Backup battery and home charging for USB devices Developer: Technocel Minimum Requirements: Compatible USB device Price: $49.99 Availability: Now Pretty much everything that can be thrown into a pocket or purse these days can…” MORE » Macworld 2010: Appletell’s most surprising finds “One of our favorite things to do each year at Macworld Expo is to wander the show floor with no pending meetings, and no agenda other than to see what we can find. Many of the venders are the same each year, using the expo as a time to launch…” MORE » Apple jerks “overtly sexual” apps from App Store ” Sex might sell, but Apple doesn’t care. If you’ve browsed the App Store before, you may have found that a large portion of apps are what we like to call “risqué.” Apple’s position on this topic has never…” MORE » Macworld 2010: Appletell’s favorite products “Although Macworld Expo 2010 was confined to just the north hall of Moscone Center this year, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a wide array of great products. Now that we’ve had a chance to settle down and review our notes and brochures, the Appletell staff in attendance has selected our…” MORE » iPhone apps for your inner bibliophile “In the modern world, we tend to forget about books…unless, of course, you are a book lover (aka a bibliophile)—then you just can’t get enough of them. If that describes you, then these iPhone applications were developed just for you. They will allow you to get your book fix on…” MORE » Appletell reviews the Yamaha EPH-30 Headphones “Provides: In-ear sound Developer: Yamaha Minimum Requirements: Standard headphone jac Price: $39.95 Availability: Now I’m going to start this review with an aside; do you remember when white earbuds were an iPod symbol? Back before the…” MORE » Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news – February 22, 2010 “Macintosh and iPhone/iPod/iPad product updates and announcements for February 22, 2010:  Macintosh iPod Macintosh Kanex has announced the official pre-order availability of its Macworld 2010…” MORE » Video chatting evidence found in iPhone 3.2 Software Development Kit ” iDevice video chatting—it’s the rumor that just won’t quit. This time, 9to5Mac found icons and references in the code of the iPhone 3.2 Software Development Kit that point a big old finger at video chatting

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Section: Apple News , Conferences , Macworld , Macintosh / Apple Hardware , Peripherals , External and Portable Storage Devices , Video and Digital Cameras / Video Capture Although Macworld Expo 2010 was confined to just the north hall of Moscone Center this year, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a wide array of great products. Now that we’ve had a chance to settle down and review our notes and brochures, the Appletell staff in attendance has selected our favorite products of Macworld 2010: a camera card, some competition for AppleTV, and a helicopter that wasn’t even a part of the show. Bill Stiteler My favorite product (which, oddly, enough wasn’t being even shown at the show) was the Parrot AR.Drone quadricopter. You have no idea how unbelievably cool this thing is, especially with the two stream video cameras. The fact that they still haven’t released word on pricing or availability makes me think it’s only going to be available to the Sharper Image crowd (do they still exist?), but as a high-end iPhone/iPod touch toy, nothing even comes close. Product [ Parrot AR.Drone quadricopter ] Ed McKell I would pick the Eye-Fi Pro X2 as my favorite product from the show. I’ve been keeping an eye on their products for a long time, but I never felt it was something I wanted to purchase. With the Pro X2, however, they have given it the features such as endless memory and the Class 6 SDHC performance level that makes me consider this as something I can really use. Product [ Eye-Fi Pro X2 ] Kirk Hiner Visiting Western Digital’s booth, I certainly wasn’t expecting to find competition for Apple TV. But there it was, a full HD 1080p media player that allows you to play videos, photos and music from a USB drive, your network or the Internet on your TV.

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