Defamation lawsuit charges Apple, BET, Viacom...

Apple, Viacom and its Black Entertainment Television subsidiary network on Wednesday were named as defendants in a civil lawsuit over defamatory statements made during the promotion and sale of American Gangster, a BET television series currently available for sale via iTunes. The 13-page lawsuit, originally filed on October 10th in Texas, claims that the advertising and promotion of the show incorrectly labeled the plaintiffs James Prince and Thomas Randle as killers, harming both their reputations and their businesses. Prince and Randle seek both preliminary and permanent injunctions to prevent the defendants from publishing, broadcasting or selling the offending American Gangster episode as well as punitive damages for airing the program.

Texas Hold 'Em 3.0 comes to the Mac...

Candywriter has announced the release of Imagine Poker 3.0, an offline Texas Hold 'Em Poker game for the Mac. Imagine Poker allows Mac users to play against 20 infamous characters from history, mythology, and legend, including Cleopatra, Robin Hood, Abraham Lincoln, Dracula, Marie Antoinette, the Grim Reaper, and many more. The game features fully animated opponents and an adaptive artificial intelligence engine. Version 3 features a revamped 3D interface, four new characters, two dealers, six new rooms to play in, and optimization for Mac OS 10.5 Leopard.

Drop Point: Alaska Snowboarding game debuts...

MacSoft has debuted Drop Point: Alaska for Mac OS X, an immersive snowboarding game claiming the largest virtual mountain in the genre. "Every chute, bowl, and tree run of the expansive terrain is open for you to explore! Drop Point: Alaska also features varying time of day and weather conditions providing unique riding scenarios," said company officials. Features include: "Master the Mountain:" 10 unique drop points filled with natural trick features -- from your own pilotable helicopter. "Own a Trick" Beat one of the over 100 challenges on the mountain to become its Owner. Video of your winning run is displayed for all other challengers to see.

Apple gadgets more difficult for PC users...

Thousands of consumers hoping to enjoy music, photos, and movies with Apple gadgets they receive this holiday season may need to learn some basic skills before diving right into the devices. Dave Taylor, a SupportSpace Committee member specializing in Mac as well as handheld technologies says the jump is even more difficult for most PC users. "Apple's iPhone and the latest generation of iPods have delivered enormous power and simplicity to the average consumer, but the technology is still complicated and usability is not 100% intuitive, especially for Windows users," he said.

Web-based video viewer for iPhone debuts...

Avot Media today unveiled Avot mV, a new Web-based application that allows iPhone users to quickly locate and view any Web-based video on the cellular handset. Avot mV maintains no limits on video selection, and utilizes no transcoding process to achieve almost no latency, according to Avot. iPhone users can watch TV-quality video in near real-time, and the softwrae works across mobile carriers with high-speed data networks as well as Wi-Fi. The iPhone-specific application is available for free.

QuickTime 7.3.1, GarageBand 4.1.1 released...

Apple today issued security updates to its QuickTime 7.3.1 software (Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Windows) for Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther, 10.4.9 Tiger, 10.5 Leopard, and Windows Vista/XP SP2 that bolsters security. The Cupertino-based company also enhanced its GarageBand audio software. GarageBand 4.1.1 features better overall stability and fixes to issues with file export to iPhone. [updated]

Apple posts holiday Get a Mac ad...

Apple today posted a new 'Get a Mac' TV spot on its website depicting animated characters singing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town.' Animated versions of 'Mac' Justing Long and 'PC' John Hodgman accompany Santa Claus as they proceed to sing the classic Christmas tune. Partway through the song, however, 'PC' decides to interject his own lyrics about purchasing a PC rather than a Mac this holiday season. 'Mac' and Santa both express dissatisfaction with the lyrical changes, and Apple finishes the spot with a few snowflakes falling in front of an iMac.

PRIE Ambassador for iPod touch unveiled...

Tunewear today unveiled the PRIE Ambassador for iPod touch, a new case made from genuine nappa leather with a black and white stitching design made for casual or business use. The case includes Tunewear's identifiable hook for attaching the iPod to most apparel. The case hook is removable, allowing users to slide the case and iPod in and out of pockets. Tunewear's PRIE Ambassador for iPod touch is priced at $50.

Apps: Cocktail, Xspinner, Combine PDFs

• Cocktail 4.0 (Tiger Edition) ($15) general purpose utility for Mac OS X. This release adds adds multi-user cache clearing, updated Automator actions as well as many various fixes, optimizations and improvements. Cocktail 4.0 (Tiger Edition) is distributed as a Universal Binary and runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. Cocktail 4.0 (Tiger Edition) requires Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server 10.4 - 10.4.11 and is tested for compatibility with Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server 10.4.11.[Download - 2MB]


• Xspinner 1.0 (donationware) utility for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, that allows users to access hidden features and preferences in the system and applications, and provides easy launch of system maintenance scripts. With Xspinner it is possible to change appearance and behavior of the Dock, modify the display of the menu bar, tweak the appearance of Finder, enable access to hidden features in Dashboard and Safari, customize the default Save and Print dialogs in all applications, and more. [Download - 390KB]


• Combine PDFs 3.0 ($15) utility that allows you to merge PDF and image (jpg,tiff,etc.) into one PDF file. This release adds a menu option to add an empty page. Empty pages can only be added if a page is already there as the size of the selected or the first page is takes for new empty page. It also adds a "Sort pages better" menu entry which will handle the file numbers better. e.g. "test 303" will be sorted after "test 4".[Download - 3.1MB]


• Typinator 2.1 ($30) expands text snippets and auto-corrects typos now also on Leopard. The new version is ready for Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard") and improves compatibility with Flash, Numbers, MS Office, Terminal, You-Control, and others. Furthermore, the built-in auto-correction dictionaries have been refined to enhance smooth multi-lingual auto-correction in all applications on Leopard. Works across all applications to detect specific sequences of typed characters and automatically replace them with text snippets, graphics, URLs, dates and special characters. [Download - 1.6MB]


• Peek-a-Boo 2.7 ($20) a Mac OS X utility to monitor and manipulate all running processes. You can watch how much CPU time each process uses, adjust processes' priorities, and monitor process information; the innovative process throb window shows at a glance the activity of all the processes on your system. Peek-a-Boo's windows have been overhauled for consistency. There are also several refinements have been made so Peek-a-Boo works more smoothly with OS X 10.5 ("Leopard"). [Download - 1MB]

Briefly: iPods inside popsicles, Woz, Parallels...

In brief: 10,000 iPod Shuffles to be frozen in popsicles, Steve Wozniak will host a Segway polo tournament to be broadcast over the Web, REAL Software is expanding its Web presence, SWSoft is changing its name to Parallels, and a Leopard Bootcamp/Apple Certification Training session is being offered .... Kibon, a Brazilian ice-cream, is giving away iPod Shuffles embedded in 10,000 popsicles. The Fruttare popsicle comes in 10 different fruit flavors, and some of them will have a ready-to-use iPod Shuffle inside. Apparently, the popsicles were designed with help from Apple to ensure that the iPod Shuffles were not damaged by the extreme temperatures required by such an enclosure.

Popular Mechanics: Apple TV 2nd worst gadget...

Popular Mechanics Magazine has ranked the Apple TV as the second-worst gadget of 2007. Apple introduced the set top box on September 12th of 2006 at a special event in San Francisco, and began shipping the device on March 21st of this year. The Top 10 Worst Gadgets of 2007 states: "There is nothing wrong with Apple TV. Unfortunately, there's nothing overwhelmingly right about it, either. This is the rare black mark in an otherwise spotless multi-year streak from Cupertino—a product that was not only completely overshadowed by the company's own iPhone, but by the larger industry of video-download devices and services."

Land Rover integrates iPhone into LRX concept...

Photos of the new Land Rover LRX concept car suggest extensive integration with Apple's iPhone and iPod. The vehicle offers a space in the center console where drivers can insert an iPhone to essentially make the cellular handset a part of the car's electronics. The slot is angled to allow both the driver and passenger operate the touch-screen interface while on the road, providing hands-free phone calls along with access to the music library and Google Maps, among other features specific to iPhone.

equinux updates Tube 2.0 TV software...

Equinux today released The Tube 2.0, marking the second generation of its TV software for Mac with support for TubeTalk and BuddySurfing community-oriented features. TubeTalk enables TV viewers to chat with one another about the current program, while BuddySurfing enables users to follow others as they channel surf. The Tube 2.0 also simplifies the overall recording process, and provides a visible chatroom where all viewers can discuss programming while keeping tabs on how many viewers are currently watching the running program for each channel. The software is priced at $30, and is obtainable with a DVB-T (DTT) USB receiver TubeStick for $60.

Forbes on Macworld keynote expectations...

A fair number of new devices and other offerings may be announced at next month's Macworld Expo, says Forbes. The magazine notes that while Apple followers can sometimes have fantastic expectations for the keynotes delivered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, some of the products they previously speculated about may finally materialize. Among these is a sub-notebook, which is rumored to have a 12- to 13-inch screen with LED backlighting, optional flash memory, and no optical drive.

Miglia ships TVMini+ with DVB-T support...

Miglia has released the TVMini+, a device that aims to offer complete digital entertainment with Miglia TV software in an ultra-portable format. The device plugs into a USB 2.0 port, thus enabling users to watch and record analog as well as digital terrestrial television. Supported by the DVB-T standard, the TVMini+ combines a 10-bit analog-to-digital converter and a video decoder for improved reception, according to Miglia. TVMini+ is available for $175, and comes with a 2-year warranty. [updated with proper images]

Swatches provides multiplayer iPhone play...

TableStar has released a new beta version of Swatches, a game specifically designed for the interfaces of the iPhone and iPod touch, although it can also be played through desktop browsers such as Safari or Internet Explorer. Gamers attempt to control a gameboard by creating the largest block of color; this is done by dropping tiles, which must be arranged to close off a "swatch" of a uniform color. Unlike most iPhone games however, it can be played against both AI and human opponents, up to a maximum of six. It also supports real-time chat, in-game and through the match lobby.

BBC starts Mac iPlayer service...

The BBC today began official Mac support for iPlayer, the network's video distribution technology. The service allows residents of the UK to watch the last seven days of BBC TV programming for free; until today however, it was only available to Windows users, a situation which earlier triggered a petition claiming it was a violation of BBC policy. The ability to download shows remains restricted to Windows users, but Mac users can now stream video on their computers, as a result of a recent deal with Adobe for use of Flash.

USBfever offers replacement iPhone headset...

USBfever recently announced an inexpensive replacement stereo headset for the iPhone for users that have lost or broken their originals. The headset features a 4 foot long cord, an "answer/end call" button, and a built-in microphone. While the accessory can be used to listen to music on the iPod classic, Touch, Video and Nano – both second and third generation – the button and microphone will not function on those models. USBfever is selling the stereo headset for $20, and is available through its website.

Data Backup 3.0.4 brings Leopard compatibility...

Prosoft Engineering recently announced Leopard support in Data Backup 3.0.4, a simple, full-featured backup utility. Originally released on March 27th, Data Backup 3.0 brought a number of improvements and changes over v2.0, taking advantage of services that are resident in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard, allowing for quicker backups. CD and DVD backups were also improved, allowing large sessions or large singular files to be burned across multiple disks. Users can also make multiple copies of a backup, and leave the process unattended in a multi-disc situation if they have a sufficient number of burners. Data Backup 3 is available directly from Prosoft, and through retail stores nationwide, for $60