Joesoft ships Stox portfolio tracking app...

JoeSoft on Wednesday announced the availability of Stox 1.0, a stock portfolio management software title for the Mac. Stox, the company says, is a powerful tool for the new or experienced investor: the software title delivers concise, timely information to help manage a users' stock portfolio in a simple, single window format that is password secured (as well as stored locally on the desktop). "Stox is an in-depth analytical stock management tool that helps you research and track your stock portfolio", according to Greg Brewer, CEO of Prosoft. "It really is the next generation of portfolio management software which is suited for both novice users and seasoned investors alike.” Stox is available for purchase online for $50.

50,000 expected at Macworld Expo in SF...

Those going to the upcoming Macworld Expo in San Francisco can expect a much larger show this year, with nearly 50,000 registered attendees, and over 450 vendors are making a presence at the show. Paul Kent, Vice President of the Macworld Expo, told MacNN today that the 2008 event will dwarf previous years, with an estimated 25-percent increase in floor traffic, and an18-percent increase in vendor attendance. As of today, MacWorld Expo will feature 453 vendors, 48 of which are new and taking up residence in the year-old Developer's Pavilion.

Daylite 3.6 brings Leopard compatibility, bug fixes...

Marketcircle has unveiled Daylite 3.6, an update to its productivity management software, introducing Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard compatibility, and many bug fixes. After a long beta period Leopard users can finally take advantage of Marketcircle's powerful app. Also updated for Leopard compatibility is DMI 2.1, or Daylite Mail integration, which allows users to link emails, tasks, and projects to particular person, employee, or group. New users can try Daylite, DMI, or the Productivity Suite – a combination of both products – for 30 days, and can purchase the software starting from $150.

Moka5 virtual PCs for VMWare Fusion debut...

Moka5, the desktop virtualization services company has announced a preview of its Moka5 for Mac OS X, which allows users running VMware Fusion to also run Moka5's LivePC virtual machines, which include advanced virtualization features such as self-healing, user data protection, and automatic updates. The Moka5 LivePC Library gives VMware Fusion users immediate access to a large selection of fully configured LivePCs including Ubuntu Linux, SuSE Linux, and FreeBSD. Free LivePCs have been created for many popular applications such as Ladybug LivePC, a kid-safe Web browser, Fearless Browser for anonymous browsing, Quake action games, and Ubuntu evaluation.

Briefly: Keyspan USB server review...

In brief: We've posted a review of the Keyspan U2S-2A USB 2.0 Server, MyPublisher has announced imported leather covers, VectorWorks 2008 has several new Leopard-savvy features, MacPractice EDR (Electronic Dental Records) has been released, a Mac IT Pro boot camp has been announced ... We've posted a review of the Keyspan U2S-2A USB 2.0 Server, which you can connect it via Ethernet or wirelessly to a local area network, to share different types of USB devices. The Keyspan USB Server plugs into an available 10 or 100 megabit connection on your network and provides two powered USB 2.0 ports that talk to different devices, including printers, USB storage devices, PDAs, cameras, mice, keyboards, or scanners. If you want just a print server, Keyspan also sells a 4-Port USB Print Server for only $99.

Holiday Mac game update, new release...

Macgamestore.com today announced the release of Venice Mystery -- a unique puzzle game designed for all ages, and Frogames released an update to Penguins Arena with a Christmas theme. Created by Gamgo Games and published by Big Fish Games, Venice Mystery challenges players to travel through Venice to solve an ancient mystery before the city sinks into the water. Venice Mystery is priced at $20, and requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.

Intuit brings Quicken to iPhone...

Intuit today announced that it will be providing Quicken as an online software service for iPhone and mobile users by January 8th for $3 per month, which it hopes will expand its constantly-growing 14 million user-strong base. Reuters reports that with yearly sales of 1.7 million copies, Quicken has gained 8-percent marketshare, putting it at 80-percent for 2007. The service will be accessible through web browsers on most mobile devices, using the same encryption techniques used for internet banking to keep a user's data safe. The iPhone version, while having a lighter feature loadout than for other devices, will be completely optimized for on-the-go financials on the iPhone's crisp screen.

VM test: Parallels faster for XP, Fusion for Vista...

New benchmarks reveal that while Boot Camp is still the fastest way to run Windows on your Mac, the virtual machines offered by Parallels and VMWare offer increasingly decent performance -- depending on which flavor of Windows you choose to run. MacTech, in an extensive benchmarking of the different Windows-on-Mac methods, found that Parallels was somewhat faster in general than VMware Fusion for XP, but if you want the best virtualization performance for Vista, then VMware Fusion is the way to go. Overall, however, the results show that XP is, by and large, a much better VM performer than Vista.

Apps: DiscLabel, TopXNotes, Oxygen XML

• DiscLabel 5.1 ($36) CD/DVD label design software for Mac OS X. The new release adds contextual menu adds functions for thumbnails in Media view, contextual menu added to Edit view, a wave image filter effect, fixes to font formatting with problem fonts in Leopard, has improvements to object selection via Edit->Select Item Behind, layer effects display has been optimized and there are other bug fixes [Download - 14.1MB]


• TopXNotes 1.3 ($35) quickly find, access, display, manage and secure your notes. This new Universal release has several new features including Drag and Drop import and export of Notes and Groups, scroll wheel support, text or RTF imports now available, drag to trash to delete a Note or Group. Also added is an extension "topi" for a note exchange format. [Download - 5.5MB]


• Oxygen XML Editor version 9.1 ($50-275) CSS-based visual XML editor introduced by version 9 allows WYSIWYG like editing of XML documents. Version 9.1 adds a number of improvements, the main additions being related with the WYSIWYG like XML editor and with the WebDAV support. It also contains support for SOAP 1.2 and some updated components. The SOAP version is detected from the WSDL definition file and the appropriate headers are set in the SOAP request. The SOAP 1.2 envelope is validated against a SOAP 1.2 XML Schema. [Download - 37.1MB]


• Advanced Link Manager 4.0 ($100) tool that helps manage your web site incoming links. Advanced Link Manager helps you monitor your incoming links, keeping you informed as to where they come from and what their content is. This version adds a POP3 and IMAP email client, a manager for all projects, user profiles, triggers, exporting to CSV and the ability to check for broken links. [Download - 27.6MB]


• PageSender 4.2 ($40) fax software for Mac OS X. The update features support for MyFax.com, Fax.com, and Fax.de fax-via-Email services, improved reliability when switching to PageSender Fax pane, fixed cover page hang on PowerPC-based Macs, closes search results when window is moved or dismissed, allows non-US characters in dragged vCards, and fixed incorrect recent items beahvior. [Download - 6.9MB]
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iMac display issues persist: Apple silent...

Apple Support has locked a discussion thread about newly purchased iMacs exhibiting symptoms of problematic displays in what Tom's Hardware is calling an act of censorship. The topic, titled 'Bought new iMac 20" Faded Screen,' began on August 7th -- the first day the new iMacs went on sale -- and quickly became the primary place for new iMac owners to discuss their troubles of 20-inch and some 24-inch iMacs. The discussion saw a slew of traffic in its early stages, which later soared to an average of 429 hits per day until Apple locked the topic to prevent further posts, according to the report. [updated for clarity]

Study: Mac users more honest than PC brethren...

A study conducted by the NPD Group today revealed that Apple owners are much more likely than PC users to pay for music downloads. According to NPD's quarterly Digital Music Monitor, in the third quarter of 2007 half of all Mac users had paid to download music tracks from sites like iTunes, but just 16 percent of PC owners had done so. What's more, Mac users were also more likely to purchase CDs.

Apple to appear at BETT education expo...

Apple will be one of the featured exhibitors at next month's BETT expo, the company has announced. BETT is described as the United Kingdom's leading tradeshow devoted to technology in education, and is scheduled for January 9th to the 12th at the London Olympia, a mere three days before Macworld in San Francisco. Apple will occupy Stand C40 in the Grand Hall, where it will be marketing its products as a way of enhancing learning.

DEVON apps add Spotlight, Leopard features...

DEVONtechnologies has released updates for several of its applications, concentrating on features of Mac OS X. DEVONthink 1.9.12, Pro/Pro Office 1.5, and DEVONnote 1.9.12 now include native support for Spotlight, as a result of metadata caches that allow the tool to probe for documents stored inside databases. Inclusion of Spotlight also has the secondary benefit of allowing search through multiple databases simultaneously, for the first time in any DEVON product.

Ambrosia updates iToner, iSeek, Dragster...

Ambrosia Software has updated four of its software utilities for Mac users, offering various improvements and bug fixes. The company released iToner 1.0.5, iSeek 1.1.2, EasyEnvelopes 1.0.6, and Dragster 1.0.5. iToner 1.0.5 ($15) enhances the iPhone custom ringtone transfer tool with improved support for iPhone OS 1.1.1 as well as bug fixes and other enhancements. iSeek 1.1.2 ($15) adds Leopard compatibility alongside an integrated registration system to the internet search utility, and fixes various bugs.

OpenEDA Toolkit 1.0 released for Mac OS X...

ReyesSoft has introduced its OpenEDA Toolkit 1.0, bringing open source electronic design automation software to Mac OS X as well as Solaris and other UNIX-based platforms. The software includes Alliance CAD, Icarus Verilog, FreeHDL, the gEDA suite, GTKWave, Gerbv, PCB, Electric, and NG-SPICE support. OpenEDA Toolkit 1.0 is priced at $100 for the basic version, and the company offers subscriptions as well as user support for additional fees. OpenEDA Toolkit 1.0 requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

Apple planning Upper West Side NYC store...

One of Apple's 40 new retail stores planned for 2008 will be another New York City shop, according to reports. Following the recent opening of its third (and largest) Manhattan retail store earlier this month, the company is intending to tear down and rebuild a storefront at 1981 Broadway, on the northwest corner of West 67th Street; the current building is an 8,500 square-foot Victoria's Secret, and was at one point the site of the Cineplex Odeon Regency Theater. Victoria's Secret parent company Limited Brands has reportedly been attempting to sublease the space for some time.

FileMaker Pro 8.5v2 offers Leopard fixes...

FileMaker on Tuesday released a downloadable update to fix important compatibility issues in FileMaker Pro 8.5 and FileMaker Pro 8.5 Advanced running on Mac OS X Leopard, but stopped short of offering complete compatibility with the new operating system. The v2 update fixes issues that caused FileMaker Pro 8.5 to hang when the system language and region did not match, and when saving to or exporting to Microsoft Excel format. The Apple subsidiary, however, noted that the Instant Web Publishing (IWP) feature does not work in FileMaker Pro 8.5v2 or FileMaker Pro 8.5v2 Advanced running on Mac OS X Leopard: "The IWP feature in FileMaker Pro 8.5 was designed and implemented long before Leopard, and it is not feasible to update it for Leopard," the company said in its documentation. Earlier this month, the company released a second Leopard update for its latest FileMaker 9.0 software.

Apple posts MacBook (Pro) Software 1.1

Apple has released MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1, which it says addresses a responsiveness issue on MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers. According to Apple's documentation, "some MacBook and MacBook Pro systems may occasionally experience a temporary suspension of keyboard input which can last a minute or longer. The Mac OS X 10.5.1 update is required before installing the MacBook, MacBook Pro Software Update 1.1."

Bomberman released for the iPod in the US...

Bomberman has been released on the US iTunes store, courtesy of Hudson Software Company. The game features two play modes, Normal and Challenge Mode, allowing players to enjoy either a casual but frantic experience, or a competitive one where they aim to beat their best scores. Bomberman features a redesigned control scheme to help players through 20 levels, plus an iPod-exclusive bonus boss level. Three new mini-games are included: Bomb Rollin', Bomb Buster, and Bowling for Bombs. Bomberman for the iPod is available in the US iTunes store for $5.