Io HD and KONA cards compatible with new Mac Pro...

AJA recently announced that its Io HD and KONA lines of video capture equipment fully support the new eight-core Mac Pro, which is based on Intel’s new Xeon 5400 processors. Despite undergoing a complete overhaul, the upgraded components do not pose a problem for AJA; normally, major changes to internal hardware can pose problems for sensitive high-end equipment, usually prompting a patch or complete replacement of equipment if users wish to upgrade.

IK thanks AmpliTube users with free plugins...

IK Multimedia recently announced that users of its Pro Tools plugin AmpliTube LE are now eligible to receive a free upgrade to AmpliTube 2 Duo, as well as a copy of Ampeg SVX Uno. The company says these offerings are part of a customer appreciation promotion due to the plugin’s worldwide popularity, and is even available to customers who bought the combined Digibundle package. AmpliTube emulates four components in a typical electric guitarist’s setup: a tuner, stomp, amp, and cabinet plus microphone. AmpliTube also comes with several different models of each module, with 30 preset sounds and 16 amp combinations. New users can purchase AmpliTube 2 Duo for $400, and is available through its website and major authorized retailers.

Briefly: FCPUG SuperMeet; charity shareware bundle...

In brief: A Final Cut group organizes a Macworld "SuperMeet," a shareware bundle splits proceeds with charity, a free book teaches game programming, and a software package teaches Quark Job Jackets. The Final Cut Pro Users Group has finalized the agenda for its seventh-annual Macworld SuperMeet. The event is scheduled from 7 to 10PM on January 16th, and will be held in the Robertson Auditorium of the Mission Bay Conference Center, UCSF, in San Francisco. Richard Townhill of Apple will discuss Final Cut Pro and the new Mac Pros, while colleague Steve Bayes will talk about evaluating codecs. Other guests will include representatives from Adobe, Sony and Blackmagic. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door.

NetXposure 5 digital asset tool debuts...

NetXposure 5, a new enterprise digital asset management (DAM) system, has been released. Th new version has been re-architected as a rich Internet application utilizing Adobe AIR and Adobe Flex technologies. It provides interactivity with digital assets from virtually any application, including built-in integration with Adobe Creative Suite 3. Available now, NetXposure will demonstrate the new DAM solution at the 2008 Macworld Conference and Expo, January 15-18, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, booth S-432.

TweakerSoft ships VectorDesigner 1.0.0...

TweakerSoft has released the first version of VectorDesigner, its vector illustration program. The software is used for drawings, diagrams and other applications, and handles filtering, raster images and color correction. Features include a smart shape tool and numerous different default shapes, such as ovals, rounded rectangles and polygons. Also present is a bezier creation and editing tool, with raster-to-bezier conversion as an option.

Google MacFUSE adds Objective-C...

Google has released v1.3 of MacFUSE, its FUSE file system implementation tool for Mac OS X. The most critical addition is the new MacFUSE.framework, which is said to greatly simplify building user-space file systems with Objective-C. To help speed developers along, one of the engineers behind the framework will be lecturing at Thursday's Silicon Valley Cocoaheads meeting, where he will not only teach the framework but offer some file system demos.

NetNewsWire, FeedDemon now free...

NewsGator simultaneously announced general availability of NetNewsWire 3.1, FeedDemon 2.6 and that all of its client RSS reader products are now available free of charge and include free synchronization along with other services. NewsGator also announced that users can synchronize to provide the same view of their RSS content no matter when or where they read it. J.B. Holston, NewsGator CEO and president, said, "We are uniquely positioned to drastically expand the community of people working with RSS content. The larger that community is, the more valuable the experience for every user and for all of our services customers. That insight has led us to undertake the significant investment to make all of our client products free."

Film studios praise Apple, iTunes...

Major Hollywood content providers gave Apple and its iTunes Store a thumbs up during a panel discussion and Q&A session on Monday at the CES trade show in Las Vegas. The Cupertino-based company began offering hit TV shows and more than 2,000 music videos in October of 2005 after experiencing enormous success in the digital music industry. Deals with four Disney-owned studios -- Disney, Pixar, Miramax, and Touchstone Pictures -- were followed by a deal with Paramount Pictures and later Lionsgate films.

HungrySeacow offers 25% off software sale...

HungrySeacow Software is holding a 25 percent-off sale to celebrate the one-year anniversary of its recipe management application, YummySoup! The software offers an intuitive new way to import recipes from any website with support for automatic Web imports for AllRecipes.com; Deliaonline.com; Epicurious.com; FoodAndWine.com; FoodNetwork.com; LightAndTasty.com; MarthaStewart.com; RachaelRayMag.com; VegetarianTimes.com; and Yum-O.org. YummySoup! 1.6.1 is priced at $15, and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

BlueAnt preps speakers, voice-controlled headset...

Bluetooth purveyors BlueAnt have announced two new devices through the CES expo in Las Vegas. The first of these is the V1 Voice Controlled Headset, which as its name implies, allows users to control "most" functions through audio commands rather than pushing buttons. Pressing a single button activates the voice system, which will list available commands if the user asks for help. The headset uses Bluetooth 2.1, and actually supports connections with two phones simultaneously, by switching to the ringing phone when necessary. The V1 comes with car/desk and USB chargers, and can handle up to six hours of talk time, or 200 hours (over eight days) of standby. It should be available soon for $119.

Parallels Server beta released to testers...

SWsoft today released the beta version of Parallels Server, the company's hypervisor-powered server virtualization software. Parallels Server is the first virtualization solution designed to run on Apple hardware -- including Mac Pros and Xserves -- and is the first to run multiple copies of Mac OS X Server 10.5 Leopard on a single Apple computer, according to the company. Parallels Server is available in private beta testing, and the company is accepting registrations for new beta testers.

Best Buy to double Mac availability in stores...

Best Buy is planning to almost double the number of stores that sell Apple-branded goods, according to conversations held with company executives at the Computer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. UBS analysts say the brick-and-mortar retailer aims to expand its Mac sales to 500 stores in 2008, up from the current 270 outlets, according to AppleInsider.

EC lauds Apple's iTunes price decision...

Following Apple's announcement that within the next six months, music prices on the UK iTunes Store will drop to fall in line with other European countries, the European Commission has publicly lauded the decision equalize prices. Officials from the commission said "This puts an end to the different treatment of UK consumers who currently have to pay higher prices for downloads." Prices for iTunes downloads in the UK are currently nearly 10% more expensive than downloads in the euro-zone. Pricing is already standardized between countries such as Germany, Ireland, Spain and Sweden. Based on current European iTunes prices, tracks on the UK iTunes Store should be cut from 79p to 66p, or $1.30 US.

Pioneer preps hybrid GPS with voiced iPod link, more...

Pioneer at CES has unveiled a slew of in-car devices for both navigation and music, including a unique hybrid device that can work outside of the car. The AVIC-F500BT (pictured) is tailored for drivers who want the features of an in-dash GPS and stereo unit but also the ability to take it on the road; although the 5.8-inch touchscreen device can connect to an existing head-end unit through an auxiliary input jack or a mounting kit, it can also detach and run independently on a battery.

Melbourne Apple Store location confirmed...

The first of Apple's planned retail stores in Melbourne, Australia has been confirmed. Although talk had originally pointed to a streetfront store, the beginning of Apple's presence in the city can be found inside the Chadstone Shopping Center, where a construction barrier marked "Apple opening soon" has been erected in front of an outlet next to Nike Women. The location is said to be two to two-and-a-half times wider than most normal ones in the mall.

iTools 9 updates Apache support, improves FTP...

Tenon has released a new edition of iTools, bringing the program up to version 9. The software is a web-based graphical interface for administering web servers, and specifically handles Apache, DNS and FTP management. The greatest change to v9 is the inclusion of Apache 2.2.6, which is said to have better memory and disk use, support for file sizes above 2GB, and a new database interface architecture. The FTP component of the program now has a new File Manager, which lets admins assign clients to specific groups, which are then given permissions for uploading, renaming and deleting files.

Rondo 2.7 adds MIDI export, note names...

Fractured Software has released the v2.7 update to Rondo, its MIDI playback software. The program specializes in displaying how a track is played, by overlaying a keyboard on top of a vertical piano roll that lights up keys as notes pass by. Elements of a piece can then be filtered out visually, so that only the portions a person is interested in playing themselves will be shown. People can play along using external sound modules or MIDI keyboards.

Apple pledges to reduce prices on iTunes UK...

Within the next six months, music prices on the UK iTunes Store will drop to fall in line with other European countries, Apple has announced. The company notes that while iTunes pricing is already standardized between countries such as Germany, Ireland, Spain and Sweden, the UK has for some time paid greater song prices; Apple blames this on unnamed record labels, who it accuses of charging more for distribution in the UK than they do elsewhere. The company says it may "reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK" with labels that do not drop their own fees to the European standard.

Smart Board 685 unveiled, 600i upgraded...

Smart Technologies today unveiled the Smart Board 685 interactive whiteboard, and also re-issued its Smart Board 600i, featuring improved performance over its earlier incarnation. The 685 provides a large 87-inch surface area when measured diagonally, and uses a 16:10 aspect ratio. Smart says this offers 20-percent more working space than its 680 model, catering to a growing number of 16:10 laptops and projectors in schools. The pen try has an expansion slot that allows teachers to upgrade their hardware with other Smart products. Although pricing has not been announced, Smart said the Smart Board 685 will see distribution in April, with costs available at that time.

Smart unveils Notebook 10 collaborative software...

Calgary-based Smart Technologies today unveiled Notebook 10, an update to its collaborative learning software. Version 10 provides users with over 30 new features, 100,000 pieces of educational content, and an updated teachers’ resource hub. The new Table Tool allows users to create symmetrical or asymmetrical rows and columns, and customize table properties. Users can draw freehand circles and other geometric shapes with the Shape Pen, which are then recognized and perfected. The company did not release pricing, but it was made aware that users of existing Smart products will receive the update free in the spring.

iPhone Trojan revealed, targets jailbroken phones...

The iPhone recently fell victim to its first Trojan attack, which came in the form of a malicious file named “113 prep”. While installation of the phony application is relatively benign – the app merely says “shoes” when activated – uninstalling the file causes damage to or deletes system-critical files in the /bin directory on the iPhone. In addition to harming the devices own software, third party utilities are also being rendered useless through the same means. This attack was orchestrated by an 11-year-old, and has some modmyifone.com forum members laughing to ease the pressure using references to the 1995 film Hackers, due to the similarity of circumstances.