CommuniGate to offer push email, OTA sync for iPhone...

CommuniGate Systems recently announced that it is ready to supply iPhone users with push mail, calendar, and contact syncing using over-the-air Airsync, without requiring a Microsoft Exchange server. The software, called CommuniGate Pro also works with both Linux and Windows systems, as well as the Mac. While pricing and availability for the service was not available, CommuniGate showed Communigate Pro at its booth at the VON.x Expo.

iSoftphone update refines performance, more...

Hamburg-based Xnet Communications recently unveiled iSoftphone 2.1, an update to its internet telephony software, which features vastly revamped code and several new features. Xnet has reprogrammed several of the key features, giving the application enhanced performance and functionality, and also laying the groundwork for future implementations. The update is free for all users with Upgrade Protection, while new users can pay $50 for a license.

Vaja offers new cases for iPhone, Nano 3G, MBA...

Leather product manufacturer Vaja today unveiled three new cases for the iPhone, MacBook Air, and iPod nano. The Retro Slim Bag for iPhone is a sleeve-style case that features an open top, but completely covers the rest of the device. It is available in blue with a beige vertical stripe, but as with any Vaja product, can be configured with any color, starting at $40. A similar sleeve for the MacBook Air is also available, except with a closing flap, for $180.

Apple airs new banner ad on NY Times, WSJ...

Echoing the earlier advertisement shown on various websites, Apple has revealed another "Get a Mac" banner ad which is currently showing on both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times homepages. The ad begins with Mac and PC standing in a banner on the side, with PC expressing dissatisfaction with an inflammatory remark made by CNET regarding how Vista is "one of the biggest blunders in technology."

Mac mini to soon receive complete overhaul...

The Mac mini is supposedly getting an internal overhaul, rather than fading into nonexistence, as popular belief would indicate. According to AppleInsider, the miniature computer is to see the 45-nanometer Core 2 Duo chip, starting at 2.1GHz, with an 800MHz frontside buss and the Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor. This alleged update comes after almost a year of shipping the same model, without any major changes.

Refurbs: New, old generation iMacs from $999...

Apple is offering several refurbished iMacs, both new and old generation, starting from $999. The white plastic iMac models offered are the 20-inch 2.16GHz and 24-inch 2.16GHz versions, both of which come with 1GB of memory, and a 250GB hard drive. While the 20-inch model features an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics processor with 128MB of texture memory, the 24-inch comes with an nVidia GeForce 7300GT, also with 128MB of memory. Apple is selling the 20-inch for $1099, and the 24-inch for $1399.

Geophoto 2 adds GPS coordinates, map view...

Ovolab has begun shipping Geophoto 2, the next major edition of its geotagging application for photos. The software helps users sort images by where they were shot, assigning them to locations on a 3D globe with a free-roaming camera. Tagging is said to be much simpler in v2, thanks to a map view which allows positioning at street level. Additionally, photos can be tied to track points from a GPS receiver.

ReelSmart Motion Blur OpenFX arrives on Macs...

RE:Vision Effects has announced that the OpenFX version of its ReelSmart Motion Blur plug-ins, previously only available for Windows, are now out for Mac OS X as well as 32- and 64-bit Linux systems. Motion Blur applies or removes its titular effect to various video formats; it attempts to make the results more natural by tracking each pixel, and calculating expected movement. The software works with a variety apps, such as Assimilate Scratch.

Equinux updates MediaCentral, VPN Tracker...

Equinux has updated two of its key programs, MediaCentral and VPN Tracker. MediaCentral operates as a kind of Mac equivalent to Windows Media Center, combining the playback of several types of media within one program; users can not only load music, photos and videos, but DVD movies and TV, the latter offering the option of IPTV or digital broadcast. Version 2.7 retools the TV engine for better video quality and faster channel switching, as well automatic timeshifting when hitting pause. The software costs $30.

Apple faces Time Machine lawsuit...

Apple is now facing its first lawsuit involving Time Machine, court filings show. The Texan company Mirror Worlds has accused Apple of infringing on four patents: three of these relate directly to a "document stream operating system," while the fourth covers an attached information management system. The document streams depicted group many different file types together, arranged chronologically and in piles; this most closely resembles the Time Machine backup software in Mac OS X Leopard, but may also cover the sorting system on iPods and iPhones, for chronological items like podcasts.