SplashMoney, SplashID 4 for Mac OS X debut...

SplashData has announced Mac OS X versions of its SplashMoney personal finance application and SplashID 4 secure password manager. Both applications synchronize with their respective mobile applications. The company also announced a standalone version of SplashMoney for Mac OS X for users that do not have a compatible mobile device. SplashMoney is personal financial manager that can securely record transactions, track account balances, generate reports and budgets, and manage finances. The tool supports most account types, including checking, savings, credit card, cash, asset, liability, and money market accounts.

Sony to acquire Gracenote...

Sony Corporation of America has signed a merger agreement with Gracenote, Inc, and will pay approximately $260 million plus other contingent consideration for the digital media information warehouse. Formerly known as CDDB, Gracenote delivers information -- including lyrics -- on music to various services including Apple iTunes and Yahoo! Music Jukebox. The companies say that Gracenote's existing business will continue to operate separately as a wholly owned Sony subsidiary, and that the senior management team will remain with the company.

Patents: real-time collaboration, lookup tables, more...

The US Patent and Trademark Office today published three patents that it approved for Apple, relating to real-time collaboration, time-based user interface object interaction, and element number tables. The first patent, Method and Apparatus for Supporting Real-Time Collaboration, demonstrates synchronicity on a single application between multiple remote users. The patent illustrates users operating a local software application over the internet or a network, with the goal of sharing a common workflow between users.

ScreenFlow 1.1 adds waveforms, chapter markers, more...

Vara Software today unveiled ScreenFlow 1.1, a sizable update to its screencasting application, adding audio waveforms, markers, and several other optimizations and improvements. The inclusion of audio waveforms allows users to find and remove unnecessary pauses, coughs, and other audio anomalies in recordings, as well as in any imported QuickTime Media. The update is free for existing users, and costs $100 for a new license.

Apple's Web traffic grows 13 percent...

According to new data from Nielsen Online, Web traffic to the Apple Inc's sites collectivly grew 13 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2008, from a three-month average monthly unique audience of 42.9 million to 48.4 million. Total minutes spent on the site grew 12 percent year over year, from 9.4 billion in Q1 2007 to 10.5 billion in Q1 2008, while total purchases at The Apple Store grew 32 percent month over month, from 322,000 purchases in January 2008 to 424,000 purchases in February 2008. iTunes, Apple Store and QuickTime were the top three fastest growing Apple Computer Web channels year over year in Q1 2008

Apple Japan sells limited-edition Touch, Nano cases...

For one week only, Apple's Japan stores are selling limited-edition cases for the iPod touch and nano, a Japanese site writes. Each case is made of hardened polycarbonate and coated in black rubber, featuring a special golden etching on the back, belonging to the shopping district it was bought from. People can buy Ginza, Shibuya, Nagoya, Sendai, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Shinsaibashi models of the cases.

Apple expands retail presence in China, Virginia...

Apple is expanding its retail presence in two drastically different locations. China Tech News states that the company has partnered with Best Buy to open its first Chinese store-within-a-store, located in a shop in the Xuhui district of Shanghai. Apple's section occupies 538 square feet, and contains a typical assortment of products, excluding only a few notable items such as the iPhone. Though Apple has expressed its desire to sell the device in Asia, it has yet to announce any formal deals with carriers.

Apple cracks down on UK iPhone clones...

Apple is coming down hard on UK vendors of iPhone clones, reports say. Most such clones are produced in China, where copyright law is less restrictive and an imported iPhone is too expensive for all but the upper classes; the clones nevertheless attempt to reproduce superficial features of the iPhone, in some cases including Apple's own logo. As a result of these problems Apple is said to be pursuing legal action against a variety of UK importers, such as Digital Playworld.

SampleTron offers deep sound library...

IK Multimedia has announced the release of SampleTron, the second virtual instrument to be released from the Sonik Instruments range. SampleTron is a virtual instrument workstation featuring the a complete collection of authentic 'Tron' and other vintage keyboards instrument samples. The library includes 17 rare instrument sounds, together with a "Powered by SampleTank" engine, offering sample-based virtual instrument plug-in for every popular DAW and also as a standalone application for Macs The Tron anthology includes 2 GB of sounds, 640 presets and 260 multi-samples from 17 Mellotrons, Chamberlins , and their derivatives like the Optigan , Rhythmaster and more.

New TV shows come to iTunes Canada, UK...

Programming from several TV networks has been added to iTunes Stores in Canada and the UK. ITV has signed a deal to bring a variety of "classic" TV shows to the UK iTunes Store, among them international hits such as The Prisoner and The Saint, along with more locally famous series such as Captain Scarlet and Brideshead Revisited. Downloads are priced at an average of £1.89 per episode, but not all shows and seasons are currently available.

AmTech downgrades Apple stock rating...

American Technology Research is downgrading its rating of Apple's stock from "buy" to "neutral," according to firm analyst Shaw Wu. Wu notes that while Apple may well beat consensus estimates and its own guidance, there are several mitigating factors. Apple's stock has rebounded some 45 percent in weeks, which may be creating unrealistic expectations for investors; as such, they may not react well if Apple posts what would otherwise be reasonable figures. A related problem is that shares are now fairly expensive to trade, at 32x CY08 and 28x CY09, producing a situation with considerable risk compared to the profits to be had.

Piper: Quarterly results to be pushed high by Macs...

It is Macs that will help Apple most when it announces the results of its latest quarter tomorrow, argues research firm Piper Jaffray. While it is believed that NPD is overestimating Mac growth at 48 percent year-over-year, The Street's prediction of 32 percent is also said to be too low; Piper is anticipating 38 percent, equivalent to 2.1 million computers. Typically, Apple has averaged 26 percent growth in this quarter for the past three years.

Apple releases Aperture SDK, plug-ins...

Apple has released the final version of the SDK for Aperture, its professional photo workflow program. The SDK allows developers to create a variety of custom plug-ins for Aperture 2.1, which introduced an open architecture and came with Apple's own Dodge & Burn plug-in. Already available are a handful of third-party plug-ins; among these are Tiffen's Dfx Digital Filter Suite, which simulates a variety of optical filter effects.

Macs are "close, not equal," but work well in IT...

Apple's growing marketshare among end-users is helping push the Mac's acceptance in corporate America. InfoWorld notes the Macs are spilling out of its traditional areas of marketing departments and media companies and into wider array of business environments, thanks to, what it calls, "the confluence of a number of computing trends, not the least among them a rising tide of end-user affinity for the Apple experience." The trends, the column says, are "making it easier for tech departments to say yes to the Mac by facilitating IT's ability to provide enterprise-grade Mac management and support." In particular, the article cites growing browser competition, a move toward universal Web-based computing, virtualization, more standard connectivity, advanced enterprise management software, and more, but concludes that Macs are "close, not equal."