MakeMusic (http://www.makemusic.com) says it's completed the acquisition of selected assets of Recordare (http://www.recordare.com), the Internet music publishing and software company. Under the terms of the agreement, MakeMusic purchased the MusicXML open format and Dolet software technology, including copyrights, source code and trademarks. Recordare founder and MusicXML inventor Michael Good will assume the role of director of digital sheet music at MakeMusic.

The iPhone 4S accounted for 42.8 % of all UK mobile phone sales in October and helped Apple to further increase its market share, according to new data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, as reported by "The Telegraph" (http://macte.ch/2NEx2). According to Kantar, three quarters of the sales were from existing Apple users upgrading their handsets. Fourteen percent were upgrading from the iPhone 4 to the newer 4S. Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at the panel, said that overtaking Android, even for just a month, was “a feat many thought impossible for Apple." Over the last year, Apple sales ranged from 20.8% to 18.5% -- and then up to 27.8%. Apple’s overall share in the latest 12 weeks of data was up 2.8%. Smartphones made up 69.8% of sales, meaning that 44.8% of the British population now owns a smartphone, according to Kantor.

Findings from an October 2011 report (http://www.channelemea.com/spip.php?article4798) by the Context research firm showed that improved availability of the iPad 2 helped Apple maintain its spot as the largest tablet supplier in Europe. Sales volumes of tablets were up 20% sequentially in September 2011. Sales of Acer and Asus tablets remained constant, but their share fell slightly as the market grew. This implies that while there's demand for non-Apple tablets, the opportunity appears limited at current prices, according to Context and CCS Insight. Seven-inch tablets accounted for only 2% of total sales volumes in August. This size tablet is expected to increase its market share with the launch of Amazon’s new Kindle Fire. CCS Insight and Context expect network operators to offer tablet and smartphone bundles around Christmas, as new brands start to compete for a share of festive sales. Competition in the non-Apple tablet market is expected to increase strongly in the fourth quarter...

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' US$4.6 billion worth of shares in The Walt Disney Co. are now in a trust run by his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs. That's according to a securities filing made Wednesday, as reported by "Yahoo! Finance" (http://macte.ch/1iDOY). Jobs acquired the 138 million shares when Disney bought his Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion in 2006. With a 7.7 % stake, Jobs' trust is Disney's largest single shareholder.

Alco Blom has released Web Confidential 4.0 for OS X, a update to his productivity app that consolidates and stores all a user's confidential information, such as passwords, PINS, User IDs, Serial Numbers, etc. using unbreakable Blowfish encryption. Featuring 14 pre-defined password categories, Web Confidential provides instant access to passwords from within the browser and from the Dock. The app employs a convenient cardfile metaphor to assure easy setup. Palma De Mallorca, Spain - Independent developer Alco Blom today is pleased to announce Web Confidential 4.0 for OS X, a major update to his popular Productivity app that consolidates and stores all a user's confidential information, such as passwords, PINS, user IDs, serial numbers, etc., using unbreakable Blowfish encryption. Featuring 14 pre-defined password categories, Web Confidential provides access to passwords from within the browser and from the Dock. The app employs a cardfile metaphor and can also be used to generate...

eTinysoft has updated Total Video Converter, its video and audio converter for Mac OS X, to version 2.8.5 on its website. You can no automatically import converted videos and audios into iTunes. Total Video Converter for Mac lets you convert video and audio between all popular formats on Mac in a few steps. Version 2.85 can also automatically detect and import videos from various digital AVCHD/TOD/MOD/XDCAM camcorders and DVs. About 20 effects can be applied to videos. Total Video Converter requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later. It costs US$29.95 and can be obtained at the product web site (http://www.etinysoft.com/total-video-converter-hd.html) or the Mac App Store.

Iwascoding has updated GarageTunes (http://www.iwascoding.com/GarageTunes/), a collaborative music player application for Mac OS X 10.6 and higher to version 1.1. It's available at the Mac App Store for an introductory price of US$4.99. GarageTunes now uses the Growl notification system to let user know when new Macs running GarageTunes appear on their local network, or when another users starts playing songs an a Mac their are using as speaker. In addition to other Macs, GarageTunes 1.1 streams music to any AppleTV (second generation) on the local network using Apple's AirPlay technology. According to the folks at iwascoding, GarageTunes finds all the music files on connected hard drives without the need to maintain a special library or pointing it to a certain directory. Plus, it shows all music files on other Macs running GarageTunes in the same network in a single view. Finally, any Macs on the local network can be instructed to play songs stored on any other Mac running...

Raskin Software (http://raskinformac.com/) has updated its self-titled Raskin application -- a zoomable single surface Finder alternative for the Mac -- to version 1.7. The upgrade adds Display More/Less control, and improved File Preview rendering, arrangement, and readability. Raskin requires Mac OS X 10.6.3 or higher. It's available for 40% off its normal US$24.99 today at the Mac App Store or the Raskin Software web site (http://www.raskininformac.com). A 30-day demo is available for download at the latter. Raskin 1.7 is a free update for registered users.

An Australian appeals court judge has questioned the fairness of a ruling that granted Apple’s request to ban the sale of the Samsung Galaxy in the never-ending legal dispute ver patent infringement. "The result looks terribly fair to Apple and not terribly fair to Samsung," Federal Court Justice Lindsay Foster said Friday at a hearing in Sydney on Samsung’s appeal for the ban to be overturned -- as reported by "Bloomberg" (http://macte.ch/MdYrx). Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett issued an injunction Oct. 13 barring the sale of the Galaxy 10.1 Tab in Australia until Apple and Samsung resolve the patent dispute at trial. Bennett failed to consider the “dire consequences” of the ban on Samsung, which has been “entirely shut out” from marketing the device, Neil Young, Samsung’s lawyer, said. According to "Bloomberg," Justice John Dowsett said the panel would try and rule early next week on Samsung’s request to lift the injunction.

Southern Stars will offer a two-week sale on SkySafari from now through Dec. 8. During the sale, 40% of the proceeds will be donated to AWB. SkySafari 3 will be US$0.99; it's regularly $2.99. The basic version of SkySafari 3 shows you 120,000 stars, plus 220 of the best-known star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies in the sky. It displays the Solar System's major planets and moons using NASA spacecraft imagery, and includes the best-known 20 asteroids and comets. SkySafari 3 Plus will be $11.99 during the sale; it's normally $14.99. SkySafari 3 Plus adds a hugely expanded database -- and wired or wireless telescope control -- to the basic version. It shows you 2.5 million stars, and 31,000 deep sky objects, including the entire NGC/IC catalog. It includes over 4,000 asteroids, comets, and satellites with updatable orbits. And it can point your GoTo or "Push-To" telescope anywhere in the sky, using your iPhone/iPad/iPod's built-in WiFi, and Southern Stars' SkyFi or SkyWire serial...

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics (http://www.strategyanalytics.com), smartphone shipments reached a record 24 million units in China during the third quarter of 2011. Smartphone shipments reached just 23 million units in the United States. China has overtaken the United States for the first time to become the world’s largest smartphone market by volume. Smartphone shipments grew 58% sequentially to reach a record 23.9 million units in China during Q3 2011, according to Linda Sui, analyst at Strategy Analytics. In contrast, smartphone shipments fell 7% sequentially to reach 23.3 million units in the US. This means that China has overtaken the United States for the first time to become the world’s largest smartphone market by volume. "China’s rapid growth has been driven by an increasing availability of smartphones in retail channels, aggressive subsidizing by operators of high-end models like the Apple iPhone, and an emerging wave of low-cost Android models...

InCube Games has introduced InCube-Chess, their new gaming title available on the Mac App Store. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and is available for US$0.99 in the Games category. InCube-Chess allows you to play chess game in a three dimensional space. It follows standard rules for all pieces with the only exception that they're expanded to third dimension. Setting new queen if a pawn reaches opponent's base, castle and other principles not directly related to move rules are completely the same as normal chess game uses. Instead of usual board, the battle between whites and blacks moves to real 3D cube. The name of game makes a hint of the essence of changes: instead of chess board (8x8) it is given the cube (8x8x8) consisting of 512 semitransparent chess cages.

Big Fish Games (http://www.bigfishgames.com) has announced Play Instantly!, a cloud gaming service for consumers that features dozens of premium casual games accessed via interactive video streaming. It's available for free in the Apple App Store. With Play Instantly!, Big Fish’s casual game catalog is run in the cloud and can be accessed initially on the iPad, and then rolling out on a variety of additional devices and platforms -- including the Mac -- in 2012. This is both the first cloud gaming service for mobile devices and the first game subscription service available in Apple’s App Store, says Big Fish Games CEO Jeremy Lewis. Play Instantly! is initially available for U.S. customers. It will expand globally to reach a worldwide audience as Big Fish expands the reach of its private cloud network, says Lewis. With Big Fish’s Play Instantly!, anyone with a Wi-Fi internet connection can launch and begin playing any game in the catalog within seconds. The service is free for a...

The European Commission's chief competition enforcer, vice president and competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia, told reporters Tuesday that the ongoing antitrust inquiry into the use of patents related to mobile communications standards in connection with the dispute between Apple and Samsung is "not the only case," leaving the door open to a broadening of the investigation. "I think Motorola Mobility is the likely next recipient of a questionnaire from Brussels," Florian Mueller writes for "FOSS Patents" (http://macte.ch/YauJ7). " While Samsung is asserting 3G-related patents against Apple in at least five EU member states, Motorola Mobility is litigating in the largest EU member state -- Germany -- against both Apple and Microsoft over at least three patents declared essential to two different industry standards."

LightSpeed, makers of retail technology, has announced new upgrades to its core platform with the release of LightSpeed 3.6. It offers performance improvements and support for credit card processing for Australian retailers. Updates to the platform include the optimization of LightSpeed Server to increase operating speed throughout LightSpeed for Mac and Mobile. Those users who work in the Browser, Point of Sale on Mac or Mobile, or in stores with five or more simultaneous users will see particular improvement, says Dax Dasilva, LightSpeed founder and CEO. The newest version also boasts centralized management and an improved payment-processing workflow for external payment terminals, the ability to choose the number of receipt copies per payment type, and better control over cash drawer opening. A redesigned Privileges window makes staff access restrictions to LightSpeed’s features easier to maintain, says Dasilva. To upgrade to 3.6, LightSpeed users will require a Support &...

Tetra 4D has released 3D PDF Converter 3.3, an update of the 3D solution authorized by Adobe to run as an Acrobat plug-in. It enables 3D interaction and collaboration features in the free Adobe Reader. The 3D ecosystem enabled by Tetra 4D increases productivity and time savings by allowing ubiquitous sharing and collaboration with anyone inside or outside of the enterprise, according to the folks at Tetra 4D.   With this release, 3D PDF Converter now supports PTC’s Creo, Dassault System’s Catia  v6, Parasolid v24, as well as the current draft specification of the STEP AP 242.1 Tetra 4D supports all major CAD and 3D exchange formats.  3D PDF Converter and 3D PDF Converter Suite -- which includes Adobe Acrobat X Pro -- are available now for free trial or purchase in English, German, French and Japanese language through the Tetra 4D online store and our global network of authorized resellers.  More information is available at http://www.tetra4d.com/products .


Zevrix Solutions has announcesd Output Factory 1.0b1, a public beta of its new solution to automate output from Adobe InDesign. Output Factory is an upgrade of the company's BatchOutput, which automates printing, exporting and post-processing from InDesign. In addition to output of multiple files, single page export and variable file names, Output Factory offers features such as layer versioning, preflighting, workflow presets and processing history. Output Factory is designed to interact with the Acrobat Pro preflight engine, provide file delivery capabilities and integrate with the Finder. Users can keep working with other programs while Output Factory processes InDesign files in the background. Or they can let it work while they're on a lunch break or leave it working overnight to output hundreds of documents, and the job will be done when they return in the morning. Output Factory supports printing as well as exporting to PDF, PostScript, EPS, Flash, INX, IDML, EPUB and several...

Houdah Software has announced Type2Phone for Mac OS X (10.6 or higher), an app that turns your Mac into a Bluetooth keyboard for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad. It costs US$4.99 and is available exclusively from the Mac App Store. Every character you type into Type2Phone will appear on the mobile device it's paired with. The app also allows for pasting text from the Mac to the iOS device. Every character that could by typed can also be pasted. Just hit cmd-shift-V. Type2Phone shows every character it has sent to the iOS device. Type2Phone also supports text selection and copy-paste operations on the iOS device. You can navigate text using the arrow key. Hold the shift key while navigating to select text. Use the cmd-C, cmd-V shortcuts to trigger copy-paste operations. Type2Phone supports the following 11 iOS keyboard layouts: U.S American, Dvorak, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Serbian, Slovenian, Swiss-French. On the Mac, Type2Phone shows every character it...

Android has the largest mobile OS usage by share, based on ad impressions, with iOS coming in second and BlackBerry in third, according to the latest "Mobile Mix" report from Millenial Media (http://www.millennialmedia.com/), a mobile advertising platform. Android has 56% of the connected device and smartphone OS mix; Apple came in second with 28% for iOS. However, Apple takes the top spot for ad impressions among all manufacturers, with 23.5% of impressions among the top 15 device manufacturers and 12.53% of the top single-device impressions going to the iPhone. Apple’s share grew slightly compared to the third-quarter results. The company also continues to take a big chunk of mobile advertising spending (40%) compared with Android (50%).

FileMaker Inc. (http://www.filemaker.com) has announced The Bento 4 Holiday Kit, a free way to get organized for the holiday season -- on a Mac or on the go using an iPhone or iPad. The Bento 4 Holiday Kit organizes your holiday cards and mailing labels, helps you plan parties, track gift lists, send thank you notes and accomplish other holiday tasks with style and ease. It includes a free, 30-day trial of Bento 4 for Mac, FileMaker’s personal database, and three additional templates that put holiday details all in one place.   The Holiday Kit comes with a Cards and Labels template that allows you to apply the power of a personal database to organize the sending and receiving of holiday cards. You an print mailing labels, check off who sent what and when, track card recipients’ names, addresses, family members, pertinent notes and even add images of the actual photos and cards received. Plus, the databases can be synchronized with Bento for iPhone and Bento for iPad. Bento for...

Jumptap, which specializes in targeted mobile advertising, has released its October MobileSTAT report which, among other findings, shows that Apple is the industry leader in getting its customers to embrace new platforms and features -- a conclusion that reveals something about the habits of Apple users, as well as the company’s approach to marketing and product. October proved to be a release-heavy month with high profile launches of the iPhone 4S and iOS 5, the announcement of Android 4.0, and the release of Blackberry’s BBX operating system. However, the most interesting insights from the Mobile STAT report focused on the way in which device releases impacted OS adoption rates. In less than three weeks since its official release, iOS 5 had already accounted for 32% of the total iOS traffic on the Jumptap network. In contrast, new Android releases were slower to catch on. More than six months after the launch of Android 2.3, the OS had an adoption rate of less than 50% of the...

China Unicom is expecting to offer its customers the new iPhone 4S later this year, and apparently the Apple smartphone has been approved by the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT),reports "M.I.C. Gadget" (http://macte.ch/l1Obg). MIIT is a state agency of China responsible for regulation and development of the Internet and wireless. Chinese media are reporting that the iPhone 4S has already passed the MIIT’s tests, and the department will issue the network access permit for the 4S in one to two weeks. "If everything goes well," the 4S will be ready to go on sale in China, and local carrier China Unicom will be offering the device, too, says "M.I.C. Gadget."

SunLeaf Solar (http://www.thesunleaf.com) has introduced the US$179 SunLeaf Pro, the iPad solar charger. It's an USB-based device that plugs into an electronic gadget like the iPad or a Kindle, and can fold up to an eighth of its size. The SunLeaf Pro can provide power anywhere there is sunlight. Through its solar-powered apparatus, SunLeaf hopes to break into the market and help to reduce the output of CO2 emissions by 15,000 tons over the next five years. The box includes one SunLeaf Solar Charger, one USB voltage regulator, and one Quick Start Guide. Charging times will vary depending on the strength of the light source and the battery's ultimate capacity. The iPad 2, for example, has a battery capacity of 6600mAh. In ideal conditions, the SunLeaf Pro charger is capable of putting out 1000mAh. What this means is that in order to fully charge your iPad 2, your SunLeaf charger would need to be in the sun for 3-4 hours for a half-charge or 6-7 hours for a full charge. An iPhone...

Maintain has released Cocktail 4.9.6 (Snow Leopard Edition), the latest maintenance update of Cocktail (http://www.maintain.se/c) for users running Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") and higher. The upgrade contains improvements on the "Delete localization files" procedure and addresses an issue in which Cocktail doesn't work properly if the System Events process is not running. Cocktail 4.9.6 (Snow Leopard Edition) requires Mac OS X/Mac OS X Server 10.6 or later and is tested for compatibility with Mac OS X/Mac OS X Server 10.7 Cocktail (Leopard Edition) for Mac OS X 10.5 and Cocktail (Tiger Edition) for Mac OS X 10.4 are available for download from the Maintain web site. Cocktail is a general purpose utility for Mac OS X that offers a variety of practical features designed to simplify the use of advanced UNIX function. A single user license costs US$19. The license is valid for both Snow Leopard and Lion editions of Cocktail. Cocktail (Leopard Edition) is distributed as freeware and...