DaisyDisk Team has released the final version of DaisyDisk 2.0, an update to the disk analyzer utility for Mac OS X. It requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later and costs US$19.95. DaisyDisk displays disk contents as an interactive color-coded sunburst map, revealing large files that may no longer be needed, and allowing you to delete them. Version 2.0 features built-in file deletion, can scan several disks at a time, has a new user interface based on Core Animation, and more. DaisyDisk represents disk content as an interactive color-coded sunburst map. The map can be navigated to preview deeper levels of data. When the application is launched an overview of all mounted disks is displayed, with graphical indicators of how full each is. A demo is available at the DaisyDisk web site (http://www.daisydiskapp.com/). Existing DaisyDisk customers can upgrade to version 2.0 for $9.95. Free upgrades are available to early supporters and recent purchasers.

Ambrosia Software (http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com) has released Mondo Solitaire, an US$9.99 solitaire game for the Mac. It requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher, and a demo is available for download. Mondo Solitaire has over 300 game variants and an user interface that's been designed especially with the Mac in mind. In addition to having every solitaire game under the sun, Mondo Solitaire also offers some unique variants such as additional suits, additional decks, and alternate rules, according to the folks at Ambrosia.

Faber Acoustical has announced SignalScope Pro 3.0, an update to their acoustical test and measurement toolset for the Mac. It's now available in the Mac App Store for US$199.99 and requires Mac OS X 10.6 or later. SignalScope Pro offers a suite of tools on the Mac for dynamic and real-time signal analysis, data acquisition, and automated testing. Version 3 features an enhanced user interface, better control over audio device configurations, and more comprehensive user preferences. New functionality in SignalScope Pro includes the option to perform arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction, and multiplication, on two arbitrary input channels of an audio input device. Users can also specify arbitrary FFT lengths and view live spectrogram data in 3D with a logarithmic frequency scale. Two of each type of analysis tool can be opened and operated simultaneously. A 30-day demo version is available for download at the from Faber Acoustical website (http://www.faberacoustical.com...

MaBaSoft (http://www.mabasoft.net) has updated its World Clock Deluxe time tool to version 4.7.4. In the new version, Daylight-Saving time information for Chile and Cuba has been updated. This year, Chile has extended Daylight-Saving time (which was originally planned to end on March 13) to continue until April 3 to face water shortage in reservoirs and avoid a possible energy crisis.Cuba decided to postpone the start of DST from the second to the third Sunday in March. With World Clock Deluxe you can display multiple clocks in a horizontal or vertical palette, in the menu bar and in the Dock, show Coordinated Universal Time and Internet Time, assign labels and colors to clocks, calculate date and time conversions across different time zones and show the current weather all over the world. The software is Universal Binary and runs in English, German, Dutch, French and Italian. World Clock Deluxe requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later and runs natively on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based...

Volitans software has announced SMART Utility 2.2, an update to the hard drive diagnostic application. The new version includes a menu icon to run in the background, a better user interface for single partitions, and better support for SSDs, as well as bug fixes. SMART Utility is an application to scan the internal hardware diagnostics system of hard drives. SMART is a system built into hard drives by their manufacturers to report on various measurements of a hard drive's operation. SMART Utility is available in a variety of licenses including a personal license for US$25 and a family license for $40. It can be purchased online (http://www.volitans-software.com/) or within the SMART Utility itself through its embedded web store.

Zevrix Solutions (http://www.zevrix.com) has updated InPreflight Pro -- its quality control, packaging automation and preflight reporting solution for Adobe InDesign -- to version 2.8.14. The new version improves reliability of automated packaging of multiple files. InPreflight provides a preflight solution for service providers, printers, ad agencies, designers and publishing houses. It gathers information about document fonts, colors and links and lets users locate potential problems according to preflight presets. The software is also a packaging automation solution that allows users to preflight and package multiple documents. Among other abilities, it can collect all files into one folder, eliminating the need to collect the same links multiple times for each design. In addition, InPreflight lets users print graphic preflight reports and save them as fully searchable interactive PDF files, providing an easy way to analyze, archive and send reports to service providers....

ASK Video Interactive Media (http://www.askvideo.com), a creator of software tutorials on DVD, is now offering their entire catalog of music software tutorial videos as digital downloads in addition to the original DVD format. The move to download has been made possible by AVP, or Ask Video Player. AVP is built upon the company's instruction delivery system and takes advantage of the latest technologies to give the user the best video experience possible, says Steve Kostrey, president of ASK Video. AVP has both product authorization and built-in online product registration to ensure ease of use and provide a secure method of distributing videos instantly to customers, he adds. This new distribution method gives both customers and online retailers an advantage. Retailers no longer have to ship and stock physical product, while having the entire ASK Video catalog available for sale. This also means that customers can instantly purchase and begin using any title as well. They simply...

Apple has posted a job opening (http://macte.ch/KFTgo) for a "senior software engineer -- core services" to "help build the next-generation Apple Online Store." "Do you enjoy building highly scalable, distributed web applications?" Apple asks in the job posting. "Do you get excited about performance tuning java applications at the limits of memory and CPU? Do you enjoy working with other high output engineers? If so, then join our team and make a difference." Apple is looking for "senior-level engineers with demonstrated experience delivering advanced solutions in a multi-tier, distributed environment." A BS in Computer Science, Mathematics, or EE, or relevant industry experience is required. An MS in Computer Science or related technical field is desired. -- Dennis Sellers

Apple can function “pretty well” even with CEO Steve Jobs on a medical leave of absence, co-founder Steve "Woz" Wozniak said, as reported by "Bloomberg Businessweek" (http://macte.ch/J8n2t). “Steve Jobs is only on partial leave. Even if he were to be on total leave, we have examined it,” Wozniak, who said he last spoke with Jobs two months back, spoke in Singapore today. “Apple will go on pretty well even if he is not there directly.” “I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can,” Jobs said in an e-mail to employees in January. Jobs said he will continue to “be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.”

Google’s Android mobile operating system overtook RIM’s BlackBerry globally for the first time on a monthly basis in February according to web analytics company, StatCounter (http://www.statcounter.com). Its research arm StatCounter Global Stats finds that Android recorded 15.2% of the worldwide market compared to 14.5% for BlackBerry. Nokia’s Symbian still leads the global market with 30.7% with Apple's iOS in second place with 24.6%. StatCounter data also pinpoints the rise and rise of mobile devices to access the Internet. The use of mobile to access the Internet compared to desktop has more than doubled worldwide from 1.72% a year ago to 4.45% today. The same trend is evident in the US with mobile Internet usage more than doubling over the past year from 2.59% to 6.32%. “The momentum is certainly with Android which has almost tripled its market share over the last 12 months from 5.4% to 15.2%,” says Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. In the same period iOS fell globally from 33.9%...

Rovi Corp. has launched Roxio Toast 11 Titanium for Mac. The update helps extend Mac OS and iLife applications with new capabilities and feature enhancements for capturing, copying, converting and enjoying personal digital media and entertainment. Toast 11 has been redesigned from the ground up and showcases a new interface. It also boasts refined workflows along with built-in video tutorials. You can see a video overview of Toast 11 at http://macte.ch/GKgiO . For existing users, Toast 11 adds many features such as recording to multiple drives simultaneously, a streamlined product update mechanism, and the ability to save custom video profiles, which is useful for those that are often converting video for a particular device. The latest version now also offers built-in features for directly uploading media to social networking sites such as YouTube, Vimeo or Facebook and technology optimizations, dubbed VideoBoost, that speed up H.264 (high definition) video conversion or encoding....

Flying Pig has introduced Edouard 0.8 (http://www.flyingpigcorp.com/EN/edouard.php), their new ERP solution for Mac OS X. It requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or higher and an Intel-based Mac. Dedicated to companies concerned about maximizing their resources productivity, Edouard supports classic business needs such as inventory management, contacts, purchases, sales, production, accountancy and more. Based on a Client-Server architectures, it uses PostgreSQL database and Objective-C 2.0 Cocoa as a technological backbone. According to the folks at Flying Pig, Edouard will work with up to 500 users at the same time on huge database (several millions entries). Pricing policy is: US$59 per user, per month for a shared server cloud solution; $99 per user per month for a dedicated server cloud solution; and $2,999 per user for an in-house license. However, to celebrate the release Flying Pig offers a launch discount of 30% until version 1.0 arrives.

Point In Space Internet Solutions has released their new Database Manager, available on all FileMaker type hosting accounts. Developed in cooperation with 360Works (http://www.360works.com/), the new Database Manager allows for much greater flexibility and functionality when managing FileMaker databases on Point In Space's services, says Point in Space President John May. Users can now open and close database files, update and download running databases, transfer files in .fp7 or .zip format via either a web browser or FTP, as well as manage FileMaker Pro clients connected to their databases. For details on Point In Space's FileMaker Hosting, go to http://www.pointinspace.com/ .

ClueTrust has announced integrated support for information-rich exports to Avenza's newly released MAPublisher 8.4 to facilitate enhanced map creation using Adobe Illustrator. First, use Cartographica 1.2.2's geospatial tools to import, analyze and transform your data into the information you want to present. Then use MAPublisher to refine that presentation into a map for professional results. ClueTrust and Avenza have collaborated closely to ensure that data and geographic information is accurately and seamlessly exported from Cartographica to Adobe Illustrator, where MAPublisher recognizes the information and provides display and formatting capabilities based on it, the companies say. The result is an optimized workflow for people who need to create high quality maps from existing geospatial data, they add. Cartographica 1.2.2 is available now for US$495. Volume and educational discounts and student pricing are available. A fully functional, 30-day demo is is available from the...

ComScore (http://www.comscore.com), a company that measures the digital world, has released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending January 2011. According to comScore, Apple had 7% of the mobile subscriber market, down, up from 6.4% in the previous study. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.9% market share. Google Android took the lead among smartphone platforms with 31.2% market share, after two short months in second place. Approximately 65.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in January 2011, up 8% from the preceding three-month period. Google Android captured the #1 ranking among smartphone platforms for the first time in January with 31.2% market share. RIM ranked second with 30.4% market share, followed by Apple with 24.7% (an increase of 0.1%...

Bracketron has announced a new stand for the iPad. The Twist360 features a protective hard case with a handgrip that can rotate 360 or be flipped into various positions for use as a desktop or lap stand. TwistGrip allows multiple viewing angles in both landscape and portrait. Or you can flip it flat for a handle or to hang on the wall. It's designed to be lightweight and portable. The Twist360 will soon be available at many leading consumer electronics retailers and on the Bracketron website (http://www.bracketron.com). It will have a manufacturer's suggested retail price of US$59.95.

The iPhone 4 on AT&T's network downloaded data twice as fast, on average, as the iPhone on Verizon Wireless, according to thousands of recent field tests in five U.S. cities conducted by Metrico Wireless, an independent mobile device performance evaluation company. Metrico's tests looked at several other variables, however, and found the average Web page load time was nearly the same on iPhone 4 on both networks, a Metrico official told "InfoWorld" (http://macte.ch/QA9BR). What's more, when the iPhone 4 was in a moving vehicle, the AT&T model successfully finished about 10% more download session than Verizon's. However, when the iPhones were stationary, the Verizon iPhone had a 10 percent better success rate in uploading data than the AT&T iPhone, notes "InfoWorld." Metrico didn't reveal actual time measurements for any of its results, including the data downloads and uploads or Web page loading times, prior to publication of its full study.

Best Buy is considering distributing iPad 2s to every salesperson in its 1,000-plus chain, reports "The Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal" (http://macte.ch/l1vH8). The retailer has given out iPads and other mobile devices to sales employees on a limited basis before, but only in a couple of dozen stores, the article adds. The idea is part of its "Connected Store" format. That format "is modeled on Apple's high-touch retail stores, where salespeople often use such devices to process orders and customers get a lot of hands-on time with the iPads, iPhones and other products," according to The Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal."

Adobe has announced the immediate availability of the Enterprise Edition of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, a turnkey set of hosted software services and viewer technology to create, distribute, monetize and analyze digital magazines, newspapers and publications. With output aimed at Android tablets, including Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab, as well as RIM PlayBook and iOS tablet devices, the Enterprise Edition allows large publishers to implement a custom tablet publishing solution without disrupting existing publishing processes and infrastructure, says David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Creative and Interactive Solutions, Adobe. Today’s news follows the announcement that Adobe Digital Publishing Suite will support both Apple App Store Subscriptions and Google One Pass for magazine and newspaper publishers. The Enterprise Edition of Digital Publishing Suite allows publishers worldwide to implement a tailored digital publishing solution built on the foundation of Adobe...

Indev has announced Mail Perspectives (http://www.indev.ca/MailPerspectives.html), new software to transform your email experience in Apple's Mail application. It costs US$24.95, but is being offered at a special introductory price of $19.95 through March 18. A demo is available for download. Mail Perspectives adds four new windows to Mail -- the Perspective, Quick Look, Recent Mail and Mail Actions Windows -- to the Mac OS X Mail app. It's designed to make it easier to monitor mailboxes and visually organize the Mail environment. The new Perspective Window is a compact window that displays the essential details of the messages belonging to selected mailboxes in either single message or list mode. The Quick Look Window previews full messages without the need to create an extra window for each message. The Recent Mail Window is an up-to-date list of messages that have recently arrived. The Mail Actions Window is a window to provide access to common mail actions such as check messages...

SMEStorage (http://www.smestorage.com) has added support for the icloud browser based desktop service, enabling icloud users to use SMEStorage tools and clients to manage and work with their cloud data. icloud offers 3GB of free storage and cloud stored files. An additional Super Drive with 100GB is available for US$99.99 per year. It can be accessed and managed from all clients and tools that SMEStorage supports. These include desktop cloud tooling and virtual drives for Mac, Windows, and Linux, and also mobile support for the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry. There are also plug-ins for the Firefox and Chrome internet browsers. SMEStorage also makes access to icloud available from an Amazon S3 API [application programming interface]. For business users, they can now use cloud storage as the data storage for the SMEStorage "File Server in the Clouds" offering which compliments or replaces the traditional office file server.

Apple plans to hire new employees related to voice control and syncing for the iPhone, "suggesting further enhancements in both categories for future handsets," reports "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com). The web site's staff found job openings for "iOS Speech Operations Engineers" and an "IOS Server Speech Engineer" that will work as part of the iOS Application Frameworks team at Apple's Cupertino, CA, headquarters. Another three job listings pertain to iPhone and iOS sync technology. Two are for an "iPhone Sync Development Engineer" and one is for an "iPhone Sync QA Engineer."

Apple's still on target to take 40 million iPads from Taiwan suppliers in 2011 with shipment volume expected to top 6-6.5 million units, including over three million iPad 2 models, in the first quarter and to further expand to 10-12 million units in the second, according to a "DigiTimes" report (http://macte.ch/fsonZ). After producing 1.7-2 million units of the first-generation iPad in January, Apple began to phase out production of the old model in February, while beginning to roll out the iPad 2, the article adds, quoting component suppliers in Taiwan." Shipments of iPad 2 are expected to top 2-3 million units in March.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has expressed interest in developing an iPhone based on China Mobile's fourth-generation telecoms standard, the chairman of the Chinese telecoms operator says -- as reported by "Reuters" (http://macte.ch/dr223). "Jobs has said he's very interested in developing an iPhone that will run on TD," China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou said on the sidelines of the Chinese Communist Party's consultative meeting. Apple officials weren't available for comment. China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier by subscribers, is currently testing a fourth-generation network that runs on its homegrown TD standard, and is looking to smartphone operators to design phones that support the system.