Zumobi (http://www.Zumobi.com) has released Ziibii, a free iPhone App now available on iTunes. Ziibii offers a new way to stay in-touch and in-the-loop with friends, photos and the world around them. Blending Facebook, Twitter, Flickr , YouTube, and web content into one experience, Ziibii also offers features for wireless consumers as well as brands. It enables real-time social interaction between users across a variety of popular social media applications, as well as on-going discovery of news, stories and blogs throughout the day, says John SanGiovanni of Zumobi. Displayed on the screen of the handset, Ziibii's visual expression metaphor is a river with content "rafts" floating with the user's pre-defined content, including direct-connect to social networking sites and RSS feeds.

MacPadd (http://www.macpadd.com) is a new, US$24.99 mouse pad for Mac users that's made from a solid piece of aluminum. According to David Free, president and CEO of MacPadd, it provides reduced friction and wrist action and has a non-slip base. "With MacPadd, there's no more scratching or wearing the desk surface," he says. "It offers a truly superior responsiveness, accuracy, feel and appearance."

ASK Video Interactive Media, a creator of software tutorials on DVD, is now shipping Level 3 of a four-part tutorial DVD series for Logic Pro 8 music production software. In this third level progression in the series, ASK Video veteran Mike Baggley brings his engineering and music chops to Logic Pro 8 and further uncovers its advanced features set. Contained in 30 videos of more than 3.5 hours, Baggley guides the user using through topics from the Hyper Editor to Time Stretching. Designed for advanced users of Logic Pro as well as Logic Express, the Logic Pro 8 Level 3 DVD begins with chapters on the Advanced Samples Editor, Digital Factory 1 & 2, Advanced Piano Roll and the Hyper Editor. From there the DVD progresses into the Transform Window, External MIDI Instruments, Automation, Bouncing, and Monitor Mixes before concluding with chapters on ReWire, Advanced Editing, Time Stretching, Beat Slicing, Creating Apple Loops, and the included Virtual Instruments. Logic Pro 8 Tutorial...

Mark/Space, the creators of the Missing Sync synchronization software, has released a Mac version of Fliq, a social networking application that lets Mac users "fliq," or "beam," contacts, photos and notes with other Fliq users on the same network. Following the success of Fliq for the iPhone, Mark/Space has created Fliq for the Mac, featuring added capabilities for sending and receiving notes and memos over a network. The Mac version of Fliq works with Address Book and iPhoto to allow users to send and receive photos, and share contacts with friends, co-workers and family members. It also offers the ability to drag text and image files from the desktop and drop them directly into the Fliq window. Additionally, Fliq for the Mac works seamlessly with the iPhone and iPod touch version of Fliq for sharing contacts and photos. A Windows version is in the works. The Mac version of Fliq is available now as an electronic download from the Mark/Space online store for US$19.95. Mac users who...

Ultrasone (http://www.ultrasone.com), distributor for German headphone manufacturer Ultrasone AG, has announced the HFI-15G, the smallest headphone in the Ultrasone HFI line. However, it still features Ultrasone's patented S-Logic Natural Surround Sound technology. The HFI-15G (US$109) are open-back, supra-aural headphones. Thanks to Ultrasone's S-Logic technology, the new HFI-15G allows the user to experience a natural surround sound sensation without the use of digital processing, says Ultrasonic President Paul Taylor. Additionally, S-Logic technology reduces sound pressure on the ear drum by up to 40 percent, resulting in a safer listening experience for the user, he adds. All of this is made possible by utilizing a decentralized driver position. S-Logic directs sound to the listener's outer ear as opposed to directing sound into the inner ear. The human ear relies on the outer ear for three-dimensional understanding or defining the direction and distance where a sound comes from.

SantaLive is releasing an application that can be used on any iPhone or iPod touch that will offer children (and adults) the ability to watch Santa as he gears up for the big night. Daily status reports are provided, right on the iPhone, of what Santa is doing. SantaLive 2008 developed an entire series of shorts that will debut on Thanksgiving and run right up through Christmas Eve as Santa gets ready to deliver his presents. Once the application has been installed on an iPhone, the present day shorts are immediately viewable as well as all the past episodes. SantaLive 2008 can be downloaded directly to any iPhone or iPod touch through the App Store, or it can purchased directly through the iTunes store and instantly accessed http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=296239... For a full demo of how the application works, previews of upcoming episodes or for more information, visit http://www.iphonesanta.com

The Omni Group has announced the availability of OmniFocus 1.5, an update to their advanced task management tool. OmniFocus is a personal productivity application that can be used to implement the Getting Things Done work-life management method developed by David Allen, although it is flexible enough to accommodate different styles of personal organization. OmniFocus 1.5 now offers synchronization between any number of OmniFocus for Mac and OmniFocus for iPhone databases via MobileMe or web server, or locally with Bonjour. A new Style preference pane offers many options for customizing the appearance of your OmniFocus data, and you can save and share style settings as theme files. Also new to OmniFocus 1.5 are several built-in view presets in the default OmniFocus toolbar, for easy access to due items, flagged items, the inbox, and more. Inspired by the well-received built-in views in OmniFocus for iPhone, this new feature provides a more approachable, pragmatic experience for new and...

SmileOnMyMac has released DiscLabel 5.4, an update to its CD/DVD label design software for Mac OS X. The update adds 15 new free templates with designs for the holidays, gifts and business. DiscLabel 5.4 also enhances user-friendliness with multiple selection in the design list and the ability to sort the design list folders alphabetically. Beta support has been added for zoom, swipe and rotate gestures on compatible hardware, including the new MacBook and MacBook Pro. A fully-functional demo version is available at http://www.smileonmymac.com/DiscLabel/download.html. DiscLabel costs $35.95. DiscLabel 5.4 is a free update for registered users of DiscLabel 5. Upgrades from earlier versions of DiscLabel are $15, and free to users who purchased after August 1, 2007. The DiscLabel Family Pack, for up to 5 computers in one household, is $54.95. DiscLabel 5.4 requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later, and is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

Zenoss (http://www.zenoss.com/), a provider of commercial open source systems management and network monitoring software, has added a native Mac OS X installer for the latest version of Zenoss Core, an open source IT monitoring product. Forrester Research reports Mac OS X currently accounts for 4.5 percent of the business operating system market. This figure has nearly quadrupled since Forrester's previous research 19 months before. "Mac OS X is a growing platform that remains a favorite among developers and IT operations staff, which is why Zenoss already monitored the Mac OS X platform," says Erik Dahl, chief technical officer and co-founder, Zenoss. We wanted to make the entire Zenoss user experience seamless for Apple Macintosh users by also providing a downloadable Mac OS X installer." Zenoss Core 2.3 was developed in conjunction with more than 40,000 community members who provided product input, monitoring extensions and beta testing. This large open source systems...

Toolfarm (http://www.toolfarm.com), a source of content, community and commerce for professional visual effects and motion graphics plug-ins, has announced the availability of a repository of information related to Adobe Creative Suite 4 (CS4). The new Adobe CS4 upgrade has a variety of upgrade options that can be reviewed at http://toolfarm.com/adobecs4matrix.html; Toolfarm has also created a CS4 compatibility chart for all third party plug-ins available for viewing at http://www.toolfarm.com/CS4plugins

Akvis has released Akvis Artwork, a special effect tool that applies different painting techniques to common digital pictures. Available in Mac and PC versions stand-alone or as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop, it's designed to make digital photos look as if they were real oil paintings. ArtWork allows creating an oil portrait, a landscape painting or a still life picture in a fully automatic or assisted mode. You can use the software to create paintings out of pictures taken with any kind of digital cameras, including digital SLRs and compacts. ArtWork applies sophisticated image transformation algorithms to produce realistic results coming very close to hand-painted works, and tweaking the options unleashes access to a variety of oil painting styles, according to the folks at Akvis. The Stroke Direction tool is a semi-automatic tool that gives you control over the strokes, allowing the use of a special brush to define the guiding lines. The virtual painter then converts the image into...

Wolfram Research has released Mathematica 7, an update that accelerates the drive to integrate and automate functionality as core Mathematica capabilities, adding image processing, parallel high-performance computing (HPC), new on-demand curated data, and other recently developed computational innovations -- in total over 500 new functions and 12 application areas. Industrial-strength, high-performance functions for image composition, transformation, enhancement, and segmentation combine with the existing Mathematica infrastructure of high-level language, automated interface construction, interactive notebook documents, and computational power to create a versatile image processing solution, says Stephen Wolfram, president and CEO of Wolfram Research. Built-in parallel computing is another key new area of integration in Mathematica 7 (and a first across technical computing), he adds. For the first time, every copy of Mathematica (as well as the Mathematica Player Pro 7 deployment...

ATTO Technology (http://www.attotech.com/), which specializes in storage connectivity and infrastructure solutions for data-intensive computing environments, says its Celerity FC-84EN, FC-82EN, and FC-81EN Fibre Channel Host Adapters have been verified by Brocade Communications Systems. as compatible with Brocade-based Storage Area Networking (SAN) infrastructure, according to the testing requirements of the Brocade Data Center Ready Program. The program is an initiative designed to foster interoperability in multi-vendor Brocade-based data center environments. Testing was conducted at the Brocade Data Center Ready labs, which are state-of-the-art facilities supporting end-to-end interoperability and performance testing of SAN products in multi-vendor and large fabric environments. ATTO's 8GB Celerity Host Adapter product line consisting of single-, dual- and quad-channel PCIe 2.0 solutions, and multiple operating system support, including Mac OS X, Windows and Linux.

QuickerTek has announced the Apple Juicz External Battery/Charger (http://www.quickertek.com/products/macbook_charger.php) for the 13-inch MacBook. It purportedly gives users up to 12 additional hours of computing power. The Apple Juicz External Battery/Charger recharges in three hours. It measures 9 x 6 x 1 inches and weighs five pounds. It users a Li-ion Polymer battery. The Apple Juicz External Battery/Charger will be shipping sometime next week. It's backed with a one-year warranty on parts and labor.

Ingres Corporation, a leading provider of open source database software and support services, announced today the availability of Ingres Database 9.2, the leading open source database that helps organizations develop and manage business critical applications at an affordable cost. Ingres Database 9.2 is flexible, simple, secure, reliable, and scalable to cope with even the most complex, multi-language requirements including business intelligence, content management, data warehousing, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and logistics management. Already a leader in the field, Ingres Database also offers added features to further improve the availability required by the enterprise. To download the latest version, go to http://esd.ingres.com/product/Ingres_Database/9.2. "With Ingres Database 9.2, we offer our global customers an integrated open source database like no other on the market, in terms of innovation, technology feature-set, and affordability," said Roger Burkhardt,...

MYOB has announced the immediate availability of AccountEdge 2009, the latest version of their small business management and accounting software for Mac small businesses. The release marks their 20th year of Mac development. Customer requested features top the list of enhancements in the new version, according to Tom Nash of MYOB US. The update includes the new Business Insights feature, which gives customers new tools to assess the health of their business. AccountEdge 2009 also includes integration with Marketcircle's productivity suite Daylite, MYOB's promised speed enhancements to AccountEdge Network Edition and new design tools for easier forms customization. Business Insights adds new ways for small business owners to assess the health of their business. The feature allows users to chart, graph and analyze the key financial trends and ratios of their business. A total of eight available charts let the user analyze profitability, operating profit ratios and more. Marketcircle and...

SharedPlan Software has announced the immediate availability of SharedPlan cPro project management software for Mac OS X and Windows. cPro enables offline access to SharedPlan Central (the SharedPlan online project planning and management service). SharedPlan Central provides an online project planning and management tool suite for creating, editing, reporting, issue tracking, and controlling access to projects. With the introduction of cPro, project managers and their teams can continue planning and managing projects even when they're not connected to the Internet. cPro is freely available to all SharedPlan Central users and allows them to edit a project while offline and then later connect to Central and store the new version of the project plan. cPro is available for immediate download at: http://www.sharedplan.com/cpro.html SharedPlan Central is always available at: https://www.sharedplan.net

Insider Software has announced the immediate availability of FontAgent Pro Server 3, which incorporates what the company says is the industry's first and only replicated font server technology. In addition, the new release adds advanced directory services integration as well as security and performance enhancements that significantly widen its technical lead over Extensis Universal Type Server (UTS). FontAgent Pro Server 3 is the first font server to enable organizations to establish redundant, replicated font servers across their enterprise so users can enjoy top performance as administrators distribute server load. Administrators can make changes to a master font server, which replicates the changes automatically and transparently to all remote servers. With the new release, FontAgent Pro Server's zero-config directory services implementation automatically sees users and groups in LDAP and Active/Open Directory servers, eliminating the need to keep a separate list of users and...

Cygnett (http://www.easyishop.co.uk), which makes iPod speakers and accessories, has introduced the GrooveBassball portable speaker. It's compatible with all iPods and MP3 players and costs approximately US$25. The portable speaker enables users to listen to a pocket-sized speaker. It runs on a rechargeable Lithium-ion battery for three hours of play time. Whenever you're not using them, you can compact the portable speaker into the shape of a small ball. Whenever you want to listen to music connect the GrooveBassball to any iPod or MP3 player via the 3.5 mm jack and twist open the expandable design. The speaker system comes in three different colors: black, white and red. An USB cable for recharging is included, so you can recharge the battery via a laptop or by a power adaptor.

California-based design boutique Kena Kai (http://www.kenakai.com/) has created protective sleeves for computers that are designed after the ubiquitous "Inter-Departmental Mail" envelopes found in nearly every office. These full-grain Italian leather computer sleeves are designed especially for the 13.3-inch MacBooks and ultra-portable notebooks with screens of 10 inches and smaller. The sleeves are available in two sizes. The larger sleeve is designed for laptops such as the new MacBook and the MacBook Air. This larger sleeve will also fit the slightly smaller 12-inch screen machines. The second, smaller sleeve is specifically for so-called "netbook" portables. The computer sleeves will retail for US$69 for the smaller sleeve and $79 for the 13-inch sleeve.

Mobile Edge (http://www.MobileEdge.com), which makes laptop computer carrying cases and accessories, has expanded their ScanFast collection of Checkpoint Friendly laptop bags by adding three new carrying cases designed specifically for women. The new ScanFast for Her cases are the first TSA "Checkpoint Friendly" laptop bags designed specifically for women to be introduced, says G. David Cartwright, president and CEO, Mobile Edge. The collection exceeds all Transportation Security Administration (TSA) guidelines to be considered Checkpoint Friendly, so travelers can speed through airport security checkpoints without having to remove their laptops, he adds. The ScanFast for Her collection consists of three product styles; the all new Onyx ScanFast Briefcase, the Onyx ScanFast Backpack and a redesigned Element Briefcase. The Onyx Briefcase and Backpack feature a designer developed exterior material with faux-croc accents and polished steel fittings. The redesigned ScanFast Element Cases...

99Games (http://www.99games.in/) has released a new puzzle game, Jigsaw Wild for iPhone and the iPod touch. It's built around a wild safari theme. Jigsaw Wild costs US$1.99 and is available at the Apple App Store. Here's how the game is described: "Jigsaw Wild is preloaded with images of varied species of Wild Animals, Birds, Reptiles and Insects. It has options to change puzzle shapes, shake 'n' break puzzle, provision to capture images with Built-in Camera, and many more. "Users can choose and move the pieces smoothly and snap them together just like in real-life. Options to choose the number of pieces, change shapes, hints and ghost images makes the game easy to play for players of any age group." Jigsaw Wild requires iPhone software version 2.0 update.

Dover Studios has unveiled Maya NURBS Modeling 3rd Edition, their latest visual effects training video. It provides visual effects artists with an introduction to the NURBS modeling tools available in Autodesk Maya. The third edition has been completely revised and updated, and includes a variety of new examples, more detailed descriptions, and features over two hours of 1080p high definition video.Visual effects artists, Andrew Hazelden and Russell Hazelden, provide tips for NURBS modeling including: how to keep objects organized using the layer editor, how to create accurate scale models using reference images, and countless time saving techniques. Topics include creating curves using control vertices and edit points, using curve primitives, inserting and removing knots from curves, detaching curves using curve points, opening and closing curves, cutting and attaching curves, reversing a curve's direction, the smooth curve tool, the pencil curve tool, arc tools, and creating text....

LaCie (http://www.lacie.com) has announced the LaCinema Rugged, which the company says is the first multimedia hard disk with HDMI connection. Mirroring the functionality and mobility of the Rugged drive, LaCinema Rugged provides the convenience of a centralized media library with a graphical interface and a remote control. Designed by Neil Poulton, the Rugged features a scratch-resistant aluminum shell, internal anti-shock absorbers, and a shock-resistant rubber bumper to better protect media files against everyday blunders. Compatible with both Mac and Windows environments, the USB 2.0 interface connects to the computer for multimedia loading. Once the data is transferred to the portable drive it is ready to be viewed on any display, where the user's media can be accessed through an HDMI connection or legacy composite video connection. Optimized viewing through HDMI 1080i upscaling will allow you to play back videos on your HDTV or enjoy photos in clear HD resolution. In addition...