Mammoth Interactive has released an online training course, Xcode Fundamentals, online at Udemy. Xcode is Apple's set of developer tools for Mac OS X. In "Xcode Fundamentals," students learn how to design apps right in Xcode. The course consists of a series of 155 video lectures organized into 11 course sections, each typically just a few minutes long and full of dynamic graphical content. The course shows students how to design mobile applications and equally importantly, it teaches them about designing a mobile experience, says CEO John Bura. " The course shows students how to design mobile applications, and equally importantly, it teaches them about designing a mobile experience, he adds. In "Xcode Fundamentals, students learn how to design apps right in Xcode." . The Xcode Fundamentals course is hosted on Udemy online at http://www.udemy.com/xcode-fundamentals-designing-a-user-experience-for-... .

The Z has released the Z5 Mobile for iOS. It's available at the Apple App Store; Mac, PC and Android versions are in the works. The app is designed to make it easier for deaf and hard of hearing people to communicate with friends, family and business contacts -- hearing or deaf -- while on the go, says the Z CEO Sean Balanger. Some features involve improved management of customers’ contacts. An integrated address book gives users to access phone numbers stored locally on their iOS device, as well as those in their online Z profile account. With the new "Favorites" feature, callers can designate contacts they use most, similar to using speed dial. Customers can also set up avatars (icons or pictures) for contacts for further customization. Favorite features like Video Mail, Digital Whiteboard, VCO Plus and HolaVRS continue to be available, not to mention access to the industry’s best interpreters. The free app will allow deaf and hard of hearing people to make and receive point-to-...

As noted by "TNW" (http://macte.ch/6P4lr), Apple has launched a new status page for its iCloud, store and general services that provides more detail about status and uptimes of its various cloud and backend components. The page offers detailed breakdowns of each service, categorized by section including Services, Stores and iCloud. Each section is then broken down by the product that could be affected by service disruption.

Apple has released its "Best of 2012" listings for the iTunes Store. The annual list was previously dubbed iTunes Rewind. The list includes what Apple has determined are the best music, movies, TV shows, books, podcasts and apps. You can find the list by going to the iTunes Store and looking for the "Best of 2012" graphic in the scrolling carousel at the top of the screen.

SQLabs has released SQLiteManager for both Mac OS X (10.6 and higher) and Windows -- a database management system for sqlite databases. SQLiteManager lets you work with a range of sqlite 3 databases, including plain databases, in-memory databases, AES 128/256/RC4 encrypted databases and also with cubeSQL server databases. A SQLiteManager single license is costs US$49. Company and multi-platform licenses are also available. For more information go to http://www.sqlabs.com/ .

Frosthaus (http://frosthaus.com/sequence/) has released Sequence 1.0 for Mac OS X (10.8 or later). It's available for US$19.99 at the Mac App Store in the Photography category. With Sequence, timelapse photographers and video makers can import photos in most image formats supported on the Mac, including RAW, and preview the timelapse using a imeline-based interface. The deflickering engine in Sequence can remove brightness flicker from the source photos before rendering to video in industry standard formats, such as H.264 and Apple ProRes and so much more. The timeline also renders a graph of any brightness flicker commonly caused by shutter or aperture variations in the DSLR source camera. According to Johan Srensen, the app makes full use of multiple CPUs and rendering on the graphics card, along with full 64-bit support. This ensures Sequence will be able to handle both large and small timelapse sequences with ease, he adds.

Samsung Electronics, Sony Mobile Communications, LG Electronics, Huawei Device and ZTE are expected to follow HTC and Sharp to roll out smartphones with 5-inch Full HD displays in the first half of 2013, according to "DigiTimes," quoting unnamed "industry sources." While Samsung and LG will produce Full HD panels in-house, Sony Mobile will be able access supplies from JDI, in which it holds a stake, the article adds. Taiwan- and China-based smartphone vendors can purchase Full HD panels from JDI, Sharp or LG, per "DigiTimes."

European Union regulators ended an antitrust probe into e-book prices on Thursday, accepting an offer by Apple and four publishers to ease pricing restrictions on Amazon and other retailers. The decision "hands online retailer Amazon a victory in its attempt to sell e-books cheaper than rivals in a fast-growing market publishers hope will boost revenue and customer numbers," according to "Reuters" (http://macte.ch/zBZ4v). The European Commission said the concessions from Apple and the publishers soothed concerns that their pricing deals curbed competition. Apple has been sued in Europe, the U.S. and Canada for collaborating with publishers to "fix" ebook prices. The brouhaha centers on Apple's move to change the way that publishers charged for e-books as it prepared to introduce its first iPad in 2010. Traditionally, publishers sold books to retailers for roughly half of the recommended cover price. Under that "wholesale model," booksellers were then free to offer those books to...

Here are the latest updates for Mac OS X apps: Smile (www.smilesoftware.com) has released TextExpander 4.0.4, an update to its typing shortcut tool. The update adds Cut, Copy, and Paste support for items in the snippet list. There is also a new popover window to handle snippet abbreviation conflicts. Gilder (www.macqim.com/wordpress/) has revved GridUp, a tool that allows you to resize and position your windows with keyboard shortcut, to version 1.1. It's a maintenance upgrade. Emanuele T. has announced eMaps 2.9.9.1 (sites.google.com/site/emanuelet/emaps), an update of the app that gives you access to Google Maps. Due to a recent update in the Google Maps API [application programming interface] some functions in eMaps no longer work correctly. This update loads the previous stable version of Google Maps API to fix the problem. Devawriter Pro (http://andregarzia.on-rev.com/richmond/dwriterpro.html), a tool for teaching Devanagari or self-study, has been updated to version 1.0.8. It's...

Apple's much-maligned iOS 6 Maps aren't the only mapping technology being blasted by Australian authorities. They say that Google Maps also recommends potentially dangerous routes, reports "Yahoo! News" (http://macte.ch/jIuwV). Police in Colac, west of Melbourne, say faults with Google Maps are putting people's lives at risk along the Great Ocean Road and in the southern Otways. Sergeant Nick Buenen says trucks, buses and tourists are being directed down Wild Dog Road, which is a one-way track, not built for heavy traffic. He says VicRoads has denied responsibility and Google Maps hasn't responded.

Markzware (www.markzware.com) has released PageZephyr 3, an update of the US$99, stand-alone desktop search engine designed to reduce the risk of losing valuable electronic information by helping to manage voluminous amounts of legacy files.  This is accomplished without the need for the original desktop publishing applications. PageZephyr supports documents generated in the latest versions of today's most popular layout applications. PageZephyr 3 is now compatible with Adobe InDesign CS6 and QuarkXPress 9 documents for both Mac (OS X 10.6.8 or higher) and Windows platforms.

Apple has updated Find My iPhone for, well, the iPhone to version 2.0.1. The upgrade adds driving directions to Find My iPhone. You can now get driving directions courtesy of Apple Maps directly within the app. Find My iPhone 2.0.1 is available at the Apple App Store.

Stellar Data Recovery has introduced Stellar Volume Repair 1.0, a repair tool for corrupt volumes on Macs. It requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or higher. It's available in a free demo version can scan Mac volumes and identify if the volume needs repair. The demo also allows user to create a bootable DVD even for unbootable Mac Machines. Stellar recommends routine usage of software to prevent directory corruption on your Mac machines. The software is safe even for severely damaged & non repairable Mac volumes as it has a "Rollback'" feature that rolls back any changes that it makes during the repair process and returns the volume to its previous state, says Sunil Chandna, CEO, Stellar Data Recovery. The full version of the software allows users to repair and rebuild corrupt volume directory. The full versionof Stellar Volume Repair 1.0 is available at a discounted price of US$49 instead of $ 99 for a limited time. For more info go to http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-software/volume-repair...

The CPUG Network has announced the Twelfth Annual San Francisco SuperMeet, which will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013, at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, California. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. with the "SuperMeet Digital Showcase," featuring over 20 software and hardware developers, including including Adobe, Avid, Blackmagic Design, Atomos, Drobo, HDDISK, Keycode Media, Lite Panels, mLogic, Peachpit, Pixelflow, RE:Vision Effects. Presentations will begin at 7 p.m. and continue until 11 p.m.. Tickets are on sale online for the "early bird" price of US$10 each plus ticket fee (early bird pricing ends Dec. 28, 2012) and $10 for students with valid student ID. To purchase tickets and for complete details on the SuperMeet including driving and transit directions, a current list of raffle prizes and details on the Educational SuperWorkshops, visit the SuperMeet web site (http://supermeet.com).

Noise Industries (www.noiseindustries.com) has released Optics by Ripple Training to FxFactory. Its an US$39 plug-in for Final Cut Pro X that creates a first-person perspective of footage through viewfinder optics, including DSLR viewfinders, scopes and binoculars. Editors can choose from a set of 14 title effects and animate the focus, position and scale of the optics. You can add thermal or night vision effects, and animate scan lines, flicker and roll for added drama. Users can also add a VShutter Flash in combination with camera viewfinders or on its own, as well as kaleidoscope effects.

Germany's Mannheim Regional Court held a Dec. 7 trial on Apple's rubber-banding (overscroll bounce) infringement action against Samsung, reports "FOSS Patents" (http://macte.ch/apaho). The patent-in-suit is EP2126678 on "list scrolling and document translation, scaling, and rotation on a touch-screen display. The Mannheim court has already stayed a couple of other Apple lawsuits over doubts concerning the validity of certain asserted intellectual property rights. And a stay could also happen in the rubber-banding case, "though the hurdle is high (German courts only stay patent infringement cases if there's at least an 80% probability of invalidation) and it looks like a close question whether Samsung's invalidity contentions meet that threshold," Florian Mueller writes for "FOSS Patents." This is all part of the ongoing, global legal battle. Apple and Samsung have filed more than 30 lawsuits against each other across four continents. For example, Apple alleges that Samsung copied the...

FirmTek is shipping its SeriTek/Q6G 4-Port eSATA host adapter. It's Mac OS X bootable, whether installed inside the Mac Pro or a Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis, with and without SATA port-multiplication. The SeriTek/Q6G is built to support several types of eSATA enclosures. With direct connect enclosures like the miniSwap/ES, each drive connects to its own individual eSATA port. The SeriTek/Q6G also supports port multiplication enclosures like the SeriTek/5PM. The 5PM allows up to five SATA drives to be connected to a single port or up to 80TB and 20 hard drives with four 5PM enclosures. While the miniSwap/ES and the SeriTek/5PM can be used separately with the SeriTek/Q6G, one setup professional users deploy is the combination of SSD storage along with five bays of 3.5-inch SATA data storage provided by the SeriTek/5PM. The four eSATA ports available on the SeriTek/Q6G allow both the miniSwap/ES and the SeriTek/5PM to be used concurrently. This combination offers the customer...

Intel (www.intel.com) has introduced the Intel Atom processor S1200 product family, delivering what it says is the world’s first low-power, 64-bit server-class system-on-chip (SoC) for high-density microservers, as well as a new class of energy-efficient storage and networking systems. The energy-sipping, industrial-strength microprocessor features essential capabilities to achieve server-class reliability, manageability and cost effectiveness, says Diane Bryant, vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and Connected Systems Group at Intel. The Intel Atom processor S1200 product family is the first low-power SoC delivering required data center features that ensure server-class levels of reliability and manageability while also enabling significant savings in overall costs, she adds. The SoC includes two physical cores and a total of four threads enabled with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel HT). The SoC also includes 64-bit support, a memory controller supporting...

Another day, another lawsuit. A company named Digitech Technologies has sued Apple for, of course, patent infringement. According to "Patently Apple" (www.patentlyapple.com), the Newport Beach, California-based company has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple involving a patent from Polaroid, who beat Kodak in court in 1986 regarding the "instant camera."  Digitech Image Technologies has filed individual patent infringement lawsuits against several technology companies in the past 30 days including Apple using the common patent 6,128,415 from Polaroid, adds "Patently Apple."

G-Technology says its G-SPEED RAID external storage solutions now come equipped with the industry's highest capacity enterprise-class hard disk drives (HDDs): the 4TB HGST Ultrastar drives. The company says they offer 7,200 RPM performance, 64MB cache, the highest 2.0 million hour mean-time-between-failure²(MTBF) HDD specification, and enterprise-class features. The 4TB HGST enterprise-class drives are purportedly the only SATA HDDs rated at 2.0 million hours mean time between failure (MTBF). They also utilize enterprise-specific firmware to minimize the performance impact of rotational vibration interference (RVI) found in rack-mounted servers and multi-drive storage arrays, and feature special error recovery and detection features. All G-SPEED solutions feature an aluminum enclosure with four hot-swappable drives, and a "smart" cooling fan. The G-SPEED Q RAID storage solution for creative professionals comes equipped with 3Gbit eSATA, FireWire 800, FireWire 400 (via cable) and USB...

Adobe has updated Adobe Creative Cloud. Creative Cloud members will now have access to over a dozen exclusive new features for Adobe Photoshop.  Adobe is also highlighting the customer momentum behind Creative Cloud, with more than XX free and paid memberships, including approximately XX paid individual members who have signed up through November 2012. Additionally, the company is introducing a new version, Creative Cloud for teams. This is designed to: make it easy for creative professionals to collaborate with colleagues; showcase new capabilities for mobile website design with Adobe Muse; launchCreative Cloud Connection for desktop synching and collaborative sharing; debut Creative Cloud Training, a library of premium instructional video from leading partners; and demonstrate the unlimited access to the Digital Publishing technology used by major publishers to create interactive content for the iPad. According to says David Wadhwani, senior vice president, Digital Media, Adobe,...

Here are the latest updates for Mac OS X apps: Macphun (www.macphun.com) has released Snapheal 2.1, an update of its photo app. The upgrade sports a new look and improved user interface. Maplesoft (www.maplesoft.com) has revved Maple, its roductivity tool for solving mathematical problems and creating interactive technical applications, to version 16.02. The upgrade has been optimized for Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. Sproutedapps has introduced Nokumo 1.0.3 (www.nokumo.com), a new version of the business and personal information manager. It's a maintenance upgrade with some bug fixes. Surless Studios has served up Mac Bartender 10.6 (www.macbartender.com), a new version of the tool for organizing your menu bar apps. It's a maintenance upgrade with several stabilizing features.

Demand for the iPhone 5 in China has reached more than 300,000 online reservations with mobile carrier China Unicom, as Apple prepares to starting selling the device there on Friday, reports the "IDG News Service" (http://macte.ch/PP42s). China Unicom received the 300,000 requests in the first week after it began accepting online reservations, the article adds. China Unicom is one of two mobile carriers in the country that will be selling the device, and has about 232 million mobile subscribers.

Maxthon has released Maxthon Cloud Browser (Preview), a product "designed to provide users with a seamless and unified user experience across multiple devices and platforms. " Maxthon Cloud Browser works on Mac OS X, iOS Windows, and Android operating system and allows users to access and push web content such as images, videos and text to and from any of their devices. It's available at www.maxthon.com .   Maxthon Cloud backs up users’ web downloads in the cloud, making it possible to access them locally and from any of their devices using any operating system. According to Maxthon CEO Jeff Chen, Maxthon Cloud Browser’s engine, C4, is a fast and powerful pushing, storage and syncing engine that has high-performance cloud backup and syncing capabilities. The most common actions and processes are standardized across devices and platforms, he adds. Maxthon Cloud Browser allows users easily to learn something once and then do it the same way on other devices, says Chen.