PhatWare Corp. says WritePad is now available as a software development kit (SDK) for evaluation and licensing on iPad and Mac OS X platforms. The WritePad SDK includes static libraries and dictionaries for all supported languages, API header files, documentation, and sample code in ObjectiveC. WritePad SDK is a natural, style, writer, and lexicon independent multiplatform handwriting recognition technology. The WritePad SDK recognizes natural handwritten text in a variety of handwriting styles: cursive (script), PRINT and MIXed. It recognizes dictionary words from its main or user-defined dictionary, as well as non-dictionary words, such as names, numbers and mixed alphanumeric combinations. 
The SDK provides automatic segmentation of handwritten text into words and automatically differentiates between vocabulary and non-vocabulary words, and between words and arbitrary alphanumeric strings. It doesn't require a user to train the software and allows for most users to achieve high...

Avenza Systems (http://www.avenza.com), makers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop has released MAPublisher 8.3 for Adobe Illustrator. It's the latest version of mapmaking software used to produce maps from GIS data for both print and electronic distribution. New features of version 8.3 include: ° Compatibility with Adobe Illustrator CS5 for both Mac and Windows; ° A new Line Plotter function to create polylines by entering coordinates or the distance and bearing values between points; ° The ability to import MAP Objects to copy MAP objects between documents, including stylesheets and MAP selections; ° Enhanced MAP Selection functionality offering additional selection options including spatial, art and attribute; ° A new knockout function for creating knockouts for text objects; ° A Buffer Art function to create area objects around points and lines; ° MAP Attribute Panel enhancements and optimizations; ° ...

As per the agreed extension between the parties, Psystar filed its opening brief with the Ninth Circuit yesterday. However, the entire thing was filed under seal, but you can find the actual filing at the "World of Apple" web site (http://news.worldofapple.com/archives/2010/05/18/apple-v-psystar-psystar...). Apple’s response is due June 16. In January Psystar officially filed its Notice of Appeal in the copyright suit it lost against Apple. The appeal involved a copyright infringement suit Apple brought against Psystar to stop the Florida company from selling Psystar computers with Mac OS X installed. In December 2009 Apple won a permanent injunction against Psystar. Granted by Judge William Alsup of the US District Court for the Northern District of California, it prevents the Mac cloner from selling clones, installing Mac OS X on any hardware, and selling or copying Mac OS X. Psystar also can't manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide or otherwise traffic in any technology...

V-MODA has announced Remix Audio, the latest "fashion-forward" in-ear headphone. It's a redesigned version of the company's original in-ear headphones. The Remix Audio is at available at Amazon.com and V-MODA.com for a retail price of US$79.99. The Remix Audio boasts a remastered driver, redesigned soft silicone fittings, all-metal construction and Kevlar-reinforced cables. The headsets are available in three colors: rouge, blush and gunmetal.

Informative Graphics Corporation (IGC) has released an updated version of its Brava! Flash Viewer, which offers viewing for any format on any Flash-enabled browser. It offers a very interactive user experience without requiring any documents to be downloaded to, or installed on, the user’s machine, according to Gary Heath, president and CEO of Informative Graphics. The Brava Flash Viewer provides interactive document viewing for the Mac and Windows operating systems and a range of web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. Like Brava’s ActiveX client, the Flash Viewer supports virtually any format, including documents, images and even CAD drawings. 
The Brava Flash Viewer 1.1 boasts the ability to navigate pages vertically or horizontally and offers a new reader (tied to the mouse movement), traditional scrolling, and dual-page view modes. Reviewers can also search for one or more keyword phrases, with each term hit highlighted, and jump quickly to the...

Aptela, a provider of business-class phone service to small businesses and mobile workers nationwide, has announced the latest addition to the company’s Aptela Anywhere Apps mobility suite, the availability of the Acrobits Softphone. This announcement comes on the heels of Aptela’s launch of Aptela v5.0, the company’s new platform that’s been architected to give small businesses and entrepreneurs the tools required to intuitively manage and take control of their business communications. Aptela is partnering with Acrobits -- a SIP VoIP phone for iPhone, iPad touch and iPad -- to offer this Mobile VoIP capability, which allows mobile professionals to make and receive VoIP calls utilizing the Aptela service -- anywhere/anytime. Mobile VoIP enables iPhone users to make calls over the Internet or via a WiFi hotspot rather than through their mobile carrier voice network, according to Rafael Torreblanca, director of Business Development for Acrobits. Acrobits is the latest addition to...

Dejal (http://www.dejal.com/blog) has updated Dejal Caboodle -- a Mac OS X application for collecting text, images, and other content -- to version 1.3.6. The upgrade offers performance tweaks for Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard"). To improve performance and reduce disk space, imported PDFs, files dragged to the Dock icon, or via the Save PDF to Caboodle print option are now copied to an Attachments folder within the Caboodle data folder, and aliased to the entries. Caboodle is a tool to help store and organize such varied bits of information. You can arrange the items in an outline-like hierarchy, and include both structured fields and free-form text and pictures in each entry, along with web links, lists, tables, PDFs, and any other kind of file as attachments. When you create a new entry within an existing one, the custom fields are inherited, allowing quickly creating content in an organized fashion. But you can also add or remove custom fields independently for each entry. Three...

Have you ever posted something that came back to bite you, like extreme political views, racy pictures, or complaints about your boss? If you did, you're not alone, and until now, foolish posts were all your own and only viewed by friends in your social media network and maybe the random high school classmate you decided to friend , the one you barely remember. But what if everyone could see these blunders and more? What if your profile and interests were broadcast to a wider audience. As you know, recent changes to Facebook's default privacy settings are slipping user's profile info to search engines, and newly proposed features are stirring up controversy in Congress as well as creating privacy concerns amongst users. Research by Retrevo (http://www.retrevo.com) earlier this year suggests that people were already getting themselves into trouble by hastily posting content that they find themselves regretting later. Facebook's new privacy settings aren't going to help. It's tempting...

Troi Automatisering has released Merge.It Pro, created by IT Professional Consultants. It adds document merging capability to your FileMaker Pro solution. Merge.It Pro is a newly developed FileMaker Pro application designed by IT Professional Consultants to enhance and integrate with your existing FileMaker Pro 9, 10, 11 database solution. Troi Plug-ins are used to enhance the functionality of the application. Merge.It Pro is designed for any solution requiring the need to produce multiple word processing documents. You can add a document generator to your FileMaker Pro solution in minutes. You can create Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, Apple Pages, OpenOffice documents with data directly from your solution. A demo version of Merge.It Pro is available for downloading at Troi's web site (http://www.troi.com/software/mergeitpro.html). Licenses are available from US$129 per user.

Despite years of negotiations Sir Paul McCartney and iTunes still haven't worked out a deal to make Beatles' tracks available for download -- and the ex-Beatle blames the record label, reports the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_10110000/newsid_10116600/...). McCartney says the lack of progress is due to "business hassels" with record company EMI. "Not with us, or iTunes," he says. "It's the people in the middle, the record label. There have been all sorts of reasons why they don't want to do it." McCartney has long insisted that he wants to make his old tracks with John, George and Ringo available to download. However, EMI tells the BBC it's working hard to sort out the situation. In a statement the record label says: "Discussions are ongoing. We would love to see The Beatles' music available for sale digitally."

The growing criticism of Flash and Apple CEO Steve Jobs' extreme dislike of the technology) appears to be fueling the adoption of HTML. A study by the video search engine MeFeedia (http://blog.mefeedia.com/html5-video-stats) shows an 160% increase in the proportion of video encoded in HTML5 since January. The study found that 26% of all web video is now available for playback in HTML5 using the H.264 format. MeeFeedia notes that most sites that support HTML5 will detect iPad users and switch to an HTML5-compatible format. Only YouTube enables this functionality on their embeds on other sites though. For news, recent stories are available, but most back library content is not yet re-encoded, says MeeFeedia. Their study also shows that there's little HTML5 supported episodic content available from major TV networks. ABC has an iPad app, but there are no full episodes available on their web site. "Although 26% doesn’t seem like a lot, only 10% of our video index was HTML5-compatible at...

Hon Hai Group, the Taipei-based maker of products such as iPhones, is recruiting mental health professionals and building leisure facilities in its Chinese factories after at least seven employee suicides this year, reports "Bloomberg Businessweek" (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-17/hon-hai-turns-to-counselors-...). The company has deployed 100 counselors and its health division plans to work more closely with local governments and academic institutions to support its 800,000 workers in China, Edmund Ding, a spokesman at the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, also known as Foxconn Technology Group, told "Bloomberg" by phone. However, he didn't comment on why workers may be taking their own lives. The measures have purportedlyl prevented more than 30 suicide attempts, according to the company. The deaths underscore the need to improve the quality of life for Chinese factory workers, say groups including China China Labor Watch and China Labour Bulletin,...

Softbank Mobile -- the exclusive iPhone carrier in Japan -- had said that the 3G version of the iPads sold in Japan could only be used on its mobile network. That’s because Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in January that the devices would be unlocked outside the U.S. and usable on any carrier willing to provide a micro-SIM card for it. However, Apple tells "The Wall Street Journal" (http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/05/15/apple-clarifies-japanese-ipad-sim...) that, while Japanese 3G iPads will only work with Softbank’s 3G service in Japan, outside of Japan, those iPads are unlocked, so they can be used with SIMs for local carriers in their respective markets. Whether 3G iPads purchased outside of Japan will work in Japan will depend on the roaming agreement that the users’s home carrier has established in the country, the spokeswoman said.

Starting in February 2009, ABI Research (http://www.abiresearch.com) forecast that approximately 35 million netbooks would ship into world markets in the course of the year. That estimate was viewed in some quarters as unrealistically high. However the final 2009 shipment numbers -- 36.3 million netbooks shipped -- have confirmed that the forecast was perhaps a little conservative, according to the research group. In 2010, netbook shipments are expected to reach 58 million while a new element has been added to the mobile consumer electronics market equation: the media tablet, initially personified by Apple’s iPad. How will mobile CE markets react to a “new kid on the block” so soon after the start of the netbook craze? “We expect the netbook market to fragment according to different regional value propositions,” says principal analyst Jeff Orr. “Functionality will be added to mainstream netbook products while at the same time an entry-level netbook solution will grow, with the aim of...

D-Zed Software (http://www.dragonstopmotion.com/about.php) has introduced their new DDMX-S2 Digital Lighting Controller, an I/O device for use with their Dragon Stop Motion 2.1 stop-frame animation software for Mac or Windows. When used in conjunction with standard DMX protocol dimmer/switcher packs, the DDMX-S2 permits automated, software control of: up to 99 different lighting channels; work lights; front-light/back-light sequences; keyframe based lighting programs. The device also operates as a software controlled trigger for a: RED camera, film camera, or unsupported still camera; motion control system; computer running Dragon Stop Motion. The DDMX-S2 is a USB powered device requiring no adapters or dongles for installation. It uses standard drivers that can be installed through the Help menu of Dragon Stop Motion. It employs a standard, 3-pin XLR socket as a DMX512 protocol lighting control port (a common 3-pin to 5-pin adapter may be necessary). The device drives hundreds of...

Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications told companies not to import “too many” iPhones, as the government tries to cut purchases of luxury items to narrow the trade deficit, reports "Bloomberg" (http://www.thanhniennews.com/2010/Pages/20100507180250.aspx). “Phone companies should carefully consider their import plans of iPhones as well as other related 3G equipment,” the article quotes Nguyen Thanh Hung, vice minister of information and communication, as saying. “We need to economize, and we shouldn’t waste our money on luxury items” as Vietnam struggles with a widening shortfall, Hung said in a telephone interview Wednesday from Hanoi. For the four months through April, Vietnam posted a $4.65 billion trade shortfall, compared with a surplus reported at the same time a year ago. For the year to date, imports surged 36% to $24.81 billion, notes "Bloomberg." Telephone operators and service providers need to carefully work on import plans to avoid “massive” purchases of...

Excel Software (http://www.excelsoftware.com) has updated MacA&D -- a software solution for system analysis, requirements management, software design, code generation and custom reports -- to version 3.1. Enhancements include support for UML 2.2, data flow diagrams, class models and code generation for REALbasic and Objective-C 2.0. MacA&D 3.1 enables a software designer to draw the 14 major diagram types specified by UML 2.2, including newly added support for Component, Component Structure and Timing diagrams. The Timing diagram can show object states with multiple state lines or shaded areas. Diagrams may contain component objects, classes with ports and required or provided interfaces using ball and socket notation. Sequence diagrams can have interaction frames with conditional regions. Data flow diagrams are enhanced to allow links to external child diagrams. A process on one diagram can link to a child diagram in a different document. This enables each developer in a...

Someone is going to be in BIG trouble. A Vietnamese site, "Tinte" (http://www.tinhte.com/threads/408209-Ro-ri-MacBook-nhua-doi-moi), that recently got their hands on a (purported) next gen iPhone is claiming to now have obtained a leaked version of a fresh of the MacBook. According to "Tinte", the MacBook model 7,1 sports a 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, and has a GeForce 320M graphics processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with the main memory. It has a 1280x800 pixel widescreen display, a 250GB 5400 RPM hard drive, and 2GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM. If "Tinte" isn't pulling our legs, it's likely we'll see an official announcement of the tweaked MacBook next week. Along with a refreshed MacBook Air, perhaps?

Search warrant documents in an investigation of the possible theft of an iPhone prototype will be made public, , reports "Bloomberg" (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aI8u4GQzoER0). Judge Clifford V. Cretan in Redwood City has ruled against the San Mateo County District Attorney’s office, which argued that unsealing the documents will reveal identities of potential witnesses and compromise the investigation. Media organizations argued they should have access to the documents based on constitutionally protected free-speech rights. The county’s argument relies only on its right to “maintain the security of an ongoing investigation,” Katherine Keating, a lawyer for the media organizations said in an e-mail to "Bloomberg." “What the District Attorney hasn’t done beyond making these vague assertions is explain what exactly is in the records” that justifies keeping them secret in light of “the public’s right of access to judicial records." Based on Apple’s claim...

Apple CEO Steve Jobs asked technology blog "Gizmodo.com" to return a secret iPhone prototype that Apple says was stolen after a company engineer lost it in a bar, reports "Bloomberg News" (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=axWv500b2PpE&pid=20601087). According to court documents released May 14, the lost iPhone is being investigated as a possible trade secret theft, according to California state court documents made public after media organizations including "Bloomberg News" asked they be unsealed. Apple reported the device stolen last month. Apple that called police to report the phone was stolen, which set the investigation in motion. An Apple lawyer said publicity about the “invaluable” prototype was “immensely damaging to Apple” because it would hinder iPhone sales, according to an April 23 affidavit by Detective Matthew Broad of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. “I want to get this phone back to you ASAP and I want to not hurt your sales when the products...

Apple is allegedly set to announce plans to launch an online music streaming service similar to Spotify soon. How soon? As in next month's Worldwide Developer Conference, according to several online rumors. Speculated to debut on June 7, the service -- if it is coming -- would likely be based on Apple's purchase of Lala six months ago. A note at the Lala web site (http://www.lala.com) says "The Lala service will be shutting down on May 31" and "unfortunately, we are no longer accepting new users." Lala -- which offered "the first and only free fully licensed service to instantly provide anywhere web access to an existing music library such as iTunes" -- was purchased by Apple earlier this year. The goal is probably to allow Apple to implement a new iTunes feature that would allow users to stream their purchased media content remotely. In fact, rumors of such a service surfaced earlier this year. Purportedly, the service would allow iTunes shoppers to build up a digital video...

Frictional Games has released the source code (http://github.com/FrictionalGames) for their first game Penumbra: Overture, together with the source code for the engine and tools used in its creation. This comes as a reply to the great success of the Humble Indie Bundle, in which over US$1 million dollars has been donated to the participating developers and charities, says Thomas Grip, programmer and co-founder of Frictional Games. Apart from Penumbra, the source codes for the indie games Aquaria, Gish and Lugaru (all available in the Humble Indie Bundle) are also released. Penumbra: Overture contains a unique physics interaction system for first person games, a system that has been exclusive to the series and not found in any other game, Grip says. The source code is currently running on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The source code has been uploaded to GitHub where it is easy for people to download the latest version, suggest patches, make new versions of the code and much more. To...

SAGOIS SLU has released Sport Competitions (http://www.sagois.com/en/SportCompetitions/index.html) for Mac and Windows systems. The US$120 app provides the creation and management of league and cup championships in the following sports: soccer, indoor soccer, basketball, handball, badminton, darts, tennis, paddle tennis, squash and volleyball. With Sports Competition you can create and manage cup and league championships. It generates team and player classifications. There are various "sanction" and Internet features. Sports Competition sports a New Users Data base, with the possibility of importing them to teams. You can store teams and players to import them to later championships. The game also creates registration forms. A demo is available for download.

Irish headquartered Mobile Network Operator, Cubic Telecom (http://www.cubictelecom.com)has launched what it says is Europe’s first SIM card for the new iPad 3G. This means that iPad 3G users will be able to travel and access the web anywhere in Europe without racking up expensive roaming charges. The first Cubic Telecom iPad 3G SIM cards, sold under the brand name MaxRoam, are available from http://www.maxroam.com . The SIM card costs €75 and comes pre loaded with 50MB of data. Customers can avail of this single low cost transparent rate across all European borders. Apple announced last week that the iPad would be available in nine countries outside the US from May 28. Cubic Telecom is a licensed mobile network operator that provides a "smart" platform. Customers include multinational corporations, mobile network operators (MNOs), mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and travel companies.