Filter Forge has announced a beta and pre-order availability of Filter Forge 2.0 (http://www.filterforge.com/download.beta2/), an update of the plug-in for Adobe Photoshop allowing computer artists to build their own filters: textures, visual effects, distortions, patterns, backgrounds, frames and more. Just remember: beta software is unfinished software, so use with care. With the second version of the software. Filter Forge 2.0 will feature full support for unlimited HDR colors, shadows via ambient occlusion, point and area lights, and dozens of new components to create filters from. It's available for pre-order at a special price; pre-order customers can save up to US$170. The offer is valid until the commercial release of Filter Forge 2.0 which is planned for the second quarter of the year. Filter Forge is a Photoshop plug-in that lets users create a variety of realistic and abstract textures and effects. Users can take instant advantage of over 7,100 free community-created...

Pantone has announced Pantone Plus, the next generation of the Pantone Matching System. Enhancements include the chromatic arrangement of colors for more intuitive selection, an expanded palette of spot colors, the addition of new premium metallics and a broader range of neons.   Pantone Color Manager Software, available free-of-charge with every Plus Series purchase, lets designers update their favorite design applications with the new Plus Series Color Libraries. An added feature allows users to convert spot colors to CMYK simulations based on loaded ICC profiles. Creatives can also access the entire Pantone Plus Series from their iPhones with the myPantone iPhone application. Additionally, with the myPantone X-Ref iPhone application, designers can easily cross-reference all Pantone Color Libraries.   All guides in the Plus Series include a ColorChecker Lighting Indicator to instantly show whether current lighting conditions are suitable for color evaluation. All books in the Plus...

Hmmm. So here's another reason Apple CEO Steve Jobs may hate Flash. Apple is developing an alternative to the technology called Gianduia. Well, it's more than a Flash alternative, but it definitely has the potential to harm Flash. 
According to "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com), it's a client-side, standards based framework for Rich Internet Apps, to create production quality online apps for its retail users. Apple introduced Gianduia last summer at WOWODC (World of WebObjects Developer Conference), an independent event scheduled near the company's own WWDC event in June. Gianduia, named after an Italian hazelnut chocolate, is "essentially is browser-side Cocoa (including CoreData) + WebObjects, written in JavaScript by non-js-haters," developer Jonathan "Wolf" Rentzsch told "AppleInsider." While the emerging new support for Rich Internet App features in HTML5 is often pitted competitively against Flash, Gianduia, SproutCore and related frameworks demonstrate that...

Quark will be onsite at EMC World (http://www.emcworld.com/) next week in booth #100 as a part of the Content Management Momentum Zone. At the event Quark will demonstrate the integration of Quark XML Author for Microsoft Word (http://dynamicpublishing.quark.com/xml_author/) with EMC Documentum. The integration of Quark’s XML authoring tool with EMC’s leading content management system allows organizations to adopt XML in order to improve collaboration on content creation, enable content reuse, and comply with regulatory mandates.   With Quark XML Author any Microsoft Word user can purportedly create intelligent and reusable XML content with little or no training. Documentum users can then manage, review, and edit the XML content created with Quark XML Author.

Black Cat Systems has updated MultiMode (http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/multimodeOSX.html), a Mac OS X application that lets you Mac decode several different modes of non-voice communication often heard on shortwave, to version 6.1.0. This version fixes bugs that can cause distorted audio on PowerPC Macs. MultiMode is an US$89 application that lets your Mac decode and transmit several different modes of non-voice communication often heard on shortwave and ham radio. It allows you to decode and display morse code, RTTY, FAX, SSTV, ACARS, PSK31 and many other modes on your Mac, without any extra hardware. MultiMode now also allows you to transmit in most of the modes of operation. A lite version is also available which decodes CW, RTTY, and weather fax modes, which is ideal for the sailor and boating enthusiast. MultiMode Lite is also available, which offers reception of CW, RTTY, and FAX modes only. MultiMode Lite is ideal for sailors who need to be able to view weather charts...

Orange announced that it's extending its partnership with Apple to offer new iPad plans for customers in the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Switzerland. The partnership between Orange and Apple, which has already seen iPhone launch with Orange in 30 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa, will extend later in 2010 with the launch of iPad in additional Orange markets.

Orange UK will offer tailored 3G data plans for iPad Wi-Fi + 3G, from May 10,and will launch a pre-registration site for SIMs at Orange.co.uk/iPad. Pay-as-you-consume, daily, weekly and monthly data plans will be available, providing the freedom to choose a type of plan depending on usage. 
 Orange will offer micro-SIMs for iPad free of charge to consumers. Starting May 10, the micro-SIMs can be ordered from Orange shops, http://www.orange.co.uk/shop and Orange telesales, as well as directly from Apple. 
iPad users will also benefit from access to Orange iPad apps, including Orange Wednesdays, a 2-for-1...

Apple shares fell as much as 6% Friday as the tech sector joined in a broad-market selloff, reports "MarketWatch" (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-takes-6-hit-in-wake-of-nokia-suit...). Apple shares recovered some of their losses, but remained down by US$11 a share at $235 on volume of more than 25 million shares exchanged. Separately, Nokia Corp. said it was suing Apple for patent infringement involving the iPhone and iPad 3G products.

Passes for Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference sold out in eight days, a record time. The 2009 event took a month to sell out. WWDC 2010 will be held June 7-14 at San Francisco's Moscone West. Apple says the five-day conference includes the first ever iPad development sessions and hands-on working labs for iPhone OS 4, as well as Mac OS X core technology labs (though the focus is definitely more on the iPhone OS). There will be five iPad and five iPhone Apple Design Award winners announced at WWDC 2010 (alas, Mac apps need not apply). There's no requirement to enter and winners will be selected from the Apple App Store based on criteria that includes design, technical excellence, innovation, quality, technology adoption and performance. Visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2010 website for registration and more details at developer.apple.com/wwdc .

Apple says the iPad will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK on Friday, May 28. Customers can pre-order all iPad models from Apple’s online store in all nine countries beginning on Monday, May 10. In the US, Apple has already sold over one million iPads and customers have downloaded over 12 million apps from the App Store, as well as over 1.5 million ebooks from the new iBookstore. Apple plans to release iPad in Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore in July. Apple will announce availability, local pricing and pre-order plans for these nine additional countries at a later date.

Virtual Programming will publish a Mac version of Supreme Commander 2 (http://www.supremecommander2.com/) later this year. Pricing and system requirements haven't been announced. Here's how the game is describe: "A single shot. That’s all it takes to end the tenuous peace between the United Earth Federation (UEF), the Aeon Illuminate, and the Cybran Nation, a mere 25 years after the three created the Colonial Defense Coalition and worked together to defeat the invading aliens known as Seraphim. The assassination of the newly elected president of the Coalition brings the three to the brink of war in Supreme Commander 2, the sequel to the highly-acclaimed strategy title that captivated gamers three years ago." Supreme Commander 2 will be available as a digital download at Virtual Programming’s Deliver2Mac.com service and will also ship to retail as a boxed product.

Black Cat has updated Audiocorder (http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/audiocorder.html), an audio recording app for Mac OS X, to version 5.4.0. This version adds an option to allow the format of the automatically generated sound filename to be set by the user. It also includes bug fixes with the scheduled recording option. You can use Audiocorder in one of three ways. First, it can work like a standard tape audio recorder. Second, Audiocorder works like a VCR; you can program when it should start and stop recording. Third, Audiocorder can work like a VOX (voice operated) audio recorder. The Voice VOX feature attempts to distinguish between “real” audio, such as speech and music, as compared to static, making it easier to record off of shortwave radio, etc. Audiocorder is available for Mac OS X 10.2 and later. It costs US$19.99.

Secret documents justifying a search warrant in an investigation of an iPhone prototype, which prosecutors say was reported stolen, should be made public, media organizations said in a court filing, reports "Bloomberg" (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=ajLGdFnokgF4). The First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit public interest group, and six media organizations asked a state judge in Redwood City, California, yesterday to unseal an affidavit filed by investigators who obtained a warrant to search the home of a technology blog editor. The blog "Gizmodo.com" said it paid a 21-year-old college studentUS $5,000 for the phone, after it was found in a bar in March. “A warrant is a very intrusive device, especially for a journalist,” Peter Scheer, an attorney and executive director of the San Rafael, California-based media group, said in a phone interview with "Bloomberg." “Affidavits are supposed to be public records and the public has a legitimate interest in seeing...

AT&T and Apple probably have a quid pro quo in place that has extended the mobile carrier's exclusive deal with the iPhone in exchange for heavily-discounted data plan pricing for the iPad, Brian Marshall, an analyst at BroadPoint AmTech, tells "Computerworld" (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176351/AT_T_extends_iPhone_exclu...). "AT&T had to do something dramatic to get the iPad," he says. He thinks that, in exchange for its special data pricing for the iPad, AT&T was able to negotiate a six-month extension on the iPhone exclusive. Many analysts had predicted the AT&T-Apple deal to expire this summer, three years after the two companies first partnered on the iPhone. At one time, Marshall was among those who figured that the expiration meant Verizon, the country's largest mobile provider, would also sell the iPhone this year. No longer. Marshall tells "Computerworld" that he thinks that Verizon won't have the iPhone until the first quarter of 2011. He based...

There's a new line of instruments, custom-made for Live by Ableton's favorite sound partners. These new partner instruments are available now at the Ableton web shop (http://www.ableton.com/partner-instruments). The range of sounds includes sampled grand pianos, Balinese gamelan, EBow guitar, boutique vintage synthesizers, found objects, acoustic and electronic percussion, atmospheres, and soundscapes. All partner instruments work with Suite 8, Live 8 or Live Intro, and many of them are exclusive to Ableton Live. The partner instruments are completely integrated into Ableton Live, which makes for a smooth workflow and familiar controls. Most of the instruments use Live's Rack format, with the eight Macro Controls carefully mapped to provide control for immediate tweakability. Within the Racks, carefully selected Ableton effects provide additional sound design options. This tight integration also means that the partner instruments all provide instant mapping to controller hardware....

Apple ranked fourth out of all the top 100 online retail sites, behind Netflix, Amazon, and Avon in ForeSee Results’ annual Top 100 Online Retail Satisfaction Index (http://www.foreseeresults.com). Satisfaction with Top 100 e-retailers rebounded from a dive this time last year, to an all-time high score of 78 points out of 100, a five point year-over-year increase. According to ForeSee Results, consumers are more satisfied with their online experiences than ever before. Nearly every individual retailer registered a score that matched or exceeded previous satisfaction levels. The research, which employs ascientific methodology created at the University of Michigan, is based on surveys of more than 23,000 visitors to the top 100 e-retail websites by sales volume, as reported in the 2010 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.  “The state of the economy really forced e-retail to step up their game,” says study author Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results. “Since so much of the...

In an online blog (http://robertreich.org/post/572112065/apple-isnt-the-problem-wall-street...), Robert Reich, former secretary of labor, blasts the Federal Trade Commissions' purported investigation of Apple. He asks why the FCC threatening Apple with a possible lawsuit for abusing its economic power, but not even raising an eyebrow about the huge and growing economic (and political) muscle of JP Morgan Chase or any of the other four remaining giant banks on Wall Street? "Our future well being depends more on people like Steve Jobs who invent real products that can improve our lives, than it does on people like Jamie Dimon who invent financial products that do little other than threaten our economy," Reich writes. "Apple’s supposed sin was to tell software developers that if they want to make apps for iPhones and iPads they have to use Apple programming tools. No more outside tools (like Adobe’s Flash format) that can run on rival devices like Google’s Android phones and RIM’s...

Sample Logic has released Acoustix (http://www.samplelogic.com/acoustix.html), an US$99 toolkit of morphed acoustic instruments, percussives, atmospheric soundscapes, pads, and tempo-synced audio loops for cinematic music production. Mac and Windows compatible, it's designed for musicians, performers, and producers of all types. The instruments (presets) and clips (loops) are integrated into Ableton Live. Each instrument uses Live's Rack format, with the 8 Macro Controls mapped to provide top-level control for immediate "tweakability." This also means that all of the instruments and loops are ready to be mapped to a hardware controller or automated directly in Live. Effects and parameters include: Attack & Release, Reverb, Filter Delay, Arpegiator, Filter Cuttoff & Resonance, and much more. Also, all clips and presets are production ready, custom tailored and mastered using Live's audio effects. Acoustix works exclusively with Suite 8, Live 8 or Live Intro and is available...

Dare to be Creative has released Parachute 1.1 (http://parachut.in/), an update of the backup application for Mac OS X. The upgrade offers secure backups over encrypted FTP, features full 64-bit support and ships with a faster backup engine. Parachute allows users to run automated, scheduled backups to a wide range of destinations, including FTP/SFTP servers, external disks, and iDisk. Users can setup multiple backup tasks, consisting of a list of files they would like to backup, and either a local or server destination to make the backups to. Possible local destinations include the hard disk, externals disks, and USB flash drives, while server destinations include FTP, SFTP and WebDAV servers, as well as iDisk. Each backup tasks can be scheduled to run automatically in hourly, daily, weekly or monthly intervals. Philipp Mayerhofer, chief operational officer at Dare to be Creative sees Parachute more as a Time Machine companion than a competitor. "Every backup application on the Mac...

Basil Salad Software has released News Anchor 1.0 for Mac OS X (http://news-anchor-mac.com/wp/). It's a text-to-speech news reader that offers hands-free, one-click access for information enthusiasts to catch up with their reading lists while simultaneously doing other tasks. News Anchor is an alternative RSS/ATOM feed reader targeted for the auditory group of Mac OS X users. Instead of treating feeds like e-mail and display them visually, News Anchor utilizes text-to-speech technology to present a television-like news broadcast. Unlike television, users may customize the broadcast by selecting which feeds that they subscribe to. News Anchor is compatible for Mac OS X 10.5 and up for both Intel and PowerPC based Macs. A demo version is fully functional for 14 days Registration is US$38 for a single user license and $97 for a five-user license.

Blue Crab (http://www.limit-point.com/BlueCrab/BlueCrab.html) has been updated to version 4.9.27. It's a maintenance update. Blue Crab is an US$25 Mac OS X program for copying the contents of a web site to your computer, in whole or in part, conducting offline browsing and searching without an Internet connection, creating a snapshot of a web site for historical archiving, collecting specific types of resources such as images or email addresses, searching current content on your own computer and checking a site for broken links, or generate an HTML site map. Blue Crab is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. It works with Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5.

Federal regulators plan to impose some additional rules on broadband providers to ensure the government "has authority to move ahead with a sweeping plan to bring high-speed connections to all Americans," reports "USA Today" (http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2010-05-05-fcc-broad...). Regulators also want to ensure they have jurisdiction to impose so-called "network neutrality" rules requiring phone and cable companies to give equal treatment to all Internet traffic flowing over their broadband networks, the article adds. "USA Today" says that on Thursday Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski will unveil a roadmap for regulating broadband. Currently, the FCC regulates broadband as a lightly regulated "information service" and had maintained that this gave it legal authority to act on its national broadband plan, which it released in March, and to mandate net neutrality. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected this...

Who could have known (insert symbol for sarcasm here)? A new survey shows that dropped problems are a call for AT&T! Wireless telecom provider Verizon has been trouncing AT&T for months in surveys of customer satisfaction and loyalty. But a recent survey by ChangeWave Research shows dropped calls are a growing problem for AT&T stock, reports InvestorPlace (http://www.investorplace.com/experts/jeff_reeves/att-dropped-calls-t-sto...). Even Sprint Nextel (S) and T-Mobile -- a subsidiary of Deutsche Telecom -- could see gains as customers think of leaving AT&T over the network troubles, the article adds. Specifically, a March survey of 4,040 smartphone customers was conducted by ChangeWave Research, InvestorPlace.com’s consumer polling and research division. In it, Verizon customers reported only 1.5% of their calls being dropped over the past three months, the lowest in the smartphone industry. This is also the lowest percentage for a carrier ever recorded by ChangeWave...

Apple seems to have tweaked its iPhone to support a Chinese security protocol for wireless networks, as companies increasingly adopt Chinese government-backed technologies to break into the country's market, reports "PC World" (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/195524/apple_tweaks_wifi_i...). The move suggests Apple may soon launch a new version of the iPhone in China with Wi-Fi, a feature that regulations previously barred, the article adds. Chinese regulators last month approved the frequency ranges used by a new Apple mobile phone with 3G and wireless LAN support, the web site of China's State Radio Monitoring Center shows. The device appears to be an iPhone and uses GSM and the 3G standard WCDMA, just like iPhones currently offered in China by local carrier China Unicom. Apple removed Wi-Fi on the iPhones now sold in China because regulators there began approving mobile phones with WLAN support last year -- and only if they supported a WAPI (WLAN Authentication and...

NRG Software has released NRGship Mac 1.1 (http://www.nrgsoft.com/products/mac/ups/mac/index.php), the latest version of the software that allows UPS shippers to switch to their Mac and manage all of the their shipping information in one place. The new version offers enhanced Mac Address Book importing, batch shipping and updated printer and USB scale options. Mac users can streamline their shipping workflow without the use of My UPS (UPS.com). As of version 1.1, NRG has added default importers to allow UPS shippers to move their address books from UPS and Worldship in just a few minutes. In addition to the new address book imports, shippers can now batch ship to multiple recipients out of the Mac address book. Additionally, NRGship 1.1 adds additional features to allow the use of networked or shared Zebra printers as well. There's also now support for the Dymo 4XL printer and Fairbanks Ultegra USB scale. NRGship Mac costs US$18.95 per month or $189.95 annuallly. A free 15-day trial...