In addition to Apple retail stores, Apple’s new iPad will be available at most Best Buy stores this Saturday, April 3, beginning at 9 a.m. But with just 15 units available per store, it is likely the highly anticipated iPad will be elusive.   Milo.com, tracks the real-time in-store availability of Best Buy products, and almost 50,000 other retail stores nationwide. Early adopters in hot iPad pursuit can simply enter their location and type “iPad” on the Milo.com Web site or from their mobile phones and Milo.com will find the nearest Best Buy location with it in stock.

The iPad's attractive design, compelling applications and multi-touch capability will help to offset the omission of Adobe Flash from the device and send demand soaring in 2010 and beyond, according to a preliminary forecast by iSuppli Corp. (http://www.isuppli.com). Worldwide iPad sales are expected to amount to 7.1 million units in 2010. Sales will double to 14.4. million in 2011 and nearly triple to 20.1 million in 2012, says iSuppli. Sales in 2010 will be driven by early adopters and others attracted to the iPad's unique touch screen-baed user interface, the research group says. In 2011 and 2012, iPad sales will be driven up by a range of factors, including a flood of new applications, improved functionality and declining prices. 
What's more, iSuppli reps say this forecast is "conservative." Factors that could boost sales beyond their preliminary expectations are swift feature enhancements and the early addition of Flash support.

Toon Boom Animation has released Toon Boom Animate 2 (http://www.toonboom.com/products/animate/), an update of the animation software that lets you publish animation for all types of media, from online to HDTV. Version 2.0 offers: distribution of character parts to layers; adjustment of velocity on multiple character parts; creation of richer-looking ambiance; SWF export with effects; direct import of scanned drawings (TWAIN); and text capability. Animate can handle such formats and jobs as vector, bitmap, symbols, pegs, camera, morphing, inverse kinematics, advanced lip sync and more. It enables users to create traditional and bitmap animation as well as combine both styles. Users can access lip-sync and cell swapping tools. Buy Toon Boom Animate 2 is available for US$599.99 until April 14; the regular price is $699.99. All customers who took advantage of the pre-order campaign, which started on March 8, will receive their Product Code electronically along with instructions on how...

FileMaker (http://www.filemaker.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple, has announced the immediate availability of its Bento for iPad on the Apple App Store for US$4.99. The app is based on Bento for iPhone with enhancements to make the most of the big, beautiful iPad screen, says Ryan Rosenberg, FileMaker vice president of marketing and services. The new app enables users to manage contacts, track projects, plan events and more, and can be used by itself or synchronized with Bento 3 for Mac.   Bento for iPad works in both portrait and landscape views, automatically switching between views as the user rotates the iPad. Users can touch the screen to edit information in choice, date and rating fields and checkboxes. A new quick tap lets users watch videos, view photos and send e-mails. Customers can even browse web links in Bento without leaving the app.    The app features new notebook, clipboard, and glass themes that you can apply to any Bento library. It also includes 25 pre-...

Black Cat Systems has announced that version 4.0.0 of Morse Mania (http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/morsemania.html) has been released and is now available for immediate download. This version is a complete re-write in Cocoa, and adds Universal Binary support. Morse Mania is a morse code tutor for the Macintosh. The software package helps you learn morse code at speeds ranging from five to 50 words per minute. Morse Mania is designed for amateur (ham) radio operators who want to learn or improve their morse code proficiency, especially in order to upgrade their license class. The generated morse code is played using the computer's speaker. In addition to drills to help learn the various characters, Morse Mania also allows complete text files to be sent, so that "real life" messages can be used for practice. Simulated morse code conversations (called a QSO in ham lingo) can also be sent. In addition, the user can type characters at the keyboard, which are then translated into...

In what may be good news for Apple's iWork apps, Microsoft has no plans to make Office products for the iPad, Stephen Elop, president of Microsoft’s business division, told "Bloomberg" (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=conewsstory&tkr=AAPL%3AUS&sid=auK...).. At least not yet. Elop said the company would take a “wait and see” approach to tailoring software for the iPad, which goes on sale on April 3. “We never say never, but we have no current plans” to develop a version of Office for the Apple iPad, he added. An iPad edition of Office would likely be built by a unit within Microsoft’s consumer business that creates versions of Office that work with Apple’s Macintosh personal computers. Kristen Woody, a spokesman for that unit, told "Bloomberg" it “doesn’t have anything to share at this time.”

Black Cat Systems has announced that version 4.0.0 of Morse Mania (http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/morsemania.html) has been released and is now available for immediate download. This version is a complete re-write in Cocoa, and adds Universal Binary support. Morse Mania is a morse code tutor for the Macintosh. The software package helps you learn morse code at speeds ranging from five to 50 words per minute. Morse Mania is designed for amateur (ham) radio operators who want to learn or improve their morse code proficiency, especially in order to upgrade their license class. The generated morse code is played using the computer's speaker. In addition to drills to help learn the various characters, Morse Mania also allows complete text files to be sent, so that "real life" messages can be used for practice. Simulated morse code conversations (called a QSO in ham lingo) can also be sent. In addition, the user can type characters at the keyboard, which are then translated into...

Overall satisfaction among smartphone and traditional handset owners whose phones are equipped with touch screens is considerably higher than satisfaction of owners of phones that have other input mechanisms, according to a new report by J.D. Power and Associates (http://www.JDPower.com). And the iPhone leads the pack in customer satisfaction. Among smartphone owners whose device has a touch screen, satisfaction averages 771 on a 1,000-point scale, nearly 40 index points higher than among those whose smartphone uses other input methods, such as a text keyboard. Currently, slightly more than one-half of owners indicate their smartphone has a touch screen for navigation. While not as readily available on traditional mobile phones, satisfaction on phones with a touch screen averages 756-53 index points higher than the industry average. "Touch screens are ideal for those using their phone for entertainment, as the displays are generally larger and provide a richer viewing experience,"...

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster tells clients that his initial estimates of 900,000 iPads sold in the June quarter and 2.7 million in calendar year 2010 “may prove to be conservative" and that Apple is selling every iPad it can build. As reported by All Things D (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Munster-Apple-is-Selling-allthingsd-418258...), Munster thinks Apple will sell between 200,000 and 300,000 iPads this weekend -- comparable to the 270,000 first gen iPhones it sold at launch. And he thinks the chances are good that the company will sell out of the tablet device. “When Apple began taking pre-orders customers could pre-order for home delivery on April 3 or in-store pickup on April 3,” Munster told clients. “A week before the launch (on March 27) the company pushed back the shipping date to April 12 and ended the in-store reservation program for the launch. And in preparation for the launch, on March 31 Apple retail stores began calling those with iPad pickup reservations to...

Apple has announced (http://www.apple.com/ipad/mobileme/) iPad support for MobileMe, the company's US$99-per-year suite of Internet tools. MobileMe delivers push email, push contacts and push calendars from the MobileMe service in the “cloud” to native applications on the iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs. MobileMe also provides a suite of ad-free web applications that deliver a desktop-like experience through any modern browser. MobileMe apps include Mail, Contacts and Calendar, as well as Gallery for viewing and sharing photos and iDisk for storing and exchanging documents online. Apple says the service now syncs with iPad. And it offers a feature that lets you locate your iPad if you misplace it. Log in to me.com to view a map that shows the approximate location of your iPad. If it’s nearby, have it play a sound to help you find it, or display a message on the Home screen to help someone return it to you. The Find My iPad feature works best if your iPad includes both Wi-Fi and 3G,...

While everyone else has been distracted by the iPhone and that newfangled iPad, the Second Gear crew has been hard at work giving love to a dedicated group of Mac users who haven't felt the love lately: the Classic Mac diehards.   Second Gear has released Today 2 (http://www.secondgearsoftware.com/today-classic/), which lets you keep track of what's on your plate for any given day without keeping Now Up-to-Date & Contact open all the time. Today syncs with Now Up-to-Date & Contact and your life's agenda so daily events and tasks are always available via one, convenient little interface. It costs US$21.95. Upgrades from version 1.x are $11.95. A demo is available for download.

Ambrosia Software has updated WireTap Anywhere (http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/utilities/wta/) -- a low latency audio tool that lets you take the audio output from any Mac application or hardware input device and bring it into your favorite audio recording application -- to version 1.0.7. The upgrade adds several fixes and enhancements. You can create and edit all of your WireTap Anywhere devices from System Preferences. Once your devices are created, just change the input within your favorite audio application, and you're ready to monitor, process, and record. With WireTap Anywhere you can mix any combination of applications and input devices into a single, logical device. Select the software or hardware inputs you want, and WireTap Anywhere will handle the rest. WireTap Anywhere is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. It requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later. A demo is available for download. WireTap Anywhere costs US$129 for new users, but version 1.0.7 is...

Big Nerd Ranch Europe -- a provider of Cocoa and Cocoa touch developer training for the Mac, iPhone and iPad -- has announced a new date for its iPhone Bootcamp near Frankfurt, Germany: May 17 - 21, 2010. The class, covering iPhone and iPad programming, is taught by Scott Ritchie, who has 20 years background in Objective-C and Cocoa (touch) programming. The class is held at the historic former monastery "Kloster Eberbach." This class is for every programmer who likes to get a kick-start in iPhone and iPad development. One price covers five days of intensive iPhone and iPad training, lodging for five days, all meals, original instruction materials, 24-hour lab access, and transportation to and from the Frankfurt airport (FRA). Students signing up before April 12, 2010 apply for the early bird price and save Euro 200 off the price of €2800.

Mac OS X, Safari and iPhone market share for Internet usage rose from February to March, according to the latest market share survey from NetMarketShare (http://www.netmarketshare.com). According to the report, among operating systems, Mac OS X had 5.33% of the global market share in March, compared to 5.02% in February (that's global market share; in the US it's almost 10 %). Windows remains dominant with 91.58% as of March. That's down from 92.12% in February. Apple's highest percentage previously was 5.27% in October 2009, so March's number is an all-time high. When it comes to browsers, Safari had 4.65% in March, while Internet Explorer had 60.65% Firefox had 24.52% and Chrome had 6.13%. That compares to, respectively, February percentages of 61.58, 24.23 and 5.61%, for the browsers. The iPhone's market share also rose, according to Net Applications. The Apple device had 0.51% of the global market share in March compared to 0.50% in February. The iPod touch also had 0.11% of the...

Comm-Unity Networking Systems has released CNS Audit 1.0.3 (http://cnsaudit.cnsplug-ins.com), an update of the audit trail plug-in for FileMaker Pro to add to your databases. It's a maintenance update that fixes a problem with the plug-in not working on Windows with FileMaker Pro 11. CNS Audit includes full Roll Back support for undoing field changes and record deletions. CNS Audit is available for both Mac OS X and Windows systems. immediately at for both Mac OS X and Windows. Whether you just want peace of mind about being able to get a record back that you have accidentally deleted or if you have to comply to regulatory mandates like HIPAA, you can use CNS Audit to create an Audit Trail of your data within minutes, according to the folks at Comm-Unity. You can download a demo copy of the plug-in to test it out before purchasing. An one-user license for the client version of CNS Audit is US$95. There are several other price points on the purchase page for the plug-in. And version 1....

Hard Candy Cases is shipping the first line of protective sleeves for the iPad, with four additional models scheduled to ship in the next several weeks. There's a video of the cases at http://tinyurl.com/HCCBubbleShell that details the production process of the first Bubble Sleeves. “We wanted to create a case that had more style and protection than the typical neoprene sleeve," says Hard Candy Cases CEO Tim Hickman. "We took it a step further by custom molding rubber feet inside the case that add 2-3x the drop protection, and which allowed us to start manufacturing the casing earlier." Crafted with detailed stitching and zipper, the EVA molded, rigid Bubble Sleeve features shock absorbing fitted rubber bumpers to keep the iPad securely in place. A soft, padded interior lining protects the Multi-Touch display. The Bubble Sleeve is available in green, pink and black and retails for US$49.95. The entire line of iPad sleeves and shells are available to order at http://www.HardCandyCases....

According to a new poll conducted by ORC (http://www.opinionresearch.com), an Infogroup Company, the vast majority of US consumers (71%) are familiar with Apple’s iPad. Six percent plan on buying one within a year, equating to a sale of about seven million units, and 1% said they will purchase one as soon as it becomes available, which would translate to a sale of approximately one million units. The findings in ORC’s survey correspond closely with market analyst predictions that five million iPads will be sold in 2010. Based on the results of ORC’s research, it is clear that a significant number of tech-hungry consumers are interested in an iPad in the short-term, but what does this mean for the long-term success of the product? “Adoption of new technologies is often a slow and gradual process,” says Kevin Wood, vice president and senior analyst with ORC’s technology practice. “It wasn’t that long ago when the Blackberry smartphone was only used by executives and road warriors....

OCRKit (http://ocrkit.com/), a text recognition app for Mac O X 10.4 or higher, has been updated to version 1.1. The new version adds support for new OCR languages: Polish, Russian, Turkish. There's also control for color detection. Additionally, version 1.1 improves automatic color detection and the embedding of certain image files. OCRKit transforms images and PDF files into searchable PDFs. With built-in OCR it allows for editable PDF files via drag and drop. And you can find 'em with the Mac's built-in Spotlight desktop search. OCRKKit comes with support for several OCR languages, including English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish, and even more user-interface translations: English, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Simplified-Chinese and Traditional-Chinese. It's designed for Intel Macs only. OCRKit costs approximately US$56, though version 1.1. is a free update for registered users. A demo is available for download.

Music industry sources told "CNET" (http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20001480-261.html) this week Apple has informed label managers that a streaming music service is unlikely to be ready before the third quarter. Some had hoped such a service might arrive when Apple unveiled the iPad tablet in January, but it didn't. "CNET" says that same month, Apple executives spoke to the major record labels about enabling people to store their music on the company's servers and access their songs with web-enabled devices. At that point, music-industry insiders speculated that Apple's new service might debut early this year. "Besides a later-than-hoped-for start to Apple's streaming, all of this also means that music -- which has typically played an important role in most of Apple's culture-changing devices -- will be bumped to the sidelines with the iPad," says "CNET." Last year Apple has bought Lala, which, in September 2008, unveiled "the first and only free fully licensed service to instantly...

Apple has posted released AirPort Base Station Update 2010-001, which brings the Airport Utility to version 5.5.1. The update -- which requires Mac OS X 10.5.7 or later -- addresses two bugs and includes a security fix. The security patch addresses an issue that would have allowed an unauthorized user to connect to an otherwise restricted network. You can obtain the update via the Software Updates component of Mac OS X's Systems Preferences app.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has announced the doubling of its iFund to US$200 million of venture capital for applications for Apple's iPhone OS family of products, including iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.  Established in 2008 as a $100 million investment pool, the original iFund is now fully committed across 14 companies. iFund companies have been supported by an additional $330 million from follow-on investors.   KPCB (xhttp://www.kpcb.com) also announced iFund-supported companies have more than 20 applications in development for the soon-to-be-released iPad, with 11 available at first ship on April 3. KPCB noted the iPhone has created an inflection in mobile content consumption and the iPad will lead the next wave of innovation in mobile computing. The iFund is increasing its investment dollars to back entrepreneurs and build companies that focus on these areas. Particular areas of interest on iPad include entertainment, communication, social networking, commerce,...

Global Delight has updated Voila (http://www.globaldelight.com) -- an image capturing, annotating and sharing tool that sports the ability to capture a region from the screen in rectangular, circular, polygonal or free hand form -- to version 3.0. Users will now be able to record high-quality videos of their desktop, among other feature additions. Features such as image resizing, single-click sharing across FTP, SFTP, Flickr and YouTube, customization with regard to capturing and exporting options are among the many additions made. The app also sports a revamped look. Voila offers full screen capture, timed capture or a menu capture. In addition, the software is integrated with a blend of annotating tools like texts, arrows, callouts, sprays, stamps and more. Additionally, you can share your work via email or iPhoto. Voila runs on Mac OS X 10.5.2 or later. It costs US$39.95. Upgrades from previous versions are $15 through the second week of April; after that, it's $18.

SmileOnMyMac has updated PDFPen (http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/download.html), its PDF editing and form-filling tool for Mac OS X, to version 4.6.1. Text resulting from OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is now positioned more accurately for selection and highlighting. An occasional problem with sheet-fed scanners has been corrected, as well as an issue with drawing text annotations. Other minor improvements and fixes have also been made. PDFpen costs US$49.95, and PDFpenPro is $99.95. Family pack licenses, which cover up to five computers in one household, are $74.95 for PDFpen and $129.95 for PDFpenPro. Upgrades from earlier versions of either application are $25, and free to users who purchased after June 1, 2008. Upgrades from any version of PDFpen to PDFpenPro 4.0 are $50. PDFpen 4.6.1 and PDFpenPro 4.6.1 require Mac OS X 10.4 or later. An Intel 1.8GHz processor or above is recommended for OCR. Demo versions are available for download.

In a new report "Cloud Computing and its Contribution to Climate Change," the environment group, Greenpeace (http://www.greenpeace.org), has criticized the iPad, cloud computing and "IT's growing carbon problem." "Here's part of what they have to say: "Whether you actually want an iPad or not, there is no doubt that it is a harbinger of things to come. The iPad relies upon cloud-based computing to stream video, download music and books, and fetch email. Already, millions access the 'cloud' to make use of online social networks, watch streaming video, check email and create documents, and store thousands of digital photos online on popular web-hosted sites like Flickr and Picasa. "The cloud is growing at a time when climate change and reducing emissions from energy use is of paramount concern. With the growth of the cloud, however, comes an increasing demand for energy. For all of this content to be delivered to us in real time, virtual mountains of video, pictures and other data must...