IBM (http://www.ibm.com/us/en/) says it's delivering business-grade collaboration and social software for use with the iPhone, iPod touch or Macs. Organizations can now use IBM software for enterprise social networking; instant messaging; and securely encrypted email and collaborative applications with the iPhone and Mac.   The new software includes Lotus Symphony 3.0, IBM's office productivity suite, which is now available on the Mac,  providing spreadsheets, presentations and documents free of charge. In addition, new offerings for the iPhone and Mac include Lotus Connections and Lotus Sametime, which customers can use to build professional networks with social capabilities such as blogs, wikis, activities and microblogging, as well as instant messaging capabilities. With Symphony for the Mac, IBM is unveiling the new Lotus Symphony 3.0 beta productivity software and its new features. Symphony provides documents, spreadsheets and presentations and supports most Microsoft Office...

Apple has released Mac Pro Audio 1.0 (http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1004). This update is for Mac Pro (Early 2009) computers running Mac OS X 10.6.2. According to Apple, this update reduces processor utilization during audio activities, such as playing or recording music. audio activities, such as playing or recording music. It's a 1.64MB download. You can obtain Mac Pro Audio 1.0 via the Software Updates component of the Mac OS X System Preferences app.

At this week's Macworld Expo, HP (http://www.hp.com) has expanded its HP Officejet portfolio with a new flatbed all-in-one printer: the HP Officejet 4500 All-in-One. The company also announced the worldwide availability of the HP Creative Studio for Business, an online resource to help customers grow and market their small businesses. The HP Officejet 4500 All-in-One series starts at US$99, features a piano-black finish and a 20-sheet automatic document feeder. The Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") and Windows compatible all-in-one offers borderless printing for brochures, flyers and other documents, built-in Ethernet and wireless networking options. In addition, it produces fast-drying documents that resist fading when using papers with the ColorLok logo. With the optional HP 901XL Black Officejet Inkjet Cartridge, small businesses can now print up to three times more black pages for greater savings, according to the folks at HP. As part of the HP Eco Solutions program, the Energy Star...

Apple has released firmware update 3.0.2 for the Apple TV. According to "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) it appears to be related to the release of Aperture 3.0, which made changes to how that software shares images over the local network, in addition to adding support for iPhoto's Places and Faces features. Users have also reported that since applying the update their Apple TV has stopped experiencing problems related to switching its HDMI output cable, the article adds. Firmware update 3.0.2 also tweaks the user interface to enhance the readability of text. The update can be downloaded and installed from the Update Software option within the Settings/General menu on Apple TV.

Redpark Product Development (http://www.redpark.com) has announced its Serial Cable Reference Design for OEM use with the iPhone and iPod touch. The cable has been approved by Apple as a reference design, says Redpark President Mike Ridenhour. The serial cable makes it possible to connect an iPhone or iPod touch to serial devices such as medical or scientific instrumentation, point of sale devices, industrial process control equipment, networking devices, and building automation equipment. The cable enables the attached device to communicate with an application running on an Apple device. The cable can be customized to meet the needs of a given application. The firmware, connector type, and cable length can be revised as required. To help customers accelerate development and time to market, Redpark provides the technology under license or will manufacture custom serial cables. Redpark expects that the reference design will be suitable for use with the recently announced iPad. However...

According to new data released by the NPD Group -- and as reported by "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com -- Apple came in fifth place among both physical store locations and for its online presence in total revenue in the U.S. Apple's retail stores ranked behind major stores Best Buy, Walmart, Staples and Target, respectively. The top overall Web seller was Dell, followed by Amazon, Best Buy and HP, with Apple coming in fifth. NPD based the rankings on tracked consumer technology revenue in 2009. Those products include IT, imaging, audio, video, and consumables. They exclude video game hardware and software, PC software and mobile phones.

Macworld Expo 2010 (http://www.macworldexpo.com) is now underway at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. And if the morning updates are a bit slow, it's because Yours Truly is en route to the annual event. "We’re excited to deliver one of the most dynamic and interesting Macworlds ever,” says Paul Kent, vice president and general manager for Macworld 2010. “From the first ever face-to-face marketplace for iPhone apps, to product discovery opportunities for software, hardware and accessories for the Mac, to dozens of important product announcement events, to informative and entertaining feature presentations -- this year’s Macworld shines a spotlight on all of the amazing things people are doing across the Apple-products ecosystem. The show brings together buyers, sellers, developers, users -- the entire spectrum of the Apple-product using community -- to meet, do business and learn. Macworld is truly the premier meeting place for this market.” Macworld 2010 show highlights include the...

Arten Science is offering MonitorMyMac (http://www.monitormymac.co.uk) for Mac OS X free to parents. The software takes timed snapshots of your computer Screen and/or takes snapshots from your connected webcam. These images can be stored locally, or remotely and are also optionally uploaded to your FTP server. This means they can they be accessed from anywhere with Internet access. MonitorMyMac is the "big brother" of ScreenAudit. It has a built-in image viewer and the ability to automatically send images to a remote server via FTP.

Prelytis (http://www.prelytis.com), a new-generation business intelligence software vendor, has proposed what it says is the first business intelligence solution compatible with the upcoming Apple iPad. Prelytis LiveDashBoard purportedly offers the first business intelligence application fully adapted to the specifics of the new device. From the administrator to the dashboard and indicators designer, from the manager to the simple user, LiveDashBoard on iPad enables users to use the multi-touch experience developed by Apple for displaying and analyzing their business indicators. All features of LiveDashBoard are accessible at the touch of a finger: indicators display, navigation but also dashboards and kpi design. LiveDashBoard includes zoom features, drag-and-drop, contextual menus, scroll-down, roll-over preview of indicators, and more for a unique touch experience on interactive business dashboard. A 30-day demo is available for download at the Prelytis web site.

Users of business applications demand rich, interactive experiences and organizations are challenged to bring new and modernized applications to market quickly. These applications must reuse existing applications and services as much as possible and be built for change to easily adapt to new requirements. Applications need to extend to mobile devices while accessing and displaying data in a consistent way. And increasingly, applications must help deliver a social experience of collaboration and communication for your customers. In this Webcast we will explore how WebSphere Application Server Feature Packs make it easier for you to deliver innovative business applications that help you reach customers in new ways - ways that can differentiate your organization. You'll also discover how only IBM enables innovation without disruption through Feature Packs which allow you to leverage the latest open standards and programming models without the need to upgrade your application server. We'...

Kerio is announcing Kerio Connect 7 at this week's Macworld Conference & Expo. Previously known as Kerio MailServer, marks the messaging server’s entry into the market of midsize, multi-office deployments, giving customers an option to link standalone servers into a single distributed domain system. The advantages of a distributed domain become apparent for organizations with branch offices in different physical locations, according to Kerio. While companies often install separate messaging servers in offices located in other cities or countries for performance, security or compliance reasons, they often lose the benefits of a single collaboration server -- most notably the ability to see the availability of coworkers in other offices. Kerio Connect 7 allows companies to join their Kerio Connect servers into a single geographically dispersed cluster with servers aware of each other’s user groups, individual user’s availability, shared contacts in Global Address Lists, or shared...

Zevrix Solutions (http://www.zevrix.com) has released PDF Checkpoint 1.2, an update of the PDF workflow automation solution. The new version lets users preserve transparency when exporting PDF to TIFF and PNG. Yazsoft (http://www.yazsoft.com) has released Speed Download 5.2.11, the latest version of its Mac OS X download manager that combines four products: a download manager with auto-resuming downloads, a secure FTP client, a file sharing utility with full encryption, and .Mac/iDisk/WEBDAV connectivity. The upgrade offers new Growl integration and squishes some bugs. Tension Software has updated NoteList (http://pomola.com/products_notelist/notelist.html), a Mac OS X app that allows to store notes in a free form using text and images with full word processing capabilities, to version 2.8. The upgrade improves the search result display, enhances the split area handling and offers better memory management. The PandaWare Company (http://www.pandaware.com) has updated Simple Help...

MacTech Labs Releases Comprehensive Virtualization Benchmarks - Over 3500 tests performed to compare solutions - Parallels Desktop 5 vs. VMware Fusion 3 - Tests include MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac, and Mac Pro February 9, 2010 -- WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. -- MacTech Labs (http://www.mactech.com/labs), part of MacTech Magazine (http://www.mactech.com), today released an extensive benchmark study of virtualization solutions running on Intel-based Macs. MacTech's goal was to see how well Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion perform compared head-to-head in their most recent versions. The very large suite of over 3500 tests was performed comparing the MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac Pro. The purpose of the testing and the article are to answer the questions about performance for the different virtualization solutions available, as well as the differences between Windows XP and Windows 7 in virtual machines, as well as multiple processors and 64-bit vs. 32-bit. This is the 3rd year that...

Notebook, iThoughts, iType2Go Add TextExpander touch Integration San Francisco, CA -- February 9, 2010 -- TextExpander touch, the iPhone version of SmileOnMyMac's customizable typing shortcut tool, is now integrated in the apps Notebook, iThoughts and iType2Go. Users of these apps can expand their TextExpander snippets while typing within these apps. To celebrate the integration, SmileOnMyMac has a special sale on TextExpander touch. Through February 14, 2010, TextExpander touch is only $1.99, a 60% discount off the regular price of $4.99. TextExpander touch integration has been added to 16 iPhone apps, including Tweetie 2, WriteRoom, Simplenote, and Twittelator Pro. A complete list is available at http://www.smileonmymac.com/applist. The TextExpander touch Software Development Kit (SDK), which allows iPhone developers to integrate TextExpander functionality into their applications, consists of a free TextExpander engine library and sample code. The SDK can be downloaded at http://...

Insider Software (http://www.insidersoftware.com) has released FontAgent Pro Server 4, an update of the -- a solution for managing, distributing and synchronizing fonts across creative workgroups in agencies, small businesses and large enterprises. It adds font-usage tracking, live backup, automatic failover server access, Kerberos single-sign-on support and directory-services enhancements. FontAgent Pro Server 4 now includes what Insider says is the industry's first real-time font-usage manager, which shows who has access to various libraries and fonts as well as when they activate and deactivate them. For deeper analysis, administrators can use their favorite scripting language to save font-usage data in various file formats that can be used by Excel, report scripts, databases, asset and accounting applications. Using these statistics, organizations can ensure compliance with font-license agreements, track font usage by person or project, and avoid the uncertainty and cost of font-...

Global IP Solutions (http://www.gipscorp.com/), a provider of HD voice and video processing solutions, has announced the availability of video chat technology for iPhone developers to incorporate video conferencing/video chat into their mobile applications. With GIPS VideoEngine Mobile, iPhone developers can integrate y real-time video chat or multi-point video conferencing into iPhone applications that resolves the issues related to IP networks such as delay, jitter and echo, says Joyce Kim, GIPS' chief marketing officer. As iPhone market share continues to grow rapidly with more than three billion application downloads in nearly 80 countries, application developers can build and deploy video chat applications that overcome typical mobile constraints such as packet loss, bandwidth constraints, background noise and lip synchronization, she says. Contact Global IP Solutions for pricing options.

Sugar Games has released Matchmaker: Joining Hearts (http://www.sugargames.com/matchmaker/), an US$9.95 game that's compatible with Mac OS X 10.3 and higher. Here's how it's described: "It's a hidden object game featuring a variety of challenges embedded into a romantic story line. In the game you assume the role of Helen Jones, a nice woman that moves to a resort town where even wind whispers love. However, there are still some lonely hearts that haven't found partners yet. An encounter with a new neighbor inspires you to start helping singles choose a partner employing your own highly efficient approach. "Not unlike a detective, you visit the single in question and the three candidates at their places - but instead of evidence you look for objects that may characterize their owner and use your observations to decide who will be the perfect match for your friend. To make sure the choice is right you will also have to spot identical objects in the rooms of the single and the...

An Apple patent at the US Patent & Trademark Office shows that Apple is considering a 3D version of its online store. Think Second Life (http://www.secondlife.com). Patent number 7660749 is for a method, system and medium for representing visitor activity in an online store. Representing activity in an online store is disclosed. Information associated with the activities of a second visitor to the store is received. An indication of the presence of a first visitor at the store is also received. The activities of the second visitor are displayed to the first visitor. The inventor is David A. Koski. Here's Apple's background on the invention: "The goals of both online shops and physical stores are generally the same--facilitating the purchase of goods and services by customers. In some cases, online shopping offers advantages over shopping in a physical store. For example, online shops are often open continuously, whereas most physical stores have set hours. Online shoppers are also...

Canson (http://www.Papershow.com) will launch a Mac compatible version of Papershow, a digital writing solution, at this week's Macworld Expo. It's compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 and higher. Papershow will be featured in the First Looks showcase throughout the duration of Macworld, and the video describing how Papershow works in a variety of settings has been streaming on MacworldTV in the weeks leading up to the show. Papershow consists of three elements: a wireless Bluetooth pen, a USB key and interactive paper that work together to let you create a digital flip chart or annotate a Keynote or PowerPoint Presentation live. It's designed to be used in a classroom, a conference room or through web conferencing. After a meeting, web conference or class, one can save the session, and then immediately print and/or email it to the team. Papershow features six different colors, three different brushstrokes, shapes, lines and arrows. The complete product has a list price of US$297.97.

A new job posting (http://jobs.apple.com/index.ajs?BID=1&method=mExternal.showJob&RID=47818) for a "Performance QA Engineer, iPad Media" on Apple's site suggests that the company is preparing to add still and video camera capabilities to the iPad, as reported by "Mac Rumors" (http://www.macrumors.com), Here's part of the job posting: "The Media Systems team is looking for a software quality engineer with a strong technical background to test still, video and audio capture and playback frameworks. Build on your QA experience and knowledge of digital camera technology (still and video) to develop and maintain testing frameworks for both capture and playback pipelines. You will work together with the development team to ensure quality. Your focus will mainly be on performance testing and developing performance measurement test tools. You will be responsible for the development and maintenance of methodical testing strategies and accompanying test documentation. Day to day...

Pacific WebWorks (http://www.pacificwebworks.com/) will release WebWizard 5 early next week. This product, which will be optional for a brief time before becoming mandatory for customers within the next 60 days, will support Mac OS X, Windows 7 and Linux operating systems. WebWizard 5 also sports: more than 400 templates; the ability to use rich media such as flash, audio and video on your web site; integration with social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace; tools to optimize your web site for search engines; a more powerful forms engine allowing WebProfiler to collect customer and site visitor data; and product layout views and easier integration. Pricing hasn't yet been announced.

Akvis Software (http://www.akvis.com) has updated Akvis Coloriage, its tool for coloring black-and-white photos, to version 7.0. Among other things it offers support for Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") and Windows 7. The update also introduces a new mode for the Pencil tool, Multicolor mode, as well as other improvements. Akvis Coloriage is available for Mac and Windows as a Photoshop plug-in and in a stand-alone edition. Version 7.0 also offers an improved interface design, support for 64-bit to the plug-in version (compatibility with Adobe Photoshop CS4 64 bit), compatibility with Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, an improved print dialog box (it’s now possible to select a printer and its resolution), and an update to the program’s documentation. A fully featured 10-day trial of Akvis Coloriage is available for free from the Akvis web site. The product costs from US$97 to $246 depending on the license type. Registered users can upgrade to version 7.0 for free.

MacTech Magazine (http://www.mactech.com) -- a monthly magazine focused on the Mac at the technical level (and for which Yours Truly is a contributing writer) -- has released an extensive benchmark study of virtualization solutions running on Intel-based Macs. MacTech's goal was to see how well Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion perform compared head-to-head in their most recent versions. The suite of over 3,500 tests was performed comparing the MacBook, MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac Pro. The purpose of the testing and the article are to answer the questions about performance for the different virtualization solutions available, as well as the differences between Windows XP and Windows 7 in virtual machines, as well as multiple processors and 64-bit vs. 32-bit. This is the third year that MacTech has done extensive benchmarks on virtualization products. The resulting 7,500 word article, with 23 figures, is the most comprehensive look at virtualization on the Mac with today's commercial...

comScore (http://www.comscore.com), which measures the digital world, released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry over the three month period between September and December 2009. According to the stats, Apple was the second largest smartphone vendor in the US in December. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. according to their share of current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, as well as the most popular forms of content and activity accessed via mobile device. The report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer with 23.5% market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 41.6% market share. A total of 234 million people age 13 and older in the U.S. used mobile devices in December 2009. Device manufacturer Motorola was the top ranked OEM with 23.5% of U.S. mobile devices. LG ranked second with 21.9%...