A company called iPerform3D (http://www.iperform3d.com) is offering what it calls an alternative to Apple's "Learn to Play" feature in GarageBand '09, offering pro/celebrity music instruction. iPerform 3D's solution is the 3D Guitar Learning System, which is Mac and Windows compatible. iPerform3D's newly launched 3D Guitar Learning System uses motion-capture and 3D animation technology. The company says this marks the first time that sophisticated motion-capture technology -- previously limited to big-budget film and video game companies like Sony and Electronic Arts -- is available beyond rarified videogame and entertainment circles via a patented application of the technology. Unlike DVDs or online video lessons, this system gives guitarists complete control, allowing them to rotate and zoom the "virtual" camera to any angle, even "behind" and "through" the instructor's guitar neck. iPerform3D technology also allows guitarists to slow lessons down without changing pitch, or loop a...

RE:Vision Effects (http://www.revisionfx.com) has expanded support of its DE:Noise FxPlug plugin set for Final Cut Pro and Motion to include Final Cut Express. DE:Noise is a plugin set that removes excessive noise and artifacts in one tool. It handles spurious frame-to-frame defects ranging from fine digital and electronic noise to blotchy spots (e.g. dirt on the film). DE:Noise combines proprietary motion estimation (optical flow) techniques with feature-sensitive, edge-preserving spatial filtering methods to reduce the visual impact of various problems such as: noisy video (that can happen with low-light capture), excessive film grain, prefiltering noisy greenscreens before keying, CG renders affected by ray-tracing sampling artifacts, dust captured during film scan/transfer and printing, snow, drop-outs and many other defects. DE:Noise is available as an FxPlug plugin for Final Cut Express 4.0.1 and up, Final Cut Pro 6.0.1 and up, Motion 3.0.1 and up. It costs US$149.95.

equinux (http://www.equinux.com) has expanded its TV software The Tube with two free iPhone apps to let you integrate the iPhone into the TV experience. With Live TV, users can stream live TV programs directly to their iPhone from their Mac with The Tube. With TubeToGo, you can access TV recordings on their iPhone whenever and wherever. You can even program recordings in The Tube on the go. Live TV shows live television in an optimized resolution for the iPhone when it is in the same WLAN as The Tube software. As soon as an iPhone is registered with The Tube, all currently available TV channels will be available with a click. It's also just that easy to change channels in "Live TV" and even start a recording, according to equinux CEO Till Schadde. With TubeToGo, iPhone users can watch The Tube recordings on their iPhone via the internet. Additionally, they can program recordings in their personal electronic program guide (EPG) and manage the complete recordings archive on the go....

EuroSmartz (http://mobile.eurosmartz.com) has released Print & Share for the iPhone and iPod touch. It's available for US$9.99 at the Apple App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=301656...). Print & Share enables users to print photos, email, email attachments as well as files transferred from laptop or desktop computer (Macs or Windows systems). You can print single or multiple photos. You can view files in formats such as doc, Excel, TXT, HTML, PDF and more. You can print email from various email accounts. With Print & Share you can create, edit and print text documents, drag 'n drop files to folders and select and print multiple contacts. You can print via WiFi or a cell network.

BargainTravel.com, an online travel agency specializing in international flights, has released Travel Toolkit for the iPhone (a href="http://www.bargaintravel.com/iphone_application_support.html). It provides flight status, airport status, TSA alerts, ticket price comparisons, airline phone numbers and airport codes. Other features of the application include directions to airports via Google Maps, current weather conditions at airports, departure and arrival gates and more. The developer of the application, Bargaintravel.com has also developed other travel applications for Apple Dashboard and Yahoo! Widgets in addition to operating their nine-year old travel site.

lastminute.com has launched a new, free talking 2009 phrasebook (http://www.realwire.com/writeitfiles/sixinarow.png) for iPhone and iPod touch users in the UK. Developed by Coolgorilla, the phrasebook is available in six different language versions: French, German, Greek, Italian Portuguese and Spanish, and can be downloaded by visiting Apple's App Store. Using the talking phrasebook consumers can ask for directions, hire a car and even engage in small talk. Each one contains over 500 sound files covering a variety of elements of the holiday experience including eating, travel, even flirting. The app allows consumers to search for a phrase in English and press "select." Their iPhone then pronounces the phrase in the foreign language with a real, native accent. The text translation is also provided on the screen.

The Method (http://www.Method-Solutions.com), formerly Method Solutions LLC, in partnership with Slapdash Games, has released Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville for the iPhone and iPod touch. Priced at $4.99, it's available at the Apple App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=302934...). A free "lite" version is also available ( http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=303525...). Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville allows players to compete for the coveted "Best in Show" in the Superstar Homes Magazine Parade of Homes. Residents of Sunnyville search for hidden swag in eccentric homes to complete the ultimate in home decor. Players can also renovate antiques for that special touch. Yard Sale Hidden Treasures: Sunnyville features: 12 unique locations to hunt for hidden objects; 16 creative repurposing projects, to help players turn trash into treasure; and decorating functions, to help players become a "Superstar...

Aleratec (http://www.aleratec) -- a developer and manufacturer of solutions for the Blu-ray, DVD/CD, Flash, HDD, USB duplicating and DVD/CD publishing markets -- is launching the next generation of its stand-alone HDD Cruiser, a hard disk drive duplicator and sanitizer all in one unit. The 1:5 HDD Cruiser will duplicate up to five HDDs simultaneously. It can also sanitize up to six HDDs to assure that confidential data is unreadable, according to Perry Solomon,president and CEO of Aleratec. The sanitizing capability is particularly important with the rapid advancement hard drives, and upgrading drives in systems is commonplace, he adds. The 1:5 HDD Cruiser is a stand\-alone unit so no computer is required for operation. The Cruiser's drive bays are equipped loading doors; open the drive bay door to load or unload a drive. When customers purchase one Aleratec 1:5 HDD Cruiser for use with SATA hard disk drives, they qualify for one Aleratec 1:3 HDD Cruiser for use with PATA hard disk...

VMware, which makes virtualization solutions, has announced what it says is the first open source client for virtual desktop infrastructure, VMware View Open Client. VMware View enables IT organizations to host user desktops in the datacenter, while letting users access their personalized desktop environments from almost any device, at any time, says Jocelyn Goldfein, vice president and general manager of VMware's Desktop Business Unit. Now, VMware is providing VMware View Open Client for partners, enabling them to use VMware View source code to optimize their products to deliver virtual desktops to users. In addition, partners will be able to use the source code to help accelerate the development and delivery of solutions for enterprises to provision and manage thousands of virtual desktops simply, securely and at substantially lower operating costs, Goldfein says. VMware View Open Client is available under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 (LGPL v 2.1) and is...

SemantiNet, which makes Semantic technology, has announced that its headup Semantic Web is now immediately available for download as a public beta. headup is a new plugin for the Mozilla Firefox Web browser that enables true semantic capabilities for the first time within any web page. Previously only available as part of a limited, closed beta, headup can be downloaded for free as of today via http://www.headup.com and http://addons.mozilla.org, headup is available for both the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems using the new Microsoft Silverlight technology. End-user privacy is fully maintained throughout the discovery and sharing process. headup's semantic engine retrieves personalized, meaningful information in real-time about the data that specifically interests the individual user. With this information, headup can seamlessly and contextually 'understand' how dispersed data across the Web is related and connect it in real time, alerting the user that there is...

Bartas Technologies LLC and Apokalypse Software Corp. announced today the sale of two products from Bartas' line, Temporis and XTabulator, to Apokalypse Software (http://www.apokalypsesoftware.com) for undisclosed terms. The timeline compositor Temporis (US$24.95) offers point-and-click simplicity for crafting date-based and sequential data into sophisticated graphs for use in presentations, publishing for print or web, reports, etc. XTabulator ($9.95) provides a workflow for dealing with one of the most pervasive formats for sharing info today, tabulated data in the form of CSV and tabbed fields (TSV). Alfonso Guerra, president and founder of Apokalypse, says the two apps had just completed porting to the Blocks framework before the announcement was made, and that plug-in support is the primary new feature of their release by Apokalypse.

LaCie (http://www.lacie.com) has announced a new d2 Blu-ray Drive, with a speed boost to 8x. Engineered for professional video authoring, the LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive (US$449.99) records, rewrites, and plays back high-definition (HD) video. You can shoot HD videos from your camcorder, author the videos, and burn them without any quality loss using multiple video codecs (MPEG2, AVC, VC-1). The drive also comes bundled with the newly revised Easy Media Creator 10 and Toast 9 Titanium software. The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive packs up to 50GB of data, or four hours of high-definition video, on a single Blu-ray disc. It sports both FireWire and USB 2.0 interfaces for high-speed throughput between the drive and a Mac or PC. The LaCie d2 Blu-ray Drive's bundled software lets Mac and Windows users master video and audio files onto Blu-ray, DVD and CD discs. With the tools customers can also schedule backups for data files, edit videos, create audio mixes and more. Plus, users can work with three...

Alesis (http://www.alesis.com), a manufacturer of professional audio equipment and studio electronics, has released the TapeLink USB, a digital-archiving cassette tape deck. It has an estimated street price of US$199.99. This dual-cassette deck enables musicians to store their recordings on hard disk or flash, burn them to CD or take them on the go on their iPod. Musicians can clean up their old tape recordings of band rehearsals, performances, demos, jam sessions and song ideas. TapeLink USB is a dubbing and playback deck that connects directly to a computer via USB. The plug-and-play USB-audio interface requires no drivers for use with most computers. TapeLink USB's CD-quality 16-bit, 44.1 kHz audio output captures tape recordings for secure digital archival. Normal and high-speed dubbing modes are designed to save time when copying music, while dynamic noise-reduction circuitry and Alesis' software suite assist in cleaning up aging tapes. TapeLink USB works with metal and CrO2...

The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (http://www.photoshopuser.com) (NAPP) has announced the winners of its 4th annual Photoshop User Awards (http://www.photoshopuserawards.com), a worldwide competition for Adobe Photoshop users. Winners were selected from more than 700 entries from 12 countries. Finalists in each of the 11 categories also competed for Best of Show to win an all expense paid, five-day trip for two to Barcelona, Spain. NAPP president Scott Kelby and Photoshop User magazine art director Felix Nelson chaired the judging panel for this year's competition. Winning images can be viewed at http://www.PhotoshopUserAwards.com/winners.php . Award winners for 2008: Best of Show: Ciro Marchetti -- Florida -- Gypsy Dancer Advertising Design: Jose Luis Santana -- Mexico -- Tough Chicken Composites/Collages: Mike Campau -- Michigan -- Stay Green. Go Red. General Photography: Michael Whitson -- Pennsylvania -- Day in the Life Artistic: Glenn Karlsen -- Norway --...

Square Wheel Software (http://www.squarewheelsoft.com) has released Next Read 2.0. It's an update of the iPhone and iPod touch app that allows users to build and manage their lists of desired books. It's available in the Apple App Store (http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=299379...) for US$1.99. Next Read 2.0 builds upon the introduced in the first version of Next Read. Users are now given new options for adding and organizing books. Next Read 2.0 also introduces sharing capabilities to allow users to share their recommendations with friends. Next Read leverages search results and book detail from Amazon.com. Using Amazon permits Next Read to provide the user with the accurate information currently available for each book. For each book list entry, convenient links let the user to go directly to Amazon to view reviews, purchase the book, or add it to a wish list.

Virtual Programming has released A Vamprye Story for Mac OS X (http://www.vpltd.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=231). It's an adventure game that costs US$29.95 and has a "7+" rating. Here's how the game is described: "Deep within the walls of a gloomy castle in the equally gloomy land of Draxsylvania, the young, gifted opera singer Mona De Lafitte is held captive by her tormentor, vampire Baron Shrowdy von Kiefer. Ever since she was transformed into a vampire by Shrowdy and whisked off to Draxsylvania, her greatest wish has been to return to Paris, continue her singing career, and one day become a star at the Paris Opera. "When Shrowdy fails to return from a nightly foray, she at last sees an opportunity to flee. Together with her only friend and confidant, a cheeky bat named Froderick, she escapes from her prison and tries to find her way back to Paris. During her flight through Draxsylvania, where she encounters some strange inhabitants and some even stranger...

Objective Development (http://www.obdev.com/) has released WebYep 1.4, an update of the tool for editing web sites without having to have a knowledge of HTML. The upgrade offers full support for Dreamweaver CS4, the ability to hide/reveal loop blocks and various enhancements and fixes. The PHP-based CMS allows integration with Dreamweaver, RapidWeaver and Freeway, either via plug-ins or via direct source code editing. It can also be built into existing web sites. WebYep is platform independent and runs on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux and Unix systems. The upgrade to WebYep 1.4 is free for all valid licensees; a new license costs approximately US$40.

ShaggyMac (http://www.shaggymac.com) is offering a new, US$16.95 screen protector for the new "unibody" 17-inch MacBook Pro. The ShaggyMac lays on the keyboard surface and cushions / protects the screen while the lid is closed. Using the ShaggyMac will prevent marks and scuffs on the LCD surface. In addition, The ShaggyMac Screen Protector is made from an optical polishing cloth, which is designed to keep the MacBook's Pro LCD screen and glass trackpad clean and smudge-free. Now also available for both the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros are a Firewire 800 9-pin Male to 6-pin Female adapter ($14.95) and Magsafe Replacement AC Adapter ($58.95).

Vaddio (http://www.vaddio.com), a manufacturer and distributor of specialty PTZ cameras and high-end camera control systems used in the broadcasting, audio/visual and videoconferencing industries, has released the PreVIEW HD Dual 7.0 and PreVIEW HD Triple 5.0 LCD Rack Mount Monitors. The monitors offer 16:9 aspect ratio LCD screens that are backlit by LEDs. In addition to component, composite and S-video inputs, they also sport a VGA input that allows a variety of resolutions up to SXGA. Both the Dual 7.0 and Triple 5.0 have 1.2 megapixel screens. The PreVIEW HD Dual 7.0 features two seven-inch high definition LCD monitors, while the PreVIEW HD Triple 5.0 features three five-inch high definition monitors. They provide 16:9 video images ideal for applications that require high resolution monitoring of HD and SD cameras. The native widescreen displays now have an internal menu to adjust each monitor's settings, which include brightness, contrast, color, tint, sharpness and several other...

Tycoon Games has released Heileen: A Trip To Bavaria, a historical-fiction visual novel game with multiple endings. It's a Flash-based game that requires the latest version (10) of Flash Player. "This is my first experiment in Flash" says Riva Celso, programmer/designer of Tycoon Games, "But I really wanted to write a sort of flash prequel to my main downlodable game Heileen which was released in autumn 2008, to give the players a more detailed background of the main character of the story". In A Trip To Bavaria we find Heileen on a short trip to a small unknown village near Munich, as a gift from her uncle Otto for her 16th birthday. The web game features manga graphics, has three different endings and is free to play. Go to http://www.tycoongames.eu/webgames/ to play the webgame.

Zevrix Solutions has released BatchOutput 3.4, its solution to automate printing and exporting from Adobe InDesign. The new version adds the ability to automate export of InDesign CS4 documents to the Adobe Flash CS4 Pro file format, XFL. With BatchOutput 3.4, users can repurpose multiple InDesign documents for Flash Pro with just a click of a button instead of opening and exporting each document manually. With BatchOutput, users only need to select the files to output and adjust the settings, instead of opening and printing each document manually. For example, BatchOutput can be left printing or exporting hundreds of InDesign files overnight, and the completed job can be picked up next morning. BatchOutput also allows users to output InDesign documents as single pages, update links automatically, and output files invisibly for the user. BatchOutput automatically composes complex variable file names, which makes it equally indispensable for export of single documents. The new version...

Workamajig (http://www.Workamajig.com) -- which makes web-based ad agency software and project management groupware for creative and design firms, says the next version of its self-titled software will include new general ledger functions, and Support for Apple's Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7. The general ledger functions will include cash-basis financial reporting and basis financial reporting. Even though all of Workamajig's general ledger operates in accrual, these new cash-basis reports will be available upon request, says Ron Ause, Workamajig's director of marketing. This release continues to build on the major foundation upgrade that Workamajig made to its ad agency management software last year, addressing interface improvements based on months of research, client interviews and user feedback. As before, all of the improvements are a direct result from many years of research and direct client feedback from actual users of the creative management software, Fuse says. As always with...

iPresentee, (http://www.ipresentee.com) a developer of add-ons for Apple's iWork and iLife applications, has released free iWeb Theme and enhanced package of iWeb themes to be used with Apple's web site building application, iWeb. iWeb is part of the US$79 iWorks suite. iWeb Themes 3.0 includes five new themes: Black and White, Flora, Mahogany, Ray and Tracery. iWeb users can download and try the free Treasure Theme. Each iWeb theme has 10 templates instead of the ordinary eight. iWeb Themes 3.0 includes following templates: Welcome, About Me, Photos, My Albums, Movie, Blog, Podcast, Blank, My Hobbies and News. New iWeb themes are compatible with iWeb 2.0 and iWeb 3.0 versions. iWeb Themes 3.0 can be customized; each theme incorporates a number of different graphic elements which can be removed, moved and changed in size, opacity or color. The themes contains several different page layouts to accommodate various information. In addition iPresentee has extended number of templates so...

Palringo (http://www.palringo.com) has updated its rich-messaging application for the iPhone. Now users looking down their contact lists see not only the location of their Palringo contacts -- typically a town name -- but also how far away those contacts are from them. In the next update (due soon), a further click will bring up a map showing the location of a contact and also the location of any other Palringo contacts within a 10km/6-mile radius. In the same update, the location function will allow a user to display his own location on a map. Location and proximity information adds an interesting new layer of social network connectivity, according to Palringo CEO Kerry Ritz. A Palringo user can choose to reveal her location to any, all or none of her contacts, changing this selection at any time. Location can be set manually by the user, or Palringo can detect location automatically, keeping it continuously updated. Palringo's rich messaging service already provides the option...