Group Logic (http://www.grouplogic.com), a provider of digital content-driven solutions for collaboration in the enterprise and the cloud, has announced new enhancements to its ExtremeZ-IP family of products and services. The latest release of ExtremeZ-IP, version 7.1, delivers expanded support for Microsoft Distributed File System (DFS).  In this latest release, Group Logic unveiled a new option for ExtremeZ-IP, called DFSConnect, that provides DFS file share support for organizations with Mac clients on Mac OS X 10.4 or later.  In addition, Group Logic announced a new suite of low-cost migration services for Apple Xserve customers looking to migrate to a Windows server environment in response to Apple’s end of life announcement.  
  
Microsoft DFS is widely used today and allows an organization to provide a single point of access to multiple file server resources. Until recently, Mac users were unable to access DFS file shares because of inherent deficiencies within SMB (Server...

Mozy -- the online backup service from EMC Corp. -- has announced Mozy 2.0 for Mac (http://www.mozy.com/mac-2). It sports improved features and a native-Mac experience, according to Russ Stockdale, vice president of Product Management for Mozy. Mac users will now be able to enjoy faster upload speeds generated by optimized bandwidth usage and faster file scanning as well as pre-transfer processes, he says. Mozy 2.0 for Mac also has a new look and feel, offering a true native-Mac experience, Stockdale adds. And, in response to customer feedback, Mozy 2.0 for Mac also delivers greater visibility into which files are backed up, increasing transparency of the backup process. Mozy 2.0 for Mac supports more advanced features for users who want even more control of the backup experience. Users can set advanced rules to automatically include or exclude specific types of data and adjust the rules as needed. Contact Mozy for pricing options.

Paul Devine, the Apple manager accused of taking kickbacks in exchange for company secrets, should forfeit all proceeds from his fraud, prosecutors said in a court filing -- as reported by "Bloomberg" (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-23/judge-sets-bail-for-apple-manag...?). Devine, let out of jail with an US$440,000 lien against his mother’s home to help secure bail, must forfeit cash “derived from proceeds” of his fraud and money laundering, the U.S. argued in court documents. Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of about $950,000 seized from as many as six different accounts, and a Porsche Cayenne, according to the Nov. 10 filing. "Bloomberg" reports that Devine appeared in court today before U.S. District Judge James Ware in San Jose, California, where Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Kane said the government needs more time to review data on computers seized from Devine before returning them in a pre-trial exchange of information. The Apple global supply manager is accused of...

Buffalo Technology (http://www.buffalotech.com) has announced the MiniStation Stealth and DriveStation Axis LED, two external drive solutions designed to meet today's storage consumer needs. The former is a portable storage solution; the latter is a single drive storage solution sporting a LED capacity meter display. The MiniStation Stealth (pictured) is a compact portable hard drive that's USB powered so there are no additional cables to manage and no need for a separate power source. You can plug it into any available USB port on your Mac or PC computer and instantly add capacity or store files to take on the road. The MiniStation Stealth will be available later this month in the US market at an estimated street prices of US$74.99 for the 320GB model, $89.99 for the 500GB system and $104.99 for the 640GB version. The DriveStation Axis LED is an external hard drive for the instant addition of external storage to any device using a USB port. Featuring an integrated capacity meter and...

Bit9 (http://www.bit9.com/) has unveiled its fourth annual report of the top applications with reported security vulnerabilities in 2010. Google Chrome placed first on the “Dirty Dozen” list, followed by Apple Safari and Microsoft Office. Apple and Adobe are the most represented companies with three applications each making this year’s list. The “2010 Top Vulnerable Applications” report serves as a warning to enterprises about the risks of employees downloading unauthorized software and affirms the importance of staying current with software updates, says Harry Sverdlove, chief technical officer of Bit9. The “Dirty Dozen” list ranks applications by the number of reported “high severity” vulnerabilities that impacted end users during 2010, and includes the following: 1. Google Chrome (76 reported vulnerabilities) 2. Apple Safari (60) 3. Microsoft Office (57) 4. Adobe Reader and Acrobat (54) 5. Mozilla Firefox (51) 6. Sun Java Development Kit (36) 7. Adobe Shockwave Player (35) 8....

Sanyo (http//us.sanyo.com) has released new AA- and AAA-size "eneloop" rechargeable batteries with approximately 500 more charges than previous eneloop batteries. The batteries are charged and ready to use and will maintain approximately 75% of their charge up to three years, according to Tom Van Voy, vice president and general manager of the Sanyo Digital Solutions Division. The new eneloop 1500-cycle batteries are available immediately at Costco Stores nationwide. The combo-pack containing the 4-position charger, eight (8) AA batteries and four AAA batteries sells for US$25.99 at Costco. The eneloop batteries in the Costco combo-pack come in two shades of blue and two shades of green. The colors provide added convenience making it easy for consumers to "pair" the batteries in devices and in the charger, says Voy.

Cheetah 3D (http://www.cheetah3d.com/) -- software for modeling, animating and rendering 3D objects -- has been updated to version 5.6. The upgrade adds a rewritten transform tool. The new transform tool now support multi-object selections, a gadget mode to arbitrarily align the transform gadget and much improved snapping tools for precise modeling. Version 5.6 also introduce post- and pre-rotations which are great for orienting joints. The added support for many video codecs like H.264 or MPEG4 plus many small workflow enhancements rounds up the new features. Cheetah3D costs US$149 for a single user version; however, version 5.6 is a free update for all registered users of version 5.x and is a $69 for an upgrade from versions 1.x, 2.x, 3.x and 4.x.. It requires requires at least Mac OS X 10.4 and 16MB of VRAM. It's a Universal Binary product, which means it will run natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.

Zevrix Solutions (http://www.zevrix.com) has updated Graphic Inspector, which checks entire folders of graphic files for potential problems, to version 1.7.6. improves GPS metadata handling and includes other improvements. Graphic Inspector lets graphic professionals et crucial info on multiple graphic files instead of checking them manually. Users automatically get information on multiple raster and vector files. Graphic Inspector will display the file kind, color mode, resolution, compression, color profile, spot colors, fonts, metadata and other attributes. With its checkup presets, Graphic Inspector lets users create custom control settings and locate files with unwanted attributes. For example, users can make Graphic Inspector warn them about all files whose color mode is RGB, format -- JPEG, resolution is below 200 dpi, ICC profile doesn't contain "USWebCoated" etc. Graphic Inspector costs US$39.95. A demo is available for download. The 1.7.9 update is free for licensed users of...

Karelia Software has updated Sandvox (http://www.karelia.com/download/sandvox.html), their web creation software for Mac OS X, to version 1.6.8. The upgrade fixes a number of issues discovered since the previous version; it also catches up with some server-side changes on the part of Apple and Amazon . com that affect existing Sandvox-built websites. Sandvox features drag and drop web site assembly, live editing without a preview mode, 50 designs, 11 page types, and 19 different pagelets. Version 1.6.5 is available for download and purchase from Karelia's web site. in both Regular and Pro editions. Single-user licenses are US$57 and $97, respectively. Household licenses (allowing multiple users in one household) and site licenses are also available. Sandvox 1.6.8 -- a free update for registered users -- requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

Nvidia has expanded its line of Quadro professional graphics solutions (http://www.nvidia.com/quadro) to the Mac platform, bringing the computational and visualization breakthroughs enabled by the Nvidia Fermi architecture to Mac Pro users.   For professional users operating on Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the Nvidia Quadro 4000 graphics processing unit (GPU) for Mac is optimized to accelerate workflows and drive a range of top professional applications. For example, the Adobe Mercury Playback Engine in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 software leverages Nvidia CUDA parallel processing technology. Other examples include visual effects and image processing applications from The Foundry, includingNuke and Storm and Matlab from MathWorks.   The high-end Nvidia Quadro 4000 GPU for Mac, with 256 Nvidia CUDA processing cores and 2GB of fast GDDR5 memory, delivers exceptional graphics performance across a broad range of design, animation and video applications, according to the folks at Nvidia. With new...

Apple has re-posted the Mac OS X 10.6.5 update, which it pulled yesterday. Mac OS X 10.6.5 was released last week for both Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server users. Some who installed the update before it disappeared reported issues on the Apple Discussions forums, saying, for example, the update broke Lightweight Directory Access Protocol and Domain Name System functionality, while another said they had a problem with external drives. The update presumably fixes these issues. It also reportedly fixes a memory aliasing issue in Dovecot's handling of user names.

Columbia law professor Tim Wu, the man who coined the term "net neutrality," says that Apple is the company that most endangers the freedom of the Internet. And he tells the "New York Times" (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/one-on-one-tim-wu-author-of-the...) that he expects that danger to outlive CEO Steve Jobs' tenure at Apple. When asked, "do the technology monopolies surrounding the Internet look different than the past?", Wu had this to say: "The question is whether there is something about the Internet that is fundamentally different, or about these times that is intrinsically more dynamic, that we don’t repeat the past. I know the Internet was designed to resist integration, designed to resist centralized control, and that design defeated firms like AOL and Time Warner. But firms today, like Apple, make it unclear if the Internet is something lasting or just another cycle." In fact, he says Apple is the company he fears most. "Steve Jobs has the charisma, vision and...

As noted by "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) Apple has quietly pulled the Mac OS X Server 10.6.5 update. Mac OS X 10.6.5 was released last week for both Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server users. Since then, the update for Mac OS X 10.6 Server has been pulled without explanation. Some who installed the update before it disappeared have reported issues on the Apple Discussions forums, notes "AppleInsider." One person said that the update broke Lightweight Directory Access Protocol and Domain Name System functionality, while another said they had a problem with external drives.

MacProVideo.com, a web site specializing in tutorial-videos for Mac computer users, has released a 2.5-hour tutorial for Logic Studio users called "Logic's Guitar Recording Toolbox." In this tutorial, guitarist, producer, and educator Toby Pitman shows you what you need to know about getting the perfect guitar sound in Logic. He explores details of the virtual amps, explaining their design, EQ, circuitry and history, while simultaneously performing style-based examples on several of his collectable guitars. Through video examples, you can watch and listen as Pitman dives deep into Logic's virtual stomp boxes, exploring their functionality and demonstrating routing techniques that show the sonic power of the Pedalboard DSP plug-in. He also teaches concepts like impedance, the different kinds of pickups, the power of parallel microphone techniques and even how to create killer percussion parts using the electric guitar as the the sound source!. Toby Pitman’s "Logic’s Guitar Recording...

Apple has a new look on its home page (http://www.apple.com) about an iTunes-related announcement for Tuesday, Nov. 16, at 7 am Pacific. The teaser tagline line is "Tomorrow is just another day. That you'll never forget." And Apple promises "an exciting announcement from iTunes."

SQLabs has announced SQLiteConverter (http://www.sqlabs.com/sqliteconverter.php), an US$49 tool that offers a way to convert your mySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle database to sqlite. The app guides you step by step to five operations in order to completely convert your remote databases. The entire process obviously depends on how much data you need to convert, but most of the time you'll be able to complete it in few seconds, according to the folks at SQLabs. SQLiteConverter is the ideal tool not only to complete a conversion between different DBMS to sqlite but it is also the ideal solution to backup your remote data to another disk based relational sql database, they add. You always have full control over the conversion process, you can decide to convert the entire database or just select the individual tables you want to backup. SQLiteConverter requires MacOS X 10.4 or higher. Company and multiplatform licenses are also available. New databases data source will be added in the future...

Zevrix (http://www.zevrix.com) has updated PDF Checkpoint, an automated PDF preflighting and conversion solution, to version 1.3. The new version automates file routing and report creation after preflighting. PDF Checkpoint lets users review and analyze preflight results. The program is equally suitable to process hundreds of files as well as single PDF documents. PDF Checkpoint checks fonts, colors, images and metadata of multiple PDF files and lets users instantly identify potential problems according to user-defined preflight profiles. Preflight profiles let users check PDF for specific attributes, such as image resolution, color model, PDF/X compliance and others. PDF Checkpoint can also route PDF into success/error folders according to preflight results and generate preflight report for each file. With PDF Checkpoint, you can export PDF pages into TIFF, JPEG and other formats as RGB, CMYK or Grayscale images. You can specify image resolution and scale. You can also split...

"Forbes" magazine says Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iPhone Software, is "a name you need to know" in 2011. Here's what' "Forbes" say about Forstall: "Last month, Jobs said we’ll start finding more ideas from the mobile version of Apple’s OS X operating system recycled in its desktop machines. It’s also a safe bet that the software will play a role at the center of any new devices Apple introduces over the next few years. "So, Keep an eye on Scott Forstall, the engineer who came to Apple from NeXT with Jobs, and who runs Apple’s iOS group, which now power more than 100 million iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Forstall was one of the original architects of OS X, the operating system that saved the company earlier this decade." Forstall graduated from Stanford University in 1991 with a degree in symbolic systems, and received his Master's Degree in 1992 for computer science, also from Stanford.

About 1,900 Cleveland Heights High School in Ohio students are receiving Apple laptop computers this week and next week, reports "The Sun News" (http://blog.cleveland.com/sunpress/2010/11/cleveland_heights_high_school...). It’s part of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district’s Teaching and Learning with Technology initiative, launched two years ago at Monticello Middle School. Students at each small school at the high school are receiving their laptops on a different day, through Tuesday. Informational meetings for parents or guardians are being held the night before students get the computers, says "The Sun." When the rollout is complete, all students and teachers in the district in grades 6-12 should have laptop computers.

Cisco has hired Mark Papermaster, who oversaw Apple Inc.’s mobile-device engineering until he left in August after criticism of the iPhone’s antenna design, reports "Bloomberg Businessweek" (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-11-12/former-apple-ibm-executive-p...). He'll be serving as a vice president working on chips at Cisco. Papermaster is responsible for chips that go into the Nexus 7000 and Catalyst switches, products that help route network data, Neil Wu Becker, a spokesman for Cisco, the world’s largest maker of networking equipment, told "Bloomberg Businessweek." Papermaster has a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Vermont in 1988. He's active with the University of Texas where he is a member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Council.

Apple has released iTunes 10.1 on Friday, adding support for iOS 4.2 and iOS 4.2's AirPlay feature. iOS 4.2 hasn't been released yet, but is expected any day now. AirPlay is audio streaming technology. At a special event on Sept. 1, Apple CEO Steve Jobs debuted the technology, a system that streams audio, either wirelessly or over Ethernet, to third-party speaker docks, A/V receivers, speakers and more. iTunes 10.1 also offers stability and performance improvements, according to Apple. You can obtain it via the Software Updates component of Mac OS X's Systems Preferences app.

TIME lists the iPad among the "50 Best Inventions of 2010." Here's what the publication has to say about the Apple tablet: "How does Apple keep out-inventing the rest of the tech industry? Often, it's by reinventing a product category that its competitors have given up on. In theory, the iPad is merely a follow-up to such resoundingly unpopular slate-style computers as Microsoft's Tablet PC. But Apple is the first company that designed finger-friendly hardware and software from scratch rather than stuffing a PC into a keyboardless case. When it calls the results 'magical' and 'revolutionary,' it's distorting reality only slightly. One analyst says the iPad is the fastest-selling nonphone gizmo in consumer-electronics history."

James Murdoch, head of News Corp's operations in Europe and Asia, says sales of newspaper apps for devices like the iPad are cannibalizing sales of physical newspapers, reports "Reuters" (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AB2OA20101112?utm_source=feedburn...). Rupert Murdoch, News Corp's CEO and James's father, has called the iPad a game-changer for news media. Many in the industry agree, thanks to the iPad's large screen, high resolution and capacity for interactive features, notes "Reuters." The article says James Murdoch welcomed the opportunity to sell through Apple's iTunes online store, despite the fact that Apple takes 30%of the publisher's revenue. "We go to the iTunes store because it's frictionless," says James Murdock. "They charge a percentage but the guy on the newsstand and the newsagent charge a percentage, and they don't even merchandise it properly." However, he added that apps for mobile devices, with which readers typically engage far more than they do with...

AJA Video Systems (http://www.aja.com) is shipping its new KONA 3G capture card. The multi-format SD/HD/Dual Link/3G/2K video I/O hardware for Mac and PC-based systems is available now, with an optional K3G-Box for additional connectivity. AJA President Nick Rashby says KONA 3G provides professional editors with the utmost in workflow flexibility, supporting a broad range of video formats including: 10-bit uncompressed video 3G/HD/SD SDI I/O, new HDMI 1.4a output for stereographic monitoring to consumer 3D displays, 8-channel AES digital audio I/O (16-channel AES with optional K3G-Box) and 16-channel SDI embedded audio I/O, real-time hardware-based up/down/cross conversion to support a range of SD and HD formats, dual-link HD, even 2K formats, a hardware-based downstream keyer and more. The manufacturer's suggested retail price for the KONA 3G is US$1,995. The K3G-Box is $395.