Publicspace.net (http://www.publicspace.net/) has released A Better Finder Rename 8.6.5, an update of the renaming solution for the Mac. The new release allows users to insert file path components into existing file names in a variety of new ways. A Better Finder Rename costs US$19.95. Business, family and enterprise licensing is also available. Customers may chose to include a "forever upgrade" with their purchase. A Better Finder Rename requires Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6. It's Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.

Publicspace.net has announced Vitamin-R 1.27 (http://www.publicspace.net/Vitamin-R/index.html), an update of its Mac OS X compatible productivity tool for creative professionals. The new version adds sound and voice notifications for timed breaks. Vitamin-R is a collection of tools and techniques for managing attention and maintaining motivation. According to the folks at publicspace.net, it complements the task capturing and organizing features of modern to-do list managers by forcing you to concentrate fully on one task a time and keeping distractions at bay. It breaks down large, vaguely defined tasks into a series of short "time slices" of between 10 and 30 minutes, each with specific and actionable objectives. Vitamin-R provides you with the "Now & Later Board," complete with FastType magic, to give you a place to quickly dump all those things that go through your head and allows to get back to the task at hand. It requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. Vitamin-R may be...

Red Rock Software has released DeltaGraph 6 for Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") and Windows 7. It's the latest version of the graphing application that offers 80+ scientific and business charts, analysis tools, complete chart customization capabilities and more. According to Craig Hopson, managing partner and lead engineer at Red Rock Software, DeltaGraph 6 highlights include: ° A cross-platform file format that lets you exchange files between Mac and Windows systems; ° Cross-platform support for international (Unicode) text; ° An updated rendering system; ° Support for transparent drawing; ° The ability to rotate text at arbitrary angles; ° Support for Pantone and other third-party spot colors in PDF and EPS exports. Designed with scientific, business, and creative professionals in mind, Red Rock DeltaGraph 6.0 helps researchers, analysts and managers working with complex sets of data to collect, analyze and present their findings in a visually compelling and memorable manner. Users...

Monterey College of Law, a California accredited law school located in Seaside, California, is the first law school in the US to adopt the iPad as an integral part of the law school curriculum. Law students at Monterey College of Law returned from summer break to the news that they're part of a pilot program that will provide iPads to each law student at the school. Through a program developed by the law school with BAR BRI, the country’s largest bar exam review company, each MCL law student receives an iPad when they enroll in the BAR BRI supplemental curriculum program that the students use while attending school and in preparation for the California Bar Exam "Law schools are rarely found close to the leading edge of technology,” says Mitchel Winick, president and dean of the law school. “However, it is clear to me that combining this technology with interactive, portable, timely content and harnessing the energy of on-line social networking provides a number of immediate...

MacFlashCards has updated Mental Case (http://www.macflashcards.com), a Mac OS X app described as "RSS for your head," to version 1.8.4. The upgrade improves the behavior of joystick "hat" movement and adds game properties info and snapshot for the newly released Halo 2600 ROM. With Mental Case, you create "mental notes," which are similar to traditional flash cards. You can add a small amount of text and/or an image to each mental note, and optionally include a prompt or question. Here's how it works: you gather tidbits of information in mental notes. Enter some text, drop in an image, take a screen shot, or even snap a picture with your iSight. Mental Case schedules the note to reappear at future dates using an optimized learning algorithm. When you have a few minutes to spare, you watch the scheduled notes in an automated slide show. Mental Case is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher. A 30-day demo is available;...

Apple has released Security Update 2010-005 for Mac OS X 10.5.8, Mac OS X Server 10.5.8, Mac OS X 10.6.4 and Mac OS X Server v10.6.4. According to Apple, it's recommended for all users and improves the security of Mac OS X. You can obtain it via the Software Updates component of the Mac OS X Systems Preferences app.

Apple is in "advanced talks" with News Corp. to let iTunes users rent TV shows for US$0.99 cents and is in discussions with other media companies about similar deals, three people "familiar with the plan" told "Bloomberg" (http://macosg.me/2/rj). Purportedly, viewers would be able to rent programs from News Corp.’s Fox for 48 hours, said the people ("who declined to be identified because discussions aren’t public"), the article adds. CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co., where Apple CEO Steve Jobs is a board member and the largest shareholder, also are in talks about joining the effort, says "Bloomberg." The article says Apple is counting on video content to increase the appeal of the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. The a la carte rental plan follows an abandoned effort to create a subscription television service and goes along with the rumored Apple TV revamp. Media companies didn’t want to endanger revenue from cable providers such as Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable, adds "Bloomberg."...

Red Sweater Software has updated MarsEdit (http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit), weblog publishing software, to version 3.0.5. It's a maintenance update with some performance tweaks and bug fixes. MarsEdit costs US$29.95; upgrades from previous versions are $9.95 (though version 3.0.5 is a free update for registered users of version 3.x). A 30-day demo copy is available from Red Sweater Software. MarsEdit 2 requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher; it's Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs.

China Unicom is set to launch Apple's iPhone 4 on the mainland September 16, a source from China Unicom told "Caixin Online" (http://macosg.me/2/rf). According to the source, customers that want to buy the iPhone4 from China Unicom will need to order the phone online ahead of the launch date. China Unicom, the exclusive provider of iPhone in China, launched the 8G version of the iPhone 3GS on Aug. 9. "Caixin Online" says the iPhone 4 is expected to suffer from the same issues related to signal reception in China. However, China Unicom will be offering iPhone cases to customers as a free gift.

Federal agents found more than US$150,000 in cash when they searched the house of Apple manager Paul Devine earlier this month, prosecutors said in court Monday, according to the IDG News Service (http://macosg.me/2/r9). Devine, an Apple global supply manager, has been accused of trading confidential Apple information in return for more than $1 million in payments, bribes and kickbacks "He had over $150,000 stored in shoe boxes," Department of Justice Attorney Michelle Kane said, as she argued with a defense lawyer over the possible terms of Devine's release. Devine had a further $20,000 worth of foreign currency in his possession, she said, arguing that it was possible that the Apple executive might have other hidden sources of cash. "We have identified a significant number of accounts overseas and a significant amount of money," Kane said.

JVC (http://www.jvc.com) has announced two new pocket cameras for making and sharing videos and photos: the US$199.95 PICSIO pocket cameras, models GC-WP10 (US$199.95) and GC-FM2. Both feature Full HD video, low-light performance, a three-inch touch screen and compatibility with Eye-Fi cards for Wi-Fi connectivity. And the PICSIO GC-WP10 is waterproof. PICSIO’s CMOS image sensor captures stills at up to five-megapixel native resolution without interpolation. It also records up to 1920 x 1080p/30 fps Full HD video with image stabilization for enjoyment on an HDTV via the camera’s HDMI output. Users can select from four different recording resolutions: Full HD 1080 (1920 x 1080/30p), HD 720 (1280 x 720/60p), iFrame (960 x 540/30p) and Quarter High Definition (960 x 540/30p). The new PICSIO cameras also offer time-lapse recording.

Next Jump (http://www.nextjump.com), a company that specializes in ecommerce and advertising technology, has announced the appointment of Sandeep Gupta as vice president of Mobile Engineering, effective Sept. 7. Gupta, 41, will be responsible for overseeing all of Next Jump's mobile engineering efforts, including iPhone, iPad and Android applications. He will become a member of Next Jump’s Senior Engineering Leadership Team and report to Next Jump Chief of Engineering Tom Fuller. As part of the appointment, Gupta will be relocating from Silicon Valley to Next Jump’s New York City headquarters. Gupta brings over 18 years of application software engineering and technical leadership experience to Next Jump. Most recently, he served as senior director of Application Development at Yahoo!, and was responsible for overseeing every aspect from conception to delivery of mobile and tablet applications. He and his teams launched Yahoo!'s iPhone apps for Flickr, Fantasy Sports, Yahoo! Finance, ...

Apple is set to open a new retail store in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Aug. 28, at 10 am (Eastern). Apple Store Ross Park will be located at 1000 Ross Park Mall Drive, Pittsburgh, PA 15237. Apple Store Haywood Mall will be the company's 303rd retail store. Apple plans to open another 185 or so during this fiscal year, with about half of those outside the U.S.

In just over three years, iTunes U downloads have topped 300 million and it has become one of the world’s most popular online educational catalogs, according to Apple. Over 800 universities throughout the world have active iTunes U sites, and nearly half of these institutions distribute their content publicly on the iTunes Store.
 New content has just been added from universities in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico and Singapore, and iTunes users now have access to over 350,000 audio and video files from educational institutions around the globe, according to Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. "iTunes U makes it easy for people to discover and learn with content from many of the world’s top institutions," he says. "With such a wide selection of educational material, we’re providing iTunes users with an incredible way to learn on their computer, iPhone, iPod or iPad.: Created in collaboration with colleges and universities, iTunes U makes it easy to extend learning...

IGC Software (http://www.iggsoftware.com) has released released iBank 4.0rc1 a new version of its financial management application for Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard"). This update to the iBank 4 public beta fixes three import bugs pertaining to Quicken QIF files. iBank costs USS$59.95. iBank for iPhone requires a MobileMe account. The Mac version requires Mac OS X 10.5 ("Leopard").

Zevrix Solutions (http://www.zevrix.com) has updated File Courier, a digital delivery solution for Mac OS X (10.4.2 and higher) with timesaving options, to version 2.0b2. The upgrade adds SFTP, WebDAV, Secure WebDAV, Amazon S3 and MobileMe destinations. File Courier delivers files and folders to FTP and local destinations and sends automatic e-mail delivery notifications. The e-mail messages are based on variable templates and contain the detailed info about the item and its location. The software can also create a low-res version of a PDF file and attach it to e-mail, compress folders and protect deliveries with password. File Courier is designed to automate and simplify the process of preparing, sending and confirming delivery to free up users from time consuming, tedious manual tasks which can also lead to mistakes and miscommunication between a sender and a recipient, according to the folks at Zevrix. With File Courier, users only need to drop a file or a folder on the program's...

Reports are appearing about a major security hole in iTunes accounts linked to PayPal, reports "TechCrunch" (http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/23/paypal-itunes-fraud/). At least one group of scammers has found a way to charge thousands of dollars to iTunes accounts through PayPal. At least PayPal is aware of the issue, but it seems like the problem is on the iTunes side, says "TechCrunch."

Multiple sources have told "MacDailyNews" (http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/26418/) that Apple is hiring more employees in telesales positions and that this has been described by one as "huge" and by other sources as "significant." The article says these sources report that Apple will begin an intensive four-week training course for these new hires starting next week. The training is said to be in preparation for an October release of "a very big new product."

The latest title in Apress's Made Simple series, "iPhone 4 Made Simple" (http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430231920) is a go-to guide for the latest and greatest version of the iPhone. This 750-page book includes over 1,000 screen visuals and instructions that illustrate both basic and advanced features of the iPhone 4. It costs US$29.99 for the print version and $20.99 for the ebook version. The authors are Gary Mazo and Martin Trautschold.

PowerSurge Publishing has just released iWisdom 2.10 for Mac OS X and Windows. The new version adds the ability to import quotations from WikiQuote.org. This new feature can import quotations from both author and work (i.e., book and movie) pages, and supports multiple languages.    iWisdom is a program that manages a collection of quotations or other brief insights. The program tracks a set of data fields concerning each bit of wisdom, including author, source, year of publication, title and category. iWisdom allows you to view wisdom in a list view (with optional sort fields), a category view, an edit view, and a display mode, which you can use to randomly display a new quotation at set intervals. iWisdom stores its data in the wisdom XML format, and can publish a wisdom collection in HTML using a series of included XSL templates and cascading style sheets. A demo version of the program can be downloaded from the PowerSurge Publishing web site (http://www.powersurgepub.com)....

Apple needs another carrier to maintain the iPhone's current rate of growth in the U.S., says Kaufman Bros.'s Shaw Wu in a note to clients Monday -- as reported by "Fortune" (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/08/23/verizon-and-apple-at-loggerheads/...) -- but it doesn't necessarily have to be Verizon -- though that's the company that most folks expect to become the second US carrier. According to Wu, Apple's share of AT&T's 90-million subscriber base is approaching saturation. Verizon, with 93 million subscribers, would be the logical next step. But between them, Sprint with 48 million and T-Mobile with 34 million, would get Apple into the ballpark. "From our checks with industry and supply chain sources and a recent SEC 10-Q filing by AT&T mentioning that exclusivity with "a number of attractive handsets" could end, we have conviction that the iPhone could likely finally be at another carrier besides AT&T here in the U.S. in 2011 and potentially at Verizon in 2011 or...

Only 2% of US homes which do not currently own an Apple device intend to buy an iPad during the next 12 months, compared to 18% of Apple-owning households, according to a new survey of 2000 US consumers by Strategy Analytics (http://www.strategyanalytics.com). The report, “Apple's iPad: Identifying Early Adopters and Intentions to Buy,” finds that ownership of another Apple product -- such as an iPod, MacBook or iPhone -- is the strongest indicator of intention to buy an iPad. For example, nearly a third of iPhone users in the US plan to buy an iPad during the coming year. In total 90% of iPad sales are expected to come from existing Apple device owners. “Apple’s iPad is preaching to the converted,” says the report’s author, David Mercer, principal Analyst at Strategy Analytics. “Many iPhone, Apple computer and iPod owners have snapped up their first iPad in the first few months since it was launched, and many of those who haven’t plan to follow suit over the coming year.” The study...

Code by Kevin has updated PortAuthority (http://www.codebykevin.com/portauthority.html), an open-source application that provides a graphical user interface for the DarwinPorts package management system for Mac OS X, to version 3.1. It now uses the Mac OS X Keychain to store password.
 PortAuthority 3.1 also now supports clickable links in data display and native printing. You can now access the Services menu. Version 3.1 provides port searches as a service. Finally, the Satus icon in menubar show operations in progress.
 PortAuthority a command-line tool for installing and updating a variety of Unix-based applications for the Mac. The goal of the software, according to its developers, is to bring the power of DarwinPorts to the traditional Mac user by providing a user-friendly graphical interface to the DarwinPorts system. PortAuthority costs US$24.95, though version. A 30-day demo is available at the product web site. PortAuthority is a Universal Binary product so runs natively on...

Other World Computing (http://www.macsales.com) has announced a new 40GB model to its OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD line. Designed and made in the U.S. from imported parts, the new OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 40GB SSD’s special introductory pricing of US$99.99 makes it the lowest priced SSD on the market, according to the gang at OWC. The 40GB has sustained read and write speeds over 260MB/second -- with peak speeds up to 285MB/second. It also touts best in class error correction (ECC) and SandForce RAISE™ redundancy with 7% over provisioning and SandForce DuraClass technology with block management and wear leveling for long term durability. The OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD line is available for immediate ordering in nine configurations from 40GB to 480GB starting at $99.99. All models are Mac and PC compatible and install into notebooks, as well as into desktops/towers with an OWC Multi-Mount adapter kit sold separately.