Syncro Soft (http://www.oxygenxml.com) has released version 11.2 of its XML Editor and XML Author containing a set of tools supporting all the XML related technologies. Oxygen combines content author features like the CSS driven Visual XML editor with a XML development environment. It has ready-to-use support for the main document frameworks DITA, DocBook, TEI and XHTML and also includes support for all XML Schema languages, XSLT/XQuery Debuggers, WSDL analyzer, XML Databases, XML Diff and Merge, Subversion client and more. Version 11.2 of oXygen/XML Editor improves the XML authoring, the XML development tools, the support for large documents and the SVN Client. Also, he diff and merge support from oXygen is available also as a separate application, oXygen XML Diff. Oxygen XML Editor and XSLT Debugger is available in three editions: Multi-platform Academic/Personal license: USS$64 (includes the one year support and maintenance pack); Multi-platform Professional license: $349; and...

iPresentee (http://www.ipresentee.com), a developer of add-ons for Apple’s iWork and iLife applications, has released iWeb Themes 7.0 to be used with iWeb. iWeb is the web site creation component of Apple's iLife suite. iWeb Themes 7.0 is available in standard and iPhone editions. The new release includes five themes for iWeb: Blue Style, Shining Star, Greenish Style, Tango and Developer. Each iWeb user may build a web site for a desktop computer and mobile device while maintaining the same site design within iWeb. iWeb themes for iPhone are specific resolution and incorporates bigger fonts, images etc. New themes for iPhone includes everything to create the impression of iPhone native site, according to the folks at iPresentee. What's more, all themes have standard edition templates so you can build two specific sites -- for an iPhone and Mac or PC while keeping the same design within minutes. Standard edition themes include a "Choose Device" template that can be used as first page...

Purple Ghost Software has released Key Ace (ttp://www.purpleghost.com/news.php), an US$9.99 hotkey utility for Mac OS X that lets you assign actions to various key combinations. You can configure shortcuts for daily tasks such as opening browsers or controlling play, pause and stop functions on iTunes. ou can specify any key combination to be used as the hotkey to activate the specified action. There are many actions you can specify for a hotkey. These include controlling iTunes (play/pause, next track, prior track, stop), launch any application on your system, open any website URL, eject your CD/DVD, adjust system volume up/down, and send any keystroke. You add hotkeys to groups and each group can be setup to have the hotkeys in that group work in all applications, work in only the specified applications or to work in all except the specified applications. Key Ace installs as a system preference pane. This lets you change hotkeys and change Key Ace settings.

Satmetrix (http://www.satmetrix.com), which specializes in customer experience programs, has released its 2010 Net Promoter Industry Benchmarks for the technology, insurance, financial services, airlines, telecommunications, retail and online services industries. Leaders included well-known brands such as Apple, USAA, Charles Schwab, JetBlue, Verizon Wireless, Trader Joe’s, Costco and Amazon.com. The rankings are based on survey responses from more than 19,500 U.S. consumers nationwide who had purchased products or services from each company within the previous 12 months. A company’s Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is based on customers’ likelihood to recommend the company’s product or service. NPS is calculated as the percentage of customers who are Promoters, rating the company 9 or 10 on a zero-to-ten point scale, minus the percentage who are Detractors, rating 6 or lower. Consumers also rated each company on various aspects of customer experience including product or service features...

Monkeybread Software has released version 1.1 of the MBS REALbasic Updater Kit for Mac OS X and Windows. It's designed to help you in adding an automatic update feature to your application. Version 1.1 fixes a few bugs and improves the version number parsing. The Updater Kit requires REALbasic 2008 or newer and a license of the MBS REALbasic Complete License. The Updater Kit is available for US$99. You can learn more and try the sample application at http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/realbasic/UpdaterKit/ .

Another day, another lawsuit. A company called Microunity (http://www.microunity.com) has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in a Texas court against Apple, Google, HTC, Samsung -- and well, all the main players in the mobile space. According to court documents, Microunity is suing over patents that mostly deal with multi- and parallel processing technologies, as well as methods for dealing with data. The "IntoMobile" web site (http://www.intomobile.com/2010/03/16/microunity-sues-the-entire-mobile-i...) calls the company a "patent troll" and says me of the patents mentioned in the lawsuit were previously the focus of actions against Intel, Dell, Sony, and AMD. The patent documents reveal that Microunity has 15 patents that they claim are being infringed by 22 different tech companies. The company doing the suing has patents dating back to early-1998, including patents that lay claim to having invented things like the “General Purpose, Multiple Precision Parallel Operation,...

Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra was on the West Coast last week, where his schedule included meetings with Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Mozilla, and other tech companies. According to "InformationWeek Government Blogs" (http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2010/03/federal_cio_se...), he says that U.S. government employees are at a disadvantage when it comes to the technology they use, and he's looking for better ways of working. Kundra was named federal CIO by President Obama a year ago this month, and closing the technology gap between the private sector and the public sector has been a pursuit of his since day one, the article adds. In a recent blog post, Kundra makes reference to Apple's Apps Store, which served as a model for the government's Apps.gov site (https://www.apps.gov/cloud/advantage/main/start_page.do), launched in September. It's a source for cloud computing applications. Among other things, Apps.Gov will allow third-party...

Another day, another lawsuit. A man named Stephen Vale is suing Apple because his iPod shuffle isn't sweat resistant. Or make that wasn't sweat resistant as it's bitten the dust, it seems. According to a "Gizmodo" report (http://gizmodo.com/5494573/ipod-shuffle-owner-files-lawsuit-against-appl...), Vale is suing for five breach of warranty counts, one of false advertising and one of unfair competition, "all after Apple gave him a replacement cord and everything." It's not known whether he was using the third-gen iPod shuffle (pictured) or the previous version.

Pragmatic Bookshelf has released "Beginning Mac Programming" (http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781934356517/?utm_content=em-pb-pr-Beginning...) by author Tim Isted. The US$34 book teaches non-programmers how to move from idea to application. They'll learn how to: code in Objective-C, the programming language behind Apple applications program within the Cocoa framework Apple provides for developers; find and use free tools for developers, including Xcode and Interface Builder; and connect with Apple's thriving developer community and expanding base of users. By the second chapter of the book, readers start coding their first program. "We'll be jumping headfirst into creating applications on the Mac that look and behave like the other Mac applications you're used to," Isted says. "We'll certainly be learning general programming principles, but we will be putting them into practice in real-world situations, right from the start. Over the course of the book, you'll learn enough that you can...

Xeric Design has released version 5.3 of EarthDesk (http://www.xericdesign.com/earthdesk.php), the real-time dynamic desktop map for Mac OS X. It provides a work-around for a long standing screen saver hang in Mac OS X 10.6 ("Snow Leopard"). EarthDesk replaces your static desktop with a photo-realistic image of the Earth showing current sun, moon and city illumination as well as real-time global cloud coverage (hurricanes, storms, and worldwide weather systems) on your desktop. It operates silently in the background, keeping your desktop updated while you work. Unlike a screen saver, which only appears when your system is idle, EarthDesk's dynamic desktop is continuously displayed as your desktop background (and optionally as a screen saver). EarthDesk requires Mac OS X 10.5 or newer. Single user copies may be purchased online for US$24.95. Upgrades are available for $12.95 for licensed users of version 4 and $17.95 for licensed users of versions 1, 2 and 3. Version 5.3 is a free...

Seznick Scientific Software has updated Password Wallet for Macintosh (http://www.selznick.com/products/passwordwallet/mac/index.htm) to version 4.5. The app now allows the user to automatically share all of their passwords between their Mac, iPhone and MobileMe accounts, as well as their Windows, Android, Windows Mobile and Palm Pre devices. PasswordWallet is designed to offer a secure place to store all your usernames, passwords, PIN numbers, or combinations. For security, it uses the BlowFish encryption algorithm with 448-bit keys to protect your data. For safety, it lets you copy your password to the clipboard and clear it automatically after you paste. PasswordWallet can save URLs with your entries and launch your default browser for you. One "master" password unlocks all of your other passwords. It can automatically add your "master" password to the Keychain Control Panel. PasswordWallet is compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 and higher. It costs US$20, though version 4.5. is a free...

Noise Industries, developer of visual effects tools for the postproduction and broadcast markets, announced that one of their newest development partners, Phyx., has released Phyx Color for the FxFactory platform. Phyx Color is a collection of professional color processors designed to work inside Adobe After Effects CS3/CS4, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion and Apple Final Cut Express applications. Its range of color processing tools let users add diffusion, sample color, control saturation and process a color shift/tint. Artists can also use Phyx Color to simulate the legendary Technicolor 2-strip process utilized in such films as "Gone with the Wind," and "The Wizard of Oz," and actualize dramatic imagery with its Bleach Bypass process as seen in a multitude of cult films, including "300" and "Fight Club."         Phyx Color is available for $99 USD via the Noise Industries web site (http://www.noiseindustries.com). A trial version is also included with the standard FxFactory...

Monkeybread Software (http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/) has released version 2.0 of the MBS plug-in for FileMaker. It purportedly extends Filemaker with over 400 functions. New in version 2.0 are URL Scheme, GraphicsMagick and RPC. The URL Scheme handling functions allow you to register a filemaker runtime solution as an URL handler on Mac OS X. MBS plug-in version 2.0 adds over 200 functions for GraphicsMagick. You can load picture files from a container field or a file, modify them and write them back. In your FileMaker database you can crop, scale, flip, rotate and roll images. There are image effects like Colorize, Emboss, Enhance, OilPaint, Quantize, Solarize, Shear, Sharpen, Swirl, Unsharpen and more. With version 2.0 of the MBS plug-in, a FileMaker database can send a request to, for example, a REALbasic application and receives a response. This communication goes over a TCP Socket. Monkeybread includes a sample project for REALbasic and a specification which any developer...

Google's Nexus One phone is selling at a a slower pace than the first iPhone, reaching about 135,000 units in the time it took Apple to sell one million, according to Flurry Analytics (http://www.flurry.com/) -- a cross-platform mobile application analytics provider. The original iPhone hit the one million mark after 74 days on sale in 2007. The Nexus One will have sold about one-eighth as many units on its 74th day on March 19, estimates Flurry. Google introduced the Nexus One in January, selling it through its web site. U.S. consumers aren’t accustomed to buying phones that way, which may have hurt sales of the Nexus One, Peter Farago, vice president of marketing at Flurry told "Bloomberg" (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=ajrMKRizVpxI). “As successful and talented as Google is online with paid search and other kinds of related businesses, the hardware business is very different,” he said. However, Google says it's pleased with orders. “They demonstrate the...

Pre-order numbers for the iPad topped 150,000 pre-orders -- and that doesn't count people’s store reservations, according to a BGR report (http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/03/15/apple-ipad-pre-order-numbers-t...). "We have also been told Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue store in New York now holds around 1600 reservations for iPads, with 800 in the first day, and about 400 a day since," the article adds. "Lastly, store reservations seem to be split around 50% for the 32GB unit, 30% for the 64GB unit and about 20% for the 16GB, which is what Apple was expecting.” The iPads themselves are still expected to ship on time. However, if you've ordered iPad accessories, they're being delayed, according to dates at the Apple online store, though Apple doesn't say why. Apple's iPad case is delayed until mid-April. The iPad keyboard dock and power adapter are delayed until May. And there's no ETA for the Camera Connection Kit. However, the regular iPad Dock and the Dock Connector to VGA adapter...

Nearly 40% of Blackberry users continue to prefer Apple's iPhone as their next smartphone purchase, but a third of them would also switch to the Android operating system, according to the second smartphone brand loyalty survey conducted semi-annually via Crowd Science's (http://www.crowdscience.com) research platform for online audience measurement. The Crowd Scientists also found Android users rivaling iPhone users in loyalty, with about 90% of each user group planning to stick with their current brand when buying their next phone. Asked specifically if they'd swap their present phone for Google's new Android-based Nexus One, 32% of Blackberry users said "yes," compared with just 9% of iPhone users. This figure zoomed to 60% for users of smartphones not made by Blackberry or Apple. "These results show that the restlessness of Blackberry users with their current brand hasn't just been driven by the allure of iPhone," says John Martin, CEO of Crowd Science. "Rather, Blackberry as a...

In February, two weeks after Apple unveiled the iPad, Flurry Analytics (http://www.flurry.com/) -- a cross-platform mobile application analytics provider -- says there's been a dramatic upturn in the number of developers installing its analytics tools in new apps for the iPhone OS (which the iPad uses). As reported by "Fortune" (http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/03/15/flurry-new-apps-u...), the company took a look at February's data and found that the pace of new development 00 "the single sharpest spike in Flurry history," in its words -- continued nearly unabated. In fact, the number of new iPhone OS projects started in Flurry after the iPad announcement shot up 187%. "Over six weeks since Apple announced the iPad, Flurry continues to measure a significant increase in iPhone OS new application starts within its system," writes Peter Farago of Flurry. "We continue to attribute this growth to excitement generated by the impending launch of iPad, now set for April 3...

Intel (http://www.intel.com) has announced today a new addition to its line-up of solid state drives (SSDs): the Intel X25-V Value SATA SSD. Priced at US$125, the 40GB drive is aimed at value segment netbooks and dual-drive/boot drive desktop set-ups. SSDs can replace or coexist with traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). With no movable parts or spinning platters, SSDs are more reliable and higher performing than HDDs. In a dual-drive configuration, the Intel X25-V SSD is added to a desktop with an existing HDD. The SSD is loaded with the operating system and favorite applications to take advantage of the speedy performance which is nearly 4x faster than a 7200RPM HDD, according to the folks at Intel.

Sustainable Softworks has released Phone Amego 1.1.13 ( http://www.sustworks.com/site/prod_phoneAmego_help/PhoneAmegoHelp.html), an update of the Mac OS X (10.5 and later) tool designed to make using your phone easier when you're near your computer by providing on-screen caller ID, letting you click to dial a phone number from your Address Book or on your screen, and optionally dialing through Google Voice. Version 1.1.13 offers several user interface improvements including minimizing an active call window to the Dock, an option to translate mnemonics (letters in phone numbers), and remotely dialing a landline phone attached to another computer running Phone Amego sharing. Phone Amego is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. In addition to Mac OS X 10.5 or later it requires: a Google Voice account or a compatible Bluetooth cell phone or a landline phone connected through a compatible USB modem and caller ID service or VoIP phone connected through a Linksys...

An in-depth look at iTunes U is the subject of three upcoming Apple and MacLearning.org webcasts. The new series, which give audience members an opportunity to interact live with Apple product managers and engineers, will provide an overview of iTunes U, and discuss the implementation and integration of the service. The first webcast, "iTunes U - Overview and Update" (http://maclearning.org/userpage.php?page_id=19), will be delivered at 10 a.m. (Pacific) on March 18. "Integration of Internal iTunes U Sites" (http://maclearning.org/userpage.php?page_id=20) will be webcast at 10 a.m. (Pacific) on April 1. "iTunes U in the iTunes Store" (http://maclearning.org/browse_pages.php?s=&type=2) will take place at 10 a.m. (Pacific) on April 15.

After the initial burst of excitement on Friday that saw iPad pre-orders coming in at the rate of 25,000 per hour, there was a dramatic fall-off over the weekend. Friday was when the Apple device was available for pre-order. According to Daniel Tello, the Venezuelan blogger-analyst who has been tracking order numbers submitted by volunteers at Investor Village's AAPL Sanity board, orders on Saturday and Sunday slowed to an estimated 1,000 per hour -- as reported by "Fortune" (http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/03/15/apple-ipad-orders...). Telloattributes roughly half of the estimated 120,000 first-day sales to "pure overexcited fanboism." The real demand for the iPad in the weeks before its April 3 release, is probably closer to 30,000 per weekday and half that on weekends, he told "Fortune." "With three weeks and two weekends left before they ship, I wouldn't expect much more than half a million in pre-orders and reservations," he says. "My best guess, although very...

PA Semi founder and CEO, Dan Dobberpuhl, has apparently left Apple to join a Silicon Valley startup company founded by other former PA Semi employee, although exactly when he left is uncertain, as reported by CNET (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10465618-64.html). Dobberpuhl isn't alone. Other key PA Semi team members have left Apple, including one of PA Semi's leading members, Mark Hayter, adds "CNET." On April 22, 2008, it was made public that Apple had agreed to buy a boutique microprocessor design company called PA Semi. The company was known for its design of sophisticated, low-power chips. PA Semi is a fabless semiconductor company that makes PWRficient processors for the embedded-computing markets. It was established in 2003 by industry veterans, including Dan Dobberpuhl, lead designer of the DEC Alpha series of microprocessors, the StrongARM microprocessors, and the first multicore systems on chip with the SiByte 1250. PWRficient processors are based on, and fully software...

PagePlanet Software (http://www.PagePlanetSoftware.com/products.html) has announced the golden master release of Modular Gateway Interface (MGI) 3.2 for the Mac OS X and Linux operating systems. MGI is an Apache 2 module that adds full functionality to every web site on your server using a simple tag structure. MGI includes 67 tags to enhance a web site with everything from simple counters and form processing to custom databases and shopping carts. You can also combine MGI's programming tags to make your web site accomplish a variety of things. MGI 3.2 includes the new Advanced module and mgiPHP tag to process PHP code on any MGI page. The mgiPHP tag is flexible including parameters to exchange information between MGI and PHP.  You can dynamically create PHP code, dynamically create MGI code or both. MGI's implementation of PHP also includes the GD graphic extension that can be used to resize images and create thumbnails on the fly. PHP is bundled with MGI so it's plug and play....

Zevrix Solutions has announced a public beta of Package Central 1.0 (http://zevrix.com/PackageCentral.php), a new document packaging workflow automation solution for Adobe InDesign. Originally developed for a publisher in the United States, the software automates InDesign packaging by processing files from hotfolders. Package Central offloads packaging to a central system, leaving operator workstations free from the output process. Package Central offers font auto-activation, e-mail notifications, detailed logs and much more. Everyone who downloads Package Central public beta and registers with Zevrix Solutions can purchase Package Central with a 30% discount once it's released. Estimated release time and pricing are March 22 for US$499.95. Package Central is a Universal Binary and runs on Mac OS X 10.4.2-10.6. Remember: beta software is unfinished software so use with care.