FileMaker, Inc. (www.filemaker.com), a subsidiary of Apple, and 42 Silicon Valley have announced a partnership to develop the next generation of custom app developers. The partnership is a strategic move to recruit the area's top tech talent, gain digital and human competitive advantages, and feed recruiting pipelines for FileMaker Business Alliance partners. FileMaker, Inc. will host students and staff from 42 Silicon Valley on Apple's campus as part of the partnership launch. Students will view an introduction to custom app development and to the curriculum of the training the selected 42 Silicon Valley students will receive. Students will then complete six month internships with FileMaker Business Alliance Partners during which they'll be tasked with creating custom apps to solve real business challenges. "By partnering with 42 Silicon Valley, we are able to connect their talented developers with our FileMaker community in what is truly a win-win situation,” says Brad Freitag, vice...

IK Multimedia has released Ampeg SVX 2 (http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/ampegsvx2/), a new collection that brings iconic bass amplifiers and cabinets from the Ampeg Heritage and Classic series to AmpliTube for Mac and PC systems. Ampeg SVX 2 for AmpliTube recreates the sound that defined electric bass in virtual form. IK says its software engineers worked with the Ampeg engineering team to ensure that each amplifier and cabinet model has been created with the same attention to detail and authenticity that goes into their physical counterparts. Ampeg SVX 2 for AmpliTube is available now for $99.99 from the IK Multimedia website, the AmpliTube Custom Shop and participating IK retailers. It’s also available to currently registered Ampeg SVX users for the upgrade price of $49.99. Individual amps are available for $34.99 each and cabs for $4.99 each via the AmpliTube Custom Shop.

The Pixelmator Team has unveiled the upcoming Pixelmator Pro 1.0, a new image editing app for the Mac. Codenamed Whirlwind, it will include a modern single-window interface, non-destructive, GPU-powered image editing tools, machine learning-enhanced editing features and much more, says Saulius Dailide, one of the founders of the Pixelmator Team. The modern, dark single-window interface of Pixelmator Pro has been created exclusively for working with images. Its streamlined, macOS-inspired design provides a completely native Mac app experience and is fully consistent with the look and feel of macOS, Dailide says. And a reimagined, user-centered workflow design makes the professional editing tools in Pixelmator Pro accessible, even to first-time users, he adds. Completely nondestructive color adjustments, effects, styles, and layouting tools in Pixelmator Pro will allow you to go back and modify or delete individual changes at any point in the editing workflow. Thanks to the new presets...

Today is Labor Day here in the U.S. MacTech and Mac News won’t be updating as our crew celebrates the holiday with our families. And we hope all of you have a fantastic day.

Maintain has served up Cocktail 10.4.3 (Sierra Edition), the latest maintenance update for users running macOS Sierra. Cocktail is a general purpose utility for macOS that lets users clean, repair and optimize their Macs. Version 10.4.3 adds the ability to easily add menu extras (menulets) to the macOS menu bar. It also fixes compatibility issues with Little Snitch 4 and addresses an issue in which Cocktail may fail to disable virtual memory swapping. Cocktail (Sierra Edition) requires macOS Sierra 10.12 to run. Cocktail (El Capitan Edition) for OS X 10.11, Cocktail (Yosemite Edition) for OS X 10.10, Cocktail (Mavericks Edition) for OS X 10.9 are Cocktail (Mountain Lion Edition) for OS X 10.8 are available for download from the Maintain website (ttp://www.maintain.se/cocktail). Cocktail costs $19 for a single user license. A demo is available for download.

Feral Interactive has announced that XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, the expansion pack for the 2016 strategy game XCOM 2, is out available on the Mac. Developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K for PC and consoles, XCOM 2: War of the Chosen adds new content to XCOM 2 and the fight against ADVENT, the human enforcers of the alien regime occupying Earth. When additional resistance factions emerge to eliminate the invaders, a sinister new enemy, the Chosen, arises. They have one goal: to recapture the Commander of XCOM. The expansion includes new Hero classes to counter the “Chosen”, new enemies, missions, even more challenging environments and increased depth in strategic gameplay. War of the Chosen is available now from the Feral Store (www.feralinteractive.com) and Steam for $39.99.

It’s official: Apple will hold a media event on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 10 a.m. (Pacific). It’s practically a given that new iPhones will be announced. A new Apple TV and the Apple Watch Series 3 are likely to debut, as ell. The event will be the first held at the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park. The press invite says, “Let’s meet at our place.”

Western Digital has expanded its line of iPhone mobile storage solutions with the SanDisk iXpand Base, which offers a way to back-up iPhone photos, videos and contacts. You plug your Apple smartphone into the iXpand Base and content is automatically backed up while it’s charging. With up to 256GB of local storage, the SanDisk iXpand Base is designed with a compact form factor, allowing it to sit on a nightstand or desk, has a soft rubber top to place a phone and a wrap-around groove to keep a Lighting cable organized. It’s engineered to quickly charge an iPhone with 15W of power while backing up all of its data via the companion iXpand Base app, says Jim Welsh, senior vice president, Client Solutions, Western Digital. Restoring backed up content to an iPhone is also fast and easy, he adds. Whether restoring to a current phone or a new one, consumers simply plug in, open the iXpand Base app and tap restore to transfer files back to the iPhone. The SanDisk iXpand Base is available now...

B-Eng has introduced Compare Anything 1.0 for macOS. It’s a stand-alone utility designed for comparing files of any type. With Compare Anything you can compare two files and check for them for differences. Files to compare can either be selected via the Finder or by entering directly the path in the corresponding entry line. Specifics of the two files are then listed in a split window where the differences are high-lighted. Compare Anything 1.0 requires macOS 10.10 or later and costs $0.99. It’s available at the Mac App Store (http://tinyurl.com/yd3zbd3z).

Matias has announced the Wired Aluminum Keyboard for Mac, which the company is positioning as a replacement for Apple’s discontinued wired Mac keyboards. The new keyboard sports a built-in USB 2.0 hub and precision volume dial. "When Apple released the Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad, they discontinued their original wired model, leaving the Mac community without a suitable replacement, Matias CEO Edgar Matias said in a press release. “Our new Matias Wired Aluminum Keyboard is more than suitable. It captures the essence of the Apple original -- and even improves on it, with the addition of a precision volume dial," said Edgar Matias, CEO of Matias. He adds that the new volume dial is perfect for users with external speakers, providing 4x finer control over the volume. That's 64 volume levels, compared to the 16 levels you get from the volume keys. The keyboard will be available in a wide range of international layouts and will cost $59. It can be pre-ordered now from matias.ca.

Kensington (www.kensington.com) has announced the $59 BlackBelt Rugged Case for Apple’s 9.7-inch iPad. It’s built with military-grade protection and an integrated hand. A variable kick stand allows you to position the iPad at any given angle. The BlackBelt Rugged Case for iPad 9.7 is drop test certified. The Asset Tagging Area allows users to identify their devices when they get lost or misplaced. It comes wit a screen protector. 

IGEL (www.igel.com), which specializes in endpoint management software for the secure enterprise, is extending the capabilities of the IGEL UD Pocket, and, for the first time, providing IT organizations with a way to leverage the IGEL OS on Macs. The IGEL UD Pocket is a flexible, ut-of-the-box micro thin client solution designed to improve the security of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives in organizations with remote or mobile workforces. The combination of the IGEL UD Pocket for Mac and the IGEL UMS can also reduce operating expenses due to the already lower total cost of ownership available through the Mac platform, says Matthias Haas, CTO, IGEL. Supporting enterprise-level security standards and protocols, the IGEL UD Pocket features two-factor authentication through external smart card readers or USB tokens, which prevents passwords from being lost, forgotten or intercepted by cybercriminals. Additionally, through the IGEL Cloud Gateway (ICG), which authenticates the...

Zevrix Solutions has announced LinkOptimizer 5.1.6, a maintenance update to company's workflow automation solution for Adobe InDesign. The tool lets users automatically scale and crop images to their InDesign dimensions at specified target resolution, convert image formats, adjust colors and more. Version 5.1.6 improves batch processing of InDesign files with duplicate links in situations where multiple source documents are located in the same folder. LinkOptimizer can be purchased from the Zevrix website (www.zevrix.com) for $259.95; there’s a “lite” version for $179.95). A demo is available for download. The update is free for LinkOptimizer 5.x users and $130 to upgrade from previous versions. LinkOptimizer requires macOS 10.7-10.12 and Adobe InDesign/Photoshop CS5-CC 2017.

DEVONtechnologies (www.devontechnologies.com) has updated all editions of its intelligent information and document manager DEVONthink for Mac with a rewritten PDF sidebar and a new URL command for creating groups. Version 2.9.15 also further improves referencing materials from HTML and Markdown documents, extends drag-and-drop for Tinderbox, and lists available sync stores for sync locations. Finally, the update improves compatibility to the upcoming macOS High Sierra. All editions can be downloaded and test-driven for free before they need to be licensed. DEVONthink Personal as well as all editions of DEVONagent are also available in the Mac App Store; DEVONthink can be purchased in bundles with DEVONagent at bundle prices in DEVONtechnologies' online shop.

Micromat has announced a new macOS drive utility called Drive Scope. The software utilizes Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (also known as S.M.A.R.T.) — which is built into most hard drives — to report on the health of internal and external hard drives connected to Macs. The program displays a wide variety of information about supported hard drives, including critical health information, and is able to warn of impending drive failures prior to data loss. According to Micromat product manager Christian Pickman. Drive Scope provides an extension to the already-capable SMART check in the company’s Techtool Pro. “We've added a wide variety of information for any connected SMART enabled drive, the ability to trigger internal SMART tests in the drive, and overall just provide more information about the internals of your Mac's hard drive,” he says. “And it's all pulled straight from the drive using tools built in to the macOS, compared to other utilities that use a third-...

It’s official: Apple’s next U.S. data center will be built in Iowa. The tech giant has announced plans to build a 400,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art data center in Waukee, Iowa, to better serve North American users of iMessage, Siri, the App Store and other Apple services. Like all Apple data centers, the new facility will run entirely on renewable energy from day one. Apple’s investment of $1.3 billion will create over 550 construction and operations jobs in the Des Moines area, and the company is contributing up to $100 million to a newly created Public Improvement Fund dedicated to community development and infrastructure around Waukee. “At Apple, we’re always looking at ways to deliver even better experiences for our customers. Our new data center in Iowa will help serve millions of people across North America who use Siri, iMessage, Apple Music and other Apple services — all powered by renewable energy,” CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. “Apple is responsible for 2 million...

ATTO Technology say their 16Gb and 8Gb Fibre Channel ThunderLink Thunderbolt devices have achieved VMware Ready status for ESXi. ATTO ThunderLink devices are purpose-built Thunderbolt products designed to connect virtualized Mac hardware to 16GB and 8GB Fibre Channel storage solutions within VMware VSphere environments. This provides a new and efficient solution for Apple technologies application development and testing environments, virtual desktop infrastructure and cloud hosting or shared private cloud, says Tom Kolniak, Senior director of Marketing, ATTO Technology. ThunderLink devices with the certified ESXi driver can fit into new or existing VSphere environments. They’re enabled by the same technology base and can cohabit the same rack as other ATTO I/O solutions. A suite of VMware ready product information pertaining to ATTO, collateral and other resources are listed within the online VMware Solution Exchange (http://tinyurl.com/y8npjut9). The VMware Ready program is a co-...

AKVIS (www.akvis.com) has released a new Japan & China pack that includes 80 picture frames created by professional artists. The $15 frame pack, for use with for AKVIS Frames and AKVIS ArtSuite, is designed especially for those interested in Asian cultures and traditions. The Japan & China set includes 80 picture frames: 40 vertical and 40 horizontal templates inspired by the charm of Japan and China. On the Mac platform, it requires macOS 10.17 or higher.

Akitio (https://www.akitio.com) will release a new four bay, Thunderbolt 3 storage solution for Mac and Windows at the upcoming BIRTV Show in Beijing, China. The Thunder3 Quad X, while similar to the Thunder3 Quad, features an all-new design and is now compatible with both macOS and Windows computers. It also supplies 27 watts of power delivery to help charge a connected Thunderbolt 3 laptop. The Quad X holds four drives and can accommodate either 3.5-inch hard drives, 2.5-inch hard drives or solid state drives (SSD's). The Quad X was designed for use with the 2016/2017 Apple MacBook Pro line-up as well as Thunderbolt 3 Windows PCs. It offers fast transfers with the added flexibility of a DisplayPort video output and the aforementioned 27 watts of power delivery, according to Richard Wright, vice president of Sales & Marketing for Akitio.. The built-in power supply adds the convenience of portability and saves the space for the external power supply compared with its earlier...

Kensington has announced the $99.99 SecureBack Rugged Case for Square Reader (http://tinyurl.com/y8onrp6u), which is compatible with 9.7-inch iPad, iPad Air, and iPad Air 2.   Designed to protect the Apple tablet in a mobile point-of-sale environment, it provides integrated protection for the Square Contactless & Chip Reader, and the Square Magstripe Reader. The dual layer construction offers drop protection while the raised bezel edging guards against screen scratches. The rotating hand strap and shoulder strap are designed to make it easy to carry. A built-in anchor lets the user quickly attach a ClickSafe lock to deter any theft attempts when the user is away from the tablet.

Chronos has released Notelife for macOS and iOS. It’s a note manager that uses iCloud to sync notes across all of a user’s devices. According to Jerry Halls, vice president of Sales at Chronos, you don’t have to remember any formatting codes, like Markdown, to format notes. Plus, Notelife offers features not found in Apple’s standard Notes app like the ability to access your notes from the menu bar while using any application, he adds. It also boasts three-phase encryption: on device, in transit to/from cloud, and in cloud. There features include: menu bar access to notes from any application; geotagging records location where notes are created; unlimited hierarchical folders for organizing notes; tags for categorizing and filtering notes; import/export in standard rich text format; dark or light interface style in macOS; multiple window support in macOS; and more. A fully functional 30 day trial version of the macOS app can be downloaded from Chronos' website (www.chronosnet.com)....

Kalypso Media has released Sudden Strike 4, a World Ware II strategy title for macOS. It sends you off on three extensive campaigns set amongst the battlefields of the second world war. Commanding the British and American, German or Soviet armies, you will lead over 100 different units into battle, including the German Heinkel He111 bomber, the Russian T-34 tank, the British Hawker Typhoon fighter plane and even the notorious German Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger. In a first for the Sudden Strike series, you can now choose from one of nine individual commanders, such as George Patton or Bernard Montgomery, whose unique military doctrines unlock valuable command and combat abilities for your troops. You’re tasked to prove your tactical expertise in over 20 single player scenarios, the challenge-focused skirmish mode, and the competitive multiplayer mode. A reward system awards the player for clever play with skill points and bonus unlockable content. Sudden Strike 4 is available now...

Mac Broadcaster has upgraded JustBroadcaster for Periscope, their Periscope live-streaming app for macOS, to version 1.1.1 The utility allows you to quickly stream live content directly to Periscope with just a mouse clicks. Video streams can include video from apps, the Mac Desktop, webcams, iOS devices, and other sources. JustBroadcaster also offers "lower thirds" information capabilities and green screen effects. JustBroadcaster for Periscope requires macOS 10.10 or later. It’s available for a special limited time promotional price of $9.99 for a one-year license and is available worldwide exclusively through the JustBroadcaster website (http://www.justbroadcaster.com/tw). A demo is available for download.

B-Eng has announced File Manager Pro 1.4, an update to the dual panel file manager for macOS. The utility sports extra functions like interactive disk overview, compress/uncompress tool, and more. Users can copy/move/delete files and folders as well as compressing/decompressing files, synching directories and more. Version 1.4 introduces tag infos along with a fix for bid PGF files, as well as performance improvements. File Manager Pro 1.4 requires macOS 1011 or higher and costs $18.99. It’s available worldwide exclusively through the Mac App Store (http://tinyurl.com/y7kwm9mf).