Mapdiva has released Artboard 2.0.7 for macOS High Sierra. It’s a maintainance update of the drawing software to create crisp vector graphics, logos, icons, and illustrations. Artboard features "smart" objects, direct select tool, a powerful style generator and stacked styles that go way beyond simple fill and stroke, providing a wide range of spectacular effects. Templates help people, such as small business owners, students, hobbyist and 2D game designers, get started on their projects. Artboard 2.0.7 sells for $39.99 directly from Mapdiva and is also available on the Mac App Store. A demo is available from the Mapdiva website (https://www.mapdiva.com/artboard/).

Maintain has served up Cocktail 11.1 (High Sierra Edition), a new edition of Cocktail for users running macOS High Sierra. Cocktail is a general purpose utility for macOS that lets users clean, repair and optimize their Macs. This version adds the ability to clear Twitter caches and macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 compatibility. It also has performance tweaks and bug fixes. Cocktail costs $19 for a single user license. A demo is available for download (http://www.maintain.se/cocktail).

POS printer manufacturer Star Micronics (http://star-emea.com) has officially received certification for the first Apple AirPrint POS printer: the $376 Star TSP654II AirPrint. This company says it’s the first 80 and 58mm receipt and ticket POS printer on the market to be Apple AirPrint certified.   AirPrint provides mobile printing solutions for Apple’s iPad, iPhone, iPod and MacBook users on any private network with the key objective to be able to wirelessly print via the customer’s network without installing specific printer drivers. With AirPrint support pre-installed on iOS devices, the user is able to connect to and print from the required printer.   Star’s TSP654II boasts a 300mm/second print speed, 203 dpi print output, and a compact footprint. The printer can be used in vertical or horizontal mode and includes a wall mount bracket in the box as standard. Available in charcoal black or ultra white casing, the printer matches the Star CB2002 cash drawer options. There’s also a...

Acclivity has released AccountEdge Pro 2018, an upgrade of the small business accounting native desktop software for macOS and Windows. “Since Intuit announced that QuickBooks for Mac will be discontinued, we’ve been more focused than ever on investing in our desktop accounting software,” says Scott Davisson, Acclivity’s co-founder. “Cloud computing is great, and we have AccountEdge Connect, our optional cloud-based add-on, but there are thousands of small businesses who still want the choice of using native desktop accounting software. AccountEdge 2018 is another big step in that direction.” With AccountEdge 2018, detailed guides are available to help the transfer of key financial data and a $100 rebate is available for previous QuickBooks owners switching to AccountEdge Pro. Resources and more information are available online (accountedge.com/quickbooks-alternative/). Other new features in AccountEdge 2018: ° You can view all your job details in one window, add custom lists and...

Zevrix Solutions has announced Output Factory 2.2.2, a maintenance update to company's output automation solution for Adobe InDesign. Output Factory automates printing, exporting and preflighting from InDesign and offers batch processing, export as single pages, layer versioning, preflighting and more. The new version addressed a macOS security bug that invoked app translocation for no reason, which prevented Output Factory from recognizing the version of InDesign the plug-in was installed with. Output Factory can be purchased from the Zevrix website (www.zevrix.com) for $169.95 (there’s a “lite” version for $119.95). A demo is available for download. The update is free for the users of Output Factory 2.x, and $84.97 to upgrade from BatchOutput and Output Factory 1.x. Output Factory requires macOS 10.7-10.13 and Adobe InDesign CS3-CC 2018.

Apple has updated Pages, Keynote, and Numbers for macOS to, respectively versions 6.3.1, 7.3.1, and 4.3.1. All offer stability and performance improvements. Pages is a word processing app for macOS. Keynote lets you create presentations and slides. Numbers is a spreadsheet app. The upgrades are available at the Mac App Store.

Apple has announced a major update to Clips, the free app for iOS that makes it easy to create and share videos using an iPhone or iPad. The upgrade introduces Selfie Scenes and adds artistic style transfer effects and a redesigned interface. Selfie Scenes is a new feature that places users into animated, 360-degree scenes when recording selfies. Using the TrueDepth camera system on iPhone X, Selfie Scenes transports users into bustling cities, serene landscapes, abstract paintings and even the Millennium Falcon and Mega-Destroyer from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” says Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Apps Product Marketing. With Selfie Scenes, users can choose from 10 Apple-designed scenes, featuring unique locations, characters, colors and visual styles plus two scenes from “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Each scene is a full 360-degree experience, so it surrounds users on all sides as they move iPhone X. And environmental sound effects make scenes even more immersive. New...

Recosoft (www,recosoft.com) has rolled out PDF2ID 2018, the latest version of its PDF to InDesign plug-in for Adobe InDesign CC 2018. It converts PDF and Windows XPS files into fully editable InDesign files, allowing PDF and XPS file content recovery and reuse within InDesign. The new version supports macOS 10.13, adds support for Adobe InDesign CC 2018, as well as includes architectural improvements and enhancements related to image handling and table conversions. PDF2ID 2018 requires macOS 10.8 or higher. It’s available in a variety of configurations from the Recosoft web store: PDF2ID Standard 2018 ($199); DF2ID Professional 2018 ($299), PDF2ID Standard 2018 Upgrade ($99), and PDF2ID Professional 2018 Upgrade ($149).

Apple has announced the global expansion of its Everyone Can Code initiative to more than 20 colleges and universities outside of the U.S. These schools will now offer the App Development with Swift Curriculum, a full-year course designed by Apple engineers and educators to teach coding and app design to students of all levels and backgrounds. RMIT University, Australia’s largest higher education institution, is one of the broadest international deployments of the App Development with Swift Curriculum to date. As part of its commitment to improving digital literacy, starting this month RMIT will offer the App Development with Swift curriculum through RMIT Online, and a new vocational course will be taught on campus. RMIT will also offer scholarships for school teachers who want to learn coding, and a free summer school course at RMIT’s City campus will give secondary students the chance to learn the basics of coding, says Martin Bean CBE, RMIT University vice chancellor and president...

Red Giant has just announced the arrival of Universe 2.2, putting 11 new transition tools – 76 transitions and effects in total – into the hands of editors and motion graphics artists. In addition to brand new transitions, Red Giant has made updates to two existing plugins and added support for Avid Media Composer. Red Giant Universe tools run in Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Adobe Premiere Pro CC, Adobe After EffectsCC, Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve, HitFilm, Magix Vegas Pro and now Avid Media Composer. Universe is available as an annual subscription ($99/year) or as a monthly subscription ($20/month). New Red Giant Universe customers can purchase a subscription or download a free trial at http://redgiant.com/universe.

STARDOM has a released a Thunderbolt 3 storage solution, available in capacities from 2-bay to 8-bay, with or without Hardware RAID. The solutions are targeted to video, audio, and photo professionals.   All STARDOM Thunderbolt 3 RAID storages come with a hardware RAID controller inside. It’s designed to offer reliability and enhanced productivity by keeping systems running at full performance even in the event of a complete volume rebuild.   The 8-bay, rack-mount type DR8-TB3, which supports hardware RAID 0/5/6, is ready for shipping. Other models are due soon. For more information, visit www.STARDOM.com.tw .

CS Odessa (www.conceptdraw.com) has unveiled ConceptDraw Pro 11, a new version of its business graphics and diagramming tool for macOS and Windows. It provides a range of business graphic documentation solutions with thousands of stencils and hundreds of templates for rapid diagramming. ConceptDraw Pro 11 boasts improved drawing speeds and other performance improvements. ConceptDraw Pro 11 retails for $199. It’s also included in ConceptDraw Office 4, which retails for $499.

Minder Softworks has announced Photonium, a minimalist web browser for macOS (10.11 and higher). It offers the unique ability to view photos stored in Apple's Photos app in a separate pane. This capability allows users to drag and drop photos to upload to Craigslist, eBay, Amazon Prints, Wordpress sites, and more. Traditionally, users who have their photos organized in Photos.app are unable to drag from Photos directly into their web browser to upload images. Instead, they must save images from the software to their desktop or other folder, switch applications to their browser, then upload their files. This then leaves the extra image files on their desktop or in another folder, which must then be deleted. Photonium simplifies this process by combining a minimalist web browser with a Photo library browser. Users slick a button in Photonium's window title bar to reveal the images and movies that are saved in Photos. They can view by album and adjust the size of the thumbnail. Once the...

Scorpion Research (http://www.scorpionresearch.com) has released Scorpion BarCode 2.90, an update to its barcode creation software for macOS 10.6 and higher. The app is designed to help users create and print all major barcode symbologies in EPS, PDF, PNG, or TIFF file formats. You can integrate barcodes into database, spreadsheet and word processor applications. A command line version is also provided to build scripted solutions. Version 2.90 is optimized for macOS High Sierra. It also adds support for EAN-Velocity and Telepen. A demo of Scorpion BarCode 2.80 is available for download. A single user license costs $130. Multiple users and educational discounts are available.

HITMAN – Game of the Year Edition is now available on the Mac. Developed by Io-Interactive for Windows and consoles, it’s brought to macOS and Linux by Feral Interactive. As master assassin Agent 47, players will carry out contract hits on powerful, high-profile targets in exotic locations around the world. Each mission is set in a detailed and heavily-populated sandbox level that challenges players to complete it in the most creative way possible. HITMAN – Game of the Year Edition includes the complete first season; the Patient Zero mission arc, and three new Escalation mission packs. Players can buy HITMAN – Game of the Year Edition from the Feral Store (http://tinyurl.com/ycllldvg) for $61.51. If they already own some HITMAN content, they can complete their Game of the Year bundle on Steam. HITMAN — Game of the Year Edition is supported on: all 27-inch iMacs released since Late 2014; all 15-inch MacBook Pros released since 2016; and all Mac Pros released since Late 2013. All 15-...

Apple has released second developer beta releases of watchOS 4.2. iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2. Registered developers can download them from Apple's Developer Center — or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

Cognito Software (https://cognito.co.nz) has released MoneyWorks Datacentre 8, extensible accounting and business system for macOS. With the ability to script and even design new native Mac windows, the software can now be extended to incorporate the special requirements of small-medium enterprises. MoneyWorks has the ability to share data with both cloud and in-house systems such as Excel or FileMaker. MoneyWorks Datacentre 8 is fully cross platform on Mac and Windows, and scales to over 100 concurrent users. As well as the extensibility offered by the scripting and user-interface builder, the core software includes multi-location inventory, serial/batch tracking, multi-currency, report writers, time-billing and job costing, all integrated with a multi-dimensional general ledger. A 45-day demo is available for download. MoneyWorks offers monthly subscriptions or the option of purchasing your own perpetual license.

Apple has announced the financial results for its fiscal 2017 fourth quarter that ended Sept. 30. The tech giant posted quarterly revenue of $52.6 billion, an increase of 12% from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.07, up 24%. International sales accounted for 62% of the quarter’s revenue. “We’re happy to report a very strong finish to a great fiscal 2017, with record fourth quarter revenue, year-over-year growth for all our product categories, and our best quarter ever for Services,” CEO Tim Cook said in a press release. “With fantastic new products including iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3, and Apple TV 4K joining our product lineup, we’re looking forward to a great holiday season, and with the launch of iPhone X getting underway right now, we couldn’t be more excited as we begin to deliver our vision for the future with this stunning device.” “Apple’s year-over-year revenue growth rate accelerated for the fourth consecutive quarter...

LiveCode has announced a new piece of technology for FileMaker users. LCFM Native will take an existing FileMaker layout and convert it to a native app, faithfully preserving the layout, on any LiveCode supported platform, while still using the FileMaker database. Supported platforms include macOS, iOS, Windows, Android, and Linux. This technology will mean online and offline syncing in any environment becomes possible, according to LiveCode CEO Kevin Miller. FileMaker solutions may be used on portable devices including Android, with the ability to add rich media and native app features, he adds. LCFM Native is currently a prototype, development is being undertaken in conjunction with .com Solutions. Users are being asked to support the Pre-Release program to fund this initiative at https://filemaker.livecode.com/native.

VeprIT has announced Photo Sense 2.1 for the Mac. It’s an update of the lightweight bulk photo post-processing tool. Photo Sense 2.1 sports batch adjustment tools, image settings synchronization, and custom presets. Version 2.1 improves the exposure and automatic enhancement algorithms. Photo Sense 2.1 requires macOS 10.9 or later. It’s free on the Mac App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/app/photo-sense/id425404097). However, a promotional watermark is added to the exported images; it can be removed with an $19.99 in-app purchase.

Apple has updated iTunes for macOS to version 12.7.1. It’s available at the Mac App Store. Apple says the upgrade includes minor app and performance improvements. iTunes for macOS now focuses on music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks. Apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are now exclusively available in the Apple App Store.

Apple has released iOS 11.1 for the iPhone and iPad. It adds over 70 new emoji characters including new food types, animals, mythical creatures, clothing options, more expressive smiley faces, gender-neutral characters and more. It also has several enhancements and bug fixes. For the Photos app, iOS 11.1: ° Resolves an issue that could cause some photos to appear blurry; ° Addresses an issue that could cause Live Photo effects to playback slowly; ° Fixes an issue that could cause some photos to not display in the People album when restoring from an iCloud Backup; ° Fixes an issue that could impact performance when swiping between screenshots. Regarding accessibility, iOS 11.1: ° Improves braille support for Grade 2 input; ° Improves VoiceOver access to multi-page PDFs; ° Improves VoiceOver rotor actions for announcing incoming notifications; ° Improves VoiceOver rotor actions menu when removing an app from the App Switcher; ° Fixes an issue for some users where alternative keys would...

Quarter Til 2 has introduced LucidTime 1.0, a customizable desktop clock system for macOS. It offers Mac users a collection of faceless clocks that sit quietly in the background on their Desktop. LucidTime offers three highly customizable clocks, each offering their own individually method of presenting the time of day. Users can adjust the color of each clock component (the hour, minutes, and second hands; major and minor tick marks; and more), the display size of each clock, and the transparency level of each clock and each clock element. Clocks can be positioned anywhere on the screen via select-and-drag. You can show or hide the seconds display for any clock, as wells show or hide various other clock elements for each clock. LucidTime 1.0 requires macOS 10.12.6 or higher. It costs $2.99 and is available worldwide exclusively at the Mac App Store (http://tinyurl.com/y855meqv).

Apple has posted new developer betas of iOS 11.2, watchOS 4.2, tvOS 11.2. Registered developers can download them from Apple's Developer Center — or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.