At this week's National Association of Broadcasters expo, Proavio (http://www.proavio.com) announced the July release of the IS316JS and the EB400CR. The IS316JS is a 16-drive direct attached storage array that combines a dual port, high-speed 6Gb/s SAS interface, professional grade redundant and hot-swappable components with a 12Gb/second storage expansion bus that lets you add multiple IS316JS arrays (up to 144TB). An optional PCI-Express RAID controller provides real time, fail-safe RAID protection against drive failure during operation. The Proavio EB400CR is designed for file-based and DSLR workflows and features a built-in hardware storage controller that offers traditional RAID, JBOD and disk cloning (drive duplication) capabilities in a mobile-ready solution. It sports a multi-interface design, next generation USB 3.0 technology and a variety of user selectable storage modes (JBOD, RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-10, RAID-5, and Disk Clone).

Today's special deal is a set of themes for Apple's iBook Author app. The themes are being offered for US$9.99; the regular price is $16.99. To take advantage of this special pricing go to http://www.mupromo.com/deal/1837/6603/themes+for+ibooks+author . Themes for iBooks Author is the first set of templates for iBooks Author from Graphic Node, designers of Pages Templates Pro and Keynote Quartet. They can help you personalize your books even further with over 70 themes.

In a note to clients -- as reported by "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) -- latest U.S. sales data from NPD suggests Apple's Mac sales were up "just" 5% year-over-year during the March quarter, a number lower than some have expected. Investors generally expect Apple sold 4.3 million units during the three-month period, representing a14 % year-over-year increase. Munster says the lower-than-some-expected sales are because Apple hasn't released any major updates for its MacBook Pro and iMac product lines in over a year -- two lines that account for 50% of Mac sales. Munster expects Apple will report Mac sales in the range of 4.1 million to 4.4 million, representing 9% to 17% year-over-year growth, respectively. However, he expects sales to pick up in the next few months as Apple revs the MacBook Pro, iMac and MacBook Air lines with Intel's new Ivy Bridge processors.

Apple shares fell as much as 3% today -- down to US$582.30 at one point. It was the first time Apple's stock had gone below $600 a share since March 30. Apple will report its latest quarterly results on April 24. Analyst Brian Marshall of ISI Group told "MarketWatch" (http://macte.ch/aVHnO) that the decline was likely due to "a simple collapsing" of the stock on its own weight as Apple shares have risen about 45% this year.

Costin Raiu from Kaspersky Lab said in a SecureList blog post (http://macte.ch/gkytk) says that last week the security software company of a possible link between a Mac OS X backdoor trojan and an APT attack known as LuckyCat. The IP address of the C&C to which this bot connects (199.192.152.*) was also used in other Windows malware samples during 2011, "which made us believe we were looking at the same entity behind these attacks," he says. "We think the above facts show a direct connection between the SabPub and Luckycat APT attacks," Raiu writes. "We are pretty sure the SabPub backdoor was created as far back as February 2012 and was distributed via spear-phishing emails." His theory is that the malware payload was delivered through Word documents. Malware detection and virus tools aren't effective for LuckyCat yet, thought this situation should change soon.

Apple and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission have failed to settle a dispute over the naming of the new 4G LTE-capable iPad, reports "The Sydney Morning Herald" (http://macte.ch/m3n4U). The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took Apple to court last month after it failed to respond to its concerns that the name of its new tablet -- the iPad Wifi + 4G -- would mislead Australian consumers. The ACCC says the new iPad does work at fast speeds, but isn't compatible with any Australian 4G networks.  Apple agreed to contact all customers and advise them the tablet did not work on Australian 4G networks and to offer refunds. However, the ACCC apparently wants Apple to change the name/description of the product. The next phase of the case will be determined at a directions hearing this afternoon before Justice Mordecai Bromberg of the Federal Court in Melbourne, notes the "Sydney Morning Herald."

At this week's National Association of Broadcasters expo in Las Vegas, mLogic (http://www.mlogic.com) announced the company’s mLink PCIe to Thunderbolt expansion chassis. It enables PCIe adapter cards (video capture cards, RAID controllers, host bus adapters, SSDs, etc.) to be attached to Thunderbolt-equipped computers. mLink brings the functionality of these add-in cards that formerly required a desktop system to all-in-one and portable computers like the iMac and MacBook Pro. Visit the mLogic site for a list of Thunderbolt-aware PCIe cards that are compatible with mLink. mLink will be available in June through select retailers and distributors or direct via the mLogic online store at www.mlogic.com. The manufacturer's suggested retail price is US$399.99.

At this week's NAB show, TOLIS Group (http://www.tolisgroup.com/) -- in conjunction with Sonnet Technologies (http://www.sonnettech.com/) and ATTO Technologies (http://www.attotech.com)-- is demonstrating bundled solutions that utilize the new Thunderbolt interface to expand support of LTO tape connectivity. Broadcast, film and music industries can now enjoy greater flexibility in their ability to archive their creative assets, according to Greg LaPorte, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Sonnet Technologies. With the increased performance and storage capacities provided by today’s Apple Mac laptops, iMacs, and Mac mini systems, users have been replacing larger Mac Pro desktop systems for day-to-day editing and field operation, he adds. Until now, the process of archiving digital assets to LTO tape was restricted to the studio using larger, more costly systems. The new Thunderbolt-based bundles from TOLIS Group allow full compatibility with today’s high performance, high...

Apple says the new iPad will arrive in South Korea and 11 additional countries on Friday, April 20. In addition to South Korea, the new iPad also will be available beginning on Friday, April 20 in Brunei, Croatia, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Malaysia, Panama, St Maarten, Uruguay and Venezuela. Beginning on Friday, April 27, the new iPad will be available in Colombia, Estonia, India, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, South Africa and Thailand.

A new report from the Pew Internet research group (http://macte.ch/Iabde) looks at Internet usage in the U.S. and found that: ° One in five American adults doesn't use the internet. Spanish-speaking senior citizens, adults with less than a high school education, and those living in households earning less than $US30,000 per year are the least likely adults to have internet access. ° Among adults who don't use the Internet, almost half say the main reason they don’t go online is because they don’t think the Internet is relevant to them. Most have never used the Internet before, and don’t have anyone in their household who does. About one in five say that they do know enough about technology to start using the Internet on their own, and only one in 10 told us that they were interested in using the Internet or email in the future. ° The 27% of adults living with disability in the U.S. today are significantly less likely than adults without a disability to go online (54% vs. 81%)....

MW3D-Solutions has announced Cheetah3D 6.0, an update to its 3D modeling solution for Mac OS X 10.6 and higher. It costs US$99 for a single-user license. Customers may upgrade from Cheetah3D 1.x -5.x for $69. The new version integrates the Bullet physics engine for the simulation of rigid-body and soft-body dynamics. Version 6.0 also adds support for Isosurfaces (Metaballs), the keying of mesh vertices and spline control points, improved iBooks Author compatibility, an upgraded FBX SDK, support for 16-bit textures and more. Cheetah3D is designed for graphic designers, architects and casual users alike. It offers such tools as subdivision surface modeling, joint based character animation system, UV unwrapping, texture painting, rigid and soft body dynamics, PDF import, global illumination renderer, and more. The possibility to extend Cheetah3D with JavaScripts and support for many common file formats, like FBX, 3DS or Collada, rounds out its feature set.

Another day, another lawsuit. A class-action lawsuit has been filed against AT&T alleging the company “actively and without reservation aided, abetted, and assisted” iPhone thieves by allowing the stolen handsets to be reactivated on its network, reports "ZDNet" (http://macte.ch/K9x7Z). The three plaintiffs feel say AT&T and yet unnamed “Doe Corporation Entities” were “in some way legally or proximately responsible” for “actively and without reservation aided, abetted, and assisted thieves” by “turning back on” stolen handsets. The lawsuit further claims that by reactivating these handsets AT&T and other carriers have earned “unfair and illegal profits” that have “amounted to many millions of dollars each year, for the past several years.”

Manhattan Edit Workshop, MEWshop, says its MEWshop Edit House, booth SL12805, will offer hands-on training for the upcoming release of Adobe Creative Suite 6 at NAB 2012. The show will be held April 14-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The MEWshop Edit House training line-up features 30-minute hands-on sessions on all the new features of Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and Adobe After Effects CS6. Attendees are encouraged to sign up for a time slot at the class registration link (http://www.mewshop.com/contact/rsvp/).

Apple has released a Flashback Malware Removal Tool (http://macte.ch/CO6lj) for Mac OS X 10.7 ("Lion") WITHOUT Java installed. It's a 356KB download. According to Apple, it removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware. This update contains the same malware removal tool as Java for OS X 2012-003. If the Flashback malware is found, a dialog will be presented notifying the user that malware was removed. In some cases, the Flashback malware removal tool may need to restart your computer in order to completely remove the Flashback malware.

So what's that "revolutionary" Apple product French designer Philippe Starck says (http://macte.ch/U3FUf) he's been working on. Apparently nothing. Apple has issued a statement to "AllThingsD" (http://allthingsd.com/20120413/apple-we-dont-know-what-philippe-starck-i...) saying it's not working on any projects with Starck. Apparently, the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs was working with the designer on a yacht. This is very likely the "fairly, if not very, revolutionary" project he was talking about, says "AllThingsD."

Developer Johnny Gentry has introduced Helo 1.0 for Mac OS X and iOS. It's an arcade game where players control a helicopter and must pick up stranded hikers. Here's how the game is described: "Featuring retro-style, 8-bit graphics and animation, the game is deceptively challenging. Players must avoid birds, compensate for winds, and master the delicate up/down and left/right control system to rescue minute animated hikers, stranded on small platforms in mid-air. Helo (pronounced Hee' low) is tilt controlled on iOS. "With blocky, aliased graphics and animation, Helo takes the player back to the early years of video games, when designers struggled to construct games that would run with limited memory and processing power. The comparative crudeness of those games was tolerated by players, because there was nothing better and because the gameplay was challenging and entertaining. Helo is an homage to those early efforts that established quality of gameplay as the most important factor...

French designer Philippe Starck said on a radio show that he's been working with Apple on a "revolutionary" new product, with the product set to launch within the next eight months, according to a report by the French language site, "Mac4Ever" (http://www.mac4ever.com). The French newspaper, "Le Figaro" (http://macte.ch/fB59M) has more details. Starck -- who has designed hotels, restaurants, toothbrushes and more -- said he regularly met in California with the late Steve Jobs once a month. He didn't offer any details on the "revolutionary" product due to Apple's "religious cult of secrecy."

A German regional court has backed a ban on push emails in Apple's iCloud and MobileMe services in Germany, according to the "Wall Street Journal" (http://macte.ch/hYwrP). The Mannheim regional court agreed with an earlier court decision that restricted the company from delivering the service due to an ongoing patent lawsuit with Motorola Mobility. Apple will apparently have to pay damages to Motorola Mobility, although how much it will cost the company is unknown. And the company has told German iPhone customers that e-mail can no longer be "pushed" to their phones through their iCloud or MobileMe services. "Due to recent patent litigation by Motorola Mobility, iCloud and MobileMe users are currently unable to have iCloud and MobileMe email pushed to their iOS devices while located within the borders of Germany," the company says on a support page (http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4208?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US). "Affected customers will still receive iCloud and MobileMe email...

Apple has paid a couple in Tokyo, Japan, ¥600,000 (approx. $7,400) for medical fees and pain and suffering when the first-generation iPod nano spontaneously burst into flames, causing burns to the hand that took more than a month to completely heal, according to "Cult of Mac" (http://macte.ch/7D58J). The device, which was purchased back in 2005, overheated and caught fire while charging in July 2010. When pressed for comment on this case, a representative for Apple Japan told Nikkei: ”we cannot comment without confirming with our American head office.”

Nest Labs (http://www.nest.com), which specializes in home energy consumption solutions,says former Apple Chief Intellectual Property Officer Richard “Chip” Lutton, Jr. has joined the company as vice president and general counsel. "Chip has provided invaluable counsel as an advisor to Nest, and we couldn’t be happier that he’s decided to join us full time," says Tony Fadell, Nest founder and CEO (also a former Apple employee). "New, disruptive companies are often at a disadvantage when it comes to defending their innovations, especially when established competitors are desperate to maintain the status quo. At Nest, we understand the importance of having a general counsel who is also an established, seasoned and well-respected intellectual property expert." Lutton is the former chief intellectual property officer of Apple. In his ten years in the role, he was involved in all aspects of Apple's patent development, acquisition, licensing, enforcement and dispute resolution. He has...

In a note to clients -- as reported by "AppleInsider" (http://www.appleinsider.com) -- Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says he expects Apple to report sales of 33 million iPhones, 12 million iPads and 4.3 million Macs in its first fiscal quarter of 2012. Piper Jaffray has reiterated its "overweight" rating for Apple stock and also maintained its US$910, 12-month price target. Earlier this month, Munster predicted that Apple would become the world's first trillion-dollar company by market cap in calendar year 2014.

Today's special deal is Cookie Stumbler Family Pack and Cookie Stumbler Basic. The former is on sale for US$19.95; it's normally $33.95. The latter is on sale for $9.95; the regular price is $18.95. To take advantage of this special pricing go to http://http://www.mupromo.com/deal/1832/6603/cookie+stumbler+family . Cookie Stumbler eliminates ad and tracking cookies and allows you to maintain only the cookies on your computer which you really want to keep. This eliminates threats to your privacy and helps your web browsers to run faster. It will recognize known ad/tracking cookies via definitions which are updated frequently similar to anti-virus software and so far unidentified Ad/tracking cookies via an intelligent heuristics engine, which is built-in.

Here are the latest incremental updates for Mac OS X apps. AKVIS (http://www.akvis.com) has announced AKVIS Chameleon 7.9 for Mac OS X and Windows.The program is photo collage creation software. Version 7.9 adds compatibility of the plug-in with upcoming Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop Elements 11, improves compatibility with Corel PaintShop Photo X4, fixes bugs. SintraWorks has released PDF Nomad 1.3 (http://sintraworks.com/index.php/sintraworks/pdfnomad_home/), an update to its PDF editor made especially for Mac Lion. The upgrade adds plain text export, highlighted text export, window restoration, improved markup annotations and Mountain Lion compatibility. MacPaw has updated Gemini (http://macpaw.com/gemini) -- its Mac-only duplicate finder and cleaner -- to version 1.2. The upgrade adds: a multiple locations scan; a preferences window; an exclude list; and Finder integration. mSeven Software (https://msevensoftware.com/) has revved its mSecure password manager for OS X and iOS...

Apple just released Java for OS X 2012-003, an update to the Java implementation in OS X. You can obtain it via the Software Updates component of the Mac OS X Systems Preferences app. This Java security update removes the most common variants of the Flashback malware. This update also configures the Java web plug-in to disable the automatic execution of Java applets. Users may re-enable automatic execution of Java applets using the Java Preferences application. If the Java web plug-in detects that no applets have been run for an extended period of time it will again disable Java applets. Java for OS X Lion 2012-003 delivers Java SE 6 version 1.6.0_31 and supersedes all previous versions of Java for OS X Lion. Apple says the update is recommended for all Mac users with Java installed.