Macintosh/iPhone software update roundup – December 7, 2009

Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for December 7, 2009:

Macintosh

• Stand By Soft has released RationalPlan 3.15.7, a powerful project management software application developed to assist project managers in creating plans, tracking progress, allocating resources, managing budgets and analyzing workload. The new version comes with a significant increase in its execution speed, more task types, silent install possibility on Windows and some more interface improvements.
• TheMacBundles has announced the release of a new December Bundle. For each of the first 3 weeks in December, a new bundle of 12 highly rated titles will be released. Each bundle will feature a combination of new tiles and titles from the previous week’s bundle. This provides users with a unique opportunity to find the combination of high quality software that best meets their needs while also saving a bundle of money. Two new weekly specials also will be offered each week.
• MacVide has announced MacVide 3gp Converter 3.1, an update to their mobile video conversion utility for Mac OS X. 3gp Converter allows video conversion to mp3 mobile video. All of the most popular formats are supported, and helps bridge the gap between many video standards. MacVide 3gp Converter offers an easy-to-use interface that guides the user through the conversion process. Version 3.1 features improved the video engine, 3x processing speed, Snow Leopard support and more.
• iWebTemplate today announces iWeb iPhone Templates for Apple’s web construction application. Perfect for click and mortar, website or any online business, these new iWeb Templates were produced for constructing resolution specific websites to be viewed with iPhone and iPod touch devices. These templates feature five unique customizable themes and will work equally with other mobile devices. This release extends iWebTemplate’s position as a leading supplier of themes, templates, and more.
• Divine Fiat today announced Contemporary, their new theme for Apple’s Keynote Presentation Software. The Contemporary Theme has a colorful but understated way of presenting ideas and images. The American Typewriter font against the subdued and textured backgrounds of tan, orange and two tones of green brings a crisp contemporary style to your presentations. The photo frames slightly hovering with a gentle shadow completes the look.
• Tycoon Games has announced the release of Heileen 2: The Hands Of Fate, the sequel to one of their most popular games, Heileen. The game takes place on a mysterious Caribbean island where Heileen was shipwrecked at the end of the first game. Her ex-slave friends Robert and Ebele will help her survive, but when Heileen discovers a deck of tarot cards representing the seven deadly sins and the seven godly virtues, she realizes the power of the cards can help her unlock the secrets of her past and shape her future. With the tarot cards, she can escape from the island, find her true love, meet pirates, or do nothing at all. Will Heileen be a saint or a sinner? It’s all in the hands of the player.
• The Infinite Kind has announced Moneydance 2010, an update to their full-featured personal financial management application. With a familiar checkbook-register interface, Moneydance includes features such as online banking, online bill payment, investment management, budget tracking, scheduled transactions, check printing, detailed graphs, reports, and much more. Moneydance 2010 includes a simplified yet more powerful interface and streamlined online functions.

iPhone/iPod

• In Bloodstream Raiders [iTunes App Store link], gamers take control of a single white blood cell and travel inside veins and arteries through major organs—including the heart, lungs and liver—attempting to rid the human body of an influenza virus by firing antibodies at waves of deadly virus cells. While journeying though the body you will encounter cholesterol, red blood cells, platelets, bacteria, stronger mutations of the virus, as well as anti-viral, which can be collected within the bloodstream and used to unleash a stronger attack, obliterating any virus cells nearby.
• Designed by and made for real deejays, Sonorasaurus is the mobile DJ solution you’ve been waiting for. Boasting unparalleled performance, Sonorasaurus is a serious DJ offering that sports two independent decks, each with their own dedicated effects module, gain adjustment, parametric EQ, virtual LED level meter and touch sensitive pitch controls. Because Sonorasaurus contains everything you need, it lets you fit the whole experience right in your pocket! Carry your turntables, mixer and music library all on one device, without either the cost and bulk of professional hardware equipment.
• EeryLab has announced a new Adubble update is available on the Apple App Store. The latest update, version 1.3, includes integration with the social gaming network OpenFeint, bringing global leaderboards and achievements to the world of Adubble! Now players can compete for high scores with their friends, complete alternative goals by unlocking all 30 achievements, and brag on Twitter and Facebook.
• Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc. has announced Arches National Park Geology Tour 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. The app provides an extensive, visually rich description of the geology of the park written and narrated by geology professor Deborah Ragland, Ph.D. Listen to the narration as you hike the trails, study the photos and animations before your visit, or just take a virtual trip. The app is completely self-contained. Narration is available, with just a touch, for each photo, illustration, and animation.
• ADS Software Group Inc. has announced ART 4.4, an update to their very popular and critically acclaimed pocket art gallery, slideshow and quiz for iPhone and iPod touch. Developed specifically to take advantage of the iPhone’s unique capabilities and interface, ART is a database of over 6000 masterpieces featuring 204 famous artists with full biographies. Art students, beginners and hobbyists alike can browse online galleries of works and save images to their gallery, and more.
• Profusion Studios has introduced iStunt 1.0, their new 2D Snowboard game for iPhone and iPod touch. Developed specifically to leverage the iPhone’s unique capabilities and touch interface, iStunt is an addictive 2D game with a strong emphasis on physics. Perform amazing stunts while snowboarding through impossible scenarios in a unique game experience. iStunt features 20 unique levels which require earned skills during gameplay.
• Press Start Studio and Bulkypix have announce that Twin Blades is now available on iPhone and iPod Touch at a special launch price of for $0.99. Twin Blades is a frantic shooter game set in a medieval era with unique manga-like graphics. Help the nun defeat evil with some heavy zombie-killing action across multiple environments, venture through the city market, the cemetery, a chapel in ruins and the city’s outskirts to purge the town of all its living-dead inhabitants. Buy new skills and powers and upgrade them as you progress day after day. Manage carefully your energy by slicing zombies with your mighty scythe in order to use the destructive powers of your artillery.
• TriX Software has announced the free TrailBlazer Lite for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Perfect for walkers, runners, cyclists, and hikers, TrailBlazer is the ultimate way to monitor speed, record and review paths, and share travels. In addition to a map showing current location and path travelled, graphs of speed and altitude over the last 2 minutes up to 2 hours are easily accessible. Wireless download your tracks using just a web browser and display the path you travelled in Google Earth.
• Francis Dierick has announced ElevatorPitch for iPhone and iPod Touch. ElevatorPitch teaches entrepreneurs, salespeople and evangelists how to be convincing when it matters most. The application offers a countdown timer for elevator pitch practice and allows the user to store a picture and some notes in the application. With ElevatorPitch in his pocket the user is always ready to deliver at the touch of a button.
• Pixelglow Software has released Instaviz 1.5, the latest version of its diagram sketching software for iPhone and iPod Touch. Instaviz uses Recog, a new shape recognition engine based on advanced fuzzy logic and trained on over 2,500 sketches drawn by real users. Instaviz also uses Graphviz, the industry standard for automated graph layout. Version 1.5 features animated diagram changes, better scrolling and zooming, and batch file operations.
• 2XL Games has announced the release of their newest entry on the iTunes App Store: 2XL Fleet Defense, a 2D airplane blast-’em-up with deceptive depth and the pick-up-and-play appeal that mobile gamers crave. The game starts off with your F-35 jet taking off from an aircraft carrier deck in the middle of the ocean. The first wave of enemy planes and ships are easy to tackle—just tap them to lock on and fire. As players progress through the game they must devise a strategy to blast the opposing forces before they destroy the carrier.
• Sinecure Industries has announced the release of Halp! The Advice Generator. Undecided on career goals? Unsure how to make an impression? Looking for some advice on snacking? Anyone could use some advice now and then, and Halp! delivers over 700 pieces of advice on the go. The app picks a random piece of advice and presents it to the user. It then gives them the opportunity to reload new advice each time they shake the phone.
• Cloud Factory, Inc has released the update to their popular Simplenote app for the iPhone and iPod touch. Simplenote provides a more robust note taking app that can sync effortlessly with your computer. The latest version includes many highly requested features to make it even better. Putting in months of development, and incorporating great feedback from a dedicated community of users and developers, Cloud Factory has been able to optimize Simplenote for smarter wireless note syncing, quicker load times, better note searches, and a refined API that supports a fantastic array of third party Simplenote apps.
• TextExpander touch, the iPhone version of SmileOnMyMac’s customizable typing shortcut tool, is now integrated in the apps SimpleNote and Notebooks. Simplenote and Notebooks users can seamlessly use their TextExpander snippets while composing notes in those apps, rather than first composing in TextExpander touch. To celebrate the integration, TextExpander touch is on sale until Sunday, December 13, 2009.
• rapidrabbit has announced AppButler 1.0, a new way to discover the AppStore. AppButler automatically observes the AppStore and keeps track of every app. A special algorithm calculates a score for every app which represents the number of ranks the app has gained in the biggest AppStore markets within 24 hours. Users can determine a score threshold and the categories they are interested in. Based on these settings the user will be informed via push if the AppButler has found something for them.
• iMediapp has announced iPilule 1.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. iPilule helps every women with an iPhone keep track of her birth control pills schedule. Using the iPhone’s powerful Push notification feature, iPilule sends a daily reminder at the time she choses. The application automatically calculates when to stop and when to reactivate notifications based on the day she started her pill tablet.
• Prairie Design Group and software developer NaNil have announced their FanGuide Series of interactive, multimedia iPhone apps. Architectural enthusiasts won’t have to worry about awkward guidebooks, unruly maps or rented listening devices any longer. Each app features text, maps, photos, audio and bonus video for a self-contained “offline” experience on any iPhone or iPod Touch. The app offers web access directly to specific building or house museum websites that are open to the public.
• Sweb Apps, the Web site that lets anyone build a great-looking, highly-functional mobile application for their business, today announced that they will defer all set-up fees for non-profit organizations through June 30, 2010. Now non-profits will be able to customize a professional-quality iPhone application to promote their organization in just 30 minutes—even if they don’t have a technical background to create one on their own.
• Newsy, a multi-source video news service producing daily videos for web and mobile devices, has debuted a new version of its popular free iPhone app that deepens and enhances news consumption for mobile users. Newsy is the only news service that analyzes the key differences in how a story is being reported by various news organizations around the world.
• Shoot. Reveal. Share. imphoto Pro is the first streamlined photo application which not only delivers perfect pictures from your iPhone photos but takes just seconds from start to publish. Shoot a photo, automatically reveal the detail to make it perfect, and then share it via social networks including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Picasa, as well as emailing, saving before/after shots to your albums. It’s smooth and effortless, and gives unmatched quality pictures with just one tap.
• Macsoftex has announced iAlcohol Lite 1.2, a free version of their blood alcohol content app for iPhone and iPod touch. Intuitively easy to use, iAlcohol determines the level of alcohol in the blood and calculates the required break in driving. The formula calculates the influence of factors on the duration of the phases of alcohol intoxication, providing 90% accuracy. The application will help you choose a suitable drink and the amount you are allowed to consume within this interval of time.
• Deepak Chopra has released a new iPhone app called Stress Free. The app represents the first time such a program is being released directly in an interactive mobile format, without first being released in a book. Its self-guided program walks users through a set of stress-reduction activities and skills. Throughout each step, users are personally coached by Dr. Chopra in a series of activity-specific videos.