Macintosh product news – September 8, 2010

Macintosh product updates and announcements for September 8, 2010:

• Software
• Hardware

Software

• app4mac has released Delegate 1.1, a new major version of this to-do list manager designed for Mac, iPhone and iPad. Delegate is very flexible and powerful allowing Mac users to share a to-do list on the internet for remote access from any location. Delegate is compliant to GTD method Getting Things Done, and distills those principles into a clean and simple user interface. Special introductory price of the iPad/iPhone version until end of September.
• Stellar Information Systems Limited has announced the release of Stellar Drive ToolBox which is an ultimate utility to optimize the performance of your Mac hard drive. Stellar Drive ToolBox is an “All-in-One” pre-crash Mac hardware maintenance utility that effectively optimizes, protects, manages, repairs, and sanitizes your Mac hard drive volumes.
• Adopted by more and more Mac users on a daily basis, ShareTool is a smart, easy, and highly secure utility that lets you connect to Bonjour services running on your home/office networks from anywhere in the world at a click of a button. This includes Screen Sharing, File Sharing, Remote Printing, Secure Browsing, FileMaker, iTunes, iPhoto, and tons more. All traffic is encrypted end to end and the speed is fast. A free seven day demo is available. With ShareTool, you can be in two places at once.
• Bohemian Coding has introduced Sketch 1.0, their new vector drawing application for Mac OS X. Its intentionally minimalist design is based upon a drawing space of unlimited size and layers, free of palettes, panels, menus, windows, and controls. Tools and modifiers are accessed as needed from drop-down graphical menus, and help/control dialogues open/close automatically. Though simple to use, it offers powerful vector drawing and text tools similar to those in more costly apps.
• Bundleecious has announced their 2nd Edition of the cheapest and smartest bundle of apps for Mac OS X. These popular apps involved in this 2nd offering are Punakea, iDatabase, Cinch, Awaken and Elmedia Player PRO. To celebrate the launch of Bundleecious, Apimac will make its iDatabase for iPhone free for 24 hours. For the first 1.000 bundles sold we’ll also give away to our customers Protect Files from Apimac for free.
• MacUpdate has launched its latest software bundle featuring Roxio Toast 10 Titanium and nine other top Mac applications. Included in this limited time bundle are Toast 10 Titanium, Live Interior 3D Standard, My Living Desktop, Espionage 2, ShareTool 2, Get Backup Pro, Cashculator, MindNode Pro, Concentrate and Voila 3. Early buyers also get 2 bonus apps. This offer runs through September 22 exclusively at MacUpdate Promo.
• The MacBU is gearing up to launch Office for Mac 2011 at the end of October and sharing details of the new suite. Collaborating with friends, colleagues and classmates is worry-free with the co-authoring tools in Office 2011. Documents can be stored in the cloud (SkyDrive free to consumers and SharePoint for businesses) allowing for multiple people to access and edit a document. In addition, there is built-in support for the Office Web apps that lets a user edit an Office document, even if they are at a machine that doesn’t have Office installed on it. The team also announced new features in Outlook for Mac including the scheduling assistant, which allows users to see their calendar in line with their mail resulting in a more efficient workflow. Additionally, PowerPoint 2011 allows users to broadcast a presentation. Broadcast Slideshow lets the users of your choice view your presentation at your speed, all recipients need is a browser connection.
• ExactCODE continues to improve OCRKit and bring streamlined and easy to use text recognition to the Mac. OCRKit recognizes text from images and PDF documents and transform them into searchable PDFs by using advanced Optical Character Recognition technology. The latest OCRKit update 1.5 allows to save HTML and RTF formats and TXT UTF-8 encoded plain text. In addition it improves the recognition and stability of OCRKit plus the user-interface translations got updated.
• Raskin Software LLC has announced the first major update to its self-titled Raskin application—a zoomable single surface Finder alternative for Mac. Raskin simplifies interaction with your computer files, and now uses Apple’s OS X Quick Look function.
• Zevrix Solutions has announced BatchOutput 3.9.2, a maintenance update to its popular professional solution to automate printing, exporting and post-processing from Adobe InDesign. Developed originally for one of the largest ad agencies in Canada, BatchOutput offers output as single pages, link auto-update, PDF preflighting, variable file names, file delivery and other workflow automation solutions. The new update suppresses color settings warnings and improves image export from InDesign CS3.
• Freakonomics—the film version of the internationally bestselling book—hits theaters on October 1, 2010, but the film is already available via Video on Demand and iTunes prior to its theatrical release. Distributing the film across three popular formats—download from iTunes, Video on Demand, or an unmatched theatrical experience—seeks to expand the reach of what is technically an independent specialty film in terms of financing, vision and a committed audience of non-fiction film aficionados. Freakonomics boasts wider appeal to movie-going audiences by virtue of the brand recognition and fervent fan base associated with Dubner and Levitt’s highly acclaimed books, necessitating the availability of the film to consumers in their pick of digital formats in advance of the theatrical release.

Hardware

• LaCie debuted today sleek USB 3.0 hard drives for your desktop or pocket: the LaCie Minimus and LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0. Proving size does matter, LaCie delivers the industry’s fastest transfer speeds at 5Gb/s in its ultra-small Rikiki form factor—perfect for users that refuse to sacrifice performance for mobility; and the LaCie Minimus—for users that enjoy their terabytes as much as desk space. Complementing their remarkably small sizes, the Rikiki and Minimus hard drives are encased in sturdy brushed aluminum for an elegant aesthetic appeal. The aluminum offers resilience from blunders, improved heat dissipation, and is fully recyclable.