Apple London store shut following London attacks

In response to London's traumatic bomb attacks this morning,
Apple has closed its Regent Street Apple retail store for the day.

Smith Micro acquires StuffIt maker Allume

Smith Micro Software acquired Allume Systems from International
Microcomputer Software Systems.

New Intel-backed company eyes Web movie downloads

Intel and Revelations Entertainment hope to offer new feature films over the Internet.

Adobe warns of weak Acrobat

Adobe has issued a security warning for Adobe Reader users.

US podcast audience to top 60 million by 2010

A research group is predicting that 60 million people in the US will be
listening to podcasts by 2010.

Tiger and iPod drive Apple's financial expectations

Analysts have high expectations for Apple's third quarter earnings results,
due Today.

Extensis Announces New Portfolio 7 For Tiger and CS2

Extensis today has updated its popular digital asset management product line for Tiger and CS2 compatibility. Updates are free for registered Portfolio 7 users. In addition Portfolio now has additional RAW camera support - bringing the total number of digital cameras supported to more than 50.

THE CANADIAN FILM CENTRE'S WORLDWIDE SHORT FILM FESTIVAL AWARD WINNERS

Now in its 11th year, the Canadian Film Centre's Worldwide Short Film Festival, which presents one of the largest prize packages for short film in the world, recently presented 10 awards and $125,000 in cash and prizes to this year's top filmmakers at the 2005 WSFF Awards Picnic.

The festival's top cash prize and the Jameson Award for Best Canadian Short Film was awarded to Pjotr Sapegin for the animated World War II tale, Through My Thick Glasses (Quebec/Norway). The prestigious Jameson Award garners the film automatic screening rights at most participating film festivals next year. Other award winners include:

MINI Audience Choice Award: Alvaro Pastor's Invulnerable (Spain)

The Jackson Triggs Award for Best Emerging Canadian Filmmaker: Jeffrey St. Jules' The Sadness of Johnson Joe Jangles (Quebec)

C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures Award for Best Animated Short: Anthony Lucas' The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (Australia)

Best Live Action Short: Heiko Hahn's Before I Go (Germany)

The Kodak Award for Best Cinematography in a Canadian Short: Director James Cooper and cinematographer Adam Mardsen's Lepidulturous (Ontario)

Best Documentary Short: Talmage Cooley's Dimmer (USA)

Best Experimental Short: Guy Roland's Spacer (British Columbia)

Special Jury Prize for Daring Filmmaking: Enrique Arroyo's The Other American Dream (Mexico)

The Screenplay Giveaway Award was awarded to Naoko Kumagai in order to make her script a reality.

Accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the WSFF's Canadian Award winners are eligible for Genie Awards and winners of the Best Live-Action Short and Best Animated Short are eligible for Academy Awards.

RES would like to extend a special congratulations to Talmage Cooley, one of this year's RES 10, for winning the Best Experimental Short Award for Dimmer!

TELEVISION ANIMATION CONFERENCE

Once again this September, Ottawa will play host to some of the leading animation executives from North America and around the world. Representatives from internationally renowned studios such as Aardman Animation and Nelvana as well as broadcasters such as Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and KidsWB! will converge at the 2nd Annual Television Animation Conference (TAC), taking place on September 21 and 22 at the prestigious Chateau Laurier.
 
Launched by the Ottawa International Animation Festival in 2004, the Conference sold out in its inaugural year, drawing over 200 professionals from across Canada, Australia, China, France, India, Italy, South Africa, South Korea and the US.
 
TAC is a specialized, industry-driven conference aimed at enhancing business opportunities for animation producers and buyers and bridging the gap between animation art and commerce. This year's distinguished keynote speakers are Scott Dyer, Executive VP of Production and Development at Nelvana and Linda Simensky, Senior Director of Children's Programming at PBS .
 
As part of the Conference program, attendees will have the opportunity to hear experts discuss current topics in animation innovations, technologies, and growing markets. This year's sessions include The Canadian Market (presented by Playback Magazine), where the country's top animation broadcasters speak about their upcoming programming mandates. Broadcasters include Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Family Channel, TV Ontario, TELETOON, and TFO-TV Ontario.

Other panels include Distribution Alternatives (presented by the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund), a panel exploring digital distribution potential for animation, and Boutique Studios, a look at independent studios who are making significant contributions to original TV animation.

TAC will also present a case study on Planet Sketch, the new CGI kids' series by Aardman Animation (UK) and DECODE Entertainment (Canada). Some of the key players in the show's making will be in attendance to talk about the production process behind this unique co-production.

Sonnet Announces Sidekick USB 2.0 Adapter

Sonnet Technologies, a worldwide leader in upgrades for Apple Macintosh® computers and accessories for iPod® digital music players, announces Sidekick, the double-jointed USB 2.0 adapter that bends over backwards and sideways to connect USB devices in small spaces. Sidekick plugs into recessed or closely spaced USB ports with ease, and its extreme flexibility (180? rotation left-to-right, 180? sweep up-and-down) enables you to position an attached device in nearly any orientation.

Sidekick is short and narrow. Unlike using a cable, there’s no clutter. Laptop users working in tight quarters can conveniently connect a small USB device, regardless of the port location. Sidekick works with any USB device in any computer’s USB port. Sidekick is also an ideal iPod shuffle companion—users can connect their digital music player to any USB port on a variety of computers and displays that normally present challenging or impossible fits (including iMac® G3, eMac®, some iBook® models, Apple Studio Display) without an extension cable or dock. When space is limited and you need to get connected, it’s great to have a Sidekick!


Compatibility
Any computer with a USB 1.1/2.0 port, any device or cable with a standard USB type-A connector

Pricing and Availability
Sidekick (Part no. UAD-SDK) will be available mid July 2005

For more information about Sidekick, please refer to the Sonnet website at:

HELIOS products now support Apple Xsan

HELIOS Software GmbH, a leading server solutions developer, today announced that all HELIOS products now support Apple Xsan, the enterprise-class storage area network (SAN) from Apple Computer.

HELIOS server solutions and Xsan are a great match, combining superb SAN solutions with high disk capacity. HELIOS WebShare, EtherShare, PCShare, ImageServer, PrintPreview, and PDF HandShake are all available for Mac OS X and include full support for Apple Xsan.

"Apple Xsan fulfills a growing demand from our customer base, for high capacity file systems that can grow as needed,” said Helmut Tschemernjak, President of HELIOS.

"The combination of Tiger Server, Xserve G5, Xserve RAID and Xsan offers enterprise customers an unbeatable combination of price, performance and interoperability in heterogeneous environments,” said Ron Okamoto, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "We're thrilled that the HELIOS product range fully supports Xsan to offer customers high performance remote file access and management over SANs."

Fast DVD Copy 4 Now Available

Velan Software announces today the release of FAST DVD COPY 4

Prosoft Engineering Announces Pod Genius For Mac OS X at Mac Expo Germany

 Pod Genius for Mac OS X, is a comprehensive software utility geared specifically toward iPod users.  It will be introduced and demonstrated at Mac Expo Germany on Thursday.

 “iPods have quickly become the hottest, must have gadget.  With all the songs and files, our iPods can quickly become overloaded with files.  Mechanical parts wear and fatigue, your iPod begins to operate more slowly, and eventually fails. Your only defense is to carefully monitor and manage your iPod so you can be sure it is in good health and working at peak efficiency at all times – You’ve invested a lot into your iPod and music, you want to make sure your iPod will faithfully perform and your investment is well-protected,” states Greg Brewer, CEO of Prosoft Engineering. “We are dedicated to providing a feature rich, easy to use software utility that will let you take control of your iPod, and your digital life.”

 Pod Genius – Maintain, Manage, and Optimize Your iPod.
 Pod Genius is the only comprehensive software utility geared specifically toward iPod users. Recover lost or damaged music, repair corrupted data structures, backup your iPod to an exact copy, permanently delete unwanted files, or optimize the file layout of your music. You’ve invested a lot into your iPod and music, with Pod Genius, you can be sure your iPod will faithfully perform and your investment will be protected.

Pod Genius’s Eight Must-Have Utilities In One Package.

• Backup:  Make an exact clone of your iPod for safe keeping.  Use your backup as protection against data loss.

• Optimize: Increase battery life and minimize wear-and-tear. Your songs get optimized in the order that you want to hear them, minimizing hard drive access and reducing the work your iPod has to do.
• Undelete: Accidentally deleted music? Undelete quickly recovers them in perfect condition.

• Shred: Permanently delete your songs and files from your iPod. Do your part to protect against music piracy... if you sell or donate your iPod, shred your music to prevent unauthorized use.

• Duplicate:  Make an exact copy of your iPod on another iPod – perfect when you are migrating your music to a newer iPod model. 

• Scan:  Analyze your iPod’s hard drive for media defects that can endanger your music files.    

• Info:  Display detailed information about your iPod’s hard drive to enable sophisticated troubleshooting.

APACHE CONFIGURATION AND MANAGEMENT TOOLS ENHANCED

Tenon's iTools is the only control panel software for Mac OS X

Tenon announced iTools 8, a new
version of their well-regarded web hosting control panel software.
iTools, an Apache Dashboard heralded for its simplicity and power,
simplifies and automates Apache configuration, saving webmasters time
and money. With iTools, a Mac OS X desktop or server system becomes a
professional web hosting platform that simultaneously empowers customers
and lowers support costs.

iTools 8 is a web site management system for small to medium-sized web
hosting providers that own or rent a dedicated server, and for large
service providers who may wish to bundle iTools into their offerings.
iTools is ideal for the professional hosting of multiple company web
sites on a single server - it shortens the time and lessens the
expertise needed to deploy new sites. With iTools you can automate
hosting tasks and delegate administration. Sub-administrators can
manage their own name or IP-based web sites and view their own logs,
without compromising the privacy of the multi-server machine. iTools's
secure, domain-specific , browser-based Apache administration, using a
6th generation suite of tools, makes Apache on Mac OS X, the easiest
Apache in the world to administer.

Jay Menna, President & CTO of Macminicolo.net
(http://www.macminicolo.net) says, "iTools on the Mac mini has made web
hosting on a private server a reasonable choice for millions of
businesses. With the new features of iTools 8, Tenon has made it
possible for small ISPs, web designers and technology consultants to
have the resources of much larger companies. While industry is buzzing
with virtual private servers, the iTools/Mac mini solution leapfrogs
them with actual private servers."

The new iTools 8, includes Apache 2.0.54, considered the best Apache
version available, the latest proFTPD with TLS/SSL support, enhanced DNS
management, enhanced sub-administration, and a suite of pre-packaged,
pre-configured open-source applications for blogs, discussion boards,
photo albums, and more. In addition, iTools 8 includes the ability to
disable and enable a web site with one click, for customers in arrears,
the ability to hand-tailor a default web site template to make setting
up similar sites easy and fast, optional use of encryption during
browser-based configuration sessions, the flexibility to restart various
server daemons either manually or automatically upon configuration
changes, FastCGI support, extensive log viewing options on a virtual
host-by-virtual host basis, and an automatic system update facility both
for iTools updates and updates to add-on packages.

iTools lets you manage your Apache web sites via a sophisticated,
in-depth, browser-based GUI that includes URL rewriting, URL redirects,
MIME type and Apache handler editing, setting up SSL, along with a host
of other Apache-specific settings. You can also manage cron jobs (to
automatically perform administration tasks at pre-set intervals),
administer MySQL databases via phpMyAdmin, and set up WebDAV for
collaborative web development. Embedded on-line help and the technical
resources of Tenon give you the assistance you need to transform your
desktop or server Mac OS X machine into a professional hosting
business.

Handle With Care: The Battle of the Screen Cleanners OmniClean vs Monster iClean

We have been looking for quite some time now for a product that could safely clean all of our screen here at the Digital Dispatch. Without much luck if I may add. Some of them are ridiculously expensive and they just smear instead of cleaning, Others just don't cut it by leaving a sticky residue on your screen, or simply well some .....are just a joke by being so volatile, that after just one usage they have almost evaporate.

Just us on this one; Out of the 6 products that we tested only 2 made the grade. The OmniCleanz System is our clear winner. The Monster iClean is a good second choice.

Here are our reasons:

OmniCleanz

Compact size
Comes fully loaded in a pocket transport "Tube" with it's own Special Cleaning cloth
Cleans even the most "Gunky" screen (CRT or LCD)
No streaking or residue
Dries extremely fast
Is absolutely the best product ever to clean Titanium surface found on original PowerBook G4
Do well on iPod and sunglasses, as well on large TV Screen
No residue, No Mess
Very affordable

Bottom Line: Can't live without Product 5* out of 5

Monster IClean

Large Size Bottle
Hard to transport
Comes with 2 Special cleaning Cloth (They feel like cat's tongue, great for trapping "Gunk" but difficult to clean
(almost) No Streak and residue
Dries Fast
Not much help for Titanium surface
Do also very well on iPod, but because of the size of the bottle, do the Best Job on Large TV Screen Or 21" CRT Screen
Thick Gel won't run, but sometime leave some streaking
A lot more expensive to purchase

Bottom Line: If you have Huge CRT screens and a whole lot of them and no Titanium products and much more $$$ then you will be please with it. 4* out of 5

Depending on what's at hand and your budget, these 2 products will perform extremely well.
Those two products can be purchased on line.

Apple updates the iPods, drops 1GB iPod shuffle’s price

Apple has released a new line of iPods with color screen across the line. By the way, the iPod photo line disappears as it is merged with the iPod line. The new iPod line consists of two models: one with 20GB hard-drive, and one with a 60GB hard-drive. Best iPod Yet!

Apple releases iPod Updater 2005-06-26

Apple has just released iPod Updater 2005-06-26 through the Software Update utility. Here is the description provided by Apple for this update: iPod software update 2005-06-26 delivers iPod Software 1.2 for iPod with color display, iPod mini Software 1.4 for iPod mini and iPod Software 3.1 for iPod with Click Wheel Integration

Apple offers Radeon 850XT BTO option for PowerMacs

Along with the iPod updates, Apple has also silently added an new build-to-order option for PowerMac purchasers, they can now buy their PowerMac with a Radeon 850XT graphic card. Apple previously offered Radeon 9650, Radeon 800XT and Nvidia GeForce 6800DT DDL options. The Radeon 800XT option is not longer available.

iTunes podcast subscriptions top one million in first two days

Apple today announced that in its first two days, iTunes customers have subscribed to more than one million podcasts from the new iTunes Podcast Director. After all Video did not kill the radio star.....!

Registration now open for UKs MacExpo 2005

MacExpo 2005, which takes place in the Olympia National Hall, Kensington, London October 27-29 is now accepting pre-registrations, notes Macworld UK.

REAL Software Announces Plans to Support Mac OS X on Intel Processors

REAL Software announced today that REALbasic will add support for Mac OS X on Intel processors. Apple Computer recently announced plans to transition the Macintosh product line to Intel processors.

SPEED DOWNLOAD 3.0.10 OPTIMIZED FOR MAC OS X 10.4.1

Yazsoft announces the immediate availability of Speed
Download 3.0.10; a new version of the popular download manager completely
tweaked and optimized for Mac OS X 10.4.1.

Apple security update 2005-006

Apple Security Update 2005-006 is now available for Mac OS X 10.3.9 and 10.4.1 via the software update panel. This update delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users.  This update includes the following components: AFP Server, Bluetooth, CoreGraphics, Folder Permissions, launchd, LaunchServices, NFS, PHP, VPN.