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Friday, August 19, 2005

Apple stock hits all time high

Apple's shares (AAPL) hit all time high, on Friday, on rumours that the company may partner with Google on online music. The stock closed at $46.10 (up 4.77%) and traded at as high as $46.30 after market close

Test of the Week: The Apple Mighty Mouse

We finally got around to test the Apple Mighty Mouse and have been using it for about 4 day now.
Looks: It's definitely one of the best looking mice
Usability: Don't count on it!

Some of our favorite feature is the unique scroll ball. Faster, quieter, and more sensitive than most scroll wheels it's just great and perform above any others that we have tried so far.

We also found that by it's unique design (flatter than most) the Mighty Mouse can take some time to get use to; confort being the issue here.Right and left clicking are ok but However, when it comes time to use the 'squeeze' the action feel unnatural.

The side buttons are also a bit too far forward; again making the experience less than confortable for most users. The USB cord is also so "passé" where is the bluetooth? On the plus side, the Mighthy Mouse looks great and has buttons that can be configured to act as the primary button, which makes it nice for left handed people.

And don't try to compare Apple's Mighty Mouse software to USB Overdrive, it's simply a no win situation. Apple's software can't assign keystrokes or modifier keys to mouse buttons and it doesn't let you change the settings in different applications.
Man! that is truely a case of form over matter....

Recommandation:

Unless you love form over usability don't get the Apple Mighthy Mouse: other multi-button mice are a better value;
The one that comes to mind is the Mouse by MacMice (We gave it a 5* review in the past)

The Apple Mighthy Mouse score a 2* out of 5 ........... To bad!

Launch of MacScreen.com

MacScreen.com has just been luanched for the apple osx community, offering icons, screen savers, wallpaper and other desktop content

Phelios Releases a New Game, Rock and Roll

Phelios announced the release of their new downloadable game for Mac OS X called, “Rock and Roll,” another addition to their growing list of games made with their own game engine, PTK.

Apple announced an iMac G5 Repair Extension Program

Apple announced an iMac G5 Repair Extension Program to address defects found in first generation 17- and 20-inch iMac G5s. The affected iMacs exhibit power and video problems "as a result of a specific component failure." The iMac G5 Repair Extension Program web page includes the following information about eligible iMacs:

Affected systems will exhibit one of the following video- or power-related symptoms:

Scrambled or distorted video
No video
No power


Note: If your iMac G5 is not experiencing any of these symptoms, you do not have to contact Apple or any Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Which iMac G5 computers are affected by the iMac G5 Repair Extension Program for Video and Power Issues?

The program is available for certain iMac G5 models that were sold between approximately September 2004 and June 2005 featuring 17- and 20-inch displays with 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz G5 processors.

The affected iMac G5 computers have serial numbers where the first 5 digits fall into the ranges noted below.

Serial Number ranges:

W8435 - W8522
QP435 - QP522
CK435 - CK522
YD435 - YD522

In case of a doubt or for more info. contact Apple.com

Apple's growing retail store success upsets some Apple resellers

"Apple Computer's retail stores have been a boon to its overall business, but that may mean bust for some of its key partners. A growing portion of Apple's sales have been coming through its expanding network of company-owned retail outlets. But some of the company's resellers -- independent retailers and businesses that sell Apple products -- complain that a portion of those sales are being taken from their businesses," Troy Wolverton reports for TheStreet.com.

"Apple now has about 120 stores, up from 86 at the end of September last year and just 65 in September 2003. The stores are mostly located in affluent, urban and suburban shopping areas in the U.S., although the company has recently opened a series of stores in Japan, Canada and the U.K.," Wolverton reports.

"Apple doesn't break out the retail value of its reseller sales or the wholesale value of its shipments to resellers. But in the first nine months of this year, just 17% of its overall sales came from its own retail stores, implying that a large portion of its business came from its reseller network," Wolverton reports. "Retail stores' share of Apple's overall sales has been climbing rapidly, generating 14% of the company's overall sales in its last fiscal year and just 10% in fiscal 2003. Some resellers charge that those gains are coming out of their cash registers."

"Even if Apple's stores hurt some of its resellers, some analysts think Apple will do what it can to nurture its overall reseller network," Wolverton reports. "And some argue that instead of being hurt by the stores, some resellers are actually benefiting from them in that they help promote Apple's products to customers who are considering the Mac platform and allow consumers to test them."

Many long time Canadian resellers also feel the "clinch", (they shall remained naimless since they all feel that they could get retaliation from Apple by voicing opinion) told us that they foresee a dark future for Mac indie Canadian retail in the years to come. Un fair practice from Apple seems to be the phrase that get mentionned the most. some VAR even told us that they are seriously considering closing, after years of loyal services.

Red Cross offers Apple iPods for blood donations

"The Red Cross, faced with a shortage of blood donations, has found an unusual way to get potential donors to their doorstep," Fox News reports. "Across the country, some chapters of the Red Cross have begun offering incentives including raffles for free iPods, vacations, free gas cards and free meals in an attempt to increase the nation’s blood supply."

"In addition to offering prizes, the Red Cross is also relaxing some of its screening rules to widen the potential donor pool, including extending the length of time some donors can have lived in Europe and still give blood. But the Red Cross says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved all changes to the guidelines for blood donations to ensure that the blood supply remains safe," Fox News reports. "The Red Cross admits it doesn't know what impact the new standards and incentives will have on blood donation, but the organization hopes it will make a difference."

Rumours: Apple to debut 4GB, 6GB iPod shuffle units later this year...

Pirated version of Mac OS for x86 available for install

An unauthorized version of Mac OS X for Intel or AMD chips could be downloaded from several sites as of last Friday.

Google $4bn share sale hits stock

Shares in internet search giant Google drop on plans to sell another 14 million shares in a bid to raise $4bn.

Apple Introduces Mighty Mouse

Apple® today introduced Mighty Mouse, its next generation mouse with several innovative new features that make using a Mac® even more powerful and easy. Mighty Mouse offers power users up to four independently programmable buttons, without compromising simplicity for users who prefer just a single-button mouse. Mighty Mouse also introduces an ingenious Scroll Ball that lets users scroll in any direction—vertically, horizontally and even diagonally. With the Scroll Ball, users can scroll with natural, fluid movements, making Mighty Mouse perfect for applications from viewing web pages and photographs, to video editing and music creation. Mighty Mouse is priced at just $49.(USD)

“With Mighty Mouse, we’ve simply built a better mouse,” said David Moody, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Mac Product Marketing. “With its innovative Scroll Ball and unique integration of multiple buttons, Mighty Mouse adds functionality while retaining the elegant, easy-to-use Apple design.”

Mighty Mouse is the first multi-button mouse that retains the simplicity of a single-button mouse, and can be used as a single- or multi-button mouse depending on the user’s preference. Mighty Mouse features a single seamless enclosure with programmable touch sensors that act as primary or secondary buttons. With a simple click on the upper right or left side of the mouse, users can instantly access features such as contextual menus found in Mac OS® X and other applications. Mighty Mouse’s two other buttons are activated by pressing its Scroll Ball and squeezing its sides, and can be easily programmed to give users one-click access to Mac OS X version 10.4.2 “Tiger” features such as Spotlight™ , Dashboard and Exposé™, or to launch any application such as Safari™ or iChat.

Mighty Mouse features an easy-to-use design that comfortably fits the left or right hand and an optical tracking engine for responsive and accurate cursor movement on almost any type of surface. With up to four programmable buttons, Mighty Mouse makes it easy to access key features of Tiger with the side buttons and Scroll Ball providing quick, one-click access to Spotlight, Dashboard and Exposé.

Apple updates security patch to fix 64-bit glitch

Apple late Wednesday night fixed a glitch in its recent security update.

Nokia music phone to support iTunes-like apps

Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia said it had no formal agreement to offer iTunes with its upcoming Nokia line of products.

New processor upgrade card available for G4 Cube

PowerLogix today announced the availability of its 1.5GHz Dual Processor PowerForce G4 7447A processor upgrade card for Apple's G4 Cube

Plasticsmith releases new stands for iPod, iPod mini

The Plasticsmith today announced the release of tux for iPod (US$35), a new stand for Apple’s digital music player.

Adobe releases Acrobat, Acrobat Reader 7.0.3

Adobe has posted Acrobat 7.0.3 (Standard | Professional) and Acrobat Reader 7.0.3

Toon Boom Wins a Primetime Emmy Engineering Award

Toon Boom Animation announced today that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has granted a 2005 Primetime Emmy Engineering Award to USAnimation Opus, the leading animation software solution for traditional studios worldwide, from North America, to India, China, Korea and Europe.

Toon Boom will receive its prestigious statuette at the Award ceremony on September 11, 2005 in Los Angeles.
Way to go! Toon Boom is a Montreal (our hometown) dot com.

REAL Software announces ADHOC sponsorship

REAL Software has announced that the company is an official sponsor of the Advanced Developers Hands-On Conference (ADHOC; also known as MacHack). In addition, all attendees will receive a free copy of REALbasic Professional.

ATI introduces Radeon 9600 Pro PC & Mac Edition

ATI has introduced a new video card that works with Macs and PCs.

Myst V demo released for Mac

Myst V demo released for Mac

A demo version of Myst V has been released for the Mac.

DecoDock Lava Edition connects iPod shuffle

Pressure Drop has introduced the DeckDock Lava Edition, a black and red version of their Art Deco-inspired iPod shuffle dock.

Windows worm beginning to spread

A variety of worms that exploit a Windows vulnerability disclosed last week are hitting many systems worldwide, reportedly including some at cable network CNN, and could reach critical mass in the next several hours, according to antivirus vendor Trend Micro Inc.

Maclean's and Macromedia launch "100 Years in Flash"

Macromedia Canada is proud to announce the launch of a new animation contest entitled: “100 Years in a Flash.” As part of Maclean’s 100thanniversary animators young and old have been invited to put their creative spin on the 100 years theme for their chance to win the latest edition of Macromedia Studio, the firm’s creative software suite which includes everything needed to create rich digital experiences through text, images, animations, and video. The contest is open now and closes August 15th.

Each submission will be seen and judged by industry professionals and the rest of Canada participants are invited to fire up their imaginations and their computers to show us what they’ve got. Maclean’s is leaving the 100 years theme wide open, so whether it’s a look at the past, the future, or a combination thereof, participants will have complete creative freedom. It’s a great opportunity for Flash animators to showcase their talents to the rest of Canada.

“This contest is a testament to the rich tradition of animation excellence here in Canada,” said Rob Nascimben, Country Manager, Canada for Macromedia. “Flash truly represents the next generation of creative expression, and we’re thrilled to support a contest that recognizes the incredible talents and abilities possessed by Canada’s creative community.”

Voting for the Readers’ Choice will commence on August 29th, and shortlisted submissions will be posted for viewing at www.macleans.ca



.  For more information on the contest, please visit http://www.macleans.ca/m100/100years/index.html. 

WHAT: 100 Years in a Flash animation contest

WHEN: Starts now, closes August 15, 2005

PRIZE: Each of the two winners will receive the latest edition of Macromedia Studio

HOW TO WIN: Participants can one of two ways: the Panelist’s choice selected by a group of high-profile design professionals including Macromedia’s founder and Chairman Rob Burgess – or the Reader’s Choice award based on votes from Maclean’s readers across the country

MACROMEDIA ANNOUNCES STUDIO 8

New suite offers advanced design, development, and maintenance tools from desktop to mobile

Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) today announced Macromedia Studio 8, the essential suite for web designers, developers, video professionals, and graphic artists to design, develop, and maintain interactive online experiences. Combining the latest releases of award-winning Macromedia Dreamweaver®, Macromedia Flash® Professional, and Macromedia Fireworks®, and key productivity tools Macromedia Contribute™ and Macromedia FlashPaper™, Studio 8 offers a new level of expressiveness, efficiency, and simplified workflow to create websites, interactive media, and mobile content. For more information about Studio 8, please visit http://www.macromedia.com/software/studio.

"Studio 8 is a huge leap forward,” said Stephen Elop, chief executive officer, Macromedia. "There are tremendous improvements to features and performance allowing designers and developers to build and deliver more expressive and compelling experiences for the web and devices in less time than ever before. Our beta testers worldwide agree: this release will fundamentally change the way people think about the creation and delivery of digital content."

Studio 8 contains workflow enhancements, new products, and feature firsts. The addition of Contribute and FlashPaper allows designers and developers a streamlined approach to maintaining web content, making the upkeep of sites created with the suite even more cost effective. Studio 8 also includes groundbreaking new video encoding tools, which give customers an easier method for creating and publishing high-quality interactive video for truly memorable online experiences. New CSS enhancements and visual authoring tools for XML add style and sophistication to websites and applications. New tools for authoring and testing mobile content give Studio 8 the market lead in helping businesses reach the widest audience possible across multiple platforms.

"Macromedia technology has helped us realize our main design goal for the Toyota Hybrid City site -- to promote a better understanding of Toyota's hybrid technology among our customers," said Yoshitaka Hirano, Domestic Advertising & Marketing Div., Toyota Motor Corporation. "I expect the new expressive features of Studio 8, including advanced visual effects and video integration, will allow us to communicate Toyota's advanced technology via an unparalleled web experience which is both entertaining and educational."

The Studio 8 suite and its individual products are key application components of the Macromedia Flash Platform for delivering the most effective experiences for rich content, applications, and communications across browsers, operating systems, and devices.

Dreamweaver 8 is Macromedia's latest release of the industry-leading tool for designing and developing websites and applications. New Dreamweaver 8 features include expanded Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) layout visualization for easier design, drag-and-drop integration of XML data feeds, improved code hinting support for XML and XSLT, enhanced usability features such as zoom and code collapse to streamline the development process, and easier ways to incorporate Flash Video content onto websites.

Flash Professional 8 (announced today, see separate release) marks a significant release for Flash, the industry's most advanced authoring environment for creating interactive websites, digital experiences, and mobile content. Improved graphics performance, new graphic effects capabilities, new animation controls, script editor usability, Flash Video features, and workflow integration with leading video editing and encoding tools allow the creation of rich, immersive content for the web that was not possible before. Flash Professional 8 is the professional authoring environment for the Internet's most widely distributed rich client runtime, Flash Player.

Fireworks 8 offers many new and improved features. Graphic designers and web application developers can now create interactive CSS-style pop-up menus, experiment with more than 25 new blend modes, import new file formats, and experience improved roundtrip editing with Dreamweaver 8 and Flash Professional 8.

Studio 8 is rounded out by the addition of Contribute 3 and FlashPaper 2 to better fulfill the workflow needs of users. Contribute 3 lets web professionals modify or update content in a controlled, template-based workflow that improves efficiency while preserving website integrity. FlashPaper 2 extends the content creation process by converting any file type into web-ready PDF or SWF file formats.

As the backbone of the Flash Platform, Flash Player 8 (public pre-release announced today, see separate release) is a major update to the ubiquitous runtime environment. Flash Player 8 includes a higher quality video codec, an advanced text-rendering engine, and an improved security model and privacy controls to offer unprecedented performance in a lightweight runtime player. Flash Player is currently installed on over 600 million desktops and mobile devices globally.

"Designers, developers, video professionals, and graphic artists rely on specialized tools that help them express their creativity and work efficiently," said Tom Dwyer, research director, Yankee Group. "The well-integrated tools within Macromedia Studio 8 take advantage of industry-standard technologies, improve workflows, and go a long way toward helping media and web professionals remain productive, profitable, competitive, and successful."

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY

Macromedia Studio 8 is expected to ship in September. Localized versions in German, French, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese will be available shortly thereafter.

Ottawa Animation Fest Schedule On Line

One of the best Canadian animation Brouhaha is the Ottawa Animation Fest.
Complete details and schedule can be find on line at:
http://www.awn.com/ottawa/OIAF05/schedule_day1.php
A true must for all.

APPLE'S IPOD PATENT GAFFE

Computer firm Apple may have to pay Microsoft £6 for each iPod it sells after a huge licensing lapse.
Lawyers at Bill Gates' firm filed a patent for technology behind the hugely successful digital music player two months before Apple.

The US Patent Office has ruled that Microsoft has the right to charge competitors a licence fee for each iPod sold.

Furious, Apple has said it will appeal the decision but at the moment it looks as though the firm will be paying a high price for the success of its product.

HP and Apple end iPod affair

Doing its best to erase Carly Fiorina's mistakes, HP has culled an iPod reselling agreement in place with Apple since January of 2004.

HP delivered a rather confusing message for the move, telling us that the reselling deal "met or exceeded our internal expectations" but then adding that "the iPod doesn't fit in with our digital entertainment strategy." Last quarter, Apple shipped 6.2m iPods worth more than $1bn in revenue. HP captured about 5 per cent of total iPod sales on average per quarter. The deal, however, never really took on the shape in the way HP had hoped. It got off to a slow start, as HP received new product some considerable time after Apple released it, and without the ability to customize the gear as much as HP desired. These HP iPod's will become no doubt collector's editions now...

NewerTech expands iPod battery replacements

Newer Technology announced a new, high-capacity replacement battery for the iPod mini that provides 50 percent more capacity than the factory original, the company says. All NuPower battery kits are user installable with included tools and online viewable installation videos, although professional installation is recommended for iPod mini and fourth-generation iPod models. Pricing for the iPod mini battery replacement is US$24.95. That is the best deal around. We believe that they will give Apple a run for theire money!

Apple Retail offering $59 iPod battery replacements

Apple Computer through its retail store locations has begun to offer iPod owners a significant discount on its iPod Battery Replacement Program if the battery life of an iPod fails to meet certain conditions, AppleInsider has confirmed.

iPod owners experiencing poor battery life with an existing iPod can bring the player to an Apple-owned retail store for testing. If tests show the battery to hold a charge of only 50 percent or less of its original strength, Apple will offer a replacement for $59. (Price will be slightly higher in Canada).

The program adjustment offers customers with qualifying iPods a discount of $40 off the cost of the standard $99 iPod Battery Repair Program. Apple originally launched the program in late-2003 following criticism amongst iPod owners who discovered the battery life of their iPod would slowly deteriorate over time.

Battery woes associated with early iPod models have also landed Apple in the court room. Last month, a court conditionally approved a settlement in a class action suit brought against the company by several consumers who claim their first-, second-, and third-generation iPod batteries did not live up to the company's representation.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement, most qualifying iPod owners who file a claim will receive a $50 reimbursement or credit towards new Apple goods. A fairness hearing on the case is scheduled to take place late next month to decide if the settlement should be granted and on what terms.