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Apple releases Aperture 3
New Features Include Faces, Places & Brushes
Apple introduced Aperture 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the innovative Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto® ‘09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organize large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine your photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let you share your work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.
“Millions of people love using iPhoto to organize, edit and share their digital photos,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets.”
“Aperture 3 gets it right,” said National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson. “The image editing tools are exactly what I have been asking for, they’re so easy to use and give me a level of control that I never even thought possible.”
“I chose Aperture because it was the most powerful archiving application around, but it’s now an unbelievable imaging tool as well,” said Bill Frakes, Sports Illustrated staff photographer. “I am beyond impressed with the massive changes made in Aperture 3.”
Aperture 3 allows you to organize large photo libraries with even more flexibility using Projects and the new Faces and Places. Faces uses face detection and recognition to find and organize your photos by the people in them. You can view faces across your entire photo library or view just the faces that appear in selected projects. In a new view that speeds up the organization process, Aperture 3 displays faces that have been detected but haven’t yet been named. Places lets you explore your photos based on where they were taken, and like in iPhoto, Places automatically reverse geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, you can assign locations by dragging-and-dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS enabled cameras, tracking devices or your iPhone® photos.
The new Brushes feature allows you to add professional touches to your photos by simply painting effects onto the image. Aperture 3 includes 15 Quick Brushes that perform the most popular tasks like Dodge, Burn, Polarize and Blur, without the complexity of layers or masks. Brushes can automatically detect edges in your images to let you apply or remove effects exactly where you want them. Aperture 3 includes dozens of Adjustment Presets that apply a specific style or look to the entire image with just a click. You can create your own custom presets or explore the techniques of other photographers by importing theirs.
Aperture 3 makes it easy to share your work with stunning slideshows that weave together photos, audio, text and HD video. You can select one of six Apple designed themes or choose your own transitions, background, borders and titles, and even add your own soundtrack. You can export your slideshows directly to iTunes® to take with you on your iPhone or iPod touch®. You can also share photographs as beautiful prints, create custom-designed hardcover books and publish to online photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr, right from Aperture 3.
Pricing & Availability
Aperture 3 is available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) and existing Aperture users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of $99 (US). A downloadable 30-day trial version is available at www.apple.com/aperture/trial. Aperture 3 runs as a 64-bit application on Mac OS® X Snow Leopard® on Macs with Intel Core 2 Duo processors.
Full system requirements, online tutorials and more information on Aperture 3 can be found at www.apple.com/aperture.
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New Bento 3 Personal Database by FileMaker
Brings Innovative New Ways to View, Use and Share Photos, Contacts, Calendars, Files and More
Popular Mac database integrates with iPhoto, provides multi-user sharing, new security options and a limited $20 rebate for existing Bento users
FileMaker, Inc. announced the immediate availability of Bento 3, a breakthrough new version of the popular personal database for the Mac. For the first time ever, Bento 3 integrates with iPhoto from Apple allowing you to store more info about your photos and link them to contacts, projects, events and other information stored in Bento.
“Think of Bento 3 as a powerful, easy way to bring together all of your key Mac information and photos,” said Ryan Rosenberg, vice president, marketing and services, FileMaker, Inc. “With Bento 3, we’re providing new ways for you to view and interact with your information so you can organize contacts, projects, events and even more details of your life.”
Share and share alike securely with up to five users
Bento 3 also delivers new ways to share your information with other Bento users. Just like sharing iTunes and iPhotos over a local area network (LAN) using Apple’s Bonjour technology, you can now share your Bento libraries with up to five users over a wired or wireless local network. You can also encrypt any field and assign passwords to secure your information in Bento 3.
View information in ways never before possible using a database
The new Grid view in Bento 3 delivers an innovative method of displaying thumbnails of photos, text and numeric-based information, while improved File Lists show image thumbnails, instead of just text.
Get started instantly
With Bento 3, you can choose from 35 pre-designed, ready-to use templates thanks to the addition of 10 more templates for popular uses, including wine collecting, job hunting, home searching, vacation planning and more. In addition, the recently launched Bento Template Exchange shows off hundreds of downloadable templates designed by Bento users, so there is never a shortage of new ideas for ways to use Bento 3.
Special limited time offers available
Bento 3 has a suggested list price of $49, but, for a limited time only, FileMaker is offering a $20 rebate to existing users of Bento 1 and Bento 2. Qualified customers who purchase Bento 3 through the FileMaker Store will get an instant rebate and pay just $29 for Bento 3. Qualified customers who purchase Bento 3 at an Apple store or other retailer can request a $20 rebate online.. Customers who have purchased Bento 2 between August 30, 2009 and October 14, 2009 are eligible to receive Bento 3 for free. A 30-day trial version is also available at www.bentotrial.com.
Bento 3 support for Bento for iPhone and iPod touch
Bento 1.0.3 for iPhone and iPod touch resolves compatibility issues related to Bento 3 for Mac and will be available soon. Current users of Bento for iPhone and iPod touch will see a notification on their device when the free update is available for download.
Pricing and system Requirements
Bento 3 is affordably priced at $49 U.S., or $99 U.S. for a family pack of five licenses, and is available on the FileMaker Store. Bento 3 will also be offered at the Apple Online Store and Apple retail stores. It requires Mac OS X v.10.5.7 Leopard and will also run on the recently released OS X v.10.6 Snow Leopard on a Mac computer with an Intel PowerPC G5 or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor. A minimum of 512MB of RAM and 1GB of hard drive space is recommended. A CD drive is required for installation of boxed software.
Apple premieres iTunes 9
Featuring iTunes LP, Home Sharing, Genius Mixes & Improved Syncing
Apple introduced iTunes 9, the latest version of the world’s most popular software application to purchase, manage and play media, packed with innovative features such as iTunes LP, Home Sharing and Genius Mixes, as well as a redesigned store and improved syncing. iTunes 9 makes it easier than ever to discover, purchase and enjoy your music, movies, TV shows, and apps for iPhone(TM) and iPod touch from Apple’s revolutionary App Store. Plus, Home Sharing now lets you easily transfer songs, movies and TV shows to other computers in your home.
“iTunes 9 is a great iTunes release, with innovative features that make using iTunes better than ever and iTunes content richer than ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iTunes LP, for example, lets artists share more of their creativity with fans and gives music lovers the feeling of being immersed in an entire album with art, lyrics, liner notes, photos and videos.”
iTunes LP is the next evolution of the music album delivering a rich, immersive experience for select albums on the iTunes Store by combining beautiful design with expanded visual features like live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, album credits and more. iTunes LP debuts today with albums including Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited,” Norah Jones’ “Come Away With Me,” The Grateful Dead’s “American Beauty” and Dave Matthews Band’s “Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King: iTunes Pass.” The new iTunes Extras provides a similar experience for movies on iTunes with features including documentaries, deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes Extras is now available for select movies including “Twilight,” “Batman Begins,” “WALL-E,” “Iron Man” and “The Da Vinci Code.” Customers can enjoy iTunes LP and iTunes Extras on a Mac or PC.
iTunes 9 also introduces Home Sharing, which lets you easily transfer music, movies and TV shows among up to five authorized computers in your home. Family members can now view up to five iTunes libraries on their home network, see only the portion of these libraries they don’t already have, import their favorite content directly to their own libraries, and automatically add new purchases from other computers into their library.
The incredibly popular Genius feature gets even better with Genius Mixes which are created using the results of over 27 million music libraries with over 54 billion songs that have been submitted and analyzed by Genius. The new Genius Mixes feature is like having a “Genius” DJ that automatically generates up to 12 endless mixes of songs from your iTunes library that go great together.
With improved syncing in iTunes 9 and iPhone OS 3.1, you can now organize your iPhone apps right in iTunes and they will automatically appear on your iPhone with the same layout. Plus, syncing music, photos, movies and TV shows is easier than ever with the added ability to sync music by artist and genre and sync photos by Events and Faces. The iTunes Store on iPhone now features precut ringtone downloads with over 20,000 ringtones priced at just $1.29.
iTunes 9 is available immediately as a free download at www.itunes.com.
The iTunes Store is the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 11 million songs, over 50,000 TV episodes and over 7,500 films including over 2,000 in stunning high definition video. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as iTunes Movie Rentals, integrated podcasting support, the ability to turn previously purchased tracks into complete albums at a reduced price, and seamless integration with iPod and iPhone, the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.
Source: Apple
Snow Leopard right at home with Deep Freeze Mac 4.5
Faronics is excited to announce the immediate availability of Deep Freeze Mac 4.5. This coincides with the release of Apple’s latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The concurrent launch of Deep Freeze Mac 4.5 demonstrates Faronics’ commitment to delivering bulletproof workstation protection while reducing computer support costs.
Deep Freeze Mac offers the most robust Mac protection available and eliminates the need for IT professionals to perform rebuilds, re-image, or troubleshoot computers. IT administrators are able to map user accounts individually or by user type to an unprotected partition or a Thawspace to retain user documents, pictures, movies, bookmarks and other data between protected sessions.
IT administrators of large Mac deployments are already familiar with Deep Freeze Mac’s ability to protect a workstation’s operating system and software without restricting user access. Mac users who are protected by Deep Freeze’s patented technology are able to enjoy a clean and consistent Mac session–each and every time. IT administrators love that Mac environments are easier to manage and expensive computer assets are kept running at 100% capacity.
“The Macintosh market is a key part of our business strategy because a significant percentage of our customers in media, retail, healthcare, hospitality and education have mixed Mac/Windows or Mac-only environments,” said Brent Smithurst, Vice President of Technical Operations for Faronics. “We supported Leopard immediately when it shipped and I’m proud we are able to do the same with Snow Leopard support.”
A free, fully functional 30-day evaluation version of Deep Freeze Mac can be downloaded at www.faronics.com. Deep Freeze Mac offers a wide range of enterprise capabilities via its seamless integration with Apple Remote Desktop.
Source: Faronics
Apple Unveils New Logic Studio with Major Upgrades to Logic Pro and MainStage
Apple unveiled the next version of Logic Studio with major upgrades to Logic Pro and MainStage and more than 200 new features that simplify complex tasks.
Logic Pro 9 features new Amp Designer and Pedalboard plug-ins that provide realistic virtual guitar amps and stompbox effects to create amazing custom guitar rigs. A new set of Flex Time tools allow Logic users to manipulate the timing and tempo of audio quickly and easily. MainStage 2, Apple’s live performance application, includes the new Playback and Loopback plug-ins to provide backing tracks and creative, real-time loop recording for performing on stage. Logic Studio also includes the new Soundtrack Pro 3, with new multitrack audio tools for video production, and Compressor 3.5 for encoding in a variety of formats.
“The new Logic Studio is ideal for professional musicians, live performers and GarageBand enthusiasts who want to take their music to the next level,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Guitar players are going to love Amp Designer and Pedalboard and the new Flex Time tools allow you to quickly improve your recordings and create tighter performances.”
The new Amp Designer and Pedalboard plug-ins give guitar players incredible new recording and sound design capabilities. Amp Designer recreates 25 legendary vintage and modern amp heads in beautiful detail with matching controls and 25 paired speaker cabinets that emulate the sound and feel of a guitar running through a real tube amplifier. Guitar players can create their own custom rig by mixing and matching amps, cabinets, reverbs and EQs, and can choose from three different microphone types that can be positioned in 3D space to capture the ideal guitar tone. Pedalboard adds an assortment of 30 guitar stompbox pedals that can be arranged in any order to produce a wide variety of lush, creative effects including overdrive, distortion, fuzz, delay, chorus, flange, phaser, tremolo, treble boost, wah and more.
Flex Time is a new collection of tools that allow musicians to quickly manipulate the timing and tempo of recorded audio, including vocals and instruments, to create tighter performances. Using the Flex Tool, individual beats in a waveform can be moved effortlessly with a mouse click, without the need for tedious slicing and editing. Audio Quantize can instantly fix or adjust the timing of an entire performance by aligning notes and beats to a musical grid with a single menu selection. Varispeed provides the ability to slow down and then speed up an entire multi-track production to help record challenging parts. Flex Time also enables recorded tracks to be moved between different Logic projects and matched together, even if they were performed at different tempos. All Flex Time edits are performed non destructively and in real time, even when using the highest quality settings.
MainStage 2 lets musicians use all the instruments and effects from Logic Studio to turn their Mac into the ultimate live performance rig. The new Playback plug-in provides musicians with a backing band, allowing them to perform with pre-recorded audio, like drums, sound effects and other accompaniments that can be triggered to play while they are performing live. The new Loopback plug-in allows musicians to record, layer and jam along with their own performance so a single musician can lay down a rhythm and then play a lead over it.
Soundtrack Pro 3 adds powerful new audio editing tools including Voice Level Match which extracts volume information from the vocal content of one clip and applies it to another without altering any other audio content, so editors can easily correct mismatched voice levels. An enhanced File Editor includes new tools to make sophisticated edits and fine tune volume adjustments by targeting specific frequencies such as the rustle of a paper or the bump of a desk without affecting dialogue. The new Advanced Time Stretch feature stretches and compresses audio with incredible precision using three Apple-designed algorithms or other algorithms available as third party plug-ins. Soundtrack Pro and Compressor are also available as part of the new Final Cut Studio , allowing Final Cut and Logic users to collaborate and share files.
Pricing & Availability
Logic Studio is now available through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) and existing users of Logic Studio and Logic Pro can upgrade for a suggested retail price of $199 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Logic Studio can be found at www.apple.com/logicstudio. Logic Express, a streamlined and even more affordable version of Logic for GarageBand users who want more power and control, will ship in August for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) and will be available through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.
Source: Apple
Safari 4 downloads top 11 million in three days
Apple announced that more than 11 million copies of Safari 4 have been downloaded in the first three days of its release, including more than six million downloads of Safari for Windows.
Safari 4 is the world’s fastest, most innovative browser and is built on the world’s most advanced browser technologies including the new Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript nearly eight times faster than IE 8 and more than four times faster than Firefox 3. Safari quickly loads HTML web pages more than three times faster than IE 8 and three times faster than Firefox 3.*
“Safari 4 is an incredible success on Mac and Windows with more than 11 million downloads in the first three days,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari users love the incredible speed and innovative features like Top Sites, Full History Search and Cover Flow.”
Starting with the development of the open source WebKit browser engine, Apple has been leading the industry in defining and implementing innovative web standards. Safari 4 includes HTML 5 support for offline technologies and support for advanced CSS Effects, enabling an entirely new class of web applications that feature rich media, graphics and fonts. Safari 4 is the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project’s Acid3 test, which examines how well a browser adheres to CSS, JavaScript, XML and SVG standards that are specifically designed for dynamic web applications.
Safari 4 includes Top Sites, for an incredible visual preview of frequently visited and favorite pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; and Cover Flow(R), to easily flip through web history or bookmarks. Other innovative features include Smart Address Fields for automatically completing web addresses from an easy to read list of suggestions; Search Fields, to fine tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches; and Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site’s layout and text.
In Mac OS(R) X Snow Leopard(TM), available later this year, Safari runs as a 64-bit application, boosting the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 percent.** Snow Leopard makes Safari more resistant to crashes by running plug-ins in a separate process, so even if a plug-in crashes, Safari continues to run and the user simply has to reload the affected page. Safari running on Snow Leopard also delivers HTTP streaming, making it easy to deliver high-quality audio and video in industry standard formats from any web server without the need for browser plug-ins.
Pricing & Availability
Safari 4 is available for both Mac OS X and Windows as a free download at www.apple.com/safari. Safari 4 for Mac OS X requires Mac OS X Leopard(R) v10.5.7 or Mac OS X Tiger(R) v10.4.11 and Security Update 2009-002, a minimum 256MB of memory and is designed to run on any Intel-based Mac(R) or a Mac with a PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor and built-in FireWire(R). Safari 4 for Windows requires Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, a minimum 256MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor. Full system requirements and more information on Safari 4 can be found at www.apple.com/safari.
*Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. All testing conducted on an iMac(R) 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Windows Vista, with 2GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmark based on the SunSpider JavaScript Performance test. HTML benchmark based on VeriTest’s iBench Version 5.0 using default settings.
**Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 comparing prerelease Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6 with shipping Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.7. Testing was conducted on a shipping MacBook(R) 2.0 GHz system and a shipping iMac 2.66 GHz system, both configured with 2GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmarks based on the SunSpider Performance test comparing Safari running in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes.
Source: Apple
Apple unveils Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Apple(R) unveiled Mac OS(R) X Snow Leopard(TM), an even more powerful and refined version of the world’s most advanced operating system and the foundation for future Mac(R) innovation.
Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies, out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange and new accessibility features. Snow Leopard will ship as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users in September 2009 for $29.
“We’ve built on the success of Leopard and created an even better experience for our users from installation to shutdown,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Apple engineers have made hundreds of improvements so with Snow Leopard your system is going to feel faster, more responsive and even more reliable than before.”
To create Snow Leopard, Apple engineers focused on perfecting the world’s most advanced operating system, refining 90 percent of the more than 1,000 projects in Mac OS X. Users will notice a more responsive Finder(TM); Mail that loads messages 85 percent faster and conducts searches up to 90 percent faster;* Time Machine(R) with up to 50 percent faster initial backup;* a Dock with Expose integration; a 64-bit version of Safari(R) 4 that boosts the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 percent** and is resistant to crashes caused by plug-ins. Snow Leopard also includes an all new QuickTime(R) X, with a redesigned player that allows users to easily view, record, trim and share video to YouTube, MobileMe(TM) or iTunes(R). Snow Leopard is half the size of the previous version and frees up to 6GB of drive space once installed.
For the first time, system applications including Finder, Mail, iCal(R), iChat(R) and Safari are 64-bit and Snow Leopard’s support for 64-bit processors makes use of large amounts of RAM, increases performance, and improves security while remaining compatible with 32-bit applications. Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) provides a revolutionary new way for software to take advantage of multicore processors. GCD is integrated throughout Snow Leopard, from new system-wide APIs to high-level frameworks and programming language extensions, improving responsiveness across the system. OpenCL, a C-based open standard, allows developers to tap the incredible power of the graphics processing unit for tasks that go beyond graphics.
Snow Leopard builds support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 right into Mac OS X Mail, Address Book and iCal so you can use these applications to send and receive email, create and respond to meeting invitations, and search and manage your contacts with global address lists. Exchange information works seamlessly within Snow Leopard so users can take advantage of OS X only features such as fast Spotlight(TM) searches and Quick Look previews. Snow Leopard is the only desktop operating system with out of the box support for Exchange 2007 and businesses of any size will find it easier to integrate Macs into their organization.
Every Mac includes innovative features and technologies for users with special needs, and Snow Leopard adds groundbreaking new features that make the Mac experience even more accessible to those with a vision impairment. Apple’s Multi-Touch(TM) trackpad is now integrated with the VoiceOver screen reader so users can hear and navigate different parts of a window or the desktop by moving a single finger around the trackpad as if it were the screen. Snow Leopard also introduces built-in support for wireless bluetooth braille displays and the connection of multiple braille displays simultaneously to one Mac.
Pricing & Availability
Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard will be available as an upgrade to Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard in September 2009 through the Apple Store(R) (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The Snow Leopard single user license will be available for a suggested retail price of $29 (US) and the Snow Leopard Family Pack, a single household, five-user license, will be available for a suggested price of $49 (US). For Tiger(R) users with an Intel-based Mac, the Mac Box Set includes Mac OS X Snow Leopard, iLife(R) ‘09 and iWork(R) ‘09 and will be available for a suggested price of $169 (US) and a Family Pack is available for a suggested price of $229 (US).
The Mac OS X Snow Leopard Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller between June 8, 2009 and the end of the program on December 26, 2009, for a product plus shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Users must request their Up-To-Date upgrade within 90 days of purchase or by December 26, 2009, whichever comes first. For more information please visit www.apple.com/macosx/uptodate. Snow Leopard requires a minimum of 1GB of RAM and is designed to run on any Mac computer with an Intel processor. Full system requirements can be found at www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs.
*Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 comparing prerelease Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6 with shipping Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.7 using shipping MacBook(R) 2.0 GHz systems with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (256MB) and shipping generation iMac(R) 2.66 GHz systems with 2GB of RAM and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (256MB).
**Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 comparing 64-bit Safari 4 to 32-bit Safari 4 on prerelease Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6. Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. All testing conducted on an iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Mac OS X Snow Leopard, with 2GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmark based on the SunSpider JavaScript Performance test.
Source: Apple
Apple Releases Safari 4 – The World’s Fastest and Most Innovative Browser
Apple(R) released Safari(R) 4, the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser. Available for Mac(R) and Windows PCs and introduced as a beta in February of this year, Safari 4 features the Nitro engine which runs JavaScript up to 4.5 times faster than Safari 3.* Safari 4 makes browsing more intuitive and enjoyable with innovative features, such as Top Sites, Full History Search and Cover Flow(R), and support for modern web standards like HTML 5 and advanced CSS Effects.
“The successful beta release helped us fine tune Safari 4 into an even better, faster version that customers are going to love,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari is enjoyed by 70 million users worldwide and with its blazing fast speed, innovative features and support for modern web standards, it’s the best browser on any platform.”
Safari 4 is built on the world’s most advanced browser technologies including the new Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript nearly eight times faster than IE 8 and more than four times faster than Firefox 3. Safari quickly loads HTML web pages more than three times faster than IE 8 and three times faster than Firefox 3.*
Starting with the development of the open source WebKit browser engine, Apple has been leading the industry in defining and implementing innovative web standards. Safari 4 includes HTML 5 support for offline technologies and support for advanced CSS Effects, enabling an entirely new class of web applications that feature rich media, graphics and fonts. Safari 4 is the first browser to pass the Web Standards Project’s Acid3 test, which examines how well a browser adheres to CSS, JavaScript, XML and SVG standards that are specifically designed for dynamic web applications.
Safari 4 includes Top Sites, for an incredible visual preview of frequently visited and favorite pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; and Cover Flow, to easily flip through web history or bookmarks. Other innovative features include Smart Address Fields for automatically completing web addresses from an easy to read list of suggestions; Search Fields, to fine tune searches with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches; and Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any website without degrading the quality of the site’s layout and text.
In Mac OS(R) X Snow Leopard(TM), available later this year, Safari runs as a 64-bit application, boosting the performance of the Nitro JavaScript engine by up to 50 percent.** Snow Leopard makes Safari more resistant to crashes by running plug-ins in a separate process, so even if a plug-in crashes, Safari continues to run and the user simply has to reload the affected page.
Safari 4 is available for both Mac OS X and Windows as a free download at www.apple.com/safari. Safari 4 for Mac OS X requires Mac OS X Leopard(R) v10.5.7 or Mac OS X Tiger(R) v10.4.11 and Security Update 2009-002, a minimum 256MB of memory and is designed to run on any Intel-based Mac or a Mac with a PowerPC G5, G4 or G3 processor and built-in FireWire(R). Safari 4 for Windows requires Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, a minimum 256MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor. Full system requirements and more information on Safari 4 can be found at www.apple.com/safari.
*Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. All testing conducted on an iMac(R) 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo system running Windows Vista, with 2GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmark based on the SunSpider JavaScript Performance test. HTML benchmark based on VeriTest’s iBench Version 5.0 using default settings.
**Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection and other factors. Testing conducted by Apple in May 2009 comparing prerelease Mac OS X Snow Leopard v10.6 with shipping Mac OS X Leopard v10.5.7. Testing was conducted on a shipping MacBook(R) 2.0 GHz system and a shipping iMac 2.66 GHz system, both configured with 2GB of RAM. JavaScript benchmarks based on the SunSpider Performance test comparing Safari running in both 32-bit and 64-bit modes.
Source: Apple
IBM Announces Beta Availability of Lotus Notes 8.5.1 Software with iPhone Support
IBM announced the beta release of Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.1 collaboration software, including plans to support Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync in version 8.5.1 of Lotus Notes Traveler. This capability will extend Lotus Domino automatic synching capabilities for e-mail and calendaring tools to the Apple iPhone.
“Providing Exchange ActiveSync support via the Lotus Notes Traveler software is part of IBM’s pledge to provide enterprises the choice and flexibility to select the mobile devices and carriers that best suit their needs,” said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president, Messaging and Collaboration. “This will allow employees ‘on the go’ to work smarter.”
“I look forward to Exchange ActiveSync support. Johnson Controls health care and education industry customers use Apple platforms, and we’ve begun to officially provide application support on those. Mobile messaging is considered a critical application,” said Jim Marshall, Director of Global Architecture for Johnson Controls, Inc., a Lotus Notes customer.
Although iPhone users can already access Notes e-mail via IBM Lotus iNotes ultra-light mode, today’s Exchange ActiveSync support will mean push access to the popular software including the ability to view Notes mail, calendar and contacts data when not connected on the iPhone. “I look forward to Exchange ActiveSync support because it will allow me to use my iPhone for (Notes) contacts and calendar without having to be on-line,” according to Professor Ludwig Nastansky at University of Padeborn in Germany.
IBM Lotus Notes Traveler software enables wireless push replication of Lotus Notes e-mail, calendaring, and personal information management (PIM) data on select smart phones.
This capability will expand the reach of Lotus Notes and Domino software significantly because it will be make it easier to use on a wider variety of devices.
“Cardiff University supports a diverse user base across multiple operating systems. Many of our academic staff use Apple Macintosh products extensively and we already have a significant and growing number of iPhone users. Exchange ActiveSync support will allow us to deploy Notes to these iPhone users, allowing us to cater for the diverse mobile needs of our staff and students,” Dr. R.K. Morgan, applications team leader, Information Services, Cardiff University in the UK.
IBM designed Lotus Notes 8.5.1 with agile development practices using social media such as blogs and Twitter to collect and make hundreds of refinements suggested by people who want to work smarter. They include enhancements to the way people edit messages, work with widgets and calendars, and new options for customizing search. These enhancements allow people to work smarter by spending more time on finding, creating and sharing valuable information and less time modifying the way that it is presented.
In addition, this beta version also incorporates the new 1.3 version of IBM’s Lotus Symphony document, spreadsheet, and presentation software, and brings IBM XPages developer technology to the Lotus Notes client for off-line use. To download Lotus Symphony at no charge visit http://symphony.lotus.com/
IBM Business partners who make IT products that work with Notes are also looking forward to the new technology. “BE Systems is very excited to get its hands on the latest beta version of Lotus Notes Traveler. With new features like Exchange ActiveSync support, mobile device compatibility is opened up like never before. This benefits our business and the business of the mobile user,” said Paul Mooney, a senior executive at IBM Business Partner BE Systems.
In recent months, leading mobile device producers Nokia and Samsung announced support for IBM Lotus Notes Traveler software enabling more than a billion smart phone customers around the world to manage their Lotus Notes e-mail, calendars and address books anytime, anywhere. In addition, IBM has announced engagement with wireless carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and Orange in order to drive towards meeting the needs of an increasing wireless workforce. IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.1 will be required to support this capability. For more information visit www.ibm.com/software/lotus/notesanddomino. IBM Lotus software supports BlackBerry Enterprise Server version 5.0 which was announced last week.
To test drive IBM Lotus Notes 8.5.1 software starting on May 15, visit http://greenhouse.lotus.com/.
BBC Radio Times Introduces Application on Apple App Store
Mobile Solution Powered by tvCompass Makes Browseable TV Listings Available Anytime, Anywhere
BBC’s Radio Times, Britain’s premier guide to TV, radio and film, and tvCompass Inc., a software and services solution provider for mobile internet devices today announced a Radio Times Interactive Program Guide (IPG) for iPhone and iPod touch is now available in the UK for download from the Apple App Store.
The Radio Times IPG solution is based on tvMobile(TM) a white label software product suite for mobile platforms developed by tvCompass Inc. tvMobile combines a downloadable application for popular smartphones and a wireless content network for hosting content and advertising. The UK version of the service includes Radio Times TV and radio program recommendations and reviews from Radio Times’ extensive database of film reviews and ratings. Users can browse up to seven days of TV and radio listings for more than 400 channels and stations. The service is compatible with all major channels on the digital cable (Virgin), satellite (Sky and FreeSat) and terrestrial (Freeview) digital TV platforms.
“We are really proud of this application for iPhone and iPod touch as it’s a great mobile extension of the Radio Times brand and provides an excellent user experience,” said Radio Times publishing director Kathy Day. “Consumers not only want to watch TV and listen to radio on the move, but they also want to know what is available to them, at any time.”
“We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with BBC Radio Times, a premier media brand. The advantage for the consumer from this collaboration is that their iPhone or iPod touch can now serve as a compelling companion device to enhance their TV viewing,” said Edward Zylka, CEO, tvCompass Inc.
Based on tvCompass’s patented and proprietary technology, the IPG has expansion capability to add new features over time, such as wireless control of DVR record settings, and the ability to click on a TV listing and jump directly to a selected program by direct tuning a TV or set top box. This mode effectively turns an iPhone into a remote control device. Future capabilities may also include IR and IP control of devices.
The application is available in the UK for 1.79 pounds Sterling from Apple’s App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.
Source: tvCompass Inc.