Artlantis 3 intros new geometry layers, animation
effects

post from Macnn | The Macintosh News Network on 09 October 2009 10:35:00 AM. © Macnn | The Macintosh News Network

The Abvent Group has released Artlantis 3, a major update to the company's rendering software for ar...

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Man & Machine Wins Mighty Mouse Moniker

post from TheAppleBlog on 09 October 2009 10:34:00 AM. © TheAppleBlog

mightymouse

Earlier this week, while Apple was distracted with its objections over supermarket chain Woolworths new logo, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office was busy awarding the name ?Mighty Mouse? to peripheral manufacturer Man & Machine.

According to TechCrunch, Man & Machine was finally granted the trademark on Tuesday, after five years of using the name on a line of optical mice that are waterproof, hygienic and ??specially designed for use in medical, industrial and marine applications.?

TechCrunch reports that while Man & Machine released a statement about the win, they didn’t mention Apple by name, though did say, ?Others have used the name Mighty Mouse for their computer mice and have sought registration of that trademark, but now the United States government has spoken.? (By the way, I?ve been all over the Man & Machine web site and cannot find that statement.)

Turns out that, all these years, Apple has licensed the Mighty Mouse name from CBS, the trademark owners of a certain well-known cartoon superhero rodent. That license didn?t extend to computer peripheral hardware, however, and this was a deciding factor in the USPTO awarding the trademark to Man & Machine.

It?s unlikely Apple would — or could — license the name from Man & Machine, since it already uses it on a line of pointing devices. So the most logical next step would be to create a new name.

And the timing couldn?t be better (or worse, depending on your viewpoint). Recent reports and rumors suggest that Apple is busy working on a brand new pointing device which may be constructed from aluminum and do away with the much-maligned scroll-nub in favor of a touch-sensitive interface. An ?iMouse Touch,? perhaps?

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http://theappleblog.com/2009/10/09/man-machine-wins-mighty-mouse-moniker/

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Walt Mossberg Reviews Windows 7

post from Daring Fireball on 09 October 2009 10:32:00 AM. © Daring Fireball

He likes it:

After using pre-release versions of Windows 7 for nine months, and intensively testing the final version for the past month on many different machines, I believe it is the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced.

But, as Philip Elmer-DeWitt observes, Mossberg liked Vista too, when it debuted, including calling it “the best version of Windows Microsoft has produced.”

There’s no question 7 is better than Vista. The question is whether 7 is going to get the majority that’s still on XP to upgrade. My guess is that it will, but I wouldn’t bet too much on it.

?

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http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20091007/a-windows-to-help-you-forget/

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Reggie Ashworth releases AppDelete 2.2.3 - Safely
Delete Any Application

post from prMac on 09 October 2009 10:00:00 AM. © prMac

Independent software developer Reggie Ashworth is pleased to announce AppDelete 2.2.3, an update to his popular application deletion utility for Mac OS X. With a simple Drag & Drop, AppDelete will delete any chosen app with all of its associated items that belong to that application. Mac users will no longer have to hunt through their system to find and delete these items manually. AppDelete is a must-have utility for beta testers and the perfect companion to any Mac fanatic's toolbox.

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http://prmac.com/release-id-7920.htm

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Mathemagics for iPhone enters AppStore's Hall of
Fame

post from prMac on 09 October 2009 10:00:00 AM. © prMac

Blue Lightning Labs today announced that their popular iPhone application Mathemagics has been selected as an App Classic. Dubbed as "The AppStore's missing Hall of Fame", App Classics calculates and selects the all-time most popular high quality apps available on the AppStore. Mathemagics, an application for learning to mentally calculate math problems at phenomenal speeds, has garnered outstanding reviews and continues to amaze users.

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AT&T Not Ready for Tethering, May Throttle
iPhone Data

post from TheAppleBlog on 09 October 2009 09:52:00 AM. © TheAppleBlog

attlogo

We reported here on Tuesday that AT&T had announced plans to make VOIP services available on its 3G network. That is great news for iPhone users who previously could only use applications like Skype and Vonage via a Wi-Fi network. So, AT&T sorted out MMS and now it’s sorted out VOIP. That just leaves Tethering, right? Now that it’s upgrading its network and fixing everything that was wrong for iPhone customers, so Tethering has to be just around the corner, yes?

No. According to an article from the Wall Street Journal, an AT&T spokesperson says it needs more time to work on that functionality;

Whenever we offer new features, we want to offer the best possible customer experience. For tethering, we need to do some additional fine tuning to our systems and networks so that we do deliver a great experience.

So I won?t mention how, late last year at the Web 2.0 Summit, AT&T CEO Ralph De La Vega told Michael Arrington that tethering would be available ?soon.?

Clearly AT&T is struggling to cope with the data demands made by modern smartphones on its creaky old network. Speaking this week at the annual CTIA Conference in San Diego, and reported by PCWorld, De La Vega hinted at possible future steps the telecoms giant may take to lessen the load. ?We have to manage the network to make sure that the few cannot crowd out the many,? said De La Vega.

PCWorld?s mark Sullivan thinks this can only mean one thing: Placing hard limits on the total amount of data iPhone (and other bandwidth-hungry smartphone) owners can consume.

In the face of exploding data service demand and scarce wireless spectrum, does AT&T intend to quietly begin rationing the data usage of bandwidth hogs like the iPhone? Will AT&T begin to quietly ?manage? the duration and speed of my 3G connection based on how much data I?ve used in a given day, or on the type of content or services I?m using the bandwidth to access?

AT&T announced in September it is working on upgrading its network, but the process will take time. Is throttling data a necessary short-term solution until the network can more adequately meet the demands of the (growing) smartphone market?

In an article yesterday on All Things Digital, John Paczkowski reported that a staggering 4.1 billion text messages are sent every single day in the U.S. (740 billion in the first half od 2009 alone). That?s double the number in the same period last year.

According to the CTIA, there are more than 246 million wireless data-capable devices at large in the U.S. today. Of these, 40 million are smart phones or PDAs, and more than 10 million are laptops. Little wonder that wireless data service revenue rose 31 percent to more than $19.4 billion in the first six months of 2009.

Chart from CTIA

It?s not hard to see that AT&T is behind the curve in bolstering its data network to meet the demand of its customers. So far behind the curve, in fact, its competitors can afford to take legitimate shots at them in television commercials.

So what?s the solution for long-suffering iPhone customers? Jumping ship and moving to Verizon? Or remaining loyal to AT&T, avoiding the hassle of changing contracts and giving the company time to improve its network and expand its services? It’s already had the best part of three years. How much more patience will customers have?

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Microsoft's "Pink" phones in danger of collapse

post from Macnn | The Macintosh News Network on 09 October 2009 09:45:00 AM. © Macnn | The Macintosh News Network

Microsoft's Pink phone project may be on the verge of falling apart even before its first product...

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iPhone OS 3.1.2 Released

A month after Apple made iPhone OS 3.1 available, version 3.1.2 for the iPhone and iPod touch can now be downloaded via iTunes.

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Besides achieving version synchronicity (3.1.1 came with the 3G iPod touch), the update addresses issues with waking from sleep, cellular network disruption, and crashes while streaming video.

The most notable problem, the “iPhone coma” issue, resulted in some iPhones becoming unresponsive, touch controls not working, and phone not ringing when called. This required a hard reboot, but that was only a workaround. It’s still too early to tell whether 3.1.2 is a true fix for that pernicious issue.

Unfortunately, what was not addressed in the terse update log at all was battery life. That’s a little irritating because the problem has been acknowledged by Apple as “under investigation.” While fixes for issues relating to loss of network connection or random crashing/freezing are always welcome, those issues seem to affect a relatively small number of users. The battery life problem likely impacts most iPhones, if not most iPhone owners, the latter being dependent on how the individual uses the iPhone. Still, one hopes there is an iPhone OS update coming that will address the power management issue, and sooner rather than later.

In addition to the iPhone OS update, there is also a carrier update, version 5.6, but no info on what it does.

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http://theappleblog.com/2009/10/09/iphone-os-3-1-2-released/

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MapQuest intros iPhone GPS app, matching service

MapQuest has introduced a new iPhone application, which goes beyond the company's web service to pro...

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Bugs & Fixes: When PDFs won't load in Safari

Snow Leopard has been out for more than a month, but Ted Landau keeps stumbling across compatibility problems. The latest? It involves trying to view a PDF document, accessed as a Web link in Safari.

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