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Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for June 23, 2009:

Macintosh

• Altec Lansing, a division of Plantronics Inc. and a market leader in digital audio, has announced the latest member of its acclaimed Expressionist PC speaker family, the Expressionist PLUS (FX3021). This boldly imagined, compact system brings large-as-life sound to any desktop for only $99.95 MSRP.
• Blue Room Software announces that BurnToDisc and ImageArchiver export plug-ins for Aperture and iPhoto will be available at a 50% savings for a one day birrthday celebration on July 7, 2009. BurnToDisc provides a simple way to deliver your final images to a client, share your pictures with friends and family, or make an extra copy of your files for safekeeping. To take advantage of this sale, simply use the coupon code HAPPYBIRTHDAY at checkout.
• iPresentee has released Keynote Themes 5.0 and free Keynote theme for Apple’s presentation software. Keynote Themes 5.0 includes ten brand new terrific themes: Azure, Greenery, Blue Wave, Frozen Nature, Greenish, Ochre, Gradient Green, Orange Tree, Tones of Gray and Wood Planks. This collection offers a variety of presentation styles with coordinated fonts, colors, great backgrounds, unique bullets and picture frames. This release extends iPresentee’s Keynote themes collection up to 87 themes.
• Jumsoft has expanded their Goodies bundle, a collection of applications and designs available from company’s Web site free of charge. The company added ten Keynote Backgrounds to their vastly popular set, allowing Mac users to present their ideas in new impressive ways. Jumsoft Keynote motion backgrounds were created to infuse presentations with spirit and energize them without distracting the audience.
• Dare to be Creative has announced the release of Slices 1.0, a utility to split large files on Mac OS X. With Slices users can email large documents by breaking them down into smaller files before attaching them to emails. Slices also allows users to backup large files onto multiple CDs, USB memory sticks and other writable media. It is the latest addition to Dare to be Creative’s system utilities suite, and will be available at an introductory price for the next few weeks.
• nova media has announced the GlobeTrotter Express 441, a sleek modem which supports quad-band HSPA connections with up to 7.2 Mbit/s download speeds and up to 5.76 Mbit/s upload speeds. The GlobeTrotter Express 441 allows Macintosh users for the first time to establish 3G connections with an ExpressCard on all continents. The necessary software is delivered on the modem’s flash memory ready to install and does not need a separate CD or download.

iPhone/iPod

• The Pragmatic Studio has announced two upcoming training courses for developers interested in learning how to create iPhone applications using the latest iPhone SDK 3.0. These 4-day, hands-on courses taught by two experienced iPhone developers will be held August 4-7, 2009 in Reston, VA and August 25-28, 2009 in Denver, CO. You’ll come away from this course ready to start creating your own iPhone applications.
• Energize Software has released Gratitude Rock 1.0, a positive thoughts journal or diary for the iPhone and iPod Touch. You can record your positive thoughts of gratitude for each day while experiencing the relaxing sounds and images of the ocean. Add pictures to express your day’s thoughts and feelings and read an inspirational quote of the day. Keeping a Gratitude Rock with you is a unique way to remind yourself to be thankful for all the good things in your life.
• RingtoneFeeder today released a pack of 25 unique iPhone Alarm Tones which are all written and produced by Geoff Smith. These tones are delivered in one batch immediately and available in other formats to support other mobile phones. The tones are ideal for meeting alerts, waking up or any kind of reminders that use a tone to get your attention. Download all 25 tones in 3 different formats and drag them to the mobile phone directly from their PC/Mac, or install using applications such a iTunes.
• Video creation platform Animoto today gave its iPhone and iPod touch users even more flexibility and freedom to create and view professional-quality music videos on the go. Animoto’s iPhone application, which has quickly become a Top Free App within the Photography category, creates beautifully orchestrated videos from a user’s iPhone photos with the click of a button. Since launching in December 2008, 300,000 people have installed the Animoto Videos application and over 500,000 videos have been created through the application.
• iLuv has announced the iMM153 Desktop Dual Alarm Clock with Bed Shaker for iPod. This shake you awake alarm clock features seven ways to wake up to your favorite music. The unique Bed Shaker accessory will wake even the deepest of sleepers and is available in four colors, Black, Blue, White and Pink for the MSRP of $59.99 starting in July 2009.
• START MOBILE, the mobile art company, today announced the launch of sixteen mobile art galleries for the iPhone, featuring curated art wallpapers from some of the world’s premier emerging and underground artists. START MOBILE wallpaper galleries for the iPhone are now available via the Apple App Store, and featured artists include Justin Bua, Ricky Powell, Shepard Fairey, Sugarluxe, Drew Brophy, Mark Wasyl, Kelly Towles, Tricia Choi, Felix LaFlamme, and Luke Feldman.
• Frank Wahrman has announced iAssociate, a word association game in which the player’s role is to guess which words, or phrases, are derived from the other words that are shown in the puzzle. The game features multiple levels, and every level starts off with just one word (or phrase) visible. For instance, you might start off a level with the word Apple and a number of associations from that. Your goal is then to guess what these associations are.