Appletell | Apple, Mac, iPhone, iPod | News, Rumors, Reviews, How-Tos

Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for October 13, 2009:

Macintosh

• Emmy Award-winning Toon Boom Animation Inc. has announced that its entire line of products is compatible with Snow Leopard, Apple’s latest operating system for Mac. All software for kids, home users and professionals were thoroughly tested and proved to be running smoothly on the new operating system. Only Toon Boom Studio and its plug-in required a new build which is available to all Studio 5 customers.
• Severn Software Limited has released That Tune 1.1 for Mac OSX. That Tune is a customizable way of showing what song iTunes is playing. Unique to That Tune is that it can make any screen saver show iTunes songs. In addition, That Tune will play iTunes songs as Alarm. That Tune will pop up a configurable notification window on the screen. There is no need to CMD-TAB back to iTunes to see what is playing.
• Yummy Software has announced Yummy FTP 1.8, their popular FTP client for Mac OS X. Version 1.8 gains over 30 new features and enhancements as well as full Snow Leopard compatibility. Built as native Mac OS X software from the ground up, Yummy FTP was designed with the goal of providing a reliable, powerful, yet easy to use file transfer utility. Since its release, Yummy FTP has gained a reputation for being the fastest, most reliable, and most flexible FTP client available.
• Maintain has announced Cocktail 4.5.2 (Snow Leopard Edition), the latest maintenance update of Cocktail for users running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. This version fixes a bug causing high CPU usage on 32-bit Macs, addresses compatibility issues with QuickTime X and latest versions of supported web browsers. It also addresses an issue in which Cocktail may report problems with diskutil and fixes many other bugs discovered in the previous release.
• Zoom, makers of award-winning professional audio recording devices, have announced the much anticipated availability of the Q3 Handy Video Recorder. Unlike other handheld video camcorders, the Q3 records stereo sound with two condenser microphones, which allow users to capture crystal clear HD audio with their movies.  The ability to capture audio at 24-bit/48 kHz is especially important for users planning to upload their footage to video share sites like YouTube, which compress video but now allow files with stereo audio at 44.1 kHz, which is CD quality.
• Dingo Games has announced the Mac release of their swashbuckling epic The Three Musketeers: The Game. Available exclusively online, the game closely follows the plot of the original Three Musketeers novel. The classic adventure story and the rarely used setting of 17th century France make this game a unique experience.

iPhone/iPod

• Obvious Matter has announced Camera Level 1.0, an app for shooting photos that guides you in keeping your iPhone camera level at all times. When you are photographing landscapes and buildings you want to make sure the photos you shoot are straight and nicely leveled. No need to straighten your photos with external tools any more. Camera Level lets you keep your iPhone camera level at all times. Never shoot photos again with a tilted horizon.
• Imaginatr has released Cubimon Lite, the free version of their challenging, fast-paced, fun and addicting puzzle game designed for the iPhone and the iPod Touch. With unique gameplay, 3 fully playable levels of increasing difficulty, and 4 different types of Cubimons, you are guaranteed hours of enjoyment.
• Toy Kite Software today has announced iSamurai 2.0: Critical Strike, the new tactical version of their “sword fight anywhere” game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. In celebration of this release, Toy Kite is announcing the iSamurai video competition with 10 prizes including a new iPod Touch. iSamurai is a two-player sword fighting game where players swing their iPhones or iPod Touches like swords.
• Sonos, Inc., has introduced the Sonos ZonePlayer S5, an all-in-one wireless music system that can be controlled with an iPhone, iPod touch or any Sonos Controller.  The S5 delivers crystal-clear, room-filling sound that rivals much larger, more complicated audio equipment.  Plus, the S5 provides instant access to unlimited music with control from the palm of your hand.  Now music lovers can find and play any song from an iTunes library, plus, a world of music and radio on the Internet, in any room of the house. The S5 will be available for $399 on October 27.
• Readdle has announced Scanner Pro 1.0, an iPhone application that transforms the device into portable scanner. It lets iPhone owners scan multi page documents into PDF files, send them by email, access over Wi-Fi and even upload to MobileMe iDisk or any other WebDAV enabled server. Scanner Pro is designed to scan multi page documents and transform them into industry standard PDF files. It allows people to set password on PDF document to protect data with 40-bit RC4 level encryption.
• Chess Elite gives online game play a whole new meaning. Being the first ever Chess App to use Push Notification, the game lets the player know when a Challenge is received or a move is made in an online game. The game has a strong chess engine with adjustable engine strength so that the player can set the game depending on his level of proficiency.
• Warm up your sleight of hand for Texas Wuggle [iTunes App Store link], the new fast-paced poker app from the hustlers at 4J Studios. Hitting the App Store today at £0.59/$0.99/€0.79, this is poker, but not as you know it; blending traditional poker rules with Scrabble, players must make as many winning hands as possible with the available cards on screen then rack ‘em up using the touch screen.
• Orbital Worlds has announced the arrival of their debut iPhone title Armoured Shift in the App Store. The groundbreaking open-world space shooter challenges players to shoot down hordes of asteroids, enemy ships and bosses using a spaceship largely controlled by the iPhone/iPod Touch’s accelerometer. The unique tilt-based control scheme offered by Armoured Shift sets it apart from the more traditional dual-analog joystick format utilized by the majority of open-world shooters.
• Stick-Fu [iTunes App Store link]—from Mobigames—is a new beat-‘em-up game with sticks as heroes and enemies. Players should prepare to face stick-thin enemies, using punch and kick actions to defeat them and build combo points which can be used to unleash devastating attacks on your enemies. At the end of each level, the Stick-Fu hero will face a fearsome Stick-Boss - real skill is needed to defeat such strong, fast foes.
• Vizros Software has announced the release of OutColor 1.2, the world’s first Out-of-Bounds image editor for the iPhone and iPod Touch. OutColor lets users easily and quickly produce compelling, depth-rich images from single, conventional 2D photographs. By touching and moving on the iPhone screen, users can turn ordinary photos into impressive “Out of Bounds” (OOB) images. OOB images are wildly seen on internet and in magazine in which some contents of the image are taken outside of virtual boundaries and presented in a creative 3D perspective.
• Speck has launched its completely redesigned one-piece polycarbonate SeeThru hard shell case for the iPhone 3G and 3GS. Expanding upon the already immensely popular SeeThru designs, these stylishly sleek patent-pending cases offer iPhone 3G and 3GS owners the ultimate defensive buffer from the abuse of the normal daily hectic lifestyle.
• Disney is appealing to digital savvy fans of the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy franchise by launching the official e-book version of Eoin Colfer’s 6th installment of the series: And Another Thing from Hyperion Books. Available exclusively through the Apple App Store for a special price of $14.99 through December 2, the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy: And Another Thing by Eoin Colfer App [iTunes App Store link] from Hyperion contains both digital and audio versions, in addition to a host of special features.
• comiXology continues pushing forward digital comics revolution with their first original comic, Box 13, created by Harvey Award and zuda.com winning team of David Gallaher and Steve Ellis. Available for free exclusively on Comics by comiXology, Box 13 is a re-imagining of the popular radio serial of the same name.