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

Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for October 21, 2009:

Macintosh

• Ortelius map illustration software for Mac OS X provides a welcomed solution with its introduction of Linear Select. Ortelius is a vector-based drawing program made especially for map design and presentation. It offers a creative solution for floor plans, landscape plans, scaled drawings, and a wide variety of high quality custom map graphics. Linear Select is a new drawing tool for highlighting and selecting portions of linear features and automatically inserting labels, styles, and symbols.
• Code 42 Software Inc. has launched a new version of its CrashPlan backup software. This update offers new controls to enable users to maximize protection for more recent files, while minimizing unnecessary versions for older files. This is in keeping with the Code 42 objectives of making its software “People Friendly, Enterprise Tough.”
• WaterField Designs has announced a new, custom-fitted, protective SleeveCase for the 13.3-inch unibody MacBook. Like a bespoke suit, the WaterField SleeveCase provides a comfortable but snug fit specifically sized for Apple’s newest MacBook edition. WaterField’s new size 13-4 SleeveCase is compatible with the popular, recently-announced Muzetto 13” laptop bag, also from WaterField.
• SimpleLeap Software has announced a new contest on their company blog. They will giving away one Apple Magic Mouse and one copy of their Mac flashcard and testing study app, Cram, to two lucky winners just for commenting on their blog. The contest is easy to enter. Simply leave a comment on the contest blog post and SimpleLeap will select two winners randomly on October 29, 2009. Winners will be announced on on Halloween, October 31, 2009.
• Shiny Frog has announced Delibar 1.0, a full featured Delicious Mac client. Delibar focuses on giving Mac OS X users an easy and quick tool for searching, managing and sharing their Delicious bookmarks. Delibar syncs one or more Delicious accounts with your Mac and let you find, add, edit and modify your bookmark directly from your Mac OS X System bar. Using Delibar is as easy as using Spotlight, all your bookmarks are only a click away.
• Nodhead Software has announced Warranty Hero 1.3, a major update to their product and warranty utility for Mac OS X. Warranty Hero allows anyone to manage receipts quickly and easily keep track of a products life-span and its accompanying warranty guarantee. With a focus on ease-of-use, adding new product information is as simple as entering its name, vendor, purchase dateand a time the warranty expires. Optional information for serial number, price, product image.
• Zevrix Solutions has announced the File Courier 1.0 public beta, a pre-release version of its new automatic digital delivery solution. File Courier delivers files and folders to FTP and local destinations and sends automatic e-mail delivery notifications. The e-mail messages are based on customizable templates and contain the detailed info about the item and its location. The software also lets users attach files to e-mail messages and send them as encrypted disk images.

iPhone/iPod

• Fotozio, LLC has announced the immediate availability of PicTranslator, the first free picture translator iPhone app. They are offering PicTranslator, along with the initial language of choice, as a free app. Additional individual languages can be purchased for $1.99 each or the entire set of 16 languages for $2.99. PicTranslator turns the iPhone camera into a point-and-shoot translator. Foreign road signs, menus, maps, etc., can be translated with the push of a button—no phrasebook lookups or typing of foreign text required to understand and read printed text.
• MaxNick has introduced iChapaev 1.0, their new board game for iPhone and iPod Touch. Developed specifically to leverage the iPhone’s slick interface, iChapaev offers a new twist on the popular game of checkers. The aim of the game is to knock off all the opponent’s checkers in under seven rounds. Players point each piece by dragging it until the right amount of tension is set to increase or decrease the force of impact, and then released in the direction of the opponent’s piece.
• Visuamobile is proud to announce the release of its new application: GeoMaster 2.0. GeoMaster is a geography-based game for iPhone and iPodTouch in which the player has to place, in a limited time frame, cities and countries of the world on a map. This V 2.0 comes with 5 new maps (Asia, Africa, Europe, USA and France) and 8 new challenges.
• Game developer syncRage has released Taxi Drive 1.1 an update to their popular taxi crasher for iPhone and iPod touch. Taxi Drive is one of those games that is brilliantly simple and provides an awesome amount of fun. Make money as a taxi driver on the asphalt of New York or London. You must confront yourself with increasing traffic density and can earn additional lives and unlock licenses for new neighborhoods. Celebrity passengers pay high tips, but don’t waiting long.
• TuneWear has announced it is now shipping updated colors for the popular Tetran cable winder collection. New colors Blue, Purple, Black and White have now been added to the existing color assortment of Green, Yellow, Pink, Orange and Luminous. Tetran is a fun cable winder for your favorite iPhone, iPod or MP3 player’s earbud headphones. Just wind your cable around Tetran’s body and use the cute mouth as a holder for your earbuds. The spikes keep Tetran from running away and there is a removable ball-bearing style chain included for attaching Tetran to your belt look, mobile phone strap or key ring.
• Los Angeles based 24x7digital has announced Aw Craps! 1.5, an update to their popular casino game for iPhone and iPod Touch. With its realistic table layout, game play, stick calls and dice rolling, Aw Craps! takes you onto the casino floor and into the action, allowing seasoned shooters to hone their skills, as well as allowing beginners to learn enough to hit the casino tables. Version 1.5 offers many enhancements, including roll and bet history for the last 500 rolls.
• Finger Arts has announced Guess the News 1.5.1, an update to their word based game for iPhone and iPod touch. Designed specifically to leverage the iPhone’s peerless capabilities and interface, Guess the News is a unique news-based word game where players guess the latest news from major news sources. Choose a news section, read the brief article description, and then guess the article’s title by matching the letters to their right slots.
• Howling Moon Software has announced Twilight Golf for iPhone and iPod touch. Twilight Golf is platformer-esque adventure through the dark reaches of Twilight Temple. Players swipe to move through physics puzzles to reach the goal in as few strokes as possible. Brought to you by the developers of Crayon Ball, the critically acclaimed iPhone Apple Staff Pick, Twilight Golf features Chipmunk Physics and Howling Moon Software’s new SHADE shadowing engine.
• Dangerous Decisions LLC has introduced the NIOSH Pocket Guide 1.0, their new chemical hazards database for iPhone and iPod touch. Designed specifically to take advantage of the iPhone’s interface, the NIOSH Pocket Guide gives safety professionals immediate access to crucial information on all of 677 chemicals in the database including all the resources of the NIOSH Pocket Guide and much more.
• Indie game developer Bryan Mitchell has introduced Geared 1.1, an update to his gear-based strategy game for iPhone and iPod Touch. Designed specifically to leverage the iPhone’s unique capabilities and interface, Geared features a free-form environment unrestrained by the traditional snap-grid experience. Geared features 120 levels of gameplay with varying difficulty, level selection menu, and original sound effects.
• Sarsoft has introduced Rescue Kit 1.0, their new emergency application for iPhone devices. Rescue Kit aims to help in real-life situations. It displays your GPS coordinates on a map, together with town and street names, saving countless minutes in finding the accident’s location. Rescue Kit also features a handy flashlight function which pulses the international SOS signal, so that in places with little mobile coverage, you can get the attention of rescue teams.
• Ian Maskell recently launched iPhone App Freelancer, a website offering the ability to turn great ideas into apps with little or no programming knowledge. iPhone App Freelancer is a service that connects freelancer iPhone application developers with entrepreneurs and businesses that require custom programming, applications, graphics and development projects for the iPhone. Joel Comm developed iFart, which in its first few weeks earned him over $10,000 a day.
• Mobila Interactive has announced their iPhone OS port of Powermanga, an arcade style 2D scrolling shooter. As a member of an elite space unit, code name Powermanga, you blast through the streams of meteorites, pirates and parasites in order to achieve the objective of guaranteeing a safe passage through each region of space. At your disposal is a powerful ship with a sophisticated weapons system. In order to survive, you must earn power-ups and upgrade your ship wisely.
• I-play, Oberon Media’s publishing division and the world’s leading multi-platform casual games publisher, today announced Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet is the first Women’s Murder Club game to be available for iPhone and iPod touch.  Now available in the Apple App Store, the latest release in the wildly successful game series, which has reached more than 15 million downloads since its launch in 2008, puts players in the role of the Women’s Murder Club characters to study murder scenes, perform forensic analysis and find evidence to solve a series of ghastly murders in San Francisco.  Each spine-tingling investigation features beguiling and brain-bending puzzles that will test players’ wits as they chase a moonstruck murderer.
• Sub Hunt from Addictinggames.com brings arcade style action to the iPhone in a way that no other game has. You’re in control of an advanced prototype submarine as you battle your way through scores of enemies. Depth charges, mines, torpedoes and bombs are just some of what awaits you. The fate of the world is in your hands!