The MacTrack – iPhone, iPod, iPod Touch and Mac News

Herndon, Virginia – Zerion Software, an information technology firm that specializes in enterprise and mobile application development, has released their first iPhone game to the Apple App Store called ‘Rochambeau’; aka (Rock-Paper-Scissors, RPS).

The new game is based on the classic version of game play, but is far from the run-of-the-mill variety. Choose one of the cartoon characters and play against the capable computer adversary, or one of your friends on your AIM buddy list. Shake your iPhone or iPodTouch to make your moves, and then watch the game unfold with creative animation and sound effects. Choose your cartoon player and play against the capable ‘bot’ or friends across the globe.

“We took a look at the other like games on the market and improved on all aspects of game play, integrating networked capability, chat support, along with introducing a variety of characters and game play styles. This is an excellent showcase of our development capabilities in this new and exciting space.” Sze Wong, President of Zerion Consulting.

“We are especially excited about our strategic partnership with the biggest iPhone game distributor in the market, Flipside5 (FS5). I am sure there will be a lot of opportunities to work together in the future.”

Game Features
* Local or Online Play (*Networked)
* Two Online Play modes – First Available and AIM
* AIM chat support prior to game start and during game-play, so you can chat at anytime with your friends
* Utilize the Flipside5 (FS5) network engine
* Multiple Character selection – Choose between a Cow, Rabbit, or Bird
* Choose between shake or touch based game play
* Three Game Lengths – Best of 3, 5 or 7
* Settings for Shake Sensitivity and Toggle Sound On/Off
* Works over AT&T edge, 3G, and WIFI networks

Availability:
Rochambeau for iPhone is free and available exclusively through Apple’s App Store.

Rochambeau
Download Rochambeau
Zerion Software

Zerion Consulting is an enterprise and mobile application development firm specializing in mobile data collection. Founded in 2003, Zerion provides services in enterprise system architecture and mobile development, for the iPhone, Windows mobile, and Blackberry platforms. Zerion Consulting is an 8(a) certified small business. Copyright 2003-2008 Zerion Consulting. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.

San Francisco, CA – The winners of the 2008 Best App Ever Awards have now been announced in the inaugural competition honoring the best iPhone apps and games released in the iTunes App Store.

“The goal of the awards was to help publicize some applications that people may never have seen. Some of the best apps have never been featured on the iTunes front page or in an iPhone TV ad, yet they deserve recognition and publicity for the great work the developers have done.” said Jeff Scott, founder of 148Apps and the Best App Ever Awards.

And it looks like this worked. We heard from many developers of nominated apps that their sales went up once they were nominated. One developer, Portegno Apps, developer of nominee Cartoonize Me, saw sales go up 25% after being nominated.

Sponsored by 148Apps, the voting saw an amazing 98,190 votes cast in the week that voting was open. Voters cast their votes for a variety of iPhone apps in 34 different categories covering applications and games. Categories such as Most Innovative App and Best Productivity Killer were extremely popular with voters.

Winners in each category:

Best App Ever: Shazam by Shazam Entertainment Ltd.

Most Innovative App: Shazam by Shazam Entertainment Ltd.

Most Useful App: Air Sharing by Avatron Software, Inc.

Best Free or Ad Supported App: Stanza by Lexcycle

Best 99 Cent App: Ocarina by Smule

Best iPhone WOW App: Shazam by Shazam Entertainment Ltd.

Best Productivity Enhancer: Things by Cultured Code

Best Productivity Killer: Facebook by Facebook

Best Feel Like A Local App: Now Playing by Cyrus Najmabadi

Best Outdoor Use App: RunKeeper Free by FitnessKeeper, Inc.

Best Musical Instrument App: Ocarina by Smule

Best Social Networking App: Facebook by Facebook

Best Photography App: Pano by Debacle Software

Best Kid Distraction App: iChalky by Eric Metois

Most Creative Use of iPhone Hardware: Ocarina by Smule

Best Use of Location Services: Urbanspoon by Urbanspoon

Most Original User Interface: Weightbot by Tapbots

Best User Interface: Twitterrific by The Iconfactory

Most Innovative Game: Touchgrind by Illusion Labs

Best Original Game: Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios, LLC

Best Game Port: SimCity by Electronic Arts

Best Casual Game: Labyrinth by Codify AB

Best Long-Play Game: Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios, LLC

Best Free or Ad Supported Game: Chess With Friends by Newtoy Inc.

Best 99 Cent Game: Moto Chaser by Freeverse, Inc.

Best Game Graphics: Rolando by ngmoco, Inc.

Best Game Controls: Rolando by ngmoco, Inc.

Best Arcade Game: Air Hockey by Acceleroto

Best Puzzle Game: Enigmo by Pangea Software, Inc.

Best Traditional Game: Texas Hold’em by Apple Inc.

Best Racing Game: Cro-Mag Rally by Pangea Software, Inc.

Best Kids Game: JellyCar by Walaber

Best Strategy Game: Fieldrunners by Subatomic Studios, LLC

Best Word Game: Chicktionary by Blockdot, Inc.

The list of winners and nominees is available on the site and also as a PDF and text file. The Best App Ever Awards will return in the fall to help honor the best apps of 2009.

Best App Ever Awards
2008 Award Winners PDF
2008 Award Winners TXT
148Apps

The mission of the Best App Ever Awards is to help recognize the best iPhone applications released to the iTunes App Store in 2008, not just the best selling. Nominees for each category were determined both by nominees submitted on the Best App Ever site and from a nomination committee. The nomination committee is comprised of industry people including bloggers and iPhone app developers. For a list of the members of the nomination committee, see the site. The name for the Best App Ever Awards comes from a friend of the site who would introduce the latest application he downloaded when showing friends as the best app ever.

The mission of 148Apps is getting the word out about the very best in iPhone OS applications through editorial reviews and news. In addition to the reviews and news, 148Apps keeps track of what’s currently popular, new, trends, and app prices changes in the iTunes App Store.

London, England – Pixaria Software today announced a major update to PopCard.me, the free email greetings cards website offered as a replacement for Apple’s defunct iCards service. The updated PopCard.me website now boasts integration with Flickr to offer visitors a broader range of fun images and has improved email support to better guard against greeting card messages being treated as spam.

By tying in to Flickr’s powerful ‘interestingness’ algorithm, which is able to automatically identify noteworthy images, PopCard.me now presents visitors with a continually changing selection of photos which can be quickly turned into stylish email postcards and mailed to up to five recipients.

For people wanting to explore the full range of Flickr images, PopCard.me also includes a search utility to help visitors find photos on the Flickr website. Typing in a word or phrase quickly returns up to 24 Creative Commons licensed images, all sorted by ‘interestingness’ and ready to use to create an email greeting card.

With a selection of font styles and card templates to suit different photograph sizes, cards sent from PopCard.me look great and display exactly as you write them, directly in the recipient’s e-mail inbox. PopCard also fully supports all the major email clients and webmail services such Outlook and Gmail to guarantee your card arrives looking its best.

For the technically minded, the PHP software which powers the PopCard.me website – PopCard 3.1 – is also available as a free download from Pixaria Software making it easy for anyone with a suitable web server and a little experience with PHP, to quickly and easily add email greeting cards to their own website.

Availability:
PopCard is available as a free download from the Pixaria Software website and support is provided via the Pixaria user forums.

PopCard.me
Download and Support

Pixaria Software is Jamie Longstaff a London, UK based independent software developer specialising in imaging web applications. Pixaria Software also produces Pixaria Gallery an affordable script enabling both amateur and professional photographers to sell images on their own website.

London, England – UniPress Software, European distributor of the Web Help Desk Software, announced attendance to the 2009 BETT Show, 14-17 Jan. in Olympia, London. The Web Help Desk Software is a leading cross-platform help desk software solution for all educational institutions from higher education universities to the smallest lower schools.

The BETT Show is the world’s largest educational technology event and attracted nearly 29,000 visitors in 2008. Pre-register and pre-plan to make the most of this increasingly international Tech Ed event. Full details and online registration at the official BETT Show website.

UniPress Software at BETT 2009 – Stand V18

Having over 10 years experience in the help desk and service management industry, UniPress Software will be inspiring ICT staff with demonstrations and special offers of their flagship cross-platform service desk solution, the Web Help Desk. Web Help Desk Software Editions range from a Free Edition, a Lite Edition, and a PRO Edition, which may be installed on your Mac OS X Server or Linux Server. The Lite and PRO Editions are also offered as an affordable SaaS Hosted Plan; no in-house server required.

“Whether monopolising on the Free Edition of the Web Help Desk Software or the EDU discounted full-featured PRO Edition, today’s economic climate demands measurable productivity and increased efficiencies,” said UniPress MD, John Ryan. “Join us at the BETT Show to see hands-on why your institution can’t afford not to explore our world-class, cross-platform ICT solutions.”

Free Help Desk Download Before BETT 2009

Download the Free Web Help Desk Software Edition for a sample of UniPress’s ICT software solutions. The Free Web Help Desk Software Edition for higher education university departments and small lower schools has no trial period or expiration date, is completely free from ads, and includes one full year of help desk software upgrades.

Free Help Desk Software Download
Web Help Desk Software
Web Help Desk Tour
Help Desk Software Demo
UniPress Software ICT Solutions
BETT Show 2009

UniPress Software was established in 1988 as the distributor in the UK and Ireland of web-based service desk automation software targeting mid-market companies, departments within large enterprise organisations, and small businesses. Having over 10 years experience in the help desk and service desk marketplace, UniPress Software has become renowned for its excellent technical support and customer service levels.

Founded in 1998, the Web Help Desk software suite is the leading cross-platform service desk management solution for help desk and customer support professionals who seek to simplify and control their increasingly complex service environments. The extensive feature set of the Web Help Desk software addresses critical IT and support areas, including: Incident and Problem Management, Asset and Desktop Management, Knowledge Management, and Approval Workflow.

San Francisco, CA @ Macworld Expo 2009 – IntelliScanner Corporation, creators of award-winning scanners and software that organize everything, today unveiled IntelliScanner SOHO, cubed. Conveniently packaged in a metallic, cubed box for easy storage, IntelliScanner SOHO’s smart barcode scanner and software uses advanced barcode technology to organize business assets, inventory, media and more. New in 2009, IntelliScanner SOHO 120 offers customized asset tags, point of sale integration and new industrial barcode support.

IntelliScanner SOHO makes it easy for small businesses to organize, automate and keep track of business inventory. By scanning the barcode on business assets, users can automatically create a comprehensive inventory of what’s in stock, where it is and what they have invested. IntelliScanner SOHO’s intuitive software tools provide detailed reports, notifies when stock is running low and totals the value of current inventory. Advanced tools allow users to change quantities on the go and reconcile inventory.

Organize Inventory With Custom Asset Tags; New Symbology Support For Industry Barcodes

IntelliScanner SOHO organizes business assets that do not have barcodes by applying IntelliScanner Custom Asset Tags, pre-printed barcode tags used to track, sort and search inventory with ease. Users can now order Custom Asset Tags direct from IntelliScanner with their business name and a unique, serialized barcode number. Custom Asset Tags can also be personalized as “property of” tags with a business name to protect against lost or theft.

In addition, IntelliScanner SOHO now includes support for the Interleaved 2 of 5 and ITF-14 barcode symbologies, commonly used in industrial applications and on cartons, cases and palettes of retail products. Users can now scan these barcode symbologies for complete inventory control.

Scan Retail Items With Lightspeed Point Of Sale Integration

Small business owners can now use IntelliScanner SOHO to effortlessly integrate with LightSpeed, a third-party, Mac OS X point-of-sale (POS) system. Included with IntelliScanner SOHO is a LightSpeed POS Integration Guide, with examples and tools to help users customize the scanner for a retail environment. In addition, the scanner also includes keyboard emulation software to “type” barcodes into third-party applications such as FileMaker Pro, QuickBooks and MYOB and a Business Integration Kit with comprehensive documentation for using IntelliScanner SOHO in any business setting.

Pricing and Availability:
IntelliScanner SOHO includes everything for small business organization in one cubed box – a portable USB barcode scanner, intelligent inventory and business software and pre-printed asset tags. The scanner and software system is now shipping worldwide for $299.00 USD online and this week at Macworld Expo 2009 (booth S-537). IntelliScanner SOHO is cross-platform for Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista and requires an available USB port.

IntelliScanner
IntelliScanner SOHO
Purchase Link
Press Images

IntelliScanner organizes everything with smart barcode scanners and software for home, business and education. The company’s award-winning tools for PC and Mac organize book collections, wine, groceries, DVDs, comics, CDs, home assets, business inventory and more. (800) 550-5470. Copyright (c) 2009 IntelliScanner Corporation. All Rights Reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Berlin, Germany – nova media today unveiled a new version of iSync plugins for Mac OS X with support of recent cell phones from Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. iSync plugins allows cell phone owners to synchronise contacts and dates between a cell phone and Mac OS X even if their phone model is not yet supported by iSync.

“We support more than 200 cell phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson which are currently not included in iSync.” states Jan Fuellemann, PR spokesperson at nova media. “iSync plugins comes as an easy to use preference pane. As soon as the user selects his phone model, it is added to iSync and can be used to synchronize contacts and dates.”

The application now supports English, French and German. Version 7.1.2.1 adds support for the following cell phones:

Nokia:
5800 XpressMusic

Sony Ericsson:
C510a, C510c, C905, C905a, C905c, G705a, G705i, G705u, T700, W595, W595c, W595s, W705, W705a, W705u, W902

Samsung:
SGH-A767, SGH-A837, SGH-L810, SGH-Z720

Pricing and Availability:
iSync phone plugins are available online for Euro 9,95 plus VAT (US-$ 9.95 plus VAT for residents in the US and Canada). System requirements are Mac OS X 10.4.9 or higher and a supported blueooth-enabled cell phone.

nova media
iSync plugins
Download iSync plugins
Purchase iSync plugins
Screenshot

The founders of “nova media Mobile Data Solutions GmbH” started their business in 1996 in Berlin. The company specializes on mobile data solutions for Mac OS X. More information at nova media online or phone +49 30 3909040.

Corby, United Kingdom – The Dream Apps is proud to present an exclusive one day promotion of the award winning video recording application Dream Capture at 40% off. This amazing saving is only available at the MacZOT website for one day only. The promotion will start on Tuesday 8th January 2009 at 00:00AM and will end 24 hours later.

Dream Capture is a simple and intuitive utility to record videos that are perfect for uploading to various video sharing websites, importing into iMovie or GarageBand for the creation of Podcasts or burned to DVD. This makes Dream Capture a great compliment to Apple’s iLife Suite.

Dream Capture supports most cameras on the market, but is optimized for Apple’s built-in and external iSight cameras. The application captures sharp, bright and beautiful video that is encoded in the H.264 codec. Dream Capture features an automatic image stabilizing platform using the same incredible technology as Apple’s Shake. All this, combined in a sleek, stylish and easy-to-use interface that makes video recording a Dream.

Dream Capture also has many advanced features such as automatic camera shake reduction and background noise reduction when recording audio or video in crowded areas!

Pricing and Availability:
Dream Capture is available for one day only on the 8th of January at $5.97 USD (40% off the retail price of $9.95 USD).

MacZOT Promotion
Dream Capture
Download Dream Capture
Screenshot
Application Icon

Located in Corby, United Kingdom, The Dream is a small software development company founded in 2003 by Christian Owens. Over the years the company has grown from not only designing websites, to creating websites and award winning Macintosh applications. The work done by The Dream is often featured on design inspiration websites and our apps have been featured in magazines such as WebDesigner Magazine, MacFormat and Mac Life. Copyright 2003-2008 The Dream Apps. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iSight and Shake are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Norcross, Georgia – Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery software for Apple Mac has been announced by Disk Doctor Labs, Inc a leader in data recovery, system optimization and security applications. The software is compatible with Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger and is a stand-alone software solution, which supports both Power PC and Intel based Apple Mac computers. The product provides recovery from Hard Drives, Camera/Flash cards, Firewire drives, and USB drives that includes LaCie, iOmega, Seagate, Maxtor, G-drive and other popular storages.

Launch of Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery software has enhanced Disk Doctors professional reputation as a major player in providing professional level data recovery and security applications to its corporate clients, home users, which eventually will help users to recover critical information to avoid any tangible losses caused due to data loss.

Important Mac Data Recovery software features include:
a) Neatly crafted user interface that allows even a novice to handle complex recovery
b) Supports HFS+ and HFSX file system
c) Most powerful scan engine to recovery deleted files
d) Advance volume scanning option helps in recovering formatted volumes, volumes when not getting mounted, volumes having damaged partition map, volumes having corrupt catalog file or any kind of corruption in B-Tree
e) Powerful lost volume search to locate lost / missing volumes.
f) Simplicity and ease of handling recovered data matches Mac OSX “finder”
g) Smart file preview option to preview files before recovery, which included photo, video and audio preview

“Adding Mac platform support for data recovery with Disk Doctors Mac recovery software has helped us to reach an entirely new level of sophistication and effectiveness,” said Omer Faiyaz, CEO, Disk Doctor Labs, Inc.

Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery version 1.0.1 is available through the Disk Doctors Online Store and Disk Doctors Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $179 (US) for a single user license supporting unlimited recovery incidents. Volume and Site licensing pricing options are available from Disk Doctors Sales Department. Disk Doctors Mac Data Recovery requires a minimum of 128MB of RAM and is designed to run on Mac OSX 10.4 and above.

Disk Doctors
Mac Data Recovery
Demo Download
Buy Link
Features
FAQs

Established in 1991, Disk Doctors Labs is the one of the oldest data recovery companies spread across 5 countries worldwide. Disk Doctors specializes in recovery of all advanced data loss cases including Raid Recovery and its product portfolio consists of several Data Recovery Software, UndeleteTools and Data Security Utilities. Continuous research & development efforts leading to various path breaking technologies at Disk Doctor Labs have made some of the impossible data recovery cases possible.