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

Guelph, Ontario – Unifiq is delighted to introduce the first public beta of Aspire, their new life-goal planning application, exclusively for Mac OS X Leopard. It takes a unique and innovative approach, providing a visual workspace to brainstorm, prioritize, review, refine, track and help improve anyone’s life goals and long-term plans.

Designed specifically for long-term planning, Aspire is an easy-to-use visual tool for defining goals, identifying obstacles, and brainstorming the solutions people need to achieve their dreams. Aspire helps people take an honest look at the big picture and keep everything in balance. Using Aspire to graphically explore and improve plans makes it easier to truly understand what it will take to accomplish them.

Aspire isn’t a daily task manager, though it’s a great complement to any system one might already use. Before diving into tasks, schedules and details, Aspire helps remind the user of the big picture so they spend time on what’s truly important. Whatever time management system a person may use for day-to-day tasks, Aspire will give them a unique high-level view of their long-term goals, highlighting relationships and priorities in a new and powerful way.

Minimum Requirements:
* Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard or later
* Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel
* 3.4 MB Hard Drive space

Pricing and Availability:
For a very limited time during the beta period, Aspire is available at the pre-launch price of $19.00 USD (regular price is $39.00) for a single-user license. A free, fully functional 30 day demo trial is available. Customers will receive free upgrades to 1.0 and all 1.x updates. Unifiq offers a 30 day money back guarantee.

Aspire Public Beta
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Headquartered in Guelph, Ontario, Unifiq is a privately funded company founded in 2008 by longtime Mac developer Mark Roseman. With a focus on simplicity, innovation and user experience, Mark’s aim with Unifiq is developing unique and useful software, complemented by first-class customer support. Alongside Unifiq, he operates a workgroup-oriented wiki collaboration software venture, and is actively involved in several open source software, technology and small business communities. Copyright 2009 Unifiq. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Halifax, Canada – colovo is proud to release Timepost 2.6, the reliable web-integrated time management system for Mac OS X. Timepost is a full-featured time tracking solution that integrates with a number of fantastic web based collaboration services. This fast and reliable application saves time, money, and resources by accurately posting time.

Timepost supports 10 great web based time tracking and billing services including:
* activeCollab
* Basecamp
* Blinksale
* Cashboard
* FogBugz
* FreeAgent
* FreshBooks
* Harvest
* Tick
* Unfuddle

It’s easily to get started with Timepost. It provides a simple, easy to use and effective way to post your tracked time to many of the top web-based time tracking services. Timepost also saves you time when tracking time. You can Start a timer, Stop a timer, or Edit and Round tracked time all from the Menu bar. We’ve designed Timepost with usability in mind, so you don’t need to think twice about managing your time.

“Since I started doing design years ago, managing and recording my time has been a daily chore. Timepost is a great addition to Basecamp’s time tracking facility and makes it considerably easier for me to log my hours” said Matt Dawson, Ad Art Design.

Timepost allows you to create an unlimited amount of timers, and easily manage them from your Menu bar. Once you’re done your work for the day, just click “Post” and your time is instantly recorded online.

Timepost 2.5 for Windows is also available today. It shares many of the great features with the Mac version.

Not only is Timepost a simple project timer, but a powerful extension to your existing web service. Timepost offers custom preferences to round-up times to your billing units, and detect idle time when you’re away from the computer.

New Features/Updates in Version 2.6:
* Completely redesigned User Interface
* Reordering of Timers
* Full control from the Menu Bar
* New Services tab, with configuration aids
* Main Window hiding
* Support for Unfuddle
* Half hour rounding

Version 2.6 also fixes a number of outstanding bugs.

Availability and Pricing:
Timepost requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later, and an account supporting API access with activeCollab, Basecamp, Blinksale, Cashboard, FogBugz, FreeAgent, FreshBooks, Harvest, Tick or Unfuddle. A trial version is available on the website which runs without limitations for 14 days. Timepost 2.6 is available as a single-user license for only $39.99 (USD). Custom site licenses are available with substantial discounts. License purchases include free Timepost 2.x updates and email support.

Timepost 2.6
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Colovo Design
Timepost Featured on the 37signals Product Blog
Timepost Featured in BootStudio Case Study

colovo is a Canadian software company that designs innovative solutions to improve online communication. For more information on colovo and it’s products, please visit their website.

Toronto (ON), Canada – Zevrix Solutions announces the release of Instant Backup 1.0, a simple solution to securely back up selected files and folders on-line and locally. Instant Backup is designed to back up the most important and sensitive active projects – the ones you don’t want to take any chances with. For example, when you’d like to back up your project more often than hourly backup does. Or when you prefer to have a password protected copy of the project on an FTP site, in addition to all your regular local backups.

Instant Backup is not a replacement for the complete computer backup systems, such as Time Machine. The power of Instant Backup is in its simplicity and flexibility which allows you to securely backup selected files and folders to specific locations just when you need it.

Instant Backup allows you to specify various backup locations. You can choose between an FTP or local disk backup location. Instant Backup will create a compressed disk image (.dmg) for each file or folder you drop on its icon. For the complete backup security, the disk image can be encrypted and password protected.

You can choose to transfer all items to a default backup location automatically, or to show the list of backup locations to choose from. The number of previous backups to keep can also be specified.

Pricing and Availability:
Instant Backup 1.0 can be purchased from the Zevrix Solutions web site, for $9.95 (USD), as well as from authorized resellers. Demo is also available for download. Instant Backup is a Universal Binary and runs on Mac OS X 10.4 and higher.

Zevrix Solutions
Instant Backup 1.0
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Screenshot

Located in Toronto, Canada, Zevrix Solutions provides productivity solutions for Adobe Creative Suite software, graphic file diagnostics and Microsoft Office on Mac OS. Zevrix Solutions is dedicated to helping professionals achieve more while doing less through automating their everyday tasks, producing error-free documents, saving disk space and cutting production costs. For more information, visit their website.

Fleet, UK – Due to a great reception in December 2008, Intrinsic Development Corp. (UK) Ltd. announces additional iPhone Developer Training Courses. The courses are also available in New York and offer developers endless opportunities in this exciting, dynamic market. The next UK course will be held on the 2nd – 4th March, London SE1

One of the delegates who attended in December said: “I attended the iPhone SDK course held in Basingstoke in December 2008. I found the course informative, stimulating and most enjoyable. I now have the technical skills to improve my iPhone application – PocketPhonics. Thanks to Chris Walters and Julio Baros, 2009 is off to a very positive start for my business.” John Friend, appsinmypocket, London. Makers of PocketPhonics – the leading education applications for children aged 3 to 7.

The course objective is to enable delegates to become proficient users of the Software Development Kit and become part of this new community of developers. They will get to know the essentials of Objective-C and Cocoa Touch as well as learning the tools, libraries, concepts, and the most effective implementation methods, with plenty of hands-on exercises to reinforce it all.

Delegates will learn to use Xcode, Interface Builder, and the UIKit framework, enabling the development of iPhone applications that take full advantage of many of the powerful and sophisticated features of this amazing new platform. In summary they will:

* Learn basic and advanced features of Objective-C
* Get up to speed fast on Xcode and Interface Builder
* Discover time saving tips and techniques used by the pros
* Learn how to design, code, build, and debug iPhone applications

The next UK course will be held on the 2nd – 4th March 2009, London SE1. (the venue is a short walk from Waterloo Station). The course has been developed by About Objects Inc., a premier IT training and Consultancy Company headquartered in Reston, VA.

Intrinsic Development Corp UK Ltd
iPhone Developer Course Information

Intrinsic Development offers software solutions for businesses backed by a comprehensive service. This includes consultancy, design and development, system implementation and configuration, training and technical support. The company employs technologies such as C, C++, Objective-C and Java on diverse target platforms including iPhone, Unix, Macintosh, Windows and the Web. Copyright 2007-2008 uncomplex gmbh. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania – Volitans software today announces SMART Utility 2.0, a major update to the hard drive diagnostic scanning application. The new features include the ability to run built-in drive self tests, preferences to only alert new problems, and Growl support. Other smaller features and minor bug fixes are included as well.

SMART Utility is an application to scan the internal hardware diagnostics system of hard drives SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is a system built into hard drives by their manufacturers to report on various measurements (called attributes) of a hard drive’s operation. The attributes can be used to detect when a hard drive is having mechanical or electrical problems, and can indicate when the hard drive is failing. SMART Utility can read and display these attributes. This allows time to hopefully backup, and then replace the drive.

SMART Utility is different from other drive utilities, such as Disk Utility, which only read the overall SMART Status. SMART Utility not only displays the individual attributes to see their status and information, but it also uses an internal algorithm based on those attributes to detect drives failing before SMART indicates it has failed. This pre-fail detection can save precious data before SMART has determined that the drive has failed. And, while the raw information can be viewed on the command line with smartmontools (which is what SMART Utility is based on), SMART Utility presents it in an easy to read format, as well as running its internal pre-fail algorithm.

Release notes for Version 2.0:
* Added support for built-in drive self-tests
= Added self test count, last test time and status
= Added self test window which displays past tests and an interface to run short and long tests
= Progress bar updates as test progresses
= Does not scan drives if test in progress but drive does not support updating
* Added preference to ignore failing messages from the following attributes:
= Airflow Temperature (ID 190), usually found on Seagate drives
= Reallocated Events (ID 196)
* Added preference to only mark drive as failing if error count increased since last scan
* Added preference to only mark drive as failing if bad sector count increased since last scan
* Added preference to choose custom failing values for bad sectors and error count (default is 0 and 50 respectively)
* Added preference to display temperature in Fahrenheit
* Added reset preferences button
* Added Growl support, which supports notifications of drive scan complete, drive update complete, drive failing, drive failed, and test complete
* Changed drive info button to “More Info” instead of a “Show All” (matches better with the tests button)
* Corrected the system requirements alert message
* Fixed default column spacing in the attributes window
* Fixed bug where in progress self tests would report single digit percents instead of full percents, and without percent sign
* Fixed bug where open information windows would not update
* Overhauled help system using Omni’s Helpify
* Rearranged preferences window to better view added preferences
* Updated eSellerate Embedded Engine to version 4.0.0
* Updated Sparkle to version 1.5
* Updated Smart Crash Reports to version 1.5

Features:
* Displays all supported drives and their partitions
* Displays easy to read overall SMART status with color coded text
* Displays important information in the main window, such as drive model, capacity, power on hours, temperature, bad sector counts, and error counts and types
* Displays more detailed information in separate windows, including capabilities, all available attributes, and the past five errors
* Run built in drive self tests
* Customize failing triggers
* Supports scanning individual RAID drives in addition to non-RAIDed drives
* Supports logging all information to a log file for verifying SMART data
* Supports Mac OS X 10.4 or later (including Server) and both PowerPC and Intel Macs

Pricing and Availability:
SMART Utility is available in a variety of licenses including a personal license for $25 (USD) and a family license for $40 (USD). It can be purchased online or in an innovative way: within SMART Utility itself through its embedded web store.

Volitans Software
SMART Utility 2.0
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App Icon

Volitans Software was founded on February 22, 2007, by Matthew Butch, to sell SMART Utility. The name Volitans comes from the scientific name of the Red Lionfish. Matthew is an Apple Certified Macintosh Technician, an Apple Certified Technical Coordinator, and an Apple Certified System Administrator. He conceived of the idea of SMART Utility because he wanted a better way to test hard drives in his job as an on-site Macintosh Technician.

Luxembourg – Houdah Software, publisher of HoudahSpot and HoudahGeo, is proud to announce the immediate availability of ACTPrinter 1.1 for iPhone and iPod Touch. With ACTPrinter all your documents travel with you – on your iPhone. Ever wondered why you always end up printing those so-called electronic tickets, boarding passes, bar codes, and more?

Wasted a sheet of paper to remember that “will call” pickup number? No more! Beyond serving as a medium for tickets and the like, ACTPrinter is also a document reader. Take emails, web pages, letters, and more with you for reading on the go.

ACTPrinter serves a printer for “virtual paper” stored on iPhone or iPod Touch. Documents finally become mobile. Electronic tickets attain ultimate convenience. Bar codes may be scanned right off the display of your iPhone or iPod Touch.

ACTPrinter 1.1 adds the ability to send out printouts as emails. They will be delivered as PDF attachements.

ACTPrinter 1.1 also improves the viewing experience with an improved zoom feature and a full-screen landscape mode.

Moreover it is now possible to rename printouts within ACTPrinter 1.1. It is now also easier to delete printouts that are no longer needed.

Feature Highlights:
* Print from any Mac application to iPhone or iPod Touch
* Integration with Mac OS X PDF Services
* Easy setup. PDF service is installed on first launch of ACTPrinter Mac
* Mac and iPhone pair seamlessly using Bonjour ZeroConf
* Portrait and landscape viewing. Pinch zoom
* Compatible with Tiger and Leopard

System Requirements:
* Mac with Airport card
* Mac OS X Tiger or Leopard

Pricing and Availability:
ACTPrinter is priced at $1.99 (USD) and available exclusively through Apple’s App Store. The Mac client software, ACTPrinter Mac, is available for free from the Houdah Software web site.

ACTPrinter 1.1
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ACTPrinter Mac
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Houdah Support

Houdah Software s.a r.l is a small company based in Luxembourg Europe. The company was founded in late 2005 by Pierre Bernard. Apple, Macintosh, Mac, Spotlight, iPhone, iPod, WebObjects and the Mac logo are trademarks of Apple Computer. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Berkeley, CA – MacEase is pleased to announce that effective immediately iPrint is being made available to public primary and secondary schools free of charge. By using iPrint, schools will be able to significantly reduce the money they spend on consumables in their computer labs and instead will be able to apply these funds to critical services.

iPrint works on any Macintosh computer that is running OS X, and it works in the background to enable users to simply select and print just the material that they need. This eliminates having to print entire pages of data when just a snippet – of any size – is needed. iPrint works with virtually all Mac programs and it is an especially powerful data mining tool when students are doing research on the Internet.

By allowing students to focus on just the material that is relevant to their work, iPrint enhances the learning process. By eliminating the printing of large amounts of unnecessary material, iPrint dramatically reduces the wasting of critical dollars on supplies such as ink, toner, and paper. When using iPrint, computer labs also may be able to get by with fewer printers since the printers aren’t being tied up printing unnecessary data.

System Requirements:
A Macintosh computer with System 10.3.x, 10.4.x, or 10.5.x; a PowerPC or Intel processor.

MacEase

Steve Becker, the owner of MacEase, has been developing freeware and shareware for the Macintosh since 1997. The software from MacEase specializes in collecting, organizing and printing information. The focus at MacEase is to develop software that extends the capabilities of the user’s computer, improves workflow and productivity, and enhances the user experience.