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

Toronto (ON), Canada – Zevrix Solutions today announces the release of BatchOutput DOC 2.0.6, a maintenance update to its popular output automation solution for Microsoft Word on Mac OS X. The software provides advanced solutions for demanding enterprise and office publishing environments through automation of printing and professional PDF output. With BatchOutput DOC, users only need to select the files and adjust the output settings, and the software will do the rest automatically. For example, BatchOutput can be left to output hundreds of Word files overnight, and the completed job can be picked up next morning.

In addition to batch printing, BatchOutput DOC allows to carry out powerful professional PDF production directly from Word eliminating the need for time consuming post-processing. The software brings advanced PDF creation options right to the user’s fingertips:

* Split multi-page Word documents into single page PDF files.

* Reduce PDF file size and optimize documents for various purposes such as web, print, or on-screen viewing. BatchOutput DOC lets users precisely control the image resolution and compression which can help reduce the PDF file size dramatically without compromising its quality.

* Protect PDF files on different security levels. You can encrypt PDF and password-protect it from unauthorized copying, printing and viewing.

* Apply the versatile Quartz filters to change PDF color tone, brightness and other qualities.

* Compose variable output file names based on page number, user name, current date and other values.

The new version introduces compatibility with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and addresses some file naming related issues. BatchOutput DOC is a part of the Zevrix BatchOutput family which also includes similar tools for Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe InDesign.

Pricing and Availability:
BatchOutput DOC 2.0.6 can be purchased for $39.95 (USD) from the Zevrix Solutions website as well as from authorized resellers. BatchOutput DOC runs on Mac OS X 10.4.2 – 10.6, is a Universal Binary, and works with Microsoft Word 2008.

Zevrix Solutions
BatchOutput DOC 2.0.6
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Purchase

Located in Toronto, Canada, Zevrix Solutions provides automation and productivity solutions for Adobe Creative Suite software, PDF and 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. Copyright (C) 2009 Zevrix Solutions. All Rights Reserved.

Zwijndrecht, Belgium – Galarina today releases free versions of GeoLogTag and PhotoToMac for iPhone and iPod Touch. GeoLogTag offers an all-in-one geotagging solution for photos taken with any digital camera. GeoLogTag Free keeps logged locations for 2 hours instead of 90 days. PhotoToMac transfers photos taken with an iPhone and saved photos over WiFi to a Mac shared folder. PhotoToMac Free transfers the photos with a lower resolution than the full version.

GeoLogTag Free:
GeoLogTag facilitates the geotagging of digital photos. While photos are taken with a digital camera (DSLR, point & shoot) GeoLogTag continuously tracks your location just like a traditional GPS data logger. Locations can also be logged every 3, 5 or 10 minutes to prolong battery life. If the photos are stored on a Mac or on Flickr, GeoLogTag geotags the photos using the logged locations. Windows users can geotag their photos by using the GPX file generated by GeoLogTag in combination with a Windows geotagging application. The only limitation in the free version of GeoLogTag is that logged locations are kept for 2 hours instead of 90 days.

PhotoToMac Free:
The photos are transferred in 480×320 resolution (full resolution when using the full version) and multiple photos can be transferred in batch. The three step process is very easy:

1. Select a Mac from a list of file sharing Macs on the WiFi network.
2. Select a folder from the list of shared folders.
3. Select the photos to be transferred. Camera Roll photos can be selected on an iPhone and Saved Photos can be selected on an iPod Touch. A demo video is available on the PhotoToMac website.

PhotoToMac requires no cables, no internet connection, no browser and no emails. The only requirement is that the iPhone or iPod Touch is on the same WiFi network as the Mac. Photos can be transferred to different shared folders on different Macs. An in-app assistant guides users through the one-time shared folder setup. The assistant only pops up if PhotoToMac cannot detect file sharing Macs or if no shared folders are available for the selected Mac.

System Requirements:
* iPhone or iPod Touch 3.0 or later
* Mac OS 10.4 or higher

Pricing and Availability:
GeoLogTag Free is available worldwide in the App Store Photography category. The full version costs 4.99 (USD). PhotoToMac Free is available worldwide in the App Store Photography category. The full version costs 0.99 (USD).

GeoLogTag Free
PhotoToMac Free
Purchase and Download
PhotoToMac demo video

Located in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, Galarina was founded in 2008 by Chris Cornelis. Galarina is specialized in iPhone and iPod Touch application development. Copyright (C) 2009 Galarina All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries. Flickr is a registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc. in the US and/or other countries.

Vilnius, Lithuania – iPresentee, the developer of add-ons for Apple’s iWork and iLife applications, releases Keynote Motion Themes 8.0 package of new Keynote themes to be used with Apple’s Keynote presentation software.New Keynote themes package includes: Brilliance, Shining Waves, DNA Chain, Space Drops and Live Mosaic themes. Each theme consists of different high quality animated backgrounds and features up to 22 different layout schemes. The themes are created by professional designers and aim to make users Keynote presentations more memorable.

The new release extends iPresentee’s Keynote themes collection to more than one hundred themes. Keynote Motion Themes with amazing ease-of-use, can transform “sleep-inducing” presentation into an aggressive, energetic, jaw-dropping presentation in nearly no time at all. These templates can be used for business presentations, slideshows, seminars, and for school lectures. Creating the right design is the first step to a perfect presentation.

Keynote Motion Themes contains everything to catch the eye of the audience with animated backgrounds making presentations more attractive and entertaining. Numerous themes collection enables Keynote users to choose the perfect theme or combination of themes for any type of presentation. Keynote Motion Themes can stand alone to unify a presentation or can be mixed together with other non-motion themes to provide breakpoints.

Keynote Motion Themes offers a variety of presentation styles with coordinated fonts, colors, great backgrounds, unique bullets and picture frames. Moreover, there is no need to explore any tutorial or to learn how to use Keynote Motion Themes. Creating a presentation using Keynote Motion Themes is exactly the same as creating a presentation using the usual themes. Choose the perfect theme for your presentation, simply substitute placeholder text and graphics with your own words and images.

Keynote Motion Themes includes an installer to make sure the themes end up in the right place and will be displayed in Keynote’s themes menu automatically. In addition iPresentee offers updated Keynote Show. Keynote Show package is most likely the best offer of add-ons for Apple’s Keynote which includes 60 Keynote Themes, 47 Keynote Motion Themes, 80 Keynote Animations and 115 Keynote 3D Stuff objects for only $60.

Minimum Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.4.3 Tiger and later
* iWork 08 or iWork 09
* 50 MB Hard Drive space

Pricing and Availability:
Each individual Keynote Motion Theme is priced at $10 (USD). The package of five themes is available for $25. Samples and more information about Keynote Motion Themes are available immediately at the iPresentee website.

iPresentee
Keynote Motion Themes
Keynote Show

Located in Vilnius, Lithuania, iPresentee company was founded in 2007 by a group of professional and enthusiastic IT designers. With a focus on the Mac platform, iPresentee’ perspective goal is to create high quality, easy to use and fun add-ons for Apple’s iWork and iLife applications. Copyright 2007-2009 iPresentee. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, and Apple Keynote are registered trademarks of Apple Computer in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Austin, TX – Intego today released their important November 11, 2009 Security Memo. Following the recent discovery of a worm that changes wallpaper on iPhones, Intego has spotted another piece of malware that attacks iPhones, one that is far more dangerous than the ikee worm. This hacker tool, which Intego identifies as iPhone/Privacy.A, takes advantage of the same vulnerability in the iPhone as the ikee worm, allowing hackers to connect to any jailbroken iPhone (iPhones hacked to allow installation of software other than through iTunes) whose owners have not changed the root password.

Exploit: iPhone/Privacy.A
Discovered: November 10, 2009
Risk: Low

It is important to note that standard, non-jailbroken iPhones are not at risk; it is extremely dangerous to jailbreak an iPhone because of the vulnerabilities that this process creates. (Estimates suggest that 6-8% of iPhones are jailbroken.)

When connecting to a jailbroken iPhone, this tool allows a hacker to silently copy a treasure trove of user data from a compromised iPhone: e-mail, contacts, SMSs, calendars, photos, music files, videos, as well as any data recorded by any iPhone app. Unlike the ikee worm, which signals its presence by changing the iPhone’s wallpaper, this hacker tool gives no indication that it has invaded an iPhone.

Hackers using this tool will install it on a computer – Mac, PC, Unix or Linux – then let it work. It scans the network accessible to it, and when it finds a jailbroken iPhone, breaks into it, then steals data and records it.

This hacker tool could easily be installed, for example, on a computer on display in a retail store, which could then scan all iPhones that pass within the reach of its network. Or, a hacker could sit in an Internet cafe and let his computer scan all iPhones that come within the range of the wifi network in search of data. Hackers could even install this tool on their own iPhones, and use it to scan for jailbroken phones as they go about their daily business.

Means of protection: Intego VirusBarrier X5 detects and eradicates this program on Macs, and identifies it as iPhone/Privacy.A. While it is not possible to protect the iPhone from this hacker tool – it does not install anything on an iPhone – VirusBarrier X5 can ensure that Macs, especially in businesses, are protected from this hacker tool being installed.

We would like to stress that users who jailbreak their iPhones are exposing themselves to known vulnerabilities that are being exploited by code that is circulating in the wild. While the number of iPhones attacked may be minimal, the amount of personal data that can be compromised strongly suggests that iPhone users should stick with their stock configuration and not jailbreak their devices.

iPhone/Privacy.A Exploit
Intego

Intego develops and sells desktop Internet security and privacy software for Macintosh. Intego provides the widest range of software to protect users and their Macs from the dangers of the Internet. Intego’s multilingual software and support repeatedly receives awards from Mac magazines, and protects more than one million users in over 60 countries. Intego has headquarters in the USA, France and Japan.

:: About HDRtist ::
HDRtist is a new Mac HDR photography tool from Ohanaware. HDRtist is easy to use HDR software, that creates HDR photos and tone maps them in a single step. An intuitive design makes it simple to choose from our 4 different tone mapping techniques. Even if you’re not into HDR photography, HDRtist is a great tool to have for dramatizing dull photos, livening dark photos and boosting sunsets! We’ve included some HDR tutorials to help you get started with the amazing world of HDR photography.

HDR Photography is a relatively new type of photography. It involves capturing multiple photos at different exposures, then using software to combine these exposures into a single High Dynamic Range Image. Tone mapping is then required to compress the tones of the image into a range that the computer can display. The reason for this is simple, the High Dynamic Range Image contains far more detail in the highlights and shadows, these can then be used to create an image closer to what the human eye can see, or to create punchy dramatic images.

:: What’s New In Version 1.1 ::
The flagship feature of HDRtist 1.1 is the Automatic Image Alignment feature. At a click of the button, HDRtist is able to align images. This feature allows HDR photographers to shoot HDR images without a tripod. HDRtist uses the align_image_stack module from the open source Hugin project. The HDR generation engine has been re-written making it faster and to help it provide richer and punchier results. Other bug fixes include the notorious ‘white boxes’ bug and the crash that could occur when trying to open unsupported images.

:: Pricing and Availability ::
HDRtist is available today as freeware. The Funtastic Photos promotion is available from today, throughout the month of October 2009. 20% off reduces the price of a single user license even further from $34.99 down to $27.99.

:: System Requirements ::
HDRtist requires a Power Macintosh G5 or Intel based Macintosh computer, running Mac OS X v 10.4 or later. It is recommended to have at least 1 GB of RAM.

Ohanaware
HDRtist 1.1
Download HDRtist
Screenshot
App Icon

Ohanaware is a family team with a history and passion in software development, in 2007 their games company Ohana Games had a top ten hit with the game Recyclorama. Both Joy Sha and Sam Rowlands enjoy the thrill of amateur photography and sharing their photos with family and friends. Joy Sha has a history in the design industry with experience as a 2D and 3D artist, she also holds a masters in 3D animation. Sam Rowlands has been writing software since 1990. He won his first award in 2004.

Los Angeles, CA – The next meeting of the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group (lafcpug) will be Wednesday, November 18, 2009 beginning at 6:45PM at the Gallery Theater in Hollywood California. The entire night will be devoted to the “The Avid/FCP 2-Step.”

“The perception, especially among FCP users, is that Final Cut Pro is slowly but surely taking over the post production industry,” said Michael Horton, founder and head of lafcpug. “While that maybe true in the “Indy” world, the reality is the Avid Media Composer is still firmly entrenched in Hollywood feature films and broadcast television. In order for you to compete in Hollywood it’s important to know BOTH tools. So we will devote the entire evening to what we are calling the “Avid/FCP 2-step.” This is a topic we should of done a long time ago.”

Lafcpug intends to cover the major differences between the Avid MC and Final Cut Pro. In addition they intend to try and answer the following questions:

* Is it hard to learn the Avid if I know just FCP?
* Do I really need to learn the Avid?
* Is there a right tool for the job or does it matter?
* And other FAQs, time permitting.

Scheduled to be on the agenda will be legendary film and sound editor Walter Murch who will return to lafcpug to discuss “what is it like going from the Avid to FCP and back to the Avid.”

“When I found out Mr. Murch was in Los Angeles editing a movie, AND editing on the Avid, I immediately wrote him and asked if he would share his experience with us,” added Horton. “Walter has been editing with Final Cut Pro for several years now after having used the Avid for several years. And now he is back on the Avid. This is a great story and one that many editors in Hollywood are experiencing, or sure as heck will experience.”

Murch will bring along his assistant editors, Greg Thompson and Dave Cory for an assistant editor POV.

Also on the agenda will be editor and Avid Guru Steve Cohen who will present an overview of new editorial features in Media Composer 4.0 including the transition preservation feature, advanced keyframing for visual effects, the new and improved trim mode and much more.

Editor Shane Ross will show off Avid Media Access including getting footage into the Avid MC, plus the new Mix & Match capability which allows you to combine different formats, frame rates, and resolutions all in the same timeline.

Wrapping up the evening will be another round of “Stump The Gurus” with Andrew Balis, Stephen Kanter and Shane Ross and of course, lafcpug’s World famous Raffle.

lafcpug meetings are open to the public, but because of the high demand for seats, this meeting will require registration in order to attend. For complete details on this November 18 meeting as well as directions to the Gallery Theater and a link to buy tickets, visit the lafcpug web site.

LAFCPUG
Walter Murch
Avid Media Composer
Steve Cohen
Shane Ross

Founded in 2000, the Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group (lafcpug) is the largest UG in the world dedicated to the education and use of Apple Inc’s Pro Applications. In addition, lafcpug co-produces the Annual FCPUG SuperMeets in San Francisco Las Vegas, Amsterdam and London. Copyright (C) 2000-2009 Los Angeles Final Cut Pro User Group. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, and Final Cut Pro are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.