CompUSA is closing more than 50 percent of its stores over the next few months as part of a comprehensive restructuring strategy. Looks like New Jersey will be hit pretty hard with only the Mount Laurel store surviving. Several stores in New York are closing also. The remaining CompUSA stores can be seen here.

For Apple, the store closings will represent a near 2 percent immediate decline in its number of worldwide Mac distribution points. CompUSA locations have long featured Apple boutiques, or “stores within a store,” that serve to prominently display and market the computer maker’s personal computers.

Continue reading CompUSA Closing 126 Stores…

Adobe has first laid the foundation for a hosted Photoshop product with Adobe Remix, a Web-based video-editing tool it now offers through the PhotoBucket media-sharing site. As reported by c|net, Adobe is hoping to get a jump on Google and other competitors, and is planning to release a hosted version of its popular Photoshop image-editing application within six months.

This is new for Adobe but after watching folks like Google do it in different categories they want to make sure that they are there before some others. Like Microsoft, Adobe’s business is built largely around packaged software, installed locally on users’ PCs. Likewise, Adobe’s plans to diversify its business with online services mirrors a large-scale change going on at Microsoft to introduce a combination of software and services.

Variety reports that independent video producers can now sell at the iTunes Store. The first indy production being sold is a 40-minute snowboarding feature. This represents the first iTunes content outside the studio system. This should open up iTunes for other video producers to market content. Video tutorials could be a big growth area. Apple has created this new venue for distribution previously unavailable through video podcasting model.

Apple has told Macworld that the ship date for their Apple TV will not be available until mid-March as the project is being delayed and taking a little longer than originally planned. No word if Apple will upgrade shipping to overnight for those folks who pre-ordered. I still have to wonder if the delay is technical, manufacturing, or some deal Apple is working on involving content. Maybe video rentals? Anyway, I will be waiting like the rest of you.

Sound Byte 3.2.0 from Black Cart Systems turns your Mac into a “cart machine” like those used at many radio stations. It enables you to organize and quickly play recorded sounds and supports MP3, AIFF, WAV, AU, sfil, Sd2f, and uLaw formats. This release is a Universal Binary and adds a Timed Playlist for automatically playing carts at a programmed time. Available for Mac OS X and Mac OS 9, Sound Byte Lite (75 recordings) is $24, Sound Byte (375 recordings) is $49, and Sound Byte Pro (3,750 recordings) is $99.

Apple released 5.1.4 update for Final Cut Studio providing important bug fixes to resolve plugin issues. This update is recommended for all Final Cut Pro 5.1, 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.1.3 customers. This is available via Software Update or the Apple webpage.

A federal jury in San Diego has ordered Microsoft to pay $1.5 billion to Alcatel-Lucent in a patent dispute over MP3 audio technology used in Windows. If upheld on appeal, it would be the largest patent judgment on record.

Microsoft said it believes that it properly licensed MP3 technology from Fraunhofer, paying that company $16 million. Fraunhofer, which helped develop the MP3 compression technology along with Lucent’s Bell Labs, has licensed its intellectual property to companies that want to use the audio format in their products. Fraunhofer has since handed the MP3-licensing duties over to Thomson.

Scores of technology companies, including Apple, Intel and Texas Instruments, license the MP3 technology, according to Thomson’s MP3licensing.com. An Apple representative declined to comment on the verdict. See full story at the NY Times.

Rogue Amoeba has released SoundSource 1.2, a free menu-bar utility. This can be a easy time-saving utility for many Mac users. Especially for those who use web conferencing, podcasting, and do desktop production regularly. SoundSource has been totally re-coded for better performance according to the developer, Rogue Amoeba.

SoundSource is a menu-bar utility (shown right) that allows you to easily change your Mac’s audio input and output sources without opening the System Preferences -> Sound Preference Pane. Some of us need to switch microphones, line-in sources, and line-out devices like speakers, USB headsets and speakerphones making SoundSource a “must-have.”

SoundSource is a free download from Rogue Amoeba’s Freebies page. SoundSource is for PowerPC or Intel Macs running OS X 10.3.9 – 10.4.8. Make sure you check out the other great applications from Rogue Amoeba when you visit their website.

From the Official Google Blog: Google Apps Premier Edition is a new version designed to take on all the challenges presented by businesses with complex IT needs. For $50 per account per year, you get the whole Google Apps package plus many new business-oriented features, including access to our APIs and partner solutions (so it’s easy to integrate with existing systems), conference room scheduling for Calendar, 10GB of inbox storage, extended business hours phone support, and mobile access to your email on BlackBerry devices (just in case you can’t get enough at the office).

Google moves in to challenge Microsoft Office. Let the war begin!

It appears those “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” commercials have struck a chord with someone at Wilkes University. The Pennsylvania institution announced today that it plans to get rid of all its Windows-based computers in the next three years and replace them with Macs. The university has an enrollment of less than 5,000, and any student who wants to use a PC will have to bring his or her own. The Wilkes computer labs, which now house 1,700 computers of both varieties, will be made all Mac in the $1.4-million switch. In a news release, Wilkes officials said they preferred Mac technology to that of the PC and pointed out that the Macs are less susceptible to computer viruses. Macs still work with Windows programs, so students will have something more to do on the computers than play with iTunes. –Dan Carnevale

IFC Entertainment has announced that its independent theatrical catalog will now be available on Apple’s iTunes Store. Included in the announcement are all IFC’s 2007 Independent Spirit Award nominees. This is the premier award for the independent film community and for the 2007 Spirit Award competition IFC Entertainment received the most Spirit Awards nominations of any one film company.

Available immediately for purchase are 13 films, 6 of which are nominated for the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards which will be held on Saturday, February 24th. This year Independent Spirit Award nominations include Best Male Lead for Forest Whitaker in American Gun, Best Female Lead for Michelle Williams in Land of Plenty and Best Female Lead for Robin Wright Penn in Sorry, Haters. The first IFC films available on iTunes will also include previous nominees to highlight the best independent films from IFC’s extensive catalog. All IFC films on iTunes will be priced at just $9.99.

Apple and Cisco have reached an agreement in regards to the “iPhone” name.

Under the agreement, both companies are free to use the “iPhone” trademark on their products throughout the world, according to the release. Both companies acknowledge the trademark ownership rights that have been granted, and each side will dismiss any pending actions regarding the trademark. In addition, Cisco and Apple will explore opportunities for interoperability in the areas of security, and consumer and enterprise communications. Both companies, however, said that other terms of the agreement are confidential.

Mono, sponsored by Novell, is an Open Source Project providing the ability to run .NET client and server applications on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, Windows, and Unix. The most recent version, 1.2.3, adds support for a Visual Basic 8.0 compiler meaning that Visual Basic applications can now be run on the Mac.

The Mono project has an active Mac community. Mono now seems to represent an inexpensive alternative to REALbasic for writing cross-platform applications.

I have no idea what this means. It is only a matter of time until we see the Beatles catalog in The iTunes Store as even Apple Corps’ Neil Aspinall have said so. Exclusive deal? I doubt it.

This ad, syndicated by Google, was posted on Flickr by kylefsu32 which shows an Apple iPod with album art from The Beatles.

If you remember Steve Jobs also had used several Beatle album covers in his Keynote address at MacWorld last month. Now that the Apple vs. Apple court case is over, expect some changes to the iTunes Store.

Also see the Wired article, iPod Will Be the New CD, interesting read.

Joost is what I call the “one” to watch. I have applied for an account for the beta testing, but as of yet I have not been invited. Joost, formerly an operation “under wraps” known as “The Venice Project,” is the latest product from Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström. They’re best known as the creators of peer-to-peer file-sharing software Kazaa and Skype, which was acquired by eBay in 2005. Joost is currently in a limited private beta test, compatible only with Windows at first and recently expanded to Intel-based Macintosh computers. Hey Joost guys, I am still waiting for my invite!

The downloadable Joost software, works on a peer-2-peer model similar to Kazaa, featuring a slick, television-like console and aims to offer high-quality, professional video content supported by an advertising revenue model. Full screen, high quality TV-like viewing is possible with on-screen widgets and information. Sounds like a very cool IPTV solution that may prove to be very popular once opened up to more people provided Joost can make more content deals like the Viacom one announced today.

Continue reading Joost To Get Content From Viacom…

Adobe has announced it is now shipping Photoshop Lightroom 1.0, its professional level digital photography application that is an Apple Aperture competitor. Available for both Windows and Mac platforms, Photoshop Lightroom allows photographers to import, manage and present large volumes of digital photographs. Photoshop Lightroom includes several new innovative features that streamline digital photography workflows. Adobe is offering Photoshop Lightroom to all new customers at a special introductory price of $200 through April 30, 2007; it will later sell for $300: users of Photoshop Lightroom beta will have access to the program until its expiration on February 28, 2007. The application ships as a Universal Binary for native operation on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs; Adobe recommends at least a 1GHz G4 Mac running Mac OS X 10.4.3. See the video tour here.

Continue reading Adobe Ships Lightroom 1.0…

voXover $375, developed by Audiofile Engineering, is a serious voice-over automation utility and batch-recorder for multimedia, video game, speaking dictionary and telephone voice-response production. According to their website, xoXover was created specifically for projects that require large numbers of individual audio files to be recorded without error. Designed in Cocoa from the ground up, voXover proudly takes advantage of CoreAudio, Quartz, and other advanced Mac OS X features. Click on the image to see a larger view.

voXover is based the OS X’s Aqua interface and requires OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or better. See the complete set of features and screenshots on the Audiofile Engineering website.

With both companies never showing a profit a deal has been struck to merge them into one company. Question is will it be good for the consumer? The FCC may not think so and may block the merger. The hurdles for this merger are high according to Kevin Martin, FCC Chairman as there is a provision that specifically forbids the two companies to combine.

Sirius’ Chief Executive Mel Karmazin will lead the combined company, and XM’s CEO Hugh Panero will stay on only until the deal is closed. XM Chairman Gary Parsons will remain in that role. The XM shareholders will receive 4.6 shares of Sirius stock for every share they own, valuing them at $17.02 each based on Friday’s closing price for Sirius shares. That gives XM shareholders a premium of 22 percent to the $13.98 closing value of their stock on Friday. Markets were closed Monday for the Presidents’ Day holiday.

Continue reading XM and Sirius Satellite Radio Agree To Merge…

Apple has delivered a WWAN Support Update 1.0 for Intel-based Mac portables. According to Apple, this update offers support for the broadband “anyway” ExpressCards.

Available on the Cingular network:

• Novatel Merlin XU870 ExpressCard (HSDPA)

Available on the Sprint network:

• Novatel Wireless Merlin EX720 Express Card (EVDO Rev. A)
• Novatel Wireless Ovation U720 USB Modem (USB Adapter, EVDO Rev. A)

Available on the Verizon network:

• Novatel XV620 ExpressCard (EVDO Rev. 0)
• Novatel V740 ExpressCard (EVDO Rev. A)
• Novatel Wireless Ovation U720 (USB Adapter, EVDO Rev. A)

NewTek has announced they have announced the release of iVGA™ for Mac, a small software client that allows a presenter’s screen display to be integrated into a live TriCaster™ production or presentation. TriCaster is NewTek’s very cool production box that gives you reminders of the “old” Video Toaster and the “old” Play Trinity (now Globalstream’s GlobeCaster) but in a small 10 pound – 1 foot square box. Especially, since NewTek even had Kiki Stokhammer doing the demos at NAB the last few years. I recently was invited by phone to attend this demo by NewTek, but unfortunately could not fit it in my schedule.

TriCaster has become popular with video pros doing live production, podcasters, IPTV, corporate TV, and video pros due to its small portable size, features, and reasonable price. According to NewTek, iVGA is a software application launched on a network-connected Mac. Any display on that Mac screen is sent across the network as a video input into TriCaster’s live switcher, or, can pass through TriCaster, at full-resolution, to a projector.

Continue reading NewTek TriCaster PRO™ adds Mac support…