Apple News Weekly

At CES, Bullettrain announced their new eXpress keyboard platform that offers a single enclosure for the Magic Trackpad and Apple Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard.

The enclosure mimics the layout of an Apple laptop, placing the trackpad below the keyboard. This gives it a bit more of a familiar feel for those transitioning between a notebook and a desktop setup. Both the keyboard and Magic Trackpad snap into place, and can be easily removed from the eXpress.


The enclosure will be shipping in March and will cost $79 for silver version and $99 for colored versions, a couple of which are shown above.

Update: This post originally described the enclosure as aluminum per a description on BulletTrain's website. BulletTrain has informed us that yesterday's announcement actually concerned a new lower-cost line constructed of glass-reinforced polycarbonate and available in ten colors. The new product is an alternative to the company's existing aluminum enclosure priced at $139.

Adobe today announced the release of a free public beta of Photoshop Lightroom 4, the company's digital photo management and post-production software. The software is the primary competitor to Apple's Aperture and a popular option for photographers.

New Features in Lightroom 4 Beta

- Highlight and shadow recovery brings out all the detail that your camera captures in dark shadows and bright highlights.
- Photo book creation with easy-to-use elegant templates.
- Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.
- White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.
- Additional local editing controls let you adjust noise reduction and remove moiré in targeted areas of your images.
- Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips.
- Easy video publishing lets you edit and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr®.
- Soft proofing to preview how an image will look when printed with color-managed printers.
- Email directly from Lightroom using the email account of your choice.

The free public beta expires on March 31, with the final release of the software planned for "early 2012". Pricing is yet to be announced. The current Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 carries a recommended retail price of $299 and an upgrade price of $99, although many retailers offer the software at substantially lower prices.

With Aperture's move to the Mac App Store upon the marketplace's debut one year ago, pricing for Apple's software has now dropped to $79.99.

Last month, Apple launched its first major international expansion of iTunes Match, expanding on the November U.S. debut by bringing the feature to Brazil in mid-December and then sixteen additional countries just a few days later.

Apple is clearly continuing to press forward in its efforts to expand iTunes Match to new countries, as the Dutch collecting society Buma/Stemra today announced [Google translation] that it has reached a deal with Apple for iTunes Match.

The negotiations between copyright organization Buma/Stemra and Apple about a license for iTunes Match have been completed. The contracts have been signed.

To date, Buma/Stemra has licensed over 50 legal online content providers, and is committed to future development of the legal online market, on terms that are optimal for composers, lyricists and publishers affiliated to Buma/Stemra.

As Buma/Stemra notes, the company serves as the representative organization for composers and music publishers in the Netherlands.

(Translation via @DouweM)

The Tribunale di Milano -- the Italian first-instance court for patent cases -- has denied a request by Samsung for a preliminary injunction banning the iPhone 4S in Italy over a patent dispute. A similar request was denied in France last month, and the Netherlands in October. The bans were in Italy and France were initially requested in October.

Florian Mueller points out that both Apple and Samsung are not having any significant success asking for preliminary rulings, and instead both companies are "going to have to focus on regular, full-blown proceedings rather than the fast-track proceedings triggered by requests for preliminary injunctions."

The lawsuits in all three countries will continue for years, along with dozens of other lawsuits across the globe, but neither Apple nor Samsung appears close to winning any sort of a major decision.

Apple today announced that iPhone 4S will be available in China and 21 additional countries on Friday, January 13. iPhone 4S features Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for fast performance and stunning graphics; an all-new 8-megapixel camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD-resolution video recording; and Siri, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. “Customer response to our products in China has been off the charts,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “With the launch in China next week, iPhone 4S will be available in over 90 countries, making this our fastest iPhone rollout ever.”

Television production company Bunim/Murray, the company which pioneered reality television with MTV's the Real World, has dropped Final Cut Pro in favor of an editing system from Avid, according to a press release from Avid.

Avid today announced that renowned television production company, Bunim/Murray Productions, has selected Avid Media Composer® 6 and Avid Symphony® 6 editing software for all of its programs beginning in early 2012. Bunim/Murray joins a growing number of professional users who have returned to using Avid solutions from Final Cut Pro to meet their production workflow requirements. Additionally, as part of this implementation, Bunim/Murray also plans to deploy an Avid ISIS® 5000 shared storage system to effectively store and share media across its organization.

[...]

“Due to the large volume of media generated by our reality shows, we needed to re-evaluate our editing and storage solutions. At the same time, we were looking for a partner who would understand our long-term needs,” said Mark Raudonis, senior vice president of Post Production at Bunim/Murray. “As we talked with Avid, it was clear that the company has really forged ahead since we worked with them years ago. Their commitment to the needs of their professional customers, like us, is clear. And, with the introduction of Media Composer 6, they really raised the bar and have a vision for the future that makes them the right choice for our business.”

Apple introduced a completely rewritten version of its Final Cut Pro video editing suite earlier this year to mixed reviews, especially amongst professional editors. The reception was so poor that Apple put its legacy version of Final Cut Studio back on sale in September.

In 2011, less than 12 hours after passes went on sale, Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference had already sold out. To help would-be attendees get a chance to purchase tickets, developers Anthony Herron and Aaron Wardle created WWDC Alerts, a website that lets users sign up to be sent a text message when WWDC tickets for 2012 finally go on sale.

For 2012, Moscone Center's event calendar lists a generic "Corporate Meeting" from Monday, June 11th through Friday, June 15th. It seems likely that this year's WWDC will take place during those dates.

Deal-a-day site Woot.com occasionally offers Apple products for sale, generally refurbished iPod Nano or Touch models. But this year, on Christmas Eve, the site is offering Apple's current entry-level iMac for nearly 13 percent off Apple's prices -- and tax free for most states, unlike Apple's online store.

The model in question, MC309LL/A, is $1,199 on Apple's online store in a stock configuration. Woot's offering, at $1049.99 plus $5 shipping (for up to three iMacs), doesn't offer any sort of custom configuring but is significantly cheaper than any other site -- including discounts available through Apple's store for college students. It's also cheaper than any of the deals available on Black Friday last month.


Woot, which uses a literary point of view to humorously sell their products, has this to say about the iMac:

GOD REST YE MERRY GENTLEMAN

That furry red-and-white coat would look great over a black turtleneck, wouldn’t it?

“Tonight’s the night! Are you excited about Jobsmas Eve?”

I’m afraid to even ask what that means.

“Jobsmas Eve, man! The way I see it, over the next several hundred years, the stature of Steve Jobs will grow to legendary proportions, like Gilgamesh or Axl Rose. And since Apple products are considered the ultimate Christmas gifts, the holiday will someday become synonymous with the company, and the man who founded it!”

Wow, you’ve managed to deeply offend both Christians and Apple fans with one fake holiday. Nice job.

”’Offend’? What’s offensive about the spirit of Steve Jobs going from house to house to deliver fantastically awesome presents to good little girls and boys? I’m just getting a jump on what everyone’s going to believe hundreds of years from now. I’ve always been ahead of my time.”

Is that what people in the future will call “crazy”?

“Look, you and I know that Steve probably couldn’t have visited every kid in the world in one night. I mean, he never tried, so who knows. OK, yeah, it seems far-fetched to you and me. But just imagine how far-fetched the Apple iMac Quad-Core i5 Desktop would have seemed to our great-grandparents.”

Hey! Have you been digging around in the back of my closet?

“Uh, no, no! I certainly haven’t seen that you bought me an Apple iMac Quad-Core i5 Desktop with 21.5” LED display, a quad-core 2.5GHz Intel processor, 4GB of memory, a 500GB hard drive, 802.11n wireless, and OS X Lion! Uncovering a surprise like that would ruin Jobsmas Eve!”

It's curious that Woot would offer a current-model new-in-box iMac. To sell it as a main-item suggests the site has a fair number of the iMacs in-stock. Woot may be selling the machines near cost or as a loss-leader on Christmas Eve, or it's possible that iMac sales are slower than Apple expected and it is using Woot -- which was purchased by Amazon.com last year -- to clear out surplus holiday inventory.

As David Pogue points out, O'Reilly Press is offering a number of its Missing Manual books for 50% off through January 3rd, with no DRM and lifetime access downloads and updates. Those looking for last minute Christmas gifts for slightly less tech-savvy relatives may want to check it out. Among the titles on sale:

- iPhone: The Missing Manual by David Pogue for $9.99
- iPod: The Missing Manual by J.D. Biersdorfer for $8.99
- iPad 2: The Missing Manual by J.D. Biersdorfer for $9.99
- Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manual by David Pogue for $13.99

Australian developer Firemint, acquired by Electronic Arts earlier this year, has moved its highly-acclaimed iOS game Real Racing 2 to the Mac, launching the title in the Mac App Store.


Among the notable features of the Mac version is the ability for owners of iOS versions of the game to control the Mac version using the touch and tilt capabilities of their mobile devices.

- Test your racing prowess on a 16 car grid against highly skilled AI drivers.
- Select from 30 officially licensed cars including the 2010 Ford Shelby Mustang GT500, 2010 Nissan GT-R (R35), 2012 McLaren MP4-12C, and more!
- Work your way from rookie to pro in a robust Career Mode, offering 10 hours of racing enjoyment. Jump into a Quick Race for instant fun – or battle against the clock in Time Trial Mode.
- Race in 15 beautiful locations, with 40 miles of highly detailed race tracks, speedways and city circuits – including twilight and night races.
- Touch or tilt to steer with your iPhone, iPad – or Mac controls. This innovative control system lets you customize options to fit your personal driving style.
- Experience the intensity of head-to-head racing with 5 unique camera angles and breath-taking graphics powered by Firemint’s exclusive high performance Mint3D™ engine.
- Purchase Real Racing 2 currency to progress even faster!

While the iPhone control is not a unique feature given that other titles like Chopper 2 have had such functionality for some time, Real Racing 2 is a popular iOS game and will no doubt attract fans on the Mac platform as well.

Real Racing 2 for Mac is priced at $12.99.