Education software developer, Vito Technology is launching its Solar Walk Educators Program, a collaboration project for educators and tech professionals aimed at exchange of experience and materials to enhance scientific classroom with new media. Known for its Star Walk Astronomy Guide and 3D Solar System model apps for iOS, Vito Technology is calling for educators all over the world to voice their opinions in exchange for free inApps. A handy alternative to papier-mache balls, Solar Walk "gives your students a realistic look at the Solar System." Solar Walk is an interactive 3D Solar System model with 10 planets (including a dwarf planet Pluto), 20 moons of the planets, 10 satellites orbiting the Earth, over 100 of the biggest stars, and hundreds of named places on the Moon, Mars, Earth and Venus. The Time Machine feature lets users speed up time backwards or forwards, moving planets and satellites according to their real trajectories. Solar Walk Educators Program is an effort to...

Parallels has released an update to Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac, the software for running Windows and Mac applications side-by-side on a Mac without rebooting. The new version includes experimental support for the latest developer preview of OS X Mavericks.   By updating to the latest build of Parallels Desktop (build 8.0.18494) and following instructions in the Parallels blog post, developers who are registered members of Apple’s Developer Program can run Parallels Desktop 8 on OS X Mavericks and run OS X Mavericks in a virtual machine in Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac.   Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac -- which also supports the desktop virtualization of Windows, Mountain Lion, Lion, Linux, Chrome OS and more -- enables software, mobile and web developers to test a variety of operating systems as guests, as well as well as develop and test applications on them without risking their development machines. Learn more at http://tinyurl.com/kqbpgux .

Apple has announced that HBO GO and WatchESPN are now available directly on Apple TV. The company also says that iTunes users have downloaded more than one billion TV episodes and 380 million movies from iTunes to date and are purchasing over 800,000 TV episodes and over 350,000 movies per day. "HBO GO and WatchESPN are some of the most popular iOS apps and are sure to be huge hits on Apple TV," says Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. "We continue to offer Apple TV users great new programming options, combined with access to all of the incredible content they can purchase from the iTunes Store." Apple TV users can choose from a selection of programming including over 60,000 movies and over 230,000 TV episodes, as well as the world’s largest collection of music on the iTunes Store. Apple TV also offers content from Hulu Plus, Netflix’s streaming catalog, live sports from MLB, NBA and NHL as well as Internet content from Vimeo, YouTube and Flickr...

Zevrix Solutions (http://zevrix.com) has announced Output Factory 1.4, an update to its professional output automation solution for Adobe InDesign. The new version makes Output Factory compatible with the recently announced InDesign CC, featured as part of Adobe Creative Cloud. With Output Factory, users can output hundreds of documents or just single files with full control over batch printing, layer versioning, automatic preflighting, file delivery, and more. All they need to do is select the desired InDesign files and adjust workflow settings. Output Factory can be purchased from the Zevrix website for US$169.95; a "lite" version costs $119.95), as well as from authorized resellers and Adobe Exchange. A demo is available for download. BatchOutput users can upgrade to Output Factory for 4.97. Output Factory is available for Mac OS X 10.5-10.8 on Intel-based Macs and works with Adobe InDesign CS3-CS6.

Apple has released Java updates for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and OS X 10.7 (Lion) and 10.8 (Mountain Lion). The update brings Java SE 6 to the most recent version. This update uninstalls the Apple-provided Java applet plug-in from all web browsers. To use applets on a web page, click on the region labeled "Missing plug-in" to go download the latest version of the Java applet plug-in from Oracle. This update also removes the Java Preferences application, which is no longer required to configure applet settings. You can obtain the updates via the Software Updates component of the Mac OS X Systems Preferences app.

Nikolai Nagornyi has announced File2Folder 1.0 for Mac OS X. It's an application that is designed to sort files. File2Folder allows you to sort hundreds, or even thousands, of files with a single click. Users may move, copy, or delete files according to user rules. The interface features fast sorting. File2Folder 1.0 costs US$5.99 and requires Mac OS X 10.7.3 or higher. It's available worldwide exclusively through the Mac App Store in the Utilities category (http://tinyurl.com/k2wrdzg).

Keynote Zone has released a Tiles Keynote theme designed to help users organize all their data. The theme includes 33 layouts, custom designed charts and tables. It's available in both standard and HD versions for Mac OS X. From a range of photo layouts, users will be able to choose elements for their presentation. The Tiles standard version theme for Mac comes in two sizes (800x600 & 1024x768) and is available for US$16 at the Keynote Zone site (www.keynotezone.com). Tiles HD version theme for Mac comes in five sizes (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1680x1050, 1920x1080) and is available for $20. Tiles HD version theme for Mac is also included in the Collection for Keynote 12. It includes 12 HD Keynote themes, Extras slides and demo files and is available for $69.99 at the Keynote Zone site or at Mac App Store.

Although iOS generates seemingly random passwords for its hotspots to eliminate the use of "default" passwords, researchers at a German university have found that they are able to break these passwords in under a minute, reports "ZDNet" (http://tinyurl.com/n7haj5f). Researchers at the University of Erlangen in Germany say they've found a flaw in the automatically generated pre-shared keys used in Apple's iOS hotspots. They say the method in which these passwords are generated leaves them vulnerable to attack. According to their paper, "Usability vs. Security: The Everlasting Trade-Off in the Context of Apple iOS Mobile Hotspots," the passwords are a combination of a short dictionary word followed by a series of random numbers. This does allow each password to be different, but, according to the researchers, an attacker can easily determine what passwords iOS uses for its defaults, because there's a limited list of words that are used to generate the password, notes "ZDNet."

Adobe has announced that a "major" update to Adobe Creative Cloud, the company’s flagship offering for creatives, is now available. This release reimagines the creative process through a set of "CC" desktop applications and cross-device collaboration and publishing capabilities, according to David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager, Digital Media, Adobe. Creative files can be stored and shared, via Creative Cloud, on Mac OS X, Windows, iOS and Android. Behance, an online creative community, is now integrated with Creative Cloud, so customers can showcase work, get feedback on projects and gain global exposure. According to Wadhwani, the core features of the Creative Cloud update include: ° Creative Cloud experience on the desktop. With the new Creative Cloud desktop app, your entire creative world is synced and organized across your desktop, website, and mobile device. You can stay connected to work on Behance; track feedback; and install and manage apps and updates...

vjoon has stepped up its support for customers who use Adobe Creative Cloud for professional purposes. The latest version of the vjoon Overset Manager plug-in now supports Adobe InDesign CC and InCopy CC. Efficiency-enhancing plug-ins such as vjoon Notes Manager and vjoon Content Activator are to follow and will also be compatible with Adobe Creative Cloud products. vjoon Overset Manager measures the length of a specific text frame, column or the entire text flow on the fly without interrupting the writer or editor’s creative process. It also counts overset text in real time and shows this overflow in a special frame highlighted with a background color. A demo version of Overset Manager is available at http://tinyurl.com/lobvwpg . Registration is approximately US$105.

PhotoMarks is a new photo watermarking program for that Mac and PC with a companion iOS app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It enables photographers, web designers, business people, and families to protect their copyrighted images. The desktop version has a wizard-like interface with previews available for every step of the process. The iOS version has a beautifully designed interface, completely optimized for touch-screen devices and with support for multi-touch gestures. PhotoMarks can completely customize the appearance of text and logo marks, as well as perform additional edits like resize, rename, auto rotate, or decorate photos with graphical frames, all in the same session. It works by editing photos in batch mode and takes advantage of multi-core processors for speeding up the process. Settings can be saved as profiles to be easily reused later. The Mac version requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher and costs US$29.95. A demo is available for download at www.bitscoffee.com/...

Apple has issued a statement regarding reports that the National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, including Apple, to obtain data. Apple's statement reads:
 "Two weeks ago, when technology companies were accused of indiscriminately sharing customer data with government agencies, Apple issued a clear response: We first heard of the government’s 'Prism' program when news organizations asked us about it on June 6. We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer content must get a court order. "Like several other companies, we have asked the U.S. government for permission to report how many requests we receive related to national security and how we handle them. We have been authorized to share some of that data, and we are providing it here in the interest of transparency. "From December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, Apple received between...

Microsoft has announced Office Mobile for iPhone. It's available at no extra charge from the Apple App Store for Office 365 Home Premium and Office 365 ProPlus subscribers. Similar to Microsoft's free Office Mobile for Windows Phone that ships with every handset, the iPhone app enables great Office content viewing and on-the-go content editing capabilities. After signing in to an Office 365 account, you can access, view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from anywhere.  And, according to Microsoft, you can "count on Office Mobile to keep all your content and formatting intact so the document still looks great when you're back on your PC or Mac." For more info go to http://tinyurl.com/lms3xsq .

BrainDistrict (http://www.braindistrict.com) has rolled out RaySupreme 1.1, an update of the 3D modeling and rendering program for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux systems. The upgrade sports: up to 10 new modeling tools; viewport background references; true point and spot lights; a revamped render dialog; global cut/copy/paste functionality for geometry; new OBJ Export functionality; and render quality improvements. RaySupreme enables users to create 3D work by simply typing English text. People who are not experienced in 3D can quickly and easily create complex scenes and environments, according to Ritchie Lopez of BrainDistrict. This new approach to 3D graphics is called Text-to-3D. RaySupreme includes: primitive objects, polygonal modeling, lathe, extrude, Boolean operations, smoothing, materials, and more. The rendering engine includes final gathering for global illumination, caustics, photon mapping, time-based lighting, procedural sky, simulated effects such as sun, stars, fog and...

Stairways Software (http://www.stairways.com) has released Keyboard Maestro 6.0, a new version of its productivity enhancer for Mac OS X. The update includes the following: Macro Syncing Across Macs, Plug-In Actions, Styled Text, Control over Safari and Chrome, New Icons, Icon Chooser/Creator, and a Macro Debugger. It also adds control flow such as While loops and If/Then/Else statements, as well as permanently stored variables and a complete calculation engine. Version 5 also includes an extensible library of pre-made macros, with a variety of macros that you can build upon. Also new is undo/redo support and revisions, so you can try out new macros with confidence. Using Keyboard Maestro's macros you can: control applications, windows, or menus; insert text; open documents, applications or URLs; execute scripts; control the system or iTunes; and more, all with the touch of a key, click of the mouse, periodically or at specific times, when an application is launched or running, or...

P.I.S.D. has released its boxing simulation, Title Bout Championship Boxing (TBCB) 2013, for the Mac. The game features thousands of real boxers, with the ability to re-stage classic bouts or create "What if?" scenarios, such as pitting Sugar Ray Robinson against Marvin Hagler. TBCB can even be used to forecast upcoming fights. Here's how the game is described: "Title Bout Championship Boxing also features Top Ten lists, complete statistics, revised and multiple ranking systems, full editing capabilities, and much more. Trainers, corner men, and referees are all part of the simulation, adding an extra dimension of realism. "Title Bout Championship Boxing 2013 adds many new features, including: enhanced radio-style commentary; more realistic crowd noises; pseudo-animated fighters who throw punches, clinch, and get knocked down; ring girls who parade between rounds; organisational rankings; the ability to import multiple images of each fighter, as well as pictures of famous boxing...

Elevated Software Development has updated fScanX Home Edition (http://tinyurl.com/ylnqlfq), their scanning solution for Mac OS X, to version 1.7.6. It adds support for new scanners fScanX Home Edition was developed specifically to provide native Mac OS X support for high-speed Fujitsu scanners. The app's command-line utility gives developers the ability to control the user interface completely. fScan X 1.7.6 requires Mac OS X 10.6.8 or higher. It's available at the Mac App Store (http://tinyurl.com/maf53fq) for US$39.99.

ECBC has announced the K7 Color Collection of laptop backpacks. This collection of lightweight laptop, backpack and messenger bags are now available in a variety of stylish colors including berry, linen, green, blue and black. Constructed of "Outdoor Industry Tested" 1000d Kodra material, these water-resistant coated K7 backpack and messenger bags are abrasion-resistant, and come in multiple sizes for added versatility. Each bag includes a high density foam compartment for laptop protection, a zip-away water bottle pocket and water resistant zippers. The collection is on sale starting at US$119.99 from EC-BC.com .

EditShare has announced the expansion of its Ark Tape library product offering. EditShare Ark Tape is a media backup and archiving solution that integrates with the company’s high-performance shared storage and asset management solutions. Powered by HP's LTO technology, the new Ark Tape libraries are available in 2U/24-slot and 4U/48-slot configurations, and offer a choice of storage capacity and interfaces. The units support LTO-6 or LTO-5 tape drives with SAS or Fibre Channel connectivity. For more information on the EditShare Ark product line including the Disk and Tape, go to http://tinyurl.com/kwg3reg .

Sonicmoov has opened pre-registration for the closed beta version of Herlock, a JavaScript based cross-platform game engine. It's a development environment that supports simultaneous development of iOS and Android native apps. Herlock provides an ideal environment for game development due to its ability to employ OpenGL with JavaScript, making it possible to perform high-speed rendering easily, according to the folks at Sonicmoov. Development time can be greatly reduced by eliminating the need to develop in each platform's language. Fast development flow, they add. You can gain access to the closed beta version by registering your e-mail address using the pre-registration form (http://herlock.do/en/). Sonicmoov will contact you via the e-mail address provided, regarding launch dates for the closed beta version.

Professionals requiring high resolution video extension in the workspace now have a new option for DVI extension. Gefen has announced the availability of its US$479 DVI ELR (Extra Long Range) Lite extender. This new extender provides a less expensive option for many applications in smaller venues that don’t require the full 100 meter distance while maintaining the same level of quality. Distances up to 230 feet (70m) can be reached using one CAT-6 cable, and distances up to 200 feet (60m) can be reached using a single CAT-5 cable. The DVI ELR Lite Extender supports resolutions up to 1920x1200. ELR technology from Gefen uses HDBaseT to extend high resolution data using industry standard, unshielded cable.

 Installation requires a connection of the computer or video source to the sender unit, and the extended display to the receiver unit. One CAT-5 cable connects sender to receiver, delivering high resolution video with zero delay.  Sender and receiver modules have a small footprint...

WaterField Designs has announced the US$129 CitySlicker, a protective case that complements the MacBook Air's thin, light body and features lightweight layers of padded lining, neoprene, and impact-resistant plastic. Measuring just an inch-and-a-half wide, the CitySlicker MacBook Air Case keeps the laptop snug in lightweight layers of padded lining, neoprene, and impact-resistant plastic. The black ballistic nylon exterior sports a supple leather flap that snaps into place. Customers can choose from a variety of leather colors. Small, stretchy pockets underneath the flap and a backside, semi-opaque pocket with self-locking zippers keep accessories organized. Options include adding a handle, a strap, or both. What's more, WaterField offers nine additional sleeves and bags for Apple's newly-upgraded 11- and 13-inch MacBook Air models. For more info go to http://www.sfbags.com/ .

CS Odessa (www.conceptdraw.com) has unveiled its newest solution for ConceptDraw PRO v9. The Cross-Functional Flowcharts Solution contains new tools for producing detailed process diagrams that can model business processes across any number of resources. Cross-functional flowcharts are a standard diagramming technique. The new CS Odessa solution is designed to give user the tools to represent a process. Once a process is accurately represented, users can assess to see which parts of the process should be changed in order to boost efficiency. The Cross-Functional Flowcharts Solution is a no-charge upgrade to ConceptDraw PRO v9 and is the latest addition to the ConceptDraw Solution Park. ConceptDraw PRO v9 retails for US$199, and competitive upgrade pricing is available upon request. ConceptDraw PRO v9 is a cross-platform vector diagramming tool for business and office productivity. It works with Mac OS X and Windows.

Epson America has introduced a new addition to its Expression line – the Expression Home XP-410 Small-in-One for families and students. Designed as a complete wireless solution, it's a compact, sub-$100 device. 
The Home XP-410 is Wi-Fi Cerfified n1, Wi-Fi Direct and Epson Connect™ for mobile printing from an iPad, iPhone, or Android tablet or smartphone.   The Expression XP-410 sports a 2.5-inch color LCD and touch panel and provides computer-free photo editing using built-in card slots. It comes with bonus templates for printing lined school paper, graph paper, calendar pages, and custom note paper with personal photos, all without a computer. The Epson Expression Home XP-410 Small-in-One will be available in June through major retailer stores nationwide and Epson’s retail site (www.epsonstore.com).