148Apps has announced the call for entries for the second annual Best
App Ever Awards (http://bestappever.com), which recognize practical,
creative, technical, and whimsical achievements in iPhone
applications and games. Submissions are now being accepted in 56
categories.
The categories focus on the quality of the app design, the overall
usefulness, and the fun factor.
Active Media Products (http://www.activemp.com), manufacturer of SSDs
and USB drives, has released a new model of their ultra-tiny 16GB
Wink USB drive in pink. It’s available now in 16GB capacity, and will
be available in smaller capacities later this month.
The drive, model number MC16G-PINKWINK, is listed on now Amazon for
about US$39. According to Jerry Thomson, vice president of sales at
Active Media Products, “the Wink drive has been enormously popular,
but the number one request from customers is for a warmer color.
Digital Anarchy (http://www.digitalanarchy.com) has returned to the
film/video market with a skin smoothing and blemish removal plug-in
for After Effects and Final Cut Pro. The Beauty Box 1.0 provides
editors and visual effects artists working with film and video way of
smoothing out skin and removing blemishes.
“This is a problem we’ve wanted to solve for a long time,” says Jim
Tierney, president of Digital Anarchy. “There are so many cases where
the on-camera talent doesn’t have enough makeup on or you’re trying
to make a 45 year old rockstar look 25.
Landru Design (http://www.landrudesign.com/VWPlugIns.htm) has
released two new Vectorworks software plug-ins: VideoScreen 4 and
SoftGoods.
The former is a suite of plug-in objects that enables users to insert
2D and 3D models of video devices (such as projection screens, plasma
televisions, and CRT monitors) into Vectorworks drawings — complete
with customizable screen images. Using the Vectorworks Object Info
palette, video device formats and other parameters can be defined and
changed on the fly. Screen sizes can be changed as projects evolve.
Stardom has announced the US$499 DeckRAID DR4
(http://www.raidon-usa.com/stardom/deckraid_4_spec.html), a RAID 5
desktop storage solution designed with the iMac in mind (though, of
course, it can be used with any Mac). It sports quadruple interfaces
— FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0 and eSATA — with port
multiplication.
The DeckRAID DR4 is hot-pluggable and is immediately recognized by
Mac OS X and Windows without software.