Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for November 5, 2009:

Macintosh

• Arten Science has announced ContaX, their new CRM for individuals, clubs and small businesses. ContaX will let you store, view, interact and communicate with your contacts, customers, prospects and suppliers more easily and efficiently than ever before. It features an elegant, intuitive user Interface and seamless integration with the other R10Office products. Your database can be stored wherever you like, including hosted and/or synchronized services such as iDisk and DropBox.
• Jumsoft has announced Aperture Themes 2.0. Aperture Themes allows Mac users to explore new ways of communicating their love for photography, and offers an extensive collection of design options for arranging their photos and pictures in Web galleries. All 16 themes were developed by a team of skillful designers with originality and sophistication to evoke a mood of professionalism and excellence. Version 2.0 features ten new styles added to the six designs from the previous version.
• Mariner Software has announced its latest product offering—a software and hardware bundle containing the popular digital documents manager, Paperless, with Fujistu’s ScanSnap S300M mobile scanner or the S1500M sheet-fed scanner. Paperless seamlessly integrates with both ScanSnap scanners, creating efficient and easy-to-navigate organization.
• Maintain has announced Cocktail 4.6 (Snow Leopard Edition), the latest maintenance update of Cocktail for users running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. This version adds ability to clear data detectors and QuickLook caches, as well as several new QuickTime X and Apple Mail settings. The update is highly recommended for all users of Cocktail (Snow Leopard Edition). Cocktail is an award winning general purpose utility for Mac OS X.
• IntelliScanner Corporation has announced their new IntelliScanner Comic Edition 200 is now shipping worldwide in custom metal lunchbox packaging. IntelliScanner Comic Edition 200 is a smart barcode scanner and software package that automatically organizes comic book collections and other media items. It automatically identifies comic books by issue number, providing full details like the title, date, writer, penciler, inker, and more.

iPhone/iPod

• Traveling around the world to experience exotic foods and local life in different countries, how many language tools you have to bring? The answer is one. You only need PixTalk. One picture is worth a thousand words, and PixTalk carefully selects 100 pictures that could tell almost everything needed when traveling. You simply have to point at the pictures to indicate what you need.
• Matrix Knowledge Management Pty Ltd has announced the launch of V Phone, a new application that lets iPhone users make VoIP calls and send SMS messages over IP. Rather than locking iPhone users into working with a single VoIP provider, it lets users choose between multiple providers of their choice for voice calling. With an intuitive, attractive user interface and simple installation, the V Phone makes it easy for anyone to save money and start getting more out of their mobile or cell phones.
• Rosebrae Technology has released Clocks - Multi Time Zone Alarm Clock 1.0 for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Clocks is a distinctive fusion between a world clock and a bedside clock which combines all the functionality expected of both types of application in one place. Perfect for business people and other frequent travellers, Clocks allows users to keep track of the time in many places at once, whilst doubling as a gorgeous LCD display for bedside clock use.
• Quapps Interactive has released MagiCam - Augmented Reality - Photographs with props for iPhone devices. MagiCam allows users to take live photographs with added props such as ghosts, UFO’s, Beards and the big fish that got away. Using MagiCam, users are able to scale, rotate, move and blend several props over their camera and take ultra realistic photographs. Version 1.0 has 18 props with 1.1 offering camera roll editing as well as live, many more props and a camera timer mode.
• TapFactory has released Stick It 2.1 for iPhone and iPod touch. Stick It is an iTunes Top 100 Utility App that allows you to quickly and easily take notes, customize their look, and create beautiful wallpapers for your lockscreen to function as quick reminders. Create fully customized notes with over 20 note styles, over 30 backgrounds, and plenty of fonts to choose from. Stick It will automatically save your notes so you can pick up where you left off. Email your notes directly from the app.
• syncRage has released Sorty 1.1, morphing two concepts to create new gaming excitement for iPhone and iPod Touch users. Although it has a basic concept that involves rapid relocation or chaining of colored balls, the speed and split second strategizing involved seems to be very pleasing to syncRage customers. Bejeweled and Tetris may have been the inspiration for Sorty but there’s nothing old school about the app.
• Improve your mental capabilities in a fun way with infeCCt. Enter the mysterious temple ruins and solve the ancient puzzles by connecting all tiles—a challenge made harder by impassable blocks, intersections and tunnels. If you are to solve all the tricky challenges, you will not only have to think ahead, but you will also have to train your brain to apply what you’ve learned to new situations. Want to train your brain? Get infeCCted.
• Shiny Development Ltd. has announced Balloons!, the new iPhone app that lets you launch virtual helium balloons and track their progress around the world. Choose a balloon, attach your photo and message to it, then launch it into the sky. It then drifts around the world where it gets caught by other users. They add their own photo and message and send it on its way again. Where will it go? Who will it meet? How far will it travel? Balloons! the world just got smaller.
• After bringing the Artusi cookbook, Dreams&Lotto, Forex Alert, the Constitution and Italian Law Codes to your iPhone, Intermundia has introduced Project OperaM. Opera-lovers and newcomers alike will have the chance to download 24 applications from iTunes with librettos of the most famous operas.
• Beamer—a community developed, iPhone case with a built in light—has been released. This light can function both as a flash for your iPhone’s camera as well as a light to brighten things up when necessary. Dropped something under the table, squinting to read a menu in candlelight, can’t find your keys, or just frustrated by those dark mobile photos? Beamer is the case that shines.
• The OtterBox Commuter Series interactive case for iPhone incorporates three tough, yet sleek layers of impact-absorbing materials which combine to completely safeguard your device. First, a self-adhering transparent film covers and protects the touch screen. Next, a firm silicone skin completely encases the iPhone’s housing. And finally, a one-piece, molded polycarbonate shell snaps tightly over the whole assembly.
• Chillingo and Tetraedge Games have announced the availability of Jules Verne’s Secrets of The Mysterious Island [iTunes App Store link] for iPhone and iPod touch on the Apple App Store. Secrets of the Mysterious Island is the sequel of Return to Mysterious Island launched earlier this year. For approximately 700MB, the player will find out the end of the adventure of Mina, a sailor who finds herself stranded on the shores of a wild and apparently uninhabited island somewhere in the South Pacific.
• Logos Bible Software has released a free iPhone app designed to help people get more into Bible study than ever before. Unlike most Bible related iPhone apps, which are merely Bible readers, the Logos Bible Software iPhone app delivers tools and resources to help you study the Bible with your iPhone or iPod Touch in ways never before implemented on a mobile device.
• RingtoneFeeder has announced distribution of audiobooks in the same format as its popular ringtones and Dynamic Albums. The first title is The Caffeine Collection, which is a collection of audio short stories covering a wide variety of genres produced by Steve Saylor and is available via RingtoneFeeder. RingtoneFeeder is an innovative approach to ringtones offering a subscription model which automatically installs new original ringtones on the iPhone via iTunes every week.