Apple news blog

California based PhatWare Corporation today releases WritePad 3.1 for iPhone and iPod touch. WritePad is a text editor that incorporates advanced handwriting recognition software for text entry. It allows users to enter text for cursive, print, or mixed handwriting styles. Version 3.1 includes a new option to hide toolbar in landscape screen orientation, display scroll buttons in handwriting mode, improved recognition of some special characters, as well as a new spell checker options and more.

Michigan based Humble Daisy today announces the latest release of it’s popular mobile recording tool, SonicPics 1.2 and its free counterpart SonicPics Lite 1.2. SonicPics is a tool for creating and narrating custom photo slide shows on the iPhone or iPod touch. It makes it easy to use images from the iPhone’s photo library or built in camera. The update includes a new image picker that makes it even easier to add images from the iPhone’s photo library.

Chicago based Davka Corporation today announces iBless Torah 1.0, a tutorial program for the iPhone and iPod touch that teaches the Torah and Haftarah blessings recited in the synagogue. iBless Torah displays the text in the original Hebrew and English transliteration on screen, and chants the text, highlighting each word as it is pronounced. Users can pause after each section, tap and listen again, or go forward to the next section.

Ontario-based RapidWeaver theme developer seyDoggy today announces Flavorite, a smart theme with great new capabilities. Flavorite brings the power of the web to RapidWeaver with built-in selectable slideshows, smart corners, and ExtraContent. All of Flavorite’s intelligent features are included at no expense to the variety of other great and flexible features like layout width, header heights, variable width sidebar, and a myriad of font options.

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) on Sony’s plans to develop a new lineup of handheld devices to compete against Apple’s iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.

Threatened by A…

In the 2010 edition of its annual ranking of “World’s Most Admired Companies”, Fortune placed Apple at the top of the list for the third year in a row and by the highest margin ever in the survey’s ten-year history. Apple was followed in the…

The Wall Street Journal reports on a new note from research firm ThinkEquity claiming that the Apple’s manufacturing partners in Taiwan are in fact experiencing delays in ramping up iPad production ahead …

If you download a file with Safari or certain other programs, you may be able to copy its download URL from its Get Info window.

Select the file in the Downloads folder (or elsewhere) and press command-I. Find the Where From ntry in the More Info section of the Get Info window. Hold down the mouse button and drag across the URL listed there to select it, then choose Copy from the Edit menu (or press Command-C).

[robg adds: This will only work in 10.6; 10.5 won't let you select the text in that field. I'm not sure which browsers/apps other than Safari record this data; Firefox does not.]

A few days ago, I wanted to get iTunes to accept my AmEx Gift Card, but somehow it always said the security code was invalid. Different from VISA and MasterCard, the security code from an AmEx Card is on the front and is four digits long. There was no doubt this code was in fact valid, and I was typing it correctly.

Obviously I wasn’t the only one with this problem — Apple’s Support Discussion Board was filled with people complaining about that, and the “hints” there weren’t working at all.

As for me, it worked after I put an empty space after the last number on the card. The reason: iTunes wanted to have 4 4-digit parts (16 digits) of the credit card number, but the AmEx had only had 15 digits. This was causing the invalid security code.

However, you couldn’t tell that in the first place, because all iTunes showed after rejecting the code was **** **** **** 4123. In fact, 123 were at positions 13 to 15 in the real credit card. But iTune…

HeavyLifters Network today is pleased to announce the hiring of Rick Bateman to the position of Director of Operations. Rick will be responsible for implementing management plans and processes. For the past six years Rick served as Vice President of Human Resources & Operations at a local eLearning company.