Quark Names Senior VP of Sales for North America

Quark announced today that Mark Benfer has joined the company as senior vice president of sales for North America. A member of the Quark leadership team reporting to Quark President and CEO Ray Schiavone, Benfer is responsible for leading the company's direct and channel sales activities across North America and driving key growth initiatives in the desktop and enterprise markets.

Benfer brings more than 20 years in technology sales to his role at Quark, including global experience in building and managing sales teams with market-leading companies. Most recently Benfer served as senior vice president of worldwide sales for HealthMedia. Previous positions included vice president of worldwide sales at Arbortext and a 17-year tenure with GE and GE-owned subsidiaries.

"Mark brings a wealth of experience in all aspects of technology sales," said Schiavone. "His expertise will help us expand our reach in North America by strengthening and building new relationships with customers and partners as we drive new initiatives across our desktop and enterprise businesses."

Benfer earned a bachelor's of commerce from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and an MBA from Oxford Brookes University in Hedington, England.

Apple Official UK iTunes TV Programme Announcement

The Walt Disney Company’s ABC Studios & Disney Channel, MTV, Nickelodeon & Paramount Comedy Offer Wide Range of Programmes on iTunes

Apple® today announced that hit television programming from ABC Studios, Disney Channel, MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy is now available for £1.89 an episode from the iTunes® Store in the UK. iTunes customers can choose from a wide range of popular primetime programming including the Emmy Award-winning series “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Ugly Betty” and locally-produced UK series such as MTV’s “Barrio 19,” Nickelodeon’s “Genie in the House” and Paramount Comedy’s “Comedy Blue.” The iTunes Store in the UK currently offers 28 television programmes for purchase and download which can be viewed on a PC or Mac®, fifth generation iPod®, or on a widescreen TV with Apple TV™.

“We’re thrilled to bring TV programming to the iTunes Store in the UK,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We’ve got 28 shows and expect to continue to add more great programming.”

The complete list of television programming on the iTunes Store in the UK includes:

• Disney’s ABC Studios’ dramas and comedy-dramas “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Ugly Betty,” “Commander in Chief” and “Nightstalker;”
• Disney Channel’s renowned children’s programming including “Jake Long: American Dragon,” “Kim Possible,” “That’s So Raven,” “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and Playhouse Disney titles “Handy Manny,” “Little Einsteins” and “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse;”
• MTV’s reality favourites “Pimp My Ride,” “Barrio 19,” “Bam’s Unholy Union,” “Laguna Beach,” and “My Sweet Sixteen;”
• Nickelodeon children’s programming “Avatar: The Legend of Aang,” “Drake and Josh,” “Dora the Explorer,” “Genie in the House” and “SpongeBob SquarePants;” and
• Paramount Comedy hits “South Park,” “Comedy Blue,” “Jongleurs Unleashed: Part I,” “That 70’s Show” and “The World Stands Up.”

With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as Cover Flow, integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing, seamless integration with iPod and iPhone™* and the ability to turn previously purchased songs into completed albums at reduced prices, the iTunes Store is the best way for PC and Mac users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

Pricing & Availability
iTunes 7 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download. You can purchase and download of songs and videos from the iTunes Store requires a valid credit card from a financial institution in the country of purchase. Television shows are available in the US and UK only, and video availability varies by country. Television shows are £1.89 per episode in the UK. TV shows from the iTunes Store are downloaded in near-DVD quality at a resolution of 640x480 (up to 480, depending on the aspect ratio) and can be viewed on a computer, fifth generation iPod or widescreen TV with Apple TV.

NeverWinter Nights 2 - coming to the Mac

Aspyr Media, Inc. announced today they will publish NeverWinter Nights™ 2 for Mac, the computer role-playing game set in the fantasy world of the Forgotten Realms, one of the popular campaign settings of Dungeons & Dragons. NeverWinter Nights™ 2, licensed to Atari by HPG, the licensing division of Hasbro, Inc.,is expected to hit stores for Mac in December 2007. The ESRB rating of the game is T for Teen.
In the game you can build a character that suits your style of play - good or evil, chaotic or lawful, with any number of skills, feats and professions available at the click of a button. Whether lobbing fireballs and researching forgotten spells as a powerful Wizard, hacking a trail through legions of orcs as a Fighter armed only with a battle axe and your courage, or taking on the role of a Rogue that can slip into the shadows at a moment's notice, the choice is yours. Choose your alignment, your allies, your companions, and how you want your character to develop... design the character you want, role-play the way you want, and carry the battle to the enemy.

NeverWinter Nights™ 2 will be available for preorder through Aspyr's website soon. For more information, fans can also visit the official website.

UK iTunes gets TV Shows - at last a reason to buy an AppleTV

Well, well, well, here in the UK we finally get an excuse to purchase an AppleTV. The good guys at Apple HQ have finally given us some TV shows. This is great news, as here in the UK we have waited a long time for this type of content. There is not a lot of British made content, maybe this will follow. Apple should really be working with the likes of the BBC (sans Mac iPlayer) to bring some true classics to the iTunes Store.

Shows include;

  • Night Stalker
  • Drake and Josh
  • That's So Raven
  • Pimp My Ride
  • Grey's Anatomy
  • Laguna Beach
  • Jongleurs Unleashed
  • South Park
  • Lost
  • Ugly Betty
  • Desperate Housewives
  • Kim Possible
  • SpongeBob SquarePants
Still a way behind our US cousins, but this is a great start.

Apple Event is confirmed September 5th; iPod?

Those guys over at Engadget have confirmed the rumored event on Wednesday September 5th is true. They have received an invitation (where is mine Apple, plus my plane ticket?) that shows a coverflow graphic. We have given you a rundown of what we expect in our earlier posts, but this seems to confirm that we will definitely be seeing something iPod related. Now I am really excited!

Cherry Marlin Wireless Keyboard Mouse Combi

The Cherry Marlin keyboard and mouse set has been around for some while now, but it skipped my radar, so about a year late here is the heads up. This combo looks very sleek indeed, with a low profile keyboard and 800dpi mouse, that connects to your computer via a wireless dongle. A really neat feature is the scroll wheel of the mouse indicates it charge status, cool!
The Cherry Marlin comes with driver software, which is no doubt for the PC, but I am hoping to bring you a review real soon and let you know if and how it works with the Mac.

Lego Mindstorms NXT for Intel Mac

Ever wanted to play with those cool looking Mindstorms NXT robots from Lego? Well, if you have an Intel based Mac, you have something to smile about. National Instruments, the publishers of the software side of things, have released version 1.1 of their software and it works with the latest Mac computers. It uses a cool drag and drop interface, allowing you to assign functions to your build. Check it out, this is very cool.

Apple Premium Reseller Events for Adobe CS3

Apple has published (here) details of some events that let you get a look at how Adobe CS3 suite of applications could be good for you. They are being held at Apple Premium Resellers across the country in Bournemouth, Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Brighton, Chester, Edinburgh and London, running August through September.

Microsoft's new gaming "5,000 mice in one"; retail $79

At the GDC, Microsoft has announced their SideWinder mouse, built from the ground up specifically with gamers in mind. Featuring just about everything you could ever want (and things you'll never ever need), it's the "ultimate" in gaming mice. The mouse features a new "Quick Turn" feature, adjustable weight, adjustable glide, an LCD... via gamernode.com

read more | digg story

New iPod... thoughts!

With rumours flying left, right and centre that a new iPod will be announced on Wednesday, 5th September, Mac fans are getting pretty excited. For me, I have split feelings about this.
Part of me wants things to stay as they are. Not only does it give me an excuse to buy an iPhone when they hit the UK, but why fix something that isn't broken. The current iPod works flawlessly, has a good battery life, does what it was designed for very well (music) and has a few other abilities to add value (movies, games etc). If Apple launch a new device, similar to the iPhone (sans Phone) then that will disgruntle a lot of iPhone owners and will surely confuse their market. That is unless they make it a very different affair.
The other part of me really wants this new device. I do not need a new phone, so could give the iPhone a miss. What I do keep looking at is the Archos line-up. With their larger screens, sleek silver looks, touch screen and wi-fi for internet access. If Apple could update the iPod with these features and introduce some streaming ability and maybe syncing over wi-fi, then that would be real cool. One less chore for me to do (docking my iPod) is a must have, albeit a lazy one. So when Wednesday the 5th comes, let's hope we get some things off our wish list, here is mine;

  • 4.5-inch widescreen touch sensitive TFT
  • Different, but complimenting design to the iPhone
  • Wi-fi connectivity
  • Streaming from YouTube
  • Syncing over wi-fi connection
  • Safari internet browser
  • Bluetooth (supporting A2DP) for cool heaphones
  • 16GB or 32GB flash versions
  • 3 Megapixel Camera (maybe, maybe not)
  • OS X to retain the click wheel, albeit virtual

September 5th could be New iPod Day

ArsTechnica are reporting that there could well be an Apple Special Event next Wednesday (5th September), which supports earlier claims by AppleInsider. It seems pretty obvious that at some stage we will get a new iPod, based on the iPhone, with OSX software, but no phone capability. This'll be great in my book, as I don't really want the phone part. Let us just hope that we get larger capacities than the iPhone. It would be nice to get a 16GB or 32GB flash based player, and maybe a top-of-the-range 120GB model.