Check out these great new offerings. From the latest in home accessories to enjoy your iMac as an HDTV, office tools to help get your taxes prepared, or software to get your computer secured. All these new releases will help you get ready for the holiday season.
All product images courtesy of respective companies.
Kanex XD
The Kanex XD is a small box with big powers: it can turn your iMac 27" into an HDTV! Connect any Blu-Ray DVD, your PS3 or Xbox and play in true HD format complete with 720p resolution and audio pass through for a unique gaming experience, or bypass a home television completely and hook your Direct TV or Dish Network up straight to your computer--you'll save hundreds! If you're a video game creator, and animator, or a filmmaker you have the added bonus of calling the extra time spent in front of your iMac "research...and we really like the sound of that! Our research tells us that the Kanex XD is also getting high marks and good feedback from actual users, that's always a good sign.
www.kanexlive.com | Price: $149.99
Verbatim MediaShare
A host of features make this network storage device an easy way to manage your digital content around the house or around town...access it from anywhere with an internet connection and view your photos, listen to music or play videos with ease. DNLA devices like your Playstation or Xbox can be enlisted for playback and multiple users can access the Media Share at the same time; you've got up to 1TB of storage to use and enjoy.
www.verbatim.com | Price: $184.99
Ray Pico Projector
Made for home entertainment but perfect for photographers looking for a different medium to show off their pictures, the Ray Pico Projector is a slim personal projector that creates beautifully crisp and bright images from a package so small you won't believe it's true. Project your images up to sixty inches and don't worry about the light in the room: the Ray's projections are easy to see even in bright lighting. Business presentations and classroom applications come to mind, and when you're done with work you can create the ultimate big screen TV to watch the latest game! (Available in silver and red.)
www.raydisplays.com | Price: $199.00
Neat Receipts
Keeping your finances and budgets in order when all you really want to do is focus on your work is a difficult proposition: expense reports (or Schedule C forms!) necessitate the organizational prowess but the mountain of receipts we accumulate can seem insurmountable. Neat Receipts for Mac solves the mountain problem, at least: it's a mobile scanner and digital filing system that makes it relatively easy to keep track of where your money is going by creating a searchable image library of the papers that lets you use Spotlight to find files. Export your data to Excel or Quicken, capture business card contact information, grab text to edit and more with this great syst...and if you're partial to another scanner, no worries! NeatWorks for Mac is available as stand alone software as well.
www.neatco.com | Price: $199.00; $79.95 for software alone
VueScan
Hamrick's latest release of the scanning software standard gives you a great way to keep your favorite scanner working even if you move to a new machine and lose the driver discs. Supporting over 1,500 scanners, this software acts as a driver and your scanning software and provides you with options spanning from basic to professional for all your needs; it even makes PDF files! Color balance adjustment, batch scanning and specific media scanning (like negatives, for instance) are all part of the package, and you can choose between standard and professional versions depending on your needs. Lifetime upgrade--for the Professional version only--and additional features are included in your initial purchase price.
www.hamrick.com | Price: $39.95 Standard, $79.95 Pro
Intego Washing Machine 2
A leader in Mac security--a cause near and dear to our hearts--has recently released version 2 of its popular Washing Machine computer file cleanup software. As we surf the Web, even to fairly average sites, we pick up files called cookies that can transmit our private data, surfing habits and more. With our personal info at the potential mercy of nefarious hackers, programs like Washing Machine 2 become not just a luxury but an essential part of what a computer user needs. Security is key in this digital age and the user-friendliness of this program makes it a definite winner.
Note: Washing Machine -Standard Pack Protects up to 2 Macs.
www.intego.com | Price: $19.95
Vupoint Magic Wand
Using the Magic Wand is incredibly simple: slip in a MicroSD card, slide it slowly across the item you'd like to scan and pop the card into your computer to download the images. The design of this scanner means you can capture literally anything from documents to photos to floor tiles or wallpaper patter...the possibilities are endless. The unit is very thin, light and portable but scans up to ten inches of whatever your heart desires, so wherever you are and whatever you'd like to copy this scanner can go the distance. Archivists, photographers and scrap bookers will find this especially useful, but it's great for anyone who finds themselves longing to grab copies of documents or pictures while they're on the move.
www.vupointsolutions.com/ | Price: $99.99
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Apple Market Report
Everyone's taking a tilt at Apple. If it's not a never-ending stream of iPhone clones, it's a wave of iPad look-a-likes. You'd have thought that would be enough to pull Apple's stock price down. Not a bit of it. Apple's stock has made a very strong move towards new highs after a nasty dip which would have shaken the resolve of even the bravest investor. Since late August the stock has shot up 15%. The overall market has done pretty well and the tech-heavy Nasdaq, which Apple is part of, has done even better. Yet even still Apple has flown up even further with little apparent resistance.
Apple is still leagues ahead of its competition and it could simply be that now the market has had a look at the me-too emulators they are re-assured of Apple supremacy for quite some time. However, Apple's valuation remains lofty and for now - at least - it is trading in the $240-$280 price channel it's been stuck in for six months. Can it break out and head into the $300-$400 range? The strength of its recent rally suggests yes, its medium-term channel of trading says no. The way I look at it is Apple has gone up 500% in the last five years; it's unlikely to go up 50% from here, ever. As such, a long-term investor doesn't really need to even look. Within 10 or 20%, this is the highest Apple is ever going to get. Do you have the answer? Tell us on Twitter!
We Did It!
Apple finally did it. It is now more valuable than Microsoft. To stubborn old realists this seems wrong, but to an army of Apple fans and the veteran legions of Apple believers this seems very right.
It may just be the case that the recent stock market correction, which has seen the market "fall out of bed", is the cause of this victory. Apple just hasn't fallen as far as Microsoft in the stock market rout.
Apple's Risen
However nothing takes away from the fact that, long left for dead, Apple has risen and crawled hand over hand from the edge of going out of business to becoming the second largest company listed on Wall Street.
This promotion to number two position of most valued company on Wall Street is remarkable and kind of historic. I promised myself to short Apple when this happened but I will hold off because the market will rally for a week or two and shorting anything will be a bad idea.
Apple Bullish?
For Bulls it's been a hard grinding year. The post credit crunch rally started in March 2009 and since May 2010 the stock markets have gone into a bear market which has seen a nasty correction.
This correction has marked the limit of Apple's stellar share price rise.
Following this, Apple's stock has performed unpredictably, suffering little crashes and enjoying little booms, while stuck in a range.
I have maintained for some time that it is hard to imagine Apple going up much more as it's already the second most valuable stock in America; and it seems plain silly for Apple to turn into the most valuable business in the USA - however amazing the company. For now the market agrees.
So the $300 billion dollar question is: what can Apple do next to propel it above $300 a share?
Know the answer? Tweet us!
