Reprinted from TidBITS#837/10-Jul-06 with permission. Copyright (C) 2006, TidBITS. All rights reserved. http://www.tidbits.com/ MailBITS/10-Jul-06 ------------------ **Mark/Space Sponsoring TidBITS** -- We're pleased to welcome our latest long-term sponsor, the synchronization experts at Mark/Space, Inc. Mark/Space has been around as long as TidBITS, both having been founded in 1990, and for as long as I can remember, I've made a point of stopping by their trade show booths to say hello to Brian Hall, Mark/Space's president and CEO, and to see the latest cool handheld device he had managed to connect to the Mac. Although Mark/Space still sells several Palm OS programs, the company has recently focused most of its attention on The Missing Sync, connectivity software for syncing Macs with a variety of handheld gadgets, including Palm OS devices, Windows Mobile handhelds and smartphones, and Sony PlayStation Portables (PSP). With the ever-evolving capabilities of these devices, The Missing Sync has kept pace, such that it can now sync (as appropriate to the device): contacts, events, notes, documents, photographs, music, and even movies. I was particularly surprised to see the announcement of The Missing Sync for Sony PSP, since I hadn't quite realized just how capable and flexible the PSP is. Mark/Space also just announced the acquisition of MySync from MildMannered Industries, a synchronization program that can sync any data type that's compatible with Apple's Sync Services in Tiger, with automatic detection of other Macs on your network via Bonjour. MySync is still in public beta, but it looks extremely useful, particularly for people who don't subscribe to .Mac and thus can't sync with .Mac as an intermediary. Thanks to Mark/Space for the support of TidBITS and of the Mac community! [ACE] **Opera 9 Released** -- Opera Software has released Opera 9, the latest version of its traditionally quirky Web browser. In a world where browsers are included with the operating system (Internet Explorer under Windows, and Safari on Mac OS X) or available for free (the open-source Firefox), you might think it's crazy for a third-party company to develop a competing Web browser. However, Opera has managed to make inroads on all platforms, from Windows to Mac OS X to cellular phones. The release of Opera 9 also shows that you need to innovate to survive. For example, this version adds built-in support for file sharing using BitTorrent (a peer-to-peer technology for more efficiently sending very large files over the Internet); a content blocker that enables you to choose which types of items are blocked from viewing (such as ads); the capability to add search engines to the search field; and a new widgets feature that can run small Dashboard-like programs within Opera (although not as exciting under Mac OS X 10.4, this feature is seen more as a preemptive strike under Windows against the similar widget functionality of the upcoming Windows Vista operating system). Lastly, taking a cue from OmniWeb, Opera 9 can display a thumbnail preview of an open Web page by hovering the mouse pointer over the page's tab. Opera 9 is free, with the option of paying $30 for a one-year Premium Support service. It's a 13.1 MB download. [JLC] **StickyBrain Replaced with SOHO Notes** -- Chronos LLC announced today that its highly regarded snippet keeper, StickyBrain, is being discontinued in favor of SOHO Notes, a product with a nearly identical interface but more features. StickyBrain started as a more-powerful replacement for Apple's Stickies application and evolved into a multipurpose database-driven repository for notes, URLs, Web pages, and other information; it offered Spotlight searching, a system-wide menu for grabbing information, and numerous other capabilities. (For more about StickyBrain, see "Stuck on StickyBrain: Info-Clutter Organizer Extraordinaire" from 2003 and "Three Simple Snippet Keepers" from 2001.) SOHO Notes includes all this plus multi-user capabilities, note syncing via .Mac, and support for multiple simultaneous databases. The announcement corresponded with the release of SOHO Notes 5.5.2, an update that adds several new features, such as blog posting using the Atom protocol, color-coded labels, dated and time-stamped journal entries, and audio recording. SOHO Notes costs $40. Registered users of StickyBrain 4.0 or higher can upgrade to SOHO Notes for free; upgrades for owners of older versions cost $25. [JK] **Crazy Apple Rumors Site Skewers Week's News** -- John Moltz's Crazy Apple Rumors site is one of my must-reads every day, and while I find the site funny most of the time, not many weeks have as many news stories so ripe for skewering. On 03-Jul-06, John picked up on the news of several well-known bloggers switching from Mac OS X to Ubuntu Linux. The site's coverage announced excitedly that it would henceforth be known as Crazy Ubuntu Rumors, a euphoria that lasts for several paragraphs until reality set in. Two days later, John was back, with a graphical look at all the different devices that sources claimed would be running "Leopard Mobile" (a rumored version of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for the iPod), ranging from the Motorola Razr cell phone to, well, a bagel. The picture of the "Leopard Mobile" screenshot pasted over a cream-cheese slathered bagel says so much about rumors in the Mac world. And finally, on 06-Jul-06, the news of Microsoft's impending "iPod killer" came under John's knife, as he poked fun at Microsoft's staid naming scheme, calling it the "Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 Portable Media Player Device Media Player Media Player Media Player," after which he listed out the first six steps in the device's instructions, an over-the-top parody of the worst Windows documentation imaginable. If you haven't visited Crazy Apple Rumors recently and need a laugh, last week's posts are utterly worth the visit. [ACE] .