Apimac Releases Updated IDatabase for Mac, IPhone

For those of you dear readers who get all a'twitter at the thought of cataloging, managing, and syncing vast databases between your Mac and iPhone, Apimac has a pair of presents: iDatabase 2 for Mac and iDatabase 4 for iPhone and iPod touch.

iDatabase looks like it's designed to be flexible enough for both work and play. Apimac includes 16 pre-made templates to get you started, or you can define your own from a slew of fields for storing text, calculations, and even images.

New in iDatabase 2 for Mac is an emphasis on visual editing and previewing. You can now preview and define fields and labels when importing, and a new table view presents a visual array of all database records. Some interface polishing, template exporting and importing features, and a lot of bug squashing round up the list of changes in iDatabase 2.

In iDatabase 4.0 for iPhone and iPod touch, Apimac replicated the Mac experience on iOS, creating as much of a parallel as possible between the features, layout, and interface. You can now duplicate a database and all its records, or you can clone a database with blank records. Databases can now be e-mailed, or you can send records as PDF or CSV files. Syncing with the Mac version via Wi-Fi has also been optimized, though Apimac isn't much more descriptive than that.

iDatabase for Mac 2.0 is available now from Apimac's site (Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later is required). A new single license costs $20, family five-packs are $30, and upgrades for existing owners are $10. iDatabase 4.0 for iOS requires at least iOS 3.0 and costs just $1 for new customers.

For more Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld. Story copyright © 2010 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

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Navigon Improves Traffic Feature, Intros IPhone Car Kit

Navigon is upgrading the traffic features of its navigation app for the iPhone while introducing an iPhone-friendly car kit that lets users mount their smartphones to their cars' windshield. The navigation software maker announced these moves Thursday at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, where it's showcasing its wares at the annual Mac conference.

Traffic Live is a feature available to Navigon MobileNavigator users via an in-app purchase for the GPS-based navigation app. The latest update will boast road coverage by 76 percent to more than 200,000 miles of North American roads, according to Navigon. More significant, the update includes more than 87,000 miles of secondary roads like city streets. That enhances the Traffic Live feature's ability to provide alternate routes; Traffic Live can now detect and reroute local and city traffic, determining which route will get you to where you want to go faster.

Traffic Live gets its data from Inrix, which is pulling real-time speed data from more than four million drivers. Inrix relies on driver reports of congestion, along with data from traffic cameras, speed sensors, and radio reports; its system also uses historic traffic data to help it predict road conditions when calculating routes. As part of the update to Live Traffic, Navigon will use a more comprehensive traffic feed from Inrix.

The new feed will be available automatically to MobileNavigator users who've bought the Live Traffic feature; there's no activation or download required.

Navigon's other big news Thursday is the introduction of the Navigon Car Kit, which works with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4 models. The kit includes a mounting device and suction pad holder for easy attachment as well as a connection cord and car charger.

The Navigon Car Kit costs $50, though Navigon is knocking $5 off the price through February 3. The company also cut prices on its iPhone apps as part of a Macworld Expo promotion. The $60 North American version of MobileNavigator is on sale for $50 through January 30 while the price of the U.S. version has been dropped from $50 to $40. Other regional versions of MobileNavigator are on sale as well for the rest of the week, while the Traffic Live add-on is selling for $15-a $5 discount-through Sunday.

In addition to showing off its navigation apps and new car kit at its booth on the Moscone West showfloor, Navigon is also demonstrating its help2park app, the first in a series of free single-feature offerings the company plans to roll out this year. Released last month, help2park finds nearby parking spots based on your GPS position. When used in conjunction with MobileNavigator, drivers will be guided directly to a parking space.

For more Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld. Story copyright © 2010 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

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