NZiPhone.com

The Steam game platform has launched on the Mac platform today. On subsequent Wednesdays, additional collections of Mac titles will become available, each designed to highlight specific functionalities of Steam on the Mac.

Arstechnica.com are reporting that a developer preview (this is not a beta and should be used with caution) is now publicly accessible to download. The download can be found here, and it's an opportunity to add yet another web browser to your arsenal on the Mac.

One company with a major dominance on the net has described to send a shot across the bow of another with an OS dominance...and no, we're not talking about Apple anywhere there folks. Google have announced that they hope to launch the Google Chrome OS later this year. An open source, lightweight OS, it will be initially targeted for netbooks. Technically, the OS is described as "Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel."

Google has announced Picasa for Mac (in beta) - free software that helps Mac users easily organise their photos in one place, edit pictures, and share them online with friends, family, and the world.

Apple did well at the recent British Technology Awards, scooping 5 awards in total. 4 of these were for the iPhone, with the associated client software for it and all things media and music related (iTunes) winning Best Music Technology. The 4 awards that the iPhone won were Best Mobile Technology, Gadget of the Year, Most Stylish Technology (hmm...an interesting category!?) and Technological Innovation of the Year.

OpenOffice Org has announced the release of the first public beta of OpenOffice 3.0.

Of particular note to Mac users this official version is 100% Mac OS X native. In other words no more need for X11 to be installed. This release has full import capabilites for Office 2007 files but cannot save in this format. It also fully supports the new features of ODF 1.2.

There is more scripting support even with basic Visual Basic scripting (something Microsoft removed from Office 2008 Mac) although it's unclear if this is supported under Mac OS X.

UPDATE Vodafone today announced it has signed an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone in ten of its markets around the globe.

Later this year, Vodafone customers in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey will be able to purchase the iPhone for use on the Vodafone network.

NZ press link and Worldwide press link. Please check the forum discussion also. Tues 10pm - Vodafone have been in touch but are unable to provide any more detail at this time.

New offering delivers gamers the ability to play more games on the platform and machine of their choice.

CodeWeavers, Inc., a leading developer of software products that turn Mac OS X and Linux into Windows-compatible operating systems, announced the release of CrossOver Games for both Mac and Linux, available immediately.

Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced the latest update for Adobe Flash Player 9 software, code-named Moviestar, which includes H.264 standard video support - the same standard deployed in Blu-Ray and HD-DVD high definition video players - and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio support, as well as hardware accelerated, multi-core enhanced full screen video playback.

These advancements will extend Adobe’s leadership position in Web video by enabling the delivery of HD television quality and premium audio content through the ubiquitous Adobe Flash Player and pave the way to expand rich media Flash experiences on the desktop and H.264 ready consumer devices. The latest update for Adobe Flash Player 9 will be available in beta for immediate download later today on Adobe Labs at http://labs.adobe.com .

Sun has announced an AJAX killer by the name of Java FX. Allowing Web2.0 developers to create sites with content that behaves on all platforms and all browsers as expected with less headaches in trying to get Web2.0 apps working across the board.

The press release reads - "JavaFX Script Simplifies Development of Rich Internet Applications - Sun Microsystems, Inc., today previewed JavaFX Script, a radically simple scripting language for creating rich content and applications to run on billions of Java-powered devices from mobile phones to Blu-ray Disc players to the browser."