Are you the type of person who likes any of the following:

• Tupperware orange peelers,
• the “OpenX” tool for defeating incendiary blister wrap
• a dedicated rice cooker, or maybe
• both a blender and a juicer?

If so, you have the kind of appreciation for specialized tools that will make you like Rogue Amoeba‘s interesting and attractive new Fission utility.

Fission does one set of audio management tasks very, very well: cutting and splitting audio files–including MP3 and AAC files–and then saving the fragments as individual files. One of the big deals about the tool is that when it saves your file fragments, it does so in a lossless save operation, even on such a notoriously “lossy compression” scheme as MP3. It will also easily do fades — to fade audio in or out, blend two clips together in a crossfade, and easily crop sections of an audio file, for example to remove a long silence from a file. It supports AIFF and Apple Lossless files as well as MP3 and AAC, handles stereo or mono files, and supports Intel Macs in a Universal Binary.
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If you haven’t seen it on any of the mac rumors websites, Forbes is reporting:

Taiwan’s Hon Hai wins Apple orders for mobile handsets, notebook PCs

The report also claims that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd will also be called on to produce a 15 MacBook (Pro?).

The article gives no details on the phone specifically, except to say that the contract was for 12 million units and that Apple is expected to introduce the mobile phone in the first half of the year.

Apple announced great news for tired air travelers and harried flight attendants today:

Apple® today announced it is teaming up with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to deliver the first seamless integration between iPod® and in-flight entertainment systems. These six airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections which power to charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the their seat back displays.

This kind of news makes you want to go out and jump on an airplane but we won’t start seeing planes with this feature until mid 2007.

Read Apple PR

On November 13th Apple released a handful of updates, most having to do with Boot Camp, sleep and wake-from-sleep issues with its Intel-based Macs.

According to Apple, the EFI Firmware updates “fix several Boot Camp, start up, and wake-from-sleep issues” for the Mac Mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac.

The EFI Firmware update for the Mac Pro “This EFI Firmware Update fixes several Boot Camp and start up issues.”

Please read Apple’s instructions carefully for the EFI update that corresponds to your computer, and also prepare yourself with a Firmware Restoration CD in case you have issues while updating your firmware.

Apple also released Digital Camera RAW support & fixes for both PPC and Intel-based Macintosh computers running Mac OS X Tiger Client or Server, and an update to it’s X11 package, X11 Update 2006 1.1.3, which “addresses several issues in the X11 for Mac OS X package, enabling it to better handle GLX stereo visuals and offscreen rendering to GLX Pbuffers and Pixmaps.”

As with any update for your computer, backup all important data prior to the update, and remove any third-party devices connected to your computer. Make sure your Mac is connected to a power source, and do not interrupt, restart, or shut down your computer while the update is being applied.

equinux has released iSale 3.3 and CoverScout 2.2.

iSale 3.3 is an application that allows users to customize their auctions before posting them on eBay. Users can even track all of their auctions with iSale. The 3.3 version supports eBay Express. Users who qualify for the eBay Express listing service can choose to list their items on eBay Express and/or their main eBay listing. There is also Template Pack 9, for Home and Garden auctions, available for free to iSale 3.x users.

The update of CoverScout 2.2 is compatible with the latest iTunes update version 7.0.2. CoverScout is an application that searches online resources to find artwork for rare album titles.

iSale 3.x users can get the 3.3 update for free. Prices for iSale start at USD$39.95. CoverScout 2.x users can get the 2.2 update for free. Prices for CoverScout start at USD$19.95.

Trial versions of both applications are available at the equinux website.

For more information about iSale or CoverScout visit your local apple dealer or the equinux website (http://www.equinux.com).

Publisher: Bitcartel
Price: $24.95 | Free Demo

Bitcartel, creators of RadioLover, iRecordMusic, and the Radiotastic dashboard widget, recently released an update to their digital comic book reader/organizer, ComicBookLover 1.2. ComicBookLover is to comic books what the iTunes app is to music.

I didn’t realize it, but comic books are being distributed digitally and online. You can buy 40 years of the X-Men comic books archived in PDF format and saved on a DVD for $39 ($39 for 485 issues, unless I’m missing something, that’s $0.08 a pop). Yes, there are some collections that are distributed via BitTorrent are privately scanned and are likely infringing—but there are also many independent authors and publishers who are selling their wares online for very reasonable prices.
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iLike is a free service that integrates with iTunes that not only helps you discover new music based on your personal tastes, but also can put you in touch with others with similar tastes.

iLike is a service by the folks who brought you Garageband (the website, not the Apple iLife application), a site for indy bands, musicians, and their fans. iLike helps you, the listener, find other like-minded listeners and similar-sounding bands based on your current music library and song plays. I know Adam’s talked about iLike and you’ve written in and provided other examples for similar services, but I thought it would be worth taking a closer look at on the MacCast blog.
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On Friday, November 10th, Twisted Ninja Software announced that Tubular would be available for pre-order. Tubular is a YouTube client for Mac OS X.

Tubular allows users to search, browse and view YouTube videos. Users can also convert the videos to a fifth-generation iPod with the click of one button.

You can pre-order Tubular for USD$12.99 until it is released sometime before the end of 2006. The price will increase after it is released.

For more information about Tubular visit the prerelease website (http://www.tubularapp.com).

Bare Bones Software today released version 1.3 of Yojimbo, the reliable, effortless information organizer, which we previously reviewed here.

Yojimbo 1.3 now supports tagging for powerful grouping and retrieval of items stored in Yojimbo. The new version also brings several more significant refinements and addresses reported issues. The update is free for all registered Yojimbo customers.

Brainwave is offering pzizz to students at a discounted price of USD$9.95 per module. pzizz is software that offers over 100 billion nap combinations. There are two pzizz modules available: an energizer module and a sleep module. The naps can be exported to an iPod or other MP3 player for later use.

The power napping and sleep software helps reduce stress levels. The software will mix a new soundtrack whenever the user plays or exports a nap. If you tire of listening to the same relaxation CD, pzizz may be the solution for you.

You can visit the pzizz website (http://www.pzizz.com) to purchase pzizz or download software demos. The pzizz energizer module can be purchased for USD$29.95. The pzizz sleep module can be purchased for the same low price of the energizer module. If you purchase both modules together the price is USD$49.95.

pzizz hardware is also available and priced at USD$147.00. You do not need additional software if you purchase the hardware.