Say, had you wondered about those strange system requirements for Apple's Final Cut Pro X -- Mac OS X 10.6.8, yet only dot seven was available? Wonder no more. Late today, Apple released the dot 8 update, quite likely the last before OS X 10.7, aka "Lion", releases next month.

In fact v10.6.8 is preparation for Lion, which Apple will deliver through Mac App Store -- an add-on to v10.7 Snow Leopard and built into Lion. The update does something to Mac App Store for Lion delivery.

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Rumors about an impending MacBook Air refresh engulfed the web this month. If you believe them, Apple is poised to make the thin-and-light laptop its flagship portable. Oh yeah? So why not grab some market share, too, by lowering the price where mere mortals could afford to buy one? With Intel bringing on UltraBook as clear MacBook Air competitor, it's reasonable to wonder about Apple's response.

I asked two analysts, Roger Kay and Stephen Baker, for their response to the headline's question, but I was more interested in Baker's opinion. In the past, he strongly advocated Apple releasing a $799 Mac.

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It may be the worst thing to tell a crowd: "put away your cameras." But that is exactly what Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said speaking to a meeting of company employees this week in debuting a "super confidential product:" Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 device.

Codenamed "Sea Ray," the device looks much like the Nokia N9. Elop did not specify specs of the Windows Phone version, but the N9 specs are as follows: a 3.9-inch AMOLED display, scratch-resistant glass, 8-megapixel camera, and NFC capabilities.

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Whatever happened to disposable credit card numbers? They're a great idea and they can work really well, but few banks offer them and even those don't push them really hard. The problem is users: To use these numbers, users would have to think about their own security.

Almost every security proposal, especially the really broad ones, has an element of user education in it. "We've got to train users to look for these things and avoid them" or something to that effect. Many security experts will sigh and tell you that it's like teaching math to your dog. Not only will they not learn it, they don't even get the point.

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Filesharing software company BitTorrent on Thursday released two new pieces of software: µTorrent 3.0, a new stable release to the popular freeware BitTorrent client, and µChat beta, a new distributed chat app for µTorrent and BitTorrent Chrysalis.

µChat lets users communicate with each other from within their filesharing clients, with the ability to create persistent or temporary chatrooms by topic, to engage in private one-to-one conversation, to create buddy lists, and to "quick share" torrents via direct links to chat buddies.

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Mozilla and the community of developers behind the SeaMonkey Internet application suite have released the first beta of SeaMonkey 2.2 just over a week after issuing a major update with SeaMonkey 2.1.

Changes to the Gecko layout engine that affect all the community's projects (Firefox, Thunderbird, Lightning, Sunbird, Camino) will naturally also take effect in SeaMonkey 2.2. This means the suite now supports CSS animations, improved support for HTML5, XHR, MathML, SMIL, Canvas, and general performance and security improvements have been made.

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Cyberlink has unveiled the final release of PhotoDirector 2011, a photo-editing tool aimed at photo enthusiasts and semi-professional users. It takes a workflow-based approach to organizing and editing images, steering the user through the process of importing, managing, correcting and finally exporting and sharing photos.

PhotoDirector 2011 includes native support for RAW-format images from Canon and Nikon cameras, a non-destructive editing environment allowing users to experiment with different edits before committing to changes, and an online resource for pros called DirectorZone where users can share and download image editing presets.

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Many people never truly take advantage of all the little shortcuts built into Windows, sometimes because they're not aware of them, but also because they don't find the options on offer suit their needs. The right-click menu is a case in point. It offers some useful shortcuts when you click a folder or file with the right mouse button, but often it's missing the kind of tweak you'd actually use.

Thankfully, there's a free tool in the shape of Right Click Enhancer that can give you a lot of functionality you need, enabling you to shape the right-click menu to your more precise needs. Also available as a standalone portable tool, Right Click Enhancer can do everything except remove existing context menu items -- for that you'll need a program like ShellView.

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Cloud Engines Inc. announced a new aspect to the Pogoplug media server solution, the software-only Pogoplug that gives users mobile access to photos, music, and movies that they have stored on their home computer.

"Our software-only product is a very natural expansion of the Pogoplug streaming service that started with our hardware," Daniel Putterman, CEO of Cloud Engines, Inc said in a statement Wednesday.

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I awoke this morning to find my wife watching "WarGames", the classic 1980s hacker movie. That got me to thinking about hacker group LulzSec Security, which has been mighty busy this month. Is it a group of stereotypical, mischievous hackers or dangerous cybercriminals? Under the law, the distinction is meaningless. But your answer means something to me and to other Betanews readers.

Please answer the simple poll below and respond in comments. I normally despise anonymous comments but understand if you feel the need to create a new Betanews account to respond. Or you can send email to joe at betanews dot com. Your identity or anonymity is probably safest with me. I don't give up sources.

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Hulu Plus, the portable subscription-based streaming TV service from NBC Universal, Fox, and Disney-ABC has finally begun to roll out to Android-powered devices, starting with just a small fragment of the available devices, and adding more throughout the year.

Support is limited to only six phones: Nexus One, Nexus S, HTC Inspire 4G, Motorola Droid II, Motorola Droid X and Motorola Atrix. The joint venture did not say why these phones were chosen or why the launch group was so small.

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The pace of browser development is quickening, with Firefox now being on a quarterly schedule. Software companies are now also much willing to release beta projects on an eager public, and we have become used to seeing endless Firefox updates pushed out. Opera is just as keen to give its users a preview of what to expect in future versions of the software and this is something that is highlighted by Opera 'Next' v11.50, also known as project Featherweight.

We've already seen a few previews of Opera's upcoming releases, but project Featherweight brings a fresh new look to the browser interface. The rather minimalist interface features a completely redesigned set of icons for the toolbar, which are more muted in style that in previous released. The result is a sophisticated look and feel that already feels polished.

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I'm baffled why DeLorme sent me a press release, dated today, for a product announced weeks ago -- and after business hours on the East Coast, when there presumably is no one left in the office to talk about it. Buy, hey, I'm from Maine, and so is DeLorme. That's good enough for a quickie post.

If you're an athlegeek -- climber, hiker, sailer, snowboarder, surfer or any other wayfarer -- inReach could be for you. DeLorme describes the Satellite and GPS device as a "personal communicator" that delivers "truly global two-way satellite text messaging." DeLorme partnered with Iridium for satellite capabilities, providing communications to the many places where there is no cellular coverage and where satellite telephony is too costly, or simply unnecessary. So when you reach the summit, pull that core sample from Antarctic ice or rescue that child from the earthquake's ruble, you can text mom and tell her -- or anyone else.

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While I was busy working and not paying attention to nag mail, my Skype number expired this week. I could reactivate and get another three months service for about 12 bucks after a 33-percent discount. But it's Whopper Wednesday. That $12 would feed the family, with enough change left over for some cool vanilla cones at the Rite Aid.

I've had a Skype number since April 2006 -- back when it cost just $38 a year. There's sentimental value having the number for so long, and it's the having not the number itself. The Skype # is not so memorable or well-known to be worth porting anywhere. My Skype is mostly used for calls I need to record, for reporting purposes. Oh, yeah, it buzzes the front gate to our apartment complex, too.

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On Tuesday, Samsung announced its accessory suite for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet, which includes a desktop dock, a keyboard dock, USB adaptors, and cases available immediately, and an SD Card and USB adaptor and bluetooth keyboard later this summer.

Our traffic numbers tell us that you guys are very interested in Android tablets, so I try to keep an eye out for as much tablet-related information as possible, and ran out to go pick up Samsung's $79 keyboard dock for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 so I could do a quick hands-on review of it.

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