News: EFI updates for older Macs, iTunes Match revenue stream, menu bar apps for iTunes, and more!

Apple has released EFI updates for older Macs that brings Lion's Internet Recovery feature to older Macs. Now available on late 2010 MacBook Air, early 2010 MacBook Pro, and mid-2010 iMac models, Lion's Internet Recovery is a great feature where machines that cannot boot from the normal startup drive for whatever reason can boot from a special part of the firmware, even if the hard drive is damaged or missing. Then, the user can choose to reinstall Lion onto the hard drive, completely over the internet.

ITunes Match can also be a nice revenue stream for copyright holders, says Jeff Price on the Tunecore blog. Artists and labels don't get royalties if a user plays a track that already exists on their hard drive, but with iTunes Match, each time a track is accessed from the cloud it means that copyright holders get paid. It's a nice way to essentially make money from something that didn't exist before.

Mac AppStorm has a look at five menu bar apps to control iTunes. They're all integrated into the menu bar for convenient access, and all of them also offer a few extra features other than just allowing you to change the current track.

It's only somewhat Mac-related, but Twelve South has released the HoverBar, an accessory for your iMac that allows you iPad to hang side-by-side with your iMac. Like all things Twelve South, it's extremely elegant and well-designed.