Sunday, April 15, 2007

Final Cut Studio 2 is here, And it's Amazing


If anyone was wondering why apple was taking so long with it's latest update to the Final Cut series they need not think any longer because this latest update is proof that it was worth the wait.
Not only have we gotten updates of our same old favorites we one again have a new entry to the bundle "Color".
Color is a high end Color correction tool which naturally is seamlessly mixes in with the previous final cut pro work flow and as to be expected 32 bit float rendering.

Apple has also announced Final Cut Server, A media management app which has clients on both Mac and PC which may finally give those stubborn Avid users a reason to give Final Cut a look.

Along with this AJA Kona is set to bring out an HD IO box which is portable enough to bring it with you in the field and has native support for apples new ProRes HD 4:2:2 codec allowing you to pretty much take your 4k footage onto a macbook pro and start editing it whilst still on location.
If you prefer however Final cut pro will cut the REDCODE codec natively for those of you who don't want to lose the benefits of the 4:4:4 compression.

Although there doesn't seem to be any support for authoring Blu-ray disk in DVD studio pro perhaps it could be added in a future update or something.
If I am somehow able to get the money together I may be using this for my 48 hours movie this year but I don't mind if I don't as I still want to get some projects edited out of this version to make the purchase worth while.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Development of the iphone has Delayed the OS 10.5 release


"iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned.

We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned.

While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait.

Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones. "

Although I am disappointed by this announcement I hope it means that the iPhone will be a highly polished product worth the $600 their going to charge for it.

This will probably be $900 NZD in my case, I should also have a lot more time to save up for a macbook pro or something.

Monday, April 9, 2007

100 million ipods sold


As of today Apple inc. Has sold it's 100 millionth ipod, Thus making the ipod the fastest selling music player in History.
Released in 2001 the ipod has had 10 different generations and 5 different models.

“It’s hard to remember what I did before the iPod,” said Mary J. Blige, GRAMMY Award-winning singer. “iPod is more than just a music player, it’s an extension of your personality and a great way to take your favorite music with you everywhere you go.”

I myself own a 30 GB ipod and I can say with out a doubt that the ipod is the best portable music device that money can buy.

Every ipod features seamless integration with the itunes 7 software available on both Mac OS and Windows.
The itunes music store which is built into the device gives you access to the world’s largest catalog with over five million songs, 350 television shows and over 400 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over 1.3 million movies, making it the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store.

Apple also plans to enter the gigantic mobile phone market with the launch of it's revolutionary iphone which is slated for release some time in june.