News

Check Off 2.0

Check Off 2.0 is a to-do list manager that resides in the Mac OS X menu bar and allows items to be added, sorted, and checked off when done. The new version offers a redesigned interface, the ability to group tasks, and task colouring. Check Off is US $5 for Mac OS X.
http://www.ricciadams.com/programs/checkoff/index.html

Print Window 2.0

Do you miss the ability to print folder listings directly from the Finder in OS X?
Print Window 2.0 makes printing file and folder listings from the Finder a snap and it's a lot more powerful than the Mac OS Classic Finder's version of "Print Window".
Mac OS X dropped several Classic OS features and one of these was printing folder listings from the Finder. The Mac OS Classic Finder allows users to easily print the contents of a Finder window by selecting "Print Window" from the "File" menu

Print Window is a simple utility that, once installed, resides in the Mac OS X Dock. Simply open the folder whose contents you want to print in the Finder, press Command-P and the file listing for that window will be printed.
Not only does Print Window restore this missing functionality to Mac OS X, but it also adds many more options that weren't even available in the Classic Finder. You can print files listings in multiple columns, determine printed icon size, and even print hierarchical listings showing not only the files and folders in the visible window, but also files and folders found in any subfolders of that window.
Each of these options can be set to whatever default you decide, to minimize the time it takes to print a listing.
http://www.swssoftware.com/software/printwindow202.bin

QuickTime 6.2

QuickTime 6.2, (a free download), extends AAC support and downloaded music to applications other than iTunes, and improves AAC encoding for the Pro version, according to Apple. It's available for Mac OS X at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download

Apple’s Music Sales

In a deal with the "big five" record companies (BMG, EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal and Warner), Jobs got 200,000 tunes (in a growing list) to sell at US 99 cents/song with no subscription fee. (Albums are available at varying prices, but most typically are US $9.99.)
• You can play the music back on three Macs and an unlimited number of iPods. You get "unlimited personal burning", but Apple put a "governor" on its burning system, forcing a change in playlist every 10 burns.
• Apple's music-distribution system, built into iTunes 4, is called the "iTunes Music Store"
. It's available initially only in the US, and iTunes 4 is posted as a free download. You also need a free software upgrade for existing iPods, to handle the new service. iTunes 4 requires Mac OS X (10.1.5 or later) and a credit card with a U.S. billing address.
• Apple is using 128-Kbps AAC to encode the music, not MP3. You get an AAC file when you buy a tune that can be played on your Mac but which results in an authorization dialog when opened on another Mac. This presumably is how the 3-Mac limit is enforced.
• Free 30-second previews, in full audio quality, are available for every song in the store. Jobs touted "one-click" ordering, and the store has some "exclusive" tracks by Bob Dylan, U2 and other stars, although only one ancient, partial Beatles album showed up in a search of the database.
• Jobs said Apple knows how to handle the "oceans of bits" involved in this distribution system, but the store wasn't working correctly when we, and readers, tried to buy tunes, presumably due to excessive demand.
• You can search the music database by genre, artist and album within iTunes, and you can "browse", too, double-clicking a tune to play the 30-second preview. Some cover art is available, and Jobs said the store would offer some free video streams. He also said Windows support is due by next year.

Apple Quietly Updates iBooks

Apple's entry-level laptop family received a minor refresh, picking up a speed bump and larger hard disks but little else. The basic US $1,000 12-inch iBook configuration now includes an 800 MHz PowerPC G3 processor (up from 700 MHz) and a 30 GB hard drive. For US $1,300, you can move up to a 12-inch iBook with a 900 MHz processor and a 40 GB hard drive. The larger 14-inch model, at US $1,500, also sports a 900 MHz processor and 40 GB drive; a build-to-order option offers a 60 GB drive, 640 MB of RAM, and an AirPort card. The big surprise with this update is that these models don't support AirPort Extreme, especially since this revision is likely to be the one that students and school districts will consider for the next school year. However, with school budgets tightening, perhaps Apple is attempting to keep costs down until AirPort Extreme is more widely adopted. The new iBooks are available now.
http://www.apple.com/ibook/
http://www.apple.com/airport/

Apple Announces DVD Studio Pro 2

Apple announced DVD Studio Pro® 2, rebuilt from the ground up with a new user interface and new features. It wil include fully customizable templates, an new menu editor, timeline-based track editing and a software-based MPEG-2 encoder.

“Apple rewritten it from scratch for Mac OS X and Cocoa, turning it into a completely new product with a breakthrough user interface,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

The templates will come with a library of styles, buttons and backgrounds for creating elegantly designed DVDs in a few simple steps. The templates are fully customizable.

DVD Studio Pro 2’s new menu editor will allow users to create their own menus by dragging and dropping content without worrying about complex DVD specs. Context sensitive drop palettes will allow users to create and link to new tracks, build slideshows and automatically build chapter indexes in one easy step. A built-in compositing engine in DVD Studio Pro 2 will enable users to edit text directly in the menu editor and make changes to font styles and button graphics without leaving the application.

Based on the popular timeline in Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro 2's new timeline-based track editing will provide a linear view of clips, audio and other assets. It will also allow adding and managing chapter markers, up to 8 video angles, up to 8 audio tracks and 32 subtitle tracks, all from the timeline.

Compressor, a new bundled batch transcoding tool will let users batch and export directly to multiple formats including MPEG-2 for DVD, MPEG-4 for streaming media or any supported QuickTime® format. Compressor includes watermarking, real-time preview and 30 high-quality filters and effects, and a new MPEG-2 software encoder, which provides professional controls for adjusting bit rate and selecting one- or two-pass VBR encoding. The MPEG-2 software encoder delivers pristine quality video rivaling the speed of hardware and software encoders costing thousands of dollars as stand alone products.

DVD Studio Pro 2 is expected to be available in August for a suggested retail price of $499 (US). Apple has also lowered the price of DVD Studio Pro 1.5 to $499 (US), and customers who purchase and register their copies of DVD Studio Pro 1.5 now can upgrade to DVD Studio Pro 2 for an Up-To-Date shipping and handling fee of $29.95 (US). Full system requirements and more information on DVD Studio Pro 2 can be found at http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro.

Apple Announces Final Cut Pro 4

Apple has introduced Final Cut Pro® 4 with more than 300 new features, Final Cut Pro 4 introduces RT Extreme, for real-time compositing and effects, powerful new interface customization tools, new high-quality 8- and 10-bit uncompressed formats and for the first time in an editing system costing less than US $100,000, full 32-bit floating point per channel video processing. Final Cut Pro 4 also includes three completely new integrated applications—LiveType for advanced titling, Soundtrack for music creation and Compressor for full-featured batch transcoding.

RT Extreme is an enhanced software-based, real-time effects architecture that scales smoothly with processor speed to support an increased number of simultaneous real-time video streams and hundreds of real-time effects. RT Extreme allows software effects to be viewed in real time on an external broadcast monitor when connected via FireWire® or an external breakout box. RT Extreme is codec independent and allows editors to preview their work in real time at maximum resolution for finishing quality preview or at maximum performance for increased simultaneous streams and effects.

Final Cut Pro 4 features high-quality, software-based 8- and 10-bit uncompressed formats and 32-bit floating point processing and is the only non-linear editing, compositing and effects package that scales smoothly from DV through SD, HD and film. Final Cut Pro 4 includes support for HDR render technology providing the ability to generate film quality output, rendering all elements in 32-bit (per channel) floating point colour.

LiveType, a unique new titling application available only in Final Cut Pro 4, enables users to create dynamic, animated titles quickly and easily. LiveType includes LiveFonts, a new approach to text animation in which every character of a font is a separate animated movie. With over 8GB of media including LiveFonts, 150 pre-configured effects, customizable templates, backgrounds, animated textures and objects, LiveType enables Final Cut Pro 4 users to develop their own customized look, either from scratch or by modifying existing effects. With support for DV, SD and HD formats, LiveType allows users to quickly and easily create sophisticated, professional-quality animated text and graphic effects.

Soundtrack, a breakthrough music creation tool also available only in Final Cut Pro 4, gives editors the power to easily create high-quality, royalty-free music scores for their projects. Soundtrack automatically matches audio loops regardless of tempo and key, providing real-time arranging and mixing. Soundtrack is fully integrated within Final Cut Pro 4, supports Final Cut Pro 4’s new score markers for perfect synchronization, includes a library of thousands of music loops and sound effects and supports AIFF, WAV and ACID files.

Compressor, a new batch transcoding tool that comes bundled with both Final Cut Pro 4 and DVD Studio Pro 2, lets users batch and export directly to multiple formats including MPEG-2 for DVD, MPEG-4 for streaming media or any supported QuickTime® format. Compressor includes watermarking, real-time preview and 30 high-quality filters and effects, providing an ideal platform for high volume or repetitive encoding tasks. Compressor comes with a new world-class MPEG-2 software encoder, which provides professional controls for adjusting bit rate and selecting one- or two-pass VBR encoding. The MPEG-2 software encoder delivers pristine quality video rivaling the speed of hardware and software encoders costing thousands of dollars as standalone products.

Final Cut Pro 4 offers editors new customization options including over 600 tools and commands, a mappable keyboard, custom interface buttons, custom window layouts and enhanced screen layout options. Customized settings can be saved, exported and imported onto any Mac with Final Cut Pro, making it easy to preserve all the custom settings when switching from one Mac to another.

With its open architecture, Final Cut Pro 4 fits into virtually any production pipeline and provides incredible developer extensibility through a new XML interchange format and FireWire-based I/O framework. This new standards-based composition and metadata interchange format, combined with a new import/export plug-in API, allows developers to create tools that integrate Final Cut Pro 4 into a wide range of production workflows. In addition, the new FireWire-based I/O Framework allows third-party developers to build FireWire-based I/O devices for fully uncompressed 8- and 10-bit 4:2:2 broadcast video.

Additional features in Final Cut Pro 4 include:

• advanced trimming and timeline tools such as support for dynamic and asymmetrical trimming, master clips, merged clips and ganged playback controls;
• enhanced media management;
• full support for Unicode;
• enhanced audio editing capabilities such as keyframe thinning, multi-track audio mixing, multi-channel audio output and real-time audio effects; and
• Cinema Tools™, previously sold separately, now included with Final Cut Pro 4 with new support for change lists and ink numbers for filmmakers working with 35mm or 16mm film.
  

Final Cut Pro 4 will be available in June for a suggested retail price of $999 (US), upgrades to Final Cut Pro 4 will be $399 (US). http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro.