Is Apple Killing the MacPro
AppleInsider is reporting that Apple is considering killing the MacPro as it is no longer profitable.
What I don’t think you get is how many graphics houses and editing houses will be leaving the Mac completely if this happens.
Without NVIDIA cards you can barely edit with Premiere Pro or even use programs like SMOKE, and if the artists are going to move to PC, there whole facilities will go PC, and Apple will lose a lot of it’s coolness, and a lot more business than they think they will.
AVID already gives you PC and Mac Versions on one disc, and without a MacPro, and it's PCI cards you lose a lot of functionality, like AJA or Blackmagic cards (and no the thunderbolt cards are not as good, and there is no SAS storage solutions for thunderbolt).
Still an Alienware is looking better and better. Kick ass NVIDIA graphics make it the only choice for an editing laptop (since Premiere Pro needs an NVIDIA card), and if the MacPro goes, then it is time to move PC.
I already feel betrayed by you for what you did to Final Cut Pro X, as I have been an avid Final Cut Pro supporter since version 3, and Final Cut Pro X is not it's replacement, but a program that has some of it's functionality and is not superior to AVID or Premiere Pro, and if you get rid of the MacPro that will be the last straw.
I am not a windows fan, and think the fact that the main programming language for Windows 8 being HTML 5 is just shooting themselves in the foot, but at least I can use high end graphics and will still have PCI slots!
Please Apple I love you, and have since my Apple IIC, but more and more it looks like you are leaving me the graphic pro and video editor behind, and it makes me sad, but you are making a PC and windows look more and more attractive.
Please keep making MacPro's and keep updating them (quicker than you have been) and make them compatible with more graphics cards, because we will keep buying them, but if you stop making them we will be leaving the Mac in Droves.
Jonah Lee Walker
Video Editor and Graphics Artist
Automatic Duck Plugs Ins are FREE!
I honestly thought with them moving to Adobe that the old plug ins were gone for good, but it seems not as Automatic Duck has released all their old plug ins for FREE!
I already owned Pro Import AE 5.0, which allows you to import either Final Cut Pro 7 or AVID Media Composer sequences into After Effects. You use Free XML exporter for FCP and it works almost perfectly. A must have.
Pro Export FCP 5.0 is for FCP X and is to allow OMF export.
Pro Export FCP 4.0 lets you export either OMF or AAF from FCP to AVID, and I previously owned this.
And their is Pro Import FCP 2.0 which allows you to import an AVID sequence into Final Cut Pro.
And they are all FREE. So download them now. Sure they will not be updated again, but free is a huge price drop!
Walter Murch on FCP X
While Walter is encouraged by the updated FCPX version last month, he hasn’t used it on any real work yet, so he is cautiously optimistic (and still traumatized he says). “Do they love us? No…I know they like us….but they keep saying they love us??”
Actually sounds like he while he has used AVID in the past, he is going to try Premiere Pro to see where it is at, and then see if it is AVID or Premiere Pro.
Personally I am liking Premiere Pro, though it still needs some features to go on par with FCP 7 (though it does beat it in others).
Finder weirdness in OS X Lion
First off it is not working as it did with Spaces when I had it set to have one finder for all windows, though I have the finder set for all, it seems I get some finder windows in some of the windows in Mission Control, and not in others.
And even weirder, I often have the same folder open in two different windows by different sorting methods, well it seems that this can’t be done anymore. When I change the sorting method in one window, it changes other windows with that same content to the same sorting method. WTF? This is horrible, and not how it should work at all!
Is this just happening to me, or have others noticed this?
Lytro Camera Hands On
From the video it sounds like the image is 1080 by 1080 for now, but has an instant shutter, and turns on quickly. Check it out at their website. it is $399 or 8GB and $499 for 16GB. Very very cool!
And the CEO says that Video is on their roadmap. That will be unbelievable. I can’t wait.
TUAW on Disabling Autoupload for iCloud Photo Steam
This is what to uncheck in iPhoto, otherwise you will upload all your new photos from iPhoto, which is fine from you iPhone, but if you are shooting camera raw, is going to quickly fill your iCloud (which only comes with 5GB of space) and you iOS device.
I mean luckily I have 25 GB of iCloud space as I was a mobile me subscriber, and I have a lot of documents and comics on my iPad, but it only has 10GB free of the 25GB of iCloud space, so putting up full size RAW images would be disastrous. And you can still add images to your photostream by dragging and dropping, though you can’t remove images (which is plain stupid in my opinion).
Adobe's new Deblurring Tech
| Petapixel is reporting | on Adobe’s amazing new Deblurring technology.
If this works this well, this will change photography, and hopefully eventually video as well. Check out the article to see more examples. I Can’t wait to get my hands on this, which will likely be in CS6.
New Canon EOS 1D X
| Well one mystery is solved, | Cinema 5D is reporting that Canon has announced it’s new flagship camera, the Canon EOS 1D X.
It is an 18 MP camera full frame, and can shoot 12 FPS in RAW. And it has very exciting new video features:
- 1920×1080 at 24, 25 and 30fps, as well as 1280×720- at 50 and 60fps
- manual audio levels (also during recording)
- ISO range for movie shooting runs from ISO 100 to- 51,200 (surely a new low-light king)
- 2 compression options “IPB” or “ALL-I” (all intra-frames)
- The EOS-1D X still records movies using the H.264- codec but it is the compression type within this codec- that has been changed (!!!).
- ALL-I means every frame for itself!
- no more 12 minute clip length, clips can now be up to- 30 minutes. (clips over 4GB will continue in new file)
- SMPTE Timecode!!! (Nice nice) (Rec. Run, Freerun- and 2 more modes)
- live audio level meter on the rear screen during filming- and the ability to adjust the audio recording level during- filming.
- “silent control” audio level adjustment through- dedicated button.
- 29.97fps and 59.94fps non drop frame for NTSC land
- no more .THM files. –> thumbnails are now metadata- inside the actual video.
- improved (?) moiré and line skipping performance
- it looks like still 8bit (biggest booh)
Still not a real Canon Video Camera based on their DSLR technology, but an exciting DSLR that will be out in March of next year for $6800.
I think that the next announcement will a video camera based on similar technology, like the Sony F3.
Read the full press release at Canon’s site. And a video trailer is available.
Here is the feature sheet.
DaVinci Resolve 8.1 FCPX Support
| The Provideo Coalition is reporting | that DaVinci Resolve 8.1 now has support for FCP X and conforms and roundtrips. So you can now do a full color out of FCP X, though you audio is still going to be hard to conform without tracks.
No More Quickster
Change Mail Sidebar Icon Size in Lion
Personally it bugged the hell out of me, as I have a huge amount of mailboxes, and I didn’t know how to change the icon size.
Now I know. Go to System Preferences:General
And then chose Sidebar Icon size, which also controls the finder icon sidebar icon size (though not iTunes) and changes them within in Mail as well.
The default is medium, if you change it to small, the icons in mail are back to their old size.
Yes, so much more pleasing!
Launchpad-Control from Chaos Space
I don’t know anyone who like Launchpad, the iOS like App Launcher built into Lion, especially anyone with as many apps as I have, but if I were to use I would want something like this, which allows you to turn apps off from display (since deleting an app from Launchpad deletes the app from the computer completely).
Launchpad-Control is pay what you want and you can download it from ChaosSpace.
PilotMoon Scroll Reverser for Lion
PilotMoon has released Scroll Reverser for OS X Lion. This cool little app not only lets you easily change the scrolling direction of Lion (which was reversed to be more iOS like, but it lets you set different preferences for mice vs trackpads, as a track pad actually makes sense to be reversed, but a mouse scroll wheel does not. Very cool, and it is free!
OnLineVideo.net on FCP X 10.0.1
I like what they have to say about the new feature roles:
To a degree, roles are a solution to a problem Apple created by making Final Cut Pro X trackless. For example, in Final Cut Pro 7, or Premiere Pro for that matter, you could accomplish the same thing by placing narration on one track and music on another, and enabling/disabling the track as necessary for preview or rendering.
In addition to preview, when rendering out to a QuickTime file, you can also use roles to create separate files for further editing in another program. This is shown in Figure 4. For most high-end users, however, OMF or EDL export in Final Cut Pro 7 provides the same capability, while those editing in sister programs like Soundtrack Pro or Color would simply use the direct export feature shown in Figure 2. Apple declined to include industry-standard mediums of exchange in their product, or direct access to Soundtrack Pro, and roles is a substitute. In my view, you don’t get brownie points for fixing a problem caused by your own questionable design decisions.
And in conclusion:
For me, all the glorious new features seem like solutions to problems that I don’t have, added complexity with no payoff. With Final Cut Pro 7 or Premiere Pro, there are projects, clips, and a timeline. You import your clips, organize them into folders, and drag them down into the timeline. Then you trim a bit, add some effects, maybe a transition or two, export, and you’re done.
With Final Cut Pro 10, you have Events and Projects. You have a Magnetic Timeline, Clip Connections, a Primary Storyline, Auditions, Roles, Smart Collections: all are completely new concepts that I’ve never encountered in the dozen or so editors that I’ve cut projects on in the past, and, in some cases, they’re solutions to problems caused by questionable design decisions like the trackless interface.
The result is a cluttered interface that you really can’t control and asset management with even less control. You have effects and other functions seemingly designed to prioritize being different rather than superior. Honestly, was every established editing convention, from marking clips in and out in a source window to three-wheel color correction, so tragically flawed that it wasn’t worthy of being implemented in Final Cut Pro X, if only because it was functional and familiar to all pro target users?
More importantly, within the context of my typical projects, whether a two-hour ballet or music concert, or a ten minute streaming clip or screencam, will these new concepts help me do my job faster or better? I honestly don’t think so, particularly because Final Cut Pro 7 and now Adobe Creative Suite already suit my needs so well.
Exactly, the new features do not speed up my editing, and I actually find them slowly and less efficient. And now that is seems that FCP X has lost OMF export when Automatic Duck went away, so roles is even more useless, as I need OMF much more than just exporting tracks (though I do need tracks as well)
I don’t want a new form of editing, I want new features on top of the way I already edit, and if I like them will use them, but I don’t like the new way of editing of FCP X, and I don’t think I ever will
So much outpouring over Steve Jobs
A sad day, Steve Jobs has died
It is a sad day, it seems that Steve Jobs has passed away today at the age of 56. He was an amazing man, and really changed the world with the computers and other devices that he created. He must have been very sick to have left Apple, and he obviously was.
I got my first Apple computer when I was 7, and have been a loyal Mac user ever since (though the whole Final Cut Pro thing has shaken my loyalty a bit).
Steve Jobs created computers and electronics that have inspired me and become a part of my life.
I am saddened for his family and friends, and for the world.
Rest in Peace Steve!