Brian Liloia

Laptops

Laptops By Brian Liloia

MacBook Air: greenest Apple yet

Apple has received a lot of flack, especially from Greenpeace, for their supposedly less-than-stellar commitment to "green" design and manufacturing processes. However, the MacBook Air might be a sign of changes to come, as it is officially the most environmentally-friendly Apple product on the shelves. The latest, thinnest Apple notebook boasts the following: Fully recyclable aluminum case Apple's first mercury-free LCD display, with arsenic-free glass Circuit boards are BFR-free and PVC-free 50% less packaging than the previous MacBooks Meets ENERGY STAR requirements Receives a EPEAT Silver Rating Of course, the MacBook Air isn't quite perfect (it's far from the greenest computer out there), and there are more improvements that can be made. However, this is indeed a step in the right direction for Apple, and hopefully this indicates a new trend. I think it's about time that Apple gets on the sustainability train and starts implementing more earth-friendly materials into their products. Let's hope for more good things in the future.

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Apps By Brian Liloia

Adobe Premiere Pro, Soundbooth updated for Leopard

Here's a quickie update notice: Adobe recently updated both Premiere Pro and Soundbooth for complete Leopard compatibility. Premiere Pro 3.1.1, a 54MB update, also includes "important bug fixes" (but what they are, is anyone's guess), and is available from Adobe's website, in addition to the 4.1MB Soundbooth fix. Happy video/sound editing in Leopard!

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Apps By Brian Liloia

Sneak-a-peek inside Final Cut Express 4

A lot has changed in the video production realm over the past year, and thankfully, Apple's recent Final Cut Express 4 addresses these new advancements in camcorder capture and post-production technology. It's been a full year and a half since Final Cut Express 3.5, and there's a number of notable updates and enhancements that make the latest version 4 worth a look. Thankfully, Jeff Carlson at Macworld gives us a nice look at some of the new additions in Final Cut Express 4, which was released less than two weeks ago. The software now includes AVCHD support, mixed video format timeline functionality, 50 new FxPlug plug-ins, the new ability to import iMovie '08 projects, and more. Give his advance look a read to learn more about this important inclusions. Sounds like this one will be worth the update. Expect a full review from the Macworld folks soon.

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Apple By Brian Liloia

Apple earns a silver in environmental evaluation

Recently, Apple has been the target of much environmental criticism, especially from Greenpeace, and a recent EPEAT survey reinforces some of that negativity regarding the company's lack of environmental attention. EPEAT is a government operation created to approve computers before they can be purchased by other governmental institutions, and the organization gives product ratings based on a multitude of environmental criteria. Apple has earned five silver medals for several of its MacBook Pro systems, meaning that the company has passed 23 mandatory standards, and 14 of a possible 28 optional standards. The highest rank, gold, is rewarded to computers that have passed all 23 mandatory standards, plus 21 of 28 optional ones. For comparison, Toshiba has earned five golds, 15 silvers, and four bronzes, Dell has earned two golds and 12 silvers for its laptops, and Lenovo has 48 silvers and a single bronze under its belt. Hopefully Apple will step up and make a greater effort to address some of its environmental shortcomings in the near future and go for the gold.[via MacNN]

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Apps By Brian Liloia

Democracy Player now Miro

Back in March, the Participatory Culture Foundation announced that Democracy Player would be renamed as Miro, and the change is now official with a new release of the internet video player software, version 0.9.8 . The application's image has been totally revamped, including an overhaul of the official website and logo (of course), but the new technical preview version of Miro includes a dose of new additions and fixes, too: Keyboard shortcuts available on all platforms New 'report a bug' menu item added Veoh.com as a search engine added Additonal bug fixes and UI improvements Miro 0.9.8 requires Mac OS X 10.3+ and QuickTime 7. Check out a demo of the software in action here.

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Gaming

Gaming By Brian Liloia

Two 'casual' games coming soon via Aspyr Media

Aspyr Media recently announced the upcoming release of two so-called "casual" games for Mac OS X 10.3.9 (and up): Virtual Villagers and Travelogue 360: Paris, both created by Big Fish Games. These two titles are set to ship in August for $30 each. Virtual Villagers is a real-time strategy game in which players must guide villagers in rebuilding their land after a volcanic eruption. Travelogue 360: Paris is a simplistic puzzle game in which players must find hidden objects in multiple locales of Paris, France, and the game includes two different gameplay modes. Although these might not shake up the Mac game scene, it's nice to see some new titles coming soon via Aspyr. [via Macworld]

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TV & Movies

TV & Movies By Brian Liloia

iPod Film Festival entries online

This year, The Flux is hosting its second annual iPod Film Festival, the only festival dedicated to short films formatted specifically for Apple's portable media device. The top 25 finalists have been made available for viewing and download on The Flux's website or through iTunes, with entries in the Student, Indie and Kitchen Sink film categories. Don't be surprised to see at least one Mac-themed entry in there. Anyway, here's a good reason to fire up that iPod for some good ol' short film watching. Hmm... perhaps next year the fest will go meta, and only feature films about the iPod itself, formatted for the iPod?[via MacNN]

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Apple By Brian Liloia

Apple removes Final Cut Pro crossgrade option

Recently, Apple removed the Universal crossgrade option for the Final Cut Pro Studio suite of applications from its website. Previously, the crossgrade allowed customers to update their copies of software such as Final Cut Pro to Intel-native versions. And most interestingly, this unannounced move has come just before the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) conference in Las Vegas, which is set to begin on April 14. It has been rumored that Apple will make an announcement regarding a new version of Final Cut Pro at NAB, and this bit of news potentially supports that claim. Anyway, worth keeping in mind, and hopefully everyone took advantage of the crossgrade in time![via MacNN]

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Apple By Brian Liloia

One-stop-shop for Apple TV tech geekery: Apple TV Hacker

High-def video consultant Mike Curtis (of HD for Indies fame) has launched a new blog dedicated to the Apple TV, dubbed Apple TV Hacker, where he hopes to share his "latest reports and doodles and discoveries about what can be done with, and more importantly, TO an AppleTV." So, if you have any interest in tooling with your brandy new Apple TV beyond playing with the standard features, this site is shaping up to be a valuable resource for in-depth Apple TV tech geekiness. Expect much more content when he receives his own device and puts it through his own "heavy paces".

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Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity By Brian Liloia

Apple TV hacked to play XviD format videos

Word has come in that the Apple TV has been cleverly hacked (yes, already) to play XviD format videos, according to users from the Something Awful forums.To achieve this, the hardware hacker dissected the Apple TV, removing the hard drive and then mounting it on a Mac, where the drive pops up as a native HFS volume. (Notably, this proves that the device indeed runs a custom version of Mac OS X.) The user was then able to install Dropbear, an SSH server application, in combination with the video container Perian, and finally, a custom script was written to allow the Apple TV to properly read an XviD format video. Normally, of course, the device only recognizes MPEG4 and H.264 format videos out of the box. No other formats have been tested as of yet, and this hack unfortunately prevents video synchronization since the it uses reference QuickTime files for the videos to properly play. Perhaps this is just the beginning, though. [via MacNN]

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Apple By Brian Liloia

Avid2FCP: making the switch to Apple's Final Cut Pro

Avid has been the standard, and long-established, non-linear editing software of choice in the film industry until Apple's Final Cut Pro began to challenge its dominance, and now many Avid editors are making "the switch" to FCP as it has picked up the pace. With that, the "Avid versus Final Cut Pro" debate has always reared its head wherever editors gather, on websites, forums, etc., but now, Avid2FCP, an official resource has launched that hopes to ease the user transition from Avid to Apple's own video editing application.Avid2FCP is run by a group of experienced editors who hope to shared their "Switcher Stories", and other beneficial resources and guides for editors from Avid backgrounds that now work with Final Cut Pro. Despite the name of the site, it is not intended to be a jab at Avid, but instead make easier the shift to FCP, in a friendly and responsible fashion. There is some interesting content up now, and I expect that this site has the potential to grow into a very valuable resource for all video editors.

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Apple By Brian Liloia

Apple leads in website traffic in computer hardware category

According to a study by internet traffic analyst comScore, Apple currently leads in website traffic in the computer hardware category, attracting more than 36.7 million unique visitors this year as of February. Compared to last year, Apple garnered 24.2 million visitors in the same amount of time, which translates into a 50+% traffic increase over the past year. As far as other traffic stats, there were 66.4 million visits this February, with visitors averaging 1.8 visits. Notably, iTunes witnessed traffic growth of 71% since last year, with 26.5 million unique visitors this February. Whew.

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Apps By Brian Liloia

CookWare: organize your favorite recipes

Do you have too many random bookmarks to your favorite recipes, or print them out and shove the papers in a random cookbook somewhere? Ok, so maybe that's just me, but CookWare Deluxe is an inspiring bit of niche software that promises to organize all your favorite recipes (up to 64 quadrillion, in fact), in addition to a wealth of other handy food-related features. All you have to do is drag your favorite recipes into the application, and CookWare will reformat text and change quantity abbreviations according to your preferences, making everything nice and consistent when hunting through recipes later. You can even plan meals with the built-in calendar feature, and write and organize your shopping lists, and these lists and your recipes can be exported as HTML files so you can carry them around and to the store on your iPod. Ok, I think we're getting a little food-organization-crazy now. But seriously, the list of CookWare's features are impressively robust, and the brand new version 3.0 introduces a wealth of new features and options, and other minor enhancements. Unfortunately, I have not been able to download the program to try out myself (something appears to be wrong with the download link as I write this), but I'm looking forward to a test run. A single user license for CookWare Deluxe 3.0 rings in at $35.95.

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Apps By Brian Liloia

Democracy Player changes name to 'Miro'

What's in a name? Lots of things, including the difference between confusing and creating potential users of your application, apparently. That's why the Participatory Culture Foundation is renaming Democracy Player, its open source internet television surfing program, despite sticking with the original name for over a year. "Our early Mac beta versions of Democracy Player were called 'DTV'– we didn't think that we could be 'Democracy' until we had something substantial to offer... In all our debates about whether you could call something 'Democracy' and how people would react to the name, we hadn't realized that so many people would simply assume that the software was for politicians and videos about politics."With that, the new name will be Miro, and a there's a lesson to be learned here in the meantime: if you've got a potentially creative, but ultimately too symbolic and image-burdened name for your software, think twice about it. You can't always expect casual users to look beyond the name of an application to see its real use. Anyway, check out the official word from the folks themselves to get the full lowdown.

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Apple By Brian Liloia

Apple is America's most profitable retailer

In May of 2001, the first Apple Store descended upon Tysons Corner Center of McLean, Virginia. Six years later, there are now 174 Apple Stores spread across the globe, with the Fifth Avenue location in New York City attracting 50,000 customers per week. Sales average $4,032 per square foot (while shops like Tiffany & Co. stand at a measly $2,666), and in 2004, Apple reached $1 billion in annual sales faster than any US retailer, while sales hit $1 billion per quarter last year. In short: Apple has become one of the most successful retailers in America. It's not sheer chance or luck that has driven the success of Apple's retail venture, however: Apple has reinvented the design and operation of the retail store from the ground up, as is noted in this excellent and enlightening Fortune Magazine article. Check it out for a fascinating look behind the scenes of the development of the Apple Store, and how Steve Jobs and co. have landed a spot in Fortune's top 10 Most Admired Companies.

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Apps By Brian Liloia

Two versions of Photoshop CS3 coming your way

When the complete Adobe Creative Suite 3 package is revealed on March 27, Adobe will announce not one, but two distinct versions of Photoshop, including a standard Photoshop CS3 and the new Photoshop CS3 Extended. Photoshop CS3 Extended includes the same tools as Photoshop CS3, but it also contains a brand new set of features for the integration of 3D and motion graphics, and image measurement and analysis functions. This marks the first occasion in which more than one version of Photoshop will be made available, with the new version targeted at individuals in the fields of video, architecture, engineering, medicine, and science.With the new PS CS3 Extended, video editors and artists can perform 3D model visualization and texture editing functions, as well as the ability to paint and clone over multiple video frames. Final animations can be exported as QuickTime, MPEG-4, and Flash video, among others formats. Additionally, users in the scientific, medical, and architectural fields will be able to extract quantitative and qualitative data from images with special measurement and analysis tools, with support for specialized image formats. Kevin Connor, senior director of product management for Adobe digital imaging says: "At one point in time, we considered separate versions, but we found a lot of overlap in the features that these people needed.... Rather than create a new application, Extended is a superset of features that can specifically benefit people in those markets." An official list of features for Photoshop CS3 Extended, in addition to pricing information will be unveiled on March 27, and the complete CS3 suite will launch later in the spring.

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Computing

Computing By Brian Liloia

TrueDisc promises damage-resistant 'master copy' burning

TrueDisc is a new CD/DVD burning application that features "master copy" burning capabilities, for the creation of discs that are highly resistant to damage. TrueDisc (yes, the company shares the same name as its software) claims that up to 90% of a disc's data can be damaged before its software is unable to access and read it. To create a master copy, TrueDisc breaks up files into cells, adding special so-called "redundant cells" to protect the original content. That means the less data you burn to a disc, the more redundant cells that can be created, but TrueDisc promises maximum space efficiency, and the software uses a non-proprietary file format for the greatest ease of use for recovering data. The software supports burning of non-rewritable media only, such as CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R/DVD+R DL, and it is available for $52 for a limited time, with a regular price tag of $89.[via MacNN]

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Buying Guides

Buying Guides By Brian Liloia

Get 35% off Flip4Mac

Ok, so for whatever reason you just need to have the ability to encode darling little WMVs on your Mac, Flip4Mac is probably the way you'll want to go, and macZOT! makes the encoding software more appealing with a nice 35% off discount. The full-fledged Flip4Mac WMV Studio package typically runs $49, but with this offer (good for today only) the price gets knocked down to just under $32. As a side note, you don't need to spend any money to play Windows Media files: simply grab the free plugin. The software requires OS X 10.3.9, and QuickTime 6.5 or later. (Don't shoot the messenger!)

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Apps By Brian Liloia

VisualHub bumped up to v1.22

VisualHub, the popular and easy-to-use video encoding software by Techspansion, has been updated to version 1.22. This latest version offers a number of minor enhancements and bug fixes that should increase usability and productivity. There is nothing entirely new or groundbreaking to speak of, but it's always nice to keep those video encoders up-to-date and running without a hitch. For reference, VisualHub is a robust encoding solution that handles MPEG-4, WMV, MPEG, FLV, AVI, DV, MOV, TS, and a bunch of other formats. Be sure to check out the full list of improvements on Techspansion's page.

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TV & Movies

TV & Movies By Brian Liloia

Oscar-nominated short films in iTunes Store

There are two Oscar award categories with films that almost no one ever sees, and those are the live action and animated short films. Unfortunately, these films usually never make it past film festival circuits and don't receive wide distribution, and typically they are welcomed with a big "huh?" when they pop up during the Academy Awards ceremony. Anyway, this year's short film nominees are available for purchase in the iTunes Store, along with previous winners and nominees. Priced at $1.99 each, the videos are not much of a big investment and might be worth the price of admission, just to get a feel for what a Oscar-nominated short film looks like. The curious can scope them out here (warning: iTunes link).

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TV & Movies

TV & Movies By Brian Liloia

IFC films now available in iTunes Store

IFC Entertainment has just announced the immediate availability of select independent films in the iTunes Store, including IFC's 2007 Independent Spirit Award (think Oscars for indies) nominees. All thirteen films, six of which are nominees for the award ceremony this weekend, are available for purchase at $9.99. The other films are previous Independent Spirit Award nominees, highlighting some of the most critically acclaimed titles in IFC's catalog. Film titles include Me And You And Everyone We Know, The Thin Blue Line, Pizza, Sorry, Haters, Camp, Go Tigers!, and others. Also available are free podcasts dedicated to each of the movies with behind-the-scenes footage and discussions. No word on potential future releases from IFC.

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Apple By Brian Liloia

Apple TV takes over DVD world, or 30%, at least

I don't give predictions of market analysts too much serious thought, mostly because the statistics don't really mean much other than to hype up a particular product. Or maybe these analysts just like to be able to say 'told ya so' if their predictions become true. Anyway, one Deutsche Bank analyst claims that the Apple TV can potentially capture 20-30% of the CD and DVD market within a few years after its launch this month. Not to be a naysayer or anything, but that is a huge percentage that seems way too optimistic to be taken seriously. There are a ton of factors at play here. (Oh, and let's not forget that only Disney, Paramount, and Lions Gate are on board to sell films through iTunes... and as far as I know, there are a couple more movie studios out there than just these three). What do you think? Will the Apple TV cause that big of a shakeup in the home entertainment market once it lands? Will it appeal only to fervent Apple fans? What about those people that can barely operate the remote control of their DVD player, never mind tackling the prospect of downloading and transferring digital videos? Any thoughts?

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Apps By Brian Liloia

Democracy Player 0.9.5.1 update fixes important bug

A bug fix release for Democracy Player has just been posted that corrects some startup problems that a few Mac users have encountered since the 0.9.5 update. Democracy 0.9.5.1 resolves the issues originally caused by a conflict between versions of py2app and some input managers like Growl and a Camino extension. The team has upgraded to the latest py2app and all issues should now be resolved, so users can once again video channel surf to their heart's content. Recommended update.

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News

News By Brian Liloia

Spring Cleaning now Universal

Spring Cleaning, the system optimization, cleaning, and uninstaller utility from Smith Micro is now a Universal Binary. Completely rewritten from the ground up, version 9 introduces a wealth of new features and tools, such as a Task Scheduler, Permissions Fixer, a Housekeeping Scripts Runner, Spotlight Index Rebuilder, System Cache Cleaner, and others, in addition to a reworked interface. $49.99 for the package, or $19.99 for upgrades. Requires OS X 10.4. Although I can't vouch for this application, I will recommend OnyX for folks looking for something similar, and for free. I usually make sure to crack OnyX open every month or so for a bit of housekeeping of my own.(via Macworld)

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Voice-over recording with voXover

voXover is a new, high end voice-over automation and batch recording application for OS X intended for multimedia, video game, telephone voice-response, and related production uses. Designed for maximum efficiency for projects that require large amounts of individual voice recording, voXover allows the user to write and import scripts and rapidly automate recording. An advanced and streamlined utility designed in Cocoa from the ground up, this software takes advantage of CoreAudio, Quartz, and several other advanced OS X features. Developed by Audiofile Engineering, this is a serious audio recording utility for multimedia professionals, priced at $375. A full list of features can be found on the official website.

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