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Daily Update for August 22, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
iStopMotion 3 for Mac released, can now use iPhone or iPad as remote camera
Our buddies at Boinx have just announced the availability in the Mac App Store of iStopMotion 3 for Mac. The new release of the stop motion animation app comes with a drastically reduced price point as well -- iStopMotion 3 will be available for a limited time for US$29.99, with a regular price of $49.99. That's down from the $499.99 price tag on iStopMotion 2 Pro. That lower price doesn't mean that iStopMotion 3 has fewer features; in fact it actually has all of the capabilities of the previous version plus a bunch of new ones. The app has a new look and support for Retina displays, integration with Final Cut Pro X, and is compatible with OS X Mountain Lion. One of my favorite new features? The ability to use an iPad or iPhone as a remote camera for the app. To use your iOS device as an HD camera, you just need to download the free iStopMotion Remote Camera app from the iTunes Store. We'll have a full review of iStopMotion 3 for Mac soon; in the meanwhile, be sure to check out the press release below for more details and consider picking up this awesome app at an unbelievably low price. Show full PR text iStopMotion 3 Launches With Support For Using iPhone As A Camera New Mac version allows users to create stunning HD stop motion and time lapse videos using their iPhone as a camera, sports a new look optimized for the Retina display and more; Introductory price of 29.99 USD ends August 31st Puchheim, Germany – August 22, 2012 – Today, the brand new iStopMotion 3 is coming to a Mac near you, with the added ability to create beautiful HD movies using an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch as a camera via the free iStopMotion Remote Camera app. Its new look is fully optimized for the MacBook Pro's riveting new Retina display. iStopMotion 3 also has enhanced app security by being sandboxed and signed with DeveloperID. It is localized in English, German, French, Japanese and Russian. All this plus all features from the previous iStopMotion 2 Pro (formerly priced at 499.99 USD), iStopMotion 3 is available for just 49.99 USD, with a limited-time-only introductory price of 29.99 USD. "When we were kids, we made stop motion movies in the backyard with my father's Super-8 camera. We waited anxiously for weeks for the film to come back from processing, till we could see the results. Today, we want to build the best stop motion animation app out there to make it as easy as possible for stop motion enthusiasts like ourselves to create films they love," comments Oliver Breidenbach, CEO, Boinx Software. "That's why we decided to consolidate previous versions of iStopMotion - which cost up to 500 USD - into one powerful package and offer the full-featured product at a rock bottom price. It's important to us that all stop motion filmmakers, young and old, have access to the best tools for creation out there." Support for the iStopMotion Remote Camera Taking a cue from its sister app, iStopMotion for iPad, the newest version of iStopMotion for the Mac adds support for using an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch as a versatile HD camera for creating stop motion and time lapse videos. Available free of charge from the App Store, iStopMotion Remote Camera transmits a live video feed and supports 1080p remote capture with the iPhone 4S and the iPad (3rd gen), and 720p with iPhone 4, iPod touch (4th gen) and iPad 2. Additional New Features in iStopMotion 3 A brand new look optimized for Apple's new Retina display Enhanced app security with sandboxing and signed with DeveloperID Integration with Final Cut Pro X Compatible with OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion Changes From Previous Versions To create the best stop motion animation and time lapse movie making package, Boinx has consolidated all previous versions into one iStopMotion, bringing all the animation features from the former Pro version (previously priced at 499.99 USD), including the ability to create HD movies, to the unified version, all for one fantastically low price. iStopMotion 3 Pricing and Availability - Special Introductory Price for a Limited Time Only! iStopMotion 3 is now available both from the Mac App Store and the Boinx Website for 29.99 USD. This special introductory price ends August, 31st, 2012. Beginning September 1st, 2012, the price will be 49.99 USD. It is localized in English, German, French, Japanese and Russian. Because iStopMotion 3 has been updated to include all features of previous versions, discounted upgrades and updates from previous versions are not available. Volume Licenses for Education Special multi-seat licensing is available for educational institutions. Get your quote here! iStopMotion 3 requires OS X 10.7.4 Lion or newer.
TUAW and MacTech interview: Boinx Software
Boinx makes some of our favorite tools, including BoinxTV and iStopMotion. In this video, Neil Ticktin (Editor-in-Chief, MacTech Magazine) interviews Oliver Breidenbach of Boinx Software at WWDC 2012. Oliver was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements on WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward.
Daily iPad App: Boinx iStopMotion brings stop motion animation to iOS
Boinx Software is one of my favorite Apple development companies. I use their Boinx TV app to produce TUAW TV Live every week, and all of our onsite video from Macworld Expo 2011 went through Boinx TV. Their Fotomagico software has been a slideshow favorite for years, and their You Gotta See This! iOS app does a cool job of creating photo collages on the iPhone. Now the company is moving the powerful iStopMotion Mac app to the iPad, and has created a new iPhone app (iStopCamera) to act as a remote camera for iStopMotion for iPad. iStopMotion for iPad (US$4.99) is an app that is designed to get younger iPad users into the thrill of making animated movies through the magic of stop motion animation. When the app is launched, a pair of clay figures are animated to show you how to use iStopMotion. The "star" of the tutorial, a little yellow figure with spiky hair, will be named in a user contest coming up shortly. The app itself is available on Thursday, December 15 -- TUAW was given a preview of both iStopMotion for iPad and the companion iStopCamera app. You can either use the front or back camera on an iPad 2, or use a free companion app -- iStopCamera -- on another iOS device to send frame photos to the iPad on which you're creating your masterpiece. I found it ridiculously easy to link my iPhone 4S camera to the iStopMotion app via Wi-Fi and then use the app to snap each frame by tapping a button on the iPad app screen. %Gallery-141667% The app defaults to a frame rate of 12 frames per second. For a 16-second animation like the one I produced, that means you're looking at 192 frames. In between each frame, I moved one of the objects just a little bit. iStopMotion shows you the location of the objects in the last frame, and then you can see where the new locations are going to be. There's a setting to add a grid to the screen for more accurate movement. If you'd rather make a time-lapse movie by shooting frames at regular intervals, there's a mode for that as well. You can have the app take a picture at any interval between 1 second and one hour. How easy is iStopMotion for iPad to use? The 16-second animation was made after just watching the intro video with the "claymation" figures, and I think it went pretty well. At any point, you can tap a play button to view your animation up to the last frame, and when you're done, you flip back to the gallery to name your animation and share it. Sharing can be done via email, the Photo library on your iPad, or YouTube, and in a number of resolutions. I chose to keep mine at 1280 x720 pixels. iStopMotion for iPad doesn't offer any way to add audio to your animation, so I chose to export it to the Photo library, import it onto my Mac through iPhoto, then export the file to my Mac desktop. Next, I imported the movie into Garage Band and added an audio stinger from the standard Garage Band set. The result isn't perfect, but considering it's a first attempt, I think it's pretty darned good! Once again, Boinx has done an excellent job of taking something that could be rather difficult to accomplish and making it easy to do. iStopMotion for iPad isn't just good for kids -- I can think of situations where I'd like to put together fun little stop motion animations for TUAW or special occasions, and with this app it's a piece of cake. Is anything missing from this first version of iStopMotion for iPad? Yeah, I'd like to see a simple way of adding titles and credits to an animation (sure, I can export the video and then bring it into iMovie for iPad, but wouldn't it be cool to do it in one app?), and it would also be nice to have a way of adding a soundtrack and effects to an animation. But heck, this is version 1.0, so I'm sure we're going to see some additions in a future update. All in all, iStopMotion for iPad is a lot of fun for $4.99. If you've ever had the desire to make stop motion animations and you own an iPad, be sure to buy the app when it arrives on the App Store on December 15. In the meantime, you can watch my little animation to see how well the app works and look at the screenshots of the app in action.
WWDC Interview: Boinx Software
This week TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at WWDC about the keynote and how Apple's new technologies will help them and their customers. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll bring you those videos here, at MacTech.com and at MacNews.com. Also, check out the free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here. In this video I have a chat with Oliver Breidenbach from Boinx Software, makers of FotoMagico, iStopMotion, PhotoPresenter, Mouseposé and one of the tools we use for our Macworld streaming setup: BoinxTV. This week at WWDC Boinx introduced Orientator for BoinxTV and LibOrientator for iOS devs. Most of the Boinx products are available in the Mac App Store as well, often in a "pro" and "home" version with pricing according to your needs. Oliver's team delivers a great suite of tools for animators, filmmakers, videographers and presenters. We spoke about their business and what the WWDC announcements mean to them.
Boinx offers Spring savings on its "Home" products
From now until Monday, May 23, Mac users with a craving to create can save a bundle on iStopMotion Home, FotoMagico Home, or BoinxTV Home when purchased through the Mac App Store. Each product is available for US$9.99 during the sale announced by the German software maker Boinx earlier this week. Boinx's iStopMotion Home transforms your Mac into an animation studio. With it, toys, clay, drawings, or other everyday items can become stars of your own animated hits. It's normally priced at $49. FotoMagico Home allows aspiring photographers to combine photos with music and transitions to create eye-catching slideshows. The non-sale price for this software package is $29. Lastly, BoinxTV Home turns your Mac into a personal TV studio. It's an affordable solution for adding spice to the YouTube videos and video podcasts you create at home. During the sale, BoinxTV Home is discounted from its retail price of $49.99. With prices discounted by up to 80%, this weekend's sale is a good opportunity to try some well-crafted, award-winning titles without devastating your wallet.
BoinxTV Home out tomorrow on the Mac App Store
Mike Schramm and I just spoke with Oliver Breidenbach from Boinx, and we're pretty excited to hear about a new Mac App Store release (tomorrow) of a new version of BoinxTV: BoinxTV Home. It's a consumer-level version of the live-broadcast software with a lower price point and distribution through the Mac App Store. We've covered BoinxTV on TUAW a few times, and it's great to see a more affordable version coming to the masses. In contrast to its US$299-$499 older sibling, BoinxTV Home will be $49.99, and it's geared more toward YouTube than broadcast applications. It only works with one camera, but still accepts all video inputs from other applications, so there are plenty of possibilities. It also caps out at 15 layers, but that's more than enough for the average "home" user. Overall, it sounds to us like a good move and will bring BoinxTV to a larger group who could really make use of it's impressive capabilities. Oliver will be demoing the new version for us tomorrow, so tune in to the TUAW live stream at 11:30 PST tomorrow to see it!
Those wacky Boinx guys release You Gotta See This! iPhone 4 app
Over the past few days Boinx, the German developers of Boinx TV and other exciting products, have been teasing everyone with word of a new iPhone 4 app. Well, in a highly-publicized live event this morning (evening in Deutschland), the company announced a new app, You Gotta See This! (US$1.99). It's the first iPhone app for the company, so they introduced it to the world with a lot of fanfare. The app requires an iPhone 4. Why? Because it uses the internal gyroscope of the device to automatically take photos while you're moving the camera around you. It then assembles the photos into one of six collage themes in near real-time. You don't need to worry about aligning edges of photos; the app knows the orientation of the iPhone 4 during the moment when each photo is being captured, so it takes care of the alignment for you. Boinx developers came up with the idea of You Gotta See This! after WWDC 2010, where they realized that regular panorama apps weren't interesting enough to really show someone else what you were looking at. I downloaded the app during the announcement and put it to use immediately taking the photo at the top of the post. Of course, it's just my overgrown back yard, but it's pretty cool for a first try. This type of photography is called "panography," and the Boinx team found artistic inspiration in the work of David Hockney, an artist who worked with photocollages. Hockney is also known for his portraits painted with Brushes on iPhone and iPad.
BoinxTV 1.0 released today
We had a little teaser for BoinxTV during WWDC this summer. If you missed it, it's a joint project between Boinx Software and The Coding Monkeys, aimed at smaller producers of video (video podcasters, school TV shows, anyone who doesn't have their own production studio ... ), with the goal of improving presentation and removing the need for any post-production. BoinxTV 1.0 was released today after months of beta testing and nightly builds. It's stable, powerful and, most of all, fun. The easy-to-use system of layers, (which can consist of on-screen graphics, video sources, lower thirds, etc.) allows for simple setup and easy, live production of professional-quality video presentations. There are over 30 available layer types, all customizable, and custom layers can be created with Apple's Quartz Composer software (free with OS X). BoinxTV includes professional-grade chroma-keying which, with a decent green screen and lighting setup, makes transporting yourself or your cast to exotic locations a breeze. The software is targeted at video producers who could benefit from losing the tedium of post-production. If you have an existing production setup and demand finite control, you'll probably want to stick with what you have. For educational institutions, video podcasters and anyone who needs a rapid transition from recording to publication, though, it's an ideal solution. BoinxTV retails at $499. If your needs don't justify that kind of hefty price tag, a "sponsored" version is available for $199. The only requirement for using that version is that every production must credit BoinxTV. Not a bad tradeoff, really. A free demo is available, and the software is available for purchase today. Visit the BoinxTV page for more information.
WWDC '08: Boinx + TheCodingMonkeys = BoinxTV
We heard from TheCodingMonkeys last week, and there was mention of a joint project with Boinx Software. Being a big fan of Boinx software (iStopMotion, Mousepose, Fotomagico), I couldn't wait to see what they had up their sleeves. The project is called BoinxTV, and it's going to be an invaluable tool for a wide range of video production applications. It allows for on-the-fly camera switching, transitions, lower thirds, graphics, logos, crawlers, graphs, title, you name it. And when you finish a run, you've got a QuickTime movie that requires no post production (unless you really want to). Oliver and Dominik share more about its audience and development in the video after the jump. If you're interested in hearing more about the beta and staying up-to-date on the current status, check out http://www.boinx.com/boinxtv. I've been asked to emphasize that BoinxTV is pre-release. Many aspects of it, including the UI pictured above, are constantly changing and improving. [Viddler link|QuickTime format]
Mousepos 2
Mouseposé 2 introduces soft edges and click animations to the premier mouse highlighting application on the market today. The most interesting feature, though, isn't a feature of the application per se.What the heck am I talking about? Mouseposé, using the text to speech capabilities of your Mac, gives you a guided tour of all the settings that are available to you. Very slick.Mouseposé 2 costs $9.95 and it is a Universal Binary.
iStopMotion 1.10.1
iStopMotion 1.10.1 from Boinx software is out, and it has a cool new feature for Apple Remote enabled Macs. That's right, you can use the remote to interact with the program. The menu button takes a picture (this is a stop motion program, in case you didn't know) and the play button plays the movie you are working on. That's pretty nifty.If you are interested in stop motion photography then iStopMotion is the way to go. There is a free demo and the full version costs $40.
