editing
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Apple ceases development of Aperture
During this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple briefly mentioned a brand new Photos app that will introduce editing tools and iCloud sharing. Today there's a bit of follow-up news, as Apple has confirmed it will cease development of Aperture, its professional photo-editing application. Apple provided the following statement to The Loop: With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, enabling you to safely store all of your photos in iCloud and access them from anywhere, there will be no new development of Aperture. When Photos for OS X ships next year, users will be able to migrate their existing Aperture libraries to Photos for OS. The Loop is also reporting that the forthcoming Photos app will also replace iPhoto, in an effort to create a continuous experience across every Apple device. The company's other pro editing apps like Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro will continue with development. R.I.P. Aperture, you served us well.
Big update for Final Cut Pro brings improved support for 4K and the new Mac Pro
As Apple's finally put its redesigned Mac Pro up for sale, the company's also seen fit to update editing software Final Cut Pro. Version 10.1 optimizes rendering and playback for the new Mac, but for users of other "select" Macs, the most significant change will likely be the addition of 4K monitoring over Thunderbolt 2 and HDMI. Since 4K playback requires a lot of bandwidth, it's probable only new Retina MacBook Pros with Thunderbolt 2 (and the new Mac Pro, of course) will be compatible with the feature. Regardless, now that the program fully supports 4K, you can upload straight to YouTube in that resolution, too. The update also revises how clips are organized using libraries, and generally adds a heap of workflow and behind-the-scenes improvements that could finally appease those who weren't impressed by Pro X when it launched. Final Cut companion wares Compressor and Motion have been updated, too, and both are now also able to share content in 4K. Compressor boasts a new look and broader encoding support, while Motion has adapted to the new Mac Pro and its dual AMD GPUs. As the version notes for all three updates are too numerous to squeeze in here, we recommend checking out the individual changelogs at the source links below.
Producing a podcast entirely with iOS is easier than you might think
Podcasting is something typically done at a desk with fancy microphones and editing software, but as Fraser Speirs -- co-host of the Out of School podcast -- details on his blog, it's something that can also be done quiet smoothly using iOS exclusively. The process isn't necessarily as slick as it can be with a professional setup, and as Speirs admits, the options for shining up sketchy audio aren't as robust as they are on a desktop, but it's definitely doable. Speirs uses a Samson Meteor mic (US$69.99), Skype (free) and the Auria LE app ($24.99) to record his casts while on the road with just his iPad and iPhone. If you're wondering why GarageBand isn't the go-to option for recording software, it's because the iOS version of the program only supports recordings of up to 10 minutes. Check out the full rundown of the process on the original blog post.
EQN's Steve Klug talks voxels and making editing fun
Would you like to know more about EverQuest Next's voxel-powered sandbox? SOE technical director Steve Klug recently gave an interview at EQNexus that focuses on the technology used to power the fully destructible fantasy world. "There are many different approaches to rendering voxels, but they all boil down to what amounts to a three dimensional pixel," Klug explains. "Using voxels allows for a very editable world. They allow for meaningful destruction during combat situations. They also allow you to build the castle or dungeon of your dreams." Klug also says that players will have access to the same building tools that SOE's developers use. The company is attempting "to make all aspects of editing really fun," Klug says. "So we like to think of them more as games unto themselves than just plain tools."
Native Instruments' new Maschine Studio controller keeps your eyes on the music
When you're focused on music editing, you don't want to switch back and forth between a computer screen and a hardware controller. With Native Instruments' newly unveiled Maschine Studio, you won't have to. The peripheral expands on the original Maschine with dual color displays that let musicians edit patterns and samples without having to glimpse at the host PC. The upgrade also adds new editing controls, and a revised Maschine 2.0 software suite simplifies plug-ins. Maschine Studio will ship on November 1st for $999, although you won't have to buy one to get the new software. NI promises that anyone who buys a Maschine or Maschine Mikro from now on will get a free update to 2.0; existing owners can also pay $99 for an upgrade.
Photoshop and Premiere Elements 12 now available, learn editing preferences
Adobe's Creative Cloud not your thing? Photoshop and Premiere Elements 12 have just arrived to please your subscription-averse (and beginner-level) nature. The latest version of the outfit's photo suite features Content-Aware Move for shifting objects within a photo and having the resulting gaps filled in, the ability to correct flash reflections in animals' eyes and 64-bit support for Macs. Elements Mobile Albums are new to this release as well, and they let users view, edit and share photos on mobile devices through the firm's Revel solution. Premiere Elements boasts motion tracking to move graphics, text and effects with objects, upwards of 250 sound effects and more than 50 soundtracks that rearrange themselves to fit the length of footage. Both the video and photo editing packages sport Auto Smart Tone, which learns a user's editing preferences and serves them up in a one-click option. While both programs have picked up a healthy share of upgrades, the pricing model remains unchanged. Mac and Windows versions are now available online from Adobe for $100, or $150 when purchased in a bundle. Upgrades are set at $80 for each, or $120 when the pair are snapped up together. As for boxed copies of the software, they'll be available soon form brick-and-mortar shops and online retailers.
Black Betty 2K camera can shoot, cut and upload video with built-in Mac Mini
The Black Betty company has just hit the scene with a cinema camera that pulls an astounding trick -- it's got a freaking desktop computer jammed into the body. Camera-wise, there's a 2/3-inch 2K sensor with a 16mm lens mount developed by Silicon Imaging and used in films like Slumdog Millionaire. That'll capture 2K or 1080p, 160-500 ISO footage at up to 30fps (or more for lower resolutions), and bring 11 stops of dynamic range via CineForm compressed RAW files. The feature that made us triple-take, though, is the built-in Apple Mac Mini with a special dock for swapping in and out 2.5-inch SSDs. That Mini isn't just for recording, either, you can leverage its semi-portable power to edit and even upload videos in-camera. And, if you'd like, you can detach the camera head and 7-inch, 720p monitor from the computer and tether it via ethernet. It can only be rented for now, but No Film School said the 10-pound heft made it very well balanced, and it sports a nice retro look, too -- who knew a sideways Mac Mini could double for a movie camera magazine?
MixBit for iPhone: Shooting, editing and sharing bits of video
It's rare for individuals and companies to create one successful product after another, Steve Jobs and Apple being the notable exception. Today marks the official release of MixBit for iPhone, a free video app from Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, the two founders of a little success called YouTube. What makes MixBit different from the fairly recent video sharing apps like Vine and the updated Instagram? Well, while you can shoot video bits as short as one second long and up to 16 seconds long, you can also stitch up to 256 of those bits together to create an hour-long opus. [The MixBit approach is pretty different from the socially minded CrowdFlik, but both do involve stitching short clips together to deliver a full video experience. –Ed.] MixBit has a surprisingly iOS 7-like minimal interface, so it will be right at home once the new mobile OS ships from Apple. Recording is done by using a touch-and-hold gesture, and the individual clips are then stored as independent video elements. Those bits of video can be dragged and dropped to rearrange them, deleted with a tap or two or cut to a shorter length. Once you're done with your editing, the bits play back as one seamless video, at which time it can be saved and / or published. There's also no need to shoot your own video. Through MixBit.com, users can watch, download and then remix (hence the "mix" part of MixBit) videos that have been submitted by others. I can't wait to see what happens when someone takes bits of "4 Ways To Remove A Beard" and mixes them with "Free Hugs" to make "Removing Beards with Free Hugs." I might even pay to see that...
Wikipedia mobile editing exits beta
The good folks at the Wikimedia Foundation have been toying with the concept of mobile editing for some time now, attempting to tap into the 15-percent of its user base who read the open encyclopedia on mobile devices. It's a growing segment of the population that includes potential readers in developing nations where handsets are far more prevalent than desktops. Of course, mobile editing has been a hard puzzle to crack, given the complexity of tools and the limitations of screen real estate on such devices, but Wikimedia's been toiling away with beta versions for a while, after mastering photo uploading. Now it's finally ready to open it up to all users with an account. For more info on getting started, peep the source link below.
Daily iPhone App: Clone Booth is wacky, but simple
We reported last month that the makers of You Don't Know Jack, formerly called Jellyvision, had changed its name to Jackbox Software. Now, Clone Booth is the very first release under the new brand. Unfortunately, this isn't a game at all. It's a utility of sorts that lets you insert your face into a number of different old-timey pictures, "cloning" yourself in wacky ways. You can see an example of how it works above -- you snap a picture on one face, and then you can fix or adjust the other faces as needed. Unfortunately, it's all just for one face, so you can't snap a few different faces and insert them into the photos as needed. That seems like it would have been a fun option, and added a little more functionality to the app. When you're done, you can share your photos off to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or the other standard services you see above. Clone Booth is simple and it's only US$0.99. If the photo above makes you giggle and the prospect of making your own seems like it's worth a buck, go nuts. The rest of us will probably wait and see what Jackbox is working on next.
Chrome OS dev channel gains Quickoffice powers, lets users edit native Excel and Word files
Chrome OS hardware continues to proliferate, and on the software front, Google continues to add features to the platform in the hopes of persuading more folks to exit the traditional PC paradigm. Today marks a significant step in achieving that latter goal, as the dev channel of Chrome OS has received the ability to edit Excel and Word files thanks to Quickoffice integration. While it's not ready for public consumption just yet, it shows that Google's getting close to fulfilling its promise to deliver native doc editing to the Pixel and other Chromebooks. Should you be among those on the dev channel of Chrome OS, you can enable the functionality now by going to chrome://flags, enabling document editing and restarting your machine. According to developer François Beaufort -- the man who discovered the functionality -- editing's still a glitchy process, but the more folks that use the feature now, the faster the problems can be found and fixed. The power of productivity is in your hands, people, so get cracking squashing those bugs!
CrowdFlik enables ad-hoc video collaboration at events
A couple of years ago, I attended a school concert where one of my children was performing. As I looked around the gymnasium, it was immediately obvious when a particular set of parents had their children taking the stage; the phones and cameras all appeared suddenly, like gophers peeping out of their holes. "What a shame," I thought, "that there's not a good collaboration tool for all of us to securely share our photos and videos from this event. Imagine the edited version of the video, using all the different shots from around the room!" I didn't notice him hanging around, but apparently Chris Hamer was standing nearby with his mind-reading ray. The former advertising and marketing exec is now the CEO of CrowdFlik, and his company has created an event-centric video app that's aimed squarely at those soccer game and school concert videographers (plus bigger public events). Hamer's brainwave is all about synchronization. It would be prohibitively tough to sync up all the video shot at an event, unless the devices had lined up their time codes in advance. That's the CrowdFlik trick: when you open the app and create or join an event (tied into your phone's location), the app checks with the US Naval Observatory's master atomic clock to make sure it's microsecond-accurate. From that point forward, the recorded clips (in 10-second chunks) will line up perfectly with the recordings of other participants. You can watch other CrowdFlikers' videos in the app, and upload and share your own. The real fun comes in remixing, though: once the videos are processed in the cloud, you can pick an event to slice and dice at will. Each 10-second segment "stack" shows you all the available clips covering that moment, and you simply tap the one you want to move it into the video timeline. Your finished "Flik" can be synced back to the CrowdFlik cloud, and since the app is only moving the EDL (edit decision list -- the information about which clips are used when, not the clips themselves) the transfer is speedy compared to a full video upload. CrowdFlik requires Facebook authentication to log in (other services are coming), and the app's rough edges show that it's still very much a 1.0 -- although the relatively flat UI should work out nicely on iOS 7. There's no privacy option for events, for instance, although that feature is on the roadmap. Hamer has big plans for the service, though, and he anticipates some interesting use cases for big concerts, sporting events and other mass-scale crowd situations. Imagine a promoter or band offering loyalty points or other perks for CrowdFlik users who volunteer their video to be used on the band's tour site -- that sort of thing is a possibility. The CrowdFlik app is free for iPhone 4, 4S and 5 and is on the App Store now (note that the App Store description says it's compatible with the 3GS and iPod touch, but that's not recommended). An iPad-optimized version is in the works. Here's a video demo from Hamer at TechCrunch Disrupt, showing how an early beta of the CrowdFlik app works.
Sony Anycast Touch live-broadcasting system hands-on (video)
The Anycast Touch is not only a sleeker incarnation of Sony's all-in-one studio, with a slider design and a manageable-enough 6.6-kg (13-pound) body; it's also the company's first such system to feature a touchscreen interface. The machine sports two touch-enabled displays, allowing users to adjust audio controls, type via an on-screen keyboard and edit footage, among other functions. Video sources are assigned to one side of the panel, and tapping a particular input will bring up the footage in the middle preview window. It seems like an intuitive interface, especially given all the live-broadcasting controls on board -- a six-input video switcher, a five-channel audio mixer, a built-in character and title generator, and a remote camera controller, just to name a few. Aside from the touchscreens, built-in live-streaming capability is one of the Anycast Touch's most unique features. On the show floor, Sony was sharing the product's output with WiFi-enabled devices. According to the company, this functionality will be useful in educational settings, at houses of worship, corporate seminars and any other events intended to reach a broad audience. The Anycast could even help news producers scale back on their own gear, letting them trade those gigantic live trucks for live vans or sedans, for example. Pricing info isn't set in stone, but Sony says the MSRP will be less than $20,000 when the device ships at the end of summer. There's simply a ton of functionality here, so we definitely recommend checking out the studio-in-a-box in action in our hands-on video after the break for a bit more detail. %Gallery-185049%
Open source video editing program needs help on Kickstarter, offers immortality in return
Forget having kids. Forget mind-transfers. Real immortality lies in naming a video transition after yourself. No, seriously. To make eternity happen, you simply need to donate $500 to Jonathan Thomas's Kickstarter project and in return he'll let you create and name a transition effect in a new cross-platform version of his free, open source video editing program, called OpenShot. Currently Linux-only, it supports regular timeline-based video editing with layers and compositing, transitions, effects, titles and support for a wide range of AV formats courtesy of the usual open source codec libraries. If it reaches its $20k goal, Thomas will start work on editions for Windows and Mac OS alongside Linux, anticipating a beta release before the end of the year. Smaller donations will receive more minor possessions in the afterlife, such as your name in the credits. Bigger pledges -- of up to $10,000 -- will flip things around slightly and require Jonathan Thomas to sell you his soul. Go get it, Pharoah!
Draft cloud editor saves writing in stages, imports from just about anywhere
Although web-based editors like Google Docs are wonderful for writers who don't have a save shortcut hardwired in their muscle memory, they're lousy for anyone who's interested in seeing major revisions on the road to a final copy. Nathan Kontny's new Draft web app might be far more helpful for those creators who work step by step. It lets writers declare given document versions as mid-progress drafts, and offers editing side-by-side with older versions to see just what's new in the current session. The app also avoids some of the lock-in that comes with cloud services by allowing imports and syncing with Box, Dropbox, Evernote and Google Drive. There's no easy way to directly publish online as this stage, but if you're only concerned with producing a masterwork in the cloud from start to draft to finish, Kontny's web tool is waiting at the source link.
Magisto adds still photos to its AI video editing witchery (video)
Short of serving the popcorn, Magisto's editing app can take care of the video production needs for the busy (or artistically challenged), including helping with music choices, chopping it all together and even distributing it across video albums. However, one sorely lacking feature was the ability to include photos, which the developer has just rectified in its latest update with a "smart photo feature." After you pick your images, the system's algorithms "choose the most compelling moments within the pictures and videos, and automatically marry them in a narrative format," according to Magisto -- even matching photo and video subject matter via AI. From there, it'll add graphical themes, music and transitions to fill out the movie while you tend to more pressing matters. The iOS version is now at the App Store with an Android release arriving shortly, and the company said it'll soon add morphing, image foreground / background separation and other effects. If you want more than the five images the freebie version offers, you'll need to pay $18 a year for the premium app -- but all that extra free time should let you go earn the bucks to pay it off.
Givit makes video editing, sharing easier
Every year at Macworld/iWorld I see another great video application for iOS. Last year one of the Best of Show winners was Game Your Video, a nifty app for adding effects to video. While I enjoyed the app, it wasn't very straightforward, and editing wasn't a great experience. Givit, on the other hand, almost nails the simplicity of finding and adding those moments you capture to a cohesive timeline and gives you some worthwhile sharing options (in other words: Not just Facebook). In fact, the full name is Givit Video Highlighter. That's pretty much what it is, but there are some power tools lurking under the surface. First, you can take whatever video you want using your iDevice. Next, you bring in your clips and find the moments you want, and select what are called "highlights" -- which then pop into a small timeline (although the metaphor is not emphasized, as it is more familiar to video editors). I was impressed at how easy it was to find clips and add them to the timeline. There are a few video effects possible, like speeding up and slowing down video, and tricks like "instant replay" will loop a certain number of times while also adding slow-motion. I'm told there may be more effects later, but if you shoot family or sports videos, Givit is already a powerful option. Unlike Vine, there isn't really a specific time limit. A person at the booth said "they could be 30 minutes" but I didn't get a hard limit on the time. For now, Givit is a bit limited to streamlining editing, adding some effects if you wish, and putting some music into the video. I'm told they are adding titles and the ability to import images soon. The sharing and collaboration features are outstanding, however. While I didn't get a chance to try them out here at Macworld, the team behind Givit has some experience working on the Flip cameras which had sharing tools built in (after they were purchased and subsumed by Cisco). Of course you have your standard Facebook, YouTube and Twitter sharing. Givit supports cards on Twitter, which makes for a more pleasant experience. But Givit also provides a private sharing option. Just upload your video to Givit and you'll get an email which you can send to others. Anyone wanting to view the video will need to set up a free account, but it's not a bad option for sharing family videos. Even better, via the web interface you can connect Givit to your Dropbox or SkyDrive account. You can then drop video clips there, open them up in the app and edit the videos. This collaborative video editing on iOS is a wonderful idea, and I'm not aware of another app which does it this well. If you're shooting video at one location and need to quickly get it to your editor at another location, this may the easiest thing to use to get the job done. If you happen to upload more than 5 GB, Givit has a premium storage offering at just under US$30 a year. Like Flickr, if you are a power user this will be a great and relatively cheap option. Givit isn't perfect, as I found the UI could use just a bit more polish and style. But Givit has two great things going for it: It is one of the easiest video editing apps I've ever seen, and collaborative editing is a powerful tool for content creators. As a free app to try and use, I suggest giving it a spin.
Kim Dotcom's Mega cloud storage launches for early adopters
Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom has been promising what's almost a sort of renaissance through his Mega cloud storage service. Now that it's open to the first wave of users, we have an inkling of what that strategy shift entails. Mega is currently just a simple-to-use parking place for data with a relatively large 50GB of storage in a free tier. However, it may grow quickly: there's promises of Google Docs-style editing, instant messaging and mobile access, among other plans. Eventual paid plans will offer considerably more storage of between 500GB for €10 per month ($13) to 4TB for €30 ($40), albeit with a bandwidth cap of twice the storage at any given level. As such, Mega is mostly a bundle of potential -- but it may stand out from the pack if ambition matches reality.
Magisto sharpens its AI video editing algorithm, adds themes, albums and group editing
Sure, Magisto's automatic video editing algorithms are great for social media mashup clips, but what if you want to use the service's robotic sense of cinema to tell a story? CEO Oren Boiman says it's just what social video is missing, and has tweaked the service to fill the gap. Users now have access to a collection of themes to change how their footage is handled. The idea is to tip the algorithm in on the emotion the user is trying to convey, selecting "so cute" or "street beat" to cue it to select appropriately adorable or aggressive song suggestions, special effects or title treatments. The service also added a new video album feature, making it easier to organize and share videos with friends and family, and hopes to implement a collaborative editing system soon -- complete with post-production tools to tweak the computer's direction. Of course, you could always do things the old fashioned way.
Google adds spreadsheet creation and editing to mobile versions
Google has added the capability to both create and edit spreadsheets to its Google Drive apps, so you can now calculate and tally up whatever you like in a spreadsheet while out on the go. Users could previously browse shared spreadsheets on the app, but the latest update, for version 1.2.0, brings full spreadsheet editing capability in for all users. The update also adds a new screen to view recent Drive uploads, and you can also now upload to Google Drive directly from a mobile device. Just use the "Open in..." feature in whatever app your document is currently sitting in, and Google Drive should appear as an option. Open it up there, and the doc will automatically be uploaded to Google's cloud service. Pretty snazzy. Of course, Google Drive remains a free service (at least to start) and the app is still a free download.
