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Final Cut updates due in March or April, Steve Jobs still sour on Blu-ray
Hardmac has kicked off the new year with some more rumors about Final Cut Studio being updated. We already knew (since the app wasn't updated last September) that Final Cut Studio has been due for some streamlining, and Hardmac says that, indeed, there are multiple beta versions running around. There are reportedly both versions for Snow Leopard and the new OS X Lion being tested at Apple, with the Lion version taking advantage of some new video magic made available in QuickTime. Apparently, the feature set isn't completely nailed down yet, but Hardmac reckons that both new versions should be available by March or April. Hardmac's rumor report also mentions the Xserve, but before you get too excited, all they're saying is that there was a wave of strong feedback after Apple discontinued the hardware, including some from an Apple board member. The feedback reportedly says that the issue with Xserve wasn't ever the hardware -- it was the way Apple sold it. But it remains to be seen if that will change anyone's opinion about bringing it back in Cupertino, especially since a lot of that feedback was public anyway. And finally, Hardmac claims to have read an internal memo from Steve Jobs himself about Blu-ray, and he reportedly holds his position that Blu-ray's DRM and licensing deals are far too restrictive for Apple to get involved with the standard. That's nothing new -- Jobs also says that without DRM on iTunes, Apple was able to hit sales records and even finally get the Beatles, and that the future of media is in digital distribution and streaming, not a physical medium. All solid thinking, if you ask me. [via AppleInsider, MacRumors]
Apple updates MobileMe web apps
Apple released details of updates to MobileMe services for the web. It's the second time this month Apple has noted service updates for MobileMe. For Contacts, searching in large address books has been improved, along with better vCard-Address Book integration. You can also press Shift + Control + N to create a new contact while using the Contacts web app. Also included in the update is sorting of To Do items in Calendar, Japanese language support for iDisk file names, and the addition of several international domains that now work with hosted iWeb pages. A full list of the changes is available on Apple's website, along with changes from earlier this month. [Via Hardmac.com.]
How to supersize your Mac Pro's SuperDrive
Oh, those tricky engineers over at Apple; how they love to slip little treats inside their boxes. Recently we found out that Cupertino had surreptitiously included 802.11n chips from Broadcom into its latest lineup of all-in-one iMacs, and now we've learned that many of the SuperDrives in the Mac Pro are even more super than their spec sheets or current functionality would have led us to believe. The good folks over at HardMac decided to find out the real deal behind Sony's DW-D150A DVD burner that ships with most Mac Pros (the others sport a Pioneer DVR-111D), and after disassembling the drive and doing a little research, discovered that this previously-unknown model is actually just a rebadged NEC ND-4570A. Normally such a revelation wouldn't be very interesting, except for the fact that NEC's version of the burner touts superior performance and more features than Apple endowed the Sony with, and a fairly simple firmware tweak is all it takes to make your SuperDrive even more powerful. We won't go into the specifics of the hack here, but after you've successfully followed the instructions laid out in the Read link, your drive will suddenly be able to burn DVD-RAMs and dual layer DVD-Rs, write CD-R discs at 48x (as is, these SuperDrives max out at 32x), and perhaps best of all, read DVDs from around the world (i.e. the new firmware is region-free). Next up for Team HardMac? Getting ahold of some LabelFlash-compatible discs and attempting a firmware update to the ND-4571 -- soon, your Mac Pro may be able to get its label on as well.[Via TUAW]
