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Apple.com reveals iLife upgrade, reaffirms MacBook Air refresh
Ah, it's good to see Apple can leak its announcements ahead of time just like the rest of the world. Overzealous forum mods on Apple's own site have been setting up Discussions sections for products to be announced at today's Back to the Mac event a little early, which has inevitably been picked up by some sleuthing souls over in Poland. A little bit of URL manipulation has revealed separate forums for a new iMovie '11, iPhoto '11, and GarageBand '11, all three of which are core components of the iLife suite, leading us to go ahead and presume that Steve Jobs will be discussing an iLife '11 later today. There's also confirmation of the new MacBook Air with an "MBA (Need official name)" forum emerging, alongside a mysterious "Reserved 20 10" destination. [Thanks, MM]
Rumor: iLife '11 to be 64-bit, iOS compatible
iLife, the software suite that is included on every Mac and is made up of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD, hasn't been updated to a new version since January, 2009. That, of course, is making many of us in the Apple world curious about when the next version of the suite will appear on the market. Many Mac pundits believe the next edition will be iLife '11, and we've already seen several of the rumored release dates fly past without sign of the new iLife. Now some sharp-eyed Apple fans have noticed that there's a book listed on the German Amazon site with the title "iLife '11: Digital pictures, movies, music and more" and a release date of December, 2010. The translated description notes that the suite is entirely 64-bit, and that iPhoto will receive integration with social networking. iWeb has been "rewritten" from the ground up, and iDVD is no longer included with the suite. There's mention of a "new application," but no word on what the function or name of the new member of the suite will be. The red banner on the cover mockup at left reads "iPhoto, iMovie and more, with Apps for Mac, iPhone 4, iPod and iPad," which implies that iOS versions of the applications will be available as well. At this time, of course, iMovie is available for iOS, and it would not be much of a stretch to assume that iOS-compatible versions of the other applications could be developed. After all, Apple made an iPad version of iWork available on day one. The book is written by Uwe Nerger, who has no other published titles to his name. That brings up the question how an unpublished author has been given access to a suite of applications that many published authors of Apple tomes have not seen. Take this rumor with a fist-sized grain of salt. [via AppleInsider]
Mac 101: Use Preview to display a slideshow (update)
Over the weekend I went to visit some relatives I haven't seen for some time. As is required by such family gatherings, I brought a large number of photographs to share with them. I planned to show the photographs on my MacBook, which has recently been refurbished, but hasn't had iPhoto reinstalled on it. Running late, I didn't have time to install it as planned. As a last resort, I thought I'd just show the photos using Quick Look and scroll through them in full screen. When I eventually got round to showing off my photos (you know, that rather drowsy time just after dinner), I realized that Quick Look won't let you scroll through items when in full screen, let alone do a slideshow (which would be pretty useful). However, you can resize the Quick Look window to almost full screen. Well, to say the least, with hundreds of photos to get through, people already getting bored, my finger hurting from scrolling and my wife giving me the look that says "I told you so," I began to wish I had made the time to reinstall iPhoto. There was no internet access either, so I couldn't even download something like Picasa. At that point my cousin strolled into the room and said, "That must be taking you ages, why don't you just do a slideshow using Preview?" He then selected all the photos in the folder, right clicked and selected 'Open With Preview.' With the Preview app open, he selected 'View' from the menu bar and then 'Slideshow.' It was that simple. Thankfully, I was able to leave the photos to display themselves. People could watch as much or as little as they wanted, when they felt like it (the way such photo exhibitions should be!). You can check out more things to do with Preview at this Apple support page. Update: A few bright commenters have pointed out that you can, in fact, do a slideshow using Quick Look. First, select more than one photo, then hit the space bar or the Quick Look button. By selecting more than one photo the slideshow options will appear in the Quick Look window. Thanks!
RAW compatibility update for iPhoto and Aperture 3
An update was released this week for Aperture 3 and iPhoto, providing really nothing more than RAW compatibility to a bunch of new cameras. For the most part, those concerned with RAW support in software are those who do professional-grade photo editing or are intent on saving uncompressed versions of photos, either for posterity's sake or because disk space is so cheap these days. The casual digital photographer wouldn't likely care about the RAW format. Added to the list of cameras now supported in these applications: Canon PowerShot SX1 IS, Olympus E-PL1, Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2, Panasonic Lumix DMC-G10, Samsung NX10, Sony Alpha DSLR-A390, Sony Alpha NEX-3, Sony Alpha NEX-5.
Rumor: iLife '10 coming with new application
If rumors are to be believed, Apple's iLife suite will receive a major upgrade in a month's time and feature a brand new application. Apple-centric site Mac 4 Ever claims (Google translation to English here) that the newest incarnation of the collection will be released on August 7th. Rumored features include 64-bit compatibility and a "nouvelle application (mystère !)." Also among Mac 4 Ever's list of features are improved Faces and Places in iPhoto, a totally revamped iWeb and most interestingly the absence of iDVD. Perhaps the new application will replace it, or maybe it will be a download. Or maybe these are baseless rumors and who knows what will happen. Last week, we noticed an "iLife '10 for Dummies" book on Amazon France, which has since been pulled. Keep an eye out for the next few weeks and we'll see what happens. [Via Macworld UK]
Kin Media Sync for Mac syncs Kin media with Mac
Sync music, sync photos, sync too much money into a mediocre phone. Now that we've gotten the amateur comedy hour out of the way, it's time to bring you the news that Kins and Macs will henceforth play very nicely together thanks to the just released Media Sync software from Mark/Space. Chosen by Microsoft as the exclusive provider of Mac syncing capabilities for Kin, the company is offering iTunes and iPhoto integration, whereby you'll able to transfer playlists and image albums both to and from your Kin device, as well as a neat transcoding feature to make videos playable on it. The software's free and can be found at the source link below, while the press announcement awaits after the break.
TUAW's tips for gifting an iPad for Mother's Day
Still searching for that perfect Mother's Day gift for your mom or wife? Why not get her an iPad? Buy Mom a computer? You're kidding me, right? The iPad's versatility lends itself to some computer-like comparisons. And a natural response to this would be: "Who would want a computer for a Mother's Day gift? That's tacky." This would be similar to Al Bundy buying Peggy a bowling ball, only because he wanted it for himself. Except that it isn't just a computer. As a consumption device, the iPad can also be seen as an appliance. No matter where you put it, it doesn't seem too out of place, and blends in with its surroundings well. This versatility, coupled with its ease-of-use, could make it an ideal gift for mom. Now getting an iPad alone would be tacky. There's little thought behind it. Why not go the extra mile and customize an iPad for her? This will take some legwork, however. But who cares. This is for Mom, right?
iPhoto update, Bonjour Print Services available for Windows users
Along with the iTunes update, iPhoto '09 users will also see an upgrade to 8.1.2 sitting in their Software Update right now -- namely to fix import and syncing issues with the iPhone, iPod and Apple TV. Canon printer and scanner users will also have the latest software for their products installed. You can pick up the 12.9mb update right now in the Software Update app. Windows users can also download Bonjour Print Services to discover and configure Bonjour-enabled printers using the Bonjour Printer Wizard. Thanks to those who tipped us off!
Eye-Fi Pro X2 cards have arrived, and you probably want one
I pre-ordered an Eye-Fi Pro X2 from Amazon a few weeks ago. (Don't be too jealous, I did it when I decided that I was going to have to wait for an iPad for financial reasons.) This is not my first Eye-Fi card, as I bought a 2GB version a few years ago -- and quite frankly, I hated it and thought it was overpriced. We have talked about the Eye-Fi before, but if you are not familiar with it, here's a basic summary: the Eye-Fi cards are Wi-Fi enabled, meaning that you can upload your pictures from your camera without a USB cable or card reader. You can set it to automatically upload to iPhoto, or just to a specific folder on your computer. You also have the option to have your pictures uploaded to MobileMe, Flickr, Evernote, Picasa, Facebook, and many other places (see chart in new window). Videos can be uploaded to Flickr (only 90 seconds maximum, though), Picasa, YouTube, Facebook, Phanfare, and Photobucket. You can even set it up to send notifications via email, Facebook, Twitter, or SMS when transfers start, finish, or are interrupted. The Pro X2, at US$150, is still expensive and it is SD-only (sorry, CF users), but the new card comes with a host of new features which make it worthwhile. The first is the the card is a Class 6 device, meaning that it is fast. The older Eye-Fi card always felt like it was really slow to me, which meant that I didn't always want to use it. This new card is as fast as any card I own, and the limiting factor now seems to be my camera, not the card. There's a whole lot more.
Another week, another terse email from Steve Jobs
9to5Mac has posted an email sent to them from a UK reader where Steve Jobs again calls it as he sees it. The UK reader emailed Jobs to ask if the iPad's Photos app would support Google's Picasa library format. Jobs' reply was a little more than a simple "no" this time. Perhaps that's because he saw it as an opportunity to smack Google again. "No," Jobs replied, "but iPhoto on the Mac has much better Faces and Places features." So there you go, no Google Picasa library support for you! Picasa's facial recognition feature was launched in September 2008, four months before Apple introduced support for facial recognition in iPhoto '09 with the release of the iLife '09 suite in January 2009. An interesting note on the email: 9to5Mac posts the entire header information confirming that the email is in fact from Steve Jobs and was sent from his iPhone. The header information reveals that Steve hasn't upgraded to the latest iPhone OS. He's still using 3.1.2.
Apple ships latest version of Aperture for photo professionals
It certainly caused a lot of excitement when the Apple web store went down this morning. No, it wasn't an updated MacBook Pro line but Aperture 3, Apple's high-end photo editing and image management software. The latest version is U.S. $199.00, and upgrades are available for any existing Aperture users for $99.00. Apple says Aperture 3 has "more than 200 new features", including Faces and Places, brought over from iPhoto '09. There is an enhanced tool called Brushes, which allows photographers to paint adjustments and filters directly onto their images using new enhanced edge detection. This latest version of Aperture runs in 64 bit on Snow Leopard and 64 bit processors. Aperture has been in a long features war with Adobe Lightroom, a similar and very popular application. Aperture was last updated in February, 2008. We'll have a close look at Aperture 3 when we get our hands on it. Apple has a free 30 day download for people who want an advance look, but as of this writing download links haven't yet been provided. Aperture 3 needs an intel-based Mac, so older machines like the G5 are out of luck.
TUAW Tip: Get your animated slideshows to MobileMe
For all the things Apple does right, there are some strange decisions in the integration of iPhoto and MobileMe. iPhoto has a wonderful way to create animated slideshows with music and professional looking transitions and you can look at them all day on your Mac, or send them to your iPhone or AppleTV. But things get ugly when you want to post them on the web for family and friends using MobileMe. It's baffling, but there is no direct way to upload an animation you've created to MobileMe, even though you can easily send stills or even iMovie videos to the web. Well, it can be done, but it's a non-intuitive work around. First, create your slide show in an iPhoto folder the usual way. Then hit the "Export" button on the lower right of the iPhoto screen. From there, you can determine the size of the QuickTime movie you want to make. If it's for the web, I'd suggest the large size. The movie will render, and then be placed in your iPhoto Slideshows folder inside the Pictures folder. From there, you have a couple of options, none of which are well documented: One way is to open your newly created movie in the latest version of QuickTime. Then from the Share menu, select "MobileMe gallery" from the options presented (you'll get the screen you can see in the thumbnail above). Another way to go is to is to import the movie into iMovie first, and then export it out to MobileMe from there. You can also drag the movie back into iPhoto (and yes, I know this is nutty) and then click the MobileMe icon to upload it there. Why can't you do this directly from iPhoto? Search me. It should be there -- maybe we'll see it in the app's next version. If you have another method to do this let us know.
Mac 101: Stop the iPhone from opening iPhoto
More Mac 101, tips and tricks for novice Mac users. I love iPhoto. I use it for most of my photo editing. The thing I don't like about iPhoto is how it opens each and every time I connect my iPhone to my Mac. What strikes my as plain silly is that, since the introduction of the iPhone two and a half years ago, Apple has not built in an option in the iTunes iPhone status window to disable the automatic iPhoto launch every time you plug in your iPhone. If you want to take control of this behavior, and you'd prefer to stick with Apple's built-in tools (rather than take advantage of the free and easy Cameras prefpane) there is good news: there's a simple way to disable this 'feature' and it doesn't involve command line stuff. Even better, it isn't an "all or nothing" solution – eg: you can still have iPhoto automatically open when you connect your camera, but not have it open when you connect your iPhone. Aron mentioned this approach a few months ago but I thought it would be helpful to walk through it in detail. It should be noted that this solution only works on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. If you are running 10.5 or earlier, you'll have to use one of the solutions noted above; we recommend the free Cameras preference pane as a quick fix. You'll see the image above is of iPhoto's preferences. You may think the option of disabling iPhone auto-open is in there, but it's not. To stop the iPhone from opening iPhoto you actually need to launch the Image Capture application. Step 1: Launch Image Capture (Applications>Image Capture). If your iPhone isn't plugged in already, plug it in to the USB port on your Mac. It should then show up in the devices source list. Step 2: Make sure you have the iPhone selected in the source list. When you do, you should see any photos you have on the iPhone appear in the right-hand column of the Image Capture application. Step 3: At the bottom of the source list, you'll see your iPhone's name then, below that, you'll see the words "Connecting this iPhone opens:" and a drop-down menu. Select "No application." Now close the Image Capture app and you're done. No more iPhone opening up iPhoto, but your other cameras will still auto-launch iPhoto when they are connected!
Ask TUAW: Syncing photos, compressing and transferring large files, virtual printers, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about syncing photo libraries, compressing and transferring large files, creating a virtual PDF printer, increasing screen readability, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify).
Digital RAW Compatibility Update 2.7 available in Software Update
Apple today released a new digital RAW compatibility update for some Canon and Nikon cameras that shoot photos in RAW format. This update extends RAW image compatibility for Aperture 2, iPhoto '08 and iPhoto '09 for the following cameras: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV Canon EOS 7D Canon PowerShot G11 Nikon D3S Nikon D300S Nikon D3000 If you have one of these cameras, you should check out this update to work with your photos shot in RAW format with any of these applications. As always, this update is available through Software Update, but it doesn't seem to be posted anywhere on apple.com yet.
Creating a picturesque gift on your Mac with Posterino
Zykloid Software's Posterino serves as an elegant and easy-to-use way to create photo-based giftables for those looking for third party alternatives to iPhoto's offerings (postcards, photo books, and calendars), which are great in their own right. As in iPhoto, you can use Posterino to create elegant postcards, customizable with backgrounds and fonts to your liking. And because your iPhoto library is integrated within the app, you can easily drag and drop photos from your iPhoto folders, events, and albums. Posterino also features the ability to create posters, and this is what distinguishes it from iPhoto. These posters, dubbed "Life Posters," can be created based on 12 preset templates within the app. Unlike iPhoto, which serves as a one-stop shop for creating and printing calendars, postcards, and photo books, Posterino requires users to export (as a TIFF or JPG) and ready their image to print at a third party service -- such as Internet-based Kodak Gallery and Snapfish, or at a local print shop. Given their personalized nature, these photo-based products from Posterino can serve as nice holiday gifts and stocking stuffers. Posterino is available for purchase for USD $24.99, but we've got two copies of Posterino to give away to TUAW readers. All you need to do to enter is tell us (in the comments below) about your most embarrassing baby picture -- you know, the one your parents insisted on showing to all your dates in high school. The rules: Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older. To enter, leave a comment below. The comment must be left by Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. Two winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prize: One free license of Posterino (retail value US$24.99). Click here for complete Official Rules.
Ask TUAW: Target disk mode, iPhoto library, upgrading an iMac hard drive, gifts for a recent Mac convert and more
Hello and welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. We hope you had a great Thanksgiving! This week we've got more questions from readers, such as using Target Disk Mode, moving your iPhoto library to an external drive, putting a bigger hard drive in an iMac, sharing a Magic Mouse, good gifts for a recent Mac convert, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions. Kishen asks: While I connect a 2009 MacBook Pro to a new 27" iMac in Target Disk Mode, is there any way to use the iMac's wireless keyboard and mouse to control the MBP? When your computer is connected to another computer in Target Disk Mode, the connected computer is effectively just an external hard drive and nothing more. So no, there isn't a way to control the MacBook Pro because it isn't functioning as an actual computer when in Target Disk Mode. It is simply another hard drive and behaves accordingly.
Software Update: iPhoto 8.1.1 released
If you're running iLife '09, fire up Software Update, because Apple has a bug fix update out for you. iPhoto 8.1.1 "addresses issues affecting face recognition performance and accuracy. It also fixes minor issues in the areas of book ordering, and iPod touch support." There's an extra step for getting Faces recognition working properly if you imported pictures in iPhoto 8.1, which Apple details on the support page for the update: Important: If you imported photos of people while using iPhoto 8.1, there's an extra step you should take after installing the 8.1.1 update. Select all those photos, Control-click to open the contextual menu, and then choose Detect Missing Faces. This will redetect the faces in those photos and correct any face recognition issues introduced in iPhoto 8.1. You should not quit iPhoto during the Detect Missing Faces process. iPhoto Update 8.1.1 is a 12.5 MB update available now in Software Update.
Orb has landed for Intel Macs
If you are a sometime PC user you probably know about Orb, a multimedia sharing tool that allows you to access your media from anywhere you have an internet connection and a browser. Now, Orb has come to the Mac and it's got great possibilities -- but it's a mixed bag in terms of reliability. You can download Orb for free, and set up a no-cost account. The software will index your iPhoto libraries, as well as your iTunes library, both audio and video. You can then log into your Orb account on any other computer, fire up a browser, and play your media files. Orb has also had an iPhone app that logs you in and gets your media as well. It's been available for a long time, but only would work with a PC-based host. Now your Mac is accessible too. Orb still lacks a few features you can get on the PC version. One big one is it won't talk to a TV tuner, so you can't look at live video from home on another computer. I expect this will be coming in short order. You can share media with others from the Orb website. They will need a free account, but they can watch a movie or listen to music or view photos just as you do.
5 smart albums to help you organize your iPhoto library
Like smart playlists in iTunes, smart albums in iPhoto provide a way for you to better organize your photos. Whether it's a list of your most recent photos or photos with a specified aperture range, there are countless smart albums you could create to fit your needs. Here are a few of my favorite. Recently added: I always like having my most recent photos with me, and this is the smart album that gives them to me. Match the following condition. Date is in the last "90 days" (or whatever date range you prefer). The smart family album: Say there are three family members in a family -- Tobias Fünke (dad), Lindsay Fünke (mom) and Maebe Fünke (daughter) -- and you want pictures of all of them in one place. Match any of the following conditions. Face is "Tobias." Face is "Lindsay." Face is "Maebe." The camera-specific smart album: We've recently added a new member to the camera family, the Canon EOS 40D. But, like many a household, ours is one with several different cameras, and sometimes it's nice to see where each photo originated from. Match the following condition. Camera Model is "Canon EOS40D" A smart album for videos: Some digital cameras these days can also function as "good enough" alternatives for camcorders. Here's a smart album that collects all of your videos imported from your digital cameras. Match the following condition. Photo is "Movie." The best of the best: Your highest rated photos in one place Match the following condition. My rating is greater than "*" (or however many stars you desire) Readers, tell us about some of the iPhoto smart albums that you've created.