Last February, Apple's Senior Manager of PR Anuj Nayar announced that the company would not have a booth at April's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show. Customers hoping to receive information on the already delayed Final Cut Server were disappointed to say the least.
When Final Cut Server was finally released in April of 2008, it was nearly a year late. Many began to question Apple's commitment to the pro-level video applications.
To extinguish concerns that Apple was "giving up" on pro video apps, their director of marketing for professional video applications Richard Townhill told TVBEurope, "I can categorically state, on the record, that is not the case." As for the delay, Richard said "... we wanted it to work without an IT department to support it."
In the hustle and bustle of product introductions today, another couple of software updates slipped out the door. The 16 MB iPhoto 7.1.2 update promises the "overall stability" we all crave, while the ProKit update (no link on Apple's site yet) "improves reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, Logic Studio and Logic Express."
Meanwhile, in a separate security bulletin (link as in the image), Apple acknowledged an iPhoto vulnerability that would allow a maliciously-crafted photocast to hijack your machine, if you were to subscribe to it; said vulnerability is now fixed in 7.1.2. Yikes. Full details after the jump.
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.
Nothing quickens the blood like a thrilling software update. Am I right, folks? Ok, perhaps that is a slight exaggeration, but it is a good feeling to have some bugs that have been bothering you squashed with a nice update. Apple has just released Pro Application Support 4.0.1 which, 'improves general user interface reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Aperture, Final Cut Express HD, Soundtrack, Logic Pro and Logic Express.'
Fire up Software Update, or download it directly from Apple's website.
Apple has released a Pro Application Support 4.0 update that "improves general user interface reliability for Apple's professional applications." Basically, if you use any of the Final Cut Suite apps, Aperture, Final Cut Express HD or Logic products, you'll probably see this in Software Update. Strangely, as with previous Pro Application Support updates, there isn't a whole lot of extra information as to what this update fixes, or what bugs and quirks it squashes; it's just 6 MB of UI update goodness, I guess.
I'll admit that some of the new features in Final Cut Studio are a little bit over my head, as a non-pro-video guy. OK, pretty much all the new features are over my head, so I asked a couple of pro-video friends for their expert opinions on the NAB announcements.
First, Josh Apter from NYC's Manhattan Edit Workshop, a top training facility for Final Cut:
Three words - open timeline editing. Two words - color correction. One word - wow. From a training standpoint, MEW is going to offer discounted upgrade classes on this new package as soon as it hits the street. From a practical standpoint, users have one hell of a toy to unwrap.
Second, my colleague Matt Paleologos, video post supervisor at MJM:
Wow! Color is as good as a $50K color grading system and It's included in FCS 2. Motion has now officially grown a pair. 3D, motion ramping, better workflow. This is looking like a banner year for Apple and the death of Avid. And, we have to have Final Cut Server!!!! $1000 for 10 concurrent users, $2000 for unlimited. Runs on OS X Server and requires 1 Xsan client. Must have this! MUST!
With a shocking and awesome $70+ million in weekend box office, the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel 300 has shot (and hacked, and stabbed) its way to the 3rd best R-rated opening and the all-time best March opening in US film history. Way to go, Spartans.
As noted on ballergoods.com and also at IMDB, the Mac played a big role in bringing 300 to the screen, with chunks of editing done in Final Cut and 2D graphics created in Shake. In fact, the IMDB article notes that while much of the production was on Avid systems (platform unspecified) and Linux workstations (presumably for Maya and other tools), "the filmmakers prefer Macintosh." Like we always say, there is no substitute.
MXF is a codec wrapper implementation for video for professional video. According to the Wikipedia article I tracked down, it does timecodes, metadata, and is supposed to be "platform-agnostic". And, according to a press release this morning, MOG Solutions has licensed its MXF dev tools to Apple, which will incorporate them into Final Cut so users will be able to use MXF in their post-production work. The press release did not offer a timeline for when the MXF support will appear. It's worth noting that at this time Adobe After Effects does not support MXF.
When you think Apple applications you think iLife, Final Cut, Motion, iChat, OS X. Those are the biggies, right? But what about poor little iWork? Well, it looks like iWork, Keynote in particular, is getting some love from the blogosphere. Tim Bray, XML geek and all around cool computer guy, penned a love letter to Keynote the other day. He declared that is it Apple's best app. Daring Fireball agrees that it is good, but probably not the best app Apple offers, while Theocacao lists some of the things that makes Keynote so gosh darned fun to use (anyone ever say that about PowerPoint?).
I must admit that I haven't used Keynote all that much, since I don't find myself giving many presentations (if you would like me to give a presentation just contact me. I'm lonely, and I have a MacBook!). The few times I have found myself whipping something together in Keynote I have been impressed with how such little effort by me resulted in such a great looking presentation.
So, dear TUAWers, any Keynote lovers out there? Let us know in the comments what you like about Keynote, and what Apple should fix in the next version (which I bet will be announced at Macworld '07).
Silicon Color, the makers of several color correction products for Final Cut, has been acquired by Apple. A note on Silicon Color's website reads, 'We are pleased to announce that all Silicon Color technology and intellectual property, including FinalTouch color correction software, was recently sold to Apple. Maintenance agreements held by current Silicon Color customers will be honored by Apple until they expire.'
Apple isn't known for their acquisitions, so I'm assuming that Silicon Color's color correction software is top notch, and soon we will see it in Final Cut.
Our pals over at DV Guru (a sister blog) have posed one of the endearing questions in the video editing industry to their readers, which I thought might be fitting for TUAW as well: video editing - Mac or PC? For the longest time, video editing on a PC with Avid software has been the reigning king, but Apple's Final Cut Pro seems to be making its own fair share of waves in the industry. I also know there are plenty of other packages out there, as I used to have an editing job in which I sold my soul worked on Sony's Vegas software - not a shining moment in my career, let me tell you.
But what do you, TUAW readers, think about the state of video editing? Are you working on premium Avid setups, Final Cut Pro and a G5 or Microsoft's good ol' fashioned Windows Movie Maker? Let's hear it.
David Fincher, the director of such movies as Fight Club and Panic
Room, is using Final Cut Studio to edit his latest film, Zodiac. Apple has posted a very nice video profile
about Fincher's use of FCP; if you are even vaguely interested in video editing you should check it out.
Last February, Apple's Senior Manager of PR Anuj Nayar announced that the company would not have a booth at April's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show. Customers hoping to receive information on the already delayed Final Cut Server were disappointed to say the least.
A lot has changed in the video production realm over the past year, and thankfully, Apple's recent 
Nothing quickens the blood like a thrilling software update. Am I right, folks? Ok, perhaps that is a slight exaggeration, but it is a good feeling to have some bugs that have been bothering you squashed with a nice update. Apple has just released Pro Application Support 4.0.1 which, '
I'll admit that some of the new features in 
With a 
Final Cut Studio just got bumped to version 5.1.4.
Our pals over at 
