Reader Sebastiaan sends word that Fuzzmeasure Pro 3 is out (and that he designed the icon for it-- very nice). Released on the three-year anniversary of the first version's release, the update has a host of new features, including integration with Leopard's Core Audio, the sweet audio graphs that the app is known for, and even Quicklook and Safari plugins. It's been used to set up concert systems for "...Linkin Park and other big name bands around the world." Cool!
As you may have guessed from reading "Core Audio" and "Quicklook", Fuzzmeasure Pro 3 is Leopard-only (and loving it). You can download it (and eventually buy it for $150US) over on SuperMegaUltraGroovy's website.
As a holiday weekend treat for the ink-stained wretches among us, Apple added a new article Friday to the ongoing series for journalists making the leap to multimedia newsgathering, Audio in Rich Media, up on the Pro site. Focused on the right gadget choices for audio recording on the go, Joe Gore's Audio Gear for Rich Media tip story suggests picking up a digital recorder and a reasonable-quality dynamic microphone before adding sound to your bag of tricks. He also lists four favorite recorders for $500 or less. Hey, Father's Day is coming up...
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.
One of my recent posts showed you how to rotate videos shot in portrait orientation. While this technique restores your video to its proper orientation, the results are not particularly usable in your favorite video editing programs like iMovie because of their unusual aspect ratio. The following gallery demonstrates how to matte your video onto a plain background using QuickTime Pro to restore a proper 4:3 (or 16:9) ratio.
Razer announced the pending availability of their Pro|Type keyboard back in August. Honestly, we were wondering it was ever going to ship, and how much it would cost. Now we finally know.
This week, Razer announced that their battleship-sized keyboard will cost $130US and begin shipping today, April 6th. The Pro|Type keyboard features in integrated iPod dock, two USB ports, 10 programmable keys, media keys and 10 available "profiles," which we assume are for multiple users. If you're a real keyboard jockey with a yen for customization, this keyboard is for you.
The inclusion of iSight cameras in Apple portables starting with the MacBook Pro was an exciting prospect for many users; just think about how useful it would be to have the ability to video conference wherever you had your notebook without having to lug around extra gear! But the secondary use of the built in iSight to take quick candid shots of one's environment is becoming more and more popular. The only issue with this is the requirement that you flip your MacBook around to take the picture; something which is decidedly less than elegant.
Fortunately for people who practice this secondary use-case often, Charlie Dancey and Mungai Mirrors will release the Huckleberry mirror system at the upcoming Mac Expo London later this month. Although sexy and probably pretty high build quality, the $28 price tag for a piece of glass and some plastic might cause more mechanically inclined prospective buyers to make their own. I'm sure it won't be long before someone posts an Instructable on how to make your own (if you do, send it in as a tip and we'll post it).
Is that plain-jane Apple Keyboard starting to feel a little lax in the feature department? Do you find yourself wanting for, say, 10 programmable hotkeys and dedicated iTunes control keys? How does a built-in iPod dock sound, with an audio line out port for the ultimate in keyboard luxury and integration?
If your keyboard juices are 'a flowin, check out the new Pro|Type™ Multimedia Keyboard from Razer Pro|Solutions, a decked-out keyboard with all the fixins, except a cup holder. No pricing or availability has been announced, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear when you'll have yet another option for keeping your iPod front and center in your life.
Other sites are already getting their hands on Mac Pros and putting them through the benchmark ringer, and since we aren't done checking the couch for change yet, I figured a benchmark roundup would be the best way to let you sink your teeth into some cold, hard numbers. If you've been waiting to see how well these things perform in real world tests, your wait just might be over:
Macworld pits a 2.66 Quad Core Ghz Mac Pro against 2.5 Quad and Dual 2.7 G5 Power Macs - G5s run crying to mama in everything but Adobe Photoshop tests (hint: that will be a benchmark theme across the board)
MacInTouch posts some initial impressions as well as a wide variety of benchmarks, including some real low-level geek stuff like "multi-threaded scalar." Until now, I thought a 'scalar' was just a monster in Unreal
Bare Feats posts their own set of tests, including the only After Effects test I've found so far (AE still isn't a UB either; I guess Adobe misunderstood the phrase 'fashionably late to the party')
Geek Patrol, as you might glean from the name, also posts some extensive low-level tests in categories such as memory performance, floating point, integer and more
A number of observant TUAW readers have also noticed that Apple has (quietly) slashes Cinema display prices with the introduction of the Mac Pro. There were rumors of Cinema updates before WWDC, but it seems that Apple simply wanted to give our pocketbooks a break with the $500 increase in the Mac Pro's price. Cinema display prices now look a little something like this:
20-inch: $699
23-inch: $999
30-inch: $1999 (what a drop!)
Unfortunately, I can't even get into the EDU store so I'm not sure how much better prices are for students yet. Ultimately, these prices should look a bit more appealing amidst criticism of what some say are slightly overpriced LCDs.
"The fastest, most configurable Mac ever" indeed. Today at WWDC 2006 (check out our coverage and the chatcast) Apple introduced the Mac Pro, and it might as well come with a pair of hot pads with all-new features like this:
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" processors
And the fun doesn't stop there. You can stuff up to 16GB of RAM in these beasts now, along with 2TB of storage. With over 1,000,000 available BTO configurations, we wouldn't be surprised if customers have a hard time simply deciding on which Mac Pro they want to throw down their credit cards for.
Also notable: gone are the two or three configuration options from the PowerMac Mac Pro's page in the store. It simply offers the base configuration, which now starts at $2499, and beckons you to click 'configure'. Just try not getting lost in options on your way to the checkout.
The web has been on fire the past few days with news of a presentation given at the BlackHat computer security conference featuring the compromising a MacBook Pro by executing very low-level code on the drivers of a wireless card. Whether or not the exploit presented actually counts as hacking of a Macintosh (they used a third party wireless card) is not at issue in this post. What I think is more important is the fact that these guys chose to demonstrate the vulnerability on a Mac, instead of a Windows or Linux machine, which are also vulnerable to the exploit. The presenters cited the "Mac userbase aura of smugness on security" as their reason for choosing a Mac as their guinea pig.
Some readers might attribute this negative attitude toward Mac users as one held only by uninformed Windows users and malicious hackers, but that is far from the case. Many very intelligent and highly respected members of the tech community feel the same way. Some of them even used to love Macs.
Before pointing any fingers and making any accusations about who lost their mind when, I think we need to take a step back and examine our behavior.
Everyone knows that Apple's Intel powered portable lineup gets hot, but this is insane! An enterprising fellow figured out that it would be possible to actually fry an egg on the bottom of his black MacBook. Granted, it probably took something like 3 times as long than if he had used a stove, but thats obviously not the point. For bonus points, keep your coffee warm by placing it on top of your MacBook power adapter.
While obviously a stab at Apple for releasing such hot machines, I think its important to understand the fact that Apple has no control over how hots Intel's processors run. I'm sure the engineers in Cupertino do their best to make the machines run as cool as possible, but there are some things that even Ive and his team can't do.
Just as a bit of an update, since this piece has been picked up all over the net: This isnt really serious. Although it is theoretically possible to get egg protiens to congeal from the heat of a MacBook, the guy posted the story as a joke. That is all.
Rickard Almqvist at MacInTouch is reporting that Apple has apparently (and finally) produced a tweaked version of the MacBook Pro logic board in response to everyone's whining - MacBook Pro whining, that is. Rickard received a letter from Apple detailing the new board and stating that it was brand new, "only a few days old". Also of note is the need for new installation DVDs that contain 10.4.6, not the 10.4.5 discs the machine originally came with. And just for all you skeptics out there, Rickard has also posted a picture of Apple's letter on his blog, so you can let your "that was Microsoft Worded" and "Photoshopped!" naysaying fly.
Here's hoping MacBook Pros everywhere can finally stop whining. The one question I have is: are you going to be sending your MBP in for the new board? Or is iTunes usually blaring loud enough for you to still wonder what all this 'whine' talk is about?
Many commenters on our Mac OS X 10.4.7 Update post have noticed that two finger right-clicking has been enabled on 15" MacBook Pros. It seems to work just fine on mine, and this update should evoke a sigh of relief to all those using the trackpad hack we blogged to accomplish the same thing since the hack has annoying side effects, such as needing to be re-enabled after each restart.
As a side note: it seems a little strange that this wasn't documented; I scanned the extended release notes on the 10.4.7 update and didn't see this anywhere.
In my newsreader today I saw an 'iPhoto Action Pack' from Automator World that adds a handy action for workflows involving iPhoto: "Find iPhoto Item Path". While debating whether that was TUAW-worthy, my newsreader became bombarded with more headlines like System Action Pack, TextEdit Action Pack, Preview Action Pack... until I finally decided to post a roundup to cover them all in one fell swoop. So here you go kids, a whole batch of Automator Actions that add some missing abilities to everyone's favorite (or the only?) OS automation utiliity:
[UPDATE: Automator World's admin stopped by to let us know that some of these action packs are actually demos of retail versions of these products offered by Automated Workflows, LLC.]
Reader Sebastiaan sends word that Fuzzmeasure Pro 3 is out (and that he designed the icon for it-- very nice). Released on the three-year anniversary of the first version's release, the update has a host of new features, including integration with Leopard's Core Audio, the sweet audio graphs that the app is known for, and even Quicklook and Safari plugins. It's been used to set up concert systems for "...Linkin Park and other big name bands around the world." Cool!
As a holiday weekend treat for the ink-stained wretches among us, Apple added a new article Friday to the ongoing series for journalists making the leap to multimedia newsgathering, 
The inclusion of iSight cameras in Apple portables starting with the MacBook Pro was an exciting prospect for many users; just think about how useful it would be to have the ability to video conference wherever you had your notebook without having to lug around extra gear! But the secondary use of the built in iSight to take quick candid shots of one's environment is becoming more and more popular. The only issue with this is the requirement that you flip your MacBook around to take the picture; something which is decidedly less than elegant. 
A number of observant TUAW readers have also noticed that Apple has (quietly) slashes Cinema display prices with the introduction of the 
Everyone knows that Apple's Intel powered portable lineup gets hot, but this is insane! An enterprising fellow figured out that it would be possible to actually 
Many commenters on our 
In my newsreader today I saw an 'iPhoto Action Pack' from Automator World that adds a handy action for workflows involving iPhoto: "Find iPhoto Item Path". While debating whether that was TUAW-worthy, my newsreader became bombarded with more headlines like System Action Pack, TextEdit Action Pack, Preview Action Pack... until I finally decided to post a roundup to cover them all in one fell swoop. So here you go kids, a whole batch of Automator Actions that add some missing abilities to everyone's favorite (or the only?) OS automation utiliity:
