iPod User Group launched

The iPodlounge has announced the launch of an online iPod User Group

Real 10 Export Plug-in, RealProducer Plus 10 released

RealNetworks today released a beta version of the new Real 10 Export Plug-in for Mac OS X, which enables video editors to export high-quality RealAudio 10 and RealVideo 10 formats directly from Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects, Avid Xpress Pro and more.

NAB: Discreet to support Final Cut Pro interchange

Autodesk Inc. subsidiary Discreet announced Monday plans to support Apple's Final Cut Pro .XML-based interchange format in upcoming versions of its editing and visual effects systems. This means that editorial decisions made by users with Final Cut Pro will be directly transferable to Discreet's smoke and fire editing and finish systems, as well as its lustre digital grading and color correction system.

NAB: New Base Station offers Power over Ethernet

Apple on Monday introduced a new AirPort Extreme Base Station that it expects will appeal to large educational and business customers. The new model -- part #M9397LL/A -- features support for Power over Ethernet and also conforms to a fire rating specification developed by Underwriters Laboratories (UL).

NAB: Sonicfire Pro 3.2 adds Avid, Flash integration

SmartSound Software Inc. on Monday introduced Sonicfire Pro v3.2, a new version of its soundtrack creation software for Mac and Windows. The new version features integration with Macromedia Flash and Avid pro video editing products.

Apple releases Bluetooth Firmware Updater

Apple releases Bluetooth Firmware Updater

Apple on Monday released Bluetooth Firmware Updater 1.1. This new release is designed to update the internal firmware on D-Link USB Adapters (revision B2 or later) and Apple internal Bluetooth modules on PowerBooks and Power Macs.

Toon Boom Studio 2.5 adds sound scrubbing, scan support

Toon Boom Animation Inc. on Monday released Toon Boom Studio v2.5 for Mac OS X, the latest upgrade to the company's cartoon animation software. New features in Toon Boom Studio v2.5 include sound scrubbing in the timeline, the ability to draw in Sceneplanning and support for scanning.

Apple demos new high-quality video codec at NAB

In addition to the five product announcements made on Sunday and the upgrades to the notebook product line-up on Monday, Apple Computer Inc. still had a surprise for people visiting their booth at this week's National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas, NV. Apple demonstrated at its booth an advanced HD video codec, dubbed h.267 or MPEG-4 Part 10 by the MPEG LA governing body.

XtremeMac announces special NAB pricing on Xrack and XtroVERT

XtremeMac, manufacturers of the Xrack, the premier noise reduction enclosure for Apple Computer's Xserve and Xserve RAID, is proud to announce that Xrack and XtroVERT will ship FREE to anywhere in the continental U.S., for a limited time, a savings of up to $195.

XtremeMac's Xrack is a Noise Reduction Enclosure specifically designed for Apple Computer's Xserve and Xserve RAID. The solidly built Xrack provides 12U (21.0") of industry standard 19" rackmount space in a desk-height enclosure quiet enough to work next to. It is a featured option on Apple's Workgroup Clusters at Apple.com.

XtroVERT is a vertical enclosure for Apple's Xserve RAID. The XtroVERT allows users who have neither the space nor the need for a 19" rack to utilize the power of Xserve RAID. The XtroVERT's classic, sleek shape is finished to match the Xserve RAID perfectly, and provides a fully integrated, single-unit look. XtroVERT features a pedestal that is made of extruded heavy- duty aluminum which extends the full depth of the Xserve RAID. It provides a secure platform to carry the 100-pound weight of a fully loaded system.

XtroVERT and Xrack, ideal for audio/video creative environments, will be on display at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention, April 19th through 22nd at the Las Vegas Convention Center, in Apple Computer's booth.

XtroVERT and Xrack are available at retail prices of $299.00 and $1799.00 respectively. Both are available through the Apple web store and worldwide through XtremeMac's select Apple resellers and distributors, as well as from XtremeMac directly.

Rumours: Apple and Symbiot Rumors

Sources:Appleinsider, Apple-X, MacRumors

Apple appears to be working with the guys at Symbiot (or as I call them, builder's of SkyNET http://www.symbiot.com). According to several rumors floating around over near 1 Infinite loop over the last couple of months, Apple has been seeding prototype Xserves (based on the G5) into Symbiot for use in creating a solution that 'Attacks Hackers Back'. I thought this was crap until this morning when I saw a press release from Symbiot in which Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice-president of Worldwide Developer Relation said -- "Symbiot's iSIMS running on Xserve G5 creates a compelling value proposition for enterprise customers that want to STRIKE BACK AGAINST NETWORK-BASED ATTACKS"!

Rumor has it that Apple has secretly invested over $3M in the technology to give them a "Killer App" for enterprise customers (which they seriously lack). I did some vanity surfing and found that a few members of the management team are x-Apple employees. One from Apple R&D!

You guys should really cover this, several people (including me) have been thinking it was an April Fool's joke, apparently it's not! Apple is seemingly behind the biggest event in information security history!!!

So the question is -- will Steve Jobs solve all of Bill Gates security issues by building "SkyNET"? Wow! I can see it now, Microsoft can't protect their customers, but Apple will protect the entire Internet! Nice

Beef-up your Browser: Opera 7.5 PR 4 is here

The legendary speed of the Opera web browser is now available on the Macintosh. Opera for Mac is not only fast, but flexible and easy to use, with a bright clean interface implemented according to the Apple Design Guidelines. Download Opera for Mac today and fly the Web!

LiveDictionary 1.0 for Safari released

LiveDictionary 1.0 for Safari released

Michael Ash has released LiveDictionary 1.0, a Safari extension that adds fast, convenient dictionary lookups to the Web.

Airport Software 3.4 update available

Apple today released Airport Software 3.4 via the Software Update preference pane

NAB: Studio Artist optimized for G5, dual processors

Synthetik Software Inc. is showing off a new version of its Studio Artist graphics software that it hopes to ship in the early summer. Among the enhancements for Studio Artist 3.02 are Power Mac G5 and dual-processor optimization, a faster Vectorizer raster, additional image processing and paint synthesizer functionality and more. The new release will be a free update for existing 3.0 users.

NAB: Apple offers Shake 3.5

At a special event at this week's NAB 2004, Apple on Sunday introduced Shake 3.5, a new version of its compositing and special effects tool for cinema and video. The new version of Shake features new shape-based morphing and warping capabilities that rely on spline tools, improves Rendezvous networking and more. It's available now as a paid upgrade for Shake 3 users

NAB: Alias announces Maya 6

Alias used this week's NAB 2004 event in Las Vegas, Nevada to announce Maya 6, the latest major revision to its popular 3D graphics and animation software. While the new version gains hundreds of new features and enhancements, significant changes performance boosts for Mac OS X, new tools for creating realistic-looking hair, cloth and fur, integration with Adobe Photoshop and much more.

Apple updates PowerBooks and iBooks

Following up on five major product announcements at the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas on Sunday, Apple Computer Inc. on Monday announced upgrades to its entire line of portable computing products. Apple's pro PowerBook models have been bumped to a top speed of 1.5GHz, while the consumer iBook now reaches speeds of 1.2GHz

Adobe After Effects 6.5 Delivers Powerful New Features and Performance Enhancements

The Standard for Motion Graphics and Visual Effects Extends Leadership on Macintosh .
 
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe(R) After Effects(R) 6.5, a new version of its award-winning motion graphics and visual effects software. Significant new features, including Animation Presets, an advanced clone tool, and tighter integration with the other Adobe video products, help professionals meet production challenges and demanding deadlines.

After Effects 6.5 is a core component of the Adobe Video Collection 2.5, which includes new versions of Adobe Premiere(R) Pro 1.5, Adobe Audition(TM) 1.5, and Adobe Encore(TM) DVD 1.5 . Together, these products deliver a complete digital video and audio post-production platform for video and audio editing, motion graphics, visual effects, and DVD authoring at a fraction of the cost of competing solutions.

After Effects 6.5 includes new Animation Presets enabling users to save any combination of layer properties, including text animation properties, and easily apply them to other layers. More than 250 text Animation Presets were added to create sophisticated text animations and more than 60 new effects enable users to create visuals including light rays and 3D particles.

"After Effects 6.5 is a huge leap forward," says Matt Silverman, director of effects and design at Phoenix Editorial. "The new cloning and tracking features are top-notch, and allow me to complete shots directly in After Effects without having to move to other dedicated paint or tracking tools. Including Cycore FX and Color Finesse is icing on the cake."

The new advanced Clone tool provides a visual overlay of the clone source, and five user-definable presets make it easy to rapidly shift between clone settings. To assist users in matching footage from different sources, After Effects 6.5 Professional adds three grain management tools and both editions include one-click tools like Auto Color, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast, and Shadow/Highlight. For advanced color correction, After Effects now includes Color Finesse(TM) from Synthetic Aperture, a professional 32-bit floating point color correction system. In addition, motion tracking in After Effects 6.5 Professional has been enhanced for greater accuracy and flexibility.

Inside After Effects 6.5, previews and support for OpenGL are faster and more accurate. In addition, After Effects 6.5 has been optimized for the latest Intel and Macintosh G5 systems. New scripting support in After Effects 6.5 Professional enables users to write scripts to streamline their work and disk caching vastly improves real-time playback.

After Effects 6.5 offers tighter integration with other Adobe video products including Adobe Photoshop(R) CS, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Encore DVD. Text from Photoshop CS files -- including text on a path -- is fully editable. Users can copy and paste content directly between Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects, keeping motion paths and keyframes intact. Adobe Encore DVD menus can be imported into After Effects to be animated, and After Effects layers can be transformed into Adobe Encore buttons.

Sony creates 25 GB disc made of Paper

Yes, you heard it, a paper disk, 51% good old tree pulp. A new format for reading/writing to disks, called Blu-ray, is the trick to this.

Apple releases LiveType 1.2 with new effects

Apple today released LiveType 1.2, an update to its sophisticated, professional-quality titles effects generator.

Apple releases Cinema Tools 2.2, Compressor 1.2

Apple today also released Cinema Tools 2.2,an update to to its advanced tools suite for film and 24P

Panasonic, Apple team for HD over FireWire

Panasonic and Apple today announced what the two companies call the world's first implementation of FireWire with 100 Mbps DV-HD (the native video compression of Panasonic DVCPRO HD recording systems) to bring "unmatched capabilities and dramatically lower price points" to high definition (HD) post-production and content distribution.

Mirage 1.2 now available for Mac OS X

Bauhaus Software's real-time visual effects tool Mirage 1.2 is now available for Mac OS X, according to the company. This is the first full release of the application for Mac users. Version 1.2 adds new Rototracking and timing adjustment tools to an application that provides a unified solution for animators who want to work directly in the digital pipeline, allowing them to directly paint on and add effects to video in real-time. It was designed as a complement to such applications as Final Cut Pro, Avid Xpress and Shake.

Burnerz utility helps users with DVD burner issues

Developer Thinkertons has released Burnerz, a free utility for Mac OS X v10.3.2 "Panther" or higher. It's recommended for those who are considering a disc burner purchase, those who are having problems with their current burner, or even those who want to know more about their burner. It works with both CD and DVD burners and can be downloaded now from the Thinkertons Web site

NAB: Apple updates Final Cut Pro with HD

Apple on Sunday introduced Final Cut Pro HD, a new version of its video editing software that supports the DVCPRO HD format. The new version of Final Cut Pro works using FireWire without requiring any additional hardware. Final Cut Pro HD is available as a free upgrade to registered Final Cut Pro 4 users

NAB: Apple introduces Motion

During a Sunday press event at NAB 2004 in Las Vegas, Apple introduced Motion, a new motion graphics design package that provides animation of text, graphics and video, instant previewing of multiple filters and particle effects, and "Behaviors" -- natural movement of type and graphics with effects like gravity and wind, without depending on keyframes.

NAB: Apple announces DVD Studio Pro 3

In a special event at NAB 2004 on Sunday, Apple announced DVD Studio Pro 3, the latest major revision to the company's professional DVD authoring application for Mac OS X. New to this release are Alpha Transitions, a new Graphical View, DTS 5.1 audio support and the inclusion of Compressor 1.2, Apple's digital media encoding and compression tool.

NAB: Apple intros Xsan storage area network system

At a special event at this week's NAB 2004, Apple introduced Xsan, a Storage Area Network (SAN) file system . The new file system is aimed at users in video and other businesses looking for high-speed access to centralized, shared data where even conventional Local Area Networks (LANs) might still be too slow.

Microsoft's HD video moves forward

Microsoft's HD video moves forward

The company says its high-definition Windows Media 9 technology is being used in a variety of new places. Will we see a QuickTime HD?

Sony Joins JVC on HDV Bandwagon

More than a year after JVC introduced the first HDV camcorder to the masses, Sony will introduce its own solution to U.S. video professionals at NAB2004, while JVC will preview a 3-CCD ENG-style HDV camcorder at the show.

Rumours:Apple will announce new laptops on Monday, sources confirmed to Think Secret

The company will unveil new PowerBook and iBook models next week, reliable sources said, though exact specifications and feature sets are unclear. However, sources solidly contended that Apple plans to announce the new laptops on Monday. Despite varying announcement dates spreading across the web, sources confirmed the Monday, April 19 date. The forthcoming PowerBook upgrades were first reported in late March by O'Grady's PowerPage.

In the mean time, Apple has other announcements in store for the National Assocation of Broadcasters (NAB) conference, which kicks off this week; the company will reportedly hold a media event on Sunday. Apple is expected to announce Shake 3.5 and may unveil other software releases.