For years I’ve been using Firewire to connect video cameras to Macs. But Firewire doesn’t handle HD very well, and fewer and fewer cameras are available with Firewire connections. But HDMI is now common. So adding an HDMI input to your Mac may be the way to go for live video. The Matrox MX02 Mini is one way to do it. It won’t work with non-pro apps like iMovie or iChat. But it does well with broadcast software like Wirecast and pro software like Final Cut Studio. You can get it with a PCIe card for a Mac Pro, or a Express34 card for a high-end MacBook Pro.
If you like astronomy, or just things that look super-cool on your iPhone, check out Solar Walk. This app gives you 3D views of our solar system with up-to-date positioning and lots of info.
Rather use Photoshop to edit your iPhoto images? You can set an external editor by going to iPhoto, Preferences, General and then changing the setting for “Edit photo.” Then when you click on the Edit button in iPhoto, your application will launch and you can make changes to the photo. Save and close and you’ll find those changes back in iPhoto. You can even choose Photos, Revert to Original just as you could with plain iPhoto editing. Since applications like Photoshop actually allow you to make changes to the photo, not just adjustments, this can be a lot more powerful than editing in iPhoto. ANd it is a lot easier than exporting the photo, opening it up in Photoshop, making changes, and then brining it back into iPhoto or storing it elsewhere.
Apple’s January-March quarter included record sales and profit numbers. They sold nearly 3 million Macs, almost 9 million iPhones and almost 11 million iPods. Profits were up 90 percent at $13.5 billion from the same quarter last year. This was Apple’s best non-holiday season quarter ever. The stock surged on the news.
But not everything at Apple headquarters was good news for the company and an engineer lost a prototype of the next iPhone model at a bar nearby. The device found its way into the hands of editors at Gizmodo and was dissected and analyzed for the whole world to see. It features a second front-facing camera, a flash for the rear-facing camera, a higher-resolution screen, and a larger battery. Apple asked for the phone to be returned, and Gizmodo replied.
The iPad 3G version now has a shipping date. It will begin to go out to customers who pre-ordered it on April 30. It will be available in Apple Stores on the same date at 5 p.m.
The war between Adobe and Apple continues, with Adobe announcing that it is giving up on a feature of Flash CS5 that allows developers to create native iPhone apps.
Apple finally released new MacBook Pro models this week, a much anticipated update long rumored. The new machines feature the i5 and i7 processors in the 15 and 17-inch models, but Core 2 Duo processors in the 13-inch models.
They also have a new NVIDIA video chipset which switches to a low-power Intel video chipset when using the battery to extend the battery like to 8-10 hours. The battery is built-in to the hardware, not swappable.
There are two screen options for the 15-inch model: a 1680×1050 anti-glare screen or a glossy screen. Then 17-inch also has two options, both 1920×1200.
All models come with 4GB of RAM, upgradable to 8GB. You can also get a variety of hard drives, depending on the model, from 250GB to 500GB and even a 512GB solid state drive as an option.
While iPads continue to fly off the shelves in the U.S., Apple has delayed international launches until the end of May. On May 10 the iPad should appear in Apple Stores as a pre-order item, with pricing revealed. No word yet on exactly which countries will get the iPad first.
Adobe released the CS5 application suite, including new versions of Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash. Dampening the launch was news from Apple that third-party developer tools would soon no longer be allowed for iPhone app development. One of the new features in CS5 is the ability to export iPhone apps. But it is not known whether Apple will accept them in the store.
In addition to the brightness controls on modern Mac keyboards, you can also control the contrast with keyboard shortcuts. Use Control+Option+Command+(period) to increase your screen increase contrast, and Control+Option+Command+(comma) to decrease it.
Even with the reservations system in place for the iPad launch, there were still lines. In fact, there were two lines at each Apple store: one for those with reservations, and one for those without. Those with reservations were supposedly guaranteed an iPad, but that didn’t stop them from lining up hours before the stores opened, just to be sure.
Apple officially announced that they sold 300,000 iPads on the first day. This would include pre-orders mailed out, reservations picked up, and regular walk-in sales. The iPad was only on sale in the U.S. Analysts estimate the first week at about 500,000 iPad sales.
While shortages of iPads were occasionally reported at Apple stores and other retailers like Best Buy, it seems Apple made enough to go around.
But Apple isn’t resting on this success. Later today Apple will give a sneak peak of the next version of the iPhone OS. Most likely they are doing this because they want to get it in the hands of app developers and beta testers soon, so they might as well announce the new features now. Rumors are that two major new features will be multitasking and printing from apps. Others speculate GPS navigation in the Maps app and a merged inbox email view in the Mail app.
Expect developers to be able to get their hands on the new OS soon, but the general public will most likely wait for a new iPhone model this summer.
We’ll be reporting news of the event on Twitter, Facebook and the left sidebar of the MacMost home page.
There are a few comic book apps available, and some are now both iPhone and iPad compatible. But the Marvel one stands out in that it presents clear, crisp graphics even on the large iPad screen. Plus, I like that they put their free samples right out front and don’t try to hide them. This app, like all comic apps, is a novelty on the iPhone and iPod Touch. But on the iPad it really can replace reading on paper.
I bought the official Apple iPad case because I figured I should. I need to “review” it, after all. But to my surprise I like it a lot. It protects the iPad screen when closed, sure. But the front folds over the back and creates two ways to stand the iPad up horizontally. The official dock only stands the iPad up vertically. My only complaint is that you can quite put the iPad in the stand-up dock while it is still in the case.
So it is easy enough to drag the bottom of a column in the Finder’s column view to change the width of that column. But, did you know you could hold down the Option key and it will resize all columns in all windows? And, better still, it will remember that new column width as the default. Also, Control+click on the bottom of a column to get more resizing options.
