ProVideoCoalition on LumaFusion 3 for iPad added Stabilization and external hard drive support

Jose Antunes has an article at ProVideoCoalition on the recently released upgrade to LumaFusion for iPad, version 3.0. The update includes stabilization software from CoreMelt, and the ability to use external drives, especially for the new iPad Pro with USB 4.0. It also has a new graphic equalizer. I have actually used LumaFusion as it is the most standard type editing program on iPad, if you can use Premiere or AVID you can easily use LumaFusion. It is well worth it's $29.95 price.

Adobe Photoshop iPad updated with Magic Wand, Healing Brush and Sky Replacement on Desktop

Adobe has announced updates to Photoshop iPad and updates to the desktop app. On the iPad this includes the healing brush and magic wand as well as canvas projection if you connect your iPad to an external monitor or TV display via hdmi or USB-C. Photoshop Desktop has updated Sky Replacement with more skies, you can now import 500 skies at once. And updated Transform Warp Bezier Handles. And Photoshop will be releasing it's Photoshop Beta program as of next month. Adobe has also updated Fresco on the iPad with Color Adjustment Layers.

Macworld’s take on iPhone adding scanning for Child Abuse Materials and Privacy

I have been reading a lot of articles on Apple's recent move to add CSAM or Child Sexual Abuse Materials in any photos you sync with iCloud (which is all of them if you have iCloud backup on). I really like the depth that Jason Snell at Macworld has taken on the issue, and why it is an issue. Apple’s approach here calls all of that into question, and I suspect that’s the source of some of the greatest criticism of this announcement. Apple is making decisions that it thinks will enhance privacy. Nobody at Apple is scanning your photos, and nobody at Apple can even look at the potential CSAM images until a threshold has passed that reduces the chance of false positives. Only your device sees your data. Which is great, because our devices are sacred and they belong to us. Apple’s approach here calls all of that into question, and I suspect that’s the source of some of the greatest criticism of this announcement. Apple is making decisions that it thinks will enhance privacy. Nobody at Apple is scanning your photos, and nobody at Apple can even look at the potential CSAM images until a threshold has passed that reduces the chance of false positives. Only your device sees your data. Which is great, because our devices are sacred and they belong to us. The risk for Apple here is huge. It has invested an awful lot of time in equating on-device actions with privacy, and it risks poisoning all of that work with the perception that our phones are no longer our castles. And while it is noble to try and do something about Child Sex Abuse, it also does fly in the face of Apple and them being the arbiter of privacy. And that isn't even talking about false positives. And then there is where does this lead, because if they are scanning your photos won't they soon be scanning everything, and where is the privacy there.

Harry McCracken article on the iPad Pro needing Pro Software and my thoughts

 Harry McCrakken at Fast Company has an article about how the iPad Pro just got way more Pro, but now it needs more Pro Software.And I wholeheartedly agree. There is no overall user interface, everyone does it differently, and for me at least I don't see the stability to use it in a work environment. Like Final Cut Pro X apps on iPad are supposed to just save and, but every time I have tried to really use art software on an iPad it crashes and I end up losing not a small amount of work, but most of my work, admittedly the same thing has happened to me with Final Cut pro X and it's auto save with everything you do, if you are forced to use autodave and on the iPad have no way to backup your save definitively, then it can't be used in a work environment and feel safe.Now I hate windows, but I have an old Surface and even though it is far slower and doesn't have an impressive touch interface, being able to use a full version of Photoshop is far superior to anything on a much more powerful iPad. It is too slow to edit on, but photoshop if far superior.And while I have tried some editing on the iPad, and it works for simple stuff, it just isn't pro. Even though an iPad can play back H.265 footage better than any Mac I have ever seen, the software on the iPad is not conducive to the Pro Work that the hardware is capable of. Of course again I kind of feel the same about Final Cut Pro X, it has some amazing high level technology, but it just isn't put together how it should be or how an experienced editor would want to use it.And programs just crash on an iPad, there is now way to see the memory used or how it is being taxed. Even the simplest apps like web browser crash and I lose all my tabs all the time.And since every palm pilot had a way to store the pencil securely within the device, why can't apple figure this out? The Apple Pencil is only useful if it is charged and attached. Having to keep it safe separately is not ideal.I love my iPad because of convenience, but I have to say I would rather have a mac equivalent of a Microsoft Surface Book. A laptop with a touchscreen and a graphics card in the keyboard for editing work, but that I can take off and use as a tablet. And now that they both use the same chips this certainly should be possible. That would be ideal, though it would need to add Thunderbolt External GPU support to M1 Macs.

Patently Apple on Frame.io’s CEO on the new 2021 iPad Pro’s display being the ideal viewing solution

 2 days ago Apple announced the release of the new iPad Pro with the M1 chip (not as big an upgrade as it is for Macs since it is based on previous iPad chips, but still an upgrade). Well the 12.9 model (all are $100 more expensive than previous models) has an upgraded display that includes apple XDR mini-LED display with IPS tech, and that may be more important than you think. It includes P3 color space and could support HDR 10, 10+ and Dolby Vision.Patently Apple has an article about how Michael Cioni the VP of Onnovation at Frame.io told the Hollywood Reporter that this could be the perfect viewing display, since it can display work as it was originally intended.I would actually like to see the original interview. I question the iPads viability because I know just how weird Apple's color science is. Maybe it would work well with footage from Final Cut Pro X that has Apple's weird color science baked in, but with footage from Premiere and DaVinci, I will bet it will be just as messed up as a Mac is even if it could show the correct colors. Unless maybe Frame.io is working on a solution in it's app to bypass Apple's funky as Color Science. If Frame.io figured out how to bypass the wonky color science or read what machine it is on and display correctly that would make Frame.io even more worthwhile.

Stop mail spy pixel tracking on Mac Desktop in Apple Mail with this Plug In

 This awesome little plug in for Apple Mail, MailTrackerBlocker hosted at Github is a must install. If you don't know, companies install something called a tracker pixel into the html of an e-mail they send you, and when it loads the image off their server they can track your location and often more information. These spy pixels should be illegal, but they aren't so do what you can to stop them!Honestly I would think Apple would do something about them, and especially on the iPhone and iPad. They are so into not letting companies track, then they should stop this insidious behavior. At least you can do something about it on the desktop.It is scary how many e-mails have these built in trackers, which you can see once you install this app. Basically every e-mail with html formatting has one. 

MacRumors is reporting that Apple is delaying it’s anti-tracking feature from iOS 14

 MacRumors is reporting that Apple is basically bowing to pressure from major developers and delaying it's Ad Anti-Tracking feature from iOS 14. I have to say I think this totally sucks. If I am going to have to deal with Apple stopping things like Game Streaming on my iPhone, then I should at least have the privacy bonuses that they push so much in their adds.I don't want any app to be able to track what I do at all. In fact I think Safari should have containers on iOS to keep things like Facebook locked away from anything else.Delaying this feature does not help it's customers, it helps the big money making companies to continue to bilk apple customers.

OMG iOS sync on Catalina is f***ing garbage!!!

OK so I been having problems with the iTunes replacement Music in Catalina since upgrading, but the worst part seems to be the finder iOS sync! Not only are anything in folders shown in the finder in completely random order, but the sync itself barely every works! if you select any music to sync the sync button gets grayed out! Sometimes if you let it do an initial full sync but make the changes in itunes after a sync you can hit the sync button and it will work, but it is far from assured that this will work.It usually takes me multiple restarts, and connect and disconnects to get the damn sync to do anything, and I am running a fairly new iMac Pro! WTF!Apple doesn't give a shit about you syncing your own music anymore, they just want you to use their cloud music and Apple Music, so they have relegated syncing to the dumpster fire of Catalina Finder sync! WTF!

iOS 13.2 memory bug makes multitasking impossible

So iOS 13.2 seems to have way too aggressive memory controls in place, so apps that are in the background are almost always restarted when switching back.This can be super frustrating. Here is an example, when I am using google maps for navigation and I switch to Podcasts to start a different podcast, often google maps will have to restart, meaning my navigation is lost. This is dangerous when driving, and means you would need to pull over to enter your destination again (an impossibility on the freeway).It is also duper frustrating on mail on the ipad which is constantly reverting to 3 column view whrn in landscape mode!Apple needs to fix this quick!

Adobe working on a full version of Photoshop for the iPad, some thoughts

So it is being reported that Adobe is working on a full version of Photoshop to work on the iPad. And they do need a better version as their current iPad apps are all very limited, and blown out of the water by apps by other vendors, but I am still wary.I have an original iPad pro and an Apple pencil and was overjoyed to start doing real artwork on my iPad, but my experience so far has been so bad that I have basically given up. I just don't think that iOS is a robust enough system to support it. Even in the best apps I have had way too many crashes that make me lose all the work that I have done, till where I have just given up and use my Surface Pro, which is a real computer with a robust OS and full versions of apps.And dealing with documents is just so convoluted on the iPad, that it isn't easy to get documents on and off easily, except by saving them to cloud services, but that isn't just an integrated system wide feature.It has really made me think that the iPad is not a pro device and can't be used as such. It is much more a web terminal and game system with some ability to play with more powerful apps, but not really a computer that can be trusted with my pro work.