I have now been in Apple stores twice and checked out the iPad mini and must say it is just about perfect. The perfect size and weight. My iPad 3 gets heavy to hold, and I think the iPad mini would be just right to hold for extended periods of time. it is so light and feels pretty well constructed.I still think the price is way too high though. $250 would be a perfect starting place, and even $299 would just deel better than the extra $30.
Adobe has released new presets for Adobe Media Encoder CS6. These include ProRES codes for Mac, Kindle Fire and Nook presets as well as MXF encoding Presets.Nice, I always make my own ProRes Presets, but this could be helpful.
Noise Industries has upgraded the FxFactory to 4.0 and added Premiere Pro CS 6 Support. I have a ton of their compatible and free plug ins, but don't actually own this suite (always thought it was a tad expensive), but this gives me one more reason, as I have moved from any version of Final Cut and now prefer Premiere Pro (though I of course still have Media Composer which works with very few plug ins).
Arstechnica has info on new Modbooks, converted 13" Macbookpro's that have a touchscreen display, a wacom pen and no keyboard, and those who ordered are getting a bigger SSD more memory and a twice as sensitive pen, than originally was offered. I so would love one of these. Don't get me wrong, I love my ipad, but I would love to be able to do real work on it. Just think how awesome this would be for Photoshop! You can check out ModBook's at their web site. Started at $3495, this is really an amazing product, and a great alternative to a WACOM Cintiq (though not admittedly more expensive).
HD Magazine has an excellent article on the lack of a new MacPro.It basically is how I feel. Many in the industry love Macs, but the MacPro is just not as fast as PC's right now and there are great options from HP and Dell that just have the Speed advantage. Companies are waiting to see what Tim Cook was talking about, but we are not holding our breath, and if Apple does not release a new MacPro that really can compete with high end PC's, people will start moving to PC's for their computers, possibly with a Mac laptop for personal stuff.It really is so sad, but the MacPro's just don't make enough as compared to Apple's consumer products (even though they do make money), so Apple is abandoning the people who kept the company afloat all those years when Apple was doing so badly with everyone else.The consumerizing of Final Cut Pro is further proof of their changing focus, and I don't think that they realize the damage they will be doing to themselves in the long run as all professionals move away from Macs.And that doesn't even delve into the fact that Windows 8 is such a dud, after Windows 7 being such a good OS.
ArsTechnica has done it usual and gone deeper into Apple Fusion drives, now using a true Fusion drive from a Mac Mini. They show how the technology works and the caveats (if one drive goes the whole partition goes, and everything writes first to the SSD, which you can't control).
He was able to re-create a Fusion Drive using an SSD and a regular hard drive. Of course the 2 drive setups means more possibility of errors as if one drive fails, they both fail, but it seems more likely that 3rd parties will be able to offer Fusion drives.He has also posted more on building your own Fusion Drive and Fusion Drive Loose ends.
ArsTechnica has a good article on the difference between these processors in the new Macs.Honestly I hadn't realized there was so little difference in the mobile versions except clock speed (and the quad over dual core versions), though I did think that the i7 desktops had superior performance, cache and hyperthreading (strangely both mobile versions have hyperthreading).
Ken Stone has an excellent and thorough review of the new FCP X Update with many photos.It is an excellent look, and the program does look better, but I still won't be giving FCP X a spin again anytime soon, and no I am not just a hater who feels wounded by FCP X.Honestly while I love the metadata capabilities, and think they should be included in other programs, I hate the timeline. It is unintuitive and unorganized. Cutting DR, I usually have shows with 12-15 Video Tracks and I like to keep them well organized so it is easy to see what is what, and easy to jump in for anyone else and replace a shot if need be, but the magnetic timeline is not at all conducive to that.And it is not set up to easily be used in a multi-user multi-machine environment, which is essential for how I work.I still don't see forcing an editor to work a certain as possibly being the future of editing, no matter how fast it can be. Editors have ways that they like to work, and adding new ways is great, and if they are better people will use them, but being forced to use them is just unacceptable.
Anandtech has a very good article on the Mac Fusion Drive, and how it works and who it is good for.Sounds great to me personally, and I would love one for my MacPro if that is possible (probably not).I like the idea of the pinning and moving, as I have about 1 TB currently on my main system hard drive, so the 3TB with Fusion would be awesome. Hopefully a 3rd party can figure this out and have 256MB instead of 128MB with the 3TB.I know, I know I should just go SSD, but I just don't have enough hard drive space. I have all 4 drives in my MacPro with 2TB hard drives (would love to have 3's some day) and no room to add an SSD at all (even have 2 optical drives, a DVD-R and a Blu-Ray burner as well)..