Red Giant Software 40% Sale Today only!

EDIT: And it now goes till 10 AM Pacific this Wednesday 12-12-12, so you have a couple of more hours.
EDIT: And it now goes till 10 AM Pacific this Wednesday 12-12-12, so you have a couple of more hours.
CNET has an article on the 7 features Apple dropped from iTunes 11. These are Cover Flow (which I don’t miss), de-duper (now you need to use 3rd party applications, the excellent iTunes DJ for creating easy continuous mixes, Gapless Playback Editor (works for old Gapless albums, but not new ones, so all my new live stuff will have gaps), Multiple Windows (as you can tell from my previous post my other biggest piss off), the other Sidebar (which was just a link to the store and I will not miss) and quick volume control in the mini player.
I hate when Apple upgrades and removes features! It is the dumbing of the Mac and I don’t like it!
And honestly so far I haven’t been so impressed by the much vaunted speed of iTunes 11. Maybe my library is too big, but scrolling still does not seem that fast to me.
Well Apple has released it’s huge update to iTunes, iTunes 11. And honestly I find it harder to use, especially playlists. Instead of all on one window, you have to use separate windows, so it actually takes more steps to do things I used to easily be able to do.
Here is the album view.
And the Playlist view
And you can no longer break playlists off, so you can copy between playlists or use it to organize. Now you can only see one playlist at a time. I hate the move to more iOS like single window viewing, instead of being able to view as many windows as I want!
Yes the iTunes store is now even prettier, and you can now play songs from the iCloud (if you have a small enough library to do iTunes Match, which I don’t), but overall I find it actually harder to use. It is much more focused on Album covers instead of lists, and I have always found lists to be much easier to use (faster and more efficient), and while there are still lists here, they are more hidden. And I have to hit a button to edit a playlist, and then go to where the song is and drag it in, instead of being able to see my playlists and my songs at the same time. The extra step is not easier, it is harder!
And I don’t think syncing has been much improved. Instead of your connected devices showing up in the playlists they show up on the right, but the menus inside seem mostly the same except the addition of an “On this iPad” which I like since the movies have never been as well organized as playlists, especially when you have a huge list. I hate the thumbnail there view, which has not changed (a list would be much more efficient), but at least you can look “On Your iPad” and more easily see what you have already synced.
Here is the On This iPad button.
Here is where your iOS devices show up.
And what happens when you click on the button. And then you can go into the standard sync section, which hasn’t changed much.
And another loss of efficiency is that you have to hover over areas on the iOS device to see how much actual space each section is taking up.
Adding another step which slows things down.
Overall it stills works and I can still make playlists, play music and sync, and there is a better mini player with a search function, but I actually think it downgraded in many ways. I don’t think you will have a choice before long, so this is where iTunes is going and if you need to sync and iOS device you need to use the latest and greatest, so here it is, but overall it is not much of an improvement and even might be a downgrade to what we used to have, even if it always has been bloated and slow.
EDIT:
Well I was wrong on one thing, as I can at least bring back the sidebar and have my playlists back, and iOS devices on the left again.
It is easy to do, just got to the view menu.
And the Sidebar is back.
Nice. Still defaults to Album view, but you can view by songs and that solves the problem. Still can’t open up multiple playlists anymore though, which is a pain. At least with a full 64 bit app it should be faster. Still would like more options in the sync, like viewing by list, but at least we have some more speed.
I also recommend turning on the status bar,
So you can see the length and size of playlists as you used to be able to!
Well I have been off work for a week now and am feeling much better! My shoulders are much less sore, and I am feeling pretty good overall. Seem to have caught a little cough, but that is a separate issue all together. A week down has certainly just made my body feel a lot better, and a lot less sore. Now lets hope that I can get back to work next week, or soon after!
Well I am 6 months out from my Heart Surgery as of the 24th, so in 6 days, and just wanted to give an update, and also link to the surgery photos for anyone that wants to see them, but they are pretty gruesome, so I have not included them here. You have to click here to see the 6 photos taken during my surgery.
As I have had for a while, I have a great deal of stamina now, which I did not have before. And I seem to be able to do a lot of exercise, though of late I have noticed an excessive amount of sweating.
I have been taking the subway to work, and it is really hot in there, and I usually start sweating in the subway (I seem to really start sweating when I stop moving) and have had to bring a towel and extra t-shirt as well as deodorant to work. I am sure a lot of this is just being out of shape, and having gained back all the weight I lost during recovery (which I now need to lose again, serious diet time after the holidays as I could use to lose about 75 pounds).
And I am really sore, especially across the chest. Not so much on the wound (which is still very red as you can see), though it does get sensitive. Of course a big part of that is carrying so much to work (a backpack and two bags with a strap over each shoulder).
I am just sore. And I am sure 10 hours a day in front of the computer, 2 and a half hours of driving and 20 minutes on the subway are not helping a whole bunch. It sucks as I was much less sore before going back to work, but now that I am working so much I am really sore. Luckily my job let me take a couple of weeks off of work to recover a bit, and hopefully I can get back to work just after thanksgiving, and will be feeling a bit better. I really hate being this sore all the time.
And it is mostly on the sides of my chest near my shoulders and not in the middle, but seemingly the other ends of the muscles that were cut that are so sore.
Still putting wheat germ oil (which my chiropractor recommended) on the scar to try to heal it, but it is still pretty darn red, but I can wear shirts all the time without it being bothered too much (sometimes it gets sensitive at the end of the day).
And yes I am still a bit muddle headed, but it is better, just not feeling too creative. I can work just fine, in fact it seems to clear my head up doing work, but by the time I get home I don’t have much energy to do much on the side. And I just haven’t been creative on my own projects at all of late. Just kind of blank, which I hope get better soon.
Still don’t get the impression that I in any way regret surgery! I am so glad i did it! I just thought I would be more recovered sooner I think. And overall I am doing pretty well, just think I am overly tired from going back to work and doing 2 jobs in a row.
Am a bit nervous about stopping working for a bit when I had work, especially as we can really use the money right now, but I just needed to re-energize a bit and hopefully can start right up soon and start making money again! I mean I already feel better than I did when I took off work after Tuesday, and after another week I should feel a whole lot better, just hope they haven’t replaced me at work, especially since I had to turn down another job!
Video Copilot has released a new Element 3D tutorial, this one on Image Based Lighting in ELement 3D. Otherwise using an HDRI environmental map to simulate the lighting of a 3D scene.
FileLocker is a new 256 Bit encrypted File Storage for Businesses. You can get a free 5GB of Storage for 5 Users or for $5 a month you get Unlimited Storage for 5 + Users! Very cool.
Need an iOS and Android app though!
EDIT:
From a comment, you can currently use m.filelocker.com from any device until native apps arrive.
Cloud storage service SugarSync ( a service like DropBox or Box that has folder syncing capabilities) has updated to 2.0 Beta which greatly enhances the experience. I use SugarSync as it was one of the first to offer folder syncing, but now it is much better with drag and drop, easier sharing, cloud search or as SugarSync Drive from the finder, and it has a greatly enhanced Photo gallery. SugarSync starts at $49.99 a year for 30GB of storage. You can check out a video here.
Hopefully they will update the iOS app soon (Android is first).
I kind of wish that the desktop app was just in the widget in the menu bar instead of running an additional app, but it is a powerful app, especially for easy sharing.
The ProVideoCoalition has has an extensive article on using incident light meters with Video production. Worth the read if you are technically savvy on the camera end.