MacOSRumors has the news on this Docking Station for a Thunbderbolt equipped Macbook Pro.It has a Gigabit Ethernet Port, Two USB 2 ports, AUdio in and out jacks, and either HDMI or DVI port (depending on the model).A very cool idea for around $250.
Some new scripts up at AE Scripts.Path Duplicator, to duplicate Paths for $14.99.BAO Distortion Selector, to control the zone corrected by distortion for $49.99.OBJ Vertex Export for $14.99.2 - Sided Layer for $9.99 (Something I could use very very often!)And Locations for $29.99 to create 2D and 3D Geolocations on a map.
Adobe has released updates to Photoshop and Illustrator for those with HiDPI and Retina displays, such as the new MacPro Laptops. The Adobe Illustrator Blog has more on the Illustrator update.And the Mac Performance Guide says that the new Photoshop is 13% faster than the previous version! Nice!Great news for those with Retina displays, but I likely won't be one of those for a long time. I still use my MacPro and am hoping for a new one and a large Retina display, say 24 inch would just be too expensive for a very very long time. Still great to see Adobe keeping up though (and this will be awesome for Premiere Pro once it is updated for those with the 15" Retina MacBook Pro).
Today only Red Giant is having a 40% off sale on all there products! Just enter 2012BSF40 at checkout and you will get the discount, which applies to all products including upgrades! This is a great deal and I love their suites of FX as is. So if you don't have them today is a great time to catch up.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 viewAnd 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…
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…
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.