Apple has Announced Snow Lion

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Apple has announced the next version of their OS, which now drops the mac name and is just OS X Mountain Lion. This continues bringing OS X and iOS closer together.

New features include:

  • Further integration with iCloud, which keeps your mail, calendar, contacts and documents in sync.
  • iChat has become Messages, and includes support for messaging with iOS devices and you can download a beta today. It is still a little rough, but being able to have my iMessages synced across all my devices is very cool.
  • Reminders is now on the Mac and syncs with iOS, though this should have been there from the start.
  • Notes is now on the Mac as welll
  • Notification Center on the Mac access with a 2 finger swipe is just like the iOS version, and looks like it will replace GROWL for notifications on the Mac.
  • Share Sheets allows you to contextually aware share where you are from Safari, Notes, iPhoto
  • Twitter has been fully integrated into the OS, just like on iOS
  • Game Center is now integrated into the OS, and you can supposedly play some games between the mac and iOS.
  • AirPlay Mirroring allows you to mirror your computer to your Apple TV.
  • Gatekeeper is the most controversial new feature, initially is set to only allow apps from the Mac App Store, but can be turned off so you can install your own Apps.
  • Another unannounced feature is that Sotfware Update is now gone and integrated into the Mac App Store. This one I find weird, as you don’t upgrade your iOS device through the app store, you have to go into settings to do the update, so why shouldn’t you have to go to Software Update?

Of course it doesn’t come out to till the summer so features will change, and hopefully the color finder icons will return!

AND AN IMPORTANT NOTE FOR EDITORS AS FINAL CUT PRO 7 will likely no longer work on Mountain Lion, so it is time to move on.

Lensbaby releases Edge 80 Optic for Swing and Tilt

Photo Rumors has the announcement on the new Lens Baby Edge 80 Optic.

Lensbaby-Edge-80-Optic

This $300 lens attaches to your old Lens baby attachment and has f2.8-f22 12 blade aperture. Lensbaby has a video on the new higher quality lens, and a very cool Swing and Tilt Simulator to show off what it can do!

This really puts Swing and Tilt in the hands of a lot more people at a much more reasonable price. Very cool.

Aja Updates Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini

Videoguys has info on AJA’s updates to it’s Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini. This is a free upgrade via firmware.

• Data Transfer via FireWire 800 – Ki Pro can now be configured for data transfer to FireWire 800-equipped Apple computers, for situations where the unit is not easily accessible for physical data removal.

• Data Transfer via LAN connection – Allows transfer of files through standard Ethernet networking for Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini.

• Super Out – Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini can now burn timecode and transport state into the video signal, providing at-a-glance status to users monitoring output, without having to check the device itself. It is also convenient for times when video is dubbed from Ki Pro/Ki Pro Mini to another source to track timecode throughout post. A user selectable Super Out (window burn) option for SDI has also been added to both Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini.

• Playlist creation – A new feature for the web UI adds flexibility in selecting clip playback order for both Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini.

• FireWire 400 (1394a) port enabled—Provides Ki Pro support for camera start/stop commands as well as timecode values; particularly useful for HDV cameras that may lack LTC to SDI timecode outputs.

• HDMI timecode support in Ki Pro Mini for Sony NEX-FS100 and other Sony NXCAM cameras.

• ExpressCard/34 Support – Ki Pro now supports ExpressCard/34 (34mm wide) memory cards (not ExpressCard/54). Check the AJA Ki Pro support page for recommended cards.

• Additional RS-422 Functionality for Ki Pro to support use in post-production applications.

• LANC Support – Ki Pro now supports LANC, enabling camera operators to control shooting via LANC-based controllers and LANC enabled cameras.

• 1080 Variable Frame Rate Support for certain Canon camcorders, for Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini.

• Presets can now be created, saved and recalled for easier interaction with device settings in Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini.

• Continued Recording Option – v3.0 adds an option for continued recording upon video input loss. Ki Pro and Ki Pro Mini will generate a status change video frame, then pick up recording automatically when a valid video signal is returned.

Next MacPro 16 Core and NVIDIA Graphics?

Macnn is reporting on the latest set of rumors on a new MacPro, and lets hope it is true, and Apple is staying committed to the pro market in at least it’s hardware.

They would be powered by the new Ivy Bridge 22 nanometer Xeon processors which can have 8 cores and 20MB cache, making for 16 core machines, with 32 virtual machines. And even more exciting to me is the possibility of returning to NVIDIA and their soon to released Kelper hardware. This would mean CUDA acceleration in Adobe Premiere, and hopefully the next generation Quadros being released for the mac. This could mean that Jobs fued with NVIDIA is over. Wouldn’t that rock!

AVID releases AVID Studio for the iPad

FCP.co has an article on the newly released AVID Studio for the iPad. Here is the link to it in iTunes. It is currently $4.99, but will jump to 7.99 in 30 days. Looks pretty cool. Looks higher end than iMovie for the iPad. Looking forward to trying it out.
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Big-screen moviemaking comes to the touchscreen with Avid® Studio for iPad.We’ve distilled the world’s leading film-editing technology into an easy-to-use app that enables you to edit video, audio, and photos at the speed of your creativity.’
‘Swiftly arrange your clips in the Storyboard, make precision edits using the Timeline, and add high-quality transitions, effects, and a soundtrack.Then share your movie directly to YouTube, Facebook, and more—or export your project to Avid Studio for the PC and continue editing with even more advanced tools.’Easily Access Your Media
Work with any media on your device—video, audio, and photos
Access media from external devices via an iPad Camera Connection Kit (sold separately)
Capture video and photos from within the app
See your media organized by Albums, Events, Faces, and moreEdit
Get started quickly with how-to materials
Easily navigate your project with intuitive gestures
Swiftly arrange clips in the Storyboard
Make precise edits and trim individual frames in the Precision Trimmer
Use the Razor Blade tool to cut on the fly and delete or replace the second half of the clip
Easily replace one clip with anotherEnhance
Quickly create multi-layer 3D animations, transitions, and titles with included Montage templates
Easily composite video tracks to create layered looks
Add high-quality fades and dissolves to help your story flow
Generate professional-looking motion titles and graphics with full control over text, font, color, size, position, and rotation
Create amazing Picture-in-Picture effects with full control over position, size, and rotation
Pan and zoom on your photos to create high-impact slideshows
Enjoy full-screen playbackCreate Soundtracks
Use your own audio or choose from the included sound effects
Trim audio to any length, set levels, and fade audio in or outShare
Easily share movies via YouTube, Facebook, email, and much more
Export projects to Avid Studio for the PCPro Technology, Pro Results
Created by Avid, the maker of the world’s leading film and music editing technology
Easy enough for the hobbyist, powerful enough for the pro

Intelligent Assistance’s Premiere Pro Tools

These utilities for Premiere Pro by Intelligent Assistance have been out for a while, but I haven’t talked about them and think they are pretty cool and worth checking out.
Sequence Clip Exporter

It’s tedious to spend days preparing shot lists and music cue sheets using EDLs. Instead, generate comprehensive reports in seconds direct to a fully formatted Excel spreadsheet for just $99 with Sequence Clip Reporter, saving hundreds of dollars of your time


PrEdit

prEdit is a dramatically new way to deal with transcripts, story and the first edit. From transcript… to paper cut… to sequence for just $395.


Transcriptize

Adobe’s voice recognition technology has been locked to the Adobe CS4 and CS5 Production Premium tools. But with Transcriptize you can extract the transcription to text files, Excel spreadsheets, and place it in Markers in the Final Cut Pro clip. Now you can use the Adobe speech transcriptions in your workflow for just $149.

I knew they made FCP 7 utilities, and now FCP X to FCP 7 utilities, but I didn’t know about their Premiere Pro utilities. Sequence Clip Exporter would pay for itself in about a job, and the others could be even more useful, depending on the job. These are apps to keep an eye on.

Apple Has Updated FCP X added Multicam, 3rd Party FCP 7 Project Import

Good old Larry Jordan has a great blog post on the update to FCP X 10 10.0.3, which is another free update.
APPLE’S RELEASE NOTES

According to the Release Notes from Apple, Final Cut Pro X version 10.0.3 adds the following features:

  • Multicam editing with automatic sync and support for mixed formats, mixed frame rates, and up to 64 camera angles
  • Media relink for manual reconnect of projects and Events to new media
  • Ability to import and edit layered Photoshop graphics
  • Advanced chroma keying with controls for color sampling, edge quality, and light wrap
  • XML 1.1 with support for exporting basic primary color grades and both importing and exporting effect parameters and audio keyframes
  • Multiple improvements to the Color Board, including new key commands, editable numeric fields, and adjustable parameters that act like infinite sliders when dragged
  • Ability to reorder color corrections in the Inspector
  • Reveal in Event Browser shows clip range in the filmstrip while in List View
  • Batch offset for clip date and time
  • Ability to search text added to Favorite and Reject ranges
  • Automatic restore of projects and Events in case of file corruption
  • Beta version of broadcast monitoring with third-party PCIe and Thunderbolt I/O devices

Final Cut Pro X version 10.0.3 also improves overall stability and performance, and addresses the following issues:

  • Improves performance when editing text in titles
  • Improves performance when applying an effect from the Effect Browser
  • Improves key-framing behavior in the Inspector, with keyframes automatically added when moving to a new point in time and adjusting a parameter
  • Modifies transition behavior so that all newly added transitions use available media and maintain project length
  • Fixes an issue which affected audio solo while skimming
  • Resolves issues related to using Synchronize Clips with media containing a silent audio channel
  • Fixes an issue in which constant speed retiming was not properly applied when using the Paste Effects command


The 3rd Party FCP XML transfer apps are created by Intelligent Assistance and include 7toX and Xto7. 7toX is available for $9.99 and Xto7 is $49.99 in the App Store, and both with XML much like Premiere Pro ability to open XML files from FCP 7.

Looks like Apple is listening and has added back many of the features that are necessary for a Pro to Use this software, even Beta support for broadcast monitors, and multicam, and especially the ability to relink media to different clips. The biggest are the utilities from Intelligent Assistance, which should be free and integrated, but it is great that they are available at all.

Compressor and Motion have also been updated.

Now FCP X does become a viable editing app and successor to FCP 7, though we still don’t know for how much longer FCP 7 will run on the latest OS’s, so it is time to freeze a system to keep FCP 7 viable and be able to even export XML to be able to import into FCP X (Since it does not work with project files).

And no matter what I still think that that the basic editing techniques of FCP X is broken. The inability to have numbered tracks just would not work with the DR workflows that I cut with and make Media Composer and Premiere the real solutions available for editing with. And honestly FCP X will make more people think they are professional editors and leave the high end jobs to people who can use the other software. Sure you will still be able to make good stuff with FCP X and it does have a powerful engine with impressive features, but it’s fundamental changes to editing are not going to revolutionize the industry, but instead continue to drive people to Adobe and AVID.

I still say Apple should have released this as a new App and made a 64 bit version of FCP 7, and slowly added the new features they wanted to implement instead of this scorched Earth policy which has and will continue to alienate the high end post people.

I think the fact that the Final Cut Pro User Group is now the Creative Pro User Group says a lot. Still the updates to FCP X will mean that more people can and will use it, and I am glad Apple is actually listening to some of the complaints, but mostly I hope it means that AVID and Adobe continue to upgrade their software. After all Premiere Pro really needs to be able to do more than 4 angle multi-cam and the automatic syncing, and being able to re-sync at a later time are very cool features that it could use.