July 2011

Why we’re betting everything on FCP X

At the last meeting, we had a healthy discussion on Final Cut Pro – and it’s failings. When I saw this article – decided to share it. As I said in the meeting – I am not a video guy, so really have no valuable input to the debate – however I thought this article from someone who ‘is in the biz’ …

I don’t know if 100% of our customers are FCP editors. They range from ambitious freelancers, to ad agencies, to Hollywood post shops, to in-house editors at the BBC. We believe that the vast majority of these editors – and probably you, too – will be using FCP X as their professional editing platform within a year.

and

Conclusion: In a Year, Most Professional Editors will be Using FCP X

Full Article With Comments : CrumplePop Blog.

By MAUS Administrator, ago

Apple Newsletter Available For Download

Careful – the attached document is over 100 pages long and comes in at a hefty 70 MegaBytes or so. (BTW – because it is so big, I have stored it on one of my own servers, hence you might not recognize the address ‘BeyondBridges’ when you download. But it is safe. It is valid.)

It is a great piece of work that you will enjoy. It is the Apple Users Spotlight – Issue Number 15 – covering June and July 2011. To help you understand what delights are contained within – this is the list of contents.

  • Nicholas’ Dashboard – page 3
  • Preparing for Lion: Find Your PowerPC Applications – page 5
  • Whither Apple’s Keynote ’11 – page 8
  • Blogging on the Mac – page 11
  • FileMaker Debuts New Bento Label Kit- page 14
  • AppleUsers Contest #15 – page 15
  • Apple Revolutionises Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X16Mac 911 – page 20
  • Project Noah inspires a return to nature, photography and community – page 22
  • Take Control ebooks – page 39
  • Give iPhone Contacts their own Ringtone – page 42
  • Using WordPress to create a website that does not look like a blog – page 43
  • What’s New — Mac – page 46
  • Spotlight Cooks – page 51
  • Invert iPad Colors for Better Reading in the Dark – page 52
  • iCloud lightning strikes twice for many MobileMe members – page 54
  • Sending images to PC users – page 58
  • Free on iTunes — Australian Store – page 59
  • Before you let Lion roar on your Mac, devour some essential reading and prep first – page 62
  • Transition from MobileMe to iCloud—FAQs – page 65
  • Discounts for AppleUsers Spotlight Readers – page 69
  • Apple User Group Discounts – page 73
  • iPad Magic 75 Hungry Horse – page 87
  • Star Walk 5 Stars Astronomy Guide – page 88
  • TuneIn Radio – page 89
  • Photoshop Elements 9: Review – page 90
  • Solving deep shadow and highlights in photographs – page 99

Click on this link and the doc will download and be visible in your browser. It will take a little while, so once it is down there – use file / save as and store the doc locally – and then open it up in Preview or Adobe Acrobat.

That means you will be able to navigate faster and search the doc quickly in the usual manner for items of specific interest.

Enjoy.

By MAUS Administrator, ago

A Different kind of Secure Online Storage

In the words of Wuala : Backup. Sync. Share. Access Everywhere.

Wuala – Secure Online Storage – Backup. Sync. Share. Access Everywhere..

In the wake of the Dropbox guys dropping the ball and admitting they not be quite as secure as they had previously suggested – AND that they had changed their terms and conditions that also implies that your stuff might not be as private as you thought – Wuala – along with a couple of others are jumping on the bandwagon in a hope of denting the line.

Wuala comes from your friendly hard drive manufacturer LaCie. It is a ‘freemium’ model (first gig is free – compared to dropbox’s 2 gigs). I downloaded and installed. So far I am puzzled as to why it seems to be so slow – but also I am missing the social media aspects (or at least if they are there – I haven’t yet found them – so that I can’t quite as easily save stuff into my Wuala to share with others.

Still – for now – I will stick with it – though free always has a cost – will link to that post another time!

(Oh and you could also buy La Cie’s new wireless hard drive so that you can back up locally and to the cloud – automatically – in parallel.)

By MAUS Administrator, ago

Collaborative Whiteboard Apps For The iPad

When you follow the link to the article – you will see that it says :

a search for the word “whiteboard” in the App Store returns a whopping 170 iPad apps.

Personally not used any of them – BUT – a rapid peruse of the screen shots – and the first I would try is SyncSpace. Why ? One thing I have observed is that though Apple is trying to guide their third part developers along good standards and practice – at the end of the day – it is up to the developer as to how they design. But it is up to me how I use – and I don’t like steep learning curves – at least if all I am doing is trying something out.

SyncSpace has a recognizable look to it – it feels like other apps I have – so I am feeling it is going to be prretty intuitive.

And at the other end of the spectrum is LucidChart – which looks plain SCARY !!

What do you think ?

By MAUS Administrator, ago

Mac Pro Video Offer – Ends 20th July

If you are a fan of Dream Theater read on …

If you are interested in getting a discount on Mac Pro Video’s new Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro X tutorials – read on …

Because until July 20th, they are running a contest that will give you an opportunity to win backstage passes to a Dream Theater show near you – PLUS – you can save 25% when you purchase the HD Download version of these new titles.

Better be quick – the deal (and the email below) expires on July 20th (2011). If you want the special coupon code, email me now

Their site is here

By MAUS Administrator, ago

Application and Lion Compatibility

More on Lion compatibility.

Classic and PowerPC applications will NOT work in Lion, but it is possible that some of your applications that are Intel or Universal based also won’t work in Lion! Which ones? Better to know BEFORE you upgrade to Lion.

There is a web site that is a Wiki where users can report on the working of applications under Lion. The data, so far, of course is from the Developer community.

The top box lets you click and check for an application based upon its name. Try Q to see how bad Quicken is

The Status box is a report on the software and Lion.

  • Cheers for the green / check icon; it apparently works.
  • Boo’s for the red / X icon; it doesn’t work.
  • Caution for the yellow / ! icon; it worked but there were some issues.
  • Not Tested yet for the blue / ? icon.

The App Store box apparently indicates whether the application is available from the Mac App Store.

App Compatibility Table

Thanks to:
Jerry King, President
Naples MacFriends User Group
For this information

By MAUS Administrator, ago

Filemaker Pro compatibility with Lion

Our friends at Macnn, recently spoke to Filemaker about compatibility with Lion. Their response ?

“FileMaker Pro 8.5 or greater will install on Lion.”

BUT

“Only FileMaker Pro 11.0 will be certified and supported to run on Lion.”

So, the bottom line is, you can use any version from 8.5 and up, but you might have some minfor problems. They only support Filemaker Pro 11.

By MAUS Administrator, ago