Another day, another Pro Applications update. Good news for fastidiously updating Shake, Color, Compressor, Qmaster, Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, and Logic Studio users. That’s a mouthful. If you guessed that this update “addresses general performance issues and improves overall stability”, then you read Apple update descriptions too much (and by too much, I mean more than once).
Final Cut Pro has been updated to version 6.0.5, improving still rendering and high resolution format handling, as well as a couple Panasonic camcorders.
Compressor 3.0.5 and Apple Qmaster 3.0.5 share a version number and fixed an issue with Back to My Mac and QuickClusters.
Color has been updated to 1.0.3, adding support for XDCAM 422 media and for the RED plug-ins for Final Cut Studio. Overall reliability has been improved when using trackers in the Geometry room, using the Reconform command, adjusting the Minimum and Maximum nodes in the Color FX room. And no, I have no idea what most of those mean.
Finally, Shake has reached 4.1.1 and addresses compatibility with Quicktime codecs greater than 8 bits.
Get to downloading. It should be in your Software Update now.
For those not in the know, Apple released the iPhone and iPod touch Software Update v2.2 late night yesterday. The update, which is free for all iPhone users and iPod touch users with firmwares 2.0 and above, brings in a lot of enhancements to Google Maps, including the much hyped Street View, and the ability to download podcasts over-the-air.
But that wasn't the only software update to grace Apple's servers yesterday. As is usually the case, a minor iTunes update accompanied the firmware update. This update, which bumps the version number up to 8.0.2, contains the following fixes:
The 60.3MB update can either be downloaded via Software Update or through the Apple website. It ought to be noted though that this iTunes update is not a prerequisite for installing the firmware update on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Fire up your Apple TV, kids, there be an update awaitin'! Apple released Apple TV Software Update 2.3 today, which includes four noteworthy features (discovered via this Knowledge Base article):
As our friends at TUAW point out, this update will most likely break any existing Apple TV hacks, so if your Apple TV is hacked six ways to Sunday you might want to hold off on the update.
Continue reading "Apple TV 2.3: now with more remotes, and remote music"
Personally, we have been terrified of voodoo ever since we watched that scene with the snake in Live and Let Die. But that hasn’t prevented our undying love of personal wiki app VoodooPad. Our good friend Gus Mueller over at Flying Meat has just released the most recent major update to the application, bringing it to version 4.0.
What can you find in this quaternary version? Plenty. Tops among the list is the ability to synchronize your VoodooPad pages between multiple computers, through the use of either MobileMe or your own personal WebDAV server. You can even create an iPhone compatible web interface for browsing your pages on the go. That’s not all, either: VP4 sports a single-palette interface designed to reduce clutter, gives you more control over your typography, and the ability to encrypt pages with sensitive data (VoodooPad Pro lets you encrypt your whole document, if you prefer). I think my favorite new feature, however, is the “Bucket.” Hit a hotkey when Voodoo Pad is running (even if it’s in the background), and it’ll pop up a little window where you can paste in some text and add it to any open VoodooPad document.
You’ve got your choice of which version to try out too: the free VoodooPad Lite, the everyday VoodooPad ($30; upgrade $15), or the souped-up VoodooPad Pro ($50; upgrade $20). And if you purchased a version of VoodooPad 3 after August 1st, you can snag the 4.0 update gratis.
At some point, most of you have probably attempted to evade the Microsoft hegemony by rolling with some non-Redmond alternative, like OpenOffice, iWork, AbiWord or, if you're really hardcore, Nisus Writer. (Or if you're really really hardcore, emacs or vi.)
For the low low price of a Jackson, Hamilton and a Lincoln ($35), you can now get the native, full-fledged version of StarOffice 9 for the Mac. Earlier this year, the beta was available--and Derik told us that the price would be $70. Now that StarOffice is half that much, you'd be a fool not to try it.
StarOffice, of course, is based on the same source code as OpenOffice--which is free--but hey, if you still want it, go ahead and grab it here.
If you give it a spin, let us know how it goes.
When you release a highly anticipated product and it brings along a particularly egregious bug with it, people are bound to complain. But how do you separate the good companies from the bad? Well, the former immediately acknowledge the issue and then work overtime to make a fix available for it as soon as possible.
Apple released the Trackpad Firmware Update v1.0 today that aims to fix Erratic Clicking Syndrome, a commonly found bug in Apple's unibody MacBooks and MacBook Pros that may cause the new glass trackpad to not register clicks on occasion.
Since this is a firmware update, it comes with its own installer, which should get launched automatically once you download it via Software Update. Just follow the simple instructions for installation and you should be fine. Note that the trackpad will be rendered irresponsive while the update is in progress--talk about the darkest hour being just before dawn, huh!
Also coming down the pipeline today is QuickTime H.264 Compatibility Update 7.5.5 which improves its compatibility with iChat. It may not be as cool as chatting from within your email inbox right in your web browser, but these frequent tightening of nuts and bolts via compatibility updates are what keep the OS in smooth shape.
Neither of these updates, the latter of which requires a restart by the way, is available on the Apple Support website as of this writing, so if you gotta have them now, you better know where to find Software Update on your Mac (for the uninitiated, the easiest way is to click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of the screen and select 'Software Update...' from the resultant menu).
I admit it: I’m dual image-editor kind of guy. I run both Flying Meat’s excellent Acorn and Pixelmator because I often find that one is better than the other for different tasks. I’m a fan of both, though, so I’m psyched to see Pixelmator’s new 1.3 release, code-named Tempo.
The new version offers both new features and refinements on existing capabilities and there’s a lot of both. Among the biggest improvements are a new click-and-drag method of using the Magic Wand, Paint Bucket, and Magic eraser tools. Instead of just clicking and ending up with a selection, you can now “paint” the section you want to affect, seeing the changes in real time. In addition, the adjustment tools have been redesigned, giving a new wheel-based interface to the Hue and Saturation, Colorize, and Replace Color commands. And a Smart Palette Hide ability reduces clutter for when you’re using certain features like filters and adjustments, fading the other palettes out so you can give all your concentration to the image at hand.
They’ve also fixed one of my biggest gripes: a tool palette on which many of the icons were virtually impossible to distinguish because of the dark coloration; the icons are now bigger and higher contrast, making it far easier to use. Pixelmator 1.3 is a free update to owners of any version of Pixelmator 1.x; a full version will run you $60.
Apple today released iLife Support 8.3.1, a small 11.7MB update for users of Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger that “provides system software components shared by all iLife ‘08 applications”. As to what those software components are, well, your guess is as good as mine.
Apart from that, this update also improves overall stability, has some security related fixes, and fixes other minor bugs. To know more about the security content of the update, pay a visit to this knowledge base article. As usual, the update can be grabbed either via Software Update or directly through the Apple Support website. Leopard users need not download this update.
You thought Microsoft was slow to the party getting Office Intel native. Adobe gets to take the prize for that one though. It has just recently made Shockwave native to Intel. I bet you didn’t even notice. I sure didn’t.
On the other hand, should I manage to find some esoteric website that decided Shockwave was the way to put out their content, I can now check it out without invoking Rosetta. That’s exciting. A little.
Version 10 will continue be available for PowerPC users, while version 11 is for all things Intel (running 10.4 or later natch).
Apple yesterday released Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.3 which, like its predecessors, extends the RAW file compatibility of both iPhoto ‘08 and Aperture to include a few more cameras. The cameras covered with this release are:
Apparently, “it also addresses issues related to specific cameras and overall stability”. It’s a 4MB update and can be downloaded either from the Apple support website or via Software Update.
