Posted by Jason on October 22nd, 2008
The world is falling apart and it’s all Apple’s fault.
That’s right, it’s USB and glare-induced pandemonium out there, people. But we can get through this. It’s not the first time we’ve lost a beloved technology (I’ll never forget you, Floppy), but we can get past this. We have to. We just need to calm down.
In my own attempt to restore peace and balance to the world, I drove to an Apple store to see the new machines for myself. I liked them. A lot. Here are something things I noticed:
Things I Noticed
The screen is bright — really bright
Speaker grills are super freaking tiny
The light sensor has moved to the display
Black keys look better with black screen bezel
Glare is most noticeable with dark colors and blacks
Trackpad is only clickable starting about a third of the way down
It costs $99 extra to connect to a current-gen 30in cinema display
I’m really not too terribly concerned about the glass screen. I have to believe that Apple wouldn’t leave all of those color-conscious designers and colorists out in the cold like that. Apple has billed their MacBook Pro line to be a mobile and professional solution for things like digital film production. Personally, I’m holding off judgment until I see some benchmarks and color accuracy tests. Which, I’m guessing, won’t take long.
The FireWire 400 problem is a little different, but solvable. Or work-around-able. Granted a work-around isn’t ideal, but if this is the end of FireWire 400 I’d rather it leave us when companies are still making FireWire 400 devices (like hard drives), than not. As it is now, in the event of a new MacBook Pro arrival, I’ll be able to connect my DVX100a via FW400 into one of my triple or quad interface hard drives (I call that future-planning). That’ll slow the FW800 data rate during import, but I can handle that.
Anther possibility (and I haven’t tried this myself, so maybe it doesn’t work) is to use a hard drive to connect the camera via FW400 and connect the notebook via USB 2. I think it’s possible — and even probable — that it’ll work. It’s something I plan to test soon. [UPDATE: As StevP points out in his comment this is not likely to work. However, I still have not tested this myself.]
You could always just check your camera’s manual to see if footage capture is possible over USB. If you’re working with mid to high level consumer gear this is probably an option you didn’t even know you had.
Apple adds native Soundtrack Pro support
The biggest surprise, however, is also the least publicized: Native Soundtrack Pro support. I’m thrilled to see Apple starting to address the issues users are facing when working with their pro apps. I’m talking about the new thumbscoop on the unibody where you lift to open the display. It’s an extremely well designed and understated feature. And the best part is that the corners are razor sharp — perfect for those long hopeless nights troubleshooting Soundtrack Pro error messages. Simply use one of the new gestures (listed as a “wrist swipe”) to activate the wonderful red release.
Finally. A way out. Thank you, Apple.
But seriously, folks. I can subjectively say that these new MacBook Pro models are beautiful. They feel solid, they look great, and the alleged graphical processing improvements are very welcome. More than anything I just want to see how the new Nvidia chips improve Final Cut Studio’s performance, specifically Motion.
While the concerns over the glass and FireWire issues are mostly legitimate, I don’t see a huge scandal developing over either. Professionals will continue to use monitors for color grading, and cameras will continue to evolve their footage (and file) transfer methods. It’s a surprising change, yes. But it’s not a deal-breaker.
Posted by Jason on October 9th, 2008
Slate [iTunes] popped into the App Store a few days ago. It’s a $1.99 iPhone/iPod touch app that acts in place of a physical slate for marking scenes and syncing picture to audio.
It’s a great idea, and probably the best dressed production-related iPhone app I’ve seen yet. You’re given a black on white (or white on black, your choice) interface with fields for production title, scene and take numbers, and director’s name. When you touch the clap sticks at the top, a visual cue appears for a moment and an audible beep or clap is played through the speaker. Scene and take counters are incremented when you tap the current scene or take number. The screen is dominated, however, by a running timecode which acts more like a glorified clock than a helpful way to keep things in sync.
I think I’d prefer to have the option to choose my own starting timecode — and have it freeze when clapping — instead of flashing “clap” (or “beep”, depending).
I’m also not hugely impressed with Marker Felt as the font choice here. It’s got the same tacky feeling that Comic Sans has. I get that maybe it’s supposed to feel like the words were handwritten on there, but it doesn’t. To me, it looks like somebody just took the easy way out. There are better fonts out there.
I’m also a little frustrated that you can’t fit much in the production field without running into an ellipsis. I can’t stand that. It’s like when Twitter gets confused and accidentally lets you type more than 140 characters, but then just throws up an ellipsis condemning the rest of your thought to oblivion.
I think part of the problem is how much space the “Prod.” abbreviation takes up, especially considering the app’s vertical orientation. If only I could rotate my phone and put this whole thing into landscape mode. That would solve my ellipsis gripe, and make a lot more sense visually.
But really, Slate isn’t too bad at all. Especially for just $1.99. It’s very usable and seems like it’ll be a handy tool to have while shooting. For that, I’m happy. I’m also happy to see somebody finally trying to fill the void of production-related apps in the App Store. I expect that these Swedes probably have some more things planned for the iPhone and I’ll definitely be keeping my eye out for whatever is next.
In the meantime I guess if I don’t like it I could always just try and build my own.
Posted by Jason on September 9th, 2008
Of the seven items on my wishlist, five (and a half) of them were announced at today’s Apple event. I’m counting the new Nike + iPod announcement as a half since it wasn’t expanded to include iPhones. Kind of a bummer, but maybe that just means I have an excuse to buy a new iPod nano.
Today will also go in my calendar as the first time I’ve ever really been jealous of iPod touch owners. They have the ability to download the new 2.1 firmware immediately, while the iPhone firmware won’t be available until Friday. I’m anxious to get my hands on it. From what I’ve read so far however, there was no mention of the push notification service at the event today — which leads me to wonder if we’re in for another firmware update by the end of the month. It’s a feature that could be really handy for apps like NetNewsWire and Twitterific (or Twinkle, if that’s your thing), and I was surprised that there was no mention of it.
I like the new visualizer in iTunes. It’s actually not quite as awesome as I was hoping, but it’s still fun. I was a little curious as to why it’s listed under the nondescript label, “iTunes Visualizer” while the other visualizers have names like Lathe, Jelly and Stix. Either way, it’s something I probably won’t use very often. But it’s nice that it’s there.
I’m really excited about HD shows coming to iTunes. I’m not as excited about the 1.5GB that each episode is going to take up, but having the option there is very cool. It’s also worth noting that when you buy an HD episode (which is a dollar extra) you still get the standard version too.
Even cooler still are the Genius playlists. I have a lot of music that I never really listen to. I tend to roll through a few bands at a time, then slowly migrate to another. I’m not a fan of shuffle. I like listening to the albums the way they were produced — in order and (generally) uninterrupted. Shuffling makes me uneasy as I have no control over what’s going to play. The Genius playlists afford me a safety net of general musical similarity. I like that.
And now that I’ve settled down a bit, I can clearly see that we once again have no new displays. I really thought we had that one on lockdown this time. Oh, well. I guess you’re really can’t have it all. But HDTV sure is a good start.
Posted by Jason on September 3rd, 2008
- HD television shows and movies available in the iTunes store
- iTunes 8 (to support all those new TV shows and movies)
- Nike + iPod upgraded and expanded to include iPhones
- 4th generation iPod nano (pretty much a given)
- 2nd generation iPod touch (also a given)
- iPhone/iPod 2.1 firmware update
- New cinema displays
Okay, that last one is kind of a joke. I think I’ve wished for new displays before every major Apple event for the past few years. Still, I can hope.
Something I’m not expecting are new MacBooks or MacBook Pros. As much as I’d love to see a new design for the Pro, I’m not counting on it happening this month. There have been rumors floating around for a while about a dramatically redesigned case for the next generation, but nobody’s mentioned any dates yet. October, perhaps? Maybe by the time new models do come out I’ll actually have enough money to buy one.
I guess I’ll just have to satiate my Apple addiction with September 9th’s event, and hope that before the day is out I will have finally realized my dream of downloading Mythbusters in HD.
Posted by Jason on July 12th, 2008
About a year ago I worked for a few months teaching myself Ruby on Rails. I’m not a programmer, but I really wanted a tape logger that I could use on my iPhone, and one hadn’t been introduced yet. So I made my own.
It’s not perfect. I did the best I could with the knowledge of programming that I had at the time, and the result was a single release of a web app I called Tapes. Since it’s debut in Apple’s web app section I’ve had 5,485 people sign up as users. I have no way of checking to see if they’re actually using the application, but if even a handful of them still find it useful I’d be thrilled.
But now we have the ability to write native apps for the iPhone and iPod touch. I would love nothing more than to be able to sell Tapes (don’t worry, I’m thinking $4.99) through the iTunes store and do my part to fill the gaping void of production-oriented apps. My biggest problem in reaching this goal is that I’m STILL NOT A PROGRAMMER. I’ve been studying up on C since February, but I don’t really feel like I’ve got a firm grasp on it yet. And after that I have to learn Objective-C. And then the Cocoa-touch framework. And make sure the UI is intuitive. And then get accepted into Apple’s dev program even though I’m not really a developer. All without having a formal education in computer science.
Basically, it’s hard.
But hard isn’t bad. Just challenging. So I promise you this, Internets: If it can be done, it shall be done. I will do my best to come out with a native tape or footage logging application at some point in the future. I have no idea when, or how. But I’m going to try.
And if you know anybody that knows anything about writing Objective-C apps, please send them my way.
Because I need some help.