Hot Mac News

[Panag]

12 inch powerbooks

Apple Downsizes PowerBook G4's Size but Not Its Features
By Jason Brooks

In a bid to shift a greater share of its computer sales to portables, Apple Computer Inc. extended its PowerBook product line further into the low and high ends of the notebook space, with the introduction of 12-inch and 17-inch models at Macworld Expo last month.

eWeek Labs has been testing the $1,799, 12-inch PowerBook G4—or the "Yao Ming PowerBook," as those of us who've been watching Apple's ads have taken to calling it—and we've found it to be an attractive, well-appointed system that merits consideration by those in the market for a thin, light notebook.

The model we tested shipped with an 867MHz PowerPC G4 processor and 256MB of double-data-rate RAM, a configuration that delivered performance that, although snappy, didn't seem strikingly faster than Apple's less-costly iBook portables. This could be because the 12-inch PowerBook lacks the 1MB Level 3 cache of its 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBook brethren.

The 12-inch PowerBook features a 12.1-inch thin-film transistor XGA display with a maximum resolution of 1,024 by 768 pixels. We found the display quality was adequate—again, rather similar to that of Apple's iBook.

The most-heralded virtue of the new PowerBook, though, is its small size. The unit measures 10.9 by 8.6 by 1.18 inches and weighs 4.6 pounds—larger and heavier than a typical ultralight notebook but rather svelte considering that it carries a built-in, slot-loading DVD/CD-R combo drive. For $200 more, a version of this notebook is available that ships with Apple's DVD-writing Superdrive.

This device is more compact than any PowerBook Apple has offered, but we'd be interested to see what further girth and heft savings Apple could achieve by ditching the optical drive. However, an included optical drive is perhaps more vital for the PowerBook than for comparable PC notebooks because Apple's notebook lacks any PCMCIA slots—a major omission, as we see it, because these slots are so useful for memory cards, peripherals, etc.

The expansion ports that the 12-inch PowerBook does possess are lined up on the left side of the unit. The notebook ships with an integrated 10/100M-bps NIC and a 56K-bps modem, two USB ports, one FireWire 400 port, and jacks for headphones and for audio line-in. A single port, teamed with an included adapter, provides VGA, S-Video or Composite video-out.

The 12-inch PowerBook lacks an IrDA port, but it ships with Bluetooth built in. The Bluetooth software that ships with the notebook seems set up primarily for file exchange and for forming links to Bluetooth-enabled phones. For instance, we couldn't immediately set up a link between the PowerBook and a Bluetooth mouse.

The unit carries a mini-PCI slot to accommodate Apple's Airport Extreme 802.11g-based wireless LAN card. The card does not ship with this model, but it's priced fairly low, at $99.

Apple's diminutive notebook is powered by a removable lithium-ion battery, which, in tests, delivered about 3 hours of life between charges. This isn't bad at all, but falls short of Apple's 5-hour claim, even though we tested the unit in low-power mode, in which its display is dimmed and its processor slows to 533MHz.

The 12-inch PowerBook's keyboard is large enough for extended use, and the feel and action of its keys were very good in tests. The keyboard lacks a button for forward delete, though. Also, this unit tends to get hot, particularly on its left side.

Senior Analyst Jason Brooks can be reached at jason_brooks@ziffdavis.com.


Executive Summary: 12-Inch PowerBook G4

Usability Good
Capability Good
Performance Good
Interoperability Fair
Manageability Good
Scalability Fair
Security Good
Apple's 12-inch PowerBook G4 is being billed as the smallest notebook Apple has yet shipped—although larger than ultralight PCs, this PowerBook is among the slimmest full-function mobile computers available and a very attractive one at that. Paired with new application flexibility, thanks to the BSD underpinnings of OS X, this unit is a compelling mobile system for the enterprise.

Cost Analysis


The 12-inch PowerBook costs $1,799, or $1,999 for the DVD-writing Superdrive model. Both compare favorably with similar-size portables and come in at a price point significantly lower than the initial PowerBook's.

(+) Compact size; integrated Bluetooth; affordable price.

(-) Gets a bit hot to handle; lacks PCMCIA slots.

Evaluation Short List


Toshiba America Information Systems Inc.'s Portege 4010


Fujitsu Corp.'s Lifebook P2000

https://www.apple.com

hi ,

a good advice > if you can afford it go for the 17 inch model , more of everything , .....

have a nice day

[Panag]

Apple 20in Cinema Display
[MacUser]

VERDICT: It's combination of high specification and aggressive pricing is set to win over designers in particular with an unbeatable setup

Apple's new 20in widescreen display is intended to complement the range of G4 Macs, and its combination of high specification and aggressive pricing is set to win over designers in particular with an unbeatable setup.
With a native resolution of 1680 x 1050 pixels, the 20in Cinema Display can show a double-page layout at high resolution - and is also big enough for all the palettes and additional windows you need. The wide-screen format feels particularly liberating after the 4:3 aspect ratio of conventional monitors, and the extra couple of inches on the side always feels like a bonus.

New resolution

Unlike some earlier flat-screen displays, the 20in Cinema Display also performs well at lower resolutions, from 1344 x 840 pixels all the way down to 640 x 480 pixels should you need it. Although these lower resolutions are not specifically supported, they work without any problems. The screen may look a little fuzzy at the lower resolutions, but that's only due to the extreme magnification of the pixels. For those who need to work at low resolutions occasionally, the switch from high to low is instant and pain-free, and any captures performed at lower resolutions are as sharp as you could hope for when opened later.

The display itself is crisp and bright. For designers, it may even be too bright, but the Displays pane in the Mac OS X System Preferences allows the display to be adjusted to remove the ubiquitous blue cast, enabling print designers to choose a paper-white background for better output approximation. Although the default white point 6500K is brighter, a setting of around 5000K will mean that documents simulate their printed output far more closely.

Physically, the monitor is almost identical to earlier versions, featuring a wide white border that surrounds the edge-to-edge display. Particularly worthy of mention are two icons on the border. Both are touch-sensitive buttons, which glow when touched: one launches the Displays pane of the System Preferences, while the other sends the Mac to sleep and wakes it up again. This button can also be used to start the Mac from scratch. However, with the startup key now missing from Apple keyboards, this feature, although not new, is very welcome.

Nine lives

Apple claims the 20in Cinema Display will only work with OS X (and OS X 10.2, at that) and many threads have been devoted to this on the Internet. In our tests, though, the monitor behaved impeccably when booted in Mac OS 9.2 running on a dual 450MHz Power Mac G4 - itself hardly the most recent of Macs. The only noticeable drawbacks were that some of the non-optimal resolutions were a little dodgy, with 1344 x 840 pixels in particular producing ugly mismatches, and the fact that the buttons on the front didn't behave as expected. The left button had no effect at all, while the right one shut down the Mac instantly, as if the power cord had been yanked.

If you're buying a complete system from scratch, the chances are that the issue of OS 9 compatibility won't affect you, since none of the new Macs is capable of booting into OS 9. (There is, of course, no problem running applications in Classic mode.) But if you have an older Mac, it may be worth checking whether it will support the resolution and aspect ratio of the Cinema Display - the worst case is likely to be that you have to upgrade to OS 9.2 for the display to be recognised. However, it's important to ensure that your video card is up to the job: the Rage Pro 128 card we originally tested on the OS 9 Mac failed to produce a picture of any kind, and Apple recommends a minimum specification of an Nvidia GeForce2 MX card.

With a viewing angle of an astonishing 170 - any more and you'd be round the back - the Apple 20in Cinema Display is a truly desirable piece of kit. Its single ADC cable draws both the video signal and power from the Mac, so there's minimal clutter, while two self-powered USB sockets enable additional devices to be connected without an external hub. While the quoted maximum operating altitude of a little over 3000m may be a drawback for some high-flyers, this is definitely the monitor for the rest of us.

Steve Caplin

PROS:
Bright, crisp image + Single cable for power, video and USB + On-case controls

CONS:
None



hi ,

well its great to sit in front of such a display , .... it really does wonders on your eyes , .... not to mention that working on a 20 , 21 or 23 inch screen is the max , ....

according to rumour control apple and sony are looking in bigger screens , .....

have a nice day

[Panag]

SWITCHING TO MAC : real stories

We’ve received thousands of emails from people who have successfully switched from PCs to Macs. Executives. Parents. UNIX users. Students. Researchers. Retirees. Here are some of their true stories. We’ll continue to add letters during the coming days — we have many good stories to share with you.

You Can Do That?

You know what’s nice about the Mac? How scared Windows guys get when you do something that would send their system down the tube.

The other day I had my iBook outputting its picture to a TV and I unceremoniously pulled the video cable out of the side of the computer. The LCD screen went out, and my dad FLIPPED. “Oh shoot! You saved what you were doing right!? You know better than to do that!”

Of course, the screen came right back on as usual. He immediately recommended I restart it, and I explained that the video card was just adjusting itself to stop sending a TV picture.

On another occasion, I had iTunes blasting (I love iTunes), and I went to go and run one of Photoshop’s heavy-duty power effects. A devoted windows guy immediately recommended I stop the music because if I tried to do both things at the same time, it was “Guaranteed to crash.” I left the music on, ran the filter, and the song didn’t even skip. He was speechless.

My favorite is the “You can?” reaction if they ask me if a Mac can do something. It’s usually:

“Can you open regular Word files?… You CAN? What software does that? No way! AppleWorks does that automatically?”

Another good one is the “Yes.” reaction. I can give them an answer before they even finish their sentence.

“Can a Mac connect to a Windows net-”
“Yes.”
“Can it read a Windows-formatted dis-”
“Yes.”
“Can it d-”
“Yes.”
“Could my grandmoth-”
“Yes.”

— BB

What About Early Switchers?

I switched from an IBM PS/2 to a Macintosh LC about 13 years ago. I like your campaign, but you should really begin another one, about those users that either switched long ago, or that have been loyal to the Mac forever. We’ve been there since System 6, and endured the difficult times. Mac OS X brings more than we hoped for back then, and we are happy to stick around. Why don’t you add two or three stories about people that switched when it was not as fashionable to do so?

— OC
Switching Was Simple

I’ve been in IT for the last 15 years, and currently work for Novell. I’ve worked with PCs since they first became available, and prided myself in being able to make them do anything I needed. I developed software on them, I’ve fixed them, and I’ve lived with them.

I always knew Apple had the digital world conquered, and my entire life is digital. Pictures, Movies, Presentations, Music, everything. We use the PowerBook and iMac for Digital Video editing of wedding videos, and that was the intended use for the gear. But I’ve found the environment in OS X so nice to work in, I use it at work as well. It’s so nice to be able to connect to anybody’s wireless network, or wired network and not have to do anything. It just works!

We run Microsoft Office for OS X, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, and Dreamweaver. I have no problems getting email, sharing files with other PC users (it’s easier to connect my PowerBook to a windows OS, than it is to connect windows to windows!), and getting my work done. Everything we have running on the machines is made for OS X, and I don’t expect we’ll ever need any Classic applications.

I’m constantly amazed at the amount of things I can be doing on the machine at one time. We’ve left the PCs behind completely. Work still supplies me with a some incredibly nice laptop equipment, but I’m using my PowerBook. After running OS X for a while, Microsoft Windows just feels clunky and I can’t bring myself to it.

As for the “switch” process, it was simple. I’m encouraging my family and friends to get macs because that means I’ll be spending little to no time supporting them!

— MB

A Magic Slideshow

It has happened. This very minute I am typing this on my new PowerMac G4. The switch has been easy. I have been able to transfer my data from my PC to the Mac, even my Quicken data.

But last night, the magic happened. I had loaded all our digital images into iPhoto. I started organizing and put together an album of about 65 pictures of our 15 month old son Jacob. This child is truly a child of the digital age. Photos and video abound for this little 17-month-old boy.

I put the photos together and in a snap organized them by the date they were taken so we could watch him grow. I put some music in the background and played the slideshow. If I do nothing else on this computer after watching that slideshow, that’s OK.

We tried for so long to have a child. This computer, with iPhoto, showed us how much we love that little boy.

Thank you, Apple Computer.

— MB




hi ,

there are today to many people who believe in the myth that files can be swapped , you cant do this , or that , .... just some more real stories to prove that those myths are wrong , ....

and for those who have doubts , well go for it (!)

have a nice day

[Panag]

Xserve ; fast and flexible and cheap (!)

Mac Reality Check:

Want a cheap server? Call Apple

Gene Steinberg

By Gene Steinberg
Special to Gannett News Service

What's this? Another article telling you how inexpensive Apple's products are compared to the competition? Right you are. It appears to be a developing trend.

Apple has caught the price-cutting bug and no cure is in sight.

The latest victim of this unexpected but welcome practice is the Xserve. Once upon a time, a computer server was something relegated to the back rooms of a large company, an incomprehensible contraption that was bound to befuddle anyone but the experienced computer professional.

Apple's Xserve is a member of a different species. As you know, Apple touts the phrase "it just works" as the clarion call for its desire to make personal computers as easy-to-use and trouble free as possible.

Not for professionals only

Where once it seemed that the concept of ease of use and servers were totally incompatible, the Xserve strives to change that picture big time.

Sure, Apple wants to penetrate the large business marketplace. But the Xserve is even designed for the small design studio with a handful of Macs that needs of a robust server to store huge image files, fonts and the other tools of the trade.

Of course a server isn't just a repository of graphic files. A business might use this sort of computer to host a Web site, the office e-mail, a centralized receiving point to dispense critical data files and lots more.

Most recent Macs sport a NetBoot feature, which allows them to boot from a Mac server, and load both operating systems and applications across the network. This is a great for school labs, because it gives centralized control over what can run on those Macs and what can't run. It's even possible to set up different configurations for different classes, and change it all via a simple restart.

Of course, small businesses don't have the time or money to hire a professional to administer that server, and that's where the Xserve comes in.

When you first unpack the box, the Xserve does look rather strange. It's not at all like any personal computer you normally see. Being a 1U server, meaning it is designed to fit into a rack with lots of siblings in a large business, it looks for all the world like one, large, rectangular pancake.

The measurements bear this out. It's just 1.73 inches high. Imagine that! It's also 17.6 inches wide and a whopping 28 inches deep. The Xserve is designed this way to slide neatly into those industry standard racks, though it wouldn't look out of place on a large table.

The nuts and bolts

As with other Apple products, the Xserve does indeed realize the promise of being relatively easy to use, though you might have to spend a little time examining the setup guides and onscreen menus to know which choices to make.

The Xserve ships with an unlimited client license version of Apple's Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar Server. What this means is that, unlike the competition from the Dark Side, you don't have to buy user licenses to accommodate additional computers on your network. You can set up as many as the server can handle.

Jaguar Server builds upon Mac OS X's ease of use and sports the same pretty Aqua interface and the famous Dock. Because it's a server, there are a number of special applications on hand to create user accounts and set up what are known as "Share Points."

A Share Point is, pure and simple, a file or folder that you want to make available to other users on the network. You also have full control over who can access those files and which users can actually modify them.

For example, you can make your company's financial records available strictly to your accounting department, and your advertising materials to the graphics department.

It also includes the tools to work seamlessly with computers running Windows and the various other flavors of Unix, including Linux.

Best of all, none of this requires a degree of computer science to administer. A little patience and attention to detail, and you'll be serving files to your business like a champ.

In a pinch, you can even plug in a regular keyboard and monitor and consign the Xserve to workstation duty, but that would be defeating the purpose.

But I'd advise against it.

Because it's designed to be superbly robust, and built to run 24 hours a day without failure, the Xserve has fast, loud cooling fans. And I mean loud. You put a bunch of them in a rack, and you might feel you're visiting a jet engine plant.

All right, so maybe you do want to put your new Xserve in the back room after all.

The bottom line

So what's all this sophistication and elegance cost?

The latest iteration of the Xserve, featuring a 1.33GHz G4 processor, costs $2,799. Another grand delivers two processors.

From here, you can scale up the configuration with multiple hard drives, extra memory, special support contracts--the whole nine yards.

Now $2,799 may not seem exactly cheap, but when you start comparing it to the competition, you'll find the Apple Xserve lies at the lower end of the price scale. You could spend thousands more on servers from those big name PC box makers and not get anything as fast or flexible as an Xserve.

Apple's own benchmarks show amazing superiority, as one might expect. In one case, using the industry-standard WebBench measurements, an Xserve set up as an Apache Web server left rivals from Dell, IBM and Sun in the dust.

But even if performance levels were close, the Xserve's relative ease of use would put it atop the heap.

And the fact that it is relatively inexpensive for a quality computer server is just the icing on the cake.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Award-winning technology journalist Gene Steinberg first used a Mac in 1984 and never looked back. He is the author of over 30 books (both technology and science fiction). He's also a contributor to MacAddict. Read a sample chapter of the science fiction novel he wrote with his teenaged son at www.rockoids.com. Don't miss Gene's weekly radio show, The Mac Night Owl LIVE, on Friday evenings, from 9:00 till 11:00 Eastern time (6:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific). You can e-mail him at gene@macnightowl.com.







hi ,

well its true , the mac gives you the edge of a first class workstation with two large 23 inch displays and a server at the same time , ......

and all of that in a little "box"

MAC reality check > http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm check it out

have a nice day

[Panag]

March 5, 2003
Digital Photos Make the Move From Hard Drive to Hardcover
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

Digital photos viewed on a screen are great, but there's still something special, tactile and more permanent about having your best photos on paper. You can, of course, print digital photos, at home or professionally, and paste them into a photo album. But too many people lack the time or skill to assemble really memorable albums.

Now, however, you can easily and quickly turn your favorite digital pictures into a truly professional keepsake photo album. I'm talking about a real hardcover coffee-table book, permanently bound with linen or leather covers surrounding heavy, glossy pages that contain your own photos and text. You design these books on a computer, order them over the Internet, and receive them in a few days. Each 10-page book costs as little as $29.95 (leather is $10 more), and each additional page costs about $3.

I have done this for some of my own photos, and the books I got looked terrific and made great mementos. You could do a separate book on each year's family vacation, with your favorite trip photo as the cover. Or, you could order books to commemorate special events, like weddings, graduations, and major birthdays and anniversaries. New parents might create a book for each month of a baby's first year.

There are three ways to design and order the books. One is by using an Apple Macintosh and Apple's excellent iPhoto software, which has included the option to design and order a bound photo book for well over a year. A second option is to use a Windows PC and Adobe's new photo-organizing software, Adobe Photoshop Album. Like iPhoto, it includes an option for designing and buying a book.

Finally, if you lack these programs, you can order a photo book from a company called MyPublisher at its Web site, www.mypublisher.com. However, the Web site is old, slow and difficult to navigate. It is due to be replaced next month with a totally new design. Because the site is in flux, we focused on testing the book-building features of the two programs.


From a Windows PC: Photoshop Album by Adobe. Price: $49.99. Album Price: $29.95.


Adobe Photoshop Album, which costs $49.99, is designed to help you organize large numbers of photos on your Windows PC through an elaborate system of tagging the pictures with key words representing people, places and events. You can then search for photos by using these tags. For instance, you could quickly call up all pictures that include your dog, or were taken on your Hawaiian vacation.

Once you have your digital photos organized this way, the program allows you to create a bound book from them, choosing from multiple layouts, selecting which photos go on which page, and adding your own captions. Adobe uses many icons that help in the step-by-step book-creating process, but you have to skip from one screen to the next so often that the process can get tiring.

Not only that, but, because the Adobe program lacks any concept of a virtual "album," or collection of photos, you have to do a lot of manual picking and uploading of individual pictures even before you design your book.

I started creating my book by first choosing Get Photos, and importing some photographs from a folder on my hard drive. The next step walked me through fixing the photos, including auto-editing buttons, which did a nice job of improving the images. I then created a photo book by opening a section in the software called Photo Creations, which includes the Photo Book. I selected the pictures I had already pulled from my hard drive, dragged them onto a smaller screen and clicked Start Creations Wizard.

The wizard walked me through choosing from one of three styles, including Just Photos, Modern or Traditional. All styles can display either one or four photos per page, or you can choose a repeating pattern of photos per page (in 1, 3, 2 or 1, 3, 4, 2 patterns). I chose traditional, mixed 1, 3, 2. I followed steps to customize the book with the title, subtitle, author and captions, then previewed and finally ordered the book online.


From a Mac: iPhoto 2 by Apple. Price: free download at Apple's Web site. Album Price: $29.99.


Apple's iPhoto comes bundled with newer Macs, or can be downloaded free. The first version (1.1), released in January 2002, enabled users to make photo books, but iPhoto 2 has a few enhancements that give it some real shine. The best part about this program is its interface, which hasn't diverged much from the original version, with good reason. You never have to page through multiple screens. Instead, your pictures are always displayed in one central box, while only the buttons below those pictures change. This format makes editing and organizing so ridiculously simple, that you might wonder if you missed a step.

Unlike Photoshop Album, iPhoto 2 lets you quickly and simply organize digital photos into virtual albums. So it's easy to use an album as the basis for a book. And the book-building feature is seamlessly integrated into iPhoto, so you needn't upload pictures at the outset. You only upload the final pictures in the book, at the end.

To start, I simply opened an iPhoto album of pictures that I took in New Mexico. The pictures had a series of four buttons beneath them: Import, Organize, Edit and Book. I clicked on the Book button and saw a smaller, horizontal view of my pictures in page format, as they would appear in the physical book. A pull-down menu labeled Page Designs allowed me to choose how many pictures I would show on each page, and the number of photos per page can be different from the next. This system offers more flexibility than the similar process in Photoshop Album.

iPhoto offers six book themes to choose from, including Catalog, Classic, Picture Book, Portfolio, Story Book and Year Book. Story Book arranges the photos on a slant with room for captions, and Year Book can display up to 32 tiny images and captions per page.

After ordering, the books that I received in the mail looked virtually the same. Both programs create books in four cover colors, including shades of red, green, blue and black. Adobe offers both linen and extra-cost leather covers, while Apple offers only linen.

These photo books make great gifts and are a beautiful way to display your pictures. I can recommend the Adobe product, but iPhoto is easier and better, both at building books and at organizing your photos in the first place




hi ,


dont forget the free download if you dont have iPhoto , ...

have a nice day

[Panag]

Keynote takes on Powerpoint , .......

Keynote takes on PowerPoint
Despite typical initial-release bugs, Apple Computer's presentation software appears ready to take on the standard set by Microsoft
By David Zeiler: The Mac Experience


Originally published Mar 6, 2003

The Mac Experience


Like Windows users, Mac users who need to make computer-based presentations have had little choice in recent years but to use Microsoft Corp.'s PowerPoint. It's become the industry standard, with no practical alternative available for either platform.

Until January that is, when Apple Computer Inc. surprised just about everyone with Keynote, a PowerPoint challenger designed to exploit Mac OS X's sophisticated graphics capabilities, such as transparency. (No, Keynote is not available for Mac OS 9.)

After watching Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrate Keynote's dramatic 3-D transitions between slides at the Macworld industry show in San Francisco, some observers declared it a "PowerPoint killer."

Jobs said the software had been created for him to aid in the construction of his frequent keynote presentations. Noting that he had been using unfinished versions of the program for about a year, Jobs said jokingly that he was Apple's "low-paid beta tester."

Though a compelling piece of software, particularly for a first version, the weeks since Keynote's introduction have revealed enough shortcomings to raise doubts about whether it's quite ready to completely displace the venerable PowerPoint.

But first, let's focus on Keynote's strengths. Keynote's graphics look far better than PowerPoint's. Keynote's crisp, photorealistic images make PowerPoint's traditional clip art look pathetic.

And then there's the "wow" factor in the transitions between slides. Sure, if you hunt through PowerPoint's menus, you'll find transitions like wipes and dissolves. But you won't find anything like Keynote's "Cube" transition, in which each slide appears to be on the face of a rotating cube.

Keynote also has practical features -- the automatic alignment guides that pop up when you're trying to center text or graphics on a slide, a tool that saves time and aggravation.

With a $99 price tag, Keynote also will save cash, if you already don't own PowerPoint for the Mac. PowerPoint costs $399 when purchased separately from the rest of the Office v.X suite. (The full Mac OS X Office package lists for only $100 more; the difference is less than $50 when purchased from a Mac catalog reseller.)

In a concession to PowerPoint's dominance, Keynote can import and export files in PowerPoint format. Of course, you lose the fancy 3-D transitions you may have added -- they get converted to "uncover," which pulls the currently displayed slide back to reveal the next slide -- but the essential elements of the presentation are preserved.

Keynote also exports presentations as QuickTime movies or PDF (Adobe Systems Inc. Acrobat) files. Only the QuickTime format preserves all the whiz-bang eye candy. If a Windows user has Apple's QuickTime software installed, this is the best option for transferring a presentation from Keynote to a PC for viewing only.

Saving to PDF format converts each slide to a page, obliterating all the transitions. However, almost every computer today has the free Acrobat Reader software installed, so with PDF, you stand the best chance of the recipient being able to read the file.

Keynote's impressive file-exporting ability does have an Achilles' heel, however. Many of the first purchasers of Keynote have complained that it creates huge export files.

For example, I imported a 100-kilobyte PowerPoint file that my wife had received as part of an online class. After adding some fancy 3-D Keynote transitions, I exported the file back to PowerPoint and watched it swell to seven times its original size.

Then, I exported the file as a QuickTime movie, which produced a 17-megabyte file -- 170 times the size of the original!

Many Keynote users have complained about overly large PDF files, but that issue only seems to manifest when the presentation includes background images: The same test file used above exported as a 284-kilobyte PDF without background images but generated a 8.6-megabyte behemoth -- more than 30 times larger -- with background images placed on just seven of the 27 slides.

As for usability, Keynote doesn't have quite as many options as PowerPoint, but whether this is an advantage or disadvantage depends on the skill level of the user.

For example, advanced users accustomed to PowerPoint's extensive ability to create and manipulate flow charts and other diagrams will be disappointed by Keynote's limited abilities.

Keynote also lacks PowerPoint's ability to record narration and its ability to set the timing for slides. You can drop audio into a Keynote slide, but it stops playing when you move to the next slide (the audio can continue through multiple slides in PowerPoint).

Novice users, on the other hand, probably won't notice these shortcomings.

Since Keynote is not a member of the Office suite, PowerPoint has the advantage of superior integration with its fellow Office components -- Word, Excel and Entourage. However, many people don't need that level of integration, particularly in non-business settings.

Of greater concern to most users is Keynote's thin selection of themes, templates and clip art versus PowerPoint's. Keynote includes only 12 themes, compared with PowerPoint's 60; Keynote gives you 11 slide templates to PowerPoint's 24; and PowerPoint's hundreds of clip-art files dwarf Keynote's several dozen.

True, Keynote's offerings look much better, but veterans of PowerPoint are accustomed to plentiful options.

Intrepid Keynote users may want to investigate two Web sites that already have sprung up to address some of these deficiencies: www.keynotehq.com and www.keynoteuser.com.

KeynoteHQ features downloadable themes, articles and user forums; Keynote User also has downloadable themes, as well as helpful tips and troubleshooting advice.

Apart from those Web sites, Keynote allows users to create and save their own themes and slide templates. As for clip art, Keynote can import many common formats, such as JPEGs and TIFFs, and even native Adobe Illustrator files, but - - oddly -- not EPS files.

Some Keynote users have found they can compensate for Keynote's weak graphics- drawing capabilities by using the Omni Group Inc.'s $59.95 OmniGraffle program - - a free version is limited to 20 items per document -- to create a diagram, which then can be dragged and dropped onto a Keynote slide.

Keynote also has experienced setbacks because of typical initial-release bugs. The worst was a conflict with many Macs that use video cards from ATI Technologies Inc., which includes most models of Mac laptops.

Several slides into a presentation, the program would lock up, forcing a rebooting of the computer. Apple fixed this in its recent upgrade to Mac OS X itself, OS X 10.2.4, which Mac users can download via the Software Update control panel in the System Preferences.

Apple's quick response to this serious issue fosters hope that the company will listen to its users' other requests for improvements in Keynote, particularly more themes, templates and clip art.

For a new kid on the block, Keynote has a lot to offer. That it has a little catching up to do with PowerPoint should not be a surprise; the next version almost will certainly make up a lot of that ground.

But for now, Keynote offers Mac users an easy, inexpensive means to make professional, PowerPoint-compatible presentations that look better than those made in PowerPoint itself. Except for those who need PowerPoint's deeper feature set and integration with Office, Keynote is an excellent alternative to the Microsoft standard.




hi ,

well the article says it all

have a nice day

[FlameFlash]

There are rumors about Panther (unknown currently if it's 10.3 or something else) and the G5s... I was wondering what others might have heard.

https://www.macosrumors.com

[Panag]

April 3, 2003
Is Apple's New PowerBook Too Large to Be 'Mobile'?
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG

How large can you make a laptop's screen without making the overall computer too unwieldy to be described as "mobile"? Apple Computer, famous for its slick designs, thinks it knows the answer. It's in my hands right now.

I am typing these words on Apple's latest PowerBook, the first laptop with a huge, 17-inch, widescreen display. This rectangular, high-resolution screen is simply breathtaking -- vivid, sharp and oh, so roomy. It's big enough to comfortably display two Word documents, or two Web pages or e-mail messages, side by side. And DVDs look fabulous on it.

But the generous screen stretches the width of the laptop so far that the machine is a long, narrow rectangle. Even some of its fans have nicknamed it "the aircraft carrier." It's a little odd, but not really difficult, to carry or to use on your lap. But it is too wide for my trusty old computer bag.


Apple's 17-inch PowerBook


A laptop of this shape and size isn't for everybody. It certainly isn't as mobile as many smaller, squarer portable PCs. And, at $3,299, the 17-inch PowerBook is really aimed at Apple's loyal cadre of so-called pro users -- graphic designers, video producers and others willing to pay for the roomy screen, and for an array of other powerful and clever features.

The most striking thing about the 17-inch PowerBook, after the screen itself, is how brilliantly Apple managed to shrink the size of the machine built around that big display. Sure, the PowerBook is an unusually wide 15.4 inches, but it's only one inch thick. Yet, it feels solid as a rock. It's just 10.2 inches deep and weighs only 6.8 pounds.

To get an idea of how sleek those dimensions are, compare the new PowerBook with another brand-new laptop, Dell's Latitude D800. This model also boasts a widescreen display, measuring 15.4 inches diagonally. But, even though the Dell has a significantly smaller screen, it looks like a whale next to the 17-inch PowerBook.

The Dell is larger in every dimension except width, and even there it is only about an inch smaller. It weighs 7.4 pounds, compared with 6.8 for the larger-screen Apple. And when its lid is open, the Dell's smaller screen extends upward about 1.5 inches higher than the Apple's -- a crucial limitation when using a laptop on an airplane and the person in front of you reclines. Apple uses a special hinge that minimizes the height of the open screen. Dell doesn't.

The Apple is clad in cool, handsome aluminum. Unlike some previous metal-clad Apples, it never gets really hot, just warm. It has built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking, using a new standard that is compatible with current Wi-Fi networks yet can transmit and receive data as much as five times faster. In my tests, Wi-Fi reception was quite good.

Inside, the machine boasts a whopping 512 megabytes of memory, a big 60 gigabyte hard disk, built-in Bluetooth wireless connectivity and a drive that can record CDs and DVDs. There are two big stereo speakers, a robust video card and the first Firewire 800 port, which can handle external hard disks and other devices at roughly twice the speed of original FireWire, or of the new USB 2.0 ports.

In classic Apple fashion, the 17-inch PowerBook has a nice surprise built in. When you use it in a dark or dim room, the keyboard automatically lights up so you can keep working.

In my tests, it handled everything I threw at it, crisply and without any hiccups. That included e-mail, Web surfing, photo editing, word processing, spreadsheets, and playing music and video clips. The PowerBook even connected to a Windows laptop via my Wi-Fi network, in about a minute.

Battery life is respectable, especially when you consider the huge, power-draining screen. In my usual harsh battery test, where I turn off all power-saving features and play a continuous loop of music, the 17-inch PowerBook lasted two hours, 38 minutes. That suggests that with power-saving on, and a more normal usage pattern, you'd get between 3.5 and four hours, which is pretty good, though shy of the "up to 4.5 hours" that Apple claims.

However, there's a new crop of Windows laptops using the new power-saving Intel Pentium-M processor that typically do a lot better. In my tests of four Pentium-M laptops a few weeks back, three of the four showed significantly longer battery life than the new Apple.

Another drawback is the keyboard layout. The keyboard itself is very good, but it is pushed all the way to the back of the large base, forcing you to reach over a wide swath of the case to touch the keys. Palm rests are great, but these are too large, especially for two-finger typists like me.

Then, there is that jumbo width. Despite its admirable design and plethora of features, the new PowerBook's dimensions can be inconvenient. It swallows nearly all of a coach airline tray table, about 16.5 by 10.5 inches. And it would be too wide to gracefully fish out of a briefcase jammed under the coach seat in front of you. You might even need to get a new bag to carry it.

But, if you mainly use it as a desktop replacement, or at most tote it back and forth between home and office, the 17-inch PowerBook is a great choice and another design win for Apple.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com



hi ,

it fits in most cases and special backpacks , ......

and on what airline does he fly , .....

it fits in the plane , and there is still room for a cup with something , ....

have a nice day

[Panag]

hi ,

dont forget to check out the new software on www.apple.com ;


- final cut pro 4 - dvd studio pro 2 - shake 3 -


have a nice day



Apple’s Final Cut Pro Leads a Host of Innovative Professional Video Solutions Based on Open Standards
NAB, LAS VEGAS—April 6, 2003—Apple’s Final Cut Pro®, the Emmy award-winning video and film editing software, is leading the emergence of a new ecosystem of professional video solutions based on open formats and industry standards. Apple’s introduction of Final Cut Pro 4, with an innovative open XML file format and FireWire® based I/O framework, is supported by announcements from Panasonic, AJA, Automatic Duck, Quantel, Pinnacle, Omneon and Curious Graphics.

“An incredibly vibrant ecosystem is quickly making Final Cut Pro the best video editing platform across the industry,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Apple continues to invest in technologies such as XML, FireWire and industry standards that open Final Cut Pro’s architecture and help drive further innovation throughout this ecosystem.”

“We are excited that Apple’s Final Cut Pro 4 has native 24-frame support for Panasonic’s AG-DVX100 and in an industry first, Apple and Panasonic have worked to deliver 50 Mbps 4:2:2 quality video over FireWire,” said Stuart English, vice president of marketing, Panasonic Broadcast. “Our DVCPRO50 customers can now edit in the highest quality 4:2:2 video at low data rates and take advantage of all the innovative new features and functionality of Final Cut Pro 4.”

“AJA and Apple worked together to combine our leading hardware manufacturing experience with Apple’s new Final Cut Pro 4 capabilities to deliver SD Video over FireWire,” said John Abt, AJA Video Systems’ president. “This is the first solution that allows broadcast professionals to use 400MB FireWire to bring any uncompressed, standard definition format video in or out of a Mac with video and audio monitoring.”

“Using Final Cut Pro’s increasingly open architecture, new APIs and the upcoming XML interchange format, Automatic Duck will be delivering the first XML plug-in for Final Cut Pro 4,” said Wes Plate, Automatic Duck Inc.’s president. “With our new AAF import/export components, this means video professionals will soon have a seamless, powerful workflow that will allow Final Cut Pro 4 project data to interact directly with high-end finishing systems.”

“Quantel is working with Apple and Automatic Duck to ensure that the AAF plug-in will take essential project data from Final Cut Pro 4 directly into an online session using Quantel’s powerful hardware-based finishing systems,” said Nigel Turner, Quantel’s director of marketing. “This will bring post professionals the best of both worlds—the most popular editing software on fast, flexible Macs and powerful hardware-based finishing systems from Quantel. This is what the industry is demanding. Those who don’t commit to this kind of open platform risk becoming an island.”

“Final Cut Pro 4 and Pinnacle System’s CinéWave 4 provide a tremendous number of real-time effects for both online and offline editing in many formats including Photo-JPEG, DV and uncompressed 8-, 10-, and 16-bit SD video-with all formats even playing out from the same timeline,” said Laurin Herr, Pinnacle’s vice president and general manager for Editing. “For CinéWave 4, Pinnacle is enhancing standard definition and high definition projects with incredible new real-time keyframeable video tools and sophisticated audio capabilities including eight tracks of audio out. Thanks to Apple’s open architecture and the power of Pinnacle’s TARGA CinéEngine, we can deliver all our new features and functionality without needing to make changes to the underlying hardware. The latest and greatest CinéWave features are just a software upgrade away—even when using SD and HD in the same system.”

“The Omneon and Final Cut Pro combination provides broadcast facilities with an easy and flexible solution for collaborative production,” said Larry Kaplan, Omeon’s president and CEO. “Omneon embraced Apple’s QuickTime file system wrapper when developing our Media Server System and as a result are able to provide seamless integration with Final Cut Pro for our ‘Edit in Place’ feature. Final Cut Pro running on a Macintosh G4 provides a lower per seat cost than any other system or platform and a powerful, flexible solution as compared to proprietary news editing devices.”

“Curious gFx marks our return to the high-end graphics application space and the Mac platform is the best and first place to start,” said Gareth Griffith, co-founder of Curious Software. “Mac OS X’s advanced OpenGL implementation and the G4 Velocity Engine have allowed us to bring a fully integrated high-performance multi-layered paint, rotoscoping, animation and compositing system to the best desktop graphics machines. gFx Pro and Apple’s Final Cut Pro combine to make a powerful graphics workflow that was until now only available on much more expensive systems.”

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.

Press Contacts:
Bill Evans
Apple
(408) 974-0610
bevans@apple.com


Cameron Craig
Apple
(408) 974-6281
cam@apple.com


NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple's PR website (www.apple.com/pr/), or call Apple's Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042.

[Panag]

Michael Black

Flying into the storm

by Nancy Eaton

It came to life in the Gulf of Mexico almost overnight, churning and spewing rain. Before long, it was threatening the west coast of Florida with winds rapidly approaching hurricane force.

As Tropical Storm Gabrielle strengthened and moved toward shore in September 2001, Michael Black was taking action in Tampa. But instead of boarding up his windows, Black was busy booting up his PowerBook G4, using an AppleScript to automatically plot a flight plan and fax it to the FAA.

Michael Black was getting ready to fly into the eye of the storm.

NOAA Knows Hurricanes
Black is the field program director for an elite team of U.S. government research meteorologists who study hurricanes the hard way: by flying right into them. The Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami has two main jobs: to team up with the Air Force’s 53rd Weather Squadron whenever the National Hurricane Center needs more data about specific storms; and to learn more about hurricanes and tropical storms by conducting independent research.

Equipped with a myriad of cameras, scientific instruments and computer equipment packed from nose to tail, the NOAA’s workhorse P-3 Orion military aircraft are enormous flying hurricane laboratories. Most of the on-board computing is done on UNIX workstations. But starting with the 2001 hurricane season, scientists took along PowerBooks and iBooks to help them study and report from the air. Since then, they’ve discovered that the portable Macs have extended the capabilities of the on-board computing systems in interesting ways, giving them greater flexibility in their work environments and increasing their productivity.

“We are running Mac OS X (Jaguar) on all our Apple machines,” says Black. “We can easily use the terminal, X11 or XDarwin, to communicate with other Unix and Linux workstations both here at the lab and on the aircraft.”

Flight Plan via AppleScript
According to Black, the NOAA first used PowerBooks in 2000 to streamline the filing of flight tracks with the FAA. In the morning before takeoff, meteorologists meet to refine their flight plans into the storm. They log onto the Internet to get satellite and radar information and hold a teleconference with NASA to discuss the mission.

“I get up early and download 100 or so web pages including radar animations, satellite animations, specialized satellite products, track items and bring it all down to the conference room for the briefing,” says Black. “Once we make decisions, we do the flight track. We enter the points we’re flying to. Then, a custom AppleScript calls up our flight tracking software, plots out the points, draws out the track and faxes it to the right people. It used to take us four hours to draw it up by hand and enter it. Now it takes us about half an hour.”

With the flight plan process streamlined, scientists can get into the air a lot faster. This is especially important when dealing with rapidly developing and fast-moving storms like Gabrielle that can immediately threaten coastline communities.


Looking inside the storm

Eye of the Hurricane
Once on board the aircraft, meteorologists use PowerBooks to retrieve various data for their own use and communicate with scientists and media on the ground. “Before, they’d get the data from us, but it would be all coded — they’d just see wind barbs and stuff,” says Black.

“But our actual observations, both visual and oral, are so invaluable to them. We can send them a picture of, say, the eye wall of the hurricane. By looking at the inside of the storm, they can see how intense it is. We can send them a detailed radar picture from the plane that’s just a few minutes old. It’s that kind of capability that’s really going to change things.

“For example, Dr. Paul Chang from NOAA NESDIS flew with us this past season with special instrumentation to remotely map the surface winds over the top of the ocean, so we could compare that with satellite data. Dr. Chang and some of his people built an intranet on one of the aircraft and all of the computers were hooked up to it so that we could all look at data and images.

Real Time Images
“I was able to grab an image of swaths of the surface winds of Hurricane Lily over the Gulf of Mexico, take that into the PowerBook, put a caption on it and email that to forecasters at the National Hurricane Center and various other scientists around the world. I got a lot of positive response from that. People were saying, ‘Wow, it’s great to be able to see something like this in real time while you’re out there flying,’ and ‘I hope you’ll be able to do more of the same.’”

NOAA expects to use imaging technology more extensively once the bandwidth of its satellite-based communications system improves. “All the data that goes back to the ground is sent at about 9600 baud,” says Black. “It’s old technology, but in the next few years the bandwidth will go up. The price has come way down and the technology is changing so rapidly.”

Adds Dr. Frank Marks, director of the Hurricane Research Division, “Our plans are to network the system hooked to the SATCOM on the plane and make it an email and FTP server. This way, we could send email from any system on the plane — Mac, UNIX, or PC — to the ground when a connection is established, or send down different data via FTP.”

Black and his colleagues also use PowerBooks to fetch timely data that enhances their ability to fly within a rapidly changing storm. By downloading satellite images of the storm while they’re in the air, they can make decisions based on another important set of visual data. “We’re not flying blind — we have radar,” says Black. “But it’s not the same as being able to look down from the top of the storm. It may change your plan while you’re out there.”

Storms in Motion
One of the most interesting tasks the meteorologists undertake is to capture videos of the storms. The PowerBooks and iMovie help them edit and produce QuickTime movies from the footage that they can email to ground-based scientists and the media while they’re still in the air.

Black explains, “Each of our aircraft has four mounted digital video cameras. We’ve been recording images on time-lapse, on super VHS. But starting in 2001, we requested a video drop at one of our workstations so that we could hook up a digital camcorder. So instead of doing time-lapse, we can do real-time for interesting parts of the storm. This is where the Apple laptops come in. We can sit there with iMovie and download and encode video real quick and then email it off, or take still images and email them off.

“In the 2002 season, we wanted to make a QuickTime movie from inside a hurricane eye. Unfortunately, the storms we flew in, even though some of them were very strong, weren’t any good visually. So we never got the opportunity to get that this year.”



In-flight entertainment

Portability a Plus
All of the meteorologists fly missions as well as conduct science when they’re safely back on terra firma. And because the scientists use the PowerBooks both on the ground and in the air, they can use the same data and software no matter where they are.

“On the ground, the PowerBooks are our main computers,” says Black. “At the office, I use a separate monitor and have a bunch of USB and FireWire stuff hooked up to it. If I want to take it home, I can do that. For transferring data I use the FireWire connection. I’m able to hook up a FireWire drive and transfer large amounts of data back and forth.”

Once on the aircraft, they connect and work with the permanent UNIX-based data gathering systems on board, as well as with each other to share data. “Our electronics technician, Sean McMillan, hooked up a network for us on the fly so we could network the computers and transfer data from one to the other on board,” says Black. “One PowerBook acted as a FireWire hard drive — a nice capability.”

NOAA scientists also benefit by having the information they collect on the aircraft to use as soon as they land. “Before, we’d have to wait months,” says Black. “They’d have to QC it back in Tampa after the hurricane season, then we’d get a mailing of the tapes, mount the tapes and run special software. Now we can look at data right after the flight and get a preliminary view of what the storm was like, and write up a report right away so that other scientists from around the nation and around the world have an idea of what it was like almost immediately.”



In-flight Entertainment
On the way back from a long mission into hurricane Humberto in 2001, Black thought it might be time for a little onboard R&R, so he again pressed his PowerBook into service. “We’d been working our tails off, putting in 16- and 17-hour days, getting barely any sleep and were totally exhausted. So on the way back from Humberto, I got on the intercom and told everyone on board that in a few moments we were going to have some in-flight entertainment.

“I had put together a collage of our recent successes and hooked up my PowerBook into the video system of the aircraft. I used iTunes to play music in the background and put on a little QuickTime slide show and video show and piped it all through the aircraft’s intercom and video monitors. Even the pilot could glance down and look at this screen and see images of him flying. Everybody loved it.”

More Work for PowerBooks on the Horizon
After two impressive years of service, it’s evident that the PowerBooks have helped the NOAA scientists do more while flying, allowing all their hard work to be available to more people much faster than ever before. It’s also clear that this is just the beginning.

“We have enough enthusiasm for it and have seen such good results,” says Black. “It’s really opened our eyes to what we can do and got us thinking outside the box. We have the capability of using the Macs to do more with the data we collect from instruments on board. Where before, we were talking about these big workstations, big CPUs with big screens, the PowerBooks do so much and they do it fast. It’s really changed things.”

[Panag]

John LaCroix

With buttery steez , he drops DVDs like hammers

by Bija Gutoff



For those who don’t speak skateboarding, John LaCroix has the creative style to nail a fast, dangerous trick (in his case, making DVDs) and instantly gear up for the next. That’s the goal and the prize in this thrill-chasing world: keep pushing, but with the seeming ease of those who shrug off monikers like athlete and extreme sports.

Whether it’s skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding or BMX, “It’s just something you really enjoy doing with your friends,” LaCroix explains with the necessary patience of the devotee asked to define his world. “It’s not a hobby, it’s not something you do when you’re bored — it’s your life.”

Skateboarding Philosophy
A skateboarder himself, LaCroix long ago erased any distinction between board and job. “My life and my work are not separate,” he says. “I don’t get paid for skateboarding, but I look at it the same way as my work: I’m always trying to improve, do new things.”


That zest for the untried trick has rocketed LaCroix to the position of art director at Orange County-based 411 Productions, where he helps create the look, feel and sound of print, web and video projects on skateboarding, surfing, snowboarding and BMX. (Derivation of the company name: “What’s the 411?” means “What’s up?”, as in information or directory assistance.) At just 27, he works with a staff of about 40 videographers, editors, designers and artists, as well as dozens of contributing freelancers, and the nearly 100 pros featured in every issue.

Among 411’s five regularly published multimedia magazines and many special travel and educational editions, it’s the skateboarding videos, created with DVD Studio Pro and other tools, that score highest with the hottest segment of this exploding audience. (There are an estimated 22 million skateboarders worldwide, with the vast majority in the coveted male 14 to 21 demographic.)

Pictures & Words Aren’t Enough
“Pictures and words just aren’t enough sometimes,” says LaCroix. “Yes, there are skateboarding competitions and paper magazines and some TV coverage, but the primary expression of skateboarding to the real core market is through DVDs like ours.”


The suits call it "Edgy"

What do the video magazines look like? “I think the suits call it ‘edgy’,” says LaCroix with a laugh. “We use a montage of video, film, photography, art, animation and music to stimulate the senses…they’re made for the high-speed generation.”

It’s sweet payback to LaCroix that his anti-establishment, outlaw-tinged world has the clout to keep 411’s phone ringing with calls from movie, record, clothing and video game companies, all seeking inspiration from trend-setting skateboarders — and that despite their deep pockets, 411 stays a step ahead.

Crazy Open Minds
“It’s such a good way to have the last laugh,” he says. “With the tools we have, we can do a skateboarding movie as good if not better than Hollywood. You see high-budget knockoffs of our stuff, but we have the crazy open minds to do it differently, and even without their huge camera crews, our work could easily be mistaken for what you see on TV.”

To create these flashy pieces, LaCroix and 411’s staff have a powerful toolbox at their disposal. The company hardware includes 30 Power Mac G4s and eight Titanium PowerBook G4s. In his office alone, LaCroix has three 733 MHz Power Mac G4s with a 23-inch Apple HD Cinema display. Most of 411’s computers are running Mac OS X 10.2.4.

Towers of FireWire Drives
The company has “hundreds — towers! — of FireWire drives,” LaCroix says. 411 uses several dozen Sony digital videocams, including the VX1000, VX2000 and PD150 (the most popular models for filming skateboarding), and Sony DVCAM DSR1500A decks for digitizing footage, as well as Betacam and Panasonic decks. There is a DLT drive for creating DVD masters, a Pioneer DVR S201 DVD authoring drive, a Nikon 8000 medium-format transparency scanner, and seven Hewlett-Packard LaserWriter printers. Six Media 100 editing studios stand ready with NTSC monitors, speakers and microphones, and a high-speed SAN network, with drives centrally located in the server room, transmits files to each editing station.

The software suite rocks with DVD Studio Pro and Final Cut Pro, as well as Media 100, Adobe Photoshop 7, Adobe Illustrator 10 and Adobe AfterEffects for titling and motion graphics.


The fastest way to do it right


From Concept to DVD
DVD Studio Pro is essential to the projects LaCroix works on. “I want to blow minds with everything we do,” he says unequivocally, “and I can’t compromise on quality. But there are also deadlines. With DVD Studio Pro, I can just close the door, sit down and go from a concept to a DVD. Often I’ll make a test DVD to show people, to get them excited about my idea. This is the fastest way to do it right.”

Though he’s hardly shy of technology, LaCroix most appreciates its ease of use. “DVD Studio Pro is so intuitive,” he says. In fact, that’s what propelled him, literally overnight, from first-timer to confident user.

“We used to have a technical guy who did DVD authoring,” he relates. “But he left the company — and I was left with his deadlines. So one night after work, I went in my office. The guys were hassling me, ‘What, are you going to do that tonight? Why don’t you just send it out?’ But we didn’t have another two grand in our budget. So I said, I’ve gotta do this myself. I just sat down with DVD Studio Pro — I had never used it before — and by the end of the night I had made a DVD.”

A Big Smile
LaCroix chuckles as he finishes the story. “The next day I came in with a big smile on my face. The guys said, ‘You didn’t do that, did you?’ I said, ‘Yes, I did.’ And they said, ‘How did you pull it off?’

“I didn’t want to let them in on my secret…that it was so easy, they could have done it, too! Before I started, it seemed scary, and I thought I would end up sending it out. Now that’s the perception I want to change. With DVD Studio Pro, you don’t have to send it out. You can do it all.”

“Putting together a DVD is complicated,” adds LaCroix, “but DVD Studio Pro doesn’t confuse you with options you don’t need. You open the program, and it’s all there. You don’t have to search. They don’t ask you things like whether you want to change a setting, when you don’t even know what that setting is for, and changing it can screw up the whole thing. When you get to be a master, of course you can go further. But to just get it done right, that’s easy.”



Loving the Matrix
LaCroix finds the matrix feature especially powerful. “It’s an awesome way to check on all your menus, buttons, options and links to the different files and sections of your DVD. You just open the matrix window and it tells you where it all goes. Otherwise how would you track that? You could burn a disk and follow every route…but that would be such a drag.”

He calls DVD Studio Pro’s ability to import layered Photoshop files “a huge thing for me, because it gives me a lot of flexibility to do graphically interesting things when I design menus.”

Like the skateboarders he creates for, LaCroix most prizes the way the program sets him free. “The coolest thing is that with DVD Studio Pro, I can do whatever I want. I don’t feel limited or slowed down. I have my sketch, concept or storyboard and I just sit down and do it.”



If it can be done , I'm gonna do it



Last Minute? No Problem.
He likes being able to incorporate new material at the last minute, which, in a business that depends on the latest whiz-bang trick, is the key to keeping the video magazine fresh and hot. “If we have an issue that’s done — we’re going to make the master tomorrow — and someone comes in with film of the greatest trick, DVD Studio Pro lets us add it to the video magazine and still come out tomorrow.”

That’s the attitude that appeals to risk-taking skateboarders. As LaCroix puts it, “We try something hard, find a way to get it done, then it’s time to do it better.”

Take a normal street scene: the skateboarder sees a challenge that to passers-by is mere architecture. “Say you have two buildings with an alley between them,” he suggests. “A skateboarder looks at that and says, ‘If I go fast enough, I could jump from the top of one to the top of the other.’ The philosophy is: ‘If it can be done, I’m gonna do it.’” It’s exactly the derring-do LaCroix has long practiced on his Mac. His passions for the board and the machine, now a single mania, grew up side by side.

“When I got my first Mac,” he says, “I decided I was going to work it to the bone.” At 15 he created a rough, photocopied punk fan zine that, by his freshman year in college, had a print run of 7,000 — in full color, with a CD. “The zine blew up way beyond what I ever expected. I needed the Mac to keep doing it, and that’s what put me through college.”

A Career of Dropping Hammers
He earned a BFA in photography and graphic design from Massachusetts College of Art, doing freelance projects while still a student. Playing lead guitar and touring with his band, he applied his growing computer skills to his love for music. “People would come to me and ask for stuff — CD covers, logos, websites — and I had the Mac, so I started doing it all.” It was an easy leap to his first real job, putting his design expertise to work at Polaroid…and he’s been dropping hammers ever since.

Now, LaCroix couldn’t be better poised. He’s on the next level, creating skateboarding DVDs he’s feeling. (See glossary as needed.) “It’s not worth it to me to put out something mediocre,” he says. “Everybody can make good toast — but we’ve got the butter.”

[Panag]

United Entertainment Media Announces Best of Show Award Winners

By LivefromNAB Staff

Apr 9, 2003, 12:22 PST




The 2003 Digital Television/TV Broadcast Awards, Vidy Awards, Government Video Salutes and Digital Cinema Awards, which are presented in recognition of outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of video technology, were announced this morning at NAB.

"To become a an award winner, our editors must unanimously agree that the nominated product or technology is worthy," said Videography editor Mark Foley. "Recognition with an award is a true vote of confidence and stamp of approval from the entire editorial staff of these leading industry publications."

Digital Television/TV Broadcast Awards

1 Alias|Wavefront: Maya 5
2 Avid: DNA Family
3 Axcera: DXA2A
4 BBC Technology: Colledia
5 Bodelin: ProPrompter PocketPC Package
6 Broadcast Pix: Broadcast Pix Studio
7 BUF Technology: TCW Video Inserter Option for SPOT
8 Canon: DIGISUPER 100 xs
9 Chyron: Solo
10 CineForm: Carlsbad Technology
11 Decisionmark: MediaStar
12 Editware: Fastrack SE
13 Ensemble Designs: Avenue
14 France Espace: Commercial Airtime Sales Software
15 Fujinon: XA101x8.9BESM
16 Global Translation & VITAC: TranslateTV
17 Grass Valley: C2IP
18 Grass Valley: M Series iDVR
19 Harris Corp.: Harris Resource Suite
20 Ikegami: HDL-40 (CMOS Version)
21 JVC: HD-CMOS
22 JVC: JY-HD10U
23 Leader Instruments Corp.: FS3018 Lighting Monitor
24 Lectrosonics: MM 400A Digital Hybrid Wireless Minature Transmitter
25 Multidyne: HYDRA-8000 Series
26 Panasonic: Solid-State Memory Card Acquisition Technology
27 Panoramadtv: MONFlex LCD Video Monitors
28 Quantel: Newsroom Workflow Solution
29 RadioCom: TR825
30 Rockwell Scientific: ProCamHD
31 S.two: D.MAG
32 SeaChange International: Broadcast Media Library
33 Sigma Electronics: DATC Technology
34 Sony: Optical Disc Recording System
35 SyntheSys Research: MVA3000 Multi-Standard Analyzer
36 Telecast Fiber Systems: SHED
37 Thales Broadcast & Multimedia: DCX Paragon
38 Vinten: Fibertec
39 Virage: News Monitoring Solution
40 VITAC& Global Translation: TranslateTV

Vidy Awards
1 Adobe: Encore
2 AJA: Io
3 Alias|Wavefront: Maya 5
4 Apple: Final Cut Pro 4
5 Avid: DNA Family
6 Bodelin: ProPrompter PocketPC Package
7 Broadcast Pix: Broadcast Pix Studio
8 Canon: DIGISUPER 100 xs
9 Chyron: Solo
10 CineForm: Carlsbad Technology
11 Editware: Fastrack SE
12 FOCUS Enhancements: DR-DV5000
13 Fujinon: XA101x8.9BESM
14 Fujinon: Prime Lens Series
15 Grass Valley: M Series iDVR
16 Ikegami: HDL-40 (CMOS Version)
17 JVC: HD-CMOS
18 JVC: DR-DV5000
19 JVC: JY-HD10U
20 Leader Instruments Corp.:FS3018 Lighting Monitor
21 Lectrosonics: MM 400A Digital Hybrid Wireless Minature Transmitter
22 Panasonic: Solid-State Memory Card Acquisition Technology
23 Pinnacle: Liquid chrome
24 RadioCom: TR825
25 Rockwell Scientific: ProCamHD
26 S.two: D.MAG
27 Sony: Optical Disc Recording System
28 Vinten: Fibertec
29 Zaxcom: Digital Wireless

Government Video Salutes
1 Apple: Final Cut Pro 4
2 Avid: DNA Family
3 Bodelin: ProPrompter PocketPC Package
4 Broadcast Pix: Broadcast Pix Studio
5 Canon: DIGISUPER 100 xs
6 Chyron: Solo
7 CineForm: Carlsbad Technology
8 Fujinon: XA101x8.9BESM
9 Global Translation & VITAC: TranslateTV
10 Grass Valley: C2IP
11 Ikegami: HDL-40 (CMOS Version)
12 JVC: HD-CMOS
13 JVC: JY-HD10U
14 Leader Instruments Corp.:FS3018 Lighting Monitor
15 Lectrosonics: MM 400A Digital Hybrid Wireless Minature Transmitter
16 Microwave Radio Communications: QuikVue
17 Multidyne: HYDRA-8000 Series
18 Panasonic: Solid-State Memory Card Acquisition Technology
19 Panoramadtv: MONFlex LCD Video Monitors
20 RadioCom: TR825
21 Rockwell Scientific: ProCamHD
22 S.two: D.MAG
23 Sigma Electronics: DATC Technology
24 Sony: Optical Disc Recording System
25 Vinten: Fibertec
26 Virage: News Monitoring Solution
27 VITAC & Global Translation: TranslateTV

1 Digital Cinema Awards
2 Astro Systems: WM-3004 HD/SD Waveform/Vector 3 Scope LCD Monitor
4 BOXX Technologies: CineBOXX
5 Celco: Firestorm Digital Motion Picture Recorder
6 Dalsa: Origin Digital Cinematography Camera
7 Discreet: lustre
8 Fujinon: Digital Cine Lenses
9 Grass Valley: Spirit 4K
10 Kodak: Telecine Calibration System
11 Leader Instruments Corp.: FS3018 Lighting Monitor
12 Mathematical Technologies Inc.: Correct Convert
13 Conform
14 Sony: HDCAM SR Format
15 Ultimatte: Ultimatte 10




hi ,


*whoah* , who could think that , ....

have a nice day

[Panag]

hi ,

great news ;

The defenite event for the Mac OS X development community


This is the one you don't want to miss!

Get an in-depth look at the future of the Mac platform and a preview release of the next major version of Mac OS X, codenamed "Panther", at Worldwide Developers Conference 2003, June 23-27, in San Francisco.

Whether you're a programmer, IT manager, system administrator, or content creator, this is your opportunity to explore first-hand the next generation of technology innovations from Apple.

For five days in June, WWDC 2003 will bring the most innovative Mac developers together with Apple's best and brightest engineers in one of the world's most beautiful cities.

Get Empowered. Get Inspired. Get Registered.


more info in french , german , japanese , korean and english at ; http://developer.apple.com/wwdc/




Conference Features

An in-depth preview of the the next major release of Mac OS X, codenamed "Panther"


Comprehensive technical sessions covering Apple Developer Tools, Application Frameworks, Core OS, Graphics and Imaging, and Hardware


Enterprise IT Track—new addition for 2003


Expanded QuickTime Track includes content creation and delivery


Special events and activities: Apple Design Awards, Apple Campus Bash, and WWDC Exhibit Fair, and Special Interest Groups


Post-conference access to sessions, online via ADC TV and on DVD ROM


have a nice apple day

[Gatekeeper]

Good grief. Apple is "upgrading" its damned OS so often nowadays that I don't dare get a new computer. The frickin' OS would ship obsolete. For God's sake, Apple, slow the f*ck down.

Gatekeeper

[Panag]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
Good grief. Apple is "upgrading" its damned OS so often nowadays that I don't dare get a new computer. The frickin' OS would ship obsolete. For God's sake, Apple, slow the f*ck down.

Gatekeeper

hi ,

dont worry , all the cats are supposed to be working with each other , .....

who knows , maybe there is a free update , .....

anyway , if you want a new comp wait till july or otherwise till january

have a nice day