Mac Coalition

Add eSATA to a 27” iMac and untap RAID speeds of 3.3 times faster than FireWire 800

Although it has been in existence for many years and is known to be among the best and fastest ways to connect local external hard drives or disk arrays to a computer, Apple strangely has been the only computer manufacturer to my knowledge which has not yet offered a direct eSATA port on any of its computers. Even way back in the Apple G5 tower era, I used to add eSATA ports to high-end video editing systems I integrated, and this of course has continued with the MacPro (Intel) era of Apple towers. The lack of direct eSATA port on all other Macs Mac, MacBook(Pro), and Mac Mini] has sadly meant that video editors have had to settle for slower FireWire 800 speeds… until now. The highly respected OWC (Other World Computing) is now offering a US$169 custom modification to iMac 27” (mid 2010 models) to add eSATA, which untaps 3.3 times faster performance with an external disk array or SSD, compared to FireWire 800. This article will cover what the extra speed means to a video editor, how eSATA has been added to Macs before (with compromises),…

(via ProVideo Coalition)

iPad KeyPad Pro wirelessly controls your pro apps

Here’s an interesting $4.99 app for the iPad; it’s called KeyPad Pro and it’s basically a wireless client/server app that allows you to control your multimedia pro applications from the iPad. It can either be used to augment your keyboard, maybe programming just certain complex commands or shortcuts into the iPad software, or control the apps fully from a distance (think client review from the couch). The server software is available for both PC and Mac (XP+ and OSX 10.5+). Read on…

(via ProVideo Coalition)

iDisc Streaming of Your iTunes Songs

There is a great deal of excitement happening in the Mac-space about iDisk streaming of your tunes.  Before you get too excited, read MacWorld’s take:

“In a nutshell, streaming media in the background with its MobileMe iDisk app is a marginally useful feature that Apple added (and mentioned) in July. But it isn’t quite time to break out the credit cards and bubbly in celebration of “iTunes in the cloud” yet.”

Here’s the post that started today’s discussion from MP3.com:

“This is not “iTunes in the cloud” but it is definitely moving the Cupertino company in that direction. First off there is no automated way to get all your iTunes music to your iDisk account. To load files to iDisk you have to select individual files and upload them from your browser. (Apple does let you sync Calendars, Contacts, Bookmarks, etc directly from OSX but excludes music files.) Secondly…

New Mac Pros Available For Order August 9

Introduced earlier this week, word has it that the order for such behemoths will begin August 9th.  Get your credit card ready, and make sure it has ample room available as you could be dropping as much as $5,000!

No confirmation on shipping date yet…

Yo, Creative Pros—Apple Doesn’t Love You Any More. Here’s why.

After writing this piece on whether Apple lamed out on the new Mac Pros, I got to thinking more about Apple and where we, as creative professionals lie in their priority list. Read that article for a detailed analysis of how Apple wasn’t aggressive with new technology, was late to market, skipped a bunch of new technology, and MIGHT potentially have decided to stiff-arm Adobe with the lack of NVIDIA GPUs at user expense. So where do we rank with Apple these days? Lets look at their motivations and actions.

(via ProVideo Coalition)

Did Apple actually lame out on the new Mac Pros?

Apple rolled out new Mac Pros Tuesday, so of course I wrote about’em. Impressed by the power at first, after the warm fuzzy glow of new Macs wore off, I started noticing some things. Or rather, noticing some things that weren’t there - PCI 3.0, USB 3.0, eSATA, faster FireWire, 10GigE networking, Blu-ray burners, NVIDIA GPUs, and a $3500 price point for the “Big Mac.” What gives? Read on for what Apple giveth and taketh.

(via ProVideo Coalition)

Paper Toss Review for iPhone

Remember those days in the office or classroom when you and your buddies would take an old piece of paper, crumple it up and take turns shooting at the trash bin? I do, it was tons of fun. Then when one of my friends showed me Paper Toss on the iPhone, I became filled with excitement as I remembered all the good times I had at school playing it (at lunch of course). It is a great game to play when you have time to kill or just feel like throwing virtual paper balls into trash bins.

(via Apps4Phones)

Review: Magic Bullet Colorista II

Colorista. It’s one of those indispensable tools for those doing serious Final Cut Pro work. If you’re color correcting and finishing in your FCP box then the built-in 3-Way Color Corrector becomes merely adequate in comparison to the image quality you can crank out of Colorista. And Colorista has always worked in your other host applications as well (Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Avid Media Composer) so that rounds out its usefulness. But one thing that has always been missing from Colorista is secondaries, something you’d often find yourself wishing for. With Magic Bullet Colorista II, from Red Giant Software, that wish has been answered ... in a big way.

(via ProVideo Coalition)

Doodle Jump Review

Have you ever started to play a video game, then for some strange reason you couldn’t stop playing it because you had to beat the high score?  You spend wasted hours staring at the screen and the world around you becomes a blur. It’s almost like the game has cast a spell on you and the only cure is to beat the high score. This addiction is created when you play an insanely addicting game. If you have never played Doodle Jump be warned this may happen to you.

(via Apps4Phones)

Matrox MAX Technology 2.0 for Mac Delivers H.264 Video up to 500% Faster Without Sacrificing Quality

Matrox® Video Products Group today announced the immediate availability of Matrox MAX Technology 2.0 for Matrox MXO™2 I/O devices and the Matrox CompressHD card for Mac. Matrox MAX 2.0 for Mac is a unique technology that implements faster than realtime H.264 encoding for resolutions ranging from iPod to HD. It uses a dedicated hardware processor to accelerate the creation of H.264 files for the web, mobile devices, and Blu-ray. By using specialized hardware acceleration, jobs are finished with amazing speed and system resources are liberated for other tasks. Quality and flexibility are ensured through direct integration with Apple Compressor and support for other applications on the Mac such as Telestream Episode, Final Cut Pro and QuickTime Pro through the QuickTime codec component.

(via ProVideo Coalition)

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Latest News

• July30

  New Mac Pros Available For Order August 9

  Introduced earlier this week, word has it that the order for such behemoths will begin August 9th.  Get your credit card ready, and make sure it has ample room available as you could be dropping…

• February25

  iTunes Store Tops 10 Billion Songs Sold

  CUPERTINO, California—February 25, 2010—Apple® today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over 10 billion songs from the iTunes® Store (http://www.itunes.com),…

• February09

  Apple Releases Aperture 3

  CUPERTINO, California—February 9, 2010—Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including…

• January27

  Apple Launches iPad

  SAN FRANCISCO—January 27, 2010—Apple® today introduced iPad, a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing…