Sorenson Media has announced the immediate availability of Sorenson Squeeze 6, a significant update to the gold-standard video encoding software application. Sorenson Squeeze 6 provides the first total workflow solution for video professionals, enabling customers to employ innovative tools—such as email and text notifications and a secure review and approval process—that simplify the overall workflow and allow them to more easily encode and publish video files on the Internet. Optimized video codecs and new filters have also been added, significantly improving video quality and encoding speed.

Having dabbled in previous versions of Squeeze, I participated in an online demo of v6 with the developers a couple weeks ago. I can’t verify the encoding speed and improved video quality yet, as I haven’t tried out a full version, but I can say with certainty that the user interface is greatly improved. The workflow is much more intuitive, making it easier than ever for users to achieve optimal results with their video encoding. The presets are easier to read and offer more logical default options, while still providing full customization for those who want to dig deeper.

Updates in v6 include:

• Video quality and encoding speed have been significantly improved
• New review and approve capabilities and notification features simplify the encoding workflow
• New direct publishing and syndication of professional-quality video to YouTube, Twitter, Limelight, Akamai and Sorenson 360
• The enhanced interface makes encoding and managing video files easy
• A new integrated online preset exchange gives users video encoding “recipes” of experts
• Users will receive a complimentary Sorenson 360 review and approval account

Highlights of the demo I received include the ability to have Squeeze notify you via e-mail and text when a lengthy encoding job is done. Start the job, go to lunch, and hang out until the software lets you know the project is complete. Pretty cool. The videos can be automatically posted to an approval account, and an e-mail with password access can be sent to specified clients for approval. The videos can be previewed via computer or iPhone, and client comments are then automatically sent back to the user…while you’re still at lunch.

Sorenson claims that by incorporating and optimizing the latest On2 VP6 and MainConcept H.264 codecs, Squeeze 6 is up to 500 percent faster than Sorenson Squeeze 5 when encoding in the H.264 and VP6 formats, both of which are standard formats included with every copy of Squeeze 6. New input formats include AVC-Intra and WMV with VC-1 for use in Blu-ray and Microsoft Silverlight, and new output formats include AVI, AIFF, DV Stream, Image Sequence, Wave, and WMV with VC-1.

To coincide with the release of Squeeze 6, Sorenson Media has also launched a new Preset Exchange, an online repository of professional “video encoding recipes,” or presets. This is a great way for those new to video encoding (or who simply don’t want to take the time to optimize their settings via trial and error) to grab the settings used by video professionals. The Preset Exchange is new, so choices are limited for now, and users don’t have the ability to upload their own. As the Exchange grows, that could change.

And finally, Apple users will be happy to know that Sorenson Squeeze 6 also now works seamlessly with Apple’s Final Cut Pro and iMovie. This process eliminates the need for cumbersome exporting and importing between applications by enabling users to tap into the powerful Squeeze feature set directly from within their editing software.

Sorenson Squeeze 6 and Sorenson Squeeze 6 for Flash are available immediately for electronic download or for shipping in CD form. Sorenson Squeeze 6 is $799 and Sorenson Squeeze 6 for Flash is $499. Upgrades from previous versions of Sorenson Squeeze begin at $199. The complimentary one-year Sorenson 360 Review & Approval account includes 5GB of storage, 100 streams per month and a maximum video length of 30 minutes. A free trial is available.

For additional information about purchasing Sorenson Squeeze 6, or to find a reseller, visit www.sorensonmedia.com. Appletell’s full review of Sorenson Squeeze 6 will be posted soon.

Product [Sorenson Squeeze 6]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Video effects and manipulation
Developer: Adobe
Minimum Requirements: Multicore Intel processor, Mac OSX 10.4.11; 2 GB RAM, 2.9GB free hard-disk space for installation; plus 2GB of space for optional content; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on flash-based storage devices), 1280x900 display resolution with OpenGL 2.0-compatible graphics card, DVD-ROM drive, QuickTime 7.4.5 software required for multimedia features,  Broadband Internet connection required for online services
Cost: $999 full version ($299 upgrade)
Availability: Now

To use Adobe After Effects is to stare into the face of madness. And I mean that in the best way possible.

The simplest way to describe it is as Photoshop for video; you can import it, add special effects, or even use it to create video from scratch. One tutorial I followed allowed me to mock up rolling storm clouds like you’d see on a commercial for a storm report.

But the ability to manipulate video is geometrically more complex than manipulating an image; you can control time, speeding up or slowing down the motion (popular in action movies today, where a character’s furious attack slows down to allow the viewer to savor a brutal hit—After Effects lets you do that). If you’re working with 3D objects, you can control both the objects movement through space, and control the “camera” (the point of view) that moves completely independently—think of it as the Death Star moving towards a planet while an X-Wing (the camera) zooms over its surface. In addition to the raw power to manipulate and create video, After Effects CS4 comes with over 250 effects to do everything from alter the hue/saturation, to knocking out color for a green screen effect, to adding lightning.

So wrap your mind around that, then add to it the idea that, like Photoshop, you can work in layers, manipulating several images, effects, and video files independently, and you’ll begin to understand why this program is so mind-bogglingly powerful, and how—and I’m being completely sincere, here—awe-inspiring that it not only exists, but that it works compfortably on something like my Macbook Pro.

Okay, enough with the genuflecting. What can you use it for? Special effects. Fun things like lightsabers and laser blasts, adding muzzle flashes for gunshots. Playing with text, making letters fly in and out, explode. Teleport, throw fireballs. Pretty much anything you’ve ever seen happen in the opening credits to a movie, After Effects can do. If you can think of an effect, AE can do it with enough rendering time.

One thing After Effects isn’t built to be is an off-line film editing. I mean, you could do it that way, since you can layer different movie files and determine where they begin and end; it just isn’t built for that. It’d be like trying to type a term paper in PowerPoint, technically possible, but there are better tools for that job.  After Effects is primarily for manipulating a movie, so if you have a whole scene built around a showdown, you’d edit the scene in Final Cut or Adobe Premiere, edit in an effect where the hero’s gun flashes, then render that small part out and drop it back in to your completed movie.

All of this, of course, takes a lot of processing power. A “simple” smoke effect, for example, can require your computer to generate tens of thousands of individual particles, then apply a blur effect to make it look like mist. If you want to see what this looks like as you’re playing with the settings, you’re going to want a fast processor and a lot of RAM, which will pre-render as much of the effect as possible. But the truly great thing about AE is that even if you don’t have the latest and greatest multi-core Intel processor, it’s still functional; you just have to have more patience. Because while you won’t be able to view as many complicated effects “live,” you can still queue up the effects you want, get an idea of what they’ll look like by skipping through the footage, and then render them out as a finished movie file. I did this several times on my older white Macbook, and while the lack of a graphics processor and minimal RAM slowed me down, I was still able to produce amazing, professional-looking effects as I learned to use the program.

Speaking of learning the program, this is definitely one where you’ll want the voice of experience to walk you through the basics. As someone who taught himself to use Photoshop and Quark Xpress, I was completely baffled by the After Effects interface: it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before; even other Adobe programs. Fortunately, I was able to take a beginner’s class at a local film school, as well as buying the Classroom in a Box book from Adobe itself to demystify the program. If I’d tried my usual sink-or-swim process, I’d have drowned. That said, once I got the gist of how AE imported footage, dealt with layers, and manipulated effects, it became really simple to arrange them as I wanted.

After Effects CS4 is an insanely powerful tool for manipulating and altering video. At a suggested retail price of $999 it costs as much as the new Final Cut Studio, but you can find it at significant discounts from places like Amazon, and, for people who need professional-level effects, the amount of power that AE CS4 gives you is quite simply staggering for that price. This is not a tool for the iMovie crowd, but if you see your Mac as a computer built around Final Cut, those with a serious interest in filmmaking will be impressed with the amazing toolkit After Effects gives them… once they figure out how to open it.

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Adobe earlier today announced Photoshop Elements 8. Normally, when you see the word Photoshop followed by something, it means a dumbed down version. Obviously, Photoshop Elements is not aimed at the professional Photoshop crowd, but I had the opportunity to see a press conference on Photoshop Elements 8 on Monday, and trust me…there’s nothing dumb about it.

Photoshop Elements 8 wants to position itself not only as your software for adding effects to your photos, but also for managing them. You can customize your workspace for easier access to your photos and videos, and tag them for a variety of search options. And like iPhoto, switching from a thumbnail to the full photo is now as simple as a click of the mouse.

The new enhancement features, however, are what will garner all of the attention. Common touch-ups such as creating bluer skies and whitening teeth have been taken care of with one-step shortcuts. Users can now also take two pictures of the same object—with the flash on and the flash off—and have Photoshop Elements 8 automatically combine the two to provide both hightlight and shadow detail. This is a trick professional photographers and users of Photoshop have been doing for a while now, and that power is now part of Elements 8.

Even more impressive is the new Photomerge feature, which takes a look at multiple shots of the same object, and removes unwanted elements. For example, having a hard time getting a photo of a building without passersby getting in the way? Simply take multiple shots on a tripod, open them all up in Photoshop Elements, and draw a line through the items you don’t want. Photoshop will then take that “clean” area from another shot, and overwrite the unwanted element. No more time-consuming rubber stamping, a simple brush stroke will do it (provided you have the multiple shots).

Adobe also showed off the ability to recompose images to any size by removing space between your subjects. Their demo was of a group of kids swimming, but the kids were too far apart. Recomposing the image in Elements 8, you can simply drag the edge of the image closer to the other, and the software will blend the elements that can be tossed out, while retaining the parts you want to keep. Of course, this always looks easy in the demo, and the presenters were quick to point that out, but they have included the ability for you to tell Elements 8 which portions of the image should be retained and which can be sacrificed, so that important pieces don’t get distorted or chopped up.

When you’re done, your images can be shared in web galleries with animated templates, or turned into photo books, scrapbook pages, and more.

Photoshop Elements 8 has a projected release date of fall 2009, and will retail for $99.99. Preorders are only $79.99 after mail in rebate. Learn more at Adobe’s website, and check back with us for our full review.

Product [Photoshop Elements 8]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

As many of you will be aware, Apple is hosting a music themed event in San Francisco on September 9th. The tagline on the invitations reads “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it,” which certainly suggests music will play an important role in the keynote. While there are certainly rumors surrounding an update to the iPod line, there are also many other rumors that have been circulating the Internet, so here’s a round-up of all the possibilities we could see from Apple tomorrow.

iTunes 9

The last major update to iTunes included the App Store, along with updates to iTunes DJ. This upcoming event is rumored to see the release of iTunes 9 which could include the option to incorporate your library and listening styles with your favorite social networks, such as Facebook and Last.FM.

A long-awaited feature from many customers has been to have the ability to re-organize your iPhone/iPod touch applications from within iTunes, which would then synchronize across to your device. According to the Boy Genius Report, this could also be making an appearance in iTunes 9, something I personally am certainly looking forward to.

It doesn’t stop there, however. The third major update that could feature in iTunes 9 is support for Blu-ray movies. This was rumored for the previous upgrade to iTunes, but with HD DVD out of the race, it’s more possible that Apple hase decided to jump on the band-wagon with Blu-ray support.

iTunes 9 could also see an iTunes Unlimited service come to life. Similar to what’s available with the Microsoft Zune, customers would have full access to the entire iTunes Store, with the option to buy the tracks to keep, if you’d prefer. A similar service to this has been launched in the UK, called Spotify, and has been incredibly successful.

iPod and Nike+ Refreshes

Previous to the iPod shuffle, the last iPod to receive an update was the iPod nano—a year ago on September 9th 2008. Sources believe that the iPod nano could see a slight update in its design, making it more convenient to hold and use, especially during sporting activities. It is also expected that Apple will add a camera to both the iPod nano and iPod touch, making them more useful and more media-based rather than simply music players. Apple Premium Resellers are reporting they are not replenishing their stock of the iPod nano, iPod touch or iPod classic, which leads to believe that updates will be appearing for all three models.

This could also include a refresh for Nike+ to include support for the iPod range, and also the iPhone 3G and 3GS. With the iPhone’s GPS capabilities, the Nike+ software could provide a lot more information that could synchronize back to your computer for you to review.

Apple iTablet

While rumors have been coming in about this for quite some time, it’s quite unlikely we’ll see such a device on Wednesday. If only because of the music theme for the event. It’s also plausible such a device would warrant its own event, possibly closer to the Christmas holiday season, if not in February 2010 at another event. It would be great for an iTablet, or iPad to be unveiled tomorrow, but, as I said, we’re clutching at straws for that one. It’s unknown at this point whether such a device would use a modified version of the iPhone OS or of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Findings within the accessibility settings within Snow Leopard that reveal full-size keyboards lead us to believe Snow Leopard could be the basis for a tablet device upon its launch.

Apple TV

We mentioned this last week on Appletell that an Apple TV update could be the “outsider” of the event. Wall Street analyst Gene Munster believes Apple could be phasing out the smaller 40GB model to leave space for an update to the device. If an iTunes Unlimited option also included TV shows and movies, the Apple TV could become quite popular. Even if you were required to pay a monthly subscription to access the iTunes store via the Apple TV, it would still be a hit. It’s certainly an outsider at this point, but there’s always hope for the “One More Thing…” section of the media press conference on September 9th.

Tomorrow, all will be revealed

So there you have it; the most likely (and not so likely) updates that could be emerging from Apple HQ tomorrow. Is there anything in particular you’ve been waiting to see, or something else you wish would get a little love from Apple this September? Personally, I feel we’ll see a refresh for the iPod classic, iPod nano and iPod touch, along with iTunes 9. An update for Nike+ could also be likely, while I feel an Apple Tablet and a new Apple TV are less likely to appear at this particular event. Feeling the same? Let us know below in the comments.

Full Story » | Written by Ed Parry for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Coming quietly in the night like a ninja, it appears as if Apple has updated much of their more expensive software. According to Phil Schiller in Apple’s press release, “The new Final Cut Studio includes more than 100 new features and dramatically expands Apple’s ProRes family of codecs so editors can work in the studio with the highest quality video or on location at low bandwidths.” However, it is also interesting that Apple has decreased the price tag on this product by $300 and priced it at $999, or just $299 for an update. Even better yet is that you can go to the online Apple store and purchase it right now (well, after you finished reading this post, that is)!

With this new version, the following products have been updated:

• Final Cut Pro 7
• Motion 4
• Soundtrack Pro 3
• Color 1.5
• Compressor 3.5
• DVD Studio Pro 4

To find more details about what was actually updated in each product, check out the press release. It looks like a nice update for people interesting in this software to get excited about.

Product [Final Cut Studio]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Roxio, a division of Sonic Solutions, has announced the immediate availability of Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac, a combination of software and hardware that provides consumers with a quick and trouble-free way to convert and transfer personal video and entertainment stored on VHS tape to DVD. Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac is available in retail stores and directly from Roxio for a suggested retail price of $79.99.

By removing the ability to tweak the video settings, Roxio guarantees novice users the ability to get the best possible conversion every time. Simply attach the included USB video capture device to your Mac’s high-speed USB 2.0 port, and then capture from virtually any analog video source (VCR, Hi8 camcorder, etc., cables not included). S-Video and composite-video input cables enable full-resolution DVD recording, and the resulting video files can then be recorded back to DVD, complete with a custom menu background and chaptering, using the included Roxio Toast Basic, or exported directly to iMovie for editing.

The Roxio Easy VHS to DVD for Mac software guides users through the necessary steps to successfully capture analog recordings. The software displays illustrations of the required cable connections and prompts users to select an appropriate recording quality. Users can preview video and audio to ensure connections are correct prior to capture. In addition, uses may set a predefined recording length so they can leave the capture process unattended.

In other words, no more paying people to do this for you. Your old VHS recordings can be preserved on DVD (although, that, too isn’t as permanent as the manufacturers would like you to think, so make sure you store your videos on a hard drive, as well). The simple instructions guarantee a DVD quality transfer, but without any sort of correction.

Once recording is complete, options are available to send the video to Toast or to iMovie. Within Toast, users may create DVDs, VCDs or SVCDs, which can be personalized with professionally designed menu styles. Toast can also be used to compile multiple recordings on a single disc or to make copies of a DVD previously created for sharing with friends and family. Videos sent to iMovie can be edited further and exported for optimal playback on a range of mobile devices including the iPod and iPhone, or converted for posting and sharing via online services or social networking sites.

Check back with us soon for a full Appletell review.

Product [Easy VHS to DVD, video overview]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Full suite of video/photo/image/web content creation and management
Format: DVD
Developer: Adobe
Minimum System Requirements: Varies by product/package (see Adobe’s website for individual details)
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: Varies by product/package (see Adobe’s website for all suite and individual software normal and upgrade prices)
Availability: Now

This is the update Macromedia users have been dreading since Adobe bought out the company a few years ago. This is when what we’ve known and loved about the Macromedia UI and methodology has been tossed out the window and replaced with Adobe’s own way of doing things. There is good and bad to this. Good, in that the Macromedia products—Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Flash—are now much more tightly integrated with their Adobe stepbrothers. The products share more of the same tools and commands, and generally get along a lot better. Bad, in that Adobe’s way isn’t always the best way, and they’ve overcomplicated quite a few features for the sake of unity.

CS4 is a huge update (hence our delay in getting up coverage…we’ve got day jobs, you know). If you’re going to pick up the Master Collection, you’re looking at nearly 20 updated programs rolled out at once in a single package. And these are big, big programs. That Adobe is able to maintain a schedule of significant updates about every 18 months indicates two things to me: that they’ve got an incredible staff of programmers, and that maybe some of these features were pushed out a bit too soon.

One way to address this is to abandon older technology, making it easier to program and troubleshoot. Although most apps in CS4 can work on systems dating all the way back to the G4, you still need to have Mac OS X v10.4.11 running on it. In addition, many of the programs (especially the video apps such as After Effects and Premiere Pro) rely heavily on OpenGL, meaning that certain functions will not be available to you or that you won’t be able to run the programs at all. For a complete breakdown of what app needs what to run, visit Adobe’s website.

Of course, you don’t need them all. The CS4 products are sold in numerous suites, each tailored to a specific use. Adobe has done a good job of fairly placing the apps into these suites; you likely won’t need to pay for apps you don’t need in order to get what you want in a specific suite.

Now, which package you go for should be fairly obvious, based on your needs. Because of they way they’re priced, if you purchase more than two or three individual apps, you’re likely going to save money by buying into a suite. And although the initial purchase is pretty steep, Adobe continues to be quite fair with their upgrade prices.

Once you’ve purchased and installed your update, the first thing you’ll notice is that the CS4 apps push further into the OWL (Object Widget Library) interface. Adobe has undertaken the task of unifying all the apps (both their original and the acquired Macromedia programs) across the suite, on both the Mac and the PC. Likely, your first reaction will be one of confusion. The interface is dark gray and heavy. Tool icons are clean, but lifeless. Adobe has apparently used OWL 2 to make the the Mac and PC versions not only work the same way, but look the same way. I’ve spoken to many users from both camps, and almost straight across the board, PC users like the new look, while Mac users hate it. Whether that means the Mac GUI is just that much better than the PC’s or that PC users are just more flexible, I’ll leave up to you.

We’ll address most of these issues in the individual reviews, but I do need to mention that there are some significant advantages to the OWL 2 GUI. First, although most of the apps now default to a tabbed interface for multiple documents (think tabbed browsing on Safari), you can shut this off so that each document stands on its own. In fact, through menu options and keystrokes, you can pretty much get the UI to behave however you want. I found the Application Frame, for example (in which your document and tools all sit in a single, resizable frame, as pictured above), too restricting when working on my 24” iMac. But when using my Unibody MacBook, it made it much easier to keep control of the limited space afforded to me. Likewise, simple keystrokes can minimize the tool panels, or hide them completely. Love or hate the new UI, it is designed to give you quick access to the tools you need, hide the tools you don’t, and show you as much of your canvas as possible at all points.

Don’t think for a second, however, that these updates are strictly about streamlining your workflow. Most of the apps have powerful new features and a host of small tweaks that add up to big improvements. Obviously, I can’t go into them all here. In fact, the CS4 updates are so large that we’re not going to handle them here at all, or even just at Appletell. Instead, we’re working in conjunction with our friends at Applelinks to bring you individual reviews of each app in the suites. To get to the individual app reviews, just click on the links below. It’s kind of pointless to rate the CS4 updates as a whole, because each package would deserve its own rating based on the apps included and the value they offer. So, below, we link to the individual reviews of the apps that comprise the suite. Click through to the Applelinks or Appletell reviews for the individual apps to learn more.

CS4 Design Suite (for print and web work):

Standard - $1,399 new, $499 upgrade

• InDesign
• Illustrator
• Acrobat 9 Pro
• Photoshop Standard

Premium - $1,799 new, $599 upgrade

• InDesign
• Illustrator
• Acrobat 9 Pro
• Photoshop Extended
• Dreamweaver
• Flash
• Fireworks

CS4 Web Suite (for web work):

Standard - $999 new, $399 upgrade

• Dreamweaver
• Flash Professional
• Fireworks

Premium - $1,699 new, $599 upgrade

• Dreamweaver
• Flash Professional
• Fireworks
• Photoshop Extended
• Illustrator
• Soundbooth
• Acrobat 9 Pro

CS4 Production Premium (for video work):

$1,699 new, $599 upgrade

• After Effects
• Premiere Pro
• Photoshop Extended
• Illustrator
• Flash Professional
• Soundbooth
• OnLocation
• Encore

CS4 Master Collection:

$2,499 new, $899 upgrade

• InDesign
• Illustrator
• Acrobat 9 Pro
• Photoshop Extended
• Dreamweaver
• Contribute
• Flash Professional
• Fireworks
• After Effects
• Premiere Pro
• Soundbooth
• OnLocation
• Encore

No matter which program you buy into, it’ll also offer Bridge, Device Central and Adobe Media Player. Version Cue comes in all packages save for Production Premium, in which it’s replaced by Dynamic Link.

It really is worth it to look at these apps individually, not as a whole. Most are absolutely worth the upgrade, a couple will only appeal to select users, and at least one should just be entirely dropped from the lineup. But overall, this is a solid lineup of amazing tools that bring some great new features, even if they are muddied up in a new user interface that will take some getting used to.

Once we’re done with all the pieces, we’ll assign ratings to each package. Until then, check back with us weekly as work our way through the powerful behemoth that is Adobe Creative Suite 4.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: UPnP AV media streaming software
Format: Download
Developer: Elgato
Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.3.8, wired or wireless network connection to player
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $49.95
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 1.6

You have an EyeTV Hybrid, and possibly a Turbo.264. Now, what are you going to do with all of this video? You could watch it on your Mac, but I’m sure that couch of yours is calling. How do you do that? Well, you could export all of your video for AppleTV and then buy an overpriced piece of hardware that does one thing…or, you could buy a PS3 and Elgato’s EyeConnect.

EyeConnect makes it super easy to stream video from your Mac to UPnP AV media compatible devices. One of the devices supported you might recognize as the Sony Playstation 3. I might be an Apple fanboy, but the only thing hooked up to my TV besides a Mac Mini is a PS3. Why no Apple TV?  Because the PS3 can do pretty much everything an Apple TV can…only more. Like, way more.  And with EyeConnect, you can watch all of your EyeTV content on your TV through your PS3.  It’s super easy to use, and it works great.

With other similar applications like MediaLink, I experienced problems streaming HD video over the network to the point that I finally just gave up.  For some reason, EyeConnect has almost none of these issues.  It can actually handle a full HD stream without stuttering every few seconds. If you’ve ever tried to watch a video like this, you’d know it’s impossible.

Now, sadly, I can’t say this program works flawlessly. For some reason, EyeConnect’s sharing has to be turned off and then back on again for the PS3 to recognize it, but it’s a minor price to pay with the level of quality present.  What I can say is that when it works, it works amazingly well.  And when I say it’s super easy to use, I mean even my parents could do it.

And you’re not just limited to video.  You can share music and pictures as well.  It’s the definitive bridge between your Mac and living room. If you have a Mac, a PS3 and EyeTV, you might be me. If not, you need to stop watching recordings, viewing pictures or listening to music just on your Mac and pick up EyeConnect so you can experience them from the comfort of your living room.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: External video processing/formatting
Developer: Elgato
Minimum Requirements: Intel Core processor, 512MB of RAM, USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.5.6, QuickTime 7.6
Price: $149.99
Availability: Now

Elgato is well known for their superb EyeTV software and hardware that goes along with it. Recording TV is what they do best, but it’s not all they do; Elgato also makes a great product called the Turbo.264. It’s a USB dongle that supercharges your Mac’s ability to process video.

The Turbo.264 is a lot like a wood chipper for your video. You throw in wood, which is great by itself, but out the other side comes wood chips, which are useful. I know we’re talking about video here, not wood, but the analogy applies nicely.

The Turbo.264 plugs right into any of your quickly disappearing USB ports. It comes with an extension cable in case you’re worried about the device taking up more than its fair share of space. Other than the extension cable, there aren’t really any extra accessories, not that you’d need any. 

Fantastic, but what does it actually do? The Turbo.264 eats video for breakfast, and throws up compressed video just as soon as you look away. You know, to keep its dongle-like figure (we do not endorse bulimia). Seriously though, it’s made to compress video, which is why it kills just about anything else in a speed test.

So how does it perform?  I tested the device on a brand new Mac Mini, but I still I don’t think you’ll be surprised to hear who won in a video compression race.  Hit me with some numbers!

The file I tested was a 27 minute long HD quality recording from EyeTV.  Actually, it was the interesting part of Thunder over Louisville, if you are familiar or interested to know.  I chose to convert this video to the standard Apple TV preset by hitting the corresponding button from within EyeTV.  The Mac Mini by itself took 1:16:30 to export this video.  The Turbo.264 HD took 0:32:19.  That’s right, less than half the time the Mac Mini took.  Let me just point out that this isn’t the slowest Mac Mini.  It’s a brand new 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM.

Okay, so this thing really kills the Mac Mini’s ability to process video, but do you care?  That depends on how much video you process.  If you are using your EyeTV like a crazy man, and export all of your videos to watch on your iPod, then this could really save you some time.  Then again, you might just run all of your video compression during the night.  But you can use this to convert your home videos as well.  In fact, you can drop just about any video into the Turbo.264 app and have it do its thing.  So, even if you don’t have an EyeTV that never cools down, the Turbo.264 might still be worth your money to speed along the processing involved with saving memories shot with your camcorder.

But really, $150 is a lot of money.  It’s a great product, but let’s be honest, unless your EyeTV Hybrid never cools down, or you’re processing video from your camcorder just as fast as you can shoot it, you probably can’t justify it. And that’s fine, because Elgato already knows this. But when you’re ready to cut down conversion time, Elgato has an amazing product for you.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Jealous of friends who have a newer MacBook or iMac with the new NVIDIA graphics? Do you feel less able by comparison, what with that sad old Intel GMA chipset sported by your earlier model? Never fear, there’s hope for you yet! Enter a new tool called GMABoosterX. 

GMABooster is a tool that allows you to up the clock speed on the Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) graphics chip included in your Mac Mini, MacBook, or iMac, resulting in faster graphics performance.  The chip itself is capable of operating at 400MHz, but most systems throttle it down to 133/166MHz to save power.  In highly unscientific tests, the program did bump the graphics capabilities of the GMA of a late-2006 MacBook (1.83GHz with the GMA 950), though not as much as the claimed 2.4x increase. Game play in Feral Interactive’s Lego Batman went from a clunky and often stuttering experience to a smooth one, with minimal stutter (and then, only when there was lots of action on screen). 

Even if you’re not a gamer, general system performance is much snappier with the GMA running at full speeds. Quartz Compositor, the Mac OS X technology responsible for graphics in the operating system, can handle much more with the higher GPU speed. After running GMABoosterX, Exposé effects with lots of windows (45, Exposéd in slow motion) were smooth and crisp, without visual artifacts or jumping. Google Earth, when run in OpenCL mode, felt snappier and zoomed about with less stopping and redrawing. Are you running Vista in parallels/bootcamp?  GMABooster comes in a Windows version, as well! 

So it’s all fun and games, right? Well, not quite so (graphically) fast; there are two minor drawbacks. In order to use GMABooster, you will need to download and install Apple’s CHUD Tools. Once CHUD is installed, you can run GMABoosterX, but be ready—it’s command line only. Granted, the commands are very easy to follow; just double click, then follow the directions. But for us spoiled Apple folks, being forced into the command line can be a bit disconcerting.

Product [GMABoosterX] Via [Bit-Tech.net]

Full Story » | Written by Aaron Kraus for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple today released an update to iMovie, their video editing program that’s part of the iLife suite of applications. The new version fixes a problem where attempting to open projects with a file size of 0KB would cause iMovie to quit unexpectedly at launch. Version 8.0.2 also addresses a problem where full-screen mode could not be accessed on some systems.

The 24.1MB download is available via Software Update or from the Apple support website.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Provides: Audio/video editing, burning, sharing
Format: Download or DVD
Developer: Roxio
Minimum System Requirements: G4, G5, or Intel processor (G5 or Intel required for encoding/viewing HD content); Mac OS X v10.5; CD, DVD or Blu-Ray recordable drive; QuickTime v7; 800MB free disk space (15GB free temporary free disk space during usage); Internet connection for some functionality; high-def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in for HD video authoring
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $99 ($149 Pro version)
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 10.0.1

Sometimes when I observe the desperate struggle for relevance, it makes me sad. How can you watch a recent Madonna video, the latest Jim Carrey movie, or anything having to do with the Microsoft Zune and not be sympathetic to their plight? Don’t we all eventually come to fear that our time in the sun has past? (Or, in the case of the Zune, that we never even got to see the sun?) The answer to that, is no, because not everyone has trouble staying relevant. Case in point, Roxio, with their update to Toast 10 Titanium.

Video

Toast originally made a name for itself as CD-ROM burning software back in the mid-90s. For a while, that’s all it did, but the folks at Adaptec (and now Roxio) have always understood that computer technology/media is constantly changing, and they’ve been there every step of the way. In fact, they’re often a few steps ahead. For example, Steve Jobs and Apple may still be terrified of the big, bad, Blu-ray monster, but Roxio is not. Toast 10 Titanium has the ability to copy and burn information to Blu-ray discs, while Toast 10 Titanium Pro adds the ability to burn HD video to Blu-ray via the High-Def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in ($19.99, included free with Toast 10 Titanium Pro).

I wasn’t able to test the Blu-ray functionality because I don’t a Blu-ray drive on my Mac, but I can say that Toast 10 did just fine with HD video content pulled in through my cable line, and burned some nice DVDs, menus and all.

But of course, Toast is no longer just about burning CDs and DVDs. It can now import DVDs, provided they’re not encrypted or copy protected, so you can back them up or format them for other devices. You get some basic functionality here, such as the ability to import specific chapters and audio tracks, but it’s too bare-bones to please those who do this regularly. You’re likely to still need programs such as Handbrake for serious DVD ripping, but it’s good to have the functionality built into Toast for basic jobs.

Once you’ve got your videos, you can export them to numerous media devices, with pre-formats for the iPhone, Apple TV, Sony PlayStation 3 and PSP, BlackBerry, Palm Treo, and more. For further manipulation or sharing online, you can also export video to DV, HDV, MPEG-4, H.264 and QuickTime. It’s all very easy to do, although Roxio should consider making the output device selector more than just a tiny gear icon on the bottom of the window. Also, as with DVD ripping, higher level controls would be welcome for those who know what they’re doing.

TiVO users can benefit from the ability to stream videos directly from Toast to their TiVO devices. I don’t have TiVO, so I couldn’t test this. I was, however, able to stream my videos directly to my iPhone, which was great. With the Roxio Streamer app, TiVO and (in my case) EyeTV recordings can be streamed directly from your computer to your iPhone, so you can watch movies/shows without taking up your iPhone’s drive space. This is somewhat tricky, as setting it up/connecting is oddly confusing, and you of course have to have your host computer on and awake. It’d be great if the Roxio Streamer had the ability to awake your Mac remotely, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. In addition, you obviously need a WiFi connection for this to work. So, although it’s not completely practical yet, it is pretty cool when the conditions are met.

The final video portion I want to cover is the new ability to import and archive your home recordings. Toast 10 can accept video straight from your camcorder or VCR and burn them right to DVD for archival purposes. When one DVD fills up, you’re prompted for another. Catalogs with photo thumbnails are created as you go, so you can search for specific video segments without actually having the DVD in your computer. This is fantastic not only for archiving video, but for your iPhone images as well. I tend to back up my photos yearly to clear up the space on my hard drive, and Toast 10’s cataloging capabilities make it much easier to find the photos I want after they’ve been archived.

Audio

Remember burning CDs? So does Roxio. Toast has always been a significantly better option than iTunes, offering functionality that iTunes lacks (such as the most basic but necessary ability to individually set track audio levels). The problem has always been that iTunes purchased music could never be burned with anything but iTunes. Now that Apple is pushing towards DRM-free downloads, Toast becomes a better option. The traditional functionality (such as the ability to import/fix vinyl recordings, create crossfades, tag your music, burn MP3 discs, etc.) remains, and has been supplemented with the ability capture and tag Internet audio, or pretty much anything playing on your computer. Toast will automatically capture it, split the audio into tracks (surprisingly accurate, here; it only made mistakes where I expected it to), and even identify the tracks.

Using audio fingerprinting, The CD SpinDoctor component of Toast 10 can identify your unknown tracks and assign the proper tags: artist, title, genre, etc. In short, you can record music directly from Pandora, for example, and have it properly split, tagged and dumped into iTunes. I was impressed with what it was able to identify and properly tag, as only my more obscure indie and J-Rock tracks went unclassified.

The last new audio feature I’ll cover is the ability to convert audiobook CDs for playback on your iPod or iPhone, complete with individual chapters and pause/resume support. Again, I have no audio books in my collection, so I was unable to test this.

Oh, and I would also like to point out that Roxio has done a good job with the entire user interface. One of my complaints about Toast 9 was that the interface appeared blurry and dark. Toast 10 is a bit sharper and cleaner, although some text in the interface would clip or overlap when cycling through options, and the animations are not necessary.

Pro Apps

For $50 more, Toast 10 Titanium Pro comes with extra software that can enhance your media creation/formatting. I can’t imagine users will get a decent amount of use out of all of these apps, but using just a couple of them regularly will justify the additional cost. Each of these programs deserves its own review, so I won’t go into detail on them here. However, here’s what you get for the $149 pro version (in addition to the previously mentioned High-Def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in):

SonicFire Pro
Create your own copyright-free music on the fly. You select the tempo, pitch and mood, then adjust the length and arrangement to fit your movie. It’s a decent option for those looking to burn DVDs free of music licensing issues, but the tracks do end up feeling quite generic.

SoundSoap
Remove unwanted audio/noise from your recordings. You use the software to isolate a small section of the unwanted sound (such as camera hum or wind), then the program will will go through the entire audio file to pull out the offending noise. Some audio degradation will occur, but you can fine tune your settings to adjust the balance between the loss of bad and good audio. It can’t work miracles on bad audio, but it’s a good start.

FotoMagico
This is simply a fantastic application all around. It sort of combines the presentation functionality of Keynote with the slideshow capabilities of iPhoto, but increases the functionality of each to create a program that’s better than both in every way. It, alone, is worth the extra cost of Toast 10 Titanium Pro.

LightZone
I’m not entirely sure why this one’s here. It can correct or add effects to your photos for more dramatic slideshows, but the results are subjective (photos are more dynamic, but can look less natural). Those who care about this sort of thing will use PhotoShop or another program that offers better control. Those who don’t care are likely not interested in using LightZone. That said, it does a decent job, as long as you’re not too picky.

One thing to consider about these bonus apps, too, is that they’re not actually a part of Toast, as is CD SpinDoctor. Roxio gives you the serial numbers, but updates will be at the control of the individual developers, and that includes update pricing.

Regular or Pro? Doesn’t Matter.

Overall, I feel this is the best Toast update since they merged Toast and Jam into one program. The new video capabilities are outstanding, not only making Toast more useful to a larger number of users, but also indicating that the good folks at Roxio are well aware of the current usage trends, and are working hard to stay on top of them. If you’ve been putting off upgrading your previous version of Toast, stop. If you’ve never used Toast, start. This is the version for which you’ve been waiting. The digital hub Steve Jobs spoke of a few years back has grown well beyond Apple’s control (indeed, they seem to fear it, now), and Roxio’s Toast 10 Titanium manages to keep it all within reach.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

As I am writing this, the MacHeist 3 Bundle is about to be revealed. Last year, many were disappointed with the MacHeist bundle, as it had many apps that had been seen in the previous year, and no really spectacular app. This year, that was acknowledged, and a much better bundle has been promised.

Right off the bat, Eventbox is free just for showing up at the live unveiling. It will likely be added to your loot even if you didn’t tune in, but that’s another maybe. At a $12, it’s already a $12 savings. Great way to begin the night.

After a bit of a late start (what’s 10 minutes among friends?), Lisa, Veronica, and Chris chatted for a bit, went totally dark for an antagonizing minute, then introduced the first app: iSale. Not terribly impressive, as if you don’t use eBay, it’s useless. But it’s the first app, and I have a feeling we’re only going up from here. iSale is a $40 value.

Next up? The Apple Design Award winning Picturesque. Picturesque is an image-enhancer. You can get those Apple-style perspective/reflection images, put shadows, strokes, and more. Great for desktop publishing, it’s a much easier way than Photoshop, worth $35. It’s getting excited!

Now they announce that the first 25,000 buyers of the Bundle will get Big Bang Board Games for free. For those who didn’t get it free with their Mac, this is a great extra, and worth $25.

Sous Chef is the next app in the list. Though of no use if you don’t cook, it’s a great, and very pretty way to keep your recipes organized and share them with friends. Sous Chef is a $30 value.

Now we get a game! World of Goo is a physics based puzzle and construction game in which you drag live globs of Goo to build bridges and towers and other things to get them to safety. It actually looks really cool. This is one I’m excited about. Plus, it’s valued at $20.

And now, PhoneView. PhoneView provides desktop access to the content on your iPhone, a disk mode to store files on your iPhone or iPod touch, and much more than probably should be included in iTunes. It’s priced at $20 as well.

Next up is LittleSnapper, a brilliant screenshot app, much like Skitch, that has integration to their own web service, FTP, Flickr, etc. If you’ve ever wanted to scribble on your desktop, now you can. (It has more useful uses as well.) A great app, which would normally cost $39.

Acorn is the next app on the agenda. It’s another image editor, so it’s questionable given how Picturesque is already part of the bundle. To be fair, Acorn is more about touching up a photo, whereas Picturesque is about stylizing them. Still, a bit of a stretch. It costs $50 normally.

Still no huge apps at this point, but the next app is Kinemac, a $300 app. That’s exciting in and of itself. Kinemac is a 3D real-time animation and presentation software, with the simplicity of a 2D tool. It’s like Motion, but not confusing as all-get-out. The only problem with Kinemac? I have a feeling it’ll drive up the bundle price. Once again, it retails for $300. Wow.

Now we’re getting to the unlocks. These are the apps that are part of the bundle only after a certain amount of bundles are purchased. After $100,000 is raised for charity, Wiretap Studio will be unlocked. Wiretap can record any combination of audio feeds together at once. It’s pretty cool, but definitely not an exciting app. It retails for $70.

Three more apps to go now, and the next app is available as an unlock (the required charity level wasn’t mentioned.) It’s BoinxTV, a fantastic app that turns any recent Mac into a live TV studio, allowing you to add lower thirds, cut between cameras, and much much more all live. It retails for $199 normally. Now that is exciting.

The Hit List is the next app, part of the “Mega Unlock” where two apps are unlocked at a certain charity level. The Hit List is a GTD app to organize tasks in your life. With a simple and easy to use design, it might just be the To-Do app I’ve never been able to find. We’ll see. The Hit list retails for $50.

The other half of the “Mega Unlock” is Espresso, a web development app that combines editing, real-time previewing, and publishing in one window. It has a sleek UI and intuitive interface, and it retails for $60.

All together, these apps cost about $900, according to Chris Pirillo’s math. Chris asks us how much we’d expect to pay? $500? $250? No? $100? Still high? $50. Okay. $50. That’s it, right? What? Lower?! What’s a good price then? $39!

That’s right. $900 worth of software, including Live TV software, 3D animation software, and much more. For $39. Plus, if you’ve been doing all the heists, you have an $8.00 bundle discount. That means, for $31, you can have $900 worth of software. My writing skills are going out the window as I scramble to add money to my PayPal account.

Check out and buy the bundle at MacHeist.com!

Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Today at Boxee’s meetup in New York it was announced that Boxee will be receiving even more impressive updates. Just as you might have suspected, they’ve found a way around Hulu yet again, and this time, it’s not blockable without taking the entire site down. But there’s more. They now have a partnership with Pandora and a new PBS application.

So how did they do it this time? Get around Hulu, that is? Boxee has tweaked their code, and now they have a new XUL-based framework. In other words, they have basically built a browser into Boxee, meaning you can browse to Hulu’s webpage from within Boxee. So, Hulu is back, whether they like it or not. It would have been easier for them to just cooperate, but in the end, users of Boxee actually benefit since this opens up more ways for content to be distributed.

Boxee’s new partnership with Pandora means users will have access to Pandora’s excellent streaming radio. If you don’t already know what it is, Pandora is a streaming radio station that tailors itself to your tastes in music. Not only can you listen to music, you can actually create new stations from within Boxee. First, you give it a hint on what you like by selecting a band or song. Pandora then generates a station for you with similar artists and songs.All that is left to do is give a thumbs up or down for each song, and it only gets better and more specialized from here on out. Alternatively, you could do what Kevin Rose spent some time doing recently; create the world’s most annoying Pandora station to annoy your friends and coworkers by constantly giving a thumbs up to terrible songs and down to good ones. But you’re not that evil…are you?

Boxee now has a more robust API as well, but that probably doesn’t matter to you right now unless you are a developer. In the future, this will mean more and better content for you the user. For instance, the Pandora app I just got done talking about was built using the new API. And if you’d like to install the new PBS app, make sure you download the newest version of Boxee then do the following. Go to the App Box in the main menu, then Repositories, and add dir.boxeehq.com. Now, you can install it.

And as if Pandora wasn’t enough to satisfy your streaming radio needs, they’ve finished RadioTime. It’s an application that lets you stream over 100 thousand terrestrial radio stations from around the world. I’d say I hear the knell ringing for regular radio, but this is made possible in part by regular radio, so here I am, with my foot in my mouth.

So, if you’re a Boxee user already, be sure to update. And if you haven’t taken Boxee for a spin, then you owe it to your media loving self to at least try it out.

Product [Boxee]

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Provides: TV tuner and DVR functionality
Format: Box
Developer: Equinux
Minimum System Requirements: 1.6GHz G5 PowerPC, Mac OS X v10.4, 1GB RAM, 2GB hard disc space, built-in USB 2.0, CD-ROM drive, Internet connection (for activiation)
Processor Compatibility: Universal
Price: $129.95
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 2.9.3

If you want to watch TV on your Mac, you basically have two companies to choose between: Elgato and Equinux. I think it’s safe to say that Elgato is a little better known for this kind of software, but Equinux’s The Tube has a number of features that Elgato’s EyeTV doesn’t, including some pretty interesting iPhone functionality. And that makes it quite tempting to look at the TubeStick over the EyeTV Hybrid.

The TubeStick itself is a small USB dongle that allows your Mac to interface with cable or an antenna to watch TV. It looks like it was designed a few years back when Apple dipped everything in white iPod plastic, but it’s by no means clunky or ugly. Included along with the TubeStick is a small antenna and the software that you’ll need to get some use out of it. The antenna won’t give you the best quality of reception, but it’s certainly better than no antenna at all.

The software is called The Tube. I can’t help but thinking that they originally wanted to call it The Boob Tube, but eventually decided it was a little too risqué.  Installation is straightforward, and you’ll be required to sign into your Equinux account to register the software, which is a little odd for anything other than Equinux software.

There are a number of things I really like about The Tube. Its user interface is awesome. Unlike the white box of plastic that is The TubeStick, it is draped in a sexy, dark grey theme. To me, it feels like a pro app, which unfortunately fits the way it works as well. You can’t always easily figure out how to do everything. For instance, after you set up your episode program guide (or EPG) data, it is not automatically tied to the channels you’re watching. You’ll have to go to the preferences under EPG then Channels and apply the EPG to all of your channels. It seems like this should be automated; why wouldn’t you want to use the EPG for the channels you are going to watch? It’s also a little strange while watching TV. You can’t just flip from analog to digital channels while watching cable. This requires you to select a different source. This is not the case in EyeTV; it tells you that it’s changing from analog to digital, but you don’t have to change any sources.

As far as video quality is concerned, I’d say the TubeStick hybrid is almost as good as the EyeTV Hydrid. It could just be my eyes, but either way the difference is not that noticeable, so it’s not a reason alone to skip the TubeStick. Unfortunately, the reason that many people buy this sort of product, DVR functionality, could use some help. The EPG data is quite slim when compared with EyeTV’s TV Guide data. You can search for shows, but the depth and quality of data is just not there. I also could not find any way to automatically record all episodes (full season or more) of a particular show, or even any shows that fit a certain search criteria. That’s a problem. The playback also stutters from time to time. You could blame it on my machine, but I’m doubting that my unibody MacBook Pro is what’s the holdup here.

What The Tube will deliver to you are some unique features that you currently can’t get anywhere else. First, it’s compatible with both Mac and Windows, so if you run Boot Camp often, or are required to use a Windows machine from time to time, this could be a selling point for you. Equinux also has a number of great iPhone applications available for free on the App Store that add to the features of this package.

The first app, Live TV, can stream live TV to any iPhone on the same network as the machine with the Tube running. This would be infinitely more useful over 3G or EDGE, but still, if you want to walk around the house with a mini TV, this makes it possible. You can also start recording while you are watching, which is very handy if you’re semi busy but want to record something last minute. Like The Tube, it sometimes stutters, but it’s the only app to my knowledge that allows you to watch live TV on your iPhone, at least until the Slingbox app comes out. The other app, TubeToGo, will let you watch exported recordings on your iPhone from afar. You’ll need MobileMe, an FTP server, or a web server to store your files on to get any use out of this though. It, too, can be used to remotely schedule recordings.

The Tube definitely needs some work, but it has many other unique features that help to scoop the water out of the sinking ship. Thankfully, all of the problems I listed are software based, so I’m betting future versions of the software will be all patched up and floating. And I truly hope this turns out to be the case, because it’s good to have some competition in the market of Mac based TV tuners. In the end, the consumers win. The options you have to weigh are as follows: If you want fancy iPhone features like live TV and remote scheduling, but can deal with things like less than desirable EPG data and scheduling, go with The Tube.  If you want excellent episode program guide data and extremely trustworthy DVR capabilities, you have to get the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid.

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Apple has released iTunes 8.1, which they are claiming is “Faster, smarter, better.” The updated was expected after the announcement of the new iPod shuffle yesterday. Along with speed improvements, iTunes now defaults to the higher quality 256-Kbps AAC file format when importing CDs. Kind of ironic, really, that they increase the default file size on the heels of a shuffle release, where you need to import lower quality songs to squeeze as much music as possible into 4GBs.

From the announcement:

Now available as a free download, iTunes 8.1 loads large libraries, browses the iTunes Store, and syncs with iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV more quickly than the previous version. There’s more. iTunes now automatically imports music from your CDs as higher quality, 256-Kbps iTunes Plus files, so your music sounds even better than before.

In addition, Autofill now works with any iPod, and Party Shuffle has been redubbed “iTunes DJ.” From Software Update:

iTunes 8.1 is now faster and more responsive. You will enjoy noticeable improvements when working with large libraries, browsing the iTunes Store, preparing to sync with iPod or iPhone, and optimizing photos for syncing.

In addition, iTunes 8.1 provides many other improvements and bug fixes, including:

• Supports syncing with iPod shuffle (3rd generation).
• Allows friends to request songs for iTunes DJ (learn more).
• Adds Genius sidebar for your Movies and TV Shows
• Improves performance when downloading iTunes Plus songs.
• Provides AutoFill for manually managed iPods.
• Allows CDs to be imported at the same sound quality as iTunes Plus.
• Includes many accessibility improvements.
• Allows iTunes U and the iTunes Store to be disabled separately using Parental Controls.

For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

In addition, Front Row has been updated to v2.1.7 to improve iTunes 8.1 compatibility.

The iTunes 8.1 update is available via Software Update or at Apple’s website as a free download.

Check out Appletell’s First look: iTunes DJ.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

It was a sad day when Hulu’s advertisers decided that they needed to pull themselves from Boxee. The only ones they are really hurting are themselves (and perhaps Hulu in the process). But never fear, you have various options on how to watch Hulu, none of which involve actually going to Hulu.com.

First up is a plug-in for Front Row called Understudy. Understudy allows Front Row to stream media from Hulu and Netflix. It’s not perfect, but hey, it’s open source and a work in progress. I’ve always preferred Front Row to anything else on my Mac simply because it syncs up with iTunes to update whether or not I’ve viewed a particular podcast. And this just adds to the simplicity of using your Mac for watching streaming content on your computer. It adds another section to Front Row, and you can add various feeds of media to watch. Sadly, it doesn’t really match the type of control you get on Hulu.com yet, but in the coming months, who knows.

Next is manually adding Hulu content back into Boxee. Hulu’s advertisers will probably hate you for it, but who cares right? They deserve it, I’m sure. Lifehacker has a great tutorial showing exactly how to do this. So, if you really are missing your Hulu inside of Boxee, this is the way to go for now.

Lastly, I want to mention another application for viewing media on your Mac. It’s called Plex, and it’s pretty slick. It’s very similar to the sort of thing you’re already used to with this kind of application. The interface is beautiful, and if you’re adventurous enough to try the unstable build, you’ll be treated to some extra functionality. Plex is now incorporating plug-ins into their program as well. These allow you to watch content from various sources, including—you guessed it—Hulu. Plus, there are a few other plug-ins for sites like Rev3, YouTube and the like. Give it a try, you might just find yourself really digging this app. Just make sure you click on the version 0.7.8 beta!

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Twitter is pretty awesome—I think most of us can agree on that—but sometimes 140 characters just doesn’t cut it. Sure, you can use Twitpic to share a picture with all of your followers, which is pretty cool, but what if that’s still not cutting it for you? Good news, you can use Tweetube to share short videos with your Twitter followers.

Tweetube is one of the coolest pieces of software I’ve found for Twitter on the Mac. It allows you record a video of up to 25 seconds, add a title and description, and then blast it to your followers. I gave it a quick test and it worked great. Here, give my first Tweetube video a look.

I can really see this catching on since you can say a lot more in 25 seconds of video than you can with 140 characters. Plus, your followers get to see you or whatever it is that you are doing. I love it, and I think you will too.

I use Twitter to interact with you guys, the readers, so if you have Apple related questions or requests for articles, or just plain want to follow me, I’m twitter.com/JakeGaecke.  You can also get all the latest articles on Appletell by following twitter.com/Appletell.

Download [Tweetube for OS X]

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QuickTime Pro has long been Apple’s paid upgrade to the QuickTime media player software, unlocking some minor features in the software such as video encoding, iSight / mic recording, and the ability to save videos from the Internet. It currently costs $29.99 for either the Windows or Mac version.

The latest seeds of of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard are suggesting that Apple may in fact be eliminating the QuickTime Pro upgrade entirely. Current Snow Leopard builds reportedly have all QuickTime features fully enabled, and the “Buy QuickTime Pro” and “Registration” menu items have been removed from System Preferences and the QuickTime menu.

These changes may reflect Apple disregarding QuickTime Pro and allowing all of its features to be available for free. Apple said it would be revamping QuickTime in Snow Leopard with the introduction of “QuickTime X,” using technology from the iPhone to optimize it for playback of more modern media formats.

Product [QuickTime Pro] Via [MacRumors]

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Today, Apple officially released iLife ‘09, which includes iMovie ‘09. They also pulled their free download of iMovie HD for iLife ‘08 users. I guess it’s time to move on.

The last time Apple updated iMovie, they were met with much opposition from users over the radical redesign of the video editing tool. To keep users happy, they posted a free download of iMovie HD for all iLife ‘08 users. But it seems now that Apple is quietly saying “move on” to all of the users of the older version. If you already have iMovie HD, it will of course continue to work, but you won’t be able to download it from Apple any longer. So, if you’re holding tight to the old interface with a death grip, you’d better back it up.

Thanks to MacRumors for noticing this today.

Via [MacRumors]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Product: TV Tuner, DVR and backup functionality
Developer: Elgato
Minimum System Requirements: 512MB RAM, USB 2.0, Mac OS X v10.4.11+
Processor Compatibility: PowerPC G4, G5 or Intel Core® processor
Price: $149.95
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: EyeTV v3.1 and Hybrid 2009

The EyeTV Hybrid is a superb TV tuner that brings DVR functionality to the Mac with incredible video quality. It, together with EyeTV 3.1, allows you to watch and record live TV, set up recording schedules, and export recordings for later viewing and archiving. Elgato recently started manufacturing these units in-house, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time, as it was developed side by side with the latest update to EyeTV, bumping it to 3.1. Let’s take a look at what’s new.

There are two things that were updated recently; software and hardware. Starting with hardware, Elgato now makes the EyeTV Hybrid themselves. Is that a big deal to you? Probably not, but it’s nice to know that Elgato isn’t relying on anyone else for these in the future. I talked with the developers about the device, and they told me its reception and display quality is superior to the older version. You might recall my recent review of the last version the EyeTV Hybrid. I loved the video quality of it, and honestly, I can’t tell the difference here.  I am using cable, so I’m thinking the difference is more noticeable over the air with increased reception quality. But from my testing, the video quality is amazing (especially with digital cable), so you won’t be disappointed. An added benefit is support for FM radio…woo hooo!

On the software side of updates we’ve got EyeTV 3.1. The big switch that everyone is talking abou is TV Guide data; no longer are they relying completely on TitanTV for program information. You can still use it for a while (it will be phased out by 2011), and web scheduling currently only works with TitanTV, but you won’t want to. Yes, this means you’ll have to pay $20 every year after the first, but I think you’ll find it’s worth it.

TV Guide data makes TitanTV data look like it’s a few fries short of a happy meal.  Seriously, look at what you get with TV Guide.

• 14 days of guide date - That’s two whole weeks!
• More detailed guide data - You get richer cast, ratings and genre information. This enables the Smart Series Guide feature.
• Pictures - Because information is one thing, but pictures seal the deal (coming soon).

I originally was annoyed by the thought of non-free guide data, but after using the new data I’ve found that it’s more than worth the $20 bill next year. For instance, with TitanTV, certain channels were not identified, and often these were the digital channels. You had to manually correct this so that shows could be recorded in HD, but then you wouldn’t have full show details included with the recording. In the end, you could still get it to record, but it was a pain. Consider 3.1 your morphine drip, because the pain is gone. In my testing, TV Guide recognized all of the channels that were previously unknown. And the show details are just that…extremely detailed.

Smart Series Guides are EyeTV’s way of recording an entire season of a television show. They are marketing this as a new feature, but it’s really an old friend in disguise. Basically, what they’ve done is taken the process of creating a Smart Guide and made it easier for those who aren’t search gurus. To create a SSG, search for a show and click the Record All button after selecting a specific episode. This will record every episode of a particular show on that same channel. Alternatively, you could have done this on your own by creating a Smart Guide (an auto-updating search) with numerous search conditions.

But the feature that has me the most excited is not that well documented or marketed, and I’m not sure why. When you record a program, the commercials are automatically marked for you. Best of all, it’s actually pretty accurate. I’m not sure how it does this, but I’m glad it does. You might have to fine tune exact timings before exporting, but it will get you very close. This will save you a lot of time if you export your videos and hate the idea of wasting space with commercials.

While I was at Macworld, I had the pleasure of talking with the guys at Elgato, and they told me that EyeTV is smart enough to record two shows at the same time if you have two tuners. I honestly didn’t believe it, so I had to try it out to just to check. Now I know better; if Elgato says it’s true, it’s true. Not only can it record two shows at once, it won’t yell at you for scheduling two shows in the future if both tuners are currently attached. Both record, and it didn’t kill my machine (MacBook Pro). Actually, it didn’t even cause it to slow down. I’m amazed, I really am.

The only thing I can think of to add to the EyeTV package would be an awesome iPhone app. I’d love to be able to watch live TV and schedule recordings straight from my iPhone, and not just in my home network. I’m talking about Slingbox and DVR-like functionality. Soon, Slingbox will have an app for the iPhone that will stream live TV over WiFi, 3G and even EDGE.  I’d love to see that for EyeTV.  Actually, I’d love to see EyeTV be able to connect to remote tuners.  Let’s say you’re on a trip with your MacBook, but your Mini at home has the Hybrid connected to it.  What if EyeTV could connect over the internet and show you live TV from home?  Then I’d somehow have to find an extra “a” to tack onto its rating.

Overall, this is a fantastic update to both the Hybrid and the EyeTV software. TV Guide data is a huge asset to EyeTV that will make the viewing experience that much better, even if it isn’t free. Apple users are accustomed to paying more for quality, and I don’t think this is an exception. You really can’t ask for much more, and with Elgato, I don’t think you have to, because they’re always hard at work somehow making their products even better.

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Today, Boxee announced an update to their social media application to include support for ABC. Now it’s easier than ever to watch Lost, Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy from your Mac.

Boxee already has support for Hulu, CBS, WB and Joost. Add ABC to the mix, and what else is there? ABC is a huge addition to the Boxee lineup. Torrentfreak claims that Lost was the most pirated TV Show on Bittorent in 2008.  But that might change in 2009.  If you can watch your favorite TV shows in full HD streaming legally on the web, with the addition of a few small ads, then it’s much less likely that you’ll be forced into pirating.  If only all of these networks would put their entire catalogs on the net, then we’d really be in heaven.

If you’re a Lost fan, the first thing you’ll want to do after downloading the Boxee update is watch the Season Premiere (I’m guessing for the 3rd or 4th time now), it went live online last night. I think the addition of ABC will bring a lot of people to Boxee. I personally dislike using ABC’s web interface, so I think Boxee is going to be getting a lot more use by me very soon. Now, if I just had more time to watch TV. I, like most people, just have so much to do, I swear, I can’t do this all on my own…  Don’t forget, Scrubs is now on ABC.  Yet another reason this news is so awesome.

The update for Mac is available now, with the AppleTV update following soon.

Product [Boxee]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Elgato, creators of the EyeTV Hybrid TV Tuner Stick, has released EyeTV 3.1. This update, the first significant upgrade in over a year, introduces a new electronic programming guide for North America and the Smart Series Guide feature, which automatically records an entire season of a TV show. The update also adds parental controls and numerous other enhancements.

• Premium EPG data - EyeTV 3.1 introduces a new electronic programming guide for users in the United States and Canada: TV Guide, provided by Macrovision Solutions Corporation. The TV Guide EPG features 14 days of guide data and provides rich cast, ratings and genre information for many programs. One year of EPG service is included for new and all existing EyeTV 3 users. After that, an additional year of service is available for US$ 19.95.
• Smart Series Guides - EyeTV 3.1 enables users to automatically record an entire season of their favorite show using EyeTV’s new Smart Series Guide feature. A Smart Series Guide can be created with a single click. It monitors the EyeTV library for missed or already existing episodes of a show and will automatically record or skip repeats.
• Parental Controls - To help parents protect their children from objectionably content, EyeTV 3.1 adds support for Parental Controls. EyeTV supports US and Canadian ratings systems as well as the rating contained in DVB video streams. EyeTV supports US (TV and MPAA), Canadian, and European DVB rating systems. EyeTV’s Parental Controls also feature a whitelist to restrict access to certain channels.

Users of EyeTV 3 will be able to upgrade to v3.1 for free, as can users of EyeTV 2 who obtained their software license separately or in combination with a hardware product on or after December 1st, 2007. Other EyeTV 2 users can upgrade to EyeTV 3 at the reduced price of USD$ 39.95 (39,95 EUR, GBP 29,95).

EyeTV 3 requires a PowerPC G4, G5 or Intel Core processor, 512 MB RAM, and Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later. An internet connection is required to download Program Guide data. 720p or 1080i HD features require an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

Product [EyeTV 3.1]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video 2009-01-19T21:15:07+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/boxee-updated-and-opened/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/boxee-updated-and-opened/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, Web, iPod + iTunes, Apple TV

Boxee has been in private alpha for some time now, and I’ve been out of alpha invites for almost as long as I’ve had access to the app. If you’ve been waiting for that alpha invite, your wait is over. As we reported earlier, Boxee has now changed from private to public alpha.

Boxee is now open for all Mac, AppleTV and Ubuntu users. Windows users will have to do some waiting, as its version of the app has now gone into private alpha, though thousands of invites will be sent out weekly.

But why would Boxee stop there? As if opening the gates of Boxee to the masses wasn’t quite enough to keep everyone happy, and I’m pretty sure it would be, they’ve gone ahead and updated the program while they were at it. Features in the newest version include:

• Joost support - apparently the #1 most requested feature other than an invite. Yay Joost. Sounds like a drink to me.
• BBC iPlayer support - they’ve answered the call from all of the users in the UK to add this functionality. Doesn’t work anywhere but the UK, which is the BBC’s fault. Come on BBC, show some love!
• MTV Music support - that’s right, MTV still plays music, and now you can search for artists or songs in addition to just browsing for tracks.
• More keyboard shortcuts - they don’t really want you to browse with a keyboard, but if you like to break the rules you can Command + Tab to switch to a different program (even in full screen), Command + F to toggle full screen and Shift + Letter to jump in a list directly to that letter.
• More enhancements - now there’s support for dual screens, you can search in Hulu and the most exciting feature, there are now guidelines for developers that will result in more services being added to Boxee.

This is a great update for previous users of Boxee and a great starting point for everyone else. Congrats on the job so far, Boxee.

Product [Boxee]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, Web, iPod + iTunes, Apple TV 2009-01-12T04:41:57+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/maclabs/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/maclabs/ Section: Apple News, Conferences, Macworld, Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Software, Originals

With all the product announcements (including Apple’s yawner of a Keynote) and the noise and color of the convention floor, it’s easy to forget that MacWorld Expo is also a conference, a place for people to come and learn about the programs that make the Mac a creative tool for so many people. From multi-day panels for industry professionals to Creative Safaris for new users, there’s a range of programs, including the one I signed up for: the Maclab for Final Cut Pro Workflows.

When I signed up for the MacLabs at Macworld Expo 2009, I was excited by the possibility of spending two hours, hands-on, learning tricks and tips about how to unlock the powerful secrets of Final Cut Pro. Secrets that they didn’t want me to know! It didn’t quite work out that way. At the end of the class, I was in possession of three cool tricks that will definitely save time when I go back to editing, but a combination of technical glitches and user inexperience made me feel like I got more of a taste than a meal.

First off, let me say that the instructor obviously knew his stuff. The problem was with the format of the lab itself: two hours devoted not just to Final Cut Pro—a major program in itself—but to Motion and Soundtrack. Added into this mix of three separate professional-level applications, you have a mix of people of “all experience levels.” That was where the trouble started, because it became quickly apparent that some people needed to be taught how to import movie files and place them on the timeline, which is the most basic function of FCP. We spent half an hour (out of a two hour class) covering information that you should know if you use FCP at all. Frustrating.

Once we were past that point, the Maclab started to take off and we were shown a really cool tip: how to create reusable text templates in Motion, something I’m sure will be a major timesaver. I say we were “shown” the Motion effect however, rather literally: whomever had set up the iMacs in the room had installed the entire FCP suite…except Motion. Clearly peeved, the instructor demonstrated the process, we jotted down notes, and moved on.

Next was Soundtrack, and we moved quickly through two extremely useful tips: how to copy and paste ambient noise over a sound glitch (rather than the way to which I was familiar; using the razor tool to cut the sound out and then finagle a bit of room noise into the blank space), and how to time stretch sound in order to make it longer or shorter—without changing the pitch. Two extremely useful tips.

And that was time—two hours had flown by and we hadn’t even touched on Color or DVD menus, both of which had been mentioned in the course description. We got lucky though, as the instructor had DVDs left over from his Power Tools class containing additional training for Final Cut, and I’m anxious to dive into it, free from distractions of people who don’t know where the Timeline is, or who want to know whatever tab in Soundtrack does, even if we’re not going to be using it (anyone who’s been at any conference will know who I mean).

In the end, I got some good tutorials about FCP, and, of course, the instructor pimped his site where we could find even more. But what I wanted out of the class—a feeling for how all the programs in the studio are integrated—was lacking.

Product [FinalCut]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Apple News, Conferences, Macworld, Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Software, Originals 2009-01-08T16:17:35+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/slingplayer-and-tubestick-streaming-television-for-iphone/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/slingplayer-and-tubestick-streaming-television-for-iphone/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, Web Applications, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps

Anything you can do on your computer, you will soon be able to do a version of it on your iPhone. Or at the very least, there’s a developer trying to make that happen. While Apple wants you to buy your videos from the iTunes store, two companies—Sling Media and Equinux—are going to make it easier to record from your TV and stream the video to your iPhone and iPod touch.

Slingplayer, which I spoke about briefly, works as an internet-based remote control. You set the Slingbox (the hardware component) on your TV, and it uses LEDs to control your DVR over the internet. With an onscreen remote control, you can change channels, set up shows to record, or watch the stuff you’ve already stored, from anywhere in the world with a broadband connection.

At Macworld, they’ve been demoing their new SlingPlayer iPhone client. It works on the same principle: find a WiFi connection with enough bandwidth, and you can remote into your TV from anywhere and stream video live. You flick the screen up and down to change the channels, and since it’s WiFi based (Edge network not recommended), it works with the iPod touch.

Tubestick goes about the same issue in a different way, turning your computer into a DVR by using a USB dongle to connect to over-the-air broadcasts or a coaxial cable. Once you’ve got that set up, you can watch TV on your computer and set it to record shows. The amount of space a program takes up depends on the video quality, one hour of HD for a particular program worked out to about 3.5GB of hard disk space.

If you’re using your iPhone on the same network as your computer, you can stream live video to the iPhone and use it as a remote control to pause or change the channel. To get the video on the internet, however, you’ll have to choose the program you want to watch before hand, and upload it either to MobileMe or an FTP site. From there, the tubestick software will compress the video for the iPhone, making it easier to stream. Again, this works over a wifi network, so it’s compatible for the iPod touch.

Both of these iPhone clients are expected to be available “soon;” Sling expects to have their app ready by the end of the first quarter, and Tubestick thinks theirs will happen sooner than that. It’s all part of the dark and mysterious Apple approval process.

Products [Slingplayer, Tubestick]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, Web Applications, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps 2009-01-07T17:59:49+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/eye-fi-preparing-video-sharing-capabilities/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/eye-fi-preparing-video-sharing-capabilities/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, Web Applications, Mac + Computers, Wireless

More news from Eye-Fi. Today, they’re announcing that video upload capabilities to their wireless synchronization service will come sometime this year. Whether this will be issued as a firmware upgrade or a completely separate product is yet unknown.

The idea works basically the same as photos with Eye-Fi. In the not too distant future, you take a video with your camera that has an Eye-Fi card in it. After you take that video, you find your way to a wireless hotspot that works with Eye-Fi. The video is uploaded to Eye-Fi’s servers and automatically added to your YouTube account. The only limitations are those imposed by how long it takes to upload to your network, and how long (duration) a video can be on a service (like YouTube). Eye-Fi is committed to adding as many services as users need, and you can be sure that syncing to your computer will also be supported.

When I talked to Jef Holove, CEO of Eye-Fi, he wanted to make it very clear that Eye-Fi is a great solution since you don’t need to have a special camera; it more than likely works with the one you have. Plus, it’s pretty much automatic. They’ve always envisioned their product as a great wireless upgrade to your camera, but what was surprising to them is how many people want to use the product to at least partially eliminate a cable at home. There’s always Flickr and the like—and soon, video services like YouTube—but for many, the most exciting feature is being able to have your pictures and videos automatically uploaded to your computer without the use of a cable.

Just remember, today Eye-Fi is only announcing the future availability of this functionality, so there’s still some waiting to be done. You can expect an update on this later in 2009 when Eye-Fi announces just how this feature will be made available, whether through an update or a new product. I’m hoping for a free product update.

Via [Eye-Fi]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, Web Applications, Mac + Computers, Wireless 2009-01-07T16:35:14+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/sling-announces-sling-player-for-iphone-slingplayer-hd/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/sling-announces-sling-player-for-iphone-slingplayer-hd/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, Web Applications, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Mac + Computers, Peripherals, Software

SlingPlayer is a wondrous device that allows you to control your TV (and/or DVR) over the internet using a broadband connection, which means you can watch your TV anywhere in the world (with a fast enough connection). Using a virtual remote, you can change channels, watch shows you’ve previously recorded, and even set up new programs to record. The video quality depended a lot on the strength of the connection, but setup was easy and it worked like a charm.

Sling Media has announced they’re bringing their SlingPlayer to the iPhone, allowing users to watch their home TVs from Apple’s beloved handheld. No word yet on whether the app will work with the iPod touch, but since every other version of SlingPlayer works over a wireless connection, I don’t see why this shouldn’t.

They’ve also announced that HD streaming will be available on the Mac side for the desktop client. I’m anxious to see a demonstration of this, because the last Sling HD set (that is, the physical box that you connect to your TV/DVR) simply had HD connectors—the video stream itself was still in standard web quality.

I’ll have more on this after I meet with the company later in the week, along with a hands-on report, photos, and info on the iPod touch compatibility.

Product []

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, Web Applications, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Mac + Computers, Peripherals, Software 2009-01-06T22:04:31+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/imovie-is-moving-out...-going-to-the-cloud/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/imovie-is-moving-out...-going-to-the-cloud/ Section: Apple News, Conferences, Macworld, Rumors, Software + Apps, iLife, iWork, MobileMe, Video, Mac + Computers, Software

According to ComputerWorld’s sources, Apple is ready to update iMovie and move it to the cloud. Here’s what Seth Weintraub had to say:

I’ve heard from reliable sources that Apple will offer a significant update to iMovie at next week’s Macworld. It will largely focus on Internet video in the Cloud for the YouTube generation.

This juicy little rumor is just in time for Macworld Expo. This feature could be helpful for some movies, especially for those whose end destination is YouTube. Plus, you have the added benefit of not having to store those movie files on your computer. Files uploaded to Apple’s service would be viewable on an iPhone or iPod Touch.

Weintraub also believes that iWork is moving to the cloud to join others like Google Docs.

This is a fun rumor, but I’m not sure how useful it is. God knows I’ll be thankful if people use this before they dump their garbage on YouTube and expect me to watch it. But other than short online videos, I don’t see this being better than a desktop application. I’m always afraid of what happens when I’m not hooked to the internet. Then what? And that’s why I like my desktop applications.

Read [ComputerWorld] Via [9to5Mac]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Apple News, Conferences, Macworld, Rumors, Software + Apps, iLife, iWork, MobileMe, Video, Mac + Computers, Software 2009-01-01T16:26:30+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/boxee-to-be-open-alpha-january-8th/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/boxee-to-be-open-alpha-january-8th/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, Web

Boxee has proven itself to be one of the most popular closed alpha applications. It started as a flavor of XBMC only on the Mac. Since then, it’s made its way to the AppleTV, and has added support for Hulu and so many other online media sources. The only real problem with Boxee thus far has been its closed alpha status, but that’s about to change.

It’s understandable; since the program is still alpha, it’s not expected to work perfectly. The developers have also wanted to gradually scale their servers to handle the program. But its popularity has been bothering the developers to open it up to everyone, and that’s exactly what they are going to do on January 8th, 2009. As an added bonus, they’re working hard to mail out invites before December 25th for all non-windows users who’ve signed up for an invite. Happy holidays.

Via [BoxeeBlog]

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, Web 2008-12-24T15:50:32+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/review-british-birds-video-guide-iphone-and-ipod-touch-edition/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/review-british-birds-video-guide-iphone-and-ipod-touch-edition/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPod, iPod nano, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Features, Reviews

Provides: Video disc formatted for iPhone/iPod touch
Format: DVD
Developer: BirdGuides
Minimum Requirements: Macintosh with DVD drive, video-capable iPod, iTunes 8
Price: £48.95
Availability: Out now in the UK

Bird watching is one of the areas where the iPhone and iPod touch are generating a lot of excitement. After all, the big challenge of birding is identifying what you’re looking at by subtle marks and colors that can change not only with the season, but with the age of the bird. And, until recently, the only way to answer that definitively was by lugging around a heavy field guide against which to check your observations. Some companies, however, have developed programs for PDAs and even playlist generators for the iPod to make things easier for birders.

But now we have the iPhone, a device which combines photos (for checking identification), video (showing the bird’s actions in the environment), audio (bird calls), as well as email, phone, and web access (for keeping up to date on rare birds found in your area). A few American companies are starting to take advantage of the iPhone/iPod touch, but one place where they’re barreling ahead is the U.K., where BirdGuides has just released the British Birds Video Guide, iPhone and iPod touch Edition (BBVG).

Part of a series of DVDs and Audio releases, the BBVG consists of videos sized and formatted for the iPhone, along with narration about identifying the bird, habitats where it’s likely to be found, and other facts. The BBVG comes on a single disc, and is composed of 16 hours of video of 270 species (total size is about 8.5GB). Each bird gets its own video, and they’re organized in folders by groups: raptors, gulls, waders, game hens, etc.). The videos are formatted as Quicktime movies, so you could also play them on any device (like an iPod video, or a 4G nano) that supports them. Installing them is simply a matter of copying them into iTunes, or simply dragging them directly from the disc into your iPod.

You can use as many or as few as you like; since my iPod touch is the 8GB variety, I didn’t feel like erasing everything to make room for all the videos. Plus, the thought of scrolling through 270 videos to get to the one you wanted would give even a hard-core birder (like my wife) pause. My suggestion would be just to add the videos of birds you’re likely to see, or the ones whose identification you want to work on.

Each video begins with the bird’s name (English and Latin). You get shots of the bird perched, in flight, and in its common environment, along with a map of its breeding range (though the colors used in the map aren’t explained: perhaps its one of those things that experienced birders will understand, but I was baffled). The narrator will talk you though identifying marks of the species, but there are no illustrations or arrows to point out what he’s referring to—you’ll need to be very familiar with birder jargon like “primary feathers” and “mantle” to take full advantage of these subtle variations in identification. The narrator also explains how to differentiate a bird from one that looks similar, but you only get a direct, side-by-side comparison for some birds, or when, say, different species of gull are flocking together.

Another issue to be aware of is, of course, that this a guide to British birds, and while we in America do get some migrants crossing over, there are several we don’t, not to mention naming and other differences. I’m told that the Common Buzzard is the English version of the Red-tailed Hawk, but there are color variations that simply must be taken into account.

Still, for someone interested in British birds, this guide is a great step in the right direction. It’s not cheap, but you get an extensive library of individual videos with well-shot video detailing birds in a way that really gives you a feel for them in their everyday activities. I can easily see a serious birder using it before, during, and after a trip to enhance his/her skills, though with its use of jargon, lack of additional illustrations and cost, it’s not something I would give to a beginning birder. Here’s hoping we get an American edition soon.

Appletell Rating:

Buy British Birds Video Guide

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPod, iPod nano, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Features, Reviews 2008-12-15T02:52:27+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/appletell-review-elgatos-eyetv-hybrid/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/appletell-review-elgatos-eyetv-hybrid/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Peripherals, Features, Reviews

Provides: Hardware and software interface for watching TV on your Mac
Developer: Elgato
Minimum Requirements: PowerPC G4/G5 or Intel processor, 512MB of RAM, USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later, and an internet connection for Program Guide data
Price: $149.95
Availability: Now
Version Reviewed: 3.0.4

Elgato’s EyeTV Hybrid is a TV tuner for a Mac. With it, you can watch and record live TV, making it the perfect gift for just about any Mac user. Better yet, the newest version of this amazing device has support for Clear QAM. Translation? You can watch some HDTV cable channels on your Mac without a cable box.

Installation is a breeze. Just open the box and insert the CD into your Mac. The installer will tell you when to plug in the EyeTV Hybrid and auto-tune the TV settings. Program guide data is also automatically downloaded for your area. This whole process is really quite painless.

The EyeTV software is very well designed.  There are three main windows: the controller, the guide and the viewer itself.

The controller allows you to change channels, pause Live TV, start or stop recording etc. An Apple Remote can also control many things in EyeTV, and is extremely useful for pausing playback and skipping commercials in recorded programs.

The guide is something you’ll likely grow to love. You can search the guide for programming with a smorgasbord of options such as keywords, HDTV only, actors, years, episode number, repeat or not…suffice it to say that there are more options here than you’ll ever use.

But the guide’s true power lies in its ability to create what are called Smart Guides. These function just like Smart Playlists in iTunes, and are created by saving a search. This search is performed automatically, and it can be set to auto record the programs that fit the search. This is where having all of those options for searching really becomes useful, as just searching for a title might yield more than just the program you’re looking for.

After EyeTV is done recording, that video is placed into the Recordings section of the guide window. From here, you can watch videos, edit out commercials and export them to a format watchable on an AppleTV, iPod, iPhone, iTunes etc. Editing a video to remove commercials takes time, but it’s a great feature for videos you want to save, and is relatively easy to use. Exporting a video from EyeTV’s format (which is not watchable in any other program or device) takes even longer, which is to be expected. Export times will depend on your hardware, but even with a brand new unibody MacBook Pro exporting took a few hours for an over-an-hour long recording. I like to think of exporting as a set-it and forget-it feature. If you like, recordings can be automatically exported, though you’ll still have commercials.

Overall, the EyeTV Hybrid is nearly everything I could want in a TV Tuner, save more HD input options. The EyeTV 3 software is amazing, but is not flawless. I have experienced some signal issues. Every once and a while, EyeTV will claim that the signal coming in from my cable connection is not strong enough. I have the device connected on a powered USB hub, and I suspect this to be part of the reason why this sometimes happens. Solution? Unplug the EyeTV Hybrid and plug it back in. It sounds easy, until you either don’t notice that the signal has dropped or are away from the computer while a recording is scheduled (ie. most of the time). This will, of course, prevent EyeTV from recording. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen that often. If this concerns you more than it does me, you could plug the device directly into your Mac which may prevent this from happening completely.

Some users will also complain that the EyeTV Hybrid gets hot while recording. I don’t hold onto the device, and it really only gets mildly warm. We’re not talking fire hazard here. It’s a small device that does a lot of work, so I’m not surprised. I’m also not concerned.

The EyeTV Hybrid can be summed up it one word…amazing. It can be used in place of a TV or a DVR, making it perfect for small spaces like dorms and apartments. Its also great for those who want Tivo without monthly fees. EyeTV 3 is actually better than a Tivo, since recordings can be exported, watched elsewhere and backed-up. If you’ve never had a DVR before you’ll fall in love with this after a few short days and wonder how you ever lived without it.

I was going to give the EyeTV Hybrid a 4 out of 5 because of the signal issue, but it’s that time of year…

Appletell Rating:

Buy Elgato EyeTV Hybrid

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Peripherals, Features, Reviews 2008-12-11T23:19:42+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/boxee-updated-with-support-for-netflix-streaming-and-more/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/boxee-updated-with-support-for-netflix-streaming-and-more/ Section: Software + Apps, Third-Party, Video, Web, Web Applications, iPod + iTunes, Apple TV

The folks at boxee have update their fantastic media application to support Netflix streaming on the Mac, among other things.

The good news is that Netflix works just like you’d expect it to on the Mac. There is full support for Instant Queue, recommendations, browsing, searching and Netflix Watch Instantly.

The bad news is that Netflix is only currently supported on the Mac. The Apple TV’s processor just couldn’t handle it. But that’s not to say that future updates won’t support it, because they’re still trying.

But let’s not let Netflix claim the whole update. The newest alpha update to boxee also includes:

• Improved Hulu support
• Improved YouTube support
• Support for TheWB.com
• Support for MTV Music
• Support for the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture - it’s a photo-blog that boxee wanted to experiment with and may add similar services in the future if response is good.
• Rewritten plugins for CNN, Flickr, Picasa and Apple Movie Trailers
• Tons of bug fixes and other improvements

Overall, this is a fantastic update, well worth the download. Perhaps in a future update the Apple TV will also support Netflix. That would be awesome.

Product [boxee

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Third-Party, Video, Web, Web Applications, iPod + iTunes, Apple TV 2008-12-04T18:14:00+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/adobe-decides-not-to-exhibit-at-macworld-2009/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/adobe-decides-not-to-exhibit-at-macworld-2009/ Section: Apple News, Conferences, Macworld, Software + Apps, Design, Video, Web Applications, Mac + Computers, Software

Adobe, makers of the popular Creative Suite 4 that includes Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash, has decided to not exhibit at the Macworld 2009 Expo and Conference in January. The company did confirm, however, a full day of CS4 sessions at Macworld on January 7th, 2009.

Adobe officially shipped Creative Suite 4 in October. The new version included many updates, including GPU support.

Apple’s annual conference will be held in San Francisco from January 5th till 9th 2009. Early bird pricing for Macworld Expo was recently extended, so those planning to attend should buy tickets by December 8th to save up to $200.

Appletell will be providing coverage of Macworld 2009 Conference and Expo. Stay tuned for more information.

Via [Macworld]

Full Story » | Written by Jordan Satok for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Apple News, Conferences, Macworld, Software + Apps, Design, Video, Web Applications, Mac + Computers, Software 2008-12-03T04:17:50+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/black-friday-online-save-50-on-the-elgato-eyetv-hybrid/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/black-friday-online-save-50-on-the-elgato-eyetv-hybrid/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Desktops, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, Laptops, MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Peripherals

Here’s another reason to just stay home today. Elgato’s is offering the lowest price of the year on their award-winning hybrid TV tuner stick, the EyeTV Hybrid. Via Elgato’s website only, the EyeTV Hybrid is being sold for only $99.95 (regular price $149.95) from today through Sunday night, or while supplies last.

From the Elgato website:

EyeTV Hybrid is a highly-acclaimed Mac TV tuner that delivers stunning-quality HDTV to the high-resolution display of a Mac. And because it receives both analog and digital TV, it’s an ideal (and inexpensive) solution for the digital transition.

What’s more, EyeTV Hybrid is not just a TV; thanks to the included EyeTV 3 software, it’s also a digital video recorder (DVR) with a comprehensive Program Guide and editing capabilities. It’s a DVR that can put your television recordings on a Mac, iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV with one easy click of a button, and can export them for use in other Mac video applications. All this, in one small TV tuner stick.

Product [EyeTV Hybrid]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Desktops, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, Laptops, MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Peripherals 2008-11-28T12:56:38+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/black-friday-online-up-to-50-off-sorenson-squeeze-products/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/black-friday-online-up-to-50-off-sorenson-squeeze-products/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, Web Applications, Mac + Computers, Software

Sorenson Media apparently had a record year, and offering their thanks with an unheard of deal on any Squeeze product. From now until November 30th, users can get 33% off any new license of Squeeze 5 or 50% off any upgrade of an older version. That’s a savings of up to $200.

To order, visit the Sorenson Media web site and add any product to your cart. If you are purchasing a new, full version, enter promo code: 33THXG at checkout. If you are purchasing an upgrade from a previous version, enter promo code: UPGR50 at checkout.

Product [Sorenson Squeeze]

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, Web Applications, Mac + Computers, Software 2008-11-27T15:33:06+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/apple-releases-quicktime-7.5.7-addresses-playback-via-mini-displayport/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/apple-releases-quicktime-7.5.7-addresses-playback-via-mini-displayport/ Section: Apple News, Updates, Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Laptops, MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Peripherals, Cinema Displays

Apple has released a QuickTime update for the new MacBooks, MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. The update fixes some issues relating to playback of standard definition iTunes content.

We reported a few days ago that there are some iTunes playback issues with content from the iTunes Store on the new notebooks with displays that are not HDPC compliant, though it was not known exactly what content was protected.

This update is recommended for owners of MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro with Mini DisplayPort. The update addresses an issue where some standard definition purchases from the iTunes Store do not play on some external displays.

The update is available from the Apple downloads page or directly from Software Update. A restart is required.

Apple has yet to confirm which content from the iTunes store is protected and requires an HDCP compliant display, but this update should allow all standard definition content to be played without the HDCP requirement.

Via [Apple.com]

Full Story » | Written by Jordan Satok for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Apple News, Updates, Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Laptops, MacBook Air, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Peripherals, Cinema Displays 2008-11-26T12:08:51+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/boxee-releases-update-for-new-apple-tv-software/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/boxee-releases-update-for-new-apple-tv-software/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, Web, iPod + iTunes, Apple TV, Mac + Computers, Software

For those of you who love Boxee for your Apple TV, you’ll be delighted to hear that the Boxee team has released an update in response to the Apple TV 2.3 software update. However, this isn’t the only good news coming out of Boxee recently; they have also received $4 million investment from Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures. Obviously, Boxee is very excited about this, and plans to do some exciting things with their software that will make them “The software running tomorrow’s living room, where the Internet, social networks and TV are intertwined.”

With thousands of users, Boxee is an interface that allows users to access content from third party providers such as Hulu, CBS, and Comedy Central over the Apple TV. On top of this, Boxee supports almost all audio and video formats as well as many social networking sites like Flickr, Twitter, and Picasa. Yet the best part about this company is how they handle their customers. In a recent survey on their blog, they asked their users what they want to see come next to the Boxee software, which is a great decision for their company.

Hopefully, we’ll see more success from Boxee in the future.

Via [Distorted-Loop] Product [Boxee]

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, Web, iPod + iTunes, Apple TV, Mac + Computers, Software 2008-11-23T21:40:01+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/apple-updates-pro-apps/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/apple-updates-pro-apps/ Section: Apple News, Updates, Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Software

Apple has released an update for their Pro Studio apps. The full release notes are here, but it’s just your general “stability” update.

Pro Applications Updates improve reliability for Apple’s professional applications and are recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, and Logic Studio. Pro Applications Update 2008-04 addresses general performance issues and improves overall stability.

Applications included in the update:

Final Cut Pro 6.0.5
Compressor 3.0.5
Color 1.0.3
Shake 4.1.1

The update is available from the Software Update feature and from Apple’s suport page.

Via [Apple.com]

Full Story » | Written by Bill Stiteler for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Apple News, Updates, Software + Apps, Video, Mac + Computers, Software 2008-11-21T23:38:45+00:00 http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/new-macbooks-and-macbook-pros-require-hdcp-for-some-itunes-videos/ http://www.appletell.com/apple/comment/new-macbooks-and-macbook-pros-require-hdcp-for-some-itunes-videos/ Section: Software + Apps, Video, iPod + iTunes, iTunes, Movie Rentals, Mac + Computers, Laptops, MacBook, MacBook Pro

Some owners of the new MacBook and MacBook Pros have discovered something strange when you try to play some iTunes video content to an external display. If that display is not HDCP compliant, then iTunes will return \an error saying that a connected display is not authorized to play protected movies.

While this may seem like a minor issue, consider if you plan on playing a purchased iTunes movie through a projector. Most projectors these days still feature a VGA input for connecting a computer. These users will now be unable to play content purchased from the iTunes Store.

So far, only the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros have prompted users when attempting to play videos to non HDCP sources. It has also only been reported to happen with some videos, but an exact list has yet to be gathered.

HDCP stands for High-bandwidth Digital Copy Protection. It was developed by Intel to stop copying of protected media over digital connections such as HDMI or DisplayPort.

There has not yet been an official word from Apple regarding this issue. It may remove some of the recent momentum that the iTunes Store has accumulated, and turn more users toward Netfix Streaming service that has recently become available for mac users.

Via [ArsTechnica]

Full Story » | Written by Jordan Satok for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

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]]> Software + Apps, Video, iPod + iTunes, iTunes, Movie Rentals, Mac + Computers, Laptops, MacBook, MacBook Pro 2008-11-18T20:31:03+00:00