Category Archives: Apple

General articles and news on the company Apple, Inc.

Video pros feel scorned by Apple

In an Ars Technica article on Why the video pros are moving away from Apple, Jacqui Cheng writes mostly about how video professionals aren’t happy with the changes Apple made in Final Cut Pro X. Even though the changes they’re most unhappy with are similar to Apple’s abandonment of the 3.5” floppy drive and legacy connection ports with the first iMac. Changes that upset some people at the time, but that the entire computing industry is better off for.

While investigating whether Apple’s pro video market was already shrinking prior to Final Cut Pro X’s release or whether it is solely in response to that release, Jacqui uncovered some resentment towards Apple’s hardware releases. Evidentially video pros look at the huge successes Apple is having with the iPhone and iPad and feel neglected. Some of them evidentially think that Apple is putting all of their energy into releasing consumer products and they’re suffering as a result. They cited how long in the tooth the Mac Pro is getting as evidence of Apple’s inattention.

With the current iteration of the Mac Pro about to turn 18 months old—and even at the time of that update, the previous version was nearly two years old—these users are becoming increasingly jaded about Apple’s commitment to the pro market. And because Apple’s Final Cut products only work on the Mac, the Mac Pro is a big part of the equation when it comes to production houses choosing which software to use.

They’re worried that 18 months between Mac Pro revisions mean that Apple is neglecting the pro market. They feel that Apple wouldn’t let that sort of thing happen to their prized iPhone or iPad. Except Apple has. The iPhone 4 was on the market for 16 months before being replaced by the iPhone 4S.

Maybe video professionals need to reset their expectations. Set aside feelings of not being important enough. Just concentrate on who provides the best video production software for you today and who will provide the best in the future. It might be Apple.

Apple’s Magic Trackpad now does Windows

When Apple released their Magic Trackpad last month, I knew a few Windows people that were interested in it and wanted to know if it would work with Windows. I assumed someone would eventually create a third party driver for it. But, I should have known that Apple had it on their to-do list. Apple has released a Magic Trackpad update for Windows that is intended to support Mac users that are running Windows via Boot Camp. But, it’ll work with any computer running Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.

Via Matt Gemmell.

iTunes Store music is now 100% iTunes Plus

The entire iTunes Store catalog is now iTunes Plus. This means that none of the music purchased from the iTunes Store contains DRM. It also means that all of the music on the store is recorded at a higher quality.

Apple started this long, slow march with a letter from Steve Jobs titled Thoughts on Music. They updated us on the status of their efforts at Macworld in January and began accelerating their conversion to iTunes Plus then as well.

Learn more about upgrading to iTunes Plus, including what benefits may make it worth it for you.

iTunes Store adds 69¢ & $1.29 price tiers for music

At Macworld in January, Apple announced that they would be introducing three tiers of pricing to the iTunes Store. Those new pricing tiers are now active. The pricing tiers on the US iTunes Store are now 69¢, 99¢, and $1.29. The good news for modern music buyers is that out of the top ten songs on the store, only three [later in the roll-out] six of them are priced at the top tier of $1.29 – one of which is “Boom Boom Pow” by the Black Eyed Peas.

None of the top 100 songs are priced at the lower 69¢ price. Catalog items like Creedence Clearwater Revival‘s Greatest Hits do not reflect this new budget pricing tier. That album even contains a few premium tracks like “Bad Moon Rising” and “Down on the Corner.” However, the full album is priced at a very reasonable $6.99. Finding a 69¢ song on the iTunes Store is like hunting for Easter eggs. I finally found some by looking at Kraftwerk. “Numbers” is priced at 69¢ along with six other songs. Still, this change isn’t as bad as one could have imagined. At the time of this writing only 33% of the top 100 songs are priced at an elevated level and one could have easily assumed the entire 100 songs would be $1.29.

I will continue to watch the pricing levels and will report on any large scale trends that differ from what we see today.

The reduction of Apple packaging

I’ve mentioned before that one of the ways Apple is lessening their impact on the environment is through smaller packages.

Smaller packages take fewer raw materials to construct. This means less energy needs to go into harvesting those materials and producing the packaging. It also means less material needs to be recycled and less material will undoubtedly end up in landfills.

Reduced packaging also means that more units can be transported or stored in the same amount of space. Fewer plane or train miles are required to transport the computers and other devices from the manufacturing plant to the point of sale. Retail stores can stock more Macs and iPhones in the same square-footage (or less) store which puts fewer demands on real estate acreage and requires less energy for lighting, cooling, or heating.

Author and developer Jeff LaMarche just got a 17″ MacBook Pro and offers some photographic evidence of the progression of smaller and smaller packages from Apple.