News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
The quest for consistent colour rendition across all input and output devices (from your monitor to your printer, for example) has been going on since the introduction of colour to the desktop. In the late 1990s, the introduction of ColorSync, the Mac’s color-management framework, and the availability of professional-level calibration hardware and software such as the Colortron, got more people thinking about the multiple issues surrounding consistent colour across the design workflow.
Flip Phillips | Jul 30, 2009
MakeMusic has announced the release of SmartMusic 2010, the newest major release of its music learning software for band, orchestra and choir. SmartMusic 2010 runs on Mac OS X and Windows. SmartMusic costs $US30 ($A38) per year for students, $US130 ($A165) per year for educators.
Peter Cohen | Jul 29, 2009
Twitter may some day get baked into the very fabric of Mac OS X, allowing you to tweet from Safari, Mail, or even the Finder. If you want to easily tweet photos from iPhoto or Aperture in the meantime, though, Blue Crowbar Software has a couple of plugins for you.
David Chartier | Jul 29, 2009
EMC Corp. on Tuesday announced that EMC Retrospect 8.1 is now available through its distribution channels. The new release of the venerable Mac backup and archival software application adds back support for PowerPC-based Macs and also improves performance on Intel-based Macs.
Peter Cohen | Jul 29, 2009
Finally combining my love of gardening and my need to slaughter the undead, Plants vs. Zombies is a unique tower defense game from PopCap Games.
Chris Holt | Jul 28, 2009
Leopard’s Screen Sharing feature, which lets you view and control the screen of another Mac, can be quite handy, especially for performing remote tech support for family and friends. But my experience is that many people use it mainly with computers on the same local network—in the same house or office. For example, I frequently use it to peek in on my desktop Mac from my laptop.
Dan Frakes | Jul 27, 2009
Designed for release on the same day as the movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the latest in the series of adventure games based on the Happy Potter books by J.K. Rowling and their movie equivalents. Originally slated for released last Fall, both the movie and the game were delayed by several months. This extra time seems to have served the game well and makes Half-Blood Prince arguably the best of the series to date. Unfortunately, young Mr. Potter's games still fail to capture the magic and wonder of their source material.
Chris Holt | Jul 27, 2009
Apple on Friday released ProKit 5.0, an update to the software frameworks that underlies its professional software applications. The new release is available for download on Apple’s Web site or through Software Update.
Peter Cohen | Jul 27, 2009
If one were to seek a poster-child for pocket camcorders, you’d need look no further than Pure Digital’s Flip cameras. These candy bar-style camcorders epitomise point-and-shoot video with their simple operation, easy connectivity, and emphasis on sharing video across the Web.
Christopher Breen | Jul 27, 2009
For some, a roomy amount of storage space at an affordable price is top priority in a hard drive-you don’t care if a hard drive looks functional but not stylish. If this is the case, Western Digital’s My Book Mac Edition fits the bill. The My Book Mac Edition is bulky but offers faster-than-expected USB connectivity.
Chris Holt | Jul 27, 2009
Soundtrack Pro is an audio program for video editing—it is specifically geared toward solving the kinds of problems videographers routinely encounter. With Soundtrack Pro 3, Apple continues its nice-guy approach to eschewing feature bling and focusing on real-world, day-to-day productivity improvements. Soundtrack Pro 3 does this handsomely. Features like voice level matching and advanced time-stretching algorithms let you easily address common but tricky problems in editing audio for video. In addition, new multi-track editing tools and a revised File Editor yield faster and better ways to get your audio work done. Let’s take a closer look at how these features work.
Mike Curtis | Jul 24, 2009
Color 1.0 was my most eagerly anticipated component of Final Cut Studio 2, since I’d previously used its powerful progenitor, Final Touch with a $25,000 control surface. The promise of a beautiful professional color correction tool was mitigated by the myriad workflow problems of getting in and out of Final Cut Pro accurately. I used to say Color 1.0 was like a bird that was beautiful in flight, but don't try to watch it take off or land.
Mike Curtis | Jul 24, 2009
App Store developers will now be able to reach customers in 13 new countries, according to an announcement on the iPhone Developer Program news page.
