Life and Technology
I picked up a Hitachi 500GB 7200RPM 2.5-inch hard drive at Fry’s Electronic earlier this week. After installing and configuring the system through FireWire I finally installed the hard drive on the MacBook Pro Core Duo.
On the similar note, I really need to get a new MacBook Pro.
Well, I am re-installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard on my 15-inch MacBook Pro Core Duo. I have been running Snow Leopard Developer Beta and updating it to the current version. There might be some leftovers that might cause a little problems with some apps, primarily with Adobe Creative Suite 4.
I’ve just finished backing up all the data and now typing this. Synced all the iPhones and iPods too.
Here I go.
I installed Windows 7 Enterprise Edition RTM on my 15-inch MacBook Pro Core Duo. Everything seems to be working well initially. Most device drivers were installed by Windows 7. Boot Camp Windows Support took care of the rest of the drivers including the trackpad, iSight and keyboard drivers.
For some reasons after a few reboots, iSight driver kept crashing. At this point Apple has not officially supported Windows 7 yet.
As expected, Windows 7 prompted me to install some anti-malware software and I opted to install Microsoft Security Essentials Beta. Shortly after Windows 7 started crashing. I tried to roll back Windows 7 using System Restore, but unfortunately it failed. I tried uninstalling Microsoft Security Essentials Beta but it wouldn’t run under Safe Mode. Windows 7 always crashes unless it is in Safe Mode.
I am going re-format and install the system all over again.
On Monday May 4th, 2009 I had a remote recording session with Carlos Alazraqui and Cedric Yarbrough. Some might ask why I put Carlos before Cedric. The answer is pretty simple. Alphabetically Carlos Alazraqui comes before Cedric Yarbrough; be it by the first name or the last name.
We recorded a simple video using a Polycarbonate MacBook built-in iSight straight into iMovie ‘09. Carlos and Cedric recorded their parts while I was 40-something miles away. Yes, we were using iChat to set-up, edit and encode the video.
After the video was done I uploaded it to a server so it can be downloaded by someone in the East Coast.
That was a great use of technology.
I picked up the Mac Box Set at FedEx earlier today.
I’m installing iLife ‘09 as I’m typing this.
The Mac Box Set comes with Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6, just as I expected.
Apple is expected to release new Mac models for the next few weeks. This October would be three years to the last PowerBook G4 model released before the switch to Intel processors. The first Intel-based Macs were announced in January at MacWorld San Francisco 2006, and the first batch of MacBook Pros were shipped a month after.
We are getting close for the first Intel iMac and MacBook Pro AppleCare to expire. That would be sometimes in January/February 2009. Since its introductions, the Intel iMac has gone through one significant design. Gone are the plastic fronts, replaced with Aluminum and Glass. Meanwhile, the Macbook Pro design still borrows a lot from the Aluminum Powerbook G4. The 15-inch MacBook Pro resembles the 17″ PowerBook G4 than its 15″ counterpart.
Apple has been looking into the redesign for its Macbook and MacBook Pro line. Rumors have been circulating and loudly whispering that the next MacBook will clad Aluminum enclosures instead of Polycarbonate. If so, what would the MacBook Pro new design be?
Based on the incoherent chatters, Apple’s patent applications and many others, The new MacBook Pro would have an easily accessible hard drive bay, tapered bezel, and Intel’s new Quad-Core mobile CPU. This is the necessary upgrade that Mac users have been waiting for. A few months back, we received some unconfirmed information regarding the struggles that Apple engineers were facing with thermal issues. There is no denying that the MacBook Pros can get really hot. Thanks to the CPU, GPU, power supply and its heat-conducting Aluminum body. We will see what kind of design Apple engineers would use for the new MacBook Pro line.
Meanwhile, on the iMac front there wouldn’t be any major changes with the body design, but it will sport Intel’s Quad-Core CPU.
Mac mini might see a major redesign, since the current model is a little bit underpowered by comparisons. Apple should reconsider the “lower-end” market, and price the Mac mini more competitively. Even better if Apple would release an intermediate Mac desktop, larger than Mac mini and definitely smaller than the Mac Pro. A “consumer” Mac with upgradeable hard-drive, optical drive, etc. It will still have the same Mac core, but priced competitively with the rest of PC-market. A sub $1,000 Mac desktop that is still powerful. Apple could see a huge boost in Mac adoptions if they’d release such model.
Mac Pro models should see more powerful CPU, GPU, faster hard drive and higher capacity optical storage option. It might not see a new design anytime soon unless Apple has the need to do so.
All in all Apple must refresh their product line with some new innovations. In the time when most if not all technology pundits think that computers have reach its maturity, companies must innovate and improve their products.
I have abandoned MySpace and Facebook for a while now. Thanks to the iPhone apps, I opened a new MySpace account and got back on Facebook again.
I never thought that I’d linger around both sites, but this time it is for communication sake. There are a few people I know (Mr. Alazraqui, you’re one of them) who use MySpace as their primary communications.
Thanks to the MySpace and Facebook apps on the iPhone, I am back on these sites.
I finished recording the first part of the song and it sounded like The Police for some reasons. In addition to that it sounded like it’s from the 80’s
I don’t think the final arrangement of the song will sound like that.
I recorded the tracks using GarageBand on my MacBook Pro.
I also recorded some video of me “writing” and recording the demo.
Fake news alert (or is it not?)
According to an imaginary Apple executive employee (he claimed that he is not imaginary) that Apple has designated “late 2008″ to the next version of MacBook Pro. According to this person who is not Phil Schiller, Apple has been working on MacBook Pro for sometimes now and recently was tackling thermal and structural issues for the new design.
Based on all the lies told by the person who is definitely not Steve Jobs, the new Macbook Pro will sport quad-core Intel CPU and easily accessible hard drive.
When we asked our made-up person regarding the ultra-wide trackpad rumor, laughter ensued. The person who is for sure not Jonathan Ives assured us that we still net the area to rest our palms. Then briefly mentioned something about the improved iSight camera, whatever that means.
How sure are we about these fakes informations? We can surely say that we are not really sure if the informations are fake at all. One thing we know that our imaginary source who is not Greg Jowziak told us not to believe any rumors started by Endgadget or Gizmodo. Instead, we should learn to recognize the purposely leaked informations by Apple’s own Steve Jobs. We agree that we are now so confused, but definitely will buy the first new Late 2008 MacBook Pro as soon as it comes out and complain to/blame Apple for all the hardware bugs.
“Good news, everyone! We finally can use Panasonic HDC-SD9 and Final Cut Pro.”
UPDATE:
So far, I have not been able to import 1080p/24p clip from HDC-SD9 into iMovie correctly. I’m still looking into it. I don’t have Final Cut Express 4 to test the import.
Good news, indeed. After 6 weeks, I finally get to import 1080p/24p clip from Panasonic HDC-SD9 correctly. The audio and video are in complete sync. The remedy is none other than Perian 1.1. Previously, Perian QuickTime Component was conflicting with Final Cut Pro.
Numbers of people raised the concern regarding Panasonic HDC-SD9 compatibility with Mac OS X applications (iMovie ‘08, Final Cut Pro 6, and Final Cut Express 4). I was exploring this issue because I want to use my Panasonic HDC-SD9 in 1080p/24 mode.
I asked some Apple employees regarding this problem, and the non-answer I got is that Apple is working on camera compatibility issues. I’m hoping that Apple would update their applications to support Panasonic HDC-SD9 in particular and newer 1080p/24p camcorders in general.
On Thursday (2008.04.10), Apple released Pro Applications Update 2008-001 and brought Final Cut Pro to version 6.0.3. I was hoping that Apple would have resolved the issues with HDC-SD9 camcorder. Unfortunately, the issue persisted.
I decided to spend some times for trial-and-error in making Final Cut Pro playing nice with HDC-SD9. It was 03:00 hour, and I had an epiphany. Previously, some people were recommending ShedWorx’s VoltaicHD Converter to import AVCHD clip in Mac OS X. I went to ShedWorx’s site and read the System Requirements for the VoltaicHD Converter:
System Requirements for the VoltaicHD Converter:
- OSX 10.4 or 10.5 (Intel and PowerPC)
- QuickTime 7.3
- Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC)
- iMovie (HD or 08) or Final Cut Express/Pro
- Perian if you are using Final Cut
VoltaicHD requires Perian QuickTime Component!
I checked Perian site, and compared the version I previously had installed on my MacBook Pro. The current version 1.1 and I had version 1.0 installed on my MacBook Pro. I downloaded the latest version and installed it. This time Final Cut Pro converts the 1080p/24p clip from HDC-SD9 correctly.
I will test if I could import HDC-SD9 1080p/24p video using iMovie ‘08 and Final Cut express with Perian 1.1 installed.
NEXT:
Video sample from Panasonic HDC-SD9, 1080p/24p, audio and video in complete sync.
Note:
