Apple releases iPhoto 8.0.1 update.
About iPhoto 8.0.1 Update | 11.9MB
This update improves overall stability and addresses minor issues in a number of areas, including internet connectivity, keyword import, and slideshow export.
Apple Updates AirPort Software
Apple release updates to AirPort Utility for Mac OS X and Windows, and Airport Client software for Mac OS X.
AirPort Client Update 2009-001 | 2MB
AirPort Utility 5.4.1 for Mac OS X | 17.40MB
AirPort Utility 5.4.1 for Windows OS | 10.92MB
Apple releases new iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro and Time Capsule.
Apple releases new iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro and Time Capsule on Tuesday morning. It seems that Apple has been “letting” their guard down when it comes to their product launch.
iMac
The new iMac line sports new chipset, DDR3 Memory and Mini DisplayPort. The 20-inch and lower-end 24-inch model are sporting nVidia Geforce 9400M with 256MB DDR3 SDRAM shared with the main memory. The mid-range and higher-end 24-inch iMac are sporting nVidia Geforce GT 120 (256MB GDDR3) and nVidia GT 130 (512MB GDDR3) respectively. Radeon HD 4850 with 512MB GDDR3 memory is available as configure-to-order option on the mid-range and higher-end 24-inch iMac. All iMac can accommodate up to 8GB of DDR3 SDRAM.
Apple iMac Technical Specifications.
Mac mini
The new Mac mini comes with nVidia GeForce 9400M chipset, one Mini DisplayPort, one Mini-DVI port, one FireWire 800 port and five USB 2.0 port. In addition to that, the new Mac mini supports up to 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM. Mac mini comes in two base models with the difference of graphics processor memory, system memory and hard-drive capacity.
http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
Mac Pro
New Mac Pro are armed with Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem” Processor, maximum of 32GB DDR3 SDRAM and Mini DisplayPort alongside dual-link DVI port.
http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html
Time Capsule
The new Time Capsule gains a slight but significant upgrade, simultaneous dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) 802.11n Wi-Fi operation.
Safari 4 Scores 100 in Acid3 Test
Following the WebKit development, Apple’s Safari 4 Public Beta scores 100 in Acid3 Test.
Safari 4 Public Beta is available at http://www.apple.com/safari/.
WebKit is available at http://webkit.org/.
Safari 4 and WebKit are available for Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard) and Windows (XP and Vista).
Apple Releases Safari 4 Public Beta
Apple releases Safari 4 Public Beta today. It is available for Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard) and Windows (XP and Vista).
Safari 4 Public Beta includes Nitro engine and slew of new features such as Top Sites, Full History Search, Cover Flow, and Tabs on Top.
Check out the new Safari Welcome Page (Safari 4 Public Beta or the latest WebKit is required to make this page work.)
Get it from http://www.apple.com/safari/
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WebKit, the Open Source counterpart of Safari is available from WebKit.org.
Final Cut Pro, HDV and PowerBook G4
Take a PowerBook G4 1.67GHz, Canon Vixia HV30, Final Cut Pro 6.x and a few hours to spare. Capturing HDV clips is still possible to do on a 3-plus year old PowerBook G4. Well, an external FireWire 800 hard drive was also included in the work-flow.
MacBook Pro are much more powerful compared to any PowerBook G4, but it doesn’t make them completely obsolete. Consider that MacBook Pro has ExpressCard slot built-in and PowerBook G4 (15-inch and 17-inch models) have PC Card slot built-in. Many professional DVCPRO HD camcorders are using P2 Cards. An adapter is needed to import the content of those P2 Cards to a MacBook Pro as opposed to a PowerBook G4.
It has been 3 something years since the last 15-inch PowerBook G4 was released. It still is a great computer even though it’s lacking the proper ability to handle playback for higher definition videos. It still can import HDV movies just fine with a proper set-up.
Panasonic HDC-SD100: Raw AVCHD Sample
Panasonic HDC-SD100 is the third Panasonic AVCHD Camcorder that I use. The first one is Panasonic HDC-SD5 and followed by Panasonic HDC-SD9.
I am really impressed with the video quality of HDC-SD5 while I have mixed results with HDC-SD9. It is possible that I have a defective unit, and I did send it back to Panasonic for evaluation and repair. Unfortunately nothing has changed since.
My HDC-SD9 unit has a really poor low light performance even compared to the HDC-SD5 unit. I am hoping that HDC-SD100 would perform better than HDC-SD9 under the same lighting.
I tested Panasonic HDC-SD100 in-store, and recorded two videos on two different settings. The first one is recorded in 24p Digital Cinema Mode while the other is recorded in 60i mode. You can download the disk images below. Both disk images are in .iso format and zipped/compressed to save some disk space and bandwidth.
- Panasonic HDC-SD100 Raw AVCHD disk image recorded in 24p mode (58.9MB)
- Panasonic HDC-SD100 Raw AVCHD disk image recorded in 60i mode (58.0MB)
As of the date of this posting, iMovie ’09 will not import 24p AVCHD video from the camcorder or the disk.
I will be posting more videos recorded using Panasonic HDC-SD100 and some of the Raw AVCHD files.