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QT 7.4.1

Yesterday Apple posted QuickTime 7.4.1, which fixes the conflict with After Effects and addresses some potential security vulnerabilities. QuickTime 7.4.1 is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users is available through Software Update or by direct download. If you are downloading from the Apple site, be aware that there are different…

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Ruckus

A number of After Effects users are reporting that they’re unable to render properly after installing QuickTime 7.4. There are threads devoted to the issue on a range of boards, including the Apple Support, Adobe and Creative Cow. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. UPDATE 08 February 2008: QuickTime…

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MXO 2.1

I haven’t really written a lot about my love for the Matrox MXO, but I feel it is my duty to report how completely smitten I have become with the little box. I started playing with one just after NAB this year and my experience grading Centigrade left me astonished.…

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Engulfed

If you happened to check Software Update. today you were probably swamped with a veritable barrage of updates from Apple. There’s a comprehensive sweep across Final Cut Studio 2, iPhoto and updates to Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) to contend with. The best news is that the updates to FCS bring…

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QT 7.3

After the challenges a lot of people appeared to face with QuickTime 7.2, the newly released QuickTime 7.3 may come as blessed relief, but you’d be forgiven if you elect not to be an early adopter. The new software comes in 4 flavours based on OS, Panther, Tiger, Leopard and…

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Compatibility Update for QT

Given the concerns around the recent QuickTime 7.2 update, you may want pause for a moment and weigh your options carefully before installing the new Compatibility Update for QuickTime 7.2. The release notes, “delivers increased compatibility with iLife”, are the epitome of brevity!…

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Pro Apps Support 4.0.2

The recent Pro Application Support 4.0.2 update specifically addresses “keyboard interface reliability”. I don’t know you’ve been missing functionality in any of the Pro Apps, but I’m very pleased to report that the new software revived the “nudge” shortcuts in Motion! You can download the Pro Application Support 4.0.2 directly…

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New Forms

Earlier today Apple announced a range of new products including an impossibly slender iMac and even slimmer keyboard, as well as updates for .Mac, iLiFe and iWork, which now includes a spreadsheet application “for the rest of us” called Numbers. You can watch the QuickTime stream of the “Special Event”…

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Options

Telestream, the folks behind Fip4Mac, recently updated their Episode productline to integrate with FCS 2. For the uninitiated the purpose of Episode (which John demostrated at the last VFCPUG meeting) is to extend the encoding capabilities of Compressor—essentially it gives you access to wider range of formats and presets. The…

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Impress

Not content with a new podcast and application update, Martin Baker topped off the week with the release of Final Print 1.5. As with other applications in the Digital Heaven catalogue, the remarkably handy Final Print has a strong pedigree and demonstrates the wealth of experience held by its author.…

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Sums

One of the likely reasons we’ve not heard too much from Martin Baker in the last little while is that he’s been hard at work in in the ethereal labs of Digital Heaven. The first sign of this industrious effort is an update to the essential VideoSpace widget, a tool…

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Crossover

While those of us not situated at WWDC ‘07 wait for content ourselves with the video of the “Stevenote” to surface, one of the most intriguing announcements is the release of Safari for Windows. While it’s interesting in a general way to see Apple developing for Windows and to think…

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Essential

If you’ve already upgraded to Final Cut Pro 6 and have been concerned about the perils your preference files face on a daily basis, you need worry no more as Anders Holck Petersen has released an update to his must-have FCP Rescue utility. Earlier versions of the tool are also…

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Pro Apps Support 4.0

Yesterday Apple released Pro Application Support 4.0, which “improves general interface reliability” across the professional applications line. The update is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Aperture, Final Cut Express HD, Soundtrack, Logic Pro and Logic Express. Pro Application…

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QT 7.1.6

Apple have released an update for QuickTime. Alongside general improvements and bug fixes, version QT 7.1.6 includes support for the imminent FCS 2 (do I hear any advances on 16 May?), timecode display, and closed captioning. It also addresses the vulnerability discovered in Vancouver at the recent CanSecWest. There are…

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Together

The apparently tireless, Martin Baker has posted a report on syncVUEpro. By all accounts, the current version is an impressive little application that leverages Skype technologies to enable remote parties to review and approve media files collaboratively. Having had his head turned a while back, Martin specifically sought out the…

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Wonky

Apparently if you’ve been working with Apple Pro Apps on Panther (Mac OS X 10.3), you may experience some odd quirks of behaviour on updating to Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4). The KB document, “Pro applications on PowerPC computers may quit unexpectedly on launch or quit, or display non-customary menus…

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2007-002

Last week Apple released Security Update 2007-002, which addresses a few more of the issues posted on the “Month of Apple Bugs” web site. Specifically the new software provides remedies for flaws in Finder, iChat and the UserNotification process. The update is recommended for all users and is available in…

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Public Transport

If you’re unfamiliar with audio post, stepping from FCP to Soundtrack Pro can seem daunting, especially as there’s a whole new vocabulary of terms to learn. Fortunately Steve Martin of Ripple Training has posted a great tutorial, “Get on the Bus”, which begins to tackle this issue and effectively demonstrates…

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2007-001

I thought the end of 2006 was busy, but 2007 has me in a whirl already! That said, I’m very late in posting this, but Apple released Security Update 2007-001 towards the end of last month. This is a very important update as it fixes a vulnerability in QuickTime that…

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Songs About Rainbows

Red Giant Software, have added Magic Bullet Colorista to their line-up of popular plug-ins. There are versions for a range of host applications including FCP (5.1.2), Motion, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Avid. Though the site doesn’t mention it explicitly the FCP and Motion version of the plug-in would appear…

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Steady As She Goes

Ripple Training’s Steve Martin has great tutorial on how to use the “SmoothCam” node in Shake. The instructions are aimed at FCP editors interested in exploring the power of Apple’s high-end compositor and include a brief orientation to the application’s interface. As always Steve is the consummate guide, his explanations…

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2006-007

Not quite coinciding with the release of Casino Royale (2006), Apple have released Security Update 2006-007. The new software is recommended for all users and addresses issues across a range of components including Finder, WebKit, and Font Book amongst others. Perhaps the most notable fix is for Airport as Security…

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iTunes 7.0.2

The latest release of iTunes provides support for the upcoming second generation iPod shuffle and addresses some performance issues with found in earlier versions of the software.…

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Boot Camp 1.1.2

If you’re a dual-booter, you may like to know that Apple have released a further update to the Boot Camp beta. The new version 1.1.2 provides a number of new features including, support for recent Intel-based Macs, revised partitioning presets, the ability to install Windows XP on any internal disk,…

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FCE 3.5.1

For those of you languishing in the world of low-cost non-linear editors, you may be interested to know that Apple recently released Final Cut Express HD 3.5.1. The updated software provides improved support for Intel-based Macs.…

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In the Pan

One issue you may encounter is that Flash-generated content is no longer supported within the FCS apps once you’ve installed QuickTime 7.1.3. To regain that functionality you must enable Flash in System Preferences as described in the following document, Final Cut Studio doesn’t display or import Flash content after upgrading…

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New Life

To complement the recent update to Aperture, Apple have updated all the applications in both the iLife and iWork collections to work with features in the new software. For iLife there’s Garageband 3.0.4, iDVD 6.0.3, iMovie HD 6.0.3, iPhoto (which also includes new themes), and iWeb 1.1.2. For iWork the…

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iTunes 7.0.1

The recent iTunes 7 update raised some serious concerns within the Xsan community. It’s not yet clear whether the release of iTunes 7.0.1 resolves that particular problem, as the documentation refers only to fixes for nebulous “stability and performance issues”.…

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Pro Apps Update 2006-02

Coinciding with FCP 5.1.2 update, Apple also released Pro Applications Update 2006-02, which is available via Software Update or direct download. The new software includes a number of improvements and additions that affect the “underlying frameworks and shared components for Apple’s professional applications”. This includes, various codecs, LiveType support, components…

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Aperture 1.5

Apple released Aperture 1.5 at Photokina in Germany today. The updated application sports a range of new features including, new, “flexible” library management, improved integration with iLife and iWork, advanced colour controls, automatic metadata export, metadata and adjustment presets, an improved Loupe tool, and new edge sharpening capabilities. I haven’t…

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Pop

Apple have a new KB document, “Soundtrack Pro: Setting the correct clock source for your audio interface”, which provides step-by-step instructions to ensure that your system is configured record audio correctly. The trick is to use the Audio/MIDI Setup application and use the “Clock Source” setting that’s appropriate for your…

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Heaven Sent

The good folks at Digital Heaven appear to have been busy. Earlier this week they announced 2 new plug-ins for FCP, DHRetroTV and DHDream, as well as an update to their VideoSpace widget. If that was not enough they also posted the first episode of their new monthly “Hot Tips”…

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QuickTime 7.1.3

Following the announcements from Apple’s recent “It’s Showtime” event (more on that soon), they’ve also released a “important” update for QuickTime. QuickTime 7.1.3 features “numerous bug fixes and addresses critical security issues”. It’s also required to play the new movie downloads from the (newly christened) iTunes Store. New KB documents,…

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Bilingual

Those of you who work with Avid products will probably be interested to read the company’s recent press release about forthcoming software and support for Intel-based Macs. While some applications have already been updated, we should expect new versions of Xpress Pro and Media Composer before the end of the…

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Logic Pro 7.2.2

While I was distracted with Xsan yesterday, Apple also released updates for Logic Pro and Logic Express. Both updates provide increased support for the Mac Pro offering “increased performance through full use of the Mac Pro Quad-core architecture” and support for the “built-in audio ports”.…

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Xsan 1.4

Courtesy of Apple Poor Xsan 1.4, managed to baffle some folks last week. The update was announced and appeared to be available, but no-one had any success locating the new software! Some of the speculation about the fate of the update ended today, with the release of Xsan Filesystem 1.4…

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Boot Camp 1.1 beta

Did you opt for “virtualisation” or “dual boot”? If you chose the latter, you might be interested to know that Apple have released an updated beta version of Boot Camp. Boot Camp 1.1 beta weighs in at a (relatively) hefty 202MB and includes a number of updated, as well as…

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Sanctioned

Those of you who follow the insightful musings of Daring Fireball’s John Gruber are probably well acquainted with his quest to raise the general level of awareness about what exactly it is that we’re doing whenever we “repair permissions”. For a while now he’s steadfastly challenged the prevailing notion that…

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ExpressCard Update 1.0

Apple have released new software for the MacBook Pro. ExpressCard Update 1.0 addresses an issue that stopped systems from entering sleep when certain cards were inserted in the ExpressCard/34 slot. The download is available via Software Update or directly from Apple’s web site.…

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It's Someway Off Yet

Courtesy of Apple In addition to the new hardware announcements (the Intel-based Mac Pro and Xserve), Apple also took some time this morning to present a “sneak peek” preview of some of the features we can expect to see in the forthcoming version of Mac OS X, Leopard.* After an…

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Notable Mention

Courtesy of Imagine Products Imagine Products have crossed my radar before, with Shane Ross’ endorsement of their P2 Log application. This week Ken Stone published a review by David A. Saraceno of HD Log Gold—there are also Bronze and Silver versions. As the name suggests HD Log Gold is a…

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2006-004

Security Update 2006-004 is available through Software Update or direct download. As with other recent updates it’s available in several flavours for specific versions of Mac OS X and is recommended for all users. Details of the update are available in the KB article, “About Security Update 2006-004”, which outlines…

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Tossed

After some weeks of expectation, Telestream have released Flip4Mac WMV 2.1, a free Universal update to their application, which replaced Windows Media Player on the Mac earlier this year.…

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Expansive

Xsan admins are often required to engage with a world of curious nomenclature that can seem opaque to the uninitiated. With that in mind, the recently updated, KB article, “Adding LUNs to Xsan Volumes fails” is not for everyone! It outlines detailed procedures and offers Command Line instructions for how…

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Remit

To view MPEG-2 encoded files with QuickTime Player, you need the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is included with FCS or as a standalone purchase from Apple. The add-on enables users to, “import and play back MPEG-2 content, including both multiplexed (a.k.a. muxed, where the audio and video tracks are…

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Gather Round

If you use Compressor 1 to transcode files on a cluster, you may be interested in reading the following KB document, “Compressor 1 not compatible with Qmaster 2 (included with Shake 4.1)”, which explains that you should not install the Qmaster 2.1 on the same volume as Compressor to keep…

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QT 7.1.2

QuickTime 7.1.2 is available through Software Update or direct download. The release notes state that it addresses an issue with previewing iDVD projects and is recommended for all QT 7 users.…

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Pro Apps 2006-01

Apple have posted Pro Applications Update 2006-01, which is recommended for all users of a range of applications including, Final Cut Studio 5.1, Final Cut Pro 5.1, Motion 2.1, Soundtrack Pro 1.1, Apple Qmaster 2.1, Compressor 2.1, DVD Studio Pro 4.1, LiveType 2.1, Shake 4.1, and Final Cut Express HD…

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Rocked

Courtesy of Apple Today Apple released Shake 4.1, the new universal version they previewed at NAB. While the update was not a secret, the new price has come as a big surprise. Shake used to retail for approximately CDN$3500, the new price is, CDN$579*, which is astonishing, especially given the…

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Bottled

Shane Ross has posted an enthusiastic endorsement of Anders Holck’s new application P2 Genie, which helps to streamline P2 workflow on the Mac. It would be hard to top the triumph of the invaluable FCP Rescue 5—with which Anders successfully protected our FCP Preferences—but if Shane’s reaction is anything to…

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Barred

If you’re not sure what the terms, “letterboxing”, “pillarboxing”, or “windowboxing” refer to, then Apple has the KB article for you. The aptly named, “What are Letterboxing, Pillarboxing and Windowboxing?”, provides illustrated examples of the different ways images can be presented and suggests reasons why you’re seeing black borders or…

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Fixit

Apple have posted an update to the, “Xsan: How to repair the filesystem”, KB article. The document now includes instructions for how to use the command-line to correct such problems for Xsan versions 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3*. *Anyone considering upgrading to Xsan 1.3 may want to review Matt Geller’s recent…

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Battle Cry

Courtesy of Alsoft, Inc I’m almost embarrassed to admit this, but somehow I’ve managed to survive without DiskWarrior until this week. Of course I’d heard about it, know people who swear by it, but only today, finally, did I go out and buy my very own copy. Frankly it’s long…

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Graffiti 4.0.2

Courtesy of Boris FX Boris yesterday updated their Graffiti titling plug-in. Version 4.0.2 includes better Tiger support, integration with Red 3.0.4, and other bug fixes. I’ll confess to being somewhat ignorant about Boris products and don’t really know if there’s a contingent of you desperately waiting for this particular update?…

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Upstart

Courtesy of Pro-MPEG Forum In a recent blog post, Matt Geller offers some compelling, post-NAB thoughts on the emergence of Material eXcxhange Format (MXF) format and how it may present a credible threat to the hegemony of QuickTime. He points out that a number of major industry players have already…

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Plugged In

If you’re using an Intel-based Mac and you’re not seeing video in QuickTime, it may be because you need to update a 3rd-party component. This issue is addressed in the recently updated KB article, “Some QuickTime components may display white instead of video on Intel-based Macintosh computers”. The document suggests…

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QT 7.1.1

Yesterday Apple released an update for QuickTime. Version 7.1.1 appears to be a bug fix release that addresses conflicts with 3rd party start-up items on Intel-based Macs. UPDATE 03 June 2006: Apple have posted an accompanying KB article, “Mac OS X 10.4: Intel-based Mac startup issue after installing QuickTime 7.1”,…

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PT 7.1.1

For the audio folks out there, Digidesign have released Pro Tools LE and Pro Tools M-Powered 7.1.1 for Intel-based Macs. Unlike the software updates we’ve seen from other companies, Digidesign are not labelling these updates Universal, but rather Intel only……

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Multilingual

It’s clearly kismet that the has-to-be-cloned Graeme Nattress should review Tiger Technology’s cross-platform, MetaSAN for Ken Stone, after Matt and I began discussing SAN systems in the comments last week. I’m not familiar with this particular solution myself, but Graeme seems to like it a lot. He’s particularly impressed with…

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Making It

Courtesy of Digital Heaven The clever people at Digital Heaven have been busy. This week they released BigTime, which creates a “floating timecode display” for FCP and an update to MovieLogger, their text-based QT logging application. If that wasn’t enough, two of their Final Cut plug-ins, DHGrid and DHGuides are…

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Catch Up

Courtesy of Apple This morning Final Cut Express joined the ranks of Apple’s Universal applications. FCE HD 3.5, includes full keyframe control and Dynamic RT. It’s bundled with LiveType 2 and Soundtrack (it lives!) 1.5.…

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Deluge

Apple have posted a series of new and updated Pro App support articles: Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express: File in use error when rendering Final Cut Pro: Capture fails if more than one Ensemble audio device is connected Compressor: Error 0 when encoding from HD with less than…

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QT 7.1

Apple have released QuickTime 7.1, which includes several bug fixes as well as increased support for iLife ‘06 apps and improved H.264 performance. The update is available via Software Update or via direct download and is recommended for all users. UPDATE: Additional information about the changes in QT 7.1 has…

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Sorted

Over on his Little Frog in HiDef blog, Shane Ross is getting hot and bothered about P2 Media Manager from Imagine Products. The application is something he encountered while working the Panasonic booth at NAB. It’s designed to better facilitate logging, viewing, and organisation of P2-based media. Though it seems…

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Queasy

So I’ve dutifully downloaded Boot Camp and tomorrow I shall pay a visit to one of the friendly IT guys at work to see about getting XP installed on my MacBook Pro. Apparently they’re old hands at the process now, having imposed themselves on a system the day Apple released…

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2006-002

Apple today released a series of security updates for different versions of Mac OS X. All of the updates use the 2006-002 nomenclature, but some are specifically for Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) and there are Intel and PPC versions for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). The update address security…

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All Aboard

The truly ubiquitous Graeme Nattress has released a comprehensive set of plug-ins for Silicon Color’s Final Touch colour correction application. Mike over at HD4NDs has the lowdown, having tested beta versions of the plug-ins for Graeme.…

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Educated Fleas

Universal Binaries are the new black. It’s true, with a few notable exceptions, they appear to be all the rage, as universal versions of different applications appear on a daily basis. This week Apple released universal versions of Logic Express and Logic Pro. The former is available for CDN$35 while…

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Production Suite 1.0

Courtesy of Adobe Adobe have released their latest software bundle, Production Suite 1.0. The new package* is focused on post-production workflow and includes: Adobe After Effects 7.0 Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 Adobe Photoshop CS2 Adobe Audtion 2.0 Adobe Encore DVD 2.0 Adobe Illustrator CS2 Adobe Dynamic Link Adobe Bridge…

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Security Docs

Courtesy of AppleIf you’ve ever wondered what all those security updates were patching then wonder no more. Apple have posted a new support document, “Apple security updates”. It includes links that point to more comprehensive explanations that explain which issues were addressed by which update. The question now is are…

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