Wednesday, January 7, 2004

MacWorld 2004 was not that interesting this year unless you are into music, and once again featured the incredible shrinking north hall. I don't think it is as bad as Dan Shafer thinks: "MacWorld SF is a Klinker. I'm at MacWorld San Francisco. Day one. It took less than an hour to see the entire show floor. Most booths are offering luggage, discounted products, and old software. A few new things seem like yawners to me. It is, in a few words, small and boring." The Register wrote that "With no new product lines, or any key hardware updates (for example, to the flagging iMac line), this turned out to be the dullest Macworld keynote since Gil Amelio's notorious snoozathon seven years ago." Here are the items I thought might be of interest to the VR world: iPhoto v4 (part of iLife '04) is much faster, can handle up to 25000 photos, now supports Rendezvous, and offers a new calender view. Not clear if you will ever be able to download it for free--and iLife is priced at $49. The Apple  Image Capture application has been updated to allow you to share an attached digital camera via Rendezvous, a pretty cool idea. If you turn this kind fo sharing on, other people can see the digital camera and access its photos without the photo having to be downloaded to your Mac. iMovie version 4 offers "... editing directly in the timeline to make movie creation easier and faster. Users can select and edit multiple clips simultaneously to modify and render clips faster and more efficiently. With graphical audio waveforms and live audio scrubbing, users can find specific edit points in audio tracks, and alignment guides make it easy to precisely sync video and audio. Live video can be imported directly from an iSight[dot accent] camera to the clips panel. iMovie 4 also makes it simple to share movies over the Internet via email or web with a .Mac HomePage, and users can take movies with them when they travel with a compatible Bluetooth mobile phone or PDA." "Though the iPod mini was the most anticipated announcement, a piece of software stole the show. Popular musician John Mayer joined Jobs on stage to demonstrate GarageBand, a new Mac-only software title that allows users to compose music by plugging instruments into a Macintosh computer to record and arrange digital tracks. GarageBand also includes more than 1,000 prerecorded clips from drums, horns and other instruments that can be looped together and used to create songs," Jon Fortt reports for The Mercury News. "Mayer said he felt odd when he began demonstrating the software on a keyboard -- his instrument of choice is guitar -- but he also said using GarageBand was 'the first time I've ever heard a guitar sound like a guitar on a keyboard.' GarageBand alters the sound on its software guitar based on how quickly the user presses the keyboard's keys, providing the illusion that it's being plucked," Fortt reports. "Mayer provided the defining moment of the keynote presentation when he picked up an electric guitar and recorded a solo track as the audience looked on. The Power Mac G5 computer that assisted Mayer kept up with him, displaying graphical representations of the sounds he created during his eyes-closed performance." "After Mayer finished to wild applause, some audience members shouted for Jobs to 'Save it!' so as not to lose the performance. Jobs obliged, compressing the file and moving it into the iTunes jukebox software. GarageBand goes on sale Jan. 16, as part of Apple's $49 iLife '04 suite of software for digital music, video and photos. 'You look at an application like GarageBand -- you can't get that on another platform at any price,' said Michael Gartenberg, analyst with Jupiter Media. 'People will buy Macs on the basis of GarageBand,'" Fortt reports. I can attest to GarageBand looking like a very cool app. Macromedia Director MX 2004 was shown at the show, and provides Flash integration, interface components (like Flash has), docking, and display templates. Also, you can use JavaScript instead of Lingo; export to PC and Mac from Mac, and freeform naming of sprites. Runtime Revolution previewed new early technology, including: * Advanced Windows XP themes for your cross-platform applications * Industrial-strength data encryption * Support for SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for secure Internet connections "Final Cut Express 2, based on Final Cut Pro 4 professional video editing software, delivers powerful new features in an affordable, easy-to-use package for video editors. Fine-tuned for Mac OS X Panther, Final Cut Express 2 features RT Extreme for real-time compositing and effects, an enhanced user interface, real-time color correction tools and enhanced audio editing capabilities." REALVIZ released Stitcher v4.0 for Mac OS X, its pro-level tool for making high-quality panoramas. Version 4.0 supports Adobe's PSD file format, allowing panoramas to be exported into PSD format with a separate layer for each image enabling maximum editing control. Stitcher 4.0 now supports user-selectable compression, a 'Best Rendering' option, interactive QuickTime VR previews, and an improved interface with workflow enhancements. IQTVRA held a "Spin-O-Rama" where anyone, regardless of their experience, can try out the latest VR gear from Kaidan, Kodak, and iPIX, without spending any money. Kaidan announced PiXiMation, for making 3-D rotational object movies with a free-spinning turntable like a lazy susan, that adjusts for erratic movement. Output options include QuickTime VR object movies, or individual still image files. Nikon today announced its next generation of Coolscan desktop film scanners -- the Coolscan V ED, Super Coolscan 5000 ED and the Super Coolscan 9000 ED. The new film scanners offer 4000 dpi resolution, higher optical density ranges, Firewire and USB 2.0, Applied Science Fiction's Digital ICE4 Advanced technology, ED (Extra-low Dispersion) lenses, and more. Apple has released a technology preview of Xgrid, which makes multiple Macs into a supercomputing cluster. Comment: OK, great -- how can I use it to distribute stitching of panoramas across 10 Macs? Maybe Apple needs to update QTVRAS first. And in other news, the New York Times has an article on ... Powerpoint makes you Dumb "In August, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board at NASA released Volume 1 of its report on why the space shuttle crashed. As expected, the ship's foam insulation was the main cause of the disaster. But the board also fingered another unusual culprit: PowerPoint, Microsoft's well-known ''slideware'' ... " 7:30:00 AM

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