Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Apple Releases Aperture 2

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Major Upgrade Features Improved Interface, Faster Browsing & Enhanced Image Processing

CUPERTINO, California—February 12, 2008—Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 2, the next major release of its groundbreaking photo editing and management software with over 100 new features that make it faster, easier to use and more powerful. With a streamlined user interface and entirely new image processing engine, Aperture 2 also introduces new imaging tools for highlight recovery, color vibrancy, local contrast definition, soft-edged retouching, vignetting and RAW fine-tuning, and lets users directly post their portfolios on the .Mac Web Gallery* for viewing on the web, iPhone™, iPod® touch and Apple TV®. At a new low price of $199, anyone can easily organize, edit and publish photos like a pro.

“Many of the most respected photographers on assignment all over the world trust Aperture to organize, edit and deliver their images,” said Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Product Marketing. “With its simpler interface and lower price, anyone can take full advantage of Aperture’s power.”

“At the end of the day, it’s all about the quality of the image,” said Sports Illustrated contributing photographer David Bergman. “Even before I begin making adjustments, Aperture’s new RAW processing gives me better images with more visible detail and better color rendering than any other program I’ve tested.”

“I used to have so much stress about post-production on a shoot, having to juggle multiple applications to make sure they all worked,” said Bob Davis, PDN Top Knots Wedding Photographer 2007. “With Aperture that’s no longer a factor. I can do everything all in one application.”

Featuring a new, easier user interface designed to be more intuitive and accessible, Aperture 2 now lets users navigate between Viewer and Browser modes with a single key command. Screen real estate is maximized for images with an all-in-one heads up display that allows users to toggle between library, metadata and adjustment controls in a single tabbed inspector. The All Projects view, modeled after iPhoto’s Events view, provides a poster photo for every project and the ability to quickly skim through the photos inside, and the integrated iPhoto® Browser offers direct access to all the events and images in the iPhoto library.

Performance has been enhanced in Aperture 2 so it’s faster to import, browse and search large volumes of images. Embedded previews let photographers caption, keyword and rate images as they are being imported, and with the ability to export images in the background, photographers can continue working while images are processed to JPEG, TIFF, PNG and PSD file formats. Quick Preview allows users to browse RAW images in rapid succession without having to wait for files to load, and the Aperture library database has been re-architected to provide fast project switching and near instantaneous search results, even when working with extremely large libraries of 500,000 images or more.

Aperture 2 delivers powerful new imaging tools for getting the most out of each photograph. Apple’s next-generation RAW image processing is at the core of Aperture 2 offering uncompromising image quality and precision controls that let users fine-tune the image profile for each of their cameras. New tools for improving and enhancing images include Recovery for pulling back “blown” highlights, Vibrancy for selectively boosting saturation without adversely affecting skin tones, Definition, which offers local contrast for adding clarity to images, Vignette & Devignette filters for providing professional visual effects and a true soft-edged Repair and Retouch brush for quickly and easily removing blemishes, cleaning up sensor dust and cloning away problem areas.

Aperture 2 works seamlessly with Mac OS® X, iLife®, iWork™, .Mac and Apple print products, so any image in the Aperture library can be accessed directly from within other applications, such as iMovie®, Keynote® and Pages®, and even from within Leopard™ Mail. Now with .Mac Web Gallery support, Aperture users can publish their photos once to view them on the web, iPhone, iPod touch and Apple TV. Books in Aperture 2 feature new theme designs, layout tools, customized dust jackets (including full-bleed) and foil stamped covers.

Pricing & Availability
Aperture 2 is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Owners of previous versions of Aperture can upgrade to Aperture 2 for just $99 (US). Full system requirements and more information on Aperture 2 can be found at www.apple.com/aperture.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5.2 Update

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Apple on Monday afternoon released Mac OS X 10.5.2, the second maintenance and security update to its relatively new Leopard operating system that delivers a plethora of improvements for both PowerPC- and Intel-based Macs.

As of press time, the update was available solely via the Mac OS X Software Update mechanism accessible from under the Apple menu. Once the 10.5.2 Update is applied, Software Update will then offer to download an install a separate graphics driver updated labeled "Leopard Graphics Update."A list of bug fixes and enhancements delivered with the 10.5.2 update are as follows:

Active Directory
Addresses issues which could hinder or prevent binding Mac OS X 10.5.x clients to Active Directory domains.

AirPort
Improves connection reliability and stability.
Includes 802.1X improvements.
Resolves certain kernel panics.

Back to my Mac
Adds support for more third-party routers, as detailed in this article.

Dashboard
Improves performance of certain Apple Dashboard widgets (such as Dictionary)
Addresses an issue in which Dashboard widgets may no longer be accessible after switching to or from an account that has Parental Controls enabled.

Dock
Updates Stacks with a List view option, a Folder view option, and an updated background for Grid view.

Desktop
Addresses legibility issues with the menu bar with an option to turn off transparency in Desktop & Screen Saver preferences.
Adjusts menus to be slightly-less translucent overall.

iCal
Improves iCal so that it accurately reflects responses to recurring meetings.
Addresses an issue in which a meeting may remain on the calendar after being canceled
Addresses stability issues related to .Mac syncing of iCal calendars.
Resolves an intermittent issue in which editing an event with attendees would cause the event to shrink and not register that the event was updated.

iChat
Addresses an issue with simultaneously-logged in accounts in which iChat sounds generated from one account might be heard in another account.
Fixes an issue in which iChat idle time is affected by Time Machine backups.
Improves connectivity when running iChat behind a router that doesn’t preserve ports
Enables logged chats from previous versions of iChat to open faster and more reliably
Addresses an issue with text chats in which users may be unable to receive messages from the sender.
Addresses an issue that may prevent rejoining an AIM chat room without reopening iChat
Addresses video chat compatibility issues with AIM 6 and third-party routers.
Fixes an issue with case-sensitivity of AIM handles.

iSync
Adds support for Samsung D600E and D900i phones.

Finder
Addresses an issue in which Finder could unexpectedly quit when displaying folder contents in Column view.
Addresses an issue in which Finder could unexpectedly quit when accessing Users and Groups in a Get Info pane.
Resolves an issue that prevented setting permissions on a folder alias.
Resolves an issue in which the Eject command could write to a disc in the optical drive.
Fixes an issue in which the scroll bar might disappear when deleting a file within a folder that includes files that are out of view.
Fixes an issue in the Sharing & Permissions section of Get Info windows, in which the gear icon appears to be gray/disabled after authentication.
Addresses an issue in which the Show Icon Preview preference might not be not saved when turning it off.
Fixes an issue that could occur when trying to print an image from the Finder.

Mail
Addresses an issue with Message menu's Mark > As Read choice.
Fixes an issue in which duplicate On My Mac folders may appear in the sidebar after upgrading to Leopard.
Improves the accuracy of the Data Detectors feature.
Resolves an issue with scrolling through a Note that is displayed using the split view in the message window.
Fixes an issue with deleting messages located in the Drafts folder.
Fixes an issue in which dragging the icon in the Safari URL field into a Mail message creates an attachment instead of a link.
Addresses an issue found when opening a item in the Notes folder that is not a Note
Fixes an issue that may prevent RSS feeds from being delivered in Mail.
Resolves an issue in which a selected message could "flash" from blue to gray when in Organize by Thread mode.
Fixes an issue with scrolling between multiple To Dos in an email message.
Fixes an issue in which the body of email messages with certain MIME structures may not be displayed.
Improves performance with America Online (AOL) account-based messages in Mail.
Addresses issues with some ISPs during automatic set-up in Mail.
Addresses an issue in which Mail might not send mail on some networks to some SMTP servers.
Mail now automatically disables the (unsupported) third-party plugin GrowlMail version 1.1.2 or earlier to avoid issues.
Adds an option to view large icons in the Mailbox list.

Networking
Addresses a hanging issue that may occur when connecting to an AFP network volume.

Parental Controls
Improves stability when opening the Parental Controls System Preferences pane.
Fixes an issue that may prevent changes to the email address for permission requests.
Addresses an issue with printer administration for a guest account enabled with Parental Controls.
Addresses an issue with setting printer administration privileges from another Mac on the local network.
Fixes an issue that could prevent certain applications from being allowed.
Addresses accuracy issues with the web content filter.

Preview
Improves stability when scrolling through a PDF document.
Fixes an issue that prevents tabbing within a PDF document after clicking on the PDF.
Improves the Mail Document feature so that email attachments are more reliably created from Print Preview.

Printing
Addresses an issue in which remote printers may be deleted when the computer is put to sleep.
Improves printing performance when using some Microsoft Office applications.
Resolves an issue with some printing options, such as landscape orientation, number of copies, two-sided printing, and so forth that may not have functioned with some printers shared by Microsoft Windows.
Adds support for certain printers connected to the USB port of an AirPort Extreme or AirPort Express base station.
Resolves a stalling issue that could occur when installing certain Canon printing software from a disc.

RAW Image
Adds RAW image support for several cameras, as detailed in this article.

Safari
Addresses issues with Safari reliably resolving certain domains.

Login and Setup Assistant
Addresses an issue in which Setup Assistant could unexpectedly appear each time Mac OS X 10.5 starts up.
Improves stability and performance during log in.

System
Improves the accuracy of the grammar checker.
The computer will now shut down if an automatic disk repair does not succeed during startup.

Time Machine
Adds a menu bar option for accessing Time Machine features (the menu extra can be enabled in Time Machine preferences).
Improves backup reliability when computer name contains slash or non-ASCII characters.
Fixes an issue in which the backup disk displayed in the Finder may be out of sync with the disk chosen for Time Machine.
Addresses issues in which some external drives are not recognized by Time Machine.
The status menu now appears by default.

Other
Improves general stability when running third-party applications.
Addresses an issue in which the incorrect search results may be displayed for certain Automator Find/Filter actions.
Addresses an issue with the Latvian and Russian keyboard layouts.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Apple launches 16GB iPhone, 32GB iPod touch

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(310) 891-6820 x101 or email vicblog@orly.com

Apple today doubled the capacity of its touchscreen media devices, releasing both a 16GB iPhone as well as a 32GB variant of the iPod touch. The new capacities allow fewer sacrifices for owners who want to carry as much media as possible. "For some users, there's never enough memory," Apple Worldwide iPod and iPhone Product Marketing VP Greg Joswiak says. On the iPod touch, the new storage level allows as many as 7,000 songs or 40 hours of nonstop video; the iPhone now holds half as much in exchange for its cellular functions, which remain unchanged from the original 8GB model.
Both capacities act as supersets of the existing capacities, which remain available; both the 16GB iPhone and the 32GB iPod touch sell for $499 and are ready to order immediately from the online Apple Store.