For the past few years, I have been creating calendars for my family using my photos and family birthdays. They've been well received and I'm constantly reminded to do a new one right around Christmas time.
Gather your dates
The tedious part of creating a calendar is gathering and documenting birthdays and anniversary's of everyone that the recipients of the calendars might want. If you are from a broken family, or are giving the calendar to multiple families, then this can be a lot of work. I find that it is best to document all of the birthdays in your address book and group each of the people into tags or groups based on what calendar they should be included in.
If you are just creating one calendar for your parents, then it is pretty simple and straight-forward.
However, if your parents have separated and have families of their own, it becomes much more complicated. You have to split the birthdays into separate groups... one for your father's family and one for your mother's family, because your father probably isn't concerned with the birthdays of your mother's side of the family and vice versa. If you have a sibling who is married, then another group of dates might be required to include their spouses family. When you account for the birthdays/anniversaries of aunts, uncles, and cousins, it adds up.
I find that it is easiest to use Google Calendar to create a separate calendar for the dates that you want on each of the calendars you are going to create. Here is a list of the Google Calendars that I have solely for creating photo calendars to give out at Christmas.
Mother - Includes her side of the family, as well as the dates of her husband's family.
Father - Includes only his side of the family.
Me - Includes everything in the Mother calendar and Father calendar.
Sister's husband's family - Includes only her husband's family dates.
My Sister - Easiest one... includes everything from all of the calendars listed above.
Choose your photos wisely!
The first year that I created calendars, I just used some of my best photos... no people at all!
Once you start adding people to photos, it complicates things. You run into the same challenge of segregating your photos based on who is in the photos. In the calendar examples above, I wouldn't want to put photos of my father in my mother's calendar. And my sister's husband's family probably wouldn't enjoy photos of my parents. Someone is bound to be offended.
If you don't want to drive yourself crazy spending countless hours sorting photos, stick to a common subject or stay away from people photos completely. One year I made a calendar of just photos of me and my sister growing up (there are some embarrassing ones in there!). And for the past two years, the calendars have been of my niece, so that is appealing to everyone! When picking photos, I just try to pick ones that don't include other family members.
Creating and ordering your calendar
Choosing a calendar service for creating and ordering your calendars is important. So far, I have used Apple, Kodak Gallery, and Shutterfly.
Apple - For Mac users it's a no brainer! Create your calendar in iPhoto and order the calendar from Apple. They have the best quality calendars of all three services I have tried, but they are also quite a bit more expensive. Calendar creation in iPhoto is a simple and seamless process. It pulls dates directly from your iCal calendar(s), and the photos directly from iPhoto. I created my calendars in Google Calendar (as described above), and then set up iCal to pull those calendars by the Google Calendar links. Sadly, I don't use a Mac anymore, and I haven't found any other calendar services that offer that level of integration with your existing data.
Kodak Gallery - I used Kodak one time. Overall, I was pleased with the quality of the calendar, but the spiral binding was too small for the calendar pages to turn. So you ended up having to force the pages to flip to the next month. Also, everything was a manual process. You have to upload your photos to the Kodak service using their proprietary photo web uploader, and you have to enter the dates manually. It was a lot of work! In the end, I chose not to use Kodak again due to the issue with the spiral binding.
Shutterfly - This is my second year using Shutterfly, and overall I like them. The overall quality is nice and the pages flip easily in the spiral binding. Unfortunately, you do have to upload your photos to the Shutterfly website using their proprietary web uploader, and you do have to manually enter all of the dates into their website. But the site maintains those dates on your account, so you only have to enter them once. Unfortunately it does not allow you to group the dates or assign tags. Pricing is nice and the calendars are very customizable. I will continue to use Shutterfly in the future unless something better comes along.
Ideal calendar solution?
What I really want to see is a company that lets me use my existing data where it currently resides. I am a Google person, so I would like to use my own Google Calendars, and my own GMail contacts, and my photos from Picasa or the Picasa Web site.
Google already has all of the functionality in place that Apple has for a fully integrated calendar service. Google just needs to add an add-on/plugin built into their Picasa application. Picasa can already pull data from my GMail contacts. I am sure it would be simple to have it input the calendar information from my Google Calendar too. Google wouldn't even need to build the integration. Calendar websites, such as Shutterfly or Kodak, could build plugins so that you could build the calendar in Picasa and then automatically upload the compiled calendar data/photos to Shutterfly or Kodak for processing.
Seems like a no-brainer, but so far nobody besides Apple has made photo calendar creation a seamless process. We'll see what happens next year.
What are your thoughts and recommendations?
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Apple. Show all posts
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Building a new PC
It's been a few years since I built my last PC. Since that time, I became a Mac user for a couple years, but now I'm ready to switch back to Windows, especially with Windows 7 coming up.
After extensive research and consideration, here are the parts that I have chosen for my PC...
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz
CPU fan: Cooler Master V8
Motherboard: EVGA X58
Video: EVGA GeForce GTX 260 SC
Memory: Corsair Dominator 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
Hard drive: 2 Seagate Barracuda 750GB SATA 300
Power supply: Corsair 850TX
CD/DVD: Samsung 22X SH-S223Q SATA
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech Wave Wireless
For the LCD, I'll use my 23" Apple Cinema Display for now. Dell has some LED displays becoming available next month which have my eye.
I keep telling myself that I'm not going to get into PC gaming again, but I'd be lieing if I said I wasn't excited to break this machine in with Diablo III whenever it's released.
Once I get the parts I'll post pictures of the build process.
After extensive research and consideration, here are the parts that I have chosen for my PC...
Case: Cooler Master HAF 932
CPU: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz
CPU fan: Cooler Master V8
Motherboard: EVGA X58
Video: EVGA GeForce GTX 260 SC
Memory: Corsair Dominator 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
Hard drive: 2 Seagate Barracuda 750GB SATA 300
Power supply: Corsair 850TX
CD/DVD: Samsung 22X SH-S223Q SATA
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech Wave Wireless
For the LCD, I'll use my 23" Apple Cinema Display for now. Dell has some LED displays becoming available next month which have my eye.
I keep telling myself that I'm not going to get into PC gaming again, but I'd be lieing if I said I wasn't excited to break this machine in with Diablo III whenever it's released.
Once I get the parts I'll post pictures of the build process.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Is Apple losing its appeal?
I made the switch from PC to a Mac Pro a little over two years ago. I wanted a taste of the simple life that I had heard so much about. I liked my Mac so much that I went fanatical about Apple products. Here are some of the Apple products that I have purchased:
GOOD COMPUTER HARDWARE
One thing I have to admit is that the Mac hardware is excellent!
The Mac Pro case is well designed and you can easily install a hard drive or memory in less than 5 minutes without even breaking out a screwdriver! I wish I could find a PC motherboard and case like this at Newegg. My only complaint about the Mac Pro system is the weight due to the all-aluminum case. This thing is a monster, weighing in at close to 45 lbs.! I had to take it down to an Apple Store one day to have WiFi installed. If you ever have to do that, bring a dolly to roll it around on.
The 23" Apple Cinema Display is a beautiful screen. It's bright and the colors are rich. It too is quite heavy. I have experienced some ghost images in the dock area, which may be burn-in. That's disappointing, and I will probably contact Apple about it soon since it is still covered under Apple Care.
NOT SO GOOD COMPUTER HARDWARE
I purchased the Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard because it had such a small profile. It lacks a number pad, which I really don't miss as much as I thought I would. Number pads are convenient if you type in a lot of numbers, but otherwise it's pretty much just wasted desk space. However, I find that I miss the deeper keys of a regular keyboard. I have gotten somewhat used to this keyboard, but I still find that I have an easier time typing on my regular Logitech keyboard at work. Also, I frequently see "Lost Connection" messages for the keyboard, although the keyboard still functions fine.
The Bluetooth Wireless Mighty Mouse takes a lot of getting used to if you've never used one. Some people swear by it... I swear at it! It doesn't feel comfortable at all. I have big hands, so that may be part of the problem, but I have to make a kind of umbrella shape with my hand to use the mouse. I have to squeeze the left and right sides of my hands together to get a grip on the sides of this skinny, low-profile mouse. My hands often feel cramped. If my hands are dry (as they often are in the winter), it makes it even harder to keep a grip on the shiny, slick surface of the mouse. The small scroll ball constantly stops working due to dust/dirt/particles that get in there with regular use. Since you can't open the mouse and remove the ball to clean it, you have to go through this ritual of turning the mosue upside down and rubbing the scroll ball around rapidly and tapping the mouse against the desk. The bottom of the mouse also gets dirty pretty quick and I am constantly scraping the dirt off.
The AirPort Extreme router is simple to set up (with a Mac). What can I say... it's a router! It only has three network ports, instead of four like most routers. Mine is one of the earlier ones, so it lacks Gigabit speeds. Unfortunately, the wireless signal was not very reliable. I ended up replacing this router with a D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router
which has worked flawlessly for me.
Apple ships iLife on every new Mac. iPhoto '06 was the probably the most significant factor towards my purchasing a Mac. I wanted something simple to use to organize my photos and fell in love with iPhoto. Great piece of software! If you like doing creative things with photos, such as calendars or photo books, iPhoto does this very well and photo calendars that I have ordered from Apple have been excellent quality. Much better quality than calendars that I have ordered from Kodak and Shutterfly.
Getting drawn into the world of Apple, I got a .Mac (later renamed MobileMe) subscription so I could have a cool @mac.com email address. But I soon realized that .Mac was complete garbage. The email contacts would not stay synced between my Mac and the online .Mac web mail. There was no online calendar to sync with the calendar on my Mac. The photo sharing site was a nightmare to navigate or tell people how to get to. And, Apple was charging about $100 per year for what other companies such as Google were giving away for free.
Then in early 2008 Apple released iLife '08 for about $79. Even though iPhoto is the only application that I use in the iLife suite, I purchased it anyway for the revolutionary upgrades to iPhoto that I had seen Steve Jobs show off at Macworld. Once I got it, I was less than impressed.
Apple just announced iLife '09 a few days ago (another $79), which does seem like an improvement over last years version, but guess what else got released a few days ago... Google Picasa for Mac! Picasa is a great photo manager just as easy to use as iPhoto... and IT'S FREE! With Picasa now available on Mac, I will no longer be forking over $80 a year to Apple for iLife.
I wanted to get more serious about photography, so I was faced with the decision to choose between Apple's Aperture 1.5 and Adobe's Lightroom 1.0. After trying them both briefly, I chose Aperture because it was a little easier to learn and it was something else with the Apple brand to buy. After only 3-4 months of using it though, I saw how more functional Adobe Lightroom was and I ended up switching to Lightroom. Aperture was a huge memory hog and chugged at any less than about 1.5 GB RAM. I have not tried Aperture 2, but I have heard good things about it. I am happy with Lightroom 2.
At the same time that Apple released iLife '08, they also released iWork '08. This was Apple's answer to Microsoft Office. They had previous versions of iWork, but they lacked a spreadsheet application to compete with Excel. With my Apple goggles on, I dove in with promises of ease of use and full compatibility with Office. It is a pretty application... I'll give it that much. But I found that Office files that I opened in iWork (and vice versa) usually did not retain the proper formatting. This is vital! If Apple wants to be a serious contender with Microsoft Office on Macs then they have to get formatting issues resolved. I ditched iWork after a couple months and went back to using Microsoft Office.
One area where Apple truly excels is their operating system. Mac OS X is an extremely solid OS, and at $129 it is at an attractive price. OS X only comes in one version too, so there's not any confusion with multiple versions such as the case with Windows Vista (4 different versions!). The downside is that software is not widely available for Mac OS X as it is with Windows, and those Windows programs that do get ported over to Mac are usually inferior to their Windows counterparts.
The good: All of these devices/services are outstanding. The hardware is built well and looks aesthetically pleasing. And the interface on each of these devices is extremely well designed and simple to use.
The bad: Apple likes to have absolute control over the services it offers. In order to use any of these devices, Apple makes it so that iTunes is the only software that you can use to sync your media to each of the devices. Apple doesn't license it's 'FairPlay' DRM to anyone else, so anything from iTunes that has DRM can only be played on an Apple device such as Apple TV, iPhone, or iPod. Apple has created this closed system that doesn't play well with outsiders. Apple has recently announced it's intent to drop DRM for the music it sells, which is definitely a welcome step in the right direction. Unfortunately if I want to upgrade my iTunes music purchases to non-DRM versions, Apple is going to charge me to do so, squeezing out even more money.
I have additional thoughts on iTunes, the iPhone, and Apple TV, but I'll save those for another day.
- Mac Pro
- Aperture (for photography)
- iWork '08
- iLife '08 upgrade
- .Mac
- Apple TV
- iPhone
- iPod
- Airport Extreme
- Bluetooth Wireless Mighty Mouse
- Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard
- 23" Apple Cinema Display
- Lots of music from iTunes
GOOD COMPUTER HARDWARE
One thing I have to admit is that the Mac hardware is excellent!The Mac Pro case is well designed and you can easily install a hard drive or memory in less than 5 minutes without even breaking out a screwdriver! I wish I could find a PC motherboard and case like this at Newegg. My only complaint about the Mac Pro system is the weight due to the all-aluminum case. This thing is a monster, weighing in at close to 45 lbs.! I had to take it down to an Apple Store one day to have WiFi installed. If you ever have to do that, bring a dolly to roll it around on.
The 23" Apple Cinema Display is a beautiful screen. It's bright and the colors are rich. It too is quite heavy. I have experienced some ghost images in the dock area, which may be burn-in. That's disappointing, and I will probably contact Apple about it soon since it is still covered under Apple Care.
NOT SO GOOD COMPUTER HARDWARE
I purchased the Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard because it had such a small profile. It lacks a number pad, which I really don't miss as much as I thought I would. Number pads are convenient if you type in a lot of numbers, but otherwise it's pretty much just wasted desk space. However, I find that I miss the deeper keys of a regular keyboard. I have gotten somewhat used to this keyboard, but I still find that I have an easier time typing on my regular Logitech keyboard at work. Also, I frequently see "Lost Connection" messages for the keyboard, although the keyboard still functions fine.The Bluetooth Wireless Mighty Mouse takes a lot of getting used to if you've never used one. Some people swear by it... I swear at it! It doesn't feel comfortable at all. I have big hands, so that may be part of the problem, but I have to make a kind of umbrella shape with my hand to use the mouse. I have to squeeze the left and right sides of my hands together to get a grip on the sides of this skinny, low-profile mouse. My hands often feel cramped. If my hands are dry (as they often are in the winter), it makes it even harder to keep a grip on the shiny, slick surface of the mouse. The small scroll ball constantly stops working due to dust/dirt/particles that get in there with regular use. Since you can't open the mouse and remove the ball to clean it, you have to go through this ritual of turning the mosue upside down and rubbing the scroll ball around rapidly and tapping the mouse against the desk. The bottom of the mouse also gets dirty pretty quick and I am constantly scraping the dirt off.
The AirPort Extreme router is simple to set up (with a Mac). What can I say... it's a router! It only has three network ports, instead of four like most routers. Mine is one of the earlier ones, so it lacks Gigabit speeds. Unfortunately, the wireless signal was not very reliable. I ended up replacing this router with a D-Link DIR-655 Extreme N Wireless Router
which has worked flawlessly for me.SOFTWARE
Now let's talk about the real reason why people switch to a Mac. The software and its ease of use.Apple ships iLife on every new Mac. iPhoto '06 was the probably the most significant factor towards my purchasing a Mac. I wanted something simple to use to organize my photos and fell in love with iPhoto. Great piece of software! If you like doing creative things with photos, such as calendars or photo books, iPhoto does this very well and photo calendars that I have ordered from Apple have been excellent quality. Much better quality than calendars that I have ordered from Kodak and Shutterfly.
Getting drawn into the world of Apple, I got a .Mac (later renamed MobileMe) subscription so I could have a cool @mac.com email address. But I soon realized that .Mac was complete garbage. The email contacts would not stay synced between my Mac and the online .Mac web mail. There was no online calendar to sync with the calendar on my Mac. The photo sharing site was a nightmare to navigate or tell people how to get to. And, Apple was charging about $100 per year for what other companies such as Google were giving away for free.
Then in early 2008 Apple released iLife '08 for about $79. Even though iPhoto is the only application that I use in the iLife suite, I purchased it anyway for the revolutionary upgrades to iPhoto that I had seen Steve Jobs show off at Macworld. Once I got it, I was less than impressed.
Apple just announced iLife '09 a few days ago (another $79), which does seem like an improvement over last years version, but guess what else got released a few days ago... Google Picasa for Mac! Picasa is a great photo manager just as easy to use as iPhoto... and IT'S FREE! With Picasa now available on Mac, I will no longer be forking over $80 a year to Apple for iLife.
I wanted to get more serious about photography, so I was faced with the decision to choose between Apple's Aperture 1.5 and Adobe's Lightroom 1.0. After trying them both briefly, I chose Aperture because it was a little easier to learn and it was something else with the Apple brand to buy. After only 3-4 months of using it though, I saw how more functional Adobe Lightroom was and I ended up switching to Lightroom. Aperture was a huge memory hog and chugged at any less than about 1.5 GB RAM. I have not tried Aperture 2, but I have heard good things about it. I am happy with Lightroom 2.
At the same time that Apple released iLife '08, they also released iWork '08. This was Apple's answer to Microsoft Office. They had previous versions of iWork, but they lacked a spreadsheet application to compete with Excel. With my Apple goggles on, I dove in with promises of ease of use and full compatibility with Office. It is a pretty application... I'll give it that much. But I found that Office files that I opened in iWork (and vice versa) usually did not retain the proper formatting. This is vital! If Apple wants to be a serious contender with Microsoft Office on Macs then they have to get formatting issues resolved. I ditched iWork after a couple months and went back to using Microsoft Office.
One area where Apple truly excels is their operating system. Mac OS X is an extremely solid OS, and at $129 it is at an attractive price. OS X only comes in one version too, so there's not any confusion with multiple versions such as the case with Windows Vista (4 different versions!). The downside is that software is not widely available for Mac OS X as it is with Windows, and those Windows programs that do get ported over to Mac are usually inferior to their Windows counterparts.
OTHER STUFF
The final Apple products that I want to mention are the iPhone, iPod (5th Gen), Apple TV, and iTunes Store.The good: All of these devices/services are outstanding. The hardware is built well and looks aesthetically pleasing. And the interface on each of these devices is extremely well designed and simple to use.
The bad: Apple likes to have absolute control over the services it offers. In order to use any of these devices, Apple makes it so that iTunes is the only software that you can use to sync your media to each of the devices. Apple doesn't license it's 'FairPlay' DRM to anyone else, so anything from iTunes that has DRM can only be played on an Apple device such as Apple TV, iPhone, or iPod. Apple has created this closed system that doesn't play well with outsiders. Apple has recently announced it's intent to drop DRM for the music it sells, which is definitely a welcome step in the right direction. Unfortunately if I want to upgrade my iTunes music purchases to non-DRM versions, Apple is going to charge me to do so, squeezing out even more money.
CONCLUSION
The smoke and mirrors of Apple is fading for me. In the next few months I think I will be building myself a new Windows PC and selling my Mac Pro. I am currenlty beta testing Windows 7, and that is leaps and bounds better than the disappointment that is Windows Vista. Even though it is still in beta, Windows 7 is solid and snappy, and feels like a retail product.I have additional thoughts on iTunes, the iPhone, and Apple TV, but I'll save those for another day.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Geotagging Photos With The 3G iPhone
In my last post, I mentioned that I hoped the GPS built-into the 3G iPhone would permit me to use the iPhone for geotagging photos. Apparently Apple already had that in mind. However, it is not clear whether this can only be done for photos taken with the iPhone's built-in camera or if you can use this feature with a real camera too.
Here's an excerpt from the 3G iPhone GPS information page:
Here's an excerpt from the 3G iPhone GPS information page:
iPhone 3G provides GPS-powered location feeds to built-in applications as well as to applications available on the App Store. Take a photo with the camera, for example, and iPhone can geotag it with GPS location information. That way, when you share photos online, friends and family can see where every snapshot was taken. And you can shop the App Store for GPS-enabled applications such as mobile friend finders or interactive city guides.
3G iPhone announced today
To no surprise, Apple announced the 3G iPhone today. I remember waiting in line for a few hours to get my iPhone the day it was released approximately one year ago today. It has easily been my favorite and most useful gadget that I have ever purchased, although I can't get a signal inside my home without running to a window on the opposite side of the house. Damn you AT&T! I had excellent reception in the same location when I had Verizon. But life's not perfect. I could get a signal repeater but it's just been a minor inconvenience. If I had to go outside to take a call then it would be a different story.
The 3G iPhone has everything that my current iPhone has PLUS the 3G speeds and built-in GPS. The 3G network speeds are nice, but the built-in GPS is what I am really looking forward to!
It will be interesting to see how the GPS can be used. Obviously, it can be utilized with the iPhone's Google Maps software. But can it be used for geotagging photos? I hope that if it is possible that someone create an iPhone program to do so. That would be worth it's weight in gold!
The only real thing that I feel is lacking now is an SD memory card slot. As it is now, there is no way to add additional memory. If you want more memory then you have to purchase a new iPhone with a higher capacity (if there even is one). That doesn't seem like a huge deal now, but once the iPhone apps are released I suspect that they can fill up the memory fast, leaving less room for your music and videos. And a file browser (sorry... that's two things).
I am disappointed that they chose plastic for the back of the case rather than aluminum used on the current iPhone. The aluminum was a draw because it can be easily recycled.
I am also interested to find out what people are to do with their perfectly good 1st gen iPhone that is being replaced. I think that Apple should create a way for iPhone owners to disable the phone features to convert their iPhone to an iPod Touch for use without phone/data service. It's basically the same equipment. I'd like to give my iPhone to my sister once I upgrade. She needs a good iPod, but has no use for an iPhone since she is locked into a contract already with another phone carrier.
The 3G iPhone will be released on July 11 and requires a 2-year contract with AT&T.
The 3G iPhone has everything that my current iPhone has PLUS the 3G speeds and built-in GPS. The 3G network speeds are nice, but the built-in GPS is what I am really looking forward to!
It will be interesting to see how the GPS can be used. Obviously, it can be utilized with the iPhone's Google Maps software. But can it be used for geotagging photos? I hope that if it is possible that someone create an iPhone program to do so. That would be worth it's weight in gold!
The only real thing that I feel is lacking now is an SD memory card slot. As it is now, there is no way to add additional memory. If you want more memory then you have to purchase a new iPhone with a higher capacity (if there even is one). That doesn't seem like a huge deal now, but once the iPhone apps are released I suspect that they can fill up the memory fast, leaving less room for your music and videos. And a file browser (sorry... that's two things).
I am disappointed that they chose plastic for the back of the case rather than aluminum used on the current iPhone. The aluminum was a draw because it can be easily recycled.
I am also interested to find out what people are to do with their perfectly good 1st gen iPhone that is being replaced. I think that Apple should create a way for iPhone owners to disable the phone features to convert their iPhone to an iPod Touch for use without phone/data service. It's basically the same equipment. I'd like to give my iPhone to my sister once I upgrade. She needs a good iPod, but has no use for an iPhone since she is locked into a contract already with another phone carrier.
The 3G iPhone will be released on July 11 and requires a 2-year contract with AT&T.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Apple TV 'Take Two' software update
It's been a while since I've posted anything. The weather has been too bad to get in some photography outings, so there just hasn't been much on the photography side.
However, today Apple released the free 'Take Two' software update for Apple TV. I can't express how pleased I am with this update! I have always enjoyed my Apple TV, but this update has turned it from a novelty to a 'must have' component for my living room.
The user interface has changed completely. Everyone knows that the big addition is the ability to rent standard and HD movies directly from the Apple TV. That's nice and all, but there are other features that really excite me.
You can now view photos from Flickr or a .Mac photo album. I use Flickr extensively, so this peaked my interest. But not only can you view your photos/albums, but you can also browse your friends photos (and their friends), and bookmark their photo stream for easy viewing. And here's the kicker... you can make any of these photo albums your Apple TV screensaver/slideshow! That is my absolute favorite feature of the 'Take Two' update. I currently have my sister's 'Recent Additions' photos from her Flickr account set as my Apple TV screen saver.
In the video settings, you can now set your Apple TV to display at 1080p! I haven't noticed this documented anywhere, but then again I have not been doing a lot of research on it either.
The line between local and streaming content has been blurred. You no longer see only what is stored on the Apple TV. You see the entire contents of your iTunes collection on your computer. Before this update, you had to navigate to a special area hidden deep in the menus just to stream items from your computer's iTunes. The process of viewing local content (stored on Apple TV) and viewing streamed content (stored on your computer) was very distinct. You had to jump through hoops to do it. Not anymore! Now it just works!
I did experience some movie preview buffering issues when I was trying it out earlier today, but I think that's just due to the increased traffic to the Apple servers as a result of the update. I'm sure that will clear up.
If you don't have an Apple TV, go to an Apple Store and try one out! I can feel confident about recommending one to my family and friends now. Overnight, the Apple TV has turned into a major contender in the media center/hub market.
However, today Apple released the free 'Take Two' software update for Apple TV. I can't express how pleased I am with this update! I have always enjoyed my Apple TV, but this update has turned it from a novelty to a 'must have' component for my living room.
The user interface has changed completely. Everyone knows that the big addition is the ability to rent standard and HD movies directly from the Apple TV. That's nice and all, but there are other features that really excite me.
You can now view photos from Flickr or a .Mac photo album. I use Flickr extensively, so this peaked my interest. But not only can you view your photos/albums, but you can also browse your friends photos (and their friends), and bookmark their photo stream for easy viewing. And here's the kicker... you can make any of these photo albums your Apple TV screensaver/slideshow! That is my absolute favorite feature of the 'Take Two' update. I currently have my sister's 'Recent Additions' photos from her Flickr account set as my Apple TV screen saver.
In the video settings, you can now set your Apple TV to display at 1080p! I haven't noticed this documented anywhere, but then again I have not been doing a lot of research on it either.
The line between local and streaming content has been blurred. You no longer see only what is stored on the Apple TV. You see the entire contents of your iTunes collection on your computer. Before this update, you had to navigate to a special area hidden deep in the menus just to stream items from your computer's iTunes. The process of viewing local content (stored on Apple TV) and viewing streamed content (stored on your computer) was very distinct. You had to jump through hoops to do it. Not anymore! Now it just works!
I did experience some movie preview buffering issues when I was trying it out earlier today, but I think that's just due to the increased traffic to the Apple servers as a result of the update. I'm sure that will clear up.
If you don't have an Apple TV, go to an Apple Store and try one out! I can feel confident about recommending one to my family and friends now. Overnight, the Apple TV has turned into a major contender in the media center/hub market.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Adobe updates Lightroom, Photoshop CS3, and Camera RAW
Adobe released a cornucopia of updates today for Lightroom, Photoshop CS3, and Adobe Camera RAW today. I have installed each of these updates on my Mac Pro OS X 10.5.1 Leopard system and haven't seen any adverse effects (knock on wood).
From the release notes:
Lightroom 1.3 includes corrections for the following issues:
Lightroom Export SDK: The Lightroom team has also released an Export SDK to allow developers to create and distribute Export Plug-ins. It includes plug-in sample code for a Flickr and FTP plug-in. This holds great potential and I am excited to see what the development community produces. The SDK can be downloaded from the Adobe Labs website.
Support for the following cameras has been added. Visit the Camera Raw page for a complete list of supported cameras.
The most significant fixes in the Photoshop 10.0.1 update include the following:
Lightroom 1.3
(Download: Mac / Win)From the release notes:
Lightroom 1.3 includes corrections for the following issues:
- Writing XMP metadata automatically has been corrected for performance issues
- Printing with the native resolution option enabled no longer sets the wrong dimension for portrait oriented images
- Prior to Camera Raw 4.3 there was the possibility that artifacts in edge transitions could be introduced through the
- Bayer demosaic and luminance noise reductions algorithms. This has been corrected.
- The Canon sRAW format and the Fuji compressed RAF formats are now supported.
- The import dialog now offers the option to render 1:1 previews as part of the import process
- The export dialog layout has been enhanced
- A Lightroom Preview Export SDK is available for developers to create and distribute Export Plug-ins. Further details
- are located on Adobe Labs
"I would still recommend not running Time Machine backup or restore operations while Lightroom is in use. I'll have more details as soon as they're available."Keep an eye on Adobe's Lightroom Insider blog for more on this topic.
Lightroom Export SDK: The Lightroom team has also released an Export SDK to allow developers to create and distribute Export Plug-ins. It includes plug-in sample code for a Flickr and FTP plug-in. This holds great potential and I am excited to see what the development community produces. The SDK can be downloaded from the Adobe Labs website.
Adobe Camera RAW 4.3
(Download: Mac / Win)Support for the following cameras has been added. Visit the Camera Raw page for a complete list of supported cameras.
- Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
- Canon PowerShot G9
- Nikon D3
- Nikon D300
- Olympus E-3
- Olympus SP-560 UZ
- Panasonic DMC-L10
Adobe Photoshop 10.0.1 update for Adobe Photoshop CS3
(Download: Mac / Win)The most significant fixes in the Photoshop 10.0.1 update include the following:
- The speed of moving objects contained within multiple layer sets has been improved.
- Converting images to CMYK using certain profiles no longer results in black files.
- The Save for Web feature now includes an option to "Include XMP" (metadata) in the settings menu within the main Save for Web interface, making the existing capability easier to access.
- When using Save For Web with "Include XMP" enabled, all XMP data is now included in the optimized file.
- Print color matching has been improved.
- Images saved as DICOM and reopened in Photoshop CS3 are no longer corrupted on PowerPC based Mac computers.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard upgrade experience
I'm a technology geek... I admit it!
And I'm the worst kind of technology geek... the early adopter type. I stood in line for hours when the iPhone launched. It was a fun social experience. However, I decided to skip the launch festivities at my local Apple Store for the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard launch. Amazon.com had it for $20 less
than Apple Store. Sure I wouldn't have it in my hands on launch day, but I'm glad I didn't because I would have popped that sucker in the computer and been at the mercy of not knowing how to fix any bumps I ran across during the upgrade.
I was kind of surprised that there were no screenshots or information about the new Leopard features during the install. It was quite boring actually. I made a phone call and watched an episode of the Colbert Report while it did its thing.
I thought it was particularly amusing how the install seemed to go quickly until it got to the '5 minutes left' mark. Once it said '5 minutes', time stood still. It was at '5 minutes' for no less than 15-20 minutes.
Once the install was complete and the system booted, it asked me to enter my Apple ID information. A message came up that there were two updates available for 'Login & Keychain Updater'. I installed the updates and let the computer reboot.
The AirPort card in my Mac Pro was no longer recognized! My computer is not anywhere near my cable modem, so I had no way to access the Internet to research the issue.
Thank god for my iPhone that I stood in line for hours to get on launch day! I loaded up the Apple Support website and found this discussion of others that were experiencing the same problem as me.
The solution that worked for me was to delete the following file:
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleAirPort2.kext
Immediately after I dragged that file to the Trash, my AirPort card was recognized and connected to my wireless network without any further action on my part.
I don't currently do any printing from Lightroom, so that was not a big concern to me. But the ability to import my photos was a huge deal! So naturally that is the first thing I did. I breathed a sigh of releif when I successfully imported some RAW photos from my CF card and some JPG files from my iPhone.
Lightroom was a little slow at first, but then it got back to its snappy self. I'm very pleased with the performance of both Lightroom and Photoshop CS3 in Leopard. Nevertheless, I will be happy when the Lightroom patch is available to address the printing module and any other Leopard compatibility issues.
The updates to Mail, iCal, Dictionary, and Address Book are enough to sell me on the upgrade, but there is so much more to this upgrade than you realize going into the upgrade.
And I'm the worst kind of technology geek... the early adopter type. I stood in line for hours when the iPhone launched. It was a fun social experience. However, I decided to skip the launch festivities at my local Apple Store for the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard launch. Amazon.com had it for $20 less
than Apple Store. Sure I wouldn't have it in my hands on launch day, but I'm glad I didn't because I would have popped that sucker in the computer and been at the mercy of not knowing how to fix any bumps I ran across during the upgrade.Good thing I waited...
My order arrived late this afternoon. I did a quick update to bring my daily SuperDuper! backup current. I can't stress how important a current backup is for anyone performing an OS upgrade. This one little thing can save you from feeling that sinking feeling in your chest when you find out that something went wrong and you lost some important files.Installation
Once that was done, I popped in the Leopard install DVD. Installation was extremely straight forward. Just insert the disc, tell it what drive to install to, and what kind of install you want to do. I did a very straight forward 'Upgrade' install.I was kind of surprised that there were no screenshots or information about the new Leopard features during the install. It was quite boring actually. I made a phone call and watched an episode of the Colbert Report while it did its thing.
I thought it was particularly amusing how the install seemed to go quickly until it got to the '5 minutes left' mark. Once it said '5 minutes', time stood still. It was at '5 minutes' for no less than 15-20 minutes.
Once the install was complete and the system booted, it asked me to enter my Apple ID information. A message came up that there were two updates available for 'Login & Keychain Updater'. I installed the updates and let the computer reboot.
Bumpy road ahead
Once my computer rebooted, that's when things went south.The AirPort card in my Mac Pro was no longer recognized! My computer is not anywhere near my cable modem, so I had no way to access the Internet to research the issue.
Thank god for my iPhone that I stood in line for hours to get on launch day! I loaded up the Apple Support website and found this discussion of others that were experiencing the same problem as me.
The solution that worked for me was to delete the following file:
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleAirPort2.kext
Immediately after I dragged that file to the Trash, my AirPort card was recognized and connected to my wireless network without any further action on my part.
No sound from speakers
The upgrade had also disabled my speakers, so all audio was coming from the Mac Pro internal speaker. This was an easy fix. Just go to System Preferences and click on 'Sound'. 'Internal Speakers' is currently selected. I just click on the 'Line Out' device and my speakers started working again. I'm listening to a live version of AC/DC "The Jack" now.Lightroom and Photoshop CS3
As I reported earlier, Adobe had already released documentation stating that Photoshop CS3 was certified for Leopard, but that Lightroom was not. After monitoring several discussions about Lightroom performance with Leopard, I already went into this with the knowledge that some people have experienced problems importing files into Lightroom and that the entire Print module didn't work at all.I don't currently do any printing from Lightroom, so that was not a big concern to me. But the ability to import my photos was a huge deal! So naturally that is the first thing I did. I breathed a sigh of releif when I successfully imported some RAW photos from my CF card and some JPG files from my iPhone.
Lightroom was a little slow at first, but then it got back to its snappy self. I'm very pleased with the performance of both Lightroom and Photoshop CS3 in Leopard. Nevertheless, I will be happy when the Lightroom patch is available to address the printing module and any other Leopard compatibility issues.
Other programs
Mail crashed once and I submitted an error report to Apple. Other than that, all of the applications that I have tried are working great. I love the fact that my iCal icon no longer tells me that it's July 17th every day. All of the programs seem a little snappier than they were in Tiger (10.4).The updates to Mail, iCal, Dictionary, and Address Book are enough to sell me on the upgrade, but there is so much more to this upgrade than you realize going into the upgrade.
Conclusion
Once I got through the AirPort card and audio crises, everything else has been smooth. I will go through and try out everything later, but tonight I wanted to hit the major ones and get a post up incase anyone else runs into the same issues that I did.
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