Apple Finally Releases Aperture 3

post from TheAppleBlog on 09 February 2010 10:30:00 AM. © TheAppleBlog

A month ago I vented about Aperture 2’s stagnation, and many of you rallied along with me. Well everyone can stow their torches and pitchforks — Aperture 3 has finally been released today by Apple. With over 200 new features, the latest version of Apple’s professional photo processing and organization software should have something to please everyone.

The fairly obvious improvements like Faces, Places, and 64-bit architecture (for Snow Leopard users with Core 2 Duo Processors) are there of course. But there are so many cool new features — I won’t touch on all of them here — I had to mention a few.

Backup on Import Smart & necessary!
Automatically back up your master images to a second drive during import, freeing you from the need to perform a separate, manual backup.
Color Labels
Apply up to eight different color-coded labels to images to organize and group them. Add a custom name for each color label in Aperture preferences. Simple keyboard shortcuts allow you to apply labels using the keyboard.
Fast Library Switching
Close one Aperture library and open another on the fly by selecting the desired library from the Switch to Library submenu ? no need to quit and restart Aperture.
Focus Points
Hover over the Focus Points button in the Camera Info pane to see the focus points used by your camera to autofocus the image. You can also click the button to turn the display of focus points on or off.
Nondestructive Brushes YES!!!!
Make nondestructive image enhancements to specific areas of any photo using new adjustment brushes. Use brush strokes to modify ? brush in or brush away ? most of the standard image adjustments available in the Adjustments inspector. You can control the size, softness, and strength of each brush with intuitive sliders.
Create Multiple Instances of Adjustments
Apply multiple adjustments of a single type to different parts of an image by creating multiple adjustment bricks for each adjustment. For example, set one Levels adjustment to create the perfect sky. Then add another Levels adjustment brick to selectively perfect skin tones. To add a new instance of an adjustment, choose the Add New option from the Action pop-up menu in each adjustment brick.
Support for GPS Track Logs
In Aperture, you can easily assign locations to photos by importing the track log from a GPS receiver. Then simply drag photos onto the track to have Aperture sync the photos to the location data in the track log. You can also reset the time zone of the track in Aperture.

So yeah, that’s maybe more than a few features I listed, but believe me, there’s plenty to get excited about with Aperture 3. Try it out for free for 30 days, and then if you’re upgrading, pay $99, or $199 for a new user license. (If you’re thinking about picking Aperture up, check out the new ‘in-action’ videos of it here.) We can breathe easy folks, it looks like our day has finally come.

Read The Full Article:
http://theappleblog.com/2010/02/09/apple-finally-drops-aperture-3/

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Macfriendly - A Software Bundle that is Friendly
to Your Wallet

post from on 09 February 2010 10:15:00 AM. ©

MacFriendly today announced their new Bundle of 12 applications for Mac users. The Bundle is[...]

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Apple May Lower the Price of the iPad: This is
Not News

post from TheAppleBlog on 09 February 2010 10:14:00 AM. © TheAppleBlog

Sometimes I have to wonder whether everyone has taken leave of their senses. The big ?news? doing the rounds in the last twenty four hours is that Apple execs have admitted they are prepared to change the price of the iPad should consumer reception (read: sales) demand it.

Yeah, that?s right; Apple admitted it might revisit the price of the iPad sometime in the future, and change it according to sales performance. Shocking, that a company might operate according to a business plan designed to encourage sales and make money, eh? Apparently, that?s somehow mind-boggling news.

It got started because of a report by Matt Phillips of the Wall Street Journal, who wrote;

Apple intends to stay ?nimble? on pricing of the iPad, possibly lowering prices if the newly unveiled tablet device fails to gain traction among consumers.

(Top prize goes to Engadget for their humorous response/headline, ?Apple to be ?nimble? on iPad pricing, athletic on pommel horse?.)

Phillips quoted a note from Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope who, following a meeting with Apple executives, said;

?While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble (pricing could change if the company is not attracting as many customers as anticipated),?

This only bolsters my long-held belief that analysts are, apparently, paid for pointing out the blindingly-obvious. That tendency to wrap together common sense and ?what we all knew anyway? as ?something new and worthy of reporting? is usually exemplified by Gene Munster, but since he?s been quiet for the last week or so, I guess Shope will have to do.

(I predict that, in the weeks ahead of the iPad launch, Munster, or some inspired analyst like him, will issue a note to the press proclaiming, ?Apple?s App store sales will perform better in this quarter than in the same quarter last year.? Or it?ll be something even more obvious, like ?Apple will sell more iPads this year than they did in 2009?? and I guarantee the tech press will rush to report that ?advice? like it?s vitally important ?news.? You just wait and see.)

Confidence

The point here is that Apple is doing nothing revolutionary or surprising by admitting the fact that, according to the ebb and flow of consumer demand, it will revisit its pricing strategy for the iPad. This is what all businesses do with all products, all the time. Apple is always revising its prices; MacBooks, iMacs, iPods and iPhones get at least one price change on an annual basis. It?s not a big deal that they will do the same for the iPad, and it certainly doesn?t point to any lack of confidence in the product itself.

Let’s not forget the infamous iPhone price-cut of ?07; after launching the iPhone with a hefty $599 asking price, Apple reduced it by a whopping $200 just a few months later. The only difference between then and now is Apple?s transparency (yeah, I can?t believe I said that either). During his keynote presentation late last month, Steve Jobs said of the iPad; ?We want to get this into the hands of as many people as possible.? That is, after all, the overriding reason for the agreeably-low price of the entry-level iPad.

Here Come the Trolls

Sadly, the predictable fan-baiting didn?t take long, with the likes of Should-Know-Better-Than-That Windows evangelist Paul Thurrott writing, in a blog post provocatively entitled ?Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Buy an iPad?;

Following news that I was right about Apple’s decision to not allow iPad pre-orders would cause many potential buyers to reassess things, comes this unbelievable bit of news directly from Apple itself: The company said that it would aggressively lower prices on the iPad if/when it doesn’t take off in the marketplace.

Aside from the clumsy jumble of clauses and inventive use of the adjective ?aggressively?, (as far as I can see, neither Shope nor Phillips ever used that word) I really want to point out, one last time, and for the record — this is not ?unbelievable? news. Far from it. It is, in fact, the most ordinary, run-of-the-mill, standard business practice, entirely believable news one could expect from a consumer electronics company. (Quite what Apple?s flexible pricing strategy has to do with Thurrott?s theory about the inability to pre-order an iPad is beyond me; can anyone say ?straw man??)

It comes down to this; the wider tech press are, inexplicably, falling over themselves to write-off the iPad as a failure before it?s even out of the starting gate. (Don?t forget, the iPod was panned by critics and tech ?experts? when it first launched. The iPhone was subject to its own fair share of harsh criticism, too.)

No one can say exactly how successful the iPad will be, and while there?s no harm in speculating (after all, much Apple coverage is precisely that) it?s sad to see how some corners of the tech community choose to interpret every little thing Apple does (or says it might do) as ?evidence? of failure.

I think I?m being rational and level-headed. You might think I?m a shameless fanboy. Either way, let me know exactly what you think in the comments below.

Related GigaOM Pro Research:

Read The Full Article:
http://theappleblog.com/2010/02/09/apple-may-lower-the-price-of-the-ipad-this-is-
not-news/

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NVIDIA outs Optimus live graphics switching for
notebooks

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 09 February 2010 10:00:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

NVIDIA today formally unwrapped Optimus, a hybrid graphics technology that it promises will solve ma...

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BashFlash

post from Daring Fireball on 09 February 2010 09:52:00 AM. © Daring Fireball

Nice complement to ClickToFlash — BashFlash monitors Snow Leopard’s Flash Player process and lets you kill it when it starts using excessive CPU time.

?

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http://www.bashflash.com/

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Apple launches Aperture 3

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 09 February 2010 09:20:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Apple has released Aperture 3, a major update of the company's photo workflow software. The pro...

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http://feeds.macnn.com/click.phdo?i=be8f9016e9e64592895caa44918d590e

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Presented By:

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 09 February 2010 09:15:00 AM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

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Adobe limits Flash for Android to 2.1, criticizes
Apple

Adobe today provided a disappointment for some Android users as it revealed that Flash 10.1 will onl...

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This Valentines Day - Tweet To Win Some iBacon
Love

Arizona based G-Monkey Productions today announce the #iBaconLove Twitter contest. One lucky winner[...]

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http://prmac.com/release-id-10657.htm

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MonitorMyMac Now Free to Help Parents Protect
their Children Online

UK based Arten Science today announced that MonitorMyMac, their Macintosh software which gives[...]

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http://prmac.com/release-id-10656.htm

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