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Apple Announces New Pro Software

Posted by michael on from the amateurs-need-not-apply dept.

yroJJory writes "Apparently, Apple has just announced new pro software today. First off is the new app Motion, which is a new motion graphics program with real-time previews, procedural behavior animation and Final Cut Pro HD integration. Second, is Final Cut Pro HD, boasting the beauty of HD with the simplicity of DV. Capture DVCPRO HD over FireWire, edit using camera-native footage and output over FireWire with no generational quality loss. RT Extreme, now for HD, can deliver multiple HD streams, effects, filters and transitions in real-time to an attached Apple Cinema Display. Last, but most important to me, is DVD Studio Pro 3, which has slick new transitions, superb HD to MPEG-2 encoding, Graphical View, support for all professional audio formats -- including DTS -- (FINALLY!!), and integration with Final Cut Pro HD and Motion. Motion will be available this summer for $299. The Final Cut Pro HD update is available now for FCP 4 users. DVD Studio Pro 3 is expected to ship in mid-May." Reader green pizza writes "Apple today introduced Xsan, a clustered filesystem for Mac OS X systems."

22 of 479 comments (clear)

  1. Wait ... by Sonic+McTails · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The XSan just sounds like network mount points. Like I can mount NFS mounts at /usr, another at /usr/local, and make it behavie like it all one system. To do it, it would just require renaming /usr, and then modify the startup scripts to use the new paths. Is XSan different or is it basically a GUI to mount points ?

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  2. Apple does it right by ericdano · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Apple really does things right. Look at their products compared to Microsoft. OS X is way ahead of Windows XP. G5's are slick. iPod, Xservers, iMacs, eMacs, and their laptop lines. iLife. Logic. Final Cut Pro, Shake, etc.

    Simply, they are the trend setters. Best computer company period!

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    1. Re:Apple does it right by zuhl · · Score: 5, Interesting


      We just bought a Dual G5 Xserve. I set it up last weekend. In about 4 hours. From my house. In my PJs. All done via Apple's Remote Desktop and Admin tools over my cable modem. Designers came in Monday morning and all their stuff was there and working as if it had always been there.

      I know most hard core geeks who regularly SSH into their servers and various boxen won't be impressed by that, but please understand that I work for a decently sized (14 designers) graphic design company. I admin all the G5s and our web server, FTP, mail, etc., in addition to my normal duties as a production artist. I am a "geek" who regularly reads slashdot, but UNIX is not really my forte. I drop into the Terminal occasionally and sudo, but it's not really my main gig. I know enough to be dangerous, basically. :-)

      The G5 server is freaking amazing. Open Directory is very nice as well. Say what you want about overpriced hardware (though the G5 server and the X-RAID are pretty reasonable for what you are buying), but Apple does do things pretty well. You get what you pay for in my opinion. Could I have built or ordered a similar machine with Linux or Win2K3 and spent a little less? Probably. We spent about $5K and got 750 gig of storage and a gig of RAM. But the difference in the cost of my time (and headache trying to get it all running) is far outweighed by the simplicity of the Xserve. And the really nice thing is that there is a TON of usabilty built into the Xserve for those who need/want to delve deeper. PHP. MySQL. Open Directory (Apple's LDAP stuff). VPN. It's all there and easily configured or tweaked from the Admin Tools or from the CLI.

      It wouldn't surprise me one bit to see more and more Xserves sneaking into data centers. They really do rock.

  3. It's things like this... by TehChubbz0r · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple putting out complete and all-encompassing software packages like this make me want to invest in Apple hardware, but I'm lacking enough funds to make the switch...

    To me, Apple seems a much better development house than Microsoft (not really necessary to state), and their products seem much more reliable/functional than Microsoft's efforts. Maybe it's the extra time spent in development, maybe it's the extra attention spent on details, or perhaps it's just the hardware.

    Even though I don't currently use Apple hardware, I still appreciate what they are doing for the computing community in general with products like these that show what great design teams are really capable of.

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    Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?
    1. Re:It's things like this... by Achoi77 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Not to beat this arguement to death (ok, nevermind), but I seem to remember during my college days, all the macs used the 2 button mouse, on os 9 - for all the college kids complaining about how to right-click save on internet explorer. I wonder how much earlier this wasn't an issue.

      I use osx all the time now (was a PC to mac convert 2 months ago), and I just find the one button mouse a much more elegant solution. I just find the keyboard and mouse combo is much more efficient. Interestingly enough, it wasn't that I was actually slower, but I was LAZIER with the two button mouse - I didn't want to bother using the keyboard, when i could do it in one hand - which in the end caused performance to suffer. And expose rocks my world. I keep finding myself how to switch windows on winxp, and I marvel at how I was able to survive without expose for so long (alt-tab doesn't cut it anymore). The app switching bottleneck is so gone now.

      I work at a printshop, so I very much rather enjoy being able to work on 5-6 jobs at the same time. It reduces a lot of downtime, and I find that the biggest bottleneck on the computer is actaully me. Which, of course causes me to push bigger jobs faster, simultaneously, up until the point where the hardware is near it's limit. It's a vicious cycle, but productivity is the big winner here, and my boss likes that. Plus I feel like Johnny Neumonic(sp?).

      (Score:-1, The Switch)

  4. Xsan is a preannoucement. And that's Good! by 777333ddd · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The Xsan press release is the most interesting to me because it's a long lead time pre-annoucement. Now most companies don't bat an eye with preannoucements. They toss them out like crazy often with an eye to just stoke the stock price or FUD competition. But there is such a thing as a good pre-annoucement.

    That is not something Apple does much if at all for its products. While silence until shipping is a good move (I would say) in the consumer space. It's bad for the Enterprise space. Apple has been criticized and justifiably so for not pre-announcing key technology so developers and enterprises can plan accordingly.

    Now I agree that it's probably better to err on the side of less pre-announcement, but Apple took this to too much of an extreme.

    I think this is an indication that Apple is 'getting it' more and more regarding Enterprise/Pro markets.

  5. Actually, your cause and effect might bekinda off by nicholas. · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You have to ask yourself: is Apple chasing away developers because of their great software? Or is Apple filling a gaping whole that windows-centric developers are leaving open.

    It is true that Adobe is scaling back some of their Mac operations. But apps like Premier and FrameMaker have been seriously neglected (four or more year w/o and update). So if these are the applications Apple risks losing because of their great software then so be it.

    Avid/ProTools treats the Mac like a second class citizen so thankfully Apple has helped give them some competition. If it hadn't been for Apple who would have provide quality compositing, audio, video editing, DVD-authoring and now motion graphics software? Was Apple supposed to wait and hope that someone would come to the plate?

    If anything, Apple is capable of producing great software. They will always be reliant on third parties with limited resources (or interest) for supporting great Mac hardware. Their strength is their software. It'd be great if Apple could get out their hardware sinkig ship and concentrate on bring great softare to different platforms.

  6. HD over FireWire by daveschroeder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It does not require optical. It works over normal FireWire. It supports Panasonic's 100 Mbps DV-HD (DVCPRO HD) codec.

    1080i HD content can be moved between a Panasonic HD VTR and a computer via FireWire with no generation loss:

    "With Panasonic's new, compact AJ-HD1200A DVCPRO HD VTR, 24fps or 60fps progressive scan material shot by Panasonic's AJ-HDC27 VariCam HD Cinema camera or 1080i studio / sports truck footage recorded by DVCPRO HD VTRs can be transferred via the VTR's IEEE 1394 interface directly into Final Cut Pro HD without generation loss. Once transferred, the material is instantly available for real-time editing operations. All footage maintains its camera-original quality, because the IEEE 1394 FireWire interface transfers the native DV-HD high definition files, as originally recorded on tape in the VTR or Varicam, directly to the Power Mac G4 or Power Mac G5 host computer's internal hard drive."

    Read the joint Apple/Panasonic press release

  7. What to view it on? by gotmemory · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Uh, this is awesome and all, but what are you going to view it on? As far as I know there is no DVD that supports HD, and by the origional poster, it sounds like you can only watch it on attached displays at full resolution.

    This also brings up something with the Panisonic HD DV camcorder simply because it is the only major minidv HD camcorder being pushed.

    Good job apple.

  8. Kudos to Apple by tobycat · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple seems to have remade itself into a premium software developer. I used to think of Apple as the cool hardware manufacturer but now they are bringing that same innovation, simplicity, and style to software. No wonder Adobe has been wary recently. They must be wondering when Apple will be competing with them across their entire product line.

    1. Re:Kudos to Apple by tyrione · · Score: 4, Interesting

      One of my most fond memories while being an employee at NeXT before stepping into Apple was Steve's final CEO to Staff Rally Speech.

      Besides the obvious, "We are already speaking to several key individuals, including John Rubenstein(sp?), etc" was the comment Steve made about when the OS hits the Shelf.

      To the best of my recollection:

      We will be the largest UNIX vendor and Apple will be produce the best application software the Mac platform has ever seen. Apple will be more than just a hardware company. It will be a software company.

      Now obviously Steve held to his Vision.

    2. Re:Kudos to Apple by Tiro · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Damn, that's cool. Almost prophetic. I guess he really sees these things from a long term campaign perspective... which unfortunately is rare in business these days.

      Japan seems to break the mold here though. Recall that article a week or two ago about Toyota's long term development of alternative fuel engines... now Ford liscences them.

  9. Re:What impresses me by phoxix · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Shake is also costs twice as much for linux. Enough that it's cheaper to get a powermac and shake than to get a linux box and shake.. that's intentional.

    It should be noted that Weta Digital opted for the more expensive Shake+Linux combination than going the full Mac route, heh

    Sunny Dubey

  10. Re:Actually, your cause and effect might bekinda o by silentbozo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'm glad Apple has taken the lead in giving what would have been 3rd party apps (they bought the foundations of the iTunes music app, FinalCut, etc. all from other companies) and polishing them up to get new customers. When companies start going cross-platform (ie, from a pure-mac stance to a Mac/PC one), it's almost inevitable that one of them (the Mac side) gets short-changed. Some manager or number cruncher decides that there's more money on the Windows side, the Windows side eats up more than it's share of the allocated programmer budget, Mac programmers leave and are replaced, not by Mac programmers, but by Windows programmers, they decide to unify the code base but end up with all of the Windows bugs on the Mac side because their compiler tools are all Windows-based now, etc.

    The other advantage in having Apple take these types of software under their wing is that they can strategically coordinate releases of both software and hardware. Looking at the Xserves, the XSAN, the software tools, OS X, etc., you can clearly see that they're targeting high-end, corporate users of media software (ie, entertainment). The scientific community is already sold on the Unix underlayer of OS X - X11 make is possible to port a lot of apps.

  11. Final Cut Express by moosesocks · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It seems worth mentioning that apple also updated Final Cut Express to a new patch. The patch corrects several severe issues with the program, specifically the 'blank frame' issue which has plagued virtually every user of the program. It also corrects problems with dropped frames and timecode breaks.

    Now that these problems are fixed, I can safely say that Final Cut Express is the perfect entry-level video editing solution. At $299, it's a steal compared to the competition (Final Cut Pro is already a steal!). Plus, if you decide to upgrade to pro, Apple only charges the difference in the price, meaning you lose no money.

    Talk about a company that's nice to their customers. Apple definitely sees the pro market as an area to capitalize - it has always been their strong point in the past. You can tell that apple's trying to capitalize on their strong points as they attempt to regain the Education market with the $799 1.25ghz eMac. The pro markets are faithful to apple, and can easily afford their hardware and software - compared to the 'real' pro-level stuff, Apple's a bargin (SGI workstations used to cost upward of $10k without software)

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  12. A Litte Offtopic by XplosiveX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you are looking to buy a notebook, looks like Apple is going to introduce some updated models tomorrow.

    http://www.thinksecret.com/news/aprillaptops.htm l

    This is kind of odd, they usually announce new products on Tuesdays.

  13. Re:What impresses me by c4Ff3In3+4ddiC+ · · Score: 5, Interesting
    You know, I have to agree with you. I finally broke down and bought a notebook, and what did I buy? An iBook. You really can't beat the combination of:
    • BSD backend with full hardware/software support
    • Incredible battery life. (I get 4+ hours with normal use)
    • Weight
    • Internal wireless with antenna integrated into the display
    • Plenty of OSS software available
    • Apple software bundle is impressive
    • And lastly, all this for only $1099
    Needless to say. I'm loving' it.
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    *twitch*
  14. Re:Actually, your cause and effect might bekinda o by TheCrazyFinn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple's basically replacing the now-defunct SGI Workstations.

    And doing it very well.

    --
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  15. Re:Your cause and effect's all out of whack. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Adobe has no business talking about performance, they couldn't optimize their way out of a paper bag.

    Their purportedly multithreaded renderer in After Effects is so poorly done that you can damn near double a multiproc box's performance by running two jobs at once. Their multithreading is so poorly done a user can do it 2x better by making a few extra mouse clicks in their software.

  16. Re:What impresses me by c_waddington · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What stuns me is that Apple have managed to create both a geek computer and a home computer that is easy to use. I'm sitting here typing on an iBook that I regularly use in terminal mode to compile programs, yet it is the same computer that my wife uses for instant messaging and email. It flabbergasts me how me they were so sneaky to do this. People say their switch campaign didn't work but I'm not convinced: 4 of my geek friends switched to macs and 3 newbie friends bought macs after trying mine. Good luck Apple.

  17. Re:Slight correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I worked for Avid for 18 months under contract as a consultant to help reposition the marketing message of Avid after they made the ill-fated "We're going to be PC-only" at NAB and set their predominantly Mac-only user base on fire.

    Yeah, I remember that fracas.. One incident I loved hearing about was one Avid customer asking his sales rep "what about Mac compatibility?", only to be told "we don't have to be compatible with the Mac". The customer was incensed, and told the idiot "You have to be compatible with your own installed base, asshole."

    There were a bunch of Avid customers who decided right then and there that Avid was history as soon as they had an alternative.

  18. Re:What's the Apple complaint today? by bonch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's not free, and it's not open source--it's always the same complaints leveled at almost every single commercial solution.

    People, that money people use to pay for things actually goes back to the company and gives employees an incentive to sit there hacking away for 12 hours producing quality code and designing amazing new hardware. Volunteer work won't give you that kind of motivation (admit it, it won't), and it also won't let you quit your day job to devote all your time and energy to it.

    Apple has the perfect balance--the kernel and rest of the OS is open source, but the stuff that really matters like their GUI and other software is proprietary closed. Ya have to buy it.