::: bisonium.com :::

That's right boys and girls.  Virtual PC is no longer the only game in town for running Windows or Linux on your Mac.  I have written about VMware in previous posts and what we have all been waiting for is about to arrive.  VMware has announced a beta for their product on a Mac.  This is HUGE news for the Apple community.  Microsoft has not announced officially (that I am aware of) that they will be porting VPC to the Intel platform and that has a lot of people concerned to say the least.  Even we Mac folk need to run Windows from time to time, and now more than ever, we are starting to see more options like Parallels and VMware step up to the table.  I for one am excited about this and can't wait to check out VMware for the Mac.  I am really hoping it runs Vista once it ships from Redmond.  Don't miss out on the beta, go sign up ASAP!

Technorati Tags: Mac Tech Tips, OS X, Virtualization, Windows

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[ via Apple Insider ]

As part of its exhibition at National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) trade show this week in Aniheim, Calif., Apple Computer could be seen demonstrating a new version of its Logic music composition and production software designed to run natively on the first Intel Macs.

The company also said it is ahead of schedule developing the application and plans to release the software as Logic Pro 7.2 next month.

According to a report from Macworld, Logic’s performance seemed much faster running on the new Intel Macs than with PowerPC-based machines.

"The performance is stunning and has met my already high expectations," Dr. Gerhard Lengeling, Apple senior director and lead architect audio applications said.

The company was performing the Logic demos on a pre-production MacBook Pro laptop. During one demo, Apple’s Bob Hunt was reportedly running video, with thumbnails, music and a dozen or more high-end effects.

"None of these sessions would even run on a PowerBook," said Hunt, comparing the new Intel-based MacBook Pro to the PowerBook.

Logic's evolution to a Intel-native application won't be the only change users will notice, according to Macworld. Logic Pro 7.2 will also reportedly feature integrated support for the new Apogee Ensemble interface; Digidesign Pro Tools HD 7 DAE support; Serato Pitch ‘n Time support; Improved Rewire support; Enhanced Control Surfaces support; and 32-channel support for multi-channel Audio Units instruments.

The application also adds compatibility with GarageBand 3 through new support for playback of compressed files; a Ducking plug-in; a speech enhancement plug-in; and the same jingles and sounds effects found in GarageBand.

Owners of Logic 7.1 may upgrade to Logic 7.2 for Intel via a $49 crossgrade upgrade package Apple will begin offering in February.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The updater to Version 3.3 of Camera Raw has been posted for free download on Adobe's Website, and includes support for a slew (that's right, a slew) of new cameras, including the Nikon D200, so Dave Moser can finally open his shots. ;-)

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The code warriors over at CocoaTech have this little app called Path Finder 4.  What an incredible app!  This is everything we have all wished for in our best buddy, the Finder.  Rather than go through all the features here, just visit their site for the details and reviews from other industry uber geeks.  All I can say is that this app is another must have.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Enter BookIt.  Mark this as one of those must-have apps.  Sometimes you just come across a bit of code that is so simple, yet makes all the sense in the world.  One thing about using Safari on the Mac is the lack of a way to sort your bookmarks.  Let's say you want to sort them alphabetically, I have yet to figure out a way to do this without manually dragging and dropping each bookmark.  When you have 10,000+ links, that gets a bit tedious.  BookIt makes it as simple as a click of a button. 

So how about you web-heads like me who use multiple browsers for checking your work for compatibility across browsers.  You DO check your work right?  If not, that is a ripping session for another day.  I like having my bookmarks synchronized across all my browsers.  Again comes BookIt to the rescue.  It just doesn't get any easier than this.  Right now I have it checking all those links to see which are dead or moved.  Another great feature is the Dock and System Menu icon support.  I like having the little icon in the menu bar.  From there, I can go to any of my links in a snap.  Yet another kick-ass feature.  For $12, go grab it NOW.  You will thank me later.

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All you Mac fans, sit down and buckle your seat belts.  One of the most wanted apps on the Mac is Google Earth and it's release for the Mac is imminent.  As you can see from the screen grab, it is VERY real and VERY slick.  This is going to make a HUGE impact on the way we use our computers folks.  I can already see this becoming an indispensable tool.  For being a beta, it is extremely stable and the graphics are simply unbelievable.  This is absolutely smoking fast on my PowerMac G5 Dual 2.5 with the Ultra 6800 video card.  I hear the performance is excellent even on a Powerbook, which I haven't tested as of yet.  Make no bones about it, this is one app you will definitely want to grab when it's released to the public.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

[ via TUAW ]

Adobe offers Adobe-Macromedia software bundles:

Hot on the heels of completing its acquisition of Macromedia, Adobe is offering bundles of Adobe and Macromedia software. The first two bundles, the Adobe Design Bundle and the Adobe Web Bundle, contain the latest releases of software from Adobe and Macromedia. These are just the original products, with no additional cross-product integration. The Design Bundle includes Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium (Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2, GoLive CS2, Acrobat 7.0 Professional, Version Cue CS2, and Bridge) along with Macromedia Flash Professional 8. The Web Bundle also includes Adobe Creative Suite 2 Premium, along with Macromedia Studio 8 (Dreamweaver 8, Flash Professional 8, Fireworks 8, Contribute 3, and FlashPaper 2). A third software bundle, Adobe Video Bundle, is expected to be released in early 2006. There's no word yet on what it will include.


Pricing is steep. Adobe Design Bundle sells for a cool $1599, and Adobe Web Bundle for $1899 at the Adobe Store. There are upgrades from earlier versions of Adobe or Macromedia software suites. If you own Adobe Creative Suite 1 Standard or Premium, you can upgrade to Adobe Design Bundle for $949. If you own Adobe Creative Suite 1 Standard or Premium or Macromedia Studio MX or MX 2004 you can upgrade to the Adobe Web Bundle for $899. Those of us who bought the latest versions of the software may be left out of the upgrade path. Adobe suggests that if you bought Adobe Creative Suite 2 recently, you may be able to return it to the location from which you bought it and buy a bundle instead. There is no upgrade path from individual Adobe or Macromedia products to a bundle.


If you can get the education discount you're in a better position. Adobe's education price is $549 for the Design Bundle and $599 for the Web Bundle.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is pretty cool, especially for streaming your iTunes library to your PSP!

::: UPDATE :::

I was just looking at and playing with this software.  Overall pretty neat.  My main objective was to stream my music over the wireless network to my PSP.  I got everything to work fine, but there is 1 small oversight which can be easily fixed.  When clicking on a song in the PSP browser, it wants to SAVE the file to my memory stick.  That defeats the point of doing this.  With the new 2.6 firmware release on the PSP, they have incorporated RSS (sort of) into the mix.  The so called RSS is really just a way to STREAM audio to the PSP via an RSS feed.  In this particular case, that would work great!  If these guys could incorporate RSS feeds into the next release, they would be officially kicking butt in the PSP community. 

[ via TUAW ]

Try Dot-Tunes free during December:

Dot-Tunes is an iTunes web server that makes sharing your music across a network, local or the web, nice and easy (we first took a brief look at Dot Tunes in October).  It looks pretty nice, and this may be just the time to try it out. The folks at DotPod have announced that you can use Dot-Tunes without the ten track demo restriction or the ten minute time limit for the next few weeks.

Here's the catch: To activate the extended demo, you must register with a server tracker. This will allow you to see other servers out there in the ether, as well as be seen by them. All of this is to encourage you to register before January of 2007, when Dot-Tunes will experience a price increase. Get it while you can.

[Via MacMegasite]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you haven't already heard, Firefox 1.5 is officially out.  Get it while it's hot.  For you G5 owners, here's a special treat just for you...

[ via BeatnikPad ]

G5-optimized Firefox 1.5 released:

It’s been a long time coming, but Firefox 1.5 is finally rocking the house and making nerds salivate into their indie beards with delight.

The official changelog includes such top ten hits as:

• Automated update to streamline product upgrades.
• Faster browser navigation with improvements to back and forward button performance.
• Drag and drop reordering for browser tabs.
• Improvements to popup blocking.
• Clear Private Data feature provides an easy way to quickly remove personal data through a menu item or keyboard shortcut.
• Answers.com is added to the search engine list.
• Improvements to product usability including descriptive error pages, redesigned options menu, RSS discovery, and “Safe Mode” experience.
• Better accessibility including support for DHTML accessibility and various assistive technologies.
• Report a broken Web site wizard to report Web sites that are not working in Firefox.
• Better support for Mac OS X (10.2 and greater) including profile migration from Safari and Mac Internet Explorer.
• New support for Web Standards including SVG, CSS 2 and CSS 3, and JavaScript 1.6.

And everyone’s favourite tune, “many security enhancements”. If you want to bask in some hardcore changelog goodness, check out the “comprehensive changelog” for the dirty details.

As usual, there is now a G5-optimized build for your browsing pleasure:

» Download the G5-optimized Firefox 1.5 release
» Alternate download location

With this fairly major upgrade, most extensions will need to be updated. I have tweaked a bunch of the extensions I use to work with the new version, but I haven’t had time to update that post, so you might want to check out the official Mozilla update site first.

Enjoy, folks, and don’t forget to clean those indie beards before you go out in public.

Neil (feeling tired, giddy, and more than a little bit strange.)

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BeatnikPad has released their G5 optimized build of Firefox.  Grab the new build while it's hot!  New fixes include:

• Fix for a potential buffer overflow vulnerability when loading a hostname with all soft-hyphens
• Fix to prevent URLs passed from external programs from being parsed by the shell (Linux only)
• Fix to prevent a crash when loading a Proxy Auto-Config (PAC) script that uses an "eval" statement
• Fix to restore InstallTrigger.getVersion() for Extension authors
• Other stability and security fixes

Posted by Frank Bisono at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[via MacMinute ]

Delicious Monster announces Backup 3 'QuickPick' plugin:

Delicious Monster Software today has announced the Delicious Library Backup "QuickPick" plugin, a free tool for Backup 3 users to easily back up their Delicious Library database and preferences with one checkbox...

Posted by Frank Bisono at 5:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The latest version of Toast has just made it easier to rip, errr....BACK UP, your DVD's. ;-)  Overall a solid looking upgrade so far. 

[ via Macsimum News ]

Toast 7 to allow one-step DivX disc creation, more:

Roxio has announced Toast 7, the latest version of its Mac CD and DVD burning suite. The update—which include multi-image high definition slideshows with pan and zoom effects, transitions and background soundtracks, audio DVDs with over 50 hours of Dolby music and data spanning—will be available direct from Roxio starting... [ read more ]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was just a matter of time before someone created this. Thanks to RB Software, here is a handy GUI (Graphical User Interface) for the iTunes Chapter Tool used when creating podcasts for the iTMS. The tool includes the Chapter Tool, no need to go download it seperately. Enjoy!

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nice find!

[ via TUAW ]

Blender:

If you're interested in getting into 3D high end graphics, but the nosebleed prices of the software out there keeps getting in your way, why not go free with Blender? Blender is "the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. . . . Available for Windows, Linux, Irix, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD or Mac OS X under the GNU Public License."

There was a new version released today, and there are flavors available for OS X 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4. Head over to the downloads page and grab your copy. Post links to your Blender-created stuff in the comments and we'll check it out. If you feel like supporting this open source project, you can invest in the 800 page manual.

Did I mention that it is free?

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Marketcircle today announced the release of Billings 1.0, a new application designed for the professional who tracks and bills detailed time. As a designer, I have been in search of a decent application that integrates everything that Marketcircle's Daylite has with a decent billing solution. By golly, I think they've done it!!! If this works even half as well as I think it will, these guys are going to have the industry on lock-down for the best all-around business management solution EVER (on a mac). Rock on Marketcircle!!!

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you listen to some of the more popular podcasts like Adam Curry's "Daily Source Code", then you no doubt have heard the rants and raves about Skype - the next generation phone company. I have so far resisted the VoIP craze due to the technical limitations of what would make VoIP feasible for my needs. But I must admit, the constant jabbering about Skype has tweaked my curiosity to the point of having to finally install the damn thing.

So far, it looks like a pretty slick service. I have literally just installed it and have yet to make a call using the service, but something tells me this is going to be cool....WAY cool. I gave up on using MSN IM a long time ago since 98% of my friends use AIM. The other deciding factor was that I didn't want to be running a million IM clients and quite honestly, nothing matched the convenience and integration of iChat on my Mac.

I can probably say that I am about to make an exception to my rule. Skype not only allows you to call other Skype users, but via their optional (and incredibly inexpensive options), you can have an inbound phone # (up to 3) in the area code of your choice (though limited at the moment), as well as call outbound to any land line phone number. This has GOT to be driving the telco's insane. The one thing I see missing at the moment is toll-free options for phone #'s. I am sure that will come with time.

In addition to the insane pricing and options you get with Skype, you can also have a multi-party conference and can chat with other users just as you can with iChat. Another killer feature is the ability to send LARGE file xfers to your buddies without the connection crapping out as it does so many times through AIM. This gives a whole new meaning to P2P file sharing if you get my drift.

Overall, the benefits far outweigh any negative comments I have heard so far. As with any new technologies, there are going to be hiccups along the road to success. Even the almighty Apple Computer didn't get it right with the GM version of Tiger. It still has quite a few gremlins, especially in iChat AV with the video quality during multi-party video chats. I am sure that this service is going to get better by the minute over the coming year. I won't be able to give it 2 thumbs up until I have had a chance to really play with it, but I think we have a winner. If you want to test it out, give me a ring...you can find me under Frank Bisono (frankbisono) on the Skype user listings.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Big news for the day os Apple's new line of Pro Apps. Some big announcements were made today at NAB. Highlights include:

Final Cut Pro Studio Suite:

Apple's new Pro Studio Suite includes updates toFinal Cut Pro 5, Soundtrack Pro, Motion 2, and DVD Studio Pro 4.

Final Cut Pro 5 features include:

�Ģ Real-time, native HDV editing
�Ģ Multicamera editing
�Ģ Dynamic RT

Soundtrack Pro features include:

�Ģ Waveform editor with Action layers
�Ģ Intelligent Find-and-Fix
�Ģ Over 50 effect plug-ins and Audio Unit support

Motion 2 features include:

�Ģ GPU-Accelerated 32-bit float rendering
�Ģ Replicator for animating waves of repeating graphics or movies along user-defined grids.
�Ģ FxPlug, which ushers in a new breed of third-party filter effects using full 32-bit processing.

DVD Studio Pro 4 features include:

�Ģ HD DVD
�Ģ Distributed encoding
�Ģ Dolby Digital Professional encoder

Final Cut Studio will be available in May for $1,299. Registered users from any previous version of Final Cut Pro can upgrade for $699, while Production Suite customers can upgrade for $499. Final Cut Pro 5 ($999), Soundtrack Pro ($299), Motion 2 ($299) and DVD Studio Pro 4 ($499) will also be sold separately.

Also announced at NAB today was Shake 4.

"Shake 4 is the only compositing software with a complete toolset for both single artists and visual effects facilities. With 3D multi-plane compositing, 32-bit Keylight and Primatte keying, cutting edge Optical Flow image processing, Final Cut Pro 5 integration and an open, extensible scripting language, Shake 4 delivers all the tools required for sophisticated film and television visual effects."

Shake 4 for Mac OS X with unlimited render licenses will be available in June for $2,999. The cross-platform (Mac and Linux) version of Shake 4 will be available for $4,999. The Shake 4 upgrade is $999.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday Adobe and Six Apart announced that GoLive would have built-in support for creating and editing the templates used in Movable Type. This is some really interesting news for anyone that is running a MT blog (such as this one). We have been asking Six Apart for an easier way to edit and design MT templates for quite some time, and it looks like they were listening. My only question is if they will also offer this support in Dreamweaver anytime soon. For now, this is a great step in the right direction. Thanks Six Apart!

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[via MacMerc.com]

InCopy CS2 and GoLive CS2 round out Adobe's big announcements of the day:

Adobe announced today Adobe GoLive CS2, a powerful authoring tool for Web and mobile content, and Adobe InCopy CS2, a professional writing and editing program that integrates tightly with Adobe InDesign CS2.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

[via MacMerc.com]

Look out Quark, here comes Adobe InDesign CS2:

Adobe announced today the latest version of its layout and design program, Adobe InDesign CS2. This new version improves the speed and efficiency of designers in a variety of workflows from text-intensive book, magazine, and newspaper production to high-end XML-based cross-media workflows. Designers can increase productivity and create more consistent designs by saving graphic, text, and frame-level attributes as Object Styles, which are easy to apply and globally update. Exporting objects with the new InDesign snippets features enables users to easily share or repurpose live InDesign content and layouts from part of a page.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[via MacMerc.com]

Adobe Illustrator CS2 announced:

As part of a barrage of announcements detailing the full Creative Suite, Adobe presents Illustrator CS2. Illustrator CS2 adds features such as Live Trace and Live Paint, an enhanced user interface and expanded support for a variety of file formats, including Scalable Vector Graphics Tiny (SVG-t) for output to mobile platforms.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As predicted in my previous post... [via MacMerc.com]

Adobe debuts Photoshop CS2 as part of the Adobe Creative Suite 2:

Adobe today announced Adobe Photoshop CS2, the long awaited upgrade to the professional industry standard for digital image editing and creation. As before, Photoshop CS2 will be available as a stand-alone application or as a key component of Adobe Creative Suite 2, also announced today.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Migo: keep your desktop on your iPod:

PowerHouse Technologies Group has announced that their Migo software is now available for iPods, at least the ones that work with PCs.  Migo allows people to bring their personalized computer setting anywhere their iPod is.  Migo software stores email, calendar, and contact information from Outlook, as well as IE bookmarks and history.  It also stores personal documents in the same document structure you have on your personal computer.  What’s more, it lets you bring your desktop wallpaper with you werever you go…or me go…or Migo.  Ahem.  They way it works is thus: plug the Migo-equipped iPod into a foreign computer and it transforms into your own - your desktop pattern, email, contacts, and files are all there just like home.  Pull up Internet Explorer, and your bookmarks and history are all ready to go.  For security purposes, the folks at PowerHouse say that nothing will be left behind, including passwords and cookies, on the host computer.  The software sells for $99, and it’s also available in a USB flash-key configuration if you don’t have an iPod.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:25 PM | Permalink

Patchburn 3 now available:

Makes unsupported DVD writers behave

Posted by Frank Bisono at 10:13 PM | Permalink

Electric Rain Announces Mac OS X Version of Swift 3D Xpress:

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:57 PM | Permalink

Microsoft releases Virtual PC 7 with Windows XP Pro:

Microsoft today announced the immediately availability of Virtual PC 7 with Windows XP Professional ...

Posted by Frank Bisono at 7:08 AM | Permalink

iGlasses For Your iSight:

Ecamm Network announces new iGlasses software for Mac OS X. iGlasses provides total control over your iSight video settings from within iChat AV. Choose from settings such as "Enhanced", "Extra Bright" and even conference in near darkness with "Night Vision".

As an added bonus, the software also activates the iSight on G3 computers which fall below Apple's minimum system requirement of 600 MHz.

Posted by Frank Bisono at 9:56 AM | Permalink

MOTU releases Digital Performer 4.5 with beat engine:

MOTU has released Digital Performer 4.5, an update to the company's integrated MIDI and audio sequen...

Posted by Frank Bisono at 4:05 PM | Permalink

Introducing Two New Jam Packs:

Apple introduces two new Jam Packs for its GarageBand music creation software, giving musicians and aspiring musicians more Apple Loops and software instruments to create music. Jam Pack 2: Remix Tools makes it easy to produce compelling dance, hip-hop and electronica tracks, while Jam Pack 3: Rhythm Section offers songwriters a complete backing band for their rock, alternative and country music. [Sep 29]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:11 PM | Permalink

Apple Debuts Logic Express 7:

Logic Express 7, a streamlined version of Logic, provides a basic set of professional tools for students, educators and advanced hobbyists at an affordable price. [Sep 29]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:11 PM | Permalink

Apple Unveils Logic Pro 7:

Logic Pro 7, the next major release of the award-winning professional music creation and audio production software, will change the way musicians and audio engineers worldwide compose, record, edit and mix music in any studio environment. In addition to more than 100 workflow enhancements, breakthrough new software instruments, new mastering plug-ins and support for Apple Loops, Logic Pro 7 also debuts distributed audio processing, a revolutionary technology which allows audio pros to tap into a virtually unlimited number of Macs to expand available Digital Signal Processing (DSP) power. [Sep 29]

Posted by Frank Bisono at 12:10 PM | Permalink