Yesterday or sometime early today, Apple released their latest slew of updates to the public touching upon four aspects of general Mac usage. iPhoto, iLife, iMovie, & iWeb were all updated. Here's what Apple had to say about each. 

• iPhoto v7.1.4 77.1mb: "This update contains new holiday greeting card and postcard themes for use with Apple print products. This update also addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues."
• iLife Support v8.3 5.5mb: "Life Support provides system software components shared by all iLife '08 applications. This update improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues. It is recommended for all users for iLife '08." 
• iMovie v7.1.4 39.8mb: "This update addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues."
• iWeb v2.0.4 36.3mb: "This update addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues."

Needless to say, the meat and potatoes of this update pack goes to iPhoto who got holiday greeting cards and the like. Overall, not a very exciting release in the least but an update none the less.

Enjoy!

Wichtig ist, dass man bei der Erstellung des Projektes das Videoformat (relativ klein und unten, rechts von einem kleinen Dreieck im Dialogfeld "Neues Projekt" zu finden) auf HDV 720p (eine vertikale Auflösung von 720 Punkten genügt derzeit wohl) definiert - sonst nimmt iMovie PAL mit nur 768x526 Bildpunkten an und reduziert die Auflösung aller Bilder entsprechend.

Als erstes füge ich gerne die Tonspur hinzu - dann weiss ich in etwa wie lange die Präsentation werden soll und kann mir so die Anzeigedauer je Bild ausrechen.

Dann muss man beim Hinzufügen der Bilder beachten, dass man über die Bildeinstellungen eine ersten Bildes schon einmal die Dauer der Anzeige je Bild und den Zoomfaktor für den Start von Ken Burns Effekten sinnvoll einstellt. Da ich z.B. nicht alle Bilder bewegt einbinden will und gerne das gesamte Bild sehen möchte schalte ich den Effekt aus und achte auf einen Faktor von 1.

Als nächstes kommen ev. Filter (Sepia, ...) und die Übergänge dazu - letztere verkürzen die Länge der Videospur! (Wohl wegen der Überschneidungen)

Zuletzt fügt man die Titel hinzu.

Export hochauflösender Diashows aus iMovie

Das mühsamste ist die richtigen Einstellungen zu finden, so dass der exportierte Film ruckelfrei abläuft und die Bilder scharf dargestellt werden. Ich hab nach langem Probieren diese Einstellung gewählt

Entscheidend war unter anderem, dass man die Bildrate auf 24fps fix einstellt - vor allem bei längeren Filmen. Dazu noch das Hackerl gesetzt bei "Deinterleaced" und ich hab einen ruckelfreien Film mit gestochen scharfen Aufnahmen bekommen.

Lässt sich sowohl am Mac als auch unter Windows XP (bei installiertem QuickTime 7) abspielen.

Größe: Ein 7 Minuten "Film" in HD (1280x720) wird bei dieser Einstellung knapp 900 MB groß - wenn man die Qualität im Compressor von "Optimal" auf 75% reduziert, werden daraus 717 MB - die Einsparung hält sich also in Grenzen und wenn man genau schaut, sieht man den Qualitätsunterschied.

Im Quicktime wird dann diese Info angezeigt:

iPhoto 7.1.4 (74 MB)

iLife Support 8.3 (10MB)

iMovie 7.1.4 (38 MB)

iWeb 2.0.4 (35MB)

If you haven't downloaded these new updates as of yet, you can download the updates via Software Update.

07/22/2008

iLife Support 8.3 | 10MB
iLife Support provides system software components shared by all iLife '08 applications.

iPhoto 7.1.4 | 74MB
This update contains new holiday greeting card and postcard themes for use with Apple print products.

iMovie 7.1.4 | 38MB
This update addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.

iWeb 2.0.4 | 35MB
This update addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.

Apple was expected to release some updates to the iLife '08 suite to bring compabilities with the newly launched MobileMe.

• iLife-Support aktualisiert die Systemkomponenten für alle iLife-Programme
• iPhoto erhält neue Themen für Apple-Druckerzeugnisse (Online erhältlich)
• iWeb behebt Kompatibilitätsprobleme
• iMovie verbessert die Kompatibilität und Stabilität

• it has a 23/39-117mm dual wide angle/zoom lens. The 23mm lens is just super handy
• records MP4 movies
• iMovie 08 had some problems with it when it was first released but after a couple of updates, iMovie seemed to be happy with the movie files captured by that camera.Everything was so working-fine until this little camera broke down. I think it was because I carried it in my jeans’ pocket while I was riding on my friend’s motor bike in Taipei.

Oh well, cool. Time for a new camera! I wanted to buy one that fulfill the main requirements above. After a bit of research, First, I was thinking of Panasonic FX-500 due to the wide angle zoom lens, touch screen and what not. But then, the video recording was only motion-jpeg. Yuck!

Then, I saw the Samsung NV24HD that is almost a perfect match of my requirements. I had some hesitation initially because of its rather new entry to the market and the below average picture quality. But then, it’s a compact, I thought. And it should be a fun camera. So, right before I left for London last month, I got it. And it was, indeed, a fun camera.

So I took loads of pics and movies on my 4G cards. Back home, iPhoto/iMovie time. Only to find that iMovie 08 is not happy with the MP4 files. Then, I found out I am not the only one out there having this issue.

So, yesterday, I finally got some time to play around with the files and found a pretty good work around. The solution I came up will both transcode the files into iMovie 08 compatible format AND have iMovie import/generate the thumbnails fast (well, it will never be fast in iMovie 08 when it comes to Thumbnail generation, but it’s quite reasonable)

Option 1: QuickTime

I tried transcoding using QuickTime Pro. I found that when you get the settings correct, you will get the file exported with pretty much the same quality and import to iMovie really fast. The steps are:

1. Load your clip in QT (that’s a given)
2. File->Export...
3. In the “export:” combo box, choose “Movie to MPEG-4”
4. In the “use:” combo box, you can use whatever. For me, I started with “Lan/Intranet”
5. Click “Options” and you will see a screen similar to the one of the right. Choose “H.264” for Video Format.
6. Make sure you set the “Data Rate” to at 6000-7000 (that’s around the same bit rate as the original clip)
7. Make sure you set the Frame Rate to some value (I set it to 30 to match the clips I got)
8. For key frames, I found that if you use QT, it doesn’t matter that much and I tried “Automatic” and Every 150 Frames but they both produced files that import to iMovie with similar speed. If you have a problem with import speed, try using a smaller value. Now if you use VisualHub, key frame setting does matter on both the import speed and within iMovie when you slide you mouse over the thumbnail. (more on this later)
9. Optionally, you can click “Video Option...” and change the Encoding Mode to Mult-pass, but I found the Single-pass is good enough AND Faster

I tested with a 12s clip and it took QT about 40s to export and about 5-6s for iMovie to import/generate thumbnail on that file. Not bad but not good enough because:

• QT encoding is rather slow
• QT does not do batch export. You have to write an Apple Script to perform batch export (which you can find it easily on the web but I didn’t like it)
• Most importantly, the NV24HD always leaves a blank frame at the beginning of the movie. Using QT to transcode the file will either leave the first frame as blank or fill it in with the last frame. C’mon, Steve.

Option 2: VisualHub

Then, I tried VisualHub. The quality of the output is great as long as you jack up the quality to high or “go nuts” (over killed though). But I found that the output files import/thumbnail generate really slow in iMovie and sliding your mouse over the thumbnail was very choppy. After testing with a series different settings. I found that the key setting is the GOP setting of ffmpeg library used in VisualHub. So, I recommend the following:

1. Use the MP4 Tab
2. Select H.264 Encoding
3. Select High for Quality
4. Do NOT select Hint for Streaming because this only marks the output as Streaming (therefore, not able to download) This will produce files that are not importable to iMovie.
5. Click Advanced...
6. In “Force:” Combobox, select “FFmpeg Decoding
7. in the “Extra FFmpeg Flags” type “-g 10” or select “Use /n/ keyframes” and modify n to 10 (Same thing). You can have a bigger value but I found that the smaller the keyframe interval, the faster the output file gets imported to iMovie and moves smoother when you slide your mouse over the thumbnail.
8. The smaller value also produce bigger file (as more keyframes are being put into the file) but I found that 10 is probably the sweet spot.
9. That’s it. Drag your files to the list, set your output directory and click start.

The 12s clip took VisualHub about 30s to transcode with the settings above and 10s for iMovie to import/generate thumbnail. In iMovie, sliding your mouse over the thumbnail is also very smooth just like using QT.

Sweet!

So, for those of you who have VisualHub, I recommend using it instead of QT.

Note that your mileage may vary as I was doing all these on a relatively fast disk (4-disk, 70% full RAID 5 Array) with around 200MB/Sec throughput left. My Mac Pro and graphics card is a little old though, the first generation Dual core 2.66GHz x 2 and the ATI 1900XT. It would be interesting to see if I can push the speed even further with my 8 disk RAID 5 empty partition 8-)

This hip tech savy company posted revenue of $7.46 billion and net profited $1.07 billion, for the third quarter ending June 28, or $1.19 per diluted share. These numbers compare to revenue of $5.21 billion and net profited $818 million, or $.92 per diluted share, in year ago. 

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said "We're proud to report the best June quarter for both revenue and earning in Apple's history." The company shipped 2.5 million Mac computers during the quarter, according to Apple's recent earning press release. 

In this video tutorial I describe how you can create a movie in iMovie 08 without actually using video. Simply just using JPEGs and the voiceover function in iMovie

Oh, and I remember I wanted to make an imovie rant, but I can't remember what I wanted to rant about. So clearly that idea is down the drain.

I'm going to a concert on Monday and quite excited about it. Even though that means I'll be really really tired for work the next day, because I probably won't get to bed until like 3am or something and I have to get up at six. Three hours? Right, three.

Right now I'm watching a documentary on the travel channel on BigFoot.
Not sure what to believe about this one. But I'm leaning towards the side that it's just some random guy who has dedicated his life to creating this creature called bigfoot, and the profession has been passed on for generations. Kind of like a mythical creature cosplay.

Here's a short video I took on my FLIP camera and edited on iMovie.  Let me know what you think since I'm still tinkering with my camera and my editing skills.

By the way, the photos were being sold, starting at $175.  Beautiful shots but too rich for my blood.  The photos were almost as expensive as the clothes at Club Monaco.  As you saw on the video, I agree with my friend and probably wait until there's a sale at the store.  Who pay more that $25 for a pair of boxers?

For those unfamiliar with ARTafterDARK, this group is dedicated to exploring the arts and presents an event the last Friday of each month at the Honolulu Academy of Arts from 6 to 9 p.m.  I've been to a couple events and it's been a hit or miss since I mostly go for the food and entertainment.  Check out their upcoming event in July called "So Sari!".  A play on Indian culture and Bollywood, guests will have a chance to be creative with flowers by helping to make a pukalam and dine on cuisine from E&O Trading Co.

This effects are available for G5 and Intel processor.
Some could be supported by PowerPC G4 (with Powerboost) in Photobooth or iChat.

Click Here

El paquete Ilife se compone de 5 programas: Iweb, Imovie, IPhoto, IDvd, Garage Band.

El Iweb es un programa para crear páginas web de forma muy sencilla.  Lo primero que has de hacer es elegir una plantilla que se adapte al tipo de web que quieres hacer.  Tiene webs para niños, para viajes, para bodas, profesionales, de tal forma que es fácil encontrar una a gusto de cada situación.  Simplemente con arrastrar una foto, video o mp3 del escritorio al iweb lo tendremos insertado.  Nos permite crear blogs, instertar publicidad del google adsense así como un contador de visitas y un sin fin de opciones mas.

El caso es que para un usuario casero sin idea de hacer páginas web, con pocos conocimientos de manejo, puede crear una web con aspecto bastante profesional con este programa.  Como siempre apple tiene programas de consumo con un resultado muy profesional y un manejo bastante sencillo.

Este curso lo estamos haciendo con Fade.

Snart läggdags, snark. zzZZzzZZZZzzzz

"Das Projekt konnte nicht gesichert werden. Möglicherweise ist das Volume voll oder schreibgeschützt oder Sie haben nicht die erforderlichen Zugriffsrechte für den aktuellen Speicherort (0)."

Die aufgezählten Möglichkeiten brachten mich dann letztendlich dazu, mir die Berechtigungen genauer anzusehen; und das war es dann auch: Die Datei *.iMovieProj in dem betroffenen Projektpaket (also muss man erst einmal das iMovie-Projekt mit "Paketinhalt zeigen" öffnen) hatte einen unbekannten Benutzer mit "Keine Rechte".