Apple have released a whole load of exciting product updates at its annual September event.
Apple TV – The Apple TV has had a major make over and now comes in a very small, sexy package. Apple has realised streaming media to your TV is the way to go, you can stream media from your computer or from other sources such as YouTube and Netflix (only to US subscribers though). You can control the Apple TV via your iPhone or iPod Touch with the ability to stream media from your iDevices coming soon.
iPod Touch - Has received the somewhat expected but appreciated features of FaceTime video calling, a camera on the front and another on the back, high resolution retina display and HD Video Recording. To help with gaming it has a three-axis gyroscope for greater movement precision.
iPod Nano - Has been given a redesign, it now features a small and square multi-touch interface. It also has a built-in FM radio.
iPod Shuffle - now resembles an earlier generation shuffle as the clickwheel has made a comeback. It also features a VoiceOver button so your iPod Shuffle can tell you what song or playlist is playing.
iTunes 10 – Now has iTunes Ping for following artists and friends, TV Show rentals, AirPlay for playing music wirelessly and improved syncing with Apples iDevices.
Multi-Find/Change from Automatication is a scripted plug-in for managing and running Find/Change queries using InDesign or InCopy.
Available for CS4 and CS5 Multi-Find/Change organises multiple Find/Change queries into saved sets so they can be easily run when needed with a click of a button. Sets can be easily shared with other Multi-Find/Change users.
The Find/Change command is a powerful tool for cleaning up and formatting tech within your InDesign Document. Useful for removing or replacing double spaces, double tabs, changing multiple returns to a single return and correctly formatting text within your document.
Multi-Find/Change saves you from the laborious task of manually correcting and formatting your document by having multiple scripts do it for you quickly and efficiently.
Microsoft demonstrate some new features of Office 2011 for Mac. Compatibility with Office for Windows, visualisation of data within Excel and basic photo editing within the Office suite feature in this video. Background removal and colour correction in Office… interesting.
We have an extra special guest this meeting! We also have a copy of Adobe Creative Suite to give away — so come along with your best shortcut, tip, or trick to go into the draw.
If there is something you would like us to present, or question/s answered, please email us prior to the meeting.
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Date, time, and location
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010
6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Media Design School
Level 10
242 Queen Street
Auckland, Central 1010
*Sign in on level 10 then proceed to 12.
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Agenda
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6:00 – Doors open to mix and mingle
6:30 – Introduction
6:40 – Automatication’s Multi Find/Change for CS4 and CS5
7:10 – Using Object Styles in CS4 and CS5 with Marcus
7:40 – Something new, very cool and awesome in InDesign CS5 with Heather
8:10 – Shortcuts, Tips and Tricks — best one gets the prize
8:30 – Mix and mingle plus draw for prize
9:00 – Doors Close
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Please register to attend
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We are currently developing a new update to Spark which should be out in the September timeframe. The direction of this update is around workflow, resource management, timesheets and general usability! We are very excited about it and think you will be too.
(Our first beta site said – Wow, this is AWESOME!)
Some notes:
The ability to put notes against a job to display in the WIP with an ETA and responsible person
Formatted WIP PDFs!
Project Proposals so you can have one PDF with multiple proposals summarised onto it.
More improvements to timesheets including comments on Multi-Time entry and “last 7 days”
Re-ordering of Materials in your Proposals and Invoices
Improvements to the user interface for easier training
Lots of small fixes and touch-ups
We will be sending out release notes closer to the time which will detail all the improvements – and then arrange to come out and walk you through the update so you get good use out of the system!
For more information contact Gemma Hurst or Marcus Radich on (09) 477 0396
Apple has given its Mac Pro line a significant refresh today. Processors have been upgraded, Intel’s “Westmere” is available in two 2.4GHz Quad-Core, or two 2.66GHz 6-Core configurations. The video card in the Mac Pro now comes with 1GB of GDDR5 memory with 2 Mini DisplayPort outputs and one dual-link DVI output.
The new video card will allow you to use two of Apple’s new 27″ LED Cinema Displays on your Mac Pro. The new Cinema Display is very similar to the existing 24″ LED Cinema Display. It does have upgraded speakers and a longer video cable though. It is expected that the 27″ display with replace existing Apple’s 24″ and much older 30″ displays.
The iMac has also been given a refresh, Intel’s dual-core i3 and i5 processors are put to good use with quad-core i5 or i7 available on the higher end iMac. The high end iMac also gets the option of a solid state drive as either a primary or secondary drive.
Apple also introduced the Magic TrackPad, a wireless trackpad that resembles a small Wacom but allows you to use multitouch gestures like you can on Apple’s mobile devices. You can pinch, scroll, swipe and rotate on the Magic TrackPad in the same way you can with your Apple laptop. The Magic TrackPad is being marketed as a companion to the mouse, it looks like it will be a while before the mouse gets relegated to history.
Today Digital Arena got together today to take on Ten Pin Bowling at Takapuna. There were plenty of strikes, spares and gutter balls and with all of the excitement no one remembers who the winner was.
We have been working on the translation of Keynote presentations from your Mac over to the iPad version. The iPad version is very powerful – but does have a cut down feature set compared to the Mac version. With the iPad coming soon (or for those who already have them!) the use of Keynote is an interesting one, especially when you have the iPad to VGA cable allowing you to connect the iPad to projectors!
So, in order to get your presentations ready, take a look at these Apple support pages here and here. And there are a few third party tips sitting here.
Presentations from the Mac are synced over to the iPad using iTunes and then Keynote for the iPad will import the presentation. On that import, it will check your presentation and alert you to any issues which you can then resolve.
