Randomly Mac

As you probably know, I write Mac tips on A New Mac Tip Every Day, but I also do filmmaking, podcasting, visual effects, etc.  I have had the chance to try great visual effects application lately and here is my review of Knoll Light Factory:

The Knoll Light Factory is a very useful asset when working with visual effects shots.  Like anything in visual effects, using it too much will quickly make your shot lose realism, but using it just enough combined with other effects can make a truly stunning shot.  There are numerous presets and settings that you can tweak to give each shot a unique look.  What I really like about this plugin and other plugins from Red Giant Software is that it is one single price that includes both the PC and the Mac version for numerous applications: After Effects, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Motion and Avid.  The latest version is also GPU accelerated and it greatly speeds up the workflow.  Red Giant Software claims speed icreases up to 10x depending on the graphics card.  It is an awesome plugin that I highly recommend for anyone working on visual effects shots.  Overall 5/5.  More info here on Red Giant Software’s website.

I have a small iPhone tip that I think is pretty useful. When your iPhone logs on to a WiFi network, it automatically stops using Edge. Sometimes, you just tried a few open wifi networks trying to get internet, but none of them actually had internet access. The problem is that when you get back to this place, your iPhone will automatically log on to this network and you’ll lose Edge access. I had a similar problem, I have two wifi networks. One for High-Speed internet and for Dial-Up (when high-speed is down). As you might have seen from my Facebook status, my high-speed was down for a week and I had to rely on dial-up. When I went back to high-speed, my iPhone automatically connected to Dial-Up by default. It wasn’t clever enough to figure out that there was no internet access there and the other network was the best choice. There is a solution to all these issues and it is “Forget this Network”. To get this option, click on the blue arrow at the right of the wifi network in WiFi preferences. If it is one of your preferred network, there will be an option at the top to “Forget this Network”.

The Season Pass on iTunes really were not a good deal this year and it is because of the writer’s strike.  A lot of people bought them before everyone knew how real the strike was.  We have been wondering how Apple will resolve this for a few months now.  Apple finally announced what is going on.   Apple will reportedly offer a credit for the percentage of unaired episodes.  No credit will be issued if the show restarts and all episodes are aired and distributed on iTunes.  Apple will also offer two free episodes to Season Pass subscribers as a “thank you for your patience”.  It took a while, but I think Apple handled this pretty well overall.  They were probably only waiting to see if the strike was going to end before deciding on what to offer.

I was just on a pretty long trip and it gave me the opportunity to test out the new iPod game Scrabble.  First, I have to say that if you don’t like the traditional Scrabble board game, you won’t like the iPod version more.  It is very similar to what the board game is.   My main comments will be about how it is adapted for the iPod.  It is not really the best game for the clickwheel.  Some games are great on the iPod and they would really have to be modified for a touch interface.  It is quite the opposite for Scrabble.  A touch interface would actually make a lot more sense.  When you place the word on the board, the clickwheel will only go left or right.  You actually have to press up or down to move vertically.  You don’t need to click, just pressing on the clickwheel will do.  It is very similar to placing the ball on the pool table in the Sims iPod Billiard game.  Overall, the game is great and the implementation is good, but not as good as I thought it could be.  It is a 4/5.

Apple didn’t implement any form of wireless synching for the iPhone and the iPod Touch and it doesn’t look like there are any plans to do so. Their argument is that wireless synching would drain the battery too fast and you want to hook up your iPod to your Mac for charging it anyway. I kind of agree with that, but I still think a simplified wireless synching should be implemented. The way I see simplified is that there would be no need to copy actual music, tv shows, movies or podcasts. It would only copy the information about where you are in a specific tv show, movie or podcast. I nearly always start listening to a podcast on one device and finish on another. If it wouldn’t be for that information that could easily be synched wirelessly every hour or even every half hour, I would probably only sync my iPod only once a day.

Another idea that I’ve had (are you listening Steve?, I really want this) is that the same thing could be done over dotMac. dotMac syncs a lot of stuff between Macs, but not the information about where you are in a tv show, podcast, etc. If I start watching a tv show on my Desktop, why do I have to remember where I stopped when I want to continue on my MacBook? In these days where everything is supposed to stay in sync thanks to the internet, I just don’t understand why it is not happening.

Anyway, if you know of an application that would sync that at least between Macs, post about it in the comments.

South by Southwest is all about film and music and it takes place every year in Austin, Texas. All the music from the music festival is legally released online as a free download from South by Southwest every year. It is an opportunity for independent artists to get visibility throughout the web. If you want to get this music, it was all put together in a package by Greg Hewgill. You can also download the music from the previous years.

Download page here.

When I saw that Apple released yet another iPod game this week, I just had to try it.  I have to say that this won’t be my most positive review ever.  It is okay, but not that great.  I think it is aimed at a much younger audience.  It is really yet another mix of classic games such Peggle, Brick, Block Breaker and all these sorts of games.  The different levels are extremely repetitive and kind of too easy.  Also, after a while of doing the same thing, it doesn’t look like you are getting anywhere.  I would say that it might be 4/5 for kids, but overall, I would have to give it a 2.5/5.

So here is my first real post on this new website. It is really if you are working in pro video. It is about the Blackmagic Intensity Card. This however works only in the Mac Pro as it requires a PCI Express slot. The standard version will give you an HDMI input and a HDMI output. The pro version also features analog inputs and outputs. I tested the standard version because I have no need for analog. It was hooked up to a Canon HV20. Here is what I think of it:

It incorporates very nicely with Final Cut Pro. It automatically installs presets in FCP for capturing HD from the card to many formats. What is great is it lets you bypass the HDV compression and lets you go directly to Pro Res or even Uncompressed HD. You need to have an extremely fast RAID 0 capture scratch drive if you want to capture to uncompressed. It seems like Pro Res could be captured to a single 7200 rpm hard drive while Uncompressed required a 3 drives RAID 0. The standard card retails for $249 while the pro version retails for $349.

Hey everyone.  I am the author of A New Mac Tip Every Day and I just started working on this new website.  There is a lot of stuff that I wanted to post about, but it just didn’t fit in with A New Mac Tip Every Day.  This is a less serious website, but there will still be lot of great and useful info (hardware reviews, iPod game reviews,