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New “Drastic And Ambitious” Final Cut Pro Launching In Spring?

There is some speculation that the next release of Final Cut Pro which is part of the Final Cut Studio suite of video editing applications, will be coming sometime this spring according to sources that spoke to TechCrunch. Some people had been speculating that Apple may stop working on the far more professional-orientated Final Cut Pro and focus on the consumer iMovie program but Steve Jobs sent some of his trademark short and vague emails last year saying to “Stay tuned and buckle up” and also “Next release will be awesome.”

Supposedly Apple recently held a preview of the next version of Final Cut Pro on its Cupertino campus in which a small group of video editors were invited for feedback. This forthcoming version of Final Cut Pro, the eighth, is said to be “the biggest overhaul to Final Cut Pro since the original version was created over 10 years ago.”

A source told TechCrunch that the release would have a multitude of extensive changes from low-level architectural changes to a complete user interface redesign. 64-bit support is also expected to be on the list of improvements, something that its users have been quite vocal about. Those that have seen a demo of the product have said that the changes can be classified as “drastic and ambitious”.

[Via TechCrunch]

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Apple Cuts The Minimum iAd Buy In Half

Now that the first run of iAd campaigns has concluded, AllThingsD is reporting that Apple has decided to cut the minimum required spending in half from a steep $1 million to $500,000. The change has presumably been made because whilst it has been reasonably successful, the number of ads being presented and filling ad spots actually decreased this year. As a result Apple may be wanting to attract some smaller scale advertisers which couldn’t afford to enter the platform previously and fill those ad spots.

Read more

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Will Apple Finally Drop The White MacBook? 16GB SSDs In MacBook Pros?

I’ve hedged bets with Federico that Apple would drop the white MacBook this time around, and I might be up $100 in the betting pool thanks to MacGeneration, who speculates Apple will replace the plastic model with the 13” MacBook Air. It only makes sense - I can’t help think of a more sensible pricing tier from little MacBook to big MacBook.

MacGeneration via AppleInsider reports that the 13” MacBook would see an upgrade to Intel’s core i3 processor, as well seeing a display bump to a new 1440x900 pixel resolution and the addition of a third USB port.

The fifteen inch MacBook Pro would see the option to replace superdrive replaced for an SSD, and the 17” model may come standard with 8 GB of RAM.

Each of the MacBooks are expected to debut Intel’s new LightPeak technology, and are also reported to be introducing a new formfactor that should result in lighter, more powerful models with Intel’s Sandy Bridge inside. A 16 GB SSD could supplement a hard disk drive for faster booting and system performance.

[MacGeneration via AppleInsider]

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iPod Nano Software Update Lets You Control Music with Sleep Button

Earlier today Apple issued a software update for the iPod Nano 6th generation, which brings a useful feature to the device: you can now control music and radio playback using the Sleep / Wake button without looking at the screen.

With iPod software update version 1.1 for iPod nano (6th generation), you will be able to:

Completely turn off the iPod, rather than just put the device to sleep.

Control music or radio playback using the Sleep/Wake button without having to look at the device.

Another notes provided by Apple on the iPod Nano 1.1 update:

  • When the iPod nano is off, you will not hear or be alerted to any alarm or reminder set on the iPod. When you turn iPod nano back on, alarms or reminders that haven’t yet expired will occur as scheduled.
  • If you turn iPod nano back on within five minutes of when it was turned off, it will remember your music playlist and what was playing. However, if you turn iPod nano back on more than five minutes after it was turned off, the device will not remember what you were doing on the device or which application was active.

More information about the update available here.

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iPad 2: The Rumor Timeline

With the iPad 2 announcement reportedly scheduled for a media event next week in San Francisco, it’s time to take a step back and re-analyze rumors posted in past months about the next-generation device. If rumors are of any indication and sources to be trusted, this little trip down the memory lane should give us a quick recap of the details we think we know about the iPad 2.

So read along after the break, and let’s see what the Apple rumor mill offered so far about the new tablet. Read more

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iPad 2 Event on March 2?

All Things Digital reports Apple will unveil the iPad 2 next week, at a media event on March 2:

To those who intensely cares about this kind of stuff–which would be pretty much everyone in the tech ecosystem–Apple will hold its much-anticipated event on March 2, where the tech giant seems poised to unveil a new version of its hugely successful iPad.

It’s not clear when Apple will begin sending out its famous invites for gathering, but I am guessing soon, in order to get the Apple faithful to the proper level of froth.

Invitations for the event haven’t been sent out to bloggers and journalists yet, and if the date is real this time, we suspect it may happen as early as tonight or tomorrow morning. Note that March 2nd is a Wednesday, a day that fits Apple’s typical patterns for media events. It is also unclear whether Apple will hold a smaller event for the announcement in Cupertino, or at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Steve Jobs won’t likely announce the product on stage, leaving the presentation to Tim Cook and Phil Schiller – like in 2009 for the iPhone 3GS media event (when Jobs was on a medical leave of absence). The Yerba Buena Center calendar indeed shows there are no available programs on March 2. Read more

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Rumor: iPhone 5 In September?

Right after speculation of a “delayed” iPad 2 launch in June, Business Insider reports FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger said in a note to investors that the next-generation iPhone might not be ready until September:

For the iPhone 5, we continue to hear that a July launch is unlikely, with various casing suppliers and touch suppliers still ramping up, with some chip vendors not having yet received firm iPhone 5 orders, and with other sockets like the image sensor (most likely going to Omnivision exclusively, but with some potential for Sony to split that socket) still in flux. Given these factors, we think a September launch is more likely.

These reports of analysts claiming delayed launches of various Apple products keep on sounding very inconsistent to us. How come Apple is experiencing all these production issues in 2011? What about iPad 3 in September rumors, white iPhone 5? We think these reports are based on nothing but pure speculation – we really hope so.

Apple usually announces a new model of the iPhone at the WWDC in June, releasing it a few weeks later. A September launch would also possibly delay the iPod / iPod touch regular updates. A number of reports in the past indicated the new iPhone (dubbed iPhone 5) was on track for a summer / June release, featuring a new Apple A5 processor, NFC capabilities and a slightly bigger screen (this one not very likely to happen).

Here’s an idea: what of this September launch analysts have reported is about a smaller iPhone, and not the iPhone5? The New York Times wouldn’t agree.

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Increase Your Mac’s Volume with Boom

You’ve been there before: you’ve reached the maximum volume level on your Mac, but that Youtube audio is just too low. Or, you’ve bought a pair of fancy new speakers for your MacBook Air but the default volume output doesn’t satisfy you. The annoyances of low volume in situations when you’d like to rock out your room are terrible, if you ask me. But luckily, a Mac app properly named Boom by Global Delight will allow you to dramatically increase the volume of your OS X machine with a simple slider in the menubar. Read more

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Photopod Aggregates Your Photos From the Cloud: Flickr, Facebook, Dropbox, Twitter

It’s been rumored that with the next versions of iOS, and most notably the MobileMe service, Apple will heavily rely on the cloud to allow users to store media like photos, music and videos online and stream them at any time on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. A move to cloud-based storage would allow the company to produce cheaper devices with less internal storage, and let users access personal content anywhere as long as an Internet connection is available at the same time.

Photopod, an iPhone app available in the App Store and developed by Dear Future Astronaut, wants to become the ultimate photo aggregator and manager by providing a unified interface to browse pictures stored on a variety of online services. Think of it as a way to access content anywhere (and download it) using an application that does everything automatically through a tabbed “accordion” UI that brings Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Dropbox, Picasa and your Camera Roll all together.

Once authorized with the aforementioned services in the Settings (note that Twitter will only fetch images shared through TwitPic on your account), the main screen of the app will display a series of vertical tabs you can expand to reveal their contents – namely photos. As you open a tab, a list of thumbnail previews slides down allowing you to see all the photos you’ve stored locally or online. Tapping on the share button in the upper right corner will let you select multiple photos at once to upload them to a specific service. It’s very cool as it also lets you upload pictures from one service to another, or from your device to the cloud. You can also download photos to view them offline, or enter a basic editing mode that enables you to rotate and crop pictures. Everything is kept simple and accessible. Flickr, Facebook and Picasa even get menus for sets and menus you’ve organized your photos with.

I like Photopod because it brings the most popular photo sharing services together into a beautiful package that’s easy to use, fast, reliable and intuitive. The app is available here at $1.99, don’t miss it.

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