Final Cut Pro X Hands-On Video and Software Updates

Following this morning’s release of Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5 and Compressor 4 in the Mac App Store,  YouTube user Matt’s Macintosh has posted a first 10-minute video hands-on with FCP X, available at $299 as digital-only download. The video, which we’re embedding after the break, highlights some of Final Cut Pro’s new functionalities such as the revamped iMovie-like UI, magnetic timeline, new effects, as well as the additional content Apple has already made available for FCP X users via Software Update. Furthermore, the author of the video notes how real-time rendering allows to import, edit and play clips in seconds without any waiting as in the previous versions, and how text effects look like a combination of iMovie (undoubtedly a source of inspiration for the FCP X team) and Motion.

Check out the video below.

Update: direct links to the additional content download mentioned in the video:

Final Cut Pro X Content

  • Sound Effects: Over 1300 rights-free sound effects installed into the Audio Browser of Final Cut Pro X.
  • Audio Effect Presets: Additional preset effects for the Space Designer plug-in.

Motion 5 Content

  • Motion Templates: A variety of professionally-designed, customizable templates.
  • Motion Library Content: Animated vector graphics, backgrounds, template media, sample Motion projects, and royalty-free still images.
  • Motion Sample Media: Clips and images for use with Motion Help examples and tutorials.

ProApps QuickTime Codecs

  • Apple Intermediate Codec
  • Apple ProRes
  • AVC-Intra
  • DVCPRO HD
  • HDV
  • XDCAM HD / EX / HD422
  • MPEG IMX
  • Uncompressed 4:2:2

Apple has also published a database of cameras compatible with Final Cut Pro X here with the following notes:

  • Final Cut Pro X is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 2, and iPod touch (4th generation).
  • Final Cut Pro X is compatible with most MiniDV tape-based camcorders using DV and HDV formats, which use a FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.LINK) cable to transfer video.
  • If you have imported video into iPhoto or Aperture from a digital still camera, you can drag compatible video clips from iPhoto or Aperture directly to an Event in the Final Cut Pro X Event Library or a project in the Timeline.

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Terminology 2.0 Released, Improves UI and App Integration

Terminology, the dictionary & thesaurus app for iPhone and iPad that was recently integrated with Mr. Reader and Instapaper, got a major update on both platforms earlier today, reaching version 2.0 and adding a number of features aimed at enhancing and better integrating the Terminology experience with third-party apps, and online services. First off, Terminology 2.0 comes with a rewritten user interface that doesn’t look different from the previous version, but brings performance improvements and faster response times that should make browsing through words and definitions even faster than before. Terminology has always been a lightweight app with an elegant UI and very little clutter, yet this new update wants to make things more stable and streamlined.

For example, the rewritten user interface allows you to pick different font and choose different font sizes. The selection includes Baskerville, Cochin, Georgia, Palatino and Helvetica Neue fonts, and can be made from a little popover menu in the bottom left corner. Alongside other minor improvements and the possibility of automatically getting results for clipboard contents, Terminology 2.0 shines when it comes to integration with apps and web services: for instance, you can activate links that will bring you to Twitterrific or Wikipedia client Articles (if installed), or open the selected word in Terminology’s companion website term.ly, which, by the way, looks really neat.

Articles support is very useful as well in the way it looks up the closest word to Terminology’s definition – example: “inherently” looked up as “inherence” on Wikipedia.

Terminology 2.0 is a free update for existing customers and can be downloaded at $2.99 here in its iPad version, or here if you prefer the smaller iPhone counterpart. Highly recommended – read our original Terminology review here.

iPhone 5 Major Design Change? Announcement in August?

According to BGR – which has a good track record with Apple rumors – the next-generation iPhone, dubbed iPhone 5, won’t be a minor hardware refresh as many have speculated and reported until today. According to the website, in fact, a source close to Apple’s operations has confirmed the new iPhone will bring major changes especially in case design, which BGR calls a “radical” change. No other details have been posted on the alleged iPhone 5 specifications, though it needs to be mentioned that, among rumors of minor hardware updates and spec bumps, This is my next reported months ago the iPhone 5 would be a major update with a completely new design and a “tear drop” case / screen. The same report also detailed how Apple could implement a thinner design and an update Home button, capable of doubling as “gesture area”.

BGR also claims an iPhone 5 announcement could come in August, with a release a few weeks later, although it’s not clear how this would play out with Apple’s usual music event in the first week of September:

According to our source, Apple may hold an event in the beginning or middle of August to announce the new iPhone, with availability to follow in the last week of August. We’re not sure if that means the iPod event will be moved up slightly, or if this will be an iPhone-specific event.

Speculation is running wild at this point as to whether the iPhone 5 will be similar to the iPhone 4 and only feature a faster processor (likely A5) and better cameras, or be a major change from the existing iPhone hardware with a bigger screen, different Home button, and perhaps NFC capabilities. Several rumors in the past claimed Apple would announce and release a new iPhone in September, shifting its usual release cycle from summer to the fall. As for recent rumors, whilst many publications reported the iPhone 5 (or “iPhone 4S” due to the rumored nature of minor update) wouldn’t be a significant upgrade spec-wise, others claimed a curved glass screen and GSM/CDMA dual-mode could be part of Apple’s announcements. Other noteworthy reports from the past months also indicated the “iPhone 4S” would go into mass production in August (thus backing up BGR’s theory of a late August release) and that Apple was testing an A5-powered iPhone 4 prototype running on T-Mobile network.

Last week, it was reported the iPhone 5 reached the final testing stage, for a September 2011 launch.

Update: Aside from BGR’s speculation, it’s worth considering that Apple might want to ship the new iPhone model with iOS 5 already pre-installed, rather than forcing users to manually update to iOS 5 when it comes out a few weeks later, likely in September. In fact, Apple confirmed that iOS 5 is coming out “this Fall” after a beta period for developers this Summer. As several bloggers and tech pundits were already claiming months ago iOS 5 would come out in September, that might be the reason why many believe the iPhone 5 is set for a Fall release too, shortly after iOS 5 comes out. For example, when Apple released the iPhone 4 on June 24 last year, the device was running iOS 4 out of the box – the OS was publicly released on June 21.

Apple Releases New Time Capsule with 3 TB Storage, $499

As the rumors correctly suggested, Apple has just launched a new Time Capsule model with 3 TB of storage. At the moment of writing this a press release isn’t out yet and the Apple website seems to be going under an update, and from what we can see right now there’s no mention of additional caching capabilities for software updates or iCloud integration.

The Time Capsule retains the same 802.11n wireless features of the previous models with simultaneous dual-band operation and Mac / PC compatibility. The device now comes in 2 TB and 3 TB configurations and Apple’s product page states it “starts at $299”, though the retail website hasn’t been updated yet with the new models’ pricing.

The AirPort Extreme, also rumored for an update, doesn’t look like will be getting a refresh today.

Update: The new Time Capsule models are now available on the Apple online Store. The 2 TB version is priced at $299, whilst the new 3 TB one is available at $499. From the search results:

Apple Releases Final Cut Pro X On The Mac App Store For $299

UPDATE: Final Cut Pro X is now available in the Mac App Store, as well as Motion 5 and Compressor 4.

Apple has just issued a press release noting that Final Cut Pro X will launch sometime today on the Mac App Store for a price of $299.99 with Motion 5 and Compressor 4 also out today for $49.99 each.

Apple® today announced Final Cut Pro® X, a revolutionary new version of the world’s most popular Pro video editing software which completely reinvents video editing with a Magnetic Timeline that lets you edit on a flexible, trackless canvas; Content Auto-Analysis that categorizes your content upon import by shot type, media and people; and background rendering that allows you to work without interruption. Built on a modern 64-bit architecture, Final Cut Pro X is available from the Mac® App Store™ for $299.99.

Some of the new features of Final Cut Pro X include a vastly improved video editing experience, completely rebuilt to feature a “dynamic editing interface” including what Apple dubs a ‘Magnetic Timeline’ which lets editors assemble shots simply and quickly with no unwanted black gaps in the timeline. In a similar vein clips can now be connected so that as you move one clip to a new place on the timeline, all the other connected clips (such as music or audio effects) stay synchronized with the clip. Compound Clips is another new feature that lets editors combine a group of elements (clips, audio etc) into just one clip that can easily be moved around on the timeline.

Another cornerstone feature of FCP X is vastly improved media organization, starting with support for many more formats of video. Content is now automatically analyzed with FCP X organising your footage into preset kinds of footage including whether or not there are people in the shot (and whether it is just one person or a group), whether it is a wide or closeup shot, whether the footage is stable or shaky and so on. There is also support for keywords which can be applied quickly to any piece of footage, combine this feature with the content auto-analysis and you can find the shot you need nearly instantly. Other key points of interest include ‘Smart Collections’ allowing users to organize clips without having to physically move the file and direct access to content libraries such as Aperture and iPhoto.

As had been expected, performance is also a huge area of improvement for FCP X, off the bat there is support for the 64-bit architecture and then there is resolution independence (4K footage is now supported), improved GPU utilization, background processing and a shared render engine between Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor. Some final points of note are that FCP X comes with a large variety of video effects, including the standard ‘Film Grain’ and ‘Cartoon’ to many others. There are also title sequences and bundled audio effects that are royalty free.

Motion 5 which is also available from today from the Mac App Store for $49.99 which is Apple’s motion graphics tool that has been redesigned, adds new templates, simplified chroma-keying and similarly takes advantage of 64-bit architectures. Compressor 4 is also available for $49.99 in the Mac App Store and has seen some modest improvements and feature additions, most notably is again support for 64-bit architectures and GPU utilization. Curiously both Motion 5 and Compressor 4 mention Blu-Ray recording - perhaps a Mac accessory could soon allow direct Blu-Ray recording, or perhaps new Mac Pros.

You can purchase Final Cut Pro X in the Mac App Store for $299.99, also available in the Mac App Store is Motion 5 for $49.99 and Compressor 4 for $49.99. FCP X requires at least 2GB of RAM (4GB is recommended), an OpenCL-capable graphics card or an Intel HD Graphics 3000 or later, 256MB of VRAM and at least 2.4GB of disk space. For a full run down of new features be sure to check out the Final Cut Pro X page on the Apple Website.

Jump the break for Apple’s full press release.

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Report: Apple Demands Suppliers To Reduce Costs For iPhone And iPad Components

According to reports in today’s Economic Daily News, Apple has demanded cuts in supplier’s quotes for various components that are vital to the production of the iPhone and iPad. The paper has reported that Apple is putting significant pressure on the suppliers of PCBs, optical components, battery modules and touch panels to cut costs by 10% in the second quarter of 2011.

Apple is using the increased business it brings to the suppliers as a bargaining chip to get a 10% cut in costs. In particular the growing popularity of the iPad has meant that analysts are expecting a 70% growth in the second quarter, a significant windfall for Apple’s suppliers.

With a new iPhone expected sometime later this year and continued growth because of the iPad, Apple is expected to continue to demand cuts both in this quarter and on an ongoing basis.

[Via DigiTimes]

iPhone 4 Becomes The Most Popular Camera On Flickr

Sometime in the past few days, the iPhone 4 became the most popularly used camera on Flickr – two months after TechCrunch noted that it was poised to take the top spot. The Nikon D90 now holds the second spot, although its share of users has remained constant whilst the iPhone 4 has surged to the front. The next three spots are taken up by various Canon EOS line cameras including the 5D Mark II, Digital Rebel XSi and Rebel T1i.

In terms of smartphones the iPhone 4 took the lead a long time ago but it continues to extend its lead. It is followed by the iPhone 3G, 3GS and then the HTC Evo 4G. Surprisingly the iPod Touch rounds out the top smartphone cameras at number 5.

The iPhone 4 becoming the most popular camera in the Flickr community comes after the iPhone 3G held the top spot for just over a year. It lost the top spot earlier this year as it saw a significant reduction in users as the iPhone 4 surged in popularity (just see the above graph and the drop-off in 3G users).

[Via @espiekermann]

Firefox 5 Launches Today, Downloads Already Available

After a number of months in Aurora and Beta testing, the public release of Firefox 5 is expected to come sometime today, but ahead of schedule the downloads are already available now for all platforms.

Although the Firefox page has not yet been updated, notable new features in Firefox 5 include improved support for HTML5, MathML, XHR, more support for CSS animation, a ‘do not track’ option in the privacy pane and general speed and perfomance gains. There is also improved sync support, better add-on updates and improved spell checking for many languages.

You can download Firefox 5 here for Mac, Windows or Linux.

Update - Federico Viticci 5 PM GMT +1: Mozilla has announced the official release of Firefox 5, the first browser to enable the “Do not track” feature on multiple platforms. A full list of detailed changes to the browser can be viewed here.

The latest version of Firefox includes more than 1,000 improvements and performance enhancements that make it easier to discover and use all of the innovative features in Firefox. This release adds support for more modern Web technologies that make it easier for developers to build amazing Firefox Add-ons, Web applications and websites.

Here’s a direct link to Firefox 5.0 for Mac.

Apple Planning New Store in Sydney, Grand Opening in Reading This Saturday

According to two separate reports from the well-sourced ifoAppleStore.com, Apple is about to open a new retail location in Reading, UK, on Saturday. The grand opening, scheduled for June 25 at 9.30 AM, comes after a five-year wait that saw rumors constantly pinpointing the new Reading Apple Store about an hour west of London. Located in The Oracle Shopping Centre, the store is said to occupy spaces of two former stores on the upper level of the mall. Rumors of a new Apple Store in Reading go back to 2007.

The Westfield Hornsby shopping centre.

Meanwhile, the website also claims Apple is considering another store in Sydney’s suburban area, at the Westfield Hornsby shopping mall about 17 miles northwest of Sydney. Early rumors suggest a 2012 grand opening in this location that already has 305 retailers, a cinema, and a restaurant across its 1 million square feet space.

Update: screenshot of an Apple email about the Reading grand opening this weekend, courtesy of @HabibCham.

[The Oracle photo via]