Apple NAB Media Event Announcements

[GigaWire]

Is Apple getting in a really bad habit of telling people they are going to release new products later and later. The new G5's took two months to be delivered. The iPod mini the same thing. Now Xsan is going to take until early fall. It could be 6 months. Just seems like if they waited a little while and caught up, it would be nice to have things when they announce them.

I agree, but at least they are offering a beta version of Xsan now that you can use to test if your setup qualifies. Also, proposals to actually aquaire this stuff can take a lot of time to get approval for, so at least you know its there. But on the consumer side, they scertainly need to have announced products shipping when they are announced, even if in small numbers.

 

[spinko]

This is kind of off-topic, but I just wanted to say how much I like Apple's new web pages for its new products. It does look a little weird with the new design under the old, aqua navigation bar. I for one would love a new OSX theme based off the colors/shapes used in the motion, final cut, and xsan pages and the XSAN box. That would be a true, professional theme not a happy, colorful, and cuddly theme.

I totally approve. Looks much more professional.

 

[Lancetx]

This just in on MacMinue:

Panasonic, Apple team for HD over FireWire

EVEN ON POWERBOOK? G5 Powerbooks TOMORROW. Fer sho.

These are the system requirements..."For DVCPRO HD, 1GHz or faster single or dual processors and 1GB of RAM."

And from the press release itself..."At that point, users can edit camera-original quality HD content on their desktop, utilizing a Final Cut Pro-equipped Power Mac G5; or if field operations are required, a Final Cut Pro-enabled PowerBook G4 – all without purchasing any proprietary hardware."

 

[LaMerVipere]

Would it be possible for Apple someday to make a really great competitor to Adobe Photoshop?

I don't know if it would be a wise business decision (although the new Motion is clearly aiming squarely at After Effects), but I am sure they would make it absolutely fantastic, and it would integrate seamlessly with all of the iLife and Professional apps.

 

[Chaszmyr]

Would it be possible for Apple someday to make a really great competitor to Adobe Photoshop?

Some day? Maybe... Any time in the next 5 years, I wouldn't count on it. Photoshop has years of development behind it, and I don't see anything Apple could really do without totally copying and getting sued by Adobe

HOWEVER! I think it's possible apple might make a program which is like a "lite" version of photoshop. Say costing between $100 and $300 with features akin to the most commonly used photoshop features.

 

[iGuy]

Adobe vs Apple

Adobe's response waits to be seen.

It really depends on how large the Mac After Effects market is. Can Adobe abandon it in favour of a Windows only platform or will they be compelled to inovate and fight back?

I imagine that the Mac Photoshop and Illustrator markets are sufficiently large that Adobe will keep developing Mac versions. Does anybody have a breakdown by application of Adobe's Mac vs Windows sales?

I am concerned, however, that this is one more reason that Adobe will not port FrameMaker to OSX. This may not concern the mostly creative readers of this site, but it is having an impact in Apple's attempt to win over the corporate market.

For those of you who don't know, FrameMaker is a large document authoring tool supporting SGML and XML. It is used mostly for large manual sets and was once promoted as a tool of preference for book publishing.

~iGuy

 

[Mord]

System Requirements


Motion takes advantage of the Power Mac G5 to deliver highly interactive, real-time performance. Some systems provide greater interactivity than others, and it is important to choose the right system for your needs. Performance depends on the processor speed, the amount of RAM, and the graphics subsystem.


Recommended system


Dual 2GHz Power Mac G5

4GB of RAM or more

Mac OS X v10.3.3 or later

ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card or better

Motion Product Overview
Motion Data Sheet



Minimum System Requirements


Macintosh computer with 867MHz or faster PowerPC G4 or G5 processor

512MB of RAM (2GB or more recommended)

Mac OS X v10.3.3 or later

QuickTime 6.5 or later

Display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher (1280-by-1024 resolution recommended)

One of the following graphics cards:
— NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
— ATI Mobility Radeon 9600
— ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
— ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
— ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

10GB of disk space for application, templates, and tutorial

DVD drive for installation

those specs are crazy

9800 or better=better cards coming soon

no geforce 4 ti support or radeon 9000 support (it's better than the 5200fx)

madness

 

[Trowaman]

Would it be possible for Apple someday to make a really great competitor to Adobe Photoshop?

I don't know if it would be a wise business decision (although the new Motion is clearly aiming squarely at After Effects), but I am sure they would make it absolutely fantastic, and it would integrate seamlessly with all of the iLife and Professional apps.

Forget Photoshop. The next step is to create a 3D CGI creation app. Something that Lucas would be proud to use for Star Wars (those movies are all about CGI now anyways ) or more specifically for creating stuff for Pixar.

I said it before, and I'll say it again.

Jobs "What do u guys need?"

Pixar "We need an App that can do . . . . "

Jobs "Apple, make an app that can do . . . . "

Apple "Okay. Here ya go."

Jobs "Here you go, Pixar. You can now make even better movies."


It's so genious. Use this to make a great product to sell and use it to create quality entertainment.

 

[DHagan4755]

Interestingly, one of the requirements is 6.5 or better. Or better? So is there is something better than Quicktime 6.5?

 

[Awimoway]

Is Apple getting in a really bad habit of telling people they are going to release new products later and later. The new G5's took two months to be delivered. The iPod mini the same thing. Now Xsan is going to take until early fall. It could be 6 months. Just seems like if they waited a little while and caught up, it would be nice to have things when they announce them.

Well I guess Apple's just damned if they do and damned if they dont. Would you prefer, the super-secretive insularity of Apple in which they never give any indication when or even whether something new will be released? Legions of fools panting over any and every whiff of a G5 PB that may not come till well into next year?

I much prefer advance notice.

 

[Bhennies]

I increased the size of the picture by 300% and you can definitely make out a silverish color on the display and a completely new stand!

Sorry guys. I hate to say it, but I just enlarged the picture and applied some unsharp mask as well as playing with the resolution (I'm such a dork). It's the old monitor. The effect of the center leg gives the illusion of a new stand. Sucks. I was hoping it was a new LCD. I'm waiting for a new 23".

 

[nsb3000]

Don't kill me, but has this always been there?


System Requirements (Shake)

Mac OS X
Power Mac G4 or PowerBook G4 with 800MHz or faster PowerPC G4 processor; or Xserve with 1GHz or faster PowerPC G4 processor
Mac OS X v10.2.5
QuickTime 6.1 or later
256MB of RAM or more
1GB of available disk space for caching and temporary files
Graphics card with at least 32MB of video memory and OpenGL hardware acceleration
Display with 1280-by-1024-pixel resolution and 24-bit color
Three-button mouse


Apple Software has a three-button mouse as a requirement?

Remeber, Apple did not create Shake, they bought it. Anybody that is seroie enough to buy softwere that cost more than 2K can aford a three butten mouse.

 

[cc bcc]

those specs are crazy

9800 or better=better cards coming soon

no geforce 4 ti support or radeon 9000 support (it's better than the 5200fx)

madness

9800 or better does NOT mean better cards are coming.. They put it this way so they don't have to change it everytime a new card comes to the market. And yes, we'll be seeing new cards (duh..) but that doesn't have anything to do with this announcement.

edit: Indeed, Quicktime 6.5 or better is another such thing..

 

[ingenious]

nahhhhh

Take a look at the powermac G5 picture on Motion's site. The display's stand at the bottom it shaped like that of a G5! It's a new display!!!!!!!!!

dont think so unless you saw a diff pic :

 

[mr_austin]

Motion better be hot

These are cool announcements, but they're pissing off Avid and Adobe again. Every shop I work at is AE/Avid/Pro Tools, not Motion/FCP/Logic. A few have final cut boxes, but not for 'serious' editing. All the kick-ass freelance editors are Avid guys. All the kick-ass freelance mixers are pro tools guys. All the kick-ass freelance effects guys are AE guys. When are all these people (who are booked all the time anyway) gonna learn new software? They only will if it kicks ass and makes them more money...

For people like me who make their money using AE, and have put years into learning and getting fast on the UI, it will be cheaper to buy a new PC setup w/ AE than either buy shake or spend the (non-billable) time to learn a new program. If Adobe drops AE for the mac, there will be a lot of people buying PCs (if they didn't already when the speed difference was so great in the past few years).

The reason final cut pro as so successful was that it was so much better than anything out there. AE is a damn good program - so good that even good programs like combustion haven't make significant inroads to dislodging it. If there's no AE, and motion is good, but not great, it leaves a HUGE gap on the mac side between the $300 motion and the $5000 shake. Apple runs the danger of being associated with the wedding video crowd, while HBO et al look down their noses at it. It took years for AE to make progress against HALs and Flames...

We'll see this fall when it ships.... better be hot.

-a

 

[cc bcc]

I would really like to try a Apple Motion demo. Too bad Apple never has demo's for their software. I wonder if it's powerful enough for me to replace Adobe After Effects. AE is really powerful, but I would really like real time capabilities, my clients always want jobs finished in realtime.

 

[evolu]

definitely the old monitor

it's like seeing an oasis when your dying of thirst in the desert, but alas, your mind's playing tricks on you...

 

[AmbitiousLemon]

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[Nny]

just think how crazy it would be if apple did the same for adobe as it did to e-magic..! without photoshop the PC side would have... um... GIMP. Or at least I can't think of any app for the purpose more or even almost as popular as PS.

I don't think average users would flock to Gimp. Probably see more adoption of Jasc Paint Shop and Corel Photo Paint. Certainly nothing as good as Photoshop.

If Adobe is for sale and Apple can afford it then I think it would be a smart move, but I don't think either is the case. Just glad Apple didn't buy Real like everyone was saying they should last year. Apple doesn't even see Real as competition anymore.... they laugh at Real and their plea for open sourcing Fairplay.

 

[mr_austin]

you're crazy

Forget Photoshop. The next step is to create a 3D CGI creation app. Something that Lucas would be proud to use for Star Wars (those movies are all about CGI now anyways ) or more specifically for creating stuff for Pixar.

<snip>

It's so genious. Use this to make a great product to sell and use it to create quality entertainment.

You talk about making software like it's easy. FCP wasn't usable til 3.0. Neither was photoshop. What was the last 1.0 that blew you away? iMovie? iPhoto? iDVD? come on.... Safari and Shake were great out of the gate, but built upon existing foundations. And safari is free and still only has ~2% market share.

And 3D? Talk about a crowded and small market. Ask any pro what their favorite program is. Maya? C4D? Lightwave? Max? They all have dedicated followers in thier niches.

Take on Photoshop? If you just got your black belt, would you challenge someone who's had it for 10 years?

Apple better learn to let other people play in their sandbox.... they can own digital video, but not without 3rd party apps.

-a

 

[applekid]

Not a bad selection except for the fact I have no use for any of those apps nor can my machine handle any of those apps. But, that's okay since there's people out there that actually use this stuff.

iBook and AlBooks tomorrow, and we'll call it a day.

 

[nsb3000]

Photoshop could use some competition from Apple...

Would it be possible for Apple someday to make a really great competitor to Adobe Photoshop?

I don't know if it would be a wise business decision (although the new Motion is clearly aiming squarely at After Effects), but I am sure they would make it absolutely fantastic, and it would integrate seamlessly with all of the iLife and Professional apps.

I think Photoshop is ripe to be targeted. As I user of Photoshop for more than 10 years, I have two things to say about the software.

1) It is the most complete image editing solution on the planet, for both Web design, and image manipulation for print.

2) Its learning curve is unnecessary high. Once you understand how the software works, it is a well refunded tool , but getting there (and I know cus I have taught Photoshop classes) can take a long time. .

I think Adobe is reaching the point the points of diminishing returns with every new version Photoshop. I think Apple could do a great job of building an app that does 90% of what Photoshop does, but is twice as easily to lean use, and literately speed up your workflow because of enhanced ease of use. The problem they would face however, it would need to integrate perfectly in other must have products, such as Illustrator, and Quark, Go live and dream weaver.

These type of software are at there most powerful in suits, and you can see from today’s news shows, what Apple is doing is building a suite of software for profession video editing and post production. If they were going to go after something like Photoshop, they would need to make a commitment to make a suite of Desktop publishing software, something I think they could be great about, but does not seem to be Apple’s focus of late..

 

[LaMerVipere]

Forget Photoshop. The next step is to create a 3D CGI creation app. Something that Lucas would be proud to use for Star Wars (those movies are all about CGI now anyways ) or more specifically for creating stuff for Pixar.

I said it before, and I'll say it again.

Jobs "What do u guys need?"

Pixar "We need an App that can do . . . . "

Jobs "Apple, make an app that can do . . . . "

Apple "Okay. Here ya go."

Jobs "Here you go, Pixar. You can now make even better movies."


It's so genious. Use this to make a great product to sell and use it to create quality entertainment.

Yes that's probably true, 3D is the future, but not anytime incredibly soon.

 

[Matrix9180]

over analyzing

I think a lot of people are over analyzing the system requirements... "or better" is commonly used to clarify that something works with version x and any new versions of product y. It does NOT always mean "oh, they said suchandsuch 6.5 OR BETTER, that means SUCHANDSUCH 6.5.1 NEXT TUESDAY!"... it really doesn't.

 

[Grimace]

The bezel on that monitor is waaaay to big. Nice try though!