OSX Mountain Lion

Just one year after the release of OSX Lion, Apple has announced a new OSX scheduled for 2012 summer release. Mountain Lion will be a paid upgrade but details have not been disclosed at this point.

Mountain Lion will have a tighter integration with iCloud and syncs your existing accounts, settings and personal data seamlessly. The new OSX will also come with a few new apps from the iOS which includes iMessage, Reminders, Notes, Notification Centre, Twitter integration, Game Centre and Airplay Mirroring.

For this upcoming release, Apple is introducing Gatekeeper which allows users to determine what kinds of apps can be installed on their machines. This follows Apple’s strategy of preventing malware getting into your system through the approval process. Like the App Store, Mac developers can now sign up with Apple and get the status of ‘identified developers’ with a personalized certificates. These developers can then cryptographically sign their apps with the certificates. If any apps from this group of developers turned out to be malware, Apple can then revoke that particular developer’s license thus preventing their products being installed on any Macs in the future.

Sharing has also become a whole lot easier in Mountain Lion with Share Sheets. These are pop-up menus that appear when you click on the Share icon within the apps. This can be a Safari webpage you are visiting or a picture or document in Preview. You can send the content via iMessage, tweet it or email the items.

Some of the new features in Mountain Lion are directly targeting users in China. In the new OSX, there is a dynamically updated dictionary for better suggestions or corrections. Also, Pinyin and English can be mixed during text-input without having to switch between keyboard layouts.

Search engine Baidu is now available as an option in Mountain Lion’s Safari. Sina weibo, a microblogging site, is supported in Share Sheets. As for video-sharing sites like Vimeo and Flickr, Youku and Tudou will be added to the list of supported sites.

This is definitely good news for those Mac users who worry that Apple is lagging behind OSX development in comparison to the iOS. This annual OSX and iOS release cycle will be hugely beneficial to both Mac and iDevice users alike.

Aperture 3.2 Update

The latest Aperture 3.2 release is available via Software Update. The details are listed in the Release Notes:

Aperture 3.2 supports compatibility with iCloud and iOS 5, and is recommended for all users of Aperture 3. This update addresses minor stability, performance and compatibility issues, including those listed below.

• Resolves an issue that could cause the Loading indicator to reappear in the Viewer when cropping a photo.
• Aperture now automatically reopens into Full Screen mode if the application was in Full Screen mode when last quit.
• Pinch-to-zoom gesture now automatically activates Zoom mode in the Viewer.
• Left and right swipe gestures can now be used to navigate between photos in the Viewer.
• Microsoft Outlook can now be chosen in Preferences as the application used by Aperture for emailing photos.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Aperture, running on OS X Lion, to quit unexpectedly when using brushes to apply adjustments.
• The Loupe now correctly displays magnification levels between 50-100%.
• Fixes an issue that could cause Aperture, running on OS X Lion, to display the incorrect color profile on externally edited images.
• The Import window now includes an option to delete photos from iPhone and iPad after they have been imported into Aperture.
• The Lift & Stamp tool now displays the correct cursor icons when being used in Split View and Viewer only modes.

Advanced Apple Aperture 3 Workshop

Desert, Dunhuang, China

I will be teaching the ‘Advanced Apple Aperture 3’ workshop on August 20th, 2011 at Pikto in Toronto’s Distillery District. It is a full-day workshop from 10 AM to 5 PM.

If you like more info, please visit Pikto’s site here.

Here’s the workshop description:

Aperture 3 is Apple’s pro photography tool for raw-conversion and photo management. The program features a RAW-focused workflow and is designed to be an all-in-one raw capture post-production tool for pro photographers.

In this workshop, Louis will cover the complete RAW post-production process of:

• importing
• library organization
• inputting metadata/IPTC
• photo editing – compare & select
• image editing – retouch & enhance
• raw capture conversion
• sharing via upload plug-ins
• publishing – slideshows & books

This workshop is recommended for pro photographers who are looking for a top-notch all-in-one digital workflow solution to manage their photo shoots and image collections.

OSX Lion and Rosetta

Chris Breen from Macworld has an article about Apple dropping support for Rosetta in OSX Lion which debuts in July.

Currently, in order to run applications that are PowerPC based (not Intel) on the current OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard, you need Rosetta to act as an interpreter. With the disappearance of Rosetta in the upcoming OS, the apps that are PowerPC-based will in effect be incompatible.

You can check which app is a PowerPC version by going to the System Profiler.

Safe Download Version

From Mac Observer:

If you have installed OSX 10.6 latest Security Update 2011-003, you will get daily safe file updates for Safari to prevent malware (trojan horse) from infecting your system. This is a direct response to the MacDefender malware back in May this year.

Security Preference Pane

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that this works perfectly and you get the latest virus definition every time one is available. Thanks to Adam Christianson from Mac Observer, he had updated Safe Download Version to have the ability to grab the latest definition list directly. This OSX utility also shows you when the definition list was last updated and what version number is installed.

Safe Download Version

Safe Download Version is free and it is available for download on the bottom of TMO page here.

Location Data on iPhone and iPad

iPhone

The news yesterday about the iPhone and the 3G iPad logging the user(s) minute-by-minute location data had created quite a stir. Two computer programmers had discovered that Apple’s devices are tracking your every move. They have even created an app iPhone Tracker that can display a map showing the exact locations drawn from the data stored on the device.

my recent locations

This, of course, has created quite a panic in some paranoid people thinking the Big Brother is watching your every move. Apple is spying. The government is spying on everyone too!

To be fair, the location data is stored on the user’s iPhone or 3G iPad until the device is synced to a computer. The data then gets copied onto the hard drive. Until these two programmers came up with the app, the data is mighty difficult for laymen to access unless you are a Unix geek.

Law enforcement officials are already getting access to this type of info from mobile phone companies for investigation purposes. Collecting this type of data is not illegal but the question that should be asked is how Apple and other tech companies intend to use it, if at all.

For the time being, in order to protect the iPhone location data on your computer, you can encrypt the iPhone backups next time you sync up.

Apple Aperture Update

Aperture 3.1.2

Apple has released an update 3.1.2 for Aperture. It can be downloaded via the Software Update…

This update aims to improve overall stability and performances. Other bug fixes addressed in this release are:

• Importing iPhoto libraries
• Reliability and responsiveness when using brushes to apply adjustments
• Reconnecting referenced master images

The release notes provided by Apple can be found here.

 

RAW Compatibility Update

Apple has released a RAW Compatibility Update 3.6 for Aperture 3 and iPhoto ’11. The following cameras have been added to the support list:

• Canon EOS Rebel T3 / 1100D / Kiss X50
• Canon EOS Rebel T3i / 600D / Kiss X5
• Olympus E-5
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100
• Pentax K-r
• Pentax K-5

It also addresses processing issues for the following cameras:

• Nikon D7000
• Nikon COOLPIX P7000
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1
• Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2

The update can be found via Software Update in OSX or by following the link below.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1357

MacBook AIR for Travel Photographers?

A workshop participant recently asked me about whether the MacBook Air is a good choice for travel photographers. I responded quickly with a few main points that I would consider if I found myself one day inside the Apple Store with a credit card in hand.

The MacBook Air is a great choice for travel photographers. The obvious selling point is its weight – 2.3 lbs to be exact. However, with this small form factor design, you’ll have to give up a few things that have been with the MacBook family for a number of years. Here’s a short list:

1. Hard Drive: Instead of traditional hard drives found on other MacBooks, the Air has completely switched to flash storage. The advantage of using SSD flash memory is speed. As there are no moving parts, it’s also more shock resistant and in theory less prone to mechanical problems. Macworld has posted some initial speed ‘torture’ test and found that there are no performance degradation over time. This is excellent news. The disadvantage of using SSD flash memory, however, is the price per gigabyte. Right now Apple is only offering maximum 128 GB of storage with the 11-in model. If you require more storage, it will have to be external drives.

2. Ports: The Air lacks any Firewire ports but it does have one USB 2 port on either side. In addition, the 11-in model does not have the SD card slot which is available on the 13-in model. I’m a fan of Firewire 800 as I have 2 portable drives for travel so will be an issue for user like me. If you are planning on using external USB 2 drives then this will not be problematic. Please note that in order to connect the Air to ethernet, an adapter is required.

3. Graphics: According to the Macworld benchmark tests, the graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce 320M – 256 MB) does provide speedy graphics. However, I have not tested it against the MacBook Pros with graphics intensive photo apps like Lightroom or Aperture so I reserve my comment until I have the chance to do so.

App Store Aperture 3

After installing the App Store, I was perusing the various products available for purchase and download. To my pleasant surprise, I noticed that the Aperture 3 app is retailing for $79.99. The pricing on apple.com of this app is still $199.00. Not sure whether this is a promo price for App Store only but if you need the app, there is no better time to purchase it.