Apple eNews: April 21, 2005

	For its first-ever dramatic series, ESPN wanted to play a winning hand when they dealt the nine-eposide “TILT” to audiences. So they opted for High Def, shooting the series on Sony Cinealta High Definition cameras in 1080/24 frame progressive. But to carry the full effects of high-definition footage to air, the crew needed a reasonably priced post-production solution that could generate a Hollywood look on a cable TV budget. So of course they bet the farm on a Power Mac G5, Final Cut Pro, and Motion. And walked away with all the chips.
	At World Wrestling Entertainment, “motion” and “shake” refer to more than just the exploits of wrestlers. They are invaluable tools used to pound out an astonishing amount of special effects. The nine-person team chews through more than seven shows a week, 52 weeks a year, using a tough team of Power Mac G5s, Final Cut Pro, Motion and Shake.
	To deliver breaking news and first-rate analysis to an information-hungry audience 24/7, VN 24 wanted a system that could lead in the market from the get-go. So Poland’s only 24-hour news channel invested in 55 Xsans, 30 Xserve G5s, 22 Xserve RAIDs, 50 Final Cut Pro licences, 50 Power Mac G5s, 10 PowerBook G4s and two licences for Apple’s Shake digital effects package, making it the home to Europe’s largest Mac-based broadcast installation.
	More news...

We’d like everyone to see as many of the new features in Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger” as possible. So on Friday, April 29—just 8 days from now—we’ll be celebrating the availability of the newest version of Mac OS X with a special Tiger World Premiere event at every Apple Store.

The Mac Geniuses at your local Apple Store will be out in force. Demonstrating Spotlight. Taking you for a spin around the Dashboard. Explaining the new capabilities of .Mac Sync. Setting up “Smart Folders.” Showing you how you can chat in 3D with iChat AV 3. And much more.

Did we tell you about the prizes? You could win a PowerBook G4, an iPod, or another great prize^* just by attending the Tiger World Premiere. This Friday. April 29. From 6 pm to midnight.

^{* For official rules, visit any Apple Store.}

Shake has been the choice of Oscar-winning effects artists for seven years in a row, and now Shake 4—recently announced at NAB 2005 and scheduled to ship this summer for $2999—offers a host of new features that give you the highest quality output for film and HD.

Shake 4, a major upgrade to the industry’s leading compositing software for both independent artists and visual effects facilities, features 3D multiplane compositing, cutting-edge optical flow image processing, and unprecedented integration with Final Cut Pro 5.

Using some of the most advanced compositing algorithms available with full float processing, Shake lets you quickly create convincing, photorealistic, Hollywood-caliber visual effects on a Power Mac or PowerBook computer. And take advantage of free network rendering to distribute jobs across Mac OS X servers and workstations.

Did you know that you could get more from the Internet? For less?

It’s true: From now until May 23, you can become a .Mac member for just $69.95—a $30 savings (via mail-in rebate)—and learn how .Mac makes the Internet more exciting to use than ever.

This may be the very first simultaneous OS/book launch. As soon as Mac OS X “Tiger” goes on sale at the Apple Store, copies of two of the newest titles from Peachpit Press will also appear on store shelves. Helping you learn Tiger as quickly and enjoyably as possible, “Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger: Visual QuickStart Guide,” by Maria Langer, and “Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger: Peachpit Learning Series,” by Robin Williams, cover a wide range of Tiger topics. Look for them when “Tiger World Premiere” festivities begin.

Get a “Family Pack.” If you run a multi-Mac household, you may want to take advantage of our new Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger” Family Pack. With the family pack, you can upgrade as many as 5 Macs for just one low price. $199.

Every week, developers announce new Mac and iPod products. Like to see some of the recent arrivals?

Apple eNews
April 21, 2005
Volume 8, Issue 8

We hope you enjoyed reading today’s issue of Apple eNews. You’ll receive your next issue, with more exciting news about Apple products, just two weeks from now. On May 5.

Apple eNews is a free, bi-weekly email publication.

Event dates and product specifications are subject to change. Some products, programs, or promotions are not available outside the U.S. Visit your local Apple site or call your local authorized Apple reseller for more information. Prices are estimated retail prices and are listed in U.S. dollars.

In just eight days—on Friday, April 29—you’ll be able to purchase Mac OS X version 10.4 “Tiger” at special “Tiger World Premiere” events at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. Festivities—which include demos, workshops, and prizes—begin at 6:00 pm sharp.

The star of the night? Tiger, of course. The newest version of Mac OS X offers more than 200 new features. That includes Spotlight, a revolutionary desktop search technology that lets you find anything on your Mac. Instantly. Spotlight quickly searches through all of your documents: email, contacts, images, PDFs, Microsoft Office docs. You name it.

You’ll also enjoy Dashboard and its cool suite of widgets. They’re mini-applications that let you check the time, watch the weather, write a sticky, find a flight, and much more.

What else can you expect from Tiger?

High-definition video. Perfect sound. Stunning graphics.

Its your ultimate production box set. “Final Cut Studio,” says Rob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Marketing, “ushers in a new era of high-definition video production that relies on effortless integration of video, audio, and effects to elevate production values.” By taking advantage of the strengths of each of the state-of-the-art applications, creative pros can “edit in a broad range of HD formats, add stunning motion graphics, sculpt the perfect soundtrack, and burn their projects to high-def DVDs.”

In addition to major upgrades to Final Cut Pro, Motion, and DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Studio also includes the completely new Soundtrack Pro. Announced at NAB 2005, Final Cut Studio goes on sale in May for $1299.

With Final Cut Pro 5, you can edit anything. And you’ll wait for nothing.

That’s because Final Cut Pro 5, the first choice for professional editors, lets you work with virtually any video format—DV, SD, film, or any major HD format, including HDV, DVCPro HD, and fully uncompressed HD. In fact, native HDV support means you can edit camera-native HDV with no generational loss of quality.

Built for speed, Final Cut Pro 5 also packs a real-time multistream effects architecture and provides amazing multicam editing tools that lets you cut from up to 128 video sources and view up to 16 angles at a time with real-time playback. And with its new Dynamic RT—real-time effects processing that scales with your system—Final Cut Pro lets you do more in less time.

A revolutionary new audio editing and sound design application, Soundtrack Pro lets you intuitively sculpt the perfect sound.

The new application features an innovative waveform editor that offers sample-accurate and nondestructive editing. By using its flexible Action layering, you can re-order, bypass or change any edit, effect or process. Instantly. And with its intelligent Find-and-Fix features, you can quickly identify, preview and fix such common audio problems as background noise, pops, clicks, and hum.

Soundtrack Pro also comes with over 50 professional effect plug-ins you can use to precisely enhance your audio, recreate the reverberant ambience of any space, or design new over-the-top sound. Used alone or as part of Final Cut Studio, Soundtrack Pro lets you quickly and easily add sound effects to movies, motion graphics, or DVD menus.

Motion 2, the newest version of Apple’s award-winning, real-time motion graphics application, lets you intuitively create eye-catching animated text and graphics for DVD motion menus, broadcast video, or film.

Taking the creation of motion graphics to a new professional level, Motion offers true film-quality output, GPU-accelerated 16-bit and 32-bit float real-time performance—an industry first—and an astounding tool set that lets you create compelling motion graphics with drag-and-drop ease, startling clarity, and unprecedented color fidelity.

A first-class collaborator, Motion gets along splendidly with Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop. It offers seamless access to iTunes playlists and iPhoto albums. And, thanks to its native HDV support, Motion features tight integration with Final Cut Pro 5 and DVD Studio Pro 4; and works smoothly with both Soundtrack Pro and Shake 4.

Want to showcase your HD content?

Now you can. Using the easiest and most popular application for professional DVD authoring. DVD Studio Pro 4.

Whether you’re burning DVD dailies or creating highly interactive commercial DVD titles, you can use DVD Studio Pro to burn your HD projects on high-definition DVDs based on the latest HD DVD spec.

You can also use the high-quality distributed encoding tools that come with the new version of the software to dramatically reduce the encoding time for high-definition projects that include SD and HD video and surround sound audio. What’s more, DVD Studio Pro 4 provides advanced authoring options—including alpha transitions, multiple video and audio tracks, and sophisticated scripting—that can take your DVD titles to a new level of professionalism.