Apple eNews: February 1, 2007

	“This is the simplest phone ever,” says Andy Ihnatko (Chicago Sun-Times) of the forthcoming Apple iPhone. Having used iPhone for about 45 minutes during a private briefing an Macworld, Ihnatko reports that “the touch-interface works flawlessly, in terms of both technical function and user interface design. Whatever you want to do—select an album to play, make or take a call, compose and send an e-mail—your first impulse is almost always the correct one.” What’s more, “it’s the most beautiful freakin’ display I’ve ever seen on a phone or PDA, both in range of color and level of detail. Even microscopic browser text is credibly readable.”
	Reporting from NAMM, Jim Dalrymple (Macworld) found Mac usage all but ubiquitous among musicians attending the show. “‘We use the Macs for everything from recording to mastering,’” he quotes an independent recording artist as saying,” And as for quality, Dalrymple quotes the same source: “‘The tracks we took into the engineer came out so good, the engineer couldn’t believe it.’”
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You can save up to $200—instantly or via a mail-in rebate—if you purchase any Mac computer and Final Cut Express HD between now and March 27. Conditions apply, so be sure to visit our Movie Deal page to learn how you can take advantage of this cinematic offer.

While John Stanmeyer makes the case for processing black-and-white images in Aperture, a recent Inside Aperture post by Scott Bourne lets everyone know how impressively Aperture handles JPEG images. “With the exception of the RAW fine tuning controls, every command in Aperture that works with RAW files, also works with JPEGs. It just works faster. And of course, all the compare, select, keywording and publishing tools work with JPEGs too.”

If you enjoyed the new Mac TV ads, we told you about in our last issue, you’ll also want to watch the new iPod TV ads. Both feature Flathead by the Fratellis, the lead song on the EP with the same name.

Do you storyboard? Most creatives do. And while you may do most of your work in Final Cut Pro, another Mac application—Keynote, part of the iWork productivity suite—can help you pitch your ideas very successfully. Especially if you pair it with PitchBoards 3 Pro a suite of new Keynote templates designed for HD presentations.

Although the final curtain has dropped on the 25th annual Sundance Film Festival, you can still catch some of the great short films seen at Sundance. Right on your Mac or PC. Ranging from animated films to documentaries to dramas, you’ll find 29 Sundance shorts in iTunes—and a collection of more than 30 free podcasts. All released at the 2007 Sundance festival, they’re available exclusively in iTunes for just $1.99. And they have a limited run, so be sure to check them out while you can.

Many applications promise you the world. But EarthDesk 4.0 actually delivers it—right to your desktop. Placing a dynamic image of the planet on your Mac desktop, the new Universal version of the application supports multiple monitors, displays real-time clouds,* lets you track storms, and provides numerous customization options. (* Some features require a live Internet connection.)

Using satellite data, scientists at the American Museum of Natural History use their Macs to generate 3D animations to illustrate the ways human activity has encouraged climate change. And you can see the results for yourself by attending one of the upcoming Pro Sessions at a retail Apple Store.

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Every week, developers release new products for us to enjoy. Like to see some of the more recent arrivals?

Apple eNews
February 1, 2007
Volume 10, Issue 2

We hope you thoroughly enjoyed reading this first issue of Apple eNews for 2007. You can expect your next issue on February 15. See you then.

Written and designed by Apple in Cupertino, Apple eNews is a free, bi-weekly email publication.

Event dates 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 Apple Store prices as of the date of this publication. They do not include sales tax or shipping charges, are subject to change, and are listed in US dollars. Product specifications are subject to change.

Now the world’s most wearable iPod comes in five brilliant colors: silver, pink, green, blue, and orange. That means you can make a very colorful music statement—one that sets off your eyes or that handsome hoodie you’ve got on—just by clipping a 1GB iPod shuffle to your sleeve. Or wherever else you’d care to wear it.

Whatever color you choose for your iPod shuffle, you can still carry up to 240 songs with you. And you can listen to all the songs, podcasts, or audiobooks you’re wearing for up to 12 skip-free hours. Color me delighted.

Already available from the online Apple Store, iPod shuffle sells for just $79. Visit a store in your neighborhood soon, and see which color you’d like to wear home.

“What a lot of photographers don’t realize,” John Stanmeyer reports, “is that the power of Aperture is not only in digital RAW photography. It really shines in the traditional film-based photography that we’ve been doing for decades.”

An awarding-winner frontline news photographer for TIME Magazine and National Geographic, Stanmeyer discovered Aperture’s prowess on a recent project documenting Balinese culture. Capturing his originals on black-and-white film, he brought scans of the images into Aperture for cataloging and processing.

“We imported around twenty files and, you know, the hairs on the back of my neck were completely on end,” he says. “The outcome with Aperture and black-and-white film is just astonishing.” “I’ve never had that degree of control in any digital editing tool I’ve used previously.”

When Lyle Ritz entered the recording studio to cut “How About Uke,” his first jazz ukulele album for Verve Records, engineers edited the recording sharply enough. Using razor blades. They were, after all, the editing tool du jour in 1957.

For his latest album, however, the 75-year-old Ritz left the razor blades in the medicine cabinet, opting instead to bring GarageBand and his new Mac laptop into his home recording studio. There, the world-renowned ukulele and string bass player taught himself how to wield his new Mac. The result: “No Frills,” an album of jazz standards Ritz recorded and edited entirely in GarageBand. Released on the Flea Market Music label, “No Frills” now frequents the iTunes Store, along with several other Ritz recordings.

Everything changed for filmmaker Mark Becker when he spoke with Carmelo Muñiz Sánchez. Interviewing mariachis for what he envisioned as a 10-minute short film, he instead found himself face-to-face with a story that would grow into an 80-minute film reaping multiple awards (including Official Selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival) and absolutely rave reviews.

“Romántico,” now in limited nationwide release, tells the story of the difficult choice confronting Sanchez: to live and work in the U.S. but never see the wife, children and dying mother he supported from afar. Or to return to them, only to live in poverty.

Shot in 16mm film and edited in Final Cut Pro, “Romántico” has become a more-than five-year affair for Becker. One he couldn’t have consummated without the Mac and Final Cut Pro.

“Podcasting is at its best,” says journalist Joseph Vella, “when you can close your eyes and you can see the story while you listen.” It’s the type of experience Vella remembers during the heyday of radio, when DJs, passionate about the music they played, “talked about technique, about history, and about the musicians themselves. Podcasts allow us to do that kind of retro-style radio, yet we can modernize it and use all these great tools to create something that goes beyond that.”

The “great tools” Vella uses include a MacBook Pro, GarageBand, and Soundtrack Pro, instruments he’s plied to bring us podcast series—several available on iTunes—on Pat Metheney, Christian McBride, McCoy Tyner, the Beach Boys, Yo-Yo Ma, John Coltrane, and other musical luminaries.

Talk about lucky. You have 13 whole days left to pick out the perfect Valentine's Day gift for that special someone in your life. Need a suggestion?

Think iTunes. You’ll find a ton of amazing content on the iTunes Store. Music. Music Videos. Movies. TV Shows. You’ll even find a Valentine’s Day playlist with some great ideas. You can gift anything and everything on the Store. You can even get a Gift Card—like the new iTunes (PRODUCT) RED Gift Card.

Even more options await on our Valentine’s Day Gift Guide. They include the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED, which like the RED Gift Card also helps the Global Fund fight AIDS in Africa. And if you purchase gift guide items from the online Apple Store, you get free iPod engraving and free gift wrapping, too.

If you have a new iPod shuffle, we have a great resource for you. It’s a new tutorial explaining how to get the most mileage out of the most wearable iPod ever.

The tutorial steps you through all of the buttons on iPod shuffle, showing you how to turn it on and off, navigate through songs, change the volume, pause your music, and toggle between playing your tunes in order or randomly shuffling through them. You’ll even find out how to lock the buttons to prevent musical accidents.

Would you like iTunes to fill your iPod shuffle for you automatically? Or would you prefer to pick and choose the songs you’d like to wear on your sleeve. The video, joining other informative tutorials on the Support site, explains how.