A new video iPod just ’round the corner, or wishful thinking?
Posted by iGor
Hardmac has taken a snowflake of a story and rolled it into a Frosty The Snowman-sized iPod rumor. Apparently, they feel there is a strong possibility of new iPods being released in the not-too-distant future based on a report from a European journalist, who Hardmac deems a trustworthy source. The newsman in question reportedly received an 80GB iPod last week from Apple for review purposes, but only days later he received an urgent call requesting he send the iPod back by next Friday at the latest.
Does this mean a new iPod is being released soon, and Apple doesn’t want anyone reviewing outdated technology? Well, Hardmac thinks so.
Now, we here at Macenstein have been dying for an “iPhone without the Phone” for about 3 years now, but we think Apple would be foolish to release such a product ahead of the iPhone’s official launch and risk cannibalizing both its sales and thunder. We fear if there is a new iPod to be unveiled this month, it will likely be a 5.5G iPod with a 100 GB drive, and nothing more. No “true” video iPod, with Wi-Fi and all the bells and whistles. Still, there is something about Frosty The Snowman-sized rumors that gets us excited and feeling optimistic. Perhaps there is some magic in that old silk hat after all….
Review: The V20 Notebook Speakers from Logitech
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
The built-in speakers that come with Apple’s latest MacBooks and MacBook Pros have come a long way from those found in the PowerBooks of just a few years ago. Still, if you’re traveling for any extended period of time, you’ll likely find yourself looking into a set of portable speakers to help make listening to music and watching movies on your laptop more enjoyable.
Above: The V20’s Hooked to a MacBook (top) and a 17-inch MacBook Pro (bottom) for size comparison.
Logitech’s V20 Notebook Speakers offer a great sounding, stylish, and hassle-free solution to enjoying a high-quality listening experience on the road. Weighing just 1 lb and coming in a small and well padded carrying case, the V20’s add as little bulk as possible to your travel bag. In a welcome attempt to minimize chord clutter, the speakers do not require an external power brick. They are powered off your system’s USB port, drawing just 2 Watts of power. While that spec may lead you to believe you are in for an anemic showing, these speakers really deliver an impressive amount of sound in such a portable package. Design-wise, the sleek gray speaker housings look best with a MacBook Pro or PowerBook, but don’t look too out of place next to a MacBook.
Each speaker has a 2″ high-excursion driver with a 3″ pressure driver which is able to easily fill a hotel room with sound without distorting. The audio quality is very “mid-rangey”, so you’ll get your best sounding audio using an EQ preset such as “Rock” in iTunes or a similar app, in order to raise both the treble and bass levels. All in all, a very enjoyable listening experience (one caveat to blasting these speakers, we actually found at very high volume the speakers began to vibrate and move across the table despite the rubber no-skid padding under each unit).
Above: The V20’s come with a compact and well-padded carrying case.
Setting up the V20’s is a snap. Simply plug them into an available powered USB port, and then select them as your sound output in your Sound System Preference panel. There is no additional software needed, although some would be nice (see below). Obviously battery life will take a hit with the V20’s drawing power from the USB port, but these speakers are designed to be use at portable locations where you laptop is likely to be plugged in, not on an airplane.
A Would-Be multimedia speaker
The biggest problem with the V20 (from a Mac-user’s point of view) is the lack of Mac support. While setting up the V20’s is an idiot-proof affair, the speakers hold the promise of additional features which are apparently not supported on the Mac. For instance, there are a series of multi-media controls on the top of the right-most speaker, giving the user the (potential) ability to play/pause, skip forward and back, and control the volume of various applications. The problem is, none of these buttons seem to do anything on a Mac. Logitech’s site claims the buttons “work with many software applications”, but we have to assume these applications are Windows only. So don’t go trying to control iTunes of DVD Player using the controls. It might be nice if Logitech included some sort of software that enabled the speakers to communicate better with the Mac OS.
Above: The multi-media buttons on the V20’s aren’t that Mac-friendly, and will not control iTunes or system volume on the latest Intel-Macs.
Speaking of those buttons, the ones you would be most likely to use, the volume buttons, oddly enough do not seem to be able to control the volume on the latest Intel-based Macs. While the buttons worked fine in our tests on an ancient PowerMac, using the V20’s on a MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro all yielded the odd result of the Mac OS volume indicator moving up and down with each button press, but the actual volume coming from the speakers being unaffected. Similarly, using the volume keys on an Intel Mac to adjust the volume had no affect on the speakers, although again, the volume indicator on screen showed the Mac thought it was doing something. Volume seems to only be able to be controlled by actually dragging the volume slider from the Mac’s menu bar, or from within the app itself (such as iTunes own volume slider). We’re not sure why this happens, as again, they work fine on Power-PC based Macs, and the quirky $27 USB “Rat” speakers we reviewed earlier this year work fine on Intel Macs.
Above: The placement of the USB/Power chord means placing your speakers far apart from each other is difficult using a Mac laptop.
Another small Mac-centric criticism would be the placement on the USB/Power chord. It is on the “rightmost” speaker, but MacBooks have their USB ports on the left side of the unit. Additionally, MacBook Pro’s only have 1 USB port on the right hand side, and I personally find I have my mouse plugged in to that port (certainly when working anywhere when I’d have the space to hook up external speakers). So the chord needs to travel all the way across the back of the laptop, and in the case of a 17-inch MacBook Pro, the chord only barely makes it, making the placement of the speakers any distance from the MacBook a little difficult. Sure, you could swap them, but if you are doing something like editing in Final Cut or watching a DVD, you usually want left-hand audio coming from the left side, and right from the right. By no means a killer, but again, something that reminds us these speakers are designed for both PC and Mac, and perhaps more so for the PC crowd.
A final small criticism goes to the zipper enclosure on the V20’s carrying case. While these are not expensive speakers, and we understand the case needed to remain light for travel reasons, closing the case and getting the zippers to smoothly close around the corners of the case takes some care. If you are using the case often, do not be surprised to find yourself throwing the zippers off the track more than once.
Conclusion
The V20 Notebook Speakers from Logitech offer some of the best sound you’re likely to find at this size and price point, especially in USB-Powered speakers. I am currently using them as a replacement for the desktop speakers on my Mac Pro, the sound is that good. However, I think with a bit more attention to the Mac market in mind when designing the V20’s Logitech would have a runaway hit withe these travel speakers. If all the speaker’s multi-media features were supported on the latest Intel Macs, these would be easier to recommend. Still, their above average sound quality, compact size, nice styling, and lack of the need for an extra power outlet earn them a respectable 7.5 out of 10 rating.
The V20 Notebook Speakers from Logitech
Price: $69.99 ( $51.5 Amazon
Pros: Great sound at this price/weight; portable; nice styling; comes with a case
Cons: Lack of Mac support on the the V20’s multimedia buttons; chord placement could be better for use on Mac portables; case enclosure could be sturdier
Put a RAID 0 in your MacBook, PowerBook, or MacBook Pro
Posted by Helper Monkey
If that 60GB-200GB drive that came with your Mac laptop just isn’t cutting it these days, and you’re not put off by the thought of never listening to a CD or watching/burning a DVD again without an external hookup, then MCE has the solution for you. Their OptiBay Hard Drive kit adds a second hard drive to your MacBook, MacBook Pro, and yes, even your old PowerBook, by replacing the SuperDrive with up to a 160GB of extra storage space.
Eric Cheng has posted an interesting article detailing his experience in outfitting his MacBook Pro with a RAID 0 setup using two 320GB 5400 rpm drives. XBench results show a fair increase in many tasks, although a decrease in some small-block reads, and of course a hit in battery life as well. Other caveats include his keyboard no longer fitting quite right and an increase in noise coming from the second drive, but all-in-all Eric seems happy with the experience, and says the systems seems more “snappy”.
There a many reasons one might wish to add a second hard drive to a laptop. First and foremost would be to perhaps run the Mac OS on one drive, and Windows on the other (assuming you are using an Intel-based Mac laptop). Mobile video editors would also potentially benefit greatly from the increased storage. Of course, they’ll have to find a way to get all that beautiful footage OUT of their SuperDriveless machine when they’re done editing, but MCE has thought of that as well. Each of their hard drive kits comes with a portable enclosure for your old SuperDrive or Combo drive so you can hook it up to your system and load software and burn DVDs if necessary (special circumstances prevent this in the 15-inch MacBook Pro and MacBooks, but MCE offers comparable solutions).
What Jobs DIDN’T mention about iTunes subscriptions: Movies
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Earlier this week, Reuters asked Steve Jobs whether the iTunes store would ever adopt a subscription based approach to music instead of Apple’s current purchase-only model. “Never say never, but customers don’t seem to be interested in it,” Jobs said. “The subscription model has failed so far.”
Quite right. However there is one area of the iTunes store where there can be no doubt that a “renting” model has worked for decades, and that is the home video business. Companies such as Blockbuster and Netflix do quite a nice business providing movie rentals, and the idea of moving that rental (or “subscription” model) to the movies section of iTunes makes a great deal of sense.
First of all, the movies Apple sells are not quite DVD quality. Movie enthusiasts, the kind who enjoy BUYING all their movies, are very much into the pristine video quality, DVD extras, and surround sound capabilities of a DVD. At the moment, those people are not likely to pay close to full price for a movie on iTunes when for a couple bucks more they can own the real thing. Those people would be more likely to join an iTunes subscription service for movies, and use it as a test drive to see if they like a film before purchasing it on DVD.
Secondly, Apple’s new Apple TV could quickly become an indispensable part of the average family’s living room if it offered an on-demand Blockbuster experience. A model similar to Blockbuster Online or Netflix where for $14.95 a month you could download up to 6 movies a month would be very attractive to some, and help spur sales of the Apple TV as well. In this day of instant gratification, sometimes waiting 2-4 days for your next movie to arrive in the mail can seem like an eternity to Netflix users, and many would like to see their Apple TV automatically download the next selection in their queue when they finish watching a film.
Obviously smarter people than me at Apple must have thought of this, and for the moment chosen not to pursue this route. Or perhaps they are heading in this direction and the delay has to do with striking a deal on revenue splits with the movie industries. Whatever the reason, I predict in one year’s time movie subscriptions in iTunes will become a reality, and the Apple TV (or Apple TV 2.0) will become the indispensable home theater device Apple intends it to be.
Review: Fluid Mask 2 for Photoshop
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Anyone who has ever tried to manually cut out a subject from a digital photograph knows how time-consuming and unrewarding the process can be. Even studio-quality shots taken against solid colors can be problematic using Photoshop’s built-in tools, and fine details like blowing hair or smoke are all but impossible to perfectly isolate.
Fluid Mask from Vertus is truly a god-send for both the aspiring amateur and the professional Photoshop artist on a deadline. On most shots, we found Fluid Mask was able to quickly create production-quality masks in a matter of minutes that would have taken close to an hour or more using conventional methods, and likely wouldn’t have yielded results close to as nice.
Above: The top image was created from the lower 2 school photos using Fluid Mask in about 15 minutes, which included the time it took to scan the originals.
The secret to Fluid Mask’s success in creating such detailed masks lies in the unique approach it takes when it analyzes your image. Fluid Mask breaks up your images into blocks of similar (fluid-looking) shapes, which allows you to quickly select the pieces of the image you wish to keep. It is quite similar to a paint-by-numbers picture, where you use one of 2 types of brushes, the “keep” brushes, and the “delete” brushes”. This allows you to create masks from even photos with fairly complex backgrounds.
Above: Fluid Mask’s “paint-by-numbers” interface.
The usual Fluid Mask workflow for most shots consists simply of painting all the blocks you DON’T want with the “delete local” brush. Once you have all the blocks colored which you don’t want to keep, you click the “Create Cut-Out” button. It’s that easy. You then can preview your mask, and if there are any areas you think need fine tuning, you can then go in and do so using additional brushes. There are extensive options for controlling the way edges are blended, and a clean-up tool to help your mask look even better once you’ve finished. You then simply choose “Save and Apply” from the File menu, and your mask is dropped back into Photoshop on a transparent layer (note, it’s always a good idea to duplicate your layer before applying Fluid Mask, as it does not create a duplicate layer when creating its cut-outs).
Above: Even fine hair is no match for Fluid Mask.
Tweaking your mask
Even Fluid Mask needs a little help sometimes when a subject has a similar coloring to the background, and for those situations, Fluid Mask has a pen tool that will let you manually define boundaries that the application cannot see. For example, I chose a stock image of a little girl in a hospital hallway (see below) from iStockPhoto.com, and Fluid Mask had trouble picking out her left wrist from the floor, as they both had similar colorings. However, using the pen tool I was able to set things right quickly, and out popped a very nice mask.
Above: Using the pen tool you can manually create boundaries to help Fluid Mask separate foreground from background.
Almost perfect
Perhaps the only real issue I found in using Fluid Mask is that it usually does such a good job (and so quickly) that you begin to expect it to do the impossible. It may seem obvious, but you really do need a reasonably high-res source photo that is well lit and in focus in order to get great results. Don’t go expecting to scan in some dark, blurry wedding reception photos from 1970 and expect Fluid Mask to create an amazing cut out of Uncle Artie on the dance floor. Most digital cameras these days shoot in sizes in excess of 5 megapixels, and likely anyone willing to spend $200 for a Photoshop plug-in is a fairly serious user working with images of at least that size, but I felt I needed to state the obvious lest someone write me complaining.
My only other criticism of Fluid Mask might be with its consistency with Photoshop. While it is fairly intuitive, and reminiscent of Photoshop’s interface in so far as the toolset and option palettes, I would have liked to see a little more carry-through from Photoshop, with such minor things as being able to zoom in on an image using the scroll wheel of a mouse, for example. I would also like to suggest to Fluid Mask’s creators that adding the option for a bezier path for the pen tool might be helpful.
Learning Curve
There is almost no learning curve in using Fluid Mask. Vertus has a series of excellent short video tutorials on their site which will have you will be up and running in about 5-10 minutes. Additional videos cover some of the more complex masking techniques, such as hair and trees, but Fluid Mask makes these tasks almost effortless.
Above: The Vertus site has a good selection of tutorial movies that will helpyou quickly become a masking pro.
Conclusion
If you are a digital artist who relies heavily on compositing, the decision to buy Fluid Mask is a no brainer. The time-savings it provides will quickly pay for the plug-in after only a few images. For the pro-sumer hobbyist or Photoshop prankster who likes putting people’s heads on other people’s bodies for a laugh, the decision is less clear-cut. However the controls on Fluid Mask are so straight forward that no one should be scared away thinking this tool is only for the pros.
Fluid Mask 2 by Vertus
Price: $199 (license can be used on up to 2 machines at a time)
Pros: Creates extremely detailed masks in a matter of minutes, even very complex subjects; easy to navigate interface, great training videos online
Cons: None significant
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