thomas fitzgerald.net

This is an interesting discussion on the Macworld forums, not so much because of the message but for the way the Macworld staff dealt with it. In fairness I think the guy had some pretty obscure needs and probably should have done a bit more research before switching to he mac, but I think the response of some of the other posters shows the typical mac fanboy approach to anyone who dares question Apple, while the macworld staff offered a very calm and collected approach and offered counterpoints to his arguments. Having said that I do sense a little bit of flame baiting going on and I can’t help but wonder if this was something of a set up because at first he knew nothing of the mac or the market, but he seemed to know just which buttons to push.

From Keyframes (Adobe’s After Effects Blog):

After considering all the information, we decided that the benefits of the new workflows and features outweigh the downside of dropping PowerPC support. As a result, After Effects CS3 will be the last universal binary Macintosh version and After Effects CS4 will be Intel-only on the Mac. Premiere Pro, Encore, and Soundbooth are already Intel-only in CS3, so Production Premium Suite users will already be accustomed to this requirement.

[Read Keyframes: After Effects CS4 Mac PowerPC plans]

This is pretty inevitable and not that surprising. If it improves over all stability and performance then that’s great. I know a lot of people are still running G5’s and this will be a big issue for them but I think this is a good decision over all. It’s a pity though that they wouldn’t include some more mac only technology like a decent Apple Script implementation.

Technorati Tags: After Effects, Apple, PowerPC, Intel

Here’s a really great tip from TUAW that I never heard of before:

If you’re typing in a text field (in Safari, TextEdit, or most any Mac OS X app), you can press F5 while your cursor rests in a particular word to see a list of words that begin with the letters after the last space.

[Read Mac 101: Pressing F5 in a text field - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)]

It has finally happened. The death knell has been sounded for .mac and the service is now at peace, one with the maker, adrift in the virtual stream,….(ok, enough metaphors). Apple’s .mac page has been replaced with the following status message, and I guess now we just have to wait till mobileme goes online.

(It’s interesting how even Apple’s maintenance page contains a copyright warning)

From Wired:Wired News

Offering a sad commentary on the state of the Star Trek franchise, the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas will shut down Star Trek: The Experience this fall.

(Read Star Trek: The Experience Closing in Vegas.)

Interesting article from the New York Times:

As the cost of fuel soars and the pressure mounts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, several schemes for a new generation of airship are being considered by governments and private companies. “It’s a romantic project,” said Mr. Massaud, 45, sitting amid furniture designs in his Paris studio, “but then look at Jules Verne.”

I like this idea a lot. I always did like the idea of Airships, and a comeback would be cool, especially if you consider the modern technology that could be brought to bear. I think the headline says it all: “Why Fly When You Can Float?”

(Read Why Fly When You Can Float? - NYTimes.com.)

A significant price reduction due to the falling prices of SSD disks.

Check out this awesome picture from Nikon’s Sample Images for their new D700

[UPDATE] Looks like it was Joe McNally That too this shot. He details it on his blog here. Kudos to the master for an absolutely stunning photograph.

From Macworld:

Apple on Monday released Mac OS X 10.5.4 fixing several issues with iCal, AirPort, Safari, and Spaces & Exposé.

I went out to the shop for 5 minutes and see what you miss!

(Read Macworld | Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5.4.)

Wired says it far better than I could have.

I can confirm Mac Rumors reports that the me.com email address is now live. I just sent an email to my own .mac email replacing the .mac with .me and the email arrived a few seconds later. Interestingly though the to address was still my .mac email rather than .me

“Acclaimed theatrical troupe Cirque du Soleil is set to make their high-def debut this September, when Sony Pictures releases their latest live spectacular ‘Corteo.’”

If you have ever seen one of Cirque du Soleil’s performances you’ll know how mind blowing they are and they should look awesome on blu-ray. Or suck, one or the other.

(Via High-Def Digest: Blu-ray Disc News.)

Nokia decides the best way to compete with possibly the best mobile operating system in the world is to buy what is possibly the worst.