Company: Boinx
Version: 2.0
Compatible with: iPad 2nd Generation, 3rd Generation, 4th Generation, & iPad mini
Requires: iOS 5.1 or later
Price: $4.99
I am a big fan of taking videos and especially of motion capture video. I am a big admirer of films such as Wallace and Gromit that use motion capture video, so when I got the chance to review iStopMotion I was looking forward to seeing what I would be able to do with it.
This review is about photography and video books that I had the chance to read recently. They cover various subjects that may be of interest to some of you.
PulpMotion 3.5
Company: Aquafadas
Version: 3.5
Compatible with: Mountain Lion
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or above
Price: Standard $49 / Advanced $129
If you want to make slideshow-type videos, PulpMotion is the app for you. It has similarities to iMovie, but is different enough to be worth a look. It is incredibly easy to choose a theme, drop in photos or videos, add some background music, insert a caption or two, and export it in a format best suited to your intended viewing platform. While it is drop dead simple and quick, there’s also a lot of power to tweak and customize your slideshow to get it just the way you want.
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Adobe Photoshop CS6 review
Price:
Standard Edition: $699.00 US, upgrade $199.00 US
Extended Edition: $999.00 US, upgrade $399.00 US
Company: Adobe
In the spring of 2012, Adobe released Creative Suite 6, or the CS6 version of their content creation and editing software suite. Among the updates, the flagship Photoshop got a CS6 version as well. Is it worth upgrading or buying? Read on to see what’s new about Adobe Photoshop CS6.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.0 Review
Price: $149 Full Version; $79 upgrade US
Company: Adobe
Adobe announced on March 6 the new Photoshop Lightroom 4.0. This version of Lightroom adds many new features. In this full review, we will explore the major ones.
Clean your device from smudges and dirt.
Safe for flat-panel monitors, iDevices and televisions.
Includes spray foam and 2 cleaning cloths.
Turbo.264 HD
Company: Elgato
Version: 1.2
Requires: 512 MB of RAM, Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later, QuickTime 7.6 or later
Price: $49.99
Mac App Store link
Turbo.264 HD Software Edition is a simple application that can convert almost any type of video on your Mac to a high quality H.264 file in standard or HD format. The resulting video can be played on iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, Sony PSP, or sent to YouTube.
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Groove 3
http://www.groove3.com
Price: $39.99 for single users. Contact Groove 3 for groups, specials and (educational) discounts
Although Logic began as music notation software, its Score Editor has recently been overshadowed – outpaced even – by its other features; and outshone by the richer feature set of the dedicated music notation software, Sibelius. We’ve looked previously at Johannes Prischl’s excellent book covering the Score Editor. Now Groove 3 has released an equally useful, well-structured and expertly-written and presented set of nearly 60 video tutorials on the subject.
Mousepose 3
Boinx Software
Mac App Store link
Price: $16.99
Toast 11 Titanium from Roxio
Roxio’s Toast began as a simple way to burn optical media, CDs then DVDs; it slowly became the preferred way to do so until Apple built more reliable such functionality into its operating systems. Then, for a number of its iterations, Toast somewhat lost its way; it failed to offer features compelling enough that all but the most demanding (and loyal) users to choose it over Apple’s way of doing things and that of a clutch of decent shareware apps which met most people’s needs. The last two versions of Toast, however, have changed things. Now Toast 11 Titanium introduces a number of new features; and it works in ways that make it once again stand out. Toast 11 includes (from its Extras menu) the other apps, Disc Cover 3 RE, DiscCatalogMaker RE, Get Backup 2 RE, Mac2TiVo and TiVo Transfer and a new version of Spin Doctor (formerly CD Spin Doctor), but not Streamer.
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Review – Elmedia Player Mac Application
Company: Eltima Software
Price: Free ($20 for PRO version)
If you get as tired as I do in trying to figure out which media player you need to use to play back video files of a one codec or another, perhaps Eltima Software’s Elmedia Player is a solution. The Mac community is jam-packed with media players, so you have to ask yourself why you need to spend time looking at yet another one. In my experience with Elmedia Player (I was supplied the PRO version by the developer), I found that it suits nearly all of my video playback requirements in a very iTunes-like interface.
Eye-Fi X2 Cards:
Pro X2: $149.99
Explorer S2: $99.00
Geo X2: $69.00
Connect X2: $49.00
iPhone App: FREE
The Eye-Fi Pro X2 8 GB WiFi enabled SD Memory Card
When I reviewed my first Eye-Fi card almost two years ago in February of 2009, I was amazed at what I saw. A tiny little SD memory card with a WiFi radio inside. Inside! How did they do that? I hardly believed they could squeeze it all in to that tiny little space, and I am still amazed when I see it now, with an even better radio and even more memory capacity.
If you have been hiding in a cave for the last few years or simply not paying attention to new things, Eye-Fi is exactly that, a standard SD sized flash memory card with a built-in WiFi 802.11 b/n/g radio inside the SD case. When this device is inside your camera (or powered up in a SD card reader), and in the range of either an open WiFi, or even your own locked (keyed) WiFi, the card will upload images stored in its memory onto the Eye-Fi service.
Orb has three products:
Orb Live: $9.99
Orb Music Player: $69.00
Orb TV: $99.00
http://www.orb.com
Orb Video On Many Devices
Orb has three different products which are quite similar in operation, and work together to offer up your content where you want it and when you want it. Orb’s first product, Orb Live, is an app for iPhone or Android that includes a second piece of software (Orb Caster) that runs on your Mac or PC. Together, these two pieces of software let you “take” the music, videos and photos that live on your computer with you as you travel, without having to move anything to your mobile device, and regardless of their file format or size. You can also watch live TV on your mobile device if your computer has a TV Tuner (like a USB tuner) as well as view any web cameras attached to your computer. Orb Caster transcodes
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The Little Digital Video Book.
by Michael Rubin
Peachpit Press
ISBN 978-0-321-57262-1 224 pages paperback
Price: $24.99 US
When it comes to getting a digital video camera, you typically come about it in one of two ways. Either someone gave it to you as a gift, or you just bought it because your old one just broke. But in both cases, you probably obtained it just a few short days before you actually need to use it. Sadly, these cameras are a bit more complex than you typically expect, and you are not going to have those 3 to 4 weeks you need to figure out how it works. So what do you do?
Oh sure, you can crack open the well written user manual…. OK, so they are not so well written, typically translated directly from a foreign language, and do nothing to help you actually shoot video. Now what? You go and get this book, The Little Digital Video Book, Second Edition by Michael Rubin (there is no relation), you sit down and spend a few hours reading the 215 pages, seven chapters of useful info, and doing the assignments at the end of each chapter, and you will be up and running on no time. Because that is what this book is all about, getting you up to speed quickly in preparing, shooting, editing, and finishing your video. Continue reading »
Here is a quick look at what you can expect to find in each chapter:
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