Musings from The Software Underground

Today, a mere matter of days after the release of new iPods and a new iMac, Apple released updated Pro machines and Aperture, a new application aimed at photographers. Let me just say that Aperture looks HOT. Billed as a "Final Cut Pro for photography" it doesn't look like so much a Photoshop competitor as it does a photographer's workbench. Looking over the features, let me tell you, as an advanced amateur photographer, there are features in it that I'd kill for. The advanced, non-destuctive RAW workflow, the "virtual light table," the advanced project management, the printing and publishing, they are all amazing.

Priced at $500, it's not cheap, but Aperture is one of those applications you buy to help you make yourself money, so I think the cost is justified.

One thing of note though, it looks like Apple has introduced yet ANOTHER look and feel. At least this is confined to Aperture, much like the GUIs of the other "Pro" apps. Still, it makes you wonder how easily you'll be able to move from application to application when they all have different look and feels. Granted so long as the basics are the same, and only the "skin" is different, it won't be so bad, but I still think it's all getting a little out of hand.

Apple also showed off their new Pro machines including QUAD CPU POWER MAC G5s! Oh mama! I love having a dual CPU Power Mac, but I can't even imagine what 4 cores must be like.

With two dual-core processors, at speeds up to 2.5GHz per core, the Power Mac G5 Quad doubles the punch of its dual-processor predecessor. Do the math: Quad-core processing means four Velocity Engines and eight double-precision floating-point units for blistering performance of up to 76.6 gigaflops. That means you can manipulate mountains of images or miles of footage. Crunch enormous data sets. Encode HD video or high-bit-rate audio. All at speeds you never imagined possible.

Yeah! That's what I'M talking about!

A less impressive update, at least in my eyes, were the new PowerBook G4s. They received higher resolution screens, and longer battery life, both of which are indeed nice, but I still wish for something G5, dual core, and slimmer. This was a minimal refresh compared to what many people have been waiting and longing for.

All told, Apple has really set itself up for the holidays. With new iPods, including the new nano, new iMacs, and now new Pro Power Mac G5s, PowerBooks and Aperture, Apple looks set to keep the good times rolling.