From nicholas at nicholaspyers.com Fri Sep 3 00:23:21 2004 From: nicholas at nicholaspyers.com (Nicholas Pyers) Date: Fri Sep 3 00:24:00 2004 Subject: [ACNN-Mac] New Apple Seminar - Key Customer Briefing Message-ID: At this informative briefing, you'll be shown the new range of Apple Cinema Displays, be taken through real-time previews of motion graphics with Motion, as well learning about the full storage capabilities of Apple's Xsan and Xserver technologies. Please join us for breakfast at either Sydney or Melbourne. Reserve your seat today - Don't miss out! Date: 8 September 2004 Venue: Crown Casino Palladium C1 Whiteman Street Southbank VIC 3006 Date: 16 September 2004 Venue: The Shangri-La Hotel 176 Cumberland Street The Rocks, Sydney NSW 2000 Time for both seminars: 7.45am for an 8am start http://www.apple.com.au/seminars/kcp/ -- Nicholas Pyers (nicholas@nicholaspyers.com) "Heaven on Earth?" "No, Earth on Earth. The Just Earth!" From nicholas at nicholaspyers.com Tue Sep 7 21:01:33 2004 From: nicholas at nicholaspyers.com (Nicholas Pyers) Date: Tue Sep 7 21:02:10 2004 Subject: [ACNN-Mac] First sighting on iMac G5 in Australia Message-ID: Morning All, I've just returned from the Key Customer presentation given by Apple Australia this morning here in Melbourne. After surfacing at 6:30am (and anyone who knows me, knows just how much I love the mornings :) and arrive at Crown Casino at 7:45am to find a nice well set out room with tables laden with food - fresh fruit, cereal, fruit juice, pastries and tea and coffee on offer :) So we're off to a great start :) We sit at the table eating and chatting to our neighbors - there are about 30 people in the room. Then the iPod ad starts playing and bacon, eggs, smoked salmon and spinach on toast is served up. Now the presentation gets under way and the presenter talks about to the overview of the entire Apple Range - there are now nine "quadrants" in the range - Consumer (iBook, eMac, iMac), Other (iPod, Mac OS X, Airport), Professional (PowerBook, G5 Tower, Xserve). During this session, the new 17" iMac G5 was unveiled - this was the public showing of the iMac G5 in Australia. This looks even better in the flesh than all publicity shots and movies show. I can't wait to get my hands on one of these (actually I'm after the 20" version). A real 30" Cinema display was shown as well. There was a 23" Cinema Display next to it and the I always thought they were big, but Boy these 30" ones are HUGE. The presentation then covered Apple's new storage solution, Xsan, which is a high-end, high-traffic raid like solution utilising Xserves, Xserve Raids and fibre channel connections - this is not aimed at the average user, but production houses and other super-power users. The presentation then moved over to Motion, Apple's new graphics effect application. The power included in this package at such a low price point will see Apple yet again redefine the video editing workflow. After the formal presentation concluded, we had the opportunity to examine the iMac up close and actually run applications on it. It will be a great level entry machine for the hobbist video editor, graphic designer and a super-powered workhorse for those of us who just use Word, email and web browsing. A great presentation, and meal, put on by Apple Australia. -- Nicholas Pyers (nicholas@nicholaspyers.com) "Heaven on Earth?" "No, Earth on Earth. The Just Earth!" From swithers at mac.com Wed Sep 8 01:11:42 2004 From: swithers at mac.com (Stephen Withers) Date: Wed Sep 8 01:11:46 2004 Subject: [ACNN-Mac] Mapping scripts Message-ID: Address Book's "Map Of" feature uses MapQuest, which is almost useless for Australian addresses. The equivalent feature in Entourage uses MSN Maps & Directions, which is completely useless for Australian addresses. So I've written a pair of AppleScripts for these programs to access the WhereIs map service (http://www.whereis.com.au) via the default browser (previous versions used Safari regardless of the user's preference). WhereIs (for Address Book) can be downloaded from . It is an Address Book Plug-In, so it is accessed by clicking the 'work' or 'home' label next to an address. WhereIs (for Entourage 2004) can be downloaded from . It appears in Entourage's Scripts menu, so it isn't as elegant as the Address Book version. If the selected contact has multiple addresses, a dialog invites the user to choose one. Both scripts are freeware. News of any updates will appear at . Stephen Withers From nicholas at nicholaspyers.com Sun Sep 12 19:02:46 2004 From: nicholas at nicholaspyers.com (Nicholas Pyers) Date: Sun Sep 12 19:06:39 2004 Subject: [ACNN-Mac] MacMovieMaker Contest Message-ID: I know there are many Mac Movie Makers on these lists, so I thought you might be interested to know about the contest MacMovieMaker.com are running. MacMovieMaker.com is pleased to announce its first ever short film contest! Apple's paved the way for independent filmmakers to create content in ways that were never imagined before, and helped to bring the cost of realizing a filmmaker's vision down to a level we all can afford. As a tribute to the Mac and Apple's vision of video editing for the masses, our first contest is to create a 5 minutes (or less) short film with the theme, "Making Movies on a Mac". Entries can consist of movies or animations, encoded as QuickTime movies or MPEG-4 with a size of 320x240. Animations can be in Flash format with a .swf extension. The length is five (5) minutes or less and one entry only per participant will be accepted. Movies will be judged on originality, quality of production, entertainment value and adherence to the contest theme. Deadlines: We will start accepting submissions on Monday, September 13th. End of submissions is five weeks later, on October 18th. The winner will be announced on November 1st, 2004. http://www.macmoviemaker.com/index.php?id=70 -- Nicholas Pyers (nicholas@nicholaspyers.com) "Heaven on Earth?" "No, Earth on Earth. The Just Earth!"