Redmond's contentious Windows 8 is almost upon us, and the virtualization apps are already prepped for it with the latest incarnations of Parallels Desktop 8 and VMware Fusion 5. While the main focus of the two big-boys of Mac virtualization are Win 8 support and integration, focus has also been given to integration with Mountain Lion features like Notification Center. A head-to-head review ultimately made sense in light of similar updates. Where … [Read more...]
As Mac Pro stagnates, PC workstations muscle ahead
August 9, 2012 By
Out of gas, for now. Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock Like many Mac-based creative professionals, I followed this year's WWDC keynote anxiously, awaiting the "one more thing" that never came: an E5 Xeon refresh of the Mac Pro line. Its absence was brutally disappointing; thankfully, Tim Cook broke his vow of secrecy to reassure us that a new Mac Pro will arrive in 2013. But for filmmakers compressing hours of 4K footage or … [Read more...]
Review: Adobe Photoshop CS6 and the “Creative Cloud”
Juni 4, 2012 By
After 22 years, Photoshop has enough feature additions that it's invaluable to many professionals needing powerful tools to edit photographs. But Adobe isn't alone in the photo editing market anymore. While previous attempts to steal away photo professionals largely failed (anyone remember Live Picture?), low-priced hobbyist apps and prosumer editors have now become incredibly attractive. If you read my Pixelmator 1.6 review, you know this $30 … [Read more...]
Feature: Apple’s iBooks Author: the iTunes of self-publishing apps?
April 27, 2012 By
Apple's much-hyped iBooks Author came out a while back, and Cupertino hopes the free app can become the iTunes for the self-publishing textbook world. Available solely through the Mac App Store at a healthy 320MB, I've been putting iBooks Author through its paces in the hopes that the interactive iBook will bring me some added sales of a recently self-published e-book. I wanted to get this review out sooner, but you can't really know how well … [Read more...]
Apple’s iBooks Author: the iTunes of self-publishing apps?
April 27, 2012 By
Apple's much-hyped iBooks Author came out a while back, and Cupertino hopes the free app can become the iTunes for the self-publishing textbook world. Available solely through the Mac App Store at a healthy 320MB, I've been putting iBooks Author through its paces in the hopes that the interactive iBook will bring me some added sales of a recently self-published e-book. I wanted to get this review out sooner, but you can't really know how well … [Read more...]
Feature: Adobe Lightroom 4 reviewed
April 1, 2012 By
Version 4 of Adobe's popular Lightroom hit the streets a few weeks ago. While the feature list isn't extensive, it thankfully lacks padding (new yellow button somewhere!). The public beta took the wind out of any surprises but the release was highly anticipated for a number of new features: GPS tagging in the new Map module, book creation and export, video file support and basic clip editing. Another big feature was the downgraded price tag: … [Read more...]
