Meeting Summary : April

The whole meeting was run through an iPad – topic was ‘all things mobile’

  • reviewed some of the more popular apps on the iPad
  • discussed back up and security
  • looked at cloud based file systems like dropbox and iDisk
  • went through MobileMe
  • Those of you out there that attended – please contact me at jphilpin@me.com if I missed any significant topics – and I will edit this post.

    We also had a 5 minute overview of The Maui Camera Club from John Hugg – see his web site here. Personally, I see a great deal of overlap and commonality between our two organizations – hope we get some cross pollination between us – particularly those mac using photographers out there.

    A couple of posts to follow that will pull up other articles on other sites – but well worth a read.

    Robert Cringely is an excellent write on all things technology (and other things). At the meeting, we discussed the security of the phone, how you protect the data etc. We didn’t discuss physical protection. Robert – in this piece does.

    Nothing to do about it – but the fact is the iPhone is now so valuable in other countries – they are being ripped, cleansed of all your data immediately and shipped off to the new buyer. Kind of makes our discussions moot!

    Another great blogger on both Apple and Tech is John Gruber. Some of you might have heard about his blog ‘Daring Fireball‘.

    One topic discussed on the night was a new app available in the App Store called Square. Essentially for $10 – you get an adapter that plugs into your iPhone and you are good to go with a built in Credit Card Reader. Needless to say – the ‘big boys’ have come out with guns a blazing about how Square just isn’t secure and how much better Verifone is.

    Read the Gruber comments here – but to get to the nub, Gruber comments that (some of the claims made by Verifone are “pure, unadulterated FUD.” – Gruber is good at calling it.

    FInal Cut Pro

    Videographers get ready – Final Cut Pro – Version X was just announced at the NAB show in Vegas. Available for $299 in June. We will work on doing one of our meetings to totally drill into the app as soon as we can.

    This review caught my eye – so I wanted to share.

    The new Final Cut Pro is a bold move – a totally redesigned interface, 64-bit memory addressing, multi-processor support, tight integration of metadata in the project file with metadata stored in the clip not just in the project, heavy use of automation to simplify tedious tasks, and a rethinking of the entire concept of what it means to edit.

    I can’t think of any other company that could so totally redefine what a non-linear video editor is than Apple. Since the release of Final Cut Pro 1, each version of FCP has contained incremental improvements. This is a complete restatement at every possible level.

    As Phil Schiller, senior VP for world-wide marketing for Apple told me after the presentation, “This is a total rethinking of how we tell stories visually.”

    The link to Apple’s information can be found here Full Article :: The Sound of 1,700 Jaws Dropping Passed on – with thanks to :: Larry’s Blog