Macgasm

As an independent filmmaker, I look to simplify. Anything I can combine with my iPhone means one less thing to carry around.

A director’s viewfinder is essential for moving quickly on set. Until the camera is set, everything else is up in the air. Changing camera position means changing props, lighting, etc. to compensate.

A director’s viewfinder gives the director the ability to find the exact shot he wants — position, angle, lens, etc. A typical director’s viewfinder is around $250.

Chemical Wedding, a UK company specializing in film apps, has developed an all-around phenomenal app. Its beauty lies not only in the simplicity of design but also in the incredible dedication to accuracy and detail.

From their website:

“Artemis has been field tested and tweaked with every camera in our database to make sure that the field of view is correct. With digital film cameras we found that relying on the information from camera manufacturers was not always wise.”

Their database includes just about every camera setup you could think of. Having used Artemis on a couple of shoots, I can attest that the field of view is spot on with the setups I’ve been able to test it against.

Artemis works in two modes. A wireframe mode shows how different lenses compare against each other. In fullscreen mode, the camera zooms in or out to match the field of view of the chosen lens. You can also snap photos from within the app. Images are saved to your iPhone’s photo library with an overlay indicating camera and lens settings.

Artemis Remote is an iPad companion app that receives picture data sent to it from the Viewfinder app, allowing other people to view fullscreen mode without needing to be physically nearby, something that can’t be done with a traditional viewfinder.

Artemis Director’s Viewfinder is a must-have for anyone in the film or video production business. Its price seems hefty compared to other apps on the App Store, but it’s worth every penny. Check out the apps via the links below.

Photo Credit: directorsviewfinder.com

During its website relaunch, Apple seems to have included new info on the Verizon iPhone. The pages can be seen here (16 GB) and here (32 GB).

As an existing Verizon user, I walked through adding a 16 GB data plan to my family account. However, the website ended up bombing out on me. Not surprising, since Verizon hasn’t announced the plans officially.

Anyways, here are the details I grabbed before the site gave up:

The “Unlimited iPhone” plan will run users $29.99/month, while unlimited data and a 2 GB 2G Mobile Hotspot addition will cost another $20/month.

The voice and text options are the same as other smartphone plans on Big Red.

The iPhone 4 on Verizon goes on sale to existing Verizon customers on Thursday, February 3, and to the public on Friday, February 11.

Update: The pages now all serve up an error message. Maybe someone at Apple pulled the trigger a little early on this?

Article Via Mac Stories

The best rumor of the day so far has been that the white iPhone was going to make an appearance on the Apple Store today when the online store went down. It went down, and then it came back up, and there was no white unicorn, just an HTML5 website. We laughed, and then we laughed some more. We’re not sure where the rumor started, but it certainly dominated our Twitter stream and tip line for a couple of hours today.

While the unicorn is still missing in action, Apple has just relaunched their website. As of today their website is entirely based on HTML5 technologies. It’s a little overdue, considering the holy war that Apple’s fighting with Flash, but I guess it’s better late than never. The new website has a couple of animations, and a new look header that is no longer a subtle grey. Instead the header is a dark and ominous grey. Edgy.

I wonder if that’s a bit of a tell about the psyche in Cupertino these days. We’d be pretty pissed too if every time we made a change people were looking for a white iPhone that no one’s going to buy anyway.

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This week in Ottawa we’ve been blessed with a balmy -20 degrees Celsius. It makes Starbucks runs extremely painful. I don’t know about you, but trying to take a call on your iPhone is pretty painful in that kind of weather.

It seems as though Apple has us Canucks in their thoughts. Apple has patented a High Tactility (Magic) Glove System. That’s their words, not ours.

The simplest way to think about the gloves in this patent is that they have a bunch of little iPad stylus nubs on the end of the finger tips.

The patent explanation on Patently Apple provides a little bit of a laugh, but I can’t help but think that these would be extremely useful for those of us above the border.

Don’t pretend for one second that these gloves would be lame. You know as well as I that every time you have to use your iPhone at a bus stop in the dead of winter that you curse touch screen devices. I’ve tossed some major expletives Steve Jobs’ way when I almost get frostbite from checking my email. I’ll take two pairs of Magic iGloves if Apple ever ships them.

Article Via Patently Apple

There are various reports surfacing about the iPad 2 coming soon. The latest news states that there will be limited manufacturing starting in February. This comes from AppleInsider who says that China Commercial Times has reported that the iPad production will start at the beginning of February for small numbers initially, and then expand afterwards.

It’s predicted that this would give Apple adequate time to prepare enough iPads for launch. Current estimates for the official iPad 2 launch are for April. At the same time, it has also been reported that production of the iPhone 5 would begin in May, and if it followed Apple’s typical product release cycle, this would mean it could be an official June launch again—maybe we’ll see those mythical white iPhones by then too.

Manufacturing early, before launch, has positive and negative issues surrounding it. If they make a lot early, it will mean many customers will be satisfied since they will get the latest device and more of the demand will be met. Of course, it also means potential leaks of the device and the specs before Apple is ready to launch. Leaks of unannounced Apple products are hot news for us, but devastating to the way Apple likes to announce their products.

The details of the iPad 2′s specs are flying around, and it seems to be a mix of rumor and news, but the display being “Retina” I think is the least likely to happen anytime soon—if ever.

More realistic reports of FaceTime and video capabilities seem part of the Apple plan because the more devices that are capable of using FaceTime, the more likely people will be to use it.

Are you planning on getting the new iPad when it’s available? Do you currently have the first generation and are keen to sell to finance the next Apple purchase? Are you happy with the iPad and are not really bothered about getting the next one?

Article Via applegazette

One game that fell through the cracks for me was Dead Space. I’ve always had the intention of playing the game on a console, but never got around to it, unfortunately. A couple of years later, EA has put the game directly in my wheel house. Dead Space is now available on the iPhone and iPad. The game looks fantastic, and it could be another one of those games that really shows off the power of the iPad as a gaming platform.

We’re just sitting down with the game now, so we don’t have many opinions on the game play just yet, but we will be working on a full-featured review. So  far, we’re pretty excited about it.

I’ve been waiting for this game for a long time, so I thought some of you might be as well. The day has finally come—Dead Space is available on the iPhone and iPad!

Go Get It.

I’ve spent some time over the last week troubleshooting some Office for Mac problems. Most of the time, the users are running older versions. When I ask why they haven’t updated yet, they usually point to an inability to ‘try before you buy.’  I was a bit surprised when I found out that it was true. Up until today, there was no 30-day trial of Office for Mac 2011.

As of today Microsoft has made a free 30-day trial of Office for Mac 2011 available from their website.

If you’re curious about using Office on your Mac over some of the other options, this is a good opportunity to download and try it out.

There’s no one solution when it comes to word processing and other office-centric applications, so try them all and make an educated decision before you buy.

Article Via the Office For Mac Blog