Jeff Carlson (.Thought)

New Article: Five Cool and Useful Techniques for iMovie '09 and iDVD

Peachpit.com has posted an article I wrote about iMovie and iDVD: Five Cool and Useful Techniques for iMovie '09 and iDVD.

And remember: You can download the iDVD portion of my book for free here (PDF).

My Seattle Times Review of the iPhone 3GS

My review of the iPhone 3GS is now live on the Seattle Times Web site, a day ahead of when it's scheduled to appear in print. I like the new iPhone quite a bit; Apple sent me a review unit, but I had also ordered one the day it was announced.

I skipped the iPhone 3G last year because the iPhone OS 2.0 software provided all the improvement I needed; I did buy one for my wife (see my TidBITS article "iPhone 3G: On the Line in Seattle"). But partially due to the fact that I write about Apple and technology for a living, and due to new features like the compass (which many people will tell you I need) and the improved speed overall, I decided it was time to move up.

Here's a link to some of the photos and videos I took to demonstrate the camera: iPhone 3GS Review Seattle Times. (I also discovered a bug: when uploading a photo or video to MobileMe, the first album it lists can't be deselected; so in my case, anything I upload goes into a password-protected album I set up for a photo client, which I then have to move to the album I want using the MobileMe Gallery interface on my computer.)

Download the iDVD portion of my book for FREE!

Click here to download the PDF (6.2 MB).

When Apple revealed iMovie '09 at Macworld Expo this year, I was thrilled to see so many new features compared to iMovie '08. (You can read my Macworld review of iMovie '09 here.) But that also created a problem: my publisher needed the book to stay within a certain page count to avoid increasing the price of the book—remember, this is a full-color book printed on good paper. I knew I couldn't fit everything into the book.

As it turns out, Apple made my job easier. iDVD wasn't updated at all, so I made the decision to do something unusual: I removed the iDVD section from the printed book and am offering it as a free download to anyone who wants it. That freed up the pages needed to cover all of iMovie's new and changed features (and, in fact, the book's retail price is lower than the previous edition, now $24.99 compared to $29.99!).

Don't worry, the printed book still contains all the essential information you need to use iDVD. I added an iDVD Overview chapter that walks you through the steps of creating an iDVD project, and the "Archiving, Encoding, and Burning" chapter is there, too.

So what's in the free download? More than 70 pages of all the ins and outs of creating and editing an iDVD project, including:

• Customizing themes
• Customizing individual elements such as buttons, backgrounds, and text
• Creating DVD slideshows
• Using the Map, drop zones, OneStep DVD, Magic iDVD, and more.
• A full index to the addendum, to make it easy to find the information you're looking for.

If you don't own the print book, this free iDVD addendum will give you an idea of what the book is like: easy, step-by-step walkthroughs of how to do everything, with lots of color screenshots.

The PDF also includes a deal in the back to buy the book at 35% off when you order directly from Peachpit Press!

Projects Project Projects!

The past few months have been some of the busiest of my professional life, mostly due to a confluence of deadlines that I expected would be spread out over a longer period of time. But since I mostly write about Apple and the Mac, I never know when new products are going to hit. In this case, they hit all at once. Here's what has kept me up until 1 or 2 a.m. most nights over the last three months.

iMovie ’08 & iDVD ’08 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickStart Guide: When Apple announced iLife ’08 with a completely rewritten version of iMovie, I knew I was in for a lot more work than I expected. I just received my first author copy of the book, and it looks great! I've almost completely rewritten the iMovie section to account for the changes in this version, including a new chapter on managing video (one of iMovie's hidden strengths, with keywording and marking features), and of course tips and tricks for using iMovie to its fullest. Amazon has the book now for just $16.49; if you click the link above, I get a small piece of the purchase, in case you want to help your favorite author (and hopefully that's me).

I've also just finished helping another Peachpit Press author update portions of his book, but since I'm not a listed co-author, I'm hesitant to name the title until it's available (which is very soon). In this case, I ended up doing most of the work in an extremely short amount of time due to scheduling issues. Getting 12 hours of sleep over three days while also entertaining visiting family is fun, to a degree, but not something I recommend often.

In addition to book projects, I've recently written several articles, in reverse-chronological order:

• First Look: Final Cut Express 4 (Macworld.com)
• Apple's so hip Part II is a must, some noteworthy features of Mac OS X 10.5 (Seattle Times).
• Apple's latest cool cat, a review of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard for the Seattle Times.

In the midst of this, I've been preparing to become a father, a big project indeed!

Long Hours

Midnight Pavoni Rendezvous
Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson

On Saturday, I planned on going to bed at the same time as Kim and get a good night's rest. We spent the day with family, watching my 2 year old niece for a few hours and then having dinner at my sister's house. She lives in Bremerton, a little over an hour away (either by ferry or by driving around Puget Sound), so as a result we didn't get home until about 11:30. Still, that was the earliest I'd been to bed all week by about 3 hours.

I'm spending most of my time updating my iMovie/iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide (the new edition isn't yet listed at Amazon), which is more work this time around because iMovie '08 is a completely new video-editing program. I'm starting to warm up to the changes Apple made, and realizing that this version is deeper than I expected it to be (which means more work for me to suss out those depths).

I'm also helping to update a colleague's book in roughly the same timeframe. And since Adobe just released Photoshop Elements 6, the update to the Elements Visual QuickStart Guide is in the mix, too. Sprinkle a few article assignments in there as well.

But why should work occupy all of my attention? Why not do something really out of the ordinary, like have hardwood floors installed in our house (finally)? Heck, I might as well start a family while I'm at it.

This explains why my trusty La Pavoni espresso maker pictured here has become a reliable friend late at night and early every morning. I'm not complaining (much), because I did say yes to all of these projects. It's fun in that overwhelming sort of way. I just don't know where September and October went.

NBC Yanking TV Shows from iTunes

Macworld: iTunes Store to stop selling NBC shows in September

NBC: "Thanks to Apple and iTunes, we're making money we otherwise wouldn't have made, so now we're greedy bastards."

I suppose some people might be compelled to try the new Fox/NBC Hulu.com service, which I read somewhere will require that you're online to watch. But I'll bet this action is going to push a lot of people — people willing to pay honest money for the convenience of downloading from iTunes — to the P2P services to download pirate copies. (It's not encouraging that the Hulu page includes an image for the series Drive, which Fox cancelled after four episodes.

I give it 9 months before NBC announces a return to iTunes.

Do I ever have my work cut out for me

Last week, Apple dropped a bomb I knew was going to arrive at the most inconvenient time: the release of iLife '08. For the last few years, the peak event for my professional life has been Macworld Expo in January, where Apple typically announces new hardware and software. One of my major book projects has been my iMovie & iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide, and in general Apple has revved the software each year.

But not this time around. Apple threw all of its focus onto the iPhone last January, without a peep about iLife. I was still plenty busy with projects, but suddenly my iMovie/iDVD book became a moving target. Months passed, and I heard rumors that perhaps iLife contained features that were specific to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but then Leopard was delayed until October. A few weeks ago, a rumor site named August 7 as the introduction of new iMacs and iLife, which incredibly turned out to be true.

Normally, I'd be happy (and I am, really - when you're a freelance writer, having work is good). The timing isn't so great in terms of other projects I'm working on now, but okay. It wasn't until I was following along with online coverage of Apple's special media event last Tuesday that I started hyperventilating.

iMovie '08 is a completely new application. Not just we've-cleaned-up-the-code new. No, the old iMovie HD has been shelved in favor of this new version, which sports a completely different interface, a few completely different ways of working (some good, some bad), and lots of features missing from its predecessor. I wrote about it in TidBITS last week (see "New iLife '08 Revealed, .Mac Upgraded," 2007-08-13), and also wrote the First Look article for Macworld, which starts out:

Take what you know about iMovie, put it into an imaginary box, and store that box in a corner of your brain for now. When Steve Jobs unveiled iLife ’08 (Best Current Price: $69.98) and mentioned that Apple is “completely replacing one of the key apps with something that takes it to a whole new level,” he wasn’t exaggerating. iMovie ’08 is a completely new video editing program that just happens to have inherited the iMovie name.

I've also written the First Look for iDVD '08, which was posted today:

If you watch Apple’s webcast of its August 7 product announcements for news of iDVD ’08, it may take you longer to jump ahead to that point in Steve Jobs’ presentation (the 54-minute mark or so) than the 33 seconds Jobs spends on the DVD-authoring component of iLife ’08 (Best Current Price: $69.98). That gives you a clue to how important DVD creation has become at Apple.

What all this means is that I need to basically rewrite a huge chunk of my iMovie book (it also affects a couple of the other projects on my plate). I was scheduled to write the full review of iMovie '08 for Macworld, but had to beg off when I realized that the laws of time and space wouldn't provide enough time to do it.

Now that I've stopped hyperventilating, I'm not really complaining (much), because this also represents a good challenge to create new material. That's exciting. But it also means that me and 2 a.m. get to become close friends again for the next month or two.

Voicemail QuickStart Guide

  Apple TV Pr0n 
  Originally uploaded by Jeff Carlson.

My wonderful copyeditor on my current book project made a funny side comment in email asking if I could explain her cell phone company some day in the same way that I describe how to do things in my books (embarrassingly, that page hasn't been updated in a while). Of course, she wasn't expecting an answer, and of course I provided one:

1. Push Voicemail button on teeny screen.
2. Listen as annoying female voice tells you that an old message is going to be deleted, and then plays it for you.
3. Resist urge to throw phone.
4. Press 7 to delete the damn email that I didn't keep in the first place.
5. Resist urge to throw phone.
6. Listen as annoying female voice tells you that you have a new message, tells you the time it was recorded, and asks if you want to listen to it.
7. Resist urge to throw phone.
8. Press 1 to listen to the message you dialed up Voicemail to hear in the first place.
9. Recognize that the message is a wrong number, a missed connection, or someone you know you don't need to hear.
10. Press 7 to delete message.
11. Resist urge to throw phone when annoying female voice scolds, "That is not a valid option."
12. Listen to same message, again, FROM THE BEGINNING.
13. Annoying female voice asks if you want to delete the message. Say "Yes!" even though you know she can't hear you (but maybe the government can).
14. Press 7 to delete.
15. Give in to the urge. Throw phone.

Yes, I've run into this (almost verbatim) recently. Can you tell?

My Apple TV Review at Seattle Times

Instead of a regular Practical Mac column this week, I reviewed the Apple TV: Computer, television learning to get along.

Despite my few reservations, the Apple TV is compelling because Apple has done the living room right. The quality of the experience stands out the most, supported by the overall polish and attention to detail ranging from the easy navigation to the drifting photo screensaver that kicks into gear to prevent screen burn-in on plasma displays.

NBC show 'Conviction' pilot debuts on iTunes, for free

NBC has released the pilot of it's new show Conviction at the iTunes Music Store for free. What a great way to build buzz for a show. I'm grabbing it not only because I like the idea, but because my wife is a Law & Order: SVU fan. We may have to hunker over the PowerBook to watch an episode. (Playlist: NBC show 'Conviction' pilot debuts on iTunes, for free.)

I'm waiting for the next thing to hit: when will a major or minor network create a series meant only for iTunes/Web/iPod? If I had my way and a bazillion dollars, I'd throw cash at Joss Whedon and the Firefly cast and continue the series online... who needs the approval of a network executive (especially a Fox exec) when you can deliver direct for free? I think a tight show could survive on episode payment schemes (maybe you sign up for a season). We'll have to see if it appears.