Apple releases Aperture 3

Apple today introduced Aperture 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the innovative Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto ’09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organise large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine your photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let you share your work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.

“Millions of people love using iPhoto to organise, edit and share their digital photos”, said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets”.

“Aperture 3 gets it right”, said National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson. “The image editing tools are exactly what I have been asking for, they’re so easy to use and give me a level of control that I never even thought possible”.

“I chose Aperture because it was the most powerful archiving application around, but it’s now an unbelievable imaging tool as well”, said Bill Frakes, Sports Illustrated staff photographer. “I am beyond impressed with the massive changes made in Aperture 3”.

Aperture 3 allows you to organise large photo libraries with even more flexibility using Projects and the new Faces and Places. Faces uses face detection and recognition to find and organise your photos by the people in them. You can view faces across your entire photo library or view just the faces that appear in selected projects. In a new view that speeds up the organisation process, Aperture 3 displays faces that have been detected but haven’t yet been named. Places lets you explore your photos based on where they were taken, and like in iPhoto, Places automatically reverse geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, you can assign locations by dragging-and-dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS enabled cameras, tracking devices or your iPhone photos.

The new Brushes feature allows you to add professional touches to your photos by simply painting effects onto the image. Aperture 3 includes 15 Quick Brushes that perform the most popular tasks like Dodge, Burn, Polarize and Blur, without the complexity of layers or masks. Brushes can automatically detect edges in your images to let you apply or remove effects exactly where you want them. Aperture 3 includes dozens of Adjustment Presets that apply a specific style or look to the entire image with just a click. You can create your own custom presets or explore the techniques of other photographers by importing theirs.

Aperture 3 makes it easy to share your work with stunning slideshows that weave together photos, audio, text and HD video. You can select one of six Apple designed themes or choose your own transitions, background, borders and titles, and even add your own soundtrack. You can export your slideshows directly to iTunes to take with you on your iPhone or iPod touch. You can also share photographs as beautiful prints, create custom-designed hardcover books and publish to online photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr, right from Aperture 3.

Pricing & Availability
Aperture 3 is available through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorised Resellers for a suggested retail price of £169 (inc VAT) and existing Aperture users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of £79 (inc VAT). A downloadable 30-day trial version is available at www.apple.com/uk/aperture/trial. Aperture 3 runs as a 64-bit application on Mac OS X Snow Leopard on Macs with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Full system requirements, online tutorials and more information on Aperture 3 can be found at www.apple.com/uk/aperture.

Forthcoming - Apple iPad Review

A little snippet of news, to keep you all updated. The Apple iPad is causing a lot of buzz in the tech world at the moment and rightly so. It has had a mixed reception so far, but how can anyone really pass judgement until they review it first hand. Well, I wanted to let you know that I will be bringing you a review in March of one of the first batch of iPad Wi-Fi versions to hit the UK. Keep an eye on the Geekanoids website and of course the Geekanoids YouTube Channel for a really in-depth series of videos. I will be testing it with a Mi-Fi wireless dongle too and then some comparisons with the 3G version late April too. In the meantime check out my hands-off impressions.

 

Apple iPad First Look Preview

Geekanoids Hands-off Impressions of the Apple iPad. Let's take a closer look, differences between the Wifi and the Wifi+GPS version, possible use of MiFi with the iPad, docking, accessories, will it replace a MacBook or MacBook Pro?


Check out more great reviews on my YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/geekanoids/

Apple iPad Special Event Coverage Jan 2010 - part 4

Geekanoids Apple Special Event Coverage Jan 2010 - part 4. The Apple iPad is officially announced. This video contains full specifications, what apps & functionality will be on the iPad. Details and design, photos and that all important pricing.

This is part four of my coverage. More videos on my channel tomorrow.

Apple iPad Special Event Coverage Jan 2010 - part 3

Geekanoids Apple Special Event Coverage Jan 2010 - part 3. The Apple iPad is officially announced. This video contains more specifications, details of iWork on the iPad, plus the important pricing information on both the Wifi & the Wifi+3G version.

This is part three of my coverage. Check back very soon for more.

Apple iPad Special Event Coverage Jan 2010 - part 2

Geekanoids Apple Special Event Coverage Jan 2010 - part 2. The Apple iPad is officially announced. This video contains details of the specifications of the new device, how apps run on it, plus some specially developed apps for the iPad.

This is part two of my coverage. Check back very soon for more.


This video was uploaded whilst the event is still going on.

Apple iPad iSlate Tablet Predictions

Apple iPad iSlate Tablet Predictions. Apple are holding a special event on January 27th 2010. For a long time now many websites and journalists have been trying to predict what is going to be announced. In the run up to the event, a whole host of companies are announcing tablet devices. Here are my views in the hope that you can add your thoughts to the comments.

Steve Jobs Windows 7 Party Box unboxing

Steve Jobs (well a look-a-like) gets an unexpected Windows 7 Party Box delivered to him. He is so excited with the thought of holding a party, so after this unboxing he will be busy putting together his guest list in time for his party next week.

Apple's It's only Rock & Roll Event - Expectations

Today at 10am Pacific Time, 6pm GMT, Apple will be holding an event to launch a slew of new products. The 'It's only rock and roll' event takes place at the Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts in San Francisco, where they have adorned the front with a striking music banner.

Every September we see new iPods. So, it is a forgone conclusion that we will see a new iPod Nano and touch. There have been many pictures doing the rounds of new cases. The most likely being the Hama cases that featured on Engadget. It seems an obvious step for Apple to introduce a camera to the iPod touch, bringing video capabilities and simple editing akin to the iPhone 3GS. The Nano will more than likely only be able to take photos. There has also been rumours that Apple experienced problems with the initial batch of camera units. If this is true, we might see a slight shipping delay after launch.

We might also hear two bits of sad news too. The iPod classic is likely to be retired. When it was announced as the 120GB version available today, the company said it would be the last version of this model. The second wipeout news, is that of the AppleTV. The 40GB version has been showing as 1-2 weeks shipping for a while in the Apple online store. This may well indicate that stock is being run down on this model. It would be nice to think that Apple does keep on developing the AppleTV, maybe even showing us a new version later today.

A new iTunes (version 9) is also likely. With social networking additions for Facebook and Twitter. It seems as though the application is getting a little cluttered now and is certainly trying to do too much. Keep it simple Apple, or people will lose interest! Also rumoured is The Beatles coming to the iTunes Store. This is not a big deal for me, plus I don't think it'll happen today anyway.

The most anticipated product that people want to see is the Apple Tablet. If Steve Jobs takes to the stage, he may well surprise us. I personally don't think it is that likely, but I really would love to see it. A 10-inch touch screen device, with HDMI output would be superb. Surely acting as the coolest media type server on the planet. Of course, it would do a lot more besides just serving up content. Apple will do the touch interface just right and you will see a lot of people opting for these over a laptop. Keep checking back on Geekanoids later today and tomorrow for full coverage of what Apple has up its sleeve(s).