RouseWorld | Main -- Back after a short rest

Back after a short rest

First things first — I've got an article in the Wayward Packet section about a new watch I've bought. Just in case you've been wondering what I've been doing with my time.

I also managed to visit the Durham Apple Store the day the Mac Mini and iLife 05 was released. A very cold day kept a lot of people away, but they had still sold out of the Minis. I looked at one, they are really small — like a small stack of CDs. I did get a copy of iLife.

A few other Apple related things I didn't notice until I went to the store:

• iWork Pages document files are packages, I didn't play around too much but I assume any embedded files will be stored inside. The main document file in the package is an XML document, and it seems text-based, not binary.
• The new iPhoto does handle RAW format digital photographs. But when the application hands over the file to Photoshop for editing, Photoshop gets an 8-bit JPG file. For the time being I will still work with RAW files outside of iPhoto.
• You can now use the keyboard to play in GarageBand 2. This is nice if, like me, you aren't enough into music to buy a real keyboard, but still want to play around in GarageBand.
• iMovieHD can also import regular DV shot in widescreen mode. This is nice for those of us who have wanted the widescreen look, but can't spend butloads of money on a new HD camcorder.

In non-Apple related news, I've started to use MarsEdit to write for the blog. So far it seems like a really nice editor, especially since I can escape away to BBEdit if I want to.