Tag: mac app store

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Final Cut Pro X Unstuck

The new version of Final Cut Pro X does not seem to be going down well with users. Many are asking Apple for refunds and at £179.99 though a lot cheaper than the previous version is still a hefty amount of money for many. Apple as a rule does not give refunds on purchases from the App Store but for those customers who are not entirely happy with the new version there may be a chance.

I’ve not gone out and bought the new version, though I do have the older version on my work Macs (we have a site licence) I have not really used it in anger, in the main had a “play” and then gone back to iMovie as I knew it and it was quicker and easier to use than what is a professional application.

Doubt I will buy the new version for my home Mac, partly on the reviews, but in the main as iMovie meets my video editing needs.

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Where are my Comic Life Styles?




Comic Life is a great app for creating comics very simply, quickly and uses a drag and drop interface.

I recently upgraded my Mac version of Comic Life to version 2 and one “change” was starting to annoy me.

In version 1 when you created a title you could then select from a drop down list and choose from a variety of styles (the deluxe version had many more than the “free” version that came with many Macs and I how I was introduced to Comic Life.

Plasq were in the Mac App Store from day one with Comic Life 2 and though I could have upgraded to 2 (as I have version 1) I decided to purchase and install Comic Life 2 via the Mac App Store. I mainly did this as it was much easier and quicker than trying to upgrade, I wanted updates to be easier and also I could in future install on other Macs as you can with apps from the Mac App Store.

With version two though when I started to use it I was very disappointed to find that the variety of styles you got with version 1 appeared to be missing in version 2!

I did try and search the FAQ, help and support without much success. I looked through the menus, and though there was a way of importing styles…

I had no idea what file I would be looking for or where I would get such a file.

After pretending to ignore the problem… I decided that there must be a way and after a recent update and still seeing no styles I decided to search and dig a little deeper and possibly even post to the Plasq forum.

In the forum though I did find a reference to styles in Magiq, that said.

When you start Comic Life Magiq – make sure you choose the Deluxe Styles template from the Template chooser. Otherwise you will just end up with a blank template with no styles.

Hmm….

Tried that with the Template Chooser and yes there are lots of styles in there….

Now the next question is how do you export those styles for use in other templates?

Well that was answered by the help in the end.

Choose Format->Import Styles.... A file browsing sheet appears. Locate and select the comic that has the styles you wish to import and click "Import." The styles are added to your comic.

In other words you import an actual comic you’ve created to add the styles to your new comic.

All starts to make sense now…

Okay back to creating comics.

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Upgraded

Took the plunge and decided to upgrade my copies of iPhoto and iMovie to the new versions. I bought the new versions from the Mac App Store. The whole process was simple and seamless with the downloads of 600MB each not taking a huge amount of time, thanks to my fast FTTC connection. I wouldn’t envy anyone trying to do this on a slow ADSL connection (like what I use to have) as it would take an age. Actually think about downloading Call of Duty 4 from the Mac App Store which comes in at a weighty 6.85GB.

I do like the functionalty of the new App Store, it is easy (almost too easy) to download apps and install them. I think Apple is onto a winner here.

Of course the App Store applications (and to be honest most OS X updates) can be very large and this means that you do need to have a fast broadband connection with a large limit. The same can be said for iTunes downloads too. It is very easy now to reach any limit your ISP places on you.

So what of the versions of iPhoto and iMovie, well quite like some of the new features of iPhoto though it doesn’t seem as zippy as the previous version. The navigation as you edit or view images does seem more intuitive than it did before.

Still have not really had a chance to play with the new version of iMovie, but pleased to see that it has enhanced audio editing tools as that was causing me a few headaches with the previous version.

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Mac App Store goes live!

After the announcement last year, today saw Apple’s OS X App Store for Macs go live.

This is an obvious move for Apple following the success of the App Store for iOS devices.

For me this is a great way of buying Apps, not having to worry about creating accounts on multiple websites and an easy way of installing Apps. I don’t think this will stop me buying Apps from websites, but if an App is available on the App Store I think this might tempt me more to make that purchase.

Impressed that some of the Apple Apps are “cheaper” than their boxed counterparts, Aperture for example is £173 in the main Apple online Store for the boxed edition and just £44.99 in the App Store.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Microsoft doing something very similar for Windows and Google making Android and Chome a more coherent experience.