With Apple's Mac OS X 10.5.2 update on Monday, Leopard now can handle the unprocessed "raw" images produced by several new higher-end digital cameras.
Higher-end "raw" image files from Nikon's D300 now is supported natively in Mac OS X.
(Credit: Nikon)Among high-profile newer cameras that Leopard now supports are Canon's top-end EOS-1Ds Mark III and its top-end compact camera, the PowerShot G9. Nikon's new SLRs, the D3 and D300, also are on the list, as is Sony's Alpha A700.
Raw images provide more flexibility and detail than JPEGs, but to use them, people must convert the unprocessed camera data. Apple's Mac OS X handles this conversion on its own. Software such as Apple's iPhoto or Aperture must wait for the update to be released before images from those cameras can be handled without other software, but one operating system update handles those applications and others that use the raw tools.
In contrast, image-editing leader Adobe Systems writes its own raw conversion software, available in Photoshop, Photoshop Lightroom, and its Digital Negative (DNG) converter utility.
Adobe, whose bread and butter is software of this sort, beat Apple to the punch with the raw support. Adobe added support for the Canon 1Ds Mark III, Canon G9, Nikon D3, and Nikon D300 in November and the Sony A700 in September; it also already supports the Olympus E-3 and Panasonic's DMC-L10, neither supported in Mac OS X.
Apple's lagging raw support has rankled some users, driving some to drop Aperture in favor of Lightroom. "I am seriously considering switching for one reason: the length of time for Apple to enable Aperture to support new cameras. It took months for support of the Nikon D200, and now the same with the D300. And yes, Lightroom already supports both cameras. This serious flaw is of great concern considering how solid the program is otherwise," wrote one commenter in the Apple Aperture forum.
In the discussion, Joe Schorr, Apple's senior product line manager for photo applications, offered assurances that Apple knows about the issue. "We at Apple are acutely aware of the pressing need to get support for the newest round of cameras into your hands as soon as possible. This is a top priority," he said. "We fully intend to give our customers what they need in this regard."
Microsoft has added raw support to Vista, and with a download users can retrofit Windows XP, too. Microsoft, though, relies on the camera makers to supply a conversion plug-in.
Also supported in Apple's update are Hasselblad's CF-22 and CF-39 and the Leaf Aptus 75s, Apple said.
Tom Hogarty, the Adobe executive in charge of Lightroom, said the Mac OS X 10.5.2 update also fixes a bug he reported in November. That problem could crash Mac OS X's Finder file management software when viewing image files accompanied by Lightroom editing data stored in XMP files. That issue now is "confirmed as fixed," Hogarty said.
- Optical zoom to become a standard feature of 5-megapixel camera handsets - Digitimes predicts better optical zoom coming to cell phones. My reaction: eyes rolling. Who needs more megapixels and zoom when the camera already suffers a microscopic sensor, cheesy plastic lens covered with pocket lint, and scratches from car keys?
- Nova Scotia News: thoughts on a Photoshopped Christmas photo - A plea to avoid overprocessed family portraits. "Inevitably, the holiday portraits I most admire prove to be the homemade kind, squints and grins and crooked greenery included."
- Lightroom Journal: Debugging printing on Leopard with Lightroom 1.3.1 - Why printing in Lightroom broke on Mac OS X 10.5 aka Leopard: it switched from older Tioga print system to newer CUPS. Bottom line: upgrade your drivers. Too bad some CUPS drivers aren't yet available.
- The optical triangle--an illusion - An interesting real-world optical illusion: a bright patch reflected on the sea makes it look like there's a corresponding dark patch immediately above it.
- Canon Camera Museum - An archive of Canon camera products, plus some videos and history.
(Credit:
VMware)
VMware released version 1.1 of its Fusion virtualization software to run Windows on Intel-based Apple computers Monday--along with an offer for free versions of the software to some bloggers.
"I have convinced the powers at VMware central that there's big-time value in having a strong, open conversational relationship with the blogosphere," Peter Kazanjy, senior product marketing manager for VMware's Mac products, said in an e-mail sent to bloggers and seen by CNET News.com.
"I'm...offering an open NFR (not for resale) policy for people who are honest-to-goodness bloggers." There's "no obligation to blog about VMware Fusion, but if you do, please go ahead and send a link back to us to vmware.com/mac," he added. Unlike the free 30-evaluation version VMware also offers, the NFR version doesn't expire.
The offer was sent to fewer than 60 bloggers, a VMware representative said, and Kazanjy apparently didn't want to extend it to the entire blogosphere. "Feel free to let your blog friends know, but do me a favor and don't blog this offer," he said in the letter.
Fusion is playing catch-up with SWsoft's Parallels, which entered the market first. But VMware, which leads the overall virtualization market, is on the attack: the company also released a beta version of a tool to import Parallels virtual machines into VMware so that Windows installations can be moved to the other virtualization foundation.
According to VMware and Kazanjy, features in Fusion 1.1 include "robust" support for Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard"; upgraded but still experimental support for DirectX 9.0 3D graphics; support for Boot Camp partitions as virtual machines; improvements to the "Unity" feature that lets Windows applications occupy a window unencumbered by menu bars and other Windows operating system elements; the ability to synchronize iPhone with Microsoft Outlook running in Windows; and performance improvements.
Fusion costs $80, but the upgrade is free.
VMware Server 2 beta, too
On Tuesday, VMware announced an open beta of VMware Server 2.0, its free server virtualization product known years ago as GSX Server. Unlike the premium ESX Server, VMware Server runs on a host operating system, Linux or Windows.
The new version should be generally available in 2008, VMware said.
New features include:
• Support for VMI, "paravirtualization" technology that lets Linux run much faster.
• Support for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 beta, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon", among others.
• A Web-based management interface.
• Support for up to 8GB of memory and two processors per virtual machine.
• Support for 64-bit guest operating systems, as long as the software is running on a 64-bit host.
(Credit:
Apple)
There were a lot of one-liners to sift through in Apple's feature list for the Leopard, the Mac OS X 10.5 update due Friday, so I thought it worthwhile to call out the geotagging support.
The Preview software, which lets users get details on files they're browsing, "pinpoints the location where you took the photo on a world map," according to Apple's Leopard feature list. "From there you can even open the GPS location in Google Maps."
I gather from the adverb "even" that I should read this news with a sense of amazement, but really converting latitude-longitude coordinates in a file to a dot on a map isn't rocket science. What's more notable is how rare this feature remains in photo viewer software. The fact that Flickr has 42 million geotagged photos should be a wake-up call that photo enthusiasts are beginning to embrace this technology.
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