Category: Computing

General computing with a bias towards Unix, OS X, Apple products, for use in Music and Photography

Posted on

OS X 10.8 – Mountain Lion – the upgrade

Technology keeps moving on and after assuring myself that my key apps would work, I bit the bullet and upgraded.  As always with an Apple Mac and OS X, the upgrade was easy and trouble free.

When I upgraded to Lion, I installed that on a second hard drive and tested all my apps first, I also waited for the first update from 10.7.0 to 10.7.1 before risking it.

But as Snow Leopard was to Leopard; more of a under the hood polish, then so is Mountain Lion.

Nothing too much to say about it yet, it all works and the computer is definitely a little quicker.  The major thing I have noticed is Safari, it really is much faster.

Posted on

Mountain Lion

Well the latest and greatest OS X release is now here.

Not had a chance yet to try it. Will need to ensure all my key apps work with it and if my laptop will take it.

We will be getting it soon either way as its time to replace our old PowerBook.

My MacBookPro still has plenty of life left in, so the new laptop will go to Caroline while I turn the PowerBook into a server.

Update: 27th July

Adobe and Apple have worked closely together to test Adobe® Creative Suite® 5, 5.5 and CS6 editions and individual products for reliability, performance and user experience when installed on Intel® based systems running Mac OS X Mountain Lion (v10.8). Earlier versions of Adobe Photoshop® (CS3 and CS4) software were also tested with Mountain Lion and there are currently no known issues.

Adobe requests that users discovering problems report them to Adobe.

http://www.macrumors.com/2012/07/25/adobe-and-avid-report-only-minor-issues-with-mountain-lion/

Posted on

Hands on with the Retina MacBook Pro

Well I finally managed to get my hands on one of the new 15″ MacBook Pro Retina Laptops.

While the screen is an improvement, the thing that made the biggest impression on me was:

  • it’s speed
  • the weight


It really is a speed machine, the RAM and of course the SSD instead of a conventional Hard Disk removes all the usual bottlenecks.

Not sure yet if I am going to get one, I would like to find out more about the screen and it’s colour gamut before committing.

Posted on

WWDC 2012 and Retina Macbook Pro

This week is Apple’s Developer conference and in the opening speech yesterday as well as the Software announcements was the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, this could be excellent news for Photographers.

Not so sure about them dropping the Firewire Ports but they did say a FW to ThunderPort Adapter will be available so Photographers like me with lots of external FW drives will not feel left out.

I have to admit I am tempted as my MacBook Pro is now four years old, if I upgrade to a Nikon D800 this year then the new MacBook Pro will be an essential upgrade.  Until then I can wait.  I’ll be interested in how shiny the new display is as well as the Colour Gamut.

It would be nice to be able to do colour critical work on a laptop, but i’ll not hold by breath.

Posted on

Blogs – Who are they for and what is their focus

I read a number of blogs, and each one is focused on a particular subject.

Many are about photography, or about photographic gear. Others about Motorcycling, Flying and cooking.

My blog has a number of functions. Primary it’s like my diary, I look back over time and see what has happened, it’s also a record of my photographic and motorcycling trips.

I sometimes ask what do I want from my blog. Most blog readers want a targeted blog detailing and being focused on there interests.

My blog while primary about photography does drift off sometimes onto other subjects. I hope you will continue to bear with me while I sometimes blog about subjects that may be off no interest to you.

Posted on

Adobe Photoshop CS6 Public Beta out now

With the recent release of Adobe Lightroom V4 we were expecting Adobe Photoshop CS6 to follow soon.  Well we did  not have to wait long as Adobe have now announced a Public Beta of Photoshop CS6.

More information can be found from the usual suspects.

Lets hope they release some nice package deals of Lightroom and Photoshop so users of both can upgrade cost effectively.

Posted on

My Top Photographer’s iOS Apps

A question that comes up often is, what iPhone and iPad apps do I use to help me in my Photography. While not an exhaustive list, these are what I use.

Some are actual photography utilities but others such as 50 Best Photos are more for inspiration, while weather apps, tide app and iBird are useful for reference.

  1. SnapSeed
  2. 50 Best Photos
  3. iBird
  4. WeatherPro
  5. gps4cam
  6. iEphemeris Pro
  7. PhotoAssist
  8. Photosmith
  9. Expositor
  10. Elinchrom Skyport WiFi
  11. tideApp
  12. Exposure Calculator