Uncategorized

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Did Apple Just Walk Away From the Professional Video Editing Market?

I have never edited any video professionally, but with the recent purchase of my Canon 7D, I was really excited that Apple would be releasing a new version of Final Cut Pro that not only simplified and expedited the video editing process, but also only cost $300 in the Mac App store. However, the recent firestorm surrounding the release of Final Cut Pro X has given even me pause about clicking that “Buy” button.

Professional video editors all over the web have been howling about how the new software resembles and functions more like “iMovie Pro” than “Final Cut Pro.” Many of the crucial features from Final Cut Pro 7 have been excised or hidden, and Final Cut Pro X appears to be extremely buggy to boot (based on reviews from the Mac App Store). More damningly, Apple is no longer selling Final Cut Pro 7 and is discontinuing support for it. This means that millions of people who have spent years building their livelihoods around learning and using Final Cut Pro can no longer have confidence that they will be able to depend on this software for the foreseeable future.

Read the rest of this post at /Film.

Not All Calories Are Created Equal

It turns out that a pound of potatoes weighs more than a pound of nuts (via Kevin):

“The conventional wisdom is simply, ‘Eat everything in moderation and just reduce total calories’ without paying attention to what those calories are made of,” said Dariush Mozaffarian of the Harvard School of Public Health, who led the study published in Thursday’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. “All foods are not equal, and just eating in moderation is not enough.”

Anti-Immigration Law Works As Planned, With Disastrous Results

Georgia recently passed House Bill 87, a bill aimed at driving out the state’s 425,000 illegal immigrants (similar to Arizona’s controversial measures last year).

As with most sweeping measures passed with only a modicum of thought and research, the effects have been disastrous (via Kyle Baxter):

After enacting House Bill 87, a law designed to drive illegal immigrants out of Georgia, state officials appear shocked to discover that HB 87 is, well, driving a lot of illegal immigrants out of Georgia. It might be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

Thanks to the resulting labor shortage, Georgia farmers have been forced to leave millions of dollars’ worth of blueberries, onions, melons and other crops unharvested and rotting in the fields. It has also put state officials into something of a panic at the damage they’ve done to Georgia’s largest industry.

Why I (Probably) Won’t Buy an Engagement Ring

Meghan O’Rourke wrote this piece about the shady origins of diamond engagement rings a few years back, but Slate is re-running it this week for their wedding-themed issue. It’s as relevant today as it was back then:

[T]here’s a powerful case to be made that in an age of equitable marriage the engagement ring is an outmoded commodity—starting with the obvious fact that only the woman gets one. The diamond ring is the site of retrograde fantasies about gender roles. What makes it pernicious—as opposed to tackily fun—is its cost (these days you don’t need just a diamond; you need a good diamond), its dubious origins, and the cynical blandishments of TV and print ads designed to suggest a ring’s allure through the crassest of stereotypes.

The Company That May Change Photography Forever

Ina Fried has an interesting profile of Lytro, a start-up that’s releasing a digital camera containing some exciting new technology:

The breakthrough is a different type of sensor that captures what are known as light fields, basically all the light that is moving in all directions in the view of the camera. That offers several advantages over traditional photography, the most revolutionary of which is that photos no longer need to be focused before they are taken.

‘The Killing’ Is Bad, Apparently

As a writer/broadcaster, I have limited time to take on watching new TV properties, so I have to choose wisely. Awhile back, I asked my Twitter followers whether I should begin watching HBO’s Game of Thrones or AMC’s The Killing. Overwhelmingly, people insisted I check out Game of Thrones. While many said The Killing was good, everyone insisted that Game of Thrones was incredible. Thus, I’ve been watching Game of Thrones religiously and it has rekindled my love of television and shot to the top of my list of favorite TV shows of all time.

Both shows had their season finales last night. And based on the reviews of TV critics, it looks like I made the right choice. Here’s Maureen Ryan:

‘The Killing,’ in the last two months or so, has been a waste of time. This week, it turned into a giant insult. This wasn’t a swing and a miss. Those are forgivable and expected on networks that take chances with their material. This hour was, in my opinion, the worst season finale of all time, because it was a terrible execution of a set of colossally stupid, misguided and condescending ideas. And clearly, people at the network have known about what would be in the finale for some time. They should have stopped it. All of it.

Alan Sepinwall agrees:

[T]his will be the last review I write of “The Killing,” because this will be the last time I watch “The Killing.” Because I have no interest in going forward with a show that treats its audience this way.

It is unusual for me to post reviews of shows/films I haven’t watched, but this criticism is so brutal and withering that it is fun to read even if you don’t follow The Killing (Just know that spoilers are included).

Also: the disparity between these shows reinforces my inclination that when dealing with serialized shows that have season-long arcs, sometimes it is best to wait until the end and see whether the showrunners did right by the audience before investing 10 hours of your life into what may be a pointless waste of time.