Upcoming Yosemite update

Apple's new Yosemite osx 10.10 operating system release will soon be upon us.

How will that affect you?

First, I wanted to pass on this link to an article on running Quicktime Player 7 on Mavericks and Yosemite. Mavericks being mac osx 10.9, and Yosemite being upcoming mac osx 10.10. So we're talking about apple computers here.

Quicktime Player 7 is way better than Quicktime Player X, and it appears you can still run it on Yosemite. So hurray for that. As to why an older version of the Quicktime Player would be so much better for serious creative users than the latest and greatest one, good question. One to reflect on.

We actively encourage our users to use Quicktime Player 7 Pro. It's like the swiss army knife for quicktime video editing. Extremely useful for all kinds of things, like movie codec format conversion, single frame or larger selection clip editing, grabbing a segment of a larger quicktime video to generate a new source file to edit in studio artist (one which can be unique or reference the original movie's physical memory video track content). It's powerful enough that you could actually edit an entire film in it if you were so inclined. Not necessarily the best or most advanced tool to do that, but it's surprisingly useful for being a small and very cheap utility program when you are talking about the Pro version.

Now apple goes out of their way to trick you into upgrading to their latest os as soon as it's released. And whether you should actually do that or not is a decision you should think long and hard about, before you just click the little update my computer link they keep flashing in front of you all the time in the notifications panel.

Because depending on the particular model of mac computer you are using, and what software you are running on it, you might make different choices about what would be the optimal decision for you. And apple is not going to do that for you, they are going to keep flashing a message at you to update immediately. Even if it's the absolute worst possible thing you could do for yourself personally. One that might severely mess up your pre-existing personal workflow on your existing machine. The combination of unique software and hardware that lets you get real work done on that machine.

And to be honest, apple could care less about that for you personally. All they care about is getting the highest number of updates as soon as possible, so they can do a press release about that. They don't care if half of your pre-existing software suddenly stops working, a sad but very true statement. So think carefully, and always do complete backups so that you can restore your old system, before you make any kind of major operating system update. Practice this form of safe computing always.

In general, it's always a good idea to wait a few days, even if you are dying to update, to see what's really going on when a new operating system release gets thrown out into the real world.

Audio and music software in particular, something many of our users take advantage of in their workflows, are usually extremely sensitive to new OS releases. So do your google research before you update. Make sure your existing software will still continue to run properly, if you really care about that.

So what about Studio Artist you ask. How does Yosemite affect it?

Well, we can't say anything for certain until the official release, because they might change something at the last minute, that would affect us, or any other program, in some unknown way. So when the final official version is released, then we will make an official statement about it.

However:

We have been extensively testing Studio Artist with the developer GM (golden master) version of Yosemite. So far things look pretty good. Other than one minor cosmetic issue, which doesn't get in the way of getting any work done, and is pretty trivial to fix. And it's an issue we're trying to throughly understand, and hopefully provide a fix for. Now whether that fix will be back programed into a version 4 release, or just added to V5 i can't really say at this time. And as i said, it doesn't affect your ability to get work done at all, or limit functionality in any way.

So the good news is that it looks like the mac Yosemite release will be much smoother for Studio Artist mac users than the Mavericks release, where you had to update to V4.06 to solve the major issues Mavericks introduced. And we will keep our fingers crossed that apple doesn't make any sudden last minute changes to their code, which they have been known to do in the past.

If you are running Studio Artist V4.06, it appears to run fine on Yosemite developer GM release. Baring one minor cosmetic issue that is easy and trivial to work around.

My other Yosemite comment based on using the developer GM release, is that when you first instal it, the default color scheme that comes up for mac generic user interface controls is kind of hideous in my opinion. Which again is kind of odd for a company that prides itself on it's sophisticated visual design sense. 

Fortunately, this is very easy to change, and is the very first thing i did when i fired up Studio Artist V4.06 on Yosemite. I immediately opened the apple System Preferences dialog (located under the main apple menu), and changed the Appearance control there from the default Blue to Graphite. Because in my opinion the default Blue color they use in Yosemite is pretty hideous. You may or may not agree with me on that, but it's easy to change if you do. And i think the Graphite look is way better for Studio Artist.

Again, this is my personal opinion. Because we made a design decision to specifically use the generic controls available on all of the various computer platforms we support, that's what comes up when you fire up Studio Artist. The specific generic control look and appearance that the operating system provides to us.

So Studio Artist running on windows XP looks like a generic XP app, Studio Artist running on windows 7 looks like a generic windows 7 app, Studio Artist running on any flavor of mac osx version looks like a generic mac application with the generic control appearance the operating system provides on that specific flavor of mac osx.

And i just told you how you can customize that appearance to a certain extent by adjusting the Appearance control in the apple System Preferences dialog in the General section of it.

And i would encourage you to do that, but again it's all going to come down to what you personally think about the particular new shade of Blue they are using in Yosemite. It's not a decision we made, or would have made to be honest. And you may agree with me, or maybe not. Maybe you will love that new Blue color. And if so, then great. If not, you do have some limited ability to customize it to something else i personally think looks better.

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Replies

  • Thanks, John.

    How can you get Quicktime Pro 7?

    • http://tinyurl.com/k7yauzu

    • I thought the article i provided above explained that. And Jean just kindly provided a link for you to get to the Apple Pro purchase page.

      You download it from Apple's web site. What you download is just the Quicktime 7 Player. To make it pro, you need to purchase a pro registration number from Apple. I think there's a button you can press in a registration dialog in the Player that will take you where you need to go to purchase the pro registration upgrade. You then enter that number into the registration page in the app, and then all of the pro functionality is unlocked. It's not very expensive.

      So:

      • Make sure QuickTime 7 Player is installed on your computer.
      • Purchase a QuickTime Pro registration code, which will be sent via email.
      • Open the email from Apple and locate the 20-digit registration code.
      • Go to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/unlock-mac_osx.html and follow the instructions to enter your registration code.

      Those of you who have been around forever in the mac operating system will remember that the old Quicktime Players always had editing capabilities built into them. With the advent of mpeg compression, the actual editing capabilities got pulled out into the paid pro version of the quicktime player. Part of this decision had to do with dealing with the realities of MPEG foundation licensing fees.

      The new Quicktime X player is really extremely limited in functionality and is all about watching videos (end of story), as opposed to being oriented at being a useful tool for creative professionals that work with video (which is the case for the Quicktime 7 Player Pro).

      • Thanks J & J

        I bought Quicktime Pro 7 as the first step in anticipation of my first "film" project.

  • John,

    What you say above makes a lot of sense to me, and as far my work space is concerned, I try to make the Appearance as neutral as possible ("Solid Gray Dark" in System Preferences > Desktop and Screen Saver > Apple > Solid Colors), so that it does not conflict with whatever images I am working with/in/on.

    Also, I find that very often most people set their monitors' brightness to act almost as a searchlight, and/or have excessive ambient light in their studio.

    The few times I find myself having to work on/at other people's computers often make my eyes hurt, they feel almost "burnt," and as I do not like to fiddle with other people's settings unless I am at a close friend's machine, I often end up with tears in my eyes (and strong, long lasting afterimages).

    The kind of images I am mostly working with these days may not display accurately for people who do not have their displays settings set in ways somewhat similar to mine.

    Here's an example:

    2472675705?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024

    • We have endless arguments here about this kind of thing, because the people associated with sales want us to have a more bright and colorful user interface. And i think that having something very neutral is way better, so that you can focus on your work and not have the actual program's interface overshadow or influence the perception of the artwork.

      • I of course totally agree with having the interface not interfere with the demands of the work.

        The same is true of some of my musician friends, they can be seriously disturbed by ambient sounds (I have to run several fans in my studio to keep my many external drives cool, and that can drive some musicians up the walls).

        As for the demands of the people associated with sales, my opinion is that they ought to be totally at the service of the primary purpose of your application, and, knowing you and SA for as long as I have, I trust it is above all about (facilitating) creative exploration, not (pursuing) monetary gratification.

        • hmmm. most successful businesses I know of are in it for the money. Unless of course you are not interested in money or you are a 501(c)(3).

          • I think that if John's priority was money, and business, Studio Artist would be packaged, marketed and priced very differently. SA packs a major punch that other applications costing way more don't even come close to offering.

            One can be broke and yet not interested in money, meaning is a far more ilife-sustaining "commodity" than money.

            To quote an old friend: "some people are so poor, all they have is money."

  • Hi John,

    I haven't been here for a while.  Just logged in to see what's new and read this post.  Just wondering, I'm currently running SA v4.04 on Mavericks and haven't encountered any problems, but it might be wise for me to upgrade to SA v4.06 anyway.  How can I get SA v4.06?

    Thanks,

    Dave Lei

This reply was deleted.

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