Focus: Post/Production Colorista II A first look at Red Giants anticipated new release!
By Kevin McAuliffe When it comes to a program like After Effects, competing with Color Finesse 3 (that comes with AE CS5) can be tricky, but if there is one company out there determined to do it, it's Red Giant Software and their flagship color correction application Colorista. ...Read More »

Focus: Post/Production Avid's Media Composer 5 Part 3 - Matrox's MXO2 mini How Does it Fare?
By Kevin McAuliffe When AVID stated that they supported the MXO2 mini to monitor external video, I was pretty surprised, as this is a big change of direction for AVID as they normally only support their own hardware for video monitoring. I wanted to give the MXO2 mini a fair shake, as for the $449 price tag I really wanted (and hoped) it to work for the user bases sake. Let's see how it fared. ...Read More »

Focus: Business Media Adobe CS5 Web Premium Part Three: Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and the Rest The three-part review concludes with two old Macromedia programs and one near hissy fit
By Kevin Schmitt We're down to the last major pieces of Adobe CS5 Web Premium, but last doesn't always mean least. OR DOES IT??? HMMMM??? With that as a spectacular teaser, let's spend our final installment looking at two holdovers from those halcyon Macromedia days of yore: Dreamweaver, the venerable web site building tool, and Fireworks, the oft-overlooked prototyping and vector/bitmap editing powerhouse. ...Read More »

Focus: Graphics Designer Adobe CS5 Web Premium Part Two: The Flash Platform The three-part review continues with a veritable smorgasbord of Flash choices
By Kevin Schmitt Honesty time, dear readers: I don't think this is going to be an actual review. As Velveeta is to real cheese, there may be some review-like qualities to what follows, but considering the current all-out assault on Flash and everything it stands for, it may be beneficial to take a larger view of what Adobe has done in Web Premium CS5, namely the inclusion of not one, not two, but three separate tools for creating Flash content. ...Read More »

Focus: Broadcast The Non-Linear Road To NAB What's new in non-linear video editing
By Charlie Wade For video editors, NAB is akin to a pilgrimage. Every year they flock to Vegas, push themselves through the crowds to the booths of the video editor purveyors, and watch, learn, debate and yearn. Here are 5 top notch solutions, plus one who should have been there but wasn't! ...Read More »

Focus: Post/Production NAB 2010: What Cameras were HOT? Missed The Show? Don't Miss These!
By Charlie Wade Missed NAB 2010 this year? Lots of people did but I know you still want to know what was hot. For you who live for camcorder technology, here are six of the hottest cameras (or camera announcements in some cases) at NAB 2010. ...Read More »

Focus: IT/Enterprise Lexar Enterprise JumpDrive SAFE S3000 FIPS and JumpDrive SAFE S3000 Mil spec thumb drives constructed with military grade epoxy
By Joshua Virata Lexar has come up with a very secure solution for USB drives used in the enterprise environment. Two new drives offered as enterprise solutions are the Lexar JumpDrive SAFE S3000 FIPS, and the JumpDrive SAFE S3000. Both drives offer the same hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption, same tamper resistant smart card security manager, and a rugged metal housing to protect against physical damage. Both drives are certified for both Windows and Mac use to offer great compatibility across both platforms. ...Read More »

Focus: Graphics Designer Adobe CS5: Five Things to Keep in Mind Some thoughts beyond the press releases to tide you over until ship time
By Kevin Schmitt Eighteen months, seemingly like clockwork. A mere year-and-a-half after CS4 was released (which itself was a mere year-and-a-half after the release of CS3), Adobe has unveiled the CS5 lineup. Having had a chance to see and try the new versions for myself over the past several weeks, here are some general observations about the latest versions of Adobe's software uberbundles. ...Read More »

Focus: Graphics Designer Book Excerpt: My MacBook by John Ray Chapter 4: Managing Contacts and Appointments
By John Ray Editor's note: Excerpt from My MacBook by John Ray, Published by Que My MacBook provides step-by-step instructions with callouts to MacBook photos that show you exactly what to do. It offers help when you run into MacBook or Snow Leopard problems or limitations. ...Read More »

Focus: Graphics Designer Alien Skin Eye Candy 6 Texture and effects plug-in for Photoshop CS4
By John Virata Alien Skin Eye Candy 6 is the company's latest collection of filters and textures for Adobe Photoshop CS4 and other image editors. The cool thing about Eye Candy 6 is the fact that each filter and texture can be tweaked to your heart's content, with more than 1500 presets in specific filters and textures. There are myriad sliders to work with to get just the right look that you are trying to achieve with a particular effect or texture. ...Read More »