Review: Final Cut Express 4: Movie Making for Everyone

Most of us know that Final Cut Express is somewhere between iMovie and Final Cut Pro - but exactly what the differences are, we’re not sure about.

This book is a part of the excellent Apple Pro Training Series published by PeachPit. We’ve reviewed other titles in this series in Shuffle before, and hopefully we’ll continue to do so. The Pro Training Series books are not the most visually striking books, but they are great tools if you want to learn something - and this book is no exception. The author Diana Weynand has done a great job in splitting complicated tasks into small steps: You read the steps and follow along, and learn as you do so.
Each chapter in the book seems to presents a complete and distinct lesson in some aspect of video editing. You work with files that are all on the included DVD. The topics covered includes how to effectively edit your video, work with sound, make nice transitions and composites, add titles, and more advanced concepts like color correction. You’ll also learn how to finish your video in a way suitable for what the end use is, e.g. web, DVD, etc. That’s a part that I would have wanted to read more about, because there’s so much to know; podcasting, streaming, codecs, etc. But that’s perhaps a bit out of the scope of this book. The book has 16 chapters, and there are six additional appendices on the DVD covering areas such as ‘Advanced Trimming’ and ‘Working with Multiple Tracks’. Seems to me this is functionality that sets Final Cut Express apart from iMovie, so they should probably have been included in the printed book. Overall, this is an excellent book through which to learn Final Cut Express.

by Magnus Nystedt

Price: $35.99
From: Peachpit
Distributor: Peachpit
Web: http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321534670

Review: Two Apple Certification Books

Peachpit Press offers great books that will help you study and revise for any Apple certification tests. The books in the Apple Training Series are, in fact, the official curriculum for the Apple Customer Training and AppleCare Technician Training programs.
The first book serves as a study book for the Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist and prepares the student for the Mac OS X Support Essentials exam. It is currently still just out in an edition for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, but I believe a new edition covering Leopard is on its way. *This book takes you through the background of and technology in Mac OS X, as well as explaining how to install and configure the OS.* It has a lot of step-by-step instructions for how to do things, and plenty of extra tips and explanations. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to troubleshooting, in which they present a structured approach to trying to find out what’s wrong.
The second book covers Mac computers, both desktops and portables. This is an area that’s obviously changing fast so it’s almost impossible for a printed book to keep up, but PeachPit puts the latest information online. It covers common diagnostics, repair procedures, disassembly, tools needed, etc. Like the first book, there’s a lot of troubleshooting information here which will help you accomplish your tasks. The book covers all current models of Macs, but not all the latest revisions. You will also have to supplement its contents with your own information to make full use of this book. Although it’s a great book, since it’s such a fast-moving area it’s probably less attractive than the first book.
These are books that are meant to be used while doing something on your Mac. In my experience they work best when they are actively used: taking notes in them, looking things up, etc. To sum up, if you want to take an Apple certification test, PeachPit Press’ books in these series are your best friend.

by Magnus Nystedt

Price: Around $50USD each
From: PeachPit Press
Distributor: PeachPit Press
Web: http://www.peachpit.com

Review: The Cult of Mac

Not so long ago I asked on the site whether we Apple users could be considered a cult (http://www.emiratesmac.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2229). And I should really say Mac users because that’s what it is all about. There may be people obsessed with iPods but as a whole, Apple culture is about the Mac. Leander Kahney, in this book, goes through all facets of Apple and Mac culture, covering the whole scale from users that think Macs are just simply better computers, to the obsessive fans, and everything in between. This is a funny book to read, and at times you can’t help but go “do people really do that?” at something you read, even if you’re the most dedicated Apple fan. It seems no matter how much you’re into Apple, there’s always someone else who is even more so. Take the examples of tattoos and haircuts in various Apple themes. Kahney has dedicated an entire chapter to this particular issue. The Cult of Mac is a book that any self-respecting Apple fan should have in their collection. It’s more about entertaining the the already convicted than trying to explain to those who don’t already believe.

SIDEBAR
The Cult of Mac sells in the US for around $30. Leander Kahney keeps a blog with the same name as his book (http://www.cultofmac.com). He has also published The Cult of iPod.

QUOTE
“To Mac users, Apple represents everything that Microsoft isn’t. Apple innovates; Microsoft copies. Apple puts out solid products; Microsoft puts out buggy ones. Apple represents creativity and individuality; Microsoft represents business and conformity. Apple is the scrappy underdog; Microsoft is the big, predatory monopoly.”

by Magnus Nystedt

Review: Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture

The Aperture title by Orlando Luna and Ben Long is a part of Peachpit’s Apple Pro Training Series. We’ve come to expect a lot from titles in this series and once again it doesn’t let us down. This title is about 500 pages and full of step by step instructions on how to operate Aperture.

It has easy to follow directions with plenty of screenshots and sample photographs to help you see what’s going on. This is a book you sit down with at the computer and work with step by step, it’s not so much of a reference book that you can come back to later. There is also a a DVD with all the exercise files on it, so you won’t have to recreate everything from scratch just to follow the instructions.

The Apple Pro Training Series of books are meant to take you to a level where you can take an Apple Certification Exam. As far as I know there are still no Certification for Aperture so from that point of view this book is a bit misplaced, but that’s not something we can blame the authors or PeachPit for, I think.

The book seem to cover all the basics but it also goes into more depth, for example there is a section on how to automate Aperture with Automator. I think if you’ve used Aperture quite a bit you probably won’t benefit much from this title. However, if you’re just getting started with Aperture, this is a good choice for you.

Apple Pro Training Series: Aperture sell in the US for around $40 and you can find it at www.peachpit.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0321422767. PeachPit provided the copy of the book for this review. We will raffle off the book at a future EMUG meeting so make sure you attend.
by Magnus Nystedt

Review: iWoz

Steve Jobs may be the best known of the co-founders of Apple Computer, and the one credited with saving the company in the late 1990’s. But if Jobs is the public face and saviour of Apple, Steve Wozniak is the heart of Apple, and for many the one of the two Steves they feel is more at the core of what Apple actually stands for. Wozniak, or Woz for short, is the engineering mastermind behind much of Apple’s early products including the Apple II. If Steve Jobs is the extrovert salesman who puts on a show a few times a year and dazzles the crowds with this “reality distortion field”, Steve Wozniak is blissfully without any “distortion field” and comes across as just being himself. Basically the book is divided into three parts. The first deals with Woz’s childhood and school-years, the middle part is his work at HP and budding partnership with Jobs, and the last part deals with his work with Apple and thereafter. The first part two parts are exciting and entertaining, telling tales of how Woz learned about electronics from his father, his first constructions and his first encounters with Steve Jobs. It ends with the design of the Apple I and the emergence of Apple Computer. Woz, in this part, talks to the reader with excitement and interest, like he was really having a good time then. And it’s probably true that some of the happiest days of his life so far was those early days of exploration and experimentation. He describes with passion the moment he realized that making a computer displaying text and graphics was going to revolutionize the future, and he had built the very fist computer that did that. Unfortunately when it comes to describing the birth of Apple and his work at Apple, Woz seems to almost doze off and just write the very necessary things to get the book to the end. My guess is that he was never that excited about working there, especially after the company grew to a Fortune 500 size. Corporate politics which inevitably sets in as a company grows is something he has little patience for, I’m sure. He spends much time talking about the Apple III which he describes as a hugh failure because it was “designed by committee”, for example. This is a bit puzzling since most people would probably read the book to learn more about Apple’s history and there’s little new that is revealed here. But if you’re a true Apple fan you will enjoy it anyway. The book is throughout filled with technical details that the average reader will probably just skip over because they’re too advanced. Woz tries his best to describe them in a simple way, and they are probably of interest to the more technically-savvy readers. Also for the more technically interested the early parts of the book contain some revealing stories about the early days of personal computers. In conclusion this is not the best or most enjoyable book about Apple, but it is unique in that it tells Wozniak’s side of the story. If nothing else, it’s well worth reading just for that fact alone. If you’re looking for a great book, iWoz isn’t it. If you’re looking for a great book about one of the key people in Apple’s history, this is it.
by Magnus