- 03 9428 4999
Near the end of last week Apple released the latest update to their music production suite Logic Pro X – yes it is actually version 10.
It has been 4 years since the last update and there certainly has been plenty of discussion in music circles about what the changes might be, or even if the product had been abandoned. This is not a radical departure from previous version but rather a tidy and aesthetically pleasing update with some neat additional features to boot.
Logic Pro X is an essential program for musicians. With sophisticated new tools for professional songwriting, editing and mixing (built around a modern interface thats designed for quick results) you are able to deliver more power whenever it’s needed.
Logic Pro features a new interface designed so pros can get the desired creative results quickly whilst still having access to the more advanced tools available. With Smart Controls, plug ins and parameters are able to be manipulated with a single move of the mouse. So editing and mixing your music has never been easier.
Logic can also be used with your iPad; use your iPad as a wireless companion to your mac. Multi touch gestures enable the user to mix, record or navigate Logic Pro X projects from anywhere in the room, as well performing sounds including keyboards, chord strips, guitar fretboards and drum pads.
To run Logic Pro X, your system will require:
– 4GB of RAM, display with 1280-by-768 resolution or higher, OS X v10.8.4 or later
– Requires 64-bit Audio Units plug-ins (please note that the 32-bridge for compatibility with plug-ins was dropped).
– Minimum 5GB of disk space, with 35GB of optional content available via in-app download
This software was released on 17th July on the Mac App Store, is priced at $209.99 (AUD) and is available now.
It certainly seems like they have put a lot of good work into this release and with the lower price of $200 (previously it has been well over $1000) it’s something that will be tested and adopted here very shortly.
For more information click here: http://www.apple.com/au/logic-pro/
For an in-depth look (so many things are included with this software!) http://www.apple.com/au/logic-pro/in-depth/
or for the App Store link. https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/logic-pro-x/id634148309?mt=12
App Store link for Logic Remote for iPad https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/logic-remote/id638394624?mt=8
If your machine is potentially falling behind with either the RAM or Operating System, then get in touch. We can quickly get you up to speed so you can get to creating.
Jimmy, our favourite Swede, has returned from Sweden refreshed and raring to go.
He has renewed his love for mountain biking, but is sadly shaken by Melbourne weather. Fair enough really, just look at those photos!
The view from Jimmy’s father’s house.
“Tännforsen”
We would also like to announce that we have signed with a new partner, MB Recycling.
They take all computers, notebooks, mobile phones, printers, cables etc, and recycle them for us.
As our clients, you can give all of your unwanted electrical devices to the visiting technician. They’ll bring it back to our office and add them to the collection here that’s headed for MB Recycling.
If however you have a lot of items (more than 10 – 15 computers or so), we can organise MB recycling to get in contact with you directly. This means that they can organise a collection directly with you (the client). All you need to do is give us a ring, and we can ask MB to give you a call.
What electronics can be recycled?
MB Recycling is committed to offering a comprehensive e-waste recycling service to its clients. MB Recycling has the capacity to accept most electrical items, with a few exceptions such as refrigeration equipment and air conditioners. For full details of what MB Recycling can and cannot accept, please refer to the following list.
Products acceptable for recycling
Computer equipment and peripherals:
•Desktop PCs
•Laptop PCs
•Server equipment
•UPS Unit
•Switch Boards
•Keyboards/ Computer mouse
•Hard drives/ CPU/RAM
•PC Boards
•Data Cables/ PVC Cables
•Printed Circuit boards eg motherboards, video cards, sound cards
•Network and memory cards
•Floppy disc and CD drives
•Computer power supplies
Office & business equipment:
•Photocopiers
•Fax machines
•Scanners/ Printers
Mobile phones and telecommunications equipment:
•Mobile phones
•Other IT/Communications equipment
Audio visual electronics:
•Video and DVD players
•Hi-fi equipment, stereos, speakers and other entertainment appliances
•Electronic games e.g. joysticks, computer game consoles
•Cameras – digital or video cameras
Other:
•Medical & lab equipment
•Test equipment eg voltmeter
•Components eg heat sinks, transformers and resistors
Products Not acceptable for recycling
( Please be advice charges will apply on all product materials below )
Pricing
Monitors: $1.50PK
All others$1.00PK
Household electronics: ( Charges will apply on all)
•Microwaves
•Vacuum cleaners
•Hairdryers
•Alarm clock
•Fridges
•Air Conditioner
•Freezers
•Telephones
•Other household electrical appliances eg toasters, irons and kettles
•Power tools (drills etc)
Products NOT accepted in recycling process.( Charges will apply on all)
•CRT Monitors
•Televisions CRT
•Telephones
•Household Batteries
•Light Globes
•Fluorescent Tubes
•Halogen Lights
•Styro foam
•Smoke detectors
Tips for Disposal
•Save or delete important documents or files before disposing computer equipment.
•Be careful when lifting heavy equipment.
•Pack equipment safely and securely within the vehicle before transporting to recycling centre.
Business e-waste solutions
MB Recycling offers a complete range of e-waste recycling solutions to suit any business. MB Recycling range of e-waste solutions for business encompasses end-of-life solutions, secure destruction and re-use solutions. MB Recycling also works closely with established waste companies seeking to offer e-waste services to clients or not-for-profit organisations handling electronic waste.
End-of-life & secure destruction
MB Recycling offers a true end-of-life solution for your business electronic waste. End-of-life means nothing is re-used; everything is destroyed as part of the recycling process. Our processes ensure the electronic waste is useless in terms of information retrieval or re-use. Should you require a greater level of security, such as individual hard drive destruction, talk to us about tailored secure electronic waste solutions.
Do you use multiple back up drives? (you should be!) Or rather, use an external drive for media archiving purposes or something of the like?
If, like us, you prefer to have different icons that reflect what is found on that particular drive (eg. an ‘A’ for back up drive A, or a camera for the photo archive), then read on for a quick how to on changing the icon yourself. This will make it easier for you to navigate and distinguish what will be found on that particular drive the next time you plug it in.
We have previously covered the topic of folder/drive icons and what you can do with them (which you can read here), however for those requesting it, we decided to quickly show you how to once again change a folder/drive image.
How to change the icon image:
Changing the Icon image:
Using Get Info:
Right-click on the intended icon image, click Get Info (CMD+I) and highlight as below. Hit CMD+C to copy into clipboard. Then, highlighting the desired target folder or harddrive, as earlier, press CMD+V to paste the icon image on to the target.
Be sure to click on the Folder top left of the Info panel so that it’s highlighted as below:
Using Preview:
If the above doesn’t work, open the desired file with Preview (I was working with a PNG this time around). Within Preview, click Edit -> Select All (CMD+A) then Edit -> Copy (CMD+C) to copy the image into clipboard. Then as above, highlight the desired target folder within Get Info, press CMD+V to paste the icon image on to the target folder.
The result is a personalised icon that stands out.
Where to find the images?
You can use any image under the sun to change your folder icon. There are some limitations, such as how detailed the image is, as well as the size of the image itself (when becoming an icon it may become cramped).
Essentially though, you can get icons from anywhere either online, or from your photo library in iPhoto on your computer.
A good place to start your icon search if venturing online is The Icon Factory. Whilst some icons sets, you need to pay for, there are an abundant amount of freeware icons you can download for mac.
No Hard Drive visible?
Both OS X Lion and Mountain Lion don’t initially show your Mac’s HardDisk. In order to be able to bring that back to the desktop, so it becomes visible, simply do the following:
This window should then open up for you.
From there, all you have to do is check the box that reads ‘Hard Disks’. Feel free to tick the other boxes if you so desire those particular items on your desktop also.
Easy.
Renaming Drives
Once drives show up on your desktop, you are then able to easily rename them.
here’s how:
Now you are free to name the drive whatever you please. In order to save your changes, just click the desktop background, or hit the ‘return’ key
Apple has made some exciting new announcements and released some awesome products at the WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) last week. Stock has been leaking in late last week but everything below should be available this week.
The MacBook Air (available now)
The new MacBook Air allows you to make the most of your day, with all the power you need.
The battery life on both the 11-inch and 13-inch models has dramatically improved. Allowing people to work unplugged without needing to worry about where to find the nearest power point. The 11-inch model now has up to 9 hours of battery life between charges; the 13-inch, up to 12 hours battery life. With up to 30 days of standby time, you can easily pick up right where you left off.
The new MacBook Air is powered by the all-new fourth generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors. Designed to use less power, but still deliver high performance, you can do whatever you want, for longer than before. In addition, the new Intel HD Graphics 5000 offers up to 40% faster graphics. Something you’ll definitely notice when gaming and using other graphics-intensive tasks.
Data can be accessed faster due to the MacBook Air being designed entirely around flash storage. Making the MacBook Air much lighter and more portable than ever before. Available in capacities up to 512GB, the flash storage present in the MacBook Air is up to 9x faster than a traditional 5400- rpm notebook hard drive, and up to 45% faster than the flash storage in the previous MacBook Air. Pays to note that the 11inch model now has double the capacity as standard.
All the other usual extras such as FaceTime, iCloud, backlit keyboard, and the multi-touch trackpad are once again apparent in the new MacBook Air
Stock is on it’s way to the suppliers, so if you want to get your hands on one ordering in advance is best.
For more information on the new MacBook Air, you can visit the Apple site here.
AirPort Extreme (available soon)
The new AirPort Extreme may look a little different from its previous model, but the current design had performance in mind. The taller design has the antennas in the top, creating a higher platform for dispersing the signal. The number of antennas have also been increased to 6 in total (3 for the 2.4GHz band and 3 for the 5GHz band).
The new design not only improves the performance of the Wi-Fi, but also saves you desk space. At less than 4 inches square, the footprint of AirPort Extreme is 64% smaller than its predecessor. And in order to keep everything clean and tidy, even the power supply is built in.
The Airport Extreme, like the version before it, is the go to model for multiple ethernet connections, wireless Harddrive access (to whatever USB drive is connected) and the fastest WIFI technology (802.11AC) although the only machines out to make use of this is the above Macbook Airs.
With its easy set up, secure file sharing and a built-in firewall, AirPort Extreme proves once again, performance is everything.
For more information regarding the AirPort Extreme, you can visit the Apple site here.
AirPort Time Capsule (available soon)
Apple’s Time Capsule gives you a super fast Wi-Fi base station and an easy to use backup device all in one and backing up your data is simple! Just set up the Time Capsule initially, and it’ll do the rest. It works with Time Machine in OS X to back up your Mac wirelessly and automatically, so worrying about losing important documents, photos, songs, apps, and settings is eliminated.
The same can be said for having multiple Mac computers in your home or office. An AirPort Time Capsule can back up and store files for each Mac on your wireless network. This is easily done due to Time Capsule being available in either 2TB or 3TB models.
Just like the AirPort Extreme, the design of the Time Capsule does look a little different than before. It’s less than 4 inches square, and 6.6 inches from top to bottom, the Time Capsule is 75% smaller than the previous model. Meaning it definitely saves you desk space. And to keep everything tidy, even the power supply is built in.
For more information on the AirPort Time Capsule, you can visit the Apple site here.
Other WWDC announcements also included:
– The new Mac Pro
The all-new Mac Pro reinvents the look of Mac Pro with a completely new design that is optimised for performance inside and out. With next-generation Xeon processors, dual workstation class GPUs, Thunderbolt 2, PCIe-based flash storage and ultra-fast ECC memory, the new 9.9 inch tall Mac Pro can definitely pack a massive amount of power into a little package.
For more, click here
– OS X Mavericks
OS X Mavericks, Apple’s 10th major release, desktop operating system, comes with more than 200 new features. These include apps such as Maps and iBooks for the Mac, Finder tags and Tabs, multi-display support for power users, a new version of Safari with iCloud keychain and enhancements to Calendar and Notifications Centre. The new core technologies allow breakthrough power efficiency and performance.
With OS X Mavericks, everything’s coming up roses.
For more, click here
– iOS 7
iOS 7 was designed to not only be beautiful, but functional as well. The purpose behind iOS 7 was to create an experience that was simpler, useful, and more enjoyable, whilst still building on the things that society love about iOS. Ultimately, redesigning the functionality also lead to redesigning the way it looks.
For more, click here
The above three announcements are available later on in the year.
If you would like to watch the Apple Keynote, click here
Have you ever experienced this awful moment: You are listening to some music on your iPhone, someone bumps into you, the phone falls on the ground, and when you pick it up the screen looks like a spiderweb?
This exact thing happened to both Jason (iPad Mini which fell off a table) & Wendy (iPhone 5) recently.
Did you know that this doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to pay for a brand new iDevice?
You can simply make an appointment with the Genius Bar at your local Apple Retail store, and they may replace/repair the device for a fraction of the price of a new device.
To start this process you only have to do two things:
Firstly back up your iDevice to your computer, as you will get a new, blank device when you are at the store. You will not be able to do a normal transfer like you would if you had just bought a new device.
If you require assistance with backing up your device we are more than happy to help you with that process.
Secondly follow the link below and make an appointment at your local Apple Retail Store.
Click here to book at the Genius Bar.
The cost to replace the screen on Wendy & Jason’s devices were as follows:
These prices may vary as Apple now also offers repairs on iDevices in store so it may be a little more or less than this.
On another note, we’d also like to quickly mention that the WWDC is coming up next month (June 10 – 14th). Expect a thorough article of the event in next month’s newsletter.
