Just days after opening the App Store to 32 additional countries, Apple released a press release this morning to announce that the iTunes Store is also extending its reach to another nine countries in Asia today, including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.
CineXPlayer, the excellent, rock-solid, play-anything video player for iOS, had gotten yet another big update. Every time the app is bumped to a new version, I wonder what the developers will be able to add next time. And today’s answer is… Quite a lot.
Canon has announced a brand new video-shooting DSLR, the EOS 650D. This freaks me out a little bit as I used to sell the EOS 650 to people as a part of my Saturday job in a camera store. The 650 was a 35mm SLR that Canon made from 1987 to 1989, and it was the company’s first auto-focus SLR.
Back to today. The 650D has all that you’d expect from a modern camera, plus a swing-out touch-sensitive LCD screen.
Summer is upon us, and that means new movies. Tons of great blockbusters will be debuting over the next couple months, including Prometheus next weekend in the U.S. and The Dark Knight Rises on July 20th.
Apple has a handy summer movie guide for 2012. There are some great iTunes trailers and movie details included for what’s hitting theaters, so be sure to check it out.
This is a good way to get a quick rundown of the major movie releases this summer. HD trailers are included for each title along with official release dates.
I can imagine that the reaction you get from mentioning the word “jailbreak” within the Apple camp in Cupertino is almost identical to that you get when mentioning the word “bomb” on an airplane. In fact, Apple hates the word so much that it considers it an expletive, and it’s now filtering it from the iTunes Store.
The unfortunate reality of trying to replace cable with video subscription services such as Netflix or Hulu is that, well… they kind of suck. Okay, so that’s my opinion and it’s completely possible that you’re happy with the Walmart bargain bin selection of movies Netflix has to offer, or being last to find out that The Island was just purgatory and the whole point of LOST was, well… pointless. There’s many reasons why I’ve been unable to cut cable out of my life, and if I’m going to be paying for it every month — I might as well get my money’s worth. That’s where the Slingbox SOLO comes in.
Remember the Padcaster? It was a photography rig made to turn the new iPad into a shallow-focusing movie camera, and it was [teased](https://www.cultofmac.com/156157/padcaster-turns-new-ipad-into-shallow-focusing-movie-camera/) by the makers Manhattan Edit Workshop last month. Now, the Padcaster has been revealed at NAB 2012, and it is just what we thought it would be — a way to mount big lenses on the iPad 3 and turn it onto a movie camera.
UPDATE: This post incorrectly stated that the SlingShot’s inventor, Charles Waugh, was also responsible for the AirClip iPhone grip. He is not.
It seems that there’s an almost infinite number of ways to stabilize your iPhone while taking photos and video, but possibly the most absurd – and at the same time extrmely practical – method so far is to drop it into this catapult-shaped tripod/slingshot.
I chuckled when I first saw it. And then I thought, “that’s actually pretty damn clever.”
The HandiZoom is an add-on camera grip that makes your SLR handle more like a camcorder. A really big, heavy camcorder. It is currently at the prototype stage, but looks like it could prove popular with one-man crews shooting documentary footage.
Canon is serious about video. It’s 5D MkII was the go-to camera for low-budget indie filmmakers and professionals (like the creators of House) alike. Now, with rivals such as Nikon catching up, it has again leapt ahead. Say hello to the EOS-1D C, an SLR which can also shoot 4K video.
When Apple announced that it was bringing movies and TV shows purchased in the iTunes Store to iCloud, every major production house was onboard except Universal and Fox. Due to licensing conflicts with HBO, Universal and Fox were not able to offer video content in iCloud initially. HBO later said that it would be loosening its grip on the studios to allow for licensing agreements with Apple.
It now appears that Universal Studios has been able to start offering its movies in the iTunes Store for re-download in iCloud.
Dragging media files to iTunes after you’ve downloaded them is so last year. All the hip kids get their downloaded files into iTunes without any intermediate steps. Here’s how to be one of the auto-adding-to-itunes elite.
Watching movies on the new iPad is pretty great. Getting those movies onto the iPad isn’t quite so great, especially if you live in a country that doesn’t sell iTunes movies, or if you rip your own DVDs. The forthcoming 3.0 version of It’s Playing for iPad, though, not only plays pretty much any movie format without having to re-encode it on your computer first, it also puts in some amazing new features not seen anywhere else.
Apple has finally updated its iTunes Movie Trailers app for the new iPad’s Retina display. I say ‘finally’ because most of Apple’s own iOS apps were updated with Retina graphics on March 7th, but the Trailers app was left out.
You can download the update for Trailers in the App Store now, and it looks fantastic.
Unlike the Netflix app, Apple’s Trailers will let you stream video in stunning on HD. If you haven’t been using Trailers on your iPad and iPad, download it now and discover what you’ve been missing. Not only can you view trailers for upcoming movies, but there’s a handy calendar view for release dates, charts, favorite starring, and ticket/showing info. A great app just got even better.
If you want to take great photos that you can play around with later, you shoot RAW. And if you want to take great video, ready for the kind of post-processing punishment exacted on it by adding visual effects, you also shoot RAW.
However, while you can get a RAW-shooting stills camera for under $500, a RAW-capable video camera is professional only, running to tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Until now. Joe Rubinstein will sell you a Digital Bolex for just $2,500. In the movie world, that’s like finding a Nikon D4 in your cereal box.
Apple announced that movies are now available for download in iCloud last week at its iPad event. You can now view and re-download video content purchased from the iTunes Store on any authorized device, including the iPhone and iPad.
While nearly all the major Hollywood studios were onboard at the time, Universal and Fox studios hadn’t been able to close a deal with Apple for iCloud availability due to licensing conflicts with HBO. According to a spokesperson for the company, HBO is loosening its restrictions on the studios to let Apple have access to more content, specifically Universal and Fox.
It’s been rumored for many months that Apple is working on a TV subscription service for delivering streaming video content. The Cupertino company hasn’t been able to make progress for quite some time due to licensing deals and revenue concerns from Hollywood studios.
A recent report reveals that CBS CEO Leslie Moonves said no to providing content to Apple about a year ago. Not only that, but Moonves told Steve Jobs that he didn’t know anything about the TV business. What Moonves really meant was that Apple is planning to disrupt the way the world consumes video content, and that scares CBS to death.
Double Feature is a great new iPhone app which is going to revolutionize drunken, late-night movie conversations in pubs, bars and kitchens the world over. It has two functions: Movie Match and Name Search. But all you need to know is that when you find yourself saying “Who was that guy in [x] movie? I can’t remember his name… But hey, wasn’t he in [y] movie, too?” then Double Feature is the app you reach for.
Apple has noted that iCloud can now be used to re-download movies and TV shows that have been purchased from the iTunes Store. During today’s keynote, it was revealed that the third-gen Apple TV would support 1080p HD video, and Apple gave its iTunes video catalog a 1080p facelift to match. On top of that, iCloud will now let you access your purchased video content on all of your devices as many times as you want.
The new feature is welcomed, but there are a couple major Hollywood studios that have not made their content available on iCloud. Universal and Fox haven’t been able to ink a deal with Apple yet.
CineXplayer, the go-to iOS app for playing pretty much any kind of video you can throw at it, has been updated to include virtual surround sound. This gives you surround sound in stereo speakers or headphones instead of mixing Dolby Digital 5.1 surround down to a plain stereo signal.
VLC, the cross-platform play-everything-and-we-mean-everything video client is about to go 2.0 on the Mac. And amongst all the new features is one very welcome change: A completely re-designed interface that makes it look a lot more at home on Apple hardware than the open-source v1.x ever did.
Apple has released a software update for the Apple TV that brings Genius recommendations for movies and TV shows to the set-top box. The service works like Netflix’s recommendations to give you suggested titles based on your previous purchases.
If there’s something you’d like to grab from a web page for which a download link isn’t provided, such as a movie file, Safari offers a handful of ways to download it–with no add-ons required. Read on to learn how.
Apple has added a handy feature for finding apps and videos in the desktop version of iTunes. When searching for App Store apps, a new info button is available in the bottom right of each app icon.
Clicking this “i” button will open a preview of the desired app. From here you can quickly see the price, average rating, description, and screenshots.
Here’s a treat for Indiana Jones fans. It’s called Temple Run, it’s free on the iOS App Store, and it gives you the chance to relive your Indy treasure-hunting dreams.
