Status-Q

If you’re a Mac user and you haven’t really worked out how this RSS stuff works in Safari, have a look at Craig Swanson’s quick tutorial.

In a recent post I said that, “at $299, Aperture is a somewhat pricey but very nice piece of software”. Of course, it used to be somewhat more pricey – it was $499 when first released.

I’ve always assumed that there would be a lot of disgruntled early users out there when the price was dropped almost to half of what they had paid, but it turns out that Apple gave a $200 coupon to all registered users of the first, more expensive, version. What a nice company!

Now, I wonder what’s happening to Aperture in ten days’ time…

Ah, now this is a very nice new feature in iTunes 7.

There’s more information here.

I’ve noticed a bit more of a trend in this direction recently: for applications to incorporate backup options for their own data. I think it’s quite a good idea, because they often have a better idea of what needs backing up, how often, and in what way, than a more general “copy the files” backup. A couple of other packages I use which have two very different, but both very good, backup strategies built-in are the excellent accounting package MYOB and Apple’s Aperture.

So my photos, my accounts and my music now all have their own backups in addition to the general disk-cloning that I do from time to time with SuperDuper. Good for one’s peace of mind. I shall now go to bed and sleep soundly.

Having taken lots of photos while on holiday, I’m becoming a real fan of Apple’s Aperture software – designed to help photographers manage their workflow. Workflow, by the way, is something that professional photographers apparently have and that people like me aspire to.

Anyway, at $299, Aperture is a somewhat pricey but very nice piece of software. It has a bit of a learning curve, but is blessed with some really good tutorials. You get a DVD in the box with an hour or so’s instruction, there are tutorials on line on the Aperture site, but if you’re considering buying it and want to know the sort of things that make it different from say, iPhoto, I recommend Apple’s introductory on-line seminar, which is well-produced. There’s also an advanced one.

A warning, though; Aperture is one of those few things that makes you realise that Moore’s law hasn’t yet given us all the processing power we could possibly need. Make sure you have a pretty beefy Mac if you’re planning on using it!