Christopher Mackay's Blog

Apple has announced Aperture, their new Raw-format photo software.

Apple sure knows how to make something look spiffy. Having recently begun my foray into Raw-format photography with a Canon 20D, and having tried Photoshop CS2’s Camera Raw/Bridge workflow, I see lots of room for Aperture.

Adobe’s Camera Raw workflow is slow and awkward, even if it’s a technical marvel under the hood. Apple is promising a better way. I hope they have it, for a couple of reasons.

I’ve always marvelled that Adobe, which has a virtual monopoly with Photoshop (no, I’ve never seriously considered the GIMP, nor am I likely to, thanks), has nevertheless continued to improve it. In a very real sense, Photoshop’s biggest threat has always come from the previous version of Photoshop. By and large, Adobe has always been up to that threat, even though I personally took a pass on versions 6 and CS.

But now there’s external pressure in the form of Aperture. No, it’s not a Photoshop-killer, nor is it attempting to be one. It’s aimed at photographers, not production designers. It’s about camera workflow, not photo-retouching or editing. And it’s very aggressively priced. It will be wildly popular.

But I’m sure Adobe hasn’t forgotten the lessons of Final Cut Pro, either. Premiere was a slow, buggy thing that hadn’t been upgraded in years, and Apple clobbered Adobe with FCP. And Adobe responded by… giving up.

This time the shot across Adobe’s bow isn’t quite a shot across Photoshop’s bow; it’s more like Corel’s Painter — a companion piece that will sit next to Photoshop in most Aperture users’ Docks.

Aperture 2.0 is where we’ll see the long-term strategy played out.

Obviously, I have no idea whether or not Apple will announce a video-enabled iPod on October 12th.

If they do, it will be called iPod video.

Why is that so hard to deduce, given iPod mini, iPod shuffle, iPod photo, iPod U2, and Mac mini? The rumour sites all seem to call this a “video iPod”, or even more improbable names (e.g. viPod, vidPod, vPod, video iPod).

Before watching Tactiva’s QuickTime TactaPad demontration videos, it had never really occurred to me just how linear and sequential most GUI-based interactions with computers are.

TactaPad’s new paradigm blows that wide open and allows a much more natural process — one that could make the computer more transparent to the user. At first glance, it looks child-like in its simplicity, but it soon becomes apparent that there’s a lot of subtlety at work. This would make it easily and quickly acceptable to a broad range of users.

Their FAQ states that they’re not currently for sale as they’re looking for a manufacturing partner. Let’s hope they find one; I’d buy one immediately. If Wacom has any sense, they’ll snap this up immediately. And let’s hope Apple, Microsoft, Adobe/Macromedia and other developers add support for this device into their software.

This looks like a real winner. The potential gains in apps like Final Cut, Illustrator, Flash, PowerPoint, Keynote, Finder, etc., are mind-boggling. The future development of these apps could go off in exciting new directions once freed from sequential, linear thinking. I’d love to see what they could do in apps that aren’t oriented around object-manipulation, things like Word or Photoshop.

With third-party templates overlaid on the board, it could even act as a keyboard replacement, or have trackpad-like navigation areas reserved. The possibilities are endless.

This device could also be a great help for those with accessibility issues. From a motor-control perspective, an input device that acts as an alternative to mice, pens, and keyboards, and doesn’t require grasping could be tremendously beneficial.

I can’t wait to get my hands on one.