New iTunes Supports Windows 64-bit and 64-bit Vista Systems

By Don Burnett

MacWorld Suprises

A few suprises came out of thin air at MacWorld, one being a new version of iTunes that supports 64-bit Windows Vista releases.. Looks like Apple has learned how to program 64-bit Windows in the past few months. My first experience with this was downloading the Terminator:Sarah Conner Chronicles Episode 1 (free right now on iTunes). After downloading and playing the episode in full screen mode it seems Apple has most of the bugs out of iTunes, Quicktime and 64-bit systems. Though Quicktime did crash when I closed the file using the close gadget in full screen,the release seems pretty solid outside of that.. Also if you haven't been on the moon somewhere Apple announce an ultra thin portable MacBook, called "Air" with a solid state hard drive as an option, no optical drive built-in but wireless peripheral support and a host of other features.

One of the members of Expression Studio is shipping with the release of Office 2008:Mac (Media Edition) and that is the new Expression Media product. Digital asset management is a serious subject these days from everyone who does professional photography to interactive and RIA design.. Some more exciting news when paired with this is Gekko Images of Sydney Australia has came up with a series of how-to videos and podcasts that covers how to improve your designer workflow, version control of assets, file format conversion (including many RAW formats including Adobe DNG format) for both the Mac and PC versions of Expression Media. The format conversion is worth the cost of the product alone.

These videos rock, Gekko offers specialized training and workflow analysis, including professional audits of your company's workflow process, group training (up to 10 people), 2 day training, One-on-One Training. Also a standard phone support package for assistance off-site is offered.

 

The group training package is especially exciting as it brings together the following topics:

Introduction:

• Principles of DAM workflow
• Overview of the application
• File importing
• File Sorting
• File Transfer
• Archiving
• Metadata / search
• Project integration

Advanced:

• Advanced tools overview
• Advanced cataloging
• Query Building and archiving
• Worflow integration (batches, scripts, droplets)
• Custom Scripts / Workflow automation
• Web Galleries, FTP & PDF Maker
• Collaborative Workflows (Notes, Reader, Catalog management)

Contact Gekko for further details...

Note if you are on a 64-bit Vista install and you go to the Apple download page to install the new iTunes,  it will recognize that you are on 64-bit Vista and send you to the proper 64-bit setup download option.. The 32-bit installer will now suggest the 64-bit version if you somehow try to install the wrong version. pretty neat huh!

Can you say EEE PC?

Okay what costs $349, is ultramobile, has a solid state drive (droppable), a very portable display and can run XP (if installed), Expression Studio (including Blend and WPF) and did I say costs only $349 dollars right now?? It's Asus' EEE PC. I found out how great this would be as a simple ultra-mobile design on the spot product, thanks to Bill Steele's Blog and how much he really liked this for long airplane rides..

I am probably going to snap one of these up shortly. It will be end-of-year before this device ships with Windows. The hard drive while bigger than some iPods can fit XP on it, but misses some of the size requirements for Vista. But it's ULTRA cool for $350... And you can do .Net 3.5 and WPF with it.. Not to mention Expression Blend.

 

Technorati tags: Gekko, Training Videos, Digital Asset Management, Expression Media