The Stone Road BlogPatterhttp://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011-10-06T14:29:15ZSquarespaceHello and Goodbye...http://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/10/6/hello-and-goodbye.htmlStone Road2011-10-06T13:19:06Z2011-10-06T13:19:06ZWhen I graduated high school “back in the day”, the premiere parent gift was an electric typewriter.  Sure you had a choice of a manual typewriter--but with an electric, you possessed the ability to time travel with the auto correct button.

Auto correct.  Mistake.  No problem.  Push button,  letter ball whirls, carriage backups, hammer strikes, splattering each errant letter with an outline of white.   I was amazed.  Sold.  For what seemed hours, I would spell swear words--and then erase them, giggling along the way.

In college, I typed every poorly written paper on my glorious, beloved Olympia electric.  With its bulky black plastic case, I could lug it to a lovely co-ed’s room to show off my Auto correct button.  Ahhh college.  

This was my world of technological wonder until...the day.  

A wealthy college friend had purchased a Mac Plus, and had summoned all into his room to marvel.   Curious to know why the world had stopped, I waited in a geeky queue to enter his packed steamy shrine.  

Wonderful, weird, enchanting, the moment I saw her, I knew I had found my life partner.   The Olympia now seemed so...barbaric.  The Mac...elegant. 

Upon graduating college, I begged, borrowed, and finally purchased a Mac Plus (with a ‘speedy’ Image Writer dot matrix printer) for close to $4,000.  A bargain, I thought.

I was a recluse the first two weeks I owned that Mac--a young geek, with a beautiful machine, creating, playing, gaming, enjoying...alone.  It was just the two of us, and the troubles of the world mattered little.  My life had changed.

In our basement, in its original box, sits that Mac Plus--my lovely wife wonders why.

But every so often, I will venture to the basement, open the box and take a peak.  

Today, was one of those days--she still makes me smile.

Thank you Steven Paul Jobs.

]]>Rejoice...FCP is back, babyhttp://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/9/2/rejoicefcp-is-back-baby.htmlStone Road2011-09-02T15:29:16Z2011-09-02T15:29:16Z"Apple has put an older version of its Final Cut video editing software on sale, after complaints that its replacement was not good enough for professional work.

Final Cut Studio, which includes Final Cut Pro 7 is available for £834 through the company's telephone sales line.

Its recently introduced Final Cut Pro X received mixed reviews, with editors criticising the removal of key features."  To read the entire article, click here.

]]>Finally...iPhone 5 coming to Sprint (our official carrier)http://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/8/24/finallyiphone-5-coming-to-sprint-our-official-carrier.htmlStone Road2011-08-24T15:52:20Z2011-08-24T15:52:20Z"Sprint Nextel Corp. will begin selling the new version of the Apple iPhone in mid-October, people familiar with the matter said, filling a huge hole in the No. 3 U.S. carrier's lineup and giving Apple Inc. another sales channel for its popular gadget." Readmore: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903327904576526690675657466.html#ixzz1VxiYJOWr

]]>Non Linear Editors and a Rotten Apple?http://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/7/19/non-linear-editors-and-a-rotten-apple.htmlStone Road2011-07-19T17:19:40Z2011-07-19T17:19:40Z"So, Michael Jackson is dead and Final Cut Pro X is out, and most people prefer the older versions of each. Most can also agree on Michael Jackson's fate—making a lot more albums from beyond the grave—but people aren't so sure about Final Cut Pro's future.

The FCP X launch, and the discontent surrounding the new product, fed into a larger anxiety about Apple's intentions for the pro Mac market. Was FCP X just a single, poorly handled event or was it an indication of Apple's direction from now on, media pros be damned? With all this talk of bringing iOS features "back to the Mac," is OS X about to lose its luster for content creation? Is the Mac Pro going the way of the XServe?"  To read the complete Infinite Loop article, written by Dave Girard, click here.

]]>The Motherlode for Content Producers: Half of TVs to Have Internet Connectivity by 2015http://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/7/6/the-motherlode-for-content-producers-half-of-tvs-to-have-int.htmlStone Road2011-07-06T16:52:40Z2011-07-06T16:52:40Z"About 47 percent of total flat-panel televisions shipped in four years will have Internet connectivity, as manufacturers bet on the expansion of Netflix and direct-to-consumer offerings from content producers like Time Warner’s HBO.  To read the entire CNBC article, written by John Melloy, click here.

]]>Apple Responds to the FCP X Disasterhttp://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/7/2/apple-responds-to-the-fcp-x-disaster.htmlStone Road2011-07-02T14:12:42Z2011-07-02T14:12:42Z"By now, most people that are interested in Apple and/or video editing have heard about theongoing criticism towards Apple’s latest professional movie making software, Final Cut Pro X. Many are calling this total revamp of the Final Cut product an application that is not suited for professionals. Some have even dubbed it as a slightly jazzed up version of iMovie – “iMovie Pro.” Now, Apple has officially responded to this criticism with a new “answers to the most common questions we’ve heard” web page."  To read the entire 9to5Mac article written by Mark Gurman, click here.

]]>Final Cut Pro X...The Horror, The Horrorhttp://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/6/23/final-cut-pro-xthe-horror-the-horror.htmlStone Road2011-06-23T21:16:39Z2011-06-23T21:16:39Z"So yesterday was met with the news that Final Cut Pro X was finally available and like someone waiting outside the famous PT Barnum museum in New York City, I plunked down my $299 to download the software and ensure that the information I had gotten over the past few months was correct. I was wrong. It was worse."  To read the complete review by Walter Biscardi, click here. 

]]>The low down on Final Cut Pro Xhttp://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/6/15/the-low-down-on-final-cut-pro-x.htmlStone Road2011-06-15T17:20:17Z2011-06-15T17:20:17Z"Apple may appeal to its high-end video production customers next week with the release of Final Cut Pro X on the Mac App Store, as well as the announcement of new third-party products that will take advantage of the high-speed Thunderbolt port found on new Macs, according to a new rumor..."  To read the complete Apple Inside post, written by Katie Marsal, click here.

]]>Reinventing the music video...http://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/5/6/reinventing-the-music-video.htmlStone Road2011-05-06T11:44:47Z2011-05-06T11:44:47Z"In "Scenes from the Suburbs," directed by Spike Jonze, armed troops patrol communities at war with each other. Music by the Grammy-winning band Arcade Fire forms a soundtrack, but the band doesn't appear on screen. Instead, Mr. Jonze cast a handful of Texas teenagers who helped improvise dialogue for the script. "Scenes" premiered at the recent South by Southwest Film Festival—it's 30 minutes long...So out of the ashes, with cheap new tools, a growing number of music acts and directors are trying to do something more ambitious: change the medium itself. "  To read the complete WaSJ article, written by John Jurgensen, click here.

]]>Sad. The Flip, Flops & Fades.http://www.thestoneroad.com/patter/2011/4/14/sad-the-flip-flops-fades.htmlStone Road2011-04-14T14:20:19Z2011-04-14T14:20:19Z"The Flip portable digital video camera is no more. Manufacturer Cisco is ceasing production of the budget pocket camcorder as part of a restructuring plan, shutting down the division and laying off 550 employees. Existing FlipShare customers and partners will be offered a transition plan.

Originally a pioneer in home filmmaking whose simple controls and one-touch Web uploads made video production and sharing simple, the Flip has since faced heated competition from rival manufacturers including JVC, DXG and Creative." To read the entire Rolling Stone article written by Scott Steinberg, click here.

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