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	Dubbing Mac Pro “a screamer,” Yuval Kossovsky (Computerworld) assures his readers that “if you do media production, scientific computing, or other processor-intensive work, believe me — you want one of these!” And not just because Mac Pro delivers blazing workstation performance. As it turns out, Mac Pro also delivers outstanding price performance, making “one heck of a machine on which to run both Mac OS X and Windows XP.” The standard configuration Mac Pro “starts at $2,499; a Dell Precision 690 configured the same goes for $3,448.”
	Robert Weston (AP) was more than a little surprised after comparing the price of a new Mac Pro to a comparably equipped Dell PC. As he discovered, “a low-end Mac Pro will cost you $2,124 compared with $3,071 for a nearly identically configured Dell Precision Workstation 490. The Mac is about $947 cheaper—and the gap widens when you start piling on options such as more memory, faster processors and bigger hard drives.” Befuddled—had he made a mistake on Dell’s website?—Weston called Dell. And “Dell spokesman Marco Pena” confessed that “’the results were a bit surprising to me, too, but it is what it is.’”
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It would be downright criminal if you didn’t pre-order the Killers’ eagerly awaited new album, “Sam’s Town.” Not only will the Killers slay you with the album’s 12 new tracks, but a “Sam’s Town” pre-order also bags you two bonus items: a music video, “When You Were Young,” and a bonus track of the same song. In fact, place your pre-order today and, before you can say “homicidal,’ “When You Were Young” will start downloading into your iTunes Music Library.

Before you head back to campus, you’ll want to take advantage of a great offer currently available at the Apple Store. Perfect for students and teachers looking for a great value proposition, it lets you save $50 (via mail-in rebate) when you purchase Office 2004 for Mac. Imagine that. You get full versions of the superb suite of productivity software — including MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage — and save $50 at the same time. Terms apply, so get all the details at the Apple Store.

Wish you could tool around Radiator Springs with Lightning McQueen, Sally, Doc Hudson, and Mater? Well, now you can. Rainbow Studios has created two games for the Mac based on Cars, the latest Pixar movie starring the likes of, well, Lightning McQueen, Sally, Doc Hudson, and Mater. While Rainbow Studios designed Cars: The Video Game for older kids (19-90, to be exact), it offers Cars: Radiator Springs Adventure for the younger set. Race over to our games site, and you can read all about them and download a demo of the former.

Podcast Pick. Whether you’re into the Arts, Health, Politics, or Technology, there’s no shortage of engaging podcasts available to you in the iTunes Music Store. And now we’re making them even easier to find. With Categories. You’ll find sixteen to peruse if you visit the Podcasts aisle. And most have sub-categories to help refine your interest. The Education category, for example, offers five subcategories — Educational Technology, Higher Education, K-12, Language Courses, and Training — that help you narrow your podcast search.

Found an article you think a friend ought to read? Send him to the online version of today’s issue of Apple eNews.

Every week, developers release new products for us to enjoy. Like to see some of the more recent arrivals?

Apple eNews
August 24, 2006
Volume 9, Issue 17

We hope you thoroughly enjoyed reading today’s issue of Apple eNews. We’re already working on the next issue, scheduled to come your way on Thursday, September 7. See you then.

Written and designed by Apple in Cupertino, Apple eNews is a free, bi-weekly email publication.

Event dates are subject to change. Some products, programs, or promotions are not available outside the U.S. Visit your local Apple site or call your local authorized Apple reseller for more information. Prices are Apple Store prices as of the date of this publication. They do not include sales tax or shipping charges, are subject to change, and are listed in US dollars. Product specifications are subject to change.

With no “fingers-on experience” and only a few hours of Final Cut Pro instruction under his belt, Hans Conosa doubled his credits in “Conversations,” becoming—in one stroke—both director and editor of his first feature film.

“Final Cut is so user friendly,” he says. “Although I didn’t learn every command and shortcut, I didn’t need to know them. What I desperately needed at that time was to get my movie going.”

And for Conosa and Conversations, the going was definitely good. The film has already won praise from Roger Ebert at the Telluride Film Festival, a Special Grand Jury Prize in Tokyo, and raves from critics in France. Not bad for a Final Cut Pro novice.

If, like Hans Conosa, you have a no-compromise video project to turn around fast, you’ll want to explore the performance advantages offered by the new Mac Pro. When rendering or encoding DV or HDV footage, test after test confirms its superior performance.

And in addition to accelerating video processing and rendering, Mac Pro supports more simultaneous video streams and real-time effects. It provides access to high-performance graphics cards with room for up to three more expansion cards. And Mac Pro lets you install up to four 500GB SATA hard drives and 2TB of internal storage.

How else can Mac Pro help you on your next film and video project?

While patients suffering from Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) may dutifully report a variety of symptoms, it’s often difficult for physicians to determine exactly how serious their patients’ medical condition is. And that can lead either to overly aggressive treatment of some patients. Or to treatment that isn’t nearly aggressive enough for others.

But now doctors all over the country get to safely experience the symptoms of CHF first hand. Thanks, that is, to Heart FXPod, a 53-foot-long heart-attack simulator on wheels. Strapped into pneumatic vests, doctors watch a video chronicling the experiences of Hank, a typical CHF patient. As Hank tires, has trouble breathing, feels his heart racing, so do the doctors. And that leads both to a better understanding of what patients experience and better diagnoses.

What’s pumping the life into this virtual reality theatre? That would be five Mac mini computers.

Did you know that among its strong complement of adjustment tools, Aperture includes a powerful tonal adjustment tool?

A histogram with a twist, the Quarter-Tone Controls are part of Aperture’s Level adjustment tool. In his latest book, Real World Aperture, Ben Long compares them favorably to the Curves adjustment in Photoshop, saying that if you’re “used to using the Curves dialog box for your tonal adjustments, you’ll probably find Aperture’s Levels adjustment an excellent substitute. Because it provides five editable points, three of which have changeable input values (the midpoint and quarter-tone controls), you should be able to perform almost all of the most common Curves adjustments that you can make in Photoshop.”

See how you can realize your creative vision in Ben Long’s Real World Aperture.

You’ve got an idea for a podcast that no one else is doing and you’ve already sketched out a half dozen episodes. If only you had all the software and recording gear needed to produce it.

But, wait a minute, you already have everything you need to record, edit, and publish your own podcasts. If, that is, you have a Mac.

After all, every Mac in the Apple Store comes with GarageBand—it’s part of iLife ’06—and GarageBand offers a profusion of podcasting tools. While the built-in mic on many Macs lets you record your voice, GarageBand’s Speech Enhancer let’s you tune your radio voice. GarageBand also offer sound effects, a jingle library, an Artwork Track for creating an enhanced podcast, an entire battery of audio tools. And with iWeb and a .Mac account, you can publish your podcast easily—even submit it to the iTunes Music Store.

Get a Mac. Be a podcasting star.

^{1. Publishing podcasts requires Internet and webserver access. ( .Mac recommended.) The .Mac service is available to persons age 13 and older. Annual membership fee and Internet access required. Terms and conditions apply.}

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Apple eNews: August 24, 2006