Production Gear

Best may be piling it on too much for certain.  Never heard of it, now that may be likely.  Vara Software has been one of my favorite companies since I first encountered VideoCue.  If you don’t know VideoCue, go to their site right now and download it.  It’s an entire TV studio in an inexpensive package.  In fact, I often use the teleprompter alone when necessary.

Ok, enough love, but they do have a new product that does have me equally excited, and it’s called ScreenFlow.  It gives very good flexibility in creating screencasts, tutorials, etc.  You can use your built-in iSight (Mac only folks) and also bring a window of yourself into the mix where necessary.  I downloaded the demo and created a brief tutorial on a SSD MacBook Air.  Yes, only the 1.8 processor, and the software still worked flawlessly.  Needless to say, I whipped out the plastic and you’ll have a full on demo here shortly. 

A lot has been written about the MacBook Air.  For good reason too.  The laptop is clearly targeting folks who need connectivity above all else.  It’s also damn cool.

But the real news for video and creative folks is what wasn’t announced.  Penryn chips are on the loose, but not in MacBooks or MacBook Pros...yet. Also, have you noticed how long in the tooth the MacBook Pros really are.  I mean, yes the design may be timeless, but the time has come for an overhaul.  We all know it’s due, and yet nothing at MacWorld.  Mac Pros saw a nice bump during CES.  But remember what Steve said, it’s only been 2 weeks into the year so far and look what’s happened.  That sounds like a lot more stuff to come to me.

Here’s a forecast that will likely be wrong.  But I’ll go for it anyway.