Reviews, tutorials and news (previously: IT Enquirer)
The T4 Thunderbolt 3 is CalDigit’s newest RAID storage solution. Except for the Thunderbolt 3 interface, the new T4 comes with a DisplayPort that allows you to connect to any monitor with a resolution of up to 4K@60Hz. It also has the ability to charge an attached laptop through the Thunderbolt 3 port with up to 85W of power.
Screen captures are often a necessity for use with presentations, magazine articles, and tutorials. The ability to create them comes with your operating system, but TechSmith’s Snagit offers a lot more flexibility and adds the ability to create short videos of your screen as well. Its latest version adds the ability to grab and recognise text, while Smart Move lets you move elements on screen that can be considered to be independent screen components.
Media Asset Management application KeyFlow Pro 2 has been released. It has several new features, such as the capability to import transcript files as notes into Annotations, manual database backup and synchronisation support, and the ability to recreate a preview video with different resolutions and bitrates.
Animation for anything from presentations to games and goofy Youtube movies is possible with CrazyTalk Animator 3. This, the developer says, is the world's easiest 2D animation software that enables all levels of users to create professional animations with the least amount of effort, and I agree – up to a point.
Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as Affinity Designer and Photo, allow you to create patterns that you can use and reuse as backgrounds, desktop or real-world wallpaper, etc. They all require you to start from a vector or bitmap image such as a drawing or photograph and then work out how to make it seamlessly repeating. That’s not too easy, to say the least, but Patternodes has found a simpler, more user-friendly way to do it.
Lately, OWC has been making devices that are blazingly fast at a price that is hard to compete with. With hard disks at its core and SoftRAID 5.6.5 as the controller – which can’t quite keep up with the fastest hardware RAID controllers out there – it’s only slightly better than an averagely performing RAID box.
Codex creates digital production workflow tools for independent films, motion pictures, commercials, and TV productions. Within some 30 days after NAB, it will be shipping ColorSynth, a layered colour grading plug-in the Indie market can afford, and Keys, a control surface priced equally affordable.
To create composites, you need mattes. In Final Cut Pro X, you can create simple mattes out-of-the-box, but for anything more complex than a box or ball shape you really need a bit more power. Lots of power and controls come with Hawaiki Keyer. I reviewed version 3 a while ago and although I’m late in the process – version 4 has been out for some time now – I found version 4 worth the trouble of going through this must-have plug-in all over again.
Sometimes you come across a product that you didn’t know you needed until you see it, try it and are amazed you never thought of it before. ScreenFloat is such a utility, available for macOS only. It’s compatible with High Sierra and you get a 15-day trial period without the watermark nonsense some other vendors insist on.
Sony announced the arrival of the portable MP-CD1 Mobile Projector in Europe in Spring of this year. Fitting easily in the palm of your hand, the MP-CD1 can project content up to 304cm in size from a short distance of approximately 3.5m. The projector weighs only 280g and can be used on any surface to …
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