Apple releases Shake 4.1 compositing software
Apple announced an update to its Shake program with the release of version 4.1, the first Universal version of its industry leading compositing software. At the same time, Apple also cut its price from $3,699 to $579. Final Cut Studio editors can now take advantage of Shake for 3D compositing, keying, image tracking and stabilization.
Shake complements Final Cut Studio by providing a range of operations from simple re-touching to 3D compositing. Shake uses optical flow image analysis to re-time, track and stabilize shots. Particle effects from Motion 2 can be dropped into the Shake process tree to add elements such as smoke, sparkles and fire to multi-plane 3D composites. High resolution work can flow from Motion to Shake by rendering with the shared OpenEXR format for film quality reproduction.
Shake 4.1 is available through the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $579. Owners of Shake 4 can take advantage of a crossgrade to Shake 4.1 for $57.
HP releases OpenView
HP today announced HP OpenView management solutions, catering to chief information officers wishing to increase the efficiency of their information technology departments.
The product suite includes OpenView DecisionCenter, OpenView AssetCenter and OpenView Application Insight. HP OpenView DecisionCenter uses business impact analytics and simulations to model business services. HP OpenView AssetCenter automates the process of asset management, improving control and return on investment while ensuring regulatory compliance. HP OpenView Application Insight optimizes performance of business services by offering visibility into the performance of all supporting applications and infrastructure components.
TurboSoft releases update of TurboFTP
TurboSoft released version 5 of TurboFTP, which allows users to connect to a regular or secure FTP server and transfer files between them. TurboFTP is a secure FTP client that fully supports secure FTP over SSL/TLS and SFTP over SSH2. TurboFTP works with an SSL/TLS-based secure FTP server or an SSH2 server, offers server authentication and encryption, including AES and integrity protection.
The Sync Service feature can synchronize local and remote directories in an unattended way. It supports FTP/FTPS/SFTP and can run as a generic NT service and requires no user logon to keep jobs running. When an error occurs during synchronization, or when the connection drops, TurboFTP Sync Service will retry the failed operation or reconnect to recover the broken transfer. It allows running multiple schedule tasks simultaneously, dependency between tasks (run a job after another is completed) and different dialup connections for individual tasks. Users can also specify programs to be run before a scheduled job is launched or after it is completed. The Sync Service Module can also run as a console command line program to perform FTP transfer and synchronization.
A number of features have been added in this new version including Folder Synchronizer and Upload Wizard. Folder Synchronizer provides visual comparison of local and remote directory contents, has been rebuilt to boost the performance when working on remote directories with large numbers of files and complex structures. Upload Wizard has been added to the package. Users are now offered an approach to upload files and even whole directories to FTP or SSH servers by right clicking items in Windows Explorer, without opening the TurboFTP main program.
TurboFTP client runs under Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP/2003. A single user licence of TurboFTP GUI client starts at US$39.95. TurboFTP + Sync Service Module starts at US$139 per licence.
Axandra software allows webmasters to achieve high rankings on Google result pages
Axandra launched IBP 9, a Windows software program that offers tools that allow users to achieve higher positions on search engine result pages and attract greater numbers of qualified Web site visitors.
IBP includes a Web page editor and a keyword editor to allow quick changes to a company’s Web site. The search engine submission feature submits Web sites to a number of search engines, including Google. IBP uses a Web browser and fills out the submission forms. The software also creates customizable ranking reports in the PDF, HTML and MS Word formats.
IBP 9 is offered in two editions. The Standard edition is targeted at small business owners and Web developers. It costs US$249.95. The Business edition offers all features of the Standard edition and allows online marketing agencies, consultants and large organizations to manage an unlimited number of clients and domains. It costs US$499.95.
IBP 9 requires Windows 98/ME/2000/XP.