Not only have both Microsoft and Apple released new MP3 players, Microsoft launched the first two commercials in a long series said to have cost Microsoft $300,000,000 and the U.S. financial infrastructure seems to be crumbling before our eyes. On a personal side, I was a bit surprised to see the relatively steep drop in the New Zealand Kiwi as a result of the defaults in the U.S. banking system. I have a long running love affair with New Zealand, finding it a bona fide heaven on earth. I watch their economy and subscribe to Saturday Morning, a podcast re-airing of the wonderful Radio New Zealand interviews by radio and TV host Kim Hill.

As is usually the case Microsoft’s announcement of the third generation Zune was over shadowed by both traditional and internet press coverage of the introduction of the new Apple iPod Nano players zooming by (pun intended) with a longer and even thinner package, audio record, text to speech options as well as even more enclosure colors. Apple continues to offer one of the best players for accessing and remotely enjoying podcasts. Some would argue music as well. However, I find it a bit peculiar that so many people continue to purchase music that can only be played on Apple sanctioned devices. Apple claims it will not embrace subscription music services such as Rhapsody or Napster because consumers want to own their music and not rent it. However, tying your music to a specific technology does not have the appearance or feel of ownership to this blogger.

Recently, my generation five 30 gig iPod stopped synching with many of my favorite video podcasts. I noted others in Apple forums complained of the same problem at approximately the same time. Thankfully, the latest iTune version 8 update seems to have fixed this as well as the dreaded blue screen of death reported by many Windows users trying to activate their iPhones via iTunes. During the iPod down time I reverted back to using my now ancient Zen Vision M 30 gig player which converts both audio and video podcasts to AVI files before transferring to the player and not only was I able to again watch my favorite video podcasts on the beautiful, albeit smaller Zen screen, I was also reintroduced to the fabulous sound so characteristic of Creative Lab products. I still prefer to use my iPod when accessing podcasts but almost never use it to listen to music because of the noticeably inferior audio.

There was much speculation Apple would finally embrace a subscription model however Apple continues to require customers purchase most media protected by the proprietary Apple digital rights encryption. True, Apple offers a very limited library of music free of DRM and many pundits seem to feel that music industry movers and shakers prefer it remain this way.

The most common rationale for this assumption is the music industry is focused on working with competitors such as Microsoft to throttle Apple’s dominance in media distribution.Microsoft has released new Zune players with enhanced storage capacity and new colors as well as support for audible books and enhanced WiFi connectivity. Microsoft took advantage of WiFi and built-in FM tuner to add an innovative feature, not found in other players. The so called “Buy from FM” feature allows the listener to download music heard on selected FM radio stations. Microsoft is trying take advantage of the excellent built in FM tuner to promote its service by syncing this option with special encoded data found in many FM radio streams.

I personally wonder how many people actually listen to radio and in particularly how many of those in the age group targeted by Microsoft use FM Radio to shape their personal preferences for music. I long ago stopped using radio for anything but to access talk stations and find I am spoiled by the ability to create my own MP3 playlists. I simply don’t trust the judgment of the radio station managers or DJs to deliver content I would enjoy. Perhaps I am wrong in my assumptions and this option will prove to be a draw for the Zune.

I do love the ability to use my Ibiza MP3 player to snag songs as they are streamed from my Rhapsody account via WiFi. If I hear a song I enjoy, I simply hold my finger down on the touch pad and select the download option. As long as I maintain my Rhapsody account the song is available to me regardless of whether I am connected to my Rhapsody account. True, I rent the music but much of the pop music that grabs my attention today will have little appeal to me 6 months from now. Those songs I want to keep can often be purchased as DRM free MP3 files from Rhapsody or other vendors such as Amazon.

Microsoft unveiled its first salvo against the very successful Apple advertising campaign with the now infamous Seinfeld / Gates shoe store fiasco. I personally found it very difficult to sit through the entire commercial. It just seems obvious to me Microsoft has little understanding of how to market its products to the masses. The second commercial in the series was as equally disturbing in that it seemed embarrassingly out of touch with the consumers Microsoft needs target.

I find it very distressing that Microsoft management has taken this approach to their much touted and much needed retort to the Apple advertising campaign. Microsoft should have reached out to some of the youths producing the often very clever YouTube Apple / vista commercial parodies. Even better, Microsoft could have initiated an online contest offering wealth, notoriety and fame to those producing the best amateur video response to the Apple commercials.

I believe this would have garnered a tremendous amount of free press coverage and encouraged the target audience for Microsoft to focus on features and services offered by Microsoft that actually address their needs. I have seen many such videos posted on YouTube that are exceptionally clever, some bordering on professional in quality and which always seemed to get an impressive number of hits from viewers.

On well, I’m sure Seinfeld at least is laughing (all the way to the bank).

Produced using M-Audio Interface, MixCraft 4, Vista Speech, Pages, iTunes, and Hp MediaSmart Server

I am using Media Player 11 in which Microsoft has decided to hide performance options in a drop down list under the Now-Playing button. After many years of training customers to look for these kinds of settings under the file or help menu options, the Windows Media Center team decided to change the rules as well as well as eliminating the traditional help menu option. Eventually, I found the and performance options panel where I changed the default setting for connection speed from “detect connection speed” to “choose connection speed” and selected DSL/cable at 768 Kbps even though my DSL connection typically logs in at a download speed of at least 4 MB. I also checked the “drop frames to keep audio and video synchronized option” box.

After making these changes I was able to log on and access MSN streaming media including music concerts without the frequent appearance of the dreaded blue circle of frustration appearing in the center of my screen. I’m still confused as to why these changes were needed given performance benchmarks for my DSL Service showed no change between the earlier posting when I was so impressed with Windows Media Center and my later posting lamenting the loss of usable access to MSN video content. Obviously, the auto detect code is unable to automatically make the necessary adjustments in real world internet through put.

Since making these adjustments I have added Comcast cable and have been able to reset media center settings to automatic detection and remove the check next to the drop frames option. I wonder how many casual users would be willing to dig this deep to get Media Center to work as promised. I suspect that most would simply give up on the software.

As usual, I am dictating the notes for this podcast using the free Vista speech to text software rather than Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking. As mentioned in the past, all though the Nuance product is more accurate but Vista speech to text technology is much more intuitive to use and far superior when modifying or correcting text. Recently, Nuance introduced an upgrade from 9.5 to Version 10. Anxious to see how far speech to text technology has moved I ordered the upgrade.

Unfortunately, all attempted installs failed displaying a warning message suggesting “applications have a reboot waiting” and then prompting you to close the install and re-boot. I did this perhaps three times before checking the Nuance site where I found a tech note suggesting this was a fairly common problem and that users should disable automatic Windows updates and re-boot! Disabling automatic Windows updates is not recommended by Microsoft. I have to wonder how many frustrated Nuance customers are now running systems with automatic update disabled.

The Nuance tech note advises that if this fails, which of course it did for me and I suspect many others, that you should also run msconfig and disable all start up programs. If this step fails Nuance goes on to recommend you download a zipped file from which you must extract an executable that will supposedly disable the Nuance installs insistence on “checking for a required restart”. This was too much sugar for the nickel and I wasn’t willing to continue to jump through any more hoops in order to install an upgrade.

To top off my frustration the Plantronic headset shipped with my order could not be used to produce accurate speech to text translations running either Dragon 9.5 or Vista speech. I have shipped both the install disk and headset back to Nuance with a request for refund. Until Nuance is able to ship the upgrade with a working and relatively painless install, I recommend that those using nuance 9.5 skip version 10.

Produced using M-Audio interface, MixCraft 4, Vista Speech Technology, HP Media Smart Server, iTunes and Pages.

Shortly after proclaiming Windows Media Center offered a superlative viewing experience when accessing free video content on the Internet, I’ve lost the ability to use Windows Media Center to view any of the MSN Control Room Music Concerts without continuously having them paused every 5 to 10 seconds. Ironically, the only way I can actually view the videos without frequent pop ups of the dreaded blue circle of frustration is to log on to Soapbox (a.k.a. Video MSN, a.k.a. MSN video) and view using Firefox running in either Vista or OS X. When using IE7 my viewing experience is not any better than when using Media Center.

I feel as if I’ve been punched in the stomach! I’m happy I didn’t rush out and buy a Media Center Extender or the HP Media Center television I had been lusting after. Given the current degradation in performance, it’s impossible to recommend Windows Media Center as a preferred means of accessing MSN beta TV content reliably.

I don’t know whether the problem is with Microsoft’s implementation of its high resolution streaming display technology, Microsoft Servers or a temporary clogging of the pipes by Internet video coverage of the Olympics. Whatever the cause, for me Windows Media Center has now become a source of angst as opposed to a proof Microsoft can actually follow through on a winning strategy to garner customer enthusiasm for its products. The only positive from my experience is the realization that apparently all of the Beta Internet content produced by Microsoft can be accessed by anyone with a flash enabled Firefox browser and does not require the Windows operating system or any proprietary Microsoft technologies.

Even though the viewing experience is less than that I experienced when using the Windows Media Center several weeks ago, Microsoft offers an impressive catalog. Perhaps the easiest way to access MSN content is to do a Google search for Soapbox. You will be taken to the video.MSN web site where not only can you view MSN beta television content but iNetSynch videos.

I have my fingers crossed that the issue is not with the Media Center technology but rather with a heavier than expected demand on servers as a result of internet coverage of the Olympics. Whatever the cause, the wind has been abruptly taken from my sails. I have to wonder why Microsoft can’t get its act together … why they seem intent on offering up a more and more fodder for Apple to fuel its continued successful strategy of ridiculing Microsoft.

Produced using MixCraft 4, HP Media Smart Home Server, M-Audio Interface, and iTunes tags editor.

My beef with Microsoft is not that it has not delivered excellent products, but rather it has delivered excellent products that would in fact give Windows much of the “WOW” promised when Vista was introduced. Sadly Microsoft hasn’t taken the initiative to promote them. Many of these applications and services are hiding in plain sight. Microsoft offers an exceptional collection of free tools and services under the Windows Live Moniker. Included are Live Writer, Live Photo Gallery, and Live Mail. Live writer is an exceptionally intuitive and easy to use blog editor. Live writer makes it easy to setup, edit and maintain blogs hosted by Google, Microsoft and other hosting services using popular blogging software such as WordPress. To my knowledge Apple provides no equivalent application. If you are using Windows and maintaining or creating blogs Live Writer is a must-have application and free as a down load from Microsoft.

There are of course many photo management applications shipped with both the Apple and Microsoft operating systems as well as a dizzying selection offered by third party vendors. After considerable experimentation with Apple iPhoto and Windows photo gallery I have no problem in recommending Windows Live Gallery.

Not only is the program attractive and intuitive it is also noticeably more efficient in organizing and displaying photographs. The Apple iPhoto application has always been a great frustration to me. All of the other Microsoft and third party applications I’ve tried simply seem to consume time and drive space. Windows Live Gallery is surprisingly fast and nimble. After using Live Gallery I can’t imagine using any other Windows application to manage my photos. Live Gallery is free for the asking from Microsoft.

I have used many e-mail clients over the years including Outlook, Thunderbird, and Apple Mail. Apple mail is nice in that it is intuitive, easy to configure and provides for spell checking as you type. Spell checking is missing in the e-mail client shipped with Windows Vista but is happily imbedded in the Live Mail client. The Live Mail interface is intuitive, easy to configure and uncluttered … something that Mac users would appreciate and it is now my e-mail client of choice when working in Windows.

To top things off, one of the crown jewels hidden and un-activated on I suspect a majority of Vista Home Premium and Ultimate installations is Windows Media Center. We have three systems running Media Center, a Sony Media XP tower, a low end Acer Aspire Home Premium Vista Laptop and an HP 9040 Quad Core Tower running Vista Home Premium. For years now I have been using the Windows Media Center software to access cable television via the built-in tuners on both my Sony and HP computers. Occasionally, I would record videos and export them to various external players such as my Creative Labs Zen but had never really experimented with the many other available features. Approximately six months ago, I tested the beta Internet television and I was disappointed in the limited media offered.

Recently, I decided to take another look and was absolutely amazed at the amount of streaming media content available free from the Internet via Windows Media Center software. I had opted not to activate the Windows Media Center on my laptop because it didn’t have a tuner and I couldn’t imagine using the software to simply play MP3s and watch the occasional DVD.

Once the software was activated, I was pleasantly surprised to see the beta Internet television worked as well or better on my inexpensive Acer laptop as it does on my quad core HP tower. Because the content is streamed from the Internet there’s no need for cable or satellite television services to access it. I believe I even uncontrollably uttered “WOW” as I watched concerts by John Mayer, Jack Johnson and Cheryl Crow. As of today there are 23 music concerts available as streamed videos. It doesn’t stop with music concerts.

There are 10 programs from the Food Network, 10 programs from House And Garden TV, as well as programs from other sources such as Fine Living, travel channel, sports, news, geek and tech oriented programs, viral videos, as well as programming from the Biography, History, and Arts &Entertainment channels. I’ve only begun to scratch the surface. Not only is the amount and selection of content impressive the user interface is superb … equal or superior to anything produced by Apple. If your computer is so equipped you can also use an external remote control to interact with the software. I have controls for both my tower computers but no control is available for the Acer laptop. However, I have been viewing much of the content using the a wirelessly tethered Acer laptop connected to our 50 inch Hitachi rear screen projection TV as well as a smaller LCD television and I am very impressed by the quality of the picture on both sets.

I’m using the S-Video output of my laptop configuring it to display the image on the external television rather than both the laptop display and external device. When I use this configuration there are a few small hiccups in the beginning as the stream begins to synchronize but after that I’m able to view without any interruption. The Windows Home Media center software is truly a WOW experience! Apple simply does not provide any equivalent free service for off the shelf Macintosh computers. Apple iTunes allows for the purchase of content which can be streamed to an Apple TV or free audio and video podcasts but there is no equivalent for the kind of viewing experience available to Windows users having access to high speed Internet and the Windows Media Center software.

If Microsoft truly wants improve its image they simply need to promote the many exceptional tools and free services available to only Windows users. It is ironic that many of the free Microsoft applications and services focus on converting your computer into an entertainment center and encouraging creativity. This of course is contrary to the claim Apple is so fond of making in its advertisements. The reality is Apple is far from providing the exceptional integration of both business and entertainment that Microsoft has been able to achieve.

Get with that Microsoft. You already have the services and killer applications to put the WOW into Windows just let your customer know there are there!

Created using M-Audio Interface and Microphone, Vista Speech to Text Software and MixCraft 4.

iWeb, RapidWeaver and SandVox, popup when Googling for simple Mac website creation and management tools. iWeb is flexible, intuitive and fun. In a nut shell, iWeb is all things Apple but a royal pain if used to install and maintain Webs on a hosting service other than .mac. I am surprised no one has offered up a simple application that takes the mess and fuss out of using iWeb to manage sites on non-Apple hosting services.

I have previously reviewed RapidWeaver 3.6 and continue to use it in creating and managing several of our Webs. The more I use it, the more I like it. The growing list of 3rd party add-ons and plug-ins is reminiscent of the early days of PageMaker. RapidWeaver unfortunately is not a What You See Is What You Get environment, requiring instead the developer switch between edit and proof modes. This is a pain but I have become skilled at layout in edit mode and find myself having to shift modes less often.

I loved PageMaker and lament it was not upgraded to meet WEB standards. Given PageMaker non-standard code and issues with current browser technologies, I would never use PageMaker to create and manage new content. In an effort to get a user friendly What You See Is What You Get editor, I down loaded the trial version of SandVox. I was disappointed the advanced features such as adding and editing html code were not available in the trial version requiring I purchased the Pro version to take a more complete look see.

I had hoped that SandVox would allow more control and customization than the theme based RapidWeaver. Instead, I immediately felt a profound sense of loss of control and wanted to retreat to Rapid Weaver post haste. I could drag and drop content and see the site evolve without having to flip between edit and display modes but the product felt cumbersome and unfinished.

We always test our Webs using a wide mix of machines, displays and browsers and are accustomed to variance in colors and overall visual impact across systems but SandVox seemed to generate sites with greater variance than we have seen using another low end web content creation applications. Configuring SandVox to access and upload files to our web hosting service was a nightmare. My memory of the hours spent trying to make it happen have become clouded with a soft covering of protective fog but the pain of metaphorically pulling the remaining hairs from my aching head is still vivid.

Less than three days after purchasing SandVox Pro I requested a refund which was promptly processed. I occasionally  revisit the  SandVox web site and look for new 3rd party support but always come away happy to have RapidWeaver and the impressive community of developers and users that keep it on top of the limited list of  easy to use Web design applications available for the Apple OS. At this time, I can’t recommend SandVox but perhaps it will pull ahead of the pack over time and offer up some worthy competition to iWeb and RapidWeaver.

I continue to be impressed by iClone and by the often very clever projects produced by iClone enthusiasts.  For a healthy sampling of iClone creativity log on to YouTube and use iClone as your search criteria. You may be surprised at the volume of videos uploaded by amateurs, professional animators and Reallusion.

As stated in our last podcast, iClone 2.5 is a work in progress blessed by a relatively intuitive interface, time saving movement and facial animation templates, automatic synchronization of lip movements voice tracks as well as a reasonably complete online manual and extensive series of video tutorials. The lack of an undo option continues to be a major impediment to experimenting with lighting, movement and other features without having to frequently cycle through saving and starting new projects.

Unfortunately, iClone usability also suffers from inconsistencies in the way changes are made in character movement, lighting and camera angles.  Creating animations with multiple talking characters still requires that you save a separate project per character and use an external video editor to create a finished animation.  The simple option of assigning which character responds to imported speech files on a frame by frame basis would make the creation of multiple character scenes possible and bypass the current need to jump through hoops.

Although Reallusion and third party vendors provide additional content which may be purchased and downloaded at the Reallusion site, the selection of additional avatars (clones) and add-ons such as clothing, accessories, scenes and props is noticeably impoverished compared to competing animation programs such as Poser 7.0.  In an effort to enhance access to third-party support, Reallusion offers an application called 3D Exchange which allows users to download 3D models stored on the Google 3D Warehouse site and created using Google SketchUp. Although this option goes a long way in increasing access to additional content, evidence of more support by commercial third party vendors would give at least a superficial feeling of confidence iClone will continue to evolve and capture a larger share of the animation market.

In spite of the above issues and limitations iClone and its sister product CrazyTalk are impressive applications and have been adopted by iNetSynch to produce an animated video podcast entitled Windows2Apples Video News.  Windows2Apples Video News focuses on topical Internet Microsoft and Apple specific news and tech tips.  Postings from blogs such as Half Byte produced by George and hosted by Microsoft Spaces Live, supplement iNetSynch content.  IClone 2.5 was used to create the introductory animation and background for our news announcer who is animated using CrazyTalk 5.  Please visit the Windows2Apples.Com website to view video news episode hosted by Viddler or subscribe to our podcast. The podcast is listed in the iTunes directory and the feed URL posted to enable subscription using all popular pod-catchers.

One of the things that impressed me most about my new Mac was the ease with which I could format an external firewire hard drive and then basically copy the entire operating system along with all installed program files to an external bootable partition.  I’ve always been perplexed as to why many of the Mac podcasters recommend programs such as Carbon Copy to create a cloned backup of the Mac operating system. The only advantage I can see to these kinds of applications is the ability to schedule regular backups without user intervention.  I was very surprised to find one of my Macite friends with many years of experience with Macintosh computers had never used the Mac disk utility application to backup her system and applications to an external drive.

Once the clone or restore file of your hard drive has been created you can simply use system preferences to reset the boot drive to the external fire wire drive and bypass the internal hard drive. If your hard drive is corrupted the image stored on the external drive can be restored to the internal drive or its replacement. This feature is well documented but apparently not often used by even long time Mac users. I have yet to understand constant references to third party applications to clone a Mac drive when the built-in utility works so seamlessly. For me it was and remains a main attraction of the Apple OS.

Created using Vista Speech to Text, M-Audio Interface, MixCraft 4, HP MediaSmart Home Server, iWork 08 Pages as well as Microsoft Word 2007. Podcast hosted by PodBean.

It seems the Macintosh community is buzzing over the apparent reintroduction of Mac clones by Psystar a company listing Florida as home for its offices. The well executed Psystar web site promotes a low cost Open PC System supposedly capable of running the Leopard OS as well as XP, Vista and various flavors of Linux. Unlike Microsoft and Windows, Apple specifically prohibits the installation of its operating system on anything other than approved hardware … apparently the Psystar system has no such authorization from Apple Inc. Historically, Apple has maintained its stranglehold over hardware by squashing such efforts; however, Psystar appears to be alive and well and continuing to ship product while Apple remains sheathed in a shroud of uncharacteristic silence.

Authors of blogs and podcasts pundits are more than a bit surprised that Apple is taking so long in responding to this obvious infringement of its user license. Reportedly, one employee at Psystar has gone on record suggesting the Apple user agreement constitutes an illegal monopoly and goes on to say Psystar intends to use this as their argument to install the apple OS on non Apple approved hardware. If challenged on this point, most observers seem to agree Psystar would need a sizable War chest to fend off the legion of attorneys Apple has at its disposal. If I were Psystar management I would find it a bit difficult to get a good night’s sleep give Apple has never been particularly squeamish about unleashing its litigious storm troopers upon perceived adversaries.

I have wondered if Apple isn’t simply using this as an opportunity to gauge the public’s willingness to purchase systems running the Apple operating system independently of Apple hardware. Then again perhaps Apple simply doesn’t feel threatened and intends to watch the company self destruct as it attempts to maintain compatibility with the constant flow of Apple software patches and updates. Of course a Machiavellian hypothesis would include a scenario in which Apple releases updates and patches specifically designed to disable Leopard running on non approved hardware. Apple could simply sit back and watch the company smolder after the firestorm fueled by disgruntled customers and greedy attorneys demanding class action law suits spreads throughout the blogosphere and ezine rumor columns.

Whatever your fantasy, this new twist in Apple options provides us all an opportunity to speculate and try to envision a world in which Apple is primarily a software as opposed to hardware company. Could Apple and more importantly could developers dependent upon Apple’s autocratic control over hardware, support the staggering array of system configurations long taken for granted by Windows users.

I recently listen to a podcast produced by Apple developers who seem to shake in their boots at the thought of trying to support their products in the chaotic environment that embraces Windows developers. I suspect that if Apple were a software provider first and foremost we would be able to purchase systems running the Apple OS and applications on machines ½ to 2/3 of the cost of current Apple systems … but we would be forced to deal the same kinds of support and security issues that have defined Microsoft since day one and which continue to provide the punch lines for the clever and ever so entertaining Apple vs. Microsoft commercials.

A trip to BestBuy and the emergence of Apple clones inspired me to reassess my fondness for my Macintosh. I recently had an opportunity to lay hands on the new aluminum Macintosh computers as well as the Air Notebook and admit it was difficult not to drool as I my eyes feasted upon the delightfully refreshing masterpieces before me. The Apple Air notebook is exquisite in design and even though it is missing an internal CD / DVD drive and Ethernet connection I had to admire the design and its execution. In the past Jobs has been prophetic in his vision and his decisions to shift design focus has often given consumers their first glimpse of the next generation of products. In my memory is burned his mold breaking abolition of floppy disk drives in Macs.

At the time I thought this was heresy but of course his vision of a future sans floppy proved spot on. I find myself wondering if my DVD drive will become an antique long before I had assumed it would. As I look back over the last year all of my new software purchases have been made as downloads over the Internet. All of my music is purchased or stored as MP3s and I can’t remember the last time I purchased a CD. Perhaps the mechanical disk drive is in it death throws.

In my eyes, the Apple operating system lags far behind Apple hardware as the inspiration for any desire I may have for purchasing new Apple products. In fact, the only native software applications I would miss if my Macintosh proofed are Keynote and Pages. Perhaps I am odd man out in this regard and perhaps … just perhaps the Mac clones will give us all an opportunity to assess the contribution of hardware versus software to the continuing success of Steve and company.

Since we opened with this podcast with an introduction to Mac clones we will end our podcast by introducing you to my recent efforts to create full body animations using iClone 2.5 from Reallusion, the same folks responsible for Crazy Talk 5. Both IClone and CrazyTalk are only available for the Windows platform. Reallusion it is one of the few companies to produce innovative three dimensional animation tools only available to Windows users. Most other products such as Poser are available in both Apple and Window incarnations.

Reallusion has done an excellent job of implementing a relatively intuitive and easy-to-use animation product capable of producing startlingly realistic first productions with an impressively short learning curve. Most users are able to create relatively impressive animations within a few hours of experimentation and because of the many various video export options; projects can be saved as high resolution files on DVD or uploaded quickly to YouTube.

Although, I am impressed with the bang for buck I get using iClone, I’m equally disappointed with the lack of features that would make it much more productive and intuitive. One feature than is needed posthaste is an undue option. I could work in my word processor for extended periods of time without missing the undue function but it is almost a necessity when you are creating animations and experimenting with movement, poses and camera angles. The other feature that is missing in both CrazyTalk and iClone is the ability to have more than one speaking character in a scene. This can be accomplished with some tedious trickery and by using video editors with chroma key options, however, exporting multiple recordings and importing them into a video editor for further processing is a convoluted and unnecessarily complex series of hoops to jump through in order to achieve this affect.

We have posted an experimental iClone 2.5 animation on our Viddler account. To view our first efforts simply login to viddler.com and search for iNetSynch videos. Our next podcasts will provide more extensive coverage of iClone 2.5 as well as our recent experiences with the Apple only SandVox web design application.

Link to Blues On Top iClone video.

Link to Jazz Dancer iClone video.

Produced using Vista Speech to Text, M-Audio USB Audio Interface, MixCraft 4 and COWAN JetAudio.

The author of this series proclaims that there are no elegant well-designed applications for Windows because it has become so difficult to create well structured and well-behaved code for that platform. However, we have recently reviewed several such applications that are not only elegant, well designed and well behaved but are unmatched on any other platform. CrazyTalk 5 is one such application. It profits not only from the stability of Windows but also from flexible, low cost, high end hardware available to Windows users. The developer’s further profit from the huge market Windows offers. Many niche products are only possible because of the economy of scale Windows brings to the table.

The authors of these often venomous rants conveniently ignore the fact that many Apple users have had difficulty with the current incarnation of OS X. At least one blog estimated that as many as 50% of the Leopard installations have gone poorly resulting in hours of hair pulling so familiar to all of us who have embraced the microcomputer revolution. Imagine the nasty press if Apple’s share was 80% rather than 6 or 7%.

The other Windows application I am particularly fond of is the Vista speech engine, which still remains singular in its capacity to convert a computer into a rich, comprehensive tool allowing those with disabilities to become more productive as well as creative. On the flip side, iListen from MacSpeech, is an example of an exceptionally poorly executed Apple product. In my opinion, not only is the user interface poorly designed but the product virtually unusable. MacSpeech has repeatedly made claims that it could be as useful and as competitive as Windows-based speech to text products, however, even a truncated review of user comments would clearly confirm that iListen is not even close to products long available to Windows users.

Recently, MacSpeech acquired the license to distribute a Mac port of the Windows Nuance speech engine. The product was released as version 1.0 yet it is clearly lacking in the basic refinements that will truly make it a functional product. In fact this script is being dictated using the MacSpeech Dictate and I have already had to shut the application down and restart it because of a well-known bug that causes it to spew out previously deleted text and scramble documents.

I had hoped that access to the Nuance speech engine would allowed MacSpeech to move forward gathering momentum as more and more happy customers climbed aboard. Unfortunately, this seems to have been my fantasy rather than the reality. Recent posts in several Macintosh-based forums and blogs suggest that many customers are having significant problems in installing the software and getting it to work as advertised. MacSpeech is a very small company with limited resources and appears to be overwhelmed with customer complaints and support issues. This is not an uncommon common scenario in the Apple world … One which is often ignored by those so eager to criticize Microsoft and proclaim it an evil empire.

Windows users, on the other hand, have long had access to excellent speech to text and speech recognition technologies either shipped free with the OS or as a low-cost add-on. Dragon NaturallySpeaking available exclusively for the Windows environment is not only a well designed and implemented program it also sets the bar for competing software.

Microsoft critics conveniently forget that iMovie 08 was soundly criticized by many Macintosh fans as being a poorly designed throwback with an unnecessarily obtuse and counterintuitive interface. Windows MovieMaker on the other hand is less grand in features but solid and exceptionally well behaved and well integrated with other Windows applications. To borrow a happy Apple phrase “it just works”.

When I first started using the Macintosh, I remember being perplexed by the one button mouse and was told by my newly acquired Macintosh friends that the first thing they do when with a new Apple computer is to toss the mouse and replace it with a two or three button unit designed initially for the Windows platform. Although even ardent Apple fans characterize the Apple mouse as a useless chunk of plastic and solder destined to be be trashed and add to our waste management headaches, the founding father refuses to listen to the minions and continues to ship Macs with the lame single button mouse.

Recently my friend Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast podcast and blog recounted her 24-hour saga as she reconstituted her husband’s Apple laptop after an Apple security upgrade thoroughly trashed his machine. As I’ve said many times I enjoy my Apple and use it for those jobs at which it excels. Often when completing this podcast or other projects I find myself literally rotating between my XP, Vista and Macintosh machines each offering a feature or application either not implemented or poorly implemented on the other platforms. All three computers become one using the Microsoft-based HP home server. This is my reality … no single OS or hardware mix meets all my needs and my openness to all comers gives me an advantage not enjoyed by some of our myopic competitors.

Me Thinks the pronouncement of Microsoft’s death is premature but if were true what a mess this world would be in scrambling to make do with OS X.

(Seems my Mac wants this Windows user to feel comfy. Went for coffee and when I came back was confronted with a translucent black screen urging me to hold in the power button to restart. After the re-boot all data was gone and this awaited me: Apple Crash Message)

Recorded and mixed using M-Audio USB interface (universal) and MixCraft 4 (Windows). Dictated using MacSpeech Dictate (Apple) and Pages 08 (Apple). MP3 tag edited using JetAudio (Windows). Coordinated all through the “magic” of the HP Home Server (Windows).

A puppeteering option allows facial expressions to be easily manipulated to reflect various emotions. Pre-shipped characters have their eyes and facial features already mapped to ensure optimal synchronization with speech and movement. Facial expressions may be animated using templates or by selecting the facial feature you wish to modify and then moving your cursor in the desired direction. Additional controls allow for much finer tuning of facial expressions using sliders which affect the direction and amount of movement of facial features seen in each frame.

Reallusion has thankfully provided several very simple options for defining facial characteristics on imported photos or drawings. Impressive results can be easily obtained by simply defining the mouth and eye regions. CrazyTalk 5 professional also allows for much more detailed and sophisticated mapping of eyebrows, neck, chin, cheeks, forehead and shoulder. A detailed Manual may be downloaded as a PDF file or you may simply choose to use the collection of excellent how to videos posted on the Reallusion website or is well as YouTube.

Although Reallusion offers two paid versions, a limited free download version allows you to experiment with the software before plunking down your hard earned cash. The entry level Crazy Talk 5 is available for $49.95 and the professional version at $149.95. It is unclear whether the basic version can be upgraded to the pro version. Several emails requesting Reallusion to clarify this went unanswered.

A number of reviewers have been surprised that a product focus so squarely on enabling ones creative side is released for the windows platform rather than Apple.

Given the low cost exceptional performance and advanced features it is no surprise that Reallusion must target the broadest possible audience which still means windows. Apple purist sometimes seen to find very difficult to even get close to admitting that windows may just may offers solutions that match or are better than those offered by Apple. Perhaps when apple has that magical 15% market share we will begin to see a more impressive migration of Windows applications to the Mac platform. Until then the only way to use CrazyTalk 5 is to run it on apple with an installation of either Vista or XP.

RapidWeaver:

The application designed specifically for the apple operating system is RapidWeaver by Realmac Software. RapidWeaver is promoted as the “friendly piece of web design software made exclusively for the Mac”. It is shipped with customizable themes touted as being compatible with current HTML and CSS coding standards. In a previous review by Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast podcast the claim of compatibility passed her tests with flying colors.

The RapidWeaver claim to fame is the ease with which sites can be assembled using modifiable themes. There are of course many such applications available for the Windows platform. The most notable and perhaps most successful of these was FrontPage produced by Microsoft.

Although FrontPage is still used, it is the recipient sharp criticism for its quirky implementation of HTML code and lack of compatibility with current standards. Microsoft has replaced FrontPage with Microsoft Expression which supposedly meets all current standards for web site design. Expression is considerably more sophisticated than either FrontPage or RapidWeaver but comes at steeper learning curve and considerably higher price than that that offered by RapidWeaver.

RapidWeaver is shipped with themes that can be immediately applied to create simple websites. When I first experimented with RapidWeaver, I was put off with the rather dated look of their themes, however, Realmac has recently released several new theme packages that are considerably more attractive and contemporary in both look and feel.

Once a theme has been selected pages of various types may be added. RapidWeaver supports simple text, photo, movie as well as blog and podcast formats in their page layouts. Unlike competing products such as iWeb from Apple and SandVox from Karelia, editing websites with RapidWeaver requires that you alternately open two different views, one in which edits are made and the other a preview of the page as it should appear in browsers. This is quirky in more ways than one.

It is almost impossible to determine how the final page will be viewed until you have clicked the preview option. Additionally, it just feels unnatural and interrupts the creative process. Using pre-canned themes makes it easy to quickly create or prototype a website; however, it also limits the amount of control the developer can exercise over the look and behavior of their finished product.

RapidWeaver includes Inspector panels permitting the tweaking of selected page features such as page titles, header graphics, page width and color schemes. Unfortunately, the utility of this option is dependent upon the theme that you’re using at that particular time. Some themes support more customization than others.

Rapid Weaver would be severely handicapped if it were not for the ability to insert HTML code and the impressive support from third-party vendors providing themes as well as plug-ins. A quick peek at the Realmac website is reassuring and that you can find page after page of resources from independent vendors.

Publishing is very straightforward, requiring only that you provide the FTP information needed to upload your files. FTP profiles for many popular Internet service providers are conveniently cataloged requiring only that you specify your URL and password. Happily, RapidWeaver also displays a progress window indicating the upload status each file.

Other than the rather uncomfortable need to swap back and forth between edit and display mode there are two additional issues that irk me. First, as in many applications shipped these days, there is no built-in help. When you select the help option you are transported to the RealMac website and prompted to download a PDF file of the manual. Secondly, for some unknown reason the program randomly becomes unresponsive when initially loaded. The menu bar appropriately displays options that should be available but most if not all of them have been grayed out … including the option to quit the application. In the Apple environment, this of course requires that I invoke the “force quit” option. After much experimentation I’ve been unable to isolate what triggers this issue with RapidWeaver.

In General RapidWeaver makes the development of impressive websites quick and painless for those unwilling to handcraft their master piece using HTML or CSS coding, RapidWeaver sites conform to accepted Internet conventions and maybe tweaked by adding HTML code and plug-ins. I have my fingers crossed that RealMac will continue to evolve the product and third-party vendors will remain committed to providing plug-ins and themes, keeping it competitive with the ever changing demands of the Internet.

Windows 2 Apples website with experimental animation videos.

Produced using M-Audio, MixCraft 4, Nuance Naturally Speaking and MacSpeech Dictate. Tags edited using JetAudio.

MacSpeech Dictate, Nuance NaturallySpeaking

In past episodes, I bemoaned the lack of good speech to text recognition software for the Apple. At the time I began writing this blog and podcast the only product available for Intel Macintosh computers was iListen produced and marketed by MacSpeech. I had been accustomed to using Dragon NaturallySpeaking by Nuance and the excellent speech-recognition and translation software bundled with all flavors of Vista. In contrast, I saw iListen as a flawed product, which in my mind, should have been discontinued years ago.

In January 2008, MacSpeech announced a licensing agreement with Nuance to market a port of the Nuance speech engine to Intel Macintosh computers.MacSpeech offered many of its iListen customers what they referred to as a cross grade from iListen to Dictate for $79. The list price for MacSpeech Dictate is $200 US. Given the very sad performance of iListen, I felt that MacSpeech should have made the “Cross Grade” available at no charge. I suspect significant royalty obligations to Nuance, may have made it impossible for MacSpeech to do the right thing and absorb the cost of providing free updates to iListen customers.

MacSpeech Dictate is shipped with two CDs, one to install the actual application and the other to import the appropriate vocabulary tailored to your selected language and country. Installation was typically Mac, in that once the CD had been recognized by my computer, I simply moved the MacSpeech icon to the applications folder. After the application is installed a pop-up requests the insertion of the data disk.

I realized of course that when I tried to insert the data desk that the program disk had not been automatically ejected. I felt a bit of a blush from my embarrassment but realized that my instinctive move to insert the second required disk was born out of habit in working with Windows machines that typically eject disks before requesting the insertion of the additional CDs or DVDs.

After the software and data have been installed I was prompted to create a user profile which requires me to calibrate my USB interfaced headset and read approximately 5 minutes of text. Although the Windows Dragon NaturallySpeaking application can actually be used without any training at all the five minutes of training required by Dictate is innocuous and a huge improvement over the two week training period foisted upon iListen users.

Once installed and “trained”, I immediately noted accuracy had been dramatically improved over that seen in iListen and the equal of what I am accustomed to when using the Windows version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

The Dictate Quick-start flyer repeatedly refers to the “amazing accuracy” you should expect when using the product. Those who have struggled with trying to make iListen work will be blown away. However, those using other products such as Dragon and Vista Speech Recognition will be less impressed but breathe a sigh of relief that Nuance finally ported their speech engine to the Macintosh.

The only documentation shipped with Dictate is a three page flyer detailing installation and listing some common voice commands. A separate pop-up window displaying additional commands is launched when Dictate is activated. Given the complexity and novelty of speech to text software the lack of comprehensive documentation is a glaring omission that I hope is addressed quickly.

There is essentially no usable correction scheme which in my opinion severely limits its usefulness and certainly makes it impractical for many who are physically disabled. It seems to have some of the same quirks I noted in iListen. The Do Select, Do Delete, Insert before, etc., commands become useless if the text is manually edited. Manual edits seem to confuse Dictate and it loses track of dictated text. Several times complete paragraphs were deleted by Dictate when I was seeking to modify one word.

Additionally, correcting text manually seems to cause previously deleted text to randomly reappear when dictation is resumed. Once, after manually modifying text, the application stopped responding. The Dictate application showed that my speech was being monitored but no text was displayed. The only way I was able to resume dictation was by shutting down Dictate and restarting.

Interestingly, Chuck Rogers, the Chief Evangelist at MacSpeech blames the Mac operating system for their difficulties in creating a correction scheme that works at least as well as that available in Windows products. He goes on to suggest that Nuance has had similar problems in developing a workable correction scheme for Windows but have been able to resolve them because of the many additional years to iron out the kinks. Is he suggesting Windows is indeed a more mature OS offering solutions not currently available to Apple users? This would make for an interesting Windows versus Apple commercial if Microsoft were so inclined.

David Pogue, in his last review of Dictate, suggested several bugs would need to be squashed before shipping, however, it appears that more work needs to be done. Although accuracy it is greatly improved a workable correction scheme needs to be implemented before it can truly compete with the Windows version.

All of this said, Dictate is light years ahead of iListen and with improved correction options and the extermination of a few bugs, Dictate may finally offer Mac users a speech to text technology competitive with that we have grown accustomed to in the Windows world.

Link to youtube demo of MacSpeech Demo illustrating limited edit commands and extraneous text bug.

Dictated using MacSpeech Dictate, recorded using M-Audio and MixCraft 3 and tags edited with JetAudio.

NOTE:

Chuck Rogers disagrees with my characterization of his comments concerning issues in implementing speech technology on the Apple platform. He disclaims any allusion to Mac OS X as being “less robust or functional than Windows”. Please see his comment to get his insight into the technical issues facing MacSpeech.

Word 2004, 2007, 2003, Pages, iWork 08, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Vista

As usual, I’m Dictating using the Windows Speech engine on my Vista desktop running Microsoft Word 2007. I much prefer Word 2007 over Word 2004 purchased for my Mac. I would have considered upgrading to Word 2008 except reviews suggest it offers minimal enhancements over what is available to me now and does not incorporate the 2007 ribbon interface and other features that make Office 2007 a must have upgrade to Windows Office 2003.

When working on my Mac, I find myself using the Apple iWork 08 Pages word processor rather than Microsoft office 2004. Although Pages is less sophisticated and less powerful than Microsoft word 2004 it is simply far more intuitive and easier to use … read that as more productive. The only time I find myself wishing I were working in Microsoft Word 2004 rather than Pages is when and I use the built-in Apple dictionary. Microsoft’s still seems to have a noticeably superior spell check, dictionary and thesaurus. Both Pages and Keynote make my original investment in Microsoft office 2004 regrettable.

When I purchased my Mac, I had limited choices offering an acceptable level of compatibility with my preexisting Microsoft office files. I had considered using the free Open Office, however, I have generally found it too limited to use consistently. If the current iWork 08 suite had been available at the time of purchase I could have saved considerable money and time. iWork 08 is one of the few Apple software products I would love to see ported to the Windows platform.

In my last podcast I mentioned my discovery of Microsoft OneNote. This week I have discovered a Live Windows application, Photo Gallery, which is not only free but unmatched in the Apple world. Live Windows Photo Gallery earns the distinction of being the only photo and video organizer program I’ve ever found to be useful. It is what I believe iPhoto should have been.

I’ve never been comfortable using iPhoto; in fact, it is one of the least intuitive applications shipped with OS X. I was amazed at how quickly Windows Live Photo Gallery surveyed, organized and displayed all of the photos and videos on my Vista tower. Photos are organized by date, folder and tag. The default thumbnail sizes conserve desktop space yet are big enough to easily eyeball and visually scan files. Moving the mouse over a thumbnail conveniently pops up a larger image with information on the date taken,resolution and user notations.

Photo gallery includes tools for correcting, cropping, enhancing, tagging, emailing, creating animated movies, burning CDs and DVDs, seamlessly ordering prints as well as seamlessly publishing to a Live Windows or Flickr account. Additionally, text and original artwork may be overlaid on photos using the free Microsoft paint program. I have to admit I felt some swelling of pride in Microsoft for doing such an excellent job. I suspect that this kind of comment about Microsoft is unfortunately all too rare.

Microsoft has begun to play catch up with Apple in integrating both online and offline applications and services. Many new Microsoft applications and services do an excellent job of improving interoperability and reducing duplication. It’s unfortunate that Microsoft has not done a better job of promoting the Live Windows services and products. I suspect that many windows users are unaware that these enhancements are available and free for downloading. Apple has certainly shown greater savvy in promoting its products.

Although, I continue to feel that Apple has overall done a superior job in producing and marketing intuitive and well integrated products I am extremely impressed by Microsoft’s Windows Live offerings and encouraged by the improved performance of Vista and growing list of Vista compatible software and hardware options. I believe that Microsoft earned much of the bad press it garnered with the initial release of Vista; however, the operating system and support for it have evolved to the point I could never go back to using XP as my primary Windows operating system. I only hope it’s not too late for Microsoft to overcome the negatives so many associate with the company and Vista.

Dictated using Vista Speech. Recorded using M-Audio Podcast Factory and Mixcraft 3.1. Tag edited using JetAudio.