Earlier this week we released Retina iPad-compatible versions of both Cut Notes and Editmote. Third-generation iPad users will see sharper graphics when using both of the apps. This means that all of our iOS apps are now Retina-compatible.

Other recent changes include the ability to disable the Play / Pause button in Cut Notes when in sync mode. This allows you to hand over the iPad to a client to take notes without giving them control over playback. This option can be set within the Cut Notes section of the iPad's Settings app.

By popular demand, Editmote now prevents your iOS device from going to sleep when in button mode. This prevents the app from having to reconnect but we recommend making sure you have enough battery life to make it through the screening before you begin.

The Editmote preference pane now requires OS X 10.6 or higher, but an older version is available for OS X 10.5 that is compatible with the latest version of the iOS app.

Cut Notes and Editmote are both available on the App Store.

Just before NAB we released Pro Media Tools 1.1.3 but forgot to mention it on the blog. Some of the biggest changes were:

QT Edit conform overhaul

The conform function allows you to convert a movie to a different frame rate and is now compatible with over-cranked movies from Canon DSLR cameras.

Batch Renamer performance improvements

Batch Renamer now generates previews significantly faster and uses significantly less memory. This means that it is much better at handling large numbers of files.

New QT Edit Quick Tasks

There are two new Quick Tasks in QT Edit. "Set Square Pixel Aspect Ratio" sets the pixel aspect ratio of the movie to 1:1 and "Strip Adobe XMP Metadata" removes extra metadata that Adobe applications sometimes add to movie files.

FCPX metadata presets

In the Metadata tab of QT Edit you can now add metadata fields such as Scene, Shot, Angle or Reel that will be recognized by the Inspector in Final Cut Pro X.

The full list of changes is available here.

Pro Media Tools is an essential toolkit for editors, assistants and post production professionals. To find out more, see our overview video, read the features page or download the free 15-day trial.

We're pleased to announce the availability of Video Space Calculator for Mac. This useful tool allows you to work out how much space a particular codec will take up on disk, or alternatively how many hours of a particular codec will fit within a given space.

It supports a wide range of codecs including ARRIRAW, AVCHD, Cineform, DNxHD, Phantom, ProRes and REDCODE. A full list of supported codecs is available in the Mac App Store description.

The app has all of the features of the existing iOS version and is available on the App Store for Mac OS X 10.6 and higher.

Today we released Post Haste 2.1 simultaneously for both Mac and Windows 7, marking the end of the beta period for the Windows version.

Post Haste is an essential project management tool that makes it easy to create new projects from customizable templates.

It's suitable for photographers, video professionals, audio professionals, graphic designers, web designers and anyone who needs to keep their projects and assets organized.

This version adds a Kiosk Mode available from the View menu. This hides the template editor and preferences to prevent users from adjusting settings. This is great for corporate environments.

Now that the Windows version is up to date with the Mac edition, they will be developed in tandem with releases for both platforms happening at the same time.

Post Haste can be downloaded here. For more of our useful tools, see our Products page.

Today Adobe announced the full feature set of Creative Suite 6. Here are the features that stood out at me:

• Open CL - Mac laptop users do not get a choice as to which brand of graphics card they use so it's great to see GPU acceleration extended for people with ATI graphics cards.
• Full-screen playback - Premiere Pro can now play back your sequence in full screen on your primary monitor, which is great if you're on the move.
• New trim mode - This one seems to be aimed at Avid users with dynamic trimming via JKL.
• Adjustment layers - This is something I've wanted to see in an NLE for a long time. You can add a Photoshop-style adjustment layer and it will affect all clips beneath it. This is great for applying global effects to a sequence.
• Combine mono, stereo and multitrack clips into a single audio track - One big point of confusion for Final Cut Pro switchers was the way Premiere Pro CS 5.5 dealt with audio tracks. Instead of having one audio track per channel, Premiere can create mono, stereo or surround tracks, which means that mono clips can only be added to a mono track and stereo clips have to be added to a stereo track. These limitations are now removed in CS 6.
• Big thumbnails that can be "hover-scrubbed" - This looks to be almost identical to skimming in Final Cut Pro X. You can even set in and out points from the thumbnails.
• Ability to toggle Work Area off - The Work Area was another point of confusion for FCP users. It allows you to set a certain area of the timeline for rendering and exporting which can also be achieved by setting in and out points. If you don't plan to use this feature, it can now be switched off in CS 6.
• Markers can now be assigned a color and duration - I've always felt the marker implementation in Premiere was poor so this is great news. There is also a marker window that provides a summary of all markers in the sequence and you can quickly jump to them. No word yet on whether you can import and export marker lists.
• Unlimited multiclip angles - I was disappointed with the four-angle multicam in CS 5.5 so this is a big improvement.
• Uninterrupted playback - You can now adjust effects on-the-fly without pausing playback.
• New apps - Prelude and SpeedGrade
• Prelude has an SDK - Adobe's new tool for ingesting file-based media has an SDK to allow production houses to integrate it into their custom workflows.
• Ray tracing, extruding and 3D tracker in After Effects - Adobe is really aiming at the higher end of the visual effects market with these features.
• Variable mask feathering in AE - I've never been keen on AE's mask tools so this is a big improvement.
• Automatic Duck integration - Pro Import AE is now bundled with After Effects and allows you to import Avid projects into AE.

What's clear from this release is that Adobe is aggressively targeting a broad range of users. There are features in the new release that will be familiar to Avid, FCP7 and FCPX users. Since the demise of Final Cut Studio, Creative Suite is the only suite in town and this release fixes many of my complaints with CS 5.5 (although no word on new developer features yet). I don't think it will change my plan to use Avid for long-form and Premiere for short-form but the wide-open nature of the NLE market right now is something that is clearly producing great results for editors.

Post Haste is a Mac and Windows app to organize your projects from customizable templates. You can setup various parameters to include in the folder name such as project name, client, date, etc.

In the recent rewrite of Post Haste we added a new feature called folder breaks. Folder breaks can be set on a per-parameter basis and tell Post Haste to create a new folder at the start of that parameter. This allows you to create folder hierarchies and is best explained through example.

Folder breaks can be added by ticking the relevant checkbox next to a parameter in the preferences window.

Here are some examples of how folder breaks affect the destination path of the project, using the parameter values shown in the screenshot below.

If all folder breaks are switched off, Post Haste will create a single folder with each parameter separated by an underscore (or whatever separator character you have chosen).

If a folder break is added for the Project parameter, Post Haste will create a new folder and all subsequent parameters will be appended to the project name with an underscore.

If a folder break is added for the Project parameter but the parameter value is left blank, Post Haste is smart enough to apply the folder break to the next valid parameter value.

If a folder break is added for Project and Editor, Date is appended to Project and Editor becomes a new folder.

If a folder break is added to all of the parameters, it looks like the following:

Post Haste allows filename conventions and project organization to be largely invisible to the end-user. Folder breaks make it easier to fit the app into existing naming conventions and are very useful for corporate environments.

Post Haste is a free app for Mac and Windows and is available here.

We've just updated Film Rate Calc 1.1 and Aspect Ratio Calc 1.1.1 for compatibility with the new Retina iPad.

As part of the update we also overhauled the interfaces of both applications to bring them more in line with our other iOS apps.

We're working to update our other apps right now. Some have already had Retina updates and others will be coming very soon.

We've just released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.7, a minor update to our suite of tools for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your system.

One important change in this version is that it now requires OS X 10.6 or higher. OS X 10.5 users can obtain an older version from the sidebar here.

We've made many improvements to Plugin Manager, including greater compatibility with FxFactory and various bug fixes.

By popular demand, one big new Plugin Manager feature is the ability to create plugin installers. This is aimed at plugin developers who need a quick and easy way of installing their plugins on end users' systems. Installers are self-contained and users do not need Pro Maintenance Tools installed in order to run the installer. A tutorial for creating installers is available here.

These new features are in addition to the hundreds that already existed in the suite including the ability to analyze crash logs, locate corrupt clips, repair corrupt projects and movie files, clear caches and much more. A full changelog for this version is available here and an updated list of error messages supported by Crash Analyzer is available here.

Pro Maintenance Tools is an essential suite of utilities for post production. To find out more, visit the features page, read the user manual, watch the overview video or download the 15-day trial.

If you are a plugin developer, Plugin Manager in Pro Maintenance Tools can be used to create installers. These provide an easy way for end-users to install plugins quickly and easily with very little setup required from the developer. Installers are completely self-contained so end-users do not need Pro Maintenance Tools installed.

To create an installer:

1. In the main plugin view, select the plugins or groups that you would like to add to the installer. You can have more than one plugin in an installer.

2. Go to Tools > Create Plugin Installer.

3. In the window that appears, specify a name for the plugin or group or plugins, the version number and author.

4. The code signing pane allows you to sign the installer to show that it hasn't been modified by an unscrupulous third party. This is necessary for running the installer on OS X 10.8 or higher.

Signing is optional for users on OS X 10.7 and below but it is recommended if you have access to a valid certificate. Visit Apple's developer site for more details on creating and installing a Developer ID certificate.

Once the certificate is installed, select it from the list in the Code Signing tab.

5. Click Create Installer and you will be prompted for a location.

6. Test the installer by moving the plugins you added to the installer to another location such as the Desktop, running the installer and then checking in Plugin Manager to see if the plugins were installed correctly.

7. Users can choose the Install button to install plugins to their default location or they can click Send to Plugin Manager to import with more options.

Plugin Manager is a comprehensive tool for managing your plugins. It is available as part of Pro Maintenance Tools.

Sometimes your NLE will throw up a cryptic error while you are editing, such as "General Error 41" (Final Cut Pro) or "BAD_MAGIC" (Avid). Such errors are often meaningful to the application's developers but not its users.

Luckily Crash Analyzer in Pro Maintenance Tools has a comprehensive error database. Click the Error Lookup button in the toolbar and you will be presented with a searchable list of all supported errors (over 200 at the current time of writing).

Selecting an error presents an explanation of the cause with suggestions on how to overcome it. This can be a real timesaver when a cryptic message pops up on a deadline.

A full list of supported errors is available here and we add new ones in every software update. If you receive an error message that is not supported by Crash Analyzer, you can submit it for inclusion in a future version from the Actions menu.

Crash Analyzer is available as part of Pro Maintenance Tools. We also have an iOS app called EditCodes that uses the same database.