Earlier this week we released Pro Maintenance Tools 2.0.8, a minor update to our suite of tools for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting your editing system.

Avid Symphony support

Improved Premiere Pro support

We've also added support in Housekeeper for clearing Premiere title editor settings (this can fix issues where the title editor crashes when you try to launch it) and the ability to clear the Adobe Media Encoder queue (this can fix issues where the queue gets stuck).

Preference Manager can now backup Adobe Premiere Pro keyboard layouts, allowing you to easily transfer them from one system to another.

Other changes in this version include improved CS Repair processing speeds and updated Crash Analyzer definitions. You can see the full list of changes here.

Pro Maintenance Tools is an essential toolkit for editors and post production professionals. To find out more, see the feature list, watch the overview video or download the free 15-day trial.

Last week we released Pro Media Tools 1.1.4, a minor update to our suite of tools for improving your media workflows.

The most important change is that Pro Media Tools now requires OS X 10.6 or higher, but we are offering an older version for OS X 10.5 users.

We've made several changes to timecode in QT Edit. When importing timecode from a THM file (as created by a DSLR camera), QT Edit will no longer prompt you for the file's location if it exists in the same directory as the movie clip.

Timecode can now be applied to DSLR media in batch mode too, with QT Edit using the location of the first file in the batch or prompting you for a directory if no matching THM files are found at that location.

Timeline Tricks has had many under-the-hood changes, providing greater processing speed and reliability. We've also added the ability to remove muted clips with -inf volume levels.

There have been many other bug fixes and improvements in this version and the full list of changes is available here.

Pro Media Tools is an essential time-saving tool for video editors and post production professionals. To find out more, see our features page, watch the overview video, check out the user manual or download the free 15-day trial.

We've just released a small update to Preference Manager that adds support for Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 and Adobe After Effects CS6.

We've also improved stability when closing applications and using Preference Manager to launch Final Cut Pro projects.

Please note that Preference Manager now requires OS X 10.6 or higher. An older version for OS X 10.5 is available here.

Preference Manager is a free and invaluable tool for video editors and post production professionals. To find out more, see the Preference Manager page, watch the overview video, read the user manual or download the software.

We're pleased to introduce our newest product, Pro Versioner for Mac, an extensive backup and versioning tool for your creative projects.

Pro Versioner is a 64-bit upgrade to FCP Versioner that offers a complete UI overhaul. The app automatically takes screenshots of your workspace and allows you to annotate backups to help differentiate between them.

It is now app-agnostic, meaning you can use it with Final Cut Pro 6 and 7, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro - or indeed any host application.

Pro Versioner keeps every version of a project for the current day and then whittles them down over time. This is much better than conventional autosave, where only the most recent 20 or so backups are kept. Backup management is completely customizable and it's much more intelligent than in the previous version. For example, if you choose to keep 3 versions for every day older a week, it will now keep the first backup of the day, the last backup of the day and one right in the middle, instead of just keeping the three latest versions.

It can also now sync your backups to the cloud. This is great for giving you an extra layer of protection in case your backup hard drive fails or you fall victim to fire or theft. We're currently offering Dropbox support and we'd appreciate feedback on which additional services our users wish to sync to.

I've been field-testing it on a large project for the past four months and it's been a lifesaver. It's a Final Cut Pro 7 project and we've had lots of issues with multicam angles switching seemingly at random. Pro Versioner was invaluable because it meant we could easily go back in time and compare versions to see which angles were correct and then remove the multiclips. It's also comforting to know that our project backups are on Dropbox if anything should happen to the facility or our hard drives.

Pro Versioner is an invaluable tool to manage your project versions and prevent disasters. To find out more, see the Pro Versioner site, read the user manual or download the free trial.

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.