Today we released FCS Maintenance Pack 1.3.3, a bugfix release for our suite of tools for maintaining, optimizing and troubleshooting Final Cut Studio.

Version 1.3.2 had a lot of under-the-hood changes which introduced a bug into Corrupt Clip Finder that caused it to randomly flag up non-corrupt files. This has now been fixed. We also changed the way Corrupt Clip Finder displays scanning progress to bring it back to 1.3.1 functionality, based on user feedback.

We also took the time to update Crash Analyzer definitions and fix some other minor issues including Plugin Manager's Crash Tester not working correctly with plugins that need an admin password in order to be disabled.

Please note that when upgrading from version 1.3.1 or earlier, registered users will need to re-enter their registration information. We apologize for the inconvenience and you will only need to do this once.

Since we didn't post a blog entry for version 1.3.2, here are the notable changes since version 1.3.1:

Significantly improved Corrupt Clip Finder scanning times

Files trashed by FCS Housekeeper are no longer marked "in use"

We've now made sure that files in the trash are no longer marked as being in use and they can now be trashed without any error messages or additional steps.

Crash Analyzer printing and emailing

Last week we released Cut Notes 1.0.2, a maintenance update for our iPad note-taking app.

This version fixes a crash some users had been getting when pressing buttons, as well as fixing an issue with misinterpretation of shorthand timecode.

We've been listening to your feedback and version 1.0.2 adds the ability to edit notes. Just switch to portrait mode and press the Edit button at the top. Click Done when you've finished.

Another nice tweak in this version is that when you double-tap a button to expand upon a note, after you press Enter, Cut Notes will scroll back to whichever button page you were originally on.

Finally, please note that we have changed the way Final Cut Pro marker lists are generated. The note text is now added to the marker name instead of the comment, meaning that you can ctrl-click on the timeline header and see all of the markers listed by name.

Cut Notes 1.0.2 is free for existing users or $7.99 for new users.

Last week we released Film Rate Calc 1.0.1, which adds iPad support and backwards-compatibility for iOS 3.1.3 devices, as well as fixing a few bugs.

Film Rate Calc enables you to calculate the amount of film required to shoot for a certain amount of time, and vice versa. This is really useful in planning the most efficient use of your film and should be in any script supervisor's toolkit.

Film Rate Calc is available on the App Store for $1.99.

Today Apple released brand-new MacBook Pros with Intel's LightPeak technology, now called Thunderbolt.

Thunderbolt is a 10 Gbps port that can daisy-chain up to six devices including a display. To give you an idea of how fast it is, USB 3.0 is 5 Gbps, Firewire 3200 is 3 Gbps, eSATA is 2.4 Gbps and Fibre Channel can be up to 4 Gbps.

To me, this is a game-changer because these ports can become any type of port as long as you have an adapter, so Apple essentially added support for USB 3.0, eSATA and anything else you like in one go. Thunderbolt is a huge leap forward for professional users. Its power is in its versatility.

It also means that laptops can finally rival desktops in I/O performance. As an example of the amount of throughput you'll be able to get on a laptop, Apple showed a demo of Final Cut Pro running four streams of uncompressed HD on the 15" MacBook Pro, peaking at 600MB/s.

And if you're in a shared environment you'll be able to easily add laptops, or indeed any type of Mac, to an Xsan network for fast access to shared storage, which is something that was difficult to do before.

Finally, Apple posted some new details about Mac OS X 10.7 Lion today and revealed that the desktop and server versions of the operating system will be merged together, meaning that every Mac is now a server out of the box. Couple that with Thunderbolt and the Mac Mini suddenly looks reasonable as an Xsan metadata controller (and indeed for many other server tasks) now that the Xserve has been discontinued.

Earlier this week we released FCP Versioner 1.2.8, a minor update to our tool for backing up Final Cut Pro projects and generating changelogs.

We've noticed that most people are backing up the entire project which can take a while if the project is large. This is not always necessary and for larger projects we recommend only backing up the sequence you are currently working on. You will notice a significant speed improvement if you do this.

Version 1.2.8 will now prompt you to backup a specific sequence when you import a large project, but for existing projects you can simply go to the Projects tab, click the Backup dropdown and select Choose sequence.

As well as the usual bug fixes, performance improvements and memory optimizations, we've also overhauled printing to provide more reliable results.

The full list of changes is below:

• When adding a large project, users are now prompted to backup a specific sequence rather than the entire project for improved performance
• Folders can now be dragged into the main window to add all contained projects to the list
• Complete printing overhaul
• Performance and memory usage optimizations
• Fixed an issue where icons in the backup type popup menu would appear blurred
• Several crashes fixed
• General bug fixes, tweaks and improvements

FCP Versioner is available for $59 and a free 15-day trial is available here. This update is free for registered users.

Does your Compressor settings window have missing items or is completely blank? Here's how to restore the default Apple-supplied settings.

1. Close Compressor if it is open.
2. Navigate to your Applications folder.
3. Ctrl-click on the Compressor application and select Show Package Contents.
4. Navigate to Contents/Resources/English.lproj (or whatever your language is).
5. Cmd-click the following folders to select them: Apple Devices, DVD, Formats, Other Workflows.
6. With all of them selected, ctrl-click on one of them and select Make Alias. Four aliases will be created with filenames like "Apple Devices alias" and "DVD alias".
7. Move the four aliases to ~/Library/Application Support/Compressor.
8. Launch Compressor.

You can add one more item to the ever-expanding list of things that break Final Cut Studio: Bootcamp. Yes, if you have a Bootcamp partition, Final Cut Pro can in some instances hang at startup and refuse to launch.

Luckily the fix is very simple. It seems to be caused by Spotlight indexing and users have confirmed that adding their Bootcamp volume to Spotlight's Privacy list in System Preferences solves the issue for them. Apparently you need several restarts to get the setting to stick but once it does, Final Cut Pro should be able to launch again.

If you did experience this issue, please let Apple know.

Cut Notes 1.0.1 was just released onto the iOS App Store. We've received a lot of feedback on the previous version and the changes we've made in 1.0.1 reflect many of your requested features.

Here are some of the biggest changes in this version:

Time-of-Day Timecode

Time-of-Day timecode is now an option in the Project Settings window. This automatically syncs the timecode to the iPad's clock and is very useful in live TV broadcasts.

Hold button

Need more time to find the note key you were looking for? Simply press the Hold button and the timecode display will freeze with the timecode counter still running in the background. Press the button you were looking for and the timecode display will catch up with your NLE to maintain synchronization.

When using the keyboard to type a custom note, Hold will automatically be activated to ensure the note is added at the point you started typing.

Double-tap to Edit

Double-tap a note key to automatically scroll to the keyboard view and add extra information to the note.

Other Changes

• Shortcuts such as periods and partial timecodes are now accepted in timecode boxes
• When creating a new project, Cut Notes now remembers the previous settings chosen
• When setting a project to PAL, start timecode now defaults to 10:00:00:00 for European broadcast compliance
• Fixed a crash when rotating the app
Fixed a bug that could cause entered timecode to be incorrect
• Fixed an issue with projects being renamed upon saving

Our policy when developing new applications is to target a specific user group or workflow to keep things manageable and then expand that userbase over time. We have a roadmap for the future that includes NLE synchronization, among many other exciting features, and your feedback helps us prioritize this feature list.

Last month I reported that ProKit 6.0.1 was breaking Final Cut Studio (primarily DVD Studio Pro) for some users. Well, it would appear that OS X 10.6.6 automatically installs ProKit 6.0.2* which is causing the issues all over again.

Here are some forum threads on the topic:
LAFCPUG: WARNING: Mac OS 10.6.6 UPDATE (ProKit 6.0.2)
LAFCPUG: I think I installed ProKit 601 by mistake - crashing
Apple Discussions: Prokit 5 v 6 Cant use DVDSP and iLife at the same time

Not everyone will suffer problems with ProKit 6.x but if you're one of the unlucky few, follow these steps to downgrade to ProKit 5.1. Note that this will probably break iLife '11.

It is clear that Apple's engineering team is having difficulty working out what the problem is, so if you are experiencing this issue you should file a bug report (requires free developer registration) and give them as much information as possible.

* For some reason I still have ProKit 5.1 after installing OS X 10.6.6. I don't know why this is but I'm not complaining.

I'm proud to introduce our newest product, Cut Notes, an iPad app for taking timecoded notes during a screening.

We've been collaborating on this app with Nate Orloff, who saw a need for a way to create notes during a screening with a producer or director without having to tediously write timecode by hand.

The app primarily operates in landscape view. There are pages of buttons corresponding to common notes such as "Bad Cut" or "Too Fast." Taking a note is as simple as pressing a button, and the buttons can be completely customized to fit your workflow.

To enter a more detailed note, swipe to the right to reveal the keyboard. To view and delete notes, simply rotate the app to portrait mode.

Cut Notes is designed to be as platform- and NLE-agnostic as possible. Consequently, it will work with Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Premiere, iTunes, QuickTime or indeed any application that's capable of playing back video or audio. Just select the correct frame rate and timecode settings and then press play in Cut Notes and your NLE at the same time.

Notes can be exported as plain text, Avid locator files, Final Cut Pro marker lists or CSV files for importing into Excel. There is no built-in way to import marker lists into Final Cut Pro so we created a helper app called Cut Notes Marker Import.

For more information on Cut Notes, check out our demonstration video, user manual and our Facebook and Twitter pages. There is a feedback link within the app and we'd be keen to hear what people think of it.