Apple’s touting over 100 new features in the Final Cut Studio (which drops the number nomenclature for the overall suite) with updated versions of all the core applications: Final Cut Pro 7, Motion 4, colour 1.5 and Compressor 3.5. New ProRes codecs, background “easy exporting,” new 3D animations, 4K support in colour are some of the more noteworthy new features. Interestingly, while there’s a new version of Logic Express to go with the new Logic Studio, Apple didn’t drop anything on the Final Cut Express front.

But maybe the best thing is the new price: $US999 for the full version, which is $US300 less than the previous Final Cut Studio. Upgrading is $US299, whether you’ve got Final Cut Studio 1 or 2. Logic Studio is $US499, same as before, and both of them are shipping now, with Logic Express coming in about a month. [Apple]

It’s a free download from Einar Andersson & Tor Rauden Källstigen that includes an installer and everything. In other words, you can pretty much double click your way to emoji bliss. And once you’re done, maybe you could ping Jason Chen and remind him that I don’t need to see that little poop guy every time he forgets his Lactaid. [Emoji for iChat via TUAW]

The original iChat AV answering machine patent was filed in October 2007, and detailed ways of iChat (or the iChat server) playing back an automated video or audio message when the user can’t be reached. What’s cool about this is that it’s not that useful for computer to computer calling, but very useful for iPhone to computer calling, or computer to iPhone calling. When an iPhone user is out of range, or if a computer isn’t on, it’s convenient to know within, say, 10 seconds, instead of waiting there and wasting your phone’s battery.

Plus, if there is video recording in iPhone 3.0, you may be able to record your messages directly on the phone itself. Bad arse (if true). [Macnn]

“In some embodiments, the functions may include telephoning, video conferencing, e-mailing, instant messaging, blogging, digital photographing, digital videoing, Web browsing, digital music playing, and/or digital video playing. Instructions for performing these functions may be included in a computer-readable storage medium or other computer program product configured for execution by one or more processors.”

“In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the back of the device, opposite the touch screen display on the front of the device, so that the touch screen display may be used as a viewfinder for either still and/or video image acquisition. In some embodiments, an optical sensor is located on the front of the device so that the user’s image may be obtained for videoconferencing while the user views the other video conference participants on the touch screen display. In some embodiments, the position of the optical sensor can be changed by the user (e.g., by rotating the lens and the sensor in the device housing) so that a single optical sensor may be used along with the touch screen display for both video conferencing and still and/or video image acquisition.”

Most probably, it was shaved from the first version for the same reason 3G was avoided: Cost. My guess is that, as manufacturing prices went down, Apple added the GPS and 3G. And next in the Big Features list, is videoconferencing (late, as almost every other 3G phone in the market has this feature already). [PC World]

Apple introduces the iPhone 3G Videoconferencing Kit, ZOMG!

WWDC SAN FRANCISCO–June 11, 2008–Apple® today unveiled the Apple Videoconferencing Kit®, the world’s first videoconference accessory for the world’s best phone, the iPhone 3G. Using a unique silicon-based mirror material and natural bamboo wood for its handle and base, the Apple Videoconferencing Kit measures an unprecedented 0.5 inches at its thinnest point. Its low weight and unique shape—developed following strict Human Interface tests and anatomical studies—will allow the user to easily hold it in front of the iPhone 3G camera, allowing face-to-face video communication with users all around the world.

“We’ve built the world’s best cellphone–again,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO and famed fried tofu fan. “But it didn’t feel… complete. So I said to Phil, hey! Phil, yo! Where’s the damn front camera? Can we do iChat AV with this shit? He said we couldn’t, but then… then he pulled out his hand mirror and said: ‘what about this?’”

Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing and Apple’s Cool Guy at Large, explained how it all went after that: “Steve thought it was ok, but he didn’t like the pink plastic and shiny beads, so we asked Jon to come up with an evolution of the design.” The team lead by Jonathan Ive was left with the challenge of making the Apple Videoconferencing Kit a reality: “We wanted the design to feel complete, as a whole holistic experience for the user, something that would talk from the inside, and be pure function. It just feels that way now.”

The Apple Videoconferencing Kit ultra-shiny surface allows for an extremely clear image, the best in its class, and can be easily customised using any kind of materials, from stickers to Crayola. It will be available in July 11 for US$29.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Indeed, it looks like Apple keeps pushing the envelope. [Other Gizmodo Fake News]

For those of you who don’t get it, this is a criticism of the lack of front camera and video conferencing in the iPhone 3G. Looking at the new model, I think it is clear that Apple has decided to milk the current iPhone for another year instead of actually pushing the envelope big time. After all, why rush it when you are still entering the market and you can increase your margins?

While I’m sure that iChat AV-compatible videoconferencing will come to the iPhone, the fact is that Apple has decided we don’t need it, expanding the lifetime of the previous generation by adding 3G and new software, in order to get more return out of their original investment. I can’t blame them. And it even makes sense from a development point of view, making sure that every step works before taking another. However, as a consumer and gadget addict who wants it all, that doesn’t make me happy.

[Ed Note:Although Chen was diplomatic about it, and they're very pretty, I don't believe these are real for a second. ] [Matt Hickey's Crunchgear]

First, we already know that apps running in the background as a process is possible on the iPhone. The iPod app, SMS app, and various other apps all run in the background now and continue running no matter where you go in the phone. Also, user-made Installer.app apps like Apollo (an IM client) already run in the background just fine. So why did Apple make this limitation that all apps have to quit whenever the user switches out? Memory management. From Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines for the iPhone:

Apple has no idea what combination of applications you could possibly install on your phone, and they can’t control it. If you were to install two apps that took up loads of the iPhone’s memory (we’re talking RAM), and they both ran in the background, it would slow down the phone’s other, more important tasks such as calling or iPodding. If this were the case, Apple would be blamed for making a slow or non-responsive phone even when it’s not actually Apple’s fault. This is exactly the thing that goes on in Windows Mobile devices. It’s fine when you’re just running normal, natively-installed apps, but when you get to multi-tasking with your own installed programs, the phone becomes sluggish and everyone curses Microsoft. Apple wants none of this.

So the implication to you, the end-user, is that you can’t have apps running in the background, constantly checking the internet. This means no RSS reader that’s always up-to-date and no IM apps that always sit in the background, listening for messages. If you’re wondering Exchange’s push email and calendars are going to work in this scheme, it’ll be integrated into Apple’s first-party Mail system, which can be allowed to run in the background.

But in the end, it’s only a small portion of apps that are really affected by this rule. Games or utilities can save their app status to disk often so that you can resume where you left off when you start it back up. But until the iPhone allows SDK-applications to run in the background, you’re probably better off using a web-based chat application in Safari (which already has permission to). [Tech Crunch]