Can you tell which is which?

Today, we got our new iMac with Intel Core Duo processor. Three weeks ago I had just ordered a new iMac G5. Now they sit side by side in our meeting room. What do you think? Should we... ? Of course, we should! Let's do a shootout. Using our own applications. FotoMagico and iStopMotion which are both Universal Apps.

This is by no means a scientific comparison, it is more a "getting a feel" thing. Here are the "feelings":

Test 1: Export of a FotoMagico Slideshow to an iPod movie.
Surprisingly, the iMac G5 wins by a comfortable margin. Looking at the Activity Monitor indicates that QuickTime does not make use of the dual cores of the Intel iMac. It does not even seem to use the one core it uses to its max. So we think that there is performance potential to be realised in QuickTime.

Test 2: Export iStopMotion frames to images.
This time, the Intel iMac has a comfortable lead. It is almost twice as fast. Its faster bus seems to pay off when it comes to disk access. And writing TIFFs does not require as many floating point operations.

It quickly becomes clear that we have two completely different machines on our desk. Which is faster? Never before the answer was more true: it depends on what you are doing. Certainly the iMac Intel is a great machine for the price. The graphics chip is better than anything currently available built-in to a Mac. But should you be frustrated that you just bought an iMac G5 three weeks ago at the same price? Of course not. The iMac G5 still holds great appeal for people who want to run Photoshop, Logic, Final Cut and others - at least until the Universal version of these apps become available.

We owed you this picture of the Macworld 2006 tear down. Achim is crouched in the closet below the booth to remove the Power Mac G5 Quad that powered the 23inch monitor at the top of the booth and hands it out to Werner backwards over his shoulder because there was no other way to get it out. It was a fantastic show for us with great new developments in our markets. All the YoYo's are gone - 1000 of them. Thanks to all you folks visiting our booth. It was really nice to talk to you and to hear your thoughts and ideas for our products.

"I thought you might like to see a movie I put together with FotoMagico 1.5. Great product! Keep up the good work." - Rob Babcock.

Yael Shulman's "The Clean Machine" is a finalist at the New York Minute Film Festival. "I used the iStopmotion software last year combining timelapse and stop motion and panning. The short film is now being viewed by famous directors, producers and actors who are the judges for the festival so your product is amazing and has gotten me to the finalist stage so far." The Clean Machine is about a manic girl who feels the need to clean after a stressful day.

This is the story of the YoYos. Into the tray and out. Into the wide world. The 6 minute Movie is iPod ready.

macHOME February 2006 issue declares FotoMagico 1.5 "App of the Month" and has a tutorial to prove that it "is an easy-to-learn slideshow app that can help even the most un-cinematic Mac user create a fun video of stills worthy of a red carpet premiere."

We took a timelapse of the first day of the show looking along the isle from our booth. The 3 minute movie is iPod ready and Herbie Hancock should be in it...

Larry posts recent work done with FotoMagico on his Meaningful Multimedia Gallery. Larry seems to be able to use FotoMagico to create a lot of emotion, certainly one of our design goals.