Not completely unexpected.

Hot on the heels of Adobe’s updates.

But very interesting that it includes a Shake update, oooooo.

From Apple:

“Pro Applications Updates improve reliability for Apple’s professional applications and are recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Server, and Logic Studio. Pro Applications Update 2008-04 addresses general performance issues and improves overall stability.

Applications included in the update: 

• Final Cut Pro 6.0.5
  
• Compressor 3.0.5
  
• Color 1.0.3
  
• Shake 4.1.1“

What stands out for me is the R3D support in FCP and Color, mainly because I am currently waiting for RED footage from the OpenCut3 Competition. This is from RED (cut from Scott Simmons blog who got it from RED’s site):

“For Intel-based Apple Macintosh systems with Final Cut Pro 6.0.5 or above. The Final Cut Studio RED Installer provides the RED QuickTime Codec (v3.7.0), Log and Transfer (v1.0.0) functionality to import REDCODE RAW clips as either native REDCODE media (R3D’s) wrapped in QuickTime or the option to transcode them directly to Apple’s ProRes 422 codec. There is also a new specialized functionality for color grading native QuickTime wrapped R3D media in Color using the original RAW parameters (REDCODE plugin fro Color v2.7.0). Located in the download is a whitepaper PDF describing in detail this new, advanced way to edit REDCODE media, color grade and finish inside Final Cut Studio.“

Only noticed this now:

“Minimum system requirement on Intel-based Apple Mac systems is 2GB of RAM. RED recommends either a 4-core or 8-core Mac Pro Tower system with at least 2GB of RAM, a suitable graphic card (such as NVIDIA 8800) and high speed storage for this new end-to-end native REDCODE as QuickTime files or the existing REDCODE transcode to ProRes 422 workflow“

That means I can’t moan if things get slow and sticky with the previous generation MBP that I am using, hmmm. At least I have external SATA drives. Praying big time for an 8 core extreme :-O which will be seriously required at the highest of spec’s if my prayers get answered for a RED Epic FF35 wowser.

As for Shake 4.1.1 I could not find any information other that it

“This update addresses compatibility issues for QuickTime codecs greater than 8 bits.“

but nice to know that Apple has not left the Shake users in the dust.