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NetNewsWire 3.0 is here, and like any upgrade, it claims to be better in about nine different ways. The Blog Herald’s Minic Rivera seems impressed by the RSS reader for Mac OS X, however, so that’s a good sign. Rivera makes special note of “performance enhancements, increased desktop integration and multiple updates to the user interface.”

For more information, you can turn to the official product page or Rivera’s article.

Apple’s presentation software Keynote is a powerful tool for even the most demanding professional uses. Because Keynote’s file format is based on XML, KBYU was able to export statistical data from its election polls directly to Keynote, making it insanely easy for the TV reporters to display poll results using beautiful Keynote graphs.

Each election cycle since 1982, KBYU-TV, the public television station of Brigham Young University has broadcast live on election night featuring data from a statewide voter survey conducted Election Day. The KBYU/Utah Colleges Exit Poll has gained a reputation for accuracy in its predictions. … Hundreds of interviewers fan out on Election Day to administer surveys to scientifically selected voters.

Each year a major challenge for KBYU has been how to display data from the poll. Previous solutions have involved old fashioned text tables generated by TV titling systems, custom TV graphics hardware and software, and converting computer displays to video. All have had major drawbacks from poor image quality to steep learning curves. In 2006 KBYU will employ Apple Computer’s Keynote software to build and display crosstabulated data from the exit poll. A MacBook pro laptop is on the Election Night studio set with the program hosts. It drives a large plasma screen display placed next to the hosts. Keynote presentations appear on the display where a studio camera captures the images for broadcast. Keynote was chosen for its ease of use, its professional quality transitions and animations, and the flexibility of its XML engine. Poll statistics are computed using SAS (a statistics program) and exported directly to Keynote using SAS’s ability to output XML data. The XML code from SAS format the graphs used on the broadcast and dynamically update them as needed. The broadcast hosts merely click on the Keynote file which contains the graphs of interest and place them in presentation mode. Sitting next to the display screen allows the hosts to engage with the data, pointing to items of particular interest for the audience watching the broadcast live on KBYU-TV.

For more information about using XML in Keynote:

Keynote’s XML Connections

The XML in Apple’s Keynote

About the Keynote XML File Format (official spec)

In this Mac Server Series screencast I explain how to host multiple web sites (domains) on a single Mac. In Apache parlance this is called setting up “virtual hosts”. Just as FreeMacBlog.com, FreeMacWare.com, FreeMacUnix.com, etc. all run on a single Mac at Macminicolo.net, with these instructions you can do the same.

Watch it here: How to Host Multiple Web Sites on a Single Mac

Show Notes:

• Smultron text editor
• Apache Virtual Host documentation
• Mac Mini Colocation
• How To Set Up Just One Site on a Mac
• RSS feed for this Mac Server Video Series

Since I started working on the video series for Mac servers, I had the opportunity to try out a few different application for video screen captures. Some are good, some are better. Here are the Mac screen recorder options I found and what I thought of them.

ScreenRecord

Website: http://www.miensoftware.com/screenrecord.html
Price: $19.95
Demo: No time limit but “Demo Version” appears on movie

The product had a few neat options like the ability to stream to a DV camera and updated feedback on free disk space. The program can also record audio and full screen. The only problem was that it crashed on me everytime I tried to record a movie. I am on an Intel iMac and this app is not a Universal Binary. It doesn’t seem to run under Rosetta at all.

FreeMacBlog Score: 2/10 It may be a nice Mac screen recorder, but it needs to be updated to work with Intel Macs.

Screen Movie Recorder

Website: http://alphaomega.software.free.fr/screenmovierecorder
Price: $18.83 (15 Euros)
Demo: Time Limit On Movies

This application has a very easy interface. There are three options to choose from upon startup. You can choose the frame recording speed, you can chose to have the recording follow the mouse and you can choose whether to show the mouse or display it as a cross. Personally, I had a hard time seeing the cross on the recording so I’d prefer to keep the mouse as the regular icon, but I don’t think that is an option.

You start the recording with the item in the menu bar. This menu item gives feedback. Green means ready, Red means recording, yellow means encoding. As soon as you start, you’ll be asked to draw the size of your frame and then off you go. Once you are done, the encoding is fast, but Quicktime is the only option.

I didn’t like the fact that there was no audio recording option. Also, the Application needs to stay in the dock while you are recording.

FreeMacBlog Score: 7/10 - Easy interface. Needs audio recording and a hot key combo for recording start. Mouse should be visible if desired.

Screen Mimic

Website: http://www.polarian.com/products/ScreenMimic.php
Price: $24.95
Demo: 15 second movies only

The obvious advantage this app has is the ability to export the movie as SWF, FLV, and Quicktime. This is great for those who prefer to use flash for size and compatibility. However, there is no audio recording option.

You can choose whether to record a certain area, just one window, or the whole screen and recording is started with a key combination. But, the application stays there in the dock while recording. I like the fact that the frame rate is chose automatically because sometimes that is hard to gauge for inexperienced users.

When you are finished with the movie, the encoding is pretty quick. You can choose to save the movie in all three formats at once. Also, once it is finished, the app gives you the chance to take a look at the movie. If it is not what you were looking for, you can re-encode it changing the frame rate and the mouse settings.

FreeMacBlog Score: 8/10 The flash output is a huge benefit. Also, I like the second chance encoding options. I’d really like to see a audio recording option and a more lenient demo.

iShowU

Website: http://shinywhitebox.com/home/features/features.html
Price: $20
Demo: Large text on video recording

The first thing you notice about this app is the ability to set presets. This is incredibly useful. You can have different ones for podcasts, online tutorials, Love CPU Usage, etc. There are three there by default, but you can add as many as you’d like.

You have the option to record different quality levels of audio (with visual feedback and AAC compression), and can encode the video with any of a large list of options. (H.264 by default) You can choose whether or not to record the mouse. Also, you can slow the capture rate when the mouse is not moving. This is great for while you are just talking. It keeps the final file size down.

There are four capture sizes to choose from, you can can drag the corners to your desired size. You have full control over whether iShowU has an icon in the dock, automatically hides itself when you begin recording and whether or not it shows up in the status bar.

FreeMacBlog.com score: 9/10 This Mac screen recorder is close to perfect, but I wish the demo was a little less annoying so you could really see the finished video.

Snapz Pro X

Website: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
Price: $69
Demo: 30 days unlimited, with annoying pop-ups

This is the grand daddy of video screen capture programs, but personally I think it is being surpassed. First, there is no Universal Binary for this app. It ran fine under Rosetta on my Intel iMac, but it wouldn’t start up at all on my MacBook.

The demo on this product is very giving. They really let you try it out. There are a ton of options to tweak…maybe too many. Personally, I don’t like the way it takes over your regular screen capture. I prefer an application that I can start up when I need to record my screen, and then quit when I’m done.

I do like that the application runs headless and records audio.

The encoding take a LONG time when you are finished with your video. I suppose this has to do with the fact that it is running under Rosetta for me. The finished product does look good though, and I like that you can change the size in encoding. (For example, have the movie be 60% actual size)

FreeMacBlog Score: 6/10 I may catch some heat for this low score, but I just think the app is too all-encompasing when you just want to do a quick video or two. The lack of support for Intel is going to be more and more obvious as people switch over. Also, the price is incredibly high. (Update: 6/28, They have now released a new version of Snapz Pro X. It is not Universal, but it is said to perform better on Intel Macs.)

Final Conclusion
When I started looking for video recording options, I didn’t know there were this many Mac screen recorder options out there. After trying them all, I think I’ll stick with iShowU. The developer offers a good product at a good price. Also, he is quick to offer support. The second option would be Screen Mimic, especially if you are intending to work with flash videos.

When it comes down to it, I’d love to see this ability included in Mac OS X.

(Are you a digg user? Please digg this article)

A while back I showed all of you the Great Wall Of Apple Boxes that was growing in my upstairs loft. I got a lot of emails and comments asking what it was I did that would require so many Mac minis.

I work for a company called Macminicolo.net. As the name would imply, it is a colocation service for Mac minis (and XServes). People send in their Mac minis, and we colocate them so they can run websites, databases, podcasts, etc. The service is comparably inexpensive (compare it to the prices that are advertised in the Google ads at the top of this post) and offers very high speeds and security for the mini. To give you a few examples, we have one customer that runs 500 GB worth of podcasts off of his mini each month. Another customer has a site that gets 800k hits a month and his Intel mini never hiccups. We use minis for our own sites and emails. I’d say that half of the customers run Mac OS X Server, and the other half can do all of their work using regular Mac OS X. Both installs are incredibly powerful and stable.

We have a cage in a data center here is Las Vegas that is full of minis. Here are a couple photos of one of the racks in the cage. (For the privacy of our customers, I blurred out their names and ip addresses.)

Overall, the cage can be quite an impressive site. Often, the data center employees will give tours of the data center to possible customers. Our cage is always one of the crowning stops. I get the same comments every time.

“Are those mini computers?”
“Do those work well as servers?”
“Apple sure is coming along nicely as a company.”

Usually, I’ll be in the cage working while they are talking amongst themselves. Often, I’ll crack a joke like, “Here you see a real Mac IT man working in his natural environment.” That usually gets a laugh. Geek jokes.

Well, I bring all this up to announce that, in cooperation with macminicolo.net, FreeMacBlog will be starting a new video series on how to use your Mac as a server. I’ve learned a lot of the little tricks while working with the company and I think that there are others that may like to know as well. The first video will be posted on Monday and it will deal with the “Initial Setup” of the Mac running Mac OS X. We’re also hoping to give you a couple chances to win a year of free Mac mini hosting from Macminicolo.

I’m hoping that the videos will help accomplish a couple things. For those of you wishing to run a server in your house or business, these videos should help you get it started fast and free. For those of you considering a change in your hosting, or in need hosting for the first time, you might consider a Mac mini. The new Intel machines are incredibly capable right out of the box.

So stay tuned. Grab the FreeMacBlog RSS Feed or be sure to bookmark us for later. I think you’ll enjoy the tips.

Tonight I updated our Google Map mashup of all the Apple Retail stores around the world. Apple has opened several new retail stores since we first launched the map, so it had fallen behind. If I’ve missed any, let me know. (And if you could be so kind, send me the latitude/longitude of any stores I’ve missed. You can do that by finding the store on Google Maps, then clicking “Link to this Page”.)