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Apple ships updates for MacBook Air, Final Cut Studio

Apple on Thursday evening issued a firmware update for the MacBook Air and also released a significant update for its Pro applications focused on new camera support.

MacBook Air Bluetooth Firmware Update 1.0

Although the company did not indicate the issues addressed by the MacBook Air's Bluetooth firmware update [1.2MB], it said the software should be installed on every one of the ultra-thin notebooks.

The update should appear for users in the Mac OS X Software Update mechanism and install automatically once approved for download. However, Apple also offers these instructions for downloading and installing the software manually.

Pro Applications Update 2008-01

Meanwhile, Pro Applications Update 2008-01 [63.7MB] is a revision to Final Cut Studio 2.0 focused on new camera support.

The update includes Final Cut Pro 6.0.3, Compressor 3.0.3, Apple HDV Codec 1.4, PluginManager 1.7.3, and a cumulative update of shared technology components from Pro Applications Update 2007-01 forward.

In particular, Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 delivers support for editing media in the XDCAM HD422 format. After applying the update, users can choose from the following XDCAM HD422 Easy Setups: XDCAM HD422 1080i50 CBR, XDCAM HD422 1080i60 CBR, XDCAM HD422 1080p24 CBR, XDCAM HD422 1080p25 CBR, XDCAM HD422 1080p30 CBR, XDCAM HD422 720p50 CBR, and XDCAM HD422 720p60 CBR.

It also addresses issues with opening projects and exporting stills with the correct aspect ratio under Final Cut Pro 6.0.2, and allows for placement of generator clips in FXScript filter clip wells.

Meanwhile, Compressor 3.0.3 now includes options to create media files for Apple TV with anamorphic (non-square) pixel aspect ratios. The pixels are scaled by Apple TV to fit the intended aspect ratio during playback, Apple said.

Also in the new version of Compressor, the H.264 for Apple Devices Encoder pane has a checkbox that allows users to include Dolby Digital Professional (AC-3) tracks (with 5.1-channel surround sound) in output media files intended for Apple TV playback.

Additionally, Pro Applications Update 2008-01 includes Apple HDV Codec 1.4, which provides 4:2:2 support in Final Cut Pro, and PluginManager 1.7.3, which includes a one-off fix for a backward-compatibility issue in which 1.7.x breaks temporal FxPlug plug-ins in Final Cut Pro 5.1.4.

A complete set of release notes are available here.