Apple Releases Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.14

Can't get enough of these sexy RAW updates, especially as I have never owned a digital camera ...

There must be a better way to deliver these compatibility updates.

Why don't they implement dynamic updating capabilities (i.e. maintaining a constant connection to the update server for these updates, so the user doesn't have to concern themselves with manually installing, and they install automatically when iPhoto/Aperture is re-launched)?

If only I understood what this stuff means, I'd appreciate it more.

RAW means everything from the Image Sensor is saved, and it's completely lossless, Jpg is for lulzy tards, Raw is the future.

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There must be a better way to deliver these compatibility updates.

Why don't they implement dynamic updating capabilities (i.e. maintaining a constant connection to the update server for these updates, so the user doesn't have to concern themselves with manually installing, and they install automatically when iPhoto/Aperture is re-launched)?

Exactly!

There must be a better way to deliver these compatibility updates.

Why don't they implement dynamic updating capabilities (i.e. maintaining a constant connection to the update server for these updates, so the user doesn't have to concern themselves with manually installing, and they install automatically when iPhoto/Aperture is re-launched)?

Add upon that what they do for printer drivers, when one is connected, detect what kind it is & download the appropriate software. This way, you don't get the software for boatloads of other cameras.

If only I understood what this stuff means, I'd appreciate it more.

Add upon that what they do for printer drivers, when one is connected, detect what kind it is & download the appropriate software. This way, you don't get the software for boatloads of other cameras.

You're totally holding it wrong(tm): it is not just when you connect a physical camera that you want to be able to open and display the Foo format. It is also when you get that file by any means (download, USB stick, ...) and want to display by any application.

So assuming that you get a RAW image format, with some magic byte file header (your OS doesn't know anything about it yet) and some random extension *.foo.

Now your OS could ask you each time it discovers such a file format it doesn't know nothing about it - and in fact, OS X does just that, too! - e.g. by looking up *.foo in some global database and offering you the appropriate app in the App Store. And/or recognise in some magic way that *.foo is in fact an image format and that you're better off with the appropriate image IO plugin (such that any Cocoa application is able to open that file!) instead.

Or you just get a bunch of common RAW format plugins once in a while and be done with that. Don't get bothered each time you try to open a *.bmp ("I don't know about this image format yet, but there is an image plugin available. Do you want me to download it?"), *.tiff ("I don't know about this image format yet, ..."), *.jpg ("I don't know..."), *.pef ("... do you really want me to...") or *.dmg ("... Really, I could just download the appropriate plugin just now...!").


Or do you really care how many USB device drivers are lingering on your OS X installation which are likely to never be used by any hardware, because you simply don't own such a device, and never will? Ever wondered why OS installations are counted in Gigabytes (YES, that's 1024 MEGAbytes!) these days? I remember times when an OS was delivered on 2-3 floppy disks (those had capacities counted in KILObytes...). Oh and yes, almost every device required you to install the device driver yourself by hand...

Well, yes, one could care about waste of disk space - but do we really care? :rolleyes: We just became to lazy and expect an OS to immediatelly recognise and support the connected device - or open the given camera file "out of the box".

Cheers

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Can't get enough of these sexy RAW updates, especially as I have never owned a digital camera ...

Ever wondered how many other device drivers are burried in your OS X installation, for devices that you'll never be a proud owner of? :D

Besides, image plugins don't require you to actually own a camera of that format! There are other situations where one might want to display/edit such a RAW image - well, maybe not you personally anyway...