allblogs: Larry Jordan's Newsletter: March 2, 2026

March 2, 2026

Welcome to March! Apple is promising an interested week of new products. I'm looking forward to seeing what they release. This month, I have both good news and bad news. Let's start with the good news.

As we all know, these are challenging times. Optimism is a bit thin on the ground. It is more difficult than ever to maintain a sustainable career as a knowledge worker and digital artisan. Zack Arnold (ACE), an award-winning, twenty-five year veteran of film & television editing, shares his thoughts on what creatives need to do today to survive.

Struggling to Stay Afloat? Here's What to Change

Improved search is a highlight feature in Apple Final Cut Pro 12. This is similar in concept to Premiere's Media Intelligence that Adobe released last November.

The only problem with this new search in Final Cut is that it doesn't work. Here's what I discovered.

Final Cut 12's Improved Search is Very Unreliable

Last week, I upgraded to macOS 26.3 and, perhaps, that's the cause of search not working properly in Final Cut. But, 26.3 has a potentially bigger problem for some power users: external drives stop working.

Here's an article from AppleInsider that goes into the details.

macOS 26.3 External Drive Mounting Issues

I continue posting news every day. There are 48 new stories in February alone!

Use the Search box to check out the latest news from companies you follow.

All the Latest Media Industry News

You can't go online these days without being inundated with AI news. Not all AI is bad – but AI today will definitely impact media. Those changes are already happening.

Here’s a summary of two recent reports, from Time Magazine and McKinsey & Company, on how AI is changing media and the backlash.

News: AI's Impact on Media - and the Backlash

Not all new features in Final Cut Pro 12 have problems. The new Beat Detection feature is both simple and effective. With it, you can highlight specific beats in music and, also, use these marks to cleanly edit music.

Here's how Beat Detection works.

Final Cut 12 Beat Detection - Simple and Effective

Adobe gave masking some love in Premiere 26. Masking is the process of isolating a subject in the frame so you can modify it separately from the rest of the image.

In the Premiere 26 release of Premiere, Adobe added the Object Mask whose KEY benefit is to use AI to create mask shapes. Here’s how it works.

Adobe Updates Masking in Premiere 26

I first started editing audio in DaVinci Resolve in 2024. Since then, I've been learning new ways to use it more effectively.

After chatting with the audio experts at Resolve and two years of heavy use, here are six techniques I've learned that can improve audio - especially dialog - that are fast and easy to implement.

Six Audio Techniques to Better Audio in DaVinci Resolve 20

I spent much of last week cleaning my Media Industry News database (link). Media News focuses on news and products for the independent media creator. I exclude enterprise products, staff announcements and sale pricing.

I started posting news July 1, 2024. Since then, I've added 12 stories in the last week, 48 in the last month and 682 stories in all - more than one a day for a year and a half - with news from 248 different companies. All entries link back to the source.

You can see who wants to share their message by looking at their release count:

Fx Factory - 98 releases
OWC - 29 releases
Blackmagic Design - 19 releases
Boris FX - 19 releases
Adobe - 14 releases
Atomos - 13 releases
Sony - 12 releases
Apple - 10 releases
Marshall Electronics - 10 releases
Small HD - 10 releases

If you haven't visited the Media Industry News on my home page, check it out. It's like a time capsule of our industry. The search box searches all text, regardless of where that text, or partial text, is located. You can even search by specific date.

The vast majority of these 248 companies only sent me a single release. If you know a developer, please have them add me to their press list. Listings are free. This page gets thousands of views each week, there's no reason to miss out. News is updated almost daily.

Until next month, stay hopeful (hard as that is sometimes), stay healthy and edit well.

TUTORIALS & REVIEWS

» Struggling to Stay Afloat? Here's What Needs to Change. (Commentary)

» Zack Arnold, ACE, has advice for surviving today's job market.

» New Improved Search in Final Cut 12 Simply Doesn't Work (Tutorial)

» This new feature is badly designed, unreliable and untrustworthy.

» AI's Impact on Media - and the Backlash (News)

» Not all AI is bad - but AI today will definitely impact media.

» New Beat Detection in Final Cut 12 is Simple & Effective (Tutorial)

» Here's a new feature that fast and easy to use.

» Adobe Updates Masking in Premiere 26 (Tutorial)

» New feature works exactly as you would expect.

» Six Audio Secrets to Improve Audio in DaVinci Resolve (Tutorial)

» After two years use, here's what I learned that actually works.

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