We're excited to announce the release of Cut Notes 2.0 today. This is a major overhaul of the app based on user feedback.

We've redesigned the UI with a darker skin and you no longer need to change orientation to perform certain tasks.

Notes are now organized into sets. Use different sets to separate different contexts, such as grading and mixing. You can color code buttons for visual separation and the colors will be respected in any marker list you export (depending on application support for that color).

To edit a button you no longer tap and hold on it but instead tap the center of the segment button in the bottom left. This takes you to a dialog that allows you to modify sets, buttons and colors.

Manual text entry is significantly improved in this version too. The text box is always available at the top of the screen so you don't need to scroll or switch between pages to get to it.

Note editing has been significantly simplified. Tap on a note to display it in the text box and tap on the timecode to edit it. You can swipe down on the text box to edit the last entered note.

Tap two buttons in quick succession or make two notes at the same timecode position and Cut Notes will compound the notes together. You can switch this off in the Cut Notes section of the iOS Settings app if you want to revert to the old behavior.

Cut Notes now syncs with Adobe Audition, Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro X. FCPX needs a separate plugin available here. The user manual contains guides on how to setup sync for each application.

The export dialog has been overhauled and simplified. Choose the application you want to export to (or None if you want a human-readable version) and then choose the method - Email, Copy to Pasteboard, Print (human-readable text only), upload to Dropbox or upload to Kollaborate.

However, where Cut Notes 2.0 really shines is in its cloud integration with Kollaborate. View your cloud projects in the project browser, take notes on playable videos, sync timecode directly to your web browser (Chrome and Safari right now), full remote playback control from the iPad and comments even appear live in your web browser as you create them. Colleagues will be notified of your comments through email and Dashboard alerts.

The Kollaborate sync is very tight. Tap a note to jump to that position in the timeline and all note additions, changes and deletions are displayed live in the browser. This is much tighter integration than we are able to offer with any other application and it gives an example of the new things we're able to do when we don't rely on third parties. This is how we've always wanted sync to work and we're very excited to finally deliver it.

It's a little difficult to show it in action in the video, but we'll be running demos at booth SL15408 at NAB next week. This is just the beginning of what we have planned for Cut Notes and Kollaborate, so stay tuned.

We're proud to announce our latest product - Kollaborate, the cloud workflow platform for media professionals. Launching today in public beta, Kollaborate provides storage space and collaboration capabilities for you and your team.

Individual, department and project-level messaging helps you communicate efficiently with your team.

The Dashboard area allows you to see the most recent updates by your colleagues at a glance.

Kollaborate provides private and project storage space for sharing files with colleagues. Share files with everyone or group your team into departments and limit access on a per-department level. Non-department heads cannot see files in other departments so this is useful for limiting client access.

Type in the comment box and Kollaborate is smart enough to insert the comment at the timecode position you first started typing. It can automatically pause and resume playback while making a comment if you so wish. Submitting a comment notifies project collaborators via email and Dashboard alerts.

You can share a file with someone not involved in the project by creating a private password-protected link for them. Each link is provided with a view count, so we recommend creating one link per person with the person's name as the title so that you can easily keep track.

Revisions allow you to easily follow the progress of a file. Make notes on individual revisions and quickly switch between them for comparison.

Kollaborate has extensive task management capabilities. You can delegate tasks to others (or leave them unassigned and wait for a user to assign themselves) and be notified as to the progress of the task through Dashboard and email alerts. The task's creator can upload related files to help the assignee complete the task (this could be a diagram or mockup for example) and the assignee can respond by uploading task deliverables.

One great feature is the ability to turn a comment into a task as you create it, so that colleagues are instantly notified and can begin work on the task before you've even finished watching the video.

It is not just for video - you can upload any type of file and Kollaborate will host it for you, but only H.264s will be playable. The site does not automatically re-encode video when you upload it, so to make it easier we've provided custom encoding presets for common applications and created a tool called Kollaborate Transfer for batch encoding and uploading to the site. These are all available on the Resources page. Kollaborate Transfer is our recommended way of uploading to the site. It is currently in beta for Mac and a Windows version will be coming soon.

There are lots of video sharing sites out there so what makes Kollaborate different? The key point is that it is not just a site, it is a platform. We are building all our products around it, starting today with CinePlay 1.1 for iPad. CinePlay will allow you to play your Kollaborate videos on the move and make synchronized comments in the cloud.

We will eventually integrate Kollaborate into every product we make and we have an exciting and ambitious roadmap for it. Don't worry - our products will continue to function very well in offline mode, but they will be better with Kollaborate. The nice thing about creating our own cloud solution rather than relying on third-parties is that we can really focus on the experience. We've been relying on third parties for lots of things and that often leads to frustration and technical limitations. For this reason we really recommend Kollaborate over Dropbox for playing videos in CinePlay. You get thumbnails, synchronized timecode and comment syncing - none of which we can achieve with the limitations of the Dropbox SDK.

We've been in private beta for 3-4 months and we're now launching into a public beta. We consider Kollaborate stable enough to be used in a production environment. The reasons for the beta tag are less to do with bugs and more to do with load balancing, optimization, the fact that it requires a relatively recent web browser and an acknowledgement that there are one or two minor limitations that will be addressed in the coming weeks (e.g. Kollaborate Transfer can currently only upload to the root directory. The workaround is to move the file to the desired location in the web interface.).

We're planning for the public beta to last 2-3 months. Since it's a beta, we're offering a great deal - sign up for the Freelance or Basic package during the beta process and get an entire year at half price.

We've always believed in integration between our products and Kollaborate is integration on steroids. It's a game-changer for us and we're very excited about the future. We'll be at NAB this year so stop by booth SL15408 to see Kollaborate in action.

P.S. This isn't our only NAB announcement. We'll have something else to announce shortly.