February 2012
4 posts
Which Mac vector graphics application gets the thumbs up from Mac20Q - http://goo.gl/ipUhy
Finding out about Artboard for the Mac comparing with Vector Designer - http://a20q.info/Amsigw
Yippee - Got the 600D T3i to work with - plan to be shooting something tomorrow. try it out and explore the camera
http://goo.gl/eM8v5 How to add interactive widgets into your Apple iBooks Author so that your electronic textbook is more interesting.
January 2012
5 posts
Got a battery handgrip for the new 600D coming to me more bulk but I will be able to shoot more video and photos
During the W/E I bought a Canon 600D to use for mostly video work. Looking forward to having in my hands
Flamin MIgraine during the night- SO a bit knackered today but still managing to get some work done
http://a20q.info/wLq5oH Adding text to iBooks Author.
Uploading a video to YouTube from FCPX and it is taking ages with the crappy internet I have here.
December 2011
8 posts
5 tags
Using Hype to make a HTML 5 photo slide show →
3rd part of a series of 3 video tutorials showing how to make a banner or photo slide show in Hype the Mac HTML 5 Editor. Making my own transitions and using Pixelmator to get the photos ready for the slide show.
You can use Hype for Mac to make full web html5 pages or to make element to animate in other web pages.
HTML 5 is the way forward so it will be interesting to see how it all goes and in...
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Using Hype to make HTML5 web pages tutorial part 2 →
Making my own transitions in Hype with photos I imported in from Pixelmator. I have the html 5 element nearly finished off and finding that Hype is actually pretty good.
I used Motion to make the intro and used FinalCut Pro X for the editing of the video captured with ScreenFlow. Using my Mac is great an I am tempted to get another 8GB of 4GB of memory to put in it to make it even speedier when...
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A review of Hype the Mac HTML 5 editor →
We are all going to be moving over to HTML 5 and seeing as Adobe are discontinuing the development of mobile flash there will be even more push towards editing webpages with a good HTML 5 editor. Some ex-employees of Apple have produced a really good HTML 5 editor called Hype. It has a good clean interface and is in some ways like working with something like Motion where you have a canvas and a...
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Audio editing the software for the Mac - Amadeus... →
As a podcaster Amadeus pro is an excellent piece of software to use for creating podcasts. In the latest upgrade to Amadeus pro to version 2 it has gained some excellent new features and made it even more a joy to use. I like that I can now use it to edit audio in video files and it works even better for applying audio unit sound effect filters. Now when I change the volume within a track I see is...
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Who needs iPad 2 flash support →
Creating HTML 5 magazines and webpages is easy using applications such as Motion Composer all the application for the Mac called Hype. Even though the Apple haters that don’t know what they’re talking about complain that there is no flash on the iPad, Flash is not necessary. I have been using my iPad for over a year and never needed iPad 2 Flash support.
Motion Composer I think is a...
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How to make a logo with Mac Logo Design software →
There are apps like Pixelmator which are great for photo editing and all sorts of art work but to use something dedicated to a task can often be the best way forward. To this end with making a logo I reckon that Art Text 2 id marvellous and the best tool for the job.
Very competent software for creating a logo and well worth finding out more about its capabilities.
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Screencasts online tutor for Lion - Videos by Don... →
OS X lion has been getting a bit of a bad press and some Mac users sees as the vista of Mac. Personally, I really like all the new features in Mac OS X Lion. The new features that are available within the operating system are very good and certainly worth having. Why don’t you try learning more about Mac OS X Lion with these videos, screencasts by Don McAllister from Liverpool. Don goes into...
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What is Bento - Database for iOS and Mac →
There are database applications that you can use it on iOS that our specialist to a specific purpose, such as shopping list, teachers class list, Art database. Personally I think it is a good idea to have one configurable database application that you can use for a whole lot of different purposes. That is why I find with using Bento it is pretty good for synchronising your data between iOS and...
November 2011
13 posts
5 tags
Photography and photo editing on the iPad →
There are a few apps that you can use that call themselves photo editing application and all they do is to let you apply weird filters to photos. Instagram would be more filters and sharing the weird photos. I like ArtStudio for editing a photo because I can use layers to be able to do non destructive editing.
It doesn’t matter anymore if you have an iPad 1 with no cameras or the iPad 3...
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iRig Mic Review - iRig for iPad →
If you are a podcaster looking for a great microphone to use with your iPad so that you can do podcast recording on the move, you have to look at the iRig microphone. Use it with Vocalive or the iRig recorder and don’t forget that you can also record into Garageband iPad. It is a good microphone that will give you a great recording sound. I have one and I think it is a totally brilliant.
...
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Final Cut Pro trial worth getting and trying for... →
If you are looking for Final Cut For Windows, I would suggest that you go to the Apple Store buy yourself a new Mac Mini or maybe the iMac and get yourself the Final Cut Pro trial and give it a go for 30 days. I don’t think it will take 30 days for you to find that you really enjoy using Final Cut Pro X and want to keep it.
I have also seen that you can learn how to use this software which...
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iPad tethering using a personal hotspot →
Since iOS 4.3 it has been possible to use a Personal hotspot to tether the iPad to an iPhone. But can you do it or will you be blocked by the phone carrier? Does it have to be wifi or can you use bluetooth?
I have been using a MiFi to give me internet connection on my WiFi only iPad one, but I think I will be looking at a 3G model of the iPad 3 when we know the iPad 3 release date.
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Getting your Google Docs onto your iPad →
Google Docs is very popular for the sharing and collaboration that you can do using the Google service. There are instances where it is better to use Google Docs to work on a particular documents where there are more than one person putting an input into it. For most cases I do prefer to use an actual application and with Google Docs you can use an app called Go Docs for Google Docs and you will...
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The best office iPad apps - Keynote for iPad →
While there are a number of office suite type of applications for the iPad, your first port of call should be to check out the applications provided by Apple. There is Keynote for the presentations as well as an excellent app in Pages for your word processing. Mind you for working with text I do actually prefer to use Nebulous Notes and only use Pages for something that I think I might want to...
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There is talk about making Hackintosh computers →
Not sure that I fancy the hassle of keeping a Hackintosh up and running but there are people that like the fiddling and messing that goes with the territory. Every time there is s new update to the operating system you have to wait until you have enough information about whether the new broom will undo all of your setting up of a machine that you could build as a cheap alternative way of running...
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Samsung galaxy tab vs the Apple ipad →
On the face of it and the Galaxy Tab from Samsung looks a very capable tablet computer with a battery that lasts for a long time and applications that will do just about all that you need from a tablet computer. It has a 10.1 inch screen 1280 x 720 pixels which makes it a widescreen offering. In terms of size and weight it is good, very thin. How does this tablet from Samsung compared to the Apple...
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Writing on the iPad to use in Scrivener Mac →
perhaps one day we will have a scrivener for iPad application, although we perhaps should not hold our breath while waiting. What we can do in the meantime is to use one of four really good ways of connecting scrivener on the desktop or laptop to our writing on the iPad.
The iPad is a brilliant tool for writers, we can use it as a notebook when we are away from our desktop computer. No need for...
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Is Dragon Express a pile of crap? →
Dragon express has been made available in the Mac App Store following the success of Siri on the iPhone. There have been customer reviews so far which say that the app doesn’t load properly. There must be more people with that problem because there are no reviews on there which talk about how good it is at doing what it is supposed to do which is the speech to text recognition for Mac.
In...
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A writers tool for the iPad - Textkraft →
Textkraft has some interesting tools contained within it. When you’re actually doing some writing you can move around your text with the extra navigation tools. Extra keys that you might need our easier to get out with the extra keyboard above the usual one. Then you have the dictionary/thesaurus tool which when you press a key Textkraft will give you synonyms, words are spelt similar, words...
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Visiting the Apple Store Barcelona →
The Apple Store Barcelona can be found at the La Maquinista shopping centre. It is about 110 km from where I live and so I don’t get to visit the store vey often.It is a good size shop and it obviously has all of the stuff in there that we like to see when we go to visit an Apple retail premises.
Fo some Mac fan boys, Mac geeks or nerds thee is nothing better when visiting any city...
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Suggestions for getting things done software →
there is a plethora of get things done applications that you can choose from on the iTunes iOS App Store, with the sister applications that you can sync up to available in the Mac App Store. If you haven’t read the books yet by David Allen the GTD Guru, Then you might find it a little difficult choosing from all of those apps and services that are available. Here are a few applications that...
October 2011
26 posts
5 tags
Want an iPad with a Mouse - Duh? Why →
You have a touch screen and shouldn’t need a mouse to do stuff with an iPad. OK maybe you might want to use a stylus with a drawing app or for some decent handwriting so a handwriting application has a bit of a chance to recognise the scrawl. I have seen some complaints from a couple of people saying they want a mouse and I am baffled by that.
What do you think? Would a mouse make sense...
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Pixelmator 2 review →
Was a fan of Pixelmator before the upgrade to version two but now it is even better. I still have some things to play with and try out but I love what I see so far. Most definitely will give photoshop a run for the money. There won’t be many users that will be missing something in Pixelmator.
It is a stylish bitmap and vector editing app for the Mac. Great for editing photos and has super...
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Thunderbolt devices - Harder to find than hens... →
Looks like we still have to be patient and wait for our Thunderbolt devices to appear on the Markets. We do have the Apple Thunderbolt cable and the Apple Cinema Display with Thunderbolt. There is the Lacie Thunderbolt hard drive, even though that is a bit expensive for what you get. There are also a few Thunderbolt breakout boxes available that allow you to connect PCI cards via Thunderbolt to...
5 tags
Steam Punk Novel publishing - Or Your preferred... →
Writing books is one thing but if you write then you have to find a way to get it out there so that your adoring fans can read your work. Publishing is on the cusp of a conversion to digital. Amazon sells more and more Kindle books and maybe one day we won’t be chopping down trees to make books.
Here I look at a couple of possibilities for authors to get work published and in the iBook...
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Actually using the eBook Creator to make an ePub... →
The Book Creator app for the iPad is with limitations in terms of capabilities but you can make an ebook with it that you can publish on to the iBook Store. The best way for beginners is to go via an aggregator like Lulu or Smashwords. when you get more adept at the eBook publishing then you can buy your own ISBN numbers and deal direct with Apple.
The other advantage of using Lulu would be that...
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sorting your photos on your iOS device with tags... →
With Photo Folder you can tag photos and sort them into folders. Works pretty well and if you have a lot of photos to sort through then the Photo Folders app could be just the job. You can rate them or make the favourites and tagging it nice and easy - puts the tags into the EXIF metadata. Then it also has the boolean searches than can be combined with the other sorting features so that you can...
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Looking after the customers using the iPad →
Running a business is all about getting customers, doing the job and getting paid. All things in between that too and there is software that you can get to run on the iPad to make this easier.
Specialist database CRM database software and also things like Filemaker Go for iPad that you can set up anyway you want to get at the Filemaker database you have on the desktop computer.
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Using the iPad in Enterprise or to do business →
There are point of sale apps that will create invoices and other business documents to make your business workflow smoother in operation and even some that will allow you to take payments by credit card.
How do you use the iPad to enhance your business. The iPad is more than a toy. It is a serious tool for making money.
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Will iCloud take over the reigns of moving files... →
Dropbox is very useful and will continue to be so even when developers start to use the iCloud API to create apps that will give the doc synchronisation between iOS and Mac.
It will take a better implementation of the iCloud sync than happens with the iWork iCloud apps right now. At the moment there not a full round tripping service between iOS devices and Mac OSX. Going between iOS devices is...
7 tags
Looking at the files on your desktop computer... →
experience the weirdness of seeing Windows Explorer on your iPad and accessing all the files on your Windows computer by using FileBrowser for iPad. You can also use it to connect to your Mac, LINUX, or to a network attached storage. When you go to the network attached storage fire file browser you don’t even have to switch on your main computer to get to it.
What I do is to save all of my...
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Grabbing some books to read or to listen to from... →
I really do like listening to audio books, but I also like reading. I am getting more into the idea of having electronic books that I can read on my iPad rather than going for the paperbacks.
Today I have also seen that it is possible to get books as applications for the iPad. I have just downloaded one and I plan to have a look at it and see how it works and compare the experience with an...
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The best PDF reader for iPad users →
This has to be, without a doubt GoodReader. (Unless you know different) Not only does it let you read pdf documents„ you can annotate them in a variety of ways.
When you use GoodReader with Dropbox for iPad also you have a great method of moving files on and off the iPad. I found it easy to connect by wifi using Goodreader and I was dragging and dropping files into the app with wild...
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Braving the rush to get iOS5 and iCloud onto my... →
Took ages to download the software updates and there were a lot of megabytes to download with a Lion update, the iOS5 and the iCloud components. The there was a day of testing and trying the facilities in the new software and still there is more to look at.
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Reading list and Reader in Safari iOS 5 →
It can be very distracting trying to read a article on my website when there is all sorts of rubbish around the edges in the sidebars. To combat this when looking at a webpage on iOS five Safari you will be able to turn on the reader. This will give you a very clean view of the text and pictures of the website that you want to read and look at.
If you see a website that you want to read later...
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Improvements to the iOS5 camera application →
An ability to be able to take a photograph quickly will be a useful thing to have, with the new speedy iOS five camera application. No more missing that special moment that was just fleeting, too fleeting for you to be able to snap with your iPhone 4 camera.
A combination of the new iPhone 4S and the iOS five enhanced photo/camera software will let you grab image, that you would have otherwise...
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Let the iPad remind you with an iOS 5 feature →
Quite often I go to the supermarket and forget to take the shopping list, that is what happens when you write your shopping list on a piece of paper. Instead we could write our shopping list using Reminders from iOS five. Our list of reminders will appear in our alerts on our iPhone or iPad when we arrive at the shop, if we use the location-based reminder tools.
On account that we will have our...
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Today is iOS 5 and iCloud day →
My finger is on the button ready to download the latest and greatest from Apple. I am quite excited really as the services that will come to us today for free are game changing in some ways for the way that we will use our computers. The interaction that we will have between out iOS devices, our data and the applications that use the data will change significantly.
* Photos being streamed from...
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Editing iPad photos with Adobe Photoshop express →
As you would expect from Adobe, the iPad photo editing application, Photoshop express is is a polished well thought out app that works well. You have some fine control over the enhancement controls such as exposure, saturation, contrast and tint. The effects and borders are good to use in that they are not silly, in order to take away from the photo.
It is easy to straighten a photograph, or...
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Editing photos on you iPad with QQ Image Editor HD →
With QQ Image Editor HD you can draw right in the same way as you do with Skitch, although you don’t get the nice looking arrows that you get with Skitch. You can put some vomit inducing borders around your photographs, or you could use the collage feature within this iPad photo edit application, that actually looks quite cool.
You do also get the facility of being able to use some fairly...
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Free iPad Photo Editing Application →
Free is always good was a type of software you are looking for and here we have a free iPad photo app called photo pad and is by Zak. SAG also make skins, keyboards and iPad covers and as a gift they are giving us this iPad photo editing application for free.
You can do the usual basic photo editing, cropping, saturation adjustments, adding filters or a tint to give your photos something quite...