Amazing Drawings Using LiveSketch HD
Some of Yoshitoshi Abe’s art, drawn using LiveSkecth HD , has recently been featured on YouTube, and it is nothing short of amazing. An example: he used his iPad to draw a great looking manga/anime style girl, in a matter of minutes. For the skeptics out there (most folks on YouTube actually think it is fake), I tried to re-create some of his steps. As you can notice, I am not meant to become a manga artist, but still, there is no doubt this video is genuine! Tags : Drawing , hd , livesketch , manga Category : iPad News Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds
iPad Quick Tip – View Page Source In iPad Safari
If you are a webmaster like me, and always wondered how to check the source of your web pages via your iPad, search no more: the folks at RavelRumba put together a nice “bookmarklet” that will allow you to have access to the source of the page you are looking at, simply by using a bookmark. To get it to work, simply follow these steps: Go to this page , and copy the bookmarklet (tap for more than 1 second, hit “Select All” then “Copy”). Create a bookmark via the “Add Bookmark” function in Safari (the plus sign next to the address bar). Don’t worry about the actual page you are bookmarking, it does not matter. Open the “Bookmark Bar” (the icon that looks like a book), tap “Edit” to edit the bookmark you just created. Replace the bookmark name with something friendly like “Check Source”, and delete the address that was initially bookmarked. Replace it with the code you just copied (long tap, then “Paste”). Save the bookmark. And voila, your iPad will now display the source of the page you are looking at, every time you use the “Check Source” bookmark. Kudos to RavelRumba for this simple yet extremely useful feature. Now that people are getting their iPads, we’ve started our iPad Quick Tips series to help you get the most out of your new gadget. We’ll post our tips on a regular basis so keep coming back to find out the latest tricks and tips. Tags : page , safari , source Category : Tech Tips , iPad News , iPad for Geeks Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds
The Only Mouse That Needs Regular Tune Ups [Mouses]
When Toyota gave the iQ, their tiny new four-seater, the tagline "nimble as a mouse," they were probably referring to the cheese-loving rodent. But just to cover all the bases, they turned one into a giant, functioning computer mouse, too. More
WinTV Soon To Be Able To Stream Live TV Straight To The iPad
Hauppauge just announced that the latest version of its WinTV application is now capable of streaming Live TV content directly to the iPhone and the iPad.
If you are not familiar with Hauppauge, the company builds TV tuner add-on cards for the PC, and to a lesser extent for the Mac. If you happen to have one of their WinTV-HVR solutions, the new WinTV software features a streaming server called WinTV Extend, that will allow you to stream your TV content to your iPad over either a home WiFi connection or over the Internet. All you need to do is to point your iPad to your home PC via Safari.
The new version of WinTV supporting this feature, v7.2, will cost you $9.95. It is not available for download just yet, but should be released in a few days. Note that there is no mention of a potential Mac version of the application.
Interview with EffectiveUI about Ideate App
Hello Everyone! Welcome back to our common talk section, PadGadget – Apps Interviews. A place where you can find out a bit more about apps and developers. I recently spoke to the folks from EffectiveUI , about their iPad experience, their Ideate app and their future plans. I had the chance to talk to Juan Sanchez, an Experience Architect at EffectiveUI. PadGadget Question: What are your initial impressions of the iPad as a device from a developer’s perspective? What about from a user’s perspective? From a development perspective, we had to really understand how the device will be used – how it will be held, handled, etc. When we developed Ideate , EffectiveUI’s sketching application for the iPad, the device wasn’t actually available yet, so we created a mock-up out of wood so that we could really understand the full user experience while we were creating the features and functions of the application. Building the Ideate application was a learning experience, for sure. From my own perspective, initially I wasn’t sure how the iPad would fit in with the technology I already had – my laptop and iPhone. I hadn’t planned on getting one right away, but ended up buying one because I knew I’d be developing for the device. Also, at home I noticed that I was using my laptop for casual, lightweight activity, which I now do on my iPad. One thing I found interesting is that before, with my laptop, my wife felt like she couldn’t interact with me because my laptop screen was up and acted as a sort of barrier. Now with my iPad, she feels like it’s OK to talk to me while I’m doing casual work. PadGadget Question: Can you tell us about EffectiveUI? Would like to hear how EffectiveUI was established and what drives your company vision. EffectiveUI is a full-service user experience (UX) agency with offices in Denver, Rochester, New York and Vancouver, British Columbia. We specialize in the custom design and development of Web, mobile, desktop and touch-enabled applications. Anthony Franco co-founded EffectiveUI in 2005 in the basement of his home in Loveland, Colorado, as a successful development shop. Because he understood the value of creating more meaningful Web, mobile and desktop interactions, Anthony began focusing his attention — and company direction — on UX. He found his niche in leveraging emerging technologies to create more compelling, and engaging immersive customer experiences across all platforms. PadGadget Question: What sparked your interest to develop for the iPad? Did you see anything in your customers that helped you make that decision? The concept of Ideate was actually created based on what we do at EffectiveUI – designing and developing user interfaces. We use paper sketchpads to keep track of our ideas as we visualize user interfaces for our clients. In order to share these sketches, though, I would have to scan the hard copies, e-mail them to myself and then distribute them among the team. EffectiveUI senior software developer Jonathan Branam and I thought it would be great to create an application that took the paper step out of the process and make it easier for us to share ideas with each other. The cool thing about it is because it’s digital, you can update it much more quickly. We set up a Flickr group where people can easily create and upload or download new templates. It’s interactive and always changing, evolving. This isn’t possible with a paper sketchbook; we’d have to print new versions with templates that couldn’t be easily changed. Once it’s printed, it’s set in stone. PadGadget Question: Your Ideate app is targeted to creative people. What was your experience while developing it? While Ideate is clearly a great tool for creative-types, as we developed the application, we discovered a number of different use cases that would benefit from the same application. We built design templates and clip graphics for physicians, coaches, landscape architects, teachers, fashion designers and more. Because it’s digital, we can make it work for anyone. We look at it as more of a communication tool versus an artistic platform. The application is providing the opportunity for people – anyone – to articulate and share the thoughts in their minds. One really fun aspect was creating the wooden prototype, as I mentioned before. It was interesting to put it in front of people and see how they were interacting with something new and different to them. We observed basic interactions, like how far people’s thumbs could reach, how they held the device, etc., and then we were able to incorporate their actions and reactions into the actual application. Once we had the device, it was great to be able to make quick iterations to the app as we got feedback from users via the App Store. PadGadget Question: Now that the iPad has been well received by the market, any new plans for EffectiveUI? Any new apps or ideas we’ll see from EffectiveUI? We’re constantly making updates and improvements to Ideate and will be adding new features in the upcoming versions that will make it easier for people to work together and share their ideas. We’ve also been approached by a number of clients to create iPad-specific applications or make adjustments to their current mobile apps to make them work effectively within the iPad environment. One thing we’re emphasizing with our clients, though, is that it’s important for companies to understand what their goals are for having an iPad application. Everyone wants to be on the iPad, but you have to think about how users are actually using the device, and make sure that the content/activity that you provide is relevant, useful and fits with users’ mindsets as they’re using the iPad. PadGadget Question: Before we let you go, do you have any other thoughts you’d like to share? I’m personally really excited to see how things evolve as adoption of the iPad moves forward. It will be interesting to see how device-to-device communications change – not just iPad-to-iPad, but iPad-to-iPhone, iPad-to-laptop, etc. There’s a Scrabble app out right now that is a great example of this; your iPad serves as the game board while your iPhone serves as your letter tray. Tags : app chat , app talk , Ideate app , interview Category : iPad News , iPad for Moms , iPad for Work Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds
BeejiveIM Coming To iPad!
Wired has been able to get a first look at Beejive’s upcoming IM app. Based on what we have seen, the app looks very attractive. Beejive’s iPad app was submitted to Apple on Wednesday for approval.
BeejiveIM has been a very popular social networking app for the iPhone. Now, the app is coming to the iPad, and it plans to join the iPad frenzy with lots of bells and whistles.
BeejiveIM will support multiple IM services, including AIM, Google Chat, Facebook chat and many others. The app will support both portrait and landscape mode, allow for sharing photos, voice-clips, mail and IM push notifications. BeejiveIM for iPad will be a standalone app, which means the iPad and iPhone versions will be sold separately.
We would all like to chat with our buddies while playing a game or reading email on our iPads. But, we cannot do that, just yet. We will need to wait until this fall, when Apple will release the iPhone OS 4, which introduces the ability to run multiple apps in the background. Hopefully, the OS 4 will allow us to use apps like BeejiveIM, while we play with other apps.
BeeJive will cost $6 when it becomes available on the App Store. We have been informed this price will be for a limited time. The app will cost $10 later. Stay tuned! We will let you know when the new BeejiveIM becomes available.
iPad Flies the Friendly Skies
On most flights you can’t even get a lousy bag of peanuts, but in the near future you just might get an iPad. London based Bluebox Avionics has ported their bluebox AI In Flight Entertainment (IFE) system to the Apple iPad. Bluebox AI allows passengers to watch the latest in-flight movies, listen to music, read magazines and play a wide range of games from the Apple App Store. Airlines have historically taken a number of approaches to in-flight entertainment ranging form standard overhead systems, in-seat units and even portable units. This is the first solution to use the iPad as a commercialized in-flight system. Bluebox takes an innovative approach by using WiFi to deliver entertainment and data services instead of a more complex and costly wired solution. They also offer the airlines customized apps to differentiate and brand their passenger service. Bluebox said they will be launching in July with an undisclosed international carrier and they plan to offer the system to other carriers shortly afterwards. We can definitely see this being offered by the airlines to their premium first and business class passengers. The iPad is a hot item right and fits the premium image many airlines are trying to achieve to differentiate themselves from their competitors. With its long battery life, large screen, diverse media and app eco-system, we feel the iPad is an ideal travel companion . Next time you’re in the air and a flight attendant asks if they can get you anything, you might just want to ask them if they have an iPad you can use. Tags : Airplane , BlueBox , Entertainment , IFE , Travel Category : iPad News Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds
Speed Dating on the iPad
Still checking out the dating scene? Guess what? There’s an app for that! The SpeedDate iPad app allows you to meet local singles with the swipe of your finger. This new app is provided by online dating site, SpeedDate.com . Connect with other singles in your area based on the criteria you setup in your profile. Picky about the type of person you’d like to meet? No problem. Search for singles with certain characteristics, jobs, level of education, etc. and then let the browsing begin. There are thousands of photos available for your review. When you find someone you’d like to meet, just send them an email or wink at them and let them know you’re interested. Limited time offer available in the App Store right now – “iPad users can contact ALL MEMBERS for FREE within the iPad App.” Who knows, maybe you’ll find the person of your dreams right there on your iPad! Tags : online dating , singles , speed dating Category : iPad News Powered by WizardRSS | Full Text RSS Feeds
