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Instagram Updated

I have always liked Instagram, the photo creation, editing and sharing app for the iPhone. I reviewed  it last year on my e-Learning Stuff blog and said:

As a free app it is certainly a really useful photo app. As a social network, well it is certainly no Flickr and not a Twitter either. The social network can only be accessed from the phone and that limits it in my opinion. As a photo app it’s great, as a social networking tool, less so.

Since then I have posted nearly 500 photographs to the service, which is more than one a day! I know that this is no Photoshop and nor is it something that professionals would use. But as a fun social app that creates interesting effects it’s great. I really like the images that the people I follow come up with and likewise I find it useful on what images I am taking people like. I find it an easy to add images to flickr that I can then add to my blog posts and I have been doing that for a while now.

Today we see an update to Instagram to version 2.0. They have completely revamped the camera experience.

It has live filters and live tilt-shift. There are four new filters.

I quite like that you can now turn the borders on and off. You can also rotate the photograph if you need to. Finally filtered photos save in high-resolution to photo library.

As for the update it seems to work and just as easy to use as the previous version.

Get Instagram in the App Store.

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EyeTV Mobile

I have been a fan of Elgato’s EyeTV devices for years now. They make it very easy to watch, record and edit TV on a Mac. My iMac with an Elgato EyeTV device replaced my video recorder years ago and as a result I never bought anything like a DVD recorder or similar. I use to use the excellent EyeHome to stream recorded video content to my TV, however the PSU failed and the software was never updated, so in the end I needed an alternative.

I now use two options, I encode the recordings for iPad, EyeTV then adds it to iTunes, I can then stream it through the Apple TV. Using Elgato’s h.264 Turbo HD hardware and software the conversion process is quite quick. My second option is to use the EyeTV app on the iPhone or the iPad that can access live TV and my recordings from the iMac. I can then either watch these on the iPad or using AirPlay put it on the TV through the Apple TV.

Of course all these options for using the iPad really depend on either, being at home, or using a wifi connection. If you don’t have wifi or have poor 3G (and a data limit) watching TV on the iPad.

I did quite like the idea behind the Tivizen EyeTV device.

Elgato’s powerful Tivizen device is small enough to slip into your pocket and take anywhere you go. Tivizen transmits the TV signal over to your iPad, iPhone, Mac, or PC wirelessly by joining your home Wi-Fi network or, when that is not available, by creating its own Wi-Fi hotspot. It has a small extendable antenna that receives the DTT (Freeview, or DVB-T) signal.

What did put me off was the fact that it was another battery powered device that would require charging.

It would appear that Elgato probably understand that kind of thinking as they are about to release a new EyeTV device for the iPad 2, the EyeTV Mobile.

EyeTV Mobile is made specifically for your iPad 2. Simply connect it to the dock connector and open the EyeTV Mobile app (available on the App Store). The television signal comes straight from the miniature telescopic aerial so you don’t need an internet connection. You get unlimited live TV on your iPad 2 without touching your data plan.

Using the special EyeTV Mobile App you plug the device into the dock connector and are able to watch live TV, under the assumption that you can pick up a signal using the miniature aerial. I will say previous attempts to use the included miniature aerials that came with previous EyeTV devices I have bought have generally not been much of a success. I am not that confident that with this aerial it will work as advertised… but I guess where you are will make a difference.

There is another assumption about this device and that is, well it is for me, that you watch a fair bit of live TV. To be honest I don’t watch much live TV. I think I am more interested about how this will work than whether it will allow me to watch live TV on my iPad.

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QR Codes on Platform 2


I am now seeing QR Codes more and more in what I would call the mainstream. My most recent observation was at my local railway station (managed by First Great Western) where I was checking the timetable and noticed the QR Code in the corner.

Looking at it in more detail, I just had to scan it in, well one does these kinds of things…

I use Optiscan on the iPhone as I have found it to be very reliable and certainly on the 3GS was the best option I found. The reason I like Optiscan is that it works nearly every time.

Of course all a QR Code is, is a shortened URL and no matter how easy it is to scan in with the phone, the key, the end result is how does the final web page look on your mobile device.

I wasn’t that impressed with the landing page as I had to click a link to actually get the timetable.

I am pretty sure that FGW have done that because the timetables change, but even if that was the case, they would also need to reprint the printed version so could then print a new QR Code. Another reason might be to gather stats from the landing page. The actual digital timetable was in PDF format and was usable on the iPhone.

However given the choice I think I would probably use the Train Times App (also available on Android) which also gives live travel information so you know if your train has been cancelled. The problem with a PDF timetable is that it won’t account for live changes to the timetable, you could certainly have a QR code on a printed timetable linking to a live timetable, and I think FGW should have done that.

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New Sony Tablets, the Tablet P

On one of my other blogs I recently wrote about a fondness for gadgets from Sony. Well it would appear that Sony are wanting to enter the Tablet market (again, anyone remember the Clié?)

Sony have announced the Tablet P and the Tablet S. I wrote about the Tablet P in a previous blog post.

Much of what I wrote in that blog post also applies to the Tablet P. However whereas the Tablet P is in some ways is a traditional Android tablet, the Tablet P is a completely different and in many ways very innovative Tablet design.

It has two screens in clamshell design. These are small 5.5” screens, bigger than the 4.3” screen of the PSP and there are two of them. The clamshell design means that one screen can be used for the display and the other for input. This could mean a keyboard filling the bottom screen, or a PSP style gaming interface.

Much of what I wrote about the Tablet S applies to the Tablet P, especially in terms of apps, games, books, music and video. It has DLNA capability, can play a wide range of video and audio, there are games, books and all the apps from the Android marketplace.

Like the Tablet S it runs Honeycomb, the optimised version of Android for Tablets. There is only one model available and it comes with 3G as well as wifi. It does come with limited storage with only 4GB built in, but unlike the iPad does have an SD memory card slot. The camera is only VGA, so okay for video calls and Skype, but not that good for taking photos or video.

Though I really like this concept, the thing that will stop me buying it, is the price. I don’t really see this as an iPad competitor, though I am sure Sony see it as that, I see it much more as an alternative to the iPod touch. The 8GB iPod touch is only £193, the Sony Tablet P is £499 which is in my opinion very expensive for a tablet device. It’s a clever design and with its back end support in terms of content, it can compete with the iPad or the iPod touch in that area, but £499 is a very uncompetitive price even for a device with an innovative design. I can’t see this selling, and I am sure then Sony will be forced to reduce the price.

Great looking Android device with access to lots of great apps and content, but let down by an expensive price!

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New Sony Tablets, the Tablet S

On one of my other blogs I recently wrote about a fondness for gadgets from Sony.

Well it would appear that Sony are wanting to enter the Tablet market (again, anyone remember the Clié?)

Sony have announced the Tablet P and the Tablet S.

The Tablet S in some ways is a traditional Android tablet with a 9.4” wide touchscreen. It runs Honeycomb 3.2, the newer version of Android designed specifically with tablets in mind. It has a camera and a memory card slot.

Whereas most tablets rely on a case to slant the screen if you are using the tablet on a desk or table, the Sony Tablet S has a slant built in. However unlike the iPad you can’t place it in a more vertical position, but you can get a cradle that will allow you to place it in a vertical position.

One of the criticisms laid against the HP TouchPad was its lack of responsiveness, the advertising behind the Sony S says that it has an “amazingly responsive touch panel and a more intuitive user interface” of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating and it will be interesting to see if the interface and responsiveness is as good (if not better) than the iPad.

In a similar vein to Apple’s AirPlay, the tablet comes with built-in DLNA media apps that can stream content to “media entertainment devices” which means things like Sony Bravia TVs and the PS3.

Unlike the iPad which has limited native playback, the Sony Tablet S can play a lot of media formats.

In terms of audio it can play AAC, mp3, WAV, WMA, WMA Pro, FLAC, MIDI, Ogg Vorbis. For video it can play H.263, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, WMV. It can also display the following image formats JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, WBMP. This means that the Tablet S can play not only many Apple friendly formats, it can also play Windows friendly formats too. Of course it wouldn’t be able to play iTunes protected content, so if you have already made an investment in iTunes movies and TV shows then you probably won’t like the fact that it won’t play on the Tablet S. It also won’t natively play DivX files, so like the iPad you will need to rely on a third party app to do this.

I am sure one of the reasons behind the success of the iPad is the back end infrastructure which is iTunes. Not only is there the App Store, but you also can buy video and audio from iTunes Store. Sony may be able to compete on a more level playing field with Apple, as well as the Android Market Place, Sony (in some countries and hopefully will include the UK) will be able to let users “rent or purchase thousands of new movies and popular TV shows from Video Unlimited.” Music Unlimited sounds more like a subscription service allowing you access to seven million music tracks. Both are renamed versions of Qriocity.

Though I much prefer the Kindle app (partly as I have a Kindle too) there is a built in e-reader app, and as Sony has had an e-book store for a while for its e-readers devices, you can access this store direct from the Tablet S.

I am sure part of the success of the iPad (and more the iPod touch) has been casual gaming, a quick fun gaming experience. Of course Sony the company behind the PSP have made gaming part of their tablet and you can access PlayStation games through the tablet. This makes this Android tablet different to all the other tablets, you of course have access to all the other games available in the Android marketplace.

With access to apps, games, books, music and video, this means that consumers can make a real choice about what tablet they want to buy, a much more level playing field. Though I don’t think Sony will ever be able to match the iPad though, even if their Tablet is better in some areas and can match the iPad in others.

There are three versions of the Tablet S, all with wifi and one with 3G, however that 3G version only comes with 16GB of memory. Now with the iPad I found that quite limiting however with the Tablet S there is a memory card slot, so at least you can expand the storage.

I think one of the decided factors for me would be battery life, I am still impressed with the battery life of the iPad. The Tablet S advertises it’s battery life at 8 hours and I wonder if this is a real 8 hours or a don’t do anything with the brightness turned down 8 hour battery life.

I do quite like the look of the Sony Tablet S, I do like Sony stuff and if I was at this time choosing a tablet, I would be giving serious consideration to this new Sony Tablet. The price is similar (from £399) and that probably is now what will hold this tablet back, if it had been released at the same time as the original iPad it would have been a serious contender. However releasing it now, I am sure given the choice most people will choose the iPad, not because it is better, but merely because people perceive it to be better.

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Adobe CreatePDF

One of the nice things I remember moving from mainly using Windows to Mac was that OS X had PDF creation built into the operating system. As a result I was no longer reliant on Adobe Acrobat for creating PDFs. Now don’t get me wrong, Adobe Acrobat is a really powerful application and for professional proofing and printing I still use it, however for quickly creating PDFs to send via e-mail or put on the VLE, it was like using an articulated truck to deliver newspapers!

Of course when sending stuff to printers it makes much more sense if they can’t accept InDesign to send them a high quality PDF and the options available in Acrobat are there when you need them.

Of course when you are only “delivering newspapers” then the PDF creation built into OS X is more than adequate and enough for most people.

So it’s interesting to see that Adobe have bought a PDF creation tool, Adobe CreatePDF, to iOS devices.

Adobe CreatePDF brings the same high-quality PDF creation as Adobe Acrobat to your iPad, iPhone and other iOS devices.

Some apps I have used on iOS do allow you to create PDFs, Pages for example allows you to send your Pages document to someone via e-mail as a PDF. However DocumentsToGo which can create Word documents doesn’t allow me to send as PDF via e-mail. Of course of you receive a Word document or similar via e-mail and then want to pass onto someone as PDF, it can be a bit of a hassle to open it in Pages, convert to PDF and then send it. I suspect it may impact on the formatting of the document too.

For these kinds of things I see a use for Adobe CreatePDF, it could be useful for that. You will need a decent internet connection though, as the PDF creation doesn’t happen on the device, the app uses Adobe’s online services to create the PDF, so it sends the document to Adobe’s servers, does all the processing online and sends you back a PDF of your document. They say this is to ensure a high quality PDF, which is why you are buying this app I guess.

I am sure the £6.99 price though will stop a fair few people from buying the app, but Adobe do have a reputation for expensive software, the PC version of Acrobat for example is £301.89 from Amazon. Does £6.99 sound too expensive now?

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Android Screengrabbing Failure

Reading a tweet recently from an Android user that a recent update to their phone now allowed them to make screengrabs. Alas that is still not the case with the Google Nexus One.

I was pleased to hear that Skitch, the screen grabbing app that I use on my Mac was coming to Android, disappointed to find out that it doesn’t actually take screenshots.

At the moment I am using the Android SDK to take screenshots, which is workable, but not when you are in the field. I recently for example needed to take some screenshots of a photo app, the only way I could do it was by pointing the camera at photos on the screen of my Mac! Not very authentic and didn’t really demonstrate the power of the camera app.

I am hoping that Google will realise the value of screenshots and how easy it is on the iPhone and make it part of Android in the future.

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Going up in the Air!


For the past few years I have been using a MacBook Pro 13” laptop as my main travelling, event, conference, working from home computer. The reason for the 13” was that it was small and light and had a reasonably good battery life, but also was powerful enough for audio and video editing as well as my usual travel staples of e-mail, browsing and social media.

Over the last year or so I have found that I am more and more leaving the MacBook Pro at home and taking the iPad when travelling or at events and conferences. Despite the limitations of no physical keyboard (sometimes I do carry my Bluetooth keyboard) limited power and capability to do heavy duty video and audio editing; from the perspective of doing e-mail, blogging, web browsing and social media, it is very good at what it does.

When I was given the opportunity to upgrade my MacBook Pro I did think about leaving it as is, or handing it back to be redeployed. In the end after some thought I decided to go with the MacBook Air 11” model. The 13” MacBook Pro will now go back into the staff pool to be redeployed as it is still powerful enough for how others might use it.

I went with the reasonably basic model, but did opt for 4GB of RAM as I have found in the past that OS X does perform much better with lots of RAM. I only got the 64GB SSD and am concious that this may prove problematic if and when I come to do some serious video editing on the machine. Without Firewire it’s not as though I can use an external Firewire drive either (as I have done with the old 13” MacBook Pro model).

Due to end of financial year issues this is not the new 11” model, as Apple announced it after we had placed and received our order. We couldn’t wait due to finance procedures and Apple wouldn’t exchange (as they don’t do that for institutional educational customers). As a result it doesn’t have the backlit keyboard and neither does it have a Thunderbolt port which may have then been an option. I think as a result I will be doing short videos and will have to move content off from the Mac on a regular basis to other storage.

So what of the MacBook Air then?

Well I have been very impressed with the speed of it, the original (original) MacBook Air was very underpowered, whereas this one just zips along. I did my usual test where I select all the applications in the applications folder and press Command O to open them all…. at which point the dock becomes full of bouncing icons. It handled that test really well.

The battery life is good, but is no iPad. As a result unlike with the iPad, if and when I do take the MacBook Air to a conference or event, I know I will be searching for power points. The 13” MacBook Air with its larger size has a much better battery life. I am getting three to four hours which to be honest is really good, but not like the iPad which for me lasts all day.

I do like the screen which though has quite a small resolution compared to some other Macs at 1366×768 looks bright and sharp. Yes it is a glossy screen and I know for some that means they won’t like it. I am less

It’s lovely and light and I am a bit scared it might get bent in my bag when I take it to my first conference, so need to look out for a way of ensuring that doesn’t happen.

I am curious to see if the MacBook Air will supplant my iPad in terms of travel and event usage. Only time will tell.

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Making silly images with Motion FX

If you like Photobooth on your Mac then you are probably going to like Motion FX.

This free app uses your iSight camera in your Mac to which you can add visual effects based on movement, faces, mouse movements or movement in general.

Autodesk® Motion FX lets you create stunning real-time video effects using your computer’s camera.

Simply select your favorite preset effect, and create an incredible visual experience by moving in front of your computer’s camera. A preset cycling mode lets you automatically cycle through effects without lifting a finger. You can also use the Face Tracking technology of OS X Lion to emit effects from any faces visible to your camera.

If you want more personalization, there are more options you can play with in Motion FX. Color Detection lets you select a color from the live camera feed from which to emit effects, and with Effect Paint you can play with fluids using your trackpad or mouse. Video Warp mode lets you distort live video using your mouse or trackpad.

There is a live video effect, but unlike Photobooth you can only capture snapshots.

Not sure if there are any actual useful uses for this app, but you (or your kids) may have some fun using it.

Get Motion FX in the App Store.

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Roaring and Trackpadding

Having now used Lion OS X much more I am still getting use to the gesture interface through the Trackpad.

I did try “natural” scrolling for a while, but in the end, and I am sure partly because I still use Snow Leopard on a regular basis, I had to turn it off.

If you are wondering what “natural” scrolling is, well Apple decided that in OS X we had to use the same scrolling technique that was used on the iPad. On the iPad you generally “pull” the page up and “push” it down, so if you move your finger up the page the document scrolls down, and if you move your finger down the page the document scrolls up. This is completely the opposite to how the trackpage on existing Snow Leopard Macs work, likewise if you have a scroll wheel on your Mac. Then if you push up, you expect the page to go up and if you pull down you expect the page to go down.

So though “natural” scrolling feels somewhat natural on the iPad, I don’t like it that much on a trackpad on a Mac. I am sure if all my Macs (home and work) were Lion then I probably would go with “natural” scrolling however as my main Mac at home and the one at work are still Snow Leopard I am sticking with “unnatural” scrolling!

The use of three finger gestures to move around the desktop and applications is something that I feel should be smooth and effortless, however as not all the applications are use are full screen capable I have found it to be less than satisfactory when moving from a full screen application such as Safari to Chrome, or from Pages to Twitter. I am finding it confusing for example when I have two instances of Safari running in full screen mode. This can happen if I open a link in a new window rather than a new tab. Still haven’t also got the hang of Mission Control in finding what I have open, I think I actually prefer the chaos of the older Expose when every window was displayed… Though I do quite like how the three finger gesture upwards brings up Mission Control. Must remember to use that more often!

The four finger gestures for opening Launchpad take a little getting use to and if you have a small trackpad (and big fingers) you have to carefully do the gesture otherwise I have found it doesn’t work for me.

So far I am not that impressed or that contented with the gesture interface and the trackpad. Likewise the Lion additions of Launchpad and Mission Control are still taking some getting use to.