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Where are my Comic Life Styles?




Comic Life is a great app for creating comics very simply, quickly and uses a drag and drop interface.

I recently upgraded my Mac version of Comic Life to version 2 and one “change” was starting to annoy me.

In version 1 when you created a title you could then select from a drop down list and choose from a variety of styles (the deluxe version had many more than the “free” version that came with many Macs and I how I was introduced to Comic Life.

Plasq were in the Mac App Store from day one with Comic Life 2 and though I could have upgraded to 2 (as I have version 1) I decided to purchase and install Comic Life 2 via the Mac App Store. I mainly did this as it was much easier and quicker than trying to upgrade, I wanted updates to be easier and also I could in future install on other Macs as you can with apps from the Mac App Store.

With version two though when I started to use it I was very disappointed to find that the variety of styles you got with version 1 appeared to be missing in version 2!

I did try and search the FAQ, help and support without much success. I looked through the menus, and though there was a way of importing styles…

I had no idea what file I would be looking for or where I would get such a file.

After pretending to ignore the problem… I decided that there must be a way and after a recent update and still seeing no styles I decided to search and dig a little deeper and possibly even post to the Plasq forum.

In the forum though I did find a reference to styles in Magiq, that said.

When you start Comic Life Magiq – make sure you choose the Deluxe Styles template from the Template chooser. Otherwise you will just end up with a blank template with no styles.

Hmm….

Tried that with the Template Chooser and yes there are lots of styles in there….

Now the next question is how do you export those styles for use in other templates?

Well that was answered by the help in the end.

Choose Format->Import Styles.... A file browsing sheet appears. Locate and select the comic that has the styles you wish to import and click "Import." The styles are added to your comic.

In other words you import an actual comic you’ve created to add the styles to your new comic.

All starts to make sense now…

Okay back to creating comics.

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Wasn’t Gingerbread…

So there was me thinking I was due an update to Android 2.3 for my Google Nexus One, otherwise known as Gingerbread…

However no it wasn’t.

It was only an update to 2.2.2

Disappointed, well not really, I can wait…

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Gingerbread for the Nexus One

Well my Google Nexus One told me today that a system update was available. I couldn’t upgrade as I was only on a GPRS connection and really you should be on wifi or a decent 3G connection, no really you should be on wifi!

I am assuming and hoping it is Gingerbread, or Android 2.3. Looking at the new features, this is no Froyo, but I am looking forward to an improved copy and paste experience.

Gingerbread 2.3 now provides support for NFC Near-field communications, however I don’t think the Nexus One hardware actually supports this.

So not many huge changes, but will be interesting to see the performance improvements.

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MiFi Problems

I have been having a few issues with my MiFi, in the main it keeps dropping connections and failing to allow devices to connect.

Now I think it is a battery life issue, once the device runs out of power, it drops the 3G connection and the wifi stops working. The lights on it are never that clear about what the status, but the browser configuration (once connected) seems to work fine.

Now my MiFi is an original Novatel model and I’ve not updated any firmware since I got it, so that’s on my list of things to try.

Generally though when it does work, it works a treat. I also like that if push comes to shove I can use it as a 3G dongle via a USB cable.

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Making iPhone ringtones

There are various apps you can buy for making ringtones for your iPhone, however if you have a Mac, you can very easily use Garageband to do exactly this, it will also very easily move the ringtone from Garageband to iTunes and then it can be synced to your iPhone.

First create your ringtone in Garageband. I have used music from my iTunes collection by dragging it in and cropping the track to the piece that I want to use as a ringtone. You could of course record a ringtone, use Apple loops to compose a ringtone, or even use the different iLife effects to create a soundeffect ringtone.

Once you are happy with your ringtone, from the menu

Share -> Send Ringtone to iTunes

Basically that’s it.

Simple.

Of course it can much easier on other phones that allow you to use music tracks or mp3 files straight off as ringtones!

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Upgraded

Took the plunge and decided to upgrade my copies of iPhoto and iMovie to the new versions. I bought the new versions from the Mac App Store. The whole process was simple and seamless with the downloads of 600MB each not taking a huge amount of time, thanks to my fast FTTC connection. I wouldn’t envy anyone trying to do this on a slow ADSL connection (like what I use to have) as it would take an age. Actually think about downloading Call of Duty 4 from the Mac App Store which comes in at a weighty 6.85GB.

I do like the functionalty of the new App Store, it is easy (almost too easy) to download apps and install them. I think Apple is onto a winner here.

Of course the App Store applications (and to be honest most OS X updates) can be very large and this means that you do need to have a fast broadband connection with a large limit. The same can be said for iTunes downloads too. It is very easy now to reach any limit your ISP places on you.

So what of the versions of iPhoto and iMovie, well quite like some of the new features of iPhoto though it doesn’t seem as zippy as the previous version. The navigation as you edit or view images does seem more intuitive than it did before.

Still have not really had a chance to play with the new version of iMovie, but pleased to see that it has enhanced audio editing tools as that was causing me a few headaches with the previous version.

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iPhone Portable Wifi Hotspot


One of the real benefits of running Froyo on my Google Nexus One has been the facility to use it as a portable wifi hotspot. I’m not sure how long I will be able to do this for now, as T-Mobile have recently changed their terms and conditions on using their network for internet. I do have a Web n Walk Plus extra on my (legacy) T-Mobile contract. Though if T-Mobile decide to withdraw that, I need to think about how I can connect to the internet whilst mobile. Instead of the Google Nexus One, I can always use my MiFi, with which I use a PAYG Three SIM card.

In the US, Apple have announced they are going to release a new version of the iPhone for the Verizon network. Now I am not going to use that, but in the detail, it has emerged that the Verizon iPhone will now be able to do a similar portable wifi hotspot trick that a Froyo Android device can do. Before this “tethering” with the iPhone was restricted to a single device and didn’t work with the iPad. An iPad would work with the iPhone acting as a portable wifi hotspot.

So at this time, I am thinking that if Apple (as is expected) release a new iPhone in the summer, and the UK telcos play along, I will be able to use the iPhone as a portable wifi hotspot. What would be nicer if they added it as an upgrade for the existing iPhone 4.

Update

According to MacRumors and other sites it looks like that Apple are prepping a 4.3 upgrade that will allow existing GSM iPhones to have the portable wifi hotspot feature.

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Limit reached…

Last month I got very close to reaching my broadband cap. The account I have with Plusnet (a legacy account) has a limit of 80GB. When I had my ADSL connection I never got close to the limit. Having upgraded my connection to FTTC (fibre) and having 37Mb/s download speed means it is now much easier for me to reach the limit.

I know that I got close to the limit due to the holiday season, spending a lot of time at home meant not only was I using the connection a lot, but the family were also streaming a lot of video too. BBC iPlayer is great for catching up with programmes you have missed, but also means using a lot of data.

One of the features of Plusnet I like is that the cap does not apply to downloads between 12am and 8am. This is great for downloading stuff from iTunes, but less useful for streaming BBC iPlayer content. I usually watch BBC iPlayer content through the TV, it has BBC iPlayer built in, however it doesn’t allow me to download BBC content and play back later, I have to stream live!

The other problem I am having is that scheduling iTunes downloads is problematic.

Prior to getting FTTC I could before I went to bed I could set iTunes to download movies and TV programmes knowing that the majority of the download would be during the cap free period between 12 and 8. However FTTC is so fast that it only takes ten minutes to download a movie from iTunes so generally I download when I wake up and not when I go to bed (I am usually in bed before midnight). What I would prefer to do is let iTunes download any big purchases after midnight. It’s not just movies but also some iPad apps are in excess of 500MB. I would also download OS X and Windows updates overnight, again with my old connection the majority of the download would take place in the cap free time, now with the faster connection it’s done very quickly.

Luckily Plusnet provide a decent tool for measuring how much data I have used and also warn me when I get close.

However this does show that ISPs need to rethink their bandwidth caps once more people can get FTTC.

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Mac App Store goes live!

After the announcement last year, today saw Apple’s OS X App Store for Macs go live.

This is an obvious move for Apple following the success of the App Store for iOS devices.

For me this is a great way of buying Apps, not having to worry about creating accounts on multiple websites and an easy way of installing Apps. I don’t think this will stop me buying Apps from websites, but if an App is available on the App Store I think this might tempt me more to make that purchase.

Impressed that some of the Apple Apps are “cheaper” than their boxed counterparts, Aperture for example is £173 in the main Apple online Store for the boxed edition and just £44.99 in the App Store.

It wouldn’t surprise me to see Microsoft doing something very similar for Windows and Google making Android and Chome a more coherent experience.

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ITV Player and 4OD on the PS3


Noticed after my recent update to the PS3 that as well as BBC iPlayer that the PS3 can also access ITV Player and 4OD too.

The quality isn’t fantastic compared to the higher quality of BBC iPlayer, but certainly watchable. The interface is the same as on the ITV website so slightly challenging to navigate on a TV screen, but once you find what you need you can watch the programme in full screen.

I didn’t have any problems with the programme stream, however the adverts did buffer! One of the “issues” with both ITV Player  and 4OD is that yes you do have adverts, however you can’t fast forward through them!

My Sony TV which has built in access to BBC iPlayer however doesn’t yet have access to ITV Player and 4OD but does to FIVE on Demand. It’s now getting easier to view TV content when you want to not just when it goes out live.