On this site you can learn how to work with video in your iOS Keynote and iMovie projects. Using content from YouTube and Vimeo, importing iPod friendly video files from the web and mail... have all been covered. But in reality most video people will send you won't be iPod friendly (a .mp4 file), so what do you do with .avi, .wmv, .mpg, etc. files? On a desktop you would convert them into something you can use, and that is what we will do here. The following shows you how to convert general video file formats into mp4 videos (using only an iPhone/iPad). In addition the converted movies will be automatically transferred into your devices camera roll, so they are ready to be included into your Keynote presentation or iMovie project.

All digital video files have a codec which basically tells the device how the movie information is compressed. Transcoding is reencoding video from one codec to another, like turning a mpg into a avi. For the iPhone/iPad we want to convert everything into mp4 files. Videos in this format are hardware accelerated and fully supported by all video apps, just like footage you shoot yourself with the camera app.

So we need a transcoding app... which is... Video Converter App from Shenzhen Socusoft Co. This app accepts video via a couple methods. It is "Open In..." aware, so if someone emails you video just tap and hold on the attachment. If it is ready to go (iPod friendly) just tap "Save to Camera Roll", otherwise select the Video Converter app to start the transcode process.

The app also accepts movies from Dropbox and Microsoft's cloud store age service, SkyDrive. The app will let you upload to it via wifi, and iTunes File Sharing. It will also let you covert video already in you camera roll, useful if you want to make a smaller version of a movie you have already created. You will also need this if you are having problems using videos you import with the camera connection kit. Apple's camera kit will import and play many camera formats, but you may not be able to use them with Keynote or iMovie. Let the converter app make them into mp4s, and you should be all set to go.

Obviously step one is buy and install the app. To demonstrate the process we'll be using Dropbox as a video source. Dropbox is a cloud storage solution, so I recommend converting any videos you might need before you might lose internet connectivity (like getting on a plane). The app will work without the network, but you'll want to at lease download any videos you might want to use to the device.

Tap the (+) button and select Dropbox.

Find and tap on a video file. I'm using a sample wmv movie. It will download the video to the app and add it to the source queue. Nothing has been converted yet, keep adding videos until you have everything you need converted added.

When you are ready tap "Convert Now."

Processing time is going to depend on the size of the source material and the desired quality of the final video. Here the SD NASA MPEG video processed very quickly, while the HD wmv sample movie was about double real time. Not bad considering.

After chugging along... success! You will be sent to the output screen.

In the "Converted Video" screen you can view and share your finished movies. By default the app automatically saves a copy to the camera roll, so if your working with Keynote or iMovie your all set. Switch to either app and import into your project.

You can change this in the settings panel. You can also alter the quality and size of your finished video.

Note though that a copy still exists in the converter app so remember to delete them so you don't run out of space on the device.

I have tested out the app with the following formats: avi, mkv, wmv, mpg, divx, xvid, mov, mp4, and 3gp. All test videos converted without problems. So if you are worried about getting some strange video file, this app has got your back and you can use anything people are willing to send.

There are several ways to use your iPad to record audio, but lately I have found that I need my iPad to do other things (like as a prompting system). An audio recorder (the Zoom H4N or Tascam DR-07MK2) offers high quality, portable audio capture. These small, battery powered, devices can be placed close to the source and are great independent backups to the mics on a video camera. That doesn't mean the iPad is out for audio though. There are great audio tools on iOS, so here is how you get the best of both worlds.

I use two independent audio backups, because good audio is important component to a recording session. Both recorders capture excellent sound, but excel in different situations. The Tascam is super light weight and pocketable. The Zoom H4N is larger, but allows you to connect and power phantom microphones.

The two XLR connectors on the H4N will work with a wide variety of professional microphones.

The H4N uses standard SD cards to store its data.

The Tascam also uses memory cards, in this case the tiny microSD format. Luckily a simple adapter will transform it to a full size SD card. We will use the data on these cards to get the audio on to our iOS device.

Ideally we would just pop them into the camera kit SD card adapter, but that only works for images. We are going to need a better SD Card reader. I recommend the Maxell Airstash (~$150 at Amazon, or about the cost of a audio recorder).

Looking like a oversize thumb drive, the AirStash will let you read and write to a SD card via an adhoc WiFi network. So the the first step is to use your audio recorder as you normally would, then take the memory card out and put it into the AirStash.

Power on the AirStash, then connect the iPad to the AirStash WiFi network. Now launch the free AirStash app. From the app, navigate the card's folder structure until you see the audio files (usually .wav files). Select a file, then tap on "Send to App."

After the audio downloads, the Open In dialog will appear.

Select an audio editor like TwistedWave or Hokusai. From these apps several audio operations can be preformed, like Normalizing the volume or trimming. Any app that supports wav files can be used. With an AirStash, any devices that uses SD cards are accessible from the iPad or iPhone.

Apps that download and save YouTube videos are common for good reason--Google discourages them. If you can't find an app, here is a method that by-passes the problem.

First of all the app route is faster and gives you better quality video. It has some issues, but take a look here for more information.

TubeBox was pulled from the App Store, but Instatube has recently been added which seems to replace all the functionality (so much so the instructions don't have to be changed). I had a problem where my iPhone 5 didn't cache videos (which also made saving the video to the camera roll also konk out). As reported in the comments below, after repeatedly reloading the app the download section (the fourth icon in the bottom toolbar) appeared. I had no problems on the two iPads I tested. So seems to be a bug here.

OK. The app route is out, but the goal is still to download a YouTube video (cache it) then save it to the device's camera roll. In the camera roll you can include it just like any footage you shot to iMovie, Keynote, or whatever app you want.

Lets tackle the problem in pieces, first is there a web site which will take a YouTube URL and let you download the video in mp4 format (iOS friendly)? ...and without too much difficulty I found two.

www.youtubeinmp4.com

This site works well. It is reasonably fast, and while the video have been degraded--they are still usable (SD quality). I did experience temporary availability problems, and the ads are annoying. (I disable Flash and I notice what could be some nasty flash stuff go by--so be careful.)

http://www.clipconverter.cc

The mobile version of clipconverter (right) is very nice. The site works well and the video produced is higher quality than the first site. But that quality comes at a price, download speed is a quarter (4x longer download time).

On the iPad the desktop version of the site has more options: quality, bit rate, aspect ratio, etc.. So you can tailor the video to your needs. You need to keep it set to mp4 for this to work.

When you a pasting in a YouTube URL, it needs to be the full length desktop URL. Not the shorted URL the YouTube app gives you.

Here is how you convert a Youtu.be shortened URL:

http://youtu.be/_OBlgSz8sSM

to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

We have two sites that can give is the video in mp4 format. Now we just need an app to download it and be able to transfer it to the camera roll.

Lucky for us I know one right off the bat. Filer from Dan Leehr LLC ($3.99) in the original Keynote article will do the job.

Launch Filer. In the Web view, make sure you are set to Browse mode (upper right). This this mode you can navigate the web. If you encounter a downloadable file the app will ask if you want it.

Pick one of the two site to use. I'm using www.youtubeinmp4.com for speed.

Paste in the full desktop YouTube URL to what you want.

Tap "Download in mp4".

The next page will complain about a missing plug-in. If think this is a flash ad page that is being sent to us, but Filer asks to download the video. Tap Download. When it is finished downloading the video will appear in the file list (right pane).

Tap and hold on the video until the Open-in dialog panel appears. Tap Save to Camera Roll.

The other site operates differently but the steps are basically the same.

Watching the Today in iPad podcast, a viewer asked for help converting his Keynote presentation to Quicktime (a Mac video format) in order to upload it to YouTube. He is a teacher and wants his students to be able to see his lessons from home. Various solutions mostly involving using a desktop were proposed, but it got me thinking of iPad only methods. On a desktop, creating a screencast of the presentation would accomplish our goals. A screencast, or screen sharing, has a computer save the output of the computer display to disk, often also including audio from a microphone. This creates a video perfect for demonstrating computer tasks. We need an App that lets us do this. Lucky for us that App exists (a couple actually). See how to output your Keynote presentation to Youtube using only the iPad.

Screen Cast (Non Jailbreak)

If you jailbrake your iPad, the Display Recorder app has existed for a while now. With it you can record what is happening on your device's display while also recording audio from the builtin mic. Perfect--well if you're willing to jailbreak your iPad. Then a couple months ago an app called Display Recorder appeared in the App Store for $1.99. I quickly purchased it fearing a quick removal from the store by Apple. It was eventually removed but not as quickly as I thought it would be, and it turns out that it was removed because of a complaint from the jailbroken app's author (who hadn't submitted it after all).

DispRecorder main screen.

Time passes and DispRecorder and Display Rec. make brief appearance at various prices. All three apps work basically the same. Start a recording session by tapping a big red button. Press Home, then launch Keynote. Tap play slideshow, then begin presenting. Your voice will be recorded by the built-in microphone. Long tapping on screen will highlight on the slide with a red laser pointer (useful). When done, pinch-in to stop the slideshow. Switch back to the recording app, and tap the stop button. The audio and video will merge together and appear in the recording list along the left panel. You can play the videos, export them to the camera roll, and upload them to YouTube.

Recording the screen well, requires you to balance the devices speed and screen resolution to achieve the best results. Here a non-retina iPad (iPad 2 and iPad mini) worked well or a fast device like the iPhone 5. The iPad 3 with it's high res screen created video with lower frame rates (jerky video). Luckily most presentations don't need smooth video since you just need to go from slide to slide. Having said that Keynote extras captured fairly well on a iPad mini. Slide transitions, animations, and even embedded videos all recorded well.

Recording audio with the built-in mic works really well for our purpose as well. Keynote slides are suppose to be support material for a presenters' speech. Usually the main content gets left out and only the slides are retained. Here the speech and the slide are captured and saved together.

Now the bad news... unless you were lucky and got one of the three App Store versions of Display Recorder (now all pulled), you will have to go for the alternatives, below.

The Original Display Recorder (Jailbreak)

The classic image of jailbreaking is that everything is free, but this isn't the case. Display Recorder is $4.99 on Cydia. You need a Gmail account to authenticate, and use either Paypal or Amazon Payments to get it. Not to mention the latest jailbreak (evasion) to use the latest devices and iOS 6.

Not as pretty... tap the plus button on the upper right to start recording--and again in the dialog box. Now switch to Keynote as before.

The jailbreak app definitely has more export options. But all you really need is the ability to save to the camera roll.

I think the jailbreak version produces smoother video. Slide Transitions like Confetti and Movies in slides play better. The only problem being that when a video plays from within Keynote the audio recording from the mic seems to stop. Since the video is good, we can add new audio in iMovie. In fact a bit of editing, titling, and adding a few new segments--no one will know it was all done on an iPad.

iMovie and Explain Everything

Speaking of iMovie, since most presentations (Keynote, Power Point, whatever...) are simple. Screen capture each slide to the camera roll by simultaneous pressing the power and home buttons until you hear a camera shutter sound. Now you can create a new project on iMovie, then import your slides in as photos (there is a aspect ratio problem between the slide, 4:3, and iMovie, 16:9, that can be fixed in a couple ways). Narrate each slide by recording new audio. Not as fancy to start, but you can do a lot with iMovie.

You can adjust the slide transitions by double tapping the double facing triangle button between the clips. Your options are none, cross dissolve, or one based off of the current theme. Because we are working in a video editor, the video output should be very smooth.

On thing missing though is the red laser pointer to highlight areas that Keynote gives you. I generally like to use a white board to illustrate what I'm talking about. Wouldn't it be great if there was an app that combines all of this (screen casting, Keynote, and white boarding) all in one presentation tool?... We need Explain Everything.

Explain Everything lets you import a variety of documents, including Keynote, to use as slides in a presentation. You can then setup a recording session where the app captures your speech and how you interact with the app--not to different from Display Recorder. Except here not only can you highlight something by pointing to it, you can actually draw on the screen like a white board. You can also add objects like text, images, video, even web pages. Move and scale objects around. It all gets captures, except here you're not recording video on the fly. The app just records what is happening, and creates the video when you are ready to create the final movie. The results in much smoother video than constantly capturing the screen (especially on a retina iPad).

We don't have to screen capture each slide here, just open your presentation in Keynote. Then tap the wrench icon on the upper, right. Then tap Share and Print. Now select Open in Another App.

When it asks you to pick a format, select Keynote. After preparing the document, tap the blue Choose App button. The standard Open-in panel should then appear. Tap on the Explain Everything icon.

If you haven't used Explain Everything before the presentation will import as a new project, otherwise it will append the slides to the project you are working on. Be sure to switch to the home screen if you want to start a new presentation!

All the slides of the presentation are imported without having to screen capture each one. Each slide becomes an image object. By default the Hand tool is selected in the toolbar, this makes it too easy to accidentally move/scale/rotate the slide image. To fix this I suggest selecting the Inspector tool (square i icon). Tap on the slide image, so that the object commands appear. Tap Set as Background.

This locks the object and sends it to the bottom of the object order. Do this for all you slides. The slide controls are on the lower left. Now you won't move everything accidentally when you record yourself.

Let's create something simple. Go to slide 1. Tap the record button, then when the timer starts begin your speech. Advance your slides as needed. When the video is created the controls on the UI won't be visible. Try not to speak when you advance the slide, there seems to be a delay on the audio recording when you switch slides. When you have finished tap the Stop button.

You can increase the complexity by a lot. Use the Laser pointer tool to highlight points on your slides. Annotate them by drawing with the pen tool. Add objects which you can manipulate during the recording. You can even add video which you can telestrate just like Madden. But all this takes practice. You are doing all this stuff while recording yourself speaking--talk about multitasking! While you can record slide after slide, it's probably easier to record each slide individually.

You can upload directly to YouTube, or save to the camera roll for additional editing.

This will take a long time... Explain Everything saved the hard work of creating the actual video for the end. The plus side is that the animations are very smooth. There is also a Mac app available to off-load this to freeing up your iPad.

Overall there are plenty of ways to get your Keynote presentation on to Youtube. With the addition of your actual speech the presentations are probably more useful than just emailing the slides out as a PDF. Probably more effective too.

Yesterday a friend asked my how to save a video from an email to her iPod touch's camera roll. The video plays, so it's supported and everything--it would be just more convenient if it was with the rest of her videos. The video would be more useful too since then she could use it in other apps like iMovie, Keynote, etc. The solution is so simple it took me a couple hours to think of it while I was driving home.

To save a video to your camera roll from Mail, go to the message and scroll until you see the attachment icon for the movie. You played it before so it should already be downloaded. If you need to download it, tap on the icon to download it from the mail server (this could take a while). Tapping on the icon again the movie viewer will come up and the video will play.

Instead tap and hold on the icon until the "Open In" dialog appears (pre iOS 6 devices will just see a pop saying "Save Movie"--in this case just tap it).

Tap the second button, "Save to Camera Roll." and you are done.

Having the ability to save videos to your Camera Roll is very useful since iOS then lets you use the footage as if you shot it yourself. You can edit it iMovie, add it to your Keynote presentations, use it in any app that is willing to use it. So it was a big blow when I discovered that Apple had pulled the TubeBox app, which I used to save YouTube videos to my camera roll.

I immediately went on a quest to find a replacement app (not for me--my copy of TubeBox still works--but for you), but I wasn't expecting success since I know YouTube doesn't like downloader apps on the desktop much less mobile. Google, what happened to being so open? Unfortunately the results are that YouTube is still out but I did find an app that works with vimeo and Dailymotion.

Tube Downloader from Appsneon looks like it has the features we are looking for.... the ability to cache video from a website (possibly YouTube?) and export that movie to the camera roll. A couple days ago it was free, but it has since raised to $0.99 (no problem). There is a free version but it won't allow you to save to the camera roll. Go with the Pro version.

The app itself is pretty easy to use. Launch it. There are five tabs along the bottom. Select Browser. In the web view go to the page with your video. Lets test YouTube. Tap and hold on a video to bring up the Download options popup. Hopefully we just tap download and the video is saved to the iPad/iPhone.

Tapping the Downloads tab should show us any transfers that are taking place--up to ten simultaneous. The app will download in the background. When done they will appear in the Files tap. Settings is obvious. Here you can change the user agent which tells a website what king of machine and browser you are using. Site sometimes send different content to different devices. You can also turn on a web server to transfer videos to a desktop, and add a passcode to hide your videos from prying eyes. On to the first test.

Looks like YouTube isn't going to be an option. At least now the app shouldn't be pulled for violating Google's TOS. YouTube isn't the only player in town. Let's try a competitor. Dailymotion worked in TubeBox.

Now vimeo.

In both cases the videos can be saved to the camera roll, and inserted into a Keynote presentation with no problem.

Once the videos are in the camera roll, we can use them as if we shot the them with the built-in camera.

Further tests show that the app also works with metacafe and veoh. I use Plex as a personal media server, and it has a brand new web interface. Since all my videos are in a iOS friendly mp4 format, they download as well. Normally getting your own media into the camera roll isn't easy, so this is a option too.

Still doesn't totally replace the loss of YouTube, so I still have an eye out for a new workflow for everyone else.

Sometimes a wireless connection from a powerful camera to an iPad/iPhone offers the best of both worlds. See this article on geotagging your photos with an iPhone. Technology progresses and it's no surprise new products offer more for less. Case in point, Transcend's Wi-Fi SD Cards. Compared to similar cards from Eye-Fi you can either get double the capability (32GB verses 16GB) for a bit more than half the price ($70/$100), or the exact same 16GB for half ($50/$100). Let's see how they compare.

Camera Setup

I generally have two iOS setups. The first is with the iPad attached to a tripod, shooting with a DSLR. The primary purpose is to evaluate focus on the large iPad screen. If you have ever used a digital camera before, you know that the small LCD of the camera hides soft focus. On the iPad you can easily see you need to adjust your focus. Using a VGA or HDMI dongle you can also review the images on a projector, which is useful for presentations.

Obviously attached to the tripod, mobility isn't an issue so the size and weight of the iPad isn't an issue. The iPad's excellent battery life is also handy in the field. The only issue here is that DSLR camera's tend to produce large image file sizes. These have to be transferred over wifi from the camera to the iPad resulting in a delay from when you shoot to the image displays on screen. If you are a rapid fire shooter, this isn't for you. You can use the iPad to geotag your image with ShutterSnitch, but I don't often in this configuration anymore. Why? My new DSLR will do this in-camera now, and I'm not moving around anyway.

The other setup is optimized for travel. Using and iPhone attached directly to the a light weight mirror less SLT, reduces weight dramatically. Perfect for photo walks and exploring. Here the iPhone screen isn't much better than the camera so focus evaluation isn't going to be improved. However you can geotag your images using the iPhone's GPS. The travel camera doesn't have a GPS like it's bid brother. You can use your cell connection to instantly share the photo you just took.

Using the Transcend Wi-Fi SD Card

I've used various versions of the Eye-Fi SD Card for a while now. The first cards were kinda a disappointment. On location you had to use public or pay wifi hot spots to transfer your images to Eye-Fi's company servers. At home your could use your own network to send your images to your desktop (they still had to go to the company server first). Not very useful, but things have been improving steadily over time. Now you can send directly to your mobile devices. Card capacities and speeds have improved (16GB, Class 10 cards now). Unfortunately they can still be tricky to setup and use. Now competition appears...

The Transcend cards in general offer higher capacities at cheaper prices. I picked up the 32GB version at Amazon for under $70. Eye-Fi cards can be had cheaper, but only the older, slower, smaller ones.

The First thing I notice is that connecting to the Transcend is a lot easier. Install Transcend's app from the App Store. Insert the card in your camera. Turn it on and view images on the camera. Select the Direct Share photo then delete the image to start the wifi network. Go to your iOS device and connect to the new wifi network (SSID: WIFISD, Password: 12345678). That's it. Launch ShutterSnitch and it will connect. If you launch the Transcend app you can configure the card (you should change the password. After setup, the Transcend app can be used in two ways.

In Browse mode you can preview and transfer the contents of you SD card. Here it's nice to be able to select the image you want to transfer. With Eye-Fi they all get transferred eventually. You can also transfer non-image files (like RAWs and videos). Data can be transferred to other apps on your device via "Open In".

In Shoot mode, images are transferred as you shoot. Tap to save photos you like, otherwise keep shooting. Simple, but effective. If you only want to judge the focus of your images, you don't need to buy ShutterSnitch (The free Transcend app is enough).

Compared to EyeFi, wireless speed don't seem to different. For my 16 and 24 megapixel cameras, JPEG images transferred in 12-18 seconds. The images were in the 4mb range, which is more than what most people need. Smaller images should transfer faster.

Working with the EyeFi, it only supports particular files the EyeFi knows about. The Transcend looks to support any file. Let's try it with audio.

Zoom H4N Audio Recorder

Unfortunately this will be quick. Inserting the Transcend into the H4N starts out good, but when you start recording the session dies after 2 seconds (Probably when it tries to write to the card). After a fairly long recovery the recorder complains about a full card. Using the setup menu, the H4N refuses to format the card. Looks like its incompatible.

On further examination the recorder created it's directory structure on the card, but the sound recording were 0 byte files (no data written). The card creates the wifi network and when you connect to it the app shows what it on the card. The app transferred a sound recording manually copied to the card from a desktop, so this maybe a solution for a different audio recorder. A 300mb audio recorder was a long transfer, but successfully transferred and opened in the TwistedWave Unfortunately my other recorder uses microSD, so I can't test that theory.

Conclusion

More reliable, larger storage top end, cheaper, and more flexible... The Transcend WiFi SD Card is a better solution for most people. However EyeFi cards do allow you to use your cell connection when there is no internet from the wifi, this allows you to transfer an image from the camera to ShutterSnitch, then immediately email it via the cell network on an iPhone. With the Transcend, you can't access the internet over 3G/LTE. ShutterSnitch emails go out when you disconnect from Transcend's wifi. For people looking to spend less than $40, older EyeFi cards are also available.

There are a lot of music video on YouTube, and I'm told that kids today mostly discover new music there. Having that music as a MP3 can be very useful (although if you want to put it in your music library you will have to use your desktop to save the MP3 to iTunes). Here is how you do it using your iPad/iPhone/iPod touch.

The following is a adaption and combination two articles on this site. We will be downloading and saving a YouTube video to your Camera Roll (Using YouTube video in Pages). Afterward we'll open the music in the video in an audio editor app (Editing Audio in a Video). Finally the audio is saved as a MP3 audio file, and we can save the it to Dropbox or share it with email.

Save the YouTube Video to Your Camera Roll

There are several apps that download YouTube videos in the App Store. We need one that will save them to the Camera Roll. I know TubeBox does this, your mileage with other apps may vary. If you find an app that will let you send the video via "Open In". That will work too.

Use TubeBox to download the video then save it to the Camera Roll. If you need specific instructions take a look at the article on "Using YouTube video in Pages".

Next we need to send that video to a audio editor app, in this case TwistedWave. TwistedWave because it allows us to save the audio as a mp3. To do this we have to send media from the Camera Roll to an app via "Open In".

Send the Video from the Camera Roll to TwistedWave

Now that our YouTube video is in our device's Camera Roll, the video is accessible from many apps. Lets use one (iTransfer) to send the audio of the YouTube video to a sound editor app, TwistedWave. If you need specific directions look at this article (Editing Audio in a Video).

Save as MP3

TwistedWave will create mp3 audio files using the iPad itself (not an outside server). Take the Share button on the upper, left. Under Format, select "MP3". Tap the back button marked "Export audio", then choose what you would like to do with the audio after the export.

You can send the mp3 via email. Save it to Dropbox. Open it in another app. Since you can't add the mp3 to your music library from the device, save it back to your desktop (Dropbox, Email or Send to iTunes). From there you can add the mp3 to your iTunes library, and it will behave just like any other song.

When you are recording video, it's hard to correct audio problems on the fly. It's easy to have sound that is way too low, too loud, too noisy, capture something you don't want, etc. The easy solution is to just get rid of it (or lower it way down) and add a musical sound track. A more professional solution is to separate out the audio and modify it with a wave editor. There you can make decisions about volume, clarity, and content. Mix the results back into your video and you have a stronger project. On a desktop we would open our video with an audio editor, make our audio corrections, then re-mix together the audio and video with a movie editor. That process is pretty much the same on iOS (iPad/iPhone/iPod).

Preparing the Video

There are two main video formats in iOS, mov and mp4. MP4 movies are usually exported from apps, and MOV videos are recorded from the device camera(s). There are two audio editors (TwistedWave and Hokusai) that will import in the audio from a video. The problem being that they import AAC audio from MP4 videos, so we need to convert the MOVs (from our camera) to MP4s. The Simple Video Converter with Dropbox app ($2.99) from Dexwell Technology LLP will do this. The app's primary purpose seems to be reducing the size/quality of videos so they upload faster. That's not quite why we need it. We don't care what it does to the video (we are going to mix the original video back in), we just want it to open the sound in an audio editor. If the video you are working with is from your iPad/iPhone, launch the app. Otherwise skip to importing the video into TwistedWave or Hokusai.

Tap the blue + icon, then select "Choose from gallery." Select the video. Finally, tap Use.

Normally we would want to avoid this dialog, since videos imported this way are automatically re-compressed (resulting in a loss of quality and time). In this case we don't have a choice and the video won't be used anyway. When the compression progress bar is complete, tap on the underlaying screen.

Notice the format is Quicktime (mov) and there are High, Medium, and Low options. Tap on MPEG4 (mp4) and turn the "Save to gallery" switch to ON.

The video is going from 1280x720 to 480x320. Tap Convert. If you forgot to flip the camera roll switch, don't worry you can save it after the conversion. For now we are ready for the next step.

Transfering Video from the Camera Roll Without Losing Quality

When you are importing video from the camera roll in iOS to an app, often it is re-compressed (resulting in a loss in quality and time to do the compression). If you have the option of trimming the video, the video will definitely be compressed again. Luckily this seems determined by the app developer, and some apps will access the video directly. For instance the Dropbox app will upload a video without loss. If you use Dropbox, though you have to both upload and download the video to send it to another app (inefficient in time and bandwidth). Try the iTransfer app instead.

With iTransfer you can send media directly from your camera roll to an app via "Open In...." Get it from the App Store and launch it.

Under Local Files > Photo Album > Camera Roll, select the video we created. It should have a mp4 extension. In the Preview pane, Tap "Open In" in the bottom button bar. Choose an audio editor app (either TwistedWave or Hokusai).

TwistedWave has fewer filters and no noise correction. Hokusai can be cheaper depending on which features you enable via In-App Purchase. Balance this with Hokusai problems with longer duration audio (30min+), weak noise correction, an lack of audio formats (no mp3). Follow the section on your editor.

TwistedWave Audio Editor

Select TwistedWave in the "Open In" dialog, and the app will load the audio from the movie. When editing audio from a video it is important that you don't change the overall duration or the timing of the audio segments. Modifying them will make your audio not sync the video when we put everything back together. Think old kung-fu movie!

So... if you want to remove pop, click, or a segment where a baby starts crying, don't cut it out. Doing this would change the overall length and move everything afterward forward in time. Select the segment then under Effects (Gears icon, lower left corner), tap Silence.

Let's look at our example... Here you can hardly see any data at all, definitely there is a volume problem. It is big enough a problem that a video editor probably couldn't fix it alone.

Select the entire audio. Under Effects, tap Normalize.

Normalize amplifies the audio so that the loudest portion is brought up to a certain level. Most Professional audio editor apply a level of 80% (~-3dB) for head room. For computer work I tend to discount the need for that and set it at 100% (0dB). Applying Normalize increases volume without cutting off any of the audio.

Now you can see the data, and hear more of the background noise too. Since none of the data was cut off Normalize only increased the volume so far. Let's amplify the audio another 10dB and let some of the audio cutoff.

Now you can actually hear something. This is pretty quick and dirty. You can remove the audio pops, apply noise reduction (from another app), and generally futze with it until you are happy. When you are done tap the upper right Share button. Make sure the format is AAC, then tap "Open In..." for the next step.

Hokusai Audio Editor

There is a lot that is good about this app, so let's quickly run through the problem areas first. I've crashed this app quite a few times. It especially has a problem with long duration audio recordings (30+ mins), so voice recordings of meetings will be a problem. You can't save as mp3. In fact it doesn't support most sound formats (just wav and mp4). Now the good.

You enable features via IAP, so depending on what you need the app costs from free to $9.99 (the same cost as TwistedWave). At the high end you get filters and noise reduction features not found in TwistedWave. For free you get Ads (unfortunately), basic audio editing (cut, paste, and trim), Dropbox support, Open In support, Audio Recording, Multiple Tracks, Convert to Stereo, Convert to Mono, Fade In/Out, Gain (Amplify), Normalize, Silence, Reverse, White Noise, and Synthesiser.

With the Tools Pack ($2.99) you get AudioCopy (Garageband support), AudioPaste, Noise Gate (not that effective), Peak Limiter, and Vocal Levels Smoother. Buying anything IAP removes the Ads.

I don't think the other Packs are very useful, so $2.99 gets you a full featured audio editor with no ads!

The UI for selecting audio is a bit awkward. Tap and hold at the beginning of where you want the selection to start, then drag right or left. As you drag a blue selection area highlights. Once you have a selection you can reposition the whole selection, but not resize it. Tap on the wave area to deselect and move the playhead.

We are going to be working on the entire track so let's enable a gesture that will help us selecting everything. Go to the Settings app then select Hokusai. Under Advanced Gestures, flip the on switch for Select Visible: Double-tap track. All set let's begin.

In iTransfer's Open In dialog select Hokusai. Hokusai loads in the audio from the movie and shows you the waveform data. Here it looks almost empty.

Double tap the wave form to select everything (only if you enable the gesture in Settings). The cut&paste bar appears.

Tap "More..." in the bar.

Under Effects, tap on Normalise.

Now we can see the audio. Normalise amplifies the audio without any cutoff, however background noise may prevent it from increasing the volume enough. Add two more Gain Effects at 200% to compensate.

I think we are ready now to move our new audio to the next step. Tap the "My Documents" button in the upper, left corner.

Tap the Sharing button (upper,left). Select the project we worked on, then tap Export (bottom).

Be sure the the format is set to MPEG-4, and "After export" is set to "Open in Other Application". Tap Done.

Now we are ready to put everything back together in a video editor app.

Video Editor App: Apple's iMovie

There are many good video editors in the App Store, however we need one that accepts audio assets via "Open In". The answer is Apple's iMovie. iMovie allows you to work with one videoclip at a time, and one extra audio track (in addition to the audio in the video). That extra audio track is usually music as a background soundtrack. We are going to use that track to sync together our newly edited audio with the original video. Once we are done we can export our project back into the camera roll and edit the movie within a larger project.

Hopefully we haven't changed the duration or the timing of the audio so audio and video syncs back together.

From our audio editor (either TwistedWave or Hokusai) share the audio via "Open In". Tap on iMovie in the dialog box.

iMovie will import the audio and ask to add it to a new or existing project.

Create a new project.

Tap the Movie icon to see videos in your Camera Roll. Select the original video.

Tap the blue add arrow. Don't trim the movie! The movie (blue box) will be added within the audio track (green box) in the timeline. One video and two audio tracks. Double tap the blue box to adjust the Clip Settings.

It doesn't matter here since the original audio was so low, but turn off the audio in the video clip. Double tap the green bloc to adjust the audio clip.

iMovie does allow you to boost the audio internally (125%), just not as much as an audio editor (200%+). If you play the movie you should see the video and audio sync correctly. Lets export it to the Camera Roll. Tap the Projects button (first, upper left).

Tap the Sharing button, and select Camera Roll. We are done!

Looking around the Apple section of Microcenter, I overheard a conversation someone was having with a sales person about buying an iPad. Apparently the customer has concerned about the "Great American Novel" he was writing and whether the iPad could handle it. The sales associate suggested converting the novel to RTF (Rich Text Format, an older file format for Microsoft Word) then using the RTF with Apple's word processing app, Pages. This isn't a bad solution, but a couple of thing occurred to me. One--why switch to RTF? Pages will import Word files direct and skipping the unnecessary conversion may well preserve graphics and table information that would otherwise be lost. On the other hand--why assume the laptop goes away? It's probably paid for and getting rid of it isn't going to get you much. Why not continue to use it at home and use the iPad when you are mobile. Since the author didn't seem to mind switch to RTF (I'm guessing the novel doesn't contain much graphics--most don't), it makes sense having the project readily available to both machines. You just need to use Dropbox so the RTFs are accessible, and an iPad app that supports editing RTF documents... an app like Textilus from knowtilus. This way you don't lose any functionality, and gain the ability to work on the novel when inspiration strikes.

Bringing in Word Files

RTF is Microsoft Word's legacy file format (it's first file format), and it tends to be recommended when you need to maintain maximum compatibility. However RTF is a very old format too, so it isn't surprising for you to encounter documents from newer versions of Word. How well does Textilus handle importing them?

Above is a sample Word file in the Mac version of Microsoft Word. Note that even the Mac version sometimes has problems reproducing an exact representation of a Windows Word document. Most people live with the differences... what choice do they have?

This is a RTF conversion, so as expected the graphics and table information is gone. However the numbered lists also seem to have lost their formatting too. Bold, italics, and other character styles seemed to have translated well. Paragraph alignment has also been honored. While the table formatting has been removed, the table data itself has been preserved. While you wouldn't want to import documents this way periodically this isn't bad for a one way conversion.

As a comparison above is the same document imported into Apple's Pages app. You can see much greater document fidelity. Graphics, tables, formatting... all preserved to a greater degree.

Why not use Pages, then? Well, repeated document conversions tend to cause weird things to happen. They all add more steps to a workflow that you want as seamless as possible.

Syncing RTFs via Dropbox

Dropbox is a cloud storage solution that works really well connecting multiple machines and people together. For iOS it also works really well as a common document storage location, allowing you to share data between apps. Here we are going to use it to keep our desktop and iPad synced with a common RTF document. Obviously get an account, install Dropbox on your desktop, and get the app for your iPad. Next launch Textilus and link your Dropbox account. In the Documents screen, tap the Gear icon for settings. Then tap Link Dropbox.

On your desktop place your RTF document in /Dropbox/Apps/Textilus. Dropbox will then sync it to all your computers and devices.

I used a e-book conveniently available in RTF. See the document on both machines below. On my Macbook Air, I use the free TextEdit application. Don't use a Mac or don't use TextEdit. Use whatever RTF application you like.

Make a change in one document and they also happen in the other. Be careful with paragraph styles though, since Textilus doesn't support everything changes to them may get lost. I added a column width in TextEdit that not only wasn't reflected in Textilus, but wiped out when Textilus synced back the document. Sometimes this also happened with paragraph alignments.

What Textilus Does Well

• Textilus allows you to import, edit and save your content in one of the most compatible document types which preserves basic formatting (like font styles, paragraph alignment, headings...). This may documents created with this app will open and be editable in most word processing programs on any device (including desktop computers).
• You can use the standard iOS software and hardware keyboards, and use Siri voice dictation (if your iPad supports it). It also adds a custom bar to the interface that allows to easily input special characters, add formatting and styles.
• iPads are connected devices, and Textilus allows you to lookup reference material in Google, Wikipedia.
• There is basic Find and Replace, Document Statistics, and the ability to convert your content on the fly to HTML (web formatting--so you can easily paste it into a blog cms or other internet service).
• Dropbox support is important to me and our potential novelist. With it we can save and sync our files with all our connected devices and computers. That way the latest version is always available and up-to-date! The first 5GB of cloud storage is free, and is probably enough for most people. If you are interested in using your iPad for more than content consumption you need Dropbox!

What Can and Should be Improved

Textilus main purpose it to be a RTF word processor, so I'm not going to ask for features that would make it impossible to use RTF as it's native file format. Most RTF documents don't support graphics and table, so it's pointless asking for them. If you need this you should consider using Apple's Pages app or something that supports Microsoft's latest Word file formats. That said Textilus can be improved.

• The Magic Cursor UI needs a sensitivity setting. Finger dragging your curser over text is too jumpy for me. I found it hard to move the cursor to an exact position. Selection controls are also difficult to discover. I like the idea of the UI, but think the standard iOS method is easier to use. Maybe I just need to get use to it.
• Better paragraph formatting -- tab stops, indents, and margin setting are all available in RTF. The app seems to display them pretty accurately from other programs. It just don't allow you to fully edit all of them yet. The latest update has brought the ability to set paragraph line spacing, so the update direction is good.
• Better style sheets -- the basic Word styles are there, plus you can add three custom one. Since many formatting setting aren't editable and/or you can't associate them with a style, complicated documents will have to simplified. Modifying document styles were also difficult to discover. They are hidden in the Text Style UI.
• Dropbox support is a bit weird. Textilus maintains a special folder in Dropbox (that's kinda expected), but it syncs that folder with a special area on your iPad. While this may allow you to work offline, it add way more complication to the process. I added a couple hundred small RTF documents to the special folder and the app became very unresponsive. Most other apps let Dropbox handle the syncing and are much faster with large document collections. If you have large numbers of documents I recommend keeping them in a different area and use the Dropbox app to move them into Textilus's area when needed.

I'm not an accountant so spreadsheets aren't my life, but like most people in the office environment I have used Excel before. So creating a spreadsheet on the iPad should be a snap, just buy Apple's spreadsheet app, Numbers, and your set -- right? Yes and, uh, no. Using Numbers is pretty easy, but it is not a traditional spreadsheet. Here are some tips to help you get the job done.

When you first start the Numbers app, the Spreadsheets screen appears. Tap the (+) icon to create a new document.

You now see a bunch of templates that Apple gives you as start points. You can see even in the thumbnails that the documents look more like finished reports with an embedded spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is actually live just put in your data and any charts automatically update. You can also change the report text and graphics to match your needs. Look through the templates to see if any of them will give you a head start on your project. My needs are pretty simple I just want to start off with a blank field of empty cells almost as if I'm starting a document in Microsoft Excel. Tap the first Blank template.

At first glance this template looks pretty close to a blank Excel document--except there seems to ne a limited number of cell columns (it only appears this way) and the right column is already configured to have labels. If you use the zoom out using the pinch gesture you can see all the cell table on screen. Zoom-in to see parts of the table. Tap and drag to pan within your work area. Notice that the top and left headers always appear when you are idle.

Tapping on a cell within the table allows you to modify those objects but not enter data into them. Double tapping a cell will put you into data entry mode, but here is the first tip. Hold off the data entry until after you have setup your table the way you want. Switching between data entry and configuration/viewing modes is awkward and slow. Doing all the data entry at once will save time.

Modifying the Table

Zoom-out so you can see all of the data table, and select a cell. Now you can see additional controls that allow you to modify the table and select a range of cells.

Tapping and dragging the round icon with a single interior dot will allow you to move the entire table. Doing the same to the upper-right and lower-left round icons will add/remove columns and rows to the table.

Tapping and dragging on the blue dots on the selected cell allow you to select multiple cells.

Tapping grey bars between the round table icons will allow you to select a row or column. It will then highlight in blue.

Tap, dragging the two divot marks in the blue header will let you resize the column width or row height. Drag the blue dots to select multiple rows or column.

Tapping the paint brush icon will modify an objects properties. You can add headers, resize the table, and change data formats.

Data Entry

Double tapping a cell will put you in data entry mode (the keyboard appears). The Numbers app uses four types of soft keyboards, which you can switch between using icons before the cursor data line. The text version (T icon) is the standard iOS keyboard. The numbers keyboard (42) has a number pad plus ratings and checkbox entry. Data (clock) gives you buttons tuned for date/time entry. Finally the calculations keyboard (=) allow you to build formula for data Numbers will produce for you (most people only use sums for totals).

Text Keyboard

Date/Time Keyboard

Standard iOS Text Keyboard

Calculations Keyboard

When you finish entering data into a cell don't tap done or the green check icon. Just tap on the Next buttons or tap on a cell in the table. That way you don't leave data entry mode. If you tap Done, you'll have to double tap a cell again to get back in entry mode.

Let the App Do the Work (Fill Command)

You don't have to enter all the data manually. If you have a bunch of repeating values, use the Fill command. To do this enter in the data in one cell (like zero here). Tap Done. Tap the cell again until the cut and paste bar appears. Tap Fill. The cell will highlight in yellow.

Drag the highlight bar over the cell you want the data to fill in.

Fill also works with a series of data. It doesn't have to be numbers. Enter in January and February in two cells of the header. Then select those cells.

As before select Fill in the cut and paste bar and fill in the data over the header.

Put Totals in a Footer

I like to put total calculations in Footers. If you do this the totals will automatically update when you add new rows. Since the totals are anchored in the table it is also easier to use them in other calculations.

Below is our data table filled in.

Add a footer to the table by tapping the Paint Brush icon.

In the newly created footer add a SUM calculation in the first cell.

Use the Fill command over the other cells of the footer.

Add another line of the data and you can see the totals automatically update.

Data Charts

Creating data charts is pretty standard. Select the cells you want to include in the chart.

Tap "Create Chart."

Select the chart type. Swiping left or right will switch color schemes. I'll go for 3D pie chart. You can rotate the chart in any direction, and pull out a wedge.

Tap the (+) icon next to the Paint Brush icon to add other objects like text, graphics, photos... You can make a fancy report all in Numbers. All with live data.

Cut and Paste

Like all of Apple's iWork apps, Numbers accepts content copied from other apps. You can add logos, graphics and clip art from drawing apps like iDraw, inkPad, and TouchDraw. Transparent PNGs in your camera roll also work.

Sharing

Tap the Wrench icon on the upper right to share your spreadsheet. Under "Share and Print", Email Spreadsheet will allow you to send it as a PDF or Excel (Numbers' own format as well, but most won't be able to use it). Using the "Open in Another App" will also let you upload those formats to Dropbox using its own app or other file sharing apps. Considering the size and variety of the App Store this option brings all kinds of options for your iPad.

Along with iOS6 compatibility, Garageband for iOS recently acquired the ability to create ringtones. You can record anything you want or use a song from your music library to make the ringtone.

There are a ton of apps that allow you to create ringtones. Many of them are easier to use and offer features especially tuned for ringtone creation, so if you only want to make ringtones it may make more sense using one of them. On the other hand you may already have Garageband -- why not put it to use?

Like a lot of things in iOS, creating a ringtone isn't a difficult process but how you go about it isn't necessarily obvious either. So... to start launch Garageband. If you have a band, are mixing a song together, and just want to use the first part of it as the ringtone... you can skip to the end. For the rest of us we are either going to record something or use a song we already have on our iPad/iPhone.

Create a new song by tapping the "+" icon in the My Songs screen. Next, we need to pick a instrument... select Audio Recorder.

If the ringtone if going to be recorded live you are on the right screen. Tap the red record button to start.

The default settings will give you a good ringtone (4/4 Time Signature, 110 Tempo, 8 bars length). However at 8 bars the ringtone will not be as long as the 30 second maximum. To increase the length, tap the "+" icon in the time line, the tap "Section A - 8 bars".

Under Manual increase the bars to 11 any more will be cut off anyway.

Tap the fifth button on the top left (it should have five rectangles in it, the mixer). Here we can select what portion of the audio we recorded we want, add in other tracks, or just use music from our device.

Tap and drag the ends of the audio clip to select a portion. Drag from the middle to reposition the recording. I just want music from my library, so I'll delete the recording.

I have iTunes Music Match, so I need to make some adjustments since Garageband will only import music that is actually stored on the device and is not protected. So I need to download the music and I can't use music I purchased on iTunes (not exactly, for some reason some music I purchased still worked).

Pior to iOS6 Music Match songs downloaded when you played them. Now they stream, in fact the only way to download them now is through the album view. In the Music app, tap the iCloud button to download.

Back in Garageband, tap the Loop icon. Then select the Music section.

Select the album that is locally stored, then tap and drag a track on to the timeline.

Like the recording you can trim and reposition the song.

When you are happy with your ringtone, tap the "My Songs" button.

Tap "Edit", and select your ringtone.

Under the Sharing menu select Ringtone.

Don't forget to give it a unique name.

If you are planning to record something for the ringtone, using a wave editor will give you more control over the audio. You can add fades, amplify the sound, do some precision editing... create your master piece!

This site has a fair amount of information on printing photos from your iPad, but the most cost effective way is still sending them out to a photo lad. At less than 10 cents a print it can be an eighth the cost of printing them yourself. The only tricky part is sending the photos and actually putting in the order. You can save the most money by having the prints mailed to you, but if time is an issue you can pick them up at a local retailer (Walgreens, Walmart, etc). As always the article gives you various options and instructions.

The Shoe-leather and Gadget Method

The PNY ZoomIt Flash Memory Reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch, unlike the Apple Camera Kit, will allow you to copy Photos from your iOS device back to a SD Card. Once on the card you can treat it like any other from a digital camera. Go to your local pharmacy, Target, Walmart, where ever you can get photos made. Give them your card and you can get prints made. They may even have a kiosk where you can insert the card and put in the order right there. No fuss, no muss. Except for the $50 for the special gadget. This works best if you local options are limited and you can't wait for the mail.

Online Ordering

The biggest obstacle to ordering photos over the internet is Apple's web browser and your web store's ordering process. Safari (the default web browser) doesn't support file uploads and Flash, so we need work arounds or an purpose built app for success. Below are one that worked for me.

Walgreens

Photographs are available for local pickup at Walgreens through either the Walgreens app for as an option from the Snapfish (see below) website. Prices for 4x6 prints are 19 cents (pickup) and 12 cents (mail). 8x10 prints are $2.99 (pickup and mail). Free offers and specials are frequent. Pickup orders are paid for at the store, so no credit card info required.

The Walgreens app recently made print orders available.

Before a recent update you used the app to upload your photos then Safari to make your print order. Now you can put the order in directly through the app. I think Safari worked slightly better, but now you have a choice. If the app starts acting funny try logging into the Walgreens website through Safari.

Ritz Camera

Not as big as they once were, Ritz Camera is still a local pickup option from me. The RitzPix app (see above) looks like a third party rebrand that is used for several regional camera stores. I bet they all work the same. The app works best with images in your Camera Roll. For some reason images in other albums can only be uploaded one at a time. That's a deal breaker for me. On the iPad most of the best images are probably going to be imported through the Apple Camera Kit, so won't be in the Camera Roll. I'm not going to upload a couple hundred images one by one. Also when you do put in a order be careful of the aspect ratio of your images. With borderless prints and a wide aspect ratio it is possible to be loss resolution, bad quality prints.

Kodak

I had big hopes for Kodak, but I encountered deal breaker pretty early on... you upload all images one photo at a time. This could take forever for me. I don't care how much or how good the photos are. I don't have the patience to find out. When/if the app is updated I'll give them a try. For now it is a no go.

Update (9-25-2012): Kodak is dead.

Shutterfly

No complaints about uploading photos from the Shutterfly app, but if you want prints you'll need to order them through the Shutterfly website. That's where I ran into some problems. Target, Walgreens, and CVS are listed as local pickup options. But even if you select a store, your order will always be for mail delivery on the iPad and on the Mac. This is a shame since that would have made Target and CVS options on the iPad. Prices for 4x6 prints are 15 cents (with a prepaid plan they are 9 cents). 8x10s are $3.99. Those are all mail order prices since local pickup isn't an option when using the iPad or a Mac.

Snapfish

No love for the iPad, but the iPhone app for Snapfish works kinda... at first I thought that the app only uploaded photos one at a time, but then I realized that it was. The app is missing a selection indicator, and a more obvious UI for the upload queue. But it is there and works. It is just slow. Like many other services once you upload your images you need to use the Snapfish website to put in a print order. Here is where things get better.

On the Snapfish site you will find an option to import your Flickr and Facebook photos. While Snapfish's app is ok, I prefer the app I use to access Flickr, Flickr Studio. Uploading from that is pretty easy (it has a learning curve) and quick (see below). Now getting images into Snapfish is no problem and ordering prints from the Snapfish site works well. Prices are 9 cents for a 4x6 print (mail), and 19 cents at Walmart (it is 13 cents if you want to do the shoe-leather method, see above).

Update (9-25-2012): Today the Snapfish app was updated to allow ordering prints without using the website. Using the app is much faster than the website. Walmart, Walgreens, and DuaneReade are the supported photo processors.

Flickr

I like the Flickr web site, but it is pretty much unusable from my iPad's web browser. I knew you could order prints from the site, but had little hope of it working and up until very recently I was right. But now you can order prints from Flickr website (the option is in Sets that you create or under Actions from your Photos. When you select the action you are directed to login to Snapfish, your photos are then transferred and you can begin the order process. Not bad at all. As a side note, try out Flickr Studio, $4.99 as a replacement for the website. For most other things I like the app better than the website. You will need an app to upload images to Flickr.

If you've browsed YouTube videos at all, you'll see alot of movies that would benefit from a bit of color correction. If your video has a blue, yellow, or orange color tint, the white balance on your camera isn't set. Fixing this problem after the fact in still photography is a basic skill, but doing the same for video is still a pretty advanced task. It is mostly reserved for high power software like Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects, but remember there's an app for that. Here is how you color correct video on the iPad.

Most video projects aren't one long continuous take. They usually combine multiple takes from different view points, often recorded at different time and by different people and equipment. When you are editing all this footage together, you don't want constant color shifts.

Let's get rid of any color tints by neutralizing any white or grey areas. To do this we need VideGrade by Fidel Lainez. Step one download, install and start the app.

VideoGrade starts out fairly simply... select a video in your camera roll. This kind of video processing works best if you apply it over your shoot footage, rather than trying it an edited piece. Edited footage may contain slightly different color tints over different segments of the video.

I will be editing a video of kittens playing the piano I saved from YouTube (see how). You can see the yellow tint (see the wall trim, piano keys and the kitten fur).

Indoor footage often will often have yellow tints like this. Start by adjusting the global color temperature. Color temperature refers to the color of the ambient light the footage was shoot in. Different light sources produce different color of light (the sun, shade, tungsten lights, LED lights, etc.).

Tap the middle thermometer icon in the middle row of icons under the video preview. This will allow you to adjust the color of the video by identifying the temperature of the ambient light.

Adjusting the white balance by ambient light color temperature (color is measured by °K) is pretty simple. Usually there is a slider. On one side of the slider is the color blue and at the other end yellow (or red). Look at the image/video and look for area that should be grey or white. Based on this area move the slider to toward the color the area is favoring. Here is video is obviously yellow (indoor lighting is often yellow), so move the slider toward yellow (usually to the right).

Here you can see much of the yellow color cast is gone. The kitten's fur and the wall trimming is more white. It isn't totally gone though and the slider is all the way to the right. Often apps don't provide enough of a color adjustment. The yellow side of the slider goes all the way to red, and many programs also provide a whole other slider (called Tint) that adjust between green and magenta. VideoGrade also has this slider (it is hidden in a separate area).

Tap the eye dropper icon (Tint). Now tap the Global button. Normally the Tint control is a slider between green and magenta. And you can replicate this slider in VideoGrade by selecting either green or magenta with the color picker. VideoGrade automatically sets the other end of the slider to the color you selected's complimentary color. For our video the blue slider (from Color Temperature) bottomed out, so lets continue the blue/yellow adjustment. Select a royal blue color. Then move the slider to the right, until your greys and whites don't have a color cast.

At about 30%, the yellow color cast is gone.

VideoGrade's tint control is pretty powerful. By selecting any color you should be able to fix any color cast, but if you aren't sure what to choose. I suggest either blue/yellow or green/magenta and use grey/white areas as a reference.

Tap the back button and you can make localized adjustments in highlights (light)/mid-tones (medium)/ shadows (dark) areas.

If you want the preview image you are basing your color adjustments on to be different, tap the movie icon on the left of the preview window. Now slide the bottom film strip until the playhead line (and preview window) shows the desired frame of the movie.

You can see our color adjustment applies to the entire movie. All your shots in the same lighting environment should have similar settings, so lets save a preset. Tap the two-button mouse looking icon, to save and load presets.

We are done now, lets save the movie to the camera roll. Tap the big green checkmark.

Choose a resolution for the video.

Working... this is actually pretty fast!

...and we are done. The movie is in your camera roll. If you want to see it tap the "View video" button, or go to the Photos app.

Everyone knows that YouTube is a great source of videos on the internet, but it was also one of the first video sharing sites to support the iPad. With its variety of video support, uploading to YouTube takes you pretty far to getting it on your iPad. So if you need a video of kitten playing the piano in your presentation, here is how you get it on the iPad. From there you can edit it, and import it into a presentation on Keynote for the iPad.

Since we want to edit the movie and use it with Keynote, the video will need to be in the iOS camera roll in the end. The downside of this is that we will need enough space on our device to hold the movie plus extra to hold the edited movie. The plus is that internet access can be iffy during presentations, it's probably better rely on streaming video during your presentations.

TubeBox was pulled from the App Store, but Instatube has recently been added which seems to replace all the functionality (so much so the instructions don't have to be changed). I had a problem where my iPhone 5 didn't cache videos (which also made saving the video to the camera roll also konk out). As reported in the comments below, after repeatedly reloading the app the download section (the fourth icon in the bottom toolbar) appeared. I had no problems on the two iPads I tested. So seems to be a bug here.

So we need an app that will download YouTube video and save it the camera roll. Lucky for us the app exists in the form of TubeBox from AppBank Co., Ltd. TubeBox is a universal app, so this method should work on the iPhone as well as the iPad. Step one... download, install the app, then start it.

I was joking about the kittens playing the piano, but it turns out there are quite a few YouTube videos of this. Lets go ahead and use one of these. Feel free to use another, all videos should work. YouTube handles the video conversions, so they all should be in a iOS friendly format.

TubeBox allows you to manage the videos you store from YouTube, but let so right to task. Click the center button in the lower icon bar to add a video. Then tap "Search" on the next screen.

Looking for kittens playing the piano...

Look two for the price of one. I'm going to pick that one. If you tap on the video but not the "+" icon, it will play full screen.

Unfortunately we can't save it from here. Go back and tap the "+" icon.

Pick a playlist to add your video. It doesn't matter which.

TubeBox will cache your videos (downloads them to your iPad). When they are marked cached you can save them to your camera roll. Tap on a cached video.

This version of the video play screen has more options. Tap the menu button.

Tap the save button to save the video to your camera roll. Once there you can use your full app arsenal. Lets edit it for length.

Lets use iMovie to cut out the existing titles, so we just want a bit of the middle. Launch iMovie, create a new project then import the video we just add to the camera roll.

Now slide the timeline until the playhead arrives to where you want your cut. At the cut position, tap the timeline until it highlights in yellow. Make a slice in gesture on the timeline. Swipe across the timeline as if you where cutting it like film (top, down). iMovie should now split the clip.

Drag the unwanted part off the timeline to remove it. Now you can do the same for the other parts of the video you don't want. When you are finished tap the projects button (the first button in the top menu bar).

From the projects screen you can save your new shorter video to the camera roll. You are all set to add the video to your Keynote presentation.

In Keynote either create a new slide or go to the slide you want the video. Tap the add object button, then import the video from your camera roll.

Now your YouTube video is in your presentation.

What's the most important part of any video project? The audio. Most audiences will tolerate poor video quality, but poor audio will lose your audience, quick. That's why today's post is about processing your audio recordings to reduce background noise. Recording a certain amount of ambient noise from wind, air conditioning, traffic, the whole world around us is unavoidable even with the most expensive equipment. The key is to make sure it doesn't distract the audience, so a old trick was to add a bit of background music to mask out the noise but not overwhelm any vocals. Computer processing and software have advanced so that now you can apply noise reduction filters to your recordings. Audacity, an open source (free) audio processor available on most desktop computers, is the first program that actually effective at doing this. So we need Audacity on the iPad... or Audacity's noise reduction functions. NCH Software's Pocket WavePad HD is the first iPad app to do this (hopefully, others will too). Read on to see how to remove background noise from your voice recordings on the iPad.

Audacity isn't the first audio wave editor I have used, but it is the first with tools that actually seem to remove background noise without being a expert sound engineer. The Audacity's basic workflow is pretty simple; load in the audio, select a portion of the audio that only contains the background noise, select all of the audio, tell Audacity how aggressive it should be about removing the noise, and apply. Audacity then applies a series high and low pass filters (it determined from your noise sample) to filter out noise while leaving the rest untouched. The workflow is same on the iPad with Pocket WavePad HD.

Pocket WavePad HD is free, and for what it does shouldn't be. It is perfect as is for recording meetings and lectures with the benefit of post processing to improve playback volume and clarity. Step one, is to record your audio. Unfortunately there are only two ways to get audio into the app; recording with the app itself or loading the audio file through iTunes File Sharing. Practically that means recording the live event with Pocket WavePad is the only option.

You can use the built-in mic or external microphones through USB or the headphone jack. In my examples I am using the Samson Meteor Mic through Apple's Camera Kit.

Step two is SAVE! We don't want to lose our live event, plus we may not like our post processing.

The audio is actually pretty clean, but after boosting the audio so it plays back at full volume you can definitely hear some background hiss (and see it in the audio waveform too).

Since you know you'll need a sample of the background noise, try to capture a couple seconds of it. If you forget don't worry you can probably find a lull in the recording.

Tap playhead to the beginning of your noise sample, and drag the selection handle to select your noise sample. Tapping the Next and Previous buttons will move the playhead to the beginning or end of your selection. Move the playhead drag bar to adjust your selection. Tap play to hear the selection. You should hear only noise. Remember we want this to be silent when we are done.

Now under the Effects menu, tap "Noise reduction" then "Grab Noise Sample." The app will complain if your sample is over 8 seconds.

Now select all of your recording (or unselect your sample). Go back the the Effects menu and tap "Multi Band Noise Gating...." Now we set the Noise Gate Level. A preset (Remove Hum and Hiss) is set at -20db. A preview playback button and waveform is available. The preset works for me. Tap Apply and our background noise is gone. I was taught that totally removing background noise was bad (unnatural), but I'll leave that to you. Personally I don't have a problem with it.

The order of filters matter. For a more subtle noise removal; set the noise sample, apply Normalize, then apply the Noise Reduction.

You may have noticed that there were more options under the Noise Reduction menu. Well Pocket WavePad HD has two noise reduction filters. Auto Spectral Subtraction works pretty much like the Noise Gate method, except you get two presets (Voice and Music). I did some searching on the internet that said Auto Spectral Subtraction was better but slower. I didn't see much difference in time or quality, but I have old ears and a fast iPad. See which one you like.

If you don't like the filter revert to your old data by tapping "Discard Changes" under the File menu. If you do, tap save instead.

If you only want to playback your recordings you are done, but if need the audio elsewhere you have a bit of gymnastics ahead of you.

To share your recording tap the middle export button in the bottom menu bar (save first). Now you have the option of using Email or FTP. Options for both are found in the bottom Settings button. Not to bad right? Well remember to access the audio from your iPad you have to upload and download what could be a fairly large audio file. Emailing yourself a small recording and using "Open In..." from Mail is no problem, but a recording can be hundreds of megabytes. Your mail account may stop at 2MB. Even bypassing this with FTP, may take a long time depending on your iPad's internet connection.

One solution is Hypershop's $99 CloudFTP device. CloudFTP adds a FTP server and a WiFi hot spot to any USB drive. So attach a USB stick to it, set the FTP server settings in WavePad. Here are my settings...

Server: cloudftp
User: anonymous
Password: [blank]
Directory: /C/ (This is the drive letter your USB drive is assigned in CloudFTP. You can see it when you access CloudFTP via the web)

Connect to CloudFTP's wifi upload from WavePad then use Safari to "Open In" your recording to the app you need (Like DAW MultiTrack).

This works, but just adding in the "Open In" functionality into PockWave HD would be cheaper, faster, and simpler for everyone. NCH Software please help us. I, for one, would gladly pay for the app as is, but "Open In" would really bring value to the app.

Photo books are a great way to enjoy your images. Relive special moments in your life, track your progress as a photographer, or simply enjoy your everyday photos. Since your iPad may already contain your photos and the iPad has many tools to manage and modify the images, the iPad is a natural platform to create a photo book... or should be. It is early still, but here is how you do it.

The process of creating a photo book doesn't have to be complex it could be as simple as choosing a template, uploading your images, and making some layout decisions. Unfortunately all of the photo book services currently use Flash, or desktop applications to do this. This locks out iPad users unless, someone either creates them an app or removes Flash from their websites. MyPublisher, Snapfish, Shutterfly, Ofoto (Kodak Gallery—closing), Adorammapix, even Apple's iPhoto/Aperture photo books aren't available via the iPad. So nice hard bound books are out for us, but I did find two apps that offer soft bound "books." They can either be stapled (comic books) or perfect bound (magazines). Staple bound books are usually best for short page counts (less than 20) in 4 page increments (4, 8, 12, etc.). Perfect bound books are glued together like magazines and work better for larger page counts.

HP MagCloud is a content web service that empowers businesses, publishers and individuals to share your brand story worldwide in both a professional-quality print publication or via a digital download on today’s most popular mobile devices.

There doesn't seem to be a Calendar option in the iOS app.

What would I change? Well, there is no getting around that what you end of is more of a photo magazine than a book. Poyomi's app could play into this more by giving us more magazine like cover designs. In fact I can think of two app already that specialize in creating magazine cover images (Phoster and RealCoverHDS). The only thing Poyomi needs to do is add the option to remove the cover text block entirely. You could turn your images into an actual physical magazine!

Even without any changes, creating photo books from you iPad is a fun way to share your images... the old fashion way, by paper. It doesn't cost much, take too much time to make, and is easy to share. What's the problem?

For video production on any platform, the most basic task is to transform a series of images into a video. That's what is happening with a hand drawn, flip book, and the latest digital video. By modifying the individual images of a video you can achieve very interesting effects. Think Ray Harryhausen, Wallace & Gromit, or a time lapse movie. On iOS there are quite a few apps that offer specialized tools to create stop motion and time lapse movies, but until recently there hasn't been a good way to convert images from your camera roll into a movie. Why would you want to? Well many photography apps may not support video output. Also images from an external, high quality camera can be imported into the iPad. Finally there are a wide array of image editing apps in iOS, making adding special effects, frame-by-frame (rotoscoping) more than possible. Let's try a little project...

We will be using images created using a new app, called TriggerTrap. TriggerTrap, with the use of a special dongle ($20), allows the iPhone to control the shutter button on a DSLR. With it you can add a timer to your camera. Take a picture once every minute at sunrise, and see the sun climb at 60x speed. Using the GPS and camera, of a dash mounted iPhone, I had TriggerTrap take a image every 100 meters. TriggerTrap is pretty cool even without the dongle, but in the end you end up with over a hundred new photos in your camera roll.

TriggerTrap assumes you will transfer the images to your computer and convert them into a video, but it would be nice to bypass this step and just use the iPad. The iPad should be more than powerful enough, and the images (a lot of them) are right there.

I tried several stop motion apps like iMotion HD, Animation HD, PhotoPuppetHD, Smoovie, and iStopMotion to create this movie. But most of the apps either expects you to shoot the photos using their app, or import the photos one at a time. At 30 photos per second, that's way too many trips to the camera roll. We need something more automatic. Luckily a new update to Smoovie allows you to import multiple photos via cut & paste. We are in business!

Step one is to download Smoovie from the App Store for $4.99. Start it and create a new project. Do this by tapping the plus icon on the lower right. Tap "New Smoovie."

Smoovie, incorrectly, assumes we will be using the camera. Along the top, middle of the screen, under the time, switch the camera to movie. Our new project is still empty. Let's add our photos.

Switch to the Photos app. I had previously imported in my images from my iPhone using the camera connection kit and my iPhone USB cable, so my images are in the "Last Import" album. Go to your photos. I have 148 photos. Tap the Share button. Now select the images you want. We have a lot of them and unfortunately the Photos app crashed when you select too many of them. I found selecting groups of 80 images worked. When you have the 80 images of the first set selected, tap "Copy." Now switch back to Smoovie.

On the Smoovie project screen, there is a thin left hand list of your scenes in the project. The first scene should be selected (you can add more if you want). Between the cut scene list and the main panel, there is a swipe bar with a little yellow arrow. Swipe the bar to the left. Now you can add video frames. Long tap where the cut scene list was. When the Paste popup appear appears, tap it. Smoovie will now import the images you selected into the cut scene. Don't worry if the frames look low res. When you create the movie Smoovie will use the hires image in your camera roll. Keep adding video frames until you have used all the photos in your camera roll.

You can movie frames around by long tapping on a frame and then dragging it into a new position. Use the movie controls along the bottom to preview your movie. Add audio to your movie by taping the music icon along the top, right. If you want to change the frame rate, swipe back the cut scene list. Change the scene speed using the slider. 15 fps (frames per sec.) is the minimum for animations but most videos are around 30fps. For my movie, I will change it to 8fps. This makes the video 17 seconds in duration. Go to the projects list by tapping "My Smoovies" on the top, left. Create you movie by sharing it to your camera roll or YouTube.

Here you can see the final movie. Notice the quality of the video matches the quality of your images, not the preview.

USB Flash Drives are the storage media of choice for everyday people. They are cheap, easy to carry around, and work everywhere. Unfortunately on the iPad you can only read from them in a limited way with the purchase of the $30 camera kit, and not at all on the iPhone. CloudFTP, a $99 device from Sanho, changes this. CloudFTP gives wireless file sharing capability to any USB device attached. Just plug-in your USB key into the CloudFTP, and access your data via Wifi.

Originally a Kickstarter project, CloudFTP claims to make any USB device wireless. However like many Kickstarter products, you are really paying to participate in a beta/product development project. Many of the claims are overstated or are promises of future functionality. For instance, I tried several cameras (point and shoot and DSLR) and many were not recognized. At best you can only access the images as if the camera were a memory card reader, so if you are thinking of using CloudFTP to tether a camera to an iPad you are better off with an Eye-Fi card. Not surprisingly camera memory card readers worked well, even CompactFlash cards (which often have problems with power).

The major benefit to CloudFTP is the ability to both read and write to standard USB thumb drives. To get it working just plug the drive into CloudFTP. For multiple drive use a USB hub. Turn on CloudFTP. By default an ad hoc wifi network will be started. Attach to it and go to the URL on the LCD screen of the device.

Along the left navigation menu, there are three major options; App (there are none), Drive letters (one here), and PTP (this protocol is supposed to show camera photos, didn't work for me). Tap a letter to access your data.

Since this is a web view photos and videos will download and stream as normal. Other documents can be sent to apps on your device using the latest version of mobile Safari. If you use FTP (and the USB drive is formatted for Windows) you can even copy data from iOS to the drive. I used Air Sharing and iFiles (both worked well).

Since we are using USB drives, shutting them down correctly is important. Tap on the Settings icon on the bottom (the Gears) to shutdown the device. You can also change you wireless settings here. This includes changing from creating an adhoc network to connecting to an existing network. That way if you aren't on the road you can maintain internet connectivity. If you need the ability to access and write to USB thumb drives from the iPad/iPhone, CloudFTP is a really good solution.

Having said that I have some problems with CloudFTP.

First of all I bought the full retail product, not the kickstarter, so I expect advertised features to be present. CloudFTP's website and documentation promise syncing to Cloud servers from Dropbox, Box, and iCloud. Box and iCloud syncing simply doesn't exist, and after searching on the web the Dropbox option has problems. To get the functionality you need to download and install new firmware and install a new application called cloudftp.app. First of all the instructions to do this are very poor. Here are some tips I discovered; contrary to the instructions install the firmware and the application in separate steps (first the firmware then the app), and finally there are only two app that actually exist (PTP and dropbox, the others pictured in the docs aren't available). The instructions seem to suggest that you should switch to Ad hoc mode to do the upgrade, but both Ad-hoc and Infrastructure modes work (there is no need to change).

Let's look at the Dropbox app. To get this to work you need to create a directory called "Dropbox" on the USB drive then copy files you want to sync in to that folder. OK... I was hoping that when you put in a USB drive into CloudFTP, everything on the drive would sync up to Dropbox. If you have to manually move files to a special folder, how is this better than manually copying it up to dropbox yourself? Something needs a rethink. In fact the latest beta of Dropbox already has the ability to automatically upload camera images--no messing with special folders.

The CloudFTP iOS and Android apps don't exist yet. Samba, Windows, and Mac file server services don't seem to work too. Sanho (makers of CloudFTP) probably intends to provide all of this in future versions, but come on! They sold me the full retail product right now. Mobile technology evolves very quickly... who knows if the product will even exist in the near term. I feel a bit cheated.

If you need full access to USB thumbs drives (you aren't just limited to what is in the DCIM folder), and the ability to write back to that drive (if you use an app with FTP capabilities) CloudFTP is what you need. But if you need it to do more than that, double check if advertised features are actually present.

Paper by FiftyThree is a popular drawing app that has been gaining allot of attention lately. Well deserved attention, and it's latest update has really expanded it's utility. Now, not only can you save your drawing to the cameral roll, you do so without the background. This one option opens a whole range of creative opportunities. Let explore some...

First of there are many reviews out there for Paper, so I'm not going to cover too much about how it works. It is fairly simple, the free app comes with a ink drawing pen and an eraser, but additional tools are $2 IAP ($8 for everything). If you don't want everything I would just get the water color brush, but that depends on your graphical style. Once you are set for tools create some stuff!

Now that you have your master piece, pinch on screen to go to the notebook page screen. Then tap on the middle, share, button. Switch ON the Camera Roll. You aren't done yet though! Tap on the Camera Roll text, for the settings dialog. Here turn OFF the Save Background. Now go back to Share, and tap on the blue Share button.

Your art will now be available in your Photo Albums, but not as a standard photo. It was saved as a PNG file with a 24-bit alpha channel, or in other words the paper part is transparent. There isn't a big white square underneath it all. iOS normally doesn't deal with transparent images so the Photo app and the Photo browser may display the background as black or with a different photo in the background, but they should import just fine. Let's try Keynote.

It looks like the art was created right on your background slide! The graphic size is the entire area of the Paper app document size. To fix this, adjust the Mask under properties.

In the Pages app, text wrapping automatically flows around your art.

In the PhotoForge2 app you can add a photo as a new layer. So now you can add a signature, some graffiti, or even a tattoo to your photographs. You can size, rotate, and put your art anywhere you want. I hadn't thought to use transparent images in PhotoForge2, so now I have a whole range of useful images for mobile retouching. Images with prepared masks save allot of time!

Finally here is a quick and dirty animation using the Animation Creator HD app.

When you are working as a graphic designer, often customers will come to you with low resolution art (often from the web) and expect you to be able to use them in their projects. While a challenge there are several techniques that will allow you to do that without sacrificing the quality of the project. One solution is convert bitmap images into vector graphics. Just load the image in the background and recreate it with a vector graphics application. Simple but possibly time consuming. Professional illustration programs, like Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand, have features where the program will automatically recreate the image for you (Live Trace in Adobe Illustrator). While apps on iOS often aren't as fully featured as there their desktop equivalents, you can often combine different apps to achieve the results you need. There are several vector illustration apps for the iPad that should meet anyone's needs. Combine this with the VectorPro app ($9.99) from Ramen Shoppe to provide the automatic tracing function, and you can get pretty good results from bitmap images.

iOS has a wide variety of design/art apps. I recommend three vector illustration apps, depending on an individuals workflow and needs; iDraw, Inkpad and TouchDraw. All support Dropbox (for file interchange), fonts (you can use custom fonts), and SVG (this file format allows you to import and export vector graphics).

VectorPro from Ramon Shoppe

For our situation we will be using VectorPro to do the graphics heavy lifting. Saving the results to Dropbox, then importing it into iDraw for fine tuning and incorporating it in other projects.

VectorPro is a iPhone app so it is 2x graphics on the iPad, luckily the UI is pretty simple. Step one is to link your Dropbox account to the app, then tap on the (+) icon to add our new art. Take a picture or select an image from your camera roll.

Afterward your are presented with your first set of options under filter. It look like these options adjust a threshold filter over your image. In a threshold filter the light values in the image go to white and dark to black (it is becoming a b&w image). There are two main mode for this; sketch and graphics. Sketch prefers lines, while graphics allows large dark areas. Try both and pick the mode that works best for you. The left buttons control Detail, so adding Detail probably allows more grey values to go to black. Less Detail mains more values go to white. The right button control Blur. When you blur an image small dark areas tend to fade away. This can help remove small unwanted details from the image. Blur also tends to smooth harsh lines producing more fluid strokes in the image. When you are happy with your art tap Trace.

The Trace screen shows you the actual vector art the app produced from your image. The options here actually control the vector information the app produces. The controls are basically the same. The center button controls the mode your art is displayed in; outline and fill. Outline shows the lines of the vectors with no fill. Fill mode shows the same vector information except this time with the black and white fill information included. The left buttons, Simplify, the amount of points that make up a vector shape. Fewer points may give you a smoother shape at the expense of accuracy. The right side buttons, Curves, change the vector points to reduce abrupt changes in direction (corners). Tap Done when you are satisfied. The app will automatically save the art as a SVG file on Dropbox. To organize this better tap on you new art work again. Tap on Info and give your art a meaningful name (it will appear in Dropbox named correctly too). Tap Done. You can also email the art from here too.

Now launch your favorite vector illustration app. I'm using iDraw (both it and InkPad support the iPad v3's Retina graphics; looks nice!). In the Documents gallery select "Import from Dropbox" and go to your art in the VectorPro folder on Dropbox. Tap Import then open your new document. Your artwork is now resolution independent so change your document canvas to your desired size, and scale your art.

VectorPro works well with sketches, cartoons, logos, and line art. You can also get some interesting results from photographic content too. Unfortunately the output is always b&w. You can take that content and add color information. Below the color logo was converted to b&w, fine tuned, then recolored in iDraw.

Here comic style line art was converted. The strong dark lines work well.

Once your art is in iDraw (or Inkpad/TouchDraw) you can cut & paste it into an app like Keynote or Pages. The art will no longer be vector based if your move it this way, but the transparency will stay. On a Retina iPad double the size before you cut & paste to compensate for the increased resolution of the new iPad screen.

Here's a tip for using VectorPro with color images. The threshold filter used to create the vector information depends on the grey information in the image. There are many ways to generate grey images from color one. Using another image editing app before using VectorPro can provide addition control over the finished art work. Color fx Ultra offers several different methods for producing grey images, some of them enhancing different aspects of the image.

Overall, I am happy with the results I'm getting from VectorPro. While the $9.99 price is relatively high for iOS apps, I think the time savings this app can generate more than make up for the cost. Looking at the sales history of the app, I see I missed out on an opportunity to get the app for free last year. But since then the price has stabilized at $10 for months now. Oh well, can't get a bargain all the time. It is still worth it.

Like a good library of clipart, a large collection of fonts is an important tool in any designer's tool chest. Unfortunately Apple doesn't allow you to install them on the iPad. But don't let that stop you from getting the job done. Here is how to setup your existing type library so you can use them when creating material from the iPad. No jailbreak necessary.

Inkpad ($7.99) from Taptrix Inc. is the functional iPad equivalent to Adobe Illustrator. The vector based drawing allows you to use your font library via Dropbox (a cloud based storage solution).

To get it to work you first have to load your TrueType (TTF) or OpenType (OTF) font files to Dropbox (sign up for a free account here). Now link your Dropbox account from Inkpad from the Gallery screen under Import. From here select a font and tap Import. InkPad will copy the font from Dropbox and make it available within the app.

Within a drawing imported fonts are shown with a blue "A" icon in the Font menu. Use them at any size, bind them along a path, and/or convert them to outlines (just like the built-in fonts). There doesn't seem to be a limitation on the number of fonts you can import, but working on the Mac loading too many does increase your RAM usage. Moderate usage is suggested. You can delete fonts from the app in the Gallery screen under the Font Library button.

Helpful Tips

Inkpad accepts TrueType fonts, but there are two types of these file formats (Mac and PC). Most graphic designers (old ones) have built up large type libraries in the Mac format. They pretty much work today in modern Macs (even after the Intel switch), but Inkpad wants them in the PC format. Back in the day converting between the formats wasn't too much trouble, but today many of those utilities no longer work. A utility that can process hundreds of fonts at one time is important. Take a look at TranType 3 ($99) from FontLab Ltd. to handle this task. Luckily I have an old version that still works on my old Mac G5. Processing a couple hundred fonts went quickly, however the PC conversion did make organizing everything more difficult. A file called "Adline 401 Bold BT" becomes "AL401BBT.TTF". The correct font name is displayed within the apps's Font menu after importation.

Designing Your Own Typefaces

There use to be a company that would take samples of your handwriting and create a custom font for you. Not sure is that company still exists, but now there is an App for that. With iFontMaker ($6.99) you can design your own custom font on the iPad. When you are done save your font to a website then download it back with Filer Lite (Free). From there save it to Dropbox. The roundtrip is a bit of a hassle, but now you can design your own font then use that font in your own documents.

A good library of clip art, is one of the first tools a graphic designer picks up. Useful in presentations or the start point for more customized designs, the use of existing clip art is valuable on the iPad. Here is how to get your art ready for the iPad.

Getting clip art on to the iPad is presumably for use within the iPad's apps. To do this the art has to be available in one of three ways; the camera roll, cut&paste, and/or via online storage (like Dropbox). For the camera roll and cut&paste the clip art will be in PNG. PNG is a bitmap (raster) based image format that can have a 24-bit alpha channel. PNGs are not resolution independent but can have transparent backgrounds. So you art doesn't have to be rectangular, but also can't be scaled up too far.

Clip Art in Keynote for iPad

To prevent artifacts (see above) art should be saved at least double the size you will use it. A 2 inch logo should be saved at least 4 inches in dimension.

Since PNGs don't have vector information modifying the art will also be a problem. So it isn't a good idea to save everything as PNGs. That leaves our third option. Accessing art files via online storage. These files need to be in a vector based file format that an illustration app can read, and placed on Dropbox. That format is SVG for my favorite apps (Inkpad and iDraw). In the Inkpad app the art can be imported from the Gallery screen. See this article for more about working with clip art. Let worry about converting everything to SVG.

Illustrator CS5 Actions Panel We will need Illustrator CS 5 (most graphic designers will have this) and a free account with Dropbox. Copy your original EPS files to a common location on your hard drive. Now we need to create an Action in Illustrator to save your files as SVG. Open the Actions panel. Create a Set called "Conversions". Now Create a Action called "Save as SVG". Open one of your EPS files. Click the Record button. Under the File menu save the file as type SVG. Put the file anywhere. When done Close the file you converted. Stop recording your Action.

Now we are ready to process all our art files. In the drop down menu under the Actions panel, select "Batch...". Here we can select a source folder and a destination folder. Our Action will be applied to all the source art and saved to our destination location. Occasionally an error occurs during the conversion. We don't want this to stop Illustrator from processing all our art so save the results to a log file.

When your files have been processed, save the results to a folder on Dropbox. Now you art will be available in an illustration app. From there you can cut&paste the clip art to Keynote, Pages, or even Numbers.

Some of the most irreplaceable information on your iPhone/iPad are your photographs. The device itself can be easily (if not without cost) replaced. Lose your data and it may be gone forever. Having a good systematic backup scheme is important, easy, and pretty cheap.

Apple iCloud Service

With iOS 5, Apple provides us the tools that allows us to cut the cord to our desktop. Part of that package of services is Photo Stream and iCloud Backup. More a data sharing service, Photo Stream provides your last 1,000 or 30 days worth of your latest images to all your machines (iPad, iPhone, and PC/Mac). This isn't a backup service since obviously older photos drop off, but this can be a savior in an emergency. These images aren't saved at their original resolution (high, but not as good). To save everything we want iCloud Backup.

Enabling iCloud Backup is simple. Go to Setting > iCloud > Storage & Backup. Under Backup enable iCloud Backup.

Apple gives everyone 5GB of storage for their use of iCloud. This don't include Photo Stream, your purchases from iTunes, and iTunes Match. 5GB of storage is enough for most people, however the smallest iPhone holds 8GB of data. Music and video copied from your desktop aren't backed up (your desktop is backed up, right?). Under Storage & Backup you can purchase more storage. When your iPhone/iPad is charging and connected to wifi, it will automatically backup itself to Apple's servers.

The free 5GB is enough for many hundreds of images, but the images add up. Additional storage is 10GB for $20/yr, 20GB for $40/yr, and 50GB for $100/yr. If all you want is more space for your Photo backups goto the next section.

Backup with iCloud is easy and automatic, however other services also have compelling features. Photos saved to iCloud Backup can't be shared or restored individually. It's not off-device storage; it's an insurance policy for the loss of your hardware.

Backup to the Cloud with CameraSync

With other internet storage services, photos can be viewed, shared, and restored individually. Of them all I like Dropbox and Box. Dropbox gives users 2GB of free storage while Box offers 50GB, which make Box the obvious choice for backing up photos. Download the app(s) and sign up for the free account(s). Now we want a simple way to periodically save our images (and videos) to the internet.

I recommend the CameraSync app from Homegrown Software Ltd. ($1.99). Download and launch CameraSync. Then add your Box account. Normally you start CameraSync, it copies anything new to Box then when it is done you leave. It can work over 3G, but images can be allot of data so wifi is recommended. The app is also suppose to disable sleep, but I found that disabling Auto-Lock under Settings > General helped on the initial big backup. So if after adding Box the app starts transferring images, tap the stop icon. Tap the info icon. Now configure the app.

I turn ON transferring imported images and videos. I also rename the backup folder, and set the app to copy only new content (under Account). Tap Done. Tap refresh to start backing up.

You can have a couple gigabytes of data to backup initially, so plug it in and run it overnight. Afterward your images will be on the Box cloud storage service. You can access the images from the website and share them out. Photographers will be glad to hear that RAW images are transferred.

Above you can see a RAW file from a Sony DSLR camera in the Box app. The app and website doesn't support viewing the files (JPEGs are viewable).

The downside to using Box is downloading your data. The website will allow you to get your photos one-by-one but selecting multiple files needs a upgraded account. Also Dropbox provides a desktop sync application for free while Box's also requires an upgraded account. OK... sound like a trap. My data goes in and I have to pay to get access to it. A bit, but here is the work around, the Box app api have no such restriction so access files in your Box account with a file manager app, like AirSharing. You can select them all and move them as you please. If you ever need to download multiple images to your desktop, access Box as a webDAV server (Server:www.box.net, User Name: Your Box login email, Path: /dav, Password: Your Box password). From here you can save everything to your desktop. Now the free personal account should be good enough to backup everyone.

If your backup needs rise above 50GB, you will have to pay. Dropbox is 2GB (up to 16GB with refers) for free, 50GB for $99/yr, and 100GB for $199/yr. An upgraded (business) Box account is $180/yr for 1000GB (1TB). A naked 1TB hard drive will cost you about a $100. I use Box to backup my images, iCloud to backup the rest, and Dropbox to move data around.

Music players, audio recorders, GPS units, scanners, ebook readers, cameras of all sorts, even robots... gadgets of all sorts use SD cards to store data. A working SD Card reader for iOS brings the power of these great gadget to the iPad and iPhone. The following devices allow you to read and write to SD cards without jail-breaking your iPad.

The Apple Camera Connection Kit for iPad

Apple SD Card Reader

Apple's adapter works well in it's intended purpose of importing photos from your digital camera to your iPad, however Apple has optimized its software accomplish only that task. Pop in your card, attach the adapter, and your iPad helps you import your photos. You don't have to worry about file formats, where the data is located, and where you want it. Simple—it just works. But what if the photos and/or videos aren't in the standard location for digital cameras? Or the data isn't imagery or video? What if you want to save information back to the SD card? Well your out of luck (unless you jail-break).

So if Apple's adapter won't do the trick why bring it up? Apple give you two adapters (SD card & USB). Both work well, and the USB adapter works with a surprising number of USB devices (more than cameras or memory card readers). Since the limitation is software, maybe future updates to iOS will bring us new features. Also there are several third-party variations on Apple's adapter. These third-party devices support different memory cards (Compact Flash, Memory Stick, TF, and miniSD) and ports (USB, HDMI, VGA, etc.). But they don't come with any software, so they use Apple's built-in functionality. They won't do anything more than Apple's hardware. We need hardware that has it's own software.

ZoomIt SD Card Reader

The ZoomIt SD Card Reader is difficult to obtain now.

The ZoomIt SD Card Reader allows you to both read and write to SD Cards. Previously written about here, a year in... I am still happy with the functionality. The built quality could have been much better (the push in card extractor no longer works... I have to grip the edge of the card and pull it out). It is slow. I did a time test and it takes 37 minutes to copy a 258mb mp3 file from a card to the iPad. That same file was written to the same card in 35 seconds on my iMac's build-in SD card reader. When I go on a photo walk I often take several gigabytes of photos, that is a long time to import with the ZoomIt. Apple's card reader is much faster, so that's what I use.

I was still happy with the ZoomIt though, since it supports devices that Apple's can't. With it I can write data back to the card. Access printers with SD card readers. Use film and mobile scanners. It's a great general purpose device.

Lately though I have been using gadgets that use allot more data. Video and audio can be several gigabytes. In addition ZoomIt availability seems to be decreasing, and no new version. I need a new solution.

AirStash A02 Wireless Flash Drive

AirStash Wireless Flash Drive

First of all the AirStash uses SD cards for it's flash memory. So it is a wifi access point, a webdav file server, and a SD card reader all combined. Now you can just remove your memory card from your gadget, insert it in the AirStash, and access the data via a wireless network. Up to 8 devices can stream information from the AirStash. Since webdav is a standard protocol several apps in the App Store will allow you to read and write to the AirStash.

Unfortunately at $150 the second generation of the AirStash is three times the cost of the ZoomIt. I didn't get the first generation because it was double the cost. However the second gen brings 802.11n and better styling for the increased cost. The AirStash is faster than the ZoomIt. Instead of 37min. transferring the same 258mb file takes 2min. 19 seconds. About a 2 hours of time saved for every gigabyte transfered. That's worth it.

Both devices use internal batteries to power themselves (not replaceable) and are charged by USB. Micro USB for the ZoomIt and USB for the AirStash. Both didn't come with a power adapter, but you can use the iPhone's for the AirStash. The ZoomIt app won't win any design awards, but it had good functionality. On the flip side the AirStash's app looks good but isn't much better than you would get using a web browser to access the device. It seems geared to allowing photographers to bulk transfer photos over to the iOS device. No that that's bad, but you need to use other apps to copy files from the iPad/iPhone to the SD card. I was disappointed that my standard file manager app, Air Sharing, didn't work with AirStash's webdav (it is probably a Air Sharing issue since other apps didn't have a problem). I purchased iFiles ($3) and it worked well copying files on and off the AirStash. GoodReader also worked well transferring PDFs. Looks like it is time to put the ZoomIt out to pasture.

Epson WorkForce 600 All-in-One Printer

If you are looking for a cheap solution for scanning photos and documents into your iPad. Here is a solution which will cost you from free to $50 for a nice home network setup. Most multifunction printer manufactures have apps in the App Store to support the iPhone and iPad with their latest models, but many of their older models will also work. We'll use this fact to get a cheap scanner on the iPad.

Inkjet printing technology isn't a very efficient solution for home use. Ink is very expensive and has a very short longevity. Most people don't print very often and when that happens, the ink dries and cloggs the printer. To fix the printer you then have to use cleaning modes that quickly burn through your ink supply (if it even works). Often you'll need to buy all new ink cartridges or a whole new printer to get everything working again. Since the business model is cheap printers (razors) versus expensive ink (razor blades), there is very little incentive to make the printers more robust. You can try using refillable inks, but this is a messy process with your own printer's manufacturer activly working against you.

People aren't stupid and eventually realize how expensive their printers really are and often get rid of them. So thrift stores often have a constant stream of surprisingly modern printers. We are looking for wireless all-in-one printers—they can scan documents and have wifi connectivity. The printer itself we may not me that interested in.

First of all you may already have a printer that has both wifi and a scanner. If you do you my have just have just saved yourself $35. Check the App Store for an app from your printer's manufacturer that allows you to scan to your iPad. If you have an Epson, HP, or Canon printer (the big names in printing) either there is an app or you can use the VueScan Mobile ($5) app. VueScan is a well known software package on the Mac that supports scanners that have long since stopped being supported by their own company. VueScan Mobile continues the tradition in the mobile space. Here are compatible printers (basically all the wireless printers from HP, Canon, and Epson). If you need such a printer I recommend a trip to Good Will store. They are about $35 regardless of brand or condition. (Also check for factory refurbs... I have seen Canon all-in-one printers at around $30.)

Tips on getting your printer from a thrift store... remember be patient there are a constant stream of these things. Check back in two weeks and you will see a complete new set. Make sure you get the power adapter. Unless it uses a PC power plug buying a special power adapter isn't worth it. Look inside it. If it is dripping ink inside someone may have tried to refill the ink and failed badly. Make sure the scanner lid isn't broken and the scanner glass deck isn't scratched or chipped. Be certain it powers on! We aren't that interested in the printer itself, but buying a defective unit isn't going to save us any money. It is $35 regardless. Which model should you get? While machines from Brother, Lexmark, and other may work, it maybe difficult to figure out in the store (you need to check for an app and if that app supports the model you are thinking of getting). Printers from HP, Epson, and Canon will be supported by VueScan if not by the manufacturer, so try to get one of them. Wait till a good option becomes available.

Once you have your multifunction printer, let talk about it's setup and operation. If you are lucky enough to get a printer with a set of working ink cartridges, we just need to powerup. Then setup the wireless network and install apps for your printer onto your iPad. At some point though even if you don't use the printer, a dialog will appear telling you to replace some or all of your ink cartridges. If this happens before you setup the wireless on your printer, you probably won't be able to scan. Scanning doesn't use ink, but remember the people who make the machine make their money on ink sales. So they really want your printer full of nice expensive ink (full—given the tiny amount of ink in a typical cartridge). Below is a second hand Epson Workforce 600 picked up from Good Will for $35. You can see the dreaded replace ink dialog. It won't let you do anything until you add a new cartridge.

Replace Ink Warning

The best way to handle this if you don't care too much about printing is to get a cheap third party ink cartridge—one that has a reset chip. A reset chip has been modified to reset the ink level it reports to the printer when it has been powered off. So if the printer complains about needing ink, turn the printer off. Turn it on again and the cartridge will tell the printer that it is full again. Dialog bypassed. Normally this is used so you can refill the cartridge, which you can do. When I use all the ink in the Epson (this may be a while—I infrequently print), I plan to just refill it with distilled water. Ink is mostly water anyway. It won't print after that, but it won't clog either. In time the water may well fix a clog problem too, since printer cleaning solutions are mostly water and a bit of alcohol. I picked up a ink replacement cartridge set for the Epson on Amazon for less than $10. Total cost was $43 (printer and new ink, Epson's iPrint app was free and works with the Workforce 600).

Last month's article on adding clip art to a Keynote presentation on the iPad, made me wonder what other media can be used. Can you add audio and video? The answer is yes you can, and this article will show you how you go about it on the iPad... and bonus it works with the iPhone as well.

If you happen to have any video in your Camera Roll, it's pretty easy to see you can import video into a Keynote presentation in iOS. However most presentations I have ever worked on, used more video than I shot on the presentation device. So we need a way to easily get videos into the Camera Roll. Since those movies will be displayed on iOS they should be in a iPod supported format too.

I recommend transcoding video using Handbrake with the iPod legacy preset. This present will make your video into a h.264 movie file with a maximum width of 640 pixels and AAC audio. The application is free and open source. It also is available on the Mac and PC. The other Apple presets work and are higher resolution, but I still think the legacy iPod preset offers the best space/quality tradeoff. For business types, have your IT/multimedia guy make it an iPod friendly video. They'll know what to do. If they don't get a new guy.

There are a couple ways to import videos into your Camera Roll with various adapters and using your computer. However I recommend the following as the most convenient, iOS only method(s). If your movie is under 3MB, just email yourself the video—you may have it in your email already.

Just open the message with the built in Mail app, scroll to the video attachment, and tap and hold on the attachment icon. If the video is iPod friendly a popup should appear with "Save Video". Tap it and it will go into your Camera Roll—now available to import into Keynote (and iMovie too). 3MB is good for short clips, but larger movies probably won't be able to be emailed. We need an alternative solution.

There's an App for that... in this case Filer from Dan Leehr LLC ($3.99). With Filer you can download your large video from the web or by using Dropbox (what I use). Once you have downloaded the video into Filer. Tap the right arrow in the file list. In the File Details pane you will find an option to save iPod friendly videos to the Photo Album (the Camera Roll). Tap it to let it work its magic. I have done this with video ranging from 5min to 2hours. It works.

Now what about audio? The Camera Roll doesn't have any and there is no access to the iOS's audio library in Keynote. Hmmm... videos have an audio component. Let's try to make an audio only movie file and import that into the Camera Roll. Nope you can do this but Keynote doesn't see it. Let's add a still so there is a video component. We can do this right from the iPad with the iMovie app. And we have success! I just did a screen capture of the Keynote slide for the still. I wonder if there is an app purpose built for this?

There really is an app for that... Phodio from AppHome ($0.99). Phodio will let you record audio and save it as a movie (with a still as video—you can select an image from your iOS device in Setting). It will also take audio files from Mail and other apps vis the "Open In" feature. Phodio is classified as a social networking app because its developers built it to send audio via SMS. (Never thought to do this, I wonder how the data rates/costs work out.) It works great getting audio into Keynote as well.

In Keynote you can use the animation feature to have the audio autoplay. You can hide the movie behind other elements, and create a self narrating presentation. If you just want background music use the iPod app, because when you go to a new slide the audio will cut out. To hide the movie in the slide you can also take a screen capture of the slide background and use that as the still in the movie—hiding it in plain sight.

Apple's Pages app is probably the closest thing to a traditional word processing application in iOS. It mixes text creation with page layout so you can easily create most types of documents most people will want to make. However need a org chart, a floor plan, how about a gant chart... there will be a point where you need to add custom drawings, charts, logos, and art to your documents. Here is how you do it.

A logo pasted into a Numbers document

First off you are going to need an app to create your drawings (if you have no artistic talent and plan to get help from a professional you'll still need the app to import their work from). The best vector illustration apps that works with Pages (Numbers and Keynote too) are inkPad from Taptrix Inc and iDraw from Indeeo Inc. One of the things that makes them the best is the ability to cut and paste it's vector information directly into Pages. So if you cut and paste a circle into Pages you can make the text flow around the circle instead of the square boundaries of the image, or you can put the circle on a colored background with the transparency intact.

Working from existing artwork you will want to import it as a SVG graphic via Dropbox or iTunes Connect. Most professional graphic designers will have access to Adobe Illustrator CS5, from there they a convert the artwork to a SVG file. Take this file and copy it to your Dropbox account. Dropbox is a free (the first 3GB) cloud storage service. With built-in access from many apps on iOS it is often used as a common file storage area. This is what we are using it here as. So create a free account on Dropbox if you don't already have one. Then copy your graphic to Dropbox via the app or the website. Now in inkPad's document gallery screen tap on the Import button on the bottom lower left (in iDraw the button is on the lower right hand side—second from the right). Enter your Dropbox credentials, then select your SVG graphic. Your artwork should be ready to use from there. Select the drawing to work with it. In the drawing select everything you want to import into your working document then Copy it. In inkPad the command is under Edit (the first button in the lower left). In iDraw, Edit is the fourth button on the top left. Switch to your Pages/Numbers/Keynote document, find a empty spot and double tap. When the Selection commands appear, tap Paste... and your new artwork is here. Your own creations will work the same way.

inkPad allows you to import OpenType and True Type fonts.

iDraw provides precision controls needed for technical drawings.

Both inkPad and iDraw extend your document's graphical capabilities on the iPad, making Pages, Numbers, and Keynote closer in functionality to their desktop cousins. But which one should you use? The truth is they both work well. They have similar core functionality, but each excel in slightly different area. iDraw seems more technically oriented, so there are precision controls like you can precisely rotate an object 58º exactly. You have dimension controls and lines can have arrow heads. Where as inkPad is tuned for the more artistically inclined. You can import fonts, and make text flow over a path. The interface is a bit more intuitive—simpler. Luckily both apps (like all iOS apps) are relatively cheap, and using Dropbox interchange data between the two. Note: Cut and Paste works, unfortunately you can't edit the pasted art afterward.

In Pages art work that has been pasted in has a white box and a shadow by default. To adjust this, tap the Information button (fourth button from the upper right—the (i) button). Under the Style tab, tap the second icon in the second row to get rid of the shadow and the box. If you select the Arrange tab; you can modify the order of the object, add a mask to crop your art, and change how text flows around your art.

Adding inkPad or iDraw to your app arsenal allow you to add customized graphics to all your Pages, Numbers and Keynote documents. Now you can create documents you need for your school, work, and personal life all from your iPad.

Another Option (Updated 10-27-2011)

One of the best aspects of the iOS ecosystem is the diversity of applications. Not only are there quality apps out there, there are quality apps that hare tuned for particular use cases. Here is an example. Most of the diagrams I have worked with in the corporate/government environment have been process flows and network diagrams. If that is what you need try TouchDraw ($6.99) from Elevenworks LLC.

What differentiates TouchDraw are some of the drawing tools of PowerPoint and Visio. You can use connectors to link objects together. Also like PowerPoint, any object can have text embedded inside them. A huge library of objects are available to help you create diagrams. The Network Diagram Library is so large they had to break it into two parts!

TouchDraw also supports importing and exporting Visio files. This is big for the network engineers out there. It also supports SVG, PNG, and photos, so everyone else is set there. Supposedly Dropbox and Box.net work, but they didn't show up for me. An iOS 5 bug maybe? I also don't like that to import TrueType fonts you have to use iTunes to get the font on to your iPad. I would have tried Dropbox, but that didn't work for me. (Guess I'll have to use inkPad for that!)

Overall if you need org charts, swimlanes, process flows, network diagrams, or god forbid a pyramid chart... TouchDraw is what you need.

The Hasbro my3D is a iPhone/iPod Touch accessory that turns the device into a 3D content viewer. When it was released it come with about 7 apps (6 games) for free (many of them now cost something). The apps were fun. You can find some videos on YouTube, but after awhile you soon want more content. You can create your own (see this article about creating your own 3D photos). But what about 3D movies and TV? The my3D's introduction app had several movie trailers and a commercial for a 3D cable channel. Where's that content? Is there a special app for that? No, there isn't. How about converting 3D content meant for other venues or creating your own like 3D photos (but with video). This you can do, and here is how you can do it with content from a Blu-ray 3D disc.

Unlike most of the content on this site, the movie conversion instructions require the use of a traditional computer. A fairly powerful computer using MacOS or Windows.

The Basics

The my3D is actually a pretty simple device. It is just a box with two magnifying lens with a divider down the middle, like a View Master without the film holder and turning mechanism. If you look at content for the my3D the screen is split in two with the interior wall of the my3D directing part of the screen of the iPhone to each eye. Since the screen is magnified, having an iOS device with a Retina Display really helps. With a standard screen the pixels become more apparent. Video of this sort is in side-by-side (sbs) format. If you look at a single frame of the video you will notice that the screen contains two complete pictures. That means that if the frame width is unchanged the two individual picture widths have to be reduced by half (50%), or half-sbs. The frame width can also be doubled (100% sbs), but this increases bandwidth by 4x. For our purposes half-sbs video is what we need (actually more than we need).

The benefit of half-sbs is that for broadcasters that it uses the same bandwidth as a regular HD signal. I believe DirectTV's 3D channel uses this. So getting content there is a possibility—I don't have DirectTV. Another source for 3D content is 3D Blu-ray. On a Blu-ray the picture width is maintained, so they use 100% sbs or sequential frames (here they double the frame rate and show alternating left/right pictures). This boosts the size of Blu-ray movies, but with 50gb disc this is no problem. In either case there is software to convert down to half-sbs on the computer. You need DVDFab Blu-ray 3D Ripper for $50, or look for sources on the Internet. The software requires Windows and a Blu-ray drive. Mac users can use Boot Camp or Parallels. Don't forget about a ton of hard drive space. On the bright side the Retina display on a iOS device is way smaller than HD, and you'll most likely only use a third of that. Typical 3D movies will be under a gigabyte.

Converting to iOS

I'm going you assume you now have a huge mkv file on your computer, since the mkv format preserves the most content from the Blu-ray. The process is the same for AVIs and MP4s too. Also don't worry when you are done the movie will fit on your device. Most of what we are doing are stripping and reducing content.

You will need Handbrake, a free program for the Mac and PC that normally is used to convert DVDs into video files. Handbrake also converts existing video files too. Download and install the application. When you start the application it may also ask you to update the presets. Do this.

When you start Handbrake it will ask you for a source. Instead of selecting a DVD, choose the mkv file from your 3D Blu-ray. After Handbrake scans the video file it will select a title to convert (there should only be one). You can select a destination location and name for your finished movie as well. Now under the Presets table on the right select, under Apple, the AppleTV option. This option will work with Retina display iOS devices (iPhone 4). If you plan to use an older iOS device, use the iPod option.

Using the AppleTV preset, should set the output video to a width of 960px (640px for iPod). Click on the Settings icon on the upper right. On the Settings panel also click on the Preview button. In the Preview panel click on the time line until a representative frame is available. You are looking for a bright scene so you can see any black bars. In the Settings panel change Anamorphic to None, and uncheck the preserve Aspect Ratio check box. Now look at the video height. It is double what it should be. This is verified in the Preview pane where the video should look stretched. Click the down arrow under height until it is about half (it doesn't have to be exact). Typical heights are 208px and 275px. On the right of the Settings panel there are crop settings. It is ok to have black bars in the center, right, or left. Bars on the top or bottom just waste memory. If you want to make adjustments select Custom instead of Automatic and change the numbers. I usually remove bars on the sides. You definitely want to be sure you aren't cutting any of the content out—the two pictures should be equal in width.

When you are done, close both panels. The video is all set, now lets reduce the size of the movie. The AppleTV preset works well for the my3D because it produces higher resolution video for the iPhone 4 Retina display. The audio however is more than we need. Click the Audio tab in the Handbrake main window. You should see two audio tracks. A mix down of the 5.1 audio into a Dolby Pro Logic II stereo audio track, and that same 5.1 audio track being passed thru. The stereo track is for devices like iOS, and the 5.1 track is for an AppleTV. The 5.1 audio is big and iOS devices don't use it so lets get rid of it. Click the first popup menu for the 5.1 track and select None. You have now reduced your movie size by a third!

Click the Start button to process the movie. This could take awhile depending on you computer. With a i7 iMac, it usually takes 40 minutes. Move the M4V movie into iTunes and sync it to your iPhone 4.

Playing 3D Movies in the my3D

As noted in the article on 3D photos the Hasbro my3D has a slight problem where the interior eye divider isn't quite centered. This causes a little of the content from one eye to run into content for the other. Instead of adjusting the content to account for this you can make a slight adjustment to the my3D. At a craft store by a sheet of black foam paper(?). I got a multi color pack of foam sheets for about $3. Cut out a strip about half an inch wide. Now trim the height so it is just the tiniest bit longer than the interior wall of the my3d. Put the strip along the bottom of the right side of the wall (see below). The extra 2mm of thickness covers the overlap. Your strip may bow a bit on the bottom and/or top. This isn't a problem for movies since those area are usually black, but if it bothers you just trim the strip to fit. If you trim the strip too much, the my3D eye chamber angles back toward the eye. Try pushing the strip down a little until it is snug. You shouldn't have to use tape or glue, so it is removable if you want to run one of their apps. The my3D is now ready to accept standard 3D SBS content you make or acquire.

Play the 3D movie just like any other movie. Close the lid of the my3D and enjoy the dimensions of the video. Looking at movies this way reduces the iPhone screen to about the size of the original iPod (looking through a periscope). We are reducing the Blu-ray video resolution a bunch too, so subtle 3D effect may be reduced. The 3D effects for TRON Legacy 3D aren't as impressive as the movie theater. I had a hard time telling that Resident Evil Afterlife was 3D at all. But animated movies like Rio, Megamind, and How to Train a Dragon were excellent. For me I'm amazed how well it does work with a $27 dollar accessory for the iPhone. 3D Blu-ray are fairly high priced items and here is a cheap way to enjoy them until you have saved up for a new 3D LCD television. It's mobile too.

Purchase List

• DVDFab Blu-ray 3D Ripper $50
• Hasbro my3D - Available from local Target stores, Target.com, and Amazon $27.99
• Handbrake Free
• Foam Sheets 8.5 X11 12/Pkg-Basic Colors $2.76
• Tron-Legacy (4- Disc Combo: 3D Blu-ray+ 2D Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy 49.99
• Tron-Legacy (5-Disc Combo: 3D Blu-ray+2D Blu-ray+ DVD+Digital Copy+ Tron: The Original Classic Special Edition) $79.99

It seems like all the new gadgetry lately has been adding 3D, but the basics of stereoscopic imagery has been around for a very long time. You can see some that date back to the U.S. Civil War. For many of us the Fisher Price View Master brings us our first memories of 3d devices (it is still available today—65 years strong). Today using a iPhone/iPad you can not only enjoy viewing 3d imagery, but you can create it too.

The Basics of 3D

3D is all about depth perception. This important survival trait mostly evolved in predators allows an individual to sense how far things are them. This sense is gained by having two eyes forward facing, side-by-side. The brain takes this dual imagery and processes it into spacial awareness. Your average eye-patched pirate is not going to be able to fully enjoy Avatar!

So how do we transmit spacial information via 2d media like paper or computer screens? The answer is you somehow get one eye to see one thing and the other eye to see something else. The simplest way is to put a tube around both eyes and show different images to each eye (like a View Master). Another method is to filter each eye and show a common image with two view encoded in it. You classic 3D glasses are simple red and blue filters. The final example is a shuttering system. Here your eyes are controlled by two separate shutters. Slowed down one eye is allowed to see one image while the shutter obstructs the view of the other eye. Very quickly it switches and the eyes sees nothing and a different image. This happens so quickly that you brain sees one picture with 3d info in it. You can see examples of all three methods as we create 3d images with the iPhone and iPad.

3D Glasses

The classic 3d glasses everyone thinks about uses red and blue filters, but other colors are available. Orange/Green, Cyan/Magenta, Red/Cyan and Blue/Orange are examples. The current movie theater one use polarizers so both sides look grey. In all cases the glasses use filters to your two eyes to see different images on an encoded picture. These glasses have been around for a long time and are pretty cheap (often you can get them for free). Better fitting and longer lasting glasses are also available. One note though... the filters also act as sunglasses in that they can cut down on the total available light to the eyes. Lighter colors are preferable. Also the colors used has an effect on what color are perceptible in the 3d image. Unfortunately most anaglyph creation programs are based off of cyan/red, so your not going to have much choice there. See the Purchase Links for 3D Glasses sources.

Hasbro my3D Viewer

The oldest 3D viewer style (and I think the best) sends unencoded images to each eye, but it isolates them by putting a divider between the eyes. It's the View Master! Here tiny images are held at a fixed distance from each eye with a magnifier. Here there are no color distortions, however the viewer is a lot more bulky than the red/blue glasses. This year Hasbro released the my3D iPhone accessory which converts the iPhone into a View Master.

Hasbro my3D with iPhone 4 back plate

Using the screen of the iPhone now you can see 3D images just like the View Master. Except now that it is the iPhone, you can also see video... and play games. There are a bunch of new games... shooters, exploration, virtual reality, and informational. The controls are pretty limited since the bulk of the viewer obstructs most of the iPhone. You control everything by clicking two thumbs on the screen. It was fun, but I quickly looked into creating my own content. For me the Hasbro my3D gives me the best 3D experience—I tend to get headaches with the others.

Above is a 3D photo I created with the iPhone 4. It is a side-by-side parallel image suitable for the my3D. Taking the photos with iPhone in portrait orientation provides maximum image coverage in the my3D. To view the image in the my3D, just use the built-in Photos app. By default there is a slight image alignment problem. The my3D eye divider isn't perfectly centered with the iPhone 4 screen (the left eye space is slightly smaller than the right). The easiest way to correct this is to zoom-in the image and pan photo to the left. The image divider should align with the interior center wall of the my3D (see below).

For a semi-permanent solution, I purchased a small sheet of black foam paper(?) from a craft store. Cut a half inch thick strip from the sheet and trim it to just a little bit more than the height of the interior wall of the my3D. Now place it to the right of the wall shown above. The extra 2mm of foam doubles the thickness of the wall against the iPhone screen, covering the unwanted overlap. The extra bit of height allows the foam to stay put without adhesives so you can remove it if you want to play a game.

Click here to see more of the 3D images I created.

Creating 3D Images

Lets start creating content for red/blue glasses. Obviously you'll need some glasses to see the examples. By the way the red filter goes over your left eye. Below you will see two objects in space; a square and the text "3D".

Here the 3D text is in middle space or the canvas level, and the square project behind the text. Looking through the glasses the right eye see the square shifted to the right compared to the left eye. Close one eye and see the shift. The brain automatically projects the square back in space. Since the text is grey, the image is exactly the same in each eye, so the brain put it at the canvas level. Note most 3D images are framed in black to achieve a floating picture frame effect. Grey colors are seen in both eyes and are projected at the canvas level (where the frame is).

Above the spacial order is reversed, so the square is in front. Now the square is not only in front of the square, but it projects above the canvas level. Looking at both images on the web page you see three distinct levels. Look at the halo around the squares. Note the halo is only around the left and right sides, not the top and bottom. Stereoscopic images are side-by-side. There should be no vertical shifting. Also not that the "3D" text obey spacial rules. If the square is above the "3D" you should be able to see the bottom corner of the D. If you do the brain can't process the depth information correctly and the effect is destroyed. Also note the amount of shifting projects the objects further back or forward in space. Also notice that too much shifting also destroys the effect. The brain needs to be able to associate the two images together as one object.

Finally look at the two example images. Notice that objects that project back in space have a red fringe on the left and blue on the right. Object that project above the canvas have blue on the left and red on the right.

Both these examples a simple pane objects stack on top of each other. Your brain can process irregular shapes too. Thus curved objects slowly project back in space. They are just more difficult to create manually. Its much simpler to capture these types of real world objects with a photograph.

Two Canon S90 digital cameras attached to a dual camera bar.

To capture 3D information, you need to two images. Above I have two Canon s90 digital cameras attached to a dual camera mount bar. Ideally the distance between the centers of the two lenses should be about about 2.5 inches (65mm) about the distance between the centers of the human eyes. Because the cases of the cameras make this distance impossible, the above setup will have a enhances 3D effect (images will tend to have the glass pane effect). This is fine for distance scenes, but for closer scenes I toe-in the camera a little (see below).

Some tutorials say you should never do this, but the way I see it is that human's have two types of vision; distance—where the eyes are focused out, side-by-side, and close—where the eyes are focused in, slightly cross eyed. You just need be careful when you are using the close-in vision, because I don't think the brain perceives as much depth information and it slightly strains the eyes.

Instead of using two cameras you can also use one. Here you have to slight shift the camera horizontally and take a second shot. It is a bit more limited in that there is a time delay between the two pictures, so moving objects may shift so much that the 3D effect is ruined. Lighting may change. Static scenes usually work best with one camera setups.

Now for the exception... one camera two lenses. You can get cameras made to capture 3D photos and videos. The Fuji Finepix Read3D W3 is probably the best 3D consumer point and shoot camera. Listing at $600, the W3 can be had for a boy $350. Fuji's camera uses the new 3D file format, .MPO. Normally the iPad doesn't recognize it, but using the ZoomIt SD Card Adapter you can open the MPO file in an app that recognizes it (like 3D Camera Studio, see below). The W3 sound like a excellent solution, but I'm looking for something cheaper and smaller in size... like the 3D View (or Easy3D?) digital camera from Think Geek ($80, sale). At a forth the price and with a smaller foot print, I'll give it a try.

The 3D View is about equivalent to two iPhone 4 side-by-side for stills. Unfortunately video quality is much less (like a web cam, instead of something HD). Combining two cameras in one does make controlling them allot easier. In my dual Canon setup, I use the timer feature to sync the shots. You can push the two shutter buttons, but only one button is easier. Most cameras in that setup use a custom shutter cable to sync the two cameras. The Canon s90 doesn't support a shutter release cable though. One camera is easier. Don't get the 3D View if you want video. Below is an example of a still from the 3D View.

Try getting your dog to stay perfectly still long enough to get two shots from your iPhone! The 3D View saves its photos as JPGs and its videos as AVIs. Both of which import into the iPad using the Apple Camera Kit. Unfortunately the videos are unviewable. To get them to work you'll need to process them with video tools on a traditional computer (PC/Mac). To get your photos to look as good as the above you also need to adjust them. You can do it from the iPad/iPhone though. To get photos from the 3D View on to the iPhone use the ZoomIt SD Card adapter. With an image editing app we need to reduce the height of the image by 50% while leaving the width unchanged. I used the PhotoForge2 app, but other apps will work as well (surprisingly not PhotoGene). If you want to make an anaglyph from a 3D View image you can either separate the two images manually with an image editor, or you can convert the JPG into a JPS file. The only difference is the file extension, unfortunately iOS make this difficult. You need to save the photo into a file manager app like AirSharing. There select the photo file and rename it. Just change the JPG extension to JPS. Now with the JPS file selected invoke the "Open In..." command. Select the 3D Camera Studio app. The app will automatically separate the images for you. Now we just need to use the app to make our anaglyph.

Creating an Anaglyph

Today alot of small scale application development has gone to mobile platforms. If you are looking for something new you probably going to have to find it for iOS or Android. Case in point are apps that create 3D images. I recommend two... for the iPad 3D Camera Studio, $3.99, and for the iPhone, 3D Camera, $1.99. Both apps from Juicy Bits, Ltd. on the App Store, and they both basically do the same thing. The iPhone has the better camera, so there is an option to transfer 3D images from the iPhone to the iPad versions of the app. If you are interested in creating content for the my3D, the iPhone version 3D Camera is all you need. If you want to create red/blue anaglyphs the larger screen iPad makes more sense.

Above is a screenshot of 3D Camera Studio after you have opened a JPS image or opened/created a stereo image pair. The iPhone app, 3D Camera is very similar. The control icons are the same. The last three icon on the bottom right are the three major 3D modes. The last icon is Wiggle mode, which alternates the two images.

This mode doesn't show true depth information, but it does give you a quick impression of it. It is very useful then you are using the iPhone/iPad camera, to quickly see if your images have a problem. Since you don't need a special viewer, you can share it with anyone. You can email it from the app, but the files are a bit large. They are GIF animations.

The next icon to the left is Parallel/Crossover mode. Here the two images are displayed side-by-side. This mode is used for the my3D. In setting you can switch to Crossover (the gear icon on the upper right). Here the images swap positions. Supposedly if you look at the screen cross-eyed, you can get the 3D effect without a hardware viewer. Personally I think your brain will explode or your eyes will stay that way.

The final icon is Anaglyph mode (first of the three). The are three configation controls. The left and right arrows adjust the offset between the two images and the size of the red/blue fringe. I think too big of a colored fringe reduces the 3D effect, so compared to the top article photo I have reduced the distance of the offset. The cross hair icon allows you to pick the canvas point (where the two images converge) in your image. Try different points to see which gives you the most feel for the dept of the scene. In the mode you can also manually move the images to adjust the offset. When you are done click the glasses icon for different anaglyph routines. They are all reb/blue anaglyphs but different image routines are run to achieve different results. Because reds and blues are common colors, anaglyph typically effect the over all colors that can be displayed. These routines effect this. Switch to grey will remove all color but improve depth perception. Others will also some colors with different side effects. Pick the one that works best for your scene.

Purchase List

• PNY ZoomIt Flash Memory Reader 49.99
• zoomIt for iPad Free
• Hasbro my3D - Available from local Target stores, Target.com, and Amazon $27.99
• 4-Pack 3D Glasses, Red/Blue $4.75
• Clip-type 3D Glasses (Plastic Alloy Optican Frame and AC Lens) $5.91
• GTMax 3D Red/Cyan Glasses for 3D Movies and Games on TV/Monitor Flat Screens $4.99
• Think Geek 3D View Digital Camera $79.99
• Fuji FinePix REAL 3D W3 $349.95
• 3D Camera $1.99
• 3D Camera Studio $3.99
• PhotoForge2 $2.99

Hasbro my3D Apps

• my3D PRESENTS...HD Free
• my3D SECTOR 17 $4.99
• my3D SHATTERSTORM $0.99