Category Archives: iPad

The iPad goes everywhere with me

It doesn't matter which room of the house I am going to, I always have my iPad with me. Just so long as I am within Wi-Fi range I'm always connected. I am tempted that with my next iPad I buy, I will get one with 3G connectivity. There is a difference of around about €120 with the 3G connected iPad, but I think it could be well worth getting. I will be waiting until the next revision of the iPad mini and I will choose whether to get a full size iPad or whether to go for the iPad mini.

Telling my iPad what to do!

One other things that I really find handy, is to use the dictation service as much as possible. I know that some people do complain about how the service works, but I find it works really well for me. Sometimes there will be a sentence where there are one or two words that are incorrect and I can just select them and manually correct them. The trick is to always make sure that you read back what you have dictated into your document. As long as you speak clearly and take your time, the accuracy is really quite impressive. With practice, you will find that using dictation on your iPad or your iPhone is much faster than typing. I know that I really wish I had the dictation service available to me on my iPhone 4. Well, I do have the DragonDictate dictation application which does work fairly well. But it would be better if it was built in so that I could use it in more applications natively.

Well, somebody has to come from Birmingham!

In some ways it is a surprise that dictation should work so well for me because I have an accent from Birmingham in the Midlands of England. Usually I find that there are one or two words that the service will get confused with that I have to repeat and say a little bit more clearly.

Difficult places for dictation

The only problem with dictation is that there are certain places where it is not possible to dictate to your computer. This will either be in a noisy room where you can't be heard properly by the iPad or it will be in a quiet room where are the people are working and expect to have silence. Another possibility of where you might not be able to dictate is when you are writing something that needs to be kept private. If you're using the earbuds with the microphone for the dictation then you will find that even a noisy room you can actually dictate effectively.

The way that I use the dictation is to clearly speak what I want the dictation service to convert into text, usually one sentence at a time. I read the sentence back and see if there are any words that are incorrect. I will then double tap the word to select it and then either re dictate the word as I want it or I will type it in manually. I find that this process is quick and efficient.

My favourite journalling application has to be Day One and I use it just about every day of the week. I have Dragon Dictate and talk to my computer to have the text converted into speech, which is just great. If you don’t have Dragon Dictate but you still like to be able to talk to your computer, well in this case your iPad, then you could use MP3 Recorder. You can use MP3 Recorder for recording whatever sort of audio that you would like to record, but on the account of the fact that the application has a calendar in it there seems to be some emphasis towards journalling.

MP3 Recorder instead of DragonDictate or DayOne

 

Organising your audio recordings

If you just record a series of audio recordings on a daily or weekly basis, there will be some point in time you will have recordings that you might want to go back to. You could be looking for a specific recording with a certain particular piece of information and with MP3 recorder you get a few ways of finding what it is you’re looking for. First of all, you give your audio recordings a title, but that is not nearly going to be enough. You can also add tags and memos to your recordings to further help you find what you are looking for later. I am a big fan of tagging on my Mac and I often tag files when I’m using the application Default Folder. I will also add tags to notes within Evernote so you can see I can certainly see the value in using tags to identify recordings in MP3 Recorder.

With there being a calendar within the application it is very easy for you to find recordings based upon a certain date. So if you’re looking for a recording that you did on 7th of March 2013, then you can go and tap on that date in the calendar and you will see a list of recordings made. You also get a timeline which gives you a list of your audio recordings. In the timeline it gives you the title and underneath is the memo, you can also see the tags that have been applied to that recording as well as a thumbnail of the photo, if you have added a photo to that audio.

If you know that one of your audio recordings is particularly good, then you can also make it a favourite. This will give you a further subset of your audio recordings that you can use, to find the one that you want that much easier. There is a button you can tap to get started with a search and you can start by searching for the beginning or the end date of your audio. I am quite impressed with the way that you can also tell the search to just look for audio recordings that begin on a certain date and are starred and include a photo. So you can create a search which narrows down your audio files with quite a bit of precision.

Actually making a recording

This is the easiest part of the job, all you have to do is to tap on the record button and start talking or singing or whatever it is that you want to do. You can pause or stop the recording when you’re ready and there is an area for you to enter the recording name and also underneath that there is a space for you to put in your memo. Obviously what you can do is to dictate the memo in there using Siri; another way to use audio with MP3 Recorder for iPad. At the bottom of that area underneath the memo, you have the options to add photos either from the camera or from the photo roll. It is a cinch to be able to add tags, either by selecting tags that you have already created or by making new ones.

Adding Markers to the audio

It could well be that you want to add a marker to your audio. Perhaps there is a specific point at the 25 second mark in the recording that you want to draw attention to, so there is a button which you can tap to create markers. You just have to put the play head where you want your marker in the timeline, enter the marker name and the job is done. Later you can tap on this marker and choose from play, edit or delete. If you tap on play the audio will start playing from where you put the marker.

Sharing your MP3 Recorder iPad audio recordings

From the standard iOS share icon you can choose to delete, make a zip, make a video, make a PDF or share audio. If you tap on share audio you can send it to other applications on your device, that is able to take in audio files. You also get a Wi-Fi sharing URL that you can use in your browser, for example on your Mac to download a file from your iPad. You do also have the option to share out via iTunes. You just have to do click on Tap to Stop when you have finished your sharing.

The NoStylus verdict on MP3 Recorder

The only thing that I found that didn’t work was the export out to a video, but I’m not too bothered about that. Everything else with the application worked great and I would be happy to recommend this application. It is useful for creating audio files for whatever purpose and I like the option it gives to create an audio journal with recordings of whatever length you like. I do already create audio recordings through Audioboo, but the limit there is for five minutes. So if you want to create audio recordings that you are able to keep in your own digital space, then MP3 Recorder could be one way of doing it.

Using Audio Boo

I signed up for an account with Audioboo a couple of years ago, I did a couple of boos and then forgot all about using it. This would have been because I was heavily into podcasting and very busy with creating 30 to 60 minute audio podcasts for Mac 20 questions and the Answer 20 Questions websites. A couple of days ago I got back into the idea of using Audioboo due to making a connection with a journalist called Christian Payne – Documentally. I heard him being interviewed on the Guardian Tech Weekly Podcast talking about the technology that he keeps in his bag to be able to do his live blogging. In terms of the software that he was using, Audioboo was one of his favourites.

Using Audio Boo

I signed up for an account with Audioboo a couple of years ago, I did a couple of boos and then forgot all about using it. This would have been because I was heavily into podcasting and very busy with creating 30 to 60 minute audio podcasts for Mac 20 questions and the Answer 20 Questions websites. A couple of days ago I got back into the idea of using Audioboo due to making a connection with a journalist called Christian Payne – Documentally. I heard him being interviewed on the Guardian Tech Weekly Podcast talking about the technology that he keeps in his bag to be able to do his live blogging. In terms of the software that he was using, Audioboo was one of his favourites.

What is so good about Audioboo?

If you are using a free account you can create Audioboos of up to 5 minutes in length and for audio live blogging that is just about enough. What is good about it is the fact that you can also add a photograph and have the GPS coordinates included in the data for your Audioboo. It would be quite nice if there was also the possibility to add very short videos in the same way that Twitter have introduced the application called Vine. In any case, when I create an Audioboo and post it, it also creates a tweet on Twitter. Not only that, but it also sends a new post to a blogging website. This particular blog post on NoStylus was created automatically by the Audioboo. This is all well and good but it is necessary to go into the blog site afterwards and actually create some text to go with the audio.

Great to be using Audioboo again

So I have started this series of Audioboo podcasts and the thing that I will be working on is based upon a character in the book of “Game of Thrones” who, each day in the story, had to report back at the Temple, three new things that she had learned each day. I have decided that would be very good to use as the basis for this use of Audioboo. I plan to create one of these each day. I will create the script for it, or at least jot down a few ideas and then most times record the audio while I am walking the dog during the afternoon. She has to be walked everyday and creating while walking is an efficient use of my time.

Christian on AudioBoo

A Little More to show us

I can’t believe that all of the rumour sites have got it wrong about the ‘iPad Mini’. Surely someone else will have seen the clue in the announcement with Apple telling us that they have “A little more to show us”? I mean, it is as plain as the nose on your face when you see the evidence. The only thing is that all of the rumour mill has got caught up in the idea that the new smaller tablet from Apple will be called the iPad Mini. No one knows that for sure and it looks like everyone has got it wrong. Nothing unusual there though because the rumour mill is always getting the information wrong with the claims of how much the new gems from Apple will cost and what they will be named and so on.

Got it wrong before and the rumour mill gets it wrong again

No one though that Apple would call their tablet an iPad, citing that they wouldn’t call it something that could be confused with feminine hygiene products. Apple thought better and called the tablet the iPad. Lots of schoolboys and schoolboy minded geeks, thought it was funny for a little while, but after the sniggering stopped the name iPad was accepted. Who would have thought that was going to happen. Now with a new smaller iPad about to make a debut everyone thinks that it will be called the ‘iPad Mini’. This is clearly crazy thinking, now that Apple have teased us with the tag line to the event being “A little more to show us”. Can’t you see now that the name of the smaller tablet from Apple will be either “The iPad Little” or more likely “The Little iPad”.

The Little iPad

It makes such sense as a name for the Apple 7 inch tablet. It is kind of cute and yet is functional as a name. It is going to probably be available in a variety of colours and there are the clues in the invites for that too. Most likely the top colour and the colour that will be most popular is pink. Just in the way that all little girls love things like “My little Pony” and having all of their stuff coloured pink, the “Little iPad” is just made for a section of the market that is not usually covered.

Covering all bases

Apple will surely have to have the Little iPad in other colours too, to keep the more macho side of geekdom on side. Either that to they will just say that the ‘New iPad’ that is out there and loved by us all now, is for the proper geeks. Nothing wrong with wanting to expand the base of consumers though. Still just like the iPod Touch that comes in a few colours then the Little iPad will do the same. You will be able to get an iPad Little to match the colour of your eyes.

Will you buy “The Little iPad”

It will probably be the case that the technology of the iPad Little will be of the same level as the ‘New iPad’ that we have now. So it will be tempting for you to go out and form queues (lines) to buy the device. Will it put you off if the device is called ‘The Little iPad’? I think it sounds cute and that Apple will sell a boat load of them, especially the pink ones.

The first time that you see one of these Prezi presentations, it could well just to blow your mind. This is because of the way that it flies and zooms around the page. It quite different from the way that you would have seen Keynote or PowerPoint working. You can design a Prezi so that it looks one way when you look at it overall, but when you zoom in close up you can have all sorts of surprises. Prezi is an amazing piece of educational software that is an online service, an app for a desktop computer as well as there being a Prezi iPad presence.

The Prezi iPad app – Prezi viewer

The Prezi iPad app doesn’t have the full range of tools for editing a Prezi presentation, but it will let you do some retouching and finishing off. So you can add a piece of text, or alter some text that you have already put in there using Prezi online or your Prezi for Mac application. If you need to move some of the graphic elements from one place to another in your Prezi examples, then you can quite easily do that with the Prezi iPad app. Even so, the Prezi iPad application really is more of a viewer than it is a Prezi creation tool.

Prezi Viewer iPad presentation software

How to use Prezi iPad presentation software to best advantage. The first thing to do is to create your Prezi presentations using Prezi for Mac or use the Prezi online app in your browser. You can then open up Prezi viewer on your iPad and download the Prezi presentations that you have created. It is quite possible that you will want to make some last-minute changes, such as making corrections to typo errors. It may even be necessary to move around some of the graphic elements so that your Prezi works properly and looks the best that it can look. You can do that but don’t expect to do it all on the iPad Prezi app.

Using Prezi examples in the Prezi viewer

Another possibility, if you have not made your own Prezi presentation, is that you might want to download somebody else’s presentation. You could get a Prezi from one that has been shared to you via the Prezi online application, or it could come in to you by email. If the Prezi that you want to use has been sent to you by email, then you will be able to click on it and it will open up in the iPad Prezi viewer. If you haven’t just got around to making your own Prezi yet, then you could have a look at the Prezi examples. The examples that are freely available on the website are worth looking at as a way to learn how to use Prezi.

Use Prezi for Mac or use the Prezi online service

The The Prezi for Mac application is an Adobe Air application and there are many Mac users that would rather not have that type of software on their Mac. I use the BBC iPlayer software which is made using Adobe Air, so I might as well also use it for installing Prezi for Mac also. Although I have yet to really fully use Prezi for Mac in order to be able to compare it with Prezi online, I don’t think that there is a big difference in terms of the facilities and functions that you have available in the two versions. I have found that using Prezi online in the Google Chrome browser to work very well indeed.

Best way to learn how to use Prezi iPad

Prezi is well thought out presentation software that is perfect for educational use. If you are a teacher then I know that if you point the students in the direction of Prezi, they will come up with something looking amazing and is without doubt a great learning tool. The movement and zooming through the presentation really can look very spectacular.

Using ipad for presentations with Prezi

With Prezi iPad presentation software and a Prezi that you have made using Prezi for Mac, you will be able to show it using an Apple TV connected to the projector. You will be able to do this wirelessly and be able to walk around the classroom rather than being stuck at the front.

The cost to use Prezi presentation software

It is possible for you to use Prezi for free, but there is an upgrade path to get a pro version. There doesn’t seem to be too many restrictions on what you do in the online app, but it doesn’t take long in the Prezi for Mac app before you are offered an upgrade that will cost a small amount per month. If you are a teacher in education you can get one level of extra functions for free. Probably the best thing to do with Prezi is to try it out with the web application and see how it fits with your presentation needs. It seems to me that Prezi is a good tool to have and could well be worth paying for. Have a look at the Prezi website for their pricing options. In any case you can do an awful lot with it without having to pay anything, so why not give it a try.

I have discovered an application for the iPad called Daedalus, which is a text editing application. I had said that I had bought enough text editing applications for iOS, but yesterday I saw this one available for 79 cents and I was tempted. I still would not have bought it, except for the fact that it has the unique export feature of being able to export out to EPUB. So I broke down my defences and bought the application. Last of the big spenders! Still love Byword for text editing.

After playing with it for some time I was pleased that I had actually bought it and not just the for fact that I could export out to an e-book. It has an unusual interface, in that it doesn’t have pages but has stacks. Each of the stacks can contain an unlimited number of notes (called sheets) and you can swipe left and right to navigate between these sheets. Each sheet has a title area and a text entry area. When you want to add a new sheet at the end of your stack you just swipe from right to left and a new sheet is added. I am sure that it must be possible to add a new note in the middle of the pack or stack, but I am still in the process of finding out all that the application does, as yet.

Daedalus synchronises with the cloud

The application synchronises with Box.net or you can synchronise with Dropbox. If you have a webDAV server you also have another way of exporting and synchronising out. I have had most success with exporting out of Daedalus by sending the stacks or sheets out to Dropbox. When I have tried to export out and have some markdown text sent to Byword, I found that it did not work for me. So for the moment I would say that Markdown does not work particularly well with Daedalus, but could work better in the future with an upgrade to the application. I should really contact the developer of Daedalus to tell them of my experiences with trying to export out markdown text. At least when you export out you can choose the file suffix for markdown that you prefer and there are three choices. For the moment the work around for exporting the markdown text , is to export out to Dropbox and then go into Byword and opening the file from within. The only thing is though, that you have to remember to save the file out to the proper Dropbox folder so that it can be seen in [Byword].

Navigating within the Daedalus app.

There is a stack view or overview, then there is the sheet overview and an edit view. Depending upon which view you are in, within the application, you have various gestures to use to navigate. In any of the views you can swipe left or right to flip through the sheets or stacks. If you are in a sheet overview then tapping on that sheet will enter the view to let you start editing. Or you can do a pinch open to achieve the same effect. It is possible to rearrange the sheets within the stack and to do this you tap and hold, then you can move your sheets wherever you want them within the stack. If you want to move a sheet from one stack to another stack then you can drop the sheet into the dock at the bottom of the screen, move to the other stack, and then you can grab the sheet and put it where you want it. A close type of pinch will get you back into the stack overview.

Levels of stacks and sheets for viewing

When you are at the top level of the application you can swipe through left and right between the stacks that you have within Daedalus. If you tap on one of the stacks you get to see whatever that stack contains in a similar sort of view to the stacks overview. Another tap on the screen on one of the sheets, you can then see the text contained within that sheet. Tap on the screen once more and you will enter the edit mode and the keyboard will appear. It is a close pinch gesture that you do twice to get back to the start again.

The button row when you are in editing mode

You have an extra row of keys to give you quick access to characters that you would normally have to dig down to find. There are three keys to the left and four keys to the right and each of these keys gives you a choice of five characters. To see the choices available you tap and hold. The keys on the left-hand side that you choose from, are the tab, open and closing quotes, parentheses, a pair of Asterisk’s and the more than symbol. There is also the hash symbol and the square quotes. You get different symbols available on the right-hand side and it is also possible to edit these buttons. When editing these characters available, you don’t really get much of a choice in the list. I have it set up so that it is easy for me to put in the characters I need to write Markdown. Spot on!

Daedalus has a number of nice little tricks

If you have a word selected and you use the extra keyboard button to add the Asterisk before and after, you can do that without losing the word you have selected. Do it once and it will give you the italics in markdown, select the words again and it add more to make the words bold. Or you can put these characters in as you go. It is clever enough to know that if you put in an open square bracket then type in your word or words, that when you hit the same character button again it will then put in the close square bracket.

If you are working on some text at the beginning of the document and would like to get to the end, you can do so quickly, by tapping on the middle of the button bar. Another nice little trick, is that if you tap two fingers in the space to the right of the text you will move the insertion point one word at a time to the right and of course the same trick to go to the left. The app even has a character and word counter included.

Research and writing – Browser included

The Daedalus application also includes a browser which you can use if you need to go off and check a fact or two for your writing. In the list available you get Google, Wikipedia, a dictionary site, Daring Fireball for Markdown syntax and one for the last site you visited. That is all accessed from the third icon from the left at the top, which is called the lookup button.

Daedalus has simply marvellous export facilities

To be able to export, you tap on the icon in the far left corner and then you see the export button become available. There are a number of options available for export including PDF, print, send as email and text, but the one that really got me was the export to EPUB. Obviously, the limitation with an application like this, is that it is going to be all text, I don’t think it is possible to add images, apart from choosing an image to be the front page of your e-book. Even so, it is still pretty super that a text editing application like this has such a facility. I was so impressed with this feature, that I bought the application even though I had said I would buy no more text editing applications for iOS. I am pretty sure that Daedalus is going to be one of my favourite text editing applications for use on my iPad.

Using iMovie for iPad as your video and audio editing software

When you are working on a movie the audio is also very important. There is the audio that is connected to the video clips and then you have background music, sound effects, voice-overs and music soundtracks. With iMovie for iPad you can add soundtracks that are connected to a theme when you are choosing that theme. I have found that it is also possible to mix and match, taking the music from one theme while using the elements from another theme. You can also easily use music tracks from your music library that you have synced across from your iTunes application on your Mac.

Choosing themes in iMovie on iPad

With your iMovie for iPad application you can choose from one of eight themes. These themes will affect the titles and transitions, but will also let you choose the theme music. When you are in the dialogue for choosing what you want to do with the iMovie audio theme, if you turn off the option for theme music, you can use other music, yet still have the benefits of the of the theme.

How good is iMovie on iPad with audio

With my initial attempts at using audio on iMovie, I have run into some difficulties. There have been occasions where the audio from a video clip has disappeared. The audio is still showing within the video clip, it is still possible to see the audio wave, but you hear nothing when you press play. I have tried adjusting the volume for that particular clip and so far nothing has worked. The only way to get it working again, is to reselect the clip and replace the video with the problem.

It is possible to have a number of layers of audio or audio tracks as per the design of the application. So I was a little surprised when after working with the audio of video clips, adding background music tracks and just putting in two or three sound effects in the timeline, there seemed to be a few problems. Some of the audio that should have been connected to a video clip seemed to have become disconnected, turning my video into a badly dubbed Chinese kung fu movie.

Sound effects – Bells ringing and dogs barking

In the area where you choose the sounds when you want to use the included sound effects, all you have to do is to tap on the one that you want, to have it fly into the timeline where your playhead is. Once the sound effect is on the timeline it is still possible to move it along towards the beginning or towards the end. I would recommend that you zoom in using the pinching out gesture, so that you have maximum chance at some sort of precision. I would be inclined to think that Pinnacle Studio for iPad allows for more precise placing of your audio within the time line. You can use an audio recorder app or some sort of external audio recording device to get professional audio for your iMovie video editing.

The verdict on how iMovie for iPad works with audio elements

If you are doing some work on your video that is fairly simple, then you will probably not run into any problems. If you are going to be splitting video clips and adding other video and audio elements, then you may run into one or two difficulties. iMovie for iPad is still a good application so long as you don’t expect to be the next Steven Spielberg with it. Shoot some video clips with the iPad camera and use iMovie for iPad to trim those clips, add voice-overs if necessary and you will surely be happy enough with the results that you get. You can also shoot video with your iPod Touch or iPhone and use the Transfer Photos App to get them on to your iPad.

iMovie for iPad versus Pinnacle Studio for professional audio

Both of these iPad, iOS applications are really quite amazing if you remember to limit your expectations. Of the two apps I would say that Pinnacle Studio for iPad is certainly the better of the two. Seeing as both of these applications are quite inexpensive, then you might find it good to have both of them on your iPad, so that you can choose the best one for specific jobs you need to do. I think it is great to see competition in the realm of video and audio editing software for iPad.

Previously my work flow with photos and videos used to be, that I would take the memory card from my Canon 600D when I’ve finished shooting, put it into my iMac and used some automation to send the files to their proper places. Used the Image Capture application to recognise the memory card and then Hazel would take over with renaming the files and moving them. Image files will go to the pictures folder and video files will go to movies. I set it so that each Individual file is given a unique name. I’m then free to use these individual pieces of content in Final Cut Pro X or I can put the images into iPhoto.

Now that I am likely to be shooting video using the iPhone and possibly needing to work with that video on the iPad, I need to rethink the workflow. Or at least I need a different workflow for files coming from that direction. I did think it would be very easy to move video files via iTunes from the iPhone to the iPad, but it actually turned out to be quite complicated. I did manage to get a video file moved to the iPad, but I was not happy with all the hoops that had to be jumped through. The answer was going to be setting up more automation either using the application Automator, Keyboard Maestro, Hazel or a combination of some of those. I do have to get those video files on the iPad to do some video editing with Pinnacle Studio.

Finding out how to move videos from iPhone to iPad

As is often the case, the answer was to do a Google search to see if anybody has had the same problem. I came across the question having been asked on the Apple website support forums. The solution to the problem that somebody had found already, was to use an application called Photo Transfer. So next I went into iTunes to check out this application to see if it would fit the bill. The good news was that the application was quite inexpensive at €2.39 and it had a number of good reviews. Also good, was that it is a universal application that works on both iPhone and iPad, no need to buy two separate versions. So I bought it.

Using Photo Transfer moving files from iPhone to iPad

I had a video on the iPhone ready to move to the iPad, so what I needed to do was to turn on the transfer applications on both devices. In the first screen you see a couple of buttons one for sending photos and videos and there is another for receiving photos and videos. So on the iPhone I click on send then I have another window which gives the choice of where I want to send my stuff to. I can choose from Apple Computer, Windows computer or another iPhone or iPad. At the same time I have also chosen to receive on the iPad and the application then looks for devices that are ready for sending.

On the iPhone the next choice to make is, which videos or photos do you want to send. Tapping on the button takes you to the list of albums which can be your camera roll or your Photo Streams. It is a very simple job just to follow the prompts through to select the photos and videos that you want to move to iPad. You can share just one photo or video or you can select as many as you want to. The next thing to do, is to click on done.

The screen on the iPad tells you to go to the receiving device, which could even be another iPhone. In my case I go to the iPad and I can see that the iPhone is in the list of devices waiting to connect. All you have to do is to choose the device and then tell the application where you want to send the photos or videos to. You have the choice to send it to the Camera Roll on the iPad or you may send to one of the albums. Then it is just a matter of waiting for the file to travel wirelessly from one device to the other.

You may find on occasions that you need to try more than once to make the connection. This really is down to how good of a Wi-Fi connection you are working on. On one occasion I couldn’t get the iPad to see the iPhone as an available device, so I closed the application down completely and restarted. When I had restarted, it worked perfectly first-time. These little connection difficulties only happened occasionally and is a small price to pay for the overall ease of use.

Moving video from iPad or iPhone to a desktop computer.

If you’re moving your video files or photo files from an iOS device to a Mac, then there is an application that you can download for free from the Mac App Store. If you don’t have this application, then another way to use it, is to use the web browser on your computer. There is a web address generated by the application Photo Transfer that you type into your browser and this also gives you a way to transfer files seamlessly to your computer. I tested this way of transferring files from iPhone to my Mac and it worked without any problems at all.

The Mac20Q verdict on the Photo Transfer application

It seems to me that a function like this should be built into the operating systems of iOS and OS X, or it should be just much easier to do using iTunes. On the other hand, the application is cheap to buy and does a very good job of transferring video files from iOS to iOS, iOS to OS X in whichever direction you want to move those files. I spent the €2.39 to buy the Photo Transfer app and I consider it to have been a very good purchase. Now that I have the videos I shot on the iPhone over on my iPad I can do the review of iMovie for iPad. Or I can once again use the excellent Pinnacle Studio, to edit my videos.

If you want to know how to edit video using your iPad, then the first port of call will be iMovie for iPad. Obviously, the application made by Apple that is so highly regarded for editing videos on your Mac is going to be pretty good. What we are going to look at now though is, a very good alternative to iMovie on iPad – the Pinnacle video editing software. Pinnacle Studio, basically is the Avid Studio software which has been renamed after it was taken over by Corel. Corel is a very good company with a background in design software, but does have a couple of Mac or Apple-based software packages. The digital painting software called Painter which is by Corel is used by digital artists worldwide. I would buy it myself, but for the fact I find it is quite expensive.

How to edit videos with Pinnacle Studio

Have a look at the video that is part of this article in which I show you how to get started with Pinnacle. I give you my first impressions of the software, when I use it for the first time to edit video that I shot with the iPad camera. While I was shooting the video, I did make a mistake by using the front camera to record. So in the finished edited piece the video of myself was at a low resolution. Otherwise when using Pinnacle software to edit video on the iPad, it is a very good experience.

Where to edit videos – Answer, on the iPad, of course

At the time of writing this article it would be silly of you not to get a copy of Pinnacle Avid iPad video software as it has been made available for free. The Avid version will be discontinued while Pinnacle video editing software for iPad will get the love. I think that the free Pinnacle iPad video editing software also got some actual updating as it is became more stable than the Avid version.

It is very easy to select your videos and photos available on your iPad to put into your edited piece. As you would expect on a device like the iPad, it is just a matter of drag and drop. Well, in fact it is touch and hold to drag and then drop into the timeline, very easy. When I first used it, I did make a small mistake of dropping the video into the audio area of the timeline. By doing this I found that, you can just take the audio from a video to use in your video editing timeline. Once I had dropped the video into the correct position, I was able to see both the video and audio of the video clip I had chosen. It is possible to trim the clip that you use before dropping it into the timeline.

iPad Pinnacle video editing tutorial

This initial video is all about first impressions and getting started with your first video project in Pinnacle. The NoStylus website will be producing more tutorial videos, getting into more depth on the various tools and capabilities of the application. Watch a few of these and you will soon know how to edit videos using just your iPad. You will be able to use music that you have available on the iPad as well as your own photos and video. In the next NoStylus iPad video about Pinnacle Studio we will take a close look at what you can do with the timeline.