There are a lot of people stating there preferences for the iPad. Loads of negative comments as well as positive ones. The most telling are the comments from those that managed to get their hands on the iPad at the event and they all say only good things. Andy Inahtko, Stephen Fry , to mention a couple of them. Here are a few things I came across initially mixed in with a couple of thoughts of my own.

Leave a comment below and tell us whether you will be buying one or not. Tell us what you plan to do with it. What application do you think will be your most used app from the ones you have already on your iPhone

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I like the look of it, I want one but don’t really need one. My wife will be getting one of these beauties though. She is a teacher and has been on the look out for something exactly like this for using with her work. She wanted a MacBook Air for the lightness of it and this is lighter. The iPad has a super looking version of Keynote on there for $10 and she can do all her information management that teachers have to do easily on this device.

Best of all – She may let me touch it from time to time, perhaps even use it?

Fail to understand why there are some bitching about it not having Flash which is a resource hungry pile of rubbish we really don’t need.

I would have thought there would be a camera on the iPad though.

Some complain about it not being 16:9 in shape and I wonder about that too seeing as it is touted as a perfect device for watching movies, but then it does have to do other jobs too, the book reader thing and general usage is best with the shape that it is I think.

One nice thing is that all the iPhone apps that are there already work on the iPad. Those I have bought already will go straight on there without re buying. There are file management apps in the App Store already so the people griping about it not having file management on it are talking out of places where the sun doesn’t shine.

What are your views on the iPad now ??

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Today’s interview is with Adam Weiss who uses a Mac Pro that is a quad processor antique and also a MacBook. Not only that he has hackintoshed a Dell mini9, just for fun and using on trips where he can’t carry much. He says it is useful but very slow in use. Good as a portable storage device and quiet to use as a recording computer and works with the microphones he has.

Adam Weiss is a successful educational podcaster and podcast consultant, as well as a sought-after digital media strategist. An expert interviewer and communicator, he aims to show that digital communication is more about story, presentation, and technique than fancy gear and tech toys.

He is the creator of the award-winning Current Science & Technology Podcast for the Museum of Science in Boston, which he hosted for more than two years. He now hosts his critically-acclaimed Boston Behind the Scenes Podcast, and has profiled everyone from street vendors to senators and astronauts in his career.

Adam also provides consultation on social networking, living with technology, web design and best practices, and general digital media strategy. He has started working in the digital video realm recently, and has been a photographer for years.

Adam does video reviews in which he shows what you can do with iPhone applications. He films using a Canon 7D SLR camera that also does video. He tells me that the main restriction would be the length of the clip you can record and that it doesn’t do autofocus while in video mode.

Adam is a podcaster too working as a podcast producer and also as the host on a podcast. One of the podcasts is a nature – science podcast. He even helps other people out with their podcasts as a podcast consultant.

Today’s interview is with Adam Weiss who uses a Mac Pro that is a quad processor antique and also a MacBook. Not only that he has hackintoshed a Dell mini9, just for fun and using on trips where he can’t carry much. He says it is useful but very slow in use. Good as a portable storage device and quiet to use as a recording computer and works with the microphones he has.

Adam Weiss is a successful educational podcaster and podcast consultant, as well as a sought-after digital media strategist. An expert interviewer and communicator, he aims to show that digital communication is more about story, presentation, and technique than fancy gear and tech toys.

He is the creator of the award-winning Current Science & Technology Podcast for the Museum of Science in Boston, which he hosted for more than two years. He now hosts his critically-acclaimed Boston Behind the Scenes Podcast, and has profiled everyone from street vendors to senators and astronauts in his career.

Adam also provides consultation on social networking, living with technology, web design and best practices, and general digital media strategy. He has started working in the digital video realm recently, and has been a photographer for years.

Adam does video reviews in which he shows what you can do with iPhone applications. He films using a Canon 7D SLR camera that also does video. He tells me that the main restriction would be the length of the clip you can record and that it doesn’t do autofocus while in video mode.

Adam is a podcaster too working as a podcast producer and also as the host on a podcast. One of the podcasts is a nature – science podcast. He even helps other people out with their podcasts as a podcast consultant.

We talk about microphones and how you can get more credibility when out and about shooting video. Adam like to shoot using natural light where possible. Using a reflector is a good way to enhance your lighting. He is a FinalCut Express user like myself and doesn’t yet need to move to Final Cut Pro. It is possible to use Keynote to do some transitions and effects in his video.

One of the sponsors of the show is GoSim and they have a product that is great when you are travelling to other countries and you don’t want to get stuck with high roaming charges. I will be giving a try on my next trip away, for sure.

Adam recently lost his iPhone and was wishing that he still had his Mobile Me account. The ability to wipe the phone from a distance and perhaps even locate the phone would have been very useful. He has Qik and other video apps on his iPhone and is interested in the streaming of video

I have the Magic Mouse for a couple of weeks now and I have to say it is thumbs up all the way. I was listening to the Mac Geek Gab podcast this morning and Dave was going into huge detail about his experience with the mouse. One of thing he said was about the size of the mouse. It is not very high or thick, or tall and seems small, built for small hands. The comment was that Steve Jobs must have small hands. Well my hands are not that small but for me the mouse is a good size. I had suffered with some RSI pain for about a month prior to getting this mouse and now after using the Magic Mouse for a couple of weeks I now can shake hands with people when we meet without wincing. Definitely a big plus for me there.

Another problem that other people have reported is the tracking speed of the mouse, and perhaps needing to run a third party utility to get to work fast enough. Strangely I have not had that problem. I installed 10.6.2 before I started using the mouse, which could have been a factor with this, and the tracking has been good. I adjusted it to the speed I wanted in System Preferences and that was that. I am working with 2 screens on my iMac also and I can easily track the whole width no hassle whatsoever.

So if you have not had a chance to try one of these Magic Mouse rodents from Apple then I would say you should definitely jump in there and have a play at your local Apple Store.

FinalCut Express

I have been learning how to do things in FinalCut Express during the week and using Lynda.com to teach myself. It is taking some practice time to get my head around the roll, ripple, slip and slide tools but I am getting there. The training videos in Lynda are very good and makes the learning much quicker and in depth. Reading the PDF manual is painful in comparison. So far I have been working on one video with footage I took while at a friends’ horse riding school. I had some good shots in there and I managed to make a short movie with FinalCut Express without too much bother. I struggled with moving clips on the timeline and I still need to learn how to make the audio fade where I want it too. In this case I looked at the length of the audio required and opened up AmadeusPro to do the job for me, but it can be done in FinalCut Express.

In the Lynda training videos there are details on how to set up the preferences to work better. It seems the standard prefs are not the best for working with. If I had not got Lynda.com to work with I would never have found this out. There is always a gap it seems between the designers of software and the users, the lessons are from people that know the application inside out and that is a huge benefit. As part of my learning I have been watching the videos for Final Cut Pro also and there is a separate series that deals with LiveType, the application that deals with titling. I am quite impressed with that application.

I have noticed that there are some small differences between the Express application compared to the Pro but for the most part you can do all that you need in FinalCut Express. For instance one difference is the speed controls. I see that in Pro it is possible to have easing in and out of the speed of a clip or a selection of a clip, so that when ramping the speed you can do it with more finesse. There is no 3 way colour corrector in FinalCut Express, which I saw being used in tutorials on the FinalCut King site. So nothing major anyway and watching the tutorials for the Pro application are also helpful and not potentially confusing.

The first video I sent out of FinalCut Express is now on my channel at YouTube, if you would like to have a look,

As I am making these screencasts I am learning more about the power that is in this application. There will be more Screencasts to come to show you what can be done.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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In this podcast I am talking to two people from Telestream, the company that make ScreenFlow. ScreenFlow is a super product that I use often to make screencasts. Barbara deHart and Christine Porter tell me all about ScreenFlow and also mention other products from Telestream.

I was able to give them direct a feature I would like to see in the ScreenFlow, they are keen to improve ScreenFlow and you never know my suggestion about being able to specify the placement of a clip within the screen might make it into ScreenFlow. It pretty good that they have snapping lines that let you snap a clip to the centres and to the edges but sometimes you might want a clip be at an exact position and for that you need some boxes where you can enter some numbers in the same way you can enter a number to specify the zoom level for example.

I also use VideoCue from Telestream and other people have requested some of the features in that to be merged into ScreenFlow, I agree with that for sure.

I know there are other screen capture applications out there and I have paid for a couple of them but in the end I had to get ScreenFlow because of what it can do with the editing. It really is handy to be able to do all you need to do in the one application, from capturing the whole of the screen to uploading it to YouTube.

See the Screencast I made about using ScreenFlow. I show some of the basics like adding extra media and using transitions in between clips. I will be producing more screencasts as soon as my cold/flu symptoms abate a little.

ScreenFlow

the best ScreenCapture Application

I use ScreenFlow and I am an affiliate for the application. I paid for the application initially but I was pleased to get on the Beta program to get version 2 upgrade without having to pay for the upgrade. I have tried other screen capture apps such as iShowU and SnapzPro, both of which I also paid for. It was the fault of Don McAllister that I lashed out more cash to get ScreenFlow when I already had to screen capture applications. When I met him at Podcamp Barcelona he gave me the recommendation. I tried it and decided that buying it was a no brainer for what I wanted to do. So you can trust me when I say that if you have not tried it yet then I would say give it a try. Once you have made a couple of Screencasts with it you will want to have it past the trial period too.

Here is screencast in which I show you the basics of ScreenFlow. How to put in video actions and callouts and set them up to work and look right. I will do some more screencasts featuring ScreenFlow soon. Why not hit the Leave a comment button below and say what you think yourself. Looking forward to hearing from you.

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Leo Laporte

In the next clip he was heard lambasting Apple for the very same thing. I suppose he just changed his mind or he forgot what he said before. Maybe when you are making 1.5 million a year from podcasting maybe it affects the memory a little. When you look at him in the picture to the left, you would think that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. Not  such a good guy after all, did you hear the one where he had a spat with a guest on his show and kicked him off with a few expletives thrown in for good measure. I saw the video of that one and he looked like he was in a bad mood to start with. Maybe he was having a bad tech day.

What do you think of Leo Laporte?

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Many of blogs and podcasts are getting into the swing of things with the approaching of the Snow Leopard. There are reports / rumours that the cat will be with us before the end of August even, despite Apple saying that they would put it out in September. I always believe that it is much better to under promise and over deliver, and so bringing forward the release dat would do endless amounts of good for the whole of Apple business. We love the products anyway and to give us Snow Leopard out early  on to of the icing which is the low price is surely the cherry on the top.

I will be getting my hands on Snowy as soon as it is available that’s for sure. On the iMac I will be doing the nuke and pave approach because I want a complete refresh with the new operating system. On the MacBook I will do an upgrade or update. The MacBook is much newer so will be spot on for the quicker and easier upgrade. I want to consolidate the applications I have on the iMac so that is another reason for going the nuke and pave route. I have not been having any problems with the running of the iMac but I think it is a good time to prune dome of the dead wood from the application folder.

Starting fresh will mean that I have to make a list of all the applications I have on the system now and note all of the serial numbers so that I can re install them. I will be doing back ups before I start all of this anyway. I have back ups anyway but I will be doubly sure to back up before going ahead. That will be after doing some maintenance in terms of running the permissions repairs on the hard disk too.

I get the impression from all of the reports so far that we can expect some bit of a speed bump from the software due to the software making the most of the extra cores on the processor and even using the processor on the graphics card. Of course it is still all rumour and hearsay but it is what makes the Apple World go around.

So what are your plans for your Macs’s?

1. Upgrade
2. Archive and install
3. Full erase and install

I can’t see any reasons to not upgrade to Snowy unless you have a Power PC  chip in your Mac. But maybe you have a good reason to not upgrade. Why not tell us about it.

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Michael is from Houston in Texas and has a plethora of Mac computers that he uses for business and pleasure. He makes training films using Final Cut Pro and is a heavy user of Aperture. Michael has a pedigree with Macs going back to the Apple 2. Obviously this amounts to a huge amount of experience with the Mac.

He tells us a little about using classic and changing to OS X. He is not keen on using a Mouse preferring to use a trackball. He uses a Heil PR40
and USB Edirol mixer to connect it up. He reckons his PR40 is the best mic to use when you consider the antique clocks he has chiming in the background from time to time.

I use a Samson C03U mic similar to the Samson Multi-pattern Condenser Mic
both are USB mics.
I recommended AmadeusPro to him and he said he is off to the shop to buy it after we finish recording. I even passed on some tips about selecting part of a sound wave to delete so that you don’t get and extra clicks in the audio.
He reckons that Adobe will probably take some time to get a version out for Snow Leopard because they can drag their feet a bit some times in reaction to new operating systems. Multi Threading is going to be the big thing with Snow leopard and being about to make use of the multi core computers.
He told me there is a huge difference between having 2GB and 4 GB in the MacBook. So I will have to do something about putting in the extra in my MacBook too.
The office he works in is a mixture of Macs and Windows and has to use MS Excel because it is the only spreadsheet that will open the spreadsheets that get sent to him. For his personal office type of thing he will use iWork. He wishes that it wasn’t totally necessary to revolve around microsoft products in business.
Not quite a cool aid drinker but will always recommend a Mac to people when the ask what sort of computer to get.
Michael likes to use Firefox for the add ons you can use and will sometimes go back to Safari and now and then Camino. Depends on which is working the best right now, and for now it is Safari 4. Fluid gets a mention also, this is an app which you use to make a application specific to a web site.
Oovoo is used for some video chatting  with his mates which include Mark Sheppard who was featured in the previous podcast and Rob Saunders who will be in a Podcast here soon and Michael  uses a Logitech web cam to get the video in.

Recommended sites

• The Unofficial Apple Weblog
• Mac Rumours
• Get information direct from Apple have a look in the support area
• International Mac Podcast

Michaels pictures

• http://gallery.me.com/mking8#100058
• http://gallery.me.com/mking8#100074

michaelking@im-podcast.com

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Man I have been struggling this morning with Visual Hub, VideoCue and getting a short video made. VideoCue is a teleprompter and I have used it before successfully and for some reason today I could not get it to see my Samson C03U microphone. Sometimes it would then other times it wouldn’t. Then on top of that I was not happy with the export settings and I have been fiddling around with those to get some acceptable quality of the video. Still not as good as I would have liked but maybe I should be getting out the video camera and I know I will win. It will be a good opportunity to try out iMovie 09 then.

In the end I did some restarting of the computer and editing of the export settings in VIdeoCue and then deleted the microphone and then added it back in to get it right. I still ended up with a video that was too large so I then was trying visual hub to convert it and it did not play ball. So eventually I got VideoMonkey to do the job. I also tried Stomp and that was rubbish too. I tell you it can be difficult to get to grips with all of the video codecs that are out there. I truy to stick with H.264 do convert the files to get decent size with decent quality.

Some people just use the browser of choice and email and not much else, On the other hand there wil be users that will spend a whole day on a specific task like making a movie or a podcast and move on to using other apps on following days. Computers can do so many different things and people are all so different so a day in front of any computer is going to be unique and interesting.

Of course seeing as I am talking to Mac users there is going to be a lot of creativity and even the normal user is going to be a content maker of one sort or another. I presume that will  be the case anyway, we will find out as time goes by and the podcasts give us some evidence to go on.

I am a bit of a butterfly in the way I work. Even when I have a task that has to be completed by the end of the day I will still do other things as I go. A little bit of email checking, some twittering, I’ll research something or other or check out a video somewhere. Obviously being a podcaster and blogger I spend a lot of time using the applications that I need to complete those tasks. Amadeus Pro, Garageband08, Quick time, ScreenFlow, VideoCue and more. I have just been conned into making the newsletter for the Girona Grapvine which is a group of English speaking socially networking each Wednesday in Girona, for that I have been using Pages which is a super application for arranging things on a page. I will be outputting those as PDF’s when they are done.