The guys over at iTunesUSA, have recently launched some cool new bundle voucher combos. Apart from the standard $10, $15, $25 & $50 vouchers, you can now also get the following combo deals.
$30 bundle – R275Some cool deals in there, so if you looking to bulk up on your iTunes vouchers, I suggest getting from iTunesUSA
One of the announcement at the iPad 2 launch a few weeks ago was that Apple would be releasing 2 new Apple iPad apps, GarageBand & iMovie. I have used Mac GarageBand briefly on the Mac a few times, but never actually given it too much time. So I wasn’t in a rush to get the new iPad Garageband when it released on Friday, but after seeing a few tweets about how cool the app was, I decided to drop the measly $5 for the app. And what a good decision. Actually, I think I have probably used the app so much this weekend, I would have easily spent $50 for the app. Seriously :)
GarageBand turns your iPad into a collection of Touch Instruments and a full-featured recording studio — so you can make music anywhere you go. Use Multi-Touch gestures to play pianos, organs, guitars, drums, and basses on your iPad. They sound and play like their counterparts, but let you do things you could never do on a real instrument. Enjoy a full range of Smart Instruments that make you sound like a pro — even if you’ve never played a note before. Plug an electric guitar into your iPad and play through classic amps and stompbox effects. Use the built-in microphone or a guitar to record, or capture any performance. Then mix up to eight tracks to create a song you can share.
As you can see from the app store description above, the app is full of features. The Smart Instruments for me is amazing. You select your type of instrument, (Piano, Guitar or Drums) and it almost teaches you about the instrument. You can then record your tune into a track, and mix it with other effects. I have always been a fan of drums, but never got round to playing them (apart from the pots in the kitchen & annoying my wife) and now with Garageband, it is so simple.
I have been playing quite a bit, and put a few tracks together. I honestly have a bit of a dull ear when it comes to music, so this track below, self titled “House” might sound a bit out of sync, but you will see how simple it is to get something like this going. This track probably took me around half an hour to do with all the tweaking. To get it off the iPad, you can either email it, or send to iTunes. You can also save the files as a GarageBand file for the Mac & edit on the Mac afterwards.
House Mix from Garageband iPad by MarcForrest
If you own an iPad, I highly recommend you download GarageBand for the iPad from the iTunes store. At $5, it is a steal ! I am also thinking of putting up a few tutorials about how to use GarageBand and some of the features it offers.
With the release of iOS 4.2 Apple allowed wireless printing from a number of apps on the iPad & iPhone. This meant, that with a compatible printer, you could print a document, email etc directly from your iPhone/iPad over a WiFi network. The problem came in, where only a small number of printers had this feature enabled, and currently they are all (15 of them) only HP printers.
From the Apple iOS AirPrint page:
AirPrint on iPad makes it simple to print your email, photos, web pages, and documents. There’s no software to download, no drivers to install, and no cables to connect. With just a few taps on your iPad, you can go from viewing something onscreen to holding a printed copy. And because all the printing takes place in the background, there’s no waiting around. Instead, you can start printing and then go back to flicking through photos, surfing the web, or doing whatever you were doing before.
I came across an awesome little app, which is available for both Mac & Windows, that “spoofs” your printer into allowing you to “think” it is a compatible printer, and allows you to print from your iPhone or iPad to ANY printer. The app is called AirPrint Activator (Mac download/Windows Download), and works as simply as running the app/exe and sharing & activating your printer. Really, as simple as that.
Here is a short video that shows how to do it.
Easy. I have tested it on my deskjet printer at home, and it works like a charm !! Now you can print from an iPhone to ANY printer :)
Earlier this evening, after booting up my MacBook, I saw my network monitor go crazy, and was just downloading something. This was very strange, as I didn’t have any apps running or even Firefox. So I put out a quick tweet, and got a few replies including one from AllanKent & Steph, who both suggested a programme called “Little Snitch”
Little Snitch informs you whenever a program attempts to establish an outgoing Internet connection. You can then choose to allow or deny this connection, or define a rule how to handle similar, future connection attempts. This reliably prevents private data from being sent out without your knowledge. Little Snitch runs inconspicuously in the background and it can also detect network related activity of viruses, trojans and other malware.
I downloaded the demo version, which gives you 3 hours usage to try and see what was happening. Little Snitch then showed me that the there was a process called “SoftwareUpdateCheck” which was downloading something. After a quick Google search, it seems that this process can get a bit out of hand at times, with people complaining it uses up to 90% CPU at times. It looks like the Software Update app in my Preferences was trying to download the latest updates, and I had no idea. After checking out, there was a check box to automatically download updates. Unticked that, and BOOM! problem solved :)
I have to admit, that Little Snitch was a lifesaver this eve, and I am seriously contemplating buying a license to keep track of where my bandwidth is going. If you have a Mac, I highly suggest this app !!
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With the launch of the Mac App store yesterday, there are a loads of brilliant new apps to download. The biggest issue with that we have in the South Africa app store is that a majority of apps aren’t available. This includes the highly coveted Games category. Due to various regulations in South Africa, all games, whether for PC or a device need to pass through the film & publications board to get a rating. This means that most times games like Angry birds etc will not be available for download in the SA Mac App store.
If you have a US Mac App Store account, you will have access to loads more apps and of course the games. I decided to put a quick tutorial together on how to sign up for a US Mac App store account. You don’t need a credit card account for this account, you simply “top it up” with vouchers from EvoPoints , iTunesUSA , Maximus Cards or WildTwig who accept PayPal
To see how to set up a US iTunes account for the Mac App store, simply tweet about it using the button below, and you will be given full access on how to set it up.
To get a US Mac App store account you need to follow the steps below
Create your Apple ID. If you have an existing account, you need to use a new email address. If you have a Gmail account, you can simply put a fullstop(.) anywhere in your address, and it will forward to your existing email address. So if you address is [email protected], you can also use [email protected] and you will receive the mail.
