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  • iPhoto for iPad & iPhone

    Earlier today Apple announced a whole bunch of stuff including a new iPad, Apple TV and what looks like a very cool app, iPhoto for iOS.

    The app has just gone live in the app store and costs $4.99 for the universal app which means you can use it on  the iPhone and iPad for 1 price.

    To download the app go to ->> http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iphoto/id497786065?mt=8&ls=1

    From the app store description:

    With iPhoto for iOS, Apple brings Multi-Touch to photography in a breakthrough way. Browse, edit, and share your photos from your iPad or iPhone, like never before – all the powerful tools you need are at your fingertips. And with iCloud, you can share your experiences as stunning photo journals.

    Use simple gestures to quickly sort through photos and find your best shots. A powerful set of Multi-Touch tools helps you perfect color and exposure, crop, straighten, and retouch images. Enhance pictures by adding beautiful, Apple-designed effects with just a tap. Or use fingertip brushes to apply adjustments exactly where you want them. In addition to posting photos to Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter, you can beam photos between your iPhone and iPad, stream photos and slideshows to your Apple TV with AirPlay, and use iCloud to publish photo journals to the web to share your stories with friends and family in a whole new way.

    Smart Browsing
    • Use simple gestures to quickly sort through dozens or even hundreds of photos
    • Automatically find similar photos, so you can quickly make comparisons
    • View multiple photos side-by-side to help you choose your best images
    • Tap to mark any photo with a flag, select a favorite, or hide an image
    • Resize and reposition scrollable thumbnail grid for optimal browsing in any orientation

    Multi-Touch editing
    • Simply touch and drag on the parts of the image you want to change
    • Touch and drag on the image to adjust blue skies, greenery, and skin tones
    • Drag the white balance loupe to make precise color corrections
    • All image adjustments are completely non-destructive and can be modified at any time
    • Straighten your pictures with a tap using automatic horizon detection

    Brushes
    • Use your fingertip to paint photo adjustments right where you need them
    • Turn on edge detection to help you apply adjustments with even more precision
    • Lighten, darken, and change saturation or sharpness selectively
    • Paint out spots and blemishes with a powerful Repair brush
    • Brush away red-eye, or use the Soften brush to minimize wrinkles

    Professional-quality effects
    • Enhance your photos with dozens of beautiful, Apple-designed effects
    • Touch and drag to add drama to landscapes with a selection of graduated filters
    • Create a perfectly toned black-and-white photo by simply dragging your finger
    • Pinch and zoom a vignette or tilt-shift filter to focus on a key part of the photo
    • Apply artistic effects to transform your photos into brilliant watercolors

    Photo Journals
    • Share your stories in a whole new way as beautiful photo journals
    • iPhoto automatically flows your pictures into a great-looking layout that’s fun to personalize
    • Freely move and resize photos with a touch of your finger
    • Touch and drag to add captions, maps, dates, and even the weather
    • Publish your photo journals to iCloud as stunning web pages to share

    Other great iPhoto features
    • iPhoto is a universal app, optimized for both iPhone and iPad
    • Create cinematic slideshows of your photos with a few taps
    • Post directly to Facebook or Flickr and view friends’ comments on your photos
    • Beam photos between your iPhone and iPad, including all non-destructive adjustments
    • Use AirPlay to stream photos and slideshows to your HDTV over Wi-Fi with Apple TV
    • Print your photos wirelessly on an AirPrint-enabled printer

    Some features require an iCloud account and/or compatible internet access.
    AirPrint requires an AirPrint-compatible wireless printer.
    AirPlay is compatible with the second-generation Apple TV or later.

    iPhone screenshot

    iPad Screenshot

  • Apple announces the “New iPad”, Apple TV, iPhoto and a couple of other surpises

    So Apple announced an exciting new product lineup tonight with the much anticipated “New iPad” (What a silly name, hope they rename that before it’s sold) and a new Apple TV being announced. Here are some of the highlights:

    • iOS 5.1 & Siri Japanese available today…
    • New Apple TV
      • 1080p support
      • Completely new interface
      • Photo stream – take a photo on your iPhone and it appears on your TV – hmmm, not so sure about this one :) Some people take some rather dodge pictures
      • iCloud support – watch movies you have previously downloaded
      • Still $99 and available on the 16th March
      • Nice…I think I’ll take one if I can get my hands on it :)
    • New iPad
      • Retina Display – Awesome. Can’t wait to see the apps for this !! Gonna be amazing !!
      • 2048 x 1536 pixels – Higher res than an HDTV !!
      • New A5x chip – Quad core processing power
      • 5 Megapixel rear camera and same optics as the 4S
      • Video recording at Full HD 1080p
      • Voice dictation (aka Siri)
      • HSPA+ up to 21MB, HSDPA at 42MB & LTE (4G) up to 72MB – Nice, although the it looks like the “rest of the world” models will only be 3G
      •  Can be used as a personal hotspot
      • Same battery life as the iPad 2
      • Same pricing as iPad2 and available 16 March in the US (WANT !! – Sidenote: Anyone keen to sponsor me one :P)
      • iWorks, iMovie & Garageband get a nice refresh
      • iPhoto ($4.99) announced for iPad – Looks awesome !!! Interesting though, but I can’t see people (hardcore photo editors) moving too far away from the likes of snapseed etc
      • And the iPad2 16GB will still be sold, for a much lower price…Nice..

    Some interesting stuff announced tonight. For more info, screenshots etc etc, check out gizmodo & engadget.

    (Will be updating the site with links etc as I get them. Thanks to gdgt for the pics ;))

  • Pressreader iPad & iPhone app

    I know I have previously written about the Pressreader (FREE – iTunes link) app, but am really impressed with it once again after playing with it for the last couple of weeks. The app, which allows you to read hundreds of newspapers & magazines from around the world, makes life so much easier than having to get out of bed on a Sunday morning to go buy the Sunday Times.

    South Africa has quite a few papers & mags that you can read on Pressreader. Most of the publications cost $0.99 which is waaay cheaper than what you can get them for at the shops

    Some of the publications include:

    • Sunday Times
    • The Citizen
    • The Witness
    • Finweek
    • Business Day
    • The Times
    • Financial Mail
    • Die Burger
    • and loads more…

    If you looking for an app where you can read your local news on your iPad/iPhone, then I highly suggest getting this FREE app, and subscribing to a couple of your favorite publications !
    Have you tried Pressreader yet ? What do you think ?

  • Time to become a #SleekGeek

    So, I know I have been awfully bad at blogging over the last couple of weeks, so I have to pick up the pace and get blogging. My reason for my hiatus ? I’m becoming a #SleekGeek.

    If you on Facebook/Twitter & follow me, you may have heard about the #SleekGeek challenge on Facebook, originally inspired by Elan Lohmann, where everyone puts R500 into a kitty, and the person who becomes the most “sleek” wins. This is not necessarily just weight, but also a full body measurements from Virgin Active at the start of the comp, and then again at the end.  The challenge officially started on 1 Feb, but I have been living my changed lifestyle since 1 Jan. I have decided to cut out Carbs (all the bad stuff, you still need some good carbs), Dairy & Alcohol. Amazing what a difference these 3 things make in your life.

    So, I have a lot of work to do still, and have been putting in double time with both the eating & fitness. I have taken up boxing at the AWESOME new Ringside Boxing Gym in Ballito, as well as keeping up and doing Kettlebells at Flux Motion every day. I try go to Boxing 3-4 times a week, and then Kettlebells every weekday at lunchtime.

    I also visited a dietitian at the begining of the year, and they have a really cool machine which measures the fat/muscle breakdown in your body, which really helps with seeing where you are in the quest. Using this method, I have seen that I have already lost 14.1kg’s of FAT, while my lean Muscle has increased by 7.4kg. This is since the 11th Jan.

    So, I am going to do something I have never done before. Taken a WHOLE whack of confidence. During my “journey” to become leaner, I have been taking weekly pictures to show my progress. This way, I can keep progress of where I am, and how I am doing. It also helps with seeing my body change, and actually helps with the confidence. So I have decided to share my pictures on Dropbox, grouping them weekly to show where I am. No laughing please :P

    Update: I have put together all the pics and will try and update it every week. You can see the week by week progress here

    I have also been logging all my workouts using the AWESOME new Wahoo Fitness Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor, that works with the iPhone 4s,  that I bought a while back. I will be doing a FULL review on this gadget soon. This has been an amazing addition to my training, as I can now see where I am, and what my heart rate is. Being the “ultimate SleekGeek”, I have logged all my workouts in to a Google Doc, so I can keep track. You can see the doc here.

    So, so far, so good. I am really excited about this, and already I can feel a difference. I am feeling more motivated about the whole thing, and having a whole bunch of other people in the same boat and on the same mission, really makes it a whole bunch easier ! I will also be posting updates here every now and then to keep up with what I started.

    Any advice, comments & critisims welcome in the comments below :)

  • Apple changing eduction with iBooks 2 & iBooks Author

    It seems that the Steve Jobs legend lives on, and Apple today announced something I believe will change the future of eduction in our lives & our children’s lives forever.

    Earlier today Apple announced a new version of their iBooks app (version 2) which now allows you to use and display interactive content in the book, paving the way for text books to be fully interactive in the class. Coupled with this announcement was a new FREE Mac app called iBooks Author which now allows you to create these books & publish them for FREE !!

    Imagine the possibilities !!??

    Also included in the announcement was a new app specifically designed for iTunesU, the “University” section of iTunes which allows educational institutions to publish course in iTunes and make them available for download. The app now gives you a dedicated interface into that part of the store.

    To get an idea of the goodness of these game changing apps, do the following:

    • Download or update to the new version of iBooks. The update is more geared towards the iPad though.
    • iPad Only – Download the FREE interactive text book called – Life on Earth. Here you will get an idea of what the new capabilites of the app are
    • Download the FREE iBooks Author app from the Mac App store. Here you can design and publish your own Textbook. If you that way inclined :)

    I can’t wait to see if South African schools will pick up on this.

    Rural Areas – iPad  – 3G – Free Text Books – Interactive – Apple TV – Airplay —> BOOM ! :) *Just Imagine*