Posts tagged with "iPad"

From a Turntable to an iPad Home Dashboard: My First Experience with Vinyl

This month, amidst the increasingly chaotic rumblings of the world in the news, I found myself looking for a new distraction. Since Civilization VII wasn’t out just yet, my eyes quickly turned to the vinyl record player that my partner and I had been storing in its cardboard box for months without ever taking the time to set it up. It’s not even ours; we’ve been keeping it safe, along with a sizable vinyl collection, for a close friend who unfortunately doesn’t have enough space for it in their current home.

This turntable is definitely not fancy – it’s even quite affordable compared to similar models – but it looks pretty, and our friend gracefully gave us permission to set it up for ourselves in the living room. While I’m sure they only pitied my desperate need for a new distraction, I took them up on this offer and opened the turntable’s box for the first time.

At the risk of sounding like a total youngster, I must disclose that until three weeks ago, I had never interacted with vinyl before. All I had were some presumptuous preconceptions. ”Doesn’t music sound worse on vinyl? Also, why should I bother with large, fragile music discs and a whole record player when I already have Apple Music in my pocket with lossless audio and Dolby Atmos?”

Still, I was not only intrigued, but also motivated to solve the main problem that setting up this record player posed: how can I make it work when our audio gear at home consists only of a handful of HomePod minis, one pair of wired headphones, and several pairs of Bluetooth headphones? While some turntables ship with built-in Bluetooth connectivity, ours can only output audio over USB or RCA with the help of a sound amplifier, and it definitely can’t broadcast audio to AirPlay devices like our HomePod minis.

Allow me to spoil the ending of this story for you: in the end, unboxing this turntable escalated into a legitimately awesome tech upgrade to our living room. It’s now equipped with a docked 11“ iPad Pro that acts as a shared dashboard for controlling our HomeKit devices, performing everyday tasks like consulting the weather and setting up timers, and of course, broadcasting our vinyls to any HomePod mini or Bluetooth device in the apartment. This setup is amazing, and it works perfectly; however, getting there was a tedious process that drastically reinforced my long-standing frustrations with Apple’s self-imposed software limitations.

Let me tell you how it all went.

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Bookshop.org Now Supports Local Booksellers with eBook Sales→

Bookshop.org launched in 2020 as a way to sell books online while still supporting local bookstores, which have become a rarity in the U.S. The company has seen success selling physical books online. As Boone Ashworth explains at Wired:

For physical books, Bookshop lets buyers direct 30 percent of the proceeds of a sale to their favorite participating bookstore. An additional 10 percent of those sales, plus the sales of books that are not earmarked for a specific store, gets split up and distributed to every store on Bookshop’s platform.

Now, Bookshop has added eBooks that can be purchased online and read in the company’s new Bookshop.org app, available for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Ashworth breaks down how these sales work:

Ebook sales through Bookshop, however, will see 100 percent of the proceeds going to the store that sells them through the platform. If a user buys an ebook directly from Bookshop without naming a bookstore they want to support, then a third of that profit will go into the pool of funds that gets divided between stores. The rest will go to pay for Bookshop.org’s engineers and server costs.

Giving local bookstores the ability to sell eBooks fills a big hole for those businesses. Bookshop CEO Andy Hunter shared the company’s motivation for offering eBooks with Wired:

“It’s crazy that bookstores can’t sell ebooks to their customers right now,” Hunter says. He says he wants this program to continue his company’s mission of propping up local bookstores, but he also hopes this move will help take Amazon down a peg as well.

I’ve tried Bookshop’s app briefly with some book previews, and it works well. The settings options aren’t as extensive as in other eBook readers, but the basics – like text size, pagination versus scrolling, a couple of font options, and light, dark, and paper themes – are all there. The design makes browsing your library of books or finding something new to read easy, too. It may not be enough for some readers, but this is a 1.0 release, so I’m optimistic additional options will be offered with time.

It’s great to see Bookshop offering eBooks. We have an excellent bookstore here in Davidson that I love to browse, but more often than not, I prefer an eBook over the paper version, so it’s nice to have that as an option now.

The Bookshop.org app is available on the App Store as a free download. eBooks must be purchased online and synced with the app.

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Introducing Our Updated iPad Hub→

We’ve updated MacStories’ iPad hub. You may not have noticed before, but it’s linked right there in the masthead, and it’s an amazing resource. The iPad hub collects over a decade of Federico’s coverage of years of iPad hardware and iPadOS. It’s a fantastic historical resource and the best place to find his latest coverage.

Federico has been using and writing about the iPad since its beginning. His many hardware reviews benefit from that in-depth knowledge and his experiments in modularity and creating a hybrid laptop-tablet are legendary.

On the iPad hub, you’ll find:

If you love the iPad as much as we do, check out our iPad hub. It’s a fantastic resource and a fun trip through Apple’s hardware history.

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Our MacStories Setups: Updates Covering Video Production, Gaming, and More→

The second half of 2024 saw a lot of change to my setup and Federico’s. We launched the MacStories YouTube channel, expanded our family of podcasts, and spent time chasing the ultimate portable gaming setup for NPC: Next Portable Console. The result was that our setups have evolved rapidly. So, today, we thought we’d catch folks up on what’s changed.

Our Setups page has all the details, but you’ll notice a couple of trends from the changes we’ve made recently. As Federico recounted in iPad Pro for Everything: How I Rethought My Entire Workflow Around the New 11” iPad Pro, the linchpin to ditching his Mac altogether was recording audio and video to SD cards. He already had a solution for audio in place, but video required additional hardware, including the Sony ZV-E10 II camera.

Federico's White OLED Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion y700 tablet.

Federico’s White OLED Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion y700 tablet.

Federico’s gaming setup has evolved, too. The Sony PS5 Pro replaced the original PS5, and he swapped the limited edition white Steam Deck in for the standard OLED version. He also revealed on NPC: Next Portable Console this week that he’s using a Lenovo y700 2024 gaming tablet imported from China to emulate Nintendo DS and 3DS games, which will be available worldwide later this year as the Lenovo Legion Tab Gen 3. Other upgrades to existing hardware Federico uses include a move from the iPhone 16 Plus to the iPhone 16 Pro Max and an upgrade of the XREAL Airs to the XREAL One glasses.

My portable video recording setup

My portable video recording setup

As for myself, CES and its bag size limitations pushed me to rethink my portable video and audio recording setups. For recording when I’m away from home I added several items to my kit that I detailed in What’s in My CES Bag?, including:

On the gaming side of things I added a white TrimUI Brick and GameCube-inspired Retroid Pocket 5.

2024 was a big year for setup updates for both of us. We already have new hardware incoming for testing, so keep an eye on the Setups page. I expect we’ll update it several times in 2025 too.

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Razer Launches PC Remote Play for Streaming PC Games to the iPhone, iPad, and Other Devices

Source: Razer.

Source: Razer.

Yesterday, Brendon and I wandered into a ballroom where Razer was showing off its latest hardware. We weren’t expecting much beyond super-powerful gaming laptops (✅) and lots of RGB lights (also ✅). However, just as our guided booth tour was ending, we asked about an iPhone, iPad mini, and Windows PC setup on a nearby table, which it turns out was a demo of Razer’s new PC Remote Play app.

There are a lot of ways to stream games from a Windows PC to iPhones, iPads, and other devices, but Razer PC Remote Play looks like it could be one of the easiest and nicest of the bunch. What was impressive about the demo was that Razer’s app automatically adjusts to the device to which you’re streaming, matching its screen’s refresh rate and aspect ratio. That ensures you’ll get the most out of the device to which you’re streaming, and you won’t see letterboxing or pillarboxing, which is caused by a mismatch between the aspect ratio of your PC remote device. According to a Reddit user who says they are a Product Developer for Razer PC Remote Play, the app is built on the open source Moonlight/Sunshine projects, with the goal of simplifying setup and configuration.

Razer PC Remote Play is currently in beta and requires that you run Razer Cortex on your Windows PC and install the Razer PC Remote Play and Razer Nexus apps on your iPhone, iPad, or other devices. I haven’t had a chance to set this up yet because I don’t have a PC with me at CES, but judging from the iOS app I set up it looks as simple as opening Razer PC Remote Play, which detects if there is a PC on your network running Razer Cortex. Once paired, Razer says your PC games will show up in its Nexus game launcher app alongside your other games.

I’m excited to try Razer PC Remote Play myself. The Moonlight/Sunshine project is a great way to stream PC games, but it can take some fiddling to work well with any given setup. What Razer is promising is a simplified version that just works out of the box. We’ll see how well it works in practice, but the demo I saw was promising.

Espresso Displays Announces the 4K 15 Pro Portable Display

Source: espresso Displays.

Source: espresso Displays.

Late yesterday, espresso Displays announced the addition of a new portable display to its Pro lineup. The espresso 15 Pro joins the company’s 17 Pro, which was released last year. Highlights of the 15.6” display include a brighter 60Hz 4K screen and a new stand, along with features from the 17 Pro like touch sensitivity.

Source: espresso Displays.

Source: espresso Displays.

The display, which is enclosed in an aluminum body with two USB-C ports, is capable of 550 nits of brightness over a single USB-C cable, a 100-nit improvement over the larger 17 Pro display. The new Stand+ will enable the screen to be elevated much higher, too, thanks to a clever design that can be folded up into a travel-friendly configuration.

The espresso 15 Pro will be shown off at CES starting tomorrow, where I’m hoping to spend some hands-on time with it. Although I haven’t seen the 15 Pro yet, I have tried the 17 Pro and espresso Display’s standard 1080p 15” portable display, which came with the same Stand+ as the 15 Pro model. Both displays are well-built, lightweight, and easy to use, making them great complements to a Mac, iPad, or even an iPhone for anyone who wants a second screen. I’m particularly interested in the 15 Pro, though, because despite its great resolution, the 17 Pro is a little bigger than I typically want to carry with me, and I expect the added brightness of the 15 Pro will be a nice addition, too.

What’s in My CES Bag?

Packing for CES has been a little different than WWDC. The biggest differences are the huge crowds at CES and the limits the conference puts on the bags you can carry into venues.

My trusty Tom Bihn Synapse 25 backpack isn’t big, but it’s too large for CES, so the first thing I did was look for a bag that was small enough to meet the CES security rules but big enough to hold my 14” MacBook Pro and 11” iPad Pro, plus accessories. I decided on a medium-sized Tomtoc Navigator T24 sling bag, which is the perfect size. It holds 7 liters of stuff and has built-in padding to protect the corners of the MacBook Pro and iPad as well as pockets on the inside and outside to help organize cables and other things.

Tomtoc's medium Navigator T24 sling bag. Source: Tomtoc.

Tomtoc’s medium Navigator T24 sling bag. Source: Tomtoc.

I don’t plan to carry my MacBook Pro with me during the day. The iPad Pro will be plenty for any writing and video production I do on the go, but it will be good to have the power and flexibility of the MacBook Pro when I return to my hotel room. For traveling to and from Las Vegas, I appreciate that the Tomtoc bag can fit everything I’m bringing.

A surprising amount of stuff fits in the T24. Source: Tomtoc.

A surprising amount of stuff fits in the T24. Source: Tomtoc.

With little room to spare, my setup is minimal. I’ll write on the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro, carrying the iPad with me tethered to my iPhone for Internet access. That’s a tried-and-true setup I already use whenever I’m away from home.

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iPad Pro for Everything: How I Rethought My Entire Workflow Around the New 11” iPad Pro

My 11" iPad Pro.

My 11” iPad Pro.

For the past two years since my girlfriend and I moved into our new apartment, my desk has been in a constant state of flux. Those who have been reading MacStories for a while know why. There were two reasons: I couldn’t figure out how to use my iPad Pro for everything I do, specifically for recording podcasts the way I like, and I couldn’t find an external monitor that would let me both work with the iPad Pro and play videogames when I wasn’t working.

This article – which has been six months in the making – is the story of how I finally did it.

Over the past six months, I completely rethought my setup around the 11” iPad Pro and a monitor that gives me the best of both worlds: a USB-C connection for when I want to work with iPadOS at my desk and multiple HDMI inputs for when I want to play my PS5 Pro or Nintendo Switch. Getting to this point has been a journey, which I have documented in detail on the MacStories Setups page.

This article started as an in-depth examination of my desk, the accessories I use, and the hardware I recommend. As I was writing it, however, I realized that it had turned into something bigger. It’s become the story of how, after more than a decade of working on the iPad, I was able to figure out how to accomplish the last remaining task in my workflow, but also how I fell in love with the 11” iPad Pro all over again thanks to its nano-texture display.

I started using the iPad as my main computer 12 years ago. Today, I am finally able to say that I can use it for everything I do on a daily basis.

Here’s how.

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Apple Releases Updates to Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for the Mac and iPad

The Magnetic Mask. Source: Apple.

The Magnetic Mask. Source: Apple.

Today, Apple revealed the latest updates to Final Cut Pro for the Mac and iPad, with both offering a variety of new features and simplified workflows.

Final Cut Pro 11 for the Mac has added magnetic masks, extending the “magnetic” metaphor used for clips placed on your timeline. Apple says the new feature will allow you to quickly mask people and objects in a shot to color grade them or add effects separately from the rest of a scene.

Final Cut Pro for Mac creating closed captions. Source: Apple.

Final Cut Pro for Mac creating closed captions. Source: Apple.

The app can automatically generate closed captions now, too. The feature, which was briefly shown off in a video published alongside the announcement of the new Mac mini, uses artificial intelligence to convert dialogue into text.

Final Cut Pro 11 is also now capable of editing spatial video for the Apple Vision Pro. In its press release, Apple says:

Final Cut Pro 11 now supports spatial video editing, allowing editors to import their footage and add effects, make color corrections, and enhance their projects with titles. The depth position of titles and captured footage can also be adjusted during the editing process. Spatial video clips can be captured directly with Vision Pro, or on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, and Canon’s new RF-S7.8mm F4 STM DUAL lens paired with Canon R7.

Enhance Light and Color in action. Source: Apple.

Enhance Light and Color in action. Source: Apple.

Final Cut Pro for the iPad has been updated to version 2.1 with several new features. I’ve been using Final Cut Pro more regularly since we started the MacStories YouTube channel, and one of the limitations I noticed immediately is that the color correction tools in the iPad version weren’t nearly as good as on the Mac. The iPad’s color tools still aren’t as sophisticated as what’s available on the Mac, but this update does add new color grading presets as well as a new Enhance Light and Color feature that intelligently applies color, contrast, brightness, and color balance to a video and works with SDR, HDR, RAW, and Log-encoded media.

One of Final Cut Pro for iPad's new brushes. Source: Apple.

One of Final Cut Pro for iPad’s new brushes. Source: Apple.

Live Drawing on a video has been expanded with new brushes, too. There are new watercolor, crayon, fountain pen, and monoline pen brushes, letting users create a greater variety of looks for their videos. Other new effects include a picture-in-picture effect, callouts, and a set of built-in soundtracks. I’m eager to try picture-in-picture, which should be a good way to create tutorials and other types of videos and callouts; it’s an effect available from multiple third-party effects vendors on the Mac, but new to the iPad.

The iPad version of Final Cut Pro is also adding a host of other new features, including:

  • the ability to expand clips in the timeline vertically with a pinch gesture,
  • dynamic adjustments to the size of the picture-in-picture window,
  • support for editing high-frame-rate video, and
  • Apple Pencil Pro haptic feedback for timeline scrubbing and dropping effects onto the timeline.

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