Spring Clean Your Mac Effortlessly
Well, that didn’t take long. iOS 4.3 was released yesterday and here comes the first video, courtesy of Daily iPhone Blog, that shows a jailbroken iPad running an untethered 4.3 jailbreak with Cydia installed and working. Build is the final one, iOS 4.3 8F190 and the video looks legit.
We don’t know when a proper jailbreak tool for iOS 4.3 will be released but it looks more like “soon” at this point. Check out the video below. Read more
As noted by 9to5mac, Apple has tweaked the “apps for iPad” webpage to include guided tours of the new iMovie for iPad, GarageBand and iBooks. iBooks isn’t exactly new, but everything has been re-recorded with shiny new white iPads. The voice over is also pretty good and clear, the tutorials make movie editing, music making and recording look simple and fun. Some details that weren’t demoed at Apple’s keynote are also featured: GarageBand has a dual keyboard mode, there’s a selection of Apple-designed amps to choose from and iMovie picks up songs from the iPod library or its built-in sounds seamlessly.
Videos are available here. The iPad 2 comes out on Friday, and we’re going to get ours as soon as we can. Look for lots of iPad 2 coverage on March 11 here on MacStories.
Update: Apple has posted more tutorials for every built-in iPad app. Check them out here.
With much talk going around about iOS notifications and Apple’s plans to purchase a third-party developer to improve the system in iOS 5, it doesn’t come as a surprise that someone decided to realize yet another mockup of how notifications should work. What is interesting this time, though, is that the brief concept video put together by Tapmates is actually based on Apple’s Smart Cover promo video, with a twist. Tapmates thought that the possibility to quickly open the Smart Cover and take a peek at the iPad’s screen would make for a perfect implementation of the new iOS unread badges / notifications. If the Smart Cover reveals a portion of the screen when you start opening it but you can’t use the iPad like that, wouldn’t that portion of the screen be perfect for quick notifications?
This is a curious mockup for something that will likely never happen, but it makes me wonder whether or not there’s more than just display awakening in the future of the Smart Cover. What about a “smart lockscreen” that takes advantage of the cover? This is an incomplete mockup, of course, but I like the idea of replacing a part of the screen with useful information. Perhaps unread badges aren’t perfect, though. Anyway, check out the fake promo video below and discuss below if you think Apple could re-imagine the way the Smart Covers work just a bit. Read more
Given all of the digital media you work with, shouldn’t there be a suite of tools that enable you to covert those old DVDs to your iPad, to record anything currently playing on your Mac, or to grab the latest shows from your TiVo? I don’t know… maybe something like Roxio’s Toast 11 Titanium and Titanium Pro? Fans of Roxio rely on Toast as their primary video conversion tool, or may have found it to be their lifesaving application that was able to rip proprietary disks from old camcorders into something iMovie can work with. In Toast 11, a brand new user interface is accompanied by a slew of new features making it the most friendly iteration yet for users of all kinds looking to convert family video and share projects with friends online.
With all the hands-on videos and first impressions about the iPad 2 we collected from around the web last week, we didn’t have the chance to take a look at the actual quality of videos recorded through the new device’s cameras. The iPad 2 features both a rear and front-facing camera to shoot videos and photos, use Photo Booth and have video calls with your friends and family using FaceTime. The front-facing camera is a VGA one, whilst the rear one allows for 720p HD video recording at 30 frames per second, with zoom up to 5x for stills. Apple didn’t provide detailed specs on the megapixels of the rear camera, but it appears that it will be a 1 MP one similar to the camera found on the iPod touch 4th gen.
So how will videos shot on the iPad 2 look, exactly? We don’t know yet, but the video embedded below was indeed recorded with the iPad 2’s back camera. The video doesn’t offer precise indication of how videos will look on the new tablet, mainly because it was shot in low-light conditions, shared via email and then uploaded to Youtube – which applies compression to video files.
Some quality got lost in the process, but it’s one of the first examples of how iPad 2 videos will look on Youtube, right? Check it out. [via iPadevice] Read more
If you missed last week’s announcement of the iPad 2 and you don’t feel like going through the full keynote because a) your internet connection is slow or b) you simply don’t have time, fear not: we have a quick 60-second recap here – you know, one of those videos that highlights the key points of what Steve Jobs said on stage.
Sadly the video embedded below falls short on the “magicals” and “wonderfuls” Jobs usually hands out at every product announcement, but it really does focus on the key things unveiled on March 2. That is, the iPad 2 with thinner and lighter design, new processor and Smart Cover.
Oh, and don’t forget iMovie and GarageBand! Jobs was so thrilled to announce those apps. Video below. [via Business Insider]
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Air Video, the popular iOS application to stream movies from a computer with real-time conversion, was updated last night to include support for iOS 4.3 (now in GM and ready to be released this Friday) and a much requested feature since Apple unveiled iOS 4.2 months ago: AirPlay video out support.
You may remember, in fact, that Apple’s initial implementation of AirPlay didn’t allow third-party developers to use the new feature in their apps. AirPlay video streaming was exclusive to Apple’s own applications for iPhone and iPad, and not even Mobile Safari could stream videos to the Apple TV. With iOS 4.3, however, Apple revised its decision (or simply had time to properly enable system-wide AirPlay support) and now allows every developer to implement the AirPlay APIs for video-out streaming.
The latest Air Video update supports AirPlay with iOS 4.3, and that’s it. Not a huge changelog, but the feature is the one we’ve been waiting for. As for those who think the new Home Sharing might make apps like Air Video or StreamToMe useless, please keep in mind that Air Video supports any kind of file, in any location, with on-the-fly conversion to iOS. iTunes’ Home Sharing is sweet, especially for music, but Air Video still wins when it comes to video support.
The new Air Video is available here, and it requires iOS 4.3 and Air Video Server 2.4.5-beta3 or newer for AirPlay support.
Last year, a US-based agency known as jLE made the rounds of the Internet with a series of fake “banned promo videos” for Apple products. They did videos for the white iPhone 4, the iPad, and even the iPhone 4 Antennagate. They were hilarious and spot-on, and now they’re back to their usual game with a banned iPad 2 promo video.
Once again, it’s funny. The “only Apple black employee” complains and jokes about the availability of a white iPad 2 at launch, other fake Apple executives comment on the two cameras they managed to put in the iPad 2, or the Photo Booth app that allows you to take “silly pictures with two heads”. There’s even a Charlie Sheen joke in there.
Check it out below. Once again, we love it. Read more
For those who have ever wanted to record FaceTime calls you may want to consider purchasing IMCapture for FaceTime, a new app that has the ability to record your precious FaceTime calls. The developer has previously released an IMCapture for Skype and IMCapture for Yahoo Messenger which, as the names suggest allowed you to record calls in those alternative VoIP services.
The app comes with a variety of recording and output options, amongst the options include the ability to record just the audio choose which user (or both) to record and the video can be outputted to several QuickTime-supported formats including MOV, MPEG-4, FLV and SWF. The app runs on the Mac so you will have to be either calling or receiving the call through the Mac FaceTime client to record it. The one other negative is the price of the app, coming in at a very steep $50 - likely aimed at professionals rather than the average consumer who might record a couple of calls.
[Via MacNN]
