Macgasm

You’re thinking about getting the iPad, and your main reason might just be that you want it for reading eBooks. Will it be compatible with eBooks you bought from Amazon to read on a Kindle?  You might have a Sony eBook reader or a Nook eBook reader from Barnes & Noble.  Whatever the case may be, you’ll want the iPad to be able to read these eBooks. Well, the author of this piece from ABC 7’s website states that the iPad will not be compatible with eBooks from Amazon’s Kindle or other eBook providers.  This is completely untrue.

Amazon makes an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that will allow you to read  eBooks for the Kindle.  As we all know, the iPhone apps will work fine on the iPad. Barnes and Noble also have and app for the iPhone, so we’re good to go in that arena. The only one that I believe might not work are eBooks from the Sony eBook reader. 

The author from ABC also goes on to talk about incompatibilities between devices.  He tries to use the analogy of purchasing new CDs every time you buy a new stereo system.  For one thing, these are two separate mediums.  CDs were designed to work on any type of device that plays CDs.  Plus, CDs do not offer any copy protection. eBooks, by nature, are not designed this way. eBooks have Digital Right Management. Next, eBooks were not designed to work on just any ol’ device. There is no expectation of the files to function in the same way that CDs do.

Apple is not the only one to blame in this situation. In this cutthroat — eat or be eaten — digital world we’re in, everyone wants to have their own device that works with their own content.  So, it’s unfair to say Apple is creating frustration and confusing customers. In fact, all the major players are doing this.  Yes, for the common consumer there will be a level of confusion, but that’s why everyone should do their own research before making a purchase like this.

Photo Credit: Apple iPad iBooks

[via @ABC 7]

If you’re not familiar, Evernote is an application and cloud service that lets you keep track of notes, pictures, web sites, and pretty much anything else you might need to reference later. I was a little skeptical about using a freemium service for note taking, but I am now sold on Evernote’s implementation. I’m going to tell you my experience with Evernote saving the day, and I think you’ll see why it has become a big part of my workflow.

I have been keeping track of naming schemes for a certain project for months. Being the paranoid fellow that I am, I decided to put my work into Evernote on my Mac just as a back-up. I let it sync to the servers, and then I pretty much forgot about it. Until one day I was caught off-guard when somebody wanted to see my list of naming schemes, but my computer and printouts were thirty five miles away. Starting to freak out a little bit, I remembered that I put my work into Evernote. I quickly pulled out my iPod Touch, and opened the Evernote application. Sitting right in my hand was all of the work I had done. I was thrilled.

Now, my story illustrates why keeping a copy of your work in the cloud is a really good idea. It doesn’t have to be with Evernote. Applications and services like Dropbox can accomplish the same task. I just happen to find Evernote the easiest to use. When software is easy to use, I am more likely to use it.

Do you have any stories about Evernote (Or the cloud in general) saving your butt? Comment here or hit me up on Twitter.

Photo Credit: DavidDennisPhotos.com

Flash. No Flash.  Are we really having this argument? When HTML 5 comes along, it’s going to support audio and video natively. You’re not going to need Flash plug-ins or QuickTime plug-ins. Yes, the iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad don’t support Flash. Yes, it’s a nuisance at times. Get over it. There are many sites moving away from Flash because it doesn’t work on the iPhone.  It’s called progress, people!  Either you keep up or you’re left behind.  It’s just that simple.

9to5Mac posted an article on January 29th stating that the iPad will have Flash support, because one of the commercials shows the iPad displaying Flash on the New York Times site. After reading the headline, I was scratching my head. When Steve Jobs was demoing the iPad at the Keynote, there was a couple of times where we could see the Flash plug-in icon. The one that looks similar to a Lego brick.  So, why is Flash now supported? The first thing that came to mind was link baiting, but I read through the article, and they said that it’s there.  So I read the article again later in the day, and 9to5Mac posted this update:

“Update: We’ve just got word from our source at Chiat/Day Media Arts Lab that they make fake optimized web pages for all of Apple’s commercials — which load faster.  In this case they made optimized images to take the place of Flash and are redoing them as we speak.  So probably no Flash.”

I applaud 9to5Mac for placing this update on their site. With that said, there are other sites such as YouTube and Vimeo that are transitioning over to H.264. That means their videos will play on the iPhone, Touch, and the iPad. Now, if Hulu would make this transition, I think this whole Flash thing would be a moot point. A lot of people are complaining that they will not be able to watch Hulu on the iPad.  o, instead of saying it’s Apple’s fault or Adobe’s fault.  Why don’t we look at NBC, and ask them why aren’t they transitioning over to H.264?  Is it cost? Are they waiting for HTML5 to become universal? Maybe they’re just being hard headed.

Bottom line: If Apple doesn’t want to put Flash in their portable devices, they’re not going to do it. All the arguing in the world is not going to change their minds.  Apple claims that Flash drains the battery quickly. I don’t have any of the data they are working from.  However, I haven’t heard Adobe even try to disprove this.  As I stated earlier, if you don’t keep up with progress, you’re going to get left behind. Flash might just be getting left in the dust.

Photo Credit: Apple iPad Full Details Inside

MacNN reports that the OmniGroup will release an iPad-optimized update to the iPhone and iPod Touch version of OmniFocus. This version will take full advantage of the extra screen real estate.

Interestingly, there is also talk about porting over existing Mac OS X applications like OmniGraffle specifically to the iPad. This brings up a very interesting question: Will we see an explosion of iPad-only applications? If developers fall in love with this big screen, iPhone and iPod Touch users might be left out in the cold for some very interesting apps.

What do you think about iPad-only applications? Comment here or hit me up on Twitter.

(via MacNN)

Photo Credit: jemsweb

If you are constantly fighting with your video metadata, MetaX is exactly what you need. Instead of screwing around with the very limited “Get Info” pane of iTunes, you have a full fledged application dedicated to getting your metadata perfect. Now, let’s break down why MetaX is such a useful tool for organizing your video.

Granular Control

This application lets you control everything. When you first open a video file in the interface, it asks you if it is a movie, television show, or a music video. From there, you can change every aspect of the metadata you’d ever imagine. The rating, date of release, purchase date, description, and listed encoding tool are just a few of the customizations available. If you’re anal retentive about keeping your videos organized, this application will blow your mind.

Batch Editing

When you need to process an entire season of a television show, MetaX will save your life. If not your actual life, then at least a large chunk of your time. You can write out the settings in a batch, and knock out those twenty two episodes of your favorite show. Also, this is a great way of editing the podcasting metadata of your favorite podcasts all at once. Keeping everything in order has never been easier.

Metadata Importing

Don’t feel like entering all of this text manually? Well, you are in luck, my friend. MetaX has built-in support for pulling metadata from IMDb and TagChimp. All you have to do is search for your title, and then select the most accurate result. Bam! All of your work is done for you.

In sum, this is the fastest and easiest way to keep track of your videos, and it makes everything display very nicely in iTunes. Best of all, it is completely free! Go check it out.

Photo Credit: Steph Vee

The Flash on iPhone argument is raging on today, but this time it’s taken a whole new twist. Adobe’s Platform Evangelist, Lee Brimelow, has decided that the iPad experience can’t be the best browsing experience without flash support. I have to say that the image gave me a hearty chuckle, but this is a case of a picture not being worth a thousand words.

Flash has long been a staple of internet video content, and crappy animated websites since I was in high school, but to be frank, I’ve never really stumbled on a website where alternatives couldn’t be adopted. The only real challenge to my statement might be video players, but HTML5 seems to be challenging that viewpoint altogether.

Some websites might look better in flash, and I’m sure that there’s plenty of excellent uses for the language, but given the flexibility of alternative stylesheets and modern web standards I don’t think users should be faced with the blue lego icon. It doesn’t make much sense, and these brands that Lee Brimelow illustrates in his hilarious picture are losing out on a pretty huge demographic.

Users shouldn’t be forced into one particular technology, and if Flash isn’t available on the iPhone or iPad then these developers should be doing everything in their power to make sure that viewers on these devices are getting what they came for. It’s not that difficult to create a stylesheet for an iPhone currently, so I don’t see why we’re still arguing about flash on these devices.

Business is about making sure your customers don’t have to jump through hoops to get what they want, and frankly this blue lego is just one giant hoop for companies like CNN, Hulu, and the others. It doesn’t make much sense from a business standpoint, and it certainly doesn’t make much sense from a user standpoint.

What’s this blue lego telling potential customers who use the iPhone as a browsing device? It says we don’t care enough about you to make sure our site works bug free.

Sure, this fight makes sense from Flash’s standpoint, but all of these companies on the list need to get a lesson or two in website management. It’s not a Flash or HTML5 decision. Both can be used, and alternative can be served up to individuals who don’t have flash access. Seems pretty simple if you ask me.

[via @WTL]

With the iPad on the horizon a lot of people are going to be trying to figure out how to get  videos into iTunes. Not all videos are created equally and not all video formats will work in iTunes. Figuring out the simplest way to do this is going to be a priority for a lot of people.

Managing video can be a tiring endeavor, but there are a ton of great applications that’ll help you get those files where you need them.

iFlicks is a great application to manage all your file formatting needs.  It lets you edit meta data, convert the formats to fit all your Apple devices, as well as automates some meta data changes.

Converts videos to Apple file formats

How to convert your videos to work on an AppleTV, iPod, iPhone, as well as the new iPad is something we get asked a lot in emails. I’ve never fully understood why we need multiple formats instead of having a container file with some information in it to determine the resolution. But, it currently doesn’t exist and we’re forced to have multiple file versions of our movies, each of which are optimized for a particular device. iFlicks is the first step towards an automated system when it comes to converting your movies into Apple specific formats.

They have built in presets for each of the Apple devices. They let you automatically add the files to iTunes, and then move the original to the trash, and then they let you queue up a list of flicks. It doesn’t get much simpler, and it certainly removes the manual management of converting these files. Manual management sucks.

Manages the meta data

Meta data is important for a lot of people. Having the ability to change movie ratings, tag the films, and fill in descriptions is something that a lot of people invest a lot of time doing.

Personally I find that it’s just too much of a time investment to do it manually. I’d certainly use the functionality of the tags and ratings, but I don’t have time to do it all manually. iFlicks lets you connect to a movie database, pull the information, and then embed it into your movie file.

They also give you the ability to edit these things manually should you feel the need to tweak some stuff.

Set rules

If you’re tired of having to set some of the meta data manually you can set up rules to take care of the changes for you. For instance, if you’re tired of having to label your movies manually you can have iFlicks and automatically convert the rating to HD based on your criteria.

The rules work just like the smart folder rules that we use around OS X, so setting up your own rules are a piece of cake.

iFlicks has a trial period of 15 days, and can be purchased for 19,95€

Watch a screencast

Following the iPad announcement we took some time to chat about our reactions. This episode is all about the iPad.  We recorded over iChat, so the format for the video has changed a little bit.  We’ll be back in the studio for the next release.  If you hate the iChat format blame Brennan for having a “real” job.

[Download in iPhone quality][Subscribe on iTunes]