Macgasm

One of the best uses of the iPad, in my opinion, is for digital art.  The iPad (unlike dedicated digital art tablets) is an artist’s palette, a web browser, a word processor, a library, and an arcade all in one device. Several sketching/painting apps for the iPad are available in the App Store, and this review will cover three of the most popular ones:  ArtStudio, Brushes, and SketchbookPro.

First, a disclaimer: I am not a professional artist, nor, really, even an amateur one. Basically, I can draw eyeballs and horses (yeah, don’t ask).  But the nice thing about digital art is that even a less-than-skilled person like me can do amazing art on an iPad.  The undo feature is priceless (none of that horrible eraser dust or indelible pencil lines) and, even better, the zoom feature lets you focus in on details in a way you simply can’t on a real canvas.

The three art apps I’m reviewing for you all have their pros and cons.  I’ll discuss each one individually, post examples of the art I’ve created on each, and discuss each app’s advantages and disadvantages.  I’ve also created a chart that compares and contrasts the three applications.

ArtStudio for iPad by Lucky Clan Software.  $.99 (on sale; regular price $4.99).

ArtStudio Overview

Of the three art applications considered in this review, ArtStudio is by far the least expensive.  At only $.99 (on sale, regularly $4.99), it boasts some features that Brushes and Sketchbook Pro (both more expensive) lack.  While certainly not as full-featured as Sketchbook Pro, ArtStudio holds its own as a rich art application for the iPad.  It offers all the features you would expect in a more expensive app, including layers, import/export, multiple brushes, an eyedropper tool, and a sophisticated color palette.  In addition, ArtStudio provides filters (something the other apps do not include) and in-app art lessons.

Interface:

ArtStudio’s interface is easy to understand and use.  When you add a new canvas, you are presented with a choice of canvas sizes:  1024 x 768; 1024 x 1024; 768 x 768.  Once you choose your canvas, you have a nice blank screen upon which to create.  To access the main toolbar (which appears at the bottom of the screen), you simply press the arrow button on the lower right.

ArtStudio Toolbars

The main toolbar offers the following functions:  brushes, color palette, layers, filters, import/export/save options, settings, and lessons. When you press the tools button, another menu appears vertically along the left side of the screen.  Here you can choose between eight tools—a pencil, a paint pencil, a paintbrush, an airbrush, a tube of paint, textures, an eraser, a blur tool (which is really good), and bucket fill. If you press and hold any tool you are presented with advanced features, including additional brush choices, size, opacity, and spacing, and the option to fade out (the stroke begins solid and then fades, providing a sort of simulated pressure sensitivity).  In the color palette, you can choose from 36 color swatches and you can configure your own colors by pressing and holding a swatch to reveal an RGB color panel.

ArtStudio offers you five layers per painting, and you can choose the opacity for each layer.  If you press and hold the layers button, you are given choices to add, delete, clear, copy, or duplicate layers, or merge and transform layers.  The filters button offers several filters (including black/white, sepia, and emboss) to transform your art or imported pictures.  You can import photos from your photo library and export art back into your library.  In addition you can send your art via email or upload it directly to ArtStudio’s online Flickr gallery.

One unique option in ArtStudio is art lessons.  Press on the little mortar board icon and four lesson categories appear:  3D, Animals, Faces, and Human. Each lesson features animated steps illustrating how to draw a particular object. You simply draw over the animated lines to complete the lesson.  None of these lessons is particularly impressive, but you do receive some basic instruction on perspective and figure drawing.

Art Studio offers an interesting way to access tools quickly.  Simply shake the iPad and a menu pops up with choices for brush setting, zoom, fit image to screen, and clear layer. Personally, I haven’t found this feature to be very helpful.  Shaking requires two hands for me since the iPad is so heavy.  I prefer the quick access features of Sketchbook Pro.

Examples of Art Studio Drawings

Noah's Ark as it is typically portrayed

Noah's Ark as it should be portrayed

ArtStudio Pros and Cons

Pros: ArtStudio boasts a simple (yet feature-filed), user-friendly interface.  It has some unique features, including lessons, filters and shake for quick menu. Besides that, its price can’t be beat.

Cons:  My main disappointment with ArtStudio is its lack of autosave.  I worked for an hour on one of my pieces only to have the app crash while I was using the undo button.  I wept.  Of course, I got over it, but when using ArtStudio now, I obsessively save my work. This is a pain and I hope they fix it in a future update.

Brushes for iPad by Steve Sprang.  $7.99.

Brushes Overview

Brushes was featured in Apple’s Keynote when the iPad was first announced back in January.  It has established itself as one of the premiere art programs for both the iPad and iPhone.  At $7.99, though, it seems quite expensive considering how few brushes it offers in comparison with the other two art apps featured in this review. In addition, it is the only app that (as yet) does not offer a blur tool.  Nevertheless, in terms of presentation, Brushes really shines. Its gallery view is fantastic, arranging your art in frames along a virtual wall.  Each picture has a label denoting the title of the piece, the artist, and the date created.  It’s strangely gratifying to see your art posted in the app as though it were in a museum or gallery. The other thing that sets Brushes apart is its playback feature.  In gallery view, you can hit the play button and the app will play back every stroke from start to finish.

Interface:

Brushes offers a simple interface with toolbars above and below that you access by tapping the screen once. The upper toolbar includes buttons for your gallery, your photo library (to import photos), and settings (where you can set the properties for your painting).

The lower toolbar offers the following selections:  color palette, eyedropper tool, bucket fill, brush, brush properties, eraser, undo and redo, and layers.  The color palette gives you a choice of 28 swatches plus a color wheel and slider bars for dark/light and opacity.  Unlike the other two apps, you are not given the option to set RGB.  You can select the eyedropper tool (which allows you to click on a color in your painting to duplicate the color) from the toolbar, but it’s easier simply to press and hold anywhere on the canvas and the eyedropper will appear.  Bucket fill simply covers the entire canvas in whatever color you choose.  Brushes offers only 19 brush choices (fewer than the other two apps).  For each brush, you have options for spacing, size, and opacity.  In addition, you can choose two options that create simulated pressure sensitivity (vary size with speed and vary opacity with speed).  Neither ArtStudio nor Sketchbook Pro offer a similar option.  In Brushes you can create up to six layers and there are several different options for manipulating those layers.

Examples of Brushes Drawings

A Dog

Family Time?

Brushes Pros and Cons

Pros: Brushes has a good user interface, though it’s not as intuitive, in my view, as ArtStudio’s.  Its gallery view is simply beautiful, and the playback feature is quite unique.

Cons: Of the three apps, Brushes has the smallest selection of brushes (which is rather odd, considering the app’s name!) And, while the UI is simple, it offers no quick access functions, so accessing tools typically takes two or three taps. If you want assistance understanding the app, you’re pretty much up a creek. There’s no in-app assistance, and although you can click on “Brushes App Support” in iTunes, you are taken to the iPhone app webpage. The two apps are different enough that the instructions for Brushes iPhone (which itself is minimal) aren’t sufficient.  I emailed the developer with a question about one of the buttons in layers whose function wasn’t clear.  I never received a reply.

Sketchbook Pro for iPad by Autodesk Inc. $7.99.

Sketchbook Pro Overview

Sketchbook Pro is a slick art application with an amazing set of features and a user interface that makes the most of the iPad’s touchscreen.  Sketchbook Pro has 75 brush choices with all sorts of options to configure them. It is also the only app that allows you to export your art with layers intact (for use in Photoshop).

Interface:

Sketchbook Pro has the most complex user interface of the three apps considered here.  However, with that complexity comes a plethora of choices and flexibility.  Plus, of the three apps, Sketchbook Pro is the only one that offers extensive in-app help as well as a detailed website with forums, tutorials, and other information.

When you open SketchbookPro, you are first presented with a brief tutorial that introduces you to the UI.  Unlike the other two apps which place their primary toolbars at the bottom of the screen where your hand can accidentally press buttons, Sketchbook Pro places all the tools at the top.  You access the toolbar by tapping with three fingers anywhere on the screen or by tapping on a button called the “puck” that appears near the bottom center of the screen.  The toolbar includes the following options: gallery (where you can add, delete, save, and export your work); an add button (for creating a new painting); an information button that gives you access to the Sketchbook Pro newsletter, help, and preferences; undo and redo buttons; Brush/Color selector button; draw style (freedraw, shapes, etc.); mirror image button (allows you to create a mirror image); full screen button; layer transform button; and layers button.

Two especially handy features of the Sketchbook Pro interface are gestures and the puck button.  You can use gestures to get quick access to various tools.  Swipe up with three fingers to open the layers menu; swipe down with three fingers to open the brush/color selector; swipe left for undo and right for redo.  The “puck” button which opens the toolbar can also be used to quickly resize and change the opacity of your brushes.  Simply press and hold the puck, swipe left or right, up and down, to change the brush’s qualities.

Sketchbook Pro offers the widest selection of brushes:  75 in all (45 are brushes, 30 are stamps).  You can choose the radius and opacity for each brush on the main tool screen.  On the second tool screen (accessed by pressing what looks like a slider icon) you can choose to make the brush soft, solid, or hard; further change the radius and opacity, and increase or decrease the spacing.  The brush selector also allows you to choose an eraser and the bucket fill.  While Sketchbook Pro doesn’t offer simulated pressure sensitivity like Brushes does, the configurability of each brush allows for quite a bit of flexibility and mimics pressure sensitivity to some extent. Color selection in Sketchbook Pro is also quite configurable. You can choose between color swatches, RGB sliders, and a color wheel. You can create up to six layers in Sketchbook Pro and configure the opacity of each one.  In addition, layers can be rotated, scaled, or moved using the transform layer button.

Examples of Sketchbook Pro Drawings

iPad blues

A Horse

Sketchbook Pro Pros and Cons

Pros: Sketchbook offers an incredible array of brush, color, and configurability choices. It blows the other two apps away in this regard. The gesture-based tool access is unique and makes the best use of the iPad’s touch interface. Although there is a bit of a learning curve to make use of this app’s abundant features, users can find detailed help both within the app and on the developer’s website.

Cons:  Although I like the gesture based tool access, I do wish there was an option to keep the toolbar visible all the time.  When you’re quickly switching between tools, you don’t really want to have to tap to access the toolbar, tap again to choose the tool, and tap a third time to use the tool.  Of course, using the swipe gesture eliminates one of these taps.

Conclusions

So, which of the three is best?  I hate to waffle here, but I can’t decide.  All three have features I like and dislike.  I would put ArtStudio as my first choice for ease of use, excellent features, price, and its great blur tool. Sketchbook Pro would come in first for its wide range of brushes and gesture-based user interface.  Brushes tops the other two in terms of gallery presentation and the playback feature.  If you’re looking for an art application, any of the three will work extremely well.  I’d say ArtStudio is sufficient for most people who are simply wanting a painting and sketching program for entertainment purposes.  At $.99 it’s a no-brainer.  For more serious digital artists, all three apps will work well, but of the three, Sketchbook Pro seems best geared for the professional. Not only does it offer the most brushes and configurability, it also supports PSD export.

One last thing I should mention: some people prefer using their fingers to draw on the screen.  I actually prefer using a stylus because it gives more precise control.  The stylus I use is the Pogo Sketch ($14.95). It’s lightweight and works perfectly with the iPad.
Comparison of Art Apps

Just how poor were the GQ downloads on the iPad? 365 downloads to be exact. Talk about underwhelming, considering the hype surrounding digital magazine downloads and the potential a tablet device could have. A breath of fresh air came from Pete Hunsinger, GQ VP, who according to iPodNN claimed that they see the iPad becoming a “major component” of their circulation model. Condé Nast executives could have have easily thrown the device under the bus, but it was pretty wise of them to reserve judgement until they wrap their head around their own price models.

Sure, the GQ iPad app comes in at $2.99, which is substantially less than the bookshelf price, but when Condé Nast offers up a GQ print subscription for a dollar per issue, we begin to wonder if they really get this whole thing.  Twelve dollars would get me an entire year worth of GQ delivered to my door, but the same privilege for the iPad version would cost me $35.88, and we don’t even get a sexy GQ bag. Okay, that last part was sarcasm, but the argument remains the same.

Hunsinger says that the iPad edition cost them nothing extra to create, and that all sales up until now have been entirely profit, so we have to wonder why there’s a premium on the iPad edition.

Do you think the sales would be better if they offered a flat rate price for the entire year, much like they do with magazine subscriptions? I’m leaning toward yes, but traditional print magazines still have a huge fight on their hands. Blogs get you the same news a lot quicker, and they’re starting to get their own iPad apps; most of the time these blog apps are free to use (see the Mashable application as a prime example). Comments on the iTunes App Store seem to be just as split on the issue as I am. The reviewers seem to either love or hate the application, which isn’t really anything new either, considering the state of comment systems on the the internet.

We don’t have the answers, but if you think you might, let us know in the comments.

Article Via iPodNN

Cult Of Mac is a reporting that Paul McCartney informed Newsbeat that both Apple, Inc. and Apple Corps want The Beatles’ catalog on iTunes, but EMI is draggin their feet.

Reportedly, EMI has gone on the record as saying that they would like to see the deal happen, but they continue to spin the wheels. It is a pretty safe bet to think that this has something to do with a money grab.

Frankly, I think this just goes to show the increasing irrelevancy of the big record companies. They’re not really providing any service here. Instead, they are hindering the band, the fans, and iTunes. They continue to grab on tighter as the music industry slips through their fingers.

Article Via Cult of Mac
Photo Credit: Sander Lamme

I have a real soft spot for FTP applications, so when Panic announced that they were releasing Transmit 4, they had me hook, line and sinker. Up until using Transmit 3, I found myself jumping from one FTP application to the next, never quite satisfied.

This is by no means a comprehensive review, but it is a listing of the things that we find extremely valuable in Transmit 4, making the upgrade well worth the price.

Steamlined nav

Panic’s cleaned up the UI for Transmit 4, which isn’t really a surprise since they’re constantly releasing beautiful looking apps, most recently this amazing looking ticketing system for bug submissions (it’s a thing of beauty). As you can see from the screenshot, they’ve taken a number of icons out of the design and made the application a lot simpler to use. That’s a huge plus for a lot of users, me included, and it makes using their application a little more pleasant.

Real FXP. Woot!

Server to server transfers may have existed previously, but a true FXP option on the Mac is few and far between. Up until now, Transmit was using the PC you’ve connected to the servers as a conduit between the two applications, transferring your files from the first server to your Mac, then from your Mac to the second server. It was quite the bottleneck, and with true FXP support you can now move files from one server to the next without a middleman. What does this mean for users? It means no longer having to rely on a crappy internet connection, and instead being able to rely on blazing speeds at data centers to transfer your files. That’s a big plus.

Better transfer listing

Something that’s been bugging me for over a year is the upload and download window that Transmit 3 would pop up while you were transferring files. Previously, you were unable to differentiate which files were uploaded, which were left to be uploaded, and where exactly you were in the process. It was a little bit of a mess. Panic fixed the problem in Transmit 4, and it’s probably one of the best enhancements over version 3. It’s been a theme throughout this review, but it’s no joke. Transmit 4 really polished off some of the rough edges on a really great application.

Mount from the finder

Did you know that the Finder has built in FTP support? If you click on the Finder, then the Go menu, then click on the Connect to Server option, you have the ability to connect to an FTP server. It sucks, so don’t waste your time. We’re pretty sure that Panic had this in mind when they were putting together Transmit 4, and they certainly solved the problem. The Panic team put a menubar item together that lets you quickly mount your favourite servers, without having to launch the application at first, or at all.

Click the Menubar item, select your favourite, and voilà, a new drive is mounted on your desktop. The drive is accessible throughout the finder, so you now have the ability to save your files directly to a server from your traditional save dialogs. This is quite the timesaver  It’s the little things that sets Transmit apart from the competition, because lets face it, FTP applications aren’t really all that different these days. In this case, however, the sum of its parts certainly adds up to more than any other application on the market.

Final thoughts

There’s a list for 45+ upgrades and new features listed on the site, and we certainly don’t have time to review them all, so we’d encourage you to go and check out their page for more details. Here’s a quick listing of some of the other features:

• Friendly file sync
• Amazon S3 support
• One-click SFTP key import
• Fully 64-bit

If you’re looking to pick up Transmit 4, you can purchase it for $34.00 per version, or upgrade from Transmit 3 for $19.00. It’s well worth the price, especially if you’re upgrading.

You can download Transmit 4 here, and try it out for seven days.

Monkey prepares for launch

Now I wouldn’t know first-hand that meth is addicting, but that’s how the saying goes. Monkey Flight, by Donut Games, looked like one of those senseless games I should have on my iPod just in case I got bored. Then I started playing it. I spent a few hours playing it when I first got it, and had to give myself an intervention. This game is SO much fun… and too addictive.

When you start the game, you have three game modes to choose from: arcade play, challenges, and lite play. Each mode has a different objective: win the high score table, try to beat the challenges, and go for the best score, respectively. My personal favourite is challenges—there are about 40 levels, and they get pretty difficult! With each level, you are launched from a palm tree (as a monkey!) and must bounce your way through collecting enough fruit to advance to the next level. There are elephants and clouds, which help you bounce more, and mud pits, which make you stop bouncing altogether and ultimately end the round. You start each round with two bunches of bananas—you can tap the screen to launch yourself higher in mid-air, which will consume one of your bunches.

Though there is a minimum on each level to unlock the next one, there are also three score levels on each level for a gold star—this gives you even more of a challenge! You can also play the other modes which gives you one level to practice on to try and get the highest scores.

All in all, I love this app. There’s nothing I can think of that it is missing, partially because I don’t need another reason to play it a few hours every day! It’s free, and available in the App Store, so check it out!

Let’s face it, people: as a society we’re social by nature; we tend to want to stay in contact with our friends and colleagues as much as possible. We’re either using a geo-location app and checking in, we’re posting a twitpic of the lady sleeping on the plane across from us (I’ve taken that picture before and yes it was hilarious), or we’re simply sitting in front of our computer chatting away on an instant messenger client.

Well, for you iPad owners out there let me tell you about IM+. The IM+ app is nothing new.  It’s been a big player in the instant messaging market for a long time on mobile devices; the user interface has always been clean and straightforward and, above all, the performance has always been good.

Those attributes are still relevant with the new iPad versions of IM+. There are two versions available, the difference in the $9.99 full version and the free Lite version are that the Lite version is ad-supported and does NOT include Skype connectivity. So, if you’re ok with ads and don’t need Skype integration, by all means go with the Lite version. I went with the full version and absolutely love it; IM+ has been promoted to the dock on my iPad !

Check this quick rundown of some of the key features:

• No cost per message (that’s key – since I’m going broke buying all these apps, I need to save money whenever possible)
• Email push notifications (Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail)
• Skype chat (until Skype comes out with their updated app specifically for the iPad this is my tool)
• Twitter integration (the world lives on Twitter—don’t deny it, folks)
• Built-in browser (yes, you can click on links within your IM message and launch an integrated web browser)
• Apple push notifications (this has become more useful than I thought it would—this feature allows you to stay connected and be notified about new IMs after you close IM+. You can change the notification period from never all the way up to 72 hours).

Obviously there are more features, but those are the ones that I use daily and that have made the $9.99 purchase justifiable.

Check it out in the App Store

I’d love to hear your feedback and user experience if you’ve tried the app as well.

We don’t normally toss up information on sale items, but this one’s too good to pass up, and since I’m in the market for a new iPod/iPhone dock, I thought I’d pass it along.

Amazon’s deal of the day is the Logitech Rechargable Speaker dock. It’s currently 33% off and coming in at $67.30 USD.

One of the perks of this device is that the dock charges itself, allowing you to use it wirelessly, which is perfect for the upcoming summer weather. If you’re planning on hanging out by the pool, or sitting down at the cottage dock, then you’ll want to check this bad boy out.

It’s Amazon’s deal of the day, so you don’t have much time.

Here’s a quick gallery of the Dock

Business Insider is reporting that a trusted source has confirmed that Apple will be integrating Facebook contact sync into the next iPhone OS. This will be announced at WWDC this June. The current iPhone Facebook app imports contact information from Facebook into the address book for those contacts that are already in the address book. The rumoured iPhone-facebook integration will instead import contact information for everyone you have on Facebook, regardless of whether or not they are already in your address book. However, this could lead to quite the mess for your address book. Many people have started using Facebook as just another Myspace by adding and approving anyone they see.

We could also see more sharing features pop up if this is, in fact, true. Where currently, when you want to share a photo, you don’t have many options, you could soon see a “Share to Facebook” option on that screen

HTC has been doing Facebook contact sync with their Sense UI and it may actually be present on all Android phones. This could be interesting for the recent countersuit by HTC against Apple over all the patent claims.

More Information: Business Insider