Photoshop for iPad?

Posted by Barbara

Well, well, who’d  have thunk it? If you’ve tried Adobe’s Photoshop Express for iPad, you know that it’s not bad, but also not a shining star among the many apps available for gussying up your photos, and not much like either Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

But according to Photography Bay, Adobe just demoed a new app that’s a kind of Photoshop for iPad with layers and all. You can read more about it and watch a demo here.

Very interesting idea, but I have to wonder how they’ll work around two big problems with this kind of stuff: the white points for iPads are all over the place and there’s currently no way to calibrate one, and it’s hard to be ultra-precise for things like masking when using your finger (or a capacitive stylus). Still, I bet it would be really interesting for quickly editing an image to upload out in the field.

If you currently use PS or PSE and you find masking to be a difficult concept, it’s worth watching the video just to see their animated layers example. Very clear visual of how masking works. (Incidentally, the demo is Flash so you can’t watch it on your iPad.)

iOS 4.3 Update

Posted by Barbara

Apple released the iOS 4.3 update today for iPads, iPods, iPhones, so what difference does it make?

On the plus side, web browsing with Safari is much faster. The YouTube app finally behaves correctly (all during 4.2 it was way slower  on the iPad than watching the same videos on my iMac). And for those who were annoyed by the change in the iPad side button from a rotation lock to a Mute button, now you can choose which you want.

On the minus side, still the “too much power” error when using the camera connection kit with peripherals like my Blue Yeti microphone.

(There are also beacoup new features for streaming and such, but these are the ones that affect me the most. There are several online lists of all the new stuff, like this one from Mashable.)

iPad 2–Wow!

Posted by Barbara

Everyone has known for a while that a new iPad was due and that it would likely be announced today, but those who don’t follow tech may not now that recent rumors were promoting the idea that this would be a kind of stopgap release, with the “real” new iPad coming next fall.

ipad 2

Apple’s event today puts that to rest. While not totally revolutionary, this is a very solid update. The iPad 2 is 33% thinner than the previous one, lighter (a bit), has a much improved processor (Dual core A5), front and rear facing cameras (including video),  a gyro, choice of black or white, and some very interesting new apps, as well as a strangely fascinating cover (purchase separately).

For musicians, the most interesting thing is the new Garageband for iPad, which lets you create tracks with built-in electronic instruments or record your own instrument. This is major, because while recording with the iPad was great prior to the iOS 4 update last fall, apple evidently dropped the amount of power available to the dock connector (where you could use the camera kit to attach a USB microphone) and it got very complicated to do this. Now it looks like it’s going to be super easy.

Available March 11. More details here:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

EDIT: Forgot to mention HDMI output so that you can mirror the iPad screen for presentations and such. Very big news for educators and presenters. (The old ipad could only output certain apps, never the whole ipad itself.)