App News
As every year, Apple has decided to have their 12 Days of Christmas from today and on. Make sure you download their app and check it every day for new free stuff (music, apps etc.).
First out today is Coldplay's live-EP, recorded live (no kidding!) during the iTunes festival in London this summer. Nobody but Apple knows what is going to be available tomorrow, but don't forget to open the app tomorrow and find out.
NOTE: This app is only available for European stores and as an addition this year, Canada. If you use the US iTunes Store, this app is not available for you.
Co-Pilot Live Is On Sale!
I just found out that ALK Technologies (the maker of Co-Pilot Live) has just put one of the best turn by turn GPS Apps on sale for the holiday season. Not just on sale but 50% off!! Terry Wrote about Navigon yesterday, and Today we have this one. It seems like GPS Apps are the "Must have gift" this holiday season. Don't wait, buy them now either for yourself or for that special loved one that gets lost all of the time as a gift!
Get Co-Pilot Live Premium USA for $9.99 from the iTunes Store here:
Get Co-Pilot Live Premium North America HD for $14.99 from the iTunes Store here:
Get Co-Pilot Live Premium North America (non HD) for $12.99 from the iTunes store here:
You might remember my initial review of Snapseed back in June of this year and even then I knew this App was going to shake things up. Also, almost immediately after my review they came out with an update to better handle RAW files (the main complaint from readers in the comments).
However, I had no idea at the time that it would be so good that Apple would potentially choose it as iPad App of the Year. It's always a great feeling when one of our "Best App" choices becomes one of Apple's too. Use of the iPad in a photography workflow has come a come a long way and the Apps are starting to really become compelling. I use my iPad all the time for Photography stuff and while Snapseed is indeed a great App, I'm not quite using the iPad for full blown portrait retouching just yet. However, for enhancing landscapes and other shots I'd do it on the iPad in a heartbeat.
You can get Snapseed for iPad for a mere $4.99 here from the
See more of my top App picks for Photographers here.
Although iOS supports PDFs natively (just like Mac OS X) there are features in the PDF spec that aren't supported in iOS or may never be. One of the things that has made the Portable Document Format (PDF) a success is that with the Adobe Reader of Mac, Windows and other platforms you get to have a consistent experience no matter where you view them. Now that Adobe has officially released the Free Reader for iOS and Android, "rich" PDFs can now be shared across both desktop and mobile platforms with a consistent viewing experience once again!
Here's what the Adobe Reader lets you do:
View PDF files:
• Quickly open PDF files from e-mail, the Web or any application that supports “Open In…”
• View ePortfolio (PDF Portfolios), PDF Packages, annotations and drawing markups
• Read text annotations such as Sticky Notes
Access encrypted PDF files:
• Open and view password-protected PDF files
• Access files secured by Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management, which helps protect sensitive documents
• Supports the highest grade of PDF encryption, up to AES256
Interact with PDF files:
• Search text to find specific information
• Use bookmarks to jump directly to a section in your PDF file
• Select single page or continuous scroll modes
• Easily zoom in on text or images for a closer view
• Quickly navigate through large files using thumbnails
• Select and copy text from a PDF file to the clipboard
Print and Share files:
• Print wirelessly with AirPrint
• Share PDF files with other applications using “Open In…”
• Email PDF documents as attachments
Watch this video for a quick overview of the app.
Get the Adobe Reader for iOS for FREE here from the
And, Adobe released Adobe Reader 10.1 for Android, offering many of the same great features for fast, high-quality interaction with PDF files on your Android smartphones and tablets.
What You Can Do with Adobe Reader 10.1 for iOS
Most anyone that follows us on here knows that Terry and I are both avid photographers. We both take photographs for fun and professionally, so any time that a quality photographic App comes along we're all over it. When I heard last week that Kelby Media Group (the guys behind NAPP, Photoshop User TV, etc.) had an App dedicated to learning lighting coming out I knew that it would be something I was interested in. I expected it to be a quality App just because I know the quality of all of their other products, but I was absolutely blown away by the time and effort put into making every detail of this magazine amazing.
It's All In The Details
So what makes this digital magazine do different from other digital magazines offered on the iPad? The details. On the first "From The Editor" column Scott Kelby (the editor) talks about how he sat down with his team and said that this was going to be different from any other digital magazine. He wanted it to look and FEEL like a real magazine. He even goes on to say " If we have to teach people how to actually read it, we've failed". They excelled. Light it Digital Magazine really does feel like a real magazine. The pages are turned just like they would be on a real magazine. Zooming in to make the text larger is as simple as double tapping or pinching to zoom. EVERY portion of the magazine works in both horizontal and vertical orientation. Video plays smoothly and is great in quality. I especially like the table of contents and the ability to tap any place in the magazine to jump directly to that page. Photographs preform just like you would expect. you can double tap them to snap to full screen or you can simply pinch to zoom just as you do the text. The magazine really "gets out of the way" so you can enjoy the content.
The Content
So what good is all of this seamless wonderful design without quality content? The guys over at Kelby didn't fail to deliver (Do they ever?). There are multiple articles from tons of great names in the industry. Zack Arias, Jeremy Cowart, Frank Doorhof, etc. There is a great gear guide showing you the essential gear that you can't be without. One of my favorite sections of the opening issue is the "Behind The Lens Interview" with Joe McNally. Joe is one of my favorite photographers of all time and who I owe a large part of my style and technique to. This is a video interview where Scott Kelby interviews Joe on all sorts of small flash tech and questions. And of course there's a great article from my buddy RC Concepcion talking about stuff for beginner's. All of this and more! I can't stress enough how good the quality is in the content of this App.
So What About the Cost
The Light It Digital Magazine App as well as the first issue are free! To download the magazine you first have to download the App which acts as a "magazine rack" of sorts. You then download the individual magazine through the App. The premier issue is free! Each additional issue (there will be 8 a year) will cost $2.99. This is really a value. For all of the great information you get, you would easily pay twice that at a news stand. There is no subscription required so you can pick and choose which issues you want, however I'm going to bet that you'll want them all just like me. A quick note on the download speed of the issues. Because of the quality of the photographs, the issues are a little on the large side so the issues may take 10 minutes or more to download on a broadband connection. Be patient, it's worth it.
It's for Photographers, by Photographers
I can honestly say that the guys who put this magazine together are all avid (and quality photographers). Each of them has a real passion for photography and will provide you with the best lighting information that you can get anywhere. My only real gripe is that Brad or Scott hasn't asked me to do an article yet .
Other than that, this magazine is perfect.
You can get Light It Digital Magazine for your iPad from the iTunes store for free here:
Many of you read my review last week about 100 Cameras in 1 and how great of an App it is. Well today the price of the iPad version dropped to $.99 from $3.99!! It's a steal! Get it while it lasts.
You can get 100 Cameras in 1 for the iPad from the iTunes store here:
Yesterday Apple showcased iOS 5, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and the New iCloud Service. While IOS 5 won't officially be available until this Fall, Apple has already turned on the "Purchased" button in the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store of your iOS devices! This means that you can easily download songs, books and Apps on your devices that were purchased on your other devices. But wait, it get's better! If you go to your iTunes Store Settings in the Settings App you can even turn on Automatic downloading for Apps, Music and/or iBooks so that any new purchases you make on any of your devices is automatically downloaded to any of your iOS Devices. I tested this by downloading a couple of Free iPad apps on my MacBook Pro. They immediately started downloading on my iPad too. Sweet!
You can watch the Apple/Steve Jobs WWDC 2011 Keynote here.
Just yesterday, Adobe released the three companion applications on the iPad for Photoshop. The three applications utilize the brand new Photoshop SDK which is also available to developers. These three apps each do their own different things, from helping you to blend color to letting you paint on the iPad and transfer it directly into Photoshop.
Sure, it isn’t entire Photoshop on the iPad but it is parts that do very well on the iPad. I particularly like being able to use the iPad as a canvas to draw on, to then send it to Photoshop for final work. Going even further, I’d say this now makes the iPad useful to paint with (to an extent).
Here are the links to each of the three different applications. Clicking on the app name (ie. the link) will take you straight to the iTunes App Store where they are all available.
- Adobe Eazel ($4.99): Paint on the iPad and access it through Photoshop.
- Adobe Nav ($1.99): Use the iPad as a tool selector for Photoshop.
- Adobe Color Lava ($1.99): Blend custom colors together for use in Photoshop.
Here is a video from Jeff Tranberry that shows all of the apps and how to get them set up and connected to Photoshop.
Jailbreak for iOS 4.3.1 is out!
A little while ago I wrote a “how to” article on how to jailbreak your iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad running iOS 4.2 and below. A few weeks ago, Apple released iOS 4.3 then more recently iOS 4.3.1. The jailbreak team has been hard at work since the release of 4.3 on a jailbreak and Sunday 4/3 it went live! This jailbreak is a little different than the one that I showed last time. As Apple iOS software updates, so too must the jailbreaking method.
(a quick note, this doesn’t work on iPad2 yet but every other iOS device)
PkgBackup
(If you have not previously jailbroken your device and this is the first time, skip this paragraph)
I mentioned this before but here I want to give you a more in depth how to on this App before you do your jailbreak. If you are already jailbroken, and running a lower iOS version, download this App from the Cydia store and run it before you do the iOS 4.3.1 update. This App costs $7.99 but it is worth EVERY penny, trust me. PkgBackup backs up all of your Cydia Apps, All Folders, All App locations, All Folder locations, etc. When you launch it make sure that you have the “backup” button selected at the bottom of the screen and then press the refresh button right next to it. This will refresh all available packages to be backed up. After the packages have been refreshed, press the backup button in the lower right hand corner of the screen. This will backup all of your packages as a contact. Make sure that you attach your iDevice to iTunes and backup your contacts so that there is a copy of your packages in iTunes as well. Now once you update your iDevice and re-jailbreak it all you have to do is install PkgBackup and hit the restore button.
The Jailbreaking Process for iOS 4.3.1
The makers of the Jailbreaking program have changed. There are now two choices for jailbreaking your devices in the current iOS version. You either have redsn0w or PwnageTool. I prefer the second version for ease of use however it is only for Mac users. You can download it here. If you have a PC you’ll want redsn0w, which can be found here. One more thing you will need to download before you can start this process is the custom firmware for your device/iOS version. You can find it here. I know the list looks intimidating, but just read what each one says. You will want to select your device (iPhone, iPad, iPodTouch) and in our case iOS version 4.3.1. Scroll down the list until you find yours and click it. It will ask you where you want to place the downloaded file, put it in a location easy to remember so we can access it later. All right, we’ve got everything we need and we’re ready to start. I’m going to run you through the process of using PwnageTool but the redsn0w process is very similar.
Make sure that you don’t have your iDevice plugged in and launch PwnageTool. It will look like this:
By default simple mode is selected at the top of the screen. Leave it on this selection. Within the dialog box below select the device that you are planning on jailbreaking. For me it was the iPhone4. Press the blue arrow in the lower right corner to move to the next screen.
PwnageTool will search for the firmware that you downloaded earlier. Once it is found it will show it in the dialog box as shown below.
Select the firmware by clicking it (a green check will be placed on top of the firmware when it is selected) and again, click the blue arrow in the bottom right corner. A dialog box will appear telling you that a custom file will be put on your desktop to restore with. Click ok. You will also see a box asking if you have cell service that you activate through iTunes. Click yes if you are using your normal carrier like AT&T or Verizon.
PwnageTool will then tell you to connect your device to the usb port. Be ready to press buttons on the device. The dialog box will tell you what buttons to press when.
After you follow the on screen prompts your device will become unlocked, a dialog box will appear that tells you to close PwnageTool application, start iTunes and restore with your custom firmware bundle. What it doesn’t tell you is that to do this you need to know a keyboard key combination. When you launch iTunes you will see the RESTORE button in the middle of the screen. While holding the OPTION/ALT key press restore. This will bring up a window allowing you to choose your custom built file from PwnageTool. It will be located on your desktop. Select this file and click ok. This will restore your iDevice with the jailbroken software.
The next step is a screen within iTunes that gives you two options. Setup as a new Phone or Restore from previous settings (this will have your iPhone name under the selection). Choose the second of the two options. After restored, navigate to the Apps tab and sync your Apps. This will take a few minutes to complete but it will restore all of your Apps to your iDevice.
If this is your first time jailbreaking your device, you’re done. If you were previously jailbroken and you followed my advice (you should have) and downloaded PkgBackup you need to restore. This is easy.
First navigate to the Cydia App and launch it. Once inside of the Cydia App you need to select “Who Are You”. Unless you are a programmer, select User then tap done in the upper right corner. Once you are inside of the Cydia manager you press manage account. Choose your method of signing in to your account. Once signed in you will see an option to view installable purchases. (note: if you aren’t able to load your purchases tap on changes and refresh). Under installable purchases install PkgBackup. Launch PkgBackup, press refresh in the lower left corner of the screen. You will see all of your packages for restoring. Press restore in the lower right corner of the screen. Your springboard (iPhone desktop) will be restored.
Adobe has released an update today to Photoshop Express for iOS, now in version 1.5, adding quite a few noticeable features. Firstly, the app now enabled batch capturing of photos together with a review mode for looking through images. The update also includes support for the Retina display on the iPhone 4.
Finally, the most important update is with some iOS 4.2 features, enabling the app to be able to upload photos in the background. This means that you no longer have to stick around waiting for your photos to get uploaded before moving on and doing something else.
