Mac20Q Podcast 101 Featuring another chat with Ross from Canada
The Mac20Q interview is with Ross Craig from Canada. I talked to Ross before but now he has an iPad to tell me about too.
iPrompt for the iPhone
Today I got my hands on the iPhone application iPrompt. I have been using VideoCue to use as my teleprompter when I do the videos and I am talking into the camera. Video Cue works pretty well but sometimes when I want to stop it and then restart I can’t go back a bit to where I want to continue talking. I have to start again from the start of the text. That is the problem I need to address.
If I am using the iSight camera in my Mac it is OK because I can have the computer right in front of me and use the up and down arrow keys to slow down the text in Video Cue and speed it up again so that It does what I want. But I prefer to use my Canon Vixia to record the video because of better quality and when I use the green screen I need to have some distances just right to make the chromakeying work better. So then I lose control of the text. My arms are just not long enough…
Seeing as I am always fluffing my words then I do need to be able to have this controlling function – so enter iPrompt. I have not used iPrompt in anger yet but I have tested it and it looks like it will do what I want – I think….
The only thing is the control of it again. I would like to put the iphone into a box thing that I will make that is like the proper teleprompter when the camera is pointed through a hole in back a box and there is a piece of glass at an angle inside the box. The front is open and what you look into – seeing only the scrolling text
The iPhone will go at the bottom of the box pointing up at the glass and with the glass angled the presenter is able to see the text scrolling right where the lens of the camera is pointing out . Of course the scrolling text in iPrompt has to be mirrored so that it is the right way for reading in the teleprompter. The way that I do it now the text is slightly below the lens on my MacBookPro and you can sometimes see that I am having to look just below the lens to the scrolling text from time to time. I could see that this iPrompt solution could work even better if I had a distance controller – there is something that allows wireless or wired control so that I could speed up the text or slow it down or just pause it and restart it when I am ready to move on. I have to find out more about what controllers I can use with this function of iPrompt. I think I will need that distance controller though if I – can – put it in a box as I have outlined already because the iPhone will be more difficult to get at – when it is set up inside the box
EverNote
I have just upgraded to the latest version of Evernote and I like the changes – It looks better and it also has a thing called trunk – It is the Elephant reference again.
Trunk is there to show what other applications will work with or integrate with Evernote – like
Egretlist
A to-do manager that seamlessly syncs content with your Evernote account.
Seems like a good idea from Ever note – but then
Had a bit more of a look through and it seems it is a way for Evernote to make some affiliate cash by directing you to paid for apps on on the iTunes Store. Nothing wrong with that ….
Evernote have to get paid for what they do also.
iTunes
Talking about iTunes – I updated to the latest version and it went really easy no problems and seems that it was just mainly bug fixes.
Just bought another set of earbuds for my iPhone – could be 4th set or perhaps 3rd but I had been using some without the mic that is a switch also and I really missed the ability to turn off the podcast I was listening to quickly while I am at work. Getting through that many sets of earbuds I suppose it is not too bad when taking into account the amount of time I use the iPHone in that way.
While I am at the campsite this year working – I am spending more time outside working rather than in the reception which is great seeing as there is no air conditioning in there and it is fresher outside and I get to chat more with people
another benefit is that I don’t have to be annoyed so much by using Windows computers. When I do go in there I am so busy I don’t have time to think about it either.
Only another 3 or four weeks to do at the camp site and then I can get back to the learning programming. I still find time for the odd video from Lynda.com for the PHP and MYSQL and I see that the guy that did the course for the iPhone programming has put up another course for iPad programming. I will be looking at that next I think.
One thing though I have noticed while I have been following tutorials on web development since I first started learning html many years ago = is that things have got so much more complicated. On first look at some of the examples in the tutorials it looks like the javascript, XML, XML DOM, PHP, MySQL, HTML5 and the rest – are ways of doing something simple in the most difficult way possible – It looks like masochism at times. You know what I mean ….. 20 lines of code to write one line of text on a web page.
I wonder sometimes if I will ever be able to think like a programmer.
From what I have seen of HTML 5 it may well be an attempt to bring some of these ways of working together in an easier way of working.
I will get to the bottom of this…. I Promise
Finding a good idea for a project for iPhone or iPad is a little difficult as much seems to have been done already
and they only way forward will be in the vertical market or specialist arena. What would you like to see as an iDevice application? Maybe a special mix or combination if a couple of solutions to problems already out there would make that killer app?
Using Time Machine
I bought an external hard drive for my wife to use as a Time Machine back up. It is a 1TB drive I paid 66 pounds for and the shipping was free the case is a bit plastic compared to the Iomega drives I have bought before but when I got it fired up I was pleased to find it is really quiet in operation. I will also get another drive for her later so that we can do a Super Duper back up once a week also. Belt and braces it the way to go when backing up your data. We are also using Mozy to back up some files and I will also go for the $5 a month back up plan there too. Thats a really good price that Mozy
Delete key on a Mac
I was just delighted to learn a new thing on the Mac
My wife was complaining about the forward delete not being available on her MacBook Pro
I had wondered about it a few times on mine too but never bothered to find out for sure how to do it
So the backspace key is used the Fn key modifier it will delete going forwards. Isn’t that easy and very useful to know.
I found that out by looking in Mac Help for Windows Keys on a Mac keyboard and there were a couple of other explanations in there too.
ScreenFlow
You have noticed that I promote ScreenFlow on the podcast too. I have interviewed the people at Telestream that make the application and I was pleased to see that one of the guests on the MacBreak Weekly last week gave it very high praise when choosing as a pick of the week. use the link I have on answer20q.com to find out more about ScreenFlow and you will be helping out Mac20Q if you buy it after you have tried it.
