iPad Jailbreaking Update ...

I may have been a bit hasty in my criticism of iPad jailbreaking yesterday as I received some comments that others had not experienced the instability that I had noticed. I can only call it as I find it, your mileage may vary.

My solution to the situation (as some of you may have already noted from my tweets yesterday) was to invest in a second iPad, one I can jailbreak and use purely for creating video tutorials. Having a second iPad may seem excessive but its a good way to keep my personal stuff and demo software separate for the show.

On a Mac it's not too difficult as you can setup multiple users to demonstrate software, even multiple drives which is the way I've approached it.

I have two drives in my MacBook Pro, an SSD drive for normal usage, and a 500GB hard drive with a separate OSX Installation. Whenever I need to record for a show, I boot off the second drive and I have a completely separate environment, email system, 1password setup, etc. So now with a "demo" iPad, I can configure that to sync with my ScreenCastsOnline demo Mac and all is well.

I ended up deciding to go for a UK 32GB WiFi and 3G model, although to be honest, I don't really need the 3G as I have my MiFi unit for internet on the go! I just figured that it would be best to have both a WiFi model and a 3G model for future proofing.

So now I have a second iPad, I can safely jailbreak that and not worry too much about the instability. As long as it doesn't crash out on me when demoing a single product, I can live with that, but even if it does require a restart now and again, no hardship!

Now the problem is, if I can get a VGA signal out of the iPad at 1024x768, how do I actually capture that into the Mac to create a high res movie?

I have a Matrox MXO2 capture box but that won't support such a low resolution - in fact, most of the modern capture cards only support SD or HD resolutions.

The only option I've found is a USB device called the VGA2USB LR from Ephihan Systems. They do a cheaper version called the VGA2USB but the LR captures at a much higher frame rate. It's not cheap at £555 plus VAT, but as luck would have it, I found someone in Australia selling one on eBay for half the price! It's now arrived in the UK but still stuck in customs.

So a fairly (very!) expensive solution to create high res iPad tutorials, but it's my living and the kit is tax deductible.

I'll let you know how it all works out!

Thinking Digital 2010

Spending a couple of days in the North East of England attending the annual Thinking Digital conference.

It's my first time, both visiting the North East and also attending TD, but I've heard nothing but good things about both!

I particularly like the idea that the conference is a single track - no decisions to be made on what sessions to attend, or worrying five minutes into a session if you really would have been better off attending the session in the next room. Everyone attends the single track.

Hopefully I'll pick up some good ideas and the conference will give me lots to think about. It's always good to break away from the routine of the usual working week and get some perspective how others working in Digital Media are thinking and acting.

Today (Wednesday) is the first full day of sessions although I travelled up yesterday.

The organisers laid on some special workshops for early arrivals and I opted to attend an "Arduino Power Workshop". I've always been interested in electronics and have fancied a play with one of these devices for a while.

It's basically a programmable chip on a circuit board with various pins exposed, along with a USB connector to connect to a PC or Mac. Attach LEDs, Resistors, Motors, etc to the Arduino and then write some code to control it on the computer. Compile and upload your code to the Arduino and watch it work - magic!

Well I managed to complete all of the exercises but still need to learn a bit more about electronics theory, but it's a great way to get started. A nice touch was that they let us keep the starter kits that we had been using, so I can carry on experimenting when I get home.

Will keep you posted on the TD conference and you can catch any related Tweets by using the hashtag #TDC10

Pondering a purchase...

My first Mac notebook was one of the first Intel based 17" core duo machines.

A lovely machine but just too big!

Don't forget, this was before the iPhone or iPad, and at that time, a notebook was the answer to your mobile computing. Wherever you went, you had to take the notebook with you.

The original thought process in selecting the 17" beast was that I needed the large screen for creating and editing my video ScreenCastsOnline whilst on the road. In truth, I can't remember ever actually using it for that. In the end, it was used as a general purpose notebook, basic email, surfing, the usual stuff.

Once I came to the realisation that my mobile computing needs were for something portable and lightweight, the obvious choice was the MacBook Air. So I replaced the 17" with the MacBook Air and it did sterling service for a good 14 months or so.

The MacBook Air was a delight to use - light, cool running, just perfect for portable general computing. Great for catching up in front of the TV too.

The only problem was that when I tried to use the macBook Air for the occasional serious task, performance was OK but the lack of screen real estate was a serious hinderance.

So twelve months ago, I replaced the MacBook Air with a 15" Unibody MacBook Pro.

I've been supremely happy with the 15" MacBook Pro, especially since installing an SSD drive. A great combination of portability, performance and a decent amount of screen real estate. Of course, whilst traveling, the MBP can be quite a load, especially if at a trade show or expo where you need to keep your notebook with you throughout the day. I've also changed my workflow slightly to turn the MacBook Pro into my publishing machine. It's this machine I use to update and publish the ScreenCastsOnline website (using Rapidweaver), update and publish my RSS feeds (using Feeder) and some other post production tasks I need to keep the weekly show going. I could try and share these tasks between the desktop and the notebook but it's problematic and just a lot easier to use the notebook for these tasks. Makes it really easy to publish from anywhere.

However, the whole area of mobile computing has been turned on its head with the introduction of the iPhone and iPod touch. On recent trips, I've found that the notebook has remained back at the hotel, and my true mobile requirements (access to email, surfing and twitter) is provided pretty well by the iPhone. Not perfectly, but enough to get by. The only exclusion to that is if I'm speaking or presenting, in which case, the MacBook Pro has to be carried with me throughout the day - a major PITA!

With the introduction of the iPad, it's now my belief that the iPad will fulfill probably well over 95% of my needs whilst out and about (including delivering presentations), although I'll still need a notebook back at base for video duties. Whereas I didn't use my original 17" MacBook Pro for video editing, I've started to do more YouTube and other video production when travelling, resulting in the need for a fairly powerful notebook back at my mobile base, as well as the publishing tasks mentioned earlier.

This change in working practices has brought about the realisation that the choice of notebook no longer needs to be restricted due to considerations of portability. When traveling, the notebook will remain in my carry on luggage, wheeled on and off the plane and decamped to the hotel on my arrival. There it will stay, acting as my temporary "desktop" to use for the processor intensive tasks required to edit and encode video.

The iPad and iPhone will suffice for my day to day computing whilst away from the hotel. Even though the current version of Keynote on the iPad is considerably "hobbled" compared to the desktop version, it's still good enough to do basic presentations and I'm sure that revisions to the app will come in time, making it just as powerful as the desktop version (or at least comparable).

With the introduction of the new MacBook Pro range (and some changes I'd like to make to my setup at the studio), I've been considering if it's time for an upgrade. My existing 15" MacBook Pro is still great workhorse, but the extra horsepower of the i5 and i7 processors are very tempting. Add in the faster graphics and the mind boggling screen resolution of that beautiful 1920x1200 screen, and it just might be time for an upgrade.

Besides which, I have my final Apple Developers discount to use before November which should give me significant discount.

Before making the final decision, I thought it wise to checkout the new machines at my local Apple store at Liverpool One. So off I popped, and was delighted to discover they had both the new i5 and i7 MacBook Pro machines on display, including the latest 17" models.

In fairness, it's impossible to tell them apart performance wise, especially just by trying them in the shop. The i5 and i7 processors are the mobile versions and whereas the latest iMacs have 4 core versions, the MacBook Pro processors only have two cores. Information on the difference between the i5 and the i7 is difficult to find, but it looks like as well as being faster, the i7 Includes some additional features such as Turbo Boost. Still, Apple are promising a 25% speed increase over the Core 2 Duo machines.

One big difference between both machines on display was the screen itself. One had the standard "glossy" screen, but the other one had the "anti glare" screen.

I'd not really considered the "anti glare" as an option as I've been using the standard "glossy" screen for a while now on the 15" MBP and it's not really caused me any issues. However, seeing both displays side by side, really shows the huge difference the "anti glare" makes. I'd seen an "anti glare" screen on the last generation of the MBP and have to admit, I thought the extra silver bezel around the screen was pretty ugly. I'm not sure if they've redesigned the bezel on the new model, but it now looks fine.

The "glossy" option provides a richer display which enhances movie viewing but the "anti glare" certainly looked a tempting option. I've still not decided, but I may go with the "anti glare" option.

So call me impressed with the new machines and based on my specific requirements, along with how I envisage the iPad will be the mainstay of my true mobile computing, I think I may just go with the 17" i7 MacBook Pro. As well as disregarding the need for portability, the 17" MacBook Pro is the only notebook in the range with the ExpressCard32 slot.

As far as configuration is concerned, I'll get the cheapest hard disk option and transplant my existing SSD drive into the new machine. The machine comes as standard with 4GB RAM which I think will be adequate. The faster processor and the SSD will make it fly anyway and I'm not sure I could justify the extra £320 for another 4GB RAM.

So that's the current plan.

I'll probably sit on it for a day or so before taking the plunge, so feel free to comment!

As regards the other changes to the studio I eluded to, I'll leave them for another post!

Update on Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 8:07AM by Don McAllister

Decided to put this on hold until after WWDC. It's quite an expense and now I've decided to go to EEDC, smething had to give. 

I still stand by my decision to go with the 17" although it will be interesting to see the 15" with the high res screen before making the final jump.

The upgrade is not just for the sake of upgrading!

I have some plans on rejigging the studio around and I have an need to free up the current laptop for Mrs Don. Hence my need to get a replacement laptop. More on the studio re-jigg another time.

Itching for an iPad...

Graphic from Panics iPad Countdown pageWell it's almost been 30 days, and we know so much more about the iPad...NOT!

I don't know about you, but I don't think I can go another 31 days and 5 hours without knowing something else.

It's become so bad that people are even speculating about a blank key discovered on the iPad video.  My favourite rumour is that the blank key...

when you push this button it activates the following all at the same time:   front and back cameras, flash, telephone support... and it also changes the name of the device to iSlate.

courtesy of msduncan on the macrumours forum

Ha!

There was an interesting session at Macworld 2010 about the iPad with an esteemed panel (you can see this on YouTube) The hall was packed, and that was even without a live iPad being available. Nothing discussed was actually new (how could it be, Apple aren't telling), interesting, but nothing we hadn't heard before.

The big question though, is whether Apple have shown the finished product? Will there be any last minute surprises in store? - Similar to when they announced the change from a plastic to a glass screen for the iPhone only a week or two before launch.

Personally, I don't think they'll be any major surprises (like the camera) but we might see some new Apple iPad specific applications launched. Fingers crossed the "Remote" application is ported to the iPad rather than just using the iPhone one. A long shot is that we may see some of the iLife suite but I doubt it.

In the meantime, I've been planning just how I'm going to be able to do some screencasts on the iPad when it comes out. I have some ideas, but until I have one in my hot little hands, I can't really try anything.

I've also gone and got me some iPad domains, just in case I need to expand into the iPad arena...

• THEIPADSCREENCASTGUY.COM
• IPADSCREENCASTSONLINE.COM
• ALLABOUTHEIPAD.COM
• IPADTUTORIALSONLINE.COM
• THEIPADSHOW.TV
• IPADTIPSONLINE.COM

All are dormant at the moment, but if and when I get the time, you may see one or two of these become live.

So come on Apple, throw us a bone, or just let us start the pre-orders.

Something!

MiFi USA

Just a quick update on the MiFi as described in the earlier post, now that I'm in the USA.

The Virgin Mobile plan I'm on in the UK, does include provision for Data services abroad, the only issue is that it's £5 per MB or something like that.

The 02 data plan for my iPhone is £6 per MB (although you can buy a 1 month 50MB bolt on package for £50) besides which, the iPhone SIM would not work in my MiFi.

So the master plan was to arrive in the US and visit a local AT&T store (along with @patmahon who is in the same situation) and see if we could buy a Pay as You Go SIM with data to pop into the MiFi.

To cut a long story short, we were successful!

We were able to buy a "Pay As You Go Simple Rate" plan which was SIM only. It cost $25 for Voice and $19.99 for 100MB data. That's $44.99 or £28 in real money! The great thing is that if we use up the 100MB of data, the $25 set aside for voice calls (which we'll never se) goes towards the data plan so we get an additional 50MB or so data.

As far as installation was concerned, I just popped out the Virgin Mobile SIM and popped in the activated AT&T SIM and boom - it just worked! No configuration required.

So now, my laptop and my iPhone have WiFi connectivity wherever I go, provided I remember to take the MiFi with me (and a spare charged battery!)

Result!