Really quick post, yesterday I was looking for apps to generate a picture of whatever was on my iPhone screen and I came across a shortcut.
Hold down the Home Button,
Press the On / Off button on the top of the phone,
The screen will flash white for a moment as it takes the picture.
Check the Photos folder on you phone and your images will be there! Very handy for blog posts, presentations, demos etc.
I have been very excited recently about the arrival of augmented reality Apps for my 3GS and this week I installed the Layers App. Very cool indeed but it as I went through the various databases of information I did wonder if it had a practical function. Certain functions such as the Wiki and other informational sources probably have no added value by being able to hold your phone up and obtain directional and distance data and so to for the Twitter functions, fun at first but do we really care where the tweets are coming from? I bet not one person initiates face to face dialogue as a result of a nearby tweet. The concept does however come into it’s own when it comes to the directional data. The local tube stops, banks etc is handy to be able to see on the screen rather than on maps, figuring out which direction is north, which way you are facing and which way you then need to walk. I have watched the Augmented Reality Sat Nav App video on YouTube and again it looks very cool but I have to say, even as a techy who loves the concept, I am sceptical at this stage!
This Sunday the 25th of October was the Bupa Great South Run. I went and ran it with my brother. I fully recommend it for anyone who wants to try a middle distance run. The course is flat nearly the whole way around, there is a constant crowd and often music to keep you running at a steady pace.
At 6 miles you loop past the start so all your fans who saw you off get to watch you run past mid point. The final loop brings you out onto the sea front for the final two miles. All in all a really well organised event and a good run. Thanks to all the Twittering well wishers.
Also see my post on the Neolithic Canni Cross event and an Overview of Canni Cross, I’m hoping to run a few more in the weekends to come. View my MapMyRun Profile to see my training progress (not all of it) and also my reviews on the iMapMyRun workarounds and the New Balance Totalfit iPhone App.
When purchasing a video camera or choosing your project settings in your editing software you may come across the dimensions followed by an i or a p for example 1080i or 1080p. This stands for interlaced and progressive scan.
The difference between the two are as follows. If you imagine you video is built like a brick wall, in layers known as fields. In an interlaced video each field is offset not dissimilar to the brick wall. You have probably noticed this during moments of fast motion where you see lines like a comb at the edge of the moving subject.
Interlaced video should be deinterlaced for your final product. In Final Cut this is done by applying a deinterlace effect, in premiere pro it can be done as your send your media to Adobe Media Encoder.
Progressive scan video already has the fields aligned resulting in a much crisper image and less things to think about at edit. Be sure if you are working with progressive video not to deinterlace your video when you export it. It will reduce the quality.
If you wish your final video to be displayed on a computer monitor then always deinterlace your video or use Progressive.
You can also De interlace video in Quicktime Pro, Window > Show Movie Properties > Video Track > Deinterlace
It is often necessary to scale and move the images you have brought into your timeline. Often you will want to create a slow zoom in, zoom out or pan across an image to add a little movement to your video and have it look a little less like a slide show.
If you familiar with Adobe After Effects you will find this very easy as it’s a process of adding keyframes at start and end points to inform Premiere as to where motion should begin and end.
Start by creating an image in photo with dimensions (Understanding dimensions) bigger than your frame dimensions. Bring it into Premiere and drag it down to the time line. You will see the image appear in the window on the right.
Now place your playhead where you would like the animation to begin and then with the clip selected click on the effects tab in the first preview panel.
You will now see a mini timeline appear for your particular clip. Locate the symbol that looks like a stopwatch, next to the scale controller, click and you will see a keyframe appear on the timeline. Now move the playhead to your proposed endpoint either on the main line or the mini one, again hit the keyframe button and you will see another black diamond appear, signifying the end of the motion. Note that as you move the playhead away from this diamond it is no longer black. You must have the playhead directly on the frame in order to effect it, otherwise another keyframe will be generated. With the playhead properly aligned change the scale numbers to 80 percent. Now drag the playhead back in the main timeline and play your video, you should see a slow zoom out.
Change the scale to more than 100 percent for a zoom in. Exactly the same theory applies to motion the only difference being that you must change the x and y axis in order to create a pan.
It is possible to place as many keyframes as you like on the timeline in order to create more complex movement.
I was a keen user of the iMapmyrun iPhone app when I was training for my last canni cross half marathon. The app however was buggy and required workarounds. It spiked on the GPS, it struggled to save over 3G Internet and lost signal and forgot the current trip. When I got the email about the New Balance Total Fit (still powered by mapmyrun) I thought I’d test it out. I went on a 5 mile / 3 laps of the park run, a route iMapMyRun used to struggle with as I guess the route was all close together. I got a message at the beginning about a weak GPS signal but continued anyway. At the end of the run the data seemed accurate and so I hi save, the app saved first time with no issues.
Hopefully I’m not speaking too soon but the App seems stable and with a few extra functions to iMapMyRun including View Route, Tweet Workout, Share / Challenge and a data or map view during your workout.
There are two main ways to control the sound levels in Adobe Premiere Pro over time outside of a simple constant gain, expositional fade transition.
Firstly, it is not straight away that obvious that this can be done in the timeline in much the same way as in Final Cut Pro and the use of pushpins.
Locate the button to the left of the timeline and highlight it. You should now be able to place pushpins along the levels line.
Place the playhead where you would like your fade or gain to begin and then click the grey diamond where you see the text “Audio” to the left of the timeline. You will notice a pushpin / keyframe appear on the audio track and the grey diamond turn black.
Move the playhead and the diamond will turn grey again, place the playhead where you would like your fade to finish and add another pushpin / keyframe in the same way. Grab the level beyond your second pushpin / keyframe and drag it down.
You have created a gradual fade over time.
The second way is much the same as creating motion with images and takes place in the effects tab. If you have the Show Clip Keyframes drop down selected, you will notice this in the timeline to. With your clip selected place your playhead where you would like the fade to begin.
Expand the levels controls under effects and locate the stopwatch symbol. Press this and a small black diamond (keyframe) will appear in the clip timeline. Drag the playhead to the end of the fade and repeat. You should now be able to reduce the levels beyond your second keyframe without affecting the sound before the first. The diagonal fall between the two signifies the fade over time.
In Final Cut pro you are probably used to toggling on and off this button in order to break he linkage between audio tracks and video tracks. It is not as obvious in Adobe Premiere Pro although once you know how it makes sense and it might even be easier to incorporate the action into your editing.
Simply hold the alt Key while clicking either the audio or video track. You will notice only one is selected, you can now move this independently from the other, delete a track or copy and paste it. Note if you move the track a indicator will appear showing just how many seconds and frames you are out of sync from the original partner.
I was amazed how many people with MacBooks did not make full use of the mouse pad fingertip shortcuts so here’s a few to get you started.
Firstly, quite obviously the entire pad is a button.
Two finger scrolling, by placing two fingers on the pad a stroking up and down you can scroll pages with ease.
Holding ctrl and placing two fingers on the trackpad allows you to zoom in on the macs screen.
Zoom in, similarly to the iPhone you can zoom in by placing your fingers together and pinching open.
Zoom out, pinching closed zooms out.
Rotate, place your thumb and index finger on the trackpad and rotate the two together. This is especially useful in programs such as Adobe Photoshop.
Four fingers up for expose, place all four fingers on the pad and then throw then up, this will throw all your windows away from the desktop and allow you to choose your next program.
Four fingers down for expose, place all fingers on the trackpad and drag them towards you, this will place all of your windows on your desktop for you to select your next navigation.
Four fingers left / right, reveals all your open programs, using one finger your can scroll through and select similarly to tabbing through programs in Windows.
Three fingers scroll to navigate, scroll through folders of images etc
For more detail click Apple > System Preferences > Trackpad
I first encountered Copilot live 7 on the O2 XDA orbit and it managed to turn me from the Tom Tom One. The software maps, routing at the time seemed to be superior with less errors. I also liked the walking mode which pointed you in the right direction you quickly needed me to find somewhere. This allowed me time to collect my thoughts with a cheeky coke before my last job interview.
The Software
So, what does Copilot Live 8 have to offer on the iPhone. Much the same functionality but an improved map interface. The menu navigation takes a couple of journeys to get used to at first but once you know where everything is it becomes pretty easy. Copilot Live also offers a motorbike mode on top of the walking mode, I function I have not yet tested although I do have a Bluetooth helmet so fingers crossed that it works with that. I assume, lime most know it all techies, I often think I know better than artificial intelligence and go my own way. Copilot quickly recalculated the trip and displays a fairly accurate new time of arrival at the bottom of the screen. You can choose from different display modes including instructions and 3D maps, I choose the 3D maps and this also displays the directions cue in the bottom left hand corner of the screen up to 2 junctions in advance. The display can adjust automatically to both landscape or portrait and is easily viewable in both.
The software now offers various Internet functions including live traffic, live link, live weather and roadside assistance.
Interaction with the iPhone
I use Copilot while connected to the stereo in the car, this means it’s taking a charge from the connecting lead and also playing my music which is controlled with the stereo functions. I have had the software lag at bootup a couple of times but more often than not it works just fine. When you receive a call the software shuts down as you would expect, it does not effect the muting of your music and once you hang up the software relaunched and quickly returns to your planned route.
Installation is fairly straight forward, about a 250 mb download so definitely do it through your iTunes software, I have not received any updates yet but I presume ALK Technologies will iron out any bugs as and when they find them.
In summary, Copilot Live 8 is an extremely powerful app and although stuff magazine said the maps weren’t as easy to follow as Tom Toms, I personally don’t see much difference. Stuff gave it 5 stars and I do too.
