3 Things I Expect to See in the iPad 3! (UPDATE - WILL NOT BE RELEASED AT iWorld)

As we all know, Apple's iPad 3 is expected to be announced sometime early next year. Some sources say that it will be announced at iWorld, which is scheduled from the 26th to the 28th of January 2012. In this article, I am going to give my personal opinion on what I'd like to see from the new iPad. 

Better Cameras

I am sure that you will agree that both the front and rear facing camera's on the iPad 2 are not of the best quality, and with no flash, they are a big letdown. The cameras on the iPad 2 are both less than a megapixel each. I would like to see at least a 5-megapixel camera with flash on the rear and a 3-megapixel on the the front of the iPad 3.

Retina Display 

 Many believed that the iPad 2 would be getting the patented best-in-class Retina Display. But sadly, that wasn't to be. Personally, I think if Apple doesn't upgrade the display on the iPad 3 from 1024x768 PPI (Pixels Per Inch) to a 2048x1536 Retina Display, then there is a strong potential that some iPad users might switch to the Andriod platform.

Siri Intergration

With Apple's voice assistant Siri being a key feature on the iPhone 4S, then this is a must for the iPad 3. I am sure that Siri would be one of it's main features for the iPad 3, as well. It will be another great way to work your way around the iPad, by speaking to it! I would love to see Siri on the iPad 3.

What would you think we will see from the iPad 3? Comment below.

Junior High App Developer

I was browsing through yahoo news when I saw this pop up. Apparently a junior high student has been developing apps for the Iphone and the Ipad. As of now, he has started a club for his school that is dedicated to working with applications for mobile devices. Now this is really amazing that a 6th grader is working on such advance software that he has already developed two apps and is working with a third-party company.

You can find the rest of the news article here

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First Look: Official Facebook App for iPad

The long wait is over. Facebook has finally released their official iPad app. In this video, I give a little overview of the application.

YouTube

Blue Snowflake USB Microphone and the iPad

Creating high quality YouTube videos depends on three things:

• Content
• Video Quality
• Audio Quality

You can have the best quality full HD video with amazing content but if the audio is poor people will switch off quickly.  Excessive background noise, low volume and distortion can all detract from a good video.

I have recently been working on improving the quality of audio in my videos. An obvious place to start is by investing in a good quality microphone. Being a MacBook user this is made more complicated by the lack of microphone input! 

After looking at the options available an external USB microphone looked like the best option. I settled on the Blue Snowflake portable USB microphone which is cleverly designed to fold away with a handy space for the USB cable.

Installing on my MacBook was simplicity itself and the device was immediately recognised. The audio quality is excellent and for less than $60 I am really pleased with the results

As a user of GarageBand on both my MacBook and iPad I wondered if the microphone could be used on my iPad. After a bit of research the answer was yes!

By connecting the USB cable into my iPad 2-in-1 Camera connection kit a USB microphone can be connected to the iPad.

The iPad recognised the microphone not only in GarageBand but in other audio enabled apps. If you are looking to make good quality recordings of your band, lectures or audio for video this is an excellent option.

In conclusion I am really impressed with the design, style and audio quality of the Blue Snowflake microphone and the ability to plug into the iPad is a real bonus.

Fruit Ninja: Taking Someone Else's Idea Done Right

It is very difficult to come up with a novel idea that becomes successful. For every successful channel such as Freddiew and FinalCutKing, there are thousands of imitators who attempt to emulate their traits with little success. One of the most popular and imitated videos on Youtube is FinalCutKing's "I am Fruit Ninja" with over sixty video responses. Our team wanted to take advantage of the popularity of the video and game without looking like another cheap carbon copy.  The video ended up being the most liked, viewed and commented video response by far. How did we do it? The first thing we did was study all the differences we could find between the original video and the video responses. Such differences included camera placement, background, presentation, acting, pacing and seemingly trivial details such as size and color of the fonts.  The next step was to figure out how we could make it better. First, we realized that all the backgrounds were either black, a hastily photoshopped image or took place in someone's living room. We set to find a background that could pass as a place in which a Ninja would train. More importantly we noticed that not a single video out of all the video responses had martial arts, which is one of the most known characteristics of the ninja! Luckily for us, we had martial artists in our team. Good things can happen from taking someone's idea, but only if you put the effort in to contribute your share and make it better. After all, it's not just the idea that brings success, it's the execution. I'm certain we all know plenty of people who could learn this.