For whatever reason Apple didn’t have the Apple branded iPad Pro accessories widely available on day one. Although you could walk into an Apple Store and pick up the iPad Pro of your choice you had to wait for Apple Pencil and the Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro. Although I had preordered all 3 items together, the iPad Pro arrived two days later, but the Apple Pencil and Apple Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro didn’t arrive till several days later. I had already sourced another Apple Pencil from the Apple Store in Michigan (thanks Linda) and I gave up waiting for the Apple Smart Keyboard to arrive. Instead I drove to my local Best Buy and picked up the Logitech Create Keyboard for iPad Pro. I’m so glad I went this route instead. Had the Apple keyboard arrived on time I may have never looked at the Logitech Create. I would have been missing out!
Here’s why the Logitech Create Keyboard for iPad Pro is sooooo much better…
This Logitech keyboard rocks! When I received my iPad Pro last week one of things that was missing from the order was the New Apple Smart Cover Keyboard for the iPad Pro. It’s backordered and while I hope to get it this week or next, I kinda wanted to use a keyboard in the meantime. My good friend Larry Becker, turned me on to this Logitech keyboard and I couldn’t be happier with it. This Logitech keyboard has a feature that I hadn’t seen on other wireless keyboard before…
I received my work iPad Pro this past Friday and while I will do a more extensive review once the Apple Pencil and Apple iPad Pro keyboard arrives, I wanted to give you a quick update. As with any new major piece of tech that I get my hands on people want to know what I think about it? Is it worth it? Do I like it? Is it for me? Those are all good questions, but some of them are hard to impossible to answer when it comes to questions like “is it worth it?” That’s because it depends on YOU. I can’t answer if it’s a good fit for you or not. All I can do is tell you my experiences and you can go from there.
Adobe makes mobile apps for your iOS and Android mobile devices. Now that the iPad Pro is available people asking me more questions about running Photoshop or Lightroom or Illustrator on this big new FAST tablet? What’s the workflow? Why would I want to use an iPad instead of my desktop/laptop computer? Can I shoot tethered to it? How do I get my RAW files into it? How do I color calibrate it? Many of these questions are the same questions that people asked when the iPad was first introduced back in 2010 (yes it’s been 5 years already).
There’s a lot of excitement about the prospect of just carrying around this small, lightweight tablet and leaving your computer behind. While the iPad and now the iPad Pro are GREAT mobile devices, they were never designed to or intended to replace your desktop computers. First off let’s talk about RAM. Apple usually never shows the RAM of the iPad as a spec. I’m not talking about storage (16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 128GB), I’m talking about the RAM that the Apps run in. Rumor has it that for the most part the iPads have had 1-2GBs of RAM. The NEW iPad Pro is rumored to have 4GB’s of RAM. Now pause and take that in for a minute. When was the last time you bought a desktop/notebook PC that you wanted to do production level work with only 2-4GB’s of RAM? How well would an App like Photoshop CC run in only 2GBs of RAM? We also don’t know how much iOS itself uses. Instead of trying to cram desktop apps into the much smaller footprint of an iPad or Android tablet/smartphone, Adobe has done the next best thing by taking the tasks that people do the most and making FREE apps to do those tasks.
You’ve seen the sneaks and you’ve heard the rumors about a NEW professional level retouching App for your iPad or iPhone, well the wait is over. Adobe Photoshop Fix is here! Rather than tell you about it I’d rather show it to you in action:
Photoshop Fix is exactly the kind of App that I’ve been hoping for and it was a pleasure working with the team and providing feedback during the development.
I am a fan of Anker’s battery backup products and cables. I worked out a giveaway with them that will allow me to giveaway their NEW PowerCore+ 10050 battery backup for your mobile devices. To enter all you have to do is follow me on Twitter here and retweet this tweet. On Sunday, September 20th 2015 I will pick a US or UK based follower that retweeted the tweet.
Like many of you I upgraded my iPhone and iPad yesterday when iOS 9 was officially released. Looking at Apple’s website and looking at the WWDC Apple Keynote from earlier this year, I wasn’t really excited about the update. However, after spending some time digging a little deeper, I found some really cool features and hidden gems. Rather than listing them all here. I’d rather show them to you in action in this video – See What’s NEW in iOS 9 and What Apple didn’t show us:
If you are out and about these days then chances are you in need of charging your smartphone, tablet and other mobile devices. I travel for a living so I figured I would share the four ways that I keep everything charged when I’m on the go:
The external battery that’s in my pocket
The 2nd Gen Anker Astro 6400 mAh is a great external battery to keep on your person. I love it because it has a smooth surface with no buttons to accidentally get pressed while it’s on my pocket. It change charge my iPhone 6 Plus up to 1.5 times.
In this episode of Adobe Creative Cloud TV I answer a Facebook Fan request on how to shoot tethered to an iPad? Unfortunately there still isn’t a way to just plug in your camera to your iPad and have the images show up as you shoot with your DSLR and quite frankly even if you could it would have limited application due to the storage constraints on the iPad itself. So instead I’ve come up with a way to use Lightroom CC and Lightroom Mobile to accomplish the same thing not only to an iPad, but to an iPhone, Android phone, Android tablet or even a web browser. With the technique above you can shoot tethered to Lightroom and have your shots automatically sync to Lightroom Mobile via Creative Sync and those shots will be on all of your devices as well as the web simultaneously.
Do you have my App?
See more of my Adobe Creative Cloud Videos on my Adobe Creative Cloud TV and get the App below. My iOS App is a Universal App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. I also have an Android version on the Amazon App Store:
I love home automation products. My first X10 remote controlled lights date back to the early 1980’s. Long before smartphones and bluetooth wireless. I always thought it was cool to be able to remote control several lights, appliances, etc. all from one control pad or timer module. I haven’t looked that the advancements that closely over the years, but when the Elgato Avea came across my review desk I was excited. The Avea Dynamic Mood Light is a 7W bluetooth controlled LED lightbulb. Unlike other products on the market this one doesn’t require a network connection or any other hardware to drive it other than your iPhone or iPad. Once you take it out of the box you merely screw it in to any standard light socket and set it up with the App on your iPhone. Rather than go into more detail via text, check out this video of how it works:
I was so happy with the review unit that I immediately ordered another one for another room. I was also pleasantly surprised to see and use the Apple Watch support. Being able to turn lights on and off as you walk around from your wrist adds another level of convenience and cool factor. I was also pleased to see that the lights can be controlled from either device at any time. When it comes to the iPhone vs. iPad vs. other iPhone, whoever opens the App first has control. This eliminates the pain of having to constantly unpair and pair differing mobile devices. My only two complaints are that I wish they offered a higher watt (brighter) version and that they made the app easier to control different lights than it is now. While the bulbs are plenty bright when using the “white” color setting, they colored settings/moods can be a bit dim. The App does allow you to turn on a mood for one or more lights at the same time, it seems like that control is buried another level deeper in the mood presets. I would like to see this setting moved up in the UI. My gripes are very minor. I’m very pleased with this product and will probably order more of them.
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