Some of the features found in iOS are coming to Lion and we will have to get our hands on a magic track pad to be able to benefit from some of the upgrades. The extra swipes that we can do to have the operating system do things for us. Some navigating things, app launching things with Mission Control and the way that we will be able to see the apps we have all lined up neatly on the full screen.

I didn’t like the idea of that mess all of the desktop at first but it only shows over the desktop when you want it and otherwise the desktop is as before.

The price of Lion is good – €24.99 and that will upgrade all of my Mac computers, apart for the Mac Mini that is a G4 Processor and is getting long in the tooth now.

I am not sure about the download from the App Store. I like to do a clean install with a new operating system. The good old nuke and pave is good for cleaning all the cruft that accumulates over the years and can make a computer run a bit faster. Have to look into that for some clarification.

iOS5 has been downloaded onto my computer and I expect to install it on the Amazing iPad. it is Beta software but I am ready to give it a go. Even though iOS5 is not due out until Autumn. It makes me want to get an iPhone 4 to replace my ageing 3G iPhone. Either that or I wait until September when the new iPod Touch becomes available and hope there are some upgrades to it to make it more desirable.

DropBox for copying files to ipad

Open an account and make sure you then get the DropBox application on your iPad. I just opened DropBox and went to a text file in the folder structure in DropBox. In the top right corner there is the Open In button and I have a choice of which text application to work with. I have four in this list. Noterize, GoodReader, Evernote and PlainText. I would have liked it in Nebulous Notes preferably

I can get at the note easier in Nebulous Notes because it integrates directly with DropBox. When I click on Open in Nebulous I see a list of files from DropBox. I do have to have some sort of connection to Dropbox to get the file in though. If I was offline completely I would not have the access.

While I am on WiFi it was very quick to bring in a text file in Nebulous or into Noterize. It did seem that all I could do though was to add notes , audio, bookmarks and write on top but I couldn’t edit the text. Not that useful ! Using The ipad For Business you need to have it sorted out

I as able to share it out into Evernote but that had it as a PDF and it was not editable there either. On the other hand when I used DropBox to move files to iPad and used the OpenIn button to go to Evernote direct I was able to edit the text no problem at all.

I can see why some people might get a bit confused with ipad copy files to computer and How To Copy Files To iPad . I think the thing is to work out your work flow for specific applications or types of files and make a reminder in one of your notes applications on how to do it just in case you forget exactly how you did it.

I like the look of it, I want one but don’t really need one. My wife will be getting one of these beauties though. She is a teacher and has been on the look out for something exactly like this for using with her work. She wanted a MacBook Air for the lightness of it and this is lighter. The iPad has a super looking version of Keynote on there for $10 and she can do all her information management that teachers have to do easily on this device.

Best of all – She may let me touch it from time to time, perhaps even use it?

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Later today Steve Jobs will be getting on stage to tell us about his new toy for us all.

Time for all the rumours to be quashed and all the picking apart the bones of whatever Apple comes out with today. 10 inch form factor with an iPhone like interface. Will it be fast? Will it have Kindle like abilities? Will it be a game changing platform that will take the world by storm. Are you going to buy one as soon as it is in the store?

It is still all questions right now as I write this but in eight hours time there will be an explosion on the internet when every Mac fan has one topic to talk about. The iSlate, iTablet or the iPad. For sure some will be deleriously happy with the new toy and many will snipe at it, saying well it doesn’t do this or doesn’t do that. It will depend on whether the hype has been over done or not.

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Adam Weiss is a successful educational podcaster and podcast consultant, as well as a sought-after digital media strategist. An expert interviewer and communicator, he aims to show that digital communication is more about story, presentation, and technique than fancy gear and tech toys.

He is the creator of the award-winning Current Science & Technology Podcast for the Museum of Science in Boston, which he hosted for more than two years. He now hosts his critically-acclaimed Boston Behind the Scenes Podcast, and has profiled everyone from street vendors to senators and astronauts in his career.

Read more and listen to the podcast.

This interview started over at Video20Q blog and podcast and seeing as Phil is a Mac user it is only right that I publish here on Mac20 Q also. I have cut out some of the interview that was more specific to film making and if you would like to get the full skinny on Phil, then you can listen to the interview in full at Video20Q.

Listen to the podcast at Mac 20 Questions and see what other podcasts are there to listen to

Simon and I talked about how he uses his Mac. he is a tech support guy working with Windows installation in the main. There is on place that has Macs so he has to be content with having fun with his Mac when he gets home.

Simon is planning to start a Mac podcast soon in which he will be doing reviews of Mac software mainly and probably other stuff too. I am looking forward to hearing and seeing the screencasts that he brings out.

He likes to use iMovie and is planning to get the latest version soon to be able to do a better job with the screencasting for the podcast. I did tell him about ScreenFlow for the screen capture part of the job, but he already has different software for it.

In my ramble I talk about the Liverpool Tweetup which is starting on Friday which I am so looking forward to. There are some of the group celebrating birthdays so I expect there will be some boozing. With me being a teetotaller it won’t make a difference to me. Will be a pile of fun anyway.

I might also see if I can catch a movie while I am there too. I wonder if Avatar will be showing in Liverpool at the weekend. So long as I don’t have to go to do too much shopping although part of the meet up includes going to the AppleStore.

Look out for the podcast that will come out of the face to face interviews. We should have loads to talk about.

Mac 20 Questions

I went int the forest next door and took my Canon Vixia with me to film something. I used the technique of putting the camera on a mono pod and putting the end of it in the top of my trousers. I am sure it must have looked rude. I saw the technique being demonstrated in a YouTube video and thought I should have a go. The main point was to have some footage to play with in FinalCut Express. I wanted to use the Ripple, roll slip and slide tools for arranging the clips on the time line. Really keen to make something creative with the camera and my Mac too.

Here is the result of the adventure and I will be putting up another Mac20Q Quick Tip about what I was doing with the sound also. I recorded the sound with the Zoom H2 recorder and a wired lavalier mic and matched up the sound after in AmadeusPro. It worked nicely.

Gary Rosenzweig pictured here in an English pub (Mind you if he was doing it properly he would have a pint of beer in his hand) talked to Mac20Q about what he does with MacMost Video. He has been very busy producing Mac tips in video form for about 2 years and is doing very nicely on YouTube.

He was previously into making games with Flash and still might do the odd game. He has also made an app for the iPhone. So as you can see he is multi talented with the programming, podcasting with video, writing books, drinking beer and probably many other things too. He is successful in bringing in revenue from his podcasting, He has the links on the MacMost site and apart from one month doesn’t have the advertising in the videos.

Gary also has an Sony HDV camera which is plugged into his MacPro and he records live into Wirecast which comes from the same company as ScreenFlow. I was amazed that his preference for movie editing was with iMovie because it is so fast to do the editing. He could use FinalCut Express but prefers iMovie. He compresses the file at the end of it all with MPEG StreamClip. He uploads to Blip.tv and it will send the file off to YouTube which saves some time with the uploading. Naturally you will find Gary on FaceBook and Twitter.

He recommends that if you want to get into video podcasting and you don’t yet have a HD Camera then just shoot in standard def. move up to HD when you are able to. If you wait until everything is perfect then you will never get to make a podcast.

Gary admits to being a geek, and using terminal editor on his tiny netbook rather than using the Ubuntu that was installed. He was using EEE Ubuntu. He has been using as Mac for a long time though and was issued a Mac SE in 1987 when he was in college. It was a requirement to have a Mac there.

For a favourite application he has to choose between Garageband and iMovie, but was perhaps edging towards iMovie more. Gary does use Audacity and although it is a free application I would recommend that you use AmadeusPro, it looks prettier, more Mac like and I think it is more stable too.

He uses Fluid the custom browser application that you can use to make a web application for one specific purpose. I have it for FaceBook but Gary uses it for a Todo application. he is an iPhone user and use MocaVNC, Tweetie, Cycle Meter, and Scrabble plus other games. On the MacMost Newsletter he does a recommended iPhone app of the week.