Tag Archive - keynote

Favorite iPhone / iPad Apps – Part 1

June 29, 2011 in iOS, Software with 0 Comments

I often get asked what my favorite iPhone / iPads are, and I thought I would share my current list with you guys. I’m a total app junkie so it was difficult to narrow this down, I tried to make it a top ten, but there are a few more than that so I’m dividing it into a couple posts. Some are favorites because they help make work easier, some make everyday life more enjoyable and some are ministry focused. Also these are in no particular order.

1. Evernote – This is my go to note taker. I use it on my phone for quick photos or audio notes to myself. I also use the iPad version to take notes in meetings or at conferences. It also works great as a desktop app. There’s also the ability to email notes or do web clippings into your notebooks. The best part is they all stay in sync. I find new uses for this all the time.

2. Dropbox – We’ve talked about this before on this blog. This is another one of those services that I use all the time. The Dropbox service allows you keep files in the cloud and keep them in sync across your devices. This app is how you access your files from your iPhone or iPad. Having access to my files anywhere is a life saver. I also love that you can play media files from the app directly.

3. Flipboard – This is my favorite news reader, and sorry, but this is iPad only. I love the way it looks and the way it works. It turns my twitter, facebook, google reader into a dynamic digital magazine. Plus you can read from their curated topics or add your own RSS feeds.

4. TomTom U.S.A. – I have a horrible sense of direction and I do a fair amount of travel, so always being able to find directions to where i need to go is great. I find the built in Google Map to be difficult to use, that’s why I love TomTom. It has a great built in search for locations and then will give take you there. This is a lifesaver.

5. Angry Birds – I don’t feel like I need to explain this one. Love it or hate it, it keeps my kids (and maybe me) occupied.

6. Keynote – This is my go to presentation software on my desktop and the mobile version is a great way to review and make quick changes to a presentation. I actually like the iPad version so much I often start my presentations there.

7. Pages – If I need to do some writing with more formatting than Evernote will let me, I use pages. It’s the best word processor I’ve used on the iPad.

Stay tuned for more apps in part 2.

Is the iPad 2 a ministry expense?

March 3, 2011 in Featured, Gadgets, iOS, Mac, Software with 0 Comments

Yesterday Apple announced the second version of their game-changing iPad product.  It is another product for us to drool over and desire, but the question most (usually under paid) youth pastors are asking right now is can I justify this as a “ministry expense.”  To that I answer a definite maybe.

That is to say that I would have told you no this time last year about the original iPad.  Apple’s M.O. is to initially release a revolutionary product that is a bit more simple than their final intention (think original iPhone with no app store, copy / paste, or 3G).  Which means that unless you are uber-wealthy or have some other justification, you always wait for the second version.

This is no exception.  We now have an iPad with a stout processor, front AND rear facing cameras, multi-tasking and a robust number of apps (60,000).  That means that you will have no problem justifying whether the hardware is going to be made totally obsolete in a year the way this has pretty much done with the original iPad.

Now that we’ve justified the hardware as a legit expense, we need to turn our attention to the apps.  This is what will make or break your proposal.  Here’s the question you need to ask: will these apps increase the effectiveness of your ministry and/or save you money?  There are several interesting things you can do with apps now.  You can video chat with a missionary you are supporting, you can control keynote and ProPresenter, you can record your praise band with garageband (8tracks), you can edit movies with imovie, you can have a virtual whiteboard run into the projector, and you can show HD movies off of netfllix or other streaming services through the new HDMI attachment.  On the saving money front, you can use this as an ebook reader which has saved me as much as $30 on a single book.

What do you think?  Justifiable?  Maybe.  The clincher may be using this to replace your laptop or desktop, but that is a bit trickier.  While this is incredibly powerful for a tablet, it is lacking in that department when compared to a notebook.  Though, if you don’t do a TON of serious video, graphics, or audio work, you might be able to make this work.  It will allow you to connect an external keyboard and mouse via bluetooth which makes it a bit more credible, but BE careful.  If you are looking into using this to replace a traditional form-factor computer, I would suggest borrowing one for a couple of days to see if it does everything you need.

So, go ahead and run the numbers, write a proposal, and let us know how you end up using this to connect with teens!

Apple’s iPad: What We Know, What We Don’t, and Whether to Buy, Wait, or Pine

January 27, 2010 in Featured, Gadgets, Mac, News with 0 Comments

I will be honest.  Today I took a longer than normal lunch so that I could watch live coverage of the Apple event on TWiT.  As a self-proclaimed fanboi, I was excited and intrigued by the latest thing I didn’t know I needed until Steve Jobs told me I did.

All joking aside, this is an interesting device.  Apple is positioning it as a media player, content creator, book reader, and TV.  It’s a lot to fit into something .5″ thick, but they seem to have done a pretty good job.  You can go to Apple’s iPad site for all the gory details and places like Engadget and TUAW for even more.  But here’s a brief overview:

  1. It has a pretty 9.5 x 7.5″ LCD screen with an iPhone-style capacitive touch interface (there is a pretty wide bezel, but the people who have played with it say that it makes sense because you have to have some place to hold it without touching the multi-touch screen).
  2. The screen is 1024 x 768 pixels which mean that HD movies are going to look pretty good on your lap.
  3. It will have a full browser, email app, photo app, notes app, etc (think iphone standard apps).
  4. They have totally revamped iWork’s UI to make it intuitive on a touch screen. Even keynote’s graphics-intensive elements seem to work without a strain.
  5. It will have a new app called iBooks that is a book reader as well as an iBook Store.  They have already secured major US publishers and are adding more.
  6. It has built in speakers (and 3.5mm headphone jack), mic and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR but no camera (there is no way this will be absent from the 2.0 release)
  7. It will output VGA and standard A/V cable.
  8. There will be models with 16, 32 and 64 GB of storage available.
  9. It will have wifi built in and an optional 3G modem.
  10. There will be a dock, keyboard dock, and case (with stand) available.
  11. Though they released an updated SDK today, almost all iPhone apps will work on the device and can be used in their native size or at 2x to come closer to filling the screen..
  12. Apple says it has 10 Hours of battery life (doesn’t seem like this is possible, but no one has them to test as of yet).
  13. It will ship in 60 days starting at an un-Apple price point: $499

What it doesn’t have:

  1. Multi-tasking
  2. Support for flash
  3. Across the board true GPS (only available in 3g model which is $130 more)
  4. USB ports
  5. Did I mention camera!??!

Now, that is a lot, but there are several things that are unclear:

  1. Will it have the ability for external storage?  There are adapters that allow you to connect  USB and SD to the 30-pin iPod connector, but Apple says they are for importing pictures.
  2. Will it sync with Mobile Me?  They say it will sync with a computer, but did not mention their “cloud” service.
  3. Will there be magazines?  It seems logical, but was not announced.
  4. The hands on experience.  This one is big, until people get to really sit down with it, we won’t know exactly how reality stacks up with apple’s claims

Overall, I am interested in the product, but I will probably not buy one for one simple reason: Apple’s second generation is usually far better than the first.  I did the same thing with the iPhone, and I got the 3G, and am not disappointed.

Apple generally sacrifices features for stability and user experience on the 1.0.  After they work out all the bugs, they release a product that seems complete.  The iPhone 3g added GPS, third party apps, streaming audio over 3g, push e-mail, and other niceties.  I fully expect the iPad 2.0 to have a camera, (maybe even two) some form of external storage (if that is not part of this version), higher quality screen (OLED?), and a couple more pieces of glory that I can’t forsee right now.

Bottom line: should you seriously consider buying it?

  • If you were considering a netbook because of it’s size: yes.
  • If you wanted a netbook because of its price and storage capacity: no.
  • If you were considering a new laptop and do not need video editing or large amounts of storage (in other words you primarily use it for email and word processing): yes.
  • If you have a church administrator who loves Apple and will let you play with $500: yes
  • If you use keynote for your talks and cant afford a macbook but want something more portable than a mac mini: yes.
  • If you need to run any traditional apps like Photoshop, Final Cut, etc.: no.
  • If you were considering an ebook reader but couldn’t justify almost $300 on something for that single purpose: yes.
  • If you are secretly in love with Steve Jobs and want to show him your undying devotion: yes.

There you have it.  Let us know what you think!  Although I said I was not buying one for myself, you are more than welcome to send me one in the mail, I would not even come close to turning it down… I am a fanboi after all.

Prezi: Amazing Flying Presentations

June 5, 2009 in Design, Featured, Media, Software, Web with 0 Comments

I am amazed. I have just spent the past several minutes toying around with what could be one of the most interesting tools I have ever found. It’s called Prezi. Saying that Prezi is about making presentations is like saying that Porche is about making combustion engines. It takes the idea of delivering screen-based presentations to an alternate, non-boring dimension where the creation of the presentation can actually be part of the creative process.

Basically, you take your content (everything from CAD drawings to video) rotate, scale, and place it, and then draw a path from one to another that automatically rotates and zooms the camera to fill the screen with whatever is being shown. Their site probably describes it best when they say, “Create a map of your ideas, images, videos, then show overview, zoom to details, amaze, convince, take the day. And it is very simple to use. ”

Simple is a gross understatement. They have developed an intuitive interface that allowed me to create this simple demo of an announcement presentation without ever reading or looking at a second of tutorial.  Although it is a web app, your presentations are available to download so that you can still show them when you are in the middle of nowhere at a camp who still has dial-up internet access.

The best part?  It’s FREE!  There are premium versions that you can pay for that remove the Prezi logo, give you more storage and an offline editor, but free is good enough for me.

While I think this may be distractingly cool for talk notes, I plan on using it to attract attention to our announcements and maybe a song or two if we get ambitious.

Mac Users Forum, Sacramento

October 14, 2008 in Featured, Mac with 1 Comment

Here are the notes from the Mac Users forum at the National Youth Workers Convention in Sacramento.  Thanks for everyone who came out.  For those of you looking for the notes from the Social Media workshop, they will be up tomorrow.

Feel free to add anything I forgot in the comments.

Getting iWeb updates to a non-mobileme host.  ftp clients: cyberduck, transit

Keynote – quick way to copy in songs – try automator
Pro-presenter is a good presentation alternative, more powerful than keynote
to put all the lyrics where you want change the margins
graphics and movies aren’t stored in the presentation like keynote, power point
keynote gives a place for notes, pro-presenter does not
keynote poor mans after effects (mac break tech)
create loops in pro-presenter like media shout
motion backgrounds, artbeats, digital juice, worship house media, vineresources,

Podcasting,
video – Final Cut Studio , finalcut express, iMovie (not 08)
audio – to record ichat (audio hijack pro, wiretap studio)
be sure to check if your camera is mac compatible, lots aren’t
QuickTime Pro is worth the $30
Elgato Turbo.264 – Video H.264 to speed up video encoding
get tube, tubaal, video box
screen capture – Screen Flow

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