I have noticed that more and more people are posting videos on their social media accounts... Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. This is great for everyone following you because it gives them a chance to keep up on your family and business activities. In some cases, these videos include audio alongside the video in the form of voice-over, edited music tracks or even sound effects. In most cases, these were likely added to the video using a video-editing application like iMovie or Final Cut Pro.
GarageBand is a fantastic audio-editing application that can help to easily add these audio artifacts to your video projects. In this post, we will explore how to sample various audio effects, apply those affect to an audio track, then add that audio track to a video for posting to your social media account.
Every once in a while, I run across a Mac or iOS app that knocks my socks off. Today, I'm going to share one of those apps with you.
Sitting on my desk in my home office is my 15" MacBook Pro with a secondary display next to it (Apple Thunderbolt Display). It's a great setup. I find myself using both displays constantly, moving apps back and forth to match my workflow. When I am working on the go without my secondary display, it tends to slow me down a bit (the lack of screen real estate is surprisingly noticeable). With this app recommendation, you can turn your iPad or iPhone (yes, iPhone!) into a portable secondary display for your Mac. Fasten your seatbelt!
It's Friday, and we're all (hopefully) beginning to wind up the week in preparation for the weekend. One of the great features of the new 4th generation Apple TV is the App Store. Games, utilities, news, music, sports... you name it and it's probably there (if not, then it will be shortly).
So the question I was asked yesterday... "Kevin, what is your favorite game to play on the Apple TV?" Truth be known, I'm not much of a gamer (certainly not hard-core), but I do like to play a few minutes here and there to take my mind off of a challenging project or just to relax.
Rumors started years ago that Firefox would soon be available for iOS. Those rumors seemed to die down for a bit until it really wasn't talked much about anymore. Many people assumed that it wouldn't happen. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Firefox is now available for iOS!
My browser of choice is Safari. I prefer Safari over Firefox or Chrome for a few reasons (speed and syncing between devices are two of the reasons). Having said that, I also really like Firefox... it's a very close second choice for me. I know many who prefer Firefox over Safari or Chrome, so the release of Firefox for iOS is a welcome addition to the App Store for many, many people.
Apple released their 4th-generation Apple TV one week ago today. Although the roll-out was a little shaky (the original Apple TV I pre-ordered didn't arrive until 5 days after they were available in stores), the product itself is pretty solid. There are a lot of new feature that I love, and a few disappointments.
In order to help those who are still trying to decide whether to invest in a new Apple TV or not, I wanted to share my thoughts on their new set top box. The best way to convey my thoughts is by way of a list of "likes" and "dislikes".
I have a good friend who contacted me over the weekend with horrible news... his car was broken in to, and even worse, his MacBook Pro (along with his wallet and bag) was stolen! It's bad enough that his expensive laptop was now gone, but the worst part is knowing that his data has now been compromised. To be honest, it makes me feel sick knowing that he is vulnerable now.
There's not a lot I can do to help my friend in this situation, but there's a lot I can do to help you protect yourself in a similar situation. Today's post will walk you through a few very simple things that you can (and should) do to protect yourself in the event that your laptop ends up in the wrong hands.
The human body is designed to go through a repeating cycle of sleep and wake every 24 hours. The sun helps us to do that by changing the temperature of the light we see and experience. During the day, the light is bright and includes a lot of blue, which helps to keep us awake. In the early morning and evening, as the sun is rising and setting, there is much less blue. This helps us to wake up, and prepare to sleep, at the proper rate.
Computer screens also emit quite a bit of blue, just like daylight. Unlike the sun, however, computer screens don't adjust to help the body prepare for, or return from, sleep. Studies have shown that using your computer for an extended period of time at night before going to bed makes it much more difficult for you to get to sleep because your mind has been tricked into thinking that it's still daylight at 10:00p. Once you do finally get to sleep, your sleep quality is diminished for obvious reasons... one minute, your mind was told it was 2:00p in the afternoon, and the next, it's 11:00p at night. Talk about confusing! Well, there's an app for that. No, seriously!
When Apple launched Find My Friends (an app that allows you to see where your friends and family are), I thought it was the coolest feature! It's especially useful in a family like mine with 6 iPhones floating around. I can see where my kids are, and they can see where I am, at any given time. Some consider that a privacy issue, but I consider it a safety and convenience feature.
Being able to see where my family and friends are on my iPhone is great, but it sure would be nice to access it via the web on my laptop. Historically, that has not been possible, but today... everything changes!
I think it's safe to say that most (if not all) of us like to consume iTunes content, whether it be movies, music, TV shows, podcast... you name it, and there's at least some value to that. For most people, this love for content can also mean large iTunes libraries. If those libraries are well-organized, this isn't a big deal. But when it's not organized, it can be a painful process to find just what you're looking for.
I'm a visual person. I look for things with my eyes and pick up on colors, shapes and images to find what I'm looking for quickly. For that reason, I rely on album artwork to be in place to help make my content recognizable. When content is downloaded from the iTunes Store, that artwork is automatically in place for us. When it's brought in from another source (i.e.: DVD, CD, etc), you won't get a copy of that artwork automatically because it didn't know where to get it from. Even under those circumstance, it can be easy to resolve this issue. Here's how.
For those of us who follow Apple news pretty closely (or at all), we know that today is the day that Apple releases iOS 9... the next-generation software for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Most people wouldn't consider this update to be earth-shattering (and I would agree), but I certainly wouldn't be too quick to dismiss it as "ordinary" either. There are plenty of great gems hidden within the release that we should all pay attention to.
There are certainly too many improvements to talk about here, so what I thought I would do is highlight my top 5 favorite improvements for the update... in no particular order.
Even though Notification Center has been around for a while now, I still love to show people what it is and why it can be a huge time-saver for them. There are two pieces to Notification Center: Notification Center itself and real-time notifications (which appear in the top-right corner of your screen). Accessing Notification Center is simple. You can either use two fingers to swipe from the very right of your trackpad in the left direction (as if you were swiping it onto your screen) or you can click on the Notification Center icon in the top-right corner of your screen. Regardless of the method, the results are the same.
The notifications that appear in the top-right corner are great because they are push-based, meaning they come to you, rather than you having to find them. In this how-to post, I want to walk you through customizing Notification Center to make sure you're getting the absolute most out of it.
Apple's new Photos app is a great way to import, manage, edit and share your digital photos. As you add more photos to your library, however, that Photos Library file has the potential to grow out of control pretty quickly, gobbling up every byte of free space that you have.
To avoid your Photos Library occupying too much of your drive's available space (resulting in a sluggish system), it's a good idea to periodically archive older photos. Because we're all different, there is no one-size-fits-all archival strategy, but there are some tips that will make archiving your older photos easier. To help illustrate, here is the process that I go through.
Apple held their September media event today in the historical San Francisco Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, which seats an audience of around 7,000. Among other things, Tim Cook and company introduced the new iPhone. Below is a summary of the event.
There are some questions that I am asked more often than others. Over time, those questions morph from one common theme to another. Over the last month or so, I have noticed an increase in the number of people asked me the same question... "Do I have a virus on my Mac?!" Over the last two weeks, not a day has gone by when I haven't been asked this very question by someone.
So what is it that prompts this question? One minute, you're harmlessly browsing the Internet. The next minute, the following appears on your screen and out of nowhere.
The Apple TV is an amazingly versatile device (see more on that here). It's very common for me to strongly recommend that people purchase an Apple TV for each TV in their home or business because the possibilities are limitless.
In order to get the most out of your Apple TV, there are some tricks you will want to know. In this post, I will tell you 7 of my favorite Apple TV tips.
