iPad and Projectors

A quick post here before Spring Break! I found out the exciting news this week that the iPad2 does indeed support mirroring through the VGA adaptor! This means that you do not have to find a projector that has HDMI – I know our school doesn’t have any!

I purchased that adaptor – it works great! I will be using it along with the capability to play audio files and showing the kids the music all at the same time in the next class. Now if I could just get a nice long cable to go to my podium instead of being 3 feet from the wall. Of course Apple simply needs to enable AirPlay to display even static apps, not just video and audio! Then whatever I am showing on my iPad I can use AirPlay and display it on the projector!

Do I really need a whiteboard now that I can do this? There are great possibilities with AirSketch along with the capabilities and possibilities of AirDisplay combined with either the actual SmartBoard software or something like Ink2Go. I’m really doubting the need for a SmartBoard.

iPad2 and Composition’s with the Band

So we dove into some creativity with the Middle School Band kids this week. I used NotesPlus to get the kids basic ideas down and to keep them on track. Then I used iMovie for the iPad.

The assignment was simple. They were to come up with a creative SHORT story. That story had to have some characters and some events. They then had to compose musical themes to support their story. Again the directions were to keep this simple and short.

The process went something like this…. introduce students to the idea…. they then were given 20-30 minutes to work on ideas in small groups. Then we came back together the first day and listened to a few ideas so that they could hear what others were doing and hopefully be inspired. The second day I gave them about 15 minutes then we used NotesPlus and recorded audio and wrote notes into my iPad so everything could be in one spot. This also meant I did not have to collect papers! Then the students decided it might be fun to make movies of it all. So of course I got excited because I had my new iPad2 and iMovie! OF course me never having used it before I was not sure how it was going to work. We figured it out in one class period though! Record the video, then use the voice over (in our case – it was more like music soundtrack over) and add in the music! The kids were great! They were quiet while the other groups listened, played and told their stories then recorded them.

Here are our first two. I think they are very creative and fun for a first time ever doing this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArYDdnNTw9s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHOBlXlvrRw

The iPad2 and iMovie was great! We were able to record several additional audio tracks on top of the original video audio. You can then adjust each clips level individually. You can add titles and sound effect (although we did not add any for these first two). You can edit out portions of the audio clips or the video clips. We shoot the classroom movie in four or five sections – in order to get them in order it was a simple matter  of grabbing the clip and putting them in order.Then the kids would watch the movie play back as they played their instruments in the voice over (soundtrack over lol). The built in mic for this thing was GREAT! I never once adjusted any mic levels – it was all done for us! One less thing to worry about teaching the kids!

When I got the movie all done I had two options. Add it to my Camera roll and sync it back to the computer to upload to YouTube from a computer. This is the option I SHOULD have taken with the 15 minute 720HD movie from the other night at the musical. That 15 minute movie took hours (several) to upload to YouTube (we ARE doing HD here people!) these clips were short so I choose to use the built in option to upload to YouTube right from the iPad. The 30 second movie took about 5 minutes and the 1 minute 9 second movie is going to take about 10 minutes.

Of course if you choose a lesser quality movie it would go much faster! I wanted to see how this looked in HD so I’ve stuck with the HD quality. As far as space on my iPad I have not noticed much of it disappearing because of these movie/audio clips for this assignment and the elementary musical movie I did the other night (that was 35-40 minutes of video there). I am VERY happy about how the iPad is storing material on itself.

What a great tool for the modern day student and classroom!

RSS News Feeds

If you do not use RSS news feeds you should! If you have an iPad and don’t use the Byline app you should!

First Musical shot with an iPad2

Well…. OK so that’s stretching it a little. But seriously it very well might be! My daughter’s 3rd and 4th grade classes did their annual musical production last night. I of course took my iPad2 and sat in the floor up front and shot the entire show! I had to see what I could do with JUST my iPad. Here are my thoughts: (disclaimer – This was a 30 minute show that I had to chop things out of to fit YouTube’s limit of 15 minutes!)

1)My daughter was the best singer there! Go to 10:40 to see my point!
2)No, the video quality isn’t like a sony handycam or whatever your favorite “real” video cam is.
3)The thought that I have something this powerful that can shoot video that is THIS good is amazing to me! I shot the video, edited the video, and published it all from one device that I held in my hands!
4)The editing is easy! No you will not be able to do as much as you can with iMovie on the Mac. I do want you to remember this – You can do many things that you are thinking you want to do! It is not always easy to figure out HOW to do those things.
5)The possibilities of different ways to publish your video are many. After actually using my iPad to publish to YouTube once though I will NEVER do THAT again unless I am on my way to bed! It takes a long time. There were like three steps the iPad went through and the first two steps were FAST! I was amazed how fast that went! Then the last step of actually publishing the movie to YouTube took a long time. How long you ask – sorry I wasn’t timing for accuracy but it took several hours or longer! To be fair though I did publish a 15 minute video in HD! If you choose a lesser quality it would be faster!
6)The audio quality on this microphone ROCKS! I wish it was stereo – is it stereo? Anyone know?
7)It was hard to sit and hold that thing for 30 minutes!

Would I suggest the iPad2 to shoot video to people? Absolutely! Do I think this going to change how people think about video’s and sharing them and editing them? It already has!

Here is the link…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGRzHbeBOA0

Whoa!

This iPad2 is FAST in more ways than one! I took a bunch of files off my old iPad and put them on my computer. I did this by dragging them from the app, in iTunes into a folder on my desktop. 245 files. Took a while – not sure how long exactly but I got bored and started reading news – no big deal, whatever right? Then I hooked my new iPad2 up to the computer and selected those same files and dumped them back into the same app by using iTunes again. All I can say is that I sat in amazement at the speed with which these files FLEW onto the new iPad2! Zip, Zip, Zip and they were DONE! I did not even have time to do ANYTHING else! Sweet!

By the way. I restored my iPad1 for my wife and it now has a clean slate! Any great suggestions for apps she might enjoy? Ladies? Gentlemen, feel free to chime in too!

The Saga of getting my iPad2

Well if you go back and read my first blog post to this web site you will find quite a story about the purchase of my first iPad. Today that story almost seemed to repeat itself. I decided, with my wife’s help of course, a week ago that I was going to go ahead and get the new iPad2. So since today was the day it was released I figured I might as well get it today! Now I had planned to leave right after school got out at 3:00 and head over to the main shopping area. That town is 30 minutes away though. The first hitch in this plan came when I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to make the copies of my score that I needed for the judges at festival Saturday. I started trying to get good copies at lunch. It didn’t work well, wrong size paper, it didn’t shrink down right, edges were getting cut off and it was a nightmare trying to figure out which pages to copy with which other pages in the right order so the final product would not annoy the judges. I left school at 3:40. 40 minutes later than I wanted.

Next step. As I am leaving town I called ahead to Best Buy. They informed me that the iPads in stock were all spoken for by the people in line. They had about 25-30. Now this is about an hour and 20 minutes before 5 when the iPad went on sale. So I called WalMart. They wouldn’t tell me how many they had but they did tell me that there were enough people in line already that there would not be enough for everyone that was already there. Now I was freaking out, kicking myself for not being more organized with that score earlier in the week. Last hope was Target. They told me that there were no lines and that they had only five and those were only wifi 32 GB. Which was fine with me. Problem was that I was 20 minutes out still. So I went to a backup plan. I started calling a town down the road too. That town was bigger, maybe they would have more stock. No such luck, it was the same story there! Best Buy already had about 25 people in line for 30 iPads. That Target had too many people already just like Best Buy. So I hurried up a bit and hoped for the best.

My daughter and I pulled into he parking lot, she spied a parking spot right by the door. She already had my check book and wallet in her hands. We jumped out, forgetting to lock the door of the truck and ran for the store. We slowed to a fast walking pace inside the store and headed to electronics. I could see a line. As I got closer I saw 6 people in line already but we kept going hoping some of them were together. They were! I was person number FIVE! YIPPI! We had a good time standing and talking to the others in line. The only bad part was telling the next 20-25 people that they were too late!

Finally 5:00 hit. The sales people worked us around and they stared paying. Then it was our turn. I whipped out my check book. The clerk told me the total and I wrote the check. He rang it through, waited, the register made some noises and spit my check back out. The clerk then told me that the check would not go through! We tried doing it three different ways, none of them worked! Then it hit me! There was no reason for Target to not accept my check but the clerks were saying that since I did not have a check writing card there and the check was over $100 that was what was causing the problem. So I told the clerk to run the check through but to use my wife’s drivers license. Of course I was just waiting for him to say he couldn’t do that because she want with me. But he was nice and tried it. Of course then the check cleared! My daughter and I breathed a huge sigh of relief and walked quickly out of the store!

I had not made up my mind which version I wanted. I had gone back and forth between saying I did not need or want the 64 GB this time and that the 32 would be fine. I had not really been thrilled about the white version so I really kind of wanted black. I had also been seriously considering the 3G as well. Since I am heading towards a purchase of an iPhone this summer though I finally gave the 3G idea up. I mean it’s $130 more and my new iPhone will have a hotspot feature. So as I stood there in line I guess my mind was made up for me. A 32GB version would be just fine PLUS maybe white would be kind of neat and different to have after all!

I am glad I made the decision to upgrade! This new iPad2 is WAY faster. My music scores turn pages WAY faster! Plus, remember Steve’s comment about being a whole new design? It is. It feels way better in my hands holding it! The camera are fun, factetime is great. I just wish my Mom was around still! I would be getting her one of these things!

Much thanks to Aron, the developer of unRealBook! He was FAST in getting me going again with another code and everything I needed to get my iPad ready to use for Band Festival tomorrow! His support is proof of a great group of developers out there that are doing an excellent job with their customers!

Benefits of Music in Our Schools

This is a good article about music our schools. There are a bunch of linked pages with even more information on them. Make sure to check out the links that are there.

Warning – This is on an Earn Your Bachelors Online Website -

http://www.bachelorsdegree.org/2011/03/10/20-important-benefits-of-music-in-our-schools/

iPad 4.3 updates are going to make things possible that were only dreams before

You know some people really hate change. My wife is one of those people. Until just a few nights ago she hated all things that were touch controlled. Like my iPad, iPod Touch and my Android Droid. Now she is the one who initiated the addition of a new iPad 2 which means she will get the old iPad. With the update to 4.3 I think she will be more likely to utilize and pick up on some features that would have been too complicated before.

The first thing that she will be using frequently are the new multiple touch gestures. I don’t think she will ever use the old double tap function to access the multiple tasking bar at the bottom of the screen. I am also wondering if she will even use the home button to gain access to the home screen? It’s way simpler to simply use the five finger pinch!

Then here are the AirPlay improvements. The biggest problem here will be convincing her to leave iTunes running on the iMac. Now she will be able to easily access our entire collection of music, photos and movies! I think I could probably convince her to get an apple tv because we have a flat screen hd tv in the bedroom. I can see her shooting videos and movies and photos to that tv, oh wait…. That’s not a new feature for the apple tv is it? Hmmmmm….. Maybe not. For myself I am hoping that the AirPlay feature will actually work at school. If I can access my laptops iTunes collection then why do I need 64gb on the iPad 2?

If you are not sure what the new multitouch gestures are then go to the system settings on your iPad, tap on General then look for multiple touch gestures. In order to get the HomeSharing setup for the AirPlay feature you have to turn HomeSharing on in your iTunes library on your computer. It is working great!

Update to 4.3

Well I am glad I did not start the update to 4.3 too late while I was here at school! I guess I am very used to not having issues with Apple updates so it never occurred to me that something might not go smoothly with this update!

I started it 50 minutes ago and it is still running. Now when I say STARTED that means I clicked on the check for updates button in iTunes. So the update had to download, install and run. What is hanging it up currently are my photo’s. I have had my 64 GB iPad for a year now – I got mine the day it came out. I STILL only have 32GB of data on it! A month or so ago I finally decided to just go for it and I synced my entire iPhoto library with my iPad instead of just selecting some photo’s! So now I have 6117 photos on my iPad. Currently iTunes is optimizing my photos and is only at photo number 3500!

I hope everything else goes smoothly. It appears I will not be leaving school as quickly as I thought today! I guess I will have more time to sort and file more music in the back room while this thing finishes up in my office!

UPDATE – iTunes has a popup window that is optimizing the photos now (I think as it installs them on my iPad) It is now 3:31. Now it says that iTunes is actually installing my photo’s on the iPad! For some reason now my photo count is down to 6075! Hmmm…. oh well. I should have known better. Well I am going to go to the tire store, leave my computer and iPad at work and come back later to get them. I hope no little pop ups happen that require my clicking a button to finish this process!

UPDATE 2 – Came back to the school – everything was done – no idea how long it took to fully finish though. Everything is running as I would expect now. The new HomeSharing is a HUGE feature! So long AirVideo and AirPlay – sorry – nothing wrong with what you did but you are no longer needed. I won’t have to run that server on my laptop! I am installing 4.3 on my 32GB iPod Touch right now. That is happening MUCH faster. I’ve got to believe that if I wouldn’t have had 6000+ photo’s my iPad update would have been fine.

By the way – UnReal Book is running just fine. (Thank goodness as I have festival Saturday!)

New Guitar App for iPad

Notion Music has released a new app for iPad called PROGESSION. Here is the first line from their website:
Progression, a guitar tab editor for your iPad gives you the convenience of an easy-to-use guitar tab creation tool right at your fingertips.

http://www.notionmusic.com/progressionipad.html

This app excites me! Not because it is a flawless app yet but because of the promise this app delivers! I am not a guitar player so the idea of TAB’s have never excited me. After working with this app though I am impressed! Progression allows for the entering, editing and playing back of the ever popluar guitar tab notation. I’ve even given Notion the advantage of calling TAB’s notation – usually I find guitar TAB’s severely lacking because of the absence of rhythm. Notion has included rhythm and the normal TAB information all into one package though.

So when I open up one of their sample scores I see the TAB notation that tells me which fret and string to play as well as what rhythms. They don’t stop there though. They also give us an abundance of guitar functions, including but not limited to: vibrato, slides, string bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, trills, whammy-bar methods and more. It gets even better though! You can play the notation back and listen to it as well!

It is very fast and easy to select different notes – you simply tap on the correct fret and string on the guitar neck at the bottom of the screen. It is also very fast and easy to select different rhythmic values from a pop-up menu. There are menus to add text, all the different ways to play notes like trills and hammer-ons. You can add repeats and time signatures as well obviously.

I think that Sibelius needs to take a look at this and make a iPad version of Sibelius.

All said and done. I am very excited about the new apps coming out. I did however have several issues with the app. The guitar neck at the bottom of the screen disappeared on me and I had to re-boot the app. I had another time when several other things went away as well. I am sure these issues will be taken care of quickly though.

The price is hard to beat as well! It is free for now! Go get it!