Hello everyone!

Thanks for your patience and following me here on my backup blog. I set this blog up when my main blog at terrywhite.com/techblog was having performance and virus/malware attack issues. The issues continued so I maintained both sites. Network Solutions continued to get attacked seemingly every weekend. So I couldn't take it any more and moved my blogs off their servers to a NEW hosting provider. Things have been going smoothly there and therefore I see no need to continue to post the same thing in both spots. I will still maintain this address and blog setup as a backup just in case there is ever an issue again you'll have a place to immediately go to to see what's going on. Also moving to the new host seemed to fix the various RSS feed problems people were having. So from here on out NEW content will be posted at http://terrywhite.com

Thanks!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFtx9HzM-lE

As a photographer one of the iPad accessories I was most anticipating was the iPad Camera Connection Kit. This kit consists of TWO adapters that connect right to the iPad's Dock connector. The first one is a standard SD (SDHC) Memory Card reader. You connect it to your iPad and then insert a memory card with images/videos on it and transfer those images to your iPad. No software to install because the iPad already has this ability built-in to the Photos App. The second adapter has a standard USB port on the oppositie end of the Dock connector. With this one you can not only connect your camera via USB and transfer images directly, but as my video above shows you can even use a Card Reader with it! This overcomes (although not as elegantly) the problem of wanting to use Compact Flash or other card formats. 

How does it work?

The video walks you through it so I'm not going to spend a lot of time writing about it. I'm surprised at just how well it works though. My first test was an SD card right out of my Nikon D5000 containing RAW images on it and they came right in with no fuss. The next pleasant surprise was that the editing Apps (Photoshop.com Mobile and Photogene) had no problem editing those RAW files. Now it could just be editing the JPEG preview. I can't really tell, but hey it works! 

How would you use this?

The most obvious use for this kit is to backup and review your photos on your iPad. When you look at the cost (still way over priced) of the Epson P6000, and what you can do with an iPad (beyond just backup and review) for not much more money (and even less money if you don't need as much storage), it's a no brainer. Also since the iPad doesn't have a built-in camera at this point, it provides iPad users with a way of getting images into their iPad more directly than having to sync them with their computer or use email/internet. I know this is obvious to many of you, but before someone asks, the images you import to the iPad can be sync'd back to your computer via iTunes/USB when you get back home.

What about Compact Flash?

The kit doesn't natively support Compact Flash Cards or any other card format besides SD. However, as I showed in the video there is a work around. Use a card reader. Again it's not elegant, but it works. Here's a link to my favorite USB multi-card reader that I tested and found to work great with this kit.

What about videos?

Of course there are lots of cameras that shoot videos these days including DSLR. So video support is important too. I imported video from both my Nikon D5000 and my Kodak Zi8 cameras. 720p video shot with the Nikon D5000 imports AND plays back on the iPad. 720p video shot with the Kodak Zi8 imports, BUT doesn't play back on the iPad. This is not surprising since it seems that EVERY camera out there that shoots video shoots it using different codecs and formats. Since the iPad has a limited number of video formats that it plays back, you mileage will vary as to what works and what doesn't. Bottom line is that it all imports at least from a backup perspective.

Two more things

After I shot the video above, I had two more ideas of things to try and they both worked! The first one was that I wanted to see what would happen if I not only connected my D700 to it, but I started shooting while it was connected. For a brief moment I got very excited thinking that they snuck in tethered shooting! sigh… upon further inspection, the images were showing up because they were being written to the card and I would still have to import them. So no live tethering. The second thing I tried was connecting my iPhone directly to it and bam it saw the iPhone as a camera and offered to import the 3 images sitting in my camera roll. Now I'm not sure that I would ever need to use the iPhone this way since there isn't much that I could do on the iPad that I couldn't already do with an image on the iPhone other than work on it with a bigger display, but it's cool to know that the option is there.

Anything else?

OK, two more things: Yes, as it turns out it also supports USB mics for audio input and USB keyboards. Having USB mic support could be great for VoIP apps and using your favorite  mic/headset.

The Bottom Line

This kit makes me much more likely to want to travel with my iPad because it can now do one more thing and that is backup my photos and give me a nice big display to see them on while I'm on the road/in the field. The fact that it supports RAW files is a huge bonus for me. I know what you're thinking: Wouldn't it be cool if we had Lightroom for the iPad? All I can say on that one is…..

You can get the iPad Camera Connection Kit here from the Apple Store for $29.00. A real bargain considering all that it really does beyond just importing of images.

Photoshop Guy

Company:

Kelby Media Group

Oldsmar, FL

Your blog/website:

www.planetphotoshop.com, www.photoshopuser.com

Favorite Gadget(s):

Apple TV, PS3, XBox, and Wii I use them all for different reasons. I rent movies on Apple TV, PS3 is my Blu Ray player, XBox is for online gaming, and the Wii is just fun! Oh and the iPad, even though I haven't got one yet.

Your cellphone/smartphone (make/model):

iPhone 3GS.

I won't leave the house without:

My iPhone, because it does so much more that make bad calls.

Blogs I read regularly:

Scott Kelby, Terry White Tech Blog, Layers Magazine (RC Blog), Dave Cross blog, John Paul Caponigro, John Nack, Pixar blog
 

Mac or PC:

Mac, of course!
 

Laptop or Desktop:

Both actually! I have a MacBook Pro for work and a dual monitor iMac set up at home! Oh, and I have a small Cintiq for the really creative stuff!
 

Favorite App/Software:

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe After Effects, Apple iTunes.
 

Technology/Gadget that you're most looking forward to that hasn't been invented yet?

That really cool gesture based interface that Tom Cruise used in Minority Report. I think that sort of thing is closer than we think!.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwVBzx0LMNQ

What do you wear to work?

Super casual. Jeans and a t-shirt, or shorts because we are in Florida after all. Hawaiian shirts forbidden!
 

Favorite Quote:

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." —Sherlock Holmes
 

Favorite Restaurant:

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse/Hooters (I like to be classy and naughty!)
 

What time do you go to bed?:

Normally around 1am. I rarely ever make it to bed before midnight.
 

Describe your perfect day:

Going on a long and relaxing drive in my Mini Cooper. Sometimes I will just leave my home on a Saturday morning and venture out with no real destination in mind. It is awesome way to disconnect from the world and be alone with your thoughts. I have a had many a creative breakthrough doing this very thing.
 

Anything else?:

Experiment. Have Fun. Be Creative.

As a frequent flyer I know all too well the headaches that carry-on luggage can cause on a flight. It's usually the people that don't travel regularly that either have bags that are too big to fit in the overhead or bags that don't fit the short way to accommodate more bags. It's frustrating for sure. It can even cause delays. However, for Spirit Airlines and others to consider charging for Carry On luggage, I think you're going about it the wrong way. Sure it's your airline and you can do whatever you want. You can charge whatever you want. No question about that. I think that most will view this as a negative even though you've supposedly lower the price of checked bags and that's my point. You charge your customers either way. It would be different if you said. "Hey if you want to carry your bag on there's a fee, but if you check it then it's free." Although I wouldn't be totally happy with that, at least it would be more fair and perhaps ease much of the pain I've described above. Also since you invested in all of those "your bag should fit in here" kiosks, why not charge the folks with bags that don't fit? Or simply enforce that policy of "if it doesn't fit in here, then you can't bring it on" that you already have and much of this issue would go away.

Here's what the CEO of Spirt Airlines had to say about this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=omYDG-YuSxI

The Bottom Line

Luckily Delta (the carrier I fly the most) and others did not follow suit and I think they didn't because they know that their customers wouldn't like it. Most travelers are traveling with things that can't be checked such as laptop computers and other fragile items (although a "purse" or "briefcase" is probably still allowed for free). So in effect you're punishing everyone with this policy because most of us don't have a choice. We have to travel with something that we can't check. I'm certainly not going to check my camera gear or other valuables. And again you're charging customers no matter what they do so I don't really see how this is helping anything other than perhaps your bottom line.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D0TgsCnwv8

These are exciting times in the publishing industry! The tools have never been better to get your word out. With the introduction of Adobe Creative Suite 5 and in particular InDesign CS5, my head is spinning thinking about all the possibilities. I can use one industry standard app to publish for Print, for the Web with NEW Interactive features and now more easily than ever to standard eBook Reader formats such as ePUB. There's also a lot of excitement around the Apple iPad. The beauty here is that I can use my new found publishing power and Apple's popular device to get my content in front of more eyeballs than ever. 

The Project

As you may know I co-authored one of the best selling books for the iPhone, "The iPhone Book". I've been very happy with the success of that book and of course as soon as the iPad was introduced, many eyes turned towards me to question if I was going to write a book for this new device. While the project seemed interesting (and still is), I wanted to try something a little different this time around. I wanted the iPad Book to be an iBook on the actual iPad. All of my books are already being laid out in Adobe InDesign. So there's nothing new there, except there is something new there in terms of capabilities. The enhanced capabilities around the ePUB format and Interactive Document publishing beyond PDF. So I wanted to do two things: I wanted to get a sample out there of what an iPad book on the iPad and I wanted to experience first hand what it was like to create one from scratch using InDesign CS5. So I enlisted the help of my colleague at Adobe, Colin Fleming (eBOOK guru) and Colin gave me the inside scope and even some sample demo documents that he had put together. This was a great jump start and helped me avoid some stumbling blocks. Yesterday, I started my sample "25 iPad Tips" and today I have a FREE iBook that you can download right here.

The Making of my 1st iBook (ePUB)

The iBooks App on the iPad reads standard ePUB documents and Adobe InDesign CS5 just so happens to export them out directly. Great! There are some limitations that you have to be mindful in your document itself. These are limitations on the standard more so than of InDesign. For example, InDesign is an amazingly powerful page layout application that pretty much allows you do do anything you want on the page. However, ePUB has limitations on how the content has to flow to make it possible to have this single document on a multitude of different devices. I recorded this video to walk you through some of those things to look out for:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS6mZaksmIs

Downloading and Installing my FREE "25 iPad Tips" Book

The first step is to download my ePUB file here. Once you download the ZIP file, unzip it and you'll have a short readme.txt file and the actual "25 iPad Tips.epub" document. Open iTunes 9.1 and higher and simply drag the ePUB into the Library area of iTunes on the left side. It should now appear in the Books Area of iTunes and once you plug in your iPad via the USB cable, you can select it as a book to sync in the Books Tab in iTunes. Enjoy!

Don't have an iPad yet, but still want to check out this book?

You can actually still download it above and use the FREE Adobe Digital Editions Reader to read it on your Mac or PC. Download Digital Editions here.

More info

You can learn more about the ePUB format here and here, also checkout this white paper. You can learn more about Adobe InDesign CS5 here. 

Now that Adobe has taken the wraps off of Creative Suite 5, there are lots of questions on the minds of our customers. So we thought it would be bennificial and fun to address your questions LIVE via Adobe Connect. Not only will Adobe's Worldwide Creative Suite Evangelists (Greg Rewis -- the web guy, Jason Levine -- the video/audio guy and myself) be on hand to field your questions, but we'll also show Creative Suite 5 tips and tricks for our Design, Web and Video suites.

Details to Participate

This special Q&A session will take place Thursday, April 22th @ 11 AM PDT (2 PM EDT (GMT-4). and it will take place via Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. Here’s the URL: http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/askcspro

Sign on as a GUEST with your real name. While there is no pre-registration required, this session will be limited to 100 attendees. So it’s first come, first served. I advise you to log in 15 minutes before the 11 AM  start time as we plan to start on time.

Speaking of Tips

Here's a video to tide you over until Thursday  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUIcQ1nXkWk

Also be sure to check out Adobe's Sr. Creative Director Russell Brown's Latest CS5 Videos here. More videos at Creative Suite Video Podcast and Adobe TV.

What you will need to participate

If you’re reading this blog, you probably have the necessary equipment to watch this session. You will need a computer (Mac or PC) with a web browser, a high speed internet connection and the Flash Player. The audio will come through your computer’s speakers. That’s pretty much it! There is no software that you need to install. If you want to make sure that your computer and internet connection are up to par, you can run this test. Although the last part of the test checks to see if you have the “add-in”, it’s not necessary to have it for this session. Go ahead and run the test now so that you’ll be ready in time for Thursday. Also keep in mind that if for whatever reason your connection is not up to par or it’s not going well for you, there’s nothing we can do about it on our end and please accept my apology now. 

I have an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad

Yeah, there's an App for that too. You can participate with your Apple device by downloading the FREE Adobe Connect Pro Mobile App for iPhone here.

What else is in it for me?

Well you never know. We may give away something cool

Sprint says come on over and use our 4G data card with your iPad. Now I get that this is just Sprints way of trying to get in on a good thing with their newly introduced 4G Case for iPad. Clever! However, it reminds of one of the biggest broken promises of 2009.

Last year (June 18, 2009) AT&T told us that iPhone tethering (the ability to use your iPhone as a data connection for your laptop or in theory iPad) was "coming soon". By soon most of us assumed that meant by the end of the year. Well 2009 has come and gone and now it's the later part of April 2010 and official iPhone data tethering support is no where to be seen. To make matters worse or to give us more of a rub, Apple announced and is about to ship the iPad WiFi+3G model, which again runs data on AT&T's network!

So AT&T let me get this straight…

You can provide unlimited data to iPhones. You can provide tethering support to every other smart phone you make. You can provide 3G data cards for laptops to anyone that wants them. You can even bring a relatively low cost, contract free data plan to Apple's NEW iPad, but you can't provide tethering support for iPhones yet? I don't get it! No one is asking for FREE tethering support. So chances are you're going to charge for it and because you're going to charge for it, it means that not everyone is going to use it. Is your "improved" network still that fragile? Really?

I have no love or hatred for AT&T. For the most part my service has been fine and I travel all over. I just wonder what's really going on here?

Once again Network Solutions is under a Malware/Virus attack! And yes once again my tech blog hosted by them is suffering. Luckily I set up this backup blog and all is fine here (terrywhitetechblog.com). Hopefully, they will fix this soon and once and for all. I've already moved my bestappsite.com off their servers and my terrywhite.com sites may be the next ones to go. 

Read more about the latest attack here.

Photoshop Guy

Company

Kelby Media Group

City/State:

Tampa, FL

Your blog/website?

www.Layersmagazine.com (work) & www.aboutrc.com (personal) & www.twitter.com/aboutrc
 

Favorite Gadget(s):

All of them focus on Music, Photography, and Tech – Korg M3 88 Workstation, CF Martin DC15E, Alwarez Guitar, Line6 Pod, JamVox, Wacom Intuos4 Medium (WACOM RULES!!!), Apple iPad, Nikon D3S and D700 with 24-70 2.8. The one that’s missing is the Elinchrom Ranger and Deep throat Octa.. That’s the everlust one. iPod Touch for portfolios, music, and just in case stuff.

Your cellphone/smartphone (make/model):

Verizon Droid (Android 2.1) – Absolutely love it.. Its taken the place of my ipod quickly and I do so much with it. I have a Iphone at the office, usually just sits in a drawer somewhere. (FWIW: NOT A COMMENT ON the apple/droid debate.. Just a preference. I prefer the Droid)
 

Won't leave the house Without:

My Droid! That thing has all of my stuff on it. I feel naked without it.
 

Blogs you read regularly:

Engadget , Scottkelby.com, TheFlashBlog.com, blogs.adobe.com/jnack, terrywhite.com/techblog, Web Designer Wall, Moosepeterson.com, Joemcnally.com/blog, Strobist.blogspot.com, blogsofphotogs.com, Justcreativedesign.com, logooftheday.com(I keep a HUGE list of blogs on Bloglines.com. Being a guy that has to talk about “The Industry” I have to keep current with a lot of things)
 

Mac or PC: Both:

Mac Side: 17’’’ MacOSX 3.06GHZ Core2 Duo with 8GB of Ram 500GB Hard drive. 4 Lacie 500GB Triple Interace Drives.
PC Side: Dell M6500 Covet Core i7-920XMExtreme 16Gb RAM, 1Tb Raid0 Hard Drive with Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M CUDA
 

Laptop or Desktop:

Both. I have another Dell in the office. But the 6500 Covet may as well be a desktop. It’s considered a Desktop Replacement, really.
 

Favorite App/Software:

That’s hard to say. I find myself running through the Creative Suite all the time. I’m the Photoshop Guy that has to know about all of the other apps – so I do a lot of playing. Photoshop/Lightroom would have to be my favorites, followed closely by Premiere. I had always wanted to work on a mini movie. Oh yeah, and I am Tpain.
 

Technology that you're most looking forward to that hasn't been invented yet?

I’d have to say the flying car. As much as I am afraid of heights.. Flying is one of those things I’d love to do.
 

What do you wear to work?

Jeans, Sandals, Tshirt. We live in Tampa, FL- and I absolutely positively hate weather above 77 degrees. For as long as I can remember, I always wore a bandanna. There wasn’t a picture you could find with me not wearing one. I just don’t think work would be –THAT- understanding.
 

Favorite Quote:

“Try Everything. Should you ever fall flat on your face, you are still moving forward.”
 

Favorite Restaurant:

City Fish in Tampa Florida, or Mamas Italian Restaurant in Copaigue, NY (Moved from NY to be down here.. I still miss it very much)
 

What time do you go to bed?

Usually between 12:30am and 1:00am
 

What time to you wake up?

6:50am – 7:10am on the dot.
 

What's the first thing you do when you wake up?

I say hello to my daughter Sabine Annabel. She’s 18 months old. Every morning like clockwork she gets up between 6:50 and 7:00am and crawls over my wife Jenn. She puts her hands on my face and says “Dada!!” Then proceeds to give me a big smack on the lips saying “Muah!” . She leans in and cuddles for about 120 seconds Before she tugs at my hand and moves me into the living room to start Sesame Street. She then points to the coffeemaker and says “Taw-teee” reminding me that I’ve only been asleep for a few hours and need to start my Coffee drip. I’m a big coffee drinker.
 

Describe your perfect day:

My perfect day would be an endless loop of what happens every morning right now. The two things I’ve always wanted to do in my life was be a teacher, and be a father. That morning routine is a constant reminder of both.. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’d probably add to go out and take pictures and come home and noodle on the keyboard.
 

Anything else?

Behind every frantic man is a wonderful woman. My wife Jenn is the epitomy of that. She’s a very talented Ballerina, WAY techy (She and I used to bond going over Sinosudial crossfades in CoolEdit Pro/Audition) like me, a wonderful mommy, and an incredible rock of support for what I want to do. She knows how much I love teaching and sharing what I can and there isnt a morning she doesn’t look at me, hand me my cup of coffee and say with her eyes “Go Get em.. “ That encouragement is what got me here, and what keeps me here.