Gdovin.net

Don’t get me wrong, I love having the power of a computer in my pocket, but the idea of these devices replacing computers leave me a bit uneasy still. I can get a lot done just on my iPod touch (I am in fact writing this article in Notes on my iPod Touch), but I still want to be able to go home and use my computer that has the full power I need for tasks like video editing. Although you can do most of the things average computer users need to do on mobile devices, the devices are just not powerful enough to provide the speed that a personal computer does. I think that mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone might be able to replace less powerful, portable devices like netbooks but,  I still think people will need a desktop or laptop computer as well for more power-intensive tasks plus as of right now, you still need to have a computer to sync your iPhone or iPad.

Many people think that the Post PC era will behind within the next 5-10 years but, I think that we still want and need personal computers and I think it will stay that way for some time and think that is good. Although I love my iPod Touch I still need my computer for certain things and to get things done faster.

The iPhone has become a major success great because of the App Store that offers thousands of applications. These applications let you use the IPhone as a pocket computer and to get work done. In fact, I use my iPod Touch more as a pocket computer than as a media player or entertainment device. There are a lot of Apps that are great for getting work done but because of the size of the App Store it is hard at times to find the good ones so here a list of the Apps that I personally use to get work done on my iPod Touch.

iPhone Apps for Getting Things Done
The iPhone has become a major success great because of the App Store that offers thousands of applications. These applications let you use the IPhone as a pocket computer and to get work done. In fact, I use my iPod Touch more as a pocket computer than as a media player or entertainment device. There are a lot of Apps that are great for getting work done but because of the size of the App Store it is hard at times to find the good ones so here a list of the Apps that I personally use to get work done on my iPod Touch.Mail: (Preloaded on all iOS Devices) E-MailCalendar: (Preloaded on all iOS Devices) CalendarContacts: (Preloaded on all iOS Devices) ContactaToDo: $4.99- Task ManagementMoney Agent Pro: $2.99- Money Management- Also has free limited versionNotes: (Preloaded on all iOS Devices)- Note application (What I am using to write this article)Quick Office: $9.99- Office suite that allows you to edit on Google Docs, Dropbox, Box.net, MobileMe as well as locally on the device. List Master: $2.99- List ApplicationCalculator (Preloaded on all iOS devices)-Calculator Pageonce Finance: FREE- Tracks expenses onlineSimpleMindX: (Free)- MindmappingAIM: Free- Instant MessagingSkype: Free- VOIP/Instant MessagingEmailPush: $2.99- Gmail Push notificationsTextie: Free- Text MessagingReeder: $2.99- RSS Feed Reader (syncs with Google Reader)WordPress: Free- BloggingWikiTap: Free-Wikipedia Dictionary: Free- Dictionary Freesaurus: Free- Thesaurus

If you want to start producing your own videos but don’t want to dedicate a whole room to be a studio and want to move around to shoot on location, here is a list of items that will let you produce high quality video with maximum flexibility and minimal expense.
Equipment:Camera (Multiple cameras if possible)Recording Media for cameraiPad (Optional)Myfi (Recommended if shoot location doesn’t have internet access) Lighting kitTripodMonopodFolding DollyWireless microphonesMacBook ProSecond LCD MonitorHeadphones2 Lavalier MicrophonesShotgun microphoneHandheld MicrophoneBoom MicrophoneBoom PoleBackdrop StandMuslin Backdrops (Chroma key Green and Various colors)
Software:Final Cut Studio (Can be substituted with Final Cut Express)Adobe Creative Suite 4-Production Premium (Photoshop and After Effects)Boinx TV-Optional

Until recently, Digital SLR cameras were used by mostly by serious photographers but now, the newest generation of DSLRs have the capability to shoot high definition video! This has been a growing trend and has allowed videographers to buy a DSLR camera instead of a professional or pro-sumer camera, which typically cost much more than a DSLR. Many DSLRs also have a microphone input as well giving you what you need to produce high-quality video. There have also been many accessories DSLRs allowing them to be used more like a video camera including viewfinders, audio adapters, shotgun microphones and much more.

This has become so popular that several television shows have shot full episodes on DSLRS including the last season finale of House which was shot on a Canon 5D Mark II. This allows people to produce high quality video, with lower cost of entry. It produces broadcast quality video at a lower entry prices and allows more people to afford producing high quality video. Although the feel of these cameras feel less natural than the standard camcorder, but with the quality you get for the price, there no denying that DSLR cameras can provide quality video at a great price and can rival camcorders. Personally, if I were looking for a new video camera, I would definitely consider a DSLR.

Since I predict Apple products usually before Apple Events, I decided to make a big list of predictions to cover what I think Apple will be releasing in the future.

iPad 2.0
I think that the next iPad will come out in September with the next generation of iPods. The major new features I think the new iPad will have will be the high resolution Retina display they have on the new iPhone, it will also a Front facing and possibly rear camera that take high quality pictures and high definition video. They will also offer iMovie for the iPad which I think will be easier to use than the iPhone screen. I also think they will decrease the price by around $100.

IOS4 For iPad
Apple has already announced that they will be releasing IOS4 for the iPad in the Fall. I think it will include multitasking but, it would use a style of application switching more similar to OSX than the iPhone.

Apple TV 2.0
The Apple TV never has never really been popular. I think the next Apple TV will allow you to stream content as well as enjoy content you have on your iTunes. This would be more competitive with other set-top-boxes like the Roku box.

iPod Touch 4th Generation

The next version of the iPod Touch will most likely be coming out in September when Apple traditionally release new iPods. The new iPod Touch will include a new 5 MP camera and will be able to shoot HD video. I think it will also have the powerful A4 processor and retina display from the new iPhone 4. It will definitely have a front-facing camera for Facetime and maybe a rear camera as well for higher quality images like the iPhone 4.

**I don’t really have other predictions for other iPods because I don’t know what else they will adding besides more memory.****

Tablet Device

There has been a leak that there  is development of a multi touch graphics tablet for graphic design and using touch controls on your computer. I don’t know when or what Apple will be announcing, but touch seems to be their focus recently.

Mac OS 10.7

This will probably not be announced until the end of this year or the beginning of next year, but obviously a new version of Mac OSX will be coming out and the next version will be 10.7, my guess will be Lion, i couldn’t think of any other “big cat” name. Once again no ideas on features yet, but we will see!

MobileMe

Mobile Me, in my opinion should become a free service for most things, like mail, contacts, calendar so they can compete with Google and other cloud services. I think they could offer premium services in addition like web hosting and extra services and charge for that, but everything else should be free.  The way it is now, I don’t see many people using Mobileme.

Macbook Air

The Macbook Air hasn’t been much of a success either and I think it won’t really be significantly updated. It may get a slight bump in specs every now and then, but besides that, I think the vast majority of  people will choose a Macbook, especially for a lighter computer, or a Macbook Pro for a more powerful computer. The iPad could also be a device that can be a replacement for the Air as long as you don’t mind the touch screen.

iWork.com

Apple introduced a cloud service for their Office suite, iWork, in 2009 and haven’t mentioned it in any keynotes nor have they taken it out of beta. I think this project needs to be developed into more of a web editing suite instead of just a reader and sharing system, which is what it is now.

iTunes Cloud

I think the iTunes music store will become available on the internet and will also add over the air, synchronization. I think that this one will be announced at the same time as the new iPods in September!

This is all I can think of right now, i’m sure I will predict other things in a future  article but, this is what I can come up with right now.

After looking over some older blog articles, I have decided that I will focus Gdovin.net’s content primarily on certain areas instead of the wide array of subjects I have covered in the past. This should provide higher-quality content and hopefully, more interesting articles to read. You may have noticed that the categories have been re-structured, I simplified them and then also organized them better than before. I also have changed the site theme again because I wasn’t happy with the previous theme. The content categories that I will focus the future articles on are already topics I have been writing about a lot so none of them should be a surprise, the topic focuses are:

1. Apple
2. Cloud Computing
3. Video Production
4. Product Reviews

These will not be the only things I will be writing about, but most of my future articles will fall into these categories because they are what I am most interested in and have great article ideas for. I also will most likely do only one bigger guide. This way it will all be in one place and  I only need to write one article.

I think making these changes will improve Gdovin.net much better! I look forward to writing great new posts and developing great new content!

Mike Gdovin

Yesterday was the big keynote, which I thought was a bit of a let-down . They started out by going over stats and then had 2 developers come on stage and demonstrate their apps Netflix and Farmville. I am excited about being able to watch Netflix on demand videos on my iPod but, not so much  about Farmville. A lot of the keynote was just reviewing what was announced at the iPhone OS 4, now called iOS 4, announcement since I already covered that, at the time of the keynote, so I won’t cover them again. Here are the real announcements of the event

1. PDFs in iBooks

This is really something they should have had from day one, but  now the iPad and iPhone will have a built-in PDF reader.

2. iPhone 4

The biggest announcement was the iPhone 4, which was the leaked iPhone from  few weeks ago. The design is thinner and was called “The Thinest iPhone Ever”. It has a front facing camera in addition to the camera on the back of the phone. It also has a secondary mic for noie cancelation and they built the antenna into the side of the case for better call reception. The screen on the new iPhone is slightly smaller but the resolution is much higher and they screen is supposed be much more clearer  compared to the previous iPhones. iPhone 4 also now uses the new A4 processor developed for the iPad making the iPhone 4  extremely fast! They also greatly increased the battery life of the phone with talk time up to 40% more talk time.  They also built in a gyroscope for 6-axis motion gaming, something I don’t know much about, but it is great for better gaming and maybe motion-based Farmville. The Camera on the back of the phone is 5 megapixels, and has a LED flash. It can also record 720p HD video which is really cool. Apple also made a version of iMovie for the iPhone for $4.99 for more advanced video editing. It is similar to iMovie on the Mac but, is very powerful for the mobile platform.

3. iOS4

They renamed the iPhone operating system to iOS  4 to have a unified name for the operating system that is on all 3 platforms. They demonstrated the feature which I covered already.

4. Facetime (Video Chat)

The final announcement was the introduction of video chat on the iPhone called Facetime that, only on WiFi . It is interesting because it lets you call with both the front and back camera and switch between them during the call. It is an open platform so other developers can use the platform but, for now is iPhone to iPhone only.

Release Dates

iOS4: June 21st- Free for All Customers!

iPhone 4- June 24th 16 GB: $199 32 GB: $299 and iPhone 3Gs for $99

I was disappointed that the iPhone remained only on AT&T and that it was all iPhone news, although I expected that. I think there may be another event later this month focused more on the Mac, Apple TV and MobileME and maybe the rumored wireless touchpad devices that has been leaked.

Tomorrow, Steve Jobs will deliver the annual opening keynote at the Worldwide Developer Conference. This keynote has had a lot of speculation around it, so I will, as I have for several years, make my predictions on what I think will happen at the keynote. Comeback tomorrow, where I will have a full summary of what happened and give my thoughts on it. We will also record an episode of The Weekly Spin right after the keynote and cover the news of the week as well as the keynote.

1. 4th Generation iPhone

This is almost definite since the prototype iPhone was found in a Silicon Valley Bar and was quickly remotely wiped and demanded to be returned to Apple. The one question is whether or not the new iPhone will solely be available on AT&T or if they will add other options. The rumor is the iPhone might become available on Verizon especially now that AT&T has eliminated their unlimited data plans for new customers.

2. iPhone OS 4.0

Another thing that i’m quite sure of happening is that the iPhone 4.0 software will become available to the public. It was announced earlier this year and the new OS is usually release around the same time as the new iPhone Hardware.

3. Mac OS 10.7

This one  I don’t really think is as likely, as the decoration at the Moscone Centre suggests more focus on the iPhone platform than the Mac, but there is a chance they might preview the next “big cat” Mac Operating System

4. Safari 5

Another less likely rumor is that Apple will unveil the 5th version of their Safari web browser and add  extensions. Although I don’t think they will be doing much if anything with the Mac, if they do, this would make sense because their developers would be the ones to make extensions for Safari.

5. Mac Mini, Macbook Air and Macbook Air Refreshes

This is one of the longest shots for the event but all three of these products’ inventory is low and the Mac Rumors Buying Guide says they are at the end of a product cycle.  The Mac Pro is the most likely at this event since they are used by software developers, but the Macbook Air on the other hand, is very much in need of a refresh. There is also rumors of another event later this month, that I think may be focused on the Mac.

This morning, I was listening to Macbreak Weekly and they were discussing how Apple has shifted their focus from computers, to mobile devices. I believe that although, mobile devices have become much more advanced, we still need computers and desktop devices. I knew that Steve Jobs had begun to respond to his email more frequently and decided why not give it a shot and email him. To my surprise, less than 15 minutes later, I got a push notification that said I have a email from Steve Jobs. I have the original message and the response below. Obviously, Apple isn’t going to do away with computers any time soon, as his response suggests and they agree there is still great value to having a computer and mobile devices.

My Message:

Steve’s Reply: