For the past two years, people have suggested that taking video with a tablet simply looks stupid. That makes sense to a point. But to some, having a conversation with your phone about today’s weather looks stupid too. And holding up an iPad for a FaceTime chat isn’t the sexiest-looking activity either. Yet we’re still doing both. Why? Because these are both effective solutions. At some point, what used to “look stupid” can become the norm if it works well.

Strange looks aside, I think the new iPad will become a far more useful tool for video and pictures than people yet realize. Sure, our smartphones are superb for capturing images and sharing them as well; that’s why the No. 1 camera used on Flickr is a phone. Handhelds are generally always with us, making it easy to capture the moment. But editing can be a chore on the small screen and its limited number of pixels.

That changes with a 9.7-inch screen with 2048 x 1536 resolution. Think about it: You have a portable editing palette with 50 percent more resolution than even the best HDTVs currently available. Add in the updated iMovie software — and the new iPhoto app for still shots — and the editing process is favored on a tablet over a smartphone. Both software titles also work on Apple’s iPhone, where I’m sure they’ll be used as well, but if given a choice, I’d rather edit on the larger, higher-resolution display. I’d also prefer to show that content off on an iPad over a smartphone.

The other factor here is the camera sensor itself. Few tablet makers have invested the effort and cost to integrate a rear camera that’s worth relying on. The new iPad re-uses the sensor from its iPhone 4, which is very capable in all lighting situations.

If you have an iPhone 4, you know how much of an improvement that sensor was over the iPad 3GS camera. Besides the boost to 5 megapixels and support for HD recording, the camera has five optical element layers and a back-illuminated sensor. Even though the iPhone 4S improves on this, the top camera used for Flickr is still the iPhone 4.

Whether it looks stupid or not, the new iPad has all of the tools to morph the tablet into a stellar video content creation tool. If Apple didn’t think so, I can’t see why it would have boosted the camera sensor and created richer editing tools for this very purpose.

Image courtesy of Flickr user atmtx.

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iBooks Author

Creating layouts in iBooks Author is easier than any comparable tool I’ve come across, including Adobe’s InDesign and Quark Xpress, and the ability to instantly see on your iPad through iTunes how the final product will look and feel really helps with the design process. Switching between portrait and landscape orientation is as easy as tapping a button.

You can add any kind of media using a pop-up media drawer, or by dragging and dropping elements from your desktop. Apple provides ready-made widgets for interactive galleries, images, in-line video, chapter review, Keynote slide shows, 3-D .dae files and HTML code. Each of these offers additional custom settings, like captions and headings, to make sure you can present your multimedia elements exactly as you want. The interactive image feature is particularly cool, because it requires almost no media creation skills; you can simply upload your photos, then set view points that zoom in and pan on the image as required when clicked, and also provide a helpful description of what a reader is looking at.

If you just want to publish your work for private distribution, it’s easy enough once you have the elements in place; just hit the “Publish” button and save it to the folder of your choice. Then you can distribute the file to whoever you want, and they can manually upload it to their iPad via iBooks through iTunes.

For those looking to publish their title in the iBookstore, there are only a few more hoops to jump through. Create an iBookstore seller account at Apple.com, download the iTunes Producer application, create an active contract if you don’t have one at iTunes Connect, and then make a sample version of your book. Books on the iBookstore max out at 2 GB and are of course still subject to Apple’s approval process. Apple has more about the distribution process in its official iBooks Author FAQ.

I have a confession: I used to publish poetry anthologies in college when I was doing my graduate studies. I admit that here only to point out that this would’ve been a great way to create something like that quickly and cheaply. It’d be even better if Apple would update iBooks Author to also work with iOS’s Newsstand, but this is still a lovely start. Especially since while titles can be distributed through the iBookstore, they don’t have to be, with the big caveat that Apple’s licensing agreement specifies you can’t charge money for iBook Author books distributed outside its own marketplace.

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Bloomberg reports that Apple will announce tools that make publishing interactive textbooks on the iPad much easier, and also allow for the creation of other “digital education content,” according to two sources familiar with the announcement’s details. The new tools, which will be introduced by Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, are intended to help broaden the appeal of the iPad for educational institutions, with a special focus on grades K-12, Bloomberg claims. The idea of making it easier to create educational content aimed at kids is basically what Erica described in her article on Monday.

That the announcement will have a strong educational component is backed up by a report from the Wall Street Journal  earlier this week, which said Apple had been working with textbook publisher McGraw-Hill on material to be revealed at the event since June.

Bloomberg’s sources also claim Apple will introduce new software that will allow a wide range of authors to publish digital e-book content, along the lines of what Amazon offers with its self-publishing tools. That’s in line with what a report from Ars Technica published Tuesday claims: Its sources suggested Apple would be unveiling “GarageBand for e-books.” Such a self-publishing suite is also something I suggested might be in the offing before the actual announcement was confirmed.

Apple’s event takes place Thursday beginning at 10 a.m. EST (7 a.m. PST), and we’ll have a liveblog following all the action as it unfolds.

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A big reason for that is editing — or, really, a lack thereof. Video can be a great way to convey things, but even the most exciting event can be boring if the video has not been edited properly. Even though devices that shoot high-definition video are cheaper and more ubiquitous than ever, amateur videos themselves have not gotten any better to watch.

That’s where a new iPhone app called Magisto comes in. Magisto, which debuted its web app in September 2011 and just launched its first iPhone app this week, turns any plain video into a fully edited movie in a matter of minutes. Essentially, it does for movies what Instagram does for photos: It makes even the most mundane media appear more compelling.

Screenshot of Magisto for iPhone

The greatest thing about Magisto is how dead simple it is to use. You log in with either your Facebook credentials or email address, upload one or several short videos from your iPhone (Magisto prefers to start with videos that are at least 45 seconds long,) select some music (you can upload your own song or choose from Magisto’s library, which is sorted into categories such as “Hip Hop,” “Birthday,” “Travel” and “Christmas”) and then that’s it — you wait for the app to do its magic.

The final product is edited to contain your videos’ most “interesting” bits, with music and a few visual effects thrown in to keep viewers entertained. I’ve submitted several videos that are a minute or so long, and Magisto typically took about 10 minutes to turn each one around. You can also use Magisto on your regular computer through its website.

Now, Magisto is not for everyone or everything. Since users have very little control over the final product — how long the edited video will be, and what parts it will definitely contain, are completely up to the app — Magisto is only realistic for casual videos of things like vacations and birthday parties. And people who already know their way around iMovie or Final Cut Pro may find Magisto to be frustratingly short on features. But for most consumers who just want to make fun, short videos their friends might want to actually watch, it’s perfect. And the fact that it’s available now on the iPhone is pretty major, since people are increasingly doing everything from their mobile devices.

Magisto is run by an Israel-based startup called SightEra, which raised $5.5 million in Series B funding round this past fall led by Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures.

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Final Cut Pro X arrived in the App Store today

This is only the most recent example of Apple bringing significant price cuts to once expensive software. Mac OS X 10.0 cost $129.99, for example, while even a family pack of Snow Leopard was priced at only $49, and a single user license was just $29. Lion, which is said to be coming in July, will cost $29 for a copy that can be used on multiple Macs associated with your Apple ID. Windows still starts at $79.95 for entry-level upgrade pricing, and can cost as much as $219.99, depending on the edition.

But pricing isn’t the only difference. Windows also divides its software product offerings, making clear distinctions between tools it thinks consumers need vs those that professional users would want. Apple has always done a good job of steering clear of such defined lines, and although it does offer an OS X Server variant of its software, that product is much more clearly designed for a very specific use than Microsoft’s “professional” grade operating systems.

Apple also seems to be gaining ground in the enterprise thanks in part to its refusal to target professionals specifically. BlackBerry tried that strategy, and while it worked well for many years, mobile companies now appear to be following Apple’s lead, realizing that the new path to the enterprise is by convincing individual users of the value of your product, and not necessarily by selling to corporate IT. Apple doesn’t ignore business, but it definitely doesn’t unduly prioritize that market, as evidenced by the decision to stop selling Xserve late last year.

$300 is still a lot of money for a consumer to spend on a single application, don’t get me wrong. But Final Cut Studio once cost $1300. To say that it isn’t more likely that hobbyists or pro-sumers will drop the cash to take their craft to the next level than it was four years ago just isn’t realistic.

Some might claim that the disappearance of Final Cut Express, Apple’s mid-range offering between Final Cut Pro and iMovie actually indicates the distinction between pro and consumer applications is getting more defined. But Final Cut Express was priced at $199, just $100 shy of the new Final Cut Pro X, and it didn’t incorporate the same audio and color correction tools of the newer application, plus it carried a lot of limitations that made it pale in comparison to the full Final Cut Pro product.

And that’s the key: Apple isn’t narrowing the gap between pro and consumer by leaving out features and dumbing things down; it’s making things easier, certainly, but it’s also just making them more affordable. It’s the smart move for a workforce that is becoming more and more contract-based, where freelancers often have to source their own tools in order to impress potential employers and win contracts.

Apple is already a company that knows how to make a tool that everyone can use. Now that it’s increasingly becoming one that also knows how to make tools that everybody can afford, there are even fewer barriers to the potential heights it can reach.

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I have to admit, I’m still not convinced that the iPad will be my laptop replacement. However, with the help of the Apple wireless keyboard and some other peripherals and apps, it can come close. Here are some tips to make your iPad work-worthy.

1. Make audio calls via VoiP. Audio calls via Skype on the iPad work like a dream. Just plug in the earbuds that you usually use for your iPhone, fire up the Skype app and make your audio calls. There are other VoiP apps that will work on the iPad without charging fees, such as Viber, but they require that the other person also has the same software on her device. You can even use Google Voice on the iPad,  albeit with a little extra elbow grease.

2. Editing images and video. You can get digital photos and videos directly from your cameras using the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit, which comes with a USB adapter and SD Card Reader. I was a little skeptical about using the iPad touchscreen for editing images, but after downloading and trying the free PhotoPad by ZAGG, I’ve found it makes it fairly easy to manipulate images, including color and contrast adjustments, rotating and sizing, adding color fills, and even treating images with filters. You can also get Adobe Photoshop Express for free if you’re already familiar with Photoshop.

For video, an app like Splice can help you do some basic video editing (including combining photos and video) for free, or there’s Splice Pro for $1.99. For more editing oomph, you can go for iMovie for $4.99, although it requires a front-facing camera on your device (so iPad 2, iPhone 4 or 4th-generation iPod touch only).

3. Recording voice memos and podcasts. There are a variety of voice memo–recording solutions you can use on your iPad using its built-in microphone, including Voice Memos for iPad by KendiTech, which is similar to the Voice Memos app on the iPhone. For 99 cents, you get the basic version; for an additional 99 cents via an in-app purchase, you get the ability to trim your memos, email memos and download to your computer via USB. The export button makes your memos available via iTunes File Sharing. QuickVoice is another iPad option to record and email audio clips up to 5 MB in size for free. The $2.99 to upgrade to QuickVoice Pro can handle up to 20 MB clips. You can record and export audio clips via iTunes for free using iRecorder voice memos.

If you want more editing features, try GarageBand ($4.99). Although it features instruments, you can use it for podcasting as well.

Here’s a little voice recording hack I learned from a fellow podcaster: You can use the Camera Connection Kit and USB adapter to plug in a lightweight USB microphone to your iPad to increase the quality of your voice recordings. Using a USB mic also helps to cut down on background noise that the built-in iPad mic might pick up.

When I tried to use my high-end Rode Podcaster microphone, my iPad told me it required too much power, so it did not work. But when I plugged in the Konami microphone from my Wii Glee Karaoke game, it worked pretty well. A quick search online reveals that some podcasters use the Blue Microphone Yeti with their iPads.

3. Powering slide presentations. If you’re looking to connect your iPad (or iPhone or iPod) to a standard LCD projector or other VGA-compatible display, you can purchase the Apple VGA adaptor for $29. You can also opt to invest in a handy, super-portable projector, such as the MicroVision ShowWX Laser Pico Projector, starting around $199, or the Mili Pro 2.0 Projector, for around $369.95. To make sure that your PowerPoint presentations are easily accessible on your iPad, check out MightyMeeting, an app that I wrote about recently. Thanks to a recent update, you can also now control your Keynote slideshow presentations on the iPad using an iPhone or iPod touch.

4. Editing Microsoft Office docs. For an app that provides combined file storage with Microsoft Office document editing, check out Soonr, which I wrote about recently. Alternatively, you can also use other file storage/sync solutions, such as Dropbox and SugarSync, and combine them with editing apps like QuickOffice and Documents To Go to provide similar functionality.

What apps, peripherals and hacks have you tried to make your iPad work-worthy?

Image courtesy of stock.xchng user KillR-B

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Fortunately for Lema, he’s been working on a solution for this exact problem for the last few months. Clipik, a San Francisco-based startup co-founded by Lema, uses crowdsourcing to produce professionally edited videos.

Here’s how it works: Clipik users upload between 10 and 30 minutes of raw video footage, some music and up to 150 photos to the company’s server and describe their editing needs. One of Clipik’s freelance editors then grabs the job, edits the video and sends it back to the user, who can request one do-over free of charge. The final result is a two- to ten-minute long professionally edited clip. Each job costs between $50 and $200, depending on the amount of footage used and the length of the resulting video.

Clipik’s business model is based on the observation that all of us are recording more and more photos and videos every day. Much of that footage ends up untouched and unwatched. Granted, editing applications like iMovie are getting easier, but turning raw footage into something that actually looks good still takes time and skills. Most people simply give up and never edit their videos, believes Lema. “They get stuck with the enormity of it,” he told me during a meeting last week.

Competitors like Animoto try to solve this problem by offering automated editing tools that can generate slide shows and even simple videos on the fly. “These videos are all very similar,” said Lema, arguing that an algorithm simply can’t find those magic five seconds with that perfect smile in a five-minute video of your baby. He admitted there is some use for automated tools, but doubted that anyone would want to rely on them for weddings or similar occasions. “It works if the video isn’t important,” he said.

Lema and his partners have been working on Clipik since the fall of 2010. They secured an angel investment earlier this year and launched the site in earnest two weeks ago. Clipik has started to recruit a small network of freelance video editors in the U.S. as well as South America, paying them around 50 percent of the fees charged for each job. Consumers can rate each editor, and Clipik also wants to utilize advanced filtering based on past projects to find the best editor for each job.

Will Clipik’s current business model work? That’s hard to say, and Lerma is the first to admit that the start-up may have to do some experimenting with the pricing and service levels of its offering. However, Clipik is spot-on in its analysis of the changing personal video landscape. As recording video becomes a daily habit for more and more people, making sense and editing all of this footage may just be the next big challenge.

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If you’re lucky enough to get your hands on an iPad 2 tomorrow, the new iMovie features a reworked interface that much more closely resembles the OS X version of the program. You get a media viewer, timeline and preview screen all in the same landscape layout. iPad 2 users also get precision editing tools, which allow you to zoom in on your video timeline to fine-tune transitions, and get a better look at your video’s soundtrack.

Users with Apple’s small-screened devices also get a few new tricks, including the ability to rotate your video in the editing preview screen, and other multi-touch gestures that expand your options for common editing tasks like zooming, splitting or trimming clips. There are also new themes, each of which contain new audio and video effects.

Apple also included better handling of photos in iMovie. You get automatic face detection for photo slideshow transition effects, and you can create text overlays for images, too. Soundtrack options are also better, letting you use three separate audio tracks which can use songs from your on-device iTunes library, or recorded directly from your device’s microphone. There are also a bunch of new sound effects and songs included in iMovie itself in the update. New sharing options should please social movie makers. You can now publish to Facebook, Vimeo, or CNN iReport  right from within the app, and use AirPlay to push your video out to an Apple TV-connected display.

It’d be nice if Apple made this available for the original iPad, too, since I don’t see why you have to be able to shoot video on a device in order to be able to edit with it, but Apple clearly has its reasons (including providing a small upgrade incentive, possibly). Still, this is one of the apps I’m most looking forward to trying out on the iPad 2 when I eventually get one, though I’ll probably depend more on video shot on my iPhone 4 than on that filmed using the iPad’s rear camera. How about you?

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Apple’s new Smart Cover for the iPad 2 also features pretty prominently in the new video spots, and you can see just how versatile this one aims to be when compared to its predecessor (my own official iPad cover was only used once before being banished to the closet). They may be only a serious of tantalizingly well-shot marketing videos, but speaking as someone who can’t wait for the new tablet’s arrival, they’re plenty entertaining to watch. Check out the entire series of 14 videos at Apple’s site.

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Photo Booth (Free, built-in)

This is obviously an iPad 2 exclusive, since the only reason it exists is to take advantage of the iPad’s new front-facing VGA camera. Like the Mac app of the same name, the iPad version of Photo Booth lets you take photos of yourself (and whoever else happens to be in frame) and then lets you manipulate the pics using a variety of special effects, such as color and distortion filters. According to Apple’s official site, the app only seems to works with the front-facing camera (although the sample screens it provides show camera switch icons), which seems an oddly unnecessary limitation, and flashes the entire screen white before it takes a photo to act as a flash. Once you’re happy with your bizarre self-portraits, you can share them via Mail or access them via your on-device photo library.

iMovie ($4.99)

The new iMovie app is universal, meaning it will replace the existing version on the iPhone 4. It brings more advanced editing tools and introduces a screen layout very similar to the one found in the OS X version, with your film’s timeline on the bottom, and a clip library on top. You can pinch any transition to reveal a more detailed Precision Editor in the timeline, allowing a clear view of where clips overlap and making it easier to make fine adjustments with your fingers.

New themes make it easy to add flair to your projects without any heavy lifting, and Apple includes a CNN iReport  theme that provides a branded way to add a degree of authenticity to your homemade breaking news reports. Themes include titles, transitions and soundtrack elements, so they really act as one-stop shopping.

The new iMovie adds some more versatile audio-editing tools, including the ability to add sound effects from a built-in library, visual soundtrack timeline management, and narration or voice-over recording right in the app.

Once you’ve got everything just right, there are a bunch of new sharing tools, too. Post your video direction to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo or CNN iReport (Apple certainly is buddying up with CNN with this one). You can also share via email, MobileMe or MMS (on iPhone only) once you’ve exported the movie to your on-device camera roll. Movie playback directly to Apple TV via AirPlay is also supported, or by mirroring with the new digital AV HDMI adapter from iPad 2 to a cable-connected TV.

GarageBand ($4.99)

I love music, but am hopeless when it comes to playing an instrument or learning how to make any myself. Even auto-tuned, I sound terrible. But GarageBand for the iPad looks like it might let even someone like me come up with something worthwhile.

The app boasts Touch Instruments, which are virtual recreations of real life drum kits, pianos, organs and guitars that you can manipulate in various ways with multi-touch gestures. Depending on how hard, and where, you hit the virtual keys, cymbals or chords you can produce different sounds, since the app uses the iPad’s accelerometer and other technologies to distinguish between different types of interaction.

If that sounds like it still requires too much skill, then Smart Instruments are for you. These are like the auto-tune of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums. You can easily strum perfect chords on a guitar, set up and trigger complicated finger picking, or try visually arranging drum beats in a way that makes playing more like solving a puzzle than coming up with something original.

The iPad GarageBand also a includes a full-featured, eight-track recording studio that lets you zoom in and fine-tune each track. Jobs was quick to point out that this wasn’t a toy, but could was in fact perfectly suited for professional use, too. Apple loves its creative pros, and it doesn’t look like that’s changing as it moves its focus to mobile.

Which of these are you most looking forward to? I couldn’t care less about Photo Booth, but the other two both sound equally appealing.

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