If you own an iPad, it’s likely that you know just how difficult it is to type long articles or other pieces using iOS’s software keyboard. While the layout of the keyboard is great, for prolonged periods of typing, a Bluetooth keyboard, or often just a Mac, is much easier to use. For those who can touch-type especially, the software keyboard presents a problem. Not any more, however.

The iKeyboard started life as a Kickstarter project which earned more than 6 times it’s target by raking in more than $26,000 after just a few weeks. Now, though, just over six months later, the project is finished and ready to ship to consumers around the world. And we really want to try one.

The keyboard uses strips of gentle adhesive to attach to the front of the iPad, and when you’re not using it you can either remove it completely or stick it to the top of your device. If you want to store your iPad, the iKeyboard is thin enough that a Smart cover will fit neatly over it (although we’re still not sure whether the screen lock would work – we will test it). It should also play nice with a number of cases, and those it can’t cooperate with will just mean you need to remove it before storage of your iPad.

There are instructions over on the company’s website on how to use the keyboard which neatly demonstrate the simplicity of the idea. There are no actual keys here, and nothing that needs powering, so really all you have to do is stick it to the front of your iPad in line with the Virtual keyboard and you’re ready to work. The raised bumps will provide feedback to enable quick typing, and while we don’t see this being so revolutionary that we throw out our Wireless Keyboards, it is so much more portable that it’s well worth the $35 it’s currently selling for on Amazon. It’s available there in black and white, but at the moment it seems both are out of stock, so we’ll be checking back regularly in the hope that the next shipment has arrived.

Over the last few weeks there seems to have been a huge increase in the number of rumours about Apple making a TV set of its own. Several sources claim the company plans to create a TV for release in the next year or two, and when this many people seem to have the same information about a product, it seriously increases the likelihood that it’s correct.

This got us thinking. Of course, with the Mac, iPhone, Apple TV and most recently the iPad, Apple has been slowly edging their way further into our day-to-day lives. For some people, it’s now common to step into their home and use Apple devices for a full evening, watching movies, doing work, talking to friends, playing games and even reading.

What if Apple’s TV set (which we will henceforth be referring to as iTV to distinguish it from Apple TV) is just the next step in their plan for your life to be completely locked into their own products? Considering Apple TV runs iOS, the same operating system as iPhone and iPad, it’s fair to assume that the iTV would also use this system. And with many suggesting that Mac’s OS X and iOS will be merging into one system in the future, it’s possible that all your gadgets will be running the same system, communicating wirelessly, and working as one large device.

Of course, if this is the plan, there’s no reason that it couldn’t cover your whole house. Imagine stepping into your home and have Siri welcome you back. An iPhone and iPad app would turn the devices into controls for things like the lighting system or iTV, or you’d have the option to speak to Siri to get things done. Your iTV would not only receive HD content from iTunes, it’s specially-designed interface would enable you to quickly choose between watching live TV channels or playing the shows you’ve previously recorded to your Mac’s hard drive. Of course, if you wish, you can also use iTV to play games; with it’s dedicated graphics card, the iTV would let you play HD titles in full 1080p, controlling it with your iPad or iPhone, or even your mouse if you wanted. The iTV would be the epicentre of your entertainment experience, and everything you needed would be built into the mouth-watering hardware.

Of course, if you’re not in front of the iTV, you still have access to all your media, as well as other services. In the kitchen, for example, your surface would contain a large, tough touchscreen, that would allow you to look up recipes, write shopping lists and check what you have in your cupboards and fridge. In your bedroom the large picture frame on the wall would be a screen that cycles through the latest pictures that you added to your holiday album, and when you want it to, switches to the iTV function to let you catch up on your favourite shows in bed.

All of these features may still be science fiction, but this is surely the direction that technology is moving. Just over ten years ago, Apple really only made one kind of device – the Mac. It sat on a desk in your office and was used for work and, perhaps, getting creative, and the rest of the time it would be left alone. Now, millions of people carry around an Apple device in their pockets all day, get home and play games and read books on the iPad, and use Apple TV to watch the latest movies. Apple is slowly making its way more and more into our lives, and making it even easier to do the things we love. In the next few years, with the advances in technology that will surely be made, just think where we could be, and what we might be able to achieve with our Apple products. It may be a bit of a leap to say that you will be able to control your entire house with your voice, like Tony Stark, but if Siri makes its way into more than just the iPhone 4S in the next few years, just remember – we called it.

Below is just a glimpse at what your home might look like in the future. Click the image for a larger view:

CES is a pretty big deal. The electronics show sees more than 150,000 journalists, bloggers and other tech-industry people swarm to a huge Convention Centre in Las Vegas to see the coolest new gadgets, innovations and downright strange ideas.

This year was no different, and now that the week of madness is over, we’re taking a short look back over the highlights of the show, focusing on some of the coolest gadgets and accessories that will be available for your Mac and iOS device in the next few months and years.

Before we start, we also think it’s worth mentioning that while Apple didn’t have a stand of any kind at the show, and officially weren’t present, it was revealed during the week that they actually had around 250 employees circulating the show floor, scouting out everything on show. One keen-eyed journalist managed to spot Greg Joswiak, Head of iOS Product Marketing at Apple, and chat with him briefly about why he was there.

Apple are, of course, very interested in keeping an eye on developments in the tech industry, but Joswiak was specifically observing how companies were representing themselves, from things like booth layout to which products were highlighted. The reporter noted that he didn’t seem all that impressed by Sony’s stand, but didn’t get much more from the Apple man.

Anyway, onto the products that we’ll hopefully be reviewing in the next few months…

LaCie 2Big Thunderbolt RAID array
After jumping into the Thunderbolt market late last year with its high-end Little Big Disk (which features SSD storage alongside the super-fast transfer technology), LaCie are back with more Thunderbolt-powered brilliance. This time they coming in with a RAID array, most likely in an attempt to combat Promise‘s line of Thunderbolt enabled drives that are currently on sale on the Apple Online Store.
Because it’s a RAID system, speeds won’t be quite as high as the norm for Thunderbolt (which is around 700 MB/s), but LaCie have said we can expect around 311 MB/s, which is still three times faster than we are used to with FireWire 800. It will come in flavours up to 8TB, and allow for daisychaining, so you can add more storage if necessary. LaCie also announced a Thunderbolt Hub that includes support for eSATA drives, which will surely please users who have a range of drives that they’d love to connect up to their Mac. We saw a lot of Thunderbolt accessories on display at CES, but LaCie’s are some of the most exciting, closely followed by this…

Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock
Until now, pretty much the only way to use the full potential of your Thunderbolt port was to buy an Apple Thunderbolt display for nigh on £900/$1000. Thankfully, that is set to no longer be the case when Belkin release their Thunderbolt Dock in September of this year. The small dock houses one FireWire 800, one HDMI, one Gigabit Ethernet, one 3.5mm audio, one Thunderbolt and three USB ports. This is set to really change the way people work with Thunderbolt, and when the dock, which will reportedly cost around $299 (around £200), is released in a few months we will finally see people using the full power of their new Macs.

Mobee Magic Feet and Power Bar
We’ve been big fans of Mobee‘s products for a while now, after they released solutions for one of the most consistent annoyances with our Macs – the wireless Magic Mouse and Keyboard using hundreds of batteries. Their solution involved inductive charging technology that allows you to simply place your accessory onto a powered charging station and watch as they filled with extra juice. Not only did this save money in the long-run, it was also an incredibly slick procedure. Now the company have a new way to power up your Magic Trackpad (called the Power Bar), plus an all-in-one solution for your Wireless Keyboard and Magic Mouse – the Magic Feet. The latter does look a little on the large side, but the Power Bar looks both incredibly slick and exceedingly simple to use, without losing the wireless nature of the accessory. We’re really looking forward to trying these out when they’re released in late March; you may find a huge pile of dead batteries outside iCreate Towers if you happen to be passing on the day, too.

Oregon Scientific Time and Wireless Charging Station+
Another one to jump on the brilliant bandwagon that is inductive charging, Oregon Scientific announced the first charging mat that actually functions as something useful when your iPhone isn’t sitting on it. The iPhone case included with the charging-clock also doesn’t look bad at all, meaning it’s something you might, potentially, consider having on your phone at all times. The mat/clock itself is a little on the large side, so you might have to reorganise your bedside table a little to get it on, but it looks great in action and will be available with cases for the 4 (and 4S), the 3G (and 3GS), as well as a few Android and Blackberry handsets, if you fancy mixing things up. This isn’t their first charging mat and clock combo, so we have high hopes for the new design.

Padintosh iPad case
This stunningly simple iPad case from thumbsUp! is not only guaranteed to evoke true feelings of nostalgia in all Apple’s fans, it will also function perfectly with the iPad 2′s Smart Cover. The case will be available in Q2 and clips on to the back of the iPad to perfectly mimic the very first Macintosh computer that debuted in 1984. It looks great, and we can’t wait to see it on the back of our iPad 2s at iCreate Towers in the next few months – we’re suckers for nostalgia.

Blue Spark Digital
Blue have long been known for producing fantastic microphones for all kinds of recordings, and now they are back with the Spark Digital, a microphone that will not only play nice with your iOS device, but will sound great at the same time. The new microphone uses the same technology inside as the (much more analogue) Stark did when it launched last year. The difference here is a MicroUSB port on the bottom that allows you to connect up to an iPad or iPhone using the Camera Connection Kit, or a Mac via a USB cable. As with all Blue’s mics, the Spark Digital has an amazing build-quality, and a few features that make it really stand out, including a condenser capsule that physically contracts to catch a more specific area of sound. It should be available in the Spring for around £130 from what we’re hearing, and we’ll try to record a podcast with it when we get one to review so you guys can also compare the sound quality (we currently use Blue’s brilliant Yeti mics).

iCade Mobile
The iCADE Arcade Cabinet garnered a fair bit of attention last year when it launched for the iPad and added an old-skool arcade stick and buttons to go along with an app that let you play loads of retro games. Now, iCade is back, and this time it’s going portable. The iCade Mobile add-on allows you to slot in an iPhone 4/4S, or an iPod Touch, connecting via Bluetooth to your device. The pad adds buttons, a directional pad, and shoulder triggers to your iOS device, and allows you to rotate your screen into both portrait and landscape modes. It doesn’t look like it’s going to win any design awards, but it’s worth noting that it’s still in the development stage and may look quite different by the time it launches in May for $79.99. It will also only work with around 100 games at launch, which is a bit of a shame, but if you’re one of the many people who don’t like gaming on the iPhone or iPod simply because of the way the touch screen works you may enjoy using this little peripheral.

Parrot AR Drone 2.0
Probably the most exciting announement of CES for the big kids in us all came from Parrot, who announced the second generation of their unbelievably awesome Parrot AR Drone. The inventively named AR Drone 2.0 boasts a new 720p HD camera that sends a live feed back to your device, as well as a pressure sensor for better altitude control and an autopilot mode that lets you set a distance and altitude and watch as the Drone goes there and snaps a photo. We expect fantastic things from this, as the original Drone was so much fun it should probably have had a warning on the box.

Now, onto AirPlay, which really dominated the Apple-based announcements this year…

Band & Olufsen Play: BeoLit12 Speaker
If you miss the old-style speakers of yore, you may also be very excited about the newly announced BeoLit12 speaker, the first product in the B&O Play range. This new product line aims to bring high-quality audio into your home without the need to take out a second mortgage and with a distinctly retro design. The little box of joy boasts a 120-watt amp, an aluminium shell, two 5cm tweeters and a 10cm woofer, which come together to produce one heck of a sound. The BeoLit12 also comes with AirPlay functionality, allowing to play your music through your Wi-Fi connection, as well as USB and 3.5mm stereo-out jacks. And if this is starting to sound just a little unlike the old wireless you used to have in your front room, you’ll be pleased to hear that the battery should provide around four hours of playback while streaming, or eight hours if you connect directly. It will be on sale at the end of January, but beware that this thing still won’t come cheap – it’s expected start at around £520.

Griffin Twenty
If you own a pair of high-quality speakers, but they aren’t enabled with AirPlay, you might feel like you’re missing out on the very best wireless music experience. If so, Griffin’s new Twenty might be just what you’ve been looking for. The small box allows you to clip in an AirPort Express and connect up to your speaker set-up with a single cable, giving you access to all your tunes wirelessly. The box itself looks great in a sleek white that fits perfectly with the AirPort Express, although this design could change before release. The most exciting thing is the giant silver dial on the top, however, as it not only looks and feels great, it simplifies the controls to just one interface, and is ultimately all you really need. No release date or pricing information on this one, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Klipsch Stadium Speaker
We’re big fans of Klipsch‘s products, after we tired a few of their headphones in a recent issue of iCreate, so we are naturally very excited about the prospect of their new AirPlay speaker – especially because it looks like it might be seriously powerful. With two 1-inch tweeters, two 3-inch mid-range woofers and two 5.25-inch subwoofers this isn’t going to be one for the faint hearted. Plus, as they’re all uncovered, you’re likely to feel these at the same time as you hear them. The AirPlay functionality means there is no ugly dock sticking out anywhere, but there is a USB port for when you’re not in range of your computer, offering a tethered connection that will also charge iPhones and iPods (but probably not the power-hungry iPads). It should be out around September, and there are no announcements on pricing just yet so expect something around £300 (our estimate, based on no facts at all).

ZIK Parrot Headphones by Starck
We recently tried out Parrot’s ZIKMU AirPlay speakers and while they might look a bit like trombones, they also provide some absolutely astounding performance when it comes to sound quality. So naturally we are rather excited about this pair of AirPlay headphones from the same company. We are sure that they are going to be incredibly expensive, and there are still no announcements about their release date, but these Bluetooth-enabled speakers feature four(!) microphones for some serious noise-cancelling action, as well as Parrot’s ‘Digital Music Hall’ effect, which is supposed to give the impression that you’re listening to your music in a much larger room. You’ll be able to connect them to your iPhone etc using a quarter inch cable if you prefer an analogue sound to the digital one they provide wirelessly, and most importantly they look really rather sexy.

Keep an eye out for future issues of iCreate Magazine, as we’re already excited about getting out hands on all these products for review.

If the rumours are anything to go by, the iPad 3 is imminent. That is, if imminent means somewhere towards the end of March (according the pretty reliable John Gruber). But the question that every tech blog worth its salt is trying to answer is, “What on earth is it going to feature?”. There’s plenty of fire to fuel that rumour mill in the form of a possible retina display, LTE chip, thicker form factor, thinner form factor, etc. etc., but what does it all really mean? Well, in the true spirit of being excellent to you all, we at iCreate have rounded-up what we consider to be the most credible reports of what might make up the iPad 3 when it launches (supposedly) this year. As ever though, nothing is certain and we’re just as prime to getting things wrong as the next guy, so feel free to Tweet us, write on our Facebook wall, email us or leave a comment at the bottom of this post if you think we’ve got something wrong or completely missed a trick. We promise we won’t get too upset…

The iPad 3 will feature a retina display

Without doubt, this is the strongest rumour in our round-up, mainly because it’s the one with the most traction and credible sources (we’d certainly count Bloomberg’s report as a credible source). The retina display has been the jewel in the iPhone’s crown for some time now, with a resolution that makes pixels invisible to the human eye, it certainly takes graphics on portable devices above and beyond what’s been achieved before. But with many tablet and phone manufacturers playing catch-up with, and even surpassing, Apple as far as resolutions and display sizes are concerned, it’s time Apple rolled out this ground-breaking technology to the iPad 3.

Our verdict? This one is almost a given. It’s proved challenging for Apple to make a reality (read on to find out more about that), but it’s certainly something they’ll have to add to their tablets sooner or later.

So far, this much-hyped iPad 3 retina display has appeared to be a little problematic. If the rumours are anything to go by, Apple has already dropped Sharp as the manufacturer of the iPad 3′s screens in favour of LG and Samsung because Sharp’s output didn’t hit the necessary quality control requirements. This could be down to a number of factors, but what we know for certain is that the rumoured XQGA display (with a whopping 2048 x 1536 resolution) has presented Apple with a whole host of problems, which leads us neatly on to rumour number two…

The next iPad will sport a thicker/thinner form factor

Okay, this isn’t exactly a rumour, more a debate, but it’s an important one all the same because it’s pretty much up in the air right now. The obvious way to go here would be to assume that the iPad 3′s form factor will be thinner, ‘because Apple always make a thinner model’, right? Well, not exactly.

This rumoured retina display means that there needs to be a lot more backlighting to ensure that a screen with such a heavy pixel density is bright enough all the time. Put simply, it’s like trying to shine a light through a piece of cardboard vs. a piece of paper. You’re going to need a lot more light to do the former. A recent report by iLounge may go some way to confirm this thicker form factor rumour, but it’s worth noting that the prototype that editor Jeremy Horwitz viewed could’ve been anything up to six months old.

Our verdict? We wouldn’t be surprised if the iPad 3 gained a little weight to incorporate all this extra new features and, to be honest, we wouldn’t mind either.

Apple’s next tablet will feature a FaceTime HD/1080p HD video camera

We’re going to go out on a limb here and say that this is fairly probable, despite their not being a huge amount of speculation surrounding this. This speculation, however, could be seen as an indication that this is almost a given. 1080p HD recording is already a reality with the iPhone 4S, and we’ve seen how closely the iPad mimics the iPhone’s camera specs in the past. The only thing that gives us any reason to doubt these predicted specs is the fact that…well…the iPad is pretty huge and a bit impractical for taking photos and shooting video with. That said, where it does excel is with video chat and FaceTime, so we wouldn’t be at all surprised (read as: really really really really really want) to see a FaceTime HD camera on the front of the iPad 3. Why? Because it just makes sense. Need we say any more here?

The iPad 3 will shop with a new version of iOS – iOS 6

Get ready for the unlikely alarm. We’ve seen this rumour crop up once or twice over the last few weeks and we really don’t think it’s worth the pixels its displayed with. iOS 5 was a pretty substantial upgrade that was only released towards the tail-end of 2011. On top of this, we’ve not even a substantial point upgrade to the latest version of iOS yet, so why would Apple kill it off so quickly? The only real logic behind this is if they’ve got some sort of incredibly feature to launch, but in our opinion, 2011 was a year of software for Apple (see: iOS 5, iCloud, iMessage, Lion et. al.) and this year will be Apple’s year of hardware (more on this at a later date).

Our verdict? Don’t hold your breath for iOS 6 this time of the summer.

You’ll be using Siri to control your new tablet

We’re going to sit on the fence with this one, whilst there might already be reports of Siri-like dictation cropping up in iOS 5 betas, we can’t see this extending to full-fledged Siri functionality on the iPad 3. Why? Because of connectivity. When you ask Siri a question, it needs to contact Apple’s servers to decipher what you’ve just said then search around for an answer. All of this requires a stable, solid internet connection and if you’re out and about with your WiFi-only iPad 3, this might not be possible. Siri-like dictation would be lovely, but technically it could be a bit of a nightmare. Plus, it wouldn’t be the first time Apple’s engineers have dropped a false feature into a beta to throw us off the scent, would it?

Odds and ends

There’s a few other rumours that are worth a mention before we sign off and leave you all to discuss it all in the comments. For starters, that Bloomberg report we mentioned earlier spoke of the iPad 3 featuring an LTE chip. This is pretty feasible, but perhaps only in a top-of-the-range model. There’s talk over in our Twitter mentions of pro apps like Aperture coming to the iPad and we wouldn’t be surprised to see them sneak in to the iPad 3 announcement, albeit in a slimmed-down format. What do you think? What would you like to see in the iPad 3? Take a good guess via Twitter, Facebook, email or in our comments section to let us know. We’ll try and keep this blog updated as and when rumours break and change, so yours could up on here too!

A slideshow of your latest holiday pictures isn’t always going to be as interesting to your audience as it is to you. By adding audio to your presentations and using it creatively, you can turn a dull scrapbook of text and images into an engaging, exciting slideshow that will have your audience on the edge of their seats. Following the steps is simple enough, but you may want to spend some time choosing the right audio for your project first. Our project is a scrapbook of a trip to Italy, so we’ve chosen a piece of music by an Italian composer to tie in with the theme. When you record the audio, practise timing the transitions with the beat of the music. It takes time but the results are worth it.

1: Media
Once you have completed your slideshow and you’re ready to start adding audio, head up to the top left of the interface and hit the Media icon.

2: Audio
From within the Media palette, select the Audio button on the left-hand side. This will give you access to GarageBand and iTunes files.

3: Search
To save you scrolling through thousands of MP3 files, try using the search field. As you type, the track titles containing that text will appear.

4: Play
Hit the Play button to listen to the audio and tap it again to stop. Choose your audio carefully: try to choose something that is sensitive to your project.

5: Inspector
Tap the Inspector icon at the top of the interface to open the Inspector palette and select the Document Inspector on the left. Tap the Audio button.

6: Drag and drop
Tap on the chosen audio file within the Media palette, hold down the mouse and drag it onto the white box underneath ‘Soundtrack’.

7: Get ready
Hit the Play button to listen to the audio again; when you’re ready, hit the Record button. The audio will start playing as your slideshow begins, full-screen.

8: Record
A bar at the top left with a red button will indicate that it is recording. Hit the space bar to change the slide. Hit it twice to stop the recording.

9: Finish
A green tick with a date and time of recording will indicate that you have recorded your audio successfully. Press Play to check before saving.

Click Image to Enlarge

When AirPlay was introduced late last year, many were frustrated by how limited it was. You could only use it to stream media from iOS devices to your bigger screen at home. What most really wanted was the reverse of this, allowing you to stream media through your iPad or iPhone. With Home Sharing in iOS 4.3 onwards, this is exactly what you can do.

If you want to watch a movie on your iPad, or listen to a new album that you just bought on iTunes on your computer, you no longer need to wait for the two devices to sync before you can get playing. After a quick setup process you can take films or songs from your computer and play them wirelessly, as long as both are connected to the same wireless network. This not only makes the whole process quicker and easier; it also means that if you’re close to capacity on your iOS device, you won’t need to spend time deleting items before your media can be made to fit on it.

Step 1: Share and share alike
First, go to iTunes’s Preferences (on your Mac) and select Sharing. You can choose to share you entire library, or just select certain playlists or types of media.

Step 2: Home Sharing
There are no Home Sharing options in Preferences. Instead you need to selected Advanced in the menu bar and turn the function on from there.

Step 3: Can I see your ID?
You’ll need to log in using your Apple ID in iTunes and the iPad Settings menu. This ensures Home Sharing stays private, and that your computers are up to date.

Step 4: iPod on your iPad
On your iPad, go into the iPod section of the Settings app. Enter the same Apple ID as you did in step 3 to make sure you connect to the account correctly.

Step 5: Who’s in the library?
When you open the iPod app you’ll see a new Library tab on the left. Tap it and you’ll be given a choice of which to use, including your new Shared Library.

Step 6: Connect and play
Upon tapping the library, you’ll instantly connect and have access to the full collection from your computer, as well as all the podcasts, audiobooks and playlists.

(Click on the image below to zoom in and view the annotations)

The majority of problems with the photos most people take are not that serious or difficult to fix, and you don’t need anything as heavyweight as Photoshop to do it. Even if you’re working with images more professionally, a lot of the editing you do is the kind of stuff that iPhoto can do. The idea with iPhoto is to make it as simple as possible while offering the best results, and not blinding you with science. And so it is that you get the ability to crop, rotate and straighten images to fix their orientation. To deal with the dreaded red-eye there’s a special tool, and blemishes can be removed with the Retouch tool. Finally there’s a simple one-click ‘Enhance’ tool which adds definition, brightness and contrast to liven up images that might be lacking something.

Step 1: Choose an image
Double click on an image, then click on the Edit button at the bottom-right corner to open the Edit tools. From the menu at the top, choose Quick Fixes.

Step 2: Rotate the image
Click on the Rotate button and you can flip the image through 90 or 180 degrees. iPhoto is good at guessing the orientation of your pictures, however.

Step 3: Enhance your image
Click the Enhance button and iPhoto will add some sharpness, contrast and definition. If you don’t like the results, you can always hit the Undo button.

Step 4: Fix red-eye
Red-eye is a problem when a camera’s flash reflects in people’s eyes. Click on Fix Red Eye, then use the Size slider to match that of the affected area.

Step 5: Zoom in
If needed, use the zoom slider to zoom in to fix red- eye. The auto-fix option will detect and fix problems after recognising that a photo contains a face.

Step 6: Straighten a picture
The Straighten tool can help you to fix wonky images without changing the overall shape of the picture, which it does by zooming in slightly.

Step 7: Crop a picture
Cropping can help you focus on the main area of interest. Drag to set the area, or choose a preset size value from the drop-down menu under the tool.

Step 8: Retouch a picture
The subject may have a spot or blemish. Or, there’s dirt on the lens or a fly lands on your arm – all of these are things you can remove easily from a shot.

Step 9: Make the edit
Set the size of the tool to match the blemish. Click on it and iPhoto takes a sample of the area around it – usually skin tone – and paints it over the blemish.

Click on the image below to zoom in on the annotations.

iPhoto offers more than ever before when it comes to getting creative with your photographs. The object of this tutorial is to show you how to utilise the effects that iPhoto has to offer in order to turn a seemingly ordinary photograph into a romantic keepsake . Once you’ve followed a few simple steps you will have something that you could email to a loved one, mount in a frame to make the ideal gift or have made into a bespoke card for a special occasion. The first task is to select the correct image, to which certain rules should be adhered to. Make sure your image is sharp with a good composition – notice the image we’ve selected is full frame, with engaging eye contact and little distracting background. Try cropping your image first and make sure you’ve fixed common problems such as red-eye.

Step 1: Duplicate
Select the image you want to use, head to the Photos drop-down menu and select ‘Duplicate’. This will ensure the original photo is kept safe.

Step 2: Edit
Move the cursor down to the bottom right of the interface and click on the Edit icon, indicated by the pencil.

Step 3: Quick Fixes
This will open the Quick Fixes panel. Now is the time to do any cropping or retouching. When you’re done, tap on the ‘Effect’ button at the top.

Step 4: Effects
There are nine different effects to choose from. Not all of them will be suitable for this project, but B&W or Sepia are ideal for creating a romantic look.

Step 5: Vignettes
A vignette is often used in portraiture and is basically a soft frame around your image that will blur the edges and draw focus to the centre.

Step 6: Matte frame
Similar to vignettes, a matte frame adds a soft blurred frame to your image. Tap the arrow keys left or right to make it bigger or smaller.

Step 7: Antique
For this project, we’re using the Antique effect for a subtle, soft look. Tapping the arrow key to the right will intensify the effect. We’ve selected level two.

Step 8: Edge Blur
Edge blur is a technique often used for wedding photography. A soft focus around the edge of the frame will draw attention to the centre of the image.

Step 9: Fade out
Finally, we’ve applied a fade to make our final image more subtle. If you want to compare this to the original, press the Shift key.

(Click the image below to zoom in on the annotations)

Messages are a staple diet of any modern day smartphone. They are quick, easy, convenient and almost always shorter than a call. The iPhone follows Apple tradition and adds a little style and panache to the messaging experience. The messages are not simply stored in an inbox, they are stored in conversations, exactly as a user would talk to someone face- to-face. Being colour coded, users can quickly scan a conversation to see the messages received and sent. The integrated copy, paste and replace commands mean that users take even further control of a conversation.

All this works beautifully for almost any exchange of messages, but as a conversation grows it can become unwieldy and sometimes irrelevant. This is where control needs to be passed to the user and as ever the iPhone does it with the greatest degree of functionality. Two taps and the message sender can be called, three taps and a conversation can be deleted. Three taps again and the user gets total control of the individual elements of a conversation – delete or forward, the choice is yours.

Step 1: View messages
Tap Messages to view the current list of sent messages. To remove a message first tap Edit. Hit the red ‘no entry’ icon, then the Delete button.

Step 2: Send a new message
To view a message thread tap the desired message in the list. To send a message hit the box at the bottom, type in a message and tap Send.

Step 3: Copy and paste
To copy text into a new message, tap and hold the appropriate speech bubble and tap Copy. Now tap the message box and hold and tap Paste to add.

Step 4: Text options
After pasting in text there is the option to Select, Select All and Paste. Tap Select to choose a word, hit Cut to remove, Copy or Paste.

Step 5: Select individual messages
If a message needs to be removed from a conversation first tap Edit. Each message will now have a radio button. Tap to select the message text.

Step 6: Delete or forward
Selecting messages activates Delete and Forward buttons. Tap Delete to get rid of selected messages, tap Forward to send messages to a new recipient.

Click on the image below to zoom in on the annotations.

Digital Photographer issue 116 is on sale now from ImagineShop and offers readers 100 free photo prints from Bonusprint!*

To claim this exclusive offer, simply purchase issue 116 of Digital Photographer and follow the instructions to upload your images to the Bonusprint website. You must place your order by 29^th December 2011.

As well as this amazing giveaway, Issue 116 is also packed with heaps of fantastic features and tutorials including:

Try your hand at infrared photography

• Three different ways to achieve fantastic infrared images

Master indoor event photography

• Improve your indoor shooting skills and get creative with light effects

Blend your exposures

• Learn how to combine three exposures into one stunning image

Skill up with our 2012 workshop guide

• Plan how you’re going to improve your skills in the new year

Also inside…

• Nikon V1 on test
• Top winter shooting destinations
• How photo associations can boost your career
• Create your own photo cards
• Jeremy Hunter shares his amazing portfolio
• Become a sports photographer
• New York photo guide
• Sony NEX-5N reviewed
• Win Vertus Fluid Mask 3.2 worth £99

PLUS free CD loaded with Photoshop video tutorials, test shots, workshops and more

* Please note – free prints offer only available to readers in the UK. Postage applies.

The new advert for Samsung’ Galaxy S2 smartphone has hit YouTube and it’s causing a bit of a stir with its blatant ribbing of Apple’s customers, the iPhone’s lack of 4G capability and slightly smaller screen size. Trouble is, unlike Apple’s Mac Vs. PC adverts that ran a few years ago, this one isn’t nearly as clever.

The ad itself depicts a queue outside a fictitious Apple Store (there’s no branding, but they’ve definitely included more than a few visual clues) and focuses on some of those waiting in line. The queue lengths are a subject of the first twenty seconds with one guy saying, “But this is an event” followed by a another complaining that the lack of a redesign on the iPhone 4S (again, no real indicator but it’s more than implied) means that no-one will know he’s upgraded. So, Samsung have just managed to stereotype and rip into the very people they want to prise away from the iPhone into buying a Galaxy – this doesn’t strike me as a wise move.

Apple might’ve done it with their ‘Get a Mac’ campaign, but there was a level of humour and subtlety to it that Samsung haven’t quite grasped. Instead of seeing a straight up comparison between the iPhone and Galaxy, we’re invited to look down on Apple fanboys, which is all well and good if you’re aiming the ad at those who aren’t Apple fanboys, but that’s a bit like preaching to the converted, there’s absolutely no gain to be made.

Later on the ad we finally catch a glimpse of the Galaxy S2, the irony being here that those in the queue don’t realise it’s a Samsung phone until they’ve taken a closer look, much like that lawyer who couldn’t distinguish between a Galaxy Tab and iPad in court, it might have been an unintentional move by Samsung in the ad, but it’s hilarious nonetheless. One of the lucky Galaxy S2 owners sneers, “Why don’t you guys just get 4G phones?” Well, that’s all well and good Samsung, but whilst the US might have some form of 4G making its way across the country, the vast majority of the world are left in the dark on that one. Way to go for advertising a feature which, to a lot of people, is highly redundant.

Don’t get me wrong, this advert is humorous, but it’s nowhere near as well done Apple’s ribbing of Windows. Samsung have been under fire for ripping off Apple in a number of ways over the last few months and they’ve not exactly done a great job of defending themselves (at one point they claimed that Apple ripped off Stanley Kubrick). This ad appears to see them doing it again, albeit making a bit of a hash of it. It’s all well and good mocking the fact that people might have to queue for hours to buy your competitor’s product, but you’re really just testifying to their success. Swing and a miss.

Want to see what the ad looks like for yourself? Check out the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What’s your view on Samsung’s latest ad? Is it below the belt or a perfectly acceptable ribbing of Apple’s customers? Let us know in the comments or Tweet us (@iCreateMagazine).