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)

PingChat! is one of those rare beasts in the app world – something that is available across multiple hardware platforms, from iPhone to Blackberry and Android. It unifies the world of chat under one app, without the overhead or screen space required to run some chat programs.

All each user needs is a PingChat! username. You don’t have to send friend requests out; you simply need to know someone’s username and then you can message them, whatever platform they are using and in whatever country they happen to be in. With push notifications and an always-on system, there’s no logging in required in order to get notifications. The app lets you know there’s a message and you can quickly reply and get chatting. PingChat! also supports free photo and video attachments – which is what we will cover in this tutorial.

The first thing to do is download the app and make sure your friends have a copy (send an email from within the app to invite them to download it). Any messages that you send to a friend who is offline are stored until they log in, and then they are delivered immediately.

Step 1: Getting started
Pick a PingChat! ID username, type it in and tap Register, then Confirm. If it isn’t available, you’ll be informed and have to pick again.

Step 2: Add your avatar
The initial interface is fairly empty so tap on the Buddies/Profile icon, tap on your own profile and then on Choose Photo for your avatar.

Step 3: Fill in details
Tap on Display Name if you want something different from your PingChat! ID and tap on Status to let people know what you are up to. Tap on Save.

Step 4: Add a friend
On the same screen tap on the + sign to the left of Buddies. Enter the PingChat! ID of your friend then tap on Done. Repeat for all the people you know.

Step 5: Write a message
Tap on the green chat icon. In the New Message screen tap + and then on the contact you want. Tap the paperclip and then Choose Existing Medium.

Step 6: Add a photo
Select a photo from your album, then tap Confirm. The image is uploaded and sent. You are now in a chat session with your contact.

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

We can’t count the number of times that we’ve thrown our headphones into our bags, then spent five minutes finding, untangling and cleaning them before we could listen to our music. We’ve also heard all kinds of stories about people wrapping the headphone cable too tightly around their gadgets and ruining the connections. But now, thanks to to Budwrap this issue can be a thing of the past.

The Budwrap is a silicon bracelet that is similar to that worn by students around the world, but this has another function than just looking great. The band is designed to allow you to securely slot your headphones into the holster and wrap the cable around your risk, securing it back into the band when you reach the start again.

Wrap your headphones onto your wrist with this innovative new product

The design looks like it will work perfectly, and the best thing about the idea that we can see is that when you want to use your headphones again you can quickly unwind them from your wrist and use them immediately without worrying about untangling them. It’s great to see a clever design like this really taking off – its just one of the many Kickstarter projects that we’ve been happy to see brought to fruition, and we have to say, we really want one.

At the time of writing the Budwraps are available for pre-order through their Kickstarter page as the release is a few days away. If you back the project now with at least $15, you’ll get a bonus Red Budwrap, so help out the designer and get on over there!

Despite the fact that there are many sites on the web which are designed to host your videos, YouTube remains the undisputed champion in that field. The drawback until recently has been its absolute reliance on Adobe’s Flash, a format deemed unsuitable by Apple for its portable devices. As a result, the YouTube app was born, a place where you can watch H.264 versions of most of the same videos.

With the release of iOS 3.2 for the iPad and 4.0 for the iPhone and iPod touch, the landscape changed slightly and you can now watch YouTube videos straight from your browser, so you may think that the YouTube app is no longer necessary. But the program’s interface is designed to take advantage of your iPhone’s size and touch screen and you may find that it’s often a more pleasant experience than visiting www.youtube.com from Safari.

Through the course of this tutorial, we’ll be showing you how to find your way around the program as well as seeing how you can customise the interface to make the program function the way you like it to.

Step 1: Menu buttons
You’ll find the interface is sparse, with just five buttons at the bottom of the screen. Tap on the first one to take you to YouTube’s recommendations.

Step 2: Scrolling through
Videos are shown in a list you can scroll through by swiping your finger up or down the screen. Tapping on one of them will take you to the video.

Step 3: Re-orientation
You can watch in most orientations: with the home button to the left, right or bottom. Double-tap on the video to take it in and out of Full-screen mode.

Step 4: Get info
Click on Done (top-left) to be taken to the video’s info page. Swipe down to Rate, Comment or Flag the video.

Step 5: Comment and sign in
Tap on the Rate, Comment or Flag button. If you aren’t already signed in, you’ll be asked to do so once you’ve clicked on the Send button (top-right).

Step 6: Making favourites
Tap on the Back button (top-left) to be taken to the video’s summary page. From there, you can add it to your playlist or share it with your friends.

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

]]> http://www.icreatemagazine.com/tips/ios/iphone-tutorial-use-the-youtube-application/feed/ 1 http://www.icreatemagazine.com/reviews/review-cygnett-zooom-handheld-game-controller/ http://www.icreatemagazine.com/reviews/review-cygnett-zooom-handheld-game-controller/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:04:40 +0000 Stephen Ashby http://www.icreatemagazine.com/?p=9122

If you’re the kind of person who picked up a video baby monitor and saw it as a better opportunity to use as a spy camera rather than to check up on your child, then the iZON Remote Room Monitor is for you. Looking a little webcam-like, this handy little device will sit pretty much anywhere you want it to (thanks to the mounting brackets included), connect to a local wireless network, and stream video and audio to your iOS device anywhere in the world.

The possibilities for a device like this are pretty much endless…but ultimately we reckon it’s for living out your dream of becoming a spy and planting it somewhere to get a Big Brother style view of the world. If you ever wished you were a fly on the wall in a room, this is your fly. Not that we’re condoning bugging a room and spying on private conversations of course…

In bright white, the iZon itself isn’t the most inconspicuous design we’ve seen, it’s more webcam than spycam so perhaps covert operations may not be its best use, but its stand-out design could work as an advantage when it comes to deterring would-be criminals or nosey co-workers from your office. The iZON features motion and sound detection and can alert you on your iOS device, via push notification, if something is going on.

Once the iZON has raised the alarm you can tap into its video feed over WiFI or 3G on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch using the Stem:Connect app. The iZON can ever be set up to record video to a private YouTube channel for archiving and replaying at a later date.

We’re obviously going to try and get our hands on one of these as soon as we can, and we reckon the real value of this product will come from the streaming video quality, so keep your eyes peeled for more information on the iZON as soon as we can get it to you.

The Stem Innovation iZON is available online from Stem Innovation’s website for $129.95 now.

There’s some pretty stiff competition in the iOS-controlled, RC Helicopter market – we’ve already messed around with the iBladez Flightstick 3D, and at the time we wished for an iOS controller for it, then along came the AR Drone and blew everyone’s minds, and now Griffin have come out with the affordable option for the rest of us. Great stuff.

The Helo TC certainly looks like it’s built to fly with its lightweight metal and polycarbonate frame and twin-rotored system, but it’s the non-helicopter part of this tasty little package where things really get interesting. The flight deck module that comes included allows you to control the helicopter from your iOS (iPhone or iPod Touch, the iPad looks like it might be a little too big for it!) device via infrared in a couple of different ways. Touch control allows you to make the most of your iPhone or iPod touch’s multi-toucbinterface and use joystick-like controls to move your ‘copter, whilst Tilt To Steer mode makes use of your device’s accelerometer to control movement – we reckon the latter could be the most fun.

Another awesome feature of the Helo TC is the ability to store up to three ‘Flight Plans’, essentially pre-programmed flights, so you can repeat common journeys like getting your helicopter from another room without having to leave the comfort of your sofa. Now, if this helicopter could transport a couple of drinks from the fridge…

Our favourite part of the Helo TC, though, is the price. At a snip under $50, it’s an affordable alternative to that stiff competition we mentioned earlier, and conveniently Griffin says it’ll be widely available in time for Christmas. We’re hoping to unwrap one of these on the big day…

There’s not a lot that you can say about TRON to those who haven’t seen it, but if you have seen it you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say it’s a geek’s dream. The recent remake, starring a disturbingly animated Jeff Bridges, brought the then-out-of-date franchise right up into the 21st century, with updated graphics, a new set of fantastic tools and weapons, and a thumping soundtrack from Daft Punk.

The glow of the dock in a dark room will make you feel like you’re sitting in The End of the Line Club

Now, you can enjoy that soundtrack in your own home, but feel like you’re living inside the Grid, thanks to this ridiculously awesome-looking dock from Monster. It houses speakers in the shape and design of a TRON Identity Disc from the recent TRON: Legacy movie; you can switch the lights on around the disc and they will glow a fantastic blue, and, even more excitingly, if you download the TRON app, the lights will flash and flicker in time with your music.

Even in daylight the dock will be the coolest thing in a room

Even the Hexagonal-buttoned remote looks exceptional, and thanks to the four 1.5″ Stereo High-Throw Drivers and the 3.5″ Long-Throw Woofer, the dock should manage to perform pretty well with your tunes as well. Touch sensitive controls on the front of the dock give you control over your music, with a button on the rear allowing you to change the blue glow level.

We admit, it’s very expensive for what it is, and other speakers will produce the same sound or better for less cash. But those speakers aren’t shaped like an Identity Disc, and they don’t glow blue. So why would you want them?

Here at iCreate we check Apple rumour sites religiously every day, for both personal and professional interest. It seems that over the past few days there have been a few leaks with regard to the next update of the iPods, which traditionally is refreshed in September.

The first comes from a Taiwanese site, called apple.pro. Through a translation of their site (and a fairly self-explanatory photo) it came to light that they were claiming to have confirmation that the next iPod Nano would include a camera in its rear. They claim that a source in California sent them the photo below, which suggests that the 7th generation of the device would retain the smaller form factor and add a camera, as you can see from the hole in the top-right of the casing.

The photo shows a camera hole in the top corner
and screws to hold the clip in place on the back

This would be a strange move from Apple for two reasons. First, the camera was removed when the jump was made from 5th to 6th generation Nanos, and it would be a little strange for them to go back on this. Secondly, the proposed location of the camera would currently be under the clip that Apple made such a big part of the design last year. Obviously this could be redesigned, but the impact it could have aesthetically would be odd.

That said, the design does look remarkably similar to the current iPod Nano, which was torn-down by iFixit a few months ago. The picture of the current Nano is below, and you can certainly see the similarities. We are genuinely intrigued by the prospect of a camera being returned to the Nano, primarily because we’re not sure how many people actually used it in the 5th generation but also because it would indicate a huge space-saving effort on Apple’s part to include another piece of tech in the tiny music player.

The screw positions and general look of the current Nano
casing suggests this may actually have something to it.

The second rumour is somewhat less believeable. It comes from a source who seems to be yelling from the rooftops to anyone who will listen that they have photos of the DVT-1 Prototype iPod Touch. As per usual, the blurrycam has come out to get some pictorial ‘evidence’, as 9to5Mac report:

The button on the front of the Touch is capacitive on this model

Certainly the biggest change that we can see is the apparent inclusion of a capacitive Home button, rather than the current physical button. There other change comes in the joining of the two volume buttons to a single rocker, similar to the 2nd and 3rd Generation model.

The DVT-1 marking on the back of the casing shows this is a prototype model

The photos also seems to suggest that the device has a capacity of 128GB, an amount that has been shown on fake iPhone and iPod Touch photos for several years now. The final photo we’ll post shows the model number and this boosted capacity:

You can just make out through the blur the model number – MC550LL

We’re pretty sure this one is either just a photoshop job or one of the hundreds of prototypes that Apple makes each year during R&D. We personally don’t expect capacitive buttons to land on iOS devices at any time soon, and as such we are pretty much discounting these images as ‘fake’, or at least ‘as good as fake’