Michal Ždanský At the presentation of iPad 2, which took place on March 2, we could also see new applications for iPad directly from Apple. In addition to FaceTime, which is more of a port of the iPhone 4 version, two well-known applications from the iLife package – iMovie and GarageBand – and the fun Photo Booth application were introduced. And we will take a closer look at these three applications.
iMovie
We could already see the first debut of the video editing application on the iPhone 4. Here, iMovie brought convenient and simple video editing despite the smaller screen size, and the resulting works did not look bad at all. iMovie for iPad feels like a hybrid between the iPhone 4 version and the Mac version. It maintains the simplicity of iOS and brings more advanced features from the "adult version".
When you launch the app, you'll be greeted by a cinema-like welcome screen where your projects are displayed as individual posters. Simply click on one of them to open the project. The editor's main screen looks very similar to the desktop. You have videos to process in the upper left part of the screen, the video window on the right and the timeline at the bottom.
With the gesture to zoom horizontally, you can easily zoom in on the timeline for more precise editing, with the same gesture to open it again vertically Precision editor, in which you can precisely set the transitions between individual frames. In the video window, you can hold and drag to scroll through a given frame to see exactly what it contains. You can either add it all to the timeline with a swipe of your finger, or click to display a frame for selecting a specific section and insert only that section. You can record a video directly from iMovie thanks to the iPad 2's built-in camera.
Pressing the audio button will also show you an audio track at the bottom where you can see individual volume levels across the entire video. For each individual frame, you can turn off the sound completely or just adjust its volume, for example for background music. More than 50 sound effects that can be added to videos are new. These are short sound segments, such as you may know from cartoon series. If you want to add your own commentary to the videos, iMovie also allows you to add a "voice over" track, which, thanks to the option of multiple audio tracks, can be played simultaneously with the background music.
As in iMovie for iPhone, it is possible to add photos to the clip. In addition, the iPad version can detect faces, so you don't have to worry about the heads of everyone involved being outside the frame of the clip. You can then share the entire clip on several servers (YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, CNN iReport) even in HD resolution, or save it to Camera Roll or iTunes. In the second case, the clip is uploaded to the computer at the first possible synchronization. Finally, you can play the clip using AirPlay.
iMovie should appear in the App Store as an update to the current iPhone version, making it a universal application. The update should also bring 3 new themes (8 in total), hopefully appearing in the iPhone version as well. You can then buy iMovie for €3,99. You can find it in the App Store on March 11, i.e. the day the iPad 2 goes on sale.
GarageBand
GarageBand is completely new to iOS and is based on its desktop sibling. For those who are not familiar with GarageBand, it is a recording software for musicians with some more advanced features, VST instruments, an improvisation tool or an interactive musical instrument teacher. GarageBand for iPad brings 8-track recording, virtual instruments, VST plugins and so-called Smart instruments.
The opening screen in GarageBand is the instrument selection. You can choose between several touch virtual instruments, smart instruments where a minimum of playing skill is required, or direct recording of individual instruments.
Each virtual instrument has its own special screen. At the presentation of the iPad, we could see virtual keys. In the upper half we can see which tool we have selected, with the button in the middle we can then select which tool we want and the layout of the entire window will change accordingly.
For example, the piano has a special button to turn the reverb on/off. Either you can hold the button and the reverb will be active during that time, or you can slide it to activate it permanently. On the far left are keys to shift the keyboard so you can play within a few octaves on the iPad as well. But the most interesting feature is the detection of dynamics. Although the display itself does not recognize pressure, thanks to the highly sensitive gyroscope in the iPad 2, the device captures the slightest tremor caused by a stronger strike, and thus can recognize the dynamics of the strike, just like a real piano, at least in terms of sound.
The virtual Hammond organ has a different layout, where you can find classic sliders for changing the tone just like on a real instrument. You can also change the speed of the so-called "rotating speaker". On the other hand, it offers playing on the synthesizer in a unique way, where after pressing a key you can move your finger across the entire keyboard and the note will follow your finger, while only its sound and pitch in semitones will change, which is not even possible with a normal keyboard, that is, if it does not have a special touchpad above the keyboard (and there are really only a handful of them).
The touch drums are also excellently made, and they also recognize the dynamics of the stroke and also recognize exactly where you have tapped. Since even real drums sound different every time depending on where they are hit, the drums on GarageBand have the same characteristics. With a snare drum, you can play classically or only on the rim, I would bet that swirling is also possible in some way. The same is the case with ride cymbals, where the difference is whether you play on the edge or on the "navel".
An amazing thing for guitarists is the virtual equipment, which they can also recognize from GarageBand for Mac. Just plug in your guitar and all the sound effects are already included in the app. You can thus create any guitar sound without any equipment, all you need is a guitar and a cable. However, the iPad will require a special adapter that uses either a 3,5 mm jack or a dock connector. A current solution may be necessary iRig from the company IK Multimedia.
The second group of tools are so-called smart tools. These are mainly intended for non-musicians who would still like to compose a small piece of music. For example, a smart guitar is such a fingerboard without frets. Instead of frets, we have chord posts here. So if you tap your fingers in a given bar, you will strum within that chord. If the few preset chords could be changed, the smart guitar would definitely be appreciated by real guitarists, who could then easily record strummed passages into recorded compositions. The smart guitar can also strum for you, even in several variations, and you just need to change the chords by tapping the posts.
The chapter itself is then recording. You can do this right on the tool screen. When you press the record button, GarageBand will count down 4 beats and then you can record. You will then see the progress of the recording in the new bar that appeared at the top. Of course, an instrument track is not enough for the whole song, so tap the button View you move to the multi-track view, which you may already know from the classic GarageBand for Mac.
Here we can edit already recorded tracks or create new ones. The application allows recording up to 8 tracks. Individual tracks can be cut or moved very easily, and although you won't find all the advanced features of professional recording programs, it's still a great mobile solution.
Just like in iMovie, you can have multiple projects in progress and share them as well. There are fewer options for sharing in GarageBand, you can either send your creation in AAC format via email or sync it to iTunes. The project will be compatible with the Mac version if you then open it on a Mac (probably via File Sharing using iTunes), you can continue to work with it.
GarageBand, like iMovie, will appear in the App Store on March 11 and will cost the same €3,99. Apparently, it should also be compatible with the last generation iPad.
Photo booth
Photo Booth is an app you'll find right out of the box on the new iPad. Just like the desktop version, it uses built-in cameras and then creates crazy pictures from the captured video using various filters. On iPad, you'll see a matrix of 9 different live previews displayed simultaneously on startup, thanks to the iPad 2's powerful dual-core processor.
By clicking on one of them, the preview with the selected filter will be displayed on the entire screen. You can change the filter application with a swipe of your finger. Once you are satisfied with the given modification and "disfigurement", you can take a picture of the result and send it to your friends. The utility value of the application is de facto zero, but it will entertain for a while.
Personally, I am very much looking forward to the first two applications, especially GarageBand, for which I will find a wide range of applications as a musician. Now all it wants is the iPad…
Very nice article, even if it's practically information from Keynote, which I don't mind :D Thank you...
By the way, I discovered a minor typo:
Photo booth
Photo Both is an app you'll find right out of the box on the new iPad.
Can it also be used on the 1st generation iPad? :)
I wonder if the virtual musical instruments in the GarageBand program are just a toy, or if they have some real use.
It's quite a pleasant thing to compose away from home. Anyway, wait for the review when we have the iPad 2 and GarageBand in hand.
Apple released videos about iPad apps.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/guided-tours/
GarageBand keeps looking more interesting.
It's a pity that the article was not published until after the application was launched. Unfortunately, there are no personal experiences in the article. Of course, I'm not criticizing it here, I'm just stating it. Personally, I would be interested in how exactly iMovie works. So I was quite interested in the presentation. But I have some questions:
– in what format must a video be that can be edited like this? QT only? Or even MP4, or what formats yes and which not? Can I get the video to the iPad via iTunes or is it only for videos shot on the iPad?
– can I use my own MP3 in my device as a soundtrack? Or what audio formats are supported?
– what format is the resulting video in? in QT or MP4 or something else? Can it be uploaded back to the PC?
Maybe some of the questions are stupid, but I don't have an iPad, I'm just planning to get one, when the second one goes on sale... so I don't know much about the format of what it can do...
When the apps are released and we get our hands on the new iPad, you can certainly count on more detailed reviews of individual apps.
Regarding your questions about iMovie, I would go with the iPhone version. So the format must be MOV (QT). You can add videos by syncing the album so that the video appears in Photos, then they can be imported from the library on the iPad. You can use your own songs from your iPod as accompaniment. The resulting video can certainly be put on the PC, at least via iTunes. The finished video will probably be in MOV.
I have iMovie on my iPhone 4, what you shoot you can easily edit in HD quality + you can interlace the photos, you can add your own music from the iPhone to choose from, you have different transitions after the update it will be better again
So I now have GarageBand downloaded from the AppStore for $4.3 on my iPad with iOS 5 and it WORKS!!!