Apple iPad

Apple finally announced the long anticipated tablet PC, which they called it – iPad. Before it was released, many people or analyst anticipated this gadget might become the “Gadget of the Year in 2010″ and it has indeed created a Hype.

After looking through the features it offers now, I think the only feature that I like best is the Multi-Touch Capability. It has indeed brought a whole new way of user experience that fit nicely into our life.

Multi-Touch Capability is Just So Cool

Look at the following photo, as iPad is now offering you a 9.7 inch screen that you can now physically typed on a virtual keyboard like a real keyboard. This is cool user experience.

iPad Multi-Touch Keyboard

iPad also offers a new photo organizing feature called stack. I used a similar feature on Aperture and I like it a lots on Aperture. iPad now brings it to a new level, you can stack photos using your thumb and index finger. This is another Cool user experience…

Stacking Photos on iPhoto

For people who like gaming… as the iPad is now much larger compared to iPhone or iPod Touch, integrating with the accelerometer, you can hold it with your both hands like a steering wheel and start racing on it… Plus, you can use your thumb to control on the screen too.

This has no doubt added another level of coolness to user experience.

Gaming like a Steering Wheel

Finally, together with the iPad announcement, Apple also introduced a new store. That is iBook store. There is an iBook app in the iPad that you can purchase book and read it. Using the Multi-Touch technology, you can now flip books on the iPad screen just like you are flipping a book.

Apple has raised Multi-Touch technology to a new level. Typing on virtual keyboard, stacking photo, gaming and flipping iBook are 4 COOL user experience on the iPad that I like.

Have fun…

Flipping on iBook

Apple Aperture Photography Software

I have been using Picasa, iPhoto, Adobe Bridge and Photoshop to organize, edit and touch up my photos so far. Until recently that I started to explore the RAW format photography and also started playing with the latest Aperture photography software created by Apple.

My experience on Aperture so far : Wow… it is simply amazing.

I like Aperture for 2 simple reasons now:

1. Easy and Quick Photo Management
2. Easy and Quick Image Processing

Aperture Photo Management

I can organize photos by project which is fairly similar to Album in Picasa or Event in iPhoto. But it has some added functionality that I like.

1. I can duplicate the photos and it automatically keeps the version for me without destroying my master copy.
2. I can stack all the different versions or similar photos together to keep the screen very neat and easy to find photos. Otherwise, if you create 10 versions per photos and you have 100 photos, glancing through 1000 photos is not a pleasant experience.

Aperture Image Processing Capability

Picasa & iPhoto are great software to start and it does offer some simple image processing capability. On the other hand… Photoshop is a powerful software to provide a spectacular image processing engine. However, duplicating the exact image processing to another photo is not an easy process to understand. Using its batch processing function is also quite a difficult task too.

I think Aperture fill in the gap in between. It offer the simple interface like Picasa or iPhoto for adjusting, editing, or touching up the photos. And it offers a great way to store the image processing settings as pre-set and I can simply click and apply the setting to other photos.

Sample Photos Before and After

I started playing with the color adjustment setting. The following photos show the original photo before processing by Aperture and edited photo after processing.

Aperture has made a huge difference.

Before Processing by Aperture

After Processing by Aperture

Apple Remote App

I came across the following YouTube today. Apple has quietly released a new version of Remote Apple for iPhone or iPod Touch. It extends the functionality to control the Apple TV on top of iTunes.

If you are using Remote App to control your Apple TV, you can now enjoy the multi-touch feature to scroll the songs or movies on your Apple TV. This definitely add a new dimension of “Cool” feature compared to the old remote that use button to scroll up or down.

Apple’s Remote App on iPhone