The iPad was introduced by Apple as not only a consumption device but also a creation device and there are many apps that certainly provide that functionality. However none do it with quite the ease and impressive results that Echograph for iPad achieves.

Echograph is part photograph, part video and it gives you the ability to manually control which part of the image is still and which stays in motion by simply touching the screen with your finger.

Each new project starts with a video, you can capture this using the iPad camera or use one that is already on your camera roll, this means that while Echograph is not a universal app you can still use movies captured on your iPhone by transferring it to your iPad.

After grabbing your video you are limited to using a maximum 4 second snippet and so your next task is to confirm which 4 second section you wish to use. Again this is very easy and is completed using 2 slider controls along the bottom of the screen.

Next up you need to select a still image from the video that will act as the canvas for your creation, again this is easily completed by using the slider control.

Finally you are ready to animate the areas of the picture you wish to have motion. This is down by simply rubbing your finger across the screen to bring that portion of the image to life. You can control the size of your brush by pinch the screen so that you can be as accurate or as broad as you like.

The image that you are working with will dictate how much brushing you’ll need to do but with the brush size control it’s never going to take too long. However having multiple brush shapes or the ability to draw and cut sections out of the image would provide greater accuracy.

The resulting image then has to be produced and you can do this either in high or low definition depending on the quality of the results you require. You can then share your results via Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, or submit it to Echograph, (registration is required).

You can view both your results, and those picked by the Echograph staff and some pretty impressive results can be seen here to enjoy and inspire.

At $3.99 it’s not the cheapest photography app in the App Store but with impressive results it’s certainly worth it if you enjoy getting creative with your photography and animation.

What we like

• Easy to use
• 4 step results
• View best results in app

What to know

• Not universal
• Not cheap
• To view brush options

reflow uses your iPhone/iPod touch/iPad’s camera to turn the world around you into a game. It displays objects as an abstract black and white image. On top of that there are waterfalls of color that flow in a path determined by the accelerometer, unless they bump into an obstacle such as the edge between black and white. Your job is to fill the sinks at the bottom of the screen with the correct colors to move to the next level.

You have to find the right mix and placement of black and white to keep the streams flowing. And the streams must change colors and land in the matching sink to count. So pink streams go in the pink sink and blue ones in the blue sink for points. The streams change color by bouncing off obstacles or going through filters.

You can swipe the screen for the negative, which helps immensely if you are in a bright environment as streams flow on black and stop or bounce off white. You can also double tap the screen to take a still image and work with it.

It is also possible to play reflow like a Kinect game using the front-facing camera. You, and maybe some friends, become the obstacles the stream bounces off. You can respond to the challenges by being still or moving as necessary. Played on the larger iPad screen, it could be quite an icebreaker. And the music is suitably trippy for this psychedelic game.

reflow is a game difficult to describe, easy to grasp, and challenging to play. Because it’s based on your surroundings, it will never be the same twice, even if you’re in the same place.

Pros:

• It’s fluidness makes for constant challenge
• Visual abstraction is mesmerizing
• No pattern, can’t be repeated or memorized

Cons:

• Instructions are very basic, you have to discover features yourself
• Some of the gesture features are tricky to find

After flicking through the iOS SDK and using files found inside it, 9to5Mac’s tipster, Sonny D has managed to piece together screenshot of a camera.app all set for an iPad-like resolution of 1024×768. Unfortunately that would mean we might not be seeing a resolution increase next time around, but as 9to5Mac points out: that might just be an emulator limitation.

There are screenshots galore, all pointing toward camera.app being present on an iPad, hopefully we’ll find out from the horse’s mouth sooner rather than later.

With Apple’s Facetime strategy very obviously being to put their video calling service on every device they manufacture it is something of a no-brainer that the next generation iPad would at least have a front facing camera.

But AppleInsider have obtained information that claims that a company called OmniVision will supply both front and rear facing cameras for Apple’s new iPad, due in early 2011. OmniVision is also the supplier for Apple’s iPhone 4’s cameras.

Further details seem to indicate that the quality of the cameras will be in line with that currently found in the iPhone 4. So a 5MP camera for stills, and a lower quality VGA camera for Facetime.

No further details have been forthcoming from Apple or its suppliers. Which is not really surprising as this kind of information could well slow sales of the current generation iPad as consumers hold on for an update.

Assuming that you haven’t got one already, does hearing this news make you inclined to wait for the next iPad? Let us know in the comments…

The suppliers have indicated that that next-gen iPad could feature 7-inch Retina Display, camera, 128GB capacity, and a “micro or mini USB” port.

Would Apple have two ports on a mobile device? Doubtful. Would they get rid of the current connector design? Perhaps. Some reason that it is to comply with EU regulations on the charging of mobile devices.

It is unclear if this is yet another model in the iPad range, or to be the new iPad. It seems extremely unlikely that Apple would want to change the form factor of the existing iPad, which has been part of its success in my opinion. So, it seems that if this new iPad exists it might be a new model that fits into Apple’s range in-between the iPod Touch and the current iPad. Although, the Wall Street analyst quoted seems to imply that this smaller iPad will replace the current version.

Many of us see the smaller size of some of Apple’s competitor’s upcoming Tablet computers as a disadvantage, but perhaps Apple see a threat in that form factor in the market, and wants to plug it with a device we are already familiar with. One of theirs, that runs iOS!

128GB seems a bit of a leap in storage. But perhaps that is for a high end model.

It also seems unlikely that Apple would leave the existing iPad camera-less if they launched this mini-iPad. So, this information, if true, tends to lend weight to the argument that the next full size iPad will get a bump at around the same time. Assuming it still exists.

Some of the rumors coming out of the people quoted in this story are fairly wild. So I’d take them with a pinch of salt. 45 million iPads being sold in 2011, and AAPL hitting $430 in the next 12 months are certainly optimistic predictions.
Not impossible. But optimistic.

A new iPad to replace the old? Or is Apple expanding its product range? Have your say in the comments.

From their 4 predictions based on ‘industry checks’ we can expect at least one camera (I’m betting two), a lighter design (wow, who’d have guessed?), a mini-USB port (I’ll say it now, not a chance!) and for the current 9.7 inch size to be kept.

As for the much rumoured 7 inch iPad, the Sachs pair say it’s still not quite ready for prime-time and may have to wait for a release. Either way, the next tablet will still be made by Apple’s usual manufacturer – Foxconn.

So to wrap up – we’re getting pretty much exactly what we expect from the 2nd generation iPad, plus a mini-USB port that I’m sure only King and Lu think might happen.

Personally I’m more interested in what size screen any future Apple tablet may have. With the current version sitting at 9.7 inches and its main competitors expected to be the Galaxy Tab and BlackBerry PlayBook, I fear we may see a shrunken iPad next time out.

Of course, Apple might give us a choice. They’re good at giving us choice, right?

Almost everyday we read news about iPhone 4G / HD rumors and we can expect many more in the near future as Apple’s WWDC 2010 gets closer.

We recently reported that Apple seeded the fourth beta of iPhone OS 4 to developers which featured many new wallpapers for your homescreen and in the settings menu it had options for internet tethering.

9to5Mac is reporting that the iPhone OS 4 SDK code has enough evidence to convince us about the fact that the next generation iPhone (4G / HD) will feature LED flash. They also go onto to speculate that next gen iPod touch and iPad will also support a camera and LED flash.

The recent iPod touch prototype leak by Vietnamese website Tinhte also confirmed that new iPod touch will support a 2 megapixel camera however, there was no reference or evidence about LED flash.

Apple iPad has been often criticized because of the lack of camera but now it seems almost certain that second generation iPad will support a camera.

PixelMagic [rating: 3.5/5]

A Great Mobile Photo Editing Application!

PixelMagic is a professional photo editing application for the iPad which enables you to edit and manipulate your photo’s using the large screen of your iPad.

The irony of this is the fact that the iPad itself doesn’t have a camera so you’ll have to get any pictures you want to edit there manually. Once you have done that though you will be able to take advantage of the multiple options to get your pictures looking as good as possible. The changes can be as simple as a little bit of red eye reduction to the complexities cropping, rotating, filters and more.

You select the picture you wish to edit from your Photo Albums but while you are working on your photo’s you can also save them directly in the app itself to it’s ‘shelf’.

Once the picture is loaded accessing the picture editing options is all done via the toolbar placed along the bottom of the screen. Clicking any of the options brings up a pop-up menu of the available options. Applying any of the filters brings up an additional slider that you can drag back and fourth to see the desired affect applied to the whole image. The effect is applied instantaneously and you can then either re-adjust the level of the filter or use the undo button to revert back to your prior setting. Some options can’t be undone but as long as you haven’t saved your changes you can easily reload the photo from your shelf with just a couple of taps.

There are 5 pre-set effects to choose from too which you can instantly apply to the whole picture. From Black and White and Sepia to Matte and Vignette, with these effects you can make instant changes. The crop option allows you to flip, rotate and crop your photo while the brush options allows you to apply details to large areas or specific parts of the photo with a significant range of options.

PixelMagic doesn’t have the extensive options as it’s desktop equivalents or allow the level of detail that can be easily picked out using a mouse and keyboard. However, as a mobile editing suite PixelMagic offers plenty of options at only $4.

The Good

• Good range of options and effects
• Easy to use
• Ability to undo effects

The Not So Good

• No layers
• Only import photo’s from your Photo Album

Price: $3.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Updated: Apr 08, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.1
Size: 3.5 MB
Seller: Stefan Piesche
© 2010, BlackLizard
Rated 4+
Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.2 or later.

9to5Mac is reporting Apple is looking for a QA Engineer in their “iPad Media” division. The job is described as:

The Media Systems team is looking for a software quality engineer with a strong technical background to test still, video and audio capture and playback frameworks. Build on your QA experience and knowledge of digital camera technology (still and video) to develop and maintain testing frameworks for both capture and playback pipelines…Experience with tuning of and image pipeline, including, but not limited to AWB, Color Correction, AutoExposure, FrameRate adjustments is a plus.

That seems like a pretty clear indication to me of Apple’s future intentions. A camera with the ability to shoot still pictures and video in the iPad. Perhaps even forward and rearward facing cameras if the iPhone HD rumors pan out.

Cameras of varying ability and size have been rumored for the non-iPhone members of the family for at least a year. If you remember back to just before the iPhone 3GS keynote last year, the blogosphere was abuzz with the news the third generation iPod Touch was going to receive a camera. The rumor didn’t pan out but not without further rumors suggesting they were excluded at the last minute due to quality concerns. Indeed, many were quite surprised the iPad didn’t come with at least an iPhone-like rearward facing camera. On the other hand, the inclusion of a video-capable camera on the newest iPod Nanos caught everyone by surprise.

Ultimately I believe the next generation iPhone and iPad will come with the rumored two camera set up. The indications in the iPhone 4.0 SDK are just too overwhelming. Of course this might all just be a big case of misdirection on Apple’s part but I don’t think that’s the case this time. I don’t think you’ll see a new, dual camera iPad this year; the iPhone HD will be used to get any kinks out of the video conferencing system the iPad will eventually inherit. This time next year though we’ll probably be waiting with the same anticipation for the second generation iPad and its dual camera system.

Of course the cynic in me says Apple could have put a camera or two in the iPad this year. They probably could have. The fact the software probably wasn’t in place yet though kept it out of the first iteration. And the fact they’ll get to sell a new iPad next year to all of the people that bought a first generation one this year is a nice side effect.

Do you think we’re on the cusp of an explosion of camera and video conferencing capable Apple devices? Will you have buyer’s regret if next year’s model has dual cameras? Do you agree with the cynic in me that this is all just a marketing and resale ploy by Apple? Leave us a comment and share your thoughts.

Almost every soon to be released Apple product goes through a lot of speculation before it is officially available. The iPad has undoubtedly become one of the most discussed topics in the blog-o-sphere and there has been speculation regarding its hardware and software since the time it was first announced by Steve Jobs.

The first rumor which became very popular followed from the iPad video featured on Apple website which displayed NYTimes.com flash based section as it appears on desktops, which implied that the iPad supports flash. The video was later updated and now it shows the missing flash based content to reflect iPad’s inability to show flash content.

Yesterday Apple released iPhone (iPad) SDK 3.2 beta 4 which finally ends all speculation regarding the possibility of  camera on the device which will be available on April 3 in US Apple stores.

In iPad SDK 3.2 beta 3 when the Photos app was launched for a few seconds you used to be able to choose between camera and photos (image 1), before it would go to next view (image 2), it can be presumed that the iPad simulator was checking for a camera. iPad SDK 3.2 beta 4 does not give you any option to choose between photos or camera and it only shows the pictures in your library (image 3)

The reason why the camera option appeared when photos app was launched in beta 3 is not very clear and the only assumption that we can make is that since iPad OS is essentially based on iPhone OS therefore Apple probably didn’t pay much attention or didn’t expect it to become such a hot topic for discussion. It is safe to say that the next version of iPad (being tested in Apple’s secret lab!)  will certainly support a camera.