iPad Camera Connection Kit

Today I have been playing around with the iPad camera connection kit to see how it would work with photos and movies. After seeing quite a bit on the Internet I wanted to find out exactly what was true and so I set to work to find out.
First can you access a USB drive with the camera kit, answer yes.
You have to do 2 things to get this to work.
First format the USB key as fat.
Second place a single folder DCIM on the drive, then all you need to do is place your photos in this folder and when you plug it into the iPad it will automatically open the photo console. From here you can upload you photos to the iPad for viewing. Using this method you can delete the photos when you are done and reload them if required.

Next can you load movies from a USB key, answer yes.
To do this you need to format you videos to iPad format, I found a free conversion program, Videora which will convert you videos to mp4 format, a 200meg file took 5 min to convert and maintained the same quality as the original avi file. Once you have your converted file you have to rename it to have 8 character name and a m4v extension, eg 12345678.m4v if your file name is not 8 characters or it is not a m4v it will not work. Then load this file into the DCIM folder on the key and when you plug it into the iPad the photo viewer will open and allow you to upload the video. From here it is simply a mater of hitting play and then when you no longer need it just delete.
If you want to add subfolders under the DCIM folder you can do that and the videos will still show up.
All in all a nice way to keep you iPad hard drive free from un needed large video and picture files.

iPad 2 cover

One of the dilemmas once you have bought your new flash iPad is which cover should you buy to protect it? Apple have come out with a new magnetic cover which turns the iPad on and off when you open it, but like a lot of people I had some concerns, yes it does a job of protecting the screen but then nice shinny back was open to damage. I therefore wanted something more protective and it was at this point that I found the STM skinny iPad cover, this cover is really brilliant, it has a hard plastic cover that the iPad clips into to protect the back as well as a wrap around cover that also doubles as a stand and has the magnets in it to also turn the iPad on and off as well.
I have a link below to a review of this cover and when you consider it was only $10 more than the apple cover to me it was a no brainer, I found mine at jb hifi if you want to check one out.
Skinny cover video

Welcome to the dark side

Yes the tussle between Microsoft and Apple has been blurred even further with the buying of my iPad 2.
After years of resisting I have been persuaded to shell out some cash,which in some part is due to Microsofts lack of competing products. Even Android has more interesting offerings in this market space which really shows how Microsoft has basically given up to date. The main deciding factor in the end was the overwhelming amount of apps Apple has been able to accumulate, there really does seem to be an "App for that" and after spending my first week with my new iPad 2 I have to say I am very impressed.
One of my main problems to resolve was what size to get, how much space do you really need? Also wifi or 3G model? The later question for me came down to the fact the only the 3G model has the inbuilt gps receiver, and as for size after a fair bit of investigation I came to the conclusion that you only need a lot of space if you intend to store lots of photos or videos, so I opted for the 16 gig model and so far things are going okay, I have installed heaps of apps, Facebook, twitter, Ted, GarageBand, 4 games, blogsy, tv guide, weather guide, Skype, dictionary, travel apps, installed a dozen books and all of this has only taken 2-3 gig.
So all in all pretty happy so far email works well no problems in connecting to my gmail account to sync calendar and contacts, don't get me wrong there are the usual itune problems that frustrates all windows users like me but it hasn't been as painful as I expected.

Froggy Visitor

Had a visit from a southern banjo frog.
This is the second one that I have seen this year, nice to see they are about.

Front Fence

Current ongoing project is my front fence, I have decided that a wooden picket fence would be a worthy addition so construction started early April. fence has been going well and is close to completion although changes in the design has seen an under estimation of pickets so work has currently stopped while new pickets are bought and then painted. Considering the early winter temperatures are not really conducive to painting things may take a little longer than first though.

Below is a link on the progress so far. Fence is 17 meters long and there is about 160 pickets.

Patio Enclosing

Thought i would upload some photos of my recent project of enclosing my patio end with Laserlite. I have removed the tired wooden lattice that was here when I bought my place and created a new wall including a new lockable door which has been covered with the wind and water proof cladding.

It is amazing the temperature difference now that the area is wind proofed I have seen a 4 deg difference between inside to out on my temperature gauges.