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Posts tagged "iPadOS"

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Major iMovie update arrives for iOS and iPadOS to help create movies in an instant
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Apple has announced iMovie 3.0, available from today (April 12) which allows users on iOS and iPadOS to more easily compile photos, movies, and music into a home movie thanks to two new features.

iMovie is a popular app from Apple for quickly creating movies and clips on Mac, iPhone and iPad with minimal hassle.

However, Instagram and TikTok have been using AI (Artificial Intelligence) features that make creating and sharing great-looking video clips even easier. For example, they can automatically adapt music to fit video clips. Meanwhile, iMovie was falling behind, with users having to align their music and content manually. But the new update looks to alleviate this with 'Storyboards' and 'Magic Movie'.

It’s rolling out to devices running iOS 15.2 or later and iPadOS 15.2 or later. But Apple declined to say whether these features would also be coming to the macOS version eventually.

What’s new in iMovie 3.0?

Storyboard feature on iPad

(Image credit: Apple)

Storyboards is one of two new features where you can choose from 20 templates to fit the videos, photos, and audio tracks, and each placeholder describes what kind of clip should be in that section of the movie.

This can be helpful for content creators or those who want to test the waters with editing video in general. The feature can guide users with framing their shots and telling a story through their video, and then export it to another app.

When you edit a clip you've already inserted, you can have a voiceover, insert music, trim the clip, adjust the volume, tweak the speed, add titles or delete the clip entirely. If you decide to change a template, the titles and transitions will adapt instead of disappearing and requiring you to start the project all over again.

iMovie 3.0 on iPhone

(Image credit: Apple)

Meanwhile, the Magic Movie feature allows you to select an album of photos and videos, and will compile these into a movie. You can re-arrange and delete clips, and the feature will adapt while keeping the theme of the project intact. This feature will analyze your clips for dialogue and movement and will arrange them to fit the movie you've picked.

There's also helpful descriptions of where to add certain clips, whether it's for a close-up shot or something else to help fit the movie.

You can also pick a soundtrack, such as a file from Garageband, Apple Music, or the Files app for example, and iMovie 3.0 will also adapt to this to fit the video, similar to TikTok and Instagram's takes.

It looks to automate how you can create a movie in a half-hour, without going through many menus to achieve the same result.

Magic Movie reminds us of its trailer feature in iMovie on macOS, where you can create small movies of movie trailers with your clips. This looks to be the next step in this feature that's been available on macOS since 2011.

iMovie 3.0 on iPadOS

(Image credit: Apple)

We asked Apple whether there will be a way of adding live transcriptions to clips. We were told that this would have to be added in another app, like Final Cut on the Mac, which was disappointing, especially as its Clips app can do this on iOS already.

Apple also declined to comment on whether these features were coming to the Mac version of iMovie, but it did say that the reason they’re on iMovie for the iPhone and iPad versions from today is due to the ease that users have in creating and managing their media content on those devices.

Analysis: A much-welcome update to iMovie

iMovie iOS app icon

(Image credit: TechRadar)

iMovie is something that goes as far back as the iLife suite in the early 2000s, where you would have a suite of apps such as iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb, and iDVD, all to help create content on your Mac.

But since iMovie’s appearance on iOS in 2010, followed by an iPad release in 2011, its usage has changed, which makes sense for these new features to arrive on iPhone and iPad first.

Having seen the features in action, it’s surprising how few taps and clicks are required to make a movie from start to finish. It looks like an evolution of the trailer feature above, with full movies now taking advantage of this.

But, it is disappointing that there’s no way to add audio transcriptions for when you’re editing a clip for a Storyboard or Magic Movie project. With Instagram and TikTok already showcasing this feature, it would have made sense for this to come to iMovie 3.0.

However, it’s a significant update that’s going to take advantage of the cameras and the content that every iPhone and iPad user has access to. And with its ease of use, it does have the potential to become a common method for those longer movies you want to share with a social platform, or with friends and family.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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Major iMovie update arrives for iOS and iPadOS to help create movies in an instant
  • No Comments

Apple has announced iMovie 3.0, available from today (April 12) which allows users on iOS and iPadOS to more easily compile photos, movies, and music into a home movie thanks to two new features.

iMovie is a popular app from Apple for quickly creating movies and clips on Mac, iPhone and iPad with minimal hassle.

However, Instagram and TikTok have been using AI (Artificial Intelligence) features that make creating and sharing great-looking video clips even easier. For example, they can automatically adapt music to fit video clips. Meanwhile, iMovie was falling behind, with users having to align their music and content manually. But the new update looks to alleviate this with 'Storyboards' and 'Magic Movie'.

It’s rolling out to devices running iOS 15.2 or later and iPadOS 15.2 or later. But Apple declined to say whether these features would also be coming to the macOS version eventually.

What’s new in iMovie 3.0?

Storyboard feature on iPad

(Image credit: Apple)

Storyboards is one of two new features where you can choose from 20 templates to fit the videos, photos, and audio tracks, and each placeholder describes what kind of clip should be in that section of the movie.

This can be helpful for content creators or those who want to test the waters with editing video in general. The feature can guide users with framing their shots and telling a story through their video, and then export it to another app.

When you edit a clip you've already inserted, you can have a voiceover, insert music, trim the clip, adjust the volume, tweak the speed, add titles or delete the clip entirely. If you decide to change a template, the titles and transitions will adapt instead of disappearing and requiring you to start the project all over again.

iMovie 3.0 on iPhone

(Image credit: Apple)

Meanwhile, the Magic Movie feature allows you to select an album of photos and videos, and will compile these into a movie. You can re-arrange and delete clips, and the feature will adapt while keeping the theme of the project intact. This feature will analyze your clips for dialogue and movement and will arrange them to fit the movie you've picked.

There's also helpful descriptions of where to add certain clips, whether it's for a close-up shot or something else to help fit the movie.

You can also pick a soundtrack, such as a file from Garageband, Apple Music, or the Files app for example, and iMovie 3.0 will also adapt to this to fit the video, similar to TikTok and Instagram's takes.

It looks to automate how you can create a movie in a half-hour, without going through many menus to achieve the same result.

Magic Movie reminds us of its trailer feature in iMovie on macOS, where you can create small movies of movie trailers with your clips. This looks to be the next step in this feature that's been available on macOS since 2011.

iMovie 3.0 on iPadOS

(Image credit: Apple)

We asked Apple whether there will be a way of adding live transcriptions to clips. We were told that this would have to be added in another app, like Final Cut on the Mac, which was disappointing, especially as its Clips app can do this on iOS already.

Apple also declined to comment on whether these features were coming to the Mac version of iMovie, but it did say that the reason they’re on iMovie for the iPhone and iPad versions from today is due to the ease that users have in creating and managing their media content on those devices.

Analysis: A much-welcome update to iMovie

iMovie iOS app icon

(Image credit: TechRadar)

iMovie is something that goes as far back as the iLife suite in the early 2000s, where you would have a suite of apps such as iMovie, iPhoto, iWeb, and iDVD, all to help create content on your Mac.

But since iMovie’s appearance on iOS in 2010, followed by an iPad release in 2011, its usage has changed, which makes sense for these new features to arrive on iPhone and iPad first.

Having seen the features in action, it’s surprising how few taps and clicks are required to make a movie from start to finish. It looks like an evolution of the trailer feature above, with full movies now taking advantage of this.

But, it is disappointing that there’s no way to add audio transcriptions for when you’re editing a clip for a Storyboard or Magic Movie project. With Instagram and TikTok already showcasing this feature, it would have made sense for this to come to iMovie 3.0.

However, it’s a significant update that’s going to take advantage of the cameras and the content that every iPhone and iPad user has access to. And with its ease of use, it does have the potential to become a common method for those longer movies you want to share with a social platform, or with friends and family.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

iPadOS 16: Five features I’d like to see as we head towards WWDC 2022
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When iPadOS 15 was announced back at WWDC 2021, I was disappointed to find that it was more of a catch-up to iOS 14, with widgets on the home screen.

While the new Focus feature and better multitasking options were welcome, they didn't go far enough in improving how I used the iPad at the time. As these updates felt so minor to me, I decided to switch to a MacBook Pro 14-inch (2021), and I've been happy with it since.

However, with WWDC 2022 confirmed for June 6, there's a good chance we'll see iPadOS 16. Hopefully, we'll see the operating system set itself apart from iOS, with features that are not only exclusive to the iPad but justifies the 'Pro' in iPad Pro.

With this in mind, here are five features that I'd like to see for iPadOS 16.

iPad home screen with widgets in iPadOS 15

(Image credit: Future)

1. External monitor support

This is a feature that many iPad users have been wanting, myself included when I owned one. While you can connect an iPad to a display, it only mirrors what's being shown on the tablet, and worse, in a resolution that doesn't adapt to the monitor.

We're in a time where completing your work on two or three monitors is normal. You can swap apps and windows between these displays and macOS or Windows 11 handles them fine.

But in iPadOS, that's not possible. Let's see an additional multitasking window show when an iPad is connected to a display. This way, you can swipe an app to another display, and let it display in the full resolution that the monitor is capable of.

2. Redesigned lock screen

There are parts of iPadOS where it looks as though it's an iPhone feature but supersized. Siri was guilty of this for years, where it would cover the entire screen, but thankfully this was resized in a compact menu in iPadOS 13.

The lock screen should be next to benefit from this. While we were given refined notifications in iPadOS 15, there's plenty of space being wasted, especially on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

Let's see a widget displayed at least – perhaps weather as the default, followed by the choice of adding another. While you can swipe to the left and have some widgets display, having them show as soon as you wake the screen would be a nice touch.

3. Record more than one person in a call

This has been a bugbear of content creators, especially those who record podcasts. While you're able to take part in calls and group calls thanks to FaceTime, Skype and others, there's been no way to record everyone separately.

This is how many people capture the recordings for a podcast, as it enables audio editors to place separate audio files to make an episode.

Currently, on iPadOS, there's no way of doing this.

So, let's see an easier way to record multiple people on a call and be able to save them all as separate files, ready to edit into a podcast.

This one change could open up the iPad as a portable podcast machine – from recording a guest, to placing the file into Garageband or Ferrite, then saving it as a finished podcast file, ready to upload to a provider.

4. Final Cut

While there are apps like iMovie and Luma Digital that can edit your video projects, some content creators want the extra power and features that an app like Final Cut provides.

This is Apple's pro version of its video editing apps and has only been available on macOS. But with the Mac and iPad both running on Apple Silicon, users have been wishing to see Final Cut on the iPad.

Seeing this as part of iPadOS 16, along with widgets and shortcuts, could really appeal to pro users. And being able to carry on with their Final Cut projects from Mac to iPad would improve workflows, no need to use a different app on an iPad.

5. Better picture-in-picture support

This is a feature that was once exclusive to the iPad, before moving over to macOS, then iOS 15. However, its features have stayed the same since its debut in iOS 9 on iPad. It's time for some improvements.

To have a timeline slider would be a great benefit, as you currently have to go back to the app that's originally playing the video and press the slider to switch to a different part of what's playing.

Another welcome feature would be the ability to place the video anywhere on the display. While you can do that to a point now, the video has been known to place itself below menus or obstructed by an app. On macOS, you can solve this by holding down the command button and dragging the video anywhere on the display.

If these two improvements arrived on iPadOS, there'd be an increase in its use, especially with YouTube's decision to bring the feature to its app for Premium users.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

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Sidecar can still be used in iPadOS 15.4 with Universal Control – but what is it?
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With Universal Control releasing with macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4 as a beta, some have been wondering if it's replaced a similar feature that's been available since 2019.

Sidecar was released with macOS Catalina in 2019, which allows users with a Mac to use an iPad as a second screen. You couldn't interact with the tablet in iPadOS. This feature would only display whatever you chose from the Mac.

But it's not had its time to shine in three years, with many wondering what the feature does, and how it works. Universal Control has only confused this further, with some wondering if it replaced Sidecar.

During my time using an iPad in 2021, I was able to get Sidecar working with my old MacBook Air (2013), so I wanted to finally straighten out the differences between Universal Control and Sidecar, and how both can be used for certain situations.

What's the difference?

The best way to think of these features is to see Sidecar as a way of only displaying content, while Universal Control is a way to manage content between devices.

You can use your trackpad and keyboard to manage content between your Mac and iPad in Universal Control. But in Sidecar, you're essentially using macOS on both devices, so your Mac thinks it's connected to a second display only. There's no iPadOS when you're using Sidecar.

You're using a keyboard and mouse within this feature, similar to using three external displays in Windows 11 for example – same OS, but an extension of the display. That's what Sidecar's function is for your Mac.

Universal Control on a MacBook Pro

(Image credit: TechRadar)

In an Apple Support document, it details the requirements to use the feature and it explicitly states that you can use AirPlay for Sidecar to work wirelessly or a lightning or USB-C cable to connect your Mac and iPad to also enable Sidecar.

But in Universal Control, you only have to make sure that your Mac and iPad are on the same Wi-Fi network and the same iCloud account. As long as they're both in close proximity to one another, you can use your trackpad or mouse to switch over to the iPad, with no effort necessary to enable the feature.

Sidecar is still a useful feature in 2022, especially if you have an old iPad somewhere. Using a Mac with an external display can be a great help if you're doing work, watching a movie, or playing a game.

Even though Apple hasn't showcased Sidecar much since 2019, it's nice to know it and Universal Control can stand aside one another and can fit certain situations when needed, wherever you may be.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Sidecar can still be used in iPadOS 15.4 with Universal Control – but what is it?
  • No Comments

With Universal Control releasing with macOS 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4 as a beta, some have been wondering if it's replaced a similar feature that's been available since 2019.

Sidecar was released with macOS Catalina in 2019, which allows users with a Mac to use an iPad as a second screen. You couldn't interact with the tablet in iPadOS. This feature would only display whatever you chose from the Mac.

But it's not had its time to shine in three years, with many wondering what the feature does, and how it works. Universal Control has only confused this further, with some wondering if it replaced Sidecar.

During my time using an iPad in 2021, I was able to get Sidecar working with my old MacBook Air (2013), so I wanted to finally straighten out the differences between Universal Control and Sidecar, and how both can be used for certain situations.

What's the difference?

The best way to think of these features is to see Sidecar as a way of only displaying content, while Universal Control is a way to manage content between devices.

You can use your trackpad and keyboard to manage content between your Mac and iPad in Universal Control. But in Sidecar, you're essentially using macOS on both devices, so your Mac thinks it's connected to a second display only. There's no iPadOS when you're using Sidecar.

You're using a keyboard and mouse within this feature, similar to using three external displays in Windows 11 for example – same OS, but an extension of the display. That's what Sidecar's function is for your Mac.

Universal Control on a MacBook Pro

(Image credit: TechRadar)

In an Apple Support document, it details the requirements to use the feature and it explicitly states that you can use AirPlay for Sidecar to work wirelessly or a lightning or USB-C cable to connect your Mac and iPad to also enable Sidecar.

But in Universal Control, you only have to make sure that your Mac and iPad are on the same Wi-Fi network and the same iCloud account. As long as they're both in close proximity to one another, you can use your trackpad or mouse to switch over to the iPad, with no effort necessary to enable the feature.

Sidecar is still a useful feature in 2022, especially if you have an old iPad somewhere. Using a Mac with an external display can be a great help if you're doing work, watching a movie, or playing a game.

Even though Apple hasn't showcased Sidecar much since 2019, it's nice to know it and Universal Control can stand aside one another and can fit certain situations when needed, wherever you may be.

TechRadar – All the latest technology news

Read More

Where is Swift Playgrounds 4 for iPadOS 15.2?
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One feature that Apple showcased at WWDC this year is still yet to appear, which would make creating and distributing apps on iPad a reality.

Swift Playgrounds is Apple’s app to help users learn how to code in the company’s own programming language, called Swift. While developers can code in a language called Objective C, Apple’s own language allows you to code in the Swift Playgrounds app on iPad, generating simple vehicles and levels within it.

But the upcoming version allows users the ability to create and distribute iPhone and iPad apps to the App Store, all on the tablet through Swift Playgrounds.

With Universal Control delayed into Spring 2022, we wonder where Swift Playgrounds 4 is to help the next generation of developers.

Inspiring the next generation

The only way you could code and distribute an Apple app was on a Mac, through Xcode. Released in 2003, this contains everything you need to create and distribute an app on any Apple platform and update it with new features whenever you were ready.

Swift Playgrounds was released in 2016, alongside iOS 10 for iPad, with a macOS version appearing in 2020. As this can only be used in Apple’s Swift programming language, users would need to relearn how to create an app for Apple’s devices.

However, for students and those wanting to learn to code, it’s a fantastic app in how it guides you from the basics of coding to the advanced levels.

Back in June at WWDC, version 4 was announced, with an aim to release the app at the same time as iPadOS 15 in September. But while the software update came out for iPad, the Swift Playgrounds update didn’t.

While macOS users have been waiting for Universal Control to arrive, which allows an iPad to be used as a second screen with a Mac, Swift Playgrounds 4 has not seen any update from Apple on where it is.

The sign of things to come?

In the meantime, features delayed for iOS 15 and macOS 12 have been rolled out to subsequent updates in iOS 15.2 and macOS 12.1, with SharePlay and Legacy Contacts arriving one by one.

But the update to Swift Playgrounds is a significant one, which may be a sign of where programming apps for Apple devices are heading towards.

We all use our devices in different ways, with some using an iPad to edit videos, or another to write the next novel with the Smart Keyboard attachment for example.

Users have been wanting new iterations of Final Cut and Xcode from the Mac to come to the iPad. A 1:1 copy wouldn’t work, as a redesign would be needed to see these appear on the tablet.

This is why Swift Playgrounds 4 is an intriguing concept. Apple hasn’t yet made clear if you can create a watch app or a widget as well on the app, but it could be possible.

The design of the iPad makes a reality of creating apps from start to finish. There’s great potential in the next generation of developers discovering Swift code and seeing how they can create the next great app, all on their iPad.

While we don’t know when the update may arrive, around Christmas would be great timing for it, especially as many kids will be unwrapping iPads on Christmas Day.

But for now, Swift Playgrounds is a tantalizing hint into a future of creating apps, and how the next generation can be inspired to change our routines with the ideas of apps that they have.

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