Create And Share Free Video Slideshows With Friends On You iPhone

The old saying that the best camera is the one you have with you is true enough, but sometimes what you really want is a way to share those great photos that's easy, free and really does them justice. In this tutorial we'll be walking through Animoto, a web service and iPhone app that allows you to select photos, add titles and a soundtrack and then apply a style which includes custom backgrounds, animations (think picture in picture, that kind of thing) as well as transition effects. The free version has a limit of 12 pictures but that's more than enough to create a fancy electronic postcard of- for example - your holiday or a night out and then share it with friends either directly or via Facebook, Twitter and other popular social networks.

What You Need:

• iPhone or iPod Touch
• Animoto App
• Some Photo

Discover How to Use Animoto (Step-by-Step Guide)

The Video Tool

Download and install Animoto (it's Free) and then tap the icon to start. When the main screen loads, tap the green Create Video button to begin and then, at the next screen tap the Video Tools button at the bottom right to open this menu. Then tap Add Photos to continue.

Choosing Photos

You can snap a new photo or select ones you've already taken (as many as 12 in the Free version); just open the relevant photo library and then choose photos by tapping on them so a green tick appears. All finished? Tap the Done button at the top right to see thumbnails of your photos displayed in date order.

Add a Title

Open the Video Tools menu and choose Add Text. Type in a heading and sub-heading for the slideshow and tap Done and then Add Text. Back at the thumbnail viewyou'll see Animoto has added the title to the end. Pick it up with your finger and drag it to the start. (All slides can be re-arranged in the same way).

Choose Some Music

Open the Video Tools menu again and choose Change Song. Animoto has a library of licensed songs you can use - select either Albums, Artists or Genres and see what takes your fancy. Audition tracks by tapping the play button and choose one by tapping it and then tapping the Select button at the top right.

Choose A Style

The free version of Animoto includes eight built-in styles - open the Video Tools menu and choose Change Style and then swipe through them, tapping View Sample to see a preview of the included style and effects. Found one you like? Tap Select Style. Back at the thumbnail screen, tap Preview to see what it looks like.

Share The Video

Give the video a name and then tap Produce Video. Create a free Animoto account (or use your Facebook info) and sign in. The app renders the video and once it's there you can tap the cog button to save it back to the camera roll or tap Share to let friends see it via Facebook, Twitter and so on.

Wacom Intuos5 Large - A Powerful Digitizer

The Intuos5 is targeted at professional photographers, designers, and artists who want a slim, powerful digitizer. New features include multi-touch gesture support, an Express View display that helps deliver an efficient workflow, and wireless capabilities. Supported gestures include zoom, scroll, pan, and rotate. You can also create customizable gestures for easy navigation input. Wacom designs the Intuos5 with an ergonomic, ambidextrous layout, and there’s a soft-touch finish for comfortable long-term use. The large model is 8 x 12.8 inches (HxW) and can be connected to the PC via USB or RF wireless (requires optional Wireless Accessory Kit).

• The Intuos5 can switch between multi-touch gestures and the pressure-sensitive pen when sketching, painting, retouching, and editing.
• There is 102.4 square inches of work area to provide space for large sketches.
• The Intuos5 Grip Pen offers 2048 levels of pen pressure
• sensitivity for variations in line width and opacity.

Kingston 240GB SSDNow V+200 - An SSD For Business

Designed for business and home users, Kingston’s SSDNow V+200 provides quick application loading and speedy file transfer to work PCs for a cost-conscious price. It’s ideal for workers who deal with large files, such as videos, presentations, and graphics. Kingston also builds in features that will help maintain the SSD to extend its lifespan and ensure optimal performance. For example, the SSDNow V+200 offers Data Integrity Protection that improves stability, while Kingston’s RAISE delivers advanced data reliability.

• The 240GB SSDNow V+200 supports 6Gbps, 3Gbps, and 1.5Gbps SATA (Serial Attached Technology Interface) standards.
• The SSD offers maximum read speed of 535MBps and write speed of 450MBps.
• The 2.5-inch form factor fits into both laptops and desktop PCs.

Learn How to Make Your Own Website

"Weebly lets you create a smart looking website in just a few hours - perfect for showing off a hobby."

It's great fun having your own website dedicated to a hobby or collection you love, and it's a fantastic way to share your passion with like-minded people anywhere in the world!

Building your website using Weebly couldn't be easier - it's the simplest website-building platform we've ever used, and it's incredibly powerful. Did we mention it's free as well? No wonder over 10 million people and businesses use it!

I'm confident you'll love the drag-and-drop style builder, which makes it a cinch to add text, photos, maps and videos by simply dragging and dropping them into place. There are over 100 professionally designed themes for you to choose from when deciding on the look for your website. You can customise whichever theme you pick, so you're left with something that's smart looking and unique to your site.

Sign up

Head to www.weebly.com and type your name, email address and a password in the box on the right. Verify that you're human (not a program that signs up for accounts automatically) by typing the code shown. You'll get an email from Weebly, which contains your username, a link for resetting your password, and links to the Weebly Support Portal and blog. Keep this email safe.

Name your domain

Weebly will now ask for a title, which will be shown on your website. From the Type of Site menu below, select 'Personal', then click 'Continue'. A window will appear asking you to choose your website domain - select 'Use a subdomain of weebly.com' and type whatever you'd like your URL to be - a red cross mean it's taken, and a green tick means its available. Click 'Continue'.

Theme your site

You'll now be taken to the Weebly editor. Before we start making the site, we need to decide how we want it to look. Click the 'Design' tab at the top and then select 'AII themes' from the menu on the left. Browse through the themes, clicking the orange 'Preview theme' button for a better view until you find one you want to use, then click the 'Use theme' button.

Perfect the basics

Now you can get your site's title and banner looking good. Click 'Design > Design options > Site title 'to change the look of the text. To personalise your banner, hover your cursor over it, then click 'Edit image' and select the cross to delete it. Click 'Add image' from the top left, choose a photo from your PC and click 'OK'. Position the image, then use the tools on top to add effects.

Design your homepage

Your homepage is the first thing people will see, so you'll probably want to add some information about you and your hobby, and perhaps some images. Click the'Elements'tab, then drag and drop the text and photo boxes into your page and move them around until you're happy. Add pictures as in Step 4 and either type text straight in, or copy and paste it from elsewhere.

Add more pages

Now that your homepage looks the way you want, it's time to add some more pages. Click the 'Pages' tab at the top of the page, then click 'Add page > New page'. Now type the new page's name in the Page Name bar and click 'Save settings'. Your new page will now be visible in the navigation bar on your homepage. Repeat this process until you have all the pages you want.

Populate your pages

Now you've made all of the pages you want at the moment, you can go through them and drag and drop the different design elements into them, as in Step 5. Click on the 'Multimedia' menu in the top left and you'll be presented with a whole new set of drag and drop elements, including a photo gallery, slideshow and YouTube video clips - just click and drag these into place.

Add a blog

Add a blog page to your site and you'll be able to add quick updates about your collection or hobby. For example, you might want to add a post if you've seen something cool online or are part way through fixing a car. Click the 'Pages' tab at the top of the page, click 'Add blog' then click 'Save settings'. On your blog page, simply click the orange 'New post' tab to add updates.

Optimise for search

To make sure people can find your website though search engines, you need to do some SEO work. Click the 'Settings > Search engine optimisation (SEO)', then give your site a description - for example: radio control cars: racing, fixing, collecting. In the Meta Keyword box add words that describe what your site is about - for example: cars, RC, off road and so on.

Make it live

Now you've made your own website to show off your hobby, the only thing left to do is make it live! Click the orange 'Publish' button on the top right of the tool bar at the top of the page. Choose 'Use a subdomain of Weebly.com > Continue' and you're all done. You now have a fully customised website with multimedia, a blog and a range of pages - well done!

Best Free Food Apps for iPhone and iPad

The universe of food apps for iPhone and iPad is as diverse as the food available on the shelves of the grocery megastores; it's overwhelm­ing in scope and can easily lead to endless wandering in the aisles. An efficient way to tackle the adventure of loading up your iOS device with "go-to" culinary information is to start by making a list of your own food essentials. From there, it's easy to search the App Store or Google for just the right item.

Whether you want to browse recipes, find specifics on a particular cuisine, make a restaurant reservation, or create a grocery list, it's all possible through the App Store for free. If your cash is burning that proverbial hole in your pocket, don't worry, as most free food apps for iPhone and iPad offer paid, upgraded versions, that expand the app's capabilities. First, though, take advantage of the developer's generosity and see if the following techno-culinary tools might prove useful in your kitchen, at the grocery store, or at a restaurant.

Best Recipe Apps for iPhone and iPad

Three key apps for large recipe databases are Epicurious Reci­pes & Shopping List, 170,000+ Recipes BigOven, and Allrecipes -Your Kitchen Inspiration.

Epicurious (Free)

Epicurious has over 30,000 recipes, many of them compiled from the archives of Conde Nast magazines Bon Appetite, Gourmet, and Self. Each recipe page is visually simple to follow and includes an image of the dish, and ingredient list, and step-by-step in­structions. "Lunches Kids Love," "Vegetarian Mains," "I Cook Like a Pro," and "I Can Barely Cook," are a few of the many category choices. The rating tab has a "Would make it again" listing, which is a helpful element.

BigOven (Free)

BigOven contains a mega database of over 170,000 recipes. It relies on its users to con­tinually expand the choices, and there is an extensive body of reviews. You can search by title, keyword, course, or ingredient. I wanted to make Gougeres, a classic French appetizer, so I typed that in and was rewarded with 14 very different recipes, including a recipe appropriate for diabetics. It's critical to create a free BigOven account in the app in order to take advantage of its many features.

Allrecipes

The Allrecipes app combines gorgeous de­sign elements with more than 45,000 recipes submitted by users. Use the menu bar at the bottom of the page to customize your recipe search through the available categories: Course, Ingredient, Method, Time, Oc­casion, and Cuisine. The "More Like This" feature expands your choices once you've narrowed your search to a particular dish.

Best Food Education Apps for iPhone and iPad

With 58 million overweight people in the United States, ex­ponential growth in cases of type 2 diabetes and other obesity-related diseases, and the ever-escalating cost of health care, it's no wonder there is a plethora of apps that focus on food education. These apps can improve our food knowledge and eating habits, leading to a healthier lifestyle.

Fooducate

This iPhone app lets the user scan product barcodes, and its database currently contains over 200,000 items. The results include a food grade based on the fats, carbohydrates, fiber, and protein con­tent. The number of calories per serving is also listed. When I scanned a package of roasted almonds, data was provided about the health benefits of almonds, comparable products, and the option to compare one product versus another.

Find Me Gluten (Free)

Find Me Gluten Free is the perfect iPad app if you are in unfamiliar surroundings and need a safe place to eat. The restaurants listed fall into one or more of the following categories: they have a gluten-free menu, list gluten-free ingredients, or accommodate people with this type of dietary restriction. Turn on the phone's Location Services and nearby restaurants will pop up. One important tip: It's always good to call ahead and verify that the restaurant can handle your particular dietary needs.

Final Words

There is a seemingly endless number of free food apps for iphone and ipad avail­able, depending on your individual food interests and needs. Foodspotting, Yelp, Facebook, AroundMe, OpenTable, and Foursquare are all integral to the cyber-food world adventurer.

Put together your own list of personal favorite food apps to share on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and wherever food lovers are found. Don't forget to share them with me, too!

Author Bio: Guest Post by Kashif Raza, he is a blogger and tech enthusiast. Presently working for ipad3games.co, that offer reviews of best iPad apps.  

Tablet and Smartphone Games for Hardcore Gamers

Who says only console gaming satisfies the soul? Here are some for phones and tablet games to get the juices flowing.

You’ve probably heard of Angry Birds. Yep. Rovio's blockbuster smartphone game about annoyed avians being catapulted into the air at their porcine antagonists has been downloaded over 15 million times, and has been catapulted, excuse the pun, into popular culture. Angry Birds is the poster child of the new touch gaming revolution. It's the game everyone has played.

You probably haven't heard of Shadowgun.

And yet, Madfinger’s incredibly gor­geous third-person shooter is one of the most significant games released for smartphones last year—one that silently heralds the beginning of a major gaming revolution.

Today's smartphones and tablets, powered by increasingly capable processors, have emerged as serious contenders in the gaming arena. iOS and Android devices are now a bonafide gaming platform—and a serious threat to the established Nintendo and Sony handheld systems, at least in terms of sheer numbers.

And, while games like Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and Cut TheRope have spearheaded the rise of casual games on phones and tablets, the hardcore gamers still cling to their PS Vita and 3DS systems because they have been unable to find truly hardcore gam­ing experiences on their tablets.

However, this scenario is changing pretty rapidly. Consider the following examples.

Shadowgun (Android/iOS)

A third-person cover shooter with eye-popping graphics, Shadowgun could be the game that finally makes hardcore gamers take to smartphone and tablet gaming. It's like playing Gears of War on your phone.

Emissary of War (Android / iOS)

This superb hack-n-slash is like a fun­nier, lighter version of Diablo—without losing the addictiveness. The clever touch controls make killing things more fun than ever.

Samurai 2 (iOS/Android)

A stunningly beautiful third-person chop-em-up with amazing eel-shaded 3D graphics. Slicing enemies into two has never looked better. One of the absolute best action games on a phone or tablet.

Myth Defense 2 (Android)

While tower defense games are fairly common on phones and tablets, Myth Defense 2 shines through as the most hardcore and challenging of the lot. An absolute gem—not for the weak.

Infinity Blade 2 (iOS)

The undoubted champion of mobile graphical power­house games, Infinity Blade 2 is truly a sight to behold. There are console games that don't look this good.

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