If you want to record slow motion video on the iPhone, SloPro is the app to try – watch the video above to see how easy it is to use. Instead of the typical 30 fps (see iPhone specs), SloPro records at 60fps for awesome slow motion effects.

The bad news is, the app was designed for iPhone 4S ONLY. All other devices will record 30fps. If you have an iPhone 4 (like me), you won’t get the optimal results, but it still works… More on that in a minute.

The good news is SloPro has a free version of the app. When you upload the video to YouTube or Facebook, the text “shot with SloPro for iPhone” will be embedded watermark in the video. Hey, it’s free so I can’t argue.

The $1.99 in-app-purchase / upgrade gives you the following features:

• Remove watermark
• Export videos to Camera Roll (so it can be used with other video editing software like iMovie
• Export Raw 60fps video
• Email videos

SloPro works with iPhone 4

I don’t have the iPhone 4S – I’m still using my iPhone 4 and thought I’d try the app anyway. Here’s a quick test video I created:

The video is of my dogs running in the back yard. Not terribly exciting, but a good, quick test. Even thought it’s not the full 60fps, it still looks great – better than I expected. Plus, you can upload the video to YouTube at 720p with the free version.

When I get the next get iPhone, 5 or whatever they’ll call it, this app is a must have for me.

Click here to download SloPro free from the App Store.

After seeing Neo do his bullet dodging ballet in the original Matrix movie, I was hooked to anything and everything Bullet Time, and when the original Max Payne game for the PC came out ten years ago, I definitely had to play it.

Now Max Payne publisher for consoles, Rockstar Games, has announced that they have released both an iOS and Android version of the original Max Payne game. The iOS version launched a bit earlier (April 12) than the Android version (coming April 26) which has always been the usual schedule for game releases like this.

For those of you too young to remember Max Payne on the PC or the console, the game tells the story of our hero dragged into a world of drugs and violence when his wife and daughter were brutally murdered by three thugs high on a new designer drug called Valkyr. Max becomes an undercover agent whose mission is to bust the drug syndicate responsible for Valkyr, thus finally avenging the death of his loved ones.  Simple? Not really, because the plot then takes its complicated twists and turns as Max encounters bank robbers and Mafia men and becomes the prime suspect for the killing of his friend Alex, another agent, when he was still undercover.

Thrilling, isn’t it?

But what makes the game very interesting is Bullet Time. It is the first game of its kind in its genre to use this Matrix-like slow motion effect made famous by the movie. It was great on the PC and the console and I bet it would even be greater on iOS devices with accelerometer controls and all. Just imagine Bullet Time while turning your iDevices this way and that while the action follows every movement you make with your device.

The game features HD graphics, high resolution textures, customizable controls and of course connections to your favorite social network like Facebook and the rest.

Max Payne will be playable on all current iOS devices like the iPhone 3GS and up, iPod Touch 4^th Gen, 1^st and 2^nd Gen iPads and the present apple of my eye – the new iPad with Retina Display.  No word yet on compatibility as to the Android version of the game but I’m sure any modern Android device will be able to rock Max Payne Mobile.

Click to download Max Payne from the App Store.

Anybody can open the WordPress app and start writing a blog post on an iPad. That’s all fine and good – if you’re only responsible for TEXT. What about editing & cropping images? Or adding links to other websites? And what if another writer emails a Word document to you?

Before getting started, you should know that a few apps are required to follow this tutorial. You’ll spend about $15 to have the ability to write awesome blog posts and create kick-ass images from your iPad?

Let’s go already!

Most blogs use WordPress, so this tutorial will focus on using the WordPress blogging app for iPad. We need to set it up on your iPad first.

Setup WordPress App for iPad

Obviously, you’ll need to download and launch the WordPress App for iPad. At the main screen, choose your type of blog:

• Start a new blog at WordPress.com
• Add blog hosted at WordPress.com
• Add self-hosted WordPress blog

If you don’t have a blog, you can create a new one by tapping on the first button.

If your blog is hosted at wordpress.com (like johndoe.wordpress.com), tap the second option.

If you have a blog on your own domain name (like appleslut.com), then you tap the last option.

Got your own blog?

From this point, I’m going to assume you’ve got a WordPress blog on your own domain name. So you’re probably paying a monthly fee for website hosting. (AppleSlut.com recently moved to HostGator – if you’re looking for a website hosting recommendation)

When you enter your username & password into the WordPress iPad app, you might get a warning like this:

Don’t worry, this is just a setting you need to enable in your WordPress admin.

Setup XML-RPC in WordPress

1. Login to your WordPress admin area in Safari (you can use Safari on the iPad or your Mac)
2. Click “Settings”
3. Click “Writing”
4. Under Remote Publishing, check the box next to “XML-RPC”

That’s it! Now you’re ready to write blog posts and pages in the WordPress iPad app.

Opening Word Documents on iPad

Lito is an awesome writer (Hi Lito!). He cranks out blog posts every week and emails the Word documents to me. So, how can I open the Word doc on the iPad, copy the text & links, and then get that into the WordPress app?

The first challenge is opening the Word document. But, that’s not a problem if you have Pages for iPad. Pages opens Word docs without any problems. So, I’ll open this file in Pages.

First, tap on the Word doc in your email.

Tap the “Share” button in the top, right corner. Then tap “Open in Pages” if you have purchased the Pages app (highly recommended).

You may have noticed the “Open In…” button. If you tap it, you’ll see other apps that can open the Word doc. In my case, I could choose Dropbox or Evernote. Both of these apps simply save the Word doc – they don’t allow editing. So, we’ll open in Pages for this example.

You’ll see the loading screen for pages (above).

You might see the “Document Import Warning” screen in Pages. For this example, we don’t have to worry because it’s only a font problem (my iPad doesn’t have the font used in the Word doc). Remember, when you’re blogging, you don’t have to set the fonts – all of that is part of your blog design and done automatically. Click “Done” to continue.

We need to copy all of the text from Pages and paste into WordPress. Tap and hold on a word in the Pages document – hold until the magnifying glass appears, then release. Tap “Select All” from the menu. Then tap “Copy”.

Open the WordPress app and create a new post. Now tap in the body text area, then tap “paste” from the menu that appears.

We need to clean up the text a bit – remove indents, add links, line breaks, bullet lists, etc. Tap anywhere in the body copy and the edit screen will appear. You may have to flip between WordPress and Pages to make sure your post is formatted correctly, links are in the right place, etc.

To add a link in the text, we’ll go back to Pages. Tap on the text to bring up the keyboard. Now tap on one of the links. You’ll see a new menu appear. Tap “Copy”.

Flip back to WordPress. Select the text you want to become the link and tap the blue “Link” button in the top row of the keyboard.

Tap in the “Link URL” field and tap “Paste”, then tap “Insert”. You’ll see the link has been added. Follow this process for all of the links in your blog post.

If you’re making lots of changes or spending lots of time editing the blog post, it’s a good idea to close the keyboard and save every now and then. You don’t want to lose all the work you’ve done.

Tap the eye icon at the bottom of the WordPress app to preview your new blog post. This is a great way to double check your links, formatting, images, etc.

Adding Images to Your Blog Post

Adding images is where it gets tricky. If your blog will shrink or expand images to fit the width of your blog, then you can skip this section.

If your blog theme does not automatically resize images in posts, then you’ve got some work to do.

WordPress only has 2 options for adding images into blog posts:

• Add photo from library
• Take photo

Taking a new photo is pretty easy, so we’ll skip over that. Instead, we want to use the image Lito included in the original Word document. In order to insert the image (or use an image found online), we need to save the image into our iPad’s photo library.

Back to Pages…

Tap the image in pages then tap “copy”. Now we have to get creative because Pages won’t let you save the image to your photo library. Instead, you’re going to email the photo to yourself.

Open Mail and paste the image into a new message. Send the email to yourself – make sure its sent to an email address you can read on your iPad!

When you receive the email, tap and hold on the image. The menu will appear with options to save or copy. Tap “Save image”. This will save the image to your photo library.

Editing Images

Cropping Images
Now that the image is saved to the photo library, you can open it in any image editing app – add text, change the colors, etc. For this example I’m going to open the image in an app called Crop Photo+.

This app lets you crop images – and shows the exact pixel height and width of the cropped image. My blog posts are 550 pixels wide, so I need to make sure the images are that wide so they can fill the entire top of the post.

Lucky for me, the image Lito used is 500 pixels wide – so I know it will fit (the width of my blog is 550). But if the image you want to use is wider that your blog, just drag the red corners to correct size and tap “Save”. That will crop the image to a smaller size.

Remember, cropping a photo will delete the areas outside of the selected area.

If you want to keep the whole image, but just make it smaller, then you need to SCALE the image…

Scale Images
To shrink an entire image, you need to use a function typically called “scale” in the photo editing apps. Scaling images on the iPad takes a few steps to get it exactly right. Here we go…

If you need an image for your blog post, check out the Creative Commons section of Flickr. This area of Flickr allows you to use the images, but you must link from your website to the image on Flickr.

For this example, we’ll use this baby photo.

The easiest way to grab the image from Flickr is to tap on the image. Then click “View all sizes” in the top, right corner. You should see a huge version of the photo – this is perfect.

Tap and hold on the photo. You’ll see the options to save and copy the image. Tap “Save Image.” The image is saved in your Photos app on your iPad and we can edit in other apps.

Now we have to scale it because it’s way too big for our blog.

First, you’ll have to find the width of your blog’s content area. The column you’re reading is 550 pixels wide – so that’s how wide I’ll make the baby photo. (To find the width of your blog, talk to your designer/developer or the person who created the theme. When you have the width, write it down.)

You’ll need 2 apps to correctly scale the image:

1. PixelCalc HD – This app will give us the height and width (in pixels) the scaled image should be. Basically, it makes sure we shrink the image proportionately – we don’t want to end up with an image that looks like it was stretched vertically or horizontally.
2. The Image Resizer – This app actually shrinks the image, but you need to know the pixel dimensions of your blog to make it work.

Find the Pixel Height & Width of the Baby Image

1. Open The Image Resizer app
2. Click the “+” in the top, left corner
3. Open your baby photo
4. At the bottom of the screen, write down the numbers next to “Resolution:” In this case, it’s 1280 x 960 – Those are the width and height in pixels

Did you write down the width of your blog? You’ll need that now!

Get the new image dimensions  

1. Open PixelCalc HD
2. Tap “Proportional Scale” in the left menu
3. Enter the width and height of the current baby photo (1280 x 960) in the Original Width and Original Height fields
4. Enter the width of your blog post column in the New Width field
5. Leave “New Height” blank!
6. Tap “Resize!”

Now you should see the New Height appear. For this example, our scaled baby image should be 550 pixels wide and 413 pixels high. This size will give us a perfect, smaller version for the blog.

Scale the baby image to the smaller size

1. Open The Image Resizer app again
2. Open your baby photo (if it’s not already open)
3. Tap the scale button in the bottom, left corner
4. Enter the width and height we calculated in the PixelCalc app (550 x 413)
5. Tap “Resize”

- Boom! Your image has been scaled proportionately and will fit your blog

Save the scaled image to your iPad photo library

1. Tap the Share button at the bottom
2. Tap “More”
3. Tap “Save to Photo Album”

- I bet you can guess what that does.

Finally! You’ve got a perfectly scaled image, ready to use in WordPress – or whatever blogging software you use.

Insert the image into your blog post

Open the WordPress app and open the blog post you’re writing. Just tap anywhere in the text to bring up the editing window. Tap the photo button in the bottom, right corner and tap on “Add Photo from Library”. Tap on the SCALED photo of the baby – usually, it’s the last photo. Tap “Original”. Your photo will be upload to your blog.

Now you have to tap on the photo to see a preview of the image before it’s inserted into the blog post. Next, tap the Share button in the bottom, right corner. Tap “Above Content” to add the image before the text in your blog post. Tap “Update” in the top, right corner.

Now, the post has the HTML code needed to show the baby photo.

Tap the Eye button to preview your post – with the baby image!

Give Credit to the Photographer

Remember, we used an image from the Creative Commons section of Flickr. We need to give credit to the photographer. Let’s open Safari again. Click and hold on the URL in Safari. Tap “Select All”. Tap “Copy”.

Now, go back to the WordPress app.

Edit the post again and scroll to the very bottom. Hit “Return” twice to give some space at the end of the text. Let’s time something nice, like “Photo by Paparutzi”, and we’ll make that a link to the photo. After you type the credit, highlight it and tap the “Link” button. Paste the URL into the “Link URL” field and tap “Insert”.

Publish Your Post

Tap the Settings button at the bottom of the WordPress app (it looks like a gear). Tap on “Status” and change it to “Published”. Tap on “Published On” and change the date to today. Tap “Update” in the top, right corner.

You are done!

That’s how to blog from your iPad!

Congratulations, you just read over 2,000 words – On of my longest posts ever!

See the Final Post

This tutorial follows the exact steps used to create  and edit a real post for this blog. You can see the final blog post here, and YES, it was edited and published via the WordPress app for iPad.

Cat blogging image (at the very top) by Veronica Belmont

Please share this post

If you like this post, please share it on your favorite social network. Thank you!

This one was inevitable : when Instagram was released for Android on April 3, I knew I had to try out for myself – just to find out how the people on the other side of the fence were doing. Though I am a self-confessed Apple fanboy, it never stopped me from acquiring “other” technologies to compare the user experience with my reliable iDevices.

Let’s get right down to it, shall we?

Instagram for iPhone was released in the later part of 2010 and has been the standard for instant photo sharing on iOS ever since.  Its interface is extremely polished, but very simple to use; without any bloat or complications which may only turn off the average user who just wants to snap a picture, apply a filter and upload to his favorite social network/sharing site.

We all know how good Instagram is on any supported iDevice so we’ll forego its praises and talk more about its brother for Android devices.

First off, Instagram for Android was released a couple of days ago which makes it more than 18 months late compared to the iOS version… but then again, better late than never.  To make this comparison fair, I tried installing the Android version of the app on my Acer Iconia Tab A100 which has more than adequate hardware power to run the program smoothly.

Surprise!

When I tried to download the app from the Google Play store, I was presented with a message saying the app was not compatible with my Tab A100.

What gives?

Undaunted, knowing that this should run well on my Tab A100, I downloaded the app (apk) from another site and set my Tab A100 to install programs from unknown (read : unsupported) sites.

This is what you call “imposing your will” on your device.

Sure enough the app installed and I was able to log in to my account.  The app loaded well and I was able to take a sample photo. This is where the problem started.  The app took the photo alright but it didn’t show on the app’s editing screen.  How can you apply a filter if you can’t see the picture, right?

I thought, “Ok, this must a glitch since I forced-installed the program”, so I tried to get a picture from the gallery instead.  Still no picture and still no go. Hmm… Hey Acer! Listen up.  Instagram doesn’t work on your Tab A100!

Frustrated, I took my wife’s Android phone (Samsung Galaxy Mini) and installed the app via the Play Store.  So far so good – no incompatible shit there and the program booted up just fine.  The interface was identical to the iOS app and I was able to take a sample shot which quickly showed up on the app’s editing screen.  From here on everything went fine and I was able to upload the edited picture (a blade of grass) for the whole world to see.

So how did I find the Android version of Instagram? Aside from the initial incompatibility with my Acer Iconia Tab A100 which was very frustrating since the program SHOULD run well on it, I found the app at par with its older iOS sibling.  Since I was already familiar with the app because I’ve been using it on my iPad 2 for about a year now, and every button is there where the button should be, I will say that Android users will also get a kick out of this app on their (compatible) devices.

Of course, there are some features in the iOS version which are suspiciously absent in the Android version like tilt-shift and live preview which is my opinion shouldn’t have been withheld by the developers, but then again who am I to argue? The app is free, for Pete’s sake, so what am I griping about, right?

Just goes to show how much polished the iOS version of Instagram really is.  It’s been more than 18 months since the iOS version has been released and I was expecting a little more from the Android version but then again, this will have to suffice for now until the developers find the time to improve/update the app.

Perhaps then we could do another blow-by-blow…

Diablo 3 is almost here – launch date is May 15th, 2012. I don’t have any video games on my Mac, but Diablo is a must-have. I was a huge fan of Diablo 2 and played it… way too much. If you want to play Diablo 3 on your Mac, here are the minimum and maximum system requirements.

Minimum Mac Requirements

• Mac OS X 10.6.8, 10.7.x or newer
• Intel Core 2 Duo
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT or ATI Radeon HD 2600 or better
• 2 GB RAM
• 12 GB available HD space
• DVD-ROM (required for retail disc versions only)
• Broadband Internet connection
• 1024×768 minimum resolution

Recommended Mac Requirements

• Mac OS X 10.7.x or newer
• Intel Core 2 Duo
• 2 GB RAM
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M or ATI Radeon HD 4670 or better

MacBook Stats

Here’s what’s inside my MacBook:

Not sure if my 2+ year old MacBook is up to the task (specifically the video card), but I’m gonna try it anyway. I’m sure I’ll have to reduce most of the killer video effects like shadows, reflections, etc… At least I’ll get to play.

More info at www.diablo3.com

Download Now

If you pre-purchase Diablo 3, you can start downloading the game files immediately – and I highly recommend doing this because the game is 7.6GB! With a large number of gamers downloading on launch day, I expect the download times to be terribly long. I’m downloading now and it shows 80 minutes to go.

My nephew Nathan Gabriel was born last January and he and his parents come to visit us every weekend. Although Baby Nathan sleeps soundly, we still have to take turns going to the bedroom just to check that everything is alright as he sleeps. While this routine is not really a bother, we wanted a better way to keep an eye on him and be able to chat with my cousin and have fun at the same time.

Oh sure, there are lots of baby monitor and security apps in the Apple’s AppStore and most of them offer similar functions and services any garden variety baby monitor app should. But one app that really stands out is Baby Monitor 3G because, as its moniker implies, it has one feature that others don’t have right now: 3G.

Baby Monitor 3G developed by TappyTaps offers the same great features that other monitor and security apps in the market offer but what makes the app remarkable and truly deserving its name is its 3G capabilities. The app itself is a very small download coming in at 16.2 MB and being a universal app, it will install on any idevice like the iPod Touch, iPhone and the iPad running iOS 4.2 and up.

Installation is easy enough and you can use it on several iDevices without buying separate license for each device by using iTunes home sharing. Of course to use Baby Monitor 3G you have to have it installed on at least 2 iDevices. One device serves as the Baby Station while the other one (preferably and iPhone or iPod Touch, but any iDevice will do) functions as the Parent Station. Basically, that’s all there is to it. Once each device is set, you just leave the Baby Station in little Junior’s room and you carry the other device with you so you’ll be able to see and hear everything that goes on in baby’s room using any available connection – not only Wi-Fi but 3G and EDGE as well.

The developer’s focus on reliability when they created the app assures you that nothing will keep you from keeping a watchful eye on your precious little one.

The app also has the following great features:

• 2-way audio communication with your child
• Baby Voice Booster to amplify any noise that your child makes
• Baby Camera function to see what is happening in the baby’s room
• Easy to set up, easy to use
• No distance limitations
• Supports iPhone 3G and above — anything that can run iOS 4.2
• Works on iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad

The app’s interface is very intuitive making it extremely easy to use. Even big brother or big sister can use it to keep an eye on little Junior.

We’ve been using Baby Monitor 3G for about two weeks now and it has been a charm. It allows Baby Nathan and his parents to visit us anytime they want and let us enjoy each other’s company – having the peace of mind that Baby Nathan is in his room sleeping safe and soundly.

Baby Monitor 3G is available now from the AppStore.

Photo by Paparutzi

To celebrate the 400th fan on Facebook, I created these kick ass cover photos – for you! You can download them and use them on your own Facebook page.

To download, just hold Control & click the image. Then click “Save Image As”. Now you can save the image to your computer… but remember where you saved it! Go to your Facebook page, and upload the image as a cover photo – Done!

If you use any of the images (and please do), spread the love by sharing this page on Facebook. Thanks!

(FYI: The images look smaller here, but they’ll fit in Facebook. I had to shrink them to fit the width of this column.)

Perhaps you may still have some old iDevices lying around the house – forgotten that you owned them in the first place or maybe just simply forgotten that they are still there – gathering dust, feeling unloved and unwanted.

I still have my iPod video and my 1^st gen iPod Touch with me but they are not forgotten and they are well cared for. Aside from my trusty year-old iPad 2, I usually carry that 1^st gen iPod Touch with me when I want something easy to whip out while riding the 4:14 train home.

Yes, that 1^st gen iPod Touch is still in pristine condition and still works extremely well considering its age. I bought it the year it came out which would make it about 5 or 6 years old but because I’m such an iDevice freak, that 1^st gen iPod Touch was well taken care of.

Of course Apple has discontinued support and updates for it a long time ago and I have to admit that I am already feeling its slow down after using the more recent hardware from the fruit company but that doesn’t mean I have to ditch it and send it to hardware heaven. I knew that some hacker/developer out there still cared to tinker with the old hardware and come up with something that could make this iDevice new again.

And I wasn’t disappointed.

Whited00r breathes new life to old iDevices like the iPhone 2G-3G and iPod Touch 1G-2G.

“Whited00r is the biggest community about iOS modding and firmware cooking in the world.  We provide modded Software Update for your device. Installing whited00r you will get a fully optimized device, just in a few minutes, with a simple restore of your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Your device will be fast and productive again. Whited00r is the best solution for your Apple device, both for power and inexperienced users.”

So how do I find Whited00r? It has simply resurrected my old iPod Touch! The latest Whited00r release brings most of iOS 5.1 features like multitasking, folders, newsstand, and iCloud (among others) to older iDevices without slowing it down. This means that we get almost all the goodies of iOS 5.1 without the need to buy need hardware and makes our old hardware “new” and useful again.

Installation is very easy and the Whited00r website provides a step-by-step instruction on how to go about getting the update on your devices. There is also a thriving community of Whited00r users so if you should run into some issues/problems with the installation or Whited00r itself, you’re just a forum away from help.

So don’t throw your old iDevices away or just let them gather dust in a closet somewhere. Just install Whited00r and it will be good as new. I bet it would make a great present for a niece or a nephew, or better yet, you can decide to give it to charity where some cool kid will really enjoy it! Just think how warm you would feel knowing you made someone very happy…

[Cheesy, I know.]

I have been very quiet these past few days: just diligently and patiently waiting for some news that the new iPad will be made available here sooner than Apple’s schedule. And I wasn’t disappointed because some “industrious” individuals will make the new iPad available here earlier – how? I don’t know and I don’t care as long as I get my anxious hands on one.

Not only will I get the new iPad earlier, it may even be jailbroken before I get to touch its magically stunning new screen as MuscleNerd, iPhone Dev Team’s head honcho, has twitted that they may have already pwned Apple’s premier tablet.

Right now my iPad 2 on iOS 5.0.1 is jailbroken thanks to the great effort of the Jailbreak Dream Team lead by Pod2g. It has only been a couple of months after the team released the only existing untethered jailbreak for iDevices on iOS 5.0.1 specially the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2 which are powered by the A5 processor. The Absinthe Jailbreak to date took the longest time ever in development compared to other jailbreaks which makes it the sweetest success for our favorite hackers out there. But Apple has already plugged that hole with the recently made public iOS 5.1.

Now, as twitted by MuscleNerd, the iPhone Dev Team may have taken the crown for the fastest jailbreak yet with these photos showing Cydia on the new Pad running iOS 5.1 of course.

Earlier this week, German developer/hacker Stefan Esser (a.k.a. i0n1c) has posted some teasing photos of a jailbroken iPad 2 running iOS 5.1. As we all know, i0N1c is the brain behind some of the most recent jailbreak research which eventually resulted in the pwning of iOS4.  He was also working behind the scene and greatly contributed to the latest jailbreak which gave us Absinthe – the unique untethered jailbreak for the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2.

So, everything is looking up for the jailbreak scene as we may have not one, but two, jailbreak for all iDevices running iOS 5.1.  I just can’t wait to get my nervous hands on the new iPad.

(By the way, I know someone who, as we speak right now, may be fondling his bright new iPad and secretly saying “You’re mine. All mine”…)

Maybe you’ve heard about the new iPad – it’s kind of a big deal. With the launch day almost here, I thought it would be fun to create some ecards to celebrate the event. After all, who doesn’t like an ecard? All 3 were created by me in just a few minutes with the help of SomeEcards.com.

If you have a funnier ecard saying, leave a comment. Or create your own ecard and send me a link – i’ll post it here.