iPhone 4 Resmi Hadir di Kuwait

Akhirnya, ada juga operator lokal Kuwait yg mem-bundle paket resmi untuk iPhone. Kali ini adalah Viva dengan iPhone 4. Dengan paket yang relatif 'murah' untuk ukuran Kuwait, Viva menawarkan 3 jenis paket dengan kontrak 1 tahun.



Launchingnya pun kebetulan bersamaan dengan XL di Jakarta hari ini dengan paket lebih 'murah' dibanding Viva Kuwait :D

Buat perbandingan sekilas plan 3/premium iPhone 4 16GB:

• Viva Kuwait: Rp 2100000 dengan bulanan Rp 780000, gratis telepon 1000 menit, data unlimited, SMS 300.
• XL Jakarta (belum termasuk pajak): Rp 999000 dengan bulanan Rp 599000, gratis telepon 600 menit, data 4GB, SMS 600.

Paling tidak, paket Viva ini masih lebih murah dibanding paket tidak resmi dari operator lain, Zain, di bulan Desember 2010 menawarkan promo iPhone 4 seharga Rp 4790000 :D

(crossposting dari sini)

Quick Review: Red Giant Movie Looks

The Process

There are 2 free categories with 8 effects in it: Quick & Essential. And 3 paid categories: Popular, Black & White and Blockbusters. Each $0.99.

Pick an effect to tweak the video look. There are only 2 simple slider: strength & brightness. Also an option for half & full resolution rendering.

A confirmation message before rendering with estimation time rendering. Sweet.

While it's rendering, there are some useful tips & information box to read for killing time.

When the iPhone receives an incoming call, the app suspends the rendering process. Then we can resume the process later. Awesome!
Problem is, this Suspend & Resume feature also occurs when we're inside the app & receive notification alert from other apps. Which is a bit annoying, since I have to resume manually everytime the notification appears.
"Stop mention me on Twitter, dude! I'm rendering!"

The Results

The effects are great. I usually get this kind of color on AfterEffects or Final Cut Pro. Now I can do 'Magic Bullet Looks' thingy on my iPhone.

Click to enlarge.

Though there are some compressed blocky artefacts especially in the dark areas, this app definitely leads us to next mobile video era: mobile color-grading.
Before: Nexvio CinemaFX. Now: Red Giant Movie Looks. Next: Boris Continuum?

Useful links:
- iPhoneography
- Red Giant

Red Giant Invades iOS

Anyone who works with video post production service are familiar with Red Giant software. Their Magic Bullet Looks plug-in is amazing. Been using it on my FCP & AFX.

Anyway.
Now Red Giant releases apps for iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad. They just released 3 apps:



- Movie Looks: color grading app for video.



- Plastic Bullet: photography app with radical/extreme effects.



- Noir: photography app with dramatic black & white effects.

Haven't purchase the Movie Looks but there are some important points that I tweeted last night:
- Red Giant Movie Looks for iOS is available for $2.99.
- Suspend & resume to interrupt the render when take a phone call & return to where we left off. Nexvio CinemaFX's missing feature.
- The color are beautiful. Usually I can get this kind of color with Magic Bulllet Looks in FCP or AFX, but now on iPhone.

- Movie Looks does not yet support portrait movies.

- Movie Looks does not yet support more thant 120 seconds video.
- Though the color is great, you can see the 'damaged' artefacts on the jelly fish body.



Red Giant is here, time for proper color grading on iDevice?

note: none of these pictures & videos are mine

Video Review: Toca Tea Party

Kids are playing with Toca Tea Party. Suddenly the house becoming a picnic area!

Shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark II (lens 50mm ƒ1.4) & iPhone 4.
Edited on Final Cut Pro.
Music arranged on GarageBand for iPad.

Responds from Toca Tea Party Teams

Got these awesome responds after we post our video review our video review about Toca Tea Party app.

@pinot your amazing video really lifted everyone's mood here at Toca Boca! So it's me who's bowing to you ;) (link)

Absolutely amazing video! RT @pinot: Picnic with Toca Tea Party app for iPad [video] http://bit.ly/gqzXpn cc @tocaboca (link)

@bjornjeffery @pinot @tocaboca Fantastic! (link)

Helt otroligt - det är en alltså en fan-video! RT @pinot: Picnic with Toca Tea Party app for iPad [video] http://bit.ly/gqzXpn cc @tocaboca (link)

Amazing to see that we make children smile :) RT @pinot: Picnic with Toca Tea Party app for iPad [video] http://t.co/WJb6TB (link)

Almost made this Play Designer cry :) @pinot: Picnic with Toca Tea Party app for iPad [video] http://t.co/3nEpPE8 cc @tocaboca (link)

@pinot We're all very happy in the office right now because of your video! (link)

@pinot Love your video! I'm proud to be part of @tocaboca :) Can we snailmail some presents to you? (link)

So sweet! Definitely Toca Boca team develop their app with their heart.

Vimeo Goes Mobile With iPhone 4

Akhirnya Vimeo merelease aplikasi resminya di AppStore untuk iPhone 3G, iPhone 4 & iPod Touch 4. Cukup lama para Vimean (panggilan untuk pengguna Vimeo) yang menggunakan iDevice menunggu Vimeo untuk sepenuhnya mendukung HTML5 sebagai alternatif selain Flash supaya bisa ditonton di Mobile Safari. Dan kini justru hadir native apps-nya untuk iPhone. Mari bersorak: yay!

Awalnya saya tidak menduga aplikasi Vimeo ini bakal dilengkapi feature editing. Sebelum kita upload ke Vimeo ternyata terdapat fasilitas untuk mengedit footage. Saya jabarkan secara garis besar mengenai fungsi penyuntingan videonya:

Nilai tambah:

• Gratis!
• Interface clean & simple. Mengingatkan pada interface dari Ableton Live.
• Terdapat fungsi timeline zooming, membuat timeline bisa muat dalam satu layar iPhone. Pinch out untuk zoom in melihat timeline lebih detail.
• Title memiliki track sendiri. Mempermudah kita untuk membuat beberapa subtitle dalam satu clip.
• Audio adjustment.

Track tersendiri untuk TITLES. Bandingkan dengan iMovie yang TITLES-nya bergantung pada clip video.

Nilai kurang.

Hanya menyediakan 6 lagu & tidak bisa akses koleksi lagu dari iTunes Library

Tersedia efek video yang ala kadarnya

• Tidak bisa akses iTunes Library. Aplikasi ini hanya menyediakan 6 lagu dalam audio librarynya.
• Saving ke Camera Roll tidak ada pilihan kualitas rendering selain 720p.
• Buggy & sluggish mulai dirasakan saat timeline melewati durasi 30 detik. Di iPhone 4 beberapa kali crash & last progress dari project tidak ter-save.
• Tidak memiliki template graphic.

Saran saya, jika ingin menyunting video, gunakan iMovie for iPhone/iPad, render & upload ke Vimeo di dalam iMovie. Atau paling tidak tunggu hingga fitur penyuntingan ini lebih stabil.

Lepas dari fitur penyuntingan videonya, Vimeo app ini sangat bermanfaat buat pengguna Vimeo. Semua fungsi di website hampir semuanya terdapat dalam aplikasi ini. Preview, share, tags, comments kini bisa dilakukan secara mobile di iPhone.

View video, share, tags, comments etc di dalam iPhone


Share options.


My video library! Tanpa harus menjadi pengguna VimeoPlus.

Sebagai Vimean ber-iDevice, all-in-one app ini wajib adanya. And it's FREE!

Mencoba Vimeo app. Diedit & diupload dari app setelah crash 2 kali :D

Another Suprise from Viva & Digits

After 1 KD iPod Touch promo in February, now Viva & Digits has another offer: iPhone 4 16GB for only 1 KD. With 1 year contract 55KD/month package.

Just go to Digits Marina Mall/Al Kout Mall to Apply.

Mac in Kuwait flea market

Today, we are doing junk-hunting in Friday market - a large flea market in Kuwait (used to open only at Friday (after Friday praying) & Saturday). My mission: looking for any Apple junks. Hopefully any Newtons.

Whoa, there are original bondi blue iMacs from 1998! Price: 30 Kuwait Dinar ($100) & 25 KD without keyboard. They say it's fully working & has latest OS 9 installed. Cool! Good product knowledge, you guys!

Next, I move to the other corner & I sense something. Something about Apple too. Yes! There's an old Macintosh PowerBook 170! The first generation of Apple PowerBook!

"How much is this?" I ask.
"Give me your best price." the seller replies.
"Umm.. 2 KD ($6)?"
"No. Too little. I give you 7 KD ($25)."
"No. That's too much. It has battery, has no power adapter & I think it's dead."
"Ok, 5 KD ($18)."
I show him my wallet with only 2 KD inside "Look, I only have 2 KD. Here, take it."
Then he grabs the money & gives me that historical PowerBook 170. Yay!

The condition? Though there's no battery & power adapter, physically looks relatively good. There are no cracks. Screen looks good, no LCD crack. Trackball feels smooth. Screws are there.

Too bad I can't find Newton though. Next time, Friday market. Next time!


At home, kids are playing with this 20 years old PowerBook

Related story:
- Mac junkyard

Which Store Has iPad 2 in Stock?

Blink.com.kw has iPad 2 in stock. [UPDATE: Now out of stock]




Macble.com is out of stock. Though I got unconfirmed information, they do have iPad 2 in limited stock.




Alghanim? Pre-order & wait for 2 weeks.

UPDATE:
iCity claims they have iPad 2 in stock.

UPDATE 2:
Electrozan now has iPad 2 with limited quantity for trade in program.

UPDATE 3:
March 22nd today, blink.com.kw has new status for the iPad 2: Out Of Stock.

UPDATE 4:

March 24th today, iCity still has iPad 2 (in limited quantity) & posting this new picture in their Twitter.

The Falling Price of The Original iPad in Kuwait

Week ago Blink.com.kw was offering special prices for the original iPad (149KD for the 16GB WIFI).

Now, Sheeel.com has another special good deal: 119KD ($429) for 16GB WIFI plus bonuses.

It's cheaper than the US price back in 2010 when we bought ours. But only in a limited time & limited quantity.

More info in Mark's blog.

DIY iPhone 4 Skin

Got the idea from MacRumors forum. And all we need is a clear backside iPhone 4 case like the one from Griffin.

Download the template here. Modify in Photoshop. Print. Cut. And we have Leica camera skin!



Best of all, now we have unlimited skins for our iPhone 4.

Finally, 2010 Price for Original iPad

Special offer from blink.com.kw

Finally, we can get a $499 (+ tax) price for original iPad. A one year too late? Maybe.
But keep in mind that Kuwait has no official business with Cupertino (nor Apple Middle East - AFAIK), so this last year official price is still considered as a good bargain in Kuwait.

I got the 16GB wifi model back in the US last year for $530 ($499 + tax). So now Kuwait can get the same price, 1 year later. Price-wise, shall I wait another one year for iPad 2? :D

Artefact From The Past: MacAddict June 2002

9 years ago, when Palm was at war with Pocket PC, Apple didn't have any PDA devices. Instead, they built an MP3 player called iPod.
After the death of the Newton, people were hoping for another Apple PDA. iPod was their hope. According to this MacAddict cover edition, people want iPod with camera, video, music & PDAs features.

9 year later, PDA is already dead. And the iPad 2 is born, better than PDA, the iPDA.

iMovie on Original iPad

When I heard that Apple finally release iMovie for iPad I was so freakin excited.
Then officially they ditch the compatibility for the original iPad. I was like... "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" (doing Anakin's scream for Padme - btw our iPad name is iPadme Amidala.)

So why does Apple ditch the original iPad from iMovie's love?

Jason Snell (Macworld):

I was able to install my sample copy on an original iPad and it seemed to work fine, though as projects got more complex it got a little sluggish. This may be one of those cases where Apple decided that if the product didn't worth smoothly and flawlessly on the original iPad, it wasn't worth supporting at all. (article link)

Sluggish? Really?
Trying to download the iMovie app to the original iPad, this is what I got:

Front facing camera? Really?

iTunes & AppStores are refusing to install the iMovie to my original iPad. This is pure evil!
Then I got this trick. The iMovie finally installed in my original iPad.

After import some footages from iPhone 4, then I begin to edit a short video.
Is it sluggish? Is it good?
It. Is. Beautiful!

iPhone 4 > Camera Connection Kit > iMovie on original iPad



It's only 30 seconds project but at least everything works relatively fine. Not snappy quicky perfect but everything is there. The audio waveforms are there. The scrubbing footages are there. The smooth transitions are there.
And best of all - been doing finger-editing on iMovie for iPhone for months - now I'm doing finger-editing on 10 inch screen!
It. Is. Beautiful!

iMovie isn't built for a long duration/complex/multi layered video editing project. It's only for fun, family video, video-blogging, online video. I think the original iPad is sufficient enough for that kind of task.

So again, why do you ditch original iPad from iMovie's love, Apple?

iPad 2 in Alghanim X-Cite

After we got iPad 2 launch day report from friends in San Fransisco & New York, we're going to Avenues mall for X-Cite's iPad 2 launch event.
At 14:00 they were preparing for tonight event. No crowds no lines. Only some Alghanim crews with iPad 2 t-shirt.

At 15:00 we're going home & I was just to sleepy to going back to Avenues mall at 22:00.

Later, I got these X-Cite's photos from the event at 22:30 (original photos by X-Cite Alghanim here).

Photo by X-Cite Alghanim


Photo by X-Cite Alghanim

Yay! Finally the iPad 2 has landed in Kuwait.

More story in Mark's blog.

Related story:
- iPad 2 in New York & San Fransisco
- iPad 2 coming to Kuwait this Saturday

iOS 4.3 Multitasking Gesture in My iPad

Here's how. Note: You need to register your iPad UDID to Apple developer program.


UPDATE:
Another way to activate the Multitasking Gesture here (Gizmodo).

iPad 2 Day!

New York by Boy Avianto

West Village, 14th Street - New York.

San Fransisco by @galihwismoyo

Location Market Street, San Fransisco.

Click photos for original link.

iMovie New Update 1.2

Testing the iMovie 1.2 on iPhone 4.

iPad 2 is Coming to Kuwait This Saturday

Al Ghanim, the biggest local electronic store in Kuwait is posting this teaser on their Facebook page. They have iPad 2 at Saturday night or a day after official launch in US Apple store at March 11. Price? Remain unknown.

"Booking starts from Saturday night 10:30pm."

Sounds they are expecting some long lines for the iPad 2. We'll see!

UPDATE:
First batch: You'll get the iPad 2 after one or two weeks after booking it at Saturday.

UPDATE 2:
Price:
16GB-WiFi Black/White KD199 (US$ 715)
32GB-WiFi Black/White KD249 (US$ 895)
64GB-WiFi Black/White KD289 (US$ 1038)

No further info with 3G models.
Currently, Smart Cover is not available.

Unofficial iPad 2 Price in Kuwait & Indonesia

Can't wait for the iPad 2? Here are 2 unofficial price info in Kuwait & Indonesia.

macble.com - an unofficial Apple online store in Kuwait

Mailing-list group in Indonesia (photo by @wolwol)

Which one is cheaper? Kuwait! USD 826 (Rp 7200000) for iPad 2 32gb wifi.

UPDATE:
XCite Alghanim iPad 2 price:

16GB-WiFi Black/White KD199 (Rp 6275000)
32GB-WiFi Black/White KD249 (Rp 7851000)
64GB-WiFi Black/White KD289 (Rp 9112000)
16GB-WiFi 3G Black/White KD259 (Rp 8166500)
32GB-WiFi 3G Black/White KD309 (Rp 9743095)
64GB-WiFi 3G Black/White KD349 (Rp 11005000)

note: 1 Kuwait Dinar = US$ 3.5 = Rp 31500