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I announced a while back that I’d finally taken the plunge to purchase an iPad2.  I confessed that it was much more of a luxury item than a necessity.  Now that I’ve used it for a couple of months, I’ve realized just how much I’ve missed by not having it sooner.

Here are 6 ways that I’ve used the iPad2 in the context of corporate worship and my job as a worship pastor.

1.  Planning Meetings:  this is a bit of a luxury, but I no longer have to haul my big MacBook Pro up the stairs and take up a lot of table space at our weekly planning meetings.  I show up with my iPad2 in hand, with quick easy access to my tunes and PlanningCenterOnline.

2.  Digital Music Stand:  there are numerous apps out there that let you store a library of .pdf files.  I haven’t even gotten that far yet, but I export our setlist from PlanningCenter as a .pdf into my DropBox account, and then open it on the iPad for a quick, easy digital music stand.  No more stacks of paper to shuffle through.  (DropBox is FREE, and if you haven’t created a free account there, you’re missing out.  Use my affiliate link so I can get more free space, please!)

3.  Remote Control:  with the “Remote” app, I can easily control my iTunes playlist from my iPad.  This has come in extremely handy when I’m at the piano or keyboard rehearsing a tune or charting out a song.  Where before I’d have to reach way over to my desk and press play w/ the mouse, scoot back to my keyboard, scoot back to stop and rewind, etc., I can do all of this with the iPad sitting on my keyboard.  From one seat at the piano or keyboard, I can load, play, rewind, repeat, scrub – making charting arrangements and learning new songs a lot easier.

4.  Yamaha M7CL StageMix App:  with this incredible, FREE app from Yamaha, I can actually connect via WiFi to our Yahama M7CL sound board and easily adjust the sound.  Granted, we’ve got an incredible tech team on hand mixing the sound, but being able to tweak my personal in-ear monitor mix from the iPad is genius.

5.  ProRemote:  ProRemote is a high-end, paid app (it’s got a hefty price tag of $99) that is a full-featured remote mixing/editing surface for all of the popular recording and looping packages, including Logic Studio, ProTools, Ableton Live, Reason, Garageband, and more.  This app is far more powerful than a simple on/off remote.  It gives you full access to almost every feature in the software itself.   Imagine being able to leave the studio console, walk into a vocal booth, record-enable a track, hit play, punch in and out recording, scrub back and listen, set location markers, and more …. by yourself, wirelessly, without an engineer sitting at the console.  All of this is possible through ProRemote.

In our studio, I’ve toggled back and forth between the iTunes Remote and ProRemote to create loops,click tracks, and full arrangements of songs.  On stage, I used ProRemote to not only control the Start/Stop of our click tracks in Ableton Live, but I also setup loop points and markers where I could easily loop or go back to a rehearsal marker with a push of a “pad” on the screen of my iPad.

6.  My Music – everywhere:  With the landing of Spotify here in the US, I can have my music, playlists, and even the playlists and music of friends available to me on my iPad instantly.  I’m not worried about syncing libraries, managing iTunes accounts, or even better – taking up precious storage space on my device.

Free Spotify accounts are by invitation only through Klout … but I have good news.  I’ve got a special link to get you in.  (Get a Klout and Spotify Account Here!)

This is a short-list of the way I’ve benefited from using the iPad2. If you’ve considered making a purchase, I hope this can help justify it.  If you already have an iPad, how do you use it in the context of your job?

Let the fun begin!

HOORAY!  After waiting a couple of weeks, my iPad 2 shipped from China and just arrived yesterday.  (Apparently, mine just left the factory in time before the factory exploded – that was a close call).

I blogged about why I finally caved in and spent the $ on this luxury a couple of weeks ago.

Well, I spent most of the evening ignoring my wife and kids (Problem #1) as I drooled over this new-found piece of electric glory … so my question to you is, “what now”?

I definitely want to get the app that allows me to control Ableton and Logic.  The Comcast Xfinity app is super cool as well, allowing me to watch TV and movies through my Comcast login.

I wasted no time downloading a good “Texas Holdem” game and of course, “Angry Birds” for the kids.

What am I missing?

Well, I did it.  I’m a gadget addict, I confess.  I’ve successfully starved off the craving to own an iPad since those sleek, sexy tablets came out.  It lasted for quite a while.  But now, I’ve caved.

Yes, I ordered an Apple iPad 2 yesterday.  They seem to be out of stock everywhere so I ordered from Apple.Com and it’s supposed to ship in 1-2 weeks.

My purchase was not without a good bit of prayer and research.  Prayer?  Well that’s a nice chunk of change for a gadget that is clearly more of a “want” than a “need”.  Am I being a poor steward of my finances in making the purchase?  Couldn’t those funds be better used by those in need?  Research?  Well, I’ve read numerous reviews both praising the iPad and bashing it.  I have trusted friends who gave theirs away and others who say if they had to do it all over again, they’d still make the purchase.

Here are 6 reasons I took the plunge:

1.  Portability:  I carry my 15″ MacBook Pro around everywhere, and I don’t carry it around without having my backpack.  There are so many times when I prefer a digital workspace but don’t want to lug the bag and laptop around.  I think of how portable and easy it would be to carry this (and only this) into my meetings for notes, sketches, ideas.

2.  Digital Archives:  I try to be as paperless as possible – if we’re handed a few pages of notes or outlines at our church staff meeting, I followup immediately afterwards with a request for the e-document and I throw away the papers.  Using a cloud-service like Dropbox enables me to keep my documents with me and easily accessible.  I am planning on creating an extensive database of lyric/chord charts that I can access on demand when leading more spontaneous, free-flowing worship times.

3.  Worship Production:  Two of the applications that we use daily in creating, planning, and executing corporate worship services are PlanningCenterOnline and ProPresenter.  The iPad allows me to interact with either of these (as a music stand, a lyrics display, etc) from the stage with a minimal footprint.  If only the iPad ran Ableton Live, I could keep my laptop off stage completely.  I also understand that there is an app that may allow me to connect remotely to our Yamaha M7CL mixing console and adjust my monitor mix.  Travis would love nothing more than never having to tweak my picky monitor preferences again.

4.  Product Sourcing & Sales Data:  as I begin to get more involved in product sourcing for my e-biz, I find myself needing online access to verify a product’s sales rank in the marketplace, verify competitive pricing, etc.  With plans to visit some trade shows and expos where I’d need to make fairly quick decisions on bulk purchasing, this information is critical to me.  As I’ve been making arrangements to visit one particular event, I could only imagine negotiating with a manufacturer or vendor and having to say “could you wait for me to find an office somewhere around here where I can pull out my laptop and do some research”.  What I can imagine is having an iPad within reach where I can do quick research via the Wifi and web browser on the spot without having to setup a mobile office space.

In addition, we’ve recently migrated all of our e-biz sales data to FileMaker Pro.  Although we do have web access to our FileMaker databases, some of the functionality of the software is not available unless you connect with the actual software of their iPad app, FileMaker Go.  After previewing the FileMaker Go app on the in-store iPad at Verizon the other day, I was hooked.  FileMaker has a great promotion running where purchasing their iPad app gives you a $150 discount on their desktop app, which I am required to purchase.  This sweetened the deal for me.

5.  Entertainment:  well, c’mon let’s be honest.  Having an iPad will just be fun.  I look forward to de-stressing by playing some pinball, Angry Birds on bigger screen, or watching a movie in the car.  With 4 kids, all who are constantly asking my wife and I if they can “play my phone” … I’m sure it will become a family media device.  I’m OK with that.  Granted, that usage needs to be balanced, but I’m up for the challenge.

6.  Personal Study and Reading:  From everything I have read, the Kindle is simply a better device for reading.  Period.   I’m a gadget guy, absolutely, but I’m not planning on buying a gadget just for reading.  Enter the Kindle App and my ability to read books via the iPad.  I look forward to interacting with YouVersion.Com as well in my daily Bible Study.

I’m sure there are pros and cons to owning an iPad.  I would be the first to say it’s a luxury item.  Perhaps I’ll update you in a few months on how it panned out.

How about you?  Do you own an iPad or tablet?  How do you use it?

So you’ve just come home from vacation (like us) and you’re ready to import all of your photos and videos from your Motorola Droid or DroidX into your Mac’s iPhoto application.  Unlike plugging in an iPhone, it’s not necessarily that simple.

Prior to December 2010 it seemed you could just plug in the phone and it would do everything you’d expect.  It seems like some operating system update changed this in late 2010, based on discussions in the Android forums.

In case you haven’t figured it out – here’s the short and simple way to make this happen.
(click the image for a larger view)

1. Make sure your DroidX USB settings are set to “USB Mass Storage”.
2. Plugin your DroidX to your Mac via the USB cable.  (this SHOULD mount the device on your desktop and may actually launch iPhoto automatically.  (My phone mounts as “NO NAME”.)
3. If iPhoto did not launch automatically, launch it to open the application.
4. In iPhoto, go to “Import to Library” which brings up a file selection box.
5. Your photos are stored on your data card.  Navigate to the following directory on your phone:
   /dcim/Camera/
6. You should see your timestamped photos and videos in this folder.  Simply click the “Import” button to begin.

That should do it!  Try it and let me know if it worked for you.

Anyone who follows my thoughts in this big cyberspace is quite familiar with my affection for Apple.  I love Apple products and have been a faithful Apple user since college.  (for those who are counting, that would be nearly 20 years)!  Despite my passion for Apple, I blogged a while back about “Why I’m Not Getting a Verizon iPhone” and “How This Apple Addict Fell in Love with the DroidX“.  Google stepped in and started changing the way my life was surrounded by Apple products.

With the recent announcement of the “Amazon Cloud Drive” and the “Amazon Cloud Player” I can’t help but wonder if Amazon is about to join Google in assaulting the massive market share of Apple’s dominance in the digital media world.

One of the most frustrating issues in dealing with my iTunes libraries across multiple computers is the lack of sync.  Sure, there are products out there that supposedly help you sync your iTunes libraries together across multiple computers.  I’ve tried some of this software and didn’t have a lot of success.

I have 2 primary iTunes accounts.  One account is for personal purchases and the other is for purchases I make through my Church account.  These get all mixed up and in my eagerness to get a new song over the weekend on my home computer I later find that it’s not on my church laptop.  Now, with the addition of a new studio computer at SSCC I have a 3rd location where I want to hear my music.  Having iTunes libraries from two separate accounts on 3-4 different computers is a real hassle … not to mention the issues of iPod syncing.

With thew new Amazon Cloud Drive I can begin uploading all of my music to the “cloud”.  (Travis, those quotes were JUST for you).  This gives me access to my music via web and the Android-based Amazon Player on my DroidX.

Granted, you only get 5 GB of free online storage but that’s quite a bit of storage and the price to increase storage is minimal.  To make things even better, if you purchase your music from Amazon.Com instead of via iTunes (the pricing is typically the same with less sync/copy restrictions) the music can be stored in your Amazon Cloud without using your storage space.

Want that new album?

Buy it on iTunes and it’s restricted to a few places.  Even to get the music on a different computer at all requires physically copying the files.
Buy it on Amazon and it’s available on your computer, on your phone, and in the cloud – accessible from any computer, any time, with web access.

I could be wrong but I think this will pose a serious challenge to the way Apple manages our media purchases and storage.  In the end, it’s all about access and convenience.  By the looks of this new Amazon Cloud, they have a promising product.

For me, I’m uploading music RIGHT NOW to the cloud.

What about you?