FredMcKinnon.Com

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!

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?

So … this online friend, Diane Goodwin (blog | twitter) has been making “paper me’s” … paper cutout versions of her online (and real) friends.  More and more folks have been changing their online avatars to their “paper me”.

Jokingly, I asked Diane where my “me” was and despite having a huge demand for them, she was gracious enough to make one.  Granted, we’ve never met.  She’s never seen me.  (well, unless you count online photos, right!?).  She’s in Belfast, Ireland.  (how cool is that).

The inside story here is that having these creates discussions … awareness, to a cause.  These avatars and pictures really “stand out”.  So when people ask about this, I can say that Diane did this, at no charge, for a cause – and that cause is “StandOut International“.

“StandOut International” exists to tackle the problem of child sexual exploitation head-on.  Read more about “StandOut” and consider making a donation.  I’ve just made mine!

So … here’s the “paper me”.  I never looked so good, right?

Hi.  My name is Fred McKinnon, and I’m an Apple-holic.

Since I was first introduced to Apple computers at Georgia Southern University in 1989 … it’s all I’ve used.  We’ve got multiple Macs and iPods … but the one Apple product that we’ve stayed away from was the iPhone.

I’ve wanted an iPhone for a couple of years.  The reality is, AT&T’s service in our area is less-than-reliable.  In our home, it’s essentially nonexistent.  That won’t work for us.  So I didn’t just want an iPhone.  I wanted a Verizon iPhone.

So earlier this month, I finally accepted the fact that maybe another phone could be as powerful as the coveted iPhone … at least, until an iPhone was available on Verizon’s network.  (the latest rumor is that this will happen in January 2011 … emphasis on the word, “rumor”).  So Joy and I both got ourselves the brand new “DroidX” from Motorola, sporting Google’s “Android” operating system.

In my business, Google is a constant companion.

Google Checkout
Google Base/Shopping
Google Analytics
Google Adsense
Google Adwords

Earlier this year, at the prompting of Travis Paulding, our Tech Director at SSCC, I migrated all of my email accounts to Google Apps.  After utilizing the powerful Gmail engine in Google Apps to power my multiple domains and email accounts, I asked myself why I didn’t do that a long time ago when Tony Morgan was talking about it.

So the courtship begins.  I have a Google-based phone, a business that networks with Google, and an “all-Apple” computer system, utilizing all the Apple apps like Mail, Address Book, and iCal.

And somehow, all of these have to not just get along … but be in love.

Well, a few weeks into my Google/Droid/Apple courtship, I am proud to say that “love is in the air”.
Stay tuned for Part 2 for details on the courtship, including my Apps, and how I brought my Google Phone into a beautiful union with my Mac Address Book, iCal, To-Dos, Email, Music, Photos, and Videos.

Part 2 … coming soon.

Nerd that I am, I thought It’d check to see if there was an app for wordpress on the android marketplace.  See i got this new DroidX from Verizon and its an android phone.

Well, I am typing this post from within the app.  Full blog on the DroidX and how we’re getting along is forthcoming.