iPad

It’s been a while since my last post – so here is a good one… I often take screenshots with my iPad and shots often end up saved in a way that requires image rotation. The current version of iOS will not allow you to rotate images (rotate may become a part of iOS 4) so I had to look for a workaround – do a Google search on “How to Rotate Photo on iPad” and you’ll be more lost than before. There is a couple nifty apps that will do the job for a symbolic 99 cents (e.g., Photo Rotate) – however, I wanted to avoid installing yet another app on my already overcrowded device.

Photoshop to ‘rotation rescue’! I am sure many of you have the app already installed (I covered it here: Photoshop for iPad – this free application has a built in ‘rotate’ feature that is kind of buried below the ‘crop’ icon. See the screenshots below for details – the whole process is fairly straightforward and should be be a non brainier.

• First, get the app from here: Photoshop Express for iPad (you may have it already)…
• Second, open the app and navigate to your photo (see Image 1 – select the image that needs to be rotated)
  Third, hit the crop icon (Step 1 – Image 2) and select option “ROTATE” (Step 2 – Image 2)

Hope this will help you rotate the darn thing

Image 1

Image 2

Back in March I have received two email with folks asking how to transfer photos to the iPad. I put together a quick guide back then – most folks did not like it as it was short and not very explanatory.

To correct this – here is my second attempt to put together a guide on how to transfer pics onto the iPad – this time with eight screenshots and step to step guide on how to move the image files. The guide is based on my humble setup – 16GB Wi-Fi iPad (no 3G here) and a Windows 7 Prof. client machine running iTunes 9.1…

Here we go:

Step A: Opening iTunes and Setting Photo Sync Up
Fire up the iTunes – Make sure that your iPad device is selected (see A1), and that you are switched to the Photos section (see A2) – finally – make sure you check “Sync Photos” Radio Button (see A3)…

Step B: Selecting Photo Folders to Sync
You will be on the same screen – double-check that B1 is checked and move onto B2 – here you will chose folder that contains pics you want to move onto the device. Finally, for the purpose of this exercise – let’s chose “Selected Folders” as in B3 (I try to avoid “All Folders” as my photos folder has a large number of photos that would occupy pretty much all free memory space I have on my iPad)

Step C: Navigate to Photo Folder
This should be a straight forward step that you have probably completed many times before – navigate to the folder that contains photos that you want copied onto your device – the path to your folder will be something similar to C1 (emphasis on ’similar’ – but not “the same”). Once done, click C2 (“Select Folder”) as shown on the screenshot.

Step D: Excluding Folders from Sync (SYNCING)
In this step you will be able to exclude photo folders that you don’t want to see on your iPad – Verify that D1 and D2 are correct and then move to D3 where you will select what is being moved onto the iPad.

ONCE YOU ARE DONE HIT THE SYNC BUTTON (LOWER RIGHT CORNER OF THE ITUNES APPLICATION)

Step E: Open Photo App
Quick and easy – find a Photo app on your iPad (it’s likely it’ll not be at the same spot as shown here)

Step F: Opening Albums View
Once the Photo App is opened – hit the ALBUMS button (see F1):

Step G: Open Album
Once in “Albums” view of the iPhoto App – you will be able to see all albums that have been synced – the albums should contain the photos you would like to see. For the puprose of this exercise I’ll hit G1 (album with Bird Photos):

Step H: The End
Voilà! All the photo from “Birds” folder are here – let the slide-show begin…

Thanks DizzyEric for sending this one thru – it’s a pretty smart execution of a Do-it-yourself iPad stand:

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Aug 2010: An updateted 8 Step Tutorial on “how to transfer photos” is here: http://ipad.org/how-to-transfer-photos-to-ipad-8-step-guide/
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I am getting at least one spam email message a day with this question – the question is followed with a link to a shady site that’s already paddling “iPad Photo Transfer Software” for a humble sum of $39.99. The Fortune magazine had an article the other day that there are more than $21M of iPad related goods on eBay – a quick peak reveals that most of the goods for sale is at least ’shady’ if not outright scam.

Now, back to our photo transfer question: Given that iPad is using the same operating system as iPhone the process of moving and syncing photos between your computer (Mac/PC) should be almost identical (we’ll confirm this once the iPad is released). In short, you can sync it via iTunes, drag and drop of folder or individuval photo files will work as well. Dave Taylor has a nice and brief tutorial on how to do this – so, if you need to figure out how to transport the photos do not spend your hard earned bucks on some shady and overpriced utility app – just drag and drop via iTunes (needles to say the same is applicable if you want to transfer music to your iPod or if you want to download it back to your computer).