Great update to Pixelmator for iOS released this morning: the app is now fully compatible with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil, with support for 16K images up to 100 megapixels and a new collection of brushes. I tried the app with the Pencil for a couple of minutes, and it works as expected; if you don’t have an iPad Pro with a Pencil but you have an iPhone 6s, pressure-sensitive painting has also been made available via 3D Touch:
Pixelmator on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus adds full 3D Touch support. In addition to useful shortcuts when pressing firmly on the Pixelmator icon from the home screen and on an image in the Pixelmator gallery, Pixelmator for iOS 2.2 also brings 3D Touch-sensitive painting. Now you can change the look of a stroke simply by varying the pressure you apply on the screen with your finger, without having to change the brush settings.
The new Pixel brush is a lot of fun, and I’m curious to see what kind of creations pixel artists will come up with. Pixelmator 2.2 is available on the App Store.
Algoriddim launched djay Pro for iPad today, the latest version of their award-winning DJ software for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The new version (which I played around with over the past couple of days) has been built with the iPad Pro in mind, with tons of design changes and new features for the new platform.
From the app’s product page:
At the heart of djay Pro is an innovative, modern user interface that provides flexible layers of functionality. It features advanced performance modes including horizontal and vertical colored waveforms, live sampler and drum pads, FX racks, a video mixer, as well as a powerful four deck view that allows you to play, mix, slice, and synchronize up to four tracks simultaneously.
And:
The sheer performance of iPad Pro enables a host of new features that were previously impossible on a mobile device, including mixing of up to 4 audio tracks, plus two simultaneous 4K video streams, all rendered in pristine sound quality and with brilliant video output in full HD, at 60 frames per second. djay Pro combines rock-solid stability with unrivalled performance, delivering a powerful, dependable solution for performing DJs and VJs.
What Algoriddim has done with djay over the years has always been impressive, but this time they’ve gone far beyond what I’ve seen in any other music app for iPad.
The interface has been completely revamped to take advantage of the bigger screen, so it’s not just another scaled up app without a deeper consideration of what the larger canvas enables. The hardware of the iPad Pro is used throughout the app with tangible benefits: scrubbing through 4K video streams is silky smooth, as is mixing audio tracks, applying effects, and rendering the final product. If you use an external keyboard, djay offers an insane Discoverability menu with pages of keyboard shortcuts – the first time I’ve seen a paginated layout in the cheat sheet. The list goes on (and you should check out the website for more details), but I want to mention one feature: with its Music integration, djay has rolled out multitasking support for music playback before Apple’s own Music app.
A few weeks ago, there was a lot of talk about the lack of pro software for the iPad Pro. djay Pro is a great example of how developers who know their audience can rebuild their apps from the ground up with the iPad Pro in mind, catering to a new category of users – those who want power and the portability of an iPad. I believe djay Pro shows the way for more kinds of professional software to come to the App Store in the future. I want to see more developers follow Algoriddim’s approach and build iPad-first software that’s just as powerful as desktop counterparts – if not more powerful thanks to iOS. It’s possible.
The Lightning to SD Card Camera Reader supports standard photo formats, including JPEG and RAW, along with SD and HD video formats, including H.264 and MPEG-4. It supports data transfer at up to USB 3 speeds on iPad Pro, and up to USB 2 speeds on all other iPad and iPhone models.
Apple previously confirmed that the iPad Pro would support USB 3 transfer speeds, and the updated SD card reader appears to be the first product to take advantage of it. Last week, John Gruber speculated that the different Lightning port of the iPad Pro could also open up to USB-C functionalities in the future; I’m curious to see which other accessories will implement these iPad Pro optimizations in the next year.
The Canvas Smart Desk for the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro revolves around the word “Pro”. Designed to make any flat space (or even your lap!) an instant and effective workstation, the smart desk allows you to dock your tablet, a smartphone, and even a paired stylus (The Microsoft Pen or the Apple Pencil).
The Canvas comes in two variants. The Canvas Creator is a more compact desk meant for the serious and swift professional. The Canvas Pro is a larger variant, offering a little extra space for your notepad/coffee/portable-speaker.
While I tend to either hold my iPad or prop it up with the Smart Cover, the Canvas surface looks nice for a combined iPhone + iPad + Pencil setup. It costs $68 for the Creator and $100 for the Pro version from iSkelter’s website.
Also “interesting”: they’re using my iPad Home screen in their product shots.
But the real clincher? It’s faster to illustrate on the iPad Pro, with Pencil, using Procreate, than it is to illustrate on a 16Gb Macbook Pro, with a Wacom Intuous, in Photoshop. That’s astonishing – and places this as a core piece of my professional illustration workflow. It does not replace my laptop – as mentioned, there’s a on of key pieces that the software and hardware can’t do. But I’ll now create maps first on the iPad Pro if I can, and then do the final polish on my laptop. I never expected that to be the case when I picked this up.
A very balanced and honest take on the merits of the iPad Pro, as well as its limitations compared to desktop hardware and software. Apple should listen to people like Jonathan for the future of the platform.
Karan Varindani has a great story about the role of the iPad Pro in his college studies, and how he’s been consolidating his textbooks, notes, and more into a portable, digital workflow:
I saved writing about my experience doing Linear Algebra homework for last because it is, by far, my favorite anecdote about the iPad Pro. I usually have the assignment sheet open on my Mac in front of me, the textbook open on my iPad to my left, and sheets of A4 paper scattered everywhere else on my desk. I first go through the assignment, making lots of mistakes along the way, then rewrite everything again neatly on the second run. Next, I scan the 10–15 pages to my Mac, merge them into a single PDF document, and upload them to the course server. The entire process takes about 3–4 hours depending on the number of questions assigned and leaves me with a pulsing wrist every time. Last week, I did the entire assignment on the iPad Pro. I had both Notability and PDF Expert open in Split View; the former was a blank canvas where I wrote down my answers and the latter had both the assignment and textbook open in tabs. I was able to erase mistakes as I made them and I didn’t have to scan anything afterwards, both of which saved me a tremendous amount of time. I uploaded the document in Safari using iCloud Drive when I was done.
Almost immediately after I got the confirmation email, I decided that I wasn’t going to be returning the iPad Pro.
A good primer for those who argue that the iPad is only being used by tech bloggers – with a fair assessment of the Pro’s portability trade-offs.
Of all the Apple Pencil reviews I’ve read over the past few weeks, very few of them offered examples of actual handwriting – which is perfectly understandable, as most of us don’t use physical pens and pencils for writing anymore.
The second issue these weights attempt to solve is to stop your Pencil rolling off your desk. The Pencil is completely cylindrical – there are no flat edges and no clip – so it’s prone to fall victim to gravity and non-level work spaces. But with the weights inside the Pencil, as soon as you set it down, it rolls a little and then stops itself. The weights appear to have been designed to balance it and take over. In most instances this works out great, but I have observed that if you place the Pencil down with any force, say if it is not gently put down on a desk, but maybe dropped from a few inches (I love my implements, but I use them too…), the Pencil will likely roll a couple of times in the process.
When this happens the weights actually seem to give it momentum, and will propel it forward further and faster than it would have otherwise. Each time as the Pencil turns, it acts against itself as it is moving to quickly to balance, and on it goes, off the table.
Myke makes some good points in his review, which I haven’t seen anywhere else.
It says something that Apple doesn’t ship the Pencil with a “settings” app. Wacom does. So does Microsoft. Even some third-party styluses have preferences for adjusting your pressure choices.
Normally I would be annoyed by this. Everyone draws differently, and everyone’s used to pressing against the screen in a different way.
But you know what? I agree with the company here. Apple is essentially saying: This is a tool, just like your HB pencil. You can’t tell your HB pencil you want it to make lighter strokes. You have to learn how to use it. You have to trust it.
Serenity has been drawing digitally for over 16 years. She’s been waiting for the Pencil for a long time, and I can’t wait to see what she creates.
I think there’s a potential to confuse the role of the Pencil with the role of your finger in iOS, and I actually think it’s very clear the Pencil is for making marks, and the finger is a fundamental point of interface for everything within the operating system. And those are two very different activities with two very different goals.
So we are very clear in our own minds that this will absolutely not replace the finger as a point of interface. But it is, and I don’t think anybody would argue, a far better tool than your finger when your focus becomes exclusively making marks. The traditional pencil could have been replaced by a dish of powdered charcoal, which you dipped your finger into to make marks with. And that didn’t happen.
The interview also has some interesting thoughts by Ive on avoiding to model the Pencil after specific physical tools.
