Sketchbook Pro meets iCloud Harmony

What happens when you take a fantastic sketching program and tie it with cloud syncing? A versatile sketchbook that is literally always with you. When Autodesk announced iCloud syncing for their Sketchbook Pro Suite, I instantly opted-in on the black friday app sale, picking up the iPhone and iPad app for a sweet $3; A very worthwhile purchase too. 

Just as Apple advertised iCloud: work on something on one device, continue where you left off on another. The syncing sometimes wasn’t instantly automatic though, sometimes I had to wait for one device to even recognize changes from iCloud. This might have something to do with iCloud’s still slightly spotty service. Nonetheless, there is nothing like this app’s iCloud functionality in the App Store making it a truly defining feature for Sketchbook Pro.

The drawing app itself is very polished. There are plenty of brushes, all customizable. The app even has an in-house store with tons of free brushes to download. The UI takes time to make habit, but is extremely functional for a touch based UI. The desktop version comes baked with Wacom tablet compatibility as well as tradition mouse input. Anyone that has been inspired by how iCloud is changing their life ought to try out Sketchbook Pro. 

Download for the iPhone ($1.99), iPad ($4.99), and Lion ($59.99).

Apple Keynote Success or Fail?

I’d call another one of my whaaaa? cards that I have been pulling on a lot of these keynotes lately.

iLife ‘11 ($50 Upgrade)

iLife is easily one of my favorite things about my Mac but I didn’t really care for the updates. The features they are touting heavily are ways for you to show off your talents which should be a good thing but I don’t care about new transitions, trailers and audio transition effects that will never be used on my mac. Garageband’s tempo fixer looks promising though. I loved making little tunes on garageband but could never get anything started because the interface doesn’t work with timing very well in my opinion. The price is finally down. I’m sorry but $100 for something that comes on every other mac but your old machine blows.

OSX Lion

They obviously were not able to show us much but what they showed us was pretty great. Whenever I use my iPad I always wonder why the Mac platform has to be so difficult to use sometimes. Well all the good things about navigation on the iPad came to Mac with Lion in a less beautiful but very functional way. Homescreens application launcher with iOS folders, Fullscreen apps and quick save were the announced features that seem like game changers but could easily be recognized as something we actually did not need once we get our hands on the new OS. I hope these features come in handy because if this is all were getting plus a few bug fixes I am not happy. Some new features such as FaceTime and the AppStore are coming soon for Snow Leopard which just happened to be what I was excited for more than the other features. Elasticity while scrolling as well as inertia are here!

Macbook Air Generation 2 (Base Model $999 11’, $1300 13’) (Upgraded $1200 11”, $1600 13”

Steve insisted that the iPad and the Macbook should, well hook up and that’s what they did. I will give Apple credit on the concepts. We are very ready for flash based computers, the app store on the mac is fueling a cd less future. The design has been upgraded to typical timeless mac sexy, despite its growing age. The battery seems stellar too doing heavy battery test on the internet and keeping up to 7 hours on the bigger version.

So what don’t I like? Well no new design to start with, I’m getting anxious to see what Jonny Ives will do with his Aluminium (purposefully misspelled) next. I also hate the concept of the Macbook air more due to it’s pricing. This is essentially a high quality netbook that can not compete with the lower priced macbook. It has a retina display pretty much but that is it. I hoped apple would kill the Macbook air and redesign the Macbook’s concept and keep the Macbook pros concept the same but well apple loves throwing a curve ball. 

I need to try them out before I can make any more of my  judgements but honestly I don’t see this laptop becoming a trend anywhere. The iPad has become a trend at college because of its weight and its speed.

Overall the keynote dragged but we did see a few clever moves. Well done Apple.