How I made the Socialize demo video using an iPad, PowerPinch & a BlackMagic box

I recently wrote about how I've swapped PowerPoint out for something I call PowerPinch (a term I made up).

When it came time to make a demo video for Socialize, I wondered if I could use PowerPinch to make the video, and then somehow capture what was happening on my iPad.  It turns out, you can.  Here's the finished video, and below is how I did it.

First, I made the demo video using my PowerPinch process.  To learn more about that part, read this blog on PowerPinch.

I recently wrote about how I've swapped PowerPoint out for something I call PowerPinch (a term I made up). When it came time to make a demo video for Socialize, I wondered if I could use PowerPinch to make the video, and then somehow capture what was happening on my iPad.  It turns out, you can.  Here's the finished video, and below is how I did it. First, I made the demo video using my PowerPinch process.  To learn more about that part, read this blog on PowerPinch. Then, I made a script for the video using Google Docs (pic at right). Once I was ready to capture, I bought a BlackMagic H.264 Pro Recorder box from Amazon, an HDMI cable, the HDMI iPad 2 Connector, and a mini USB cable.  That's all the hardware I needed to connect my iPad to my Macbook Pro and start recording the content of my iPad screen. The BlackMagic box comes with its own capture software, called Blackmagic Media Express, which was perfectly sufficient for the job. I then read the script into a pair of Logitech USB Headphones and used audio editing program Audacity to splice the audio together the way I wanted it. I imported both the video and the audio into iMovie, and exported an .mp4, which I then uploaded to Vimeo and YouTube.  Presto! The video isn't as smooth as I'd like, but for a $500 hardware budget, I'll definitely take it as a v1.  It's more polished than anything I could've done without having to whip out AfterEffects.  Plus it's kinda cool to have done it on the iPad.  If you do have a $5k+ budget to spend, I'd recommend a company like DigitalFlair, which made our AppMakr demo video. I'd love any ideas you have to improve on this v1 -- at some point I'll try making another one based on what I learned from the first go-around.  So if you have any thoughts or any questions on how I did it, please leave them in the comments below.

iPad 2 Keyboard Shootout: Finding the best keyboard

My requirements may be different than yours.  I wanted something that maintains the iPad's slim profile as much as possible, has some element of style to it, and most importantly, allows me to type well -- ideally as well as I can on my 15" Macbook Pro laptop.  Additional "nice to haves" were the ability to keep my Apple iPad magnetic screen cover and a good set of function keys on the keyboard.  One intriguing keyboard that I didn't test is the TouchFire keyboard concept on Kickstarter, which is a flexible keyboard that interfaces directly with the iPad's on-screen keyboard.  When it comes out, I'll give it a shot as well.

I tested five bluetooth iPad keyboards and found one I really liked:  The Logitech Keboard Case for the iPad 2.  The keyboard is actually one made by ZAGG, with Logitech branding the device.  I time-tested all five bluetooth keyboards against the iPad's on-screen keyboard and against the Macbook Pro, by typing a block of text on each device and timing how long it took.  The text doesn't make total sense, but I wanted something that required numbers, special characters, and copy/pasting.

First, here's a video of the setup process: