We just love this!

Ralph McQuarrie was one of the most talented artists of our modern era. His work on the original Star Wars trilogy also made him one of the most famous. Ask people what they remember most about any of the original movies and something from the imagination of Ralph McQuarrie will likely come to mind. Darth Vader's helmet and mask, the beautiful Cloud City, or the chicken-like strut of the Scout Walker, all come from the mind of McQuarrie.

As big fans of his work, we were only too pleased to review the Stormtrooper iPad cover from Zeon. It's a simple soft silicon cover that provides bump protection for the iPad as well as bringing one of McQuarrie's most memorable designs to the iPad.

It's a solid cover that will appeal to Star Wars fans. Like many of these rubber covers, the bottom edge, by the home button, is a little on the feeble side, but it's generally a quality cover that will likely last the lifetime of your iPad. The official branding of the case and packaging makes it a superb gift option. It's designed for the iPad 2 and 3 only.

The Stormtrooper iPad cover is available from Mobile Fun at £19.95.

It's worth noting that Mobile Fun carries a large selection of iPad cases, covers and sleeves.

Further Reading: See all our accessories posts

We make no excuses for featuring David's work again. This new portrait is just stunning! Painted using Brushes 2 in about 4.5 hours, completely freehand.

Further Reading: All posts featuring the work of David Chong

Andrey Malykh (known as Barindoma on Flickr) is a rare talent. Working mostly with Procreate, Andrey has created one of the most impressive catalogues of iPad paintings we've seen. From the bright beauty of 'The Embankment' and 'Spring in Porvoo' to the skilful simplicity of 'Konstantin Sleeps', Andrey's work is inspiring. Be sure to catch all of Andrey's new paintings by following his Flickr stream.

Further Reading: All posts relating to iPad painting 

We have been absolutely mesmerised by the adventures of the Mars Curiosity rover. The images it captures will likely inspire artists for years to come.

Luis Peso has created this atmospheric painting using Inspire Pro. He's also been kind enough to provide a video of its creation.

Further Reading: All posts featuring the work of Luis Peso | Explore Mars from the Comfort of your iPad

"With this unique relationship that people have with their iPhone, we take changing it really seriously". So begins the iPhone 5 introduction video from Apple. With the iPhone 5, Apple is introducing the biggest change to the iPhone hardware design since its inception. The move to an 16:9 ratio display is a big deal indeed and one that we hope doesn't make its way to the iPad next year.

Sure, the narrow 16:9 ratio is pretty good for consuming video and photo content and is most certainly well suited to flicking through long lists of social media updates, but when it comes to creating content, we believe that the standard 4:3 ratio of the iPad is a much better fit.

A recent survey showed that people are actually more excited about the iPad than the iPhone. Why might that be? Let's explore...

1. A shared experience

As a type this, a father and his teenage daughter sat opposite me on the train are playing a simple multiplayer game on an iPad, previously they were collaborating on a fun drawing. Where the iPhone is very much a personal computing and communication device, the iPad is often about a group experience and shared computing.

2. Ten digits, trump five

Having enough screen real estate to support eight fingers and two thumbs makes the iPad that much more capable as a creative device. The iPhone version of GarageBand, for example, may have all the capabilities of the iPad version, but the overall experience is somewhat diminished. This is true of many creative apps.

3. Cutting edge mobile computing power

Most, but not all, of Apple latest and greatest computing hardware makes it to the iPad first, then many months later, arrives on the iPhone. The A5 and A5X, with their industry leading graphics coprocessors, debuted on the iPad. It's seems likely that this trend will continue into 2013 and beyond.

4. Total cost of ownership

The 16GB iPad third generation iPad cost 25% less than a 16GB iPhone 4S without a contract. For some, an iPad and a cheaper phone, perhaps one with a significantly better camera than the iPhone 4S (Basically, that means the Nokia 808), would prove to be a better mobile computing solution.

5. Consuming media

Watching a feature length movie on the iPad, even with two people viewing, is perfectly possible, not so on the iPhone.

The iTunes Festival starts tonight and runs throughout the whole of September. The iPad app is free, as is every live performance. Artists performing this year include Muse, Alicia Keys, Elbow, Labrinth and One Direction, so there really is something for everyone this year.

What is particularly impressive is that all these performances can be streamed live directly to your iPad, iPhone, Apple TV (yes, Apple have made an app for that) or computer. We watched many of the live performances during last years iTunes Festival, the quality of the live video stream was particularly impressive.

If you don't have an Apple TV and want to watch the festival on your TV, don't forget you can connect your iPad to your HDMI equipped TV with Apple's AV connector or one of many third party connectors that do essentially the same thing but for less money.

App Store Link: iTunes Festival

David Chong may refer to himself as an amateur artist, but his iPad work suggests otherwise. His latest creation,a stunning portrait of Scarlett Johansson, is without doubt one of the best portraits we've seen this year. Actually, scratch that, it's one the best touch screen paintings we have come across since starting iPad Creative back in 2010

We are so thankful that artists like David share their videos on YouTube, it makes learning to paint with the iPad so much easier.

You can view more of David's iPad work here. Also, be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel.

Here's a great collection of iPad apps for those interested in graphic design. The full list includes some old classics like SketchBook Pro and Adobe Ideas.

Further Reading: iPad painting

iPad is not a Camera is a new website in honour of all the 'crazy ones' who simply refuse to be mocked into putting their iPads down. It's fun!

Further Reading: See all our posts relating to the new iPad

Tim Vyner, artist and senior lecturer in illustration at Bath School of Art and Design, was recently contracted by The Times newspaper to capture the atmosphere at the 2012 Olympic Games through a series of illustrations painted using just his iPad. Tim's work was featured in the print and iPad editions of the The Times as well as on his own blog.

Tim's captured a whole host of evocative scenes from the Olympics, be sure to head over to his personal blog to see the full selection.

Many thanks to Ellison (MadeByGrandad) for the heads up.

Further Reading: Woman shoots Usain Blot with a pink iPad

Sure, this is a little off topic, but seriously, how amazing is this gyro-enabled view of Mars? Remember to tap the expand icon in the top left for the full effect.

One of our favourite episodes of the classic US comedy 'The Big Bang Theory', is the one where Robot Sheldon meets Steve Wozniak, there's something just so deliciously geeky about it. Double, the self-balancing remote controlled iPad frame from Double Robotics, will bring that hilarious 'Big Bang' encounter one step closer to reality at the end of the year.

Of all the use cases highlighted in the video above, it's the remote tour idea that really gets us thinking, and can you imagine how useful this could be to those who are bed bound through illness or disability?

Further Reading: See our Standzfree review

Using a technique called Reverse Electrovibration, REVEL (from Disney Research) uses a weak electrical current to simulate the sensation of tactile texture on any surface that has a common electrical earth with the human body.

On a touch screen device such as a phone or tablet, this technology could be used to greatly enhance onscreen virtual controls, such as a qwerty keyboard, or could even lead to hitherto unimagined types of applications.

Virtual musical instruments, for example, ​with haptic feedback could be very interesting indeed. Or how about a camera app with virtual textures that help the user to identify blown out highlights or crushed dark tones in a photograph or video?

Benjamin Rabe is one of the most talented (and most admired) touch screen artists on the scene. His understanding of colour and form is second to none. Some artists seem to struggle somewhat in their efforts to move from physical painting and sketching to touch screen based art. Not so with Benjamin Rabe!

Be sure to follow his work on Flickr.

Further Reading: All posts relating to Benjamin Rabe

After performing a clean sweep to bring in all three medals at the 200M finals last night, Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Warren Weir stopped to pose for the cameras. At one point, the three huddled together to pose for a woman taking photos (or shooting video?) with her pink iPad. As we recently demonstrated, the camera in the new iPad is quite capable, with video capture being especially smooth and detailed.

If you've watched much of the crowd footage from the 2012 Olympics you'll no doubt have seen quite a number of spectators merrily taking photos and shooting videos with iPads. This has generated a fair amount of ire amongst some it seems. Why do seemingly normal folk, who most likely already own a good pocket camera or smartphone, resort to the iPad? We honestly don't know. But might it perhaps be a combination of 'good enough' quality, that huge three mega pixel display and the simplest controls of any camera available?

There's a real surety that comes from that gorgeous display. From just a quick glance you can immediately tell if you've captured something worth treasuring. With almost all other cameras you don't see the image or video in its final quality until it's transferred to a computer. With the iPad you get to see, in realtime, by far the majority of the pixels being captured. Not only that, but you can edit and share the results immediately.

We hope the lady with the pink iPad was happy with her video and photos of Usain and lads, and if she's reading this, please get in touch, we'd love to see the results!

Further Reading: All posts related to the new iPad.

Nikko does it again! Created with Procreate and Snapseed, Nikolai's 'favourite team'.

Further Reading: See all posts relating to Nikolai Lockertsen

Further Reading: IK Multimedia

This looks pretty nice!

Have you tried Magellan? Let us know what you think of it in a comment below.

App Store Link: Magellan