Steve Crowther started his blog back in May 2010. Its purpose is to enable his friends and family to follow him on his personal journey of becoming an artist. We have to say that even some of Steve's early work shows that he already possess all the skills needed.

Interestingly, starting in June of last year Steve began to experiment with iPad painting. Often using a perfect combination of the Nomad Brush and ArtRage, Steve is rapidly learning how to apply his traditional painting skills to this new digital canvas. Really, Steve's blog documents two journeys, the journey to becoming an artist and his passage to becoming a skilled iPad artist. Be sure to follow Steve on his journey by bookmarking his blog and following him on Twitter.

Further Reading: Nomad Brush Review

There's something uniquely satisfying about watching an artist perform. As many iPad painting apps now allow the artist to record every brushstroke, it's no surprise that there are literally thousands of iPad painting videos available online.

Some artists, such as Robert Miller, go one step further and craft the video into a piece of artwork in its own right. We have mentioned Robert on several occasions, as we feel that his art, both the final paintings and the videos, are a solid contribution to the large body of work that iPad artists have produced over the last two years.

Further Reading: Robert Miller

If you are new to iPad Creative, it's possible that you have never seen any of Nikolai's iPad paintings. We strongly encourage you to see all our posts featuring Nikolai as he is, in our opinion, the most consistently impressive iPad artist we know. Nikolai's skill with Brushes is rivalled only my his powerful imagination.

Whether he is painting full locations, or 'just' characters, Nikolai's use of light and insane attention to detail is second to none.

Head back here in a couple of days to see some more of Nikolai's artwork, paintings that he created using an app that few artists are even aware of.

Further Reading: Nikolai Lockertsen

We have to admit, this is extremely close to how we once imagined the near future to look. However, the future has a tendency to pick strange and exciting paths that few would have predicted. We think this Corning Incorporated version of the future is just too touch heavy. Not too surprising given Corning's core business.

Siri would seem to hint at much more voice interaction with computers, and Microsoft's Kinect sensor system and A.I. allows computers to interpret subtle gestures without the need for any physical surface. Still, it's an extremely well made concept video that does fire the imagination somewhat.

The pixel precision that a larger iPad would provide is perhaps hard to imagine for some, we think this video helps. A desk bound iPad (or touch screen iMac?) is surely part of the plan at Cupertino?

Source: Patently Apple

Avid Studio is a "pro-sumer" video editing app for the iPad. At just $4.99, compared to Avid's desktop editing application which retails at $129.99, Studio for iPad seems like a bargain. We've been playing with Studio this morning and here's what we think so far.

We love the storyboard view, the more precise control of audio tracks and the option for picture-in-picture. The general speed of the UI seems quite a bit faster than iMovie. As any heavy iMovie for iPad user will testify, once your project gets beyond the 10 minute mark things start to slow down quite dramatically. This doesn't appear to be the case with Avid Studio.

However, it's not all good news for Avid Studio users. This build just isn't anything like stable enough. Sadly Studio quit a least 3 times in just one 30 minute editing session. It's also disappointing to see that there is currently no option to export video at 1080p. With the iPhone 4S shooting video at 1080p the lack of 1080p support in Avid Studio seems rather silly.

We will continue to experiment with Avid Studio and let you know what we find, but our initial thoughts are that Studio will provide some solid competition for iMovie once some of the bugs have been ironed out. However, version 2 of iMovie is surely only a few months away from release and will mostly likely bring with it a large basket of updates and new features. Can Avid keep pace with Apple? We certainly hope so, serious competition is vital to the growth of the platform. Perhaps Avid will find more success with Studio on Android tablets?

If you try Avid Studio for yourself, be sure to let us know what you think of it in a comment below.

App Store Link: Avid Studio

Further Reading: Video

In terms of new technology there's a lot to look forward to in 2012. Your TV might become a little more useful thanks to a new Apple TV. Your iPad screen is likely to become as clear as ink on paper courtesy of the iPad 3 with its Retina display. Early previews of iOS 6 are likely to bring a whole host of refinements that bring it even closer to the functionality of OS X. All good things, we're sure you'll agree. But all those developments, as exciting as they are, will be shadowed by what we consider to be one of the most important product launches of the last ten years.

A powerful computer for less than the cost of a decent meal

Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer that will retail for just £16 ($25). It's powered by a chipset designed by Broadcom (the BCM2835 to be precise) that is powerful enough to perform many some common computing tasks and tackle almost any media file, including 1080p video at Blu-ray quality. Despite its tiny price tag, Raspberry Pi includes many of the ports of a regular computer, including USB, SD, HDMI, and on the slightly more expensive version, Ethernet. Designed as an entry level computer to encourage children to start coding and generally tinker with computing hardware, we think Raspberry Pi will likely appeal to a much larger audience.

To demonstrate why, we've included at the head of this post a video demonstration of Raspberry Pi functioning as an AirPlay receiver, playing back full 1080p video streamed from an iOS device. At just £16 it might be worth introducing the Raspberry Pi to just about every TV in the house.

From personal computing to ubiquitous computing

The iPad is just about the most personal computer we know of, but Raspberry Pi represents the beginning of a different age, the age of ubiquitous computing. Imagine a computer with 10 times the power of the Raspberry Pi but at 1/10th of the cost and probably 1/10th of the size, that's where this is heading, and probably within just a handful of years. What will this mean for you and I? We don't honestly know, and that's why we are so excited about Raspberry Pi, what programmers do with this first generation model will give us a good glimpse into the future of ubiquitous computing.

Why mention the Raspberry Pi on an iPad focused website?

There are several reasons why we mention the Raspberry Pi here. Firstly, with its AirPlay ability we see the Raspberry Pi as being a great companion computer to the iPad. Sure the next Apple TV unit is likely to be considerably more powerful than the Raspberry Pi, but it's unlikely to be as flexible. Secondly, as two geeks who grew up at a time when kids all over the UK spent a good deal of their time learning how to programme their own personal computers, we would love to see a return to that important hobby in the coming decade. It's a form of creativity that will be forever baked into our psyche and we can't wait to see its triumphant return!

The latest quarterly results from Apple show that demand for all Apple products is at an all time high. 37 million iPhones, 15 million iPads, plus millions of Macs and iPods sold in just 3 months! That's an impressive result by any standard.

Well over 15 million iPad sales in a single quarter is an astonishing achievement. As you can see from the chart above, the iPad reached 15 million sales per quarter in half the time the iPhone took to break through that same barrier.

The multi-touch tablet market is all about the iPad

Given this rapid uptake and also taking into consideration the comments from Apple CEO Tim Cook, it looks increasingly likely that the iPad will soon be selling in quantities that exceed even the mighty iPhone. We would not be too surprised if that occurred for the first time at some point during 2012. Apple entered the smartphone market as a fresh faced newbie with lots to learn, the same cannot be said of the tablet market, Apple created the multi-touch tablet market. With the iPad, it currently defines the entire market. If at some point over the next couple of years Apple decide to split the iPad range into high, middle and low end devices, it's hard to see how it would not sell iPads faster than it can manufacturer them.

At the recent education focused event that saw the launch of iBooks 2, the new iTunes U app and iBooks Author (more on this soon!), Apple failed to explain exactly how schools will be able to afford thousands of iPads. We believe that Apple will address the lower end of the iPad market this year with a cheaper variant. Will this cheaper iPad be for education markets only? It's certainly a possibility, though not that likely.

As we said on Twitter recently, the iPad is now Apple's primary computing platform. We fully expect to see it mature rapidly throughout the next 3 years, to the point where only a relatively small percentage will pick a Mac over an iPad. In short, the iPad story is only just beginning and we'll be following it every step of the way!

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Don't you just hate it when you accidentally drop your iPad from 100,000 feet?!

"G-Form, a company well known for delivering the most extreme electronics cases and athletic pads, launched an iPad clad solely in the company's 6oz Extreme Edge case into space and then let it free-fall back to Earth."

Further Reading: iPad Accessories

Shortly after we discussed the possibility of the next iPad getting a significant boost in camera quality, Ricky Cadden got in contact to tell us about an exciting project that he and his team recently completed.

Ricky Cadden is a mobile technology expert and currently manages RadioShack’s presence on various social media outlets. Knowing Ricky as we do, we were not too surprised to find out that he had made the decision to capture video coverage of CES 2012 using the iPad 2, aided by the Movie Mount from Makayama, iRig Mic from IK Multimedia and various other accessories. It's not that Ricky's default position is reaching for Apple kit, far from it in fact, but rather that Ricky is quick to spot advantages in using new mobile technology.

So what advantages did shooting footage with the iPad 2 bring? Ricky states:

"...we used the Apple iPad 2 to shoot every second of our videos. That’s right, the iPad 2. Of course, we also had some additional gadgets helping out, including a unique sound setup that allowed us to use a total of 3 different microphones and a custom-made tripod mount for our iPads from Makayama.

Aside from some post-production that included adding graphics and soundtrack, the footage you saw in all of our CES coverage is pretty much exactly as it came through the iPad 2. The iPhone 4S’s 1080p video capture might have been slightly better, but the iPad 2 allowed us a larger display on which to preview footage and line up the shot on the show floor.

The results, as I’m sure you’ll agree, were impressive. All of our videos were posted in full 720p, and the sound turned out great, considering there were 150,000+ people milling around us and booths blasting their own sounds. The iPad 2 had plenty of storage and the connectivity options to upload straight from the floor – in many cases, we had the final cut of one video before we even finished shooting the next."

Ricky mentions that their iPad 2 rig caused quite a stir, with attendees often taking photos of their rig rather than the exhibit that the iPad 2 was filming! It seems that Ricky and his team were the only ones using the iPad 2 to provide professional level video coverage. That surprises us a little as the iPad 2's extended depth of field camera, large display and capacious battery life, combined with iMovie and the obvious connectivity advantages, make it a great choice for covering just such an event.

We watched some of the CES footage a few days before we were informed that it had been shot with an iPad 2, and as a testament to the quality of the footage, we didn't notice anything unusual about it. It's not the highest quality footage by any means, but it certainly seems good enough for 90% of the shots.

You can watch all the RadioShack CES footage here. Ricky has also posted his thoughts on the experience on his own personal blog.

If you want to dip your toes in the iPad video production waters, we can wholeheartedly recommend that you pick up a copy of the free video capture app that Makayama provide for use with the Movie Mount, it offers a level of control that is not present in the default camera app. iMovie is an essential purchase too. You might remember that we considered the Handstand iPad 2 case to be a pretty good substitute for a full-on rig in these situations.

App Store Link: Movie Mount and iMovie

Some have said that Apple's designs, both hardware and software, are so complete that it's almost impossible for competitors to come up with anything new without infringing on their patents. This smart eBook interface prototype from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) shows that competing against Apple's innovation is certainly not impossible. Many of the ideas on show are some of the most innovatitve we've seen in a long while.

We hope to see this technology implemented on the iPad (and other eBook readers) in some shape or form shortly.

Michael Ives is an artist who painted beautiful West African scenes whilst working as a teacher for the Peace Corp in that region over 30 years ago. More recently he has begun to recreate those paintings using Brushes on the iPad.

Michael has been kind enough to share his experience via a video tutorial. His passion, for the people of West Africa, the beauty of that region and the power of the iPad as an artistic tool is most evident.

We hope Michael can find the time to produce more of these tutorial videos, he certainly has a friendly style that makes us what to follow him on his journey.

More about Michael can be found on his official site.

App Store Link: Brushes

Further Reading: Brushes on iPad Creative

You'll no doubt recall Vincent's last superb NanoStudio creation. Vincent's been busy, and we think he's surpassed himself this time.

Relaxation is a chilled, groove drenched track that will have you tapping your foot and throwing in the occasional body roll! Oh, it's also a great demonstration of the power of NanoStudio.

App Store Link: NanoStudio

Soul Calibur, the Dreamcast classic that sporned several successful sequels across many different consoles will arrive on the iPad on January 19. It's so good to see another Dreamcast classic ported over to the iPad. As we've mentioned before, the iPad is just about the perfect device for Dreamcast ports:

"There are good reasons why Shenmue would find a perfect home on the iPad.

1) The iPad shares much of its graphics hardware design with the Dreamcast. PowerVR the chip design division behind the graphics technology of the Dreamcast is the very same division responsible for the staggeringly good 3D performance of the iPad 2.

2) Shenmue and its sequel were designed to be played in chapters, translating nicely to Apple's 'in app' purchasing mechanism.

3) One of Shenmue's central gameplay concepts was QTE (Quick Time Event). While this was a little clumsy using the Dreamcast controller, it would be a natural fit for the iPad's multi-touch display.

4) Though most played Shenmue for Dreamcast on a standard CRT Television, Shenmue was optimised for a VGA, 1024 x 768, 4:3 aspect ratio display, that's astonishingly close to the iPad's display."

Shenmue is the game that we're really after. Come on Sega, give Ryo Hazuki one more chance to avenge his father!

Will the iPad 3 really get the same camera module as the iPhone 4S as recent rumours suggest? Though we can't deny that we would love to see the iPad 3 turn out videos and photos that are of the same extremely high standard set by the iPhone 4S, it would seem like an odd move for Apple as they tend to favour slimness over utility in this area.

However, there are 2 good reasons why the next iPad just might get the full 8MP unit.

Retina class display

Almost exactly 1 year ago we looked in detail at why an iPad with a Retina class display would be a game changer:

"Bumping the iPad display up to Retina Display quality will make all laptop and netbook displays appear like they have been constructed from Lego blocks. Using a laptop again, even one as nice as a MacBook Air, will seem like a huge step backwards in screen quality. Full HD movies (1080p) will look sharper than on any other display available. Photos will be almost indistinguishable from high quality prints. Viewing web pages, especially in portrait mode, will be the best web experience available."

What better way to show off the Retina display on your lovely new iPad 3 than to capture, edit and display glorious photos and videos all on the same device?

We have iWork, GarageBand and iMovie, but where is iPhoto for iPad

Back in March we discussed at length the reason for the missing iLife app, iPhoto:

"We think iPhoto will arrive at the same time as the long rumoured iPad with Retina Display (iPad 3?). What better first party app to promote the eye-popping clarity of a Retina Display than iPhoto?

Out of the box photo management and editing on the iPad is non existent. To be honest, it's simply not acceptable. We are certain that Apple realise this and that they are working on fixing this problem, and probably using an iPad specific version of iPhoto.

We expect iPhoto for iPad by April 2012 at the very latest. It really can't come soon enough!"

We still believe that iPhoto is only a few months away at most, in fact, we think it will be launched alongside the iPad 3. Much of the iPad launch event with be focused on the gorgeous display and how it makes photos look just like high quality prints, Having an extremely high quality camera to complement the Retina display and the all new iPhoto for iPad might be just enough of an incentive for Apple to have added another 1mm to the thickness of the iPad 3 casing.

Our hunch is that the camera module will get a significant upgrade but that it will not be the same module as the iPhone 4S. An autofocus capable 5MP unit with 720p stabilised video capture (similar to the iPhone 4) seems the mostly likely, but we feel that there is an outside chance of the full iPhone 4S 8MP unit.

Of course, the discussion of if it's even practical to take photos and videos with an iPad will run and run, but as the quality of the camera unit, display and software increases it will certainly become a option that some will seriously consider. And if the rumours of a smaller iPad pan out, the proposition will seem even less strange.