In celebration of Black History Month, Apple has released wallpapers that display the colors of the Pan-African flag. Here’s how to get them…
Category: iPad
They say dance is a universal language. With the advent of apps that have allowed us to collaborate and share digitally, and in the midst of a pandemic that has forced us to find alternative ways to connect, you can argue that now is the perfect time to use dance and technology to feel closer, even if physically, we are far apart.
Enter Memik, an app that uses music, dance and technology to double down on the popularity of viral dance videos that have permeated the web in recent years. Simply stated, Memik adds an Augmented Reality (AR) dancer with whom you can “mimic” (see what they did there?) its dance moves, or upload your own dance moves for your dancer to copy in order to create the next viral dance video.
The app experience is pretty simple to navigate. Users pick from a selection of songs and dance routines. The next step consists of choosing a dancer that will perform the routine. Once selected, Memik uses your phone’s camera and integrated AR compatibilities to project your dancer in the field of view. Hit record, and participants can perform alongside the AR dancer to create a unique dance video that can be viewed in the gallery and shared to social media.
If you want to cook up something more unique, the premium feature unlocks the ability for users to record and upload their own dance routine. Memik then uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to learn the routine and add it to the selection of dance routines. Once added, users can go through the same song and character selection process, but with the added bonus of selecting their custom dance routine.
From there, AR adds the dancer to the live dance “crew” where they all can perform the routine. Unlike other apps that depend solely on live users, Memik adds that tech element to create a truly unique experience.
For this review, my kids were “voluntold” to participate in Memik testing. I downloaded the Memik app on my oldest daughter’s iPhone 8. Visit Apple’s Augmented Reality page for a list of AR-compatible devices. The app came loaded with several dance-worthy, holiday-themed songs, and a handful of characters with their own look and style. I’m assuming more songs and characters (and character customizations) will be added in future updates.
Within a couple of taps, and a couple minutes of practice, my 12 year-old daughter was ready to do her routine. Tapping the Memik button at the bottom of the screen opened her phone’s camera and allowed her to place her AR dancer in the field of the view. Tip: The area where you want to place any AR figure should be a relatively flat surface that is free of a bunch of stuff and adequately lit.
Once placed, she had to pinch and zoom to resize her dancer to a more realistic height. Hitting record let her dance with her partner to complete the routine. The dance routines last about 20 seconds. Which is long enough to perform a decent dance routine.
After she tried out a couple of songs and routines, we passed the reins over to my 10-year old daughter who was waiting in the wings practicing her own routine. We switched over to my phone (we don’t let our kids create 3rd-Party app accounts yet), and created an account. For this review, I was provided several credits by the developer to test out Memik’s AI capabilities.
Creating a custom dance was as simple as selecting the song, then tapping the “Make New Routine” button. The camera opened up and gave my daughter the ability to record her 20-second full-body routine. Once recorded, Memik uploaded the video to their servers where the AI “learned” her routine. A quick skim of the privacy policy didn’t give me the impression that the videos will be used for anything other than what they’re intended for.
After a couple of minutes, we got notification that her routine was ready. Sure enough, in the ‘Choose your Routine’ section, we could select her dance. We used the same song during recording her routine, and selected a dancer.
We went through the same process to place the dancer in the field of view and with my oldest as a 3rd dancer, and we successfully recorded their routine. From there, they can view their recorded dances in the Gallery, and also share dances to friends, family and social media.
Future feature requests would be the ability to quickly mute the selected song in-app, and the ability to change character clothing and hair/facial features, etc.
My initial impression is the Memik app provides a hip and trendy way for tweens and teens to safely collaborate and share trendy dances, while exposing them to Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. Speaking of trends, to get kids hype about the app, the folks behind it are putting on a #MemikChallenge (of course), that encourages users to record and share their own custom routines for a chance to win a highly-coveted PS5.
According to Instagram, it looks like Memik has caught the eye of Shaq-Diesel himself who shared a post of fellow former NBA player Dennis Scott jumping in on the #MemikChallenge
So I was bored one day and decided to hunt around and find some new widgets to add to my iPhone Home Screen.
I’ll be honest, most of the current widgets are wack, that is until I found the Event Countdown app from Widget Studio.
With the app, you can create a countdown to keep track of any important date/event. In my case, my birthday is coming up so….
Once I created the countdown and added all the specifics (name, date, color, icon, etc), I added the widget to my Home Screen.
Now every time I look at my phone, I get a constant reminder that I’m about to get one year older. Yay?!
I’ll probably add a countdown for when the zombies start tearing up the world after this first batch of COVID vaccine starts to be administered…
Categories
How To Sanitize Your Devices
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The generally accepted ways to stop the contraction and spread of the Cornoavirus is to practice social distancing (stay away from large crowds), and regularly wash your hands. Simply because the virus spreads by human contact, so quit touching people and stuff.
No problem, right? Surprisingly, the media hasn’t really talked about how our devices (that we literally touch all day every day) could be contributing to the spread of #DatRona.
We already know that our phones are as dirty or even dirtier than a toilet, so it isn’t stretch to say that we need to keep our devices as clean as our hands.
In a Business Insider India article, Suranjeet Chatterjee, Senior Consultant in Internal Medicine Department of Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in New Delhi stated “Coronavirus and other germs can live on surfaces like glass, metal or plastics and phones are bacteria-ridden. It is necessary that we sanitize our hands frequently and make sure that our hands are clean all the time.”
‘Nuff said. So here are a few ways to can sanitize your devices to stop the spread of germs…and Coronavirus.
Regularly Sanitize Your Devices
We are so trained to touch our phones as much as we are prone to touching our eyes, mouth, or nose. We already know frequently touching our face is a not helping reduce the spread of the Coronavirus, so that’s why it’s advised to wash your hands all the time.
The same can be said for your devices. As often as you wash your hands, you should be cleaning your phone (at least the screen). The best way to sanitize your devices is by using an alcohol-based sanitizer and a clean cloth to wipe the screen any part of the phone that touches other surfaces.
If you use a spray based sanitizer, lightly spray your phone after spraying your hands. for a more in-depth cleaning, I recommend using the WHOOSH! Screen Cleaner Kit ($15 bucks on Amazon).
Go Hands-Free
Again, the best way to not spread the ‘Rona is to limit contact with people and things. Now is good time to get more acquainted with voice assistants like Siri, to complete simple tasks like sending texts, emails, answering calls, checking your calendar, etc. It is also a good idea to invest in Bluetooth headphones/ear buds if you frequently make/receive phone calls – Don’t be that dork annoying people by using the speakerphone all the time.
A study published in 2018 by Insurance2Go stated that one in 20 smartphone users was found to clean their phones less than every six months…YUCK! Don’t be that person that is OD about cleaning their hands and has stockpiled hand sanitizer, but hasn’t taken the time to clean that nasty-ass phone of yours.
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I was working with a client a couple weeks ago, and she inquired about utilizing a password manager for her team. She needed some sharing features, so I recommended my go-to LastPass.
She also asked about her mother adopting a password manager as well – Her mother is currently storing passwords in a physical notebook and in locked notes in the iPhone-native Notes app.
For her mother, I recommended she look into using the native iCloud Keychain to manager her passwords. Here’s 4 reasons why iCloud Keychain may be a better fit over fancier 3rd-Party password manager services:
iCloud Keychain is Apple
The only requirements to start using iCloud Keychain is you need an Apple ID, an Apple device and…That’s it. Just turn on iCloud Keychain in iCloud settings, you it will automatically start remembering your passwords. No matter if you’re on an Mac, iPhone, or iPad, it just works with no fuss.
iCloud Keychain is Simple
No worrying about software updates, compatibility issues or complex features, configurations, or functionality. If you open a website or app, iCloud Keychain will prompt you to enter a stored password. Enter a new password for the first time, it will ask to save the password. That’s it.
iCloud Keychain is Secure
Apple is serious about your data security, so naturally one of its services that focuses on keeping your passwords secure, will require a level of security in and of itself. So in order to use iCloud Keychain, you do have to turn on 2-Factor Authentication. Doing so will lock down your data with end-to-end encryption that will keep your passwords on lock down.
iCloud Keychain is Free
Apple’s hardware costs a pretty penny. The software/services that come with adopting the Apple ecosystem…not so much. iCloud Keychain is free to use across all your devices. No per user/computer/year subscription costs like other 3rd-Party services. So save as many passwords as you want, free of charge.
All that to say, if you don’t need a super-sophisticated password management tool that can sync across different hardware/software brands, or need to share data with multiple users across your team, you might want to adopt iCloud Keychain as your main password manager.
If a blog post won't cut it, be sure to get in touch for all your Apple support needs... Book a Support Session Shoot me a message