Convert WMV to iPad compatible file

I like to combine digital photos with the movies that I take with my PureDigital Flip Camera and make them into slideshows using HP Memories Creator which came bundled with my HP printer.

Thought it would be nice to have a slideshow presentation like that on my iPad.

Well, I figured out how.  And I didn’t have to buy any new programs to do it - the necessary programs were free.

I got the Windows Live Movie Maker program free from Microsoft.
Get yours here.  It comes as part of the Live Essentials package. You have to have Windows 7 to run WLMM.

In Windows Live Movie Maker, I can combine photos, videos, music and have special effects and all kinds of cool stuff.  It generates a WMV file.  WMV files can be viewed in a Windows Media Player.

You cannot upload a WMV file to the iPad / iPodTouch. 

You will need to convert that WMV file into a MP4, which is compatible with the iPad and iPod Touch.  And to convert it, you need another free program - Any Video Converter.  Get the “Any Video Converter Free”.

Once you convert the WMV to MP4, you upload the MP4 through iTunes, the usual way. 

I’ve been looking for a WMV file convertor for a long time.  The ones I’ve seen cost $40 to $50.  Free is so much nicer!  And you can convert WMV to AVI, also.

And Microsoft has another nice free program that does a nice slideshow of zooming in, out and across photos – Photo Story.  It really makes a nice presentation of your quilts, with music.  Or make a slideshow of the construction of a particular quilt (or gift) for a special occasion.  It will generate a WMV file that you can convert to MP4 for iPad / iPodTouch.

Lists for iPod Touch

Has this ever happened to you – you bring home a book from the library and when you start reading it, you realize you have read it before?  The thought of dragging around a list of “books read” never appealed to me.  Although I did meet a gentleman at the library who had a printed list (of many pages) of books he had read!  It would have to be constantly re-printed, in order to keep it in alphabetical order, or sorted by author.

I do bring an envelope of clippings of articles on books to watch for when I go to the library.  What a mess that is to look through!

So, I thought – how about putting the list on a page on my website and then I could look at the list at the library on my iPod Touch.  Wow!  What a great idea this is!

I can update it at any time and don’t have to print anything to have a current list at my finger tips.

I had a head start on a list of books I had read, as I had created one on a spreadsheet, years ago, but I never kept up on it.  I was able to get names of some “books read” from the notes in the envelope.  My list is not complete, but it I had to start somewhere and now was a good time.

I also have a list of books I want to read.  And also a list of my favorite authors.  I can hardly wait to try this out the next time I go to the library!

Then, I thought, why not put up a list of movies we’ve watched so that I can access them on my iPod Touch?  So when someone asks me, “seen any good movies lately?”, I can just whip out my iPod Touch & flick through the list of movies to jog my memory.

It was easy to get up a list of movies, cuz I’ve been keeping track of the movies we’ve watched since we got Netflix in Dec. 2009.

We recently enjoyed “Fracture” with Anthony Hopkins. A good courtroom drama with suspense.

Another thing I have put on my website – for my own use – is a webpage that has a list of all my favorite links.  So, it’s real easy to find all my “private pages” – all I have to do is remember the address of that one page.
I can do that …

Medical Insurance World Gone Mad

I was catching up on some reading and ran across a very interesting article in the AARP magazine.  A woman has ALS and uses an iPod Touch that has an app (Proloquo2go) that can interpret her slurred speech.  Medicare will pay thousands of dollars for a device that will interpret her speech, but will not pay a couple of hundred for the iPod Touch which is compact and works just as well for the purpose.

Reason?  Medicare says it cannot cover the cost of iPods and other handheld devices because they are designed for the public and not for a specific medical purpose.  What an amazingly stupid reason!

Is Medicare afraid that along with using the iPod Touch for her infirmity, she might just use it to read a book, take notes, listen to music and keep track of her medication?  Heavens, she just might download a free app or two and play a game to while away the time. The medically approved (more expensive) device does only one thing.

Is Medicare afraid to save some money?

Here’s the URL for the full article - http://tinyurl.com/yedm5v6

Then, in this morning’s paper, I read an interesting letter to the editor.  It seems a woman went to her podiatrist to have a tiny spur on one of her toes removed.  Doctor said it would take 5 minutes.  BUT, first she had to

• see a heart doctor and get an EKG
• get a very detailed blood test
• get a chest x-ray

3 separate doctors – thousands of dollars, paid by insurance – just for a 5-minute procedure?  How many of those kinds of procedures are done daily?  To the tune of what kind of money?

She decided to live with the spur.

I guess all those things have to be done that way – it’s called “covering your butt”.  Let’s see – I think we have the lawyers to thank for that …  Nothing funny, here.

PopEater on iPod Touch

OK, I admit it – I enjoy reading celebrity gossip & seeing the outrageous things that celebrities do and get away with.  Now, PopEater (that online deliverer of all things gossip) has an app for the iPhone/iPodTouch.

Go to popeater.com for the download and to read all about this new app or go to iTunes and search the app store for PopEater.

I can read the juicy little tidbits right on my iPod Touch if I’m in a WiFi area.  If I’m not, the app auto-saves the entries for me so that I can view them when I need to pass the time in a waiting room.

Oh – it’s a free app!  I refuse to pay for any celebrity gossip …

They’ll be Tweeting from Houston!

Twitter is really good for some things and the Houston Quilt Market & Festival is one of them. I just found out PlanetPatchwork was tweeting from Houston’s Quilt Market last week and will start tweeting again for Quilt Festival which starts Wed. Oct 14. They really did a good job of sharing a lot of pics they took at Market of things they found interesting. Their Tweet Home is http://twitter.com/planetpatchwork. You don’t have to be a member of Twitter to read the tweets.

I liked the “Zipper Mouth Pillow Creatures” from Indygo Junction - http://znl.me/L048S

For those of you who are not familiar with Twitter, here’s a few hints – On http://twitter.com/planetpatchwork page, you will see a list of very short comments (tweets), usually having a red “http://…” link. Click on that link and you will see a photo for that tweet (comment).

Near the top of the page, you will see #quiltmarket in red, click on that link and it will take you to a page of tweets from different people from all over.

Also near the top of http://twitter.com/planetpatchwork page, you will see #quiltmarket in red, click on that link and you will see the beginnings of which I’m assuming will be a long list of tweeters at the Houston Quilt Festival starting Wed. Oct 14 thru Sun. Oct. 18.

Ami Simms will be tweeting from Houston, too. She said she will try & put up pics of the new owners of the ALZ Quilts that they will be selling and auctioning off.

Here’s Ami’s Tweet Home -- http://twitter.com/aaqiupdate
Here's a list of all the ALZ Quilts in Houston -- http://www.alzquilts.org/hoinqufeo15.html

The tweets are just so easy to read from my iPod Touch and a nice comfortable chair.

Do you know of anyone else who will be tweeting from Houston? I will put links at the end of this post.

iPod Touch & Sewing

I found another great use for the iPod Touch.  I found the best way to keep track of my sewing stitches and the adjustments I make to the stitches on my new Janome 6600 is to take a close-up picture of the foot used and then type notes on the photo.

If you click on the pic above, you will be able to read the note better on the enlarged pic.  My note tells me the Needle Position to use for a 1/4” seam when using the Open-Toe AccuFeed foot.  And the red arrows remind me where to line up the raw edge of fabric with the foot.

Putting this in the IPod Touch saves on ink and paper as I don’t have to print it out.  I bring my iPod Touch into my sewing room a lot.

Found while looking for something else

I just found the coolest place to subscribe to podcasts that are all about “things computer”. Years ago, there used to be a TV show called “Cnet Central” that had all kinds of tips for computer users and news about the latest “gotta haves”. In today’s paper there was an article about making your computer run faster - http://tinyurl.com/csuk5d

The article mentioned a video to watch on how to install more RAM in your computer. It said to go to cnettv.cnet.com , which I did and I found a ton of informational video podcasts that I could subscribe to. I immediately subscribed to Apple Byte, Insider Secrets, Cnet Top 5 and Quick Tips. It gave me the option to choose iTunes and they’re downloaded and waiting to go into my iPod Touch. They also had a little video that had 3 tips on how to make the most of AdAware, which I watched.

I will definitely be back to Cnet to see what else I might be missing! LOL

Fabric shopping, EQ, iPod Touch

I’d like to thank Penny & Andrea over at ElectricQuilt for creating a whole bunch of traffic to my blog today! I was mentioned on the EQ blog for my entry on Friday.

I had sent EQ an email saying I had found a good marriage between the iPod Touch and EQ and they agreed and posted my link today. In the EQ blog it said -- “She moves images from EQ to her IPod Touch and takes the IPod to the fabric store! Not only does she save paper, but going from computer screen to IPod screen, she doesn’t have to deal with the way printers and monitors are calibrated.”

There definitely is a difference between the colors I see on my monitor and the colors that print.

I've got a quilt that I will be making here in the not too far distant future and I will let you know how the iPod Touch helps me with my fabric selection.

Fabric shopping with iPodTouch

Found out the coolest and greenest thing (no printing) to do with my iPod Touch. My method works with EQ6, but you might find other uses.

When I design a quilt in EQ6 and print out the Fabric Yardage to take with me to the store, I find the printout is “not exactly” what I viewed on my computer monitor in the design process. BUT if I view an exported image of the fabric, it looks “exactly” like what I saw on my computer. AND when I put that image in my iPod Touch, it gives me a much better idea of what fabrics I need to get. Can zoom in and out of the pic, too.

The fabrics I used to design the quilt might not be available when I go shopping. Why do fabric manufactures have to change their lines so often? I have some wonderful fabric in my stash that was purchased years ago and it is just as “current” as fabrics of today. And is sometimes just “exactly” what I need. I hate using up a favorite fabric, cuz I know I won’t be able to replace it.

So, if those desired fabrics are not available when I go shopping, when I view the fabric images on my iPod, I get a pretty close representation of what I need and can buy something that is “close enough”.

I found that creating 3 images covers all bases.

1) An exported pic of the quilt (a faraway look)

2) A “print screen” of the fabrics from the sketchbook (a close-up of fabrics)

3) A “print screen” of the fabric yardage page (yardage requirements)

2 & 3 were manipulated in PaintShopPro with some text added on 3. Actually, all you’d have to do is crop them and maybe add some text to 3 – like the date. And with the “zoom in” feature on the iPodTouch, you can view all of what you want to see.

If you have the current edition of “Stash” and used fabrics from there, you could probably find those fabrics still at your Local Quilt Shop. Then you might want to go the extra step and take a “print screen” of each fabric and its notecard. That way you would have the Manufacturer, the line and the numbers needed to purchase that fabric. No paper needed! Is this green or what!

I’m thinking that shopping at online shops would be easier by matching the iPod Touch image of fabric to an online image of fabric.

Podcasts

While Jason was here sewing, I was able to ask him all about podcasts for my new iPod Touch. Putting things into the iPod is so different from making files and directories in a computer. When I first got the it, I just couldn’t figure out how to get things into it. Was so glad to find their Forum. And then having a tech-savvy grandson in my house was even better!

If you have any favorite podcasts, please let me know so I check them out.

With the iPod, if any one asks if I have pics of my grandkids, or my latest quilt, I can really show them – plus have a tune playing while they view the slideshow! Technology – I love it! LOL

I've made a cover for the iPod Touch to slip in when not in use and can use it when carrying in my purse. And am working on a carrying bag for the iPod and accessories.