But I won’t try convincing you of how revolutionary this new Apple device is, instead I’ll just point you to some other people much smarter than myself and let them do the talking.

• Frasier Speirs - Future Shock
• Steven Frank - I Need to Talk to You About Computers
• Sean Sperte - Getting Intimate With the iPad
• William Van Hecke - iPad Is A Big Deal Guys
• Ethan Nicholas - Why My Mom’s Next Computer is Going to Be an iPad

With that out of the way - I think one place that is going to be turned upside down by the iPad is the church.

Presentation Control + Live Sermon Notes

There will be the Keynote app available at launch, and soon there will be many apps for the iPad that allow someone to wirelessly control ProPresenter and other presentation apps. This will allow a pastor to easily flip between slides without turning his back to the audience. Though perhaps not ideal at larger churches where there is a lot to control and there are teams dedicated to keeping them in control… but for the small to medium church where they may not be a dedicated team this is an easy way for the pastor to keep things top notch.

With the larger screen size one might hope that an iPad app for controlling ProPresenter or MediaShout would have a “pastor” mode which would allow the pastor to have all of his sermon notes on the screen, with a sidebar to enabling skipping to the next slide. It could even work dynamically - say a pastor decides he wants to share a bible verse listed in his notes that he hadn’t prepared in his slides. The app could automatically create slide based on the presentations template and instantly display it on the screen.

Worship Leader Planning & Performing

Imagine an app that contains all your worship charts, you can easily scroll through all your inputted songs, listen to a quick preview, and then drag a few to create next weeks playlist. As you’re going through the music you remember that your lead singer has a lightly lower voice so you quickly adjust the key to your charts, bringing it into a better register. You hit “sync” and it auto updates all your musicians apps which you can use on stage in portrait mode, tapping the screen to get to your next song.

This is actually my favorite use for an iPad in church, one that I would love to create myself, if I could just find an app developer to partner with (if you’re a developer and interested - contact me!).

New Musical Instruments

This one remains to be seen but based on the history of the iPhone, the iPad will likely be a breeding ground for tons of new music applications. The larger screen allows a lot of possible applications. At a churchplant I was once a part of we had a hard time finding a good drummer, though we had excellent musicians other than that. I would’ve loved the ability to program a live drum-machine beat from the stage.

Conspicuous Soundboard

Many churches have a large soundboard box which is either tucked off in a corner where it gets an inaccurate reading on the sound in the room, or it is this big ugly cubicle sitting amongst the crowd.

What if the sound guy was just sitting in a seat, somewhere in the middle with just an iPad in his hand - getting a perfect bearing on the sound in the room and being able to adjust volumes on the fly with his portable touch interface. No need to handle a giant soundboard, simply tap through different screens to adjust all the volumes and tones of everything on stage.

Like magic.

Other Uses

And those are just a few, there are tons of other uses - lighting/video control, portable hearing impaired solution for churches that are unable to support a deaf ministry, children check-in stations… the possibilities are endless!

How do you see the iPad affecting your church or ministry?

- Stephen Colbert]]> 2010-01-25T05:47:55+00:00 http://echofaith.com/blog/entry/name_predictions_for_the_new_apple_tablet_cameo_liberty http://echofaith.com/blog/entry/name_predictions_for_the_new_apple_tablet_cameo_liberty#When:01:06:42Z There are a lot of terrible name predictions out there for the new Mac Tablet Netbook Thingy… but there are also a lot of people claiming that the new slate/tablet device is going to be Apple’s biggest innovation since the original Macintosh computer unveiled in 1984.

So why not use the naming convention they started with back then? iNames are so last decade.

My favorite apple names that could be Apple names - Cameo and Liberty.

Cameo is a type of apple, a type of carving that is signified by a single 2-color gem with one color outlining the other (silver unibody with black glass surface?), and a cameo role is one that appears in all types of media playable on this new device. Alright, so that last one is a bit of a stretch. But really - did the name Macintosh really convey much about computers back in 1984?

Liberty is another type of apple that could make a great product name, though it’s metaphor might be just a bit too on the nose. But then again, Apple does prefer short, witty catchphrases and lines like “Experience true freedom with Liberty.” It might just be too easy for them to pass it up.

May not be the most likely prediction - but at least it’s unique.

Can’t wait to get my CameoPro.

I’m making the transition to start accepting more freelance work so - if you need some great design or motion work done for your church, ministry, or non-profit - I’m your guy!

If you’ve been a follower for awhile you may notice that this design is much cleaner than my usual style. Sometimes change is good, yes?

There are still a few things here and there that need to be fixed - the biggest is that… all my old posts are currently missing. I am using ExpressionEngine 2.0 and currently there is not a way to import from other blogging platforms. There is an import tool on the way so I have all my old content sitting in a folder just ready to get uploaded. ;)

As such I have no current implementation of an archive - so that will all come soon enough.

Hope you enjoy the promo showreel on the home page.

My wife and I are expecting our first child this year.

First, the details: we first found out about 5-6 weeks ago (the baby is around 10 weeks old) and just told our families over Christmas. Danielle had her very first checkup yesterday and the baby is due August 2nd, 2010. And… that’s pretty much all we know at this point.

Danielle first told me by giving me this book “Dad’s Pregnant Too” and according to the Man Approved charts inside, there is already an active heartbeat and fingers and toes have started to appear. In the next week or so fingernails will have formed. How crazy is that?

So here’s to the new year, and this new adventure they call being a father.

…I can’t wait to get that book.