My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: US$50 Astropad App - How @astropadapp turns any Apple iPhone or iPad into a Graphic Artiste's Drawing Palette

Monday, March 2, 2015

US$50 Astropad App - How @astropadapp turns any Apple iPhone or iPad into a Graphic Artiste's Drawing Palette

If you’ve read my MICO Wars article entitled “How Remote Mouse can make your Smartphone or Tablet into a Graphic Artiste’s Palette”, you may have noticed that I hinted at the possibility that a graphic artiste can use the Remote Mouse App to turn their Tablet into a touchpad for drawing.

That’s not quite accurate.

While it CAN do that, you'd still have to be looking at the screen in order to do any accurate work, as the Remote Mouse App merely turns your Apple iPhones, Google Android smartphones or Tablets into an optical Trackpad. Effectively, this is a fancy replacement for your Optical Trackpad on your Laptop or even an additional optical Trackpad to your Desktop computer, really.


But what if you're a Graphic Artiste, you have an Apple iMac or a Macbook Pro computer and you want to use your Apple iPhone or Apple iPad to not only control the mouse but also see your Apple iMac or a Macbook Pro screen and do creative work?


Then you'll need to download the free Astropad App made by two (2) former Apple Engineers that turns your Apple iPad or Apple iPhone into a Drawing palette as noted in the article “This app turns your iPad into a sketch board for your Mac”, published February 18, 2015 By Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge.

US$50 Astropad App - How to turn any Apple iPhone or Apple iPad into a Graphic Artiste's Drawing Palette

Like the Remote Mouse, the Astropad App, which was launched on Tuesday February 17th 2015, allows you to control the mouse on your computer by synching with an Astropad App Server application that you have to install on your Apple iMac or Apple Macbook.

Also, like the Remote Mouse, both your Apple iMac or Apple Macbook and the Apple iPad or Apple iPhone have to be on the same Wi-Fi Network, otherwise you'll have to tether it to your Apple iMac or Apple Macbook using a USB cable.


However, unlike Remote Mouse, their business model is different; you have to pay US$50 to purchase the Astropad App Server Application for Mac in order to use this product.

So dear reader, you've been warned; this is not a freebie as you'll have to use your Scotia VISA Debit Card or CIBC First Caribbean VISA Debit Card to purchase this necessary app. Here is a demo video of the Astropad App in case you have doubts.


Other than that, this is an excellent bit of software that supports iOS 8 and OS X Mavericks 10.9 as noted in the article “Turn your iPad into a professional drawing tablet with Astropad”, published February 19, 2015 By Cody Brooks, DigitalTrends.

US$50 Astropad App – How to get LIQUID work using Apple iPhone or Apple iPad

Based on a Technology called LIQUID that reduces the lag time between your Apple iMac or Apple Macbook and the Apple iPad or Apple iPhone to within 12ms, good enough to do HD Quality graphics work or video at 60fps.

However, to really get good quality work out of your Tablet, you'll need to get a stylus as recommended in the article “Astropad turns your iPad into a graphics tablet for your Mac”, published Feb. 18, 2015 by Kevin C. Tofel, Gigaom.

Even better, you can make your own Capacitive Touch Screen Stylus as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “How to make a Stylus for your Apple iPad or Capacitive-Touch Device”.


Astropad App also uses ARM assembly code, thereby maximizing on the battery life, albeit I must again complain that I'd have preferred Bluetooth, as the Wi-Fi will sap the Battery strength anyway, making the USB tether look awfully tempting.

That US$50 for the Astropad App Server Application for Mac might be a deal breaker. 

But if you go directly to the Astropad App Developer's Website and you're a College Student, you can try it on a seven (7) day trial period. After that you'll only pay US$20 to basically avoid buying an expensive US$35 Wacom Bamboo Pad just to do the same thing your Apple iPhone or Apple iPad can do.

Here's the link:

Astropad App Twitter handle: @astropadapp



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