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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