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N.E.D.i — Take your training with you

by Wayne LeFevre

 

One of the things I was most excited about when I first heard about it was when MacProVideo announced it was doing an iPhone/iPod Touch version of it’s fantastic viewer, N.E.D. There are many advantages that using a tutorial viewer like N.E.D. has over a flash content video that sites like Lynda.com employ. The first being the ability to back up and burn the tutorial to DVD. That itself is the biggest reason I like MacProVideo over Lynda.com. Another very nice feature is the ability to make the tutorial screen bigger. That might not sound like a great thing to have, but when you have a large monitor and the video is not able to scale, then sometimes it gets a bit difficult to follow. Which brings me to  N.E.D.i, N.E.D.’s little brother for the portable viewers.

 

N.E.D.i is an iPhone/iPod Touch application that can be downloaded for free from the app. store. It can wirelessly sync any or all of your video tutorials from your desktop or laptop Mac. I was very excited and downloaded it the day it came out and synced some tutorials on Final Cut Pro. We happened to be going to Castleton that day, so I figured I might as well learn a little something on the way!

 

I was wrong, and pretty disappointed.

 

Trying to watch an iPod screen in the car can be a little trying in itself. With all the bumps and turns of a New England highway, your lucky to keep your lunch down. But ever try and see a 15-point size cursor, or 10-point size type on an iPhone screen? On the road? (Not while driving, of course.) Not happening. Even when you are not in a car, its very difficult to follow a tutorial on such a small screen. Everything is just so small, it’s almost impossible to see.

 

But not all is bad. I’m sure that they know about all this over at MacProVideo.com, and I’m also sure that they are working on updates. The syncing is flawless and really is pretty slick. You don’t need to be physically connected to the computer to transfer the videos. Though it may take some time to transfer, at least it can. Finally, even though it may be very small, usually you can figure out what is going on when you see video and it is paired with the audio. I’m not sure what the final solution will be, but I am sure that they will figure something out and it will be just as good as the desktop training.

 

Last Minute Update:

 

We just learned of a new option for macProVideo that will become available soon, hopefully it will be out of beta as you are reading this. In dealing with choices, in the training environment more is always better. macProVideo will become the only training site so far that is able to offer not only to download the tutorial of your choice, but now you can stream it straight from the web. So if you have time available, but you don't have access to your main machine, now you still have the opportunity to view a macProVideo tutorial! But that's not the best part! How about streaming and syncing straight to your iPhone! Now how cool is that? (Tiny video aside, of course.) So now you can both view online and download, whichever you prefer. I've tried it using my dual USB model G3 iBook, and whatever magic they are using, it actually plays watchable video! For those who have tried watching videos with this 2001 era iBook know that it's a futile attempt to see anything useful. But for some reason, this plays fine. You can also save 25% on every HD download, if you are a subscriber. I do believe this is enough for me to cancel my monthly Lynda.com subscription. In these times, that $25 a month needs to be spent as wisely as possible.