Enter the Hitchcock app, released by Cinemek.  It’s one of the priciest apps yet at $19.99, but it is certainly one of the most useful. It melds many of the existing iPhone assets to make one intuitive piece of software.

For people like me, drawing storyboards usually ends in snot bubbles, tears, and depression!  Most of my time is spent getting a single frame to look like it does in my head, a painstaking waste of time and resources.  Storyboarding is one of the most important steps to translating an idea into a vision, and the Hitchcock app spares LOTS of heartaches by allowing users to build storyboards shot by shot by using photos you’ve already snapped, or new ones taken through the iPhone.

Users can set the duration of any given shot.  Zooms, pans, and tilting are easily adjustable. Need actors? Add changeable stand-in male and female silhouettes with a few button presses!  Users can even add text as dialogue or to better explain the shot. If you would rather narrate the storyboard, the app allows for audio recording as well.  It’s a comprehensive app for sure with all these great tools to play with!

Users can also easily upload their developed storyboards as PDFs to the web and send links to friends for downloading.  One would figure this app loads and runs slowly, creating lots of big files.  It does neither.  It’s really an amazing piece of software.  For filmmakers, it’s a must-have.  For iPhone app aficionados, it’s a great buy.

Yubin Wadesworth
iApplicate

Yubin Wadesworth is iApplicate’s producer and his love for the iPhone is second to none!
iApplicate is the web’s premiere iPhone app video review program.
There are over 100,000 iPhone applications available today, wouldn’t you like to know which apps to avoid, which ones will fit your specific need, and which ones just flat out rock?  iApplicate reviews and evaluates iPhone app functionality to help you find the products you need.    Follow iApplicate posts and weekly episode uploads on Facebook, Twitter, the iApplicate website today!

But did you know there are plenty of other Google tips, tricks and shortcuts which could potentially save you time and money, help you better plan your day and potentially save your life? Below, 5min Partner PCWizKid, who was recently honored as a 2009 Microsoft MVP, shares some of the best Google tricks up his sleeve to help you make the most of the search engine that changed the world:

1. Define It: Even without a dictionary, Google can definitely help you avoid ending up befuddled, by allowing you to easily look up words and their meanings – for example, try typing in define: befuddled.

2. Calculate It: Got to crunch those numbers, but don’t have a calculator on hand? Sure, you could use the fairly basic calculator functions found in most computers, but why bother? Just type in a formula, no matter how complex, and get the answers you need.

3. Convert it: Need to know how much it’ll cost you to order smashing new threads from your fave Japanese shop? Don’t worry your pretty little head – just turn to Google, and use the calculator in order to convert your local currency into the Japanese yen. How awesome is that?! Aside from calculating how much money you’ll really be blowing online, you can also calculate weight and size conversions, to make sure you’re ordering the correct sizes.

4. Clock it: Got news you can’t wait to share with your friends or colleagues who happen to be stationed in another hemisphere? No problem! Simply type in time and the name of the city where your friends are, and find out if it’s still a socially acceptable hour to phone or Skype them.

5. Watch it: Want to catch a matinee on your day off, but got lots of other errands to run? Plan your day wisely by finding out the local showtimes for the movie of your choice. by typing the movie’s name and your postal code and hitting “Search”, you’ll be able to check out local listings and movie showtimes in your area.

Got a Tech SOS? Be sure to check out more tech tips, tricks and tutorials from PCWizKid here on 5min, and follow PCWizKid on Twitter!

While the academic school year has already started, it’s never too late to shop around for the gear you’re still missing – or even better, guilt your family into some heavy gadget-gifting. Below is are list of top 5 must-haves for you college students:

1. MacBook Pro
College kids will usually prefer ultra-portable laptops in order to be able to lug their humble student office everywhere they go, whether it’s a friend’s dorm room, the library, classes or a friendly off-campus cafe. Now, really, what could be better than schlepping a Mac?! Macs offer students high performance, ease of use and some fairly light-to-carry options in terms of weight. While smaller netbooks offer even greater portability, you can’t beat a Mac when it comes to organizing your data, music, movies, and school work, while still leaving time and resources for the fun side of college, like capturing your dorm’s social happenings and editing them to perfection with iMovie. The longer battery life guarantees a surefire way to make it through long evenings in the library, while still keeping things green when it comes to energy efficiency. Not to mention that with their newest product range, the 13″ MacBook Pro is a pretty affordable choice, starting at $1,199 – and you get a student discount, of course!

2. Pico USB Flash Drive
Whether on campus or off campus, you’re only as good as the data you carry – if you crave the ultimate power of 32 gigabytes of storage without having a suspicious bulge in your pocket, look no further than the Pico USB Flash Drive – available at 8, 16 and 32 gigabytes, this thumb-sized baby is a true rescue tool for when you need your data with you. Just think of the possibilities – up to 20 whole days of musical jams, thousands of hi-res photos, or more than a dozen full-length movies ripped from your dorm buddies. So tiny, yet so powerful. We’re in awe.

3. Flip UltraHD Camcorder
A great way to squeeze more spending money from your parents is to let them know what your current dorm life looks like, preferably in video – empty boxes of ramen noodles, bowls of spoilt macaroni and cheese, the rats that are hiding underneath your bed, and so on. What better way to stage a sympathy-inducing homebrew video letter of your own to send to Mom and Dad, other than with this sleek, easy-to-use camcorder? Following up on an already stellar line of products, Flip now offers 120 minutes of recording time in vivid HD, 8 GB of built-in memory and pocket portability, with one of the slickest interfaces around. Next time your parents inquire as to what should go in your Christmas stocking or Hanukkah pile this year, just point them here.

4. Sony Playstation 3 Slim
For those days where you’re channeling more arcade than academia, you’ll need some playful distractions. I’d suggest the Nintendo DSi for pocket gaming (I’ve become a total addict!), but since you’re in a college dorm, you may want to be more social with your gaming time, and invite friends over for a tournament, so a “real” console is called for. With all the awesomeness of the original Sony PS3, the Slim version is a great option for student on the go, as this considerably slimmer console means ease of transfer from one gaming location to the next. Taking up over a third less space in your dorm room, this covers both your cinematic needs and gaming desires all in one piece, making it a value purchase for any dorm.

5. Olympus LS-11 Portable Audio Recorder
The best way to make sure you get all those juicy class notes and gain some real knowledge while you’re at school, without earning yourself a bad case of carpal tunnel syndrome? Record your lectures with a fervor! Almost archived as a gadget of the past, audio recorders are back ad sleeker than ever, like the Olympus LS-11. Offering 8 GB of storage, 20 hours of battery life and a clear, crisp sound quality, you can now use your class time to catch up on valuable sleeping hours, without missing a single academic beat.

It’s not that it’s useful, you can’t make money out of it and it’s not really something to brag about – it’s just that something within us that doesn’t love a wall.

Enter AppVee, the largest reviewer of iPhone apps on the web, who also happen to be celebrating their one-year app-versary on the web, after a busy year of bringing you in-depth video reviews of over 1,000 different apps. AppVee saves you the time, effort and scrolling-induced thumb injuries of scouring the App Store, and brings you only the best of the best, whether you are after productivity helpers or games to kill those empty moments on long subway commutes.

Every fresh app that is released is evaluated against a set of criteria. If the application is worthwhile, AppVee goes to work developing a comprehensive video review, a written review (which you should definitely check out their website for), alongside detailed screenshots, providing additional and valuable information on new releases. With such an industrious approach to regularly reviewing apps, I sometimes find myself wondering if Alex and the guys have time for anything else! Just check out this video review of Tweetie (which happens to be one of my fave and most-used apps):

While I sometimes enjoy cruising the most recent apps available through the App Store just for comic value (because really, just how paranoid do you need to be in order to pay for an app that maps terror organizations across the globe?!), it’s beyond helpful to have a resource such as AppVee right at my fingertips. With a recently released iPhone app of their own, AppVee are true mobile life-savers.

To keep up with the latest news from AppVee, be sure to check out the AppVee Studio on 5min, or follow them on Twitter!

You’d get to work in the morning by blinking, and earn some precious  moments of sleep every day. By simply saying the word “lunch” it will pop up and appear in front of you. Oh yeah, step aside Mary Poppins, Jeannie, and the Bewitched Samantha, you won’t need a 3 minute song sequence just to organize and clean the house. Call me crazy, or lazy, but I get most excited about technology when it makes my life easier, even in the smallest ways;  like being able to do in one click what used to take me 3.

Yes, twittering 5min videos with our shiny new player is now super simple: all you do is press the Twitter button that’s on the player.  No copy, no paste and no waste of time.  The difficult part is to decide what to do with all that free time you’ll suddenly have. Personally I’ll probably watch another video and daydream of magical powers and futuristic helpful robots.

Learn how to build your very own robot in this ultra cool IndyMogul video:

Watch more DIY videos on 5min.com

For weeks now we’ve been working at full capacity to bring you the latest version of 5min’s Smart Player – the third major release of our flagship distributable player – now sleeker, noticeably lighter, faster and above all – more customizable than ever before, making it the ideal white-label player solution for your site.

During this time and since the release of the player’s previous version, we’ve been making every effort to listen to you, our Content Partners, Distribution Partners and the 5min community itself in order to bring you the best possible player to suit your needs across every online outlet – the result is a new and improved Smart Player, armed with new customization, content delivery and monetization options for an enhanced viewing experience alongside more control over the player’s overall look and functionality.

The same all-in-one player, now with more customization options than ever before, to ensure seamless integration on your site, on your blog or any of your web pages. With such a smart, simple way to add 5min’s quality how-to video content to your site, you can now define your player, tweak and skin it, and create a custom-made video section for your site or blog – all in minutes and with a lightweight snipper of code. One of our goals was and remains to make relevant distribution of quality how-to’s a cinch – whether via the embeddable default Smart Player, through our VideoSeed product range, or our dynamic video widgets Now, with a new player in tow, we’ve also made it easier for you – publishers, bloggers, site owners and content creators – to gain maximum control over the latest Smart Player and make it totally your own.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be rolling out with the new player across our Partner websites, so keep your eyes open and let us know what you think of the changes we’ve made.

So, what’s new? Below are some of the highlights of the new 5min Smart Player:

More Display Options to Choose From:
The latest version of 5min’s flagship player is now more customizable than ever before, allowing full customization on a per-publisher level — you get total control over the display of your player, from color scheme to branding to sizing, so that you can create a player which suits your website’s needs to a tee. Publishers can also choose which Related Videos are featured within the player and how.

Lighter, Faster Player Behavior:
Now more than 3 times faster in behavior and response, 5min’s latest Smart Player is built with ActionScript 3, designed for high-level functionality and lighter, faster performance — with an initial weight of under 100K, the Smart Player has never been so impressively lightweight and sleek. 5min’s new Smart Player is event-driven, providing a higher performance rate and fine-tuned capabilities alongside a wider variety of customization options, skins, and display preferences. From shorter to loading times to record-time response, the Smart Player has never been faster to use.

Different Ratio Options:
Designed for ideal viewing in either 4:3 or 16:9 format — choose your ratio display settings according to your needs.

Better Branding & Personalization:
More possibilities than ever for content creators and publishers – now you can add a watermark logo to accompany your content in the video area itself, benefit from better branding and even opt for a permanent branded banner addition to appear right below the player.

Streamlined Ad Unit Placement:
The new Smart Player is available for use in all sizes provided via 5min’s VideoSeed range, and supplies an optimal placement of 300 x 250 ad units on your site.

Smart Ad Management:
The new Smart Player incorporates a 3rd party integrated platform for management of video ad inventory — all ads can be easily and accurately managed through this new component, providing up-to-date in-house reporting for your content and monetization of such. All player options may display all ad types and are compatible with a companion banner, for a maximum number of ad views.

Distribution Made Simple:
With the latest Smart Player, it is now more simple than ever to share videos – one click within the video player to embed, send to a friend or share through any one of social networks and web services supported.

In addition to the new and improved Smart Player, you’ll probably notice some exciting changes on our watchpage:

- We’ve made the move to a 16:9/widescreen display as default.
- Easier, more intuitive navigation — now you can easily browse your favorite categories directly from the new watchpage.
- Discovery, made simple – now more than ever it’s simple to find more of the great content you’re after, with the new watchpage tabs.

Stay tuned for the many more great and exciting changes we plan on unveiling in the coming months – we’d love to hear your comments!

While using the website itself is a decent way to tweet and get the latest updates from the feeds you follow, I find that that for a true web-addict like myself, who already works with dozens of open tabs at a time, substituting my Twitter-dependency to the use of desktop clients has been a refreshing change, especially with some of the great Adobe Air-based clients available for Mac users, providing a sleek and very intuitive experience. However, with so many fresh desktop clients surfacing out there, it can be a little confusing – so, which Twitter desktop client is the ultimate pairing for your Mac? Below is a rundown of some of the best Twitter desktop clients for Mac – depending on your needs and use of Twitter, one of these is bound to be the ideal Tweeting solution for you.

Tweetie:

As an iPhone fiend, Tweetie was the one of the more obvious choices for me when their desktop client for the Mac was released, as Tweetie had already managed to secure a spot as favorite on my iPhone. One of the greatet advantages of Tweetie is the enabled support for multiple accounts, meaning I can navigate both my personal Twitter account and 5min’s Twitter account, for example, all without the troubles of multiple sessions, login frustrations or any hassle. Interestingly enough, Tweetie was first developed for the iPhone and only then migrated to the Mac OS X. Another huge pro with Tweetie is the handy little bookmartklet, which allows you to morph any web page you are browsing to a tweet in a simple, straight-forward way – a great idea if you’d like to, say, share links to interesting videos with your followers on Twitter. Using Tweetie, a double-click on any Tweet will enable you to view the entire conversation, which is a great way to stay in the loop. So, what’s the best part about Tweetie? Since it’s not based on Adobe AIR, the program’s memory footprint is a petite one, allowing you to tweet your little heart out without having to worry about your Mac slowing down, freeing more memory for other awesome things, like playing Plants vs. Zombies.

The bitter side-dish? Tweetie’s offering is displayed in a single-column mode – this may be a downer for you if you prefer to receive all your Twitter information in one go, including @replies and direct messages (DM). Personally, I find Tweetie to be a wonderful desktop client despite this drawback, as it allows me to maintain the same experience I have with Tweetie on my iPhone.

TweetDeck:

When I first started to use a desktop client for tweeting, I hopped aboard TweetDeck, one of the more veteran desktop clients on the Twitter scene. There are many wonderful things about TweetDeck, but the real pitch was its super-easy searchability, and an integration with TwitScoop, a web service that tracks trending topics throughout the Twittersphere. TweetDeck also includes the option to receive status updates from your Facebook friends, meaning you’ll have all the updates you need in one place. One of TweetDeck’s awesome features is that it allows you to create groups of different users and categories, such as “Work” or “Friends”, and view them each in their own display.

The possible downer is the fact that being Adobe AIR-based, overdosing on TweetDeck may lead to your Mac behaving a wee bit slower as its memory is devoured by an incessant rain of feeds. On a sidenote, after about a month and a half of using TweetDeck, I developed somewhat of a Pavlovian reflex to the sounds the app’s alerts voice with each incoming update, and ended up feeling a little like Dwight Schrute. Bottom line is this – if you need ALL your Twitter data concentrated in one place and a few sleek columns, TweetDeck is the desktop client for you.

Twhirl:

Twhirl is another friendly Twitter desktop client based on Adobe AIR, created by the awesome folks at Seesmic and compatible with both Windows and Mac platforms. Twhirl also happens to be the more social of the bunch, if you ask me, connecting to multiple Twitter, FriendFeed, identi.ca and Seesmic accounts, as well as smooth integration with Twitter-based services such as TwitPic, TweetScan, Ping.fm and more. Obsessive types like all the wonderful Tweeples on my team will surely appreciate Twhirl’s spell-check feature, too – because even if you’re confined to 140 characters, you shouldn’t be out there embarrassing yourself.

Mac Lounge:

Mac Lounge is another terrific desktop client tailor-made for Macs and iPhones, which also supports multiple accounts. The interface is extremely intuitive and will be quite familiar to Mac users, not to mention it’s very easy on the eyes. All of the frequently-used functions are conveniently located on the left side-bar, including the option to view all your tweets, everyone on the public timeline, your friends/followers, sent and received direct messages, everyone you follow, and so on. A big selling point for Mac Lounge is the ease with which you can follow entire conversation threads, displayed as reply chains. With Mac Lounge, you can easily choose from a wide range of options for every tweet – retweet, link to a tweet, copy a tweet, etc. The app is currently in beta, and I can’t wait to see what more they have in store.

Nambu:

If Twhirl is the super-social of the bunch, I’d label Nambu as the cosmopolitan desktop client – in fact, Nambu enables you to translate any Tweet into plain English with a simple keyboard shorcut. Nifty, huh? As with TweetDeck, you can create groups to better help you track your followers and the different types of feeds and information you receive. Nambu is also great for lazy Tweeples, as it auto-completes usernames as you enter them. All in all, Nambu is like a hybrid between EventBox and TweetDeck, albeit with lesser integration with third-party services such as Facebook and Friendfeed. The real cherry on top? Definitely the de-clutter factor of Nambu, which automatically organizes your replies into conversation threads, resembling text message history, so you can keep abreast of updates with a breeze. Too bad Nambu’s iPhone app is not as slick, but hey – you’ve got Tweetie for that.

MobileMe is a subscription-based collection of online services and software from Apple, the latest generational upgrade to Apple’s veteran iTools. MobileMe’s focus is – of course – the Apple junkies who simply have to sync their respective Geek Gear: their Mac, their iPhone and iPod Touch. MobileMe allows you to get it together, and keep it together, allowing your email, contacts, and calendar stay the same wherever you check them, no matter what device you use, as well as keep it all in sync across multiple devices. You can also set up your MobileMe account to use a personal domain name, so that the URL to any iWeb ’08 (or later) website that you publish to MobileMe is easy to remember. You can also choose to change the “CNAME record” on your registrar’s site, as described here.

With this handy video from Understand Your Mac, we’ll learn how to set your domain up with MobileMe as well as how to edit the cName in GoDaddy (other domain name providers are likely to be similar, but not exactly the same):

Got life-changing tips for Mac users? Advice for the iPhone-toting over-achiever? Tricks to turn the iPod Touch into our faithful little lapdog? We’d love to hear all about it – drop us a line, and your awesome how-to’s may be featured right here on our blog!