Youth Ministry Geek - Youth Ministry Ideas - Youth Technology Resources

Apple to Provide Live Video Streaming of September 1 Event

Chris — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:35:04 +0000

This may make the live bloggers a little miffed, but apple announced they will live stream their event tomorrow. I love that they made this move.

From their site:
Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.

I’ll be sure to log in, how about you?

UPDATE: Here the link for the live stream: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1009qpeijrfn/event. Here are the system requirements: Safari 4 or 5 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Safari on iOS 3 or later. Sorry PC friends.

IceClean: System Maintenance for your Mac for free

Chris — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:39:40 +0000

I often get asked what maintenance should be done for mac computers. People coming from the PC world are used to defrags, virus scans, and other routine maintenance tasks on their computers, but once they move to the Mac they aren’t sure what’s best.

I saw this post over on TUAW today with an easy solution and it’s free, IceClean. While you don’t need to do as much as on your PC, there are still some simple things you can do to keep your computer running it’s best. It also includes some great utilities for making some little system tweaks.

If you have been looking for some help it’s definitely worth checking out.

TUAW LINK: IceClean does system maintenance and optimization for your Mac for free.

Facebook Fast — Are You In?

Chris — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 22:32:43 +0000

Could you survive a day without Facebook? I just read an article over on YouthMinistry.com about pastors in Houston that are challenging their congregation and Christians everywhere to fast from the service for one day, August 25th.

Imagine one day if everyone would turn off their cell phones, iPads or laptops; refrain from texting, emailing, tweeting or even chatting on Facebook and intentionally get face-to-face in their relationships. That’s what thousands will be doing during the National Facebook Fast on Wednesday, August 25th. We’re not bashing technology; we’re just challenging you to take one day and set it aside and to be intentional about the relationships in your life. For one day we’re getting back to the basics and we’re inviting you to do the same.

In this age where electronic forms of communication bring people together more than ever before it’s important to remember sometime they get in the way of us connecting with the people in real life.

If you want more info about the fast jump over to Facebook Fast | youthministry.com.

Star Tours Summer Vacation

Chris — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:03:09 +0000

I don’t know if you taken your summer vacation yet, but I want to go on this trip:

I personally can’t wait for the new Star Tours ride at Disneyland. It’s needed a revamp for awhile, but it’s still one of my favorites.

New Star Tours Video Makes Us Ask: Where Will the New Star Tours Attraction Take Us? « Disney Parks Blog.

Super Awesome Bundle 2: Revenge of the Robot

Chris — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:52:55 +0000

Over on SimplyYouthMinistry.com we launched a great bundle this morning. The Super Awesome Bundle 2. It’s 8 great resources for $49. As the bundle sells it get’s better. Check out the bundle page for all the details.

Here’s a little video we made about how we came up with the bundle. (Why do I always end up in these videos?)

Quantities are limited, so don’t wait too long.

Also 10% of the sales go to help the Center for Parent / Teen Understanding.

12 Tips for Shooting Better Footage

Chris — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 05:29:40 +0000

I saw this post over on MoreThanDodgeball.com, and thought it had some reminders about shoot good video footage. It might be great to share with any students that might be shooting for you. Even if you are just shooting with a Flip cam, your final video can only be as good as the footage you have to work with.

The tips covered in the post include: timecode, camera movement, lighting, audio, and more.

GUEST POST: 12 Tips for Shooting Better Footage | More Than DodgeBall – Youth Ministry Blog by Josh Griffin.

Upload HD from your iPhone with PixelPipe

Jeremy — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 02:13:22 +0000

It is frustrating to have to allow some app to compress you video or image files before you can upload them to your intended destination. Also frustrating is the cap on “over the air” uploading from your iPhone even when it is connected to WIFI. To top it all off, I like to have my video residing natively on YouTube and Facebook, but hate having to go through the painful uploading process twice. PixelPipe solves all of those problems.

PixelPipe focuses on one thing: publish photos, video, audio, text and files on over 100 online destinations. Basically that means it will put your media on every blogging, social media, and online storage site you can imagine.

Once you register for an account, you set up “destinations” like YouTube and Facebook and it adds them to your list of destinations. Then, once you are ready to upload, you select the media you would like to upload, click upload and it does the rest (one upload to multiple destinations). It has a 250MB cap which should make most of your HD clips uploadable; though, if you have edited them into a snazzy video, it may exceed the limit.

Its one flaw is its UI. Once you fire it up, it is not obvious how to go about selecting which destination you are uploading to at that particular moment (you have to go into settings>edit destinations and then [...] Continue Reading "Upload HD from your iPhone with PixelPipe"

Summer Fun: David Crowder*Band – Oh Happiness Live

Chris — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:34:16 +0000

I’ve been a little crazed of late and haven’t given the blog the time it deserves (I have some fun posts coming very soon, including my Comic-Con wrap-up), but for now enjoy this bit of Summer Happiness.

Star Wars on a Subway

Chris — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:14:51 +0000

The gang over at Improv Everywhere are at it again, this time re-enacting a scene from Star Wars on a subway. Actually I think I really saw this at Comic-Con last year.

Getting the Most Out of Youth Group Games

Chris — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 20:56:41 +0000

This week over at YouthMinistry.com there was a great series of articles on using games in youth ministry.

Part one: GAME ON! how games can enhance your ministry – it’s a great reminder of why we play games in youth ministry.

Part two: GAME OVER! seven game mistakes that will derail your effectiveness – goes over some common mistakes that can derail your games.

Part three: TIME OUT! three practices that will strengthen your game plan – gives some great suggestions about making your games the best they can.

If you are looking for some new games to play, YouthMinistry.com also has some new free game e-books for you. You can download Grass Stain: Outdoor Youth Ministry Games or Rugburn: Indoor Youth Ministry Games. To get the free downloads you need to sign-up for the YouthMinistry.com Daily email from Doug Fields and Matt McGill, but you also get access to some other great e-books as well as content like these articles in your inbox 4 days a week.

Continue Reading "Getting the Most Out of Youth Group Games"