Roo McCrudden Photography

iPhone Voice Memo’s…worth the hassle?

Roo — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:06:29 +0000

Quick tech/geek post for you, but may come in handy if you’re an iPhone user like myself. I was just asked to help get a voice memo off someones iPhone. I assumed this would be an easy task, simply sync their iPhone, make sure ‘include voice memos’ was ticked in the music sync options, done..easy right? Eh no..I just spent the guts of a few hours sorting this issue out. For some strange reason Apple thinks it’s a good idea to save voice memos in different formats, maybe depending on the length, I’m not really sure and hide them from users. It seems to save some in .mp4 format, while others are saved using a .m4a format. Anyway, they don’t seem to sync to iTunes very well if at all, especially when the voice memos are very long. The one I was dealing with was around 1 hour 10 minutes long. The next option was to break the voice memo down and e-mail it using the option given in the voice memo app on the iPhone. This didn’t work either, in fact nothing happened at all. The file could still be seen on the iPhone but when you then tried to play it back on the device itself, nothing would happen except the play button turned to a pause button, but still no playback.

Okay, so the next option was to download an iPhone viewer programme, I chose to use DiskAid, which is available here http://www.digidna.net/products/diskaid. This worked well, I thought I could see ‘all’ the voice memo files, it was simply a case of dragging and dropping the one in question onto my desktop & playing it. This didn’t work either, even using VLC media player which pretty much handles any media file, so it seemed like the file was corrupt. So back to the forums..finally in one of the last posts I read I came across someone who had used a programme called iPhone Backup Extractor. I ran this, found the most recent backup file which would include the voice memo in question, extracted all the backup files to my desktop. The part you want to extract is called ‘iOS files’ which is chosen from a list. You can then browse to the media file and there are the voice memos again, except this time there are 2 of each, one in .m4a format, the other in .mov format. I copied the .mov file and bam…it played!! So there you go, a bit of advice which may help you out if you have any voice memos you desperately need & save you a few hours.

Dagdraumar

Roo — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 23:17:44 +0000

Allan Wilson’s new piece for the 2011 Relentless Short Stories entry, Titled ‘Dagdraumer’ meaning Daydreamer in Icelandic. Willy has worked mainly with body boarder Jack Johns but the film does feature a few other body boarders including Mitch Rawlins & Tom Gillespie. He’s created a visually stunning short, which blends & contrasts the beauty of both the city and the coast perfectly, highlighting what people put themselves through to achieve their ultimate goal of travelling to catch some of the most epic waves in the world.

Allan worked alongside Mickey to capture footage which was used in Mickey’s short, Dark Side of the Lens & it’s clear to see the quality has been maintained & even stepped up. The two have managed to combine brilliantly again with Mickey providing the soundtrack to accompany Allan’s piece. It’s an awesome piece of filming & editing which I can’t stop watching…Nice one Willy, Yeeewwwww!!

Volcom Cloverfish VQS, Portrush

Roo — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 20:58:52 +0000

Better late than never, here’s a few shots from the Volcom VQS event which was held in typical Portrush conditions last week. I have to say from my experience of Irish surf contests, this was by far the best run event I have been to, and this seemed to be the same feeling coming across from most of the competitors. The contest was due to start at 9am but due to the tides a decision was made to stall on starting the event until midday. When the contest got under way this decision appeared to have backfired on the contest organisers, but soon after the swell started to pulse on the pushing tide with the best conditions of the event coming for the Open final. Cain Kilcullen took down the final, which was closely contested by Ronan Oertzen. Easkey Britton won the women’s event while Jamie Russel took the Juniors, followed very closely by Volcom rider Conor Maguire.

Awesome Remote Heli Footage at Teahupoo

Roo — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:42:12 +0000

Awesome video Billabong just released from Teahupoo. Would love to find out more about how it was shot, i.e what camera & remote control chopper were used. Was thinking for the size issue to attach it to the chopper it would most likely be a GoPro HD, but not quite sure. Anyway, thought the footage was pretty stunning & innovative. Nice to see something different every once in a while. Enjoy the clip & check out the contest tonight at http://www.billabongpro.com/tahiti11/live-gb/ .First call is at 7am local time (7pm here) Looks like it’s going to be epic!

Billabong Pro Tahiti 2011 Water Patrol

Roo — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:35:29 +0000

Just returned from Co.Clare after a great weekend completing Glyn Ovens Water Safety International PWC Tow Surf Rescue Operator Course. Many thanks must go to Glyn for running the course & Peter Conroy for his great hospitality.

All who took part learnt so much about the rescue and pickup techniques, PWC’s & what they’re capable of but also that regular training is a must to stay sharp. Everyone out on the water needs to have maximum confidence in each others ability to get them out of trouble if necessary. It gave us all a great energy and hunger to be at our best for what will hopefully be an epic winter of waves. After completing the course I was looking at some water safety stuff online & came across a cool clip about the Tahitian water patrol who look after things at Teahupoo during the Billabong Pro. Here it is..