Amazing Projects for your Mac, iPhone & iPad

Great ways to get more from all your Apple gear

- lan Osborne

Remember that now-infamous Apple advert, showing an entire creative studio suite being crushed and replaced by an iPad?

It proved controversial among content creators, but its underlying message was clear; your iPad and other Apple gear - can do an amazing amount of things.

In this feature, we're going to explore exactly this (the creation bit, not the crushing), as well as throwing in a few general tips and tricks you might not know about. Whether you're making a podcast, or recording a meeting of lecture for later perusal, writing a letter to your bank manager in Pages or working on your first novel in Scrivener, making a ringtone for your iPhone or recording the next chart hit, your Apple devices can get the job done. So let your creative juices flow as you explore some of the great projects you can try out with your Mac, iPhone and iPad.

All the apps featured here are designed to make the experience of embarking on a new project as easy and fun as possible, so take a look through the options, and try your hand at a brand-new skill or venture with your Apple device.

Record a podcast

Before investing in equipment, try GarageBand to record an interview

Regular readers of our reviews section shows will know that you can buy all sorts of gadgets and gear for recording podcasts. But if you're a complete beginner, you already have everything you need to make your first show. GarageBand is free on Mac, iPhone and iPad and is a great way to get started.

Open GarageBand on your chosen device, and start a new project. On a Mac, when asked to create a track, choose Mic or Line for recording audio for a podcast.

Click Create, and you're away. The controls you need, such as Record, Stop, and Play Back, are all in the app's menu bar. Then, when you're done, choose the Share option in the menu bar, then 'Export Song to Disk' to save it in a format of your choice.