Jake Ludington's Digital Lifestyle

Older versions of Apple's iMovie provided a highly versatile solution for adding subtitles. This functionality has since been greatly limited in iMovie 9 and newer, in part because the Title feature in iMovie has changed dramatically over time. You are currently limited to choosing either the Lower Third or simply Lower title options. In both cases, videos with extended dialog will need to be carved up into many small clips in order to get all the text on the screen.

Creating Subtitles in iMovie
To access the Title options, be sure to click the Titles button in your iMovie workspace, which is the T located to the right of the digital camera icon.

Once you have the list of available titles visible, drag either the Lower Third or Lower title option to your movie clip. You are then able to edit the text of the lower third in the video preview window adding text to either of two lines. You can see the two options in the screenshot below.

In addition to changing the text for your subtitles, you can also configure the text size, the text color, and adjust the positioning on screen. iMovie (and most video editing apps) defaults to using white for text, which is nearly impossible to read on light colored backgrounds. I recommend changing it to an off-white or slightly yellow text color for easier reading.

If you have a movie without dialogue or if portions of the audio are hard to understand, using subtitles can be an effective way to communicate your story. The Windows XP version of Windows Movie Maker includes a subtitle feature as part of the built-in title tool. While adding subtitles in Windows Movie Maker is extremely easy, the software does have a few limitations.

The biggest disadvantage of the title feature in Windows Movie Maker is the software only allows you to add one title per clip. If you have a dialogue-heavy movie, you are required to break long segments into numerous small clips in order to get subtitles matched up with every verbal exchange. A second disadvantage is lack of control over where the subtitles appear on screen. The only place Windows Movie Maker supports subtitles is at the bottom of the screen with either one or two lines of text.

Dave writes, "I have an old PowerBook G4 laptop with a broken monitor (it just displays vertical lines). I connected it to my HDTV using an HDMI cable and a DVI to HDMI adapter and all I got on my TV was a blue screen. I had the TV set to the right input. Any ideas?"

Connecting an external display to a MacBook or PowerBook, as you did when you connected your HDTV, typically causes the Mac to extend the desktop to the external display. Sometimes this doesn't happen automatically, which means you need to make manual changes. In your case, the Mac shouldn't try to use the built-in laptop screen because it's broken, but the Mac probably can't detect that. Fortunately there's a relatively simply solution to the external display problem you are having.

This American Life is my favorite radio program. It finds real people doing interesting things and tells their story in a compelling way within the confines of a one hour weekly broadcast. The producers build the story against a compelling infusion of music always perfectly suited for the events unfolding throughout the course of the hour and there's always a sense of identity that makes you care about the story being told, even if the point of view isn't something you identify with.

Or in the words of the show's creators, "It's a weekly show. It's an hour. Its mission is to document everyday life in this country. We sometimes think of it as a documentary show for people who normally hate documentaries. A public radio show for people who don't necessarily care for public radio."

I almost never remember to tune in when the show airs, because the timing doesn't fit my schedule. Having the option to subscribe is perfect, because it supports the show and I get it on demand.

Shaky camera angles are occasionally used for cinematic effect, as seen in upping the fear factor of movies like Cloverfied and Blair Witch Project. These artistic decisions are the exception, not the norm. For most of us, a shaky camera is something we'd like to avoid, because most of our video is a reminder of special moments in our lives, not some freakish fictional adventure.

I can't count the number of times I've wished for family members to use a tripod or invest in a camcorder with image stabilization. When they don't you end up with something that can be nausea inducing. Smartphone cameras are even worse, because they don't have room for the optical image stabilization that camcorders support. Thankfully, you can find a software solution to many of these shaky camera problems.

With every new iPhone model, I find myself saying that the camera is the best smartphone camera I've ever used. The iPhone 4S camera is so great it outperforms many low end point-and-shoot digital cameras. What Apple still needs is better software controls natively available in iOS. Thankfully there's an app for that.

I was recently asked by Wondershare, makers of many great desktop video apps, to take their iPhone app, PowerCam, for a test drive. PowerCam successfully combines some important basic enhancements to your iPhone camera with some amazing special effects.

For those of us who own a tablet computer, a case is a necessity you can't be without. Sure the iPad Smart Cover offers a clever solution for protecting the screen, but it doesn't do anything to protect the rest of your iPad. Seven inch tablets, like the Kindle Fire and the Nook Tablet need protective cases too.

After trying a bunch of different cases along the way, I wound up using the CaseSmpl eReader ballistic nylon case for my Kindle Fire. The case goes beyond the simple protective cover and offers additional storage for many of the things I keep with me all the time. The iPad case offers similar protection and even more additional storage because of the size difference between the Kindle Fire and iPad.

I'm a hack as a snowboarder and a very casual cyclist, so the idea of attempting to recording myself doing any extreme sports is laughable. I do appreciate the snowboarding videos put out by companies like Burton to generate excitement around their new product line and have even attended a couple snowboarding movie debuts. My real interest in wearable cameras is in the area of life logging, where you record anything in your field of view. When done properly, wearing a camera can also be a good way to put an otherwise nervous interviewee at ease when recording a conversation (with permission, of course).

The new Liquid Image Ego, which includes WiFi and the ability to stream back to a WiFi connected source looks like a great middle ground for both types of activities. While the company isn't billing the Ego as a wearable camera, it is most definitely a mountable camera for mountain bikers, car enthusiasts, and motorcyclists. It can also be mounted on a helmet, but I think the company would prefer you buy one of their other models instead. For life logging, with the right attachment, you could easily wear one of the cameras with you anywhere and not find it too distracting.

Lenovo's classic boxy ThinkPad design hasn't ever been something destined to win design awards, but the company is challenging laptop design conventions with the IdeaPad YOGA. Part Ultrabook and part Windows 8-powered tablet PC, the IdeaPad YOGA combines the Ultrabook form factor with a functional tablet implementation that makes touch computing make sense on a product with a keyboard.

While the IdeaPad YOGA unit I saw at Digital Experience is still a protype that was heavier than the promised 3.1 pounds of the shipping model, it still felt far lighter than the competing Envy 14 I examined at HP's booth. The 13.3-inch screen displayed the Windows 8 touch interface with what they say is a 1600x900 screen, though we weren't allowed to interact with Windows 8 for some reason, so I couldn't verify the screen specs. The real fascination for me is the way the screen folds over on itself.

When a phone form factor looks like it's better suited for the side pocket of my cargo pants, I'm fairly likely to dismiss the device based on size. That said, the HTC Titan II, which will soon be available from AT&T has a fairly amazing looking 4.7-inch screen that almost makes me want one. The Titan II is running Windows Phone 7 Mango, comes with a 16-megapixel camera, 4G LTE radio, and a 1,730mAh battery to power that enormous screen. Just how big is a phone with a 4.7-inch screen? Check out some of the photos I took comparing the size of the Titan II to an iPhone 4.

Here's the front view of the Titan II in my hand:

Here is the Titan II compared to the iPhone 4:

A side view of the Titan II and iPhone 4:

And here is the back of the Titan II:

The design reminds me of something like the HTC Thunderbolt or a giant sized version of my old Google Nexus One. I don't have very large hands and holding the Titan II made me think I'd need to use it with two hands for most functions, rather than the one-handed navigation I'm frequently able to do with my current myTouch 4G or with an iPhone 4.