No matter how much music you have on your iPhone or iPod Touch, sometimes you get bored with it or just want somebody else to drive.
That's the appeal of apps like Pandora and Slacker, which build personalized radio stations based on a particular artist, then let you customize those stations to various degrees.
A psychedelic nugget by the late great Syd Barrett, recommended by Effin Genius.
A new app called Effin Genius, from Seattle company Melodeo, takes a different approach: instead of forcing you to enter the name of an artist or musical genre--or anything at all--Effin Genius analyzes the playlists in the iTunes library on your iPhone or iPod Touch, then creates identically named playlists of other music it thinks you would like.
I tried it out last night. It took about 10 minutes to analyze the 3,000-plus songs on my Touch, but once the process was done, it came up with some pretty amazing playlists. For example, I have an playlist called "Psych," which contains rock and jazz songs that are a little noisy or abrasive, but not completely insane. For the most part, Effin Genius looked at the artists in that playlist and recommended other songs by them. The new Can and My Bloody Valentine songs alone made it worth listening to. Other good picks included guitar goddess Marnie Stern, a freak-folk song by Helio Sequence, and the always reliable Kings of Leon, none of which I own. If you really love a particular song, there's a link to buy it on iTunes.
Unfortunately it also included some horrible rap and hip-hop--including, hilariously, "U Can't Touch This" by Hammer--and '80s pop hits from Def Leppard and George Michael. I don't have those artists, or anybody like them, on this playlist, although I do have some Police and other '80s pop elsewhere on my iPod. Of course, any time a song comes up that you don't like, you can skip it and tell the app never to play it again. Presumably, Effin Genius learns more about your preferences over time and adjusts accordingly.
As is the case with other radio apps for iPhone, you can't go straight to a particular song on the playlist--you must listen in the order the songs are delivered--and you need an active Internet connection. The streaming worked great over my home Wi-Fi network.
Effin Genius, whose name is a take-off on the Genius feature introduced in iTunes 8, costs $1.99. That's not much, but it's more than Pandora and Slacker, which are free.
Overall, Effin Genius is an interesting take on the problem of what to do when you're bored with your own music collection. But I'll have to play with it a little more before I decide whether to remove Pandora.
A new Nokia device to lead the way in 2010?
(Credit: Nokia)Nokia is a rather interesting company. The firm is still a major player in the mobile space, holding on to the largest share of the market. But 2009 was a difficult year for Nokia as its grip on the space continued to slip.
Worst of all, Apple's iPhone and RIM's BlackBerry models have made Nokia devices look old and obsolete.
Perhaps that's why the company's new mobile chief, Rick Simonson, decided to speak with the India Times on Monday to clear the air. Simonson acknowledges that things aren't great, but he's not willing to throw in the towel.
"Yes, we have lost ground in the smartphone space over the past 18 months, but the decline has stopped and stablized in the second and third quarters of 2009," Simonson told the India Times. "The new year will see [our] recovery in smartphones with the introduction of Maemo and the stabilization of the Symbian operating system, which by the way, continues to be the platform for the largest number of smartphones, globally."
Simonson went on to say that Nokia shipped over 200 million smartphones in 2009. The main problem for Nokia, Simonson said, is that it's "not well positioned in North America, which is a huge market."
But his company has a plan.
... Read MoreDon Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Here's a short, handy tip for sorting your iPhone or iPod Touch app icons in alphabetical order for people who find comfort in an alphabetized world.
1. Launch the Settings app
2. Tap General
3. Scroll down and tap Reset
4. Tap Reset Home Screen Layout
Your app icons will be sorted as follows:
- All standard Apple apps will be placed in their factory default locations.
- All remaining apps will be sorted alphabetically.
Reset options - Reset Home Screen Layout
(Credit: Screenshot by David Martin/CNET)On an iPhone or iPhone Touch with more than 180 apps, the 11th Home screen will display the last app that is visible. In my case this is the app Urbanspoon that starts with the letter "U. " I cannot directly access apps on the 12th Home screen or any after that, but I can use Spotlight to find apps beginning with the letters U through Z that display on these hidden Home screens.
Simply access Spotlight and type one single letter from U-Z and the apps with names that start with your selected letter will appear in the search results. You can launch the app from those search results. If you don't know how to use Spotlight, see my tip on how to Discover Spotlight searches.
I am sure honest Hollywood agents do exist. It's just that they don't seem to employ the finest PR firms to proselytize their honesty.
This might explain why Oisin Hanrahan, the Irish creator of an iPhone app called SuperAgent, decided that the main character in his game might be a few scruples short of Mother Teresa.
SuperAgent seems to have been well received, a reception that might have led to its being noticed by, well, Hollywood super agents.
According to the Independent, one super agent may have enjoyed a particular interest in this app. His name is Ari Emanuel. He is the agent for so many important acting citizens such as Robert De Niro and Sacha Baron Cohen as well as directors such as Spike Lee. He is even thought to be the person upon whom the character of Ari Gold is based in the delightfully fluffy "Entourage" on HBO.
What is important for today's story, however, is that he has reportedly set his more toothsome legal dogs upon Oisin Hanrahan and his company, Factory Six. You see, the slightly less than honest agent in the SuperAgent game is called Ari.
(Credit:
CC JorgeMir/Flickr)
While I leave you to gather your breath for a moment, let me just whisper that it is not the mere mention of Emanuel's first name that appears to have ruffled his hairline.
The Independent kindly offers details of the cease-and-desist letter that has caused Apple to remove SuperAgent from the App Store.
"The game uses the name 'Ari' for the main character, which clearly is a reference to Mr Emanuel, the co-chief executive officer of WME, one of the world's premier talent agencies," begins the forceful cease-and-desist letter.
It continues as forcefully it began: "[It] clearly intends to capitalize on using Mr Emanuel's and WME's names for the game and possibly mislead the public into thinking that Mr Emanuel and/or WME endorse the game - effectively trading off the goodwill, reputation and fame established by our clients."
Hanrahan deftly told the Independent that because of the "Entourage" series, "Ari" is a name that symbolizes Hollywood in general, not one person in particular. He added: "We're a very small firm, of just three people, and since Apple pulled it we have had no income."
I feel sure that many of you will sympathize with Hanrahan's plight. His arguments appear plausible. His game, just as the "Entourage" show, seems but an amusing diversion from the pains of everyday existence.
But perhaps others might consider that while saying truth to power is an often alluring concept, one should always think carefully before saying jokes to power. Power is a sensitive soul, one that isn't always comfortable with japes. Somehow, for some powerful souls, taking a joke is like Samson admitting he'd always wondered what it would like to be bald.
Apple found a nice Christmas gift under its tree this year.
App Store downloads for the iPod Touch were 1,000 percent higher on Friday, Christmas Day, than the average of the three previous Fridays in December, according to a report released Monday by research firm Flurry.
Downloads for the newest generation, the iPod Touch 3G, soared more than 900 percent on Christmas, noted Flurry's "2009 Holiday Report: Christmas Growth." But the 1,000 percent leap in iPod Touch downloads overall may have been triggered by a flood of iTunes gift cards, believes Flurry.
The rising popularity of the iPod Touch also gave Apple reason to celebrate. Of the estimated 58 million iPhone and iPod Touch devices on the market, about 40 percent of those, or 24 million, are iPod Touch devices, according to another Flurry report released in November.
With a large number of Touch devices likely given out as holiday presents (it was one of Amazon.com's top three electronics sellers), App Store downloads for the iPod Touch jumped past those for the iPhone for the first time, outpacing them by 172 percent. The trend continued the following day, with iPod Touch downloads on December 26 exceeding those for the iPhone by 104 percent.
(Credit:
Flurry)
The volume in overall App Store downloads also grew by more than 50 percent in December (with estimates for the final week of the month) over November, surpassing Flurry's estimate of only 20 percent.
Flurry's Vice President of Marketing Peter Farago spoke with CNET about the success of the App Store. Though some forecasts question how much further the App Store can grow, Farago thinks this is just the beginning. "The growth has been meteoric for Apple for iPhone and iPod Touch penetration," he said. "They're already past 50 million units in the marketplace for iPhone and iPod Touch."
Farago notes that while the iPhone is a killer device that gives people a portable computer in their pocket, Apple knows it needs third-party developers, which is one reason the company controls the store. And developers will go wherever they can get a good customer base, realizing that they can build an app once for the App Store and draw in a lot of consumers.
Even recent criticisms leveled against the App Store haven't dented its growth. Though some developers have complained that the App Store is hard to deal with, Farago says there are a lot of success stories from people who have created and sold apps through Apple.
Farago also sees the iPod Touch as Apple's silent killer, with a huge market share that will help the company in the years to come. "What I'd be scared about if I were a phone maker is that Apple has a relationship now with all these teens and pre-teens using a device that is basically an iPhone with the radio turned off," he said. "They've got 24 million [customers], and with Christmas, probably add a couple million or so to that. All those kids are getting trained to be iPhone users in the next two to five years."
Google's Android Market can't compare with the App Store at this point, but its recent download volume should offer Android vendors some holiday cheer. December downloads from the Android Market store grew by more than 20 percent over November. Downloads for Motorola's Droid, in particular, rose 93 percent on Christmas Day compared with the three previous Fridays of the month. The Droid also captured 48 percent of all download volume versus other top Android devices, including the myTouch 3G, G1, and the HTC Hero).
(Credit:
Flurry)
Farago also sees the Android market off to a promising start. The installed hardware base isn't there yet, but that may start to change next year as Flurry expects about 50 new Android devices to hit the market. Once enough of those devices get into the hands of consumers, more developers may be drawn to create Android apps.
Of all Android devices, the Droid is so far leading the way. "It's the most successful [Android] headset that enables downloading pretty easily," said Farago. "For a phone that's not the iPhone, it's got a pretty good installed base."
Though Android may always play second fiddle to Apple, at least in the foreseeable future, that doesn't mean the Android Market can't have a significantly good business, notes Farago. Flurry predicts that by the end of next year, 150,000 apps will be available for Android phones, up from around 20,000 to 25,000 now.
Flurry provides analytics for mobile app developers to help them track downloads for their applications. As such, the company is able to determine which mobile devices are downloading which apps.
Spotlight, an advanced utility for searching, migrated from the Mac to the iPhone and iPod Touch, and we should all be grateful for that since it is quite useful. Spotlight also happens to be one of my favorite iPhone features, and this week I'd like to share some of my favorite tips about it.
Access Spotlight
You access Spotlight from the iPhone Home screen by pressing the Home button once when you are on the first Home screen, or by simply swiping left while that screen is displayed.
(Credit:
Apple)
If you are on a different screen, press the Home key twice: once to get Home, pause briefly, and again to open Spotlight (or simply swipe left instead of pressing Home again).
Performing a search
You will now be able to search your entire device for apps, songs, and e-mails. Simply start typing the word, name of an app, name of a song, or e-mail content you are seeking, and the iPhone will display it as you type. I have nearly 400 apps and not all of them will display on the 11 available Home screens, so this feature comes in handy when I need to launch an app I cannot see. If you see an app appear in the search results, tap it and it will launch.
Search from inside apps
The following built-in apps have a hidden search feature: Mail, iPod, or Music (on an iPod) apps, and Contacts. In all these apps, to access the hidden search feature you need to swipe down to reveal the Spotlight search field. This search will be performed on data native to the particular app so its scope is limited. For example, in the Contacts app it will only show results from the contact apps database. It does not currently support the capability to search your entire device as Spotlight does from the Home screen.
Now you will have no excuses about losing something, since looking for that honey-do list, favorite song, or important e-mail from your boss is easy with Spotlight.
Music-tech entrepreneur Aviv Eyal, who's behind the excellent Livekick concert-tracking site, has a new project: a DJ app for the iPhone and iPod Touch called DJ Mixer Pro. (It was formerly known as DJ Player Pro, but the name has changed to avoid a conflict with another app.)
DJ Mixer Pro lets you manually adjust the BPM on each channel, or sync them automatically with one touch of a button.
The concept is similar to Touch DJ, an Amidio app that I wrote about last month. While the iPhone naturally restricts you to playing one song at a time, these apps function like a virtual DJ booth, letting you play two tracks simultaneously, jump to any point in either track with a touch of your finger, crossfade between them, match beats, adjust tempos, and add various effects.
I was impressed by Touch DJ's technical capabilities, but DJ Mixer Pro is even more extensive. Amateurs like me will love the sync button: as you're playing one track, the sync button will adjust the speed of the second track and place the downbeats in the right place so they're synchronized. You can also adjust beats per minute (BPM), and DJ Mixer can change tempo without changing pitch, so your sped-up tracks don't sound like the Chipmunks. (If you want the Chipmunks, you can turn the pitch correction off.) The loop function is easier to use as well--you can select a specific number of beats in the song, rather than having to start and stop the loop with finger touches. This made it really easy for me to create a couple different loops of the gunshot chorus in MIA's "Paper Planes" (four and eight beats long). You can also do some interesting things bouncing between tracks--I created two separate loops of Nirvana's "All Apologies" and played them over each other. Finally, DJ Mixer offers more indicators about each track, including volume levels and colored bars to match each drumbeat. This video shows you more. Best of all, it's only half the price of Touch DJ--$9.99.
But there's one nagging usability issue: uploading music to the app is complicated. Apple currently does not allow other apps to access the iTunes playback app, and tracks need to be electronically manipulated before you can mix them. This means that users have to upload their music separately into DJ Mixer. This was also the case with Touch DJ, but where that app used a piece of desktop software to accomplish the task, DJ Mixer uses a Web server.
And therein lies the problem. According to Eyal, when DJ Mixer launched in late November (as DJ Player), the company's servers were inundated with users trying to upload songs to pirated versions of the app--he estimates that between 90 percent and 99 percent of the uploads were from users who didn't pay for the app. This created a lot of load on the servers, and hampered legitimate users.
So now, to upload your music to DJ Mixer, first you need to e-mail customer support with a copy of your receipt from the iTunes store or a screenshot showing your purchase history with the DJ Mixer app on it. Then you must go through a Web interface to perform the uploads. The company e-mails you back for each upload as it becomes ready, after which you have to open the app, hit "downloads," and enter your personal numeric code. Finally, you have to wait as the app downloads each song from the Web server and performs the necessary conversion--a process that takes about 15 or 20 seconds per song.
It's a pain, but the app is good enough that it's probably worth going through this process. You'll only have to do it once, and then you'll be set up for some pretty serious DJ'ing.
(Credit:
Apple, Inc.)
Increasingly, iPhone users have replaced their point-and-shoot cameras with the iPhones' built-in shooter. If you find yourself frequently reaching for your iPhone to capture a fleeting moment, you may want to reassign your buttons to make launching the camera faster. Here's how:
1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone by tapping its icon.
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Home.
4. Tap Camera.
5. Turn Off iPod Controls.
Note: Step 5 prevents the display of iPod controls while music plays when you double-tap the home button.
Settings for Home button
Now, when you double-tap the Home button, you will go straight to the Camera app unless the screen is locked (in which case you'll have to use the Slide to Unlock slider and enter your passcode, if needed, before the Camera app launches).
(Credit:
CNET)
As we close out another great year at Download.com, we've been putting together several end-of-year software collections. Just like last year, Jessica Dolcourt and I have split up the iPhone apps of the year into two groups. Jessica has put together the iPhone Starter Kit that's perfect for grabbing the best productivity apps to make your life more...productive. My job is quite the opposite. I went through my favorite games of 2009 (and quickly realized I had too many), and was able to narrow it down to 17 of my most played games. If you're looking to waste some time, this collection was made for you!
I tried to make a collection of games that would have something for everyone, so I included quick casual games along with strategy, tower defense, first-person shooters, word games, and more. Obviously, I recommend every game in this list, but hopefully you'll be able to find a genre you like so you have something to play over the holidays.
Without further ado, here are my favorite games for 2009.
... Read MoreSince Apple introduced iTunes 9 several months ago, we've received a fair number of complaints about two particular bugs. So far no one, not even the first and second levels of Applecare support, has been able to resolve them.
iTunes password-saving problem
iTunes won't remember your password--even when you check the box asking it to do so.
Previous versions of iTunes allowed you to save your iTunes Store password on your desktop by checking the box as shown in the adjacent picture. Now, iTunes 9 teases us with a dialog box offering this option, but when you attempt to save the password by checking the box, iTunes fails to remember the password. Although there have been many suggested fixes--and we even suggested some of our own ideas--none of these has worked permanently.
It should be noted that we received the largest number of complaints about this issue then any other so far. It is clear people like to use this feature, so hopefully Apple will fix it soon.
App update problems in iTunes
iTunes offers Scanner Pro 1.1.0 for sale, but offers up 1.2.0 as an update on our iPhone and later in iTunes.
App updates in iTunes 9 are hit or miss and another sore point for iPhone and iPod Touch users. The problem manifests itself randomly when updates appear in iTunes. Regardless of whether you are updating one or multiple apps, the apps that actually update appear to never do so. You can sit and watch iTunes go through all the motions--download the app, sync it to your iPhone, etc. However, the apps never vanish from the iTunes app update list and they stay there persistently between iTunes sync sessions. Repeated attempts to update lead to the same updates listed over and over again until in some cases they finally disappear from the list.
Even the iPhone version of the App Store isn't immune to the confusion.
It's completely unclear as to whether the problem is with iTunes, the App Store, or the iPhone. In some cases the device or the store had completely different versions of the same app for sale (Scanner Pro 1.1.0) versus a free update (Scanner Pro 1.2.0) available for download. Our results were completely opposite to what the second level Applecare support person had in terms of available versions. It's clear that whatever the problem is however is again completely in Apple's hands, since no amount of troubleshooting resolved this issue either.
Update to iTunes needed?
Apple introduced iTunes 9 less than three months ago with some new features, but at the same time introduced some annoying bugs like the two described here. It's unlikely that we'll see another release of iTunes before the end of this year, but hopefully Apple is paying attention--an incremental iTunes update to fix these bugs would make a great present for the holidays.
