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CNET)
Smule, the makers of popular musical iPhone application, Ocarina, has just released a new music application today that pushes its social music experiment even further. Leaf Trombone (99 cents) lets you "play" your iPhone like a trombone by sliding your finger on the touch screen to create different notes and you can even play with a musicbox-like accompaniment.
Slide your finger up and down the leaf on the right to change your pitch
(Credit: CNET)After you launch Leaf Trombone, you can practice on your own to the tune of several user-uploaded old standbys like Auld Lang Syne, Yesterday, and even Happy Birthday. To help you follow the notes, leaves gently blow across the screen to land on the notes you should play (sort of like Guitar Hero). There also are buttons for raising or lowering your notes one octave so you have more range to play with. To accompany your trombone sound, Leaf Trombone has a wheel on the left side of the interface that performs on its own and sounds like an old-timey music box (no crank required).
What makes Leaf Trombone especially interesting, though, is the capability to take your talents online. By choosing the World Stage mode, you can either perform a song to be judged by other random Leaf Trombone users or you can judge songs being played by others. As the musician, you get to play your song before it goes live which lets you redo your song if it wasn't up to your standards. As a judge, you are represented by a smiley face and grouped with two other judges. When the song starts, you can listen to the song, adjust facial expressions for your smiley face, make comments while the song plays, and eventually rate the performance on a scale between 1 and 10. You also can observe the whole play/judge process without being involved if you just want to see how it works. If you receive a high enough score, your name might make it into the most popular list. On the other hand, if you miss your notes, you might end up on the "Debaucles" list (fortunately, we haven't stunk it up quite that bad...yet).
When judging another user, you can give them a rating and add your own comments.
(Credit: CNET)Ocarina was one of the first music applications of its kind to grab iPhone and iPod users' attention with Smule's unique method of making music by blowing into the iPhone's microphone while you press buttons on the touch screen. We think Leaf Trombone will appeal to a variety of users because it offers the same tactile pick-up-and-play capabilities of its predecessor. But with the added capability to perform for and be judged by users around the world, Leaf Trombone is almost a surefire hit at the iTunes App Store.
The folks at Smule, Pandora, Nokia, and BlueRun Ventures may not agree on everything, but during a Thursday night panel discussion on the business of mobile applications, their attention centered on a single device time and time again: the iPhone.
Ocarina requires mega processing power to run, says Smule's CEO.
(Credit: Smule)From the ease of the iPhone's paint-by-numbers SDK to its extremely accessible on-phone App Store and unified hardware and software package, the conversation on all sides of the table both challenged and defended claims of the iPhone's hegemony.
Pandora's Chief Technical Officer, Tom Conrad, credited iPhone's App Store with the success of Pandora's free music discovery application.
Despite implementing Pandora on numerous Java phones and gaining 35,000 subscribers to Pandora's music service through mobile-phone carriers, Conrad said the company saw more customers after a few months on the iPhone than it did after two years under the carriers' wings.
For Jeff Smith, Smule's outspoken CEO and co-founder, casting his audio app company's loyalty with the iPhone is largely a matter of the platform's capabilities. Smule's iPhone Ocarina instrument requires five audio scripts to run concurrently, Smith said, plus GPS, the accelerometer, multitouch, and multithreading. These are hardware requirements he says only the iPhone can handle.
In addition, Apple's storefront takes AT&T's own store out of the way, and makes it easier for start-up developers like Smule to get their applications into users' hands without having to negotiate with the likes of AT&T and Verizon on their own, Smith said. The iPhone is a smart development choice for many companies concerned with their return on investment, he added.
That's because the iPhone's practical business model for developers, combined with its hardware technology, fuels the claim that developing the company's inventive apps on a platform other than iPhone's would dilute research dollars, Smith said during Dealmaker Media's panel in Palo Alto, Calif.
"Symbian and BREW are not platforms we will be supporting in my lifetime," he said. "The iPhone is the only game in town."
It depends on your definition of 'town'
Of course, representatives from Nokia and Samsung, plus other analysts and executives at the event, begged to differ. Globally, Nokia takes 40 percent of the hardware market share, said Rick Witham, Nokia's head of channels and VC relations. In Europe especially, "it's like Kleenex."
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CNET)
Even on this side of the pond, there are reminders that the iPhone isn't the only platform around. BlackBerry also has a strong cult following, which could expand if its own app store enjoys a successful launch as soon as next week, and can continue to attract consumers to its slicker devices, like the Bold and the touch-screen Storm.
In addition, Palm's forthcoming Pre is looking competitive, at least from Pandora's view. The Pre, which will run on Palm's new Web OS platform based on common Web programming standards, could give Pandora a different technology base for sharing its music over the HTML 5 music standard, Conrad said.
Moreover, some attendees pointed out that in a fluctuating market where mobile phones serve as fashion items as well as mini computers, the iPhone will force competitors to raise their game just as users tire of "the same old iPhone."
The Trojan horse
Apple's iPhone may have retooled the way mobile applications are found and sold, but in time, application storefronts may not give the iPhone the edge. The true disruptor, said Pandora's Conrad, could very well be the mobile browser. More sophisticated browser technology will support powerful add-ons that operate just as well as separate applications, but take up much less screen real estate.
Browser companies Opera and Mozilla are already developing extensions support for their respective mobile browsers to mirror the model for their desktop versions.
Until a platform like Palm's Web OS or a super-application like a powerful mobile browser eclipse Apple's iPhone setup, developers like Smule and Pandora will continue to milk the iPhone SDK for all it's worth. "I'm waiting for the Ocarina (music) channel on Pandora," quipped Nokia's Witham to Pandora's Conrad at one point in the evening. Conrad thought for a moment and replied, "That's very 'meta'."
Someone in Japan plays Mozart and you are there!
Smule has quickly become my favorite iPhone app developer.
It's not that their apps have been particularly useful, but they're the ones I get the most excited about. From Sonic Lighter to Sonic Boom and Sonic Vox, these guys are IMO currently the masters of fun, cool, quirky iPhone apps.
Now they're going completely bohemian with their latest release, Ocarina. According to Smule, this is the first true musical instrument for the iPhone with no precompiled riffs.
By simply blowing into your iPhone's mic you'll create sound, and by holding the "holes" on the screen you'll be able to create music. After some practice, that is.
You have the option of choosing between modes including Dorian, Lydian, or my personal favorite--Zeldarian. With Zeldarian, you'll be able to play the Zelda theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
.Smule's site teaches the basics, from how to hold your new instrument to how to lightly blow. It even has an online score generator that lets you translate music into Smule's Ocarina language by telling you the proper fingering to create the song you want.
By far my favorite feature, though, is the ability to listen to other people playing all over the world in real time. There's just something really cool about being able to hear a guy in Japan play Mozart from a world away.
Ocarina is available from the App Store for 99 cents.
Fun? Yes, but I wouldn't put too much stock into it.
I have to admit, I didn't see the point of Sonic Lighter. I mean, it was cool to see real-time mapping of people using it, but there was no real point. With the latest version, however, that's changed.
Smule has released Sonic Lighter 1.2.1 Special Campaign 2008 Edition for the iPhone. Instead of just lighting a normal orange flame, with the new version you now get to express yourself politically (somewhat), by choosing either the red (McCain) or blue (Obama) flame.
The coolest thing about this is the ability to see, in real-time, which flame is more prevalent in different parts of the world. If you want to get even more detailed, Smule has a Google-powered map at its site that allows you to pinpoint the flames down to the city or even a stretch of road.
Now, this is what I call instant polling results. Is it accurate? Hmmm, not so much. Unfortunately we still have to wait 'til next week to see just how much stock we can put into polling. Sonic Lighter 1.2.1 is available at the App Store for $0.99, but is a free upgrade if you already own Sonic Lighter.
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Every once in a while, usually on a Friday, I get into something incredibly addicting and distracting. Today is one of those days. If you're like me (and gods help you) and you like to manipulate your voice in different ways--you know, to freak your cats or even your wife/girlfriend--Smule has come up with something cool to make your Friday go by faster.
Sonic Vox is an audio engine for the iPhone that alters your voice in real time. While you speak, the program contorts and shifts your voice depending on how you set the pitch and the level of echo effect. Sonic Vox is available at the App Store for 99 cents.
Smule--maker of exploding virtual firecrackers and the lighters that ignite them--claims that you'll be able to use Sonic Vox like a phone, with headphones, through an amplifier, or over Skype or any other IM service with voice. This is somewhat misleading, however, since the app does not work phone to phone, as apparently Apple does not allow it. According to Smule, you can plug your iPhone into a MacBook, basic speaker, or boom box and use it as a mic.
I'm struggling to find the correct pitch for my "Darth Vader" voice, however, finding a "Gollum" voice was easy. I'm going see if I can get this working when I record the next Inside CNET Labs Podcast. If for nothing else than to annoy Dong Ngo.
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In September, Smule introduced Sonic Lighter, an iPhone and iPod Touch app that's basically nothing more than a virtual lighter. Not very exciting honestly.
The folks at Smule have been working on something a bit meatier in the meantime though: the company's follow-up to Sonic Lighter, Sonic Boom. Sonic Boom turns your iPhone into a virtual firecracker, using your finger as the virtual match.
Just flick your finger along the screen, touch the fuse, then sit back and watch the fireworks--the fireworks in this case being a virtual firecracker exploding into several hundred pieces of polygonal debris.
You can even customize your explosions by grafting a pic from your iPhone's photo library onto the firecracker. Potentially sadistic? Well yes, of course, but it's all virtual, right?
One of the coolest features is the ability to see what are supposedly real-time Sonic Boom explosions by people around the globe. Also, if you have a second iPhone with Sonic Lighter, you can use it to light the fuse of the firecracker on your first phone. Talk about synergy.
The Sonic Light: spreading the iPhone gospel one light at a time.
(Credit: Smule )You thought your iPhone was hot before? The Sonic Lighter, a new app from Smule, emblazons your phone's display with a simulated flame that you can control by touch or tilt. Ignite the fire with a virtual strike of the display; breathe on the device to control or extinguish the flicker (engage in this latter action in public at your own peril, of course).
While a cool and innovative visual effect for 99 cents, we wouldn't call this a useful iPhone app. Ge Wang, co-founder and chief technology officer of Smule, however, might disagree. "I've found the flame map to be quite useful, especially at night," he said.
But the Sonic Lighter has greater aspirations than lighting your path in the darkness or helping you encourage Journey to play an encore of "Don't Stop Believin'."
In addition to captivating onlookers with dancing flames, it contains a sonic modem that lets you ignite adjacent Smule-enabled phones, thus letting you "spread your light around the world," the company says. Read: spread the Apple word.
Smule's site even hosts an World Wide Ignition Map that traces recently lit Smule flames around the globe (the East Coast and parts of Europe appear to be pretty heated up over the Sonic Lighter at the moment).
Watch the video demonstration below and let us know what you think: hot or not?
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