(Credit:
CNET)
For a friend's birthday the other night, we all went down to his rehearsal space (he's in a band) and played music, often switching instruments to see what we could come up with. Not everyone there was a musician, but with drums, guitars, basses, a keyboard, percussion instruments, and microphones, everyone found a way to get in on the jam. To add to the fun later in the night, my friend also had a cord to connect an iPod or iPhone to the PA system which meant I could try out some of my music apps. Among the apps we tried--all to great success--were iDrum Hip Hop Edition, FingerBeat (reviewed below), and I Am T-Pain (auto-tuning our voices was a big hit).
If you want to create music on your iPhone, there are a ton of music apps in the iTunes app store to choose from, even if you don't have a fancy PA system to hook into. Consequently, Leslie Katz wrote an article today at CNET showcasing a group of University of Michigan students who took the iPhone-as-instrument concept to a whole new level. Using apps they designed themselves, they created an ensemble performance as a way to finish out the semester. Though it's much more serious than playing beats and auto-tuning your voice like my friends and I did the other night, their performance makes me wonder what new musical creations people will come up with in the future as more iPhone music apps are released.
Update: I guess music is in the air, because I just found out Brian Tong and the folks who make the Apple Byte included the I Am T-Pain app in their latest episode (about 3 minutes in). It's definitely worth checking out.
This week's apps include a music app to create your own music and a demolitions puzzle game that challenges you to raze buildings as efficiently as possible.
Play the drums manually or swipe to the left or right for more tools
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)FingerBeat ($3.99) is a music creation tool that helps you flesh out ideas, create multi-track songs, and make beats wherever you are. The primary screen (upon launch) is where the drum pads are where you can sample some of the sounds available by touching each of the pads. Once you've created a basic loop, get into the more serious song-creation tools by swiping your finger to the left. This brings up a visual editor where you can add or erase sounds from your loop and change the pitch of each of the tones. You also can create beats with seperate patterns to play in sequence by touching the pattern buttons on the left side of the interface.
FingerBeat offers excellent sounds on its own, but you also can record short samples on the iPhone microphone and include them in your songs. Once you're happy with your song, you can even add a singing part to finish your project. The interface is not incredibly intuitive, requiring a certain amount of trial and error to get to some of the more advanced options and to figure out how to use each tool. Still, once you get used to the various screens and what each function does, you'll be able to create cool sounding beats and save them to your iPhone.
Place the bombs on key supports before hitting the plunger
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)Implode ($1.99) is a remake of an online flash game that translates extremely well to the iPhone interface. The object of the game is to demolish structures so that they fall below a designated height limit and within a certain amount of time. To start you can choose from 3 different skill levels and play through several building types for each level. Just like those buildings that you've probably seen demolished on the news, you're job is to place explosives in key points to blow up walls that compromise the structural integrity of the building. Drag bombs to the precise location you want them before you hit the plunger. You only get a limited number of bombs to place, so you need to make sure they will cause the building to topple before the time runs out.
Implode is surprisingly addictive and the hand-drawn quality of the levels (like building drawings) makes it fun to move through each of the building types. As you start to get in to the more difficult levels, you'll be faced with huge structures and unique wall types that you can't blow up. As I was playing, I liked how each building presented a new set of problems I had to work out, and getting a large building to fall on the first try is especially satisfying. If you like puzzle games, Implode is a unique option that is really well done both in the way it looks and the intuitive interface.
What's you're favorite iPhone app? Do you have a favorite music app to share? What do you think of the FingerBeat interface? Do you like the unique challenges of Implode? Let me know in the comments!
The Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble uses smartphones as primary musical instruments.
(Credit: University of Michigan)Generally, cell phone noise is pretty much the last thing you'd want to hear at a concert. But it's all the audience will be getting at a Michigan recital next week. And that's the way it's supposed to be when the Michigan Mobile Phone Ensemble hits the stage.
Orchestra members are University of Michigan students winding up a fall course on turning mobile phones into musical instruments. The course merges engineering practices, mobile phone programming, and sound synthesis with music performance, composition, and interactive media arts.
The iPhone musicians broadcast their creations through custom-built speaker systems worn around the wrist.
(Credit: University of Michigan)Rather than just playing a bunch of converging ringtones, the students use their devices to create new interactive sounds in live performance. Their instruments of choice are currently iPhones and iPod Touches, and they use custom-built speaker systems worn around the wrist to broadcast their original artistry.
"The mobile phone is a very nice platform for exploring new forms of musical performance," said Georg Essl, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science and music at the school who is teaching the course. "We're not tethered to the physics of traditional instruments. We can do interesting, weird, unusual things."
At their end-of-semester concert in Ann Arbor Wednesday, students will be doing more than firing up apps that turn the iPhone into an organ or ocarina. They have spent the semester building apps themselves and using touch screens, microphones, GPS, compasses, wireless sensors, and accelerometers to create sounds when they run their finger across the display, blow air into the mic, or tilt or shake their phones.
... Read moreStart-up company Gigzee recently updated its free gig-finding iPhone app. I love live music, and I'm always happy when there's another iPhone app to help me find out what's going on. But Gigzee's competing in an already crowded space, and it doesn't have much to set it apart from its competitors.
The concept's familiar enough: Gigzee uses the iPhone's GPS transceiver to detect your current position, then lists live music gigs happening in the next two days, within a certain distance (the default is five miles). You can also enter a ZIP code to get gig listings for another area, view gig locations on a map, and customize the date range to show all gigs within the next month, for example.
Unfortunately, that's about all there is. There's no way to track favorite artists, which means it falls short of the free JamBase iPhone app. JamBase lets you track favorites on its Web site, then link the iPhone app to your account to see a list of gigs only by those artists. (My absolute favorite app in this category, the $2.99 iConcertCal, saves you this manual process by automatically pulling favorite artist information from your iTunes library, but apparently it has a bug and has been removed from the iTunes store for now, and I can no longer get it to open on my iPhone. Bah humbug!)
More importantly, these apps are only as good as their databases of concert information, and here Gigzee appears to fall short. In a quick test, the JamBase app showed me six live gigs happening within five miles of my location tonight. Bandloop, which is also free, showed me a remarkable 12 gigs. (But Bandloop can only show gigs in the next two days--there's no way to get a longer-duration list, which is why I don't use it.) Gigzee? Only three.
I've spoken to Gigzee founder Anurag Jain, and he's a big-time music fan with lots of interesting ideas, like letting artists link their MySpace profiles and automatically post gigs to the site. But so far, the service still looks like a work in progress.
iPodMeister promises to turn your unwanted CDs and DVDs into bona fide gadget goodness.
Like many people, I have a fairly sizable collection of CDs sitting in a storage room collecting dust. It's literally been years since I even touched a CD, let alone played one. So why am I hanging onto them?
Forget Craigslist. Forget eBay. Forget garage sales. Do you want to spin that jewel-cased straw into gold? Head to iPodMeister, where you can trade your old CDs for a brand-new hard drive, iPod, or even iPhone.
Here's how it works: You pack up your CDs (or DVDs), then e-mail the company to let them know how many boxes you have. It then sends you prepaid FedEx labels. That's right: iPodMeister covers the shipping cost.
The number of discs you send determines what kind of booty you can get in return. The minimum, 150 discs, gets you a 1TB hard drive or an iPhone 3G. (Actually, you get a check covering the cost of an iPhone 3G, as iPodMeister can't do activations and all that.)
Scrape together 250 discs and you can land an 8GB iPod Touch or 16GB iPod Nano (current-generation models in both cases). For 350 discs, you can cover the cost of an iPhone 3GS. See the iPodMeister Web site for the complete list of trade options.
Interestingly, iPodMeister also gives you the option of digitizing your CD collection, meaning you get back not only your free gadget, but also a set of DVDs containing your music in (presumably) MP3 format. But that "costs extra" (meaning more discs). My guess is most folks have already ripped their CDs to MP3s.
I'll admit that all this sounds a little too good to be true, but I've yet to find a single complaint about the company. For your reference, check out Consumerist's recent interview with iPodMeister, this guy's review of the service from March, and the company's Facebook page.
I will say that the iPodMeister site looks atrocious and, suspiciously, offers no contact information except for an e-mail address and toll-free number. But with a little Google recon, I had no trouble finding an address and local number.
Did I mention I'm packing my CDs as we speak? It may take a couple weeks to complete my trade, but I'll definitely report back once it's done (so bookmark this article if you want to learn what happens).
In the meantime, I'm just kind of happy that I can clear out some boxes and don't have to spend a dime on shipping.
If you've tried iPodMeister, please share your experience in the comments!
Rock Band for iPhone does a nice job recreating the look of the original, if not the feel.
Rock Band's biggest disappointment: When you play vocals, you don't get to sing.
Rock Band. For iPhone and iPod Touch. Right now in the App Store for $9.99.
Just thought I'd cut right to the crucial information, as hard-core fans of the console mega-hit probably don't need to hear anything more. "Rock Band? iPhone? Ten bucks? Sweet!"
Everyone else should listen up before plunking down that sawbuck. EA's official, real-deal port brings the jamfest to the iPhone in style, with gorgeous visuals, great songs, and some solid multiplayer action.
Unfortunately, compromises abound. The songs are great, but you get only 20 of them (and 5 are locked). You can buy more right inside the game (at 99 cents for a two-pack), but I'm still disappointed by the small selection.
As for multiplayer, you can jam with up to three other players, just like in the real Rock Band--but only over Bluetooth. That's inconvenient, to say the least. Why no support for Internet multiplayer like in Tap Tap Revenge 3?
My main disappoint lies with the vocal aspect of the game: there isn't one. Granted, you can choose to play vocals, just like you can guitar, bass, and drums, but you don't actually sing--you just tap pedals on the left side of the screen.
The other three modes shoehorn four buttons into the bottom of the screen, which makes for some fairly cramped (and cramp-inducing) mashing. A wide-screen option would seem logical, but it's nowhere to be found.
Finally, while $9.99 may seem like a reasonable price for an officially licensed Rock Band game with officially licensed songs, it's steep for an iPhone game.
And fans of the genre will be quick to point out that Tap Tap Revenge 3 costs just 99 cents.
On the other hand, that game limits you to one "instrument" and three "strings," so it's not quite as challenging. Rock Band definitely puts your tapping skills to the test with fun and familiar tunes. But I'd say it barely scores a 7 when it should go up to 11.
(Credit:
CNET)
If you're a strategy gaming type of person, you know there is no shortage of tower defense games in the iTunes Store. It shouldn't be that big of a surprise, I suppose, because the iPhone and iPod Touch touch screens might be the best interface for games of this genre. Using your finger to choose and place towers couldn't be more intuitive. But even with the huge amount of tower defense games, some manage to rise above the rest. One of my apps this week is a sequel to one of the more popular games in the genre, and after having played several rounds, I can tell you it's definitely worth the price for tower defense fans.
This week's apps include a program that lets you control your music library through screen gestures and a new open-field tower defense game.
A four-finger tap locks or unlocks the screen
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)FluxTunes (99 cents) is a simple but extremely useful app that lets you control your music using onscreen gestures. Simply start up FluxTunes and you'll have access to your music just like running the iPod, but now you can use a number of different gestures to switch songs, change playlists, and much more.
FluxTunes is particularly useful when you don't have time to go through the regular controls such as while driving or when you have it in a shoulder strap while working out. Touch and drag your finger up or down to raise or lower the volume. A swipe to the right or left skips to the next song or skips to the previous song. A two finger swipe to the left or right switches between playlists. You also can touch and hold your finger in place to get the full list of available gestures. Anyone who uses their iPhone to play music while driving or those with limited vision will appreciate this simple, but effective new way to interact with your music library.
Sometimes littering the grid with missile launchers is the only way to win.
(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)GeoDefense Swarm (99 cents for a limited time) is the sequel to GeoDefense, the hit tower defense game I wrote about in a previous post. The original game became known as the thinking man's tower defense game, requiring players to work out a strategy for the more challenging levels (and they were very challenging). GeoDefense Swarm continues in this tradition with another very challenging tower defense game, but moves the game from a set-path type of experience to an open-field game where you need to create your own maze of towers for creeps to navigate through.
GeoDefense Swarm has 30 playable levels split between the easy, medium, and hard categories, all offering the same vector-based graphics, pixel bursts, and warp effects found in the original. But now, along with the open-field gameplay in a hexagonal-grid, certain tiles have new properties to make the game even more challenging. Some tiles heal creeps or speed them up, forcing you to develop a strategy to stop creeps before getting to these tiles. Another type of tile can only be used by creeps, requiring you to work-around these tiles while trying to slow their path to the goal.
Along with the new maps and tile types, you get a new tower to experiment with as well. Called the Thumper, the new purple tower gives off waves of damage in its immediate area. Upgrades to the Thumper increase the damage and add a higher frequency of waves. Overall, GeoDefense Swarm is an excellent followup to the original game, but just like the original, might be better suited to those with a lot of experience in the genre or at least a high threshold for frustration.
What's your favorite iPhone app? Are you happy to finally find an app that lets you switch songs easily while doing other things? Is GeoDefense Swarm too hard for its own good? let me know in the comments!
The comfy, folding Jabra Halo headset isn't 100 percent compatible with the iPhone, but it's still a worthwhile investment.
(Credit: Jabra)Cords suck. That's why people who switch to Bluetooth headsets have a hard time going back to the wired kind. And once you've tried a stereo headset, well, you're spoiled for life.
Consider me spoiled. The new Jabra Halo headset cuts the cord in style, giving music and movie fans a terrific wireless listening experience while allowing chatterboxes to keep conversing.
Alas, it's not quite perfect, owing to one design flaw and one technical glitch that's actually Apple's fault.
Smart features are everywhere. For starters, the Halo has no on/off button. Rather, these folding, over-the-ear headphones turn on when unfolded and off again when you fold them. Love that!
LEDs embedded in the headband show power, pairing, and battery status. I had an easy time pairing the Halo with an iPhone 3G and a second-gen iPod Touch.
In fact, I was able to keep both paired thanks to the headset's MultiUse technology, which supports connections to two Bluetooth devices. (A more real-world application would be pairing to your iPhone and your laptop.) Very handy.
The Halo has just two physical controls. The first is a slightly indented button in the outer face of the right earpiece; it's used to play/pause music and answer/end phone calls.
The second is a disastrously bad touch slider for controlling volume and skipping tracks (the latter done by double-tapping the top or bottom of the controller--a nearly impossible task given that you can't see where you're tapping). It's my one and only complaint with the Halo; a simple rocker control would have been vastly superior.
I have a second complaint, but it's with Apple's implementation of Bluetooth. Because there's no support (yet) for Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP), the Halo's controls are rendered partially inoperative. You can raise and lower volume, but I couldn't get play/pause or track skip to work.
These aren't deal-breakers (as noted above, these controls suck anyway), but they're definitely annoyances. For what it's worth, everything worked fine with my AVRCP-rocking Palm Pre.
On the unequivocal plus side, music sounds terrific, at least to my ears, and callers reported that I sounded just as swell. That surprised me given the Halo's lack of a visible microphone, but the headset actually has two of them--one of which cancels background noise.
Other perks include a patch cord for using the Halo with non-Bluetooth MP3 players; AC and USB charging cables (the Halo relies on a microUSB connector); and a Neoprene carrying case.
All this can be yours for $129.99, which is a pretty steep price for a headset. Shopping around, I managed to find it for $99, but even that's not an impulse-buy price.
On the other hand, if you routinely use your iPhone on a treadmill, at the gym, or even while lounging around the house, a headset like this is a very worthwhile luxury. We just need Apple to roll out some much-needed Bluetooth updates (add printer support while you're at it!) and the Jabra Halo will rank among the top products in its class (for iPhone users, that is).
Forget Randy, Simon, and whoever's filling Paula's shoes this week. If you've got mad vocal skillz, dawg, or you want to see what it's like to sit in the judge's chair, grab iSing--the "worldwide talent contest" for iPhone and iPod Touch.
When you run the app, you'll see a list of song entries from other iSing users. Tap any thumbnail to stream a clip, then vote on it by tapping the thumbs-up or thumbs-down button.
Entries with the most positive votes bubble to the top of the "charts," earning the singer the iSing equivalent of fame. (Sorry, no fortune, no recording contract, and no Kodak Theater.)
When you're ready for your own audition, just sing your heart out for 30 seconds (mic-less 1st-gen Touch owners are outta luck, alas). After your clip gets uploaded, you can sit back and watch the votes roll in.
The 99-cent app wisely restricts users to one song entry per month, unless they're willing to pony up another 99 cents for each additional entry.
I'm no singer, but I had fun recording the Muppets classic "Mna-Mna." (Look for it!) I also enjoyed listening to and voting on others' clips--even the bad ones. It's not quite as fun as watching train-wreck performances by delusional "A.I" contestants, but make no mistake: it's fun.
However, I'd prefer it if the song listings didn't show the current score for each entry, as I'd rather do a "blind" evaluation than know beforehand that only, say, 27 percent of voters "liked" that particular performance. I'd rather have the option of viewing the score on the singer's profile page, which appears when you "tap through."
That minor gripe aside, iSing is a unique, clever app that's sure to appeal to American Idol fans--or anyone with a yen to judge or be judged.
Rhapsody's iPhone app will allow users to stream ad-free music and add selections to their playlist queue.
(Credit: Rhapsody)Subscription music service Rhapsody, a division of Real Networks, has announced plans to port its service to Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. In a blog post Sunday, the company said it will submit the application (demonstrated on the video below) this week to Apple for review.
Historically, Apple has steered clear of subscription music, making it impossible for services such as Napster or Rhapsody to work with the iPod, fearing competition with its own iTunes music service. But the success of iPhone music applications such as Pandora, Last.fm, and Slacker, may have opened the door for subscription services as well. (Last.fm is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET News.)
Rhapsody's mobile app will require that users hold a Rhapsody-to-Go account, which currently runs $14.95 per month. (Non-subscribers will apparently be offered a limited time free-trial period.) The Rhapsody app allows subscribers to explore and stream Rhapsody's entire online music catalog over EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi, as well as create and store playlist queues of their favorite content. The app does not, however, allow users to download and store Rhapsody songs directly on the device, or cache content temporarily to hear offline.
If Rhapsody's application is approved by Apple, it won't likely be alone. Competing services such as Spotify have shown off similar applications, and Napster will surely want to get in on the action as well. The real question is whether people will find subscription music capabilities valuable. With free, ad-supported services such as Pandora already dominating the spotlight, it remains to be seen whether Rhapsody can convince new customers to spend close to $15 a month for unlimited on-demand music streaming.
In the blog post, Rhapsody also revealed plans to develop an Android application. It's not known whether that version would offer greater flexibility (local storage, over-the-air downloads) than the version for the iPhone.
Rhapsody on iPhone from Jamie on Vimeo.
(Via PC World)
