A friend just gave me some good ideas so I'm going to put them out here for all to read.
If there are any iPhone App creators that want to talk to me, or let me do a little interview with them, don't hesitate to get in touch with me. I'm also willing to download and review any app that anyone wants, so feel free to post in the comments, or email me (check my profile to the right).
I'm not sure exactly what direction this blog will take, but I'd love to do more in-depth reviews of apps, with discussion from the creators, or other members of the community. I don't want to just post 3 out of 5 stars, and leave you all to your own devices. I want you to really hear what the apps are all about.
Basically what I'm trying to say is, holla at me! I want to hear your ideas, your suggestions for apps to review, and I'd LOVE to hear from some app creators about new ideas, new updates, or just to talk about the great apps you've already created!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
iPhone Music: Slacker Radio
Reading these posts will make you quickly realize how much of a music nut I am. My first inclination anytime I open up the iTunes App Store is to look up any new music apps. I love the way the iPhone makes it so much easier to find, acquire, and listen to new music. To this end, I've finally downloaded the Slacker app, to hook up with my Slacker subscription.
Slacker is an online streaming radio program, which allows you to create custom stations based on your own personal preferences. Basically, you can go onto their website, plug in a few artists you like, choose a few of your favorite songs by them, and then set a few sliders that determine the level of "discovery." In other words, you can set it up so you only hear the bands you entered, or you can set it so those bands are used as a jumping-off point for a whole world of music discovery.
The iPhone app takes all of this on the road for you. Although you can't create custom stations on the app, you can listen to all the stations you've created, as well as the long list of stations Slacker has created themselves. You simply load up the app, click a station, and start listening.
Slacker has a really simple, pretty slick interface. While you're listening to a station, you see the album art for the song currently playing, and the next song's album art is in the background. Since Slacker is a streaming radio station, you can't go backwards, but you can skip a song, pause it, "like" it (a heart button) or ban it. You can ban a single track, or an entire artist. You can also go to the next track just by swiping the album art, which they thankfully made a little difficult so you can't just accidentally switch to the next track (with no way of getting back!)
Slacker is a great service which allows you to stream all kinds of music, anywhere you want. Well, almost. Because Slacker is all streaming, I still can't listen to these tunes on the subway. Without WiFi or 3g connectivity, the app is basically useless. Furthermore, in order to get the full feature set, you have to pay for a Slacker account, which costs about $50 a year. For a music nut such as myself, $50 a year is just a small chunk of my music budget, but for a casual listener, this may be too much. Slacker does have a free option, but you're limited on what you can listen to and how many times you can skip. The app itself is free in the iTunes Application Store.
Overall, Slacker provides a great service in a convenient package. I know everyone loves Pandora, and sure it's free and a bit easier to use, but the level of control you have with your Slacker stations is unmatched in online streaming radio applications. Since Slacker is free to download, I'd recommend everyone give it a try!
Slacker is an online streaming radio program, which allows you to create custom stations based on your own personal preferences. Basically, you can go onto their website, plug in a few artists you like, choose a few of your favorite songs by them, and then set a few sliders that determine the level of "discovery." In other words, you can set it up so you only hear the bands you entered, or you can set it so those bands are used as a jumping-off point for a whole world of music discovery.
The iPhone app takes all of this on the road for you. Although you can't create custom stations on the app, you can listen to all the stations you've created, as well as the long list of stations Slacker has created themselves. You simply load up the app, click a station, and start listening.
Slacker has a really simple, pretty slick interface. While you're listening to a station, you see the album art for the song currently playing, and the next song's album art is in the background. Since Slacker is a streaming radio station, you can't go backwards, but you can skip a song, pause it, "like" it (a heart button) or ban it. You can ban a single track, or an entire artist. You can also go to the next track just by swiping the album art, which they thankfully made a little difficult so you can't just accidentally switch to the next track (with no way of getting back!)
Slacker is a great service which allows you to stream all kinds of music, anywhere you want. Well, almost. Because Slacker is all streaming, I still can't listen to these tunes on the subway. Without WiFi or 3g connectivity, the app is basically useless. Furthermore, in order to get the full feature set, you have to pay for a Slacker account, which costs about $50 a year. For a music nut such as myself, $50 a year is just a small chunk of my music budget, but for a casual listener, this may be too much. Slacker does have a free option, but you're limited on what you can listen to and how many times you can skip. The app itself is free in the iTunes Application Store.
Overall, Slacker provides a great service in a convenient package. I know everyone loves Pandora, and sure it's free and a bit easier to use, but the level of control you have with your Slacker stations is unmatched in online streaming radio applications. Since Slacker is free to download, I'd recommend everyone give it a try!
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Fun Free iPhone Game: Rolando Lite
Rolando Lite is a recent pickup for me, and based on a few hours of play I'm certain I'll be purchasing the full app from the iPhone application store very soon.
The general concept of the game is fairly simplistic. You get a few small Rolandos, little guys who remind me of rolling Lemmings. Basically, you have to get the Rolandos from their starting point to the exit door, without leaving any behind. There are enemies that can kill them, traps and mazes, and switches to pull. You also have to deal with the "Royalty," larger Rolandos that must be pushed by the smaller ones.
The great thing about this game is the control scheme. You simply tap a Rolando to select him (or click and drag a box to select a few) and then tilt the iPhone to move them. If you want them to roll left, tilt left. If you want them to jump, you just have to swipe up on the screen. There's also several different types of buttons and switches you can press, push, or pull, and you do this all just by touching the screen.
The level design is also pretty great. The levels are all bright and colorful, with fun mazes and puzzles to help you pass the time on a boring commute. The challenge ramps up pretty quickly; I got stuck on a few of the early levels and now that I'm into the second "world," things are really heating up! However, Rolando Lite makes it easy to re-try a level, and it will even save your progress if you have to close the app quickly (because your boss started walking up behind you).
Overall, Rolando Lite is a simple, fun, and highly addictive game for the phone. With the application store being filled with tons of boring, unimaginative games, it's great to see a real winner like Rolando Lite being quickly boosted to the top of the iPhone App Store rankings.
The general concept of the game is fairly simplistic. You get a few small Rolandos, little guys who remind me of rolling Lemmings. Basically, you have to get the Rolandos from their starting point to the exit door, without leaving any behind. There are enemies that can kill them, traps and mazes, and switches to pull. You also have to deal with the "Royalty," larger Rolandos that must be pushed by the smaller ones.
The great thing about this game is the control scheme. You simply tap a Rolando to select him (or click and drag a box to select a few) and then tilt the iPhone to move them. If you want them to roll left, tilt left. If you want them to jump, you just have to swipe up on the screen. There's also several different types of buttons and switches you can press, push, or pull, and you do this all just by touching the screen.
The level design is also pretty great. The levels are all bright and colorful, with fun mazes and puzzles to help you pass the time on a boring commute. The challenge ramps up pretty quickly; I got stuck on a few of the early levels and now that I'm into the second "world," things are really heating up! However, Rolando Lite makes it easy to re-try a level, and it will even save your progress if you have to close the app quickly (because your boss started walking up behind you).
Overall, Rolando Lite is a simple, fun, and highly addictive game for the phone. With the application store being filled with tons of boring, unimaginative games, it's great to see a real winner like Rolando Lite being quickly boosted to the top of the iPhone App Store rankings.
Song Identification iPhone App: Midomi Ultra 2.0
A great free iPhone app I've been using for a while now just got a huge update, and I've been loving it more and more with each passing moment. It's not as much fun as an iPhone game, but it'll certainly help you pass the time on a long car ride or on the train (if your train plays music).
Midomi is a song identification application, which allows you to press a large orange button, hold your iPhone up to some music playing in your car, in Starbucks, or on an elevator, and find out the artist and title of the song. It's free, and you can grab it right from the iPhone App Store.
Initially, I was using the ubiquitous Shazam for this service. Shazam offers a similar user experience, but with a seemingly much larger library of songs. It would grab songs from the 70's all the way up to today, and provide me with links to Youtube, iTunes, and other places to hear the song again. The problem with Shazam, however, is that it's slow. Furthermore, Midomi adds a whole host of other features that Shazam doesn't, or won't do.
Midomi allows me to sing or hum the song, as well as just say an artist or title. This is great for when I know what song I want, and I just want to find the YouTube video for it, or a link to purchase it in the iTunes Music Store. Midomi honestly makes purchasing the music through iTunes way too easy, and I've already spent a ton of money there.
In the new update, Midomi streamlined their product, and I'm newly in love with it. Instead of 5 different tabs for Listen, Sing/Hum, Say, Type, they simply have one home screen. There's a huge button which allows you to "FastTag," their new version of Listen, or sing/hum. Below that is a smaller button which allows you to say the song or artist, and next to that is an even smaller button which allows you to type.
There's only two more tabs in Midomi, a history which allows you to see your past searches, and a help tab which simply explains how to use it.
Overall, the new Midomi is a great, streamlined update, and I can't imagine anyone wanting anything more from a song identification app. Now if only they had a feature to forcibly remove songs stuck in someone's head!
Midomi is a song identification application, which allows you to press a large orange button, hold your iPhone up to some music playing in your car, in Starbucks, or on an elevator, and find out the artist and title of the song. It's free, and you can grab it right from the iPhone App Store.
Initially, I was using the ubiquitous Shazam for this service. Shazam offers a similar user experience, but with a seemingly much larger library of songs. It would grab songs from the 70's all the way up to today, and provide me with links to Youtube, iTunes, and other places to hear the song again. The problem with Shazam, however, is that it's slow. Furthermore, Midomi adds a whole host of other features that Shazam doesn't, or won't do.
Midomi allows me to sing or hum the song, as well as just say an artist or title. This is great for when I know what song I want, and I just want to find the YouTube video for it, or a link to purchase it in the iTunes Music Store. Midomi honestly makes purchasing the music through iTunes way too easy, and I've already spent a ton of money there.
In the new update, Midomi streamlined their product, and I'm newly in love with it. Instead of 5 different tabs for Listen, Sing/Hum, Say, Type, they simply have one home screen. There's a huge button which allows you to "FastTag," their new version of Listen, or sing/hum. Below that is a smaller button which allows you to say the song or artist, and next to that is an even smaller button which allows you to type.
There's only two more tabs in Midomi, a history which allows you to see your past searches, and a help tab which simply explains how to use it.
Overall, the new Midomi is a great, streamlined update, and I can't imagine anyone wanting anything more from a song identification app. Now if only they had a feature to forcibly remove songs stuck in someone's head!
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