AppCubby have a range of handy apps available and they have released an update to one of these in the form of Launch Center Pro. While I use the word update this is not in the sense of an update as you may expect from an iPhone app as this is a completely new app so if you already own Launch Center you’ll need to purchase Launch Center Pro again. (You can read the Developers reasoning here.)
With that controversial point out of the way lets move on to the app itself which provides a start menu like interface for all the activities that you do frequently from launching apps, texting, calling, emailing, searching the web and more, you can set all of these actions up and customize them to meet your specific requirements.
One significant change with the pro version of Launch Center is how it looks which sees a significant improvement from its previous incarnation. From the polish of the app icon to the new grid layout the whole application looks like it’s just come out of a car showroom as it glints and gleams as you drill down through the activities that you want to launch.
When you first launch the app it will already be setup with default actions which include the ability to turn on the camera flash as a flashlight, toggle the brightness, search google and dial a contact to name but a few. It’s in the configuration of the app where you can personalize your requirements is where Launch Center Pro starts earning its stripes.
The first thing you’ll want to take advantage of when you start customizing Launch Center Pro is the use of Groups for while the initial grid is set to 4 x 3 squares to set to your own actions the use of Groups open up an additional 12 actions spots for each of the initial 12. Now that adds up to a lot of shortcuts which may defeat the purpose of the app in the first place but it’s a nice option to have!
Setting up your actions is easy, after going into edit mode, (there’s no wiggle here!), you can either edit an existing action by clicking on it or tap an empty one to create a new one. From here, after selecting to create an action you can choose from one of the common or installed actions before getting the option to customize them even further.
The level customization will depend on the action, for example if you have Tweetbot installed you’ll be able to choose from launching the app, tweeting, tweeting a specific username, launching a profile or searching, while choosing the Music app only provides the ability to launch it. This is not a limitation of Launch Center Pro however but more how any given app allows it to integrate.
Not only can you set a multitude of actions but you can also set the color of the icon and select one of a plethora of images to identify your icon, similar to the images you can have if you have Emoji enabled for your txt messages.
With your shortcuts all setup you can start using Launch Center Pro for what it was intended for, launching actions. Once you launch LCP you simply tap any shortcut and the associated action will launched, while accessing shortcuts that are part of a group requires you to tap and hold and then drag your finger to the shortcut you wish to launch.
There is also the ability to schedule actions which works more as a reminder than anything, rather than actually launching the requested action they launch an alert that will enable you to launch the action, kind of scheduling lite! This limit appears to be more of a limit of the Apple approval process than anything else however.
Once you’ve been using LCP {$2.99} for a few days consistently you’ll wonder how you’ve lived so long without it, even more so if you are a heavy user of the iPhone with a lot of apps as Launch Center Pro will do away with your need to remember where all your apps are.
[rating: 4/5]What we like
What to know
Rumors earlier in the week suggested that Apple Inc. (AAPL) was looking to roll out their iTunes in the Cloud services to its Japanese users, and on Wednesday, Apple did exactly that. This allows Japanese users to freely download previous content from the iTunes Store.
A report from 9to5Mac also revealed that AAPL included a number of other features to the Japanese iTunes Store, including iTunes Plus, 3G downloads, Ringtones, and Complete My Album. Apple has posted a What’s New page [Google translation] on its Japanese iTunes site, highlighting some of the new features:
– 3G downloads: Music downloads from iOS devices had previously been restricted to Wi-Fi only, but users can now access content over 3G networks.
– iTunes Plus: The Japanese iTunes Store now supports the DRM-free 256 kbps iTunes Plus format, up from the previous 128 kbps versions carrying usage restrictions. Labels will need to upgrade their content to the new standard, so it may take some time for all music to become available in iTunes Plus format.
– Ringtones: Music ringtones are now available for purchase in the Japanese iTunes Store.
– Mastered for iTunes: Rolling out on a worldwide basis, Apple is now featuring songs and albums that have been specifically mastered for the iTunes Store to provide the best sound quality for the format.
– Complete My Album: Users who previously purchased individual tracks from an album can now purchase the entire album for a discounted price based on a credit for their individual-track purchases.
With the latest update, Apple has not brought over almost all of the new features, except the iTunes Match service, currently available in only 37 countries. The iTunes Match service allows users to match or upload their entire music libraries to access from any iCloud-enabled device.
Apple has not commented as to whether they will bring over that service to the Japanese iTunes Store, but reports suggest that Apple is looking to bring over the service during the first half of 2012. A large part of Apple’s revenue stream now comes from Japan and China, only two of the countries in Apple’s Asian market.
{via MacRumors}
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Steve Jobs introduced the iPod in 2001, in front a small audience, followed by a major announcement of iTunes, which lead to one of the greatest music revolutions in history. iTunes, paired with millions of iPods, iPhones, and iPads, transformed the distribution, consumption, and creation of music around the world, and made material music such as CD’s almost obsolete.
After Steve’s passing in October, the world continues to realize the true impact that he made on the music industry and the transformation of the technological industry that Apple’s products caused. On Friday, The Recording Academy announced they’ll be honoring Steve Jobs with a Special Merit Grammy Award for revolutionizing the music industry with the highly successful iTunes Music Store.
As former CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books. A creative visionary, Jobs’ innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased. In 2002 Apple Computer Inc. was a recipient of a Technical GRAMMY Award for contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field. The company continues to lead the way with new technology and in-demand products such as the iPhone and iPad.
The Recording Academy will be holding a special event on Saturday, February 11th in order to honor numerous visionaries with Lifetime Achievement Awards as well as Technical Grammy Awards. The Academy will also be honoring Jobs with a Trustee Award honoring Steve Jobs the following day.
The impact of Apple’s products under Steve Jobs’ guidance can be seen all around the world, and with the influence that his products had on the music and computing industry, there is no doubt that Steve Jobs is the right person to receive the award.
{via TiPb}
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Cut the Rope: Experiments Review: A great physics-based game where the objective is to get the candy dangling at the end of a rope into the open mouth of the ever-hungry little creature Om Nom.
The latest incarnation has all the familiar ropes introduced in the original Cut The Rope for iPhone, needing to be cut and gravity to be calculated. What makes it different is the introduction of The Professor who provides some interesting experiments and color commentary to the game.
The game has the same cute, clear, bright look as the rest of the Cut the Rope games. The music has a game-show feel to it, and some of the sound effects are quite amusing. This game could be described as goofy if cutting the ropes correctly wasn’t such serious business.
Some of the puzzles are relatively easy and some are more difficult. And some can be both, so you can either choose to take the easy way out or put some effort into it for more points.
Game Center integration is provided so you can track your achievements and check the leaderboards to see where you stand. A comic book app with further adventures of Om Nom and The Professor is being developed and should be available soon from the app store.
Cut the Rope: Experiments has all the appeal of previous editions. If you’ve mastered the other variants, this one will challenge you to put those skills to new tests. It’s a fun twist on an iOS classic.
Pros:
Cons:
Gallery
Trailer
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Google is holding its annual I/O event later on today, but the company has already released information on the products it is set to announce. One of which is called ‘Music Beta by Google’ — a service that provides users with online, cloud-based storage for up to 20,000 songs — and looks set to rival Apple’s upcoming iCloud.
Google doesn’t yet have deals in place with any of the major record labels, so the ability to purchase and download music through the service is currently non-existent, however, you can use the service store their your own music for access from internet-connected devices, such as tablets and smart phones. The idea is that you store media content in the cloud and stream it to your device when you want it, rather than storing it on your device and taking up precious storage space.
Google’s launch of this service comes shortly after Amazon announced a music storage service of its own. While both companies have launched their services way in advance of Apple’s iCloud launch, will either of them have any advantage?
Well, no — certainly not with iOS users anyway. Firstly, neither Google’s nor Amazon’s services will be designed specifically with iOS in mind. Whereas it goes without saying that Apple’s service (when it finally launches) will be perfected for the iOS platform. Sure, Amazon’s Cloud Player now supports iOS devices, but it’s not a perfect user experience. We’re yet to see how Google’s services works, but it’s sure to be designed to work perfectly with Android powered devices — not those running iOS.
Secondly, neither Cloud Player or Music Beta by Google currently have any arrangements with the major music labels. You can only use these services to access music you already own — that you’ve uploaded yourself. We already know that Apple is currently in talks with record labels, so we know that with iCloud we’ll at least be able to access music that we don’t already own. Whether that will be with a subscription-based streaming service, or just through individual track purchases, we’re yet to find out.
While Amazon and Google may currently be when it comes to cloud-based music services, I don’t think either service will tempt iOS users away from Apple’s iCloud.
iCloud is expected to launch at WWDC 2011 conference in June.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/google-iolive-launches-music-beta-google-apple-worry/feed/ 0The CNET report notes a recent rumor claiming Apple may charge $20 a year for the service, but they couldn’t confirm with sources whether this figure was accurate. A similar service from Google is also expected to come with an annual fee.
Apple’s cloud-based music service will allow users to store their music and videos in a digital ‘locker’, enabling them to stream the content to internet connected devices, such as the iPhone and iPad – negating the need for content to be stored locally on the device taking up valuable storage space.
The service was expected to come as part of a MobileMe revamp, which would provide users with certain aspects of cloud storage as part of their subscription – just like iDisk. However, it’s now unclear whether the two services will be separate entities, or whether the annual fee could also incorporate the MobileMe subscription.
While Apple has informed music executives that work on the service is now “complete,” it has apparently only provided a broad description on how the service will work, keeping the specifics under wraps.
Meanwhile, Amazon recently rolled out its own cloud-based digital storage service called Cloud Drive. The product offers 5GB of storage for free and then tiered subscriptions that allow storage up to 1TB.
]]> https://touchreviews.net/apple-charge-annual-fee-cloudbased-music-locker/feed/ 0They offer a free service for Developers who are interested in monitoring the mobile app ecosystem. They also offer free analytics tools for developers so they can monitor their own applications’ performance across all app stores. This is done very simply by allowing them access to your iTunes Connect account, either via your username, or a special user name with limited access you setup for them.
I use them, and they are pretty good. I have to admit I was a bit uncomfortable initially with letting them have access to my account. But can say I’ve had no problems.
Their most recent report makes interesting reading :
In total, there are 2,385 applications that are available exclusively for the iPad. The largest category on the iPad is Games with 833 titles (35%), followed by Entertainment and Education with 260 and 205 titles, respectively.
Games and Entertainment applications are more popular on the iPhone than on the iPad: 70% of the most popular applications on the iPhone are published in either one of those categories, compared to 40% on the iPad.
83% of applications on the iPad are paid, while only 73% of all applications are paid on the iPhone. The average price of all paid applications that are solely compatible with iPad is $3.61 compared to $3.55 for applications compatible with iPhone.
Medical applications are most expensive on both the iPad ($9.39) and iPhone ($10.73). On the contrary, Education ($9.10), Healthcare & Fitness ($4.41), Music ($6.86) and Sports ($4.95) applications are significantly more expensive on the iPad. Books are currently cheaper on the iPad than on the iPhone which may be influenced by the iBookstore availability on the iPad.
The full report can be downloaded for free here : [distimo.com] ]]> https://touchreviews.net/35-ipad-apps-games-distimo-report/feed/ 0
Instant Beat brings the next generation rhythm composer to the iPhone and iPod Touch. It provides you with an extremely fast way of creating studio quality rhythm arrangements on the go. Everyone from the beginner to the studio pro will be creating beats in minutes thanks to the simplified user interface.
This is a drum machine with a twist, rather than record what you personally play on the pads to be played back again, mistakes an all, this app has both pads and a sequencer where you simply tap squares on a grid and it plays the particular beat. Configure your bpm and drum type (6 different types to choose from) then tapping grid and away you go, forming your drum rhythm as the yellow bar moves over the green squares. Once you’ve completed your masterpiece you can save the pattern for future use after entering a custom name with an onscreen keyboard. Going one step further with a view to live performances you can setup sessions, which let you choose what patterns are loaded into the quick launch row of buttons above the pads at a moments notice. As far as I can tell you are pretty much unlimited (device memory providing one would assume) with the amount of different sessions and patterns you can have stored which is always a good thing but I would like to see more drum kits available just to bulk out this application’s longevity.
My gripes with this application, would be that adjusting the bpm is hard work, stuck with tapping the + or – button once for every one digit adjustment, which if you play at different speeds for different songs is going to be a killer pain in the neck to stand there and adjust it back and fourth. While most of the settings in the menu are used for loading and saving patterns and sessions the show/hide instrument numbers is off by default and will be off every time you launch the application which could be annoying as it’s the only way of telling which pad does what between the pad and grid views. I also feel the interface could do with more work to maximise screen real estate as there are some rather large gaps that could be better used to make the interface elements larger so easier to use in the heat of the moment.
Price: $2.99 (free version available)
The Good
The Not So Good
Reviewed by: Tyler Durdan
Instant Beat Screenshots
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[rating: 4/5]
Enter into a world of frenzy with World of Tunes
Key Features:
– 4 Different Rhythm Action Game Modes: Story Mode, DJ Mode, Crazy Mode, Free Play Mode!
– Immerse Story line with 10 unique stages each with synchronized music and game play!
– 4 Customized boss stages with unique music and individualized attacks!
The adorable Tuneys bounce into aerobatic action as you tap along according to the rhythmic music.
Full screen touch controls immerses you in a fully interactive adventure.
Fun for all ages with easy to learn controls
Various types of beats from indigenous music to electric piano music
I’ve played many types of rhythm games over the years on all kinds of platforms and the latest one is World of Tunes which is like a cross between Bubble Bobble and Tap Tap Revenge.
Tuneys are your friends in this world and as they dance along to the musical beat your aim is to tap on them at the right time to complete each level as you work your way to the end of level big boss. Each level is ranked as is normal with this style of game and this allows you to go back and try to improve on your previously set scores.
To complete each level you must tap each Tuney at the peak of its height as it is launched into the air and as you would expect completing a chain will earn you bonus points. While most of the Tuneys only require a simple tap others require a swipe and some a triple tap. And then there are the bosses!
Some of the boss levels will take you a few attempts until you can beat them but this is no bad thing as the level of the challenge is set just about right, although with the option of Easy, Medium or Hard you can choose whether you want to complete the game in 15 minutes of 15 hours! Each boss requires a different technique to defeat them so ensure that you watch the pre-boss animation so that you stand the best chance of moving on to the next level.
In addition to Story Mode there is also Free Play, DJ Mode and a locked Crazy Mode. Free Play allows you to play any of the unlocked levels for fun, DJ Mode is more of a Tap, Tap clone with the Tuneys all landing on a set line rather than the random style of Story & Free Play modes.
The music is your standard computer game music but it works well and the graphics look wonderful and the game play, graphics and sounds work in perfect harmony. However the music can be a little repetitive at times and the addition of a Juke Box to play the music for pleasure only seems a little wide of the mark.
All that said World of Tunes is a joy to play though once and if the music doesn’t annoy you too much there is also a good amount of replay value in the game.
Price $1.99
The Good
The Not So Good
World of Tunes Screenshots
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]]> https://touchreviews.net/review-world-of-tunes-iphone-ipod-touch/feed/ 0iShred LE starts with a set of high-fidelity electric guitar samples, then feeds them through one of eight exciting stomp-box effects pedals and an overdriven amp simulator. It comes with 6 demo songs covering a great range of guitar styles:
* Classic Rock – some sweet distortion
* Heavy Metal – dark, foreboding fuzz
* Psychedelic 60’s – tilt for wah-wah as you play
* Surf’s Up – classic surf guitar from the beach
* Area 51 – guitar tone on an alien landscape
* New Waver – shimmery, sparkley pop purity
The heart of iPhone/iPod touch is music and iPhone developers have from the beginning been developing some unique and extraordinary apps in the music category. iShred LE takes the experience of playing guitar on your device to the next level.
iShred LE has a very simple and clean User Interface which lets you strum your electric guitar and change chords with ease. The top of the screen has 10 slots to arrange the chords and frets, the middle of the screen displays 6 strings (enough space to strum individual strings). Tap the options to edit the chord set-up while previewing each chord. iShred LE features 8 stomp-box effects to fine tune your song (Kompressor, Hot Fuzz, Sybil, Space Modulator, Wahsabi and many more). iShred LE also features 8 songs in Playlist.
The sound quality of this app is very good and is best when used with in-ear headphones or external speakers. The animation used for transitions and stomp-box effects is very realistic. It also features Air Play mode where you can hear and rate performances from full version users.
Price $.99
The Good
The Not So Good
FEATURES:
* 10 drum components are playable simultaneously
* Arrange drum components to make your fingers comfortable
* Mixes high quality poly-phony sounds with no clipping at the end
* 3-D Positioning sounds
* Open hihat features quick stop
* Record and save your own beats
* 25 pre-recorded beats (Rock, Jazz, Latin, Ballad, Dance…)
* Slide and play
* Activates motion sensor for playing bass drum and cymbals
* Great responsiveness for double bass and fast beats
* Animated visual effect
There are plenty of Drum apps in the App Store so the addition of a new one is going to have to grab some headlines to beat off the competition and the new one in question is Drum Meister.
Priced at $1.99 Drum Meister sits in the middle of the price range but functionality wise is pushing for the top spot. When starting the app you are instantly presented with the default drum set including 10 high quality sample sounds and this gives you the instant gratification of banging out a rhythm with no setup at all. The layout of the kit sits easily with your fingers and the crisp accurate sounds of the drums adds to the enjoyment, plug in your headphones and the sounds get even better.
Entering the options menu allows you to make a couple of changes with the key one being the setup of the Motion Sensor sound where you can pick from the Kick, C, S & R Cymbol’s. While the motion sensor seems like a good idea there is no control on the sensitivity of the motion control which can lead to un-wanted beats while you are in mid-thrash. It’s a small issue and unless you have a light touch you may end up turning the Motion Sensor off.
Drum Meister allows you to not only play along with your favorite songs from your iPod library but it also allows you to record you beats to listen back to at your leisure, although giving you the ability to upload your tunes or download the tracks of others would be nice. One of the strongest features of drum Meister is the ability to re-arrange the drum components to match your style and comfort.
Drum Meister also comes with 25 preloaded tracks covering Rock, Metal, Dance, Jazz and Ballads so even if you’re not the best at banging out the tunes you can certainly pretend to be!
This is V1.0 of Drum Meister and it’s a good effort, hopefully an update with a few tweaks will make this a solid application.
Price $1.99
The Good
The Not So Good