120 BMP, as its name suggests, is all about modern music with a beat. With a user interface that is not dissimilar to Garage Band (if it had had a fluoro make-over), it is bright, fun, and embraces sharing user generated content, as well as the all important Facebook!
120 BMP fires up quickly and launches straight into one of its sample tracks whilst showing a gyrating club girl dancing away behind the main menu. And you’re off.
The app has basically three parts. A sample recording area, a track creation area, and a world view where you can share content.
The main part of 120 BPM is the track creation area, which is based around a music creation timeline I have already said it is similar to Garage Band, and in fact to most side scrolling timeline based music creation apps. Initially it is a little confusing what each icon above the timeline is for. But with a little bit of experimentation you will find your way around. There are ways to choose sets of samples, alter the positioning of sounds, and save or load your tracks. There is also a “Help” area accessible from the Main Menu, or while in the editor, which has text written instructions on how to use the app.
Basically, you place samples (which are arranged down the left hand side of the screen) into the timeline by simply touching and dragging them where you want them. Moving along the timeline can be done by playing the track, touch dragging it, or using a slider. Unfortunately the app does not let you use the slider while a track is playing. So there is a lot of starting and stopping of the track, and moving back and forth, which is a bit fiddly. This is a shame when the developers have given you so many ways to move around. Simple touch and drag, and a track that is actively playing picking up from where you dragged it to would be preferable, and would have served to clear some space on the display for more info on the sample buttons, and other menu buttons.
The included samples are great. And by and large seem to be beat matched, however you place them. But it is disappointing to download an app and immediately be told that you are gonna need to stump up more cash for any samples over and above the one very focussed set included. However, you can record your own samples using the “My Samples” area of the app. But that area seems to be limited to 6 slots, as far as I can tell.
By far the best feature of this app is the World View where you have a Google Earth style globe that you can pinch zoom and rotate to see markers all around the planet where other 120 BPM users have uploaded their creations. Focussing on any purple dot turns it briefly into an hour glass, before it changes to a green note and you can hear the music that a person has made.
One downside to this user generated content is that it is clear that many people like the same standard tracks included with the app. Or don’t want to pay more for new ones. But hopefully as people experiment more with the sample recording, and downloading the additional sample packs the diversity of these creations will grow.
I have already mentioned this, and I do have a little bit of an issue personally with apps that come with three quarters of their content disabled. But that is just me. At 99 cents though, it is hard to complain. But factor into that price the notion that if you want more than “Electro” sounds, and want a full range of samples from different musical genres to choose from, you are either going to have to make samples yourself, or download them. With the latter option this app’s price is really closer to $4 if you also want to have “Dance”, “Funk” and “Pop Rock” content. After that if you want even more samples to choose from then the developer offers plenty. And all are at the 99 cents a pack.
Worth the money? Yes. Fun? Yes. A Tool for Pros? Definitely not. Will it make you famous? Probably not. But who knows! Look at Justin Bieber!
At the end of the day it’s all about the in app purchases, baby!
$0.99 (View in iTunes)
Category: Entertainment
Released: Nov 03, 2010
Version: 1.0
1.0 (iOS 4.0 Tested)
18.8 MB
Language: French
Seller: Little Worlds Studio, sarl
© Little Worlds Studio
Rated 4+
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
Information is power and in this fast paced society fast access to that information is equally important. The online ‘bible’ of information at the moment is Wikipedia, but the trouble with Wikipedia is you have to have access to the internet to use it and as we know there are occasions where there is no coverage for our iPhones or iPod Touch’s. Well this is where AllofWiki Offline aims to step in.
AllofWiki Offline does exactly what it says in the title, it downloads all the content of Wikipedia to your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch for you to browse at your leisure whether you have 3G/Wifi or not. The biggest flaw in this plan is the size of the download which at present is over 5GB. Now I don’t know about you but balancing the amount of music, apps, video’s and photo’s on my device is a constant juggling act and so finding 5GB of free space to download all the content was not going to be easy. That being said for the purpose of this review I clear enough space and then left my device for a couple of hours while it downloaded.
Once the data has downloaded the interface is easy enough to use especially on the iPad where the larger screen is put to good use allowing you to search and navigate the pages easily as well as bookmark pages for easy access. The only things missing from this version of Wikipedia are the pictures.
The search is fast too which is what I would expect considering that all the data is now stored locally. The app is not updated on an incremental basis, instead you will be prompted as and when new full downloads are available.
The 1st download after your initial download is free and then subsequent downloads are charged at $1. These downloads will be made available within a week of them being made available by Wikipedia which usually occurs monthly.
While the functionality and speed of the app is very good I have to question the point of it. Surely if you want the content of Wikipedia at your finger tips you’ll have an iPhone with a data plan and surely there can’t be many places left in the US that don’t have some form of network access.
If you’ve got the space to spare, I for one know that I don’t, and you want all of Wikipedia at your finger tips then this is the app for you although at $9.99 and $1 updates it’s not cheap.
The Good
The Not So Good
Price: $9.99 (iTunes Store Preview)
Updated: Apr 15, 2010
Reviewed Version: 1.1
Size: 3.0 MB
Language: English
Seller: Brilliant(ish) Software
© Brilliant(ish) Software 2009
Rated 12+ for the following:
Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes
Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later.
Review
A must have for the Aquarist or Marine Animal Lover!
Invertebrate Pocket Reference is a guide for marine aquarists. It will help you determine if the animal you want to purchase or collect is suitable for your reef or saltwater tank.
You will learn the Latin name of the animal, its size, diet, behavior, lighting requirements, whether it is reef friendly, venomous and more.
Invertebrate Pocket Reference is a very well put together guide that can help you insure that your salt water aquarium inhabitants are living in an ideal environment. It provides very detailed information from what type of surroundings are best all the way to how you should handle them.
The guide also has very clear images of each invertebrate for those of us that still don
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App Description
Notecard Defense is a frantically fast paced game that requires quick reflexes and steely determination. The only thing standing between the castle and a horrible, hand-drawn death is you.
Defend your castle against hoards of angry stick figures throughout 25 action packed levels, earn gold for each one you kill and use that gold to buy upgrades for your castle.
Upcoming Features in version 1.1:
– New upgrades (including shake triggered weapons)
– New animations
– New castles
Tweet “Follow @TouchReviews_PR for #iPhone app reviews and Promo Codes. I want
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