Capo is a clever app that gets to the heart of why budding musicians bother to practice in the first place: to learn to play the songs they love. Toward this end, Capo will slow down whatever music you have saved on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, so that you can play along at a speed that matches your skill level. With practice, the user will be able to speed up the track and play along at the regular playback speed.
Is this a single-purpose app? You bet. But that is not a criticism. What Capo does, Capo does impressively. When Capo slows down a track, the pitch is left unchanged– in other words, the vocalist’s voice will not sound like some basso profundo monster. However, if you want to play with the pitch for whatever reason, Capo will do it. You can add markers to particular parts of a song you mean to practice, or even loop one part of the song over and over again, to practice continuously until you get it right.
We all knew it was bound to happen, but I don’t think we were expecting it this early. T-Mobile’s latest 4G campaign, featuring an Apple vs Mac style, takes a jab at both AT&T and Verizon.
Previously, T-Mobile aired several advertisements outlining the disadvantages of the iPhone on the AT&T network, including the inability to video chat over WiFi on the AT&T iPhone whereas the T-Mobile myTouch 4G can make calls anywhere.
The latest advertisement shows that there’s no fun in having a great handset running on a slow network, referencing AT&T’s unreliable 3G network and Verizon slow CDMA network, when T-Mobile’s network provides 4G speeds…
A new, unexpected report from Boy Genius is claiming that the next version of the iPhone and iPad will have no home button. That’s right, a device with hardly any physical buttons will lose its only major one. This rumor doesn’t seem unlike Apple, we are talking about a company who took all of the buttons off the iPod Nano at one point.
It seems that the reason multitouch gestures were added to the iPad in iOS 4.3 is because Apple plans to implement such gestures for all iDevices. These multi-finger gestures would most likely replace the current functionality of the home button. Boy Genius Report reveals the following…
“We just got some pretty wild information from one of our Apple sources and while it’s hard to believe at first, it does make sense. We have exclusively been told that the reason Apple just added multitouch gestures for the iPad in the latest iOS 4.3 beta is because the iPad will be losing the home button. Yes, we are told that Apple, at some point in time, will remove the home button from the iPad’s design. Instead of button taps, you will use new multitouch gestures to navigate to the home screen and also to launch the app switcher.”
These home-buttonless iDevices are rumored to already be in field testing at the Apple campus in Cupertino. That means they can’t be far off from their shipping date. BGR says,
“That’s not all, however. In addition to the home button disappearing from the iPad, we’re told that this change will make its way over to the iPhone as well. Our source said Apple employees are already testing iPads and iPhones with no home buttons on the Apple campus, and it’s possible we will see this new change materialize with the next-generation iPad and iPhone devices set to launch this year.”
An iPhone without the home button would definitely be an interesting device. That design change could be Apple’s big shocker for their new iPhone announcement later this year.
This rumor is even more interesting because Steve Jobs originally said he didn’t want any physical buttons on the iPhone. It looks like he could be getting his wish with the next version of the iPhone and iPad.
John Gruber has some interesting objections as to why he thinks Apple will keep the home button,
“The physical Home button is impossible to miss. That it is the one and only button on the faces of these devices is a big part of why normal people are able to pick them, starting playing with them, and figure out how to get around with no help. How in the world would a normal person figure out or guess that they need to do a “five-finger pinch” to get back to the home screen?
I’m not saying these are bad gestures. But they’re like keyboard shortcuts on the Mac. For any command you expect normal people to actually find and use, there needs to be a visual way to find it. You can add a keyboard shortcut for expert users to memorize, but you can’t have only a keyboard shortcut. Same with these gestures.”
We’ll be sure to keep you posted on this news. What do you think? Does an iPhone without the home button sound appealing to you? Would using multi-finger gestures to navigate basic functions like the app switcher and home screen bother you?
What do you do when your company has 66 billion dollars in revenue from last year? Invest in lots of hot startup companies and acquire more talented employees? No. You hire a highly-paid team of lawyers to file a pathetic motion for trademark denial to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
That’s exactly what the giant industry grandfather, Microsoft, has done. Apple has already trademarked the phrase, “There’s an app for that.” But Microsoft doesn’t think that Apple should have the rights to also trademark the term “App Store.”
Although it’s unclear as to whether Microsoft will win this appeal, it seems that Apple would have a stronger case. After all, the App Store has practically become a household name…
Microsoft’s motion is interesting to read. The document argues that Apple’s trademark is too generic, and that other variations of the term should be free to use by all companies.
“Any secondary meaning or fame Apple has in ‘App Store’ is de facto secondary meaning that cannot convert the generic term ‘app store’ into a protectable trademark,” write lawyers for Microsoft in a motion for summary judgment, filed yesterday with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
“Apple cannot block competitors from using a generic name. ‘App store’ is generic and therefore in the public domain and free for all competitors to use.”
MacRumors gives a little history behind this new feud Microsoft has with Apple,
“Apple has been trying since July 2008 to convince the Patent and Trademark Office to grant a trademark on the phrase, with examiners initially denying the application under the rationale that the term is merely descriptive of the services offered by Apple.
Apple appealed the decision a few months later, submitting a stack of evidence showing that the term had acquired distinctiveness in marketing materials and media coverage. In response, examiners tentatively decided to award Apple the trademark and published it for opposition in January 2010.”
Microsoft thinks it’s unfair that Apple can trademark such a “generic” term when other companies could benefit from using the term to describe their products more effectively.
If you think about it, all of the other companies with mobile “app stores” use different variations of Apple’s famous term. It is clear that Apple seems to hold the monopoly with the public’s perception of what constitutes an “App Store”, but should other companies be able to implore this term? It seems like a bunch of different “App Stores” would only confuse the average consumer.
Microsoft’s motion does have some good points. For instance, it quotes when Steve Jobs himself used the term generically to describe “app stores for Android.” Ouch.
What do you think about all this? It seems like Microsoft may just want to throw a little temper tantrum (their Windows 7 app “Marketplace” is little vacant), but perhaps there is a real, valuable reason behind this plea. I guess the courts will decide.
It’s been less than 24 hours since Apple started seeding iOS 4.3 Beta to developers and we’ve already found out many new features the new OS brings, but news doesn’t stop there.
The eagle-eyed folks over at Engadget have made another interesting discovery. Within the iOS 4.3 Beta code there are references to two new iPhone models and three new iPad models. The model names that appear include iPhone (4,1 and 4,2) and iPad (2,1, 2,2, and 2,3)…
The iPad models listed in the code are most likely the upcoming iPad 2 WiFi only, iPad 2 with AT&T 3G, and iPad 2 CDMA variant. Things get a little trickier with the iPhone models. The new models referenced, iPhone 4,1 and iPhone 4,2 are probably the GSM iPhone 5 and the CDMA iPhone 5.
That still leaves the iPhone 3,3. Could this be the rumored Sprint/T-Mobile iPhone 4?
Capo is a clever app that gets to the heart of why budding musicians bother to practice in the first place: to learn to play the songs they love. Toward this end, Capo will slow down whatever music you have saved on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, so that you can play along at a speed that matches your skill level. With practice, the user will be able to speed up the track and play along at the regular playback speed.
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