Android – Iphone – Applications

Streaming music from a computer to all manner of home audio devices is an area Sonos, Logitech, and Apple have been competing in for years. The recently-released MP-1 music player from Orb, though, is a surprise contender that can perform a host of streaming duties for less than $70. Like the competition, it works by connecting to a powered audio device via an in-line jack, and can play music stored locally, on a network, or from services like Pandora when streamed over 802.11b/g/n WiFi through its companion Orb Caster media server software. To sweeten the package, the company is also throwing in their Orb Controller app for iOS devices — which normally costs $10 — for a low price of free, and apparently has plans to release an Android version of the remote sometime in the near future. Sure, it’s a little strange for us to see a company known for their free media streaming software jump in the hardware game so abruptly, but the MP-1′s mixture of functionality for the price is a pretty enticing first step. Plus, if the move ignites a price war to the bottom with the aforementioned competition, who are we to complain?

[Thanks, Tom]

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Wireless, Networking

Orb MP-1 music player pulls Sonos-like tricks for way less than a Benjamin originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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written by j4352 \\ tags: dlna, entry, iphoneapps, iphoneremote, iphoneremoteapp, mediastreamers, networking, pandora, pretty-enticing, price, streaming, wireless, wirelessaudio

I have a dream. A dream that I could edit my iOS podcast on an iOS device. After all, there’s something silly about using a laptop to edit a podcast that often talks about the iOS devices, isn’t there? Monle came highly recommended by a friend for audio editing on iOS, so I decided to put it through the ringer to see if it could handle the rigors of a serious podcast editor like myself.

Monle easily lets you import your own sound files, either from a browser-based wifi server, or even via FTP, so you could theoretically have your entire sound file go through editing and processing and have it uploaded to wherever you’re hosting all through Monle. And Monle also lets you record your own voice in the app, with the ability to record while playing through tracks in your editor, if you wanted to record singing over music, for example, or if you want to record while hearing the background music you intend to use. Monle also features support for external microphones, including ones that plug into the dock connector – if you have an iPad Camera Connection Kit, some USB microphones will also work, so you could use this as a high-quality audio recorder on the go.

Then, once you have the sounds you want to put in your work all imported into Monle, you can easily fade audio in and out, split files into different sections for editing only certain parts of the file, and being able to mix down all the files into one WAV file once it’s all over. My suggestion to figure all of this out is to watch the tutorial videos – combined, they’re about 25 minutes in length, but they explain how Monle works in its entirety, and will keep you from fumbling around with the app.

If you often need to work with large imported sound files, know that Monle is very anarchist in its handling of large sound files – there’s no restriction imposed by the app on the file size, just the amount of RAM that your device has, as Monle loads the entire file into memory. This means that while a device like the iPhone 4 that has 512 MB of RAM might be able to handle large WAV files, even 256 MB devices like the iPad, iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 4G will crash without warning upon loading of large files. This means that if you’re someone who wants to use Monle to edit long-form podcasts, Monle is not the app for you. My hope was to edit an episode of The Portable Podcast entirely in Monle to put it through the ringers, but considering that it crashed every time I tried to open up a 100 MB+ WAV interview, this idea fell through.

What Monle would be great for is creating and editing short-form podcasts and audio recordings. For example, an episode of The Portable Gamer’s iCasual podcast would be easy to make with this – you can easily import the bumpers and background music into the recording, record what you have to say, mix it all down, and upload it to FTP all without leaving the app. Unfortunately, this is a pretty narrow degree of usage – and not all of us have need for an audio editor that can only be used for mixing together songs or short-form podcasts on the go. Monle needs to either have better support for large imported sound files, or some form of compressed audio support. While a format like mp3 would be costly to implement (according to the developer, the license for each copy of Monle would be more than the $9.99 asking price), even a relatively obscure free format like OGG would be better than having no compressed audio to work with at all. Only having WAV files and limited file space to work with makes this difficult to recommend for someone like me who would like having the ability to edit without having something like my netbook around.

So the best way to describe Monle is that it’s a great app…as long as you don’t overstep the bounds of what it’s supposed to do. With some form of compressed audio support or better handling of large files, Monle could become far more useful. My dream of editing podcasts entirely on my iPhone or my iPad continues to go unfulfilled.

[ Monle Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by spokoloko \\ tags: device-reviewed, entire, file, ipad, Iphone, iphone apps and games, means, monle, ochen k., portable-gamer, price, rating, review, work

Ok, I just want to get something out of the way real quick. I didn’t run 7.13 miles in 13.33 as the screenshot would suggest. That’s impossible. It was 110 in Phoenix (the hottest Sep. 20 in history!) the day I tested the app, so I sat in my car and drove to the closest drive-thru coffee shop. Yeah, it was cheating, but I got the same results out of the app that I would otherwise, I just didn’t have to bake my skin in the process.

As you’d expect, Nike+GPS is a GPS based running app (powered by MotionX GPS) that brings Nike+ to those who don’t choose to have Nike+ shoes with the $20 sensors. There really isn’t a whole lot that sets Nike+GPS apart from the competition other than the fact that it has an established, thriving community to motivate you to train. While other apps give you goals for the day, or claim to have the magic formula to train you for a marathon, the Nike+ community lets you set goals and challenges with your friends, who are indeed your best source of motivation.

The app itself is fairly utilitarian, ditching most of the bells and whistles that other apps have and instead strives for simplicity. When you start a run, you just set up what music you want to listen to, as well as your powersong (when times get tough), and then whether you are running indoors or outdoors, and then go. As you complete more and more races, you can check out your history screen so you can stack your current tun with your previous ones. Once you decide you want to run again, you can either start a normal run, or challenge yourself with a “Challenge Me” run. The “Challenge Me” runs let you choose to go further, longer, or faster than your previous run, or you can choose to take on your own personal best.

To me, the best thing about the app is that it does indeed track indoor runs. Running outdoors is great and all because you get to see your route mapped for you at the end (and you get some fresh/semi polluted air), but indoor running is almost a necessity in the Phoenix summer (which goes to Halloween). The indoor running workout requires you to have your iPhone on you because the app uses accelerometer movement, as well as your height, to calculate how far you’ve actually gone.

As far as running goes, an app will only motivate you so much. It takes a community to really get you going, and that’s where the Nike+GPS app thrives. The Nike+ community is far and away the most widely used digital running community out there.

[ Nike+GPS Review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by janyton \\ tags: because-the-app, competition, friends, history, Iphone, iphone apps and games, nike, phoenix, price, rating, review, runinng, screenshot, skin

Foosball is a very competitive game. College students and bar dwellers over the years have placed countless bets on who is better at spinning those little figures stuck on long shafts of twirling action. Often times, the best games of foosball take place in the dark corners of smoke filled bars. Foosball Hero is looking to capture the magic of this fun; minus all the bar brawling that comes with one too many pints of beer.

Foosball Hero is exactly the game players might be thinking of. Rows of shaft-mounted figures that move up and down in a box. The point is to kick a ball into the other player’s goal. This is essentially soccer, but with a cooler name and on a much smaller scale.

Read the entire review on The Portable Gamer.

[ iPad Review: Foosball Hero is a post from 148Apps ]

written by tanloc2t \\ tags: foosball hero, ipad, ipad apps and games, ipad games, little-figures, portable, price, read-the-entire, review

The clue is in the name when it comes to RingToneMaker Pro, it’s an app that creates ringtones for your iPhone. Load the app, choose a song and a 10-30 second segment of it, then at the touch of one button, it’s created. Then it’s a simple matter of connecting your iPhone to iTunes and a couple of clicks of cut and paste. Voila, one new ringtone. No more suffering that damn Marimba or Piano tune.

As you can see from the screenshots, there really isn’t much to look at with RingToneMaker Pro, it’s all very functional. Its unique selling point is in its ability to adjust the pitch and playback speed. This can make for some entertaining ringtones. You can make any song you like sound like Barry White is singing it, or you can make it sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks’ are strutting their stuff. Admittedly after fiddling around with the settings, I still ended up sticking with the original version of the song. But it’s nice to have the option and I’m sure others would be keen to have a silly sounding ringtone.

It’s all quite simple but works for the most part. There’s even a link to a handy video tutorial so that it’s obvious what you need to do via iTunes. The only real irritant is that you can’t easily preview the song. You can once it’s completed and saved of course but there’s no way of doing it on the fly. It would have been very useful if you could tell where you were in the song rather than simply having to guess the correct timings.

Other than that, RingToneMaker Pro does exactly what the name suggests. Sure you could do it yourself for free via the PC/Mac but using this method is much quicker and simpler. If you’re someone who likes switching ringtones regularly and fancy hearing your songs in an entirely different light then this is well worth a look.

[ RingToneMaker Pro review is a post from 148Apps ]

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: chipmunks, Iphone, iphone apps and games, lifestyle, likes-switching, make-it-sound, price, rating, re-use-value, ringtone, ringtonemaker pro, screenshots, song, songs