We all know you shouldn’t ride a bike while wearing earbuds since they block out ambient noises and tend to make you oblivious to what’s going on around you. But thanks to a relatively cheap app you won’t have to go out and buy a special pair of headphones if you like listening to your music while riding, and also staying alive. Awareness! The Headphone App might have a clunky name, but it cleverly uses the microphone either on the iPhone or the iPod Touch (presumably via the mic-equipped earbuds) to let you hear what’s going on in addition to your music.
I particularly like that it doesn’t just create a mix of surrounding noises and your music all the time, but actively listens for any sounds that exceed the level of regular background noise, tuning them in as necessary. So you might not hear the dull roar of passing cars, but you’ll definitely hear an angry motorist honking. It does require you to occasionally calibrate what ‘regular background noise’ is, and you won’t be able to use a case that blocks the iPhone’s built-in mic, but for just $4.99 it’s a minimal compromise solution to make your ride a little safer.
Remember the Ohio Art Twirl-O-Paint toy from the 70′s and 80′s? Well this Rot.Sketch app for the iPhone, from developer Jean Helfenstein, pretty much does the same thing, minus the wet paint flung all over your parent’s dining room.
You start by drawing a random design on the screen by swiping with one finger to create a moving point, or with two fingers to create a moving line, and then you literally spin your iPhone or iPod Touch on a flat surface to create the psychedelic digital designs. I’ve included a video below which shows the process, though it’s pretty easy to understand even with a rudimentary grasp of centripetal forces. But because of the flat back design of the iPhone 4G, this could be one of the first apps to only be compatible with the 3G and 3GS because of their spin-friendly curved backs.
The app’s already been submitted to the iTunes App Store and is just awaiting approval, and I imagine it will set you back just a couple of bucks when it’s available.
I’m going to wager that a vast majority of the people reading this will never own a Rolls-Royce Ghost, whether it’s due to the price, practicality, or the fact that you’ve already spent your untold millions on a Veyron or similarly-priced supercar. But the handful of you that might be considering one will be able to confidently walk into a Rolls-Royce dealership knowing exactly what you want to order thanks to their official Ghost app available for the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad.
The app lets you configure a Ghost on the inside and out, including exterior color and wheel styles, interior colors and finishes like upholstery and wood veneers and other optional equipment like visible exhaust tips. You know, the kind of stuff you don’t want to have to stress over once you’re placing your order. Unfortunately while the app is free, meaning anyone can live out their Ghost fantasies, it’s over 40Mb in size thanks to included videos and other Rolls-Royce propaganda, which means you’ll have to connect to a Wi-fi network to download it.
Even though they’re oddly available from a company called Jailbreak Toys, these app icon fridge magnets don’t require you to mess with your fridge in any way. They come in a set of 18 different magnets that each measure 7/8″ square, and pretty much appear to be an exact copy of the iPhone’s default application icons. The cardboard packaging even looks like an iPhone, though the set costs just $12.99 without a 2 year contract.
On Friday we brought you the i-tab which was a 5-inch touchscreen device I described as a “sort of musical teleprompter for guitar players.” It came complete with an online store allowing users to download new tabs, but with a price tag of $199 I wondered if the same thing couldn’t have been done on the iPhone or iPod Touch with a simple app, and a more reasonable price tag.
Well shortly after writing that post the good people at Agile Partners dropped us a line to let us know that the same thing does exist for the iPhone and iPod Touch, with their TabToolkit app. And the fact that it’s written by the same people behind the excellent and highly recommended GuitarToolkit doesn’t hurt either. With a price tag of just $9.99 available on the iTunes App Store right now, TabToolkit is useful for musicians learning songs on a wide variety of instruments, and includes other features like an audio synthesis engine for recreating the sounds of other instruments playing along, and the ability to upload your own tabs to the app, or download them from websites through its built-in web browser.
Of course it doesn’t come with a handy accessory for clipping your iPhone or iPod Touch to your guitar’s headstock like the i-tab, but that seems like a minor trade-off given the considerable difference in price.
You can stop checking the iTunes App Store for new and interesting applications every day because the last program you’ll ever need for your iPhone or iPod Touch has been released. iSamJackson includes over 150 original and authentic quotes recorded by the man himself. Now yes, it is really nothing more than a Sam Jackson sound board, but these clips aren’t crappy captures taken from his films, but original studio material created just for this app. And you can even customize the sound board so your favorite quotes are all organized onto one page for easy access. $2.99 available from the iTunes App Store in a Clean and +17 Explicit version.
A few months ago we brought you the Notepod which was a clever mashup between the iPhone and a traditional notepad. It also seemed like a handy tool for brainstorming or sketching iPhone app ideas, but this App Sketchbook looks even better. While it’s not as compact as the Notepod, each page in the coiled book has 3 “real-size” iPhone templates with 20px high ruler lines, title bar markings for proper planning and a ruled section under the templates for jotting development notes. And it’s just $12.95 for a 50 page double-sided book.
Lately Verizon has gotten pretty bold with their ads, specifically targeting AT&T’s poor coverage. Of course AT&T didn’t take to kindly to their name being tarnished, and threw quite the fit over it. Now that a little time has passed, they’ve composed themselves and decided to take a new course of action. Rather than complain about Verizon picking on them, they’re trying to actually fix the core issue.
iPhone users can now download the free ‘AT&T Mark the Spot’ app, which will let you report to the phone giant whenever you have connection issues. AT&T will then take the information and use it to determine what parts of their network are in need of an upgrade.
Finally, after three different software versions, the iPhone has push notifications. Sure, it got plenty of other cool additions, but being as connected to the world as I always seem to be, this is one of my favorites. One of the first apps to roll off the line with push support is AIM.
I barely used the previous versions of the AIM app, since you had to keep it open in order to continue a conversation with someone. That’s not convenient in the least. However, if you download the latest version, you’ll be able to set the app to keep you logged in for up to 24 hours after you exit. During this time you appear online to your buddies and any messages will pop up on your phone. It’s definitely worth updating, even if you just go with the ad-supported free version.
Related Tags: iPhone, iTunes App Store
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