App Review: FluxTunes by Quokka Studios Pty Ltd

As cell phone and iPod use in the car becomes more and more prevalent, there is heightened concern over distracted drivers causing accidents.  What can you do, though?  I want to listen to your iPod, but you don’t want to divide your attention between the road and the screen on your iPod.  Quokka Studios has come out with an app called FluxTunes to help with this very problem.  Before I tell you about this app, I must urge you to read the Safety tab in the app.  It serves as a great reminder that safety and paying attention to the road are first and foremost, and that the laws of the road should always be observed.

FluxTunes allows you to quickly and easily control the music on your iPod or iPhone without having to look at the screen or search for buttons.  There are a few simple finger strokes that can be used to control the music.  There following commands are just examples of what you can do.

• A single tap on the screen will pause or play the music
• A swipe of a single finger right or left moves you to the next or previous track.
• Moving one finger up or down on the screen adjusts the volume.

The settings for the app can be adjusted in the Settings App on your device.  It allows you to change things like the time that the app waits before dimming the screen, whether or not to include podcasts in your playlists, or how you would like the music shuffled.

The only problem that I encountered with the app is that the app was not a responsive as I would have liked.  It didn’t always respond to the motion of my finger on the screen.  Overall, FluxTunes is a great idea and can fill a need for iPod and iPhone users.  Whether you are out jogging or driving a car, it is often hard or even dangerous to try to look at your iPod to adjust the music.

Developer’s Website: http://www.quokkastudios.com/

App Review: Lyrics+ by ShroederDev

Update: This app appears to have been removed from the app store since our review was written. The following statement was taken from the developers website:

Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that the LyricWiki API has been shutdown by the record companies. We are currently working diligently to secure a new licensing agreement and rebuild the app. We strongly urge all of our customers to keep the app as the release of an update is quite probable. However, if a refund must be obtained, please contact Apple directly as we have no means of delivering refunds to our customers.

Have you ever wondered about the lyrics to a song?  You like the beat, but what are they saying?  Now there is an app that can give you the lyrics quickly and easily while you are listening to the song.  Lyrics+ by ShroederDev gives you access to the lyrics to countless songs.  The app offers a few different methods for finding the lyrics.  The easiest way is probably to launch the Lyrics+ app while a song is playing on your iPod or iPhone.  When the app comes up, tap on “now playing song…”  The app will pull up the artist, title, and words to the song.

Finding the lyrics in either of the two other ways requires launching the app first.  Once in the app you can “pick from library…” or “search by artist, song…”  Pick from library brings up the typical music menu on your device and you can choose a song from your music library.  Searching is the only method by which you can get lyrics for songs that you don’t have on your iPhone or iPod.  The search parameters require, however, that you know the artist, which is a slight drawback.  Sometimes I know the title or can guess pretty close, but have no idea who the song is by.  The song title field is optional.  I did appreciate that once you searched by artist and received the search results, you could then search those results again by title.  So, if you know exactly what you are looking for, it is easy to find.

In trying out the app, I ran into a few minor problems.  First, I tried pulling up the lyrics to the recent Daughtry album.  I got the lyrics quickly, but there were slight typographical errors in the text.  Not a huge deal, though.  Second, there were several songs that I could not get the lyrics for by simply using the “now playing song…” function.  However, when I searched for the song using the search function, I found them quickly and easily.  I think this problem may be a function of how some of the music got onto my iPod.  Yes, I do own all the music, but some of the songs were put on from MP3’s from old CD’s of mine and may not have all the information needed to pull up the lyrics using this app.  Again, a minor drawback.  Third, in some of the searches that I performed, the song I wanted was in the search results, but the lyrics were missing.  In these cases, the app will ask if you want to search for the lyrics using Safari.

I did like that when you pull up the lyrics for a song that is playing, the app also provides you with controls for the songs playback.  You can pause it, change the volume, or skip around in the song using the bar at the top.  It was helpful not to have to exit the app and come back to it every time I wanted to pause the song or turn up the volume.  Overall, Lyrics+ is a fun app to have.  Now I can finally figure out what all my favorite songs are about.  Definitely worth $0.99.

Developer’s Website: http://www.schroederdev.com/

App Review: Music iQ by Phase2 Media

Music iQ by Phase2 Media offers an entertaining take on “Name That Tune.”  The app plays you clips of songs and gives you 5 choices for the title of the song.  As the seconds tick away, your choices start disappearing.  When time runs out, you are only left with the one correct answer.  Guess wrong, and the correct choice will be identified and the round over.  You don’t get a second chance to get it right.  The faster you identify the songs, the better your score will be.  The best part of this app, though, is that it pulls the songs directly from the music library on your iPhone or iPod Touch.  They are all songs that you supposedly already know.

If you are like me, though, you have some albums and music tracks that don’t work so well for this game.  When these songs or albums come up in the game, you can simply tap the “X” in the bottom right hand corner.  This button will pop up a menu.  You can choose to ban music by track, artist, album, or genre.  Once you ban music, the app will not play it again unless you choose to remove it from your list of banned music.  This can be done easily from the main menu.

There are two play modes in Music iQ; Classic and Quickplay.  Quickplay is a short game consisting of a limited number of songs.  At the end of the game, your stats are displayed on the screen.  In Classic mode, you can play indefinitely. Your score is kept at the top of the screen.  You can see how many songs you have gotten right out of the total number played, as well as the time it has taken you to identify them.  You can play over and over and try to beat your best times and improve your accuracy.  Change the game up by simply changing out the music in your music library.  Music iQ is a great game for everyone.

Music IQ is $0.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Developer’s Website: http://www.phase2games.com/

App Review: Leaf Trombone: World Stage by Smule

Leaf Trombone by Smule is an app that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into an instrument that you can take with you wherever you go. To play your trombone, you just touch the the square on your leaf trombone and drag it up or down to the desired note. You can also just touch the spot where you want the square to move to. If you touch near the top, the note will be higher and if you touch the bottom the note will be lower. There are two buttons on the side; a plus sign and a minus sign. These change the octave you are playing in up or down to give you a wider range on your instrument.

Playing with the instrument in free play mode this way is fun, but you can also use the app to learn to play songs with a little help.  First, enter the play a song mode and choose your song. Here you can listen in to the song to make sure it is the one you want.  Then, add the song to your favorites.  When you go to play the song, the app will give you little leaf guidelines.  The leaf guidelines are leaves that enter the screen subtly from the left side to let you know which notes are coming next. While you are playing in free play or play a song modes, a circular wheel spins and gives the beat for you to play along to.

Once you feel your skills with your trombone are worthy of recognition, you can record your playing and have it performed on the world stage. Three judges will listen to your performance, and at the end of it they will give you a number rating and pointers to help you improve. If you wish to perform on the world stage, you must have at least 2 leaf tokens. To earn leaf tokens, you need to judge other peoples performances on the world stage. All you do is listen to their song, give smiley face reactions, and give them a final ranking. There are prizes awarded for playing on the world stage 25 times, as well as for judging on the stage 100 times.  If you don’t have courage to perform either of tasks, you can simply observe other people and judges at work.

As you become a better performer and judge, you may even show up in the online rankings. This is a great instrument that is very easy to use. Leaf Trombone is definitely a well-executed app that is perfect for any person with or without musical talent.  One of the best dollars I have ever spent in the App Store.

Leaf Trombone: World Stage is $0.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Developer Website: www.smule.com

App Review: Tempo is a Musician’s Best Friend

Metronomes are expensive to buy and then you have to carry it around with you to orchestra rehearsals, quartet practices, and lessons.  Tempo by Frozen Ape allows you to use your iPhone, which you are probably carrying everywhere anyway, as a metronome.  The only questions are, does it have all the functions you need and how well does it work?

After downloading this app and playing with it for a few minutes, I am convinced that it is a great tool for anyone involved with music.  The user interface is simple and easy to use, which is a must.  The home screen has all of the basic metronome functions.  You can easily choose the tempo by using the up and down arrows.  You can also tap along with music to find the tempo that is being used.  The longer you tap, the more accurate the tempo becomes.  You can do this with the metronome sounds and lights on or off and it will adjust to your tapping.  To help you keep tempo and perform more accurately, you can also add a meter and a beat to the metronomes tapping.  There are 6 of the most common meters displayed, but if you tap and hold one of the six, it opens another menu where you can select from even more meters.   The meter that you choose determines the number and arrangement of the lights across the top of the screen.  There is one light for each beat in the meter.  You can further subdivide the beat by tapping one of the beat buttons.  The lights will flash on the beats, but the metronome will tick on each of the subdivisions thereof (ie. eighth notes, triplets, etc.).  You can also change the beat emphasis by selecting or deselecting the lights at the top of the screen.  The metronome defaults to accenting the downbeat of each measure.  However, you can turn that one off by tapping the first light and turn others on by tapping them.  These functions alone make for a useful metronome.

If you tap on the “i” in the corner of the screen, you open up even more possibilities.  You can turn on or off the full screen flash on the down beat.  You can also choose between two play modes.  The first, Solo, will allow the metronome to keep playing even when the screen is locked.  The second, Overlay, allows you to play the metronome over music that is on your iPhone/iPod.  However in this mode, the metronome will stop when your screen is locked.  There are 3 choices of sounds for the metronome to make.  Digital sounds like a digital metronome.  Analog sounds like a mechanical metronome.  Drum Kit makes it sound like you are playing along with a drum set.

The last function is the tuning function.  If you don’t have a piano around to tune your instrument to, this function can be extremely helpful.  You can choose any note in the diatonic scale to tune to.  Unfortunately, you cannot fine tune your selection and tune to an A444 instead of A440, but for most people that is not necessary.

Overall, Tempo is a great metronome app that eliminates the cost of buying a more expensive device and lugging it around.  It performs many functions that are often seen only in more expensive metronomes like Dr. Beat.

Tempo is $0.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Developer’s Website: www.frozenape.com

App Review: Silly Songz Brings Laughs

Silly Songz is a great way to send a message to someone on any occasion. Silly Songz allows you to pick a tune and place a recording at the end of it. There are many different tunes such as Answer Your Phone, You Are Dumped, Sorry For What I Said, and many more. After you select the tune you want, you can record a 15 second message to put at the end of it.  When you are finished adding the recording, the app then puts the recording and the tune together and makes it so that you can email it to a friend or relative.

The recordings work great. When the recipient clicks on the picture in the email, it will bring up a window in the browser that will play the recording you have been sent using Quicktime.

The only complaint that I have for this app is that it is not fully compatible with the iPod Touch. Even if you have the Apple headphones with sound intake, it will not allow you to do a recording. The rest of the app still works fine with the iPod Touch and you can email people just the tunes with no recordings.

This app is loads of fun. It is especially fun to send these and then watch people’s facial expressions as they listen to them.

Silly Songz is available in the iTunes App Store for $3.99.

App Review: American Idol Season 8 Exclusive Videos

Since its beginning 8 years ago, American Idol has been an amazing success with viewing and voting numbers increasing every season.  The American Idol craze has spread from television to music, movies, and the internet.  Now, it is available on your iPhone or iPod Touch.  American Idol Season 8 Exclusive Videos is a new app by Zumobi Inc. that brings all of your favorite season 8 contestants right to you.  The app includes bios and pictures of all your season 8 favorites, as well as a new video released every week exclusively to this app from each remaining contestant.  It also links you to news stories about your favorite idols past and present and music clips from your favorites in iTunes.  You can even create your own ranking of the contestants and keep track of how they do.  There is actually quite a bit packed into this little app.

Now, having said all that, do we really need more American Idol?  I am sure there are some who would answer with a resounding “Yes,” and others would answer just as strongly “No.”  For me personally, I think that perhaps this app is another attempt to make money off the American Idol hype.  By creating this app and giving you exclusive content that you cannot get any other way, they get you to buy it and then link you up to the iTunes store so that you can buy and download more stuff even when you don’t have access to your computer.  The app is well designed and provides what it promises very well.  I believe it will be very successful.  If you make an app to get people to spend more money in your store, shouldn’t it be free?

American Idol Season 8 Exclusive is $1.99 in the iTunes App Store.

App Review: Melody Match by GameVision Mobile

The game of Memory has been around for years and there is no shortage of memory match games for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Melody Match is a matching game that sets itself apart from the others.  The biggest difference between Melody Match and every  other matching game I have ever played is that Melody Match takes a visual game and makes it both visual and auditory.  Instead of remembering where you saw a picture, you must remember where you heard a certain melody or sound.  It challenges your brain in a whole new way.

The game play is just what we are all used to with matching games.  You tap on a card to find out what is behind that card.  Instead of the card flipping over to reveal a picture, though, it plays a sound clip.  Your job is to find the other card that plays the same sound clip.  The first few levels are not too difficult, but the levels do get harder.  Future levels have more cards and the sound clips are more similar.  You must make sure to listen carefully to the clips because for each level you have a limited number of guesses to find all of the matches.  This limit makes the game all the more challenging.  Given an unlimited number of guesses it would be easy to match them all eventually.

There are several different categories of sound clips.  At the beginning of each level, the category is displayed, giving you an idea of what to expect.  I found that matching the sound clips was easiest when I was already familiar with the sound whether it be the sound of an animal I was familiar with (a dog bark) or a piece of classical music that I could name (Ode to Joy).

As you complete levels, you unlock those levels for future play, as well as unlocking other modes of play in the game.  You can unlock Freeplay Mode, Record Mode, Speak Out Mode, Options, Rank, and Friends.  Freeplay Mode allows you to go back and play levels that you have previously passed.  You don’t choose a particular level by number, but rather choose the size of the board and the category of sounds.  Record Mode allows you to record your own series of sound clips for a matching game.  If you are playing on an iPod Touch, you will need to use an external microphone to record your sounds.  The recording process is easy and straight-forward.  Speak Out Mode allows you to create a matching game for a friend with a secret message.  You record your message and the app breaks up the message into short sound fragments that are spread out among the cards.  Your friend must match the small sound clips and then the full message is played back.  Options lets you choose some different options for Freeplay Mode.  Rank keeps track of the high scores, and Friends allows you to email a friend about the app.

The only complaint I would voice about the game is that there is not currently a way to start your game at one of the higher levels that you have reached in the past.  Each game that you play starts with level one.  My understanding, though, is that this functionality should be coming in future updates to this app.

Melody Match is a well written game with great graphics.  It challenges and stretches your brain in a whole new way.

Melody Match is on sale for $1.99 in the iTunes App Store.  There is also a free version.

App Review: Bebot - Robot Synth by Normalware

Bebot is an ingenious music app.  It basically turns your iPhone/iPod Touch into a synthesizer.  You touch the screen to play notes (up to four at a time). The notes are arranged on the screen from left to right.  At first glance, it may be difficult to tell where you need to touch for each note of the diatonic scale.  However, there is a way to turn on a grid to mark the notes for you, making notes much easier to find.  When you slide your finger horizontally on the screen, the pitch goes up and down.  When you slide your fingers up or down on a given note, it changes the timbre (or roundness) of the pitch. To add to the audio effects, Bebot the robot reacts to the notes you play.  He leans forward or backward depending on the pitch being played.  He also opens and closes his mouth as if he were singing what you are playing.

By double tapping the arrow icon in bottom right hand corner of the screen, you can bring out the options bar, which presents you with a plethora of ways to change the sound the program produces.  There are four wave modes to choose from: Bebot, Pulse, Theremin, and PWM (pulse with modulation). Each of these modes changes the basic sound of the notes. Once you have chosen which mode you would like, you can play around with the other effects.

In the effects category, there are four options you can change: echo volume, echo time, echo repeat, and overdrive. The echo volume determines how loud the echo of what you just previously played, plays back. The echo time is how long it will be before you hear the echo of what you just played. The echo repeat affects how many times the echo repeats itself. One of my favorite features on this app is the overdrive. The overdrive gives you the option to give your sounds a more rugged effect, just as you would turn up the overdrive on a guitar.

The next section in the options menu is the scales category. In the scales category you can change the pitch of the notes and zoom of the screen, as well as opt to show the notes grid mentioned earlier.  You can also change the tuning effects and the scale being used.  The pitch changes how high or low the pitch range of the notes on the screen will be. The zoom allows you to have more or less pitches on the screen at any given time.  To get a larger range of pitches, make sure the zoom is low. The more you are zoomed in, the easier it is to accurately hit the notes you are going for, but there is less you can do because of limited pitches. The Note Grid is the option to show the lines where each note is located. There are three colors of lines: Yellow, Black, and White. These colors denote specific notes (C, D, E, etc.) in the diatonic scale.  AutoTune is the feature that lets you decide how the synthesizer moves from one note to another when you drag your finger horizontally over the pitches.  There are four options, the first of which is no auto tuning or “off.”  Snap tuning makes the synthesizer jump from one pitch to the next.  When fast tuning is selected, the synthesizer will slide from one note to the next quickly.  Slow tuning is very similar to the fast tuning in that it still slides from one pitch to the next, but will arrive at the next pitch more slowly.  Once you have arrived at the desired pitch, you can even add vibrato by wiggling your finger ever so slightly.  At the bottom of the scales section there are 12 squares that represent all 12 notes within a one octave range in the same arrangement you are used to seeing on a piano. By tapping on the squares, you can turn off some notes and leave others on. This is great when there are notes that you know you will not be using (ie. using a pentatonic scale).

One great feature of this app is the ability to play along with a song of your choice from the collection on your iPhone/iPod. Just double tap the start-up button and press play. See if you can play along with the song accurately, harmonize, or just add a little Bebot.

A quick word of advice:  When you first launch the app, Bebot may be little confusing.  At least for me it was.  After a quick visit to Normalware’s website (www.normalware.com), though, all was quickly explained in the videos they have posted there.   (If you are having trouble figuring it out, I highly recommend giving their site a visit.) You can also see the octave feature, which should be coming out soon.

Bebot is a great app whether you just want to watch a robot make funny noises or you are a real musician and you want to jam on a synthesizer.

Bebot is available in the iTunes App Store for $1.99

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