iOS 4
Latest
Daily iPad App: News360 2.0
I liked News360 when a reviewed it last April. It uses several sources for stories, and it was interesting to see the different takes on any single event. Of course News360 was also an excellent news discovery tool, scanning thousands of news sources to keep me up to date. One of the issues with News360 is you had no control over the sources. The app was basically static, and you got what you got. That's all changed in version 2 of this free app, released today. In a move toward personalization, News360 lets you input your Facebook, Twitter, Evernote and Google Reader accounts to seed the app with what news you are following and generate a unique mix of news that fits your interest. It's a good idea, and seems to work well. The more information it has about your reading habits, the better the presentation will be. The downside of all this is that it requires you having these accounts. No Facebook or Twitter account, for example, no personalized news. I think it's a mistake to go that direction. Many people are getting tired of some social media, especially Facebook because of privacy issues. I would have much preferred a GUI that lets me enter my interests or keywords. Going even deeper, the app could monitor what stories I look at and learn a lot about what I like that way. That's what my favorite news discovery tool Zite does, and Pulse News and Flipboard allow you to link to social media like Facebook but don't require it. The developers say that in an upcoming version, the social media links will no longer be required, and that's a positive step. This new version sports another excellent feature. Users can sync with news360.com and get their custom news without needing your iPad. Nice for office workers or others who want the benefits of the app and don't have or don't always carry an iPad. The app has some nice customization features. You can look at what's called an interest graph and edit it, so if it is bringing in things you don't want, you can whisk them away with a few clicks. The app also automatically provides links for more information, and, with your permission, it can use your location to get local news. I do like News360. It offers some fresh ideas for news aggregation, and the personalization is most welcome. I just wish it wasn't forcing me to to be on Facebook or some other system to find out what news I like. You don't have to personalize the app, and if you don't this version will work just like the older version, without user control of what you see. News360 is also available on the iPhone, but that version won't get personalization until Fall. %Gallery-130368%
Get audio from iOS to your HiFi easily and cheaply
There are plenty of ways to get audio from your Mac to your HiFi. AirPlay works great, if you have an AirPlay friendly system or an Apple TV. If you want to do it on the cheap, check out WiFi2HiFi, which we've mentioned a couple times in the past. This US$3.99 app runs on your iPhone, and you also must download a free app for your Mac. For those readers who use Windows, there's also an app from that platform. Install the desktop app, then start the iOS app. The devices will pair over your WiFi network, and any audio coming from your Mac will get wirelessly routed to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. If your iOS is in a dock that connects to your music system you're in business. Your iPhone is acting as a lining device to all the audio on your Mac. Sure, there are other ways to do this, and if you have an iPhone, tying it up for this purpose might not be too great if you want to use your phone. On the other hand, it might be a good use for an older iPhone or iPod touch. There is about a 3 second delay in music, but buffering reduces any potential dropouts. The app has a visual indicator of the state of the buffered audio with colored lights. Support is good, with an extensive FAQ both on the developer website and the iOS app. In the course of my testing, as I was switching outputs around, I lost the stream but restarting the iOS app brought it back. Setup is easy, and if you want your music collection on your stereo system this is an inexpensive solution. The app runs on iOS 3.0 or greater, and supports the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. %Gallery-130052%
Syncomatic effortlessly gets your iPhone photos to your Mac
Syncomatic is a pretty cool solution for updating your iPhoto or Aperture library with the latest images and movies from your iPhone. The US$2.00 app is not the only app that syncs photos but it does do this in the background. To get things started, download a small companion app to your Mac. When launched, it puts an icon in your menubar. Click it to choose a destination for your photos (iPhoto, Aperture, or just a folder). Once that's done, each photo added to your iPhone's camera roll will be instantly recognized by the Mac app. You can see what is synced and what syncs are in progress. The sync works over Wi-Fi, not the 3G network. iOS5 will have something similar wireless photo sync via iCloud, and I really like the whole hands-off approach. Imagine returning from a vacation or a day out, and the app goes to work silently and without any intervention from you. One nit to pick. There isn't any documentation to speak of. When I ran the app on my Mac, I had no idea to look for the new menubar icon. An official FAQ is being done today, but it should have been there when the app was offered for sale. The menubar icon is easy to miss. I like Syncomatic. It does what it is designed to do, all without my even having to think about it. I've added it to my photo app folder, and expect to use it quite a bit. %Gallery-129984%
Time Inc. will put all 21 US publications on tablets by the end of this year
Time, Inc. has announced its intention to put all of its publications on tablets during 2011. Once complete, the digital catalog will include Time, of course, and other favorites like Sports Illustrated, Fortune and People -- all of which are already available in the App Store -- and newcomers like Real Simple and Entertainment Weekly. Maurice Edelson, EVP and a member of Time Inc.'s interim management committee, sees the explosion of tablet popularity as a opportunity for his company. "In the coming year, there will clearly be many more consumers using tablets, accelerating demand for content and driving advertiser interest. We are putting ourselves in a great position to take advantage of these opportunities." Print subscribers will have the option to add digital subscriptions at no cost. All the publications will be available on the iPad, Android tablets, and the HP Touchpad. A Time spokesperson told me that the company is following other publishers like Amazon and the Wall Street Journal and avoiding the high toll at the Apple app store. Other publishers like Hearst are selling magazines through the app store. Time says its digital magazines and related apps have been downloaded more than 11 million times.
Garmin reverses course and offers on-board maps for iPhone
I didn't like the first Garmin StreetPilot app for iOS because maps had to be downloaded on the fly. Not good if you are out of cellular range, and even worse if you you are downloading lots of maps on a metered data plan. Garmin has finally come around and is offering maps that are contained on your iPhone. There are two US versions, one with the 49 states (Alaska is excluded) and and some Caribbean islands for US $39.99 and a North America version for $49.99. There is also a UK and Ireland version for £44.99. Of course these new apps are a larger download. The US version is 1.37 GB while the original StreetPilot app weighed in at 10 MB. This latest version makes for a far more competitive offering on the iPhone. I'm hoping to get a copy for review. Last Week Garmin announced it had acquired Navigon and I'm hoping the two companies will provide even more innovative and aggressively priced solutions for iPhone owners.
Trover Mobile Discovery app re-launched today
Trover joins the ranks of free GPS-powered apps for the iPhone that can guide you intelligently to places of interest near you or while traveling the world. It has some interesting twists that make it unique, giving it kind of a feel of Instagram meets Yelp. Trover had a limited release that required a Facebook login, but an update allows you to sign up using email or Twitter. Developer Rich Barton told me the app tries to simulate the experience of walking around a neighborhood looking for food, or retail stores, or even a park as you discover things you might not otherwise notice. When you open the app you'll see thumbnails of pictures listed in order of distance to you. You can also take a picture yourself, add a description and comments, and it will be uploaded for the world to see. If you find friends or users who have similar interests, you can choose to share in their discoveries. I was surprised to find quite a few entries in my little corner of southern Arizona, and as more people sign up there will be more usable content. If you read about a location, you will see it on a map and your own location so you can navigate to it. If you tap on the map you'll get directions from Google Maps. There are some potential security issues with the app. If you take pictures around your home, or your backyard, your location is exposed to people looking at your messages. Your email remains private, but people can comment on your uploads. There's nothing to prevent the upload of offensive pictures, but the developers say any upload can be flagged by users, and if it is inappropriate it will be removed. Trover is iPhone only, but an iPad version should appear early next year. I liked using the app, because it gives an extra dimension to search beyond what apps like FourSquare, Instagram and Yelp can provide. If you're interested in socially based discovery apps, Trover is free and worth a look. %Gallery-129414%
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: The King of Fighters-i 002
SNK's famous King of Fighters series has finally come to iOS with this new app for the iPhone, allowing you to play with 13 different fighters across four singleplayer modes and Bluetooth multiplayer. The setup is very similar to Capcom's Street Fighter, with virtual buttons on the touchscreen, but of course this game has all different fighters to play with, and lots of extras to unlock, from trading cards of the fighters themselves to concept art and even movies from the main console game. The King of Fighters-i 002 is pricey at US$7.99, but all indications are that this is a nice premium game, especially if you're a fan of the KoF series. Plus, while there are only 13 characters right now, more will be available to download for free, which should bring the total to 20 different characters by October, according to SNK. If you're already sold, go grab the game, and even if not, look for this one on sale in the future.
Kobo, Wall Street Journal, Amazon to stop directly selling through iOS devices
Apple is clearly enforcing its stated rules about not selling content through iOS devices unless Apple gets a cut in revenue. The latest companies to comply are e-book sellers Amazon and Kobo, and newspaper publisher The Wall Street Journal. The Journal is reporting this morning that it will remove all purchasing options, which have included links to the WSJ website in its iPad app. "We remain concerned that Apple's own subscription [rules] would create a poor experience for our readers, who would not be able to directly manage their WSJ account or to easily access our content across multiple platforms," a Journal spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, a Kobo spokesman says it has updated its app so no books can be purchased from it, and customers will have to use the Safari browser to go to the Kobo store. Amazon has also caved. In a an update released today to the Kindle apps for iPad and iPhone, Amazon has removed the Kindle Store button from the app. Apple had set a June 30 deadline for companies to comply with app store rules. How do you feel about this latest chapter in this saga? Is Apple being greedy, or do content vendors owe Apple a toll for the privilege of selling in the app store?
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Quest Runner
Quest Runner is a hack-and-slash RPG, though it's probably unlike almost any you've seen before. Rather than exploring an isometric world like many games of this type, Quest Runner is more cartoony and fun. The quests themselves are pretty simple, but the RPG premise is what really makes the game, as you navigate your character around and progress your abilities, weapons and armor up the chain. There's definitely a sense of humor in the characters and dialogue, and as you can see from the screenshot above, there's a certain amount of whimsy in the game's look and feel. There is quite a bit of complexity as you level up (you can even equip pets and you have to feed them to keep them around), and despite the game's look, it can get hard at times. Other than some weird movement controls, however, it never really gets frustrating -- it's all about just playing for fun and hacking your way through quest after quest. Game Center's included for achievements, and the game is out as a universal version (quite honestly, it looks a little better on the iPad, though it's still playable on the iPhone) for US $1.99. There are a few in-game purchases for convenience, but none of them are really needed -- there's plenty of game to play through here already for the price. One note: the game might be a little slow on older iPhone models, though a recent patch has supposedly fixed a lot of issues up. Other than that, enjoy -- Quest Runner is a fun hack-and-slash dash through a well-designed world.
Sonos adds new hardware and lowers the entry cost to whole house music
The very popular Sonos whole house music system has announced a new wireless music player and lowered the price on its Zone Bridge device making the cost of getting into the Mac compatible system significantly cheaper. Sonos is now offering the Play: 3, a US $299.00 compact stereo speaker system small enough for a kitchen counter-top or a nightstand. The Play: 3 consists of 3 integrated speakers and 3 digital amplifiers. An interesting feature of the speaker is what Sonos calls 'smart directional design', which means the equalization of the speaker changes depending on whether the unit is horizontal or vertical. Although the speaker is stereo, the unit is not very wide, and a second Play: 3 can be added to the system to provide a wide stereo pair. If you are just starting with a Sonos music system, you will need what Sonos calls a Zone Bridge. The Zone Bridge has been cut 50% in price to $50.00. It plugs into your router, and connects to your iTunes library, and gives you access to more than 100,000 internet radio stations and music services like Pandora, Rhapsody, SiriusXM and Spotify. Some music services require a subscription. You can add more speakers to create a multi-room system, and Sonos offers other players that can be connected to existing audio setups. Once the system is up and running, everything can be controlled from a free iOS app for your iPad, iPod touch or iPhone. You can also control the system with a free OS X app. An existing wireless network is required. I think the only thing missing from the Sonos product mix is a battery powered wireless speaker for use outside or anywhere in the house where AC is not available. Sonos is not the only way to get a whole house music system up and running, but it is one of the easiest to deploy and expand. The Play: 3 goes on sale today, and I'll be testing one soon to hear the quality of the sound. Important note to current Sonos users: The Sonos software does not work with your iTunes library if it is on your Mac. A fix is on the way, but it is surprising that Sonos was not ready for this update. Music streaming services work just fine, but not your local iTunes music share.
FX Photo Studio for iPhone adds masking and other goodies
I continue to be amazed at the functionality that photo apps are adding to the iPhone. FX Photo Studio for US$0.99 on sale is a case in point. The app already had barrels of photo effects, almost 200, but now it has added masking to the feature set. It's an easy way to highlight parts of a picture, and then apply an effect to only those areas. It's easier to understand if you see a demo, so try this video to get the idea. This latest version of FX Photo Studio has added new effects, performance improvements, and additional editing tools for gamma, saturation and hue. Images can be imported from Facebook, and images can now be shared via Instagram, Twitter, Facebook Flickr, Tumblr or email. Like any tool, adding effects to photos can really be overdone, but FX Photo Studio can provide filters that run the gamut from subtle to outrageous. The app also provides cropping and printing if you are so equipped. I played with the masking feature and found it useful and powerful. In the gallery, you can see a landscape photo where I created a black and white background, but left Spider Rock in Canyon de Chelley in color. The masking process could be improved with the option of a smaller brush size. Although you can magnify the image for detailed work, the size chosen for the brush is just too large for some applications. The app doesn't have any detailed instructions. Some of the methods to invoke an operation, like masking, are not blatantly obvious. Alex Tsepko at developer MacPhun told me a Wiki should appear today with details on how things work. I'd like to see it built into the app. FX Photo Studio lets you add to the filters with in-app purchases of $0.99 per set, but the whole app is on sale for $0.99 (regular $1.99), so that makes the add-ons too pricey. I would rather see them included, even if the app goes up a buck or so. This enhanced version of FX Photo Studio for the iPhone is a significant update that in some ways leaps ahead of the Mac OS and iPad versions. I expect all the MacPhun family of apps will quickly gain feature parity. If I could only take one photo editing app into the field I'd likely choose FX Photo Studio, and urge iPhone photographers to take a look. It's a lot of power to carry around in a pocket. %Gallery-128674%
iUsers frees your iPad of monogamy, enables multiple user profiles
Share an iPad? A new tweak is on its way to that other app store that should make your life a little easier: user profiles for iOS. The mod, dubbed iUsers, adds a user login button to the iPad's lock screen. The tweak segregates application data and preferences between users, meaning that user A's Angry Birds score won't muddle and mix with User B's perfect three-star rating. App installations, music, and video content are currently shared between users, but the tweak's creators hope to remedy that in a future update. It's a jailbreak only mod, of course, but still a neat feature we'd love to see implemented in future versions of iOS. The iUsers tweak should be hitting Cydia soon, but folks who want an early peek can snag it now by following the instructions in the source link.
App for film buffs is a great idea with flawed execution
I am a pretty major film buff. I even wrote a book on a sixties movie producer. So I was pretty excited to hear of Spott, an app that uses augmented reality and your iPhone GPS to find the nearby locations where films and TV shows were shot. It's a great idea for an app. You can enter Al Pacino and see where his movies were filmed. You can also search by title. You can even get a map that will point you to locations anywhere in the world. Alas, the app is pretty thin in the data department. While there are lots of movies listed, there is an awful lot missing. Here in Southern Arizona, endless westerns were produced. Tombstone, Gunfight at the OK Corral, The Trial of Billy Jack, Easy Rider. The list goes on and on. What does Spott list for this area? Nothing. Nada. Utah is completely empty, and Utah has been the home of hundreds of films. As I said, this is a great idea for an app. The developers let you sign up and add data that is missing, and even submit photos of yourself at movie locations but frankly, it's not my job to do that. Even though movie locations are not the main purpose of the IMDB app, you can get that information from there, but it's not designed to let you search by location in the iOS versions. I would say Spott is a good start, but at US $2.99 I'd like a more complete database, and more images. Spott bills itself as the 'ultimate tool for film fans' but it still has a way to go to meet that description. I'm hoping the developers will step it up a bit and make Spott all that it could be. Spott runs as a universal app on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and requires iOS 3.1.3 or greater.
Crowdflow tracks 880 iPhones across Europe, wants to put you on the map
Do you have dreams of becoming a digital firefly, flitting back and forth across Europe? The folks at Crowdflow can help with that -- all you need to do is use your iPhone, and adopt a share-alike attitude. Using location data collected from 880 iPhones, the team has created a video showing iPhone movement through Europe for the month of April, 2011. This glowing digital ballet is just a start, however -- Crowdflow is asking iPhone users to extract and submit their own location logs to help build a visual map of how cellular networks are distributed throughout the world. If you're not afraid of lending your geodata to an open database, hit up the source link for your own chance to join in Crowdflow's eerie cellular glow.
Dragon Go! is a must-have voice search app for your iPhone
Like the proverbial genie in the bottle, you can ask a lot of Dragon Go! and have a pretty good chance of the app granting your wish. Dragon Go! is the latest free app from Nuance, creators of Dragon Dictate for the Mac and Dragon Dictation for iOS devices. In this latest app, Nuance has delivered what they consider the next generation of voice search, and after several days of testing I have no reason to doubt it. Here's the deal. Speak just about anything to Dragon Go! and it will try to parse your meaning and bring up the right set of tools to complete your search. Ask for news about Libya, or news about Libya from the New York Times and the app complies. Ask for reservations for 2 at a favorite restaurant and Open Table is queried. Directions from your current location to the nearest hospital will launch Google Maps with the route. Say a product name, like JBL speakers and an Amazon page comes up with the JBL speakers Amazon sells. It gets better. Ask it to play an artist on Pandora, and if you have the app installed it will launch and start playing the artist you asked for. Say "Play the Beatles" and if you have the Beatles on your device the music will play. You can also direct a query to a particular site. I tried "stories about Apple TV on TUAW" and it brought up a list from our website. Then a tough test. I asked to see pictures of obscure character actor Whit Bissell and the images popped up right on cue. Check our gallery. Holy Moly! No app is perfect, and every so often Dragon Go! botched a search, but most questions I asked delivered useful answers. It may seem like the app has a bit of overlap with Siri, which is also powered by Nuance Technology. There is some, but Dragon Go! reaches deeper and takes you to the appropriate place on the web, rather than try to contain the info within the app itself. The sources Dragon Go! is using are displayed at the top of the screen. You can change those sources manually if you want. The default search engine is Google, but Bing and Yahoo! are fine if you'd rather use them. I found Dragon Go! an extraordinarily useful app in day to day use. I can only scratch the surface of its capabilities in this review. You must try it for yourself. I was often wishing this kind of technology was built into my iPhone at the system level, and I'll bet Nuance wishes it were too. Of course with Apple buying Siri, we may see something similar. Dragon Go! is free, and iPhone-only at this point. According to Matt Revis, VP of Product Management at Nuance, the app is US English for now. It will come to Android sometime in the future, and also to the iPad. For all intents it replaces Dragon Search, which is not as full featured. The app will continue to function, but it won't be downloadable from the US app store. My guess is that most people will replace it with Dragon Go! anyway. I'd seriously recommend you download and give the app a test drive. It's a great iPhone demo, and I think it will work its way into your daily routine. Share your experiences with us, and tell us what you like and what you don't like. %Gallery-128357%
CoPilot Live Premium is a very competitive nav program at a low price
ALK Technologies today released a completely new iPhone Navigation app called CoPilot Live Premium. It's quite full-featured, yet for this week, the app is offered at the low price of US$9.99. Here's a rundown of features. The maps are self-contained, which I think is required for the most reliable performance. Maps can be displayed in either 2D or 3D. A text-to-speech function includes street names and a choice of voices. You can set speed limits to get warnings when you exceed posted limits, and lane indicators help you navigate complicated intersections. There are nice little touches too, like walking directions, a car finder to show you where you parked, and up to 3 alternate routes to choose from when choosing a destination. The CoPilot app offers add-ons, like Active traffic at $9.99 a year, and fuel price information at $4.99 a year. The traffic service seems a little pricey, since it costs the same as the whole app on sale, but it is in line with some of the competition. Navigon, for example, offers traffic for $19.99, but it is a lifetime subscription and much less costly in the long run. Using this heavily revised CoPilot app was a good experience. I found the GUI to be responsive, and the on screen GUI is much better looking that the old CoPilot app. Maps were detailed, the voices were clear, and there was a choice of voices. I preferred British English, which somehow made me feel a bit classier as I drove around my dusty neighborhoods in Southern Arizona. One thing I didn't like were the constant warnings when I clicked on some feature that was an in-app purchase I hadn't bought. I've written before that I am increasingly unhappy with apps that need a lot of extra purchases to make them fully functional. At the very least, I'd like to see companies offer a low bundle price if you add everything that is available. Comparing this app to my favorite Navigon app here's my verdict: The maps are much improved from the old CoPilot app, and the screen controls are more intuitive. I'd put it on a par with Navigon. Voice quality is about the same on both. Navigon USA offers Google search, while CoPilot offers Bing. Navigon feels a bit more polished, but, at least during the CoPilot sale, Navigon USA is $40.00 more expensive. CoPilot Live Premium will return to $24.99 when the sale ends in 7 days. That's still less costly than Navigon, but when you factor in a lifetime traffic subscription and the ability to add 3D terrain maps on Navigon, the comparisons get more complicated. Navigon also offers the Zagat guide as an in-app purchase for $7.99, and warnings for speed cameras at $4.99. There is a competitive product from TomTom at $49.99 as well, plus several others. Because CoPilot Live Premium is a new app from the ground up, there is no upgrade path or discount offered to owners of the older CoPilot products. CoPilot Live Premium doesn't replace the older products; instead, it stands alongside them, at least for now. ALK has come a long way with its GPS iPhone product line. If you jump at the sale price, it is a full-featured tool that will satisfy most of your navigation needs. Even at the full retail price, it is a completely competitive product. You can see some CoPilot screen shots in the gallery, and feel free to let us know your experiences and your thoughts on iPhone navigation apps in general. %Gallery-128151%
Software update: Zite adds new saving and sharing options
Zite is adding some desirable features to its free, personalized magazine app that should be delivered today. Here's what's new: A new feature called Read it Later. You can save material for offline reading, like on an airplane trip, or even on another device Articles can now be shared with your LinkedIn network, or content can be shared on LinkedIn groups Evernote support. Now you can add a web clip of any article from Zite to an Evernote archive I've been on Zite since I first reviewed it. It's an app I use several times a day, in fact. I'd still like more control of topics Zite gets, and the app really needs the ability to sort the list of topics the way I want them rather than alphabetically. The sharing changes do not require a full app update, but should be visible when you go to share content.
TUAW's Daily iPad app: NPR 2.0
NPR has rolled out a rather hefty update to its venerable and well-liked iPad app. As before, the app is kind of a digital magazine that mirrors the content mix on NPR, with world and U.S. news, the arts and music features. The iPad app is more fully featured than the NPR app for the iPhone, which contains mainly news. NPR does have a separate music app for the iPhone. You can listen to any NPR station live, and also access dozens of NPR programs like Car Talk, All Things Considered and Fresh Air on demand. Programs play in the background, so you can exit the app and use your iPad while still listening to the content of your choice. The app has an AirPlay icon, but it was dimmed. I'm not sure what is going on there. My other AirPlay-enabled apps worked fine, and I can find no settings on the NPR app that will turn the feature on. In terms of the user interface, I think the improvements are positive. Getting access to the hourly newscast is just one click away, and listening to local stations and NPR programs is just two clicks. The app can access your location, if you allow it, and display the closest NPR stations to where you are. The programming list has been cleaned up and programs can now be sorted by topic and title. The ability to make playlists has been retained. Audio playback now has a 30-second rewind feature, and NPR says the app is more stable. I didn't see any issues in about an hour of use. I've always liked the NPR app on both the iPhone and iPad. This update has cleaned up the user interface quite a bit, and added some new features that are worthwhile. Other than the malfunctioning AirPlay button, NPR for iPad is a good, free upgrade for news and arts junkies. %Gallery-127943%
Leaked iPad 2 jailbreak available now? (updated: better wait)
Can't say it happened at Mach 3, but the iPad 2 jailbreak that we saw teased back in mid-March seems to have made its way out into the wild at long last. According to the video hosted up just past the break, JailbreakMe 3.0 is now available with support for the iPad 2. It's bruited that the version making its way around now was leaked by a beta tester (read: it ain't the final build), and we're seeing mixed success / failure stories in the related YouTube comments. We'd encourage the daring to tap the links below in order to get started, and if you do, let us know how it all works out below. Per usual, you'd be doing yourself a solid by fully syncing and backing things up before diving off the deep end. Update: This is working only for iOS 4.3, so if you've updated, you're sadly out of luck. Update 2: We've received multiple reports that this particular jailbreak is available for iOS 4.3.0, only. It looks like users rocking 4.3.3 will just have to wait. Update 3: We've received notice that this version is actually a pre-release of the upcoming jailbreak that is not finished, not intended for public consumption, and apparently leaked by a beta tester. For this reason we're pulling the video embed because we wouldn't recommend using it -- especially given the final version is probably not far off. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Relaxation Portal for iOS can transport you to another world for free
I've spent the last couple of days testing and exploring Relaxation Portal, an iOS app from SRS Labs that provides stunning audio recreations of several environments in places like Namibia, Crete, an Amazon Rainforest and Martha's Vineyard. For the full effect, you must listen on headphones. In my tests I used a Jabra Halo Bluetooth and a wired B&W P5 headset. SRS Labs has been innovating in audio design in both hardware and software for years, and SRS tech has found its way into live concert recordings, music enhancing hardware, HD displays, car audio and laptops. The audio illusion is certainly impressive. The sound effects are layered, which makes them truly interactive. On the island of Crete, for example, you can turn off the sounds of sea birds, crowd noises and wind, while just listening to the surf. You can control the mix of sounds to fit your mood, or try night mode where the sounds are tuned to replicate the island at night. The 3D effect is quite uncanny, and uses a variety of sound processing techniques to fully immerse you in the aural environment. %Gallery-127537% In addition to the audio treats, the app provides some still pictures of the actual location, and even a bit of history. The app is free, and comes with the 5 locations I've listed above. If that's not enough, you can purchase expansion packs, with locations like Las Vegas (maybe you will hear people crying after they lose a bundle at blackjack), Paris, the Kremlin, the Ross Ice Shelf and Cape Canaveral. Expansion packs contain 5 destinations, and are US$1.99 each. It should be noted that the sound environments created are not really from the locations listed, but rather layers of very high quality recording of natural sounds that match the local environments. For example, birds that are native to Crete or New England. I have a few quibbles with this app. It doesn't run in the background. Check an email, or respond to a text, and the app simply stops. If you launch it again, you will be returned to the place you left. I talked with Allen Gharapetian of SRS Labs and he agrees the app must multitask, and to look for that upgrade soon. The app features a night mode, which I assumed might change the character of the sounds, but night mode just blackens the screen, except for little pop-up ads that are always present. You can upgrade to an ad-free version for $1.99. Gharapetian says the SRS sound enhancing technology is built into smartphones from Samsung and HTC, and they would love to have it on Apple iOS devices. Ultimately this app serves as a technology demo of how good the SRS audio processing can be. Relaxation Portal is not the only white noise, audio environment app for iOS. I've previously enthusiastically reviewed NatureSpace, which has excellent natural recording and it doesn't stop when you navigate away from it. It is also free, but offers in-app purchases of expansion packs. Relation Portal is a unique approach to creating aural environments. With the ability to control the mix and levels of individual sounds, you can tailor your session to taste. I'd like to see the app allow multitasking, and the GUI is not particularly attractive to my eye, but ultimately, it is the sound that matters and the app works very well as a way to relax. Great on a vacation, a long airplane trip, or just unwinding at home. The app runs natively on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch and requires iOS 4.2 or later. Check the gallery for some screen shots and let us know what you think of the audio illusion it creates.
