Tag Archives: app

[iOS] Steinberg Cubasis for iPad Released

Steinberg just released an iOS App of Cubasis. The iOS version allows exporting projects to Cubase for Windows and Cubase for MacOSX. The GUI looks quite familiar to the desktop version of Cubase and we suppose, for Cubase users this is a real fun tool when being on the road. Via background midi/audio other iOS-Apps can be used as virtual instruments.

According to Steinborg’s website, Cubasis got these features:

  • Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks (depending on the device used)
  • Over 70 virtual instrument sounds based on HALion Sonic
  • Mixer with over 10 effect processors (insert and send effects)
  • Over 300 MIDI and audio loops
  • Virtual keyboard and virtual drum pads
  • Sample Editor and Key Editor
  • Export to Cubase, Dropbox, SoundCloud, AudioCopy & email
  • Core Audio and Core MIDI compatible hardware supported
  • Sequence other Core MIDI apps (MIDI recording only) and run Cubasis simultaneously via background audio
  • Import audio from your iTunes music library or using iTunes filesharing, use AudioPaste or set up a Wi-Fi server in Cubasis

All this sounds very appealing and the AppStore price of about 45€ seems fair aswell. The only real downside is Cubasis requires iOS 6.01. And many iPad music-app-users are still having nightmares when thinking about operating system updates. iOS 5 update from iOS 4 for instance broke compatibility to many muzaq apps and hardware devices.

[iOS] Audiostreaming Between Apps via Audiobus

http://25.media.tumblr.com/avatar_65a6c9638f67_40.pngGood news for the App-a-holics among us. A specific audiostreaming protocol is to come to the iOS platform. It’s named Audiobus.

While formerly the export to the cloud or via iTunes to the Host-PC/Mac was required, now using Audiobus we can stream audio from one app to another. Release date is december, 10th and the pricetag is named with 10US$ according the german tech news Heise.de.

Several apps will immediately receive updates to support Audiobus, among these are:

  • Funkbox (audio input)
  • JamUp XT and JamUp Pro XT (efx)
  • Loopy and Loopy HD (audio input and output)
  • MultiTrack DAW (audio output)
  • NLog Midi Synth and NLog Midi Synth Pro (audio input, efx and output)
  • Rebirth (audio input)
  • SoundPrism Pro (audio input)
  • Sunrizer Synth (audio input

More apps supporting the Audiobus protocol to come, as Apple is said to have this protocol officially allowed. For developers an SDK is available. Check the vids for some more insights… enjoy fellas…

Sunrizer thru Echo pad using Audiobus

Using Loopy HD to loop JamUp with FunkBox/SoundPrism Pro

[iOS] John Cage Piano App Released

For celebrating John Cage’s 100th birthday, the John Cage Trust just released an iOS and Android version of the CagePiano.

The John Cage Official Website says:

One of the many ingenious innovations of American composer/writer/artist John Cage was his creation of the “prepared piano”, in which he placed objects beneath and between the strings of a grand piano to create an entirely
new instrument.

The sounds of John Cage’s Prepared Piano are now available for you to play on your portable device with this innovative app. Play meticulously sampled sounds of a piano prepared with the actual materials used by John Cage in the preparations for his Sonatas and Interludes (1946-48) as sampled under the supervision of the John Cage Trust.

  • Both paid and free versions allow you to your record your performance and share it via Facebook, Twitter and email.
  • The paid tablet version features all 36 prepared notes, playable at once, plus the ability to save your performances locally, making dramatically unique ring tones possible.
  • The free version offers 9 sampled notes on screen at a time, while a random shuffle button makes available other prepared notes.

Prices and Availability

The iPhone version is free. The iPad version is US$0.99.
The Android version is free aswell. But the Android tablet version is also US$0.99

The free version features only 9 tones at once. The paid version has all 36 notes playable at once.

 

[Pre] Recommended Apps: Reboot Scheduler

Many of us know the phenomenon. The longer we use the iPhone or the Palm Pre the slower it goes. Rebooting the system always helped on either device.

For the Palm Pre there is now a solution that is called Reboot Scheduler by Zinge, which allows to automize the reboot process and to schedule it to a certain time.

We feel this is a nice tool for people running homebrew apps on their Pre anyway. You find it via the PreCentral repository.

That’s what we really like about the Palm Pre WebOS platform: it embraces the homebrew developers. No jailbreaking, no hassle.

Kudos fly out to Zinge and the PreCentral team.

Links

» PreCentral.net: Palm Pre Reboot Scheduler

Screenshot is courtesy of PreCentral.net

[Pre] Video Recording with Precorder 0.2 Alpha

The long waiting is over. A team around the Precentral’s forum member Prenosicator has released an alpha version of a Palm Pre video recording application. It requires WebOS 1.3.1.

You will not find it in the know homebrew repositories as long as it is in alpha status. Anyway for all of you able to root into your beloved Palm Pre the installation is as simple as drinking beer.

Kudos fly out to Prenosicator and his dev team guys. This is a very nice app, many of us have been waiting for.

Features

Option Description Selections
Audio Format Select what format you would like the audio stream to be saved in. AAC, AMRNB, MP3
Video Format Select what format you would like the video stream to be saved in. Mpeg-4, H.263, H.264/AVC
Container Select what multimedia container the audio/video streams will be in. mp4, 3gp
Media Source Would would you like Precorder to capture. Audio only, Video only, Both
Flash Would you like to use the built in LED for illumination Off, On
  • Options in bold are defaults
  • Recordings land in /media/internal

Installation

  1. root into your Pre (weather via Novaterm or running the terminal installed from within Preware)
  2. go to Pre’s tmp folder
    root@palm-webos-device:/# cd /tmp
  3. download the alpha version of Precorder
    root@palm-webos-device:/# wget http://bit.ly/precorder-bootstrap
  4. install Precorder
    root@palm-webos-device:/# sh precorder-bootstrap

Links

» PreCentral Forums: Introducing Precorder, in Alpha testing form
» WebOS-Internals: Precorder – Version: Alpha 0.2.0

Screenshots

Courtesy of WebOS-Internals.org

[Pre] Palm Developer Early Access Program

Selected developers who recently downloaded the Palm Mojo SDK now received mail that Palm has some open positions for their Early Access Program.

Developers need to apply with their app. If being accepted they will be provided an assigned Palm account manager for technical and review questions.

As early birds devs will get the developer registration almost for free – only a $5 fee will be required for PayPal verification.

Palm seems to be in the final preparations with their Developer Program and App Catalog. They explicitly write they want developers to help with “final scalability testing”.

Palm will officially open the doors for the Developer Program in december. So if you’re a developer the Early Access Program seems to be the last chance to get into the developer program early and rebated.

[iPhone] Makayama releases Voice Dial App

As of yesterday Makayama released a Voice Dial Application for the iPhone. That means we finally can dial numbers without looking at the screen. Driving in your car and making phone calls is much safer now.

Voice Dial does not depend on a dictionary or vocabulary. Instead you can record voice samples for any contact in the addressbook. It therefore works with all languages.

There are two versions of Voice Dial:

  1. For iPhone firmware version 2.0 (updated iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G): Simply download from AppStore using iTunes.
  2. For iPhone firmware version <= 1.1.4. Your iPhone needs a ‘jailbreak’ to install. Start Installer, press Sources, then Edit , then Add . Next, type http://tinyurl.com/3544mp

The introduction offer until August: is $ 24.95 (EUR 17.95) ex. tax

Voice Dial is definitly the missing application for the iPhone. Find the manual here or watch the video:

absatz

[iPhone] Experienced Issues with Firmware 2.0

After some days of using a pwned iPhone 2G with firmware 2.0, we found some issues. As of now, we don’t know where they come from. But we definitly know: we don’t like them.

  • WiFi doesn’t stay connected, it falls “asleep” and takes time to reconnect
  • the more apps have been used, the longer it takes to see reactions
    means: if you click on contacts and have used Safari, SMS and Youtube before, opening of contacts takes a lot longer than after an fresh reboot!
  • loading the contacts take 5-10 seconds
  • scrolling through contacts is jerky and freezes the view from time to time
  • scrolling through photos is jerky and freezes the view from time to time
  • launching the camera takes up to 10 seconds
  • the unlock slider may not react in time and you may miss a call
  • keyboard reacts slower than on 1.1.4
  • reaction time is heavily delayed (or seems not to react at all for more than 17 seconds – see video below)

We won’t blame anyone for this, because on the one hand this could be an effect of Pwning the iPhone and on the other hand these issues might be “features” of the original unmodified firmware 2.0 aswell. See update below, this is a firmware 2.0 issue.

Anyway we feel there are heavy problems with the memory management in firmware 2.0, that need to be addressed soon. Workflow was a lot faster with firmware 1.1.4.

As of now we just reboot the iPhone once a day, but this really is no working solution for such a device. We feel this reminiscent to Windows 95 times is not necessary.

Update: it has been reported this may come from Cydia. As we’re investigating this issue, we get back to you once we found a solution.

Update: Pumpkin of the iPhone Dev Team reports this most likely is an issue of the original firmware 2.0. Native iPhone users have also experienced this behaviour (see reports here in Apple’s forums). The internet is full of reports. Do a Google search you will find plenty of people reporting these issues.