MobileViews Blog

Author: todd

  • Garageband for OS X needs 180MB compatibility update for Garageband for iPad

    I’m reviewing Griffin’s Guitar Connect Pro this weekend. One of the things I wanted to test was copying a multi-track recording from the iPad to a Mac by downloading the tracks via iTunes to try to clean up my sloppy playing by quantizing the guitar tracks. Having never done this previously, I learned that the already up-to-date Garageband for OS X needs a compatibility update in order to import the tracks from its iPad counterpart. Note that the informational screen that popped up on my Mac specifically mentions Garageband for iPad. I have not tried this with Garageband running on an iPhone (which is a Universal app).

  • Beatles Yellow Submarine multimedia ebook available for free in Apple’s iBookstore

    Apple is providing a multimedia ebook of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine for free. The book has audio, limited animation, and video clip components to it. It is categorized as a children’s book. But, any Beatles fan will probably get a kick out of it.

    Navigation through the pages feels a lot jerkier than other iBook ebooks on my iPad 2. I do not see this kind of page turning hesitation when reading conventional iBook ebooks.

  • [Video] Mini-review: Doodle God for Windows Phone

    Doodle God for Windows Phone is a logic puzzle game that I consider to be in the casual game category. You can spend as little or as much time as you like and get entertainment for whatever time is spent. The game starts with four basic elements that are combined to create new ones. One goal is to create all 135 elements (really “compounds”) possible. Not all compounds are intuitive. For example, combining “life” and “ash” creates a “ghost”.

    In addition to the main game play mode, Doodle God has minigames and quests. And, like other Xbox Live games, it has achievements and leaderboards.

    Doodle God is priced at $2.99.

    Disclosure: Microsoft provided the game free of charge for evaluation purposes.

  • Smule’s Magic Guitar for iPhone is fun. But, it needs “strings” IMHO

    Smule’s CTO & co-founder, Ge Wang, makes it look easy in the video embedded above. But, Smule’s new Magic Guitar, presents challenges even if you know how to play a real guitar.

    I found I wanted to see actual guitar strings to give an indication of where fingers should rest while waiting for song notes to appear. The app is designed for the iPhone and iPod touch. It doesn’t scale for play on an iPad.

    The app has achievements, badges and leaderboards to let you compete with friends if you like. Smule says that the app’s songbook offers a huge catalog of legendary artists including The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, KISS, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sublime, Credence Clearwater Revival, Santana, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Styx, Poison, Bruno Mars, Train and more. The app is free and comes with a couple of free songs. In-app purchases of song packs range from $2.99 to $9.99.

  • New Netflix iPad user interface in the 2.0 update

    Netflix 2.0 for iOS brought a new user interface for iPad users. The Continue Watching feature looks like the most useful new feature. It can be scrolled horizontally to see ten of mostly recently viewed videos. Each one has an indication of how much of the video was viewed if it was not watched to completion.

    A top 10 recommendation list and the Instant Queue follows. Rows of categorized recommendations follows the first three standard lists.

  • INRIX Traffic for iOS battery draining issue? INRIX provides clarification and a 3.5.1 update workaround

    INRIX Traffic is a free app for iPhone and iPad that uses traffic information from fleet vehicles and individual app users to provide near real-time traffic information. If you take a look at the comments for the app, you’ll note what appears to be a lot of irate users because of what appears to be a battery drain caused by using the app.

    INRIX’s PR firm sent out this email to explain the situation:
    (more…)