My phone is a remote control

Now that I use iTunes on a daily basis, the app Remote is a must have. Remote is a free app from apple that let’s you control iTunes from your iPhone. After installing Remote you’ll need to add your phone in any iTunes you wish to control.

The app is totally straight forward and has the same interface as iTunes. Here’s what the app looks like.

I can record band practice again

I’ve found another great use for my phone, recording band practice. Back in the day I had a great Aiwa cassette player that had a dedicated microphone jack that made great recordings. Now that cassettes are gone, I haven’t been able to record band practice.

That all changed when Apple released OS3 and the new Voice Memo app. Now I can record band practice on my phone. While this is a great solution for me, I still have two problems.

1.I play my iPhone in a few songs ( BEBOT & All you base )

2.My band rocks a little too hard for the phone’s microphone.

Item 1 I can live with. Item 2 I’m in the process of remedying. I want to make a foam shell of some sort to control the noise level. Right the recordings clip pretty hard, but not bad enough that I can’t hear what’s being played.

The Voice Memo app makes surprisingly good recordings. If you have any suggestions on sound dampening, please let me know.

My heart has been tethered to my phone

Tonight I tethered my Macbook Pro to my iPhone 3G. ZOMG!!!! In theory, I now have internet anywhere I travel.

This is seriously huge to me since I’m an internet junkie, as well as an internet professional. Yet again, one more reason why the iPhone is the best.

Here’s a quick rundown on how to get your tether on.

Requirements :
- iPhone 3G or 3G S
- Computer, preferably a MAC running OSX
- iPhone to USB cable
- Knowledge of using Google.com
- 5 minutes

Steps :
1.Launch safari on iPhone
2.Search for “how to tether iphone 3g”
3.Choose a site you feel comfy with. I chose the tutorial on BenM.at.
4.Follow instructions.
5.Be happy you have an iPhone

Now I realize steps 3&4 don’t help too much, but this isn’t a feature that’s officially out yet, so you’re slightly on your owm here. I will tell you my experience with the BenM.at site was both a success and as easy as the big type suggests.

What I did was download and install the USA AT&T profile. I didn’t even have to bounce my phone. My computer did need a reboot though.

My first tether attempt was from my VISTA Bootcamp partition. VISTA detected and installed the iPhone immediately, but when I tried connecting I was asked for a network key. I couldn’t figure this one out so I booted into OSX and everything just worked.

My tether experience was literally this easy. I hope you have the same luck.

* NOTE : I’m sure there are ways to tether older iphone via jailbreak, I just haven’t ventured down that path tey.

My phone is also a musical instrument

On Wednesday June 24th, 2009 my band The Compilers played our first gig. We opened for Kevin Hoyt at Adobe’s ‘Next Generation Flex & ColdFusion tour’ in Denver CO. The venue was The Magnolia Ballroom in downtown and it was a great time.

The Compilers band is a pure geek rock mashup of music, power, and big brain tech know how. I play bass in the band, and I also play the iPhone on a few songs. I never thought I’d play my phone in a band, but I do and it’s one more reason why the iPhone is the best device ever.

The first tune I played the iPhone on is our version of the ZeroWing inspired ‘All Your Base are Belong to us’. For this song I use the AllYourBase iPhone app to play sound clips from the video, while Scotty and Jun rock out on drums and guitar.

The second song the iPhone appears on is called ‘TweetJam’. This is a real mashup song. Jun the guitarist wrote an Adobe AIR app that reads the band’s Twitter feed ( @thecompilers ), sends the messages to a Java text to speech engine, thanks to Merapi, where the tweets get read by a robot voice. There are a few solo parts to this song, and I have an iPhone solo where I play my favorite app BEBOT. The latest version of BEBOT supports saved presets which makes it perfect for playing different songs on the fly.

So that’s that. My phone is officially an instrument as well as all the other cool things it is. Here are some screenshots and photos from the gig. At some point I’ll be writing my own iPhone apps, now I have a reason besides work.

My phone is also a tuner

HotPaw productions makes a free strobe tuner called inTuna A440. This is a must have for any musician. You can only play the notes A or C, but that should be enough in a pinch.

I wouldn’t replace my real tuner with this, but it’s handy enough to remain on my phone. Oh yeah, it’s free too.

I’m learning a new musical instrument

Last week I bought my first app for my phone. Up until now I’ve been on a strict free only diet, and haven’t felt like I’m missing out on anything.

I paid $1.99 for BEBOT, and have gotten at least $19.95 of enjoyment in return. My dad built me an electric noise box when I was a kid, and this is the first noise maker that trumps it.

BEBOT is a Jetsons-esque singing robot. In this app he’s playing a 60s style lounge. My new robot sings in four voices : Bebot, PWM, Theremin, and Pulse. Each of which have different inflections and whatnot.

When you fire up BEBOT, your phone’s screen in the playing surface. Left Right to walk the scale, and Up Down to tweak the soundwave. Get this, you can have up to four fingers playing at once.

I’m learning to play it for some upcoming Indaba studio work. BEBOT start a new electronic genre.

I love this app. Here are some action shots. You can’t save settings, so these shots are a setup I was digging.

BEEP BOP BOOP OOOOWHEEEEEE

quick slideshows with Animoto

Animoto is a free slideshow application that is pretty slick. The first few times I played with it I was low on WiFi, so make sure you have internets before checking it out.

I want to say I’ve only used Animoto from my phone and not animoto.com. I need to investigate the site and see how much different the online experience is.

So here’s the lowdown on the iPhone app. The free service gets you slideshows with up to 16 images, and you can add music from their library. I haven’t figured out if you can use your own music yet, but I’m not concerned about that. After making the slideshow you can share as expected.

I don’t have any major quams with the app, but I do have a few wishes.

- raise image limit to 20
- user based URLs. EX : animoto.com/username.
- more social oriented sharing options

My first slideshow

Here are a few screenshots.

my office has one ghetto outlet

This holiday break I am going to redo my office. The first renovation is expanding my office’s single electrical socket.

Here is a before and after shot. Notice in the angle of the outlet. That is how the outlet is attached to the wall. There is no sheet rock, 2×4, or even a workbox to use to straighten up the outlet.

No worries! My single power supply is now 6 surge protected outlets instead of the measly 2 with a baby blocker. I’ll worry about fixing this when we refinish the basement.

Enjoy the ghetto MacGuyver-ness of my install job.

MERRY XMAS 2008

how freaking cold is it outside?!?!

I really enjoy having the weather widget on my phone. I’ve never kept up with the weather until now. Of course right now I just check to see how freaking cold it is outside?!?!