DrumBeat is a drum simulator. The simulator includes 5 drums (including a base drum) and 5 symbols. I’m no drummer so, I can’t tell you if they sound like they should, but they sound good to me! You can get DrumBeat via the BigBoss source.

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This new video again explores the idea of composing music inside the timeline of Final Cut Pro, it features the following nine iPhone music apps – Melodica, Easy Guitar, NLog Synth Free, iRockGuitar Lite, Mobilesynth, Drum Kit Lite, Kalimba Free, Junglist Lite and the mighty Bebot.

It was shot on mini DV (canon XL1s) and was sliced up in FCP, I’ll be putting a detailed walkthrough of the entire process up at the blog very shortly.

BoomBeat is a beat box on your iPhone or iPod Touch. I didn’t write about this application when it was initially released because frankly…it was weird. Every time you tapped on one of the eight sounds affects the box got darker…I don’t know why, it just did. Anyway, there was an update to the application and I find it much more appealing now.

Once installed, you get the option of eight different beatbox sounds. Just tap on one of the eight billet boxes to hear the sound. You can play up to two sounds at once. I did find that if you play more than one at a time, one of the boxes gets darker. Once again, I’m not really sure what the purpose is of that. Maybe is some crazy beatboxing thing that I don’t know about! You can control the apps volume using your iPhone or iPod Touch’s main volume control.

It is a pretty simple application, no recording ability or anything like that. The sound quality isn’t too bad. Let me know in the comments what you think…will you use this app when you are sitting around beatboxing with your friend’s (I could so see Doug doing that!)? You can get BoomBeat via the BigBoss source.

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I’m not going to lie, we get quite a few Press Releases in our email. Usually, I’m not huge on publishing them unless I get one that I think is really cool. DSLR Remote is one of those Press Releases. DSLR Remote, by onOne software, is an application that allows Canon EOS DSLR cameras to be controlled remotely. The app allows the photographer to “remotely control the settings of the camera, fire the shutter, review images, and even get a live viewfinder preview.”

In order to use DSLR Remote, your camera does have to be connected to a “WiFi enabled computer” and you will need to download a free application (Mac and PC compatible) onto your computer that the DSLR Remote application interacts with. The app currently only supports Canon EOS DSLR cameras however, they are working on compatibility with Nikon DSLR cameras.

There are two versions of the application the Professional Edition ($19.99 introductory price of $9.99) and the Lite edition ($1.99). Below are the features for both the Lite and Professional versions of the application and the full Press Release for DSLR Remote.

Features of Lite Edition:

    • Remotely fire your Canon DSLR over any WiFi network
    • See the images you have taken right on your iPhone or iPod Touch
    • Great for difficult camera angles where it is difficult to see through the viewfinder
    • Use it for self-portraits, you can compose and review your shot without having to move to the camera
    • Use it for remote firing at weddings and sporting events

Features of Professional Edition:

    • Remotely fire your Canon DSLR over any WiFi network
    • Remotely control the camera settings like shutter-speed, aperture, white-balance, etc.
    • See the images you have taken right on your iPhone or iPod Touch
    • Look through your cameras viewfinder remotely with Live Preview
    • Built-in Intervalometer for advanced timer shooting
    • Great for difficult camera angles where it is difficult to see through the viewfinder
    • Use it for self-portraits, you can compose and review your shot without having to move to the camera
    • Use it for remote firing at weddings and sporting events

Press Release

onOne Software Announces New iPhone Application

Next-generation remote release enables photographers to use the Apple® iPhone® or iPod® Touch to control their Canon EOS DSLR camera via a WiFi enabled computer

Portland, OR – June 1, 2009 – onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, today announced a new application to remotely control Canon EOS DSLR cameras using an iPhone or iPod Touch. The new DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone application allows photographers using a supported Canon EOS DSLR that is connected to a WiFi enabled computer to remotely control the settings of the camera, fire the shutter, review images, and even get a live viewfinder preview. This gives photographers a new level of freedom when shooting camera angles where it is difficult to see through the viewfinder, self-portraits, or events where multiple cameras are set up and the photographer just can’t be behind them all.

Key capabilities of the DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone:
• Remotely fire a supported Canon EOS DSLR over any WiFi network
• Remotely control camera settings like shutter-speed, aperture, white-balance, etc…
• Preview images on an iPhone or iPod Touch
• Look through the camera’s viewfinder remotely with Live View
• Built-in Intervalometer for advanced timer shooting
• Zero configuration Apple ® Bonjour® networking finds the camera automatically

“We are very excited about what this application offers the photography community,” said Craig Keudell, president of onOne Software. “DSLR Camera Remote allows photographers the opportunity to get out from behind the camera and interact with their subjects while still maintaining full control of the technical details.”

Availability and Pricing
DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone comes in two versions – the Professional edition, which is available for $19.99 with a limited time introductory price of $9.99, and the Lite edition, available for $1.99. The DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone may be purchased immediately from the App Store within Apple® iTunes® software. After purchasing either edition from the iTunes App Store, users will need to download a free application that runs on their supported Mac or Windows computer. This free application is required to communicate between the iPhone and the supported Canon EOS DSLR, connected via USB or Firewire to a WiFi enabled computer. There are no trial or demo versions of the DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone application. For a full list of system requirements and supported cameras visit: www.onOnesoftware.com/iPhone.

Supported Cameras
Initially, in version 1.0, the DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone application will only support selected Canon EOS DSLR cameras. However, an updated version that adds support for a wide variety of Nikon DSLR cameras is currently in development and is planned to be released as an update to the DSLR Camera Remote for iPhone application.

For the most complete list of supported cameras, please visit the onOne Software website at http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=38.

About onOne Software
onOne Software, Inc. is a leading developer of time-saving software solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers. Our products allow photographers to spend more time behind the camera and less time behind the computer screen. They include a wide range of easy-to-use plug-in enhancements for Adobe® Photoshop®, Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Lightroom®,, Apple Aperture and now the iPhone. Founded in 2005, onOne Software, Inc. is a privately held company located in Portland, Oregon.

As a former SlingPlayer user on my Windows Mobile Samsung i730 and i760, I was anxiously awaiting the release of the live television streaming application for the iPhone. For nearly a year now, I have been without the live feed of my Slingbox (recently upgraded to a SB Solo due to a change in cable service) on my mobile phone. There have been a few wedding receptions, baby showers, and dull meetings where I could have benefited from catching some live sports coverage on my iPhone. After months of rumors leading up to the eventual release in the App Store this past Wednesday, the moment has finally arrived. Thanks to Brooke and the folks at Sling Media, I got a chance to play with the pricey app on my iPhone. Now, let’s get this out there right away: SlingPlayer only works on WiFi. No 3G, no EDGE, only WiFi. You can read about why and why people are mad about this, but I’m going to hold SlingMedia free from blame for this, and instead, I’m only going to judge the application on its performance under these conditions.

After downloading the app, I quickly (and excitedly) went through the setup process. To my delight, the application allowed me to login using my email and password, and within less than a minute, my home television was on my iPhone’s screen. I did not have to enter any long Slingbox ID numbers, names, or passwords. All that was needed was my account info, and I was up and running. There is the usual 4-7 second delay in the signal between my television and the Slingbox, but I wouldn’t notice this if I hadn’t been watching both simultaneously. On the options screen, I can set my favorite channels. This will come in handy, as there is a significant (3-5 second) lag on the SlingPlayer when changing channels. There is an extra few seconds on top of this for me, because I link my TiVo to my SlingBox, but I’m hoping that Sling will pare down the former a bit in updates. With favorite channels, I can cut down on the lag time, since there would be no need for entering the channel number. The iPhone app also allows me to swipe up and down for channel up/down as well as swipe left and right for my favorite channels. On a side note, the SlingPlayer can thus be used as a second remote control should you find yourself missing your regular one.

Other options include an on screen remote that gave me standard TiVo functionality, a guide button that pulled up my TiVo guide, and a button that pointed me directly to my TiVo menu screen. An options menu includes delivering audio only, a Standard/High Quality toggle, a help menu (had some trouble accessing some topics here), a letterbox toggle, and the ability to change device should you have multiple ones connected to your Slingbox. Using a test account provided my Sling Media, I pulled up similar options for the guide and menu screen for the Dish Network service. Both picture and audio quality were tolerable and borderline impressive in my point of view. I don’t have HD at home, so I may not have the keenest eye for sharpness, but I appreciated the reasonably sharp screen, and more importantly, the non-choppy signal (to be expected since I’m on WiFi). Outside of my home network, I tested the app at a nearby WiFi hotspot, and the smooth video continued to flow as quickly as the coffee.

My cousin used to travel a lot for his job. He would often pull up his Slingbox to watch the Angels game no matter where he was. As a teacher, I’m not frequenting airport terminals quite as much, so there is not as much of a need for live television streaming on my phone. For me, the Slingbox always has been and continues to be a gadget of excess. As with many gadgets, the Slingbox is something that symbolizes “cool” in that it shows the possibility of what can be achieved. For the consumer, I would be hard pressed to recommend this app for $29.99. The price does fit Sling’s pricing model as compared to their other mobile platforms, but given the WiFi limitation, I’d argue for a discount. However, given how the application seems to be climbing the Top 25 paid application chart, I doubt that this will come anytime soon. Thus, you’re left with a WiFi only version, and if you’re considering this app, my bet is that you probably have a laptop that’s just as capable of delivering a Slingbox signal with a larger picture and better sound for free. So, I’ll end on giving you a few reasons for and against purchasing SlingPlayer for the iPhone.

For:
You’ll get to show off TV on your iPhone (sans Orb/TV tuner), provided you have WiFi access.
Sling will most likely provide updates to tighten up and improve functionality.
Setup is easy, picture quality is solid, and video is smooth (again, all on WiFi)

Against:
It’s not a $0.99 application. (Wait for a sale or check out Orb if you have a TV tuner)
Unless you will always be near a WiFi connection, you’ll be watching nothing.
We all know the iPhone battery’s not the best. Don’t plan on watching an entire game in one sitting.

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I opened iTunes this evening and what did I see? An update to an app that I had done a review on last week. It was the PhotoList app by Raisix Inc. (click here for the review) I was interested to see what they had updated and I was hoping it wasn’t just stability issues as most updates are. But to my surprise they had added a new feature to the app…Facebook integration!! Now that is cool.

The Facebook integration allows you to do two things: Upload and Download photos to and from your personal Facebook account.

To Download
Within PhotoList, create a new folder that you want to download pics from your Facebook account. Tap on your new created folder and tap the folder icon at the bottom right of the screen. Tap “Facebook” on the “Download photo from” title and after it requests authorization, sign into your Facebook account. Once you have done this tap “Done” and start downloading from any of your Facebook photo folders. Once you have selected your photo, name it or keep the default name and give it your 1 to 5 rating (if you want), and tap “Done”. Once you are done, tap the Facebook arrow and then cancel to take you back to the PhotoList app.

To Upload
Within one of your folders in PhotoList, tap the pic that you want to upload. At the bottom left is a foward icon. Tap “Facebook” on the “Upload photo to” title and after your sign in or authorize, tap “Upload”. The photo will upload to a default PhotoList folder that has now been created on your Facebook page. You will be given a “success” message once the photo is uploaded and hit “Done” to go back to PhotoList.

The only problem with this is that you have to then sign into your Facebook account from your computer to approve the photo before it will post to your account for others to view. PhotoList might want to look into building a Facebook Application as well to compliment this new feature.

This app is totally worth the $$$ now!!!! Maybe Flickr, Picasa Web, and MySpace integration next?

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Chimera is a photo application that allows you to add filters to either previously existing photos in your Camera Roll or take a fresh photo and apply these filters right away. In all there are about 11 different filters (12 if you count the “NONE” filter as an option). These filters include; Quantize, Airbrush, Edges, Inverse, Saturate, Cartoon, Trace, Grayscale, Sepia, Night Vision, and Predator. One nice thing about this app is that once you save an image you can change the filter and save another version of the same image.

There are a bunch of various settings in Chimera… there are 3 different modes; delay settings, image stabilization, and facial recognition. The modes change how Chimera takes the pictures… it will either show you a preview, save the image instantly, or do a continuous burst mode where it will just take picture after picture until you tell it to stop. The other settings are pretty self explanatory. I’m not sure exactly what benefit the facial recognition feature does… it might be some type of auto focus function but really the depth of field on the iPhone camera is pretty great as it is. There are also a few automatic color functions such as auto white balance and a high contrast setting.

Overall, Chimera is a pretty cool app and I could see a practicality for several of the filters however, I don’t see the purpose of the night vision or the predator filters. One thing I don’t really like is the filter preview which is turn on and off by the magnifying glass next to the settings button in the bottom right. This function shows you what the image will look like with the selected filter but it makes it hard to see the full image that you are taking so I prefer to leave it off.

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PhotoList by Raisix Inc. has released an iPhone app that allows you to “rate your photos on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, and then sort by either rating or name when looking through photo folders.”

I really like how this app allows me to create as many folders as I want for all of my pics. Once I create a folder I can then add pics to this folder by selecting the “+” sign at the bottom left of the screen. That will bring up your Camera Roll from within the app so you don’t have to worry about closing the app to put your pics into your folder. Once you have selected your pic, you have to name it and have the option to rate it. I wish however instead of having to give a name to a photo that it would default to the actual “IMG_***” title already assigned to the photo. Minor but that way I don’t have to create a name in the case of fast filing.

Once back into your folder you can then organize by rating or by name. You can also view the photo in portrait or landscape mode (I was very impressed with this as I haven’t seen many apps that utilize the accelerometer that isn’t a game.) To view more pics just flick the photo to the left or right. This app doesn’t utilize the option to zoom which would be cool.

I also checked out a review by a user in the App Store and he was disgruntled that all you could do was file photos. He must have been looking for a mobile iPhoto app and this isn’t the app for that. This is a very basic app for filing.

I my opinion this is a great app for what it does. It is compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch. It does require the 2.2.1 software update.

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CajonCajon by HULABREAKS is a simulated cajon (box drum) on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

A Cajon is a kind of box drum played by slapping the front face (generally thin plywood) with the hands. If you want to see one in action, check out American Idol. They have been known to use one frequently.

But this app really doesn’t come close to actually playing one. The app includes two different sound types of a cajon; the normal sound (clear, high quality) and cheep sound (noisy, with atmosphere.) But regardless of which setting the sound is cheap. I even hooked up my iPhone to a subwoofer to see if there was a difference in sound. It confirmed that I would only use this app when watching people’s kids.

This app, from a drummer’s perspective, really isn’t worth $0.99. It would be a fun app for a kid to play with in order to entertain them for a few minutes, but as a drummer, I would never use this in a live setting. That is what looping programs or an actual cajon is for.

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