Macgasm

So let’s get this straight, I have zero musical talent and this also extends to Technology related to music!  From the moment I downloaded Baby Scratch, I knew this had bad news written all over it.  I knew that based on my own interest this would be a tough assignment so I turned to the good old Internet to figure out what the hell this app does.

Scratch Baby is apparently the first iPhone DJ turn table!  There you have it, you can scratch on the go!  The app comes loaded with a few samplers but you can even record your voice and scratch that while you are at it!

Also, of interest would be that it features:

• sampler (if you can hear it, you can scratch it!)
• the Flare scratch engine
• battle record with classic DJ samples
• 3 built-in beat loops
• level fader
• transformer button

Now while browsing on this app, I found some pretty cool stuff.  Like like this guy from YouTube who actually makes it sound like music!

Final thoughts, if you can do it on real turn tables, this is cool..  If you are like me you’ll just end up making a bunch of noise!

I really dig when I fall on an app I would not otherwise have found. The Barnes and Nobles bookstore would fall in that category. As Canadians, we don’t have B&N’s so why go looking for their app? Well, let me fill you on to the why!

As an avid reader, I often rely on conversation or word of mouth to go pick up a book. Just walking around my local bookstore aimlessly is hard to fit in the calendar. Now I can use this great app to do some searching on the go!

Under the discover tab, you can browse from best sellers, new releases, recommendations, and even read reviews on specific books they have decided to showcase!

Other neat features include the ability to take a picture of the cover of a book, and somehow it automatically finds the book online, although I have to admit it’s faster to type the name since you have to take the picture perfectly for it to actually work.

Last week in conversation, someone told me about the book Trizophrenia. Knowing I would forget the title, I launched the app, typed the name and added to the cart; one click, and I could have the book land on my doorsteps within 3 days!

I really have nothing but positive things to say about this app, but a bonus would be the ability to buy directly from the app without it launching Safari.

Photo Credit: Hey Paul

I am sure you all remember that game we used to play as kids: “Simon says.”  Category 5 games put out their own version for the iPhone in the app Simon Classic.

The verdict is: Simon says I can count and remember up to 14 steps!  Although I found the game to be almost too simple, my competitive nature mixed with the frustrating nature of this relatively easy game made it that there are a few minutes hours of the past week I’ll never get back.

Concept of the game is quite easy; “Simon” will light up and make sound on one of four colors, your role is to remember the sequence and repeat after. Rinse, repeat.

The game features:

• Classic Simon Style Gameplay
• Four Speed  Levels
• Four Sound Options

Verdict: A fun game to kill time on the go as long as you can handle the frustration of the game.

Photo Credit: secretlondon123

RunKeeper is a mobile fitness application that makes fitness tracking easy by using GPS functionality for tracking speed and altitude.  As you can see from the iPhone screen captures below,  it does a great job of tracking speed and distance and by looking at the chart. It’s quite easy to see where I got held up at red lights while I was trying to run through the downtown core. In terms of tracking, the app is very accurate.

Once you are done your run, you can push the data to the RunKeeper.com website where all the data is displayed in graphs. Through one push of a button, you can quickly share your training with all your friends (and probably make them feel very lazy!).

As a running tool, Runkeeper free would outclass all of the other similar fitness applications if you didn’t have to buy the Pro version in order to get voice cues as you run. Let’s face it, having to take out your iPhone in order to read your distance and pace can be a tad of an annoyance.

Runkeeper also needs to work out some of the kinks in order to maximize it’s potential:

• iPod integration: First you have to start your music, and then launch RunKeeper. iPod controls can only be accessed if you set your  ”double click home button”  to bring up the iPod controls.
• WiFi interference: To have accurate tracking, you must turn off WiFi. If the wifi signal becomes stronger than the GPS signal, it uses the WiFi location instead, and adds sudden strange patterns to your route.

Overall, a very intuitive and easy to use application, but since voice cues for pace, speed and distance are not available with the free version (The pro version is $9.99), I would say that it won’t become my primary free running app. That said, it does have other settings for various activities like, cycling, walking, hiking, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, and skating. It should not be discounted as one of the better fitness tracking tools.

Photo Credit: Mike Baird