Chris Pirillo » itunes

SkyVoyager for the iPhone

Chris — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:26:23 +0000

SkyVoyager for the iPhone is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Kevin has sent several videos to us that he recorded during Macworld 2010. This interview is showing us a demonstration of the SkyVoyager App. SkyVoyager accurately shows the sky from any location on Earth, at any time up to 100 years in the past or future. SkyVoyager can show you the sky in same the direction that you’re holding your phone. Shake the phone to activate its compass and accelerometer – now you can identify stars and planets by holding your phone next to them!

You can find any object in the sky by following an arrow that SkyVoyager points in its direction. If you have an older iPhone or iPod Touch, SkyVoyager supports the accelerometer built into your device as well. Tilting the phone now shows you the sky at the same angle that you’re holding your phone.

SkyVoyager includes more than 1000 descriptions of the constellations, planets, moons, and stars. It contains hundreds of images from NASA space missions and the Hubble Space Telescope. The descriptions are carefully researched and checked for accuracy prior to adding them to the App.

Thanks, Kevin, for an another excellent interview! Would you like to cover conferences, trade shows, and events in exchange for promotion in our YouTube channel and social media networks? Email me to facilitate the process!

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iTunes Prize Winner Calls Steve Jobs a Liar!

Chris — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:39:35 +0000

iTunes Prize Winner Calls Steve Jobs a Liar! is a post from Chris Pirillo

Louie Sulcer didn’t actually use the word “liar”, but he did question Steve Jobs about four times before he finally believe it was really the Apple CEO calling him! Sulcer recently won the Apple’s iTunes Store 10 Billion Song Sold contest. When Steve himself called him to break the happy news, Louie had a hard time believing him. Apparently, his son is a prankster, always faking voices and accents to trick his family and friends. You could have knocked Louie over with a feather when he realized it truly was Steve Jobs on the other end of the line!

Sulcer wasn’t even aware there was a contest going on. He was just trying to purchase a new song that he had enjoyed. He’s beyond excited to have won the contest, along with a $10,000 iTunes card. He received an iPod Nano for his birthday not long ago, but now realizes he’s going to need an MP3 player with a whole lot more space on it!

It goes to show that you just never know… you could win something as easily as Louie Sulcer did. Everyone has a chance. However, you have none if you never play along.

Don’t forget to stop by our software center to see what new deals we’ve found today!

Make Monsters with Elmo and His iPhone App!

Chris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:22:55 +0000

Make Monsters with Elmo and His iPhone App! is a post from Chris Pirillo

Elmo is likely one of the most beloved children’s characters of all time. He’s definitely the most widely-recognized. Let’s face it… Elmo is a hot commodity, and most things with his likeness attached sell like hotcakes. Does it really surprise you, then, that Elmo now has his own iPhone App?

Elmo’s Monster Maker is actually a pretty cool game. I have a feeling Moms everywhere are going to be downloading this lovely little babysitter to help distract their child when they’re out and about. Kids tend to get pretty restless, and this could possibly save Moms some sanity!

The App promotes creativity by letting the child create their own Sesame Street type of monster. The user will choose a body and then add eyes, a nose and a hat. Once a monster has been created, the child can tap on the screen to make the monster dance and play! Best of all for the kids, their monster can also interact with Elmo! Your child’s creations can be saved to your iPhone (or iPod Touch) photo album, so that you can later share them with the World (or embarrass the kid on their first date!).

The App is only four bucks, Moms. Have you started downloading it yet?

Newton’s Balls are Hot on the iPhone

Chris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:12:11 +0000

Newton’s Balls are Hot on the iPhone is a post from Chris Pirillo

I bet you remember the Newton’s cradle toy, right? You had some chrome steel balls suspended on a metal frame from some type of string or filament. You had to grab a ball on the end and swing it in one direction, and watch the ball on the opposite end swing in response. It was a complete time-waster – as well as being completely mesmerizing. It also helped to teach Newton’s third law of motion… For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newton’s Balls is a Newton’s cradle simulator for the iPhone or iPod Touch, which demonstrates kinetic energy and conservation of momentum. Not only is the App all scientific and smart-sounding, it’s also a lot of fun! Touch the balls to connect them to your fingertips with a stretchy band. Position or throw them however you like, and use your device to control gravity. You can even choose what style of balls you’d like to play with… wooden ones, or flashy chrome ones!

This is the only Newton’s Cradle simulator on the Apple iTunes App Store to offer balls on flexible string with unrestricted user interaction. Newton’s Balls allow the user to move, flick, throw, and drop the balls however and wherever they like. The only restriction is the flexible string tether to the top bar.

How Much Would You Pay for an iPhone App?

Chris — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:07:59 +0000

How Much Would You Pay for an iPhone App? is a post from Chris Pirillo

When it comes to a very useful iPhone App, when does the price tag become too much? For the most part, things available in the App Store come with a fairly reasonable price tag. However, there is one App that will cost you a cool grand. What type of App could possibly cost that much? Well, here’s a hint: it can help you pass the Bar Exam in California.

That’s right… the BarMax CA App costs $999.99. The App features several thousand pages’ worth of study material, as well as audio guides. It is designed to help a future lawyer prep themselves to take the Bar Exam, and purportedly is well worth the money. The maker of the App, BarBri, does have a regular course, as well… for more than three thousand bucks. When looked at in that light, the iPhone App is a steal!

I’m wondering how many other types of Apps we’re going to see of this nature – and with this type of price tag. I can already forsee this breaking ground into new territory, where other educational institutions and test-prep companies start rolling out versions of their courses for the iPhone. What’s next? We can already get a degree via the Internet. Perhaps one day we’ll be able to get one solely through iPhone Apps!

Do you think a program such as this is viable, and worth the money? Where would you draw the line when it comes to buying a new App?

GarageBand Tutorial

Chris — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:09:04 +0000

GarageBand Tutorial is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Today’s screencast is one that is both informative and fun. Alex is a GarageBand expert, and wanted to show all of you his tips and tricks. When I’ve used GarageBand in the past, I simply clicked on a lot of things and attempted to actually make something that resembled music. However, there are actually specific things that you can do. Who would have ever guessed?!

Once you open GarageBand, you’ll want to choose “Loops”. That lets you use all of the tracks included with the application, as well as adding in your own instruments. Name your recording whatever you choose. At the bottom, you’ll see options for changing the key, tempo and beats per minute. However, it’s usually better to change it from within your project.

Choose a category to the right of your project window. You’ll see a listing of all the tracks, and you should choose whatever one you like the most. You should play around by putting a few different tracks together, to see what works well together.

GarageBand allows you to change the length of each track in your project, as well as letting you fade tracks in and out. Alex gives excellent instructions for managing this, and plays his end result for you. It’s not difficult to do. I would have never figured it was this easy!

You can also record your own voice (or musical instrument!) and add it to your track. Use your built-in mic or external microphone. Create a new track, and choose “Software Instrument”. Once you’re all set, you can start playing your tune… and then save it. Play around with the different instruments that come included with GarageBand, and even add your own singing in there if you dare!

Once you are finished with your song, click on “Share”. You can now send your creation to different applications, such as to a CD burner or iTunes. Don’t compress the song file, or you will lose quite a lot of quality.

Thanks a lot Alex for teaching this old dog some new tricks!

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Manage Your Music Library with TuneUp

Chris — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:21:14 +0000

Manage Your Music Library with TuneUp is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Tommy has created a screencast for us to show you how to easily manage your iTunes library using TuneUp. According to the TuneUp website, the program will clean up your library automagically. They used my word!! They must be good. TuneUp is touted as being your music collection’s best friend. Let’s take a look and decide for ourselves.

Often when you enter a CD and much of the information seems to be missing, such as the album art, genre and artist information. TuneUp will take care of this problem for you. Click the “Clean” button, and drag your track to that area. It takes only a few seconds to process. Click the “Save all” button once it is finished, and everything will appear – automagically!!

Another great feature of this application is called “Tuniverse”. If you’re listening to a track, Tuniverse will automatically display related music videos from YouTube, including live versions of studio recorded tracks. It will also pull up information about the artist, such as their bio. You can even click a button to take you to merchandise sales for the singer or band found on eBay!

TuneUp costs $19.95 per year, or $29.95 for a lifetime subscription. It works in both Windows XP and Vista, and Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard. There is a free version available, with a limited amount of cleans. You can clean up to 100 songs with it, and produce 50 album covers. With the paid version, you have an unlimited number of each to use.

Okay, so Tommy was right. TuneUp is a powerful and easy-to-use program to manage your music! Thanks for the excellent screencast.

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Need for Speed Car Racing Video Game

Chris — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:17:13 +0000

Need for Speed Car Racing Video Game is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Playing Need for Speed on my iPhone is actually a great way to unwind. I gotta thank the folks at EA for sending this along to me to play with – I mean… review! I’ve been having a great time trying to beat my own score. Racing games are always fun, but this one takes first prize in my book. It has excellent graphics and animations, the audio is good, and it’s just plain fun.

Need for Speed: Shift features 20 cars to maneuver through 18 tracks with your phone’s tilt functionality. You can play on your own, or against your friends via Bluetooth or over Wi-Fi.

It takes some getting used to in order to properly control your cars when using a mobile device, but it’s not as difficult as some people have made it out to be. Sure, it’s easier to use a joystick. But you can’t take your console with you on the bus, now can you!?

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The Simpsons iPhone Video Game

Chris — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:05:07 +0000

The Simpsons iPhone Video Game is a post from Chris Pirillo

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If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, and you’re a fan of the Simpsons, you’re going to want this App. I’m very thankful that the folks over at EA for sending me this App to review! I admit that I’ve spent far too many hours already sitting here playing it!

The Simpsons Arcade is full of win. You can help Homer save Springfield, or make him figure out how to buy presents for Christmas even though he didn’t get a holiday bonus.

The bad guys pretty much look the same throughout the game, but the boss fights make up for it. They are creative, and actually very, very well created. There are tons of levels to the game, and tons of hours of fun.

You can get the App right now for about five dollars. I guarantee that you’ll get more than your money’s worth out of this game.

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Manage Your iPod Without iTunes

Chris — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:31:00 +0000

Manage Your iPod Without iTunes is a post from Chris Pirillo

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If you have an iPod, you know that using iTunes to sync it and manage your music can be a pain at times. Copy Trans Manager is a free alternative that is much easier to use. Marques is back with another screencast, and this time he’s going to show us all how to effectively manage our playlists and libraries with ease.

Copy Trans Manager can manage all of the music on your computer, not just that within your iPod or iPhone. Add music & videos to iPod, edit song tags and artworks, create and organize iPhone playlists, or preview tracks with the integrated music player. It has never been this simple!

It’s faster and lighter than iTunes… and it’s free. iTunes cannot effectively manage all of your media, though. Once you’ve downloaded Copy Trans Manager, simply install it. After installation, you’ll be taken to the Copy Trans Manager interface. Click to open the Copy Trans Manager itself.

First, the software will let you know it’s safe to connect your iPod. Go ahead and import all of your music, photos and even games into the program. Under “Advanced Settings”, there are numerous options you can choose in order to manage your music and files to your liking. Play around with them until you are satisfied with the way things are.

Copy Trans Manager is a very powerful piece of freeware, one that works amazingly well. It’s simple to use, and will do everything iTunes can do… and so much more!

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iTunes Alternative

Chris Pirillo — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:50:32 +0000

iTunes Alternative is a post from Chris Pirillo

You might not like iTunes (heaven knows I don’t). How else are you going to manage the content on your iPod or iPhone?

Try a free utility like CopyTrans Manager. It’s pretty much an iTunes replacement on the Windows platform. That’s all you’ll want or need if you feel that iTunes is giving you more than you’re asking for in terms of media management. Can’t argue with the price tag, either.

Portable Scanner for the iPhone

Chris — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:34:32 +0000

Portable Scanner for the iPhone is a post from Chris Pirillo

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JotNot is a five dollar application, available in the iTunes store. Even though I had only had this App for one day when I recorded this video, it had already turned out to be one of the best Apps I own. JotNot turns your iPhone into a portable document scanner. I took a picture of a document, and performed optimizations right on my iPhone. That makes it nice so that sensitive information never leaves my control.

This is handy if you’re nowhere near a copier, scanner or fax machine. You can take pictures and organize things in an automated capacity. If you’re already going to have your iPhone with you, it makes sense to have a scanning application loaded onto it. You don’t just want to use your camera. JotNot lets you stabilize the camera, and then capture the image. Once you’ve done that, you need to define the edges of your document. You can’t do that with a regular camera shot!

Now you’re going to process your document. Choose your settings to save it as, the jpeg quality, the background color, and more! This could have been a receipt, or just a plain document. It’s optimized perfectly now for use as a document of any type. You can even scan in and manage multiple pages within one document! I can even export this scan via email so that I can print it out whenever I need it.

I don’t know how I lived without this App before. It’s a no-brainer – you really need this App if you have an iPhone. You’ll be surprised to find out how much you’re going to end up using it, and how much time it can save you in the long run.

CSSN Portable Business Card Scanner and Reader – Scan2Contacts

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Creating Your Own iPhone App

Chris — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:06:52 +0000

Creating Your Own iPhone App is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Anthony walked us through the basics of creating an iPhone App in his last screencast. This time, he’s decided to get a little more in-depth, helping you to customize even more things. You, too, can submit a screencast to our channels.

This time you’re going to add an icon and a loading screen to your previously created iPhone App “Hello World”. Go into XCode, and create a new project, and then save it. Minimize that, so that we can manipulate our images. The icon has to be 57 pixels x 57 pixels. Anthony suggests using the .png extension to save your icon, as that seems to render the best within the App. Title this “icon.png”.

For the image that you will use for the loading screen, you’ll want to save it at 320 pixels x 480 pixels. Also, you will likely want the word “loading” on that image, so people will know they need to wait and not be tapping their screen. Title your loading image as “default.png”. Make sure you save your changes on both images!

Here is where Anthony gets a lot more technical. I’m not going to write out every instruction, as it is likely not something that all of you will be doing! However, if you are thinking of creating an iPhone App of your own – watch the video and take notes! Anthony does an excellent job of walking you through what needs to be done, step-by-step.

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iPhone Comics

Chris — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:10:53 +0000

iPhone Comics is a post from Chris Pirillo

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This is Ken Brady, who lives in both Portland and Japan. He’s a software developer who I think you’ll want to follow! He’s working on a few very cool things. One of these is a comic reader for the iPhone. You can change languages on the fly even, from English to Japanese! There are game-style elements involved, which makes it not only cool for people who like to read these types of comics. It’s also geared towards those of you who may want to create comics! This App is called Foxfire, and will be available soon!

Ken works with One Coin Comics. They have several excellent ideas floating about, many of which we’ll be seeing in the near future. In addition to Foxfire, Golden will be hitting the market soon. Golden is another comic series, focusing on the life and trials of abby – a self-assured musician who finds herself caught up in a mystery.

I ran into Ken a few weeks ago when I was attending the [re]Think Hawaii conference. I not only had a great time there… I met some awesome people, as well. Ken was one of them. Comics on my iPhone. Who knew?

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How to Make an iPhone App

Chris — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:25:10 +0000

How to Make an iPhone App is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Anthony saw my call for screencasters, and stepped up to the plate. He has created an amazing tutorial for all of you would-be iPhone devs out there! In this screencast, he will show you how to get started, and walk you through creating a simple iPhone App of your very own! It’s not too late for you to submit a screencast to be uploaded to our channels. Click on the link at the beginning of this description for more information.

First, you’ll need to head over to Apple’s Dev Center and download the SDK. This includes the Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator, and a suite of additional tools for developing applications for iPhone and iPod touch. You do not need to buy a developer account – you can use a free one to start with. If you are interested in submitting something to the App Store at some point, you can then look at the membership options.

To create a new iPhone application, you start by creating a new project in Xcode. A project manages all of the information associated with your application, including the source files, build settings, and rules needed to put all of the pieces together. The Groups and Files list is where you manage the files in your project, including your source files and the build targets that are created from those source files. The toolbar gives you access to commonly used tools and commands while the details pane provides a configurable space for working on your project.

The Interface Builder is the next component you will need. It’s the tool that you’ll use to make your App user interface. Using this tool, you’ll assemble your App’s window by dragging and dropping preconfigured components into it. These include standard things like switches, text fields and buttons. Once you put them on the window’s surface, you can move them around, configure them and establish how these interact with your code.

The iPhone Simulator is used to test your App, so that you don’t have to use an actual iPhone. This will save you a load of time, and is very easy to use.

It’s not as difficult to create an iPhone App as you may have thought. With patience and time, anyone can learn how to do these. Once you create something unique that others may want to have, you’ll be able to start earning money on the App Store.

Thanks to Anthony for the excellent tutorial… and good luck to all of you budding iPhone developers!

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How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

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