Archive for June, 2011

By Terrence O’Brien posted Jun 23rd 2011 4:00AM

Gun accessories for your Wiimote or Move wands are old hat but, we can’t help but be at least a little intrigued by this rifle-like dock for the iPhone. The appBlaster is an accessory from apptoyz designed specifically for use with the company’s Alien Attack iOS game. Slide in your iDevice and fire up the AR shooter and you’ll be treated to a bit of Piper-vision, exposing the invisible aliens in our midst. Pull the triggers and two capacitive pads touch the screen to fire at the invaders that only you can see. The appBlaster is available for pre-order now at RED5 for £19.99 (about $32) and will official hit shelves on July 7. Check out the PR after the break.

via [engadget]

There is no such thing as too many music apps. Maybe your device doesn’t have enough room for them all, in which case there is such thing for too many music apps for you. But in general, different apps bring different features to the table, and different interfaces work for different people. Different is the word I’m really looking for, I think. It appears that Google has a firm grasp of music ownership, with its Google Music service. They’re rolling out invites pretty quickly at this point, and after using it for almost a month I have to say that I’ve been using my other music apps less and less. But I still do use them, because Google Music doesn’t quite have everything. Yahoo!’s new music app does add a few features to the table, and so it will find a home, if only temporary, on my device.

Three features separate Yahoo! Play from its competitors. While other apps feature similar functions, Yahoo brings them together, which certainly has value. The first feature is song identification. Again, we’ve seen plenty of these apps in the Market, but Yahoo brings it in addition to other features. It also has a continuous feature, so you can let it sit and identify many consecutive songs. The second feature is Facebook and Twitter sharing. My friends and I use the #nowplaying (or #np) hash tag when we want to share what songs we’re currently playing. It doesn’t appear that Yahoo Play adds the hash tag, but it does allow you to easily share your listening tastes with friends and followers.

The biggest of the three features is called Smart Shuffle. The app can identify songs that you like, using your own listening habits. It’s essentially like Pandora for your own music library, though there is no thumbs upping or downing. It just kinda knows. You can use this as a general feature, or you can base it on the song or artist you are currently playing. It would be quite better if Yahoo! had a deal similar to Slacker or Pandora and could supplement your own music library with streaming songs that you don’t yet own. Alas, that does not appear to be a feature of Play.

The app also includes other small features, such as Yahoo! Music news integration. While you’re listening to select artists — that is, popular artists — you can view the latest news about them right from the app. This doesn’t do fans of obscure music much good, but I’m sure that fans of obscure music already have their music playing app picked out and aren’t about to switch. (While I’m certainly guilty of stereotyping here, I do so with first-hand experience. Music snobs tend to be nerds about all aspects of the listening experience, including media player.) The app also scrobbles ot Last.fm, so you can keep track of your listening habits.

Play by Yahoo! is powered by Insctinctiv, which is an excellent Android media player. In fact, if you find the screen shot to your right familiar, it’s because Play uses essentially the same menu screen. The partnership gives me a bit more faith that this is a quality media player and not just some slipshod attempt by Yahoo to break further into the Android marketplace.

If you want to give Play by Yahoo a shot, you can get it at the Market for free. If you’re undecided still, check out the video below.

Yahoo v1 – Watch it on YouTube

Quick post

For someone who uses labels so extensively in Gmail, I’m not quite sure how I lasted this long without this app. I was one of those compulsive manual refreshers, spamming my refresh button when I was out and knew a label was expecting mail. It seems those days are now behind me, thanks to GMail Label Notifier.

GMail Label Notifier is just what the title suggests, a notification for all your labels that aren’t your Inbox. Once you’ve installed, setup is beyond simple. Open the app, select your Google account or add another Google account, and you’ll be taken to a menu that shows you all your labels. From here, you select the labels you want to be notified about (one at a time), and customize your settings for each label.
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Augmented reality app concept conjures movie scenes shot in your location (video)

AR technology has been getting seriously powerful recently, but we still need smart little ideas like this to keep us interested. “Augmented Reality Cinema” is a concept which would spot when you’re in a famous movie location and then trigger playback of the relevant scene. Although we can’t be sure the app actually works yet, the video after the break does at least show off the idea with some memorable London clips, including the classic post-infestation Westminster Bridge scene from 28 Days Later. If the designers ever need movie fans to go around tagging cinematic locations, then obviously we’re keen to register our interest.