An iPhone/iPad Audio App Wish

I just got the iRig Recorder app for the iPhone, it's as the name suggests an app that records audio. iRig Recorder is aimed at the spoken word (IK Multimedia have other apps aimed at vocals and instruments). Like a lot of apps in the app store there is a free and a paid for version (£2.99).
But I don't want to turn this into a review of the app, I want to speak about the export options. iRig Recorder will allow me to export my recordings via email, iTunes File Sharing, Wi-fi, FTP upload and SoundCloud.
FiRe another iPhone recording app allows me to export using FTP, SoundCloud or Wi-fi. WavePad allows me to export via FTP and email. And finally GarageBand allows me to export via email or iTunes.
Have you noticed something missing from these apps export options? Yep why can't I export to DropBox?
Now I don't expect GarageBand to support DropBox, well it is Apple, and they have their own versions, sadly not available in GarageBand.
It would be nice if these sound recording app developers would offer DropBox. It's not as if adding support for it would cost them anything, the api is free after all.
What would be nice is if something like WavePad had DropBox support for importing files as well. How bloody useful would that be? Very, imagine recording with something like FiRe or iRig Recorder, process briefly in app, export to DropBox and then import into WavePad for editing. That would be a fantastic audio workflow.

For me this sort of integration and functionality would turn these apps from good apps into great apps, that would be indispensable when it comes to the classroom and recording podcasts with students.

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Free Kindle book about the iPad

Thanks to @londonbackpackr for sharing this with me on Twitter.

Beginner's guide to using your iPad as a business productivity tool http://amzn.to/mDKbPG #free_kindle_book


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RIP: The fall of the Best Camera app

One of my favourite photo editing apps was the Best Camera app. But it has been replaced in my affections by other apps like Camera+ and Camera Plus Pro.
It's sad really as Best Camera had some nice touches, like being able to apply multiple filters.
What makes it worse for me is that Best Camera could of been as big as Instagram. It had the sharing of your photos, you could vote on others pictures, but sadly could not subscribe to other photographers. So kind of half way there on the social side.
And while new competitors came out like the Lisa Bettany backed Camera+, and Instagram, Best Camera failed to update and stay ahead of the group.

Best Camera had it all, it had Chase Jarvis and his book behind it, it was a pretty good app, great filters etc, had a social and sharing side. And where is it now? Lagging behind. It almost seems as if the developer and Chase Jarvis got bored with the app and are letting it just die.

It's sad to see an app go this way. I feel pretty angry really. I liked the app, I spent good money on it, I recommended it to friends when they asked for an app to use.
Oh well I just have to remember not to be fooled by Chase Jarvis and the Best Camera app developers again.

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Mystery Footballer Takes On Twitter

I woke up this morning to Radio Five Live covering the news story of Twitter being taken to court by a mystery footballer.

Now before I go any further I will state I am not a lawyer, so none of what I am about to say is based in legal fact. It is just ramblings and thoughts on the subject and my understanding on how things are.

Right back to this mystery footballer. In the UK our courts have what has been described in our press as a "super injunction". A "super injunction" is a way for the rich and famous to try and protect their privacy. Or as it is really used to stop the press from reporting the indiscretions of the rich and famous, such as having affairs.
How does a "super injunction" help them do this? Well basically it's a gagging order that stops the press in the UK from reporting those indiscretions to the public. And here is the super part it also stops the reporting that they are not allowed report on the story.
So once a "super injunction" has been granted nothing can be reported. Pretty cool hey? Now the reason I said that this was for the rich and famous is that it costs a lot of money to do this, so it is definitely out of reach of normal people to get.
Let's get back to this footballer. Now it got out that a footballer (who like Lord Voldemont in Harry Potter can't be named because of a "super injunction") got a "super injunction" to stop the reporting of an affair that he had.
Sadly for this footballer his name got out and was reported on Twitter by users there. Which brings us to the story hitting the UK press front pages of lawyers acting on behalf of this mystery footballer taking Twitter to court in the UK to get the details of those users naming the footballer.
Which is weird. Because Twitter is firstly a company based in San Francisco in the US of A. So isn't answerable to the UK courts. Which means that those lawyers should be going to the US courts to get the user details. Secondly because this is UK law, the US courts could rightly decide that this is a UK issue and deny the request and say Twitter doesn't have to hand the details over.
I think what we can take for granted is that Twitter will stand up and refuse to hand the details over (Twitter have a track record of defending their user details), and force the footballers lawyers to go to the US courts.
Now when the Digital Economy Bill was being passed I thought there was clauses that allowed the UK Government to block websites. What I can't remember if this was linked just to sites pirating stuff or it could be any site for any reason the UK minister decided. So it is possible for the courts to ask the UK minister that has the power to block sites to get Twitter blocked in the UK for breaking UK law.
Could you imagine that, UK Twitter users blocked from using Twitter. How big an out roar would there be? It would be a brave Government that did this.
But I hope this flight of fancy happens, because it would show Joe public in the UK just how bad the Digital Economy Bill is, and would put pressure on the Government to reform it.
However as I stated at the start these are just ramblings on a tech subject in the news today that I know nothing about. What I do know is that we have far more entertainment value to come from this story, and lots of inaccurate reporting in the UK press on the tech issues.


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