Partner snore? There’s an app for that

Filed under: iPhone, App Review

Ilan Aisic, the CEO of Pointer Software, had a problem. Or rather his wife did. Ilan snores and it was driving his wife crazy, so he developed Snoring U US $4.99 an unusual iPhone app that monitors snoring while you sleep using the built in microphone. You wear your iPhone using an arm band or put it on your night table and when it detects at least four snores, measured by a change in the decibel level of the room, the app will vibrate or play a sound clip that you can record to tell you to turn over, stop snoring or whatever you like.

It was developed under the guidance of an Israeli specialist in internal pulmonary and sleep medicine. Although no specific claims are made, I can easily see this working since I have exactly the same problem and this seems to automate what goes on three or four times a night. The snoring wakes me up, I ask my partner to turn over or change position and go back to sleep until the snoring wakes me up again. This app does the same thing but, from what I've been told, without the non-snorer waking up.

You can control just about everything in the app from number of snores to sensitivity determining when the app should kick in, to how long it should wait before it recognizes another snoring event. It also graphs what happened, so the next morning you can see a chart showing you all the times the app kicked in, what times it happened and the loudness of the snoring. But the neatest part for me, is prima facie evidence against the daily intoning of "...But I don't snore."

Ha! Busted.

Partner snore? There's an app for that originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Partner snore? There's an app for that originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Macworld 2010: TUAW interviews Jeff Scott of Best App Ever

Filed under: Macworld, Gaming, Software, Interviews, iPhone, App Store

We've been livestreaming all day long from the floor of Macworld 2010, and our very first interview of the day was with Jeff Scott, both of 148Apps.com and the Best App Ever awards. Jeff just announced the Best App Ever winners (in all fifty-six categories) at the show last night, and he brought the list of winners to our booth today to discuss the winner of the 2009 Best App Ever (spoiler: it's Pocket God) and all the other winning apps. Additionally, we show off a little of the show floor around our broadcasting booth, and we chat about what we expect to see at Macworld and how it's changed in years past.

Excellent interview, and thanks to Jeff for stopping by to help us kick off the livestream right. Hit the break to watch the video, and stay tuned all this week for more interviews and coverage just like this, as TUAW covers every single inch of the Macworld show floor at the Moscone Center.

Continue reading Macworld 2010: TUAW interviews Jeff Scott of Best App Ever

Macworld 2010: TUAW interviews Jeff Scott of Best App Ever originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld 2010: TUAW interviews Jeff Scott of Best App Ever originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TiPb at Macworld 2010 — Day 1 Gallery

Rene and I are here at Macworld 2010 and having a blast wandering the Expo Hall. We’ve interviewed many developers and accessory manufactures and snapped some photos for your viewing pleasure. Check them out after the break!

TiPb at Macworld 2010 — Day 1 Gallery is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Apple Begins 10K Count Down to 10 Billion iTunes Music Downloads

Apple has begun a countdown to it’s 10 billionth (that’s right, 10,000,000,000) iTunes music download, and to celebrate they’re giving away a $10,000 dollar gift card.

iTunes changed the way you buy music, making songs and albums available for download, day or night. Seven years later, we’re about to celebrate our biggest milestone for music, yet — 10 billion songs downloaded. Buy a song, and if it’s the 10 billionth download, you could win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. It’s our way of saying thanks.

Similar to the give away they did for the 1 billionth App Store app download, we’re left to wonder — how would you spend $10K on iTunes, and how harsh will commenters be to the poor young kid who inevitably always wins these things?

Apple Begins 10K Count Down to 10 Billion iTunes Music Downloads is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Square opens public trial for iPhone payment system

Eager to get in on the whole "using your iPhone to pay for stuff" revolution? Too bad your wallet is vehemently disagreeing right now. At any rate, the folks behind the Square iPhone payment system have finally seen fit to open up their solution to the public, but only in the form of a pilot. If you're interested to be one of the few scratching the impulse-buy-itch with a cellphone dongle, hit that source link to sign up. For the rest of ya, there's an explanatory video after the break.

Continue reading Square opens public trial for iPhone payment system

Square opens public trial for iPhone payment system originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPhone 101: How to force quit an unresponsive app

Filed under: How-tos, Tips and tricks, TUAW Tips, iPhone, iPhone 101, iPod touch

We here at the TUAW headquarters rely pretty heavily on our iPhones when we're away from our desks. This is especially true for the lucky ones on the floor at Macworld 2010. Sometimes however, our little pocket computers go haywire and refuse to respond to our commands.

To force quit an unresponsive app all you have to do is press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until you see the red slider. Normally, this is what you would do to power down your iPhone or iPod touch. In this case however, when the slider appears, release the sleep/wake button and then press and hold the Home button. If it works correctly, your iPhone will forcefully quit the unresponsive app and return you to your home screen.

I have found this especially useful on the rare occasion that Mail begins to choke on my multi-thousand message inbox. Sometimes this simple kick in the pants is all that is needed and is a lot quicker than a hard reboot followed by the waiting required during boot up.

iPhone 101: How to force quit an unresponsive app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

iPhone 101: How to force quit an unresponsive app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Not Building Its Own Search Engine; Gets $100 Million a Year From Google For iPhone Search Deal

Macworld 2010: Hands-on with Musicskins

Filed under: Macworld, Accessories, iPod Family, Apple, iPhone, iPad

Musicskins was kind enough to show us around their booth on the Macworld floor, and while we expected to see the usual vinyl case stickers, what we found was actually pretty impressive. The 'skins, which are made for almost every accessory and device under the sun (the rep told us they add five to ten devices to their roster per week) are actually very durable.

For one thing, they're made to be removed and replaced as much as you want, so while attaching one to the back of your iPhone, you don't have to worry about making one minor mistake and having to stare at it every time you check Twitter. The skins themselves have little grooves on the surface, which we were told acted as air channels, so if you ever did get a bubble underneath, it's much easier to squeeze out.

But the most interesting part of skins like these isn't on the side towards the phone, it's on the side away. Musicskins is one of the biggest licensors of art for device skins, and as you can see in the gallery below, they've got all kinds of different famous and infamous licenses to stick on your iPod, iPhone or Macbook. They just recently made Apple history, too -- read on to learn how.

Continue reading Macworld 2010: Hands-on with Musicskins

Macworld 2010: Hands-on with Musicskins originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld 2010: Hands-on with Musicskins originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Expo Notes: Camera Plus Pro previews video capabilities

At Macworld Expo, Global Delight is previewing the next version of Camera Plus Pro, which will add the ability to shoot video to the multipurpose camera app.

Analyst: Apple Might Lower iPad Price If Sales Don’t Pick Up

In Stock: ScreeenGuardz Privacy Screens for iPhone

NLU Privacy ScreenGuardz [$19.99 - TiPb Store link] are custom designed to protect your iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G screen from wandering eyes. They offer 4-way security (up, down, left and right) but are crystal clear viewing straight on.

Easy to apply and remove, the ultra-slim privacy film overlays conceal your data while protecting your iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G from scratches!

Video from Macworld 2010, after the break!

In Stock: ScreeenGuardz Privacy Screens for iPhone is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Exploit Discovered to Unlock iPhone OS 3.1.3

Review: Green Screen Studio for iPhone

This app, which looks to transform your mobile photos by adding in new backgrounds, falls short. Many features just don't work very well, and things feel half-finished.

Microsoft’s Office Suite Coming to iPad?

According to the gadget website T3, Microsoft Senior Product Manager Mike Tedesco recently let it be known that the Seattle based company is currently toying with the possibility of creating a version of their Office suite for Apple’s iPad.

“Yeah, it’s something that we’re looking at,” said Microsoft’s Mike Tedesco, who is the Senior Product Manager for WindowsBU. “Obviously the announcement (of the iPad) is really fresh and there’s nothing to announce or nothing that I can talk to you about today. We’ve had tablet technology forever and both Windows 7 and Windows Vista automatically detect that and you can be running your Office on there.”

This is great news as it is has the ability to attract a huge sector of business users to the iPad. Perhaps this is just a sign of things to come between Apple and Microsoft. We first heard the rumor of the two companies trying to oust Google by making Bing the default search engine on iPhone. Now we learn Microsoft is interested in Office on iPad and what’s next, Office on iPhone?

[Via MacRumors via T3]

Microsoft’s Office Suite Coming to iPad? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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AppCubby talks GasCubby, TripCubby, and HealthCubby at Macworld 2010

David Barnard of AppCubby talks to TiPb about GasCubby [$6.99 - iTunes link], TripCubby [$6.99 - iTunes link], and HealthCubby [$6.99 - iTunes link]… and shares his iPad thoughts! at Macworld 2010.

Video after the break!

AppCubby talks GasCubby, TripCubby, and HealthCubby at Macworld 2010 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Expo Notes: Temptd app looks to boost your willpower

At Macworld Expo, Frog Design is demonstrating a beta of its forthcoming Temptd app, which uses social networking to help you kick bad habits.

Apple Rolls Out ‘Countdown to 10 Billion Songs’ Promotion

Apple today unveiled a "Countdown to 10 Billion Songs" promotion via the iTunes Store, offering the contest winner a prize of a $10,000 iTunes gift card. A counter on the main iTunes Store page and Apple's home page currently displays in exc...

Apple Releases Software Update Addressing Audio-Related Mac Pro Heat and Performance Issues

Apple today released Mac Pro Audio Update 1.0, addressing heat and performance issues experienced by users of Apple's Nehalem-based Mac Pros when processing audio.

This update is for Mac Pro (Early 2009) computers running Mac OS X v10...

Quick App Update: BeejiveIM for iPhone Updated to v3.2

BeejiveIM [iTunes Link - $9.99] has always been one of TiPb’s favorite IM clients and it continues to impress with the release of version 3.2. This application is arguably one of the finest IM clients currently available for the iPhone and iPod touch and with the following enhancements it’s hard for anyone to dispute.

• Performance enhancements, faster startup time, especially with large number of chats open.
• Dynamic message loading for chats. By default, only the previous 50 messages (configurable) in a chat is loaded at startup, scroll up to load more.
• Groups button added to buddy list (as in contacts.app)
• Search moved to inside buddy list (as in contacts.app)
• Several bug fixes, including several Facebook sync crash problems.
• Several minor UI enhancements

If BeejiveIM is already in your arsonal of apps what are you waiting for, head to the App Store and update now. For those of you still shopping around for a more than decent IM client, BeejiveIM is top notch.

Let us know how it works for you!

Quick App Update: BeejiveIM for iPhone Updated to v3.2 is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

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Motorola jumps the gun on Droid upgrade announcement

Android 2.1 will not be appearing on Droid soon, despite Motorola's promise earlier this week.