Steve Jobs Ranked World’s 136th Richest Person

In its annual list of the world's billionaires, Forbes this year ranked Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a tie with six others for 136th place with a net worth of $5.5 billion. Jobs' net worth is up from $5.1 billion in an October 2009 Forbes ranking...

iPhone OS 3.2 SDK Reveals New Gestures; References To Video Calls Removed

Count The Beats: Inspiration… two apps for the musician on the move

Filed under: Multimedia, Software, iPhone, App Store, Music

Recently I've been preparing to move home and finally did last weekend. Naturally I had to pack up all my musical gear, equipment and of course, my Mac. In the week leading up to the move, I've had my iPhone and nothing else. With no creative outlet and the pressure of looming project deadlines, I found myself scouting the app store for a fix to help me start fleshing out a few creative ideas.

This is what I found that worked well for me.

1. TonePad and TonePad Pro

The iTunes Store describes TonePad Pro as "...the easiest way to make music. Discover the inner musician in you. Create songs by simply touching." And this is exactly what I found. With a 16 x 16 matrix, and an easy-to-use user interface (literally start tapping your fingers and music is made), I found myself coming up with little melodies and tunes immediately. Although you only have the 16 x 16 matrix, to me, what initially seemed quite limiting soon became a boundary for creative focus.

You can save an unlimited number of tunes to listen back to, and upload them to a shared server where your buddies can check out what you've been musing. With the paid version, you can save your melodies into a ringtone that will sync back to your iPhone, too.

2. Flourish

Flourish is something a bit more immersive. While having a steeper learning curve, there's loads more to explore here. The user interface is really fresh and unique (especially for the iPhone), and presents a creative challenge in focusing your composition whilst giving you the space to try different approaches to what you are creating.

Basically Flourish represents musical phrases as physical loops:

-Record loops with expressive multi-touch keyboards.
-Generate percussive and melodic sequences.
-Build arrangements by ear or by eye.
-Select from a consonant collection of instruments.
-Sequence loops by connecting them in chain.

Check out the Flourish website for a few demo clips.

Let us know in the comments below what other apps for the iPhone / iPod Touch, or the Mac, that are inspiring you to make music.

Count The Beats: Inspiration... two apps for the musician on the move originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Count The Beats: Inspiration... two apps for the musician on the move originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Will iPhone OS 4.0 Unify The iPhone And iPad Platforms?

Review: Hangman RSS for iPhone

This app taps an RSS feed to pump out the first half-dozen words of news headlines, requiring you to play an individual game of hangman on one or more of those words. It's easily one of the more clever and challenging hangman games in the App Store.

GDC 2010: Call of Duty: World at War Zombies postmortem

Filed under: Gaming, Retail, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store

Continue reading GDC 2010: Call of Duty: World at War Zombies postmortem

GDC 2010: Call of Duty: World at War Zombies postmortem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GDC 2010: Call of Duty: World at War Zombies postmortem originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Hexacore Mac Pros Next Tuesday?

ZDNet reports that it has received information from tipsters claiming that Apple will release new Mac Pro models next Tuesday, adding a hexacore Core i7-based model to its lineup.

I'm gett...

Apple holds second place U.S. smartphone share

ComScore's latest numbers on U.S. smartphone market share show Apple holding second place, though Android is growing strongly.

New iPad SDK Adds Gesture Tools, Removes Video Chat Icons

Apple yesterday released the fourth beta version of the SDK for iPad developers, and observers have started to find a few differences popping up in the latest update.


9 to 5 Mac reports that Apple has added support for "3Tap" a...

GDC 2010: Interview with Street Fighter IV producer Takeshi Tazuka

Filed under: Gaming, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPad

Continue reading GDC 2010: Interview with Street Fighter IV producer Takeshi Tazuka

GDC 2010: Interview with Street Fighter IV producer Takeshi Tazuka originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GDC 2010: Interview with Street Fighter IV producer Takeshi Tazuka originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Brizzly gobbles up iPhone Twitter client Birdfeed

Birdfeed, the "very nice twitter client for your iPhone and iPod Touch," has been purchased and replaced with Brizzly by Thing Labs.

Apple Patent Hints At Technology To Replace Conventional Keys With iPhone

New Gestures in iPhone SDK 3.2 for iPad?

9to5Mac continues its tradition of tearing through new iPhone 3.2 SDK for iPad betas, this time digging into beta 4 and finding:

In the gestures folder, you’ll see two new types of commands (3Tap.plist and LongPress.plist) that are certainly not implemented in the current 3.1 iPhone SDK.

No idea what these mean yet, but if you were Apple, what would you use the triple tap and long press for? (Aside from morse code!)

New Gestures in iPhone SDK 3.2 for iPad? is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Birdfeed Twitter Client is now Brizzly… and Free!

The delightful Twitter client Birdfeed has been bought, updated, and rebranded by Brizzly and is now available as Brizzly for iPhone… for free! [iTunes link]

If you’re looking for a great Twitter client, give Brizzly a try. (Note: per comment below, you do need a brizzly.com account to use it which might not appeal to some.)

[via Daring Fireball]

Birdfeed Twitter Client is now Brizzly… and Free! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

GDC 2010: Ngmoco justifies the freemium model

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store

Continue reading GDC 2010: Ngmoco justifies the freemium model

GDC 2010: Ngmoco justifies the freemium model originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GDC 2010: Ngmoco justifies the freemium model originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No TiPb Live Tonight, More GDC Coverage to Come!

Apologies everyone but there won’t be a TiPb Live! tonight due to me being at GDC 2010, Chad being sick, and Mickey being horribly disappointed in the both of us.

We’ll try to make it up to you with some more great GDC coverage, however. I’ve shot tons of video for TiPb Apps and will be posting it up in the feed asap. If you’re hungry for instant content, I’m posting notes over on Twitter. Otherwise hang tight, we’ll have a round up later this week.

(Also did some moonlighting for PreCentral.net and WMExperts (link to come), so if you want to see what the competition is up to with webOS and Windows Phone 7 Series, check that out).

No TiPb Live Tonight, More GDC Coverage to Come! is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb - The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Report Claims Apple Is Threatening iPhone Competitors For Patent Infringement

PhatWare Releases WritePad 3.1 for iPhone

PhatWare Corporation, a leading provider of software products and professional services for mobile and desktop computers, today is pleased to announce the immediate availability of WritePad 3.1, the unique software that allows users to enter text, utilizing advanced handwriting recognition software for cursive, print, or mixed handwriting styles on iPhone ...

GDC 2010: Ngmoco previews We Rule and GodFinger

Filed under: Gaming, Freeware, Developer, iPhone

We stopped by Ngmoco's suite at GDC 2010 on the afternoon of the first day of the show, and got a chance to preview two upcoming titles they're working on testing and releasing soon. Both of the games follow Ngmoco's popular (and yet much-maligned) "freemium" model, in which you download the game for free with the option to buy in-game items or currency that can change up or speed your gameplay. Still, while the model might turn some players off, the games we saw were the kinds of games Ngmoco is slowly becoming known for: polished casual experiences that bring an established genre squarely into their business model.

The first game we saw was called We Rule -- it's currently "beta testing" in the Canadian App Store and will be available to users in other App Stores soon. It was described to us as "Farmville meets Age of Empires," but what we saw was much more like Farmville rather than the more combat-based RTS title. The game opens on a screen full of "realms," each one developed and grown by one of your Ngmoco Plus+ friends, and you can zoom into your own to start building it up.

Continue reading GDC 2010: Ngmoco previews We Rule and GodFinger

GDC 2010: Ngmoco previews We Rule and GodFinger originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

GDC 2010: Ngmoco previews We Rule and GodFinger originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Six Months Later: ‘iTunes LP’ Format Performance Remains Lackluster

GigaOM provides an interesting reexamination of Apple's "iTunes LP" format for enhanced album content six months after the format's debut. While iTunes LPs were touted at its launch as a means to reignite sales of albums as opposed to indivi...