I am Ashley Elsdon

someone who's doing some things

Tag: Apps

Everything is about apps at the moment. A lot of what I mention under the apps tag is around iOS and mobile music, but there’s other stuff too, and not just iOS, but Android, Palm OS and Windows mobile.

The new Jasuto is the new Jasuto

Posted by on in Creative Process, Mobile Applications
Something complicated
Something not so complicated

Of course it was wonderful to see the new version of Jasuto (v 1.5) finally arrive on the app store after such a massive gap. And it wasn’t a disappointment at all. There’s plenty of new toys in there that are all great and shiny. It’s fun to play with this after such a long time. It reminds me just how good it is to make things, to put things together and see how they work.

I remember when Jasuto first came out it was a truly amazing step forward for music making on mobile devices, but it was hard to get into and I think a lot of people found that too, not really understanding how to make things work in Jasuto. It too me a while, but it was worth the effort and when I went back to it this week it was just as I’d remembered.

So I’m looking forward to spending more time with it and making more things as a lead in to some increased creativity after a somewhat dry spell.

Jasuto Modular Synth is available on the app store:

Android Inventor 2 has arrived

Posted by on in Tech

I’ve messed about with Android App Inventor since it’s very early days, when Google brought it out and made it available to the public. Then of course it moved off to MIT who’ve done a great job with it so far, and now it’s finally done away with the download and files you need to install. It’s now all in the browser at last. I’m looking forward to trying it out at last.

The only downside is that at the moment there’s no easy way to port projects from App Inventor ‘Classic’  to the new version. Still, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

My app of the week this week is … Tweetbot 3

Posted by on in Tech

I don’t think I could go back to using the standard twitter app anymore. Tweetbot 3 is so much easier to use, especially for multiple accounts, as it actually treats each account differently, or rather, it allows you to treat each account differently. In what way? Well, I use two ‘read it later’ services. One with each of my twitter accounts. Twitter’s own iOS app only allows you to use a single service across multiple accounts, but this doesn’t work for me. Tweetbot 3 allows me the flexibility I need here, and that’s not all.

In tweetbot 3 you can fine tune the interface, with the two buttons at the end of the bar being configurable. Again, this works on a per account basis, which is completely sensible in my view and is exactly what I need.

So overall tweetbot 3 is a massive step in the right direction and unless things with the main twitter app change significantly I won’t be going back.

My app of the week is Launch Center Pro

Posted by on in Mobile Applications, Tech

The new version of Launch Center Pro looks like it’s a big improvement on the previous version. Having said that it is an iOS7 only update so I’m having to move up before seeing what it can really do. Not that I’m upgrading just for Launch Center Pro, there’s quite a few other reasons too, but I think that Launch Center is a handy way of automating stuff in iOS and that’s something I increasingly need.

App of the week: Business Model Toolbox for iPad is great for developing ideas

Posted by on in Work

I found this app because of some work I was doing around changing business models and revenue flows. It was interesting to read the book that generated this app/tool and use it in a practical sense.

The reviews on the app store for this app say that it’s overpriced for what it is, and I’d probably agree, but then again, given the relative niche market for the app it’s probably not a bad price in terms of the amount of work that went into it.

This app is really aimed at people who want or need to quickly understand the impact of different business models, so in a sense it’s a business model modelling tool, and in that sense it works very well. It’s best suited to that first step in evaluation, but once you’ve lined it up and got it where you wanted it you probably need something else, another tool after that.

The app is priced at £20.99.

Business Model Toolbox - Business Model Foundry

So, where next for my Pebble?

Posted by on in Wearable Computing

IMG_8462

I haven’t really used my Pebble smartwatch for about two months, possibly a bit less. Anyway, it’s just been sitting on a shelf for a while now and doing very little, which is a shame as it’s a lovely piece of technology. However, to be honest, I haven’t found a real use for it as yet sadly. I toyed with different faces for it, which was fun, and the notifications stuff was cool, but I never found it entirely compelling.

In many ways I’ve been struggling to find a real use for the technology, and it seems strange to try and find a use for something that’s meant to be useful straight away.

One thing I keep wondering is whether there’s a way to make the thing more useful in making music, but it doesn’t seem that this is being taken on board by developers really, or likely to be in the near future. My other main problem with it is that it isn’t particularly well supported by third party developers on iOS, whereas that’s not the case on Android. Now in part I expect that this is because Android is more open and developers are able to support lots of different integrations and features, such as Tasker support, which could make it very useful indeed.

But this doesn’t really work for me sadly as I don’t have an Android phone. However, I do have an cheap Android tablet that I’m starting to use more for bits and pieces, so my next step is to see what else I can use Android for and just how useful my Pebble will be connected to a tablet.

I’ll let you know how I get on.