Audio Speed Changing Apps: Android vs. iOS

Over the past few days, I was trying to find an app that I can adjust the speed of the audio files during playback - and preferably with an option to save/export the adjusted speed.

Why do I need that? Because ballet exams are approaching and the Royal Academy of Dance now allows the use of CD music for Pre-Primary and Primary grades. And rightfully so, because the tracks are entirely instrumental and uses lots of percussion arrangements to enliven the exercises. In fact, the piano arrangement is just uninspiring.

I have been tasked to alter the speed of some of the exercises so that it is more danceable. I usually use Adobe Audition to do the editing, but this year I thought I could use a portable computing device like the iPad to do the job.

So I tried to search what I wanted using these keywords: Audio, Speed, Tempo, Change, Time, WAV, MP3, Save, Export

It led me to Reforge for iPad, currently the only iOS app that allows me to export the new tempo into a new file. I paid US$5.99 and tried it, but soon found myself disliking the interface. Firstly, it is rather buggy. Some features stopped working and the app even hung the iPad. Also, the tempo rendering takes almost 1 minute, which is too long a wait to listen to the adjusted speed (though I must say the quality is quite good).

My quest continues and it appears after I dropped the ability to export, I got a handful of apps that can do real-time tempo adjustment and playback.

My favourite would have to be iLift for iPhone. You can just by semitone step, fine-tune within a semitone, and temp by percentage. The buttons are big and easy to adjust, and when running full-screen on iPad, you can't miss the buttons. Changes are on-the-fly. The only minor bug is that when I paused the music and want to start from another point, the app will still playback the previous point before resuming from the new point. It is rather irritating and disruptive. When you want to choose from the song list, the current song will stop playing. The tracks available has to store within the app, so if you want to use your iPod songs for adjustment, you have to add them first.
http://iliftapp.com/

The equivalent app in Android would have to be Audio Speed Changer. An added advantage is the display the waveform. And I can choose the next audio file without disrupting the current playback. But to adjust the speed would require the user to invoke a pop-up window. In the window, I can adjust by single percentage via a wheel or do vast adjustments via a drag bar. There is no option to adjust tempo, but that's the point about this app. I can select any song immediately from the Android phone library, the display list is a flat hierarchy and not in folders. Not an issue, because there is a search bar to get the song you want instantly.

Whichever app to choose depends on which platform you are using. But if you, like me, have both platforms, which one would I use? iLift for iPhone costs US$9.99, extremely pricey but worth the money if you need the functions as provided. Reforge for iPad costs US$5.99, and certainly more value for money with the list of audio features available. The drawback is the slow rendering of tempo changes and buggy. Audio Speed Change for Android is free, and offers only tempo changes. A paid version is in the works which will offer more premium features.

Part 2: Android Apps on my Samsung Galaxy S

More apps to recommend, continuing from my previous post!

Continuing my earlier story, my Motorola Milestone colleague who is using the Motorola Milestone has been lamenting about his insufficient phone memory to install Android apps (Milestone is officially only supporting Android 2.1, which does not allow apps to install on SD card). There was no such issues with the Samsung Galaxy S: for one, the 340MB RAM doesn't seem to run out (in fact, I never use the Advanced Task Killer for auto-kill). The internal 13GB user memory and 3GB phone memory is so generous, a normal user would never run out of space. And I did not mention the external micro-SD slot that allows you to insert external memory to expand your storage size.

Anyway, back to my list:

Email app
Galaxy S has a built-in email app for you to access your POP/IMAP/Exchange email. Unfortunately, it does not support HTML email format. So a workaround is to get third party apps. I use Touchdown with Exchange ActiveSync and it offers a complete experience in synchronising Microsoft Exchange email, calendar, tasks and contacts. It's not free, but if it's worth the money. But if non-HTML email is ok with you, then you might want to get Corporate Addressbook app, which allows you to access your corporate email address listing.

Web Browser app
Opera Mini is supposed to load webpages faster because the pages are pre-compressed at the server before downloading to your device. However, I find some sites do not load properly, particularly those sites that has interactive content (like Facebook). The other browser app that I have installed is Dolphin Browser. It offers multi-tab browsing, supports gesture, able to synchronise Google bookmarks, supports add-ons like Firefox, and loads practically every site properly.

Photo Capture app
Here are some camera apps that I installed. They offer different shooting features and processing filters like toy camera, polaroid. Camera 360, Retro Camera, Action Snap, FxCamera. One app called CamScanner actually allows you to capture an image and convert to a scanned PDF format.

Photo Editing app
These apps allow you to edit photos in your camera. My favourite is PicSay, it allows me to insert comic-style captions to make the photos more meaningful. Other apps like Photoid, Photoshop Express, also lets you crop, rotate, resize, adjust exposure, colour casts, etc.

Voice Recording app
The built-in voice recorder records in .AMR format, which is not easily supported. Get third party apps that can record in WAV or MP3. I got this app called Hertz that allows me to choose the resolution before recording.

Media Player app
The built-in media player cannot play all the video formats. For that, I use QQPlayer, which supports resume on each file.

Social Networking app
I use TweetDeck because it supports posting and feeds from Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare. To upload photos to Facebook, I use BFFPhoto, which also lets me browse photos from galleries of your friends and your subscribed pages.

Notes app
I use ColorNote to take notes. ColorNote supports backup and restore so that I can restore my notes when I change phones. ColorNote is primarily a note app but has basic task features like reminder and checklist, which I prefer over a task-oriented app. You may also try Catch Notes, which I find generally more powerful than ColorNote, as it allows you to attach photos, voice, location information to the notes, and sync to an online storage. But I continue to use ColorNote because it has a widget function to put your notes (with your choice of colours) on your homescreen that will indicate the number of to-do items you have.

Game app
Games are subjective, so I won't go into details. I have Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Mega Jump, Jewels, but I rarely play them on my phone. They are there just in case I really needed to kill boredom.

TV-Out
Yes! Samsung Galaxy S supports TV-Out via the 3.5mm jack. If you purchase the generic Video+Audio RCA to 3.5mm cable, you might need to swap the colours in order to get the video feed, because the Galaxy S connections are not standard. The output is not HD, but it's useful for simple presentations. I am still looking for a Powerpoint slide presentation app that can accurately run PPT/PPS files, then the Galaxy S would be the sleekest presentation device.

Managing Data Access from your Apps
Before you install any app, you will be informed of the permissions that the app will require on your phone, e.g. full Internet access. What this means is that once you install, this app will have the ability to connect to the data network at will. Sounds scary? That's why I am wary of apps that do that without any good reason. Many free apps that are ad-supported require Internet access so that ads can be loaded on the screen when you run it. Like they say, there is no free lunch in this world. Just make sure you subscribe to a data service with free bandwidth, or if you don't, disable data access on your device.


And there you have it! My recommendation of some apps that I use frequently on my Samsung Galaxy S. They are not necessarily the best, but they work for me. You can start trying these apps and if you have found better ones, do share with me on the comments section.

Android Apps on my Samsung Galaxy S (Part 1)

My colleague recently got himself a Motorola Milestone at a good price, and so we have been exchanging tips on enhancing our Android experience. He is a successful example of an iPhone-to-Android convert who is simply impressed with the customisation possibilities of the Android platform.

In this post, I'd like to share my experience of Android apps on Samsung Galaxy S, but it may apply to other Android phone users.

Screenshot of my Samsung Galaxy S, stock launcher (4x4 display with 4 dock icons)

All features on the Android phone are app-driven
What does that mean? It means that every icon you press to execute, be it the Phone, Messaging, Camera, Contacts, Calendar, Internet, Email - they are all apps. And the beauty of Android is that any of these apps MAY be replaced by third-party apps downloaded on the Android Market. For instance, there are Messaging apps like the popular Handcent SMS that replaces the stock Message app on your Android phone, that offers lots of customisation. Then just replace the existing Messages icon on the home screen with the Handcent icon and thereafter you will manage all your SMS/MMS via the new app. Isn't that fabulous?

OK on with the list!

Apps to recommend apps
All Android phones comes preloaded with Android Market app that helps you find apps. But that is not the only app that does that. AppBrain is one of my recommendations. With AppBrain, you can manage your apps on your desktop web browser, selecting apps to install or remove, and sync via the AppBrain app on your phone to apply the updates. You can also follow other AppBrain users to see what apps they installed, so that you can also choose to install them.

I customised my home screen with 6x5 icons and 5 dock icons, with ADWLauncher

Alternate Home Screen Launcher app
You know the home screens and the app drawer that defines the look of your phone interface? Well, you can actually change the app too! And when you do, your phone will look, feel and react in an entirely different way! For instance, using ADW Launcher, I can fit 6x5 icons in one page! It doesn't look at all cramp on the Samsung Galaxy S because the screen size is 4-inch. Don't worry about RAM, because the launcher app is a direct replacement of your stock launcher app, and does not run on top of it.

Task Manager app
Android runs not unlike a desktop PC. It is built to multi-task, and so unavoidably you need to manage the tasks running in the background so that you have enough memory to run other tasks. Good thing about Samsung Galaxy S is that it comes with 340MB RAM, and so I never have memory utilisation problems. On top of that, the phone has an internal memory of 2GB to install my apps. Not forgetting, there is also 14GB of user memory for me to store all my photos, videos, documents. And that's not considering I can insert an external microSD card of any capacity to boost the already generous memory.

If your phone has limited memory, you would need an app to tell you what apps are still open in the background and you would want to "kill" them to make room for other apps. I use Advanced Task Killer to monitor my open apps and selectively kill them, either automatically or manually.


File Management app
A file manager app allows you to explore your folders so that you can choose to browse the documents or delete the unwanted files. I use ASTRO File Manager because it's recommended by a friend. ASTRO has a built-in photo viewer, allows bookmarking of folders, offers additional system tools like backup apps, process manager, display folder sizes. Definitely better than most file manager apps provided by phone makers.

Performance, Monitoring and Tweak apps
There are many apps out there that can help you improve the performance of your Android phones. If you find the existing keyboard hard to type, look for alternative keyboard apps. Better Keyboard 8 is my choice, as it offers a larger key size and auto-correct is smarter. If you find the screen lock irritating, there is an app called No Lock to keep the screen unlocked at all times. If you want to adjust screen brightness, volume, turn on/off mobile data in one shortcut, you can try Quick Settings. If your phone does not tell you the remaining battery percentage (Galaxy S doesn't!), install Quick Battery. If you want to monitor the battery utilisation and accurately estimate the battery drain time, try JuicePlotter.

What is "Lagfix"?
Samsung Galaxy S is known to have laggy interface issues. Apps do not load instantly, screens freeze for seconds before refreshing. I find it unbelievable that a phone running on 1GHz Hummingbird processor runs oddly retarded. The problem lies with the filesystem that Galaxy S uses. To overcome this, you have to modify the filesystem using various methods, all of which requires the act of "rooting" the phone. "Rooting" is not necessarily a bad word, it merely means to access the root of the phone OS and to modify some of the settings only accessible at the root level. Many Android enthusiasts have already released reliable programs to modify the OS and improve the phone performance. But like any other hacks, be prepared for occasional phone bugs that surface during use. In my experience, these bugs go away after a reboot. I use the SpeedMod kernel to improve my Galaxy S performance.
More info on rooting here.



In my next post, I will share the apps I use for photo editing, media playing, voice recording, note taking, and social networking.

Dilbert Takes On Auto Correct

Source: http://dilbert.com/strips/2011-02-09/

For more auto-correct jokes, visit DYAC (Damn You Auto Correct) at http://damnyouautocorrect.com/

Ashlyn "All By Myself"

Shooting Ashlyn has become an annual affair. Our first encounter was in Dec 2008 for the photostory "Listen To The Light". Then one year later in Dec 2009, she requested me to shoot another video montage photostory for her wedding presentation, "The Seed of Love".

In Nov 2010, we did this series.

It was shot with direction meant for another photostory, but being rather busy for the past months, I had only managed to process the images over the past week. It would probably take me some time before I could create a photostory out of the images (or maybe I won't). So before I get busy again, here are some selections.

 For more images, visit my facebook page.

Rooting the Samsung Galaxy S

This is my second hack-tivity of the week.

I have owned the Galaxy S for more than a month, running on stock firmware. Recently I noticed the performance of the device is degrading. The Galaxy S is known to have lag issues because of the way the cache storage is implemented. Actually, I felt embarrassed about the laggy performance of the Android device despite running on a powerful 1GHz Hummingbird processor.

So on this day, I decided to root the firmware, for 3 purposes:
1. To give the device a reboot.
2. To improve the lag response.
3. To install apps not possible on non-root firmware (e.g. capture screenshots of the Android phone)

This is by far the most smooth-sailing hack-tivity I have ever encountered on a gadget. I simply followed the instructions here (to update to the firmware DXJPE) and  here (for the speedmod root) and I had it done in a jiffy.

Rooting actually does not wipe your memory, but for my case, I also took the opportunity to update my firmware, which restores the phone to factory settings. But, manual restoring of apps turns out to be so much easier than I imagined. All I had to do was to log in to AppBrain website on the PC, copied my old phone's apps list to the new phone's apps list, install AppBrain on Galaxy S, then initiate the sync. Within minutes, I got back all my apps, no less. Backing up and restoring SMS (SMS Backup & Restore) and Notes (ColorNote) are also possible using free apps in the Market. Restoring contacts and calendar is a matter of re-creating my Office Exchange and Gmail accounts and re-syncing my contacts and calendar entries.

This rooting activity improved my Android experience once more, reaffirming my decision to go for this OS instead of iPhone. Having said that, Apple products are certainly more fuss-free and more consumer-friendly, even if that means restricting features and limiting capabilities so that users do not get confused, lost or frustrated over complex interfaces.

Before I sign off, here's 10 things Android do better than iPhone.

My Hackintosh Experience

One day, wifey told me that her laptop was running too slow, and wanted a new laptop.

I remembered making a vow years ago that my next laptop would have to run on a Mac. So I spent a week looking for the best deals.

One evening, I managed to find the laptop recovery discs, which allowed me to reformat the laptop to factory settings. After I did that, the laptop appears to perform better. Wifey was happy.

So it appears I managed to hold off the purchase - yet again.

During this whole purchase process, I came across some online articles about running Mac OSX on Intel-based PC. Upon closer study, it seems not that difficult. So I tried - and only got this far.

Installation got stuck at the Apple logo screen. After troubleshooting for 2 nights, I gave up, attributed to some hardware incompatibilities.

Incidentally, during these 2 days of online troubleshooting, I found another way to run OSX: using virtualisation machine running inside Windows OS. We all know that OSX supports running Windows OS using virtualisation software like Parallels. So the other way is technically possible. The only reason why this is not widely published is that Apple license does not allow.

So I decided to give this method a try. After spending about an hour, I got it running. This method is certainly much more safer as OSX is installed within a virtual environment. However, there exists several incompatibilities, so you can never achieve a full experience.

The objective of this exercise is
1. To experience the process of installing OSX in an Intel-PC hardware setup.
2. To try out the OSX if I do manage to install successfully (which I did).

As this is the first time I am seriously exploring and understanding the interface of OSX, I am surprised at the similarities with Windows 7, and concluded that Microsoft has indeed tried to mimic some of the user-friendly features from Mac. But I don't feel as efficient using OSX.

So would I convert to Mac OS? Certainly not completely, but at least I won't have to worry about not able to get used to OSX when the time comes for the switch.

Whether Mac or Windows, the value of the computer is not on the brand or the OS, but on the apps and the familiarity. Mac is consumer-friendly and idiot-proof, so it's probably good for non-techie users. But I am so used to the Windows platform, so it makes better sense to continue improving my quality of computing through hardware enhancements and software procurement. As of now, I find no tangible advantage of using a Mac.