Steven Kovar - Interactive Designer

iPhone as Digital Swiss Army Knife

March 22, 2009

There are of course a myriad of iPhone applications out there. When I first got the iphone, I was sort of stuck in the mode of thinking of the iPhone only as a communication/information device. Being able to browse the web on-the-go and do things that I normally did on my computer, such as searching, reading wikipedia, checking email and looking at maps was still a novelty. Especially the maps part. Unfortunately I was born with a horrible sense of direction, so I think the most useful iPhone app for me might always be Google Maps, but this still lives in the communications/information realm.

I started to change how I thought about the potential of hand-held communication devices when I found a few apps that transcended the idea of the iPhone being a just communication/information device. I’ve listed a few applications below that I think are especially cool, and that turn the iPhone into a tool that would otherwise be quite costly as a standalone device. Although I’ve listed links to the apps for convenience, in some cases there are competitive versions of these applications, so it pays off to search to see what alternatives there are before buying. These are a few of my favorites: 

TouchOSC

This application will transform your iPhone into a hand-held touch-screen OSC controller. OSC has become a popular communication protocol for audio and video applications, similar to MIDI. I end up converting my OSC messages to MIDI, becasue I use it as a controller for Modul8, which at the moment is not OSC capable.

The features in this controller are in some ways similar to the famous and expensive touch-screen controller, the Lemur. It has a variety of layouts including rotary dials, drum pads, faders and a step-sequencer and it communicates through WIFI.
link to app store

Recorder

This is an extremely simple and easy-to-use application that transforms your iPhone into a field recorder. When using the built-in mic, the sound quality is more appropriate for audio notes, lecture recordings and times when you are not worried about having a good-quality recording. Since it records in high-quality 44.1k, the potential in this application lies in using it with a decent external mic. My plan is to eventually create or buy an omni-stealth set-up for recording binaural soundscapes.

With WIFI sync and the option of emailing the audio files, it’s very easy to transfer the files directly from the app. The company that made this, Retronyms, was also involved in the creation of a much-praised 4-track recorder application for iPhone.
link to app store

iFlipr

There’s quite a debate in the app store review section over which flash card application is the best. I’ve tried a few and like iFlipr the most. I’m using it to study German. If you’ve studied a foreign language before, you’ll know that recreating your native adult vocabulary in your new language takes a lot of time. It takes about 24 years in your native language.

I don’t think the interface of the application is particularly attractive, but the functionality of the app for me transcends the ugliness. The application tag-teams with a free site online where you can create your flash cards and then you can download the decks from the iFlipr application. I like the repetition algorithm in this, as I found the pattern in which it repeats the flash cards depending on whether or not you answered the question correctly to be conducive to quick retention. Flash cards that you answered incorrectly will continue to be shuffled in at short intervals until you start to consistently answer them correctly. I found the experience of making the flash cards to be similar to making them on paper in that the act of creating them also reinforces learning. There is a free “lite” version of this application if you want to try it out before taking the plunge on the full version.
link to app store

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