eWallet for Windows Phone 7 Series…

Shh!

Don’t tell ANYONE!

I just got a cool note from my good friends over at Ilium Software that they are in the process of developing eWallet for Windows Phone 7.  According to the folks there, they love what they are seeing in Windows Phone 7 OS, and are excited to be able to develop their flagship application eWallet, for that OS.  They can’t, haven’t and won’t share much more information other than that at this point; but if I know them like I do, WP7S device owners are really going to be happy with the app when its finished.

Stay tuned to both their blog and to JAMM for additional details!

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Ready for some new smartphones?  Yesterday, HTC unveiled five new Windows 7 smartphones: HTC 7 Surround, HTC 7 Mozart, HTC 7 Trophy, HTC 7 Pro and HTC HD7.  HTC will include a variety of new technologies with unique HTC applications through the new HTC Hub that will complement the Windows Phone 7 Hub experience.  The new phones are to be available through cell phone providers in Europe, Asian, and North American Markets later this month.  Read past the jump to check out the individual phones as well as more detailed availability information.

Read More …

I have written in this space on numerous occasions about my on-again-off-again love affair with the guitar.  I have been playing guitar pretty much since I was in seventh grade, though not necessarily as regularly as I would always like.  Still, when I have the opportunity, I often find it relaxing to, “grab my axe and jamm!”  The problem is that now I have young kids, and rocking out on a guitar can be…loud.  So, I have been searching for a good solution to really play the guitar, without waking up the house.  Playing without an amp just seems to define unsatisfying.  Enter IK Multimedia and their revolutionary AmpliTube and iRig attachment.

The iRig may look like nothing more than an extremely weird looking headphone adaptor.  In reality, however, when coupled with the AmpiTube software, it turns your iPad (or iPhone/iPod Touch) into a powerful amplifier and effects machine for your guitar.

To get started playing the guitar on yoru iPad, all you need to do is connect your guitar to your iPad.  That should be no problem.  You just take that quarter inch plug coming out of the guitar and connect it right up to the 3.5mm headphone jack on the iPad.  Hmmm.  OK, so while that may not exactly be a square peg in a round hole…it is a round peg in a much smaller round hole.  Either way, that is not going to work very well.

This is where the iRig adaptor comes into play.  It looks just like a short tube with a cable on one end.  In reality, though, it is a high powered musical adaptor.  Just plug the guitar cable into one end, and then plug the cable hanging off the other end into your iPad’s headphone jack.  There you have it.  Just like the engineers on Apollo 13 who made the round filter fit into a square slot, this will make the round cable fit into the much smaller round hole.   OK…maybe not exactly like Apollo 13…but you get the point.

Now that you are connected, there is only one last problem.  The iRig is not able to loop the sound from your guitar back to the internal speaker on your iPad.  For that, you will need to use the 3.5 mm headphone jack on the iRig.   Just connect your headphones or an external speaker and you are ready to rock.

Once you are connected, of course, not much is really going to happen unless you have something which can process the sounds from your guitar.  That is where the AmpliTube software enters the picture.  This app consists of a number of tools, including amps, sound effects, and even a tuner, which essentially put tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, right there on your iPad. 

The main interface divides the screen into two sections.  On the bottom is your amplifier.  You can choose from five different styles of amps, as well as an additional five cabinet styles.  This gives you a total of 25 different sounds which can be made from the amps in this app.  

Across the upper half of the screen you can add up to four sound effects machines.  You have eleven different effects from which to choose, including delay, fuzz, phazer, and plenty of others.  This is fantastic, and gives you an incredible amount of control over your sound.

What I really liked here was that the amplifiers and effects machines actually replicate the real things.  The colors, switches, dials, it is all there.  That level of authenticity is really what makes this app work.

One of the problems with an app like this, which can seemingly do everything, is that you can get it set just right, but never find that exact sequence of settings again.  To resolve that problem, the app conveniently includes 36 preset buttons, some of which these come preset, and others you can design on your own.  When you find a setup you like, just tap and hold one of the presets to add it to your configuration. 

In addition to what you see on the screen, there are also quite a few tools available to enhance your experience.  These include a tuner, which works extremely well.  In addition to the tuner, there is also a metronome, which is just the tool every budding musician needs.   The app will even let you import a song from your computer so you can play along.

I have been tinkering with this app for a few weeks now, and I have to say that this is exactly the kind of creative solutionI expected from the iPad.  The functionality is absolutely fantastic.  It processes the sounds from my guitar and pumps them back out to my headphones, with a level of clarity and authenticity that typically requires tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment.  Add to that the amazingly realistic graphics and controls, as well as the other included tools, and this becomes a complete resource for every guitar player out there.  This is a must have for every guitar player rockin’ it on an iPad.

The AmpliTube app is available for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch for $19.99.  A free version is also available, which includes a sampling of the amplifiers, effects, and tools available in the full app.  Finally, there is the LE version, which costs $2.99 for iPhone and iPod Touch.  While the LE does not come with all of the amps and effects of the full version, it does offer all of those options as in-app purchases.  The iRig adaptor is available from ikmultimedia for $39.99.

I have often wondered what viewers in the late 1920’s must have thought when their audio only radio shows suddenly became visual.  Sure, only a handful of viewers actually saw those early broadcasts, and sure they consisted of little more than people sitting in chairs talking or smoking cigarettes.  Looking back, one has to wonder whether those early viewers recognized the importance of what they were viewing.  Not some old dude sitting in a chair, smoking, but rather the dawn of a new age in communication. 

Looking back on those early days of television, has caused me to opine about whether we might see a similar dawning of a new age in communication and entertainment.  Truly, video killed the radio star.  Sure, the television has undergone significant makeovers over the course of the last century.  It has grown significantly, shifted from black and white to color, become digital and high definition, and now even 3-D.  In the end, though, none of these really transforms the way in which we communicate or interact with the television.  It all amounts to simply providing improved means by which to passively sit on the couch and watch the television.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they say, another revolution was coming to fruition as the information age was dawning in an entirely different room.  Over there in your home office, what has once been a standalone computer was becoming a portal to other worlds of interactivity.  The information and Internet age brought us all closer to our entertainment and communication than we could ever have imagined…without ever leaving the comfort of your own home.

The problem has always been that until recently, these two forms of communication and entertainment have remained entirely mutually exclusive.  The computer reigned supreme in the home office, while the television ruled the living room.  Moving content between the two, however, was a challenge…to say the least.

Today, all of that changed when Logitech officially announced the Logitech Revue, a small set-top box, which is the first device to bring Google’s new Google TV directly into your living room.  To understand the significance of this device, however, we need to take a step backwards and look at exactly what Google TV entails.  For that, we can take a quick visit to www.google.com/tv.

In a nutshell, Google TV takes your Internet, television, and smartphone, and rolls them into one tiny box, which is just chock full of advanced, interactive features.  You could call it smart, interactive TV, though I prefer gTV…Still, yu have to wonder what those early 1927 viewers would make of this one.  Google TV includes:

• Google Chrome complete with Adobe Flash 10.1 for full access to the Internet
• Apps, apps, apps.  If they work on your Android phone, they are likely going to be available on Google TV.  Some early entries include Netflix, Pandora, NBA Basketball, Amazon On Demand Video, YouTube, and Napster.  There are a few notable omissions, however, including the lack of a Hulu app, NFL Football, and MLB Baseball.  At this point, however, we can only assume that these and dozens of other apps are on their way.
• Your phone is the remote.  A free app can be downloaded to your Android phone or iPhone, allowing it to control your television experience.
• Fling.  OK, I know this is a bit of a ripoff of an Apple TV feature…but I really do not care.  Surf the web on your phone, find something you like, and with the press of a button, it is displayed on television screen. 
• Did I mention complete access to Netflix?  Not to mention Amazon On Demand?  No Hulu as of yet, but hopefully that will be coming soon.
• A homescreen for your television.  You can store all of your favorite channels, apps, websites, podcasts, and any other content on your homescreen.  No need to channel surf or web surf again, just go straight to your television home screen and access all of your favorites at once.
• Streaming photos from Picasa and Flickr for an incredible, larger than life, photo slideshow
• Universal search.  A single search will reveal all of the content on the web, television, apps, allowing you to access it all from one convenient location.

Of course, this all raises the obvious question, how do you get all of these features on your television.  For that, unfortunately, you are going to need some new hardware.  For now, that means the just-announced Logitech Revue (though Sony will soon be releasing a television with Google TV functionality built-in.

Logitech describes the Revue as, “a compact, plug-and-play companion box with its Logitech® Keyboard Controller, which together provide seamless control over the Google TV experience and home-entertainment devices. The company’s portfolio of products for Google TV also includes the Logitech® TV Cam and Vid™ HD service for HD video calling from the comfort of one’s sofa. In addition, Logitech is offering the Logitech® Mini Controller for Logitech Revue as well as other applications designed for the Google TV platform.”

In addition to the main Revue unit, which includes a wireless keyboard, Logitech also announced several accessories (below).  First is a high definition camera, called the TV Cam, which allows you to make and receive video calls, directly from your TV.  Imagine making those Skype calls to Grandma in 60 inch high def…on second thought…better hope Grandma is wearing some make up. In addition, they have also announced the Mini Controller, a small touchpad remote which serves as the mouse when surfing through Google TV.

The Revue and accessories are available for preorder now, and are expected to be fully available at Logitech, Amazon, and Best Buy by the end of the month.

The Revue unit along with the keyboard is expected to be priced at $299.99.  The Mini Controller is $129.99, and the TV Cam is $149.99.

I have to say, I am pretty impressed by what I have seen so far.  If this is the Google TV equivelant of a man sitting in a chair smoking a cigarette, you can only imagine what possibilities might be unlocked 15 years from now, or 25, 50, and even 100 years down the road.  Video may have killed the radio star, but Google TV is out to kill the video star.