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[cookinTboone]

  So Obviously Iphone has carried the market for a couple of years now, but MANY pretty smart people are saying that the Droid will overtake it pretty soon and surpass it in a huge way.... But that's NOT what I want to really talk about.. lol Its SO easy for us mostly classically trained musicians to ignore technology... but WOW theres just some really great stuff out there! I don't bother to carry my stand alone tuner and metronome anymore because the FREE one on my droid is more handy, just as good or BETTER!
  So before I ramble on, let me say I have NO problem with Iphone, In fact I thinnk they are way cool, and if they cost didnt far exceed the droids both in initial purchase, and monthly fees... I would have one... many of my friends have them...
   So Id like to do some brain storming here! As musicians, what Apps would be cool if they were available for your personal phone devices???
   
   

[BGuttman]

PHONE.  It has a button pad, and you can dial calls yourself.  It connects to the target phone and when you are finished you press another button and it disconnects

[cookinTboone]

Well this is pretty much exactly what I was saying... as "old school" educated people who spent a LOT of time alone in little practice rooms, as well as being engulfed in a subject that is a few thousands of years old... we can be VERY slow in embracing technology...
   The simple answer is like it or NOT, technology WILL move forward... deny it avoid it or choose not to use it at your own risk...
   OR embrace it and make your job and life easier, and more enriched... 

[John Beers Jr.]

While I imagine a full-featured bandinabox app would be a bit optimistic, I think it'd be cool to have a metronome/chordbuilder app that would derive a midi chord and repeat it on the quarter at a tempo that I set.

Like repeated a Cm7 at mm=90 for the sake of noodling around on top of it.

[DSanders]

I'd like to see the iPhone Petersen tuner app ported for android. I have it on my iPod touch, and it blows all the freebie tuners away.

[cookinTboone]

JB thats one Id definately like to see... actually id love to find something like that for my laptop that was ether free or cheep.. know of any? AND, if you have something like that for a laptop... or computer of course, you COULD creat an MP3 of either your fav. tune or progressions and drop it to your phone for more portability... practice anywhere.... anywhere you can play a trombone that is!   

[Todd Jonz]

John  writes:

> I think it'd be cool to have a metronome/chordbuilder
> app that would derive a midi chord and repeat it on
> the quarter at a tempo that I set.

Sounds like you're looking for an Android analog for iRealBook, an iOS app that has BIAB-like capabilities.  Chords only, no lead sheet.  Comes with all the Real Book tunes installed, and you can download more tunes from the developer's web site or roll your own.  It can build a simple MIDI backing track (piano, bass & drums) from the changes using a very limited set of styles.  It can also transpose on the fly, which comes in very handy.

cookinTboone writes:

> thats one Id definately like to see... actually id love to
> find something like that for my laptop that was ether
> free or cheep.. know of any?

Band-in-a-box starts at $129.  For what it does, that's a darn good price.

> you COULD creat an MP3 of either your fav. tune or
> progressions and drop it to your phone

The unRealBook app for the iPad lets you associate a PDF lead sheet with a tune in your iTunes library.  Tap an icon while reading the chart and the associated track plays.  I've put a couple of Aebersold books/CDs on my iPad using unRealBook.

[Todd Jonz]

Interesting article on a Forbes blog:  Android phones are selling like hotcakes but Android apps are not, at least not when compared with iOS apps.  Google is planning changes to the Android Marketplace in an effort to rectify the problem.

[Todd Jonz]

On a slightly related tangent, the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) platform preview looks very cool....

[Michael Maddox]

I think a "Download iOS 4.2" app would sell VERY well.

[Todd Jonz]

Android users may be interested in an overview of music tools for Android that appeared today on the Create Digital Music web site.

[psybersonic]

Most Android phones are stuck at version 2.1 of the software. The audio functionality for playing Midi isn't in this version and as far as I can see the SoundPool and Media Player functionality is not as good as iOS 4. Neither phone provides a Midi synth for rendering backing tracks or chords but this may be rectified in iOS 5 where there is an audio unit AUSampler which may read Soundfont and DLS Wavetables which are the fundamentals of Midi players.
If this is the case stand by for Band in a Box on the iPad.

[Burgerbob]

I'm not going to lie, I have an iPod Touch and recently acquired a Droid 2 Global (without activation) that acts like an Android equivalent.

Despite the touchscreen problems I have with the Droid, I use it now much much more than I ever used the iPod. I feel like creating this sort of app would be easier and more difficult for Android- the lack of standardized hardware, etc. but the software seems much more powerful.