iMore's authoritative guide to the very best, absolutely free apps for iPhone and iPod touch

Looking for great free apps for your iPhone or iPod touch? The App Store is home to over half a million apps and games, and a surprising number of them are available for free. That's free as in free of charge to buy, free of subscriptions to use, and free of any crippling or time-bombing to make you pay later. They're just free. But which free apps are the best? Which are the top free apps you just absolutely have to download right now?

That's where iMore comes in! Here's your ultimate, authoritative guide to the top, 100% free iPhone and iPod touch apps for social networking, IM and communications, education, entertainment, finance, fun and games, health and fitness, kids, music, navigation and location, news, photography, productivity, reading, shopping, sports, travel, and general utility.

Whether you're new to iPhone or iPod touch and looking for a fast, free way to get started with apps, or you're just bored and looking for a little free fun, check out the apps below. And hey, since they're free, you can download them all!

(Also, be sure to check out our best free games for iPhone rundown for even more great free iPhone apps!)

iMore app

What better way than to keep up-to-date with all the latest free iPhone app and game news than with iMore's own, absolutely free iPhone app! Not only that, you'll also get breaking news, helpful how-tos, app and accessory reviews, instant access to our podcasts, and more! This is the very best way to enjoy the best of iMore right on your iPhone!

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Best free social networking apps for iPhone

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social network on the planet, and it's always been one of the most popular free apps on the iPhone. Inside the free Facebook app, you can update your status, view photos, and check into your location. You can also keep up with your news feed, messages, events, pages, chat, as well as upload your photos and videos, and much, much more. (And if you're looking for more friends, check out our Facebook name swap thread!)

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Twitter

Twitter and the iPhone go together like chocolate and peanut butter, and the free, official Twitter app for iPhone is the best way to get started finding cool celebrities and interesting internet personalities to follow, and trending topics to get involved with. (And be sure to check out our Twitter name swap thread to find other iMore members to tweet with!)

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Pinterest

Pinterest is the new, rapidly growing, free social network that lets you pin photos, articles, recipes, or anything you think is cool, to your virtual pinboard. With the free Pinterest for iPhone app, you can view the pins of your friends, repin, like, and comment on your favorite pins, and pin directly from your camera.

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More free social networking apps

• Best free social networking apps for iPhone

Best free IM and communications apps for iPhone

Skype

The free Skype app for iPhone lets you make free audio and video calls and exchange text chats from your iPhone to other iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users, as well as Android, Mac, Windows, and millions more Skype users around the world. You can also buy Skype credits to call conventional phone numbers at really low prices.

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imo instant messenger

imo is a great, free iPhone app for those who love traditional instant messaging (IM). imo supports Facebook Chat, Google Talk, Skype, MSN, ICQ/AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, Hyves, VKontakte, Myspace, and Steam. You can send text, images, and voice as well.

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GroupMe

GroupMe is an excellent free group messaging app for iPhone that communicates over both data and SMS. GroupMe perfect for coordinating big events with friends that aren't all using smartphones. GroupMe generates a phone number which collects and forwards free messages to those authorized to be a part of the group. Those that do will be able to take advantage of a few extra features, like location and picture sharing.

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Best free educational apps for iPhone

iTunes U

The free iTunes U app for iPhone gives you access to courses from universities and schools. These courses are completely free and even include assignments. iTunes U and the instructors provide course materials, including audio, video, books, documents & presentations, apps, and books. iTunes U includes over 500,000 free lectures, videos, books, and other resources on thousands of subjects from Algebra to Zoology.

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SparkNotes

SparkNotes is one of the most popular study guides for literature, Shakespeare, poetry, philosophy, drama and short stories. With the free SparkNotes for iPhone app you can access 50 pre-installed study guides in your library and hundreds of study guides online. You can also check-in at the place you're studying and indicate what subject your studying which could then result in impromptu study sessions with other SparkNotes users studying the same subject at the same place at the same time.

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Flashcards+

With school comes lots of studying. One of the most common studying techniques is to use flashcards. With the free Flashcards+ app for iPhone, you can say goodbye to the stacks and stacks of flashcards that accumulate over the course of a semester and use electronic flashcards on your iPhone instead. The beauty of Flashcards+ is that you have your flash cards with you wherever you go, which means you'll likely squeeze in more mini study lessons throughout your day and end up with better grades as a result!

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Best free entertainment apps for iPhone

Crackle

While apps like Netflix are free, you still have to pay for a subscription to actually use them. Not so with Crackle! The free Crackle app for iPhone lets you watch hours and hours of Hollywood movies, from Resident Evil to A Few Good Men, and TV Shows from I Dream of Jennie to the Tick, absolutely free. And it supports AirPlay so you can watch on your big screen TV.

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IMDB

IMDB's free iPhone app means you're always only a few taps away from the latest show times, trailers, movie and TV rations, and cast and episode lists. It's the perfect couch-side companion for any serious entertainment buff, and the perfect mobile app for cinema buffs!

• Download now

TED

The free TED app for iPhone blurs the lines between education and entertainment, showcasing riveting talks from experts in the fields of technology, entertainment, and design. With the TED app, you can browse their complete catalog of talks, bookmark and download your favorites, and share individual talks and playlists with your friends. It's like holding genius in the palm of your hand. For free.

• Download now

Best free financial apps for iPhone

Paypal

Love it or hate it, Paypal is the internet's default currency and the free Paypal for iPhone app is the best way to manage your Paypal account on the go. Whether you're sending or requesting money, checking your balance or reviewing your past transactions, or looking for a local retailer who takes PayPal, it's right here, right when you want.

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Bloomberg

Bloomberg for iPhone is a great way for casual traders and investors to interact with their stocks and stay up to date with world news. Whether you need to casually monitor stocks on your iPhone or just find the urge to check out financial news, the free Bloomberg app has you covered -- for free!

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Mint.com

The free Mint.com for iPhone app gives everything you love about the web site on the go and in the palm of your hand. You can track, manage, and budget your money, connect your bank, credit, and other financial accounts, and safely, securely keep it with you wherever you are. It also syncs with the Mint.com website so you're always up-to-date.

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Best free games for iPhone

For dozens of additional free iPhone games, check out our best free iPhone games special feature!

Angry Birds Free

The free Angry Birds app lets you play one of the most popular games in the world right on your iPhone -- for free. Yes, it is supported by adds, but you'll be too busy catapulting birds and destroying pigs to even notice them!

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Draw Something Free

Draw Something is a sensation and you can play it on your iPhone for free with Draw Something Free. In Draw Something, you have a partner and you take turns drawing pictures with the goal of getting each other to guess the correct word. Just like Angry Birds Free, Draw something Free is supported by ads.

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Hero Academy

Hero Academy is a great turn-based free iPhone game where you and a friend (or random partner) take turns moving and attacking each other with various army pieces on a checked board. You have a set number of action points with which to move your pieces, bring in fresh ones from your stash, upgrade your pieces, and, of course, attack. The main goal is to either whittle down a few crystals on your opponent's side of the board, or run them out of troops.

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More free games

• best free games for iPhone

Best free health and fitness apps for iPhone

RunKeeper

The free RunKeeper for iPhone app uses your iPhone's built in GPS technology to track your running, walking, cycling and other exercise activities. RunKeeper also syncs up to its own web portal where you can view your history and stats in more detail. Integration with Facebook and Twitter means you can even show off your fitness prowess to your friends!

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WebMD

WebMD is a reputable and accurate online source for medical facts and advice, and with the free WebMD iPhone app you'll have complete access to mobile-optimized health information and decision-support tools including WebMD’s Symptom Checker, Drugs & Treatments, First Aid Information and Local Health Listings.

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Fooducate

The free Fooducate for iPhone app contains a wealth of information and user reviews about many of the foods we consume on a daily basis. Fooducate stresses the importance of eating foods that are good for your body as a whole. Sure, a calorie is a calorie, but if you give your body calories from better quality foods, you get the benefits of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that artificially processed foods with lots of additives, high fructose corn syrup, and other “empty” calories just can’t match.

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Best free kids apps for iPhone

PBS KIDS Video

The free PBS KIDS Video app brings all your child's favorite shows right to the iPhone or iPod touch. Curious George, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, Dinosaur Train, SUPER WHY!, Sesame Street and Wild Kratts and are all here and ready to entertain and educate.

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Curious George at the Zoo

If your child is interested in animals, then Curious George at the Zoo is a great free iPhone app to educate and entertain them. Explore an interactive 3D zoo, learn about and interact with the animals, watch videos and play games, all on the iPhone or iPod touch.

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ABC Letter Tracing

The free ABC Letter Tracing app for iPhone is perfect for pre-schoolers just learning to write. It has both upper and lowercase letters, along with helpful voice-overs and illustrations of items that begin with each letter.

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Best free music apps for iPhone

Shazam

How many times have you been listening to the radio, or attending a party, or watching TV when you hear a song that you like but have no idea what the name of the song is or even who the artist is? With the free Shazam app for iPhone, all have to do is let your mic listen to the song for about 30 seconds, and Shazam will tell you exactly which song it is!

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Slacker Radio

Don't have much music stored on your iPhone? Don't fret! With the free Slacker Radio iPhone app you can stream radio to your iPhone for free. The Slacker music library features millions of songs from thousands of artists and you can customize your own radio stations with your favorite artists and songs. In addition to music, you can also listen to ESPN Radio, ABC News, comedy and more.

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TuneIn Radio

The free TuneIn Radio app for iPhone gives you on-the-go access to over 50,000 radio stations worldwide. From the local station where you may live now to the far away station where you may have grown up or simply visited and always remembered, TuneIn radio has over 120,000 free shows for you to choose from, right on your iPhone.

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Best free navigation and location apps for iPhone

Waze social GPS & traffic

The free Waze app for iPhone uses Open Street Map data, which means you're contributing to building a map as you drive, and you also get to view the things added by others. The crowdsourced nature of Waze lets users share information about traffic jams, accidents, speed traps, and other pertinent data. It includes standard turn-by-turn navigation, but the accuracy can vary depending on the quality of the maps in your area.

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Foursquare

Foursquare is free app for iPhone that lets you check into the places you go, and see which friends are there now, or may have been there in the past. It's a great way to keep track of trips and photos of the places you've visited, and a fun way to earn badges and share and receive recommendations for where to go next.

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Poynt

Poynt is a free location-based search app for iPhone with dedicated channels to a variety of different kinds of content. What makes it better than just a Google Maps search is that each experience is very closely tailored, so searching for a movie will immediately bring up options to buy tickets from your phone or view a trailer, while restaurant listings will include reviews and the option to reserve a table.

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Best free news apps for iPhone

Flipboard

The free Flipboard for iPhone app shows you the news that matters to you, along with recommendations from your Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram friends. That makes it a dynamic, up-to-date, but highly personalized magazine, right in the palm of your hand! It's also makes it easy to share the stuff you like most back with your friends and social circles.

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Pulse News

Pulse News, from Alphonso Labs is an awesome free newsreader for iPhone that brings all your news together into one place. With Pulse News, you choose the categories you want to display and the specific content for each section. For example, you might want to add a Gaming, Sports, News, Tech, Science, Art and Design any number of additional categories.

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AP Mobile

The free AP Mobile app brings the Associated Press right to your iPhone. With comprehensive, timely coverage of local and global news it's not like having a newspaper or TV station in the palm of your hands -- it's like having their news sources. Plus, if you find yourself in the middle of the news, you can even send the AP your tip!

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Best free photo apps for iPhone

Instagram

Instagram isn't just a free iPhone app, it's one of the most popular social photo sharing networks on the planet. It features a large selection of vintage, hip, and fun filters as well as the ability to add the tilt-shift effect to your photos. You can also follow friends and photographers, "like" photos, and leave comments on them. (If you're looking for more great iPhoneographers to share with, check out our Instragram name swap thread!)

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Pic Stitch

There are a lot of collage apps in the App Store, but what's great about Pic Stitch is that it's free! With Pic Stitch for iPhone, you can create beautiful collages that tell a story in just a few taps. It features 32 different layouts and after you've finished your masterpiece, you can share it to your favorite social network or another photography app.

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Camera Awesome

If you're looking for a free app that offers more than the built-in iOS Camera app, look no further than Camera Awesome. This fantastic free iPhone app not only gives you a lot of powerful editing tools and filters, but it also gives more control while taking photos as well by allowing you to select separate points for focus and exposure.

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Best free productivity apps for iPhone

Adobe Reader

With the free Adobe Reader app for iPhone, you can have all your PDFs in your pocket. What's more, you aren't limited to just viewing PDFs, but you can annotated them with text, handwriting, strikethroughs, highlights, and more. You can also fill out forms and add your signature.

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Evernote

Evernote isn't just a great free note-taking app for iPhone. It's a great free note-taking app on almost every platform. That means no matter where you are, or what device you have access to, your notes are always there for you. You can also add pictures and search for text in the images, add voice notes, and easily share what you've collected.

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Dropbox

The free Dropbox for iPhone app gives you access to all your files stored in your Dropbox account (free up to 2GB). You can mark items as favorites to store them locally on your iPhone for offline viewing, save photos and videos to your Dropbox account, and easily share them with family, friends and colleagues.

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Best free reading apps for iPhone

iBooks

iBooks is Apple's free ebook and PDF reading app for iPhone. It's a stylish way to read not only books purchased from the iBookstore, but all the free books from the massive Project Gutenberg library as well as any of your own ePub or PDF files.

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Readability

Readability offers a gorgeous way to read articles from your favorite website without the distraction of ads and other fluff -- for free! You simply set up your free account and add articles with a bookmarklet . A lot of other apps, like Twitter, off Readability support so that you can add articles directly from those apps.

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Kindle

The free Kindle App for iPhone is Amazon's ebook reader. Unlike Apple's iBooks, Kindle is cross-platform. If you already have a large Kindle book collection, free or otherwise, or you just want to keep your options open for the future, Kindle is a great choice.

Best free shopping apps for iPhone

Apple Store

The free Apple Store app not only lets you shop Apple's online store from the comfort of your iPhone, but it actually lets you purchase accessories via your iPhone, iTunes account, and EasyPay at the Apple retail store. You can also make an appointment at the Genius Bar an automatically check in when you arrive.

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Etsy

Etsy for iPhone is a free app that gives you access to 11 million items from some of the internets most eclectic, most astonishing artisans and craftspeople. You can browse, you can buy, and if you're a seller, you can manage your Etsy account right from your iPhone.

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RedLaser

With the free RedLaser app your iPhone transforms into a powerful barcode and QR code scanner. If you see an item at the store, simply scan it and get instant results from Google, TheFind, eBay, Milo, American Express, and many more. It's one of the easiest ways to compare real-world prices online -- and it's free!

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Best free sports apps for iPhone

ESPN ScoreCenter

ESPN ScoreCenter is a free iPhone app that brings you the latest scores, standings, and news for dozens of sports and hundreds of teams around the world. If you have a free myESPN account, you get automatic access to all your favorites. If you don't, you can choose baseball, basketball, cricket, football, hockey, rugby and soccer teams to follow right on your iPhone.

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MLB.com At Bat

Although it has premium options, the free or “lite” version of MLB at Bat for iPhone still gives you access to lots of great content. You can watch the scoreboard during every game, see news and highlights from recent games, buy tickets to upcoming games and check in around the league for other scores and highlights. While diehard baseball fans will want to buy the full app, the Lite version is great for casual fans on the go.

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NBA Game Time

NBA Game Time is sort of like MLB.com At Bat – but for basketball. During games, you can follow along practically play by play, seeing who is on the court at every moment and who is scoring plays. You can also check the scores around the league, watch video highlights, check the standings, look at the schedule for every team and get information on each arena, right from the free iPhone app!

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Best free travel apps for iPhone

Yelp

If you're searching for a place to eat, shop, drink, relax and play, the free Yelp for iPhone app will provide you with a map or list of exactly what you're looking for. Each location is also filled with reviews by users who have been to that place before. When you decide on a place and have finished your visit, you can leave a review of your own for other users to read when in the same predicament that you were in.

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TripIt

The free TripIt app for iPhone, when paired with a free TripIt account, becomes your virtual travel assistant. Simply email any flight or hotel confirmations to TripIt and they'll automagically get logged and displayed on your iPhone, along with helpful maps and additional information to make your travel safer and easier.

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Google Translate

While there are a lot of language courses and travel references available for the iPhone, the free Google Translate app lets you find the right phrase, in the right language, right when you need it. Text translation is available in 64 languages and voice translation in 17. Yup, you can talk instead of type! Fantastique! Hen hao!

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Best free utilities for iPhone

Find my iPhone

The free Find my iPhone app by Apple will help you locate your iPhone in the unfortunate event that you misplace it or it gets stolen. You can track your iPhone from another iOS device or from the iCloud website. You can also send a message and alert to your iPhone to help you find it or to provide contact information in the even that someone found your iPhone. If you're concerned about the security of your data, you can remotely lock your iPhone or even wipe it with the free Find my iPhone app.

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Remote

Apple's free Remote app lets you control your iTunes or Apple TV right from your iPhone over your local Wi-Fi network. Browse or search your iTunes library or Apple TV content, choose songs, TV shows, or movies to listen to or watch, and control playback, skipping, and more.

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The Weather Channel

Apple's built-in weather app is great and all, but sometimes you're looking for more information about the weather than this app can provide. The Weather Channel app is a great alternative. It features interactive maps and radar, severe weather alerts, and hourly and 10 day forecasts. You can also watch videos of breaking news and weather coverage and upload and view photos of the weather taken by other users. And you get all of this for free!

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Your favorite free iPhone apps?

Did we miss any of your favorite free iPhone and iPod touch apps? If so, head on over to our iPhone apps and games forum and add yours to the favorite free iPhone apps list! We'll be updating this post often, so your pick could be next!

Rene Ritchie, Ally Kazmucha, Gary Mazo, and Simon Sage contributed to this article

Figure is a great new app that puts music creation into the hands of everyone, even non-musicians. It has a very unique interface that's easy to use and makes creating music a lot of fun. You slide your finger around a pad to play bass and lead, and tap columns to play the drums.

What makes Figure so great for non-musicians is that you will always be in the correct key and play to the beat. You get to be creative with the pitch and tones, but Figure will always make sure that your choices are "correct" musically.

For base and lead, you can choose from many different rhythm styles and timing, specify the range of notes you want the pad to represent, and select how many steps you want in an octive. Switching into landscape will remove all the distractions of the controls and give you more room to move your finger precisely where you want it on the pad.

For drums, you get to play kick, snare, hats, and cowbell and choose how many of each are played in a measure if you hold your finger down.

Hitting record will let you layer the three different instrument types and it will automatically loop your song. You can make adjustments in real time so that you're fully away of how your changes affect your song. The types of changes you can do include the tempo and key. You can also add pump so that your song sounds like club music.

This is an app that you need to see in action, so make sure you check out the video below!

The Good

• Puts music making in the hands of everyone, even non-musicians
• Musicians will still enjoy it
• Landscape mode lets you focus on your pattern
• Always in key and on beat
• Bass & lead parts use Reason’s Thor synthesizer
• Drums powered by Reason’s Kong drum machine

The Bad

• Can't save music
• Can't share music

The Conclusion

Figure is a really fun and surprisingly addicting app. Creating music has never been so easy, and it's a great way for non-musicians to get a feel for creating music and beats.

$0.99 - Download Now

Are you a musician? Have you ever wanted to be a musician? GarageBand for the iPad gives seasoned musicians and those with rock star dreams an opportunity to create music.

Apple gave GarageBand a substantial update after the release of iOS 5.1 – in preparation for the new iPad. The graphics have been bumped up in quality and the options for creating music have been enhanced by the inclusion of iCloud integration, multiple users over Bluetooth and new instruments.

The premise of GarageBand is just as the name implies – amateur musicians and musician wannabees can play, record and share music they create using instruments on the iPad.

Getting Started with GarageBand

From the startup page of GarageBand, touch the “+” icon in the top left corner. You are immediately presented with the option to start a New Song or copy a song from iTunes. For our purposes, we will select a New Song.

Start by choosing a New Song

Choosing an Instrument

The Piano screen in GarageBand

The instruments included in GarageBand are both Smart   versions of:

1. Guitar
2. Keyboard
3. Bass
4. Strings – Brand new in GarageBand
5. Drums

1. Keyboard
2. Drums

The options are actually pretty staggering. In this example, I chose Keyboard and then when I touched the Grand Piano icon I could choose from eight different Keyboards.

Choosing a keyboard to play in GarageBand

Options from Within each Instrument

Instruments like the Electric Piano have all the controls you would find in real life

When I chose the Smart Guitar, I could then choose to play an Acoustic, Classic Clean, Hard Rock or Roots Rock guitar. Just like with the keyboards, each guitar comes with its own controls. I can play an entire chord by touching the name of the chord – for example, if I touch Em, I play an E minor chord. Or, I can play individual notes within a chord for “fingerpicking” just like a real guitar.

Play chords or pick individual notes in the Guitar

The options are so comprehensive that you can spend hours just tinkering with musical possibilities before you are even ready to record a song.

Recording a Song

As soon as you touch record, the recording bar – divided into measures – appears at the top. Just keep playing your song and when you are ready, touch the Stop icon. You can then touch the Play icon to play back what you recorded. Your recording gets saved and is now available to “layer over” other instruments or edit.

Recording a track on the guitar

Editing a Song

Next to the instrument icon along the top bar of icons is the Edit icon. When you switch to Edit mode, you see the timeline of the song at the top. To edit your song:

1. Double tap the song in the timeline.
2. Choose to Cut, Copy, Delete, Loop, Split or Edit the song.
3. In Edit mode, touch a note to Cut, Copy, Delete or change the Velocity
4. Touch in an empty part of the song to add a note.

Editing a recorded track on GarageBand

I found the editing process a bit cumbersome and complicated and it in involved some trial and error to actual pin down a specific note and change its character or delete it entirely.

To add a pre-recorded instrumental accompaniment to your musical creation, just touch the Apple Loop icon along the top right hand bar of icons and choose an instrument to add to the time line. You can select the number of bars, the genre along with the instrument. Just hold and drag to the timeline. In this example, I dragged the 70s Electric Piano 08 right the position in the timeline where it was needed. Now, when I hit play, both instruments are playing simultaneously.

Choose an Apple Loop to add some accompaniment to your track

To Add a New Instrument to the Project

What is incredibly cool here is that everything you have recorded to this point is played along with the metronome to help you keep your beat. Just come into the song at the right time with the new instrument and it will be “layered” with the other instruments you record to make your song.

Touch the Edit icon again and you will now see the new layer of the song. You can edit out parts or add in notes just as you did above.

Each new instrument you record with is shown in the Edit screen

Adjusting the Settings from the Edit Screen

1. Metronome – turn it on or off.
2. Count-In – this gives you time to jump into the song.
3. Sound – of the Metronome
4. Tempo
5. Key
6. Time Signature
7. Fade Out
8. AirPlay.

You can change the sound, tempo and more in the Instrument Settings screen

To Save your project, tough the My Songs icon and you will return to the main screen after saving the new song.

Using the Guitar Amp

Choose Guitar Amp to use a real guitar with GarageBand

One of the very cool features of GarageBand is the ability to use built in guitar amps and then record yourself actually playing your guitar.  There are third party accessories like the Griffin Guitar Connect Cable and the Apogee JAM Guitar input which work well for electric guitars. You can also use the built in microphone of the iPad and an acoustic guitar.

I used my Martin acoustic and the iPad mike to record a few tracks. The first thing to do is to pick an amplifier.  The default is the Clean Combo amp, but just touch the Clean Combo name to see all the amps available. You can also just swipe left or right to choose an amp.

Choose from several built in guitar amps

Each amp has true to life controls, so if you own an old American Tremolo, the controls will be just like those on your own amp. I recommend playing with the controls to get the right sound, practicing your song over and over and then get ready to record.

Prior to recording, you can add beat boxes by touching the icon just under the timeline. You can also add sections to your song – giving you additional bars of recording by touching the “+” icon at the end of the timeline. If you know that the section you want to record repeats over and over – just select the Duplicate function.

Tuning your Guitar

GarageBand comes with a built in Tuner for your guitar

Recording From a Real Guitar

Starting a Jam Session

1. Touch the Jam session icon next to the volume control in the top bar.
2. Turn on Bluetooth if it is not already turned on (the iPad will prompt you to do this)
3. Then, you can either Create a session or Join a session if someone with an iPad near you already started one.
4. Once the iPads are connected, the “host” controls the tempo and the recording.
5. Both parties (or, up to four) play their tracks and then all tracks will show up on the iPad that started the Jam Session for editing.

You can join or create a Jam Session with other iPad users

Deleting Songs

1. Touch the Edit button in the top right corner
2. The songs in your start up page begin to shake.
3. Touch and hold the song you want to delete and the top bar indicator will now read “1 Song Selected.”
4. Touch the Trash Can icon and delete the song.

Deleting a song from GarageBand

Using iCloud

New in GarageBand is the ability to use iCloud to share songs or store them for future retrieval.  To share a song that you create on GarageBand with your iCloud account just:

1. Touch the edit button in the top right hand corner
2. Touch and hold the song to select it.
3. Touch the iCloud icon (the icon furthest to the right along the title bar)
4. Touch on the Upload Song to iCloud prompt
5. You will then notice a small iCloud icon on top of the song.

Turn on iCloud to share your tracks with other iOS devices

All is not a bed of roses here. What I wanted to do was upload to iCloud and then just have it magically appear on my Mac. If I upload to iCloud, that works between iOS devices.  So if I use iCloud on my iPhone and my iPad, any project done in one appears on the other.

However, to get a song onto Garage band on my Mac, I have to:

1. Touch the Edit button.
2. Touch the Share as button.
3. Choose iTunes from the menu.
4. Then Choose either iTunes or GarageBand.
5. Choose GarageBand, and sync your iPad with the computer.
6. Click on the Apps tab in iTunes and then if your click on GarageBand – you will see your song.

Share your masterpiece with friends and family

The good

• Same great iPad interface, now in Retina
• New jamming features makes for an incredibly fun, social experience
• Additional instruments broaden GarageBand's range

The bad

• Editing process is still a bit cumbersome and not always intuitive
• iCloud still doesn't work as it should with the Mac (and might not until OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion launches later this year.

The Conclusion

GarageBand for the iPad is an incredibly deep and powerful app to play around with. It was very easy to get lost in this app for hours and not really produce anything except a few hours of fun.

Once you master the feel of the app and learn how to record and edit, it really is possible to turn out some quality songs. Throw in the built in amplifiers and the ability to connect an electric guitar or just play an acoustic and use the built in mike and you have a great tool.

If you are a musician  - for real or just in your own mind – this app will provide hours of fun.

$4.99 - Download now

Are you a GarageBand user? Check out this forum thread and share your thoughts!

Are the instruments in GarageBand for iPad just not good enough for you? Amidio is in the process of making a universal iPad/iPhone case with Bluetooth connectivity and... wait for it... a dedicated ukele synthesizer app. Futulele will support 12 chords for each song, with the ability to switch chord sets easily. Sharing, recording, and effects from their previous app, OMGuitar, will be ported over to the app.

Of course, we've seen accessories like this before, such as Guitar Apprentice, which is built to be more of a faithful reproduction of the real instrument, and honestly, this seems like overkill given that ukeleles are really inexpensive -- you can get one for $30 or so. If iPad connectivity is really that important for sharing or editing, why not just  use it to record your performance on a real instrument?

Futulele is still in the prototype stages, and Amidio is hoping a manufacturing partner will be able to squeeze in some dedicated speakers into the case as well. Anyone interested in this sort of thing?

Source: Mashable

YouTube link for mobile viewing

When I decided that I wanted to learn how to play the guitar, I wasn’t sure where to start –- so I turned, as I always do, to my trusty iPad.

I’m not the most spontaneous person in the world – my wife and kids would say that is a huge understatement. I am a bit programmed and disciplined and really work on “trying new things.”

So, in my disciplined way, I decided that at 48 years of age, it was time for a mid-life crisis. Since I’m not terribly spontaneous, I have an amazing, beautiful wife and six great kids, my mid-life crisis needed to be something out of the norm.

I thought about getting a motorcycle, but my family seems to think I lack the proper coordination and that it might end very badly for me if I tried that. Then it dawned on me – what I wanted to learn how to do was play the guitar. I have been playing the piano since I was about six, I knew music theory and I played in bands in high school; but what I really wanted to do was learn the guitar.

I found my goal, and set upon my journey with iPad 2 in hand to start my adventure. The first thing I needed to do was buy a guitar. I fired up my eBay app to see if I could get a good used one. When nothing jumped out at me, I launched the PriceGrabber app and looked for a guitar that got a great write up in Guitarist Magazine that I had just read using iOS 5's Newsstand.

The PriceGrabber app let me look for a guitar that got a great write up in Guitarist Magazine that I had just read using the Newsstand app

PriceGrabber - Free - Download Now

I ordered my new guitar and started looking for apps to teach me how to use it. I was very surprised that when I did a search for “Guitar” in the App Store, I found over 800 iPad apps and close to 2000 iPhone apps. Where to start? I narrowed my search to “Beginner Guitar” to narrow the field a bit. Pay dirt!

To better cope with the quantity of apps in the App Store, I narrowed my search to “Beginner Guitar” to narrow the field a bit. Pay dirt!

Beginner Guitar Songs - Free - Download now

I found Beginner Guitar Songs from GuitarJamz.com. Marty Schwartz, who is an amazing guitar teacher, showed me how to hold the guitar, how to hold the pick, basic strumming patterns and then introduced easy chords to learn. I quickly progressed through the Beginner Lesson Series and advanced to Important Guitar Chords. After an afternoon, I could play an E minor, A major, D major, G major, E major, A minor and C major chords –not bad for the first day.

Beginner Guitar was so much fun and I could really see some progress.

The next morning of my first weekend with a guitar, I fired up the Beginner Guitar app again and went through the Strumming Patterns and tried to learn some songs from the Easy Guitar Songs section. This was so much fun and I could really see some progress.

One thing that Marty did mention in the lessons was keeping your guitar in tune. I had forgotten about that. I touched base with some musician friends and read up on line. It seems that the “purists” like to use a tuning fork, the “realists” like to use an analog chromatic tuner and the “techies” like the digital chromatic tuner. I just couldn’t see dropping close to a hundred bucks on a tuner when I knew there must be “…an app for that.” Back to the App Store – this time searching for Guitar Tuner. I came across many options, but I settled on Cleartune Chromatic Tuner. For $3.99, I figured it would be worth a shot and it is great. Play a note on the guitar and the “analog looking” dial shows you how far off from the actual note you are. I just tuned my strings and kept plucking and tuning until the guitar was in perfect tune.

Play a note on the guitar and the “analog looking” dial on Cleartune Chromatic Tuner shows you how far off from the actual note you are.

$3.99 - Cleartune Chromatic Tuner - Download now

Now I was ready to learn more chords – I had about seven under my belt and I wanted more. I found the Howcast Guitar Lessons app and found over 140 video lessons – mostly chords and progressions. I spend the better part of the day learning more chords. I continued each day; adding a new chord and then reviewing the ones I had learned. By the end of the first week I had about 10 chords I was comfortable with. By the end of the second week, I had about fifteen I could remember and play. The Howcast app also taught me how to play scales and I learned the Pentatonic scales and the Blues scale and felt like I was ready to dive into some music.

I found the Howcast Guitar Lessons app and found over 140 video lessons – mostly chords and progressions.

$1.99 - Guitar Lessons from Howcast - Download now

I so enjoyed the GuitarJamz app that I looked for more stuff from Marty Schwartz and found Blues Licks, Solo Guitar and 100 Lessons and I downloaded all those apps. I then saw that in addition to the apps and the website, Marty had hundreds of lessons for free on his YouTube channel. I watched, learned and experimented to see what I could do. I had to remember, I was only a little over two weeks into my new hobby.

What I learned was that some of my favorite classic rock songs were pretty easy. America’s “Horse With No Name” – two chords. The Beatles’ “Let it Be” – four chords. Cat Stevens’ “Peace Train” – four chords. I could do this.

Over the next few weeks – and now after about four months – I have been watching YouTube videos, using the Chromatic Tuner app and downloading guitar sheet music via the Songsterr Plus app. The guitar learning apps showed me how to read guitar tablature and chord diagrams – so I can do that as well.

The Songsterr Plus guitar learning app showed me how to read guitar tablature and chord diagrams – so I can do that as well.

$9.99 - Songsterr Plus - Download now

As I write this, I have just learned the guitar solo to Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” – something I never envisioned I would be doing four months into learning how to play the guitar. Now, I still need lots of work and I’m sure my technique needs improving. Thanks to a Valentine’s present for my first “in-person” guitar lesson, I hope to work on those things and more. However, the reality is that I really did learn how to play the guitar using my iPad.

Have you learned how to do something new using your iPad? Let us know by posting a comment below or joining this discussion thread in our forums.

Ringtonium is simple and easy to use, and best of all saves you money by letting you use your already purchased songs as ringtones.

Ringtonium is the best app for creating custom ringtones -- and alert tones -- on your iPhone. While record labels are happy to resell you ringtones for the same tracks you've already bought -- often at the same or even higher prices than the full song -- if you don't mind a few quick steps, you can save some money and get exactly the ringtone you want, exactly the way you want it.

Although there are plenty of ringtone creation apps available in the App Store to do just that, none of them are a well rounded or useful as Ringtonium. The user-interface is extremely easy to use and builds on some of the unique syncing abilities available in iTunes, along with a number of outside apps like SoundCloud, and of course social network sharing.

Dialing down to specific start and stop times with Ringtonium's fine-tune slider and associated dial

Upon launching the app you'll be asked to choose between an existing track from the iPod music library, or creating your own track by using the iPhone's built-in microphone. Once you've got a track to work with, you can then jump into the mix and get into the details with a fine-tuned audio scrubber for selecting your start and stop times. If you need even more control over your start/stop times, Ringtonium offers a dial with the ability to drill down to milliseconds for absolute precision.

If you chose to record from the microphone, the quality is remarkably high and distortion free, even at higher input volumes. That's surprising and very welcome.

Adding effects in Ringtonium using their built-in FX feature is easy

Ringtonium also has an included FX panel where you can add fade in and fade out, adjust the pitch or reverse the audio, and add flange or echo effects. The quality of the included effects are top-notch and Ringtonium lets you go for the longest ringtone duration Apple allows -- something most other ringtone apps haven't caught onto yet.

Exporting custom ringtones with Ringtonium

The Good

• Fast to use
• Well thought out design and user interface layout.
• Supports exporting using iTunes or with 3rd party cloud integration.
• Fine-tuned slider and dialer let you set perfect start/stop times.
• Modify or delete custom ringtones within the app -- no iTunes required!
• Video tutorials included.

The Bad

• Cannot mix/combine multiple tracks.
• Limited built-in FX.

The conclusion

Ringtonium is simple and easy to use, and best of all saves you money by letting you use your already purchased songs as ringtones. If you've been looking for the best ringtone app for your iPhone, look no further than Ringtonium -- it's the best option currently available and excels in every area.

$0.99 -- App Store Link

If you've created home videos with your iPhone but are having a hard time finding music to accompany them, YouTube Producer has come to the rescue! YouTube Producer offers tens of thousands of copyright-free music tracks that you can add background, ambiance, and mood to your personal productions.

Copyright-free is the key point here. Most of us have big music libraries we'd like to use, but the songs they're filled with are copyrighted. If we add them to our videos, we could get complaints, and YouTube could remove the videos. Using YouTube Producer alleviates this concern completely. It has a great selection of music that can be sorted by genre, mood or tempo, and it's 100% safe to use.

There are some limitations, however. Namely, the music you choose for your video must be placed in the background of the entire video. Using it's music for just your intro, for example, is not an option. You do have control over volume, however -- either mix the music with the video's existing audio, or have the new music replace the audio track completely.

Also, YouTube Producer isn't a full blown video editor. If that's what you're looking for, you need to pick up a copy of Apple's iMovie instead.

If you just want to add a soundtrack or some background music to your the videos in your iPhone Camera roll and easily upload them to YouTube, then this is the app for you.

• Free - App Store link

Taglists is an iPhone and iPad app that lets you create and share playlists made up of music, videos, and photos that can be streamed for free by you and your friends. Just tag all the media with the same hashtag label and Taglists will generate the playlists for you. Want to enjoy these playlists via a different medium? No problem; Taglists lets you use Airplay or DLNA to play them on connected TV, A/V receivers, iPod docks, stereos, Apple TV and more.

We took a closer look at Taglists at Macworld 2012.

• Free - App Store link

Taglists lets you create and share playlists that mix free music, videos, and photos from multiple places, including Facebook, YouTube, Picasa, and SoundCloud.

• Create a Taglist by tagging songs, videos, and photos with the same hash-tag, like #inthedark (See #inthedark here: http://eye-c.tv/twv)
• Share Taglists on Twitter and Facebook automatically, and let friends add to your playlist to build your own shared channel that others can watch on any computer
• Play Taglists on your iPhone or iPod touch or iPad or use Airplay or DLNA to play them on connected TV, A/V receivers, iPod docks, stereos, Apple TV and more.

Taglists is available on the iPhone and iPad for free.

• App Store link

Have an app you'd love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

VicMan Visage Lab: A professional beauty laboratory for your facial photos. Remove pimples and wrinkles, outline the eyes and whiten the teeth in seconds, with all operations made automatically!

• Free for iPhone and iPad - App Store link

Super Grouper for Contacts App Groups and List Management: Create groups of Contacts and send group SMS, emails or photos in a couple taps.

• Free for iPhone - App Store link

Charadium II: A fast & furious draw-and-guess multiplayer game that guarantees you’ll be drawn in. Your goal is to draw a given word, and other players have to guess that word.

• $0.99 for iPhone - App Store link
• $2.99 for iPad - App Store link

DoReMi 1-2-3: Fun, musical ear training games challenge your children’s minds as they laugh, create, and play with moo-sical cows, boat-rowing pandas, and twinkling stars! Music lessons have never been this fun—brain-building never this effortless!

• $1.99 for iPhone and iPad - App Store link

Last Night...?: Ever woke up from a long night out without remembering what happened, or went to the coolest burger place and can't remember where it was? Or just want to be able to monitor your daily movements if you're a jogger or if you're learning to drive? Then this app is made for you!

• $1.99 for iPhone - App Store link

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you'd love to see featured on iMore? Email us at iosapps@imore.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Rockmate for iPad is a music studio for the iPad. One of it's unique features is the ability to play 4 interments at once to play with your friends. Then you can record your jams and export them as .wav or .aac files.

Rockmate is a breakthrough music creation app. It turns your iPad into a complete music studio easy and super fun to use.

You can compose, record and play songs with up to 4 Rock players on one single iPad. Rockmate is easy to play with smart chords progressions, sounds great with separated guitar effects and in-house produced audio samples and is also fully customizable with multiple drums and keyboard styles

• Realistic design and animations
• High-quality samples
• 4 players on one single iPad
• Realtime looper
• Smart metronome
• Mixer with level and pan controls
• Realtime Fx (distortion, multiFX, powerchord)
• Chords progression customizable
• Create your own chords
• Save your styles (Chords progression, FX, Drum, keyboard style...)
• Export: .wav or .aac
• Sharing: iTunes sharing folder and Email.
• Airplay

Rockmate is available on the iPad and on sale for the weekend for $1.99.

• $1.99 - App Store link

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Magic Guitar is Smule's newest music app, similar to Magic Piano. To play the guitar, hold your iPhone like it's the neck of a guitar, and tap or slide the beams of light that pass across the screen. Just as with Magic Piano, you can listen live to others around the world while they play their music. The song selection includes many legendary artists including The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, Tom Petty, and Lynard Skynyrd.

• Free - App Store link

Check out Smule's cofounder Ge Wang playing Scarborough Fair with Magic Guitar in the video below!

Get ready to rock! Unleash your inner rocker with Magic Guitar, and you’ll be shredding like a legend in no time. Simply hold your phone like a guitar neck, and beams of light help you play the greatest guitar songs your own way. You control the notes, speed, guitar type, pitch and vibrato. Play it once, play it a hundred times, each time is a unique experience that won’t get old.

• Simply touch the lights to play all styles of music, from soulful jams to scorching shred.
• Express your creativity and shake your phone to create vibrato, or drag your fingers to bend the pitch.
• Choose from different guitar sounds and speeds to make each song your own.

Magic Guitar’s songbook includes a huge catalog of legendary artists including:

• The Rolling Stones
• KISS
• Daughtry
• Nirvana
• Sublime
• Bruno Mars
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
• Goo Goo Dolls
• Incubus
• Coldplay
• Lynard Skynyrd
• Evanescence
• Styx
• Poison
• Credence Clearwater Revival
• Blue Oyster Cult
• Jason Mraz
• Santana
• …and many more!

Magic Guitar is available on the iPhone for free.

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Muud.io is a new iPhone app that plays music to suit your mood. That's right, let Muud.io know what kind of mood you're in and it'll automatically build a playlist to match it. If you like a little more control, you can save and edit your favorite playlist to fit your exact needs.

Making great mixes shouldn't be a chore. Whether you're out-and-about, or relaxing at home, you want the right music and you want it now.

Muud.io automatically builds playlists to suit any mood, at the touch of a button.

Simply pick a mood, and Muud.io will build a playlist for you, using the music that you love.

• Community-recommended playlists, based on a mood of your choice.
• Automatic rating of song moods via the Muud.io community.
• Manually rate song moods according to your own personal preference.
• Save and edit your favourite playlists to get them just right.
• Let your friends know what you're listening to via Twitter and Facebook.
• Share your favourite playlists via Twitter and Facebook.

Giveaway

The good folks at App Sandwich Limited have given us 5 promo codes to give away to you, our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below telling us who your favorite artist is.

Muud.io is available on the iPhone for $3.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Video Star is an iPhone and iPad app that lets you record music videos to your favorite songs features - you! You can mix layouts, colors, action, and frames easily and even pause recording to make scene changes a breeze. Once your masterpiece is created, it can be shared on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Check out the video made with Video Star below!

Record an awesome music video, anytime, anywhere. Lip sync … dance cover … capture your friends in action. Now you are the Video Star!

Video Star comes with tons of built-in video effects and you can make your own. Mix amazing layouts, cool colors, awesome action, and fantastic frames. A video effects playground!

• dozens of video effects, thousands of combinations!
• instant upload to YouTube
• share published videos to Facebook, Twitter, and email
• full iPhone 4, iPod Touch Gen 4, and iPad 2 front & back camera support

Giveaway

The good folks at Frontier Design Group have given us 5 promo codes to give away to our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below letting us know which song you'll make a music video to.

Video Star is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Play It is a music player for the iPhone and iPad that is controlled solely with gestures. It also lets you customize the look and syncs with iCloud so that your settings match on all devices. Additionally, Play It supports the new Twitter function in iOS 5, so that you can quickly tweet about the music you're listening to.

Check out the promo video below!

Play It is a fun and useful app to control your music with innovative, but simple gestures.

• iCloud
• Personal colors
• Twitter
• Multi touch
• Useful on the road
• AirPlay support
• Headphone remote support
• Controls from the lock screen
• Synchronization with iTunes
• Uses the music from the iPod app
• Also plays popcasts and audio books
• Shuffle function
• Search function
• Sort albums by album or artists

The updated includes:

• iCloud
• Colors and scroll style personalization
• iOS 5 Twitter (auto and manual)
• Lyrics
• New gestures
• Albums crash fix
• Other important bug fixes

Play It is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

VocaLive is a new iPad app that allows you to capture vocal recordings with your iPad and includes 12 real-time professional vocal effects. Combined with IK Multimedia's iRig Mic, this is a great little setup for musicians.

VocaLive provides singers and vocalists with a suite of 12 real-time professional vocal effects along with a capable recorder for studio-quality sound in a portable package. The effects can be combined into a chain of 4 processors and saved as presets. A collection of up to 50 presets is included to get you up and running immediately.

• Real time vocal processor + recording app
• 4-processor vocal effects chain
• 12 professional studio quality vocal effects
• Single track recorder expandable to a full 8-track recording studio with master effects section, available for purchase in the in-app Shop
• Import and play songs to be used as backing tracks directly from your music library or computer
• Voice Cancel feature lets you create sing-along backing tracks by removing the vocal track from existing recordings
• 50 presets included with 4 Favorites for fast recall
• Includes metronome and vocal warm-up tools
• Low-latency for real time vocal processing

VocaLive is available on the iPad for $19.99. The iRig Mic is available for $59.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Launched alongside iPad 2, Apple's multitouch version of GarageBand has just been updated as a universal app -- that's right, it now supports iPhone and iPod touch as well. GarageBand for iOS is a re-imagining of Apple's traditional iLife music recording, mixing, and rendering app for their modern mobile platforms.

Apple's SVP of Marketing, Phil Schiller:

GarageBand on iPad has been a big hit and we think customers will love using it on their iPhone or iPod touch,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The innovative Multi-Touch interface combined with Smart Instruments makes it easy to create great sounding music, even if you’ve never studied music or played an instrument before.

Here's the full update list:

• Universal app designed for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
• Create custom chords for Smart Instruments
• Support for 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures
• Reset song key without transposing original recordings
• Transpose songs in semitones or full octaves
• Additional quantization options for recordings including, straight, triplet and swing
• New audio export quality settings for AAC and AIFF (Uncompressed)
• Arpeggiator available in Smart Keyboard
• Adjustable velocity settings for Touch Instruments
• Numerous enhancements, including automatic fade out and improved audio import options

Get it, plug it in, and tell us how well it works for you on the smaller screen.

Source: App Store Link

Shows is an iPhone app that uses your music library to determine who your favorite artists are and then keeps you up to date and notified about upcoming concerts near you. You can also search for specific artists and share concerts on Facebook and Twitter.

If you love live music, and you love nicely designed, smartly executed iPhone apps, you want Shows on your home screen.

Shows is the ultimate live music companion you've been waiting for. It automatically scans your iPod for artists and makes it easy to import ones from your Last.fm and Rdio libraries. But that's just the start.

• Push notifications for newly announced concerts in your area.
• Distance slider to set how far you're willing to travel for a gig.
• Location offsetting, to know what's happening at your next travel destination.
• Easily search listings for artists you follow and thousands of others.
• Share concerts with your friends over Facebook, Twitter, SMS, email.
• Concert favorites.

Giveaway

The developer, Sam Vermette, has given us 5 promo codes to give away to our readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment letting us know which band or artist you most love seeing live -- who's concert can you simply not miss!

Shows is available on the iPhone for $2.99.

[App Store link - Web Site link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

DM1 is a virtual drum machine for the iPad. It comes with over 40 electronic drum kits: 18 classic vintage drum kits plus 22 in-house produced electronic kits. Too see the DM1 in action, check out the video below.

DM1 is an advanced vintage Drum Machine. It turns your iPad into a fun and creative beat making machine. Easy and fast to use, loaded with 40 superb electronic drum kits and beautiful hyper-realistic graphics, DM1 has been designed for a lot of instant fun.

DM1 offers 5 main sections:

1. The step sequencer frees your imagination with a smart use of the multi-touch screen. Just turn on and off steps in your sequence with the tip of your fingers to create cool beats, or unexpected rhythms!
2. The drum pads simply lets you play and record the beat that tickles your fingers. No need to be a first-class drummer, automatic quantize does the work for you.
3. The mixer for quick and subtle sound mixing of your drum kits. Featuring settings for volume, pitch, sample length, custom drum kit element for each channel, mute and solo mode.
4. The FX trackpads a creative duo of FX trackpads to distort, modulate and transform your beats. The effects include: Overdrive, Delay, Phaser, Texturizer, Robotizer, Filter and Compressor.
5. The song composer allows you to quickly make a song with the beat patterns you have created. Just drag and drop the patterns onto the timeline. Fast and easy.

Specifications:

• Graphic design by Jonas Eriksson
• Smart ergonomy for fast creativity and fun
• 40 vintage and produced drum kits, mastered at in-house Fingerlab Sound Studios
• Mixer page with pitch, length and level rotary controls, pan controls, and custom drum kit per channel
• Extra fast drum kit loading
• Playable pattern selection for extra creativity
• 9 Big Drum pads, quantized recording and MPC-like Repeat touch-stripe
• Step Sequencer with multi-touch matrix
• Duo FX Trackpads for real-time sonic destruction and multi-FX
• Mode song with intuitive editing
• High-quality export to email or iTunes shared folder
• Audio background mode

Giveaway

The good folks at Fingerlab have given us 5 promo codes to give away to you, our awesome readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below!

DM1 - The Drum Machine is available on the iPad and on sale for $0.99 until October 24.

[App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Smule has released a new music app for iOS, MadPad. It's a video soundboard - of your life. After using the camera on your iPhone or iPad 2 to record 12 tiny clips of video and sound, your soundboard is created and you're ready to start remixing.

I cannot justly describe the awesomeness of this app, so please watch the video below. And because we know that our readers are much more creative than us, TiPb is gifting 5 copies of MadPad for iPhone and 5 copies MadPad HD for iPad!

Remix your life with MadPad, Apple's official iPhone and iPad App of the Week. Turn everyday sights and sounds like your car, an empty soda can, or your friends into the ultimate percussive instrument. Who would have thought everyday life could be so musical?

Create video soundboards from your life

Oh the possibilities! Just aim and shoot to capture sounds all around you - your local café, car, kitchen, kids, cat, friends - MadPad magic will take care of the rest.

• Easily record video clips to create interactive video sets.
• Mix in clips from the community to create new mashups.

Simply tap to play

Tap to play video sets just like a drum. Have fun creating your own rhythms, beats and loops.

• Over 50 FREE sets included: pianos to piccolos, silly sounds to sweet guitars.
• Discover new sets from the MadPad community daily.
• Remix exclusive content from YouTube sensation Mystery Guitar Man.

Share with the world

Record and share music videos for the world to enjoy! Or see how your friends remix your life.

• Record your performances like a music video, and then post on YouTube.
• Share your favorite sets through Twitter, Facebook or email.

Giveaway

For a chance to win a copy of MadPad for iPhone or iPad, let us know which version you would prefer and give us a little hint on what type of soundboard you plan to create! (Must have a US or Canadian iTunes account to win. Apple's rule, not ours!)

MadPad is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99 and $2.99 respectively.

[iPhone App Store link] [iPad App Store link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

iSheetMusic, an app that allows you to download sheet music to your iPhone or iPad, is now available.

iSheetMusic is an educational music app providing fully dynamic sheet music to amateur/hobbyist musicians across every genre imaginable.

• Download your favorite sheet music directly to your device.
• Search for Music in FKBK or PVG formats.
• Use In-App purchase to download new music to your sheet music collection.
• Organize your music into sets; or view by Artist, Composer, or Genre.
• Both an Audible and Visual Metronome are included. Each song defaults to the music default tempo, but you can adjust freely.
• Guitar Chords Diagrams are included (when appropriate).

iSheetMusic is available on the iPhone and iPad for free. Screenshots after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Coverjam Pro by Electric Pocket is a new iPhone and iPad app that, while listening to music, displays photo slideshows of the band.

Listen to your music and Coverjam Pro will search Instagram and Flickr for photos tagged with the band's name to create a stunning full-screen slideshow of the artists as you listen!

• Enhance your listening pleasure with photos of the artist
• Share the photos you like with friends via Facebook, Twitter or Email
• Get a fresh slide-set each time your track changes
• Play music from your iPod, or select from within Coverjam
• View photos in Safari, find out more about them and see other photos by that photographer
• Ban photos you don't like so they're not shown again

Coverjam is available on the iPhone and iPad for $0.99. Screenshots and video after the break.

[iTunes link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Fingerlab has released their new drumming iPad app, DM1 - The Drum Machine. It will turn your iPad into a fun and creative beat making machine.

• 12 classic vintage drum kits plus 12 in-house produced electronic kits
• Smart ergonomy for fast creativity and fun
• 24 vintage and produced drum kits, mastered at in-house Fingerlab Sound Studios
• Mixer page with pitch, length and level rotary controls, and custom drum kit per channel
• Extra fast drum kit loading
• Playable pattern selection for extra creativity
• 9 Big Drum pads, quantized recording and MPC-like Repeat touch-stripe
• Step Sequencer with multi-touch matrix
• Duo FX Trackpads for real-time sonic destruction and multi-FX
• Mode song with intuitive editing

I may not know much about drumming nor have the musical creativity to put this app to any good use, but I know a good UI when I see one - and I see one in DM1.

DM1 - The Drum Machine has a launch price of $1.99. Screenshots and video after the break.

[iTunes link]

• Rhythm Guitar: Play guitar with your iPad! [$2.99 for iPad - iTunes link]

• Tagged Recorder: Simply record conferences, lectures, seminars, talks and easily find your records by tags and location. [$1.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

• Horse Zoom: - Over 2000 images of Horses by renowned professional photographer. Mark J. Barrett. [$11.99 for iPhone and iPad - iTunes link]

• Miso Music: Plectrum: Learn how to learn to play the guitar, ukulele, bass, banjo and mandolin. [Free for iPad, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

• Busy Gears: Tap anywhere on the screen to jump from gear to gear to spring to air puff while reaching the bonus stars. Watch out for the spikes, flying razers, speed gears, and invisible gears. [$0.99 for iPhone - iTunes link]

Any other big apps or game releases or updates today? If you pick any of these up, let us know what you think!

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Progression is a guitar tab editor for your iPad that gives you the convenience of an easy-to-use guitar tab creation tool right at your fingertips. It is loaded with features and functions such as vibrato, slides, string bending, hammer-ons, pull-offs, whammy-bar, bass slap, effects, mutes, and harmonics.

• Enter, edit, and playback tab, notation, or both
• Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, and Bass Guitar samples included (add additional instruments such as Classical Guitar, Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar, Mandolin, and Banjo)
• Search for tabs online
• Open NOTION files
• Open Guitar Pro files (versions 3-5)
• Clean and intuitive user interface
• Interactive 24-fret guitar fretboard for fast entry
• Quick and simple selection palette
• Distortion and reverb effects
• Full audio mixer
• Convenient file sharing
• Full-range of guitar functions and articulations including: bends, vibrato, slides, hammer on, pull off, mutes, whammy bar techniques, bass slap, harmonics, and more…
• Drag and drop cursor option
• Insert text
• Quick “Undo” and “Redo” functions
• Chord and melody modes
• Easy delete and erase capabilities
• Help Files
• Enter and edit title and composer information
• In-App Purchases to add more instruments and gear
• Free scales and exercises included

If you pick this one up, let us know what you think! Check out the screenshots after the break.

[$4.99, with in-app purchases - iTunes link]

Have an app you'd love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we'll take a look.

Amplitube 2 by IK Multimedia is an awesome little app that allows you to convert your iPhone into a full on guitar rig. Their iPad version was recently featured in one of the new Apple iPad ads. The app has 3 versions currently - Amplitube Free, Amplitube LE ($2.99), and the full Amplitube version ($19.99). We are using the full version for this review to give you a complete picture of what's available.

To use this app, you'll need to purchase an iRig, which are currently priced at $39.99. You'll simply plug your guitar or bass into the iRig which then plugs into your iPhone or iPad. The 3rd outlet allows you to plug into the audio output of your choice. We just used a standard surround system (receiver) for this review. You're also free to use an amp or headphones, which can be great if you'd like to practice quietly. And hey, it's a lot easier to carry around the iRig than an entire guitar rig.

iTunes Link

When you first launch Amplitube, you'll see a plethora of different options. You can choose between different cabinets as well as add effects pedals. The full version of Amplitube comes with most of the effects pedals and tons of extras. You can also purchase more gear via an in-app purchase. We also purchased the four track recorder, which is not included in any version. We tested the iRig and Amplitube 2 with not only a surround sound system, but headphones as well. The results really were quite pleasing. In-app purchases are easy enough and add even more features to the app. They are also extremely reasonably priced when you look at what a new physical effects pedal would cost, for example.

This app is great for anyone who wants to learn to play guitar but doesn't want to invest into a major setup right off the bat. It's also great for professionals who may travel a lot and don't want to always carry a full rig with them. The app also features basic tools like a built-in tuner and metronome as well. The song feature allows you to drop in songs from your iTunes library through file sharing. Then when you launch the app, you can play along with your favorite songs within the app. This is a great feature for wearing headphones and practicing when you don't want to disturb anyone else.

The only down sides we noticed when testing this app was the cramped layout. I pulled my brother in on this review, as I do not pretend to be a master guitar player. He really enjoyed playing with this app and using it, but he was sometimes frustrated by the cramped layout. If you have an iPad that you carry around with you frequently, I'd suggest using Amplitube with the iPad over the iPhone. The layout is much more spacious and it's harder to press buttons on accident. He would frequently hit the wrong tab along the top when trying to toggle between effects pedals or other settings. This is one thing I'd like to see some improvement on in the next iteration. Other than that, this is a great app and one I'd suggest any guitar player to look over. If you aren't sure about buying an iRig just yet, check out the free version of the app and browse through what's available first. It's definitely a decent investment for anyone who wants to be more portable with their guitar or bass.

Pros

• Easy setup with iRig
• In-app purchase makes it simple to buy more effects on the go
• iRig and app are reasonably priced for what they offer
• The Songs option is a great feature that takes advantage of file sharing

Cons

• The layout on the iPhone version is a bit cramped
• The four track recorder is not extremely easy to learn, but once you figure it out, it's a nice feature to have

Smule, makers of Ocarina, Leaf Trombone, Magic Piano, and I am T-Pain have announced their latest app -- Magic Fiddle!

Uncover your musical talents and learn new techniques effortlessly as your friendly fiddle leads the way. Compete for global high scores and earn medals and badges as you accomplish fabulous feats of fiddlery. Show off your newly discovered musical aptitude with friends, family or even broadcast it to the world.

Check out video of it in action after the break and if you want to win a promo code to make it your very own, just leave a comment telling us how much you want it! (Promo codes require a US iTunes account, Apple's rule, not ours!)

[$2.99 - iTunes link]

Pick Up and Play Beautiful Music: Amaze yourself as you pick up and play songs by following streams of colored light in the Songbook, no previous skill required. Impress your friends by playing any of the 20 songs that come bundled in the Songbook, from video theme songs to Ave Maria and everything in between.

Learn Fiddling Techniques Easily: Learn to bow, pluck, trill, vibrato and glissandi directly from your iPad. Your fiddle takes you on fun learning adventures with the Storybook – an 8-chapter interactive journey that teaches you different techniques with fun activities and step-by-step instructions.

Take it To the Top! Show off your newly found musical aptitude to your fellow fiddlers as you compete for the high score on the global leaderboards. Play your heart out to earn scores and medals for each song – your best performances combine for your global high score. Earn badges as you accomplish new heights.

Listen and Share Globally: Inspire your friends and family with your musical talent at home or experience social music on the Smule globe. Listen to other fiddlers around the world, broadcast your masterpieces and show support for fellow fiddlers by “liking” their songs.

The Financial Times is reporting that Apple may be in cahoots with the Big Music record labels, Sony, Warner, Universal, and EMI to create bonus-material laden Apps in an attempt to reignite interest in full album purchases among consumers. This project is said to be code named "cocktail" and would include:

a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads

Since the advent of iTunes, sales of digital singles has risen but full albums has fallen. In previous decades, from vinyl through cassette and compact disc (CD), with the exception of 45s (original, not the new digital kind) and compilations, albums were often the only way to get popular tunes.

While some, including our own editor-in-chief, still prefer buying whole albums so as to get the whole "story" an artist is trying to tell, others have maintained since the days of vinyl that some artists were just as content to put effort into a couple hit songs then quickly produce filler for the rest of the album.

So "Cocktail" could well enhance even those mega-albums filled with great music, much as they did in the heydays of physical media, but will they be compelling enough to get consumers to fork over $9+ instead of $1.29 to get filler from that one hit wonder as well?

[Via MacRumors]