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If you are a comedy nerd, chances are you have already listened to Marc Maron’s podcast, . If you haven’t, I suggest you do, but not just because Maron uses the podcast to settle old feuds, bare souls and, of course, talk comedy with some of the biggest comedic voices of the past quarter century. That all makes for great listening, but the real reason Maron’s podcast deserves a listen from digital media and technology execs is because it shows how someone like Maron, who was “in a compromised position and a little desperate” when his terrestrial radio show was canceled by Air America, has been able to resurrect and build a career through the power of Internet distribution and community, as with an increasing number of other artist-entrepreneurs. I recently took some time to chat with Maron, which you can listen to by clicking below on the big orange “play” button from the embedded SoundCloud player. In our conversation we talk about some of the lessons he has learned since the launch of his podcast. He talks about his experiments with new methods to sell his content (including the launch of his own app), how he views podcasting and new media in the context of the larger new media landscape, and his thoughts on old friends like Louis C.K. as they find ways to disintermediate and disrupt the old guard, among other things. I suggest you give the whole podcast a listen, but below are a few takeaways from my podcast conversation with Maron. According to Maron, unless you are a megastar, you need to take control of your own career and embrace new distribution models,  because no one else is going to do it for you. You think your local paper is going to take care of you? The comedy club’s website is going to draw people in? You really have no choice. While Maron is specifically speaking of comedy, it is true for artists of all stripes. Taking control of your own distribution and monetization through new Internet models is something we are seeing musicians, authors and video artists at all levels do, since, increasingly, they can’t rely on corporate media to promote and monetize for them. Maron knew that once his library of podcasts grew to a certain size, he could monetize the back catalog. Once he reached 150 podcasts, he used an aggregator and attempted to charge for podcasts through iTunes. However, it Read More

A rundown of the best and favourite Yoga apps on iTunes right now Today’s favorite four roundup will focus on our inner calm, and our outer flexibility as I rundown the most popular and my personal favorite Yoga apps for all of your iOS devices. Most apps offer useful information for everyone from a beginner to someone who practises Yoga daily. From within this list you should find a great app to get you into the fantastic (and relaxing) world of Yoga. Authentic Yoga with Deepack Chopra and Tara Stiles This is perhaps one of the best and most well known Yoga app available for the iPhone. Garnering more media attention than any other Yoga app I’ve seen, the star power of New Age guru Deepack Chopra and all-star Yoga instructor Tara Stiles launches this app into a category all it’s own. Offering informative videos, detailed instructions, and customizable routines, this app has it all. While rather download-heavy, I’d say don’t stray far from a Wifi connection when using this app. $1.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2010-02-26 :: Category: Healthcare & Fitness All-In Yoga HD Another powerhouse of an app, and nominated in our very own Best App Ever awards last year. All-In Yoga HD is hands-down the most comprehensive app you’ll find, anywhere, about Yoga. It offers not only 200+ poses, with detailed video and audio instructions, but also a host of ready-made routines, and an entirely personalized option to built your own routines. Being on the iPad it offers something the other apps on this list can’t, huge beautiful, detailed instructions and photos to help you better understand and practise yoga. $5.99 Released: 2010-08-19 :: Category: Healthcare & Fitness $0.99 $1.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2010-07-17 :: Category: Healthcare & Fitness YOGAmazing – Yoga Video App For fans of the YOGAmazing podcast, this is the companion app that goes perfectly alongside (or to replace) the video podcast. While you’ll only have a limited number of archived podcasts to choose from if you subscribe via iTunes, you’ll have up to 50 videos to choose from with exclusive content in this app. His videos usually sell from $3.99-$9.99 on iTunes (or on his website), but for one low price you’ll get the most recent content delivered strait to your iPhone with the Video App. $4.99 Read More

There are plenty of great podcasts out there to choose from, but we’ve got the best of the audio variety right here to scratch your Mac itch. While all the TWiT-centric video podcasts in part one of my podcast roundup have companion audio feeds, these radio-styled talk shows are much better choices for your iPhone or iPod touch. (iTunes Link) Leo Laporte is the Chuck Norris of all tech-based talk shows on any format. Leo may be trying to record every moment of his life, given the number of shows he’s involved with. With audio and video podcasts, and traditional over-the-air shows, it’s amazing he finds the time to tweet. While Leo tends to be more Mac-focused than PC, the tech discussions can go either way. (iTunes Link) Dave Hamilton and John F. Braun have been with The Mac Observer for a long time, and have been producing a quality podcast for almost as long. Their enthusiasm never seems to die out. The depth of knowledge they have regarding Mac-related technologies is proven over and over. There’s also an enhanced iTunes version with premium content, but you can only grab it through iTunes. (iTunes Link) For Mac geeks by Mac geeks. With five years of history behind him, Adam Christianson is another veteran of all things Mac. The variety that each show has to offer is refreshing. Adam is very articulate, and you can easily visualize the detailed step-by-step walk-througsh typically included in each show. (iTunes Link) A quick podcast bringing you the latest Mac news — all of the latest Mac news. Ken Ray has a familiar format that’s often imitated. At times, you expect a full-on rant to ensue, but Ken manages to pull back and keep to the facts with just enough commentary to keep things interesting. This podcast even has its own iOS app. (iTunes Link) Beyond the quick tips, the weekly program is a collection of how-tos mixed in with news and rumors being discussed online. Lately, I’ve been trying to steer clear of having to sync daily. I use MobileMe to keep my bookmarks, contacts, calendar and notes in sync when on the go. I have my favorite albums on hand and utilize services like Pandora to fulfill my other music needs. Podcasts, on the other hand, are very time-based, and it wasn’t until I found Podcaster for $1.99 in the App Store (iTunes link) that I was Read More

By Rob LeFebvre on August 11th, 2010 Most folks get in shape before the summer and bathing suit weather hits. Why not get a head start on next year's perfect body with four great apps to help you start, maintain and track your healthy new habit? Couch to 5K – The popular Couch To 5 K (C25K) Program was originally designed at CoolRunning.com to help new runners ease into the sport, allowing thousands of runners to participate and enjoy one of the most basic human activities without injury or pain. This is one of the more well designed C25K apps in the App Store, having been designed by Felt Tip, Inc. (experienced Mac and iPhone developers). Use this app to train yourself across 9 weeks, starting with very short activities and getting to 5K. You can use it with your own music playlists and it even integrates with Nike+. Voice prompts for starting and stopping can be made with a male or female voice, and includes a built-in music control tab for controlling your iPod functions while on the go. Share your runs with Facebook and Twitter friends, as well. It’s like having a trainer run along with you. $9.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2009-05-26 :: Category: Healthcare & Fitness Running Log – Some of us just want to track our data and don’t really want fancy GPS mapping or a trainer to tell us what to do. For those folks, Running Log may be the ticket, an app that simply lets you record your runs and make notes about them as to effort, duration, intensity, etc. See your stats in a handy report screen, or flip your iPhone sideways to landscape mode and see a visualisation graph of your entered data. Simple and effective for runners who already have their plans and runs in place. $0.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2009-09-09 :: Category: Healthcare & Fitness RunKeeper Pro – The granddaddy of running apps, this one tracks how far you went, how long it took, what your pace/speed was, how many calories you burned, and the path you traveled on a map. You can then upload each event to the runkeeper website, for archiving, sharing, and comparing your runs with yourself and others. Runkeeper Pro also includes interval training systems with voice prompts, iPod Read More

by on 18. Dec, 2009 in Apple Redesigns US App Store with Less Words, More Pictures Apple has recently redesigned the look and feel of the App Store to better showcase the applications. iPhone Users Urged to Take Down AT&T What started out as a joke by Fake Steve Jobs may turn into reality come tomorrow afternoon, as long as there is a signal anyway. iTunes Label Connect iTunes Connect will be down over the holidays, but you might still be able to get your app sales figures from iTunes Label Connect. PastryKit Apple’s own Mobile Safari web framework for creating web apps that are nearly indistinguishable in their performance and look-n-feel from native apps. Cocoa Classes by Michael Amorose A collection of handy Cocoa classes you can use in your iPhone projects. The 10 and a Half Days of Christmas on Gowalla The popular location-based iPhone app Gowalla is running an innovative holiday promotion which includes the possibility of “finding” a gift at your current location. iPhone Users, Get Ready for Flash Games A new start-up “OneAppAtATime” is working to bring existing Flash games to the iPhone. Some Apps Worth Noting: Movie Triva Game “Scene It?” Comes to iPhone I loved this game on the Xbox and it’s great to see that it is now available on the iPhone. NYC Broken Meters Very clever: use NYC’s database of broken (and unenforced!) parking meters to find free nearby parking. IKEA augmented reality app View your room populated with IKEA goodies. How Fight Club! Lynchland – Liam Lynch Podcast App Musician, puppeteer, writer and director Liam Lynch now has a fun iPhone app with which you can follow his hilarious podcasts and more! Want coverage? Send us your tips/links and/or post it yourself at iPhoneFlow Holiday Giving: Support Mobile Orchard and receive 1,000,000 push notifications from Urban Airship, the iPhone app sales tracking application AppViz, the code generating Xcode helper Accessorizer, a 160 iPhone UI icon set and more. Details… Read More

Dirk Holtwick schreibt derzeit höchst engagiert an Waveboard, einem nativen Mac-Client für die ‘Google Wave’-Integration am OS X-Desktop. Version 0.6 funktioniert bereits mit Growl-Benachrichtigungen und Gears-Unterstüztung. Waveboard liegt auch als iPhone-Anwendung vor – derzeit sowohl bei Apple im Genehmigungsprozess als auch dem iPhoneBlog. Dabei handelt es sich um ein eigenständiges Programm, das die Google Wave-Webansicht darstellt. Gegenüber der Benutzung von Wave im mobilen Safari-Browser wurden Schüttelgesten zum schnellen Ausloggen oder Neuladen der jeweiligen Wave integriert. Waveboard unterstützt die Breitbild-Ansicht und lädt in meinen Vergleichstest marginal schneller als die reine Web-Anwendung. Wirklich gut gefällt die Möglichkeit Links auf externe Webseiten anzusteuern, ohne das dabei ein Verlassen der Anwendung notwendig ist. Leider surft Google selbst derzeit noch auf keiner Riesenwelle. Die als ‘Preview’-Version ausgezeichnete Webanwendung (auf dem iPhone heißt sie ‘Alpha’), kämpft bei mir teilweise mit enormen Performance-Problemen. Der potenzielle iTunes-Konkurrent ‘doubleTwist‘ von Jon Lech Johansen erhält mit Version 2.4 (ausschließlich unter Windows) den iPhone-Sync zurück. Damit lassen sich auch unter der neusten Apple Firmware 3.1.2 Videos, Musik und dessen Wiedergabelisten synchronisieren. DoubleTwist integrierte kürzlich einen Store, mit dem MP3s aus dem digitalen Amazon-Musikverkauf geladen werden können. Die Tii Podcast App (1.59 €; App Store-Link) möchte den ‘iPhone App Ranking Algorithm’ gefunden haben und rät zu kompaktem Marketing in den ersten Verkaufstagen. Und auch die iStat-Entwickler von Bjango machen sich interessante Gedanken zur Goldgräberstimmung: Wer Florian Görisch mit seiner Diplomarbeit über “portalbasierte Softwaredistribution für Smartphones” helfen möchte, nimmt sich wenige Minuten für diese Umfrage: OWLE will mit dem ‘Bubo’ (welch’ genialer Name) einen Markt für engagierte iPhone-Regisseure generieren. Die Telefonhalterung mit zwei lenkradähnlichen Griffen beinhaltet für $100 ein Weitwinkel-Objektiv und ein externes Mikrofon. Der Verkauf soll bereits in wenigen Tagen starten. Die Dropbox-Anwendung für das iPhone erfreut sich großer Beliebtheit. 24 Stunden nach dessen Veröffentlichung waren bereits 75.000 Downloads zu verzeichnen. Die am gestrigen Dienstag aktualisierte Version ist nun auch 3.0-’abwärtskompatibel’, was übergangsweise für iPhone-Besitzer mit Tethering-Bedürften interessant sein dürfte. Wer ein Bluetooth Stereo Headset am iPhone Classic betreiben möchte, wird leider keine Apple-Unterstützung erfahren. A2DP gibt es ausschließlich ab Firmware 3.0 und mit einem iPhone 3G. Die ‘inoffizielle’ Software-Szene ist jedoch einen ganzen Schritt weiter. Mit dem ‘A2DP Enabler’ in Version 1.0beta (Repo: apt.dmytro.me) gibt es auch am Uralt-Phone doppelte und drahtlose Soundausgabe. Kleine Macken einmal außen vor; nach einem Neustart der Installation ‘funkt und funzt’ es recht ordentlich. (Danke, Flow!) Read More

I like the way Schiau Studios thinks -- when customers complained about the price of their $2.99US App Store game Alchemize, they raised the price up to $39.99. Over on the TouchArcade forums, they make their case: most devs, they say, when faced with complaints about price, will just lower their price even though their software is already cheap. So they wanted to buck the trend, and instead raised it up to almost $40 (which, incidentally, is slightly more than what you might pay for a handheld console game). Lest you simply complain that they were greedy, they say they were only out to make a point: everyone who purchased the game at the higher price point will have all of their money go to charity, and now that the game's back at the $2.99 price point, 33% of all the profits to be gained will go to the same charity. Regardless of whether the game's any good or not, we like their thinking. Can we all agree to stop griping about price points? I've actually heard this come up lately on a comedy podcast of all places -- when Chicago broadcasting legend Steve Dahl (and one of my favorites) started up a podcast about a month ago, and introduced an app to go along with it. Steve was inundated with comments complaining about the $2.99 price, which he responded to with a great argument on the show: he's put a lot of money into the app and the show behind it, and if you're already a fan of his, paying less than the cost of a cup of Starbucks should not even be an issue. Sure, when the App Store first started up, it was the Wild West -- both prices and quality were all over the place. But at this point, Apple's review system has more or less settled down, and blogs like ours are full of recommendations, with enough free apps to last any rabid app user most of their iPhone time. If you have any interest in an app at all, a couple of bucks shouldn't be enough to give you pause -- either pick it up and make sure the dev gets their due (small as that may be), or move on to find an app you'd rather buy. Read More