Wolfram Tones

What is the Wolfram Tones Application

I’m a big music fan. I’ve managed to max out my mp3 player and about 75% of my hard drive is music. I also relish every chance I get to make my own music and was very eager to play around with what the Wolfram Tones application had to offer.

I installed the application but had an initial problem playing some of the music. Luckily there was an easy to follow guide to set up Quicktime (which is a requirement to use Wolfram) to play MIDI files.

I don’t quite understand the science behind how the compositions work, but everything is based off on “scientific paradigm of Stephen Wolfram’s New Kind of Science, Wolfram Tones instantly generates unique, organic musical compositions based on algorithms called cellular automata. ”

It’s not hard to mess around and make your own music. I didn’t understand the rule or seed variations (instructions are provided), but basically they are template. I moved onto the instrumentation tab where I could select what instruments to include, and then onto pitch and timing.

After you have created a suitable song, you can save it to your online jukebox to share with others, or you can download it as a MIDI file onto your desktop that can be converted into an mp3 or WAV file that can be played on MP3 players.

Pros

• lots of variation
• ability to save your work
• lots of fun

Cons

• got a horrible screeching sound when ever I’d change instruments. It seemed like every time the project I was working on was reset it made this sound like a record being scratched.

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inTune Facebook Application

What is the inTune Facebook Application?

inTune is a full blow, desktop like music player built for the Facebook platform. The first thing that will catch your attention with this is app is its design. The player is very clean and simple looking, reminiscent of the iTune player. You’ll need FlashPlayer in order to use inTune on account of its super slick design.

inTune isn’t just a pretty looking app. This piece of Facebook eye candy packs a powerful punch of musical social networking. inTune allows you to see what the most popular music is among Facebook users, your Networks, or just your friends. This allows you to discover new artists from people who have similar tastes as you. In addition, inTunes helps you discover new music by suggesting related artists or songs based on the songs you are currently playing in inTunes.

What makes inTune even more impressive is its super huge collection of songs. You can run a search through the inTunes player for artists or songs. I didn’t have any trouble finding the groups that I was looking for.

Finally, inTune lets your Facebook friends know who your favorite artists are by creating a slick looking collage of album art of your most played artists.

inTunes Pros

• Super slick design. This has be to the prettiest app design I’ve seen.
• Leverages Facebook’s social network to the max. Find out what other people on Facebook are listening to and discover new music.
• Suggests new artists based on your tastes.
• Huge music collection. The library has thousands upon thousands of songs. Very impressive.

inTune Cons

• I couldn’t find any in this app. Very well done.

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Sports and Concert Tickets Facebook Application

What is the Sports and Concert Tickets Facebook Application?

Sports and Concert Tickets allows you to easily buy, sell, and trade tickets to sports and concert events on Facebook. Selling tickets on the Sports and Concert Tickets app looks like a breeze. What’s more, you can take advantage of Facebook’s powerful social network to sell them for the best price quickly. Facebook users will be able to search their networks for tickets on sell. Additionally, they’ll be displayed on your profile page, so your friends will know what you’re selling.

Sports and Concert Tickets Pros

• Easy way to sell and buy tickets
• The application is very well designed. Everything is self contained in Facebook, so there’s none of that going to offsites to run the application. Great job!
• You can see which other of your friends are selling tickets as well
• If you can’t find the ticket you’re looking for, the application lets you search StubHub. Very thoughtful and convenient.

Sports and Concert Tickets Cons

• It would be nice if there were some sort of buying/selling rating system like on eBay. I think that would help encourage people to use the site more often knowing that sellers have a good reputation.

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Music Videos Facebook Application

What is the Music Video Facebook Application?

Music Videos allows you to display your favorite videos from your favorite artists. There’s a pretty large selection to choose from. I was also impressed how the videos are organized in by artist, most popular, and most users. Overall, this was a well done app.

Music Video Pros

•  Very large selection of videos to choose from
• Categorized by Most Popular, Newest, and Favorite Vidoes
• You can also see your friends favorite videos
• See videos listed by Artist

Music Video Cons

• Not very original. We already have several video sharing apps. Most music videos are on YouTube or Google Video so someone could just use those.

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Elbows Favorite Tracks Facebook Application

What is the Elbows Favorite Tracks Facebook application?

Elbows Favorite Tracks shows albums on your profile from the bands listed in your favorite band. Clicking on an album will bring you to a site that will link you to an mp3 from the album. It doesn’t do much within Facebook itself, and feels more like an oversized link to the Elbows website.

Elbows Favorite Tracks Pros

• Finding MP3s online is much easier.

Elbows Favorite Tracks Cons

• Much easier to use a P2P program.
• Too big
• Way too much outside linkage, feels like cheap advertising.

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JiwaMusic Facebook Application

What is the JiwaMusic Facebook application?

JiwaMusic is a database of songs that you can search and add to your profile to share with other. They claim to have over 300,000 songs in their database and so far I’ve had no trouble finding any of my favourites. Many different genres are included as well and a user can find anything from Mozart to Moby. The search is a little rusty, however, as results can only be organized by artist and must be browsed one page at a time, rather then allowing the user to jump to any page they wish. This made finding songs by the band ‘X’ quite difficult. The major problem with this app is the amount of space it takes on your profile. Every song you add appears and takes up about a centimeter and a half (quarter inch) of profile space, and there is no option to limit the number of songs that appear in your profile. JiwaMusic is still in beta.

JiwaMusic Pros

• Huge database
• All kinds of music

JiwaMusic Cons

• Takes up a LOT of profile space
• Cannot fast-forward or rewind songs
• Difficult to search

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DeeJay Facebook App

What is the DeeJay Facebook App?

DeeJay allows users to create a top ten music chart to display on their profile. The app seems to be targeted toward electronic DJs, though it’s fairly easy for even the most tone deaf of people to get into. This does, however, create some limitations with the genres that can be selected for each list and also causes some confusing terminology to appear. It does not actually play any of the music on the list, although it allows you to attach a chart to any facebook message you send, making it easy to let your friends know what songs you are listening to. Charts can be retitled, creating endless possibilities for High-Fidelity-like, desert island, top-five countdowns.

DeeJay App Pros

• “Share a Chart” button appears while messaging, allowing you to easily share what you’re listening to.
• Lets people know what you’re listening to, what your favourite songs are.
• Allows multiple charts which can be edited or deleted at any time.

DeeJay App Cons

• Uses confusing DJ language; words like ‘delete’, ‘edit’, and ‘home’ become ‘mute’, ‘tweak’, and ‘DJ Booth’
• Songs can not be dragged and dropped when rising or falling in the charts- the whole field must be retyped in a different position.
• Limited to one genre per chart; selectable genres are limited to electronic music and its variations (though you may also enter your own genre).

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SplashCast Facebook App

Best Facebook Applications reader Cody recommended this application. Thanks for the tip, Cody!

What is the SplashCast Facebook App?

SplashCast allows you to create your own channels to which programming from across the web can be added, including video, pics, podcasts, and music. All this is then embedded into your Facebook profile. Basically, this app does the job of five different Facebook applications.

For example, say you’re a baseball fan. You could create a channel or “show” dedicated to your favorite team. Included in that channel are video clips of games, and pics of your favorite players, Pretty dang awesome if you ask me.

SplashCast App Pros

• Compile your web content all in one place
• Awesome integration with Facebook
• Very slick looking interface
• Super easy to use

SplashCast App Cons

• Some people have reported problems uploading certain files, but there are work arounds that are pretty easy.
• Other than that, I haven’t seen anything else wrong with this app.

SplashCast is an example of what a Facebook application should strive to be. Instead of just trying to do one simple task, applications should look to do several things well at the same time. Cheers to the SplashCast developers!

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Files Facebook App

What is the Files Facebook App?

The Files app allows you to upload files to your Facebook profile using the files app. Box.net hosts all the files for you for free. In addition, you can see what your friends have uploaded to Box. You can also share files with the Box app as well. You’ll have to start an account with Box.net in order to use this app.

Files App Pros

• Free file storage up to 1GB
• Easily share files with friends

Files App Cons

• The app takes up a lot of space on your profile. But you can put it at the bottom of your profile page if you think it’s getting in the way.
• It would be nice if they allowed searching and tagging of files uploaded through the app.

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Demands Facebook Application

What is the Demands Facebook Application?

Have you wanted to see your favorite band live, but they never come near where you live? Now you can let them know that you and others want them to come to your city with the Demands Facebook Application. Demands was developed by Eventful.

Eventful is an events website that allows users to promote, share, and create events. Part of this service includes Demands. The Demands app just brings this unique service to Facebook. According to the Eventful’s website, thousands of musicians, comedians, and political candidates use Eventful to schedule their stops.

After installing the Demands application, you need to setup an account with Eventful, the app’s developer. This will allow you to create your own demands. You create your demands on the Eventful Website and they appear on your profile page. Friends who see it just simply need to click to add their demand to it as well. For my test run, I created a Demand for The Rentals. Moogs rock!

Demands Pros

• This app takes full advantage of Facebook’s social network. Like minded people can meet in one place to request acts they want to see.
• Installation is easy.

Demands Cons

• Not integrated well. You have to leave Facebook and go to Eventful to create your Demands. This could be a Facebook thing and not the app’s fault.
• Not many people using it…yet. In order for people to demand acts, they have to be signed up with Eventful. As of this writing there’s only 768 Facebook users with the Demands app installed. In order for it to have any real effect, you’ll need plenty of people using it in your network. Start spreading the word!

Overall, Demands is a really cool app. I can definitely see it becoming one of the more popular apps. Demands is a good example of a Facebook application leveraging Facebook’s network.

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