The best apps made by Apple for iPhone and iPad are finally available for free to all users.
As part of an update to its iWork and iLife apps this morning, Apple changed the price for both the Mac and iOS versions, giving customers access to a suite of apps that can be used for music and video or getting work done.
Kendrick Lamar unleashed his eagerly anticipated fourth studio album, DAMN, on the world today.
Lamar is known for his perfectionism, using some of the best producers and equipment in the game to get his sound just right. But when it came to one of the best tracks on his new album, one of Lamar’s producers crafted the entire thing using only his iPhone.
Happy weekend everyone! Depending on where you are in the world, your weekend is either halfway through or coming to an end, but there’s always time to catch up on some of the week’s best apps.
That’s where we come in. We’ve combed through the App Store to highlight what we feel are the best, most important, or otherwise noteworthy apps and app updates of the past 7 days.
Check out our list below. You won’t be disappointed!
One of the most powerful synthesizers in the world has finally arrived on iPhone and iPad, thanks to a big update for GarageBand that Apple pushed to users this morning.
Both Garageband for iOS and Logic Pro X for macOS received huge new features today, bringing new music creation tools for iPhone and Mac users, as well as support for the new Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro.
Already thinking about how to fulfill your 2017 New Year’s resolution of becoming a rock god?
If so, check out the jamstik+. This MIDI guitar, and its associated collection of apps, promises to help anyone who wants to learn to play guitar or improve their existing skills.
Almost all of Apple’s own applications will support the MacBook Pro’s new Touch Bar when it starts shipping in a couple of weeks, but not Logic Pro X. Instead, users will have to wait until early 2017 for compatibility, according to a new report.
Apple has rolled out a major Logic Pro X update that beings new features and performance improvements. The release also contains 300+ Chinese instrument loops, bringing it in line with the most recent release to GarageBand.
How’s it going, everybody? It’s the weekend — so sit back, relax, and let us introduce you to a few of the apps which were generating headlines over the past week.
Whether it’s a great update for an iOS PDF editor or a fantastic puzzle game you’re looking for, check out our picks below.
HBO’s Game of Thrones is the hottest show on TV right thanks to Khaleesi and her dragons, now with the new Garageband update for China you can embrace your inner Westerbro create the entire GoT theme song in minutes.
Playing the theme song is actually amazingly easy now that Apple has added new instruments like the Pipa, Erhu, and Chinese Drum Kit that can more easily recreate the ancient sound much better than a Fender Stratocaster.
Apple superfan iPhonedo put together a quick guide on how to unlock the new Chinese instruments and create the Game of Thrones song in just minutes:
He has been described as the “sickest drummer in metal right now” with the speed, muscle and snap to become a legend — a legend on the iPad, that is.
This self-styled musician and Apple fanboy from Japan has raised eyebrows for furiously finger tapping through a catalog of rock drum solos, using the virtual rock kit on Garageband with eye-popping dexterity with a well-viewed YouTube channel as his stage.
Apple CEO Tim Cook will probably never win a Grammy for his erhu skills but he can say that he got to have an erhu jam battle with one of Asia’s biggest popstars.
During his star-studded tour of China, Tim Cook met up with JJ Lin to play a new song on the new Garageband app that’s been updated to celebrate China’s musical history with over 300 musical samples, and new instruments like Chinese percussions, pipa and erhu.
Checkout Cook playing JJ Lin’s new song “The Key” on his iPad:
Tim Cook’s in China right now, and what better way to showcase Apple’s dedication to growing its Chinese customer base than by updating GarageBand for Mac and iOS with new instruments intended to, “celebrate the rich history of Chinese music?”
The update adds 300 new Chinese musical loops including guzheng, dizi, yangqin and Peking Opera samples, as well as a plethora of Chinese musical instruments such as the pipa, erhu, and Chinese percussion.
Is there a better way to spend Sunday than by checking out the latest apps to grace the App Store over the past seven days?
This week I’ve chosen to focus less on games than productivity apps (although there’s a neat Reddit client thrown in for good measure!) From a great custom keyboard to a full-to-bursting update for GarageBand, check out our picks for apps of the week below.
Podcasting has been experiencing a renaissance lately, and for good reason. Podcasts can be about a wide variety of topics, from Apple to sports, comedy, storytelling and so much more. It’s a great time to get into podcasting because the barrier to entry is so low and you don’t have to break the bank to buy a totally workable setup.
Some of the greatest podcasts in the iTunes Top Charts are regularly recorded using sub-$100 to $300 mics. Whether you want to gain influence in a community or nerd out about the latest iPhone, a podcast is a great place to do it.
As someone who plays guitar and records my own music, I’ve been really keen on trying to record an EP using iOS only. I’ve done it on a Mac before, but since the introduction of the iPad I’ve been wanting to record on a touch interface. I’ve used an iPad mini, and it worked well, but with the introduction of the iPad Pro, I wanted to give it another go. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
This week on The CultCast: our legs are blown off by hover boards; our favorite ways to manage iOS photos; the new Music Memos and Garageband apps get our enthusiastic thumbs up; Bob Mansfeld is back to massage us; and we remember the hard, cruel, miserable realities of life before iPhone.
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to build a website that looks beautiful on any device that visits at Squarespace.com. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off.
Apple’s new app, Music Memos, is hands-down the best free music-creation app I’ve ever used on my iPhone. The amount of tech packed into this tiny little iOS app is nothing short of amazing, and it shows Apple’s continuing commitment to the creative community.
Music Memos lets you sit down with your iPhone, tap the screen, and record music. Then it will totally figure out what you played, and supply fairly decent drum and bass tracks to complement your chords. Wow.
I’ve played in live bands that can’t even do that.
Take my word on this: If you can play even rudimentary guitar, piano or even ukulele, you owe it to yourself to give Music Memos a try.
Apple is continuing its focus on music with a new Music Memos app and a major update for the existing iOS app, GarageBand.
Who doesn’t want to play piano? Learning to tickle the ivories must be right up there with writing the great American novel: Many of us have a hankering to become more musical.
The fantastic $299 ONE Light smart keyboard is the way to go if you want a piano that will show you how to play without hiring a teacher.
Computers, tablets, even iPhones have grown into powerful tools for music making, but for many who play guitar the bridge from analog instrument to digital devices can be an intimidating one. The Jamstik Wireless Smart Guitar is a great way to cross the digital divide, a MIDI controlling guitar with frets and strings that feel familiar to any guitarist’s fingers. It’s also cheaper than most keyboard controllers (and certainly guitars), available right now for just $149.99.
If you close your eyes, the iPad drummer known as Appleman sounds like he is tearing up a real set of skins. What you see in his YouTube videos, in which he covers the drumming parts of rock classics like Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People,” contradicts what the ears hear.
But how would he do against a drummer on an analog kit? Fast fingers met fast sticks recently as the anonymous Appleman went mano a mano with 17-year-old drumming phenom Yamachika Takuto.
By the sounds of the exchange of solos and the cheers from the audience, the two battled to a draw.
The Apple Watch has been out for a few months now, and it’s given us plenty of time to decide what we do and don’t want from the wearable. It’s a versatile device, to be sure, but that doesn’t mean that we expect it to do everything for us. In fact, a lot of the apps that we use all the time on our iPhones and iPads would be ill-suited, if not impossible for that plucky little screen.
Here are some Apple Watch apps that wouldn’t break our hearts if nobody ever got around to making them.
Geography doesn’t have to get in the way of the band coming together.
A startup company by the name of Soundtrap Monday rolled out what it calls the first online music and audio recording studio, allowing musicians to collaborate remotely in real time using any operating system.
It will likely directly compete with Garageband, Apple’s popular software used to create music and podcasts that first launched in 2004.
GarageBand for Mac is getting a sonic upgrade with 10 new drum settings and 100 new synth sounds designed for electronic dance music and hip-hop tracks.
The new features are coming June 30 — just in time for the launch of Apple Music.
If you dig creating fresh beats and smooth grooves on your Mac, you’ll likely love GarageBand. It’s a fantastic bit of musical creation kit for anyone, regardless of native ability or experience. You can use loops to make new songs, play your own music with MIDI keyboards–even make your own ringtones for your iPhone. It’s quite versatile.
When you download GarageBand from the Mac App Store, you’ll immediately get 50 sounds, 500 loops, 1 drummer, and 2 basic lessons for guitar and piano. Likely, though, you want the full package, which is available as a free download that expands the content to 200 sounds, 2,000 loops, 15 drummers, and 40 basic lessons for guitar and piano.
Here’s how to get it.
