Lord Have Mercy Little iApps

You can’t buy absolution—at least, not anymore—but $1.99 will help you get there. A new app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch has been “developed for those who frequent the sacrament and those who wish to return” in what is the first known imprimatur to be given for an iPhone or iPad app. Can we get an Amen?

Confession: A Roman Catholic App was developed by Little iApps to help walk the penitent through the sacrament of penance, a.k.a. confession. The app won’t impart absolution to you—sorry, but there’s no getting out of the actual act of confession—but it does help one organize his or her sins into a handy list and maintain proper confessional decorum.

The app helps users examine their consciences by listing the 10 Commandments and asking users questions about their lives related to the fundamental rules of Christianity. Password protected profiles even allow the app to question a penitent soul about aspects of Christianity as they pertain to the person’s age, marital status, and gender, helping them to better enumerate their spiritual shortcomings and make sure nothing is forgotten when the get into the booth. Almost like a grocery list, except instead of general food items it lists all the ways you fall short of the glory of God.

It also helps users through the process of the confession itself, reminding them that when the priest says “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,” the proper response is “For His mercy endures forever.” It even contains the traditional texts of several oft cited Catholic prayers, so when the priest prescribes you a handful of Hail Marys and a couple of Our Fathers, you won’t be at a loss for words.

The app is a direct response to Pope Benedict’s January World Communications Day address in which he gave new media and social media the Papal stamp of approval as tools for helping parishioners find “meaning, truth, and unity” in their everyday lives. That is, of course, if it is used wisely.

No word on whether the Vatican considers Angry Birds a “wise” use of technology.

Let’s face it, there are a million of these types of loudspeakers kicking around and some aren’t worth the trouble of hooking them up. We got our hands on the Foxl v2 wireless speaker to see if it lived up to the hype.

The Foxl v2 is instantly impressive by its weight, it’s not made of plastic and it delivers impressive bass sounds through technology that combines the unit’s rechargeable Lithium-ion battery with a Flatmagic acoustic bass radiator.

The unit’s mid and high-range come at you via two patented dual voice coil 25mm (1 inch) Linear Magnetic Drive Twoofers (tweeters that also woof – tuned to 100Hz) and on-board amplification is supplied by four ultra high-efficiency digital amplifiers delivery total power up to 8W at <0.1%THD. Add in Bluetooth capabilities and this unit ticks a lot of boxes.

It’s easy to set up, just fully charge the foxL before its first use, pair it to your iPhone or other Bluetooth device. It worked without dropping out for around 8m line-of-sight indoors and equally well outdoors. With an iPhone sitting on a window sill, the foxL had no trouble belting out tunes from around 5m away, even non line-of-sight.

And if it’s not pumping enough bass for you, there’s an output jack to attach a separate sub-woofer.

In the past we’ve tried out cheaper, plastic versions of 2W and 4W loud speaker/docks before which don’t perform anywhere near as good as the foxL (the foxL isn’t a dock). The foxL V2 is so bassy, it comes with a grip pad to stop it “walking” off shiny surfaces – useful when the unit’s volume was turned up near full outside on a glass table top.

As the manufacturers, soundmatters, say: the sound quality is better on a hard, flat surface and the sound is slightly bigger when connected to power.

According to Sound&Image, who provided the unit, the relatively tiny Foxl unit uses highly advanced speaker technologies not found elsewhere to achieve its eight-octave bandwidth.

The big sound it generates from that special battery/bass radiator was developed by soundmatters founder and audio designer Dr Godehard Guenther – a physicist and former NASA engineer with three PhDs. He says: “Music is a big part of my life, yet so is travel. There weren’t any really small hi-fi quality portable loudspeakers, so utilizing a number of our patented and proprietary technologies, I developed one myself. A true labor of love, I named it after Fox, my first grandson.”

The foxL comes with two charging options – wall socket AC and USB.

On the front of foxL is a wide bandwidth, high sensitivity microphone with dedicated noise-canceling electronics which provide enhanced voice clarity. FoxL automatically over-rides streaming music, becoming both mic and speaker when a call is answered by your Bluetooth-connected hone or computer.

When powered, the unit produces 4W and when running on its battery drops to 2W (97-95dB). It weighs 9.5oz and measures 5.6 x 2.2 x 1.4 inches. Its 3.5mm input jack lets you use the foxL for a multitude of devices, like portable gaming units, MP3 players, etc. It has a lanyard which can be attached to let users carry the device around their wrist or neck.

The foxL v2 sells online, for around US$199 plus postage or via retailers worldwide. The original foxL (sans Bluetooth) is around US$149.

Links International (in Japanese) says this particular charger excels in its device compatibility, as it can charge almost any gadget you can think of. It includes connectors for the iPhone/iPod, the Nintendo DS, the Sony PSP, eMobile, and standard Japanese cell phones. It has a rechargeable life cycle of about 500 charges, which isn’t too bad considering that this is likely to be an auxiliary charger for use on the go.

While I’m all for innovative ‘eco’ products such as this one, I’m not certain that this is a product that would be used by the average consumer. But if you’re an outdoors type who’s prone to an occasional adventure in nature, this might be an ideal charger for you.

The smaller iCharge Lite comes in 12 colors and the manufacturers say it’s priced at ¥3280 (or US$36). It’s about the size of an iPod nano (dimensions are 3.5 x 1.2 x 0.7 inches), but weighs a hefty 1.6oz (45g).

The larger iCharge DX comes in seven colors and costs ¥6980 (about US$77). It’s a little wider than the other model, comparable in size to an iPhone (dimensions are 4.2 x 2.0 x 0.6 inches).

Charging time for both devices ranges from 13-15 hours (solar); around two hours via AC and two-three hours using a USB.

The Apple iPad was announced January 27 . In a nutshell, it’s a bigger iPhone that runs all the same apps on a 9.7 inch touch screen and has a 10 hour battery life and 30 day stand-by. It’s half an inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds, and is powered by Apple’s own custom 1GHz ARM A4chip and can run up to 64 GB of storage. It has all the wireless connectivity of the iphone (802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1), a built-in speaker and microphone, accelerometer and uses the same 30-pin Dock connector as the iPod and iPhone.

The first iPads will ship in 60 days, with 3G models taking another month. Pricing starts at US$499 and runs to US$829.

The official press release from Apple reads:

Apple Launches iPad

Magical & Revolutionary Device at an Unbelievable Price

SAN FRANCISCO—January 27, 2010—Apple® today introduced iPad, a revolutionary device for browsing the web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more. iPad’s responsive high-resolution Multi-Touch™ display lets users physically interact with applications and content. iPad is just 0.5 inches (13.4 mm ) thick and weighs just 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) — thinner and lighter than any laptop or netbook. iPad includes 12 new innovative apps designed especially for the iPad, and will run almost all of the over 140,000 apps in the App Store. iPad will be available in late March worldwide starting at US$499 in the United States and with international pricing to be announced at a later date.

“iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.”

iPad features 12 next-generation Multi-Touch applications. Every app works in both portrait and landscape, automatically animating between views as the user rotates iPad in any direction. The precise Multi-Touch interface makes surfing the web on iPad an entirely new experience, dramatically more interactive and intimate than on a computer. Reading and sending email is fun and easy on iPad’s large screen and almost full-size “soft” keyboard. Import photos from a Mac®, PC or digital camera, see them organized as albums, and enjoy and share them using iPad’s elegant slideshows. Watch movies, TV shows and YouTube, all in HD or flip through pages of an e-book you downloaded from Apple’s new iBookstore while listening to your music collection.

iPad runs almost all of the over 140,000 apps on the App Store, including apps already purchased for your iPhone® or iPod touch®. The iTunes® Store gives you access to the world’s most popular online music, TV and movie store with a catalog of over 11 million songs, over 50,000 TV episodes and over 8,000 films including over 2,000 in stunning high definition video. Apple also announced the new iBooks app for iPad, which includes Apple’s new iBookstore, the best way to browse, buy and read books on a mobile device. The iBookstore will feature books from major and independent publishers.

Apple also introduced a new version of iWork® for iPad, the first desktop-class productivity suite designed specifically for Multi-Touch. With Pages®, Keynote® and Numbers® you can create beautifully formatted documents, stunning presentations with animations and transitions, and spreadsheets with charts, functions and formulas. The three apps will be available separately through the App Store for $9.99 each.

iPad syncs with iTunes just like the iPhone and iPod touch, using the standard Apple 30-pin to USB cable, so you can sync all of your contacts, photos, music, movies, TV shows, applications and more from your Mac or PC. All the apps and content you download on iPad from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore will be automatically synced to your iTunes library the next time you connect with your computer.

iPad’s brilliant 9.7-inch, LED-backlit display features IPS technology to deliver crisp, clear images and consistent color with an ultra-wide 178 degree viewing angle. The highly precise, capacitive Multi-Touch display is amazingly accurate and responsive whether scrolling web pages or playing games. The intelligent soft keyboard pioneered on iPhone takes advantage of iPad’s larger display to offer an almost full-size soft keyboard. iPad also connects to the new iPad Keyboard Dock with a full-size traditional keyboard.

iPad is powered by A4, Apple’s next-generation system-on-a-chip. Designed by Apple, the new A4 chip provides exceptional processor and graphics performance along with long battery life of up to 10 hours.* Apple’s advanced chemistry and Adaptive Charging technology deliver up to 1,000 charge cycles without a significant decrease in battery capacity over a typical five year lifespan.**

iPad comes in two versions—one with Wi-Fi and the other with both Wi-Fi and 3G. iPad includes the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi, and the 3G versions support speeds up to 7.2 Mbps on HSDPA networks. Apple and AT&T announced breakthrough 3G pre-paid data plans for iPad with easy, on-device activation and management.

Continuing Apple’s dedication to designing and creating environmentally responsible products, each iPad enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and comes standard with energy-efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. iPad contains no brominated flame retardants and is completely PVC-free.

Apple today released a new Software Development Kit (SDK) for iPad, so developers can create amazing new applications designed to take advantage of iPad’s capabilities. The SDK includes a simulator that lets developers test and debug their iPad apps on a Mac, and also lets developers create Universal Applications that run on iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Pricing & Availability

iPad will be available in late March worldwide for a suggested retail price of $499 (US) for the 16GB model, US$599 for the 32GB model, US$699 for the 64GB model. The Wi-Fi + 3G models of iPad will be available in April in the US and selected countries for a suggested retail price of US$629 for the 16GB model, US$729 for the 32GB model and US $829 for the 64GB model. iPad will be sold in the US through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. International pricing and worldwide availability will be announced at a later date. iBookstore will be available in the US at launch.

*Apple tested wireless battery life by browsing web pages and receiving email over an AirPort® network, never letting the system go to sleep during the test, and keeping the display at half brightness. This is a typical scenario of use on the go, resulting in a battery performance number that is very relevant to mobile users.

**A properly maintained iPad battery is designed to retain 80 percent or more of its original capacity during a lifespan of up to 1,000 recharge cycles. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings.