Thursday, April 22, 2010

How to convert .wav to .mp3

Use iTunes to import the .wav files. Go to preferences and change Import Settings -> Import Using to MP3 Encoder. Select all the .wav files to convert to .mp3 and go to Advanced -> Create mp3 version. Now just select one of the .wav file and go to "File -> Show in Finder", you will find all the converted mp3 files in the same folder.

You have to use iTunes to convert because the command line tool afconvert does not have the ability to convert to mp3.You will get the error Error: ExtAudioFileSetProperty ('cfmt') failed ('fmt?')

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

How to view only starred emails in Gmail

Type the following in the search box and hit search:

in:Starred in:Inbox

Migraine leaves British woman speaking with Chinese accent

"I spoke to my stepdaughter on the phone from hospital and she didn't recognize who I was. She said I sounded Chinese. Since then, I have had my friends hanging up on me because they think I'm a hoax caller ... The first few weeks of the accent was quite funny, but to think I am stuck with this Chinese accent is getting me down. My voice has started to annoy me now. It is not my voice."

Learn to speak in British Accent iPhone app:

More at National Post

Monday, April 12, 2010

How to reduce caf file size

afconvert -f caff -d LEI16@22100 -c 1 ./test.mp3 ./test.caf

I kept reducing the sampling rate from 44100 to 13100. Anything below 22100 seems to affect the quality of the audio.

You can also convert a caf file with a given sampling rate to another caf file with different sampling rate:

afconvert -f caff -d LEI16@22100 -c 1 ./test.caf ./test2.caf

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Analyzing Your App Store Sales Statistics - Part II

AppStore Sales Vs AppViz

Clearly AppViz is the winner. Provides nice charts and downloads 13 weeks of data to your desktop and provides a clear interface.

Heartbeat Signed up for this site. After I login I don't see anything. Not easy to use or figure out how to generate reports. It takes too much time than it saves. If you have a different opinion do let me know.

Tap Mini from TapMetrics. I watched the demo. It seems to allow import. I don't like the drilling into different levels to view my data.

4 ways to capitalize on Google's real-time search results

Following tips to be tested for iPhone / iPad apps that is already in the app store.

From iMedia Connection:

To take advantage of the new real-time search results -- and minimize any potential negatives -- here are four fundamental steps for marketers:

* Keep positive messages about your brand or products alive in the online news media. Issue frequent press releases with positive news about your company and create positive viral content related to your brand or product that has the potential to be mentioned frequently on popular social networking sites and even featured in news stories.


* Be active on sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku, and Identi.ca. Create positive messages about your brand or products in the online social media sites likely to appear in Google results. Promote positive news stories published on mainstream news sites that result from your press releases or viral content promotions, as well as positive viral content that you created yourself.


* Maintain an active presence in social networking and microblogging sites. Cultivate relationships and interact with influential users to enlist their help in spreading your positive message. In addition, be responsive to both positive and negative mentions of your brand or product to mitigate any negative press that may occur. (Note: This is not a job for an intern. Ensure you are represented on these sites by a professional with social media and public relations savvy.)


* Closely monitor news and real-time buzz sites for mentions of your brand or product so you can react if necessary. That means setting up accounts with Google Alerts, Yahoo Keyword News Alert, and Twitter Alerts and following them.

Monday, April 05, 2010

Analyzing Your App Store Sales Statistics

App Figures provides reporting of app sales. The graphing does not update when you change the period. Emailed the tech support. No progress has been made after a week. I do like the daily and weekly report email feature. I can set up so that all my partners get the reports emailed. The pricing seems to be reasonable: $5 / mo for 2 apps. $1.5 for each additional app that you want to track. It provides ranking of your app also.

App Sales Mobile This is available on Github. I downloaded it and ran it on Simulator. Not bad for something that is free. Nice charts and reports.

My App Sales I paid $27.70 (20 Euros) for this today. It's ok. It has lot more features. Provides data export and the option of creating html reports. I had to save the instruction to try the advanced features. The advanced features are not just one click from the app.

Friday, April 02, 2010

How to use Active Support Rails library in Ruby scripts

#!/usr/bin/ruby
require 'rubygems'
require 'active_support/inflector'

puts Inflector.singularize('inflections')

Thursday, April 01, 2010

British Accent Training iPad App is now live!

The first Accent Reduction training iPad app in the app store. British Accent Training is a great tool to help you learn British Accent. You can practice your accent, pronunciation and intonation.

Taught by a native British English speaker Alison Pitman. It gives you enough time to record, playback and to repeat the lesson.

The best solution is to practice with a computer. I tried a simple sound recorder on a computer as well as a tape recorder, and it did not work - too complicated, involves too much button pressing.

You need a program which plays a phrase, then records you repeating it, then repeats the native speaker, then plays your recording, and does it all over again in a loop until you are satisfied.

You can hear your mistakes and you feel that you are correcting them.

This training will allow you to record and hear your own voice. Record your voice every week you use the training to see the transformation in your accent.

The app demonstrates each pronunciation with practice words and sentences which are simple and easily understood. More content will be added in later releases. If you buy at current price you will get updates for free. When more content is included the price will go up. BUY NOW.