PandoraJam Update: 1.3 (build 256)

PandoraJam 1.3 (build 256) is now available for download.

[Direct Link]
http://www.bitcartel.com/downloads/pandorajam.zip

Summary of changes:

• Pandora One support. If user is a subscriber to Pandora One, recordings are high quality 192kbps MP3 , exactly as broadcast.
• Genre tag is now set on recordings.
• Recordings are added to the correct playlist if user changes radio station at end of track

iPhone 3Gs Hardware Encryption

It's been a busy week at the Apple Developer's Conference in San Francisco, with lots of announcements at the Keynote, and lots of new toys for developers to play with.

One feature of the new iPhone 3Gs is hardware encryption. It's great that Apple have now addressed the issue of data security on iPhones and it underlines how important applications like CameraSafe are for existing users of the original iPhone and iPhone 3G which don't have hardware encryption.

I had a decent chat with one of the iPhoneOS security folk, and I think when the details are made public, you'll be impressed with the encryption on the new iPhone 3Gs. However, it's no silver bullet, so depending on your needs and level of paranoia, you should keep using CameraSafe and other security apps on your mobile devices.

If you are involved in security or have particular needs for protecting your photos, contact us at support@camerasafeapp.com with your ideas and comments.

p.s. The food's been pretty bad at the conference!

Hello Pandora One

Exciting news! Pandora is now offering Pandora One, an upgrade to their free service. For $36 you get high quality streaming at 192kbps, no pesky adverts, and the timeout is extended from 1 hr to 5 hrs.

This is great news for PandoraJam users as PandoraJam fully supports the new high quality streaming, and your recordings will be in MP3 at 192kbps. If you use the basic free Pandora.com service, music will be broadcast (and thus recorded) as HE-AAC at 64kbps (as mentioned before). Unfortunately, as a few users have noted, some iPod shuffles seem to struggle with playing back the HE-AAC files, so there's another reason to upgrade to Pandora One.

If you like Pandora.com, please upgrade to support them as they grow their start-up, and send them an email to let them know that you love using PandoraJam. I know from user feedback that PandoraJam, this teeny weeny Indie Mac app, has helped them retain a few listeners over the last two years :) Namaste...

CameraSafe (Get a free copy!)

Yesterday, I introduced CameraSafe (iTunes Link), a new iPhone photo security app, a useful tool to help you maintain your right to privacy.

If you would like a free copy, simply email support@bitcartel.com, and I will send you a redemption code you can use in iTunes.

There are 20 free copies up for grabs, first come first served. You can also try out the free edition of the software, CameraSafe LITE (iTunes Link).

Introducing CameraSafe 1.0

Today, Bitcartel introduces its first iPhone app, CameraSafe, a photo security tool. CameraSafe helps you keep your valuable photos safe from data thieves by encrypting photos with AES-256 encryption (as used by the US government to protect Top Secret material).

Whether you want to keep personal photos private, or business photos safe from competitors, using encryption is the only way to safeguard your photos in the event your iPhone is lost or stolen. Encrypted photos cannot be viewed and resemble random junk data. Only when the correct password is provided, can this random data be decrypted (i.e. transformed) back to the original photo.

CameraSafe is available from the App Store, and there is also a free edition, CameraSafe LITE. Look forward to your feedback. More details on the website.

Sounds Like Teen Spirit

For music fans, check out a new indie film Sounds Like Teen Spirit.  I saw an early screener a month or two ago (a benefit of knowing the peeps at the film company) and it really is a fantastic pop-umentary.  No shameless plugging here.  If you love music, check this film out.

For those in the UK, the film is coming out on May 8th, and there is a special Q&A with the film-makers at the Apple Store on Regent Street... today, May 6th, 5 p.m.

Slow Burning Lacie

I have been using a pair of Lacie Little Disk 500 GB USB 2.0 drives for a few months now, no news there. Recently, one of them has been behaving strangely, sometimes the mounted drive would disconnect itself if the cable wasn't fully extended. Today, I received a message I've never seen in OS X before.
I unplugged the Lacie and noticed a burning smell coming from it... nice. For now, it still seems to be functioning okay, but I guess it's time to get a new external drive. Has anybody ripped a Little Disk apart? The shell looks quite impenetrable, and I might need to rescue the hard drive if the controller board is slowly shorting itself out.