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.