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I should probably let you know that when it comes to reviews I plan out myself, I usually focus on the positive. I am not the kind of guy that likes to write crushing reviews just for the thrill of the crush. Chances are, if I try out a piece of mobile software and it really sucks, I probably won’t waste any time writing out a review. That’s just how I roll. I just didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about any iPhone app reviews I write that may seem overly positive. There are plenty of apps for the iPhone that are a COMPLETE waste of time. I just don’t write about those. Instead I try to focus on the good things, while still letting you all know where I think there is room to improve.So where are we this week? Ah yes, here we go.

FOURTRACK. Sonoma Wire Works has released a sweet new app called FourTrack that, well, turns your iPhone into a four track recorder. Let me repeat–it turns your iPhone into a four track recorder. How cool is that? For the musicians of the world, it’s pretty cool. Now, it isn’t perfect and there are plenty of micro multi-trackers out there so why is this one so great? Well, I’ll list a few pros, and to be fair, cons.

Pros:

1. It looks so f***ing cool. I mean check out the interface on this thing.

2. It’s portable.

3. It syncs with you laptop  to transfer tracks easily.

4. It looks so f***ing cool!

5. Great for sketching out ideas with acoustic instruments.

6. Sounds pretty good, even with the built-in mic.

7. Syncs directly with their desktop collaboration application called RiffWorks.

Cons:

1. While I experienced no crashes myself, I have read several reviews that reported crashes and lost data. So it’s still kind of a consumer model and maybe not quite as reliable as hardware based micro four-track recorders like those made by Boss ( which I have never used myself, but only heard about from friends). I am speculating here, but my guess is don’t try to use it to record paid contract work while you are doing your moonlighting gig as an engineer for Different Fur or Abbey Road studios, dig?

2. External microphone support exists, but isn’t easy.

So… Originally, I was going to list the $10 price tag as a con, but honestly, I think it is worth it. I am an upright bassist, guitarist and wannabe drummer and am constantly tracking out little sketches of songs and the like. It’s not that big of a hassle to go to my laptop to multi-track them, but this app is super portable and cuts a lot of time out of that process to get a basic idea down. For that convenience, I didn’t even flinch at the $10 price. You’d be surprised how good an acoustic guitar can sound thru that little onboard mic too. Plus, it just looks so f***ing cool!

Thanks to Dan Shust for hipping me to this one.

 GOOGLE MAPS.  This may seem a little obvious, but I just had to point out that this piece of software is extremely useful. The GPS unit in the iPhone works so well with this application that it is one of the things I use the most on the iPhone. I have tried other aGPS phones and in order to get them to work (for free) there were always trade-offs. Slow to start, slow refresh, hard to lock on to satellites, etc. None of that with Google Maps on the iPhone. Location awareness, in general, works so well it’s scary. This app takes full advantage of that and has gotten me out of a few pickles when lost or battling rush hour closures. I was going to list Google street view as a "con" because I was actually losing  free time messing around with it, due to the sheer coolness of it, but decided against that.

 TWINKLE. It’s still my favorite iPhone Twitter port. The UI is good enough and its own photo integration makes it easy to post pictures. The location search is a nice touch for finding tweets made by people in close proximity, not that there is a lot of value in that, just kind of interesting.

DICTIONAIRE. It’s, um, a dictionary. Nice to have around for looking up words like "resplendent" or "ablaut". It’s a big download and thus will require a wifi connection to install. But a nice, free app to have on hand.