This week at 148Apps.com, we helped everyone looking to expand their iOS device’s musical footprint with a round-up of Bluetooth speakers. Site editor Rob LeFebvre says, “Bluetooth is a fantastic technology. It lets me connect my iPhone or iPad to a ton of different devices, including speakers, keyboards, other computers, headphones, and mice without wires. The latest version, 4.0, draws very little power and features an increased signal range of up to 100 feet.

148Apps received three different portable Bluetooth speakers recently, and we decided to put them all through their paces, to better understand which ones might be better for specific uses. We’ll be looking at the Braven 600, the CubeEdge, the Disco 2, and the Logitech Boombox.”

Get more of Rob’s take on these units at 148Apps.

Over at GiggleApps.com, Amy Solomon was in a traveling mood, as she reviewed Geography Drive USA, calling it, “A wonderfully engaging educational app that teaches about American geography in ways children will love.
As one can imagine, it is not uncommon for friends and family to ask me to recommend apps for their children in grade school as many apps out there are for preschool-aged children. Geography Drive USA is a title that I can easily recommend as an application that is both highly educational and a lot of fun.”

Read Amy’s full review at GiggleApps.

$3.99

Geography Drive USA™

iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2012-11-20 :: Category: Education

And at AndroidRundown.com, our KickStarter Spotlight of the week covered Pixel Kingdom. Joseph Bertolini writes, “Today we’re looking at a game that is the brainchild of a college sophomore from Central Florida and it is a fresh take on the game-type that was popularized by games such as Plants vs. Zombies; where waves of enemies come down set lanes, and it is up to the player to deploy defenses down each specific aisle. Named Pixel Kingdom it is a small twist on this idea is that here these defenses are actively moving down their lane in an endless battlefield against the ranks of evil. Thrown in are a handful of bosses that fill multiple lanes, such as random dragon attacks.”

Read the full spotlight at AndroidRundown.

So there you have it – another week in the life of the 148Apps network of sites. Stick with us every day by following us on Twitter or Pinterest and Liking us on Facebook. There’s more content just right around the corner.

Regular commuters will know that driving can get pretty dull and tedious. Sure, you can turn the radio on but even that can turn uninteresting after a time. What you need is a sense of being part of an epic adventure, right? In which case, backing Mission: Escape might be exactly what you’re after.

Currently in development and in need of Kickstarter backers, Mission: Escape is the brainchild of Fernando Macias-Jimenez. Recently graduated from the California State University in Chico, California, Fernando is a young composer with a passion for writing music to a set scene.

Recently, while driving through Chico and listening to David Arnold’s Quantum of Solace soundtrack, he realised something.

“I was driving about 30 miles per hour and I was pretty much alone in the street, yet the music suddenly gave me this rush of thrill and made me feel like I was in an action movie, with people chasing me and so on. The feeling was so vivid that it made me say out loud to myself “wow, that was awesome”. A few days later I though, “wouldn’t it be awesome to have something that would take that feeling one step further and REACT to how you are driving so that the music doesn’t seem arbitrary and generic, but customized to what you are doing at the moment?”"

Fernando then joined together with others and came up with some great ideas and features, eventually leading to the creation of Mission: Escape.

The music is set to be 100% original with the focus on being “very epic” and “very fun”. The app will react according to situations such as if you’re waiting at a stop light, it’ll turn calm and serene, while once acceleration kicks in, the music will turn more cinematic and exciting. Sound effects of enemies and messages from “home base” will also be included. It sounds thrilling but what of the safety aspect? Surely, it could turn things risky?

Fernando explains, “The speed limit is definitely a big one since it’s the most obvious to cause problems. This also happens to be one of the “easier” ones to implement to some extent. Others, such as overtaking, are a bit more difficult to determine. However, we are trying to develop a security system that will try to gauge if the driver is driving recklessly and will advice the user to stop doing so or it will shut down the application. The way we would do this would be by detecting aggressive actions such as harsh acceleration, hard stopping, extra sharp turning or movement (changing lanes too fast), among other things. The iPhone will easily give us information when a user is doing something like that. The only thing to do is to create a balance point so that the security system only works when the user is actually driving recklessly and not because of something else,” with the plan for plenty of testing and development to ensure it works well and in the right scenario.

Fernando was also keen to point out that safety will take priority alongside such exciting thrills.

It all sounds pretty intriguing to me and certainly an unique way of using such technology. Check out the Hands-on demo video below as well as the Mission: Escape Kickstarter page. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on the app’s development.

Ask Media and Bedre Gardsdrift, Norwegian agritechnical magazine, has released a new game involving tractors called Farmorama for iOS and Android.

Farmorama has players pick a favorite tractor based on real world models and get ready for a big Farmorama tractor race. Tractors include New Holland, Case IH, Valtra, or Claas. All tractors are equipped with cab suspension, CVT transmission, and four-wheel drive.

The game includes five different tracks to race tractors on with varying degrees of hills, jumps, barns, stones and fog. Players can pick up fuel cans during the drives and earn bonus points. Players can try to beat their own or friends’ top scores or share scores on Facebook to challenge friends over the social network.

Farmorama was developed by MottiMotti, a Norwegian development company that specializes in mobile apps and games. Some of their experience includes doing animation for Hollywood.

$1.99

Farmorama

+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2012-03-30 :: Category: Games

As long as you don’t live close to your place of employment or in a budding metropolis with massive transportation systems, driving is most likely at least a small part of your daily life.  Unfortunately, there are far too many crazy drivers on the roads who forget that driving is a privilege, not a right.  The problem is, many drivers don’t actually realize they are reckless until it is too late.  And just because no one has informed you of your navigational inadequacies doesn’t mean that they do not exist.

For this very reason, the new iOS application iDriveControl was created.  Never before has their been a tool that not only can keep you abreast of your own failures, but potentially save your life in the off chance you were to end up in a collision.  But don’t take our word for it, why not glance over some of theirs?

iDriveControl turns an iPhone into a black-box that records the position of your vehicle, provides information about the safety of driving by signaling dangerous turns, accelerations and braking.

If you have an accident, your iPhone sends an email with the position of your car to a list of selected people. If you choose, you can have all the data recorded on the web and you can even check them in real time at the www.idrivecontrol.com.

So not only do you get comprehensive analysis of your driving habits, but also the means to store the data remotely should something, God forbid, ever happen to your phone.  While this would be great for helping to keep yourself in check, it would be even more ideal for a parent of a young driver.  The ability to backseat drive, without ever having to step foot in a vehicle is reason enough to make this an instant purchase.

$0.99

iDriveControl

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-12-23 :: Category: Navigation

We all love technology, but while it has made life so much easier it has also made driving a lot more dangerous. While folks simply talking on cell phones pose enough of a safety risk, those sending text messages or checking email are even more dangerous. Now, when it comes to email at least there’s a solution, as Email’nDrive allows you to send and receive messages without taking your eyes off the road or hands off the wheel.

Email’nDrive will read emails received aloud to drivers, which allows you to keep up on important messages while maintaining your focus at the wheel. The pro version of the app also supports composing messages via voice, so you can put together a response without ever having to touch your iPhone. It’s a wonderful concept, and one which does a great deal to enhance vehicular safety. The program is designed to work with popular email servers such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and more, and can be configured to work with Exchange if you know how to configure IMAP.

Though the app has the potential to be truly revolutionary there are still some bugs which needs to be sorted out first. Many users are reporting crashing issues, so there’s a chance after you download the app that it won’t work properly. Also, Email’nDrive must be actively running in order to work properly, so you can’t just have it sitting in the background while doing other things. Of course, if you’re driving you probably shouldn’t have other apps open anyway, but the type of person who is willing to email while driving is also likely the same type who will be doing all sorts of other distracting things rather than paying attention to the road.

For those interested the basic version of the app is available for free, or you can get the pro upgrade for $5. Enjoy and drive safe!

FREE!

vBox Handsfree Messaging: Speech to Text and Text to Speech Hands Free Driving Message Reader

iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-10-13 :: Category: Productivity