Gabe Jacobs Blog

Here is my new app that will be coming out soon. Enjoy

Seems pretty cool

Yes.

Yesterday I bought the Shure SE530’s. These headphones are known as the one of the best IEM’s (In Ear Monitors) money can buy. If it is not the best, it is the second best, runner-up to Ultimate Ears’ UE-11.

The best part about this is that I got them at an amazing price. 44% off at amazon. Instead of $500, I got these babies for $277. What a deal.

I am almost as excited to get these headphones as I was to get my first MacBook. There is something that is so appealing to hear the crispy, warm sound of the music you love in your ears. I love music, and thats probably why I am now an audiophile.

I have come a long way since my first iPod headphones. I increasingly got more expensive, better quality headphones. Going to the Bose In-Ear Headphones, then to the Vibe Duos, to Etymotics HF2’s, to the Bose QC3’s and finally to the SE530’s. Man, it has been a long journey, but I am finally at the peak of my headphone obsession.

I’ll be receiving the Se530’s sometime this weak, I will for sure do a review of them. Don’t expect anything but praise.

I have been checking the rankings of my application “Cat Annoy” on iTunes every few hours or so. I have noticed that the application’s ranking in the top 100 entertainment list has, in fact, been changing every 2-3 hours or so.

Only about a week ago, this was not the case. When my application “War: The Soundboard” was on the list, it took around 6 hours for the list to refresh and the rankings to change.

I believe apple has made it so that the App Store updates and refreshes more often.

What could this mean:

1. Apps come out faster after they are accepted
2. Prices change faster after developer changes them
3. Reviews come out quicker
etc.

Has anyone else noticed this?

I have talked about V-Moda’s brand of noise isolation headphones quite a bit on this blog. Today, I will review their newest product, the Vibe ii. The Vibe ii are very similar to the Vibe Duos, but V-Moda has changed a few key parts of the product to make it just one step higher than its predecessor.

The first thing you will notice when you open the Vibe ii’s is the weight. Compared to the Vibe Duo’s, the Vibe ii’s are significantly heavier. This is because the Vibe ii’s are made of solid steel metal and the Vibe Duo’s are mostly made of plastic. This gives the Vibe ii a much higher quality, more durable feel. Whether or not the weight bothers you or not is up to you.

We can also see the design has changed. The Vibe Duos were, no doubt about it, very stylish, but V-Moda has out done them selves this time in terms of style. I do not see how headphones can get much nicer looking than these Vibe ii’s. They are super sleek and super little. It is almost like wearing jewelry that plays music.

The most important part about the headphones is of course, sound quality. I am happy to say that V-Moda improved the sound quality in the Vibe ii’s, but not to the extent that it is worth buying them if you already have Vibe Duos. The biggest complaint about the Vibe Duos was that the bass was too overpowering and that it muffled most of the sharp, clear sounds. The Vibe ii’s have definitely less bass, but still enough to call them bass oriented headphones. At the same time, I do not think V-Moda will be hearing many complaints about bass anymore. Most consumers will be satisfied with the sound quality presented here. You cannot get much better sound quality out of such small headphones like these, unless you are willing to spend $500 on Shure’s noise isolation headphones.

As for the noise isolation of these headphones, there is not much of an improvement, but they still do the job mildly well. If you are expecting the kind of noise isolation that blocks out airport noise, these are not the headphone for you.

These headphones also come with a great deal of accessories. You won’t have a problem with ear tips because V-Moda provides you with four different sizes of ear tips. Also, V-Moda has made the Vibe ii’s much harder to lose your ear tips. This is very important because you only receive two pairs of ear tips per size. Once you lose three ear tips, you have to purchase new ones. I had to do this with my old Vibe Duo’s, but it is not a problem anymore since the ear tips hold on much stronger on these new Vibe ii’s.

V-Moda also provides a new, on the ear accessory that allows the user to rest the headphones around their ear (see above picture). While I have no use for this, some people may love this. And as always, V-Moda provides a nice, stylish carrying case.

Overall, the Vibe ii’s are a great update the Vibe duo’s. We can tell that V-Moda has definitely listened to their user feedback due to the responses we see in the Vibe ii’s. We have improved the audio by lowering the bass, made the ear tips harder to fall off and have changed the look to make it even more stylish than it was before. The Vibe ii’s stand as a great pair of quality headphones for $119.99. You can buy them at amazon or directly from V-Moda themselves.

AppViz is one of the most useful applications I have downloaded in a while.

As an iPhone developer, I love checking the sales reports everyday for all my applications. Unfortunately, Apple’ makes it a little difficult. You have to sign into iTunes connect, Click sales reports, find the day you want to see, then click preview. Even the preview is not very easy to read and understand. AppViz, fixes all of this and does much much much more.

AppViz will automatically download your sales reports (Daily, Weekly, Monthly) from Apple’s servers so you never have to go to iTunes Connect again to get your sales reports. AppViz will allow you to view these reports in some fascinating ways. You can view them just as they come out on iTunes Connect, except in a nicer, grid way. You can view them as a graph, showing you when your sales went up or went down. And lastly you can view them as in a dashboard review. AppViz gives your sales reports a whole new function, real analytics.

Hahaha, you think thats it? AppViz has a whole lot more. Not only does AppViz calculate sales, but it calculates revenue. It will display your revenue exactly the same way I described in the last paragraph. This allows you to know an estimate of how much a certain app has made in a day, week, month. It is so much nicer than having to wait a month for a financial report from apple.

The last amazing thing that AppViz does is that it can downloads reviews of your apps for you, from all the international iTunes Stores! This means you can see all reviews, not just the ones in your local iTunes Store.

AppViz solves so many problems I have had with sales reports from Apple. It organizes everything, gives you all the information, and allows a developer real control over knowing his sales reports and understanding the analytics. It really is amazing, and if you’re an iPhone dev, get it. It sells for $29.99, but there is a 30-day trial and I urge all of you to download it. You’ll see after you use it, it’s well worth the money.