Parrot Player - A langauge learning tool for iPhone

[simple101]

Hello

I've just released a new iPhone app on the App Store. It is free for the first 500 downloads.

It is an audio player that allows users to create short clips of anything they might want to practice or learn from longer pieces of audio. These clips can then be played back individually or sequentially. There is a toggle to add a pause between clips during playback if desired.

If you're interested take a look at the screencast on my website (half way down) to see it in action:

http://www.parrotplayer.com

I'd love to hear any feedback.

Thanks

Sam

[OneEye]

This is a really useful, simple app. I was just thinking over the holiday that it would be nice to have an app that could split a track into smaller sections quickly for use with shadowing. Thanks for posting!

[simple101]

Thank you OneEye! I'm very happy you like it.

[tooironic]

Interesting. Any chance it being released on Android?

[simple101]

Hi tooironic

Maybe if it proves popular on iPhone first. I have no experience of developing for Android yet.

[carlo]

Sam, well done, I've been using it a couple of days. I think it'd be nice to have one extra button to skip back a few seconds, maybe you could have a shorter volume slider and add a button there?

[simple101]

Hi Carlo. Thanks for the feedback! Out of interest do you envisage using a skip back function mainly in practice mode (with the switch at the bottom to the right)? In which case would you find it more useful to skip back a few seconds or to the beginning of the clip?

[carlo]

What I'm doing now is, in edit mode (switch to the left) I split up new files and familiarize myself with new phrases (which may require further segmenting). In practice mode (switch to the right) I'd just listen again and again to segments I already understand. So skip back (a few seconds) would be useful mainly in the first mode -- at least so it seems to me after using it only a few days.

[simple101]

Thanks Carlo. It's really useful for me to hear how people are using the app. I personally use the the waveform to perform a skip back - I quickly swipe it to the right. You'll notice if you move it carefully it pauses playback but if you swipe it fast, it adjust the playback position then continues playing. I was also considering using a shake to skip back - do you feel you'd prefer a button then a shake feature?

[carlo]

Yes, but if it's a long waveform a swipe takes it back too much. Usually about 5 seconds is what you need. I'm not sure whether I'd prefer a button or the shake.... maybe a button would be simpler.

[simple101]

Hi Carlo. What I mean is if you first double tap the complete audio waveform the display changes to a zoomed in waveform. This waveform can be scrolled or swiped. When I swipe this, the audio skips approximately 2 - 5 seconds depending on how fast I swipe it. It is not affected by the length of the audio file. If this is already what your doing, I apologise for misunderstanding.

[carlo]

What I mean is if you first double tap the complete audio waveform the display changes to a zoomed in waveform.

Oh. I didn't realize I could do this. I think I may not need a button after all!

[simple101]

I didn't realize I could do this.

I think one of the main issues the app has at present is that this feature is unknown for most users. I hope to make this much more obvious in the future. Hopefully, you will find it much easier / faster to add new clips using using it.