iPhone apps for actors

The iPhone now seems to be the phone of choice in our industry at the moment. I think currently in our cast of 26 people there are only 2 or 3 that do not have iPhones. 

So I thought I would do some research into apps and tips for those iPhone users. For those not lucky enough to have one at the moment, then I am sorry that this may not interest you. Then again it may make you go out there and pick one up for yourself.
One of the great things about the iPhone is the App Store. It means that your phone is completely customisable to do the things that you need it to do. The combination of apps on someones phone will be completely individual depending on the lifestyle, industry and interests. It also means that some apps are very specific in what they do. They don’t have to be needed by everyone. If a few thousand people in the world need it, it probably exists.
We will discuss the app store more next week. This week I am going to talk about a few of the apps that come pre installed on the phones:
Email:Make sure that work email account is up and running successfully on you phone. I recently had a conversation with a talent agent who was saying that its great that she doesn’t have to make phone calls anymore when she is trying to fill a job. She can send out one email to a group of people and know that most will get it immediately and she can give the job to the first one that calls in for it.
Voice Recorder:The sound quality that you can get through your iPhone is good enough for rehearsals and vocal calls and it means that you always have your dictaphone with you. If you are like me and have a fair few different audio recording it might be worth noting that when you sync your phone with iTunes it automatically downloads them and places them in a genre called Voice Memo. You can then delete them from with in the Voice Recorder app and relabel them in iTunes.
iBooks:This was added in the last ios 4.0 update a few weeks ago. It is a bookshop equivalent of what the itunes store is for music. Currently on there Australian store there are just free books, but these are all classics that are out of copyright including literature, biographies and poems.
Another great use of iBooks is to read .pdf files. Whether it is an instruction booklet, sheet music or anything else you might have as a .pdf you can drag in into iTunes and it will appear in the Books section. It will then sync to your phone and you can read it where ever you happen to be. Like music these can be categorised into genres to keep everything nice and organised.
iPod:I would say that most people are familiar with the iPod function of the iPhone. One feature that I use a lot is the podcasts, and I would highly recommend that you look into it too. podcasts can be found through iTunes on your computer or through your iPhone on the iTunes store. There are audio and video recordings (often released regularly) on almost any topic you could conceive. Best of all they are FREE!! You find one you like, subscribe to it and then when ever it is updated with a knew episode your computer downloads it and syncs it to your iPhone.My personal favourite is: Stuff You Should Know (a biweekly 30 minute podcast giving you all the information you could possibly need to know on a random topic).
Next week I am going to be researching and writing about 3rd party apps for actors that you can get through the app store.
If you have any apps that you can’t live with out as an actor, or suggestions for me to look at, then please email me at: [email protected] Matt’s Murmurs is sponsored by Emptyhead Actors Websites Producing websites for actors and artists: http://www.emptyhead.com.au/actorswebsites.html

Matt Edwards

Matt is a past owner of AussieTheatre, working as digital director from 2011 to 2019. He is also a performer, most recently appeared in the Australian tour of Mamma Mia! and previously in the Australian/NZ tour of CATS and Enda Markey's acclaimed production of Blood Brothers. As well as performing Matt keeps himself busy in the digital side of the arts working with web design agency Emptyhead Digital

Matt Edwards

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