Sometimes less is truly more, and in the case of the VOX audio player, that was true as millions of Mac fans adopted the flexible OS X multimedia app with the sleek minimalist design and gorgeous sound output.  However, because VOX was developed as a personal side project, it never reached its full potential.

Today, Coppertino, an award-winning developer of OS X software, announced that VOX 0.96 is now open for public beta registration at http://www.coppertino.com/vox/.  Coppertino is offering all Mac users the opportunity to be the first to try out the updated version of Vox, and to help shape the dynamic audio player before it is released to the masses.

Originally released to great promise by Italian student Alessio Nonni, the VOX OS X audio player was quickly adopted by millions of Mac users thanks to its easy-to-use design and ability to handle an extremely wide variety of formats, including FLAC, MP3, AAC, Musepack, Monkey’s Audio, OGG Vorbis, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, IT, MOD, XM and others.

Now, backed with a new user interface and powerful BASS engine, VOX 0.96 is a robust audio player for OS X devices that delivers high-quality sound within a minimalistic and intuitive design framework. “We have been fans of the VOX audio player precisely because of its simple approach to design and use, and its ability to handle almost any audio file,” said Ivan Ablamsky, Founder of Coppertino.  “We are eager to work with the Mac community to see that VOX reaches its full potential.”

Now if Thomas Gruber’s Electronics Engineering Toolkit Pro for iPad app was released years ago, it would have probably made life easy in my Living Skills class at school. Anyways, this app, aimed at hobbyist, students and engineers features a massive collection of useful calculators, simulators, circuit and application examples, covering a wide gamut of areas in electronics engineering.

The app features 65 electronic applications, huge reference pages covering connectors, components (including 7400 series, PIC family, etc) with the option of opening PDF datasheets, fast-on-the-fly conversions and calculations, real-time circuit simulations and many more. I took delivery of several cool stuff such as an Arduino UNO board and a Raspberry Pi in recent months, so this app will come in handy as well. Speaking of deliveries and stuff, check out the following Anyvan.com if you are out on the market for courier and delivery services.

The Electronics Engineering Toolkit Pro for iPad app is available on the iTunes App Store for USD 3.99. Check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/scientific-electronics-circuit/id393145367?mt=8&ls=1

If you are living in the States or Canada and in the market for photobooks and you have an iPad, you may want to consider the Printzel iPad App. Created by a New York company of the same name and recognized as a Friends of eBay company, this app is a showcase of the Printzel API & SDK which enables developers to build apps that allow users to create fully customizable, professionally printed photo books directly in­-app.

The masterstroke would be Printzel will handle the printing, shipping and billing portions of the business, allowing developers to focus on doing what they do best, creating awesome apps tapping on the Printzel API & SDK. Developers can subscribe to Printzel’s e-mail list to receive notification on the open enrollment.

For more information on the SDK, head over here: https://printzel.it/developer. To see the API & SDK in action in the Printzel iPad App, download it for FREE from the App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/printzel-app-powered-printing/id620028937?mt=8

Back in college my lecturers used something called a “Little Man Computer” (LMC), which was simplified concept of a modern computer, in order to teach assembly code. So it was pretty interesting to receive an e-mail in my mailbox last week regarding a brand new app on the App Store called 4917emu by developer Michael Mustun.

4917emu is based on the 4917 microprocessor (a hypothetical designed just for a computer course named COMP1917 at the University of New South Wales) which was used to teach microprocessor basics. It is 4bit, has 16 memory locations and 4 registers: Instruction Pointer (IP), Instruction Store (IS), General Register 0 (R0) and General Register 1 (R1). Each memory location can store a number between 0 and 15, and there are 16 instructions.

I’m always for teaching tools on iOS devices and this might be a great addition to classroom curriculum. Back in the day, all I had were pen and paper to write down the procedures for the LMC. 4917emu is available on the App Store for free for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. Check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/4917emu/id572103567?mt=8

This is pretty cool, the SnagFilms app for the iPhone & iPad lets you watch over 300 award winning indie movies and documentaries for free. It’s basically the best of SnagFilms.com, now available through an app (the tag line does say “The Best Indie Movies on Demand”).

Using the iPhone version of SnagFilms is simple enough. Users have an option to login with Facebook and sync between Snagfilms.com and the app that they have on the iPhone and iPad. There are more than a dozen categories of film/documentaries to choose from and once you are in a category, you’ll face a list of films, with each having a short description.

You can either choose to add a film to your queue or watch it there and then. One note though, there are some content which are meant for adults only, so if your kids are browsing through the SnagFilms app, make sure you are around to monitor them.

There is a handy Search function to help you look for particular films/documentaries, but do note, what you find on the website may not be available on the app. The app’s library is kinda like a curated subset of the library found on the SnagFilms website. In any case, the developers promise that new films will be constantly added and I must say: Keep ‘em coming! With apps like SnagFilms, folks like me have more reasons not to watch regular TV (in fact, the TV is hooked up to a media player these days).

Speaking of media players, if you have an Apple TV, you are in for a fun time with the SnagFilms app. You get to watch whatever you are watching on the iPad or iPhone, on the big screen using an Apple TV and AirPlay. Nine Over Ten 9/10 rates SnagFilms app for iPhone and iPad at a perfect 5 out of 5. The app is available for free on the iTunes App Store, so be sure to download it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snagfilms/id404906625?mt=8

My wife’s Honda comes with a few nifty things on the dashboard. The car displays the average fuel consumption and has an Eco indicator that lights up whenever the vehicle thinks that the driver is driving “economically”. Such knick-knacks can seem rather trivial given the low resolution of the display, which reminded me of an alarm clock.

I guess that this, among other reason, that the folks at AG Applications came up with a really slick iOS app to monitor your fuel consumption, titled, Fuel Monitor. The app uses GPS to calculate speed, the amount of petrol used, average consumption, distance, duration and price. The app bases its calculations on consumption data provided by manufacturers (some 60,000 vehicles in the app’s database), driving style, traffic jams, accelerations, braking and more.

The app has something along the lines of the Honda’s Eco indicator as well, indicating whether you are driving efficiently. Fuel Monitor comes with additional functions to estimate the cost of your trip in advance, along with tools for parking and finding your way back to your vehicle. This Swiss Army Knife of an app is available on the iTunes App Store for USD 1.99, so check it out over here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fuel-monitor/id572413898?ls=1&mt=8

There are quite a number of compelling Android app releases for the past few days, so we here at Nineoverten.com are doing a run down of what’s new and hot on Google Play. Before we start though, we would like to take the opportunity to introduce our friends at AndroitPit. These guys cover Android news, as well as a forum for discussion AND an App Center that sells a whole slew of Android apps, including OfficeSuite Pro. So do check them out.

First up is Part Time Evil LLC’s Zig Zag Zombie, an addictive physics puzzler game which was featured in the top 50 list on Apple’s iPhone puzzle game segment and now making its debut on Google Play. The game features 360-degree aiming along with cute monster player characters that interact with the game environment in unique ways.

Zig Zag Zombie is available for 99 cents, check it out over here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.parttimeevil.zigzagzombie. Popular Russian game developer, Nevosoft has also ported their own bona-fide hit and award winning title, My Kingdom for the Princess, making it available for Android tablets.

Previously voted as the the “Top Sim and Tycoon Game” at the prestigious 2010 Great Games Award, and it features a really funny storyline and more than 50 levels in four different stages, picturesque fairytale landscapes and absorbing gameplay that combines classic elements of strategy, simulator and time management. The game is available for free on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nevosoft.mykingdomfortheprincess.free

It’s almost Halloween and one thing that developers love to do year on year would be to release Zombie-themed games in this hallowed month . We’ve already got one example at the top of our list, and it’s only fitting we have another one to close it. Developer BulletLike has released DeadGrind on Google Play and this is a hyper-violent (think plenty of blood) first person endless shooter featuring cell-shaded graphics, and you are tasked with killing zombies!

The game features a soundtrack that licenses two tracks from Vancouver-based progressive rock-ban “Fen”, and the two tracks are the instrumental “The World Is Young”, and “Cockroach Eyelids”. The game, for mature audiences only, is available for free on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bulletlike.deadgrind.

How often has it happened to you that you want to do a price comparison when you are shopping for a particular item online? In my case, pretty often and most of the time there’s simply no avenue for that kind of information. However, thanks to Rocket Internet’s recently launched PricePanda price comparison service, Malaysian online shoppers have something cool to use while shopping online.

Having just being launched recently in Malaysia, PricePanda has an impressive roster of price comparisons for computers, laptops, electronics and smartphones as well as hundreds of product reviews and shop reviews from not only industrial experts but also online shoppers. Among the well known brands that you can find on the site include Apple, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Toshiba and Blackberry.

The site makes it very easy for consumers, click on and item and you can see a description of the item along with the price comparison across various online retailers. Most importantly, PricePanda shows the availability of the item! One would then just need to click on the “See It” button to head over to the particular online retailer’s site and proceed with buying the item.

So, when you are out shopping online, do make PricePanda your shopping companion. Check it out over here.

This post is sponsored by PricePanda.

Check out these amazing iPhone 5 screenshots for the newly updated Weather Live iOS application by Apalon to take advantage of the new screen. I’m usually a Weather HD guy, but I must say that these really look great. According to the press release, Weather Live delivers accurate and comprehensive forecasts for multiple locations accompanied by live weather scenes that reflect real-time weather conditions.

Besides supporting iPhone 5 and iOS 6, the latest version of Weather Live includes additional weather parameters, enhancing the topnotch functionality of the app. Users will appreciate the new ‘Chance of precipitation’ parameter in addition to the existing humidity, visibility, pressure, precipitation, dew point, wind chill, wind speed and direction indexes. With all this information, as well as cloud, rain and satellite maps at hand, one can know for sure what weather to expect.

Those sensitive to weather changes will take full advantage of the new improved pressure indicator. People can see now an arrow going up or down depending on the atmospheric pressure changes. When no arrow is displayed, pressure level turns out to be within the normal range.  “We have always been striving to keep up-to-date and make the product reflecting the latest trends and tech achievements. We want Weather Live to satisfy users’ demands and meet their expectations and thus enhanced the application with these much-awaited features”, commented Peter Melnikov, VP of Apalon.

Weather Live is available for download at: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weather-live/id464770748?mt=8 for USD 1.99, existing users of the app get the new update for free.

I’ve been to Dubai back in 2007 and 2008 and I absolutely love that city. From dune-bashing in the desert, sun-bathing at Jumeirah beach, visiting the souks in Old Dubai or the huge brand new shopping malls that have come to define Dubai as larger than life (I stayed nearby the Mall of the Emirates, with Ski Dubai right at my hotel window), there are so many things to do there.

If you are in Dubai for a visit, be sure to check out Leading Brands Publishing’s Dubai 2012 app; it’s a beautifully made and informative travel guide app to the city built for the iPad and optimized as well for the new Retina Display iPad. Check out the app’s description on the App Store:

Dubai 2012 is a feature-rich digital travel book for the iPad. Packed full of information about the hottest restaurants, trendiest bars and most luxurious hotels, Dubai 2012 gives savvy travellers unique insights into this bustling city through video and web features. With Dubai fast becoming one of the world’s premier tourism, business and transit destinations, a truly useful and stylish travel guide is needed to get around this city which has limited street addresses.

The Dubai 2012 e-guide offers quick and simple navigation through hotels, dining experiences, nightlife, shopping, sightseeing and outdoor adventures, along with a map with points of interest; perfect for visitors to Dubai whether it’s for a few hours, days or weeks. Dubai 2012 is a new generation travel guide; at the touch of button readers can watch select pop-up videos to experience local activities like a trip down the creek on an abra (tradition boat) or get a view inside a shopping mall, giving them the choice to decide where they really want to spend their time.

Not only designed for tourists, the guide offers Dubai locals a chance to explore restaurants and attractions that are slightly off the beaten track. Showing expats and locals that there are plenty of options to explore other than the usual places and giving a fresh perceptive to readers which live in the U.A.E. Dubai is a city that is known for its fast pace of life and Dubai 2012 captures this energy through its use of videos showing the city in motion.

Embedded hyperlinks in the travel guide make it an invaluable tool for visitors to easily plan and book many of the exciting activities Dubai has to offer. Dubai 2012 will be updated with the latest in locally filmed and promotional videos so that readers will always have a view into the city.

Dubai 2012 is available on the iTunes App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dubai-guide-2012/id520409042?mt=8