White Noise ($0.99, iTunes link) includes 40 ambient noises to help you concentrate, sleep, relax, or neutralize other noises. It’s one of the top-selling apps in iTunes right now, perhaps helped by a recent mention in the Washington Post. While White Noise is adequate for the job, we had some problems with the interface and sound quality and recommend another similar app,
White Noise‘s initial screen only displays 8 of its total 40 sounds. To access the other sounds, you must tap to another menu, tap Edit, rearrange the sounds so that your favorite 8 appear at the top of of the list, then tap Done. We found this structure to be baffling. Why not give access to all the sounds via a dropdown list?
White Noise offers a good variety of sounds, with everything from nature (rain, birds, crickets) to machines (washing maching, hair dryer, fan) to the color noises (white noise, brown noise, blue noise). However, we found the sound quality to be quite average. Comparing the noises to Ambiance‘s selection, White Noise sounded thin, either because they were poorly recorded or highly compressed. This may be a moot point though, as listeners using the iPhone’s mono speaker probably won’t be able to tell the difference anyways, but those using good headphones will.
For those using the app to help them go to sleep, there is a timer that will shut off the sound after a set amount of time. The timer is set via a slider that you drag with your finger. Once set, the timer immediately starts to count down. There are additional timer settings such as a volume fader to slowly decrease the volume over time, an alarm that warns you when the time is up, and a setting to automatically close the app when timer is finished.
We had some problems with some of controls, particularly the sliders. Many of our touches weren’t recognized. We had to repeatedly touch the screen until eventually the app did what we wanted.
There are also settings to adjust the balance and pitch. Adjusting the balance moves the sound between left and right channels. The pitch controls adjust how high or low the noises sound. We wondered why the developers took the time to include these sound controls but neglected perhaps more important EQ settings.
Conclusion
White Noise is adequate in its basic function of playing ambient noises to aid in concentration or helping you sleep. It offers quick access to its major features and has an overall quick-and-lightweight feel. Due to problems we had with the interface and the below average quality of the sounds, we recommend users download Ambiance instead.
Name: White Noise
Developer: Matt Coneybeare
Version Reviewed: 1.5.2
Price: $0.99
iTunes Link: 