At yesterdays WWDC - Apple's Developer conference, where the new iPhone was announced - the 3Gs - which has video and a better battery life amongst numerous other enhancements, Line 6 and Planet Waves demonstrated a new iPhone/iPod touch app, the Rig Remote which utilize the new iPhone OS 3.0.
When combined with the MIDI Mobilizer - a portable MIDI interface, the Planet Waves Rig Remote give the Line 6 user a graphical display that takes a nod from the Line 6 software commonly used to adjust Variax and Vetta II tones via personal computer. The iPhone display and touch screen make it simple to scroll, choose and adjust models of amps, guitars, pickups, pickup placement, alternate tuning and more. Guitarists can easily save their favorite settings and apply them to any Variax guitar or Vetta II amplifier.
It's quite amusing to think that the cutting edge in personal communications and DSP modeling, should still be using the MIDI protocol to control - a testament to the initial design specification.
The new iPhone and OS are both available June 16th in the US with the rest of the world seeing handsets made available in the following weeks.
MIDI Mobilizer and Rig Remote 1.0 are currently in development, with pricing, availability, and more detail on the complete feature set to be announced at a future date.
In fact at the WWDC demo yesterday, the technology refused to coopoerate, but that's the bleeding edge for you.
