Hot on the heels of the major update to iStethoscope Pro last month, I am releasing v8.01 today. This update adds one of the most commonly-requested features from users: the ability to alter the audio filter while you listen. While you can still change the low pass filter settings in the iOS Settings app, version 8.01 now enables you to press the little left arrow and reveal a filter window. This displays an accurate frequency response from 20Hz to 20Kz of the low pass filter, which you can modify by dragging left or right. Swipe left to lower the cutoff frequency and hear deeper (bass) sounds more clearly. Swipe right to increase the cutoff frequency and hear higher (treble) sounds more clearly. I've added a new video in the help page to demonstrate how to do this.

Combined with the existing features, this important new feature enables you to modify all the major settings while you listen: the gain of the amplifier (using the plus and minus buttons) and the filtering of the audio. So if you're having trouble hearing that elusive sound, you can tweak the app until you hear it. Only iStethoscope Pro gives this much control and flexibility! Enjoy the app and if you have any questions or stories about using the app, please email support.

My app iStethoscope Pro is one of the oldest medical apps on the store and has been a steady seller for many years. I've been sent some amazing stories about how it has helped save lives, and we've used the data it gathers in many different research projects. Today, for the first time in several years, I am releasing a major update to the app. This is motivated in part by the redesign of the iPhone 5 which places the headphone socket next to the microphone, making it very hard to listen with headphones as you record. The new version displays the waveform as you listen and is designed to handle recording without headphones better. You can watch the waveform to see if you've found a good place and the device auto-mutes itself to stop any horrible feedback whine. Of course it still works with headphones plugged in, or with the device paired to a bluetooth speaker as well.

Underneath this is actually a major rewrite of the code, with better compatibility with all iOS devices, compatibility with the forthcoming iOS v8, improved higher quality audio processing, a refreshed and simpler user interface using higher resolution graphics and the option to email the sound in compressed formats to keep the file size a bit more manageable.

I've also created a fresh set of help videos and simpler help pages, all accessible from the app by pressing the question mark.

Despite the changes, the app still does exactly the same thing to the audio: it amplifies and filters sound so that you can hear very quiet noises, including your heartbeat or the heartbeat of a baby (or pet). That's why it's iStethoscope Pro - because it makes your phone do exactly what a stethoscope can do!

From this version onwards I have decided to make the support email-only so that I will be notified immediately if anyone has a problem. So if you have comments, questions, or stories about your use of the app, please just email me here.

And finally, if you find the app useful, please leave some nice feedback on the AppStore so that others can benefit!

Since I first created my app iStethoscope in 2008, things have rapidly changed in the world of medical technology. Much of it has to do with the proliferation of cheap consumer technology. Mobile phones, tablets and everything in between are now packed full of sensors, and manufacturers are starting to make many plug-in gadgets to help monitor every aspect of our health. The rumours of Apple's future ventures into watches and other wearable devices that can be used for fitness and health purposes will only increase this trend, I'm sure. On this topic I was recently interviewed by journalist Arnaud Devillard for a French monthly news magazine. As you might expect, it's all in French, but you can read the full set of articles online here:

 http://www.atelier.net/sites/default/files/20140201-sciences-et-avenir.pdf

I've had another astonishing comment left on the support page for my iOS app iStethoscope Pro, which I thought I would share here. It's amazing to see that my little app has made such a difference to the lives of some people. Thanks to John McCormack for sharing this story.

This App Saved My Life ! I was involved in an accident and broke my collar bone and had a huge Hematoma on my thigh.After getting a plate to repair my collarbone I asked the doctor if they should drain the Hematoma, he said they let it releive naturally.I explained to him that I was flying to the Carribean in a couple of months, would it be ok, he said yes.In a couple months I flew to the Carribean and the day after I landed had some terrible back pains,thought I had kidney stones, went to the hospital down there and they had admitted me over night. The next day they said I could go home and that I had a muscle spazim, the pain had subsided butI could feel a small weize like symptom in my back. I told the doctor about it and by the time him came to listen it was gone. I went back to the resort and tried to enjoy the rest of my vacation. Every night between 12:00 AM and 4 to 5:00 AM I could feel this weizing noise from my back it was very suttle, yet nothing when I laid at the beach or anything during the day. I kept a record of everything I did,ate,drank and even what exact times this happened.As soon as I got back to Canada I made an appointment with a doctor and told her about my situation, they did some blood tests on me and found them to be out of wack.They sent me to a specialist and they did all kinds of testing on me including lung testing and everything seamed fine. All this time I was still having the weizing feeling at night and told them that it only happens at night but they said that didn't make much sense I also told them they should admitt me over night so they would hear it and they said they couldn't do that. Back and forth I went to doctors for about two or three weeks and nothing. One night I was laying in bed feeling the weize and wondered if my voice recorder would pick it up...it didn't and then I thought " I wonder if there is an app for a stethoscope and I found the Isthethocope and paid for the pro. After learning how to use it on Youtube I was ready for the next night. The next night like clockwork there was the noise and I recorded it on my Isthethoscope and emailed it to myself.The next day I called the Doctor and mad an appointment with them. I showed up for my appointment and it was the same thing they couldn't hear anything, I told them I had recorded it using the Istethoscope and wanted them to listen, at first they kind of snickered at it but after listening to the noise they went and got the head doctor. He was quite amazed at the noise and ordered a CT scan with contrast dye right away. An hour later I was in the emergency room with a Pulmonary Embolism. I feel very lucky to be here telling his story. That was Dec. 2011 If I hadn't been able to record it and show it to the doctors who knows what would have happened! Thank you Peter Bentley! This App Works!

I want to share my story with you. My husband and I are both RN's. So of course we have our own top of the line stethescopes. I found your app and thought it would be fun to have on my iphone. I was pregnant with our third little girl and thought I could use it to listen to her heartbeat. When I was 7 months pregnant she had decreased movements. I was concerned and tried using my stethescope to try a hear her heartbeat. I couldnt hear anything so I got the istethesope app out and was able to hear her heartbeat. Being a nurse I knew that it should be much faster than our so I was not concerned with the rate. I was more relieved that she still had a hearbeat. This was on the 4th of July. So the next day I call my OB and went in to have her checked out since she still was not moving. After the doctor listed to hear heartbeat with the ultra sound machine I was sent to the hospital. She was in distress. Her heart rate was well over 260. When I told them I had used your app to listen to her heartbeat the day before they did not believe that it worked. I was able to tell them that the rate was the same as what I heard the day before. So they were able to determine she was had been in heart failure since at least the day before. I was flown by helicopter to San Franciso where she was born by emergency C section. She was resusitated several times in the first 24 hours of her life. The doctors werent sure she would make it. But I had faith and knew God would answer my prayers. She was in the NICU for 4 weeks and came home a few days after her due date. I am happy to report she is now 18 months old and has been off heart medications for one year. She is truly a miracle and has no long term effects from her traumatic birth. Now all my friends have gotten the App you created as well as many of the nurses who took care of us. I want to say thank you for creating this App. It played a large role in saving the life of my little miracle, Emily.

It's an interesting piece of work and I enjoyed helping Soo Ling create the model. We're still working on it, and are looking at the effects of publicity strategies, different charts, and all kinds of other things...

The article is available online here, or below if you want a quick view.

One of our group members has had success listening to the objective pulsatile tinnitus with your iStethoscope App. She gave me permission to share her experience with you, since I told her I thought you'd be interested!

She's been diagnosed with superior canal dehiscence and bilateral sigmoid sinus diverticulum. She has already had surgery on one side to correct it, and is awaiting surgery on the other side. Anyway, here is the post she shared on our Facebook page. I am fascinated by this and hope to again ask others --particularly those with a similar diagnosis-- if they too can hear their whoosh with the app. She is thrilled that she can now share the actual audio sound with her doctors and everyone. The doctor who performed the surgery --Dr David Eisenman in Baltimore-- is a doctor I've been in touch with for several years and he has corrected many patients' symptoms.

Do you have an iphone? The app is way cool! the Microphone at the bottom of the phone is used as the "stethoscope" you put earbud style headphones in and wear them. Then you open the app and crank the volume...be careful, just like a real steth if youve ever used one, it's LOUD...dont talk into it lol. You can listen to your heart with it by firmly pressing the bottom of the phone right where a stethoscope goes...same thing. Put it over you belly, you will hear your bowel. Put it one the sides of your ribcageor back, and you hear you lungs. Putting it all over different pulses in the body, I found my venous hum...which i already knew i had even though the doctors coudnt hear it. Right above the clavicles...I have it both sides and it goes away with certain head positions.

Emma Greenwood, Founder & Whoosher-in-Chief, http://www.whooshers.com/

Join our Pulsatile Tinnitus "Whooshers" Unite! Facebook Group

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121285117907242

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/24/tech/mobile/heart-monitor-smartphone-app/