Blue Box vs Shortwave Guide
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Blue Box
Encode and decode DTMF signals using your device's microphone or keypad. Play back tone sequences with adjustable settings, and save them for easy recall. Explore various tone systems, including trunk control and coin signals, for educational and utility purposes.
- Encode/decode DTMF signals
- Adjustable tone, delay, and volume
- US, UK, and European tone systems
- Multi-frequency and trunk control tones
- Coin tone sequences (Red Box mode)
- Custom tone creation
- Save and organize sequences
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Blue Box is utility for encoding and decoding DTMF (Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency) or Touch Tone signals. Generate tones by using the phone style keypad or decipher tones using the device’s microphone. Tone combinations can be played back with adjustable tone, delay and pause lengths and volume. Choose from US, UK and Europe based systems. Enable Multi-frequency tones, which were a precursor to DTMF. Additional trunk control signals will be available including KP, ST1, ST2, ST3, KP/ST2. Additional tones include the Dial Tone, Ring Back Tone, Busy Signal and 2600Hz. A comma can be used as a pause character to provide extra time between tones during playback. Save and organize any number of sequences for easy recall using the Favorites feature. Choose numbers from your contacts to display and play back tones. Share an encoded or decoded number with the Phone, FaceTime or Messages app. Use Red Box mode to play coin tone sequences, including 5¢, 10¢ and 25¢ for the US system and 10p and 50p for European systems. Create a custom tone with control over individual frequencies and volumes. The custom tone can consist of any number of on and off pulses and can optionally be continuous. Record interactions with the encoder and play them back with the same timing. The recording feature works with all tones, including the dial tone, busy signal, ring back tone, 2600Hz and coins and trunk control tones. A help manual is including, with step-by-step instructions for all features. When the app is first run, pop-ups will be displayed indicating what the controls are used for. Warning: Blue Box is designed as an educational tool and utility. Do not attempt to use Blue for any illegal or malicious purposes. Blue Box can be used to assist in dialing numbers, but can not be used to manipulate digital telephone utility services. Limitations: Blue Box is software based decoding and is processor intensive. Performance may vary between devices. Tones that are less than 100 ms with pauses that are less than 100 ms are difficult to process in software. Future versions and processors may increase the reliability of faster tone sequences. If you need touch tone decoding for higher speeds, a hardware solution is recommended. Blue Box can not play tones into the iPhone phone feature while in a call. Blue Box is useful for entering numbers into touch tone operated systems such as an answering machine passcode or a dial-up service that requires the entering of several touch tones to navigate a menu system. Simply enter the numbers once and then play back the numbers into the phone's microphone with a touch.
Shortwave Guide
This application displays a real-time schedule of shortwave radio broadcasts worldwide, sourced from the EiBi database. Users can rescan for updates, view specific frequencies, and update the entire broadcast schedule database.
- Worldwide shortwave broadcast schedule
- Real-time station listings
- Frequency viewing
- Database updates
- EiBi database integration
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The app shows a schedule of shortwave radio broadcasting. Information taken from EiBi database. When you run the application, you will see a list of radio stations, broadcasting currently worldwide. To update the scanning time in the menu, click "Rescan". To view all the selected radio frequency specifically, use a right button. When you first launch the app, or to update the schedule database, choose "Update Database".
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Blue Box at 56% against Shortwave Guide's 20%. Blue Box also leads on price ($4.99 vs $8.99). Shortwave Guide's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 7 months). On ads, in-app purchases, monetization model and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Blue Box costs $4.99 and Shortwave Guide $8.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Blue Box ships an update every 7 months, Shortwave Guide every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Blue Box | Shortwave Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 — better | $8.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 55.6% of reviews — better | 20.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 7 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 26 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sunshine Valley Systems | Vladyslav Haliuk |
Customer experience
Blue Box
Shortwave Guide
In-app purchases
Blue Box
No in-app purchases
Shortwave Guide
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Blue Box free?
Is Shortwave Guide free?
Do Blue Box or Shortwave Guide have ads?
Which is updated more often, Blue Box or Shortwave Guide?
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