In amongst all of the other announcements at today's I/O developers conference, Google has taken the wraps off its new ‘All Access’ Music service, and judging by the business model and pricing, it looks a sure-fire shot at the popular alternatives Spotify, Pandora and Rdio. More details after the break.
I love music, and whenever I'm checking out the newest entries to the Cydia Store, those purporting to enhance the listening experience are always among the first to pique my interest. If you also enjoy listening to music, particularly if you like doing so on your iOS device, then you might also like a new tweak by developer busheman, which brings full screen album art to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch's lock screen.
We've checked out an abundance of tweaks recently here at Redmond Pie for those who love nothing more than to play music on their iOS devices, and if you are reliant on your iPhone as a double-up mp3 player, you will have almost certainly experienced that rueful situation whereby you misplaced, forgot or even completely lost your headphones. No headphones mean no music, or at least it should do in a public place, but if you're in ownership of an earpiece for purpose of making handsfree calls, a new tweak over at the ModMyi repo will see this double up as a makeshift earbud.
iOS, much to the dismay of many of its loyal users, has remained relatively unchanged over the past few revisions, but one feature which has been given a visual update fairly recently is the Music app. The iPhone and iPod touch versions have been skinned to look like their iPad counterpart, and the newer uniform look has certainly improved the overall aesthetics, if not the functionality. If you're an Android user, and would like to enjoy the look and feel of this evolved app on your Samsung or HTC, then you may be interested in a new app called iMusic, which readily helps you achieve this goal.
If we told you that Apple was planning on launching a service that allows users to search for, select and then stream music across multiple iOS and OS X devices, then it probably shouldn’t come as a great surprise. After all, Apple pretty much pioneered the shift in music and paved the way for digital downloads and the like, so the surprise would be that it has taken them this long to adopt the strategy and actually come up with a service similar to that offered by the likes of Pandora and Spotify.
Music playback is the foundation of the iPhone as we know it, but unfortunately, the native Music app is a teeny bit too safe, meaning while it functions to nigh-on perfection, it doesn't have the cutting-edge looks and visual features of the increasing number of alternatives out there. In short, it does enough to stop us complaining, but doesn't quite offer enough to prevent us from window shopping.
If you are one of the estimated 800 million individuals across the globe who have an active Facebook account, then you will of no doubt started noticing some evolutionary changes which are happening to the Social Networking site. One of the biggest changes is the new Timeline feature which offers a radical new way of viewing the history of a specific friend, and has been met by mixed reviews from members.
I think pretty much every owner of a smartphone device who has the slightest interest in music will have heard of the Shazam service. For those that haven't then let me introduce you to what I would consider the pioneering music identification service. Shazam launched in 1999 as a company who provided users with the ability to identify music via their mobile telephone. I remember the early days of the service when you had to dial '2580' on your phone then hold the microphone up to the music to allow the service to gather a sample. It then connected to the company using your devices data connection and sent an SMS back to you with the name of the song and artist.
After years of waiting, Spotify reached US customers earlier today as an invite-only service, or with a paid subscription. Thankfully, there's a way around Spotify's pay wall, so that you'll be able to use the service to its full extent in the US even without an invite. Read on.
Following an announcement last week, Swedish-owned online music streamer Spotify is today making its long-awaited debut in the US market. The service, which has well established itself as a game changer in legitimate music services, currently stands second only to iTunes in the digital music revenue for the major European record labels. With over ten million users in Europe and boasting an impressive 15 million song catalogue, it is looking to make a lasting impression stateside, predicting 50 million users in its first year.
