Last.fm iPhone Demo from Toby on Vimeo.
I was rather effusive in my enthusiasm for the launch of intelligent music radio application Pandora on iPhone. It symbolized, more than anything, that Apple was perfectly willing to let people listen to music on the device without the company’s blessing — some of the time anyway.
Tonight, Last.fm launched its own iPhone app, and it’s a doozy. The video demo speaks for itself, but I’m quite impressed with the events integration and the detailed information. I’ve been a bigger fan of Last.fm than Pandora for some time, not least for the huge amount of information on bands that it has to offer. Additionally, the social networking features are very cool — being able to e-mail any track to a contact? Genius. It’s available through the App Store now.
Sadly, it won’t Scrobble the tracks you listen to in the main iPod application, except after a sync with iTunes, nor will it keep playing while you browse on Safari, but those are technical impediments on Apple’s part. Altogether, it’s an impressive effort. With Pandora and AOL Radio, it has officially made the iPhone superior in every way to a satellite radio — unless you care about Howard Stern. This is the true future of radio, and it’s finally on the right platform.
Via Digg.
Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete’s particular Apple avocations are both around design–interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!
