We think this is pretty cool — the iHome iDM15 ($99) is a set of Bluetooth-equipped stereo speakers that include a microphone so they can be used as a speakerphone.
The music options on the iPhone have sure gotten exciting over the last few months. First Apple unveiled iTunes Match, then Spotify launched their app in the US, and now Turntable.fm has brought their amazing social music experience to the iPhone. Earlier this morning Turntable.fm released their new iPhone app that enables users to listen to Turntable.fm DJ Rooms wherever they go.
Smule’s MadPad is a crazy finger-tapping box of fun for your iThing, guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Once your kids get their hands on it, it will soon drive you insane, but never mind: it’s worth it.
Presumably for those without an iPhone and its wealth of app-based fitness options, iHome has partnered with New Balance to offer a set of earphones packed with workout features, including a pedometer and a heart-rate monitor.
Google has just released an HTML 5 optimized iOS web app for its Google Music cloud service.
Now you can play your tunes on any iDevice from the browser.
Everyone seems to want some AirPlay action. The newest dock to crash onto the stage is this AirPlay-equipped, sleek-looking monolith from iHome, the iW1 ($300).
Apple released iTunes Match to registered developers last night, and many have been playing with the cloud service since then to figure out how it really works. We then showed you a video that demoed how Apple lets you “stream” music.
As it turns out, iTunes Match doesn’t actually ‘stream’ music in the purest sense of the word. Instead, Apple lets you download music on the fly, which basically means that you’re still locally storing songs on your device.
When Apple announced iTunes Match at WWDC back in June, it was a little unclear whether the service would allow you to stream your music library to your iOS devices as opposed to storing it locally — allowing you to access your tracks without actually taking up any of your precious storage space.
Following the launch of the iTunes Match developer beta yesterday, it has been confirmed that streaming is possible with Apple’s upcoming $25/year service.
It’s finally here — for U.S.-based developers, anyway. iTunes Match, Apple’s upcoming new service that takes your iTunes library and mirrors it in Apple’s cloud so it can be streamed has just dropped in Beta form.
No, that’s not an electronic Tootsie Roll — It’s Logitech’s brand-new $50 iPad Speaker (actually, they’re calling it the “Tablet Speaker”; because, apparently, there are other tablets out there. Who knew.)
Tony Bongiovi (yes, if the name sounds oddly familiar, it’s because you’re probably thinking of his cousin, Jon Bon Jovi) should know a thing or two about sound, hopefully; he’s had a hand in producing albums from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, and of course, his famous cousin.
This week’s roundup must-have apps features the long-awaited Skype app for the iPad, a beautiful new music app from Rdio, the quickest and easiest way to sell your old gadgets through eBay Instant Sale, and a new digital magazine from AOL that’s tailored just for you.
Apple is getting set to launch a brand new service that will compliment iCloud called iTunes Replay. The service will allow users to re-download and possibly stream movies they have previously purchased through iTunes, and could go public within the coming weeks.
There’s nothing quite like the bliss of simply plugging a gadget into a slot and being rewarded with superb performance; and if the gadget happens to exude raw sex appeal, even better. Sounds familiar, right? Because that pretty much describes Apple’s entire lineup. It’s also a perfect description for the dynamic Samson Meteor Mic ($99).
Ever since we drooled over Griffin’s StompBox at CES, the more musically intrigued members of our gang have been eagerly waiting for the jazzed-up, four-switch pedal box to actually arrive (I’m pretty sure our Lonnie Lazar has been sitting there, forlorn and imploring, like some lost, guitar-wielding puppy). Wait’s over, Lonnie — it’s here.
This week’s roundup of must-have apps kicks off with a brand new iPhone app from AOL Music that has been described as “Instagram for music.” AOL PLAY is completely free and focuses on music sharing and discovery, allowing you to listen to and share music with your friends on Twitter and Facebook, stream selected albums, and access over 47,000 SHOUTcast radio stations.
We also have an awesome new app called Trimit which will turn entire articles into a few short sentences, and Readdle’s latest iPad app that will turn any document into a professional PDF.
Cadence.FM (free) is an excellent iPhone app that compliments your workouts by providing you with a constant streamof music that consistently matches a chosen tempo — it’s your “on-demand personal DJ.”
Its best feature is that all of the music it plays is streamed from the SoundCloud music community and includes the best popular remixes, trance, house, dub-step and club music — so you don’t even need to store tracks locally on your device to use it. Just choose a channel and specify the BPM to which you’d like to work out and Cadence.FM will select the music for you — and it does a great job of it!
For the first time in history, the App Store now serves more downloads than the iTunes music store. With Apple recently announcing its 15 billionth app download, it’s no secret that the App Store has seen phenomenal success.
The App Store outpacing music is quite the impressive accomplishment for Apple, especially when you consider that the App Store has only been around for three years.
AOL Music just launched its new music app for the iPhone called Play, which it describes as “Instagram for music.” It’s completely free and focuses on music sharing and discovery, allowing you to listen to and share music with your friends on Twitter and Facebook, stream selected albums, and access over 47,000 SHOUTcast radio stations.
This week saw the launch of a brand new MTV app for the iPhone called MTV PUSH — our first must-have app of the week — which aims to introduce music lovers to the hottest new and up-and-coming artists; featuring videos, photos, news, and plenty of additional content that will help you discover the best new music.
We’ve also chosen a great new photography app that will help you discover Instagram photos from the people around you; the quickest and easiest way of recording video on your iPhone; and a highly-polished finance app for monitoring your budget.
In order to ensure its service has the best chance of competing with rival cloud-based music services, especially those that may be coming from Cupertino, Amazon has just introduced an iPad-friendly version of Cloud Player and expanded the music storage capabilities of Cloud Drive.
If you, like me, have lusted after the Tenori-on electronic musical instrument for years since it was first announced in 2005, then here’s some good news: an official iOS port of the device is now on sale in the App Store.
Much beloved Spotify has been trying to launch in America for years now. During that time, they’ve faced considerable challenges in convincing a music industry worried about alienating Apple to give the greenlight to their excellent all-you-can-stream subscription service.
But it’s finally come together, and now there’s even a firm date being thrown around: the freemium music service will launch in the States between July 5th and july 15th.
Audyssey, the high-end audio technology specialists, have just introduced their latest consumer product, the Lower East Side Media Speakers. We raved over the SOM audio dock that the company released earlier this year and it will be interesting to see if they can achieve the levels of quality we now come to expect from Audyssey.
One of the big questions about Apple’s upcoming iTunes Match is how the online music service will handle songs acquired from non-standard sources, like analog LPs, or yes, file-sharing networks.
Coming this fall, iTunes Match will scan your iTunes library and make available in the cloud all the songs you’ve purchased online or ripped from CDs.
But Apple hasn’t explained what will happen with songs encoded from sources like tapes or LPs; or those couple of tracks you accidentally downloaded from a file-sharing network and forgot to delete. Will iTunes Match reject these songs or make them available?
In theory, the system should recognize most digitzed music. Apple has explicitly said it will not discriminate based on source, and someone likely ripped the songs from CD before sharing them with the world.
We’ve found a way for you to check how iTunes Match will treat your music library before Apple makes it public.
