Posts Tagged
Music
I’ve never tried a secondary music app. The iOS Music app has always been enough for me, but I started to wonder if maybe there could be something better out there. Something different, cooler, that would make me give up the default Music app for good.
There’s gotta be something pretty special going on to make me turn my head, and that’s what in:play is — pretty special. Fancy gestures and a minimalist interface make for a pretty sweet experience. Will all that really make for an experience to rival what I can get right out of the iOS box, though? (more…)
Ever wish you had access to all of your movies and TV shows all the time? It would be amazing, right? Yes, there are a few streaming apps out there, but Plex comes with all the bells and whistles. Honestly, I don’t know how I survived this long without it.
This way to learn how to make your life more amazing. (more…)
Music streaming services have grown in popularity, with Rdio being one of the most popular options in the United States until Spotify jumped across the pond in July 2011. Since that date, Rdio and Spotify have been two of the biggest contenders for monthly subscriptions.
The reason I keep coming back to Rdio is that it seems to be a better fit for how I want to manage my music. I want a true iTunes-in-the-cloud solution and Rdio provides that. Even though Spotify is planning to add a collection feature and to help in music discovery, I am really liking Rdio’s innovations. With version 2.0, though, it is not just about a new coat of paint; Rdio 2.0 features new and innovative features, which positions itself in a good spot for competition of monthly subscription revenue. (more…)
As you have probably heard or experienced, having kids definitely changes your life and how you live it. Before, I had all the time in the world to go to the movies, read the books I wanted, etc. Now, those activities are few and far between, and I definitely can no longer keep up with all the new releases that come out.
Well, a few weeks ago, I got to download an app called Recall, which I was intrigued by because I thought it might help me solve this problem. With so many good things being released in a rapid pace, I don’t know how we can even keep up with everything. But, Recall aims to help us remember when that latest movie we wanted to watch comes out, or that awesome song that we want to download. (more…)
Pandora has all but become synonymous with Internet radio over the past decade. For those unfamiliar, Pandora is an automated music discovery service that is built on the Music Genome Project, an initiative to catalogue music using various elemental analyses with intent of being able to recommend music you might like based on music you already know you like.
Pandora has been around for quite some time, launching way back in the year 2000 and spending most of its life as an open tab on browsers everywhere. It arrived relatively early on iOS, but since then hasn’t undergone much in the way of visual or functional updates. However, Pandora recently added support for the extra screen real estate on the iPhone 5, so we think that this is a perfect opportunity to check out the changes that the app has seen. Grab your favorite pair of listening headphones and let’s dig in. (more…)
Sirius XM is a radio subscription service which provides most of their content commercial free. You most likely have seen a Sirius XM enabled radio in a car and might even already be a subscriber, but did you know Sirius XM is also available on iOS?
The Sirius XM app for iOS enables subscribers to keep jamming or listen to their favorite talk show while not in the car. Using the service through the app does include some extra features. These extra features include being able to listen to shows on demand, pausing events, songs, or shows, and starting at the beginning of a song when tuning to a station with TuneStart.
Read on to see if including Sirius XM Internet streaming is right for you. (more…)
Audiophiles regularly lament their disapproval with music players. The algorithm-based system of Pandora lacks a human element when selecting tracks to play. On the other end of the extreme are streaming apps such as Live365 and Songza, which rarely allow outside influence when listening to someone’s pre-programmed station. Spotify playlists are at the mercy of their creators and ⎯ let’s be honest ⎯ sometimes our friends and favorite media sites don’t have the best taste in music!
Can a balance between being controllable and being out of the box exist for music discovery? Shuffler.fm thinks so. It uses blogs, one of the digital era’s most prevalent tools for music experts, to guide listeners to new music. But is Shuffler.fm’s in-the-know curation method enough to keep listeners tuned in? Find out after the jump.
With a name like My Singing Monsters, you know exactly what you’re getting in a game while still having no idea what you’re actually getting into. You’re going to be raising some singing monsters, but what can you expect from a game with such an absurd premise?
What you can expect is constant surprise and hilarity mixed into the familiar mechanics of Farmville type RPGs. But is what My Singing Monsters brings to the table enough to wake up an otherwise stale genre, or will the monster gimmick fall flat? (more…)
Those of us with large music libraries know how much of a pain it can be to choose what to listen to. Sometimes there’s no time to make a decent playlist; other times you simply don’t even know where to start. While the basic music app on the iPhone is efficient and easily sorts your music, it doesn’t do a good job presenting your music to you when you don’t know what to listen to.
However, in all the areas the default music app is lacking, Groove 2 shines. Featuring intuitive gesture controls and a robust playlist generator, it’s an excellent choice for any music enthusiast. (more…)
I never got into the Draw Something craze. Something between a lack of skill and large fingers on a tiny screen meant that I was lucky if I won against a three-year-old. Fortunately, my dignity could be redeemed with the introduction of a new app, named Song Pop.
When Song Pop showed up in the App Store, I am pretty sure music lovers everywhere cheered with joy. Now they could show off not only their song knowledge but also their artist knowledge, in a five question multi-round music quiz where you are pitted against other music fans. A combination of fast answer times and correct answers in music genres including ’90′s Alternative and Modern Rap is what it takes to show you are the Song Pop queen or king. (more…)
