Earlier today, I conducted an interview via someone else’s Google Glass. For crying out loud. In this live, international interview (which you can see below albeit without audio, because I didn’t manage to capture it — again, my first Google Glass interview) Massimo Ciociola, founder and CEO of the popular lyrics service MusiXmatch told me about…
We’ve been writing a lot about Google’s new music subscription service this week, because of course we would. Google is a force to be reckoned with — and now, that force is reckoning with the likes of Spotify, Rdio, and Rhapsody in a bid for your $10 per month, in return for unlimited access to…
I set out this morning to build a chart listing the various features of the major music subscription services: Rdio, Rhapsody, Spotify, and we assume the recently-launched Google Play Music All Access, although it remains to be seen whether it will succeed on the level of those standalone music services — or whether it will…
As crazy as it sounds, we might have to start paying more attention to Shaquille O’Neal for music app scoops. The basketball star awarded Optini‘s new app Speakerfy one of two prizes at his “Pitch Shaq” competition at SXSW last month; after investigating, we agree with his positive assessment. Speakerfy (iOS/Android; free or $1; Windows Phone soon)…
Comedian Louis CK made a great point that’s worth revisiting (transcript), even if you’ve seen it before: that “everything is amazing and nobody is happy.” The disruptive funnyman was referring to the way we complain about the world we live in, even as we enjoy unprecedented abilities and conveniences thanks to the preposterous degree of technological advancement over…
Grandpa’s CD player was an awful piece of technology by many estimations. Purists hated the idea of slicing precious analog sound waves into bits, on philosophical if not auditory grounds. Owners of cassettes and vinyl were justifiably bummed to have to buy everything all over again. And on the label side, that CDs didn’t include the copyright…
Out of all the great things music apps do for us, music identification is one of the most helpful, not to mention amazing. No matter where you are, if you hear a song you like but don’t know, a click and some taps will usually solve your problem. Fortunately — or unfortunately, depending on whether you’re a…
Apple makes iTunes. Android comes from Google. That doesn’t stop you from controlling iTunes using an Android phone or tablet, because iTunes is compatible with something called DACP, which you can use without knowing what it is. Once you run one of these apps, it’ll generate a four-digit code; enter that into iTunes once, and…
All smartphones have cameras. This one is a camera. Let’s just get this out of the way, too: the Samsung Galaxy EK-GC100, which comes with Android 4.1 (Jellybean), can be used as a phone. We connected headphones with an inline microphone, fired up Skype for Android, and made calls to and from normal phones. Easy-peasy….
AirPlay is Apple’s most underappreciated achievement. Its AirTunes feature puts digital music in the home more cheaply and easily than anything else — and unlike so many Apple things, it’s widely-interoperable. Not only can you find plenty of speakers and stereo systems that have AirPlay built in, but many iOS apps include it natively, so…
Facebook Home phones will be officially available to anyone with a supported Android device on Friday, but some clever folks at MoDaCo obtained the code in advance of its release and then leaked it, allowing people to play around with it early. The Verge posted a nice walk-through of the main features(video below), but what…
DoubleTwist, which makes two of the most popular Android music apps in the world (AirSync at #7 and doubleTwist player at #23), just entered the U.S. streaming radio market alongside Pandora, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. DoubleTwist’s Magic Radio has the power to extend your library, playlists, and musical taste to over 13 million songs. We’ll get…
Twitter has acquired music discovery site We Are Hunted, and will use it to launch an official, Twitter-branded music app soon, according to a CNET report. Apparently, it really was hunted. We Are Hunted rose to prominence after a 2009 Wired exclusive about a “fantastic new way to find music,” which creates real-time-ish music charts…
We are enjoying covering the madness at SXSW 2013 this week, although this time, due to logistics in our editor’s family life, we’re not physically there this year. It’s sad, in a way, to have to watch it from afar, as many can probably relate. Instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, we found six great ways to keep…
If you live in a place and you enjoy live music, you might enjoy Timbre. To find good shows near your place, you need simply fire up the app and start listening. You can skip around until you find something you like, and then it’s time to buy tickets. Last fall, we were impressed by…
