Audio News for February 1, 2011

by | Feb 1, 2011 | Audio News | 0 comments

iPhone Apps for Music LoversUSA Today has put out a handy list of ten iPhone apps for music lovers.  If you’re not participating in the general public switch to taking your music mobile with one of today’s many digital gadgets, this won’t matter to you, but if you take your music with you digitally and have a smartphone, you’ll find some handy apps here that are either free or very inexpensive. One gives you cloud-based access to your entire music library, another makes it easier to access over 30,000 netcasters, and SoundHound even will recognize your humming or whistling a tune you’ve heard and are trying to identify – it will pull up all the relevant matches it finds.  The free version allows you to ID up to five songs a month. TuneWiki gives you the lyrics to your favorite songs, and can even search for songs if you only know a line of the lyrics. Adaptunes automatically adjusts your playback volume based on speed and motion-based sensors.

Free eBook Downloads from Project Gutenberg & Public Libraries – Many public libraries now offer a download service of eBooks and audiobooks from their digital collection. You can curl up at home with a good book without having to go out, or take it in mobile mode on your laptop, eReader, iPad, smartphone or digital audio player. Mostly they are current fiction titles but there is also a variety of eBooks available. Software required can be downloaded free as well. Then there is Project Gutenberg [www.gutenberg.org], where you can find over 33,000 free eBooks. The high quality eBooks were published previously by regular publishers and their copyright has now expired (as with the music recordings now being reissued by many small record labels). Thousands of volunteers have digitized the books. Most offer a choice of ePub, Kindle, html, or simple text formats. There are also actual audio books – both read by humans and computer-generated.

Grace Offers Bookshelf Wi-Fi Audio System – The download market for audio continues to expand and grow. Grace – one of several companies making Wi-Fi radios – now offers their Wi-Fi Bookshelf Music System, which mates their Wi-Fi Radio to a pair of two-way speakers and has a remote control.  The micro-system is suggested for those who want a small concert experience with having to set up a full home audio system. The unit is compatible with Pandora, SiriusXM Internet Radio, CBS Radio, iHeartRadio, Live365.com, MP3Tunes, NPR, the NAtional Weather Service, WeatherBug and Rhapsody on-demand music service. It has 802.11n connectivity, RCA inputs and a USB connection for iPods, CD players or computers, and retails for $250.

Cricket Launches Muve Music – Cricket Communications has launched a new music downloading service over their 3G network with unlimited downloads and no extra charge on top of their $55 a month wireless service, but is so far only available in the Las Vegas area. Muve Music is designed to provide a superior mobile experience for customers wanting to create a personal music experienced without being tethered to a computer. The catalog of music includes Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music. Thru the Muve Music app on their smartphone they can search, explore and download unlimited songs, organize them automatically, create playlists by genre, identify songs titles and artists instantly, and connect with friends and other users to share what they are listening to.

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