i101 – Episode 17

Two notes: One, our youngest is only 6 weeks and not 6 months. Also, not sure why we’re getting the buzzing sound when transitioning since we never got it before. We’ll work on that.

Show Notes

Simplenote – review, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/simplenote/id289429962?mt=8
Weather.com – contact list, hurricane, post to Facebook, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-weather-channel/id295646461?mt=8
Livecams – retina, pinch zoom, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/live-cams/id301058477?mt=8
Shazam – huge update, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/shazam/id284993459?mt=8
QuadCamera – update: front facing camera, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quadcamera-multishot/id300911252?mt=8
Angry Birds – 15 new levels, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds/id343200656?mt=8

iPhone Commercial: Songs

AppleAnother of Apple’s newest commercials again advertises 100,000+ apps in the app store. One of the apps shown is Shazam which recently released a new version of their app, Shazam Encore, that detects what song is playing and now costs $4.99. The apps in this commercial include: Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meals ($7.99), Credit Card Terminal ($0.99), Facebook (Free), The Sims 3 ($6.99), Redfin Real Estate (Free), Shazam (Free).

Shazam Releases Paid Version, Encore

Available In: App Store       Price: $4.99  

Shazam EncoreOk, I’m to sure I like this to much. Shazam is the sweet, FREE app that allows you to see what song and artist is playing by sampling a clip using the iPhone’s microphone. I’m only guessing, but if they were smart they would make commission from every song they sell through iTunes. Apparently that’s not enough money. I’m sure it’s not cheap to have an unlimited subscription to a service that tags almost all songs. Either way, $4.99 seems like too much for their new, paid version. It’s supposed to be faster and have unlimited tagging. The free version, for new installs only, will be limited to 5 tags per month. If you already have the app, it works like it always has. We weren’t able to do deep testing as neither app would work for us tonight.

Commercial – Shazam

Shazam 1.0

Available In: App Store       Price: Free  

shazamShazam is an application that identifies a song just by holding your iPhone in range of the song that is playing. That means when you are in the car, watching a movie, grocery shopping, sitting at the pool, hanging out at Starbucks or where ever you are…if you hear a song that you like but do not know the title of the song or the artist, all you need to do is open Shazam and voilĂ ….it will figure it out for you! I must say, Shazam is quickly becoming one of my favorite App Store applications!

When you open Shazam, you will get an intro screen giving you information about the application. To identify a song while it is playing, select the Tag Now option in the upper right corner. This will bring you to a screen that will “listen” to the song. When it is finished “listening” which takes around 15 seconds, it will automatically bring up the information for that song (be patient, you may have to wait a second for it to give you the info). If Shazam was not able to identify the song, [Read more…]