Check out this footage of what must be the very first iPad street musician. She's not very good, but she got a pretty original idea. What do you think?
[TUAW]
Music
Use Your iPod Music as an Alarm Clock Sound on Your iPhone
PlayAwake is a new jailbreak app available in Cydia that will let you use your iPod music as an alarm clock sound on your iPhone. By default, you are only limited to a few alarm clock sounds on your iPhone. PlayAwake wiill lift this limitation and let you choose any song from your iPod library to wake up to.
Just pick a track from your iPhone's music library from inside the default alarm clock app and you will wake up listening to your favorite song...
Awareness iPhone App Filters Out Unwanted Noise in Your Headphones
Just for the record I have yet to publish an article for an app that has been sponsored or paid for in any way. I say that so when you see that I'm writing about an app, that I actually find it worthy or ridiculous enough to mention. This one falls under both categories.
Engadget has a little write up about a new selection in the App Store called Awareness! (punctuation theirs). Awareness sets up a noise threshold to your headphones, then disallows those noises from entering your state of consciousness. At least that's what it says...
App For Songwriters Comes to the iPhone
The days of being a songwriter have undoubtedly changed over time. The times of hunching over a ripped up piece of notebook paper while you ferociously scribble out and add material have come and gone for the most part.
Nowadays many writers I know use their computers for generating new material. A recent app in the App Store entitled Songwriter's Pad 1.0.1 brings music composition to the middle of your iPhone. With an already successful iPad entry, the app written by Dante Moore offers artists an opportunity to create material with a variety of tools.
Napster App Comes to the iPhone
I remember it to be about 10 years ago when a few buddies and I used to be huddled over a PC with Napster open. Wasting hours for low quality pirated music never felt so cool.
9 to 5 Mac reports that you can recapture some of the nostalgic vibe above by adding the Napster application to your iPhone. Once held as the top source for downloading music, Napster has watched its importance come and go since 1999 and is now gracing the virtual shelves of the App Store...
iPhone iOS 4.2 improving YouTube & CoreMIDI Support?
Every time there is an update in the iPhone's operating system the leaks start pouring in when the betas start getting passed out. This time with 4.2 it is no different. An improvement or adjustment I took notice in was the supposed tweaks to the YouTube experience and CoreMIDI support.
iLounge reports that the YouTube additions start and (apparently) end with adding of "Like" and "Dislike" buttons. If this is true it obviously offers no solace to those who've fallen in love with jailbreak app, YourTube 2...
What Would Things Be Like if Microsoft Had Invented the iPhone?
When I was in junior high school the only thing I knew about Apple was that they made computers with enormous floppy disk drives. The Discman was the hottest portable music player and it would cost you about $100 for the latest and greatest. Bill Gates was a nerdy guy who was also the richest man in the world.
Imagine if you will that Steve Jobs never came back to Apple and the quirky computer company died off, leaving Microsoft as the uncontested developer to produce us our technological fixes. Assume that the story plays out identical to the way it is today with Gates and company unveiling the now iPhone under the Seattle based company...
The Ultimate PartyDock Coming to The iPhone
TUAW recently unveiled a product design by Griffin that could change the way you think about gaming on the iPhone or iPad. The FCC has released the exciting filing that would allow up to 4 people to simultaneously play in an individual setting. Sounds cool, right?
Griffin will send 4 games along with the PartyDock that will will include party, family and casual styles of entertainment. The games will be available in the App Store and would be designed to be ran specifically with aforementioned platform. Head over to the product site for additional info including development.
How to Create Free Ringtones for Your iPhone
You either love custom ringtones or you invariably loathe them. You can put me down in the latter category. Nevertheless there are many who love hearing a portion of their favorite jam when someone calls, or assigning certain songs that fit the personality of a specific contact in their address book. If you fit into the group that loves custom alerts, you're in luck.
Apple to Hold “Special Event” on September 1st
Surprisingly, we didn't get an invite for this, but TechCrunch did, and according to it, Apple will be holding a "special event" on September 1st, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco at 10 am.
The invite comes with the image above, which strongly indicates the event will most likely be focused on music. Let the speculations go wild! What are they going to unveil? My guess is we're going to hear about the new iPod Touch with a nice Retina Display and a front-facing camera for FaceTime. Apple will also probably unveil a cloud-based version of iTunes...
Grooveshark Gets Yanked From the App Store
Well that didn't last long, did it? Just this week iDB reported that popular streaming agent Grooveshark had been added to the App Store for download. It was noted that the potential of the rights of music being violated existed, and it seems that very issue is the reason behind the short lived app.
Mac Life has the direct quote from the companies official blog, which states:
Earlier this afternoon, Apple sent us a letter notifying us that, due to a complaint they received from Universal Music Group UK, Grooveshark for iPhone has been, strangely, pulled from the App Store.
This comes as an absolute surprise to us, and we are not sleeping until we figure out exactly how to fix this—and get Grooveshark for iPhone back in the App Store. Above all, our biggest concern is damaging the service we provide to all of you guys—our loyal (awesome) users.
I have beaten this horse nearly to a corpse, however I feel another jab is in order. How the hell does Apple (again) validate an application without fully knowing if it is even legal? Did the responsible party just think that because Grooveshark's website runs without consequence, that all the necessary permission slips had been signed? If I were Universal, I would be drafting a threatening letter to not just Grooveshark, but to Apple alike. Maybe that happened, and maybe it didn't.
For those of us who managed to get the app downloaded promptly, Grooveshark tells us we should be able to continue to use it without incident. How come? Not that I'm complaining, but it would seem that if anything legit was violated then Apple should pull the plug, which is something they have the ability to do. Right?
Anyway, I think while the sort the legality of this out, they should figure out how they plan on charging $3 once the 30-day trial is up, without even providing background capabilities. Let's hope it doesn't take another year. Until then, enjoy Pandora!
Get your Groove (Shark) on With Your iPhone
If you feel like it has been months and months since the Beta iPhone app for popular on-demand music streaming giant Grooveshark was released, you are correct. However your patience has been well worth the wait. The application has officially hit the market and is available for free in the App Store, sort of.
Upon downloading the handy jukebox, you will be instantly granted a 30-day trial of the service. Once your month is up, the cost is only $3 a month, or $30 a year if you want to pony up 12 months off the bat. Honestly, that's a great deal, especially if you compare it to similar services like MOG, or Rhapsody. The best part is you don't even have to offer up a credit card to start jamming.
Just like web-based version, Grooveshark's content is posted by the users themselves, thus the ability to find obscurities among the classics is usually painless. The ability to add search results to existing playlists, combined with a "genius" type predictor, works well when constructing the perfect variety.
Inevitably someone is going to compare the pennies a day price to the likes of free music streaming via Pandora, and ask why they should switch. I have a hard time believing anyone who has used both Grooveshark and Pandora would ask. Nevertheless, the ability to outright search for specific song titles and have them played on demand, is in itself worth the small stipend. Don't believe me? Go use your free trial and get back to me.