online

internet music – it’s here and there’s no lack of options

Posted on Jul 21, 2010 in applications, apps, media, mobile, music, online | 1 comment

UPDATE: Lifehacker just posted a great comparison chart of the music streaming services, Battle of the Streaming Music Services.

Ever since I saw the post Which online music sites do you use and why? on Quora a few weeks ago, I’ve been testing out every music service that I could find online, determined to find the best one. Just this morning I came across the post The State of Internet Music on YouTube, Pandora, iTunes, and Facebook on Gizmodo. There’s a quote that immediately sums up what I’ve been fighting with in my search.

We don’t listen to albums now; we listen to collections of songs. – Tom Silverman

After what felt like the end of my search yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel like all the music that I’ve collected over the past few years in my iTunes library is going to sit stagnant as I adopt any new service. Apple has yet to release a “cloud/streaming” option, but perhaps when that comes it will be the best solution for me. For now, here’s my take on a few services that I have frequently used and a few others that I checked out…

Pandora is a great quick-fix, supplemental service. You pick a song, artist, or genre to search for and it creates a playlist/radio station of similar songs. It automatically saves that playlist/station until you choose to delete it. You can add items to the list to vary what it plays, like/dislike songs, but other than that there’s not much to it. Mobile versions available. Free (Ads, Limited skips, 40 hours/month) – Premium $36/year

Grooveshark is good for creating quick playlists of music you like by selecting it from current playlists or searching for it. Just like Pandora and several other services, you can favorite tracks and save lists. Free (Ads) – Premium $3/month or $30/year

Last.fm is an excellent site. The biggest appeal for me here isn’t the music service itself, but its scrobbler. Last.fm is linked with nearly every other service out there. You connect the service to Last.fm and then any song you play on another service is sent to Last.fm and is automatically added to your profile. This is useful to keep track of your listening habits, to display your history with various blog widgets, and to use with Last.fm’s own recommendation system. Last.fm is vast. You can buy tracks, add them to your library (collection of music), find recommended music, “love” tracks, tag tracks, create playlists, keep a journal, find events, look up charts, etc. Mobile versions available and there are many plugins you can find to incorporate Last.fm into nearly anything. Free – Premium $3/month

Hype Machine & We Are Hunted both are pretty similar. They both claim to have the latest emerging music and they are both pretty limited, but they both have a place in the music service list. Both of these sites, along with TheSixtyOne are excellent places to find new music. They all seem to pretty much focus on emerging indie stars. Free

Rdio’s biggest advantage over another service, MOG, is that they allow you to scan your iTunes library to automatically add “all” of your music to your Rdio collection (it was only able to match a third of my iTunes collection). You can create playlists, keep a running queue, see new releases, recommendations, and top charts. Invite only. $5/month Unlimited Online Listening – $10/month Unlimited Online & Mobile Listening

Until Google or Apple decide to finally come out with some sort of cloud/streaming solution, I have decided to settle on MOG as my go-to service. MOG is sort of a cross between Pandora and Rdio. What made me switch from Rdio is that I actually found every song I was searching for to match a playlist of current chart toppers that I had made in my iTunes library. I also really like the Radio slider. When you pick a song/artist to play you can use a slider to decide if you’d like the auto-created playlist to be comprised of that artist alone or if you’d like to stir it up Pandora-style and add music from similar artists. I found this to be the perfect blend of having the music I love in one place while having the option to introduce myself to new music that I will most likely love as well. The more I played around with MOG, the more I grew to love it. Here’s a few things worth mentioning… the pop-out window/player, I’m going to mention the slider again, Last.fm scrobbling can be enabled, you can pick nearly any artist or any song and actually find it available, you can create a queue, pick favorites, create/share playlists, and keep a blog. Also there is what seems like an endless list of playlists from both users and artists. The one feature I’m missing is the ability to keep a library/collection and scan my iTunes, but these are features that support says are coming. It’s one of those things I keep thinking I feel I need because I’m used to it, but at the same time I’m pretty happy with just picking a song, adding a little variety and giving the thumbs up or thumbs down as I go. 3 Days Free Trial – $5/month Unlimited Online Listening – $10/month Unlimited Online & Mobile Listening (Includes Ability To Listen Offline)

Of course there are hundreds of options out there, but these were my favorites… with the exception of Spotify, but sadly, it’s not available in the US and I’m too sore at it to give an explanation of its features.

Facebook Infographic

Posted on May 13, 2010 in applications, media, online, social media, technology | 0 comments

Interesting infographic that was posted on Mashable.

[Source: Online PhD Programs for MashableMashable.com]

amazing: popular science archives – free, online

Posted on Mar 4, 2010 in design, gadgets, media, miscellaneous, mobile, online, photography, technology, what?! | 0 comments

I had to pass this on. Popular Science just finished posting 137 years worth of their magazines online. Not only are they online – the archives are free and can easily be viewed via browser or mobile.

The gadget geek in me is jumping up and down, but so is the designer side of me. It’s very cool to read about and look at photos of past technology, crazy inventions, and (what were) futuristic ideas. At the same time, it is amazing to compare the designs from various dates such as 1874, 1940, 1972, and 2010. Design and the technology printing those designs was constantly changing as well. People were creating new ways to share ideas and information. Layouts changed from plain, standard column text to full page ads and articles with lots of photos and flexible regions of text.

Something that everyone should check out: Popular Science Archives

rumors of hulu’s subscription plan

Posted on Jan 22, 2010 in apps, media, online | 0 comments

When I last checked my Facebook feed, I noticed a lot of comments being tacked on to a post by Mashable, Hulu to Charge Monthly Fee for Access to Unlimited TV Episodes [RUMOR]. I’m surprised that the post is generating so many negative comments. Yes, Hulu is free. Yes, it’s probably one of the most popular outlets through which to access ‘cable’ TV shows online. Can they survive without charging anything? Probably not.

The thing I am most surprised at is that the majority of negative comments seem to be coming from people who already use Hulu regularly. According to several articles (below), Hulu is considering charging to access content beyond the current 5 most recent episodes… which people can’t see as of now anyways (at least for current TV shows). So they are charging for additional content. What’s the big deal? They have to make money somehow. This seems like a great idea to me. A majority of ‘free’ apps already have some sort of premium subscription to access additional content or to simply get rid of ads including Boxee, Pandora, Spotify, Grooveshark, so on and so forth.

Hulu to Charge Monthly Fee for Access to Unlimited TV Episodes, Mashable
Hulu Considering $5 Monthly Fee For Older Episodes, Gizmodo
Hulu’s subscription service might run $5 for access to select shows, Engadget

pay for tweets? sounds messy.

Posted on Dec 1, 2009 in mobile, online, social media, what?! | 0 comments

In the past week, there have been several articles on both ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch suggesting that Twitter Japan might start charging for access to tweets. TechCrunch posted a piece, 6 Reasons Why Twitter Japan’s Subscription Model Might Work. The post cited that Japanese mobile users are already used to having to pay for several services similar to Twitter. They also stated that Japanese users are sometimes more interested in the personal lives of celebrities and growth on Twitter Japan is accelerating compared to Twitter usage elsewhere that is beginning to flat line.

I’m very skeptical of having to pay for tweets. The first concern that came to mind was that I doubt many people would want to have to pay for tweets to begin with. Yes, there are some obsessive fans out there, but what if they are fans of 50 celebrities who all start charging for access to their tweets? I’m guessing each update would be a few cents, but that could certainly add up quickly. Next, what is to stop certain people from aggregating tweets of several people and releasing them under their own account? They could follow a few celebrities themselves, retweet the tweets and then charge a lump sum so that their own followers would then get the updates of a number of celebrities. I’d rather follow and pay for one stream instead of pay for 50 individually.

I can certainly see charging corporations a small subscription fee for tweeting. Many companies are benefiting greatly through both sales and customer relations as a result of their social media interactions, including Twitter. If Twitter wants to make money, it seems like it would be much easier to charge people a subscription fee instead of charging to view individual streams. Of course, as soon as they start charging subscription fees, I’m guessing many will decide to go with other microblogging services to get their link, news, and status publishing fix.

Twitter Japan To Introduce Paid Premium Accounts Next January

6 Reasons Why Twitter Japan’s Subscription Model Might Work (In Japan)

“Misunderstanding”: Twitter Japan Now Says There Won’t Be A Subscription Model (Update 3)

gaming industry enables social networking

Posted on Nov 18, 2009 in applications, gaming, online, social media | 0 comments

This morning, I read a great post at the UW MCDM blog, Flip the Media. The post was titled, Social Networks and Video Games by Brian Johnson. The post went on to tell how game companies are just starting to work social networking into their systems and how useful social media integration could be.

When I read the post, it got me to thinking, why has it taken consoles this long to integrate social networking into the systems? Why didn’t PC games jump on the bandwagon a long time ago…and why haven’t they yet? Is they Wii going to jump on at all?

Yesterday, came the release of an Xbox update that added Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, and Zune support. Here’s a few of the features (accessible with an Xbox LIVE Gold Membership), as listed on Xbox.com:

• Facebook: The usual, plus invite friends to play over Xbox LIVE and see your friends up close with full screen photos
• Twitter: Read, reply, and post updates to your Twitter feed and keep up to date in real time
• Last.fm: Explore radio stations, skip, ban and love tracks as you listen
• Zune: Instant-on 1080p HD streaming video, share experiences through Video Party

Today, comes the PlayStation 3 Firmware update which will enable people to:

• Update your Facebook News Feed with Trophy and PlayStation store activity. It also enables developers to set specific criteria to publish additional game information to your feed.

No Twitter, or Last.fm support just yet. I seriously hope that they continue to add social networking features to all of the systems. It is a great way for people to share a common interest. You should be able to link to friends and share what’s going on as you play. As Johnson said, it would be great if players could connect and share tips and strategies for certain games as they came across certain areas in games. The Xbox update gives the ability to see which of your Facebook friends use Xbox LIVE and add them to your Xbox friends list. I really hope this is a feature that also gets added to PlayStation eventually.

The gaming consoles are just starting to dip their toes in the water on this one. I hope they decide to jump right in because it it would be great to see everyone connect while doing something that they enjoy.