It’s the end of 2011 and it’s been one hell of a year for music! Today’s Amazon Deal of the Day wants to share some of the year’s best music for one low price. Save on the 10 Top 2011 Albums from some of your favorite artists and download their entire album for $3.99 or Less. New albums by Coldplay, Rihanna, Drake, Dauaghtry, the Decemberists, Florence + the Machine, Mac Miller, Amy Winehouse, She & Him, and the Muppets are all available for MP3 download! For less than a cup of coffee, you’ll be able to enjoy the year’s best in music on your Kindle ire, PC, Mac, iPad, or Android Phone with Amazon Cloud Player. You can instantly gift these or any MP3s from Amazon.

Even though you might not be familiar with all the songs on the album, today’s Deal of the Day is a score for any music lover who wants to have a very robust music library. The Late Amy Winehouse’s last album is as amazing as her previous efforts, while Rihanna continues to steam things up with her Talk That Talk release. Coldplay never fails to disappoint, while “American Idol’s” Daughtry is pure magic. Everybody loves the Muppets while Drake is hip-hop’s latest golden child. Florence + the Machine is a musical delight, just as She & Him. Music lovers will definitely want to take advantage at the low prices for the album, while those who are looking for a new sound can easily indulge without breaking the bank!

For a limited time iTunes is offering this I Am T-Pain 2.0 iOS App for FREE!

For this week only you can grab this I Am T-Pain app absolutely free from iTunes. If you’re a fan of Rap music than allows T-Pain to guide you through an entire collection of music from your favorite artists and even transform your voice as you sing to your favorite hits. Your voice will sound much better than you could imagine, and with all your best beats scrolling and tied along with visible lyrics you have all you need to become T-Pain, at least when you’re around your phone. If anything it’s a fun and nifty bit of technology which will offer up some great amusing times as literally anyone will sound like T-Pain when they sing with this app. Be sure to grab it while it’s still free!

Now you can download this app for $0 as in free!

When Apple announced iTunes Match, all iPhone fans were ecstatic. All Android fans uttered a collective “been there, done that” yawn. That’s because Google Music has not only been able to play music from the cloud since March, it does it at no extra charge. iTunes Match, by contrast, charges $24.99 a year for access to up to 20,000 songs, plus any song you have purchased through iTunes. And now that GMS is out of Beta, anyone can sign up for the service without having an invite.

Here’s how:

1. Sign in

Like all other Google services, Google Music Service is anchored according to your Google account. So all you need to do is head over http://music.google.com and sign in.

2. Download Music Manager

Once signed in, you will need to download Google Music Manager and install it. This software will scan your music library and add any songs it doesn’t have to the Google Music Library.

3. Scan and add

After installing the Music Manager, you can access it by clicking the Music Manager Headphones icon in your system tray at the bottom right of your screen (Windows), menu bar in the upper right corner (Mac) or notifications area (Linux). Then, to add songs, click ‘Upload’. Google Music will support various file types including mp3, aac, m4a, wma, .ogg, and others (for a complete list, head over to this link). If you have an extremely large, and eclectic, collection, this may take awhile, so be patient.

4. Roll your own

If you don’t want to scan and add your entire music library, you can choose to add a select playlist:

• From the ‘Upload’ tab, select ‘Choose by playlist.’

• Check the box next to the playlist(s) you’d like to add music from.

• Click ’Upload.’

Because Google Music is based on your login, you can it running on multiple computers. Google Music will simply omit duplicates – if the metadata is identical.

And you can also run up to three accounts from the same Google Music Manager application. So your family can also get in the game. To change accounts, Click the Music Manager Headphones icon, select the ‘Advanced’ tab, and click ‘Sign Out.’ The sign-in screen will reappear.

5. Go mobile

Once all your music is added, you can stream it from the website itself, or you can stream from your mobile device. Download the Google Music app from the Android marketplace, and then log in. Now you can stream your entire music library over Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G.  There are a few third party Google Music apps like GMusic, and GoMusic, but there is no official App from Google.  But being that they have been vetted by Apple, they should be fine, at least until Apple changes their mind and strips them from the AppStore (it wouldn’t be the first time).

6. Buy and Try

Google has also added a music store, allowing users to buy new music and discover new artists through its free program as well. Click on the Shop Android Marketplace button, and search for the artist or songs you want. Once you find a song or album you want to buy, click purchase, enter your credit card information and purchase to complete. Your song or album will then be downloaded to your hard drive and will be available immediately in the cloud.

Google also offers free titles from named artists that you can add to your library. Look in the upper right hand corner of the Google Music interface, and you’ll see a rectangular button that says “Add to my library.” Click on that and you will go to featured songs and artists in the Exclusive Music section.  Fromt here, click on “free” next to any song and download.

7. Spread the word

Google also allows the sharing of full songs that you have purchased from Google Music. Simply click on a song, then Share Song and add a personal message. Please note that songs added from your PC or not purchased from Google Music will only share a 30 second clip.

8. Go downtown

Finally, say you bought a song at work and you want to listen to it at home. Simple enough, just open Music Manager and click Download Music Purchases. Songs will be downloaded immediately.

A few days ago Pandora, the ultra popular Internet radio station that tailors music playback according to your tastes, rolled out a site redesign. And from where we sit it looks even better than before.

They’ve implemented a number of updates, but the most notable one is targeted at you cheapskates. Unlike other companies that offer less and less, Pandora is giving more by removing their 40 hour listening cap for nonpaying customers. You’ll still be hit with ads here and there, but a caveat that surely justifies the freemium experience.

And now, thank to a social feed update, listeners can now more easily discover what their friends are listening to and leave comments regarding their music choices. Facebook has long been integrated into the music site, but was lacking in presence and connectivity, so this update looks to fix that. Plus Spotify was probably eating their lunch in this department so it was paramount that they updated this aspect of the service.

The same controls that you’ve come to know and love are still present, but Pandora says they’ve enhanced them and added a new shuffle feature that allows you to randomly move between a set number of stations and improve the variety of music you listen to. Odd, because this option was available in the last iteration of the site, but perhaps it’s now been streamlined.

The new Pandora site, which is coded in HTML5, is already live. Check it out, because we think you’ll find that it’s faster and all together a better user experience. We do.

To say we’re down with Spotify might be an understatement.  We gave the service high marks for its sound quality, easy of use and overall speed (read our full Spotify Review).  However, one of the major drawbacks of the music service, which offers over 13 million songs streaming on the iPhone for $10/month, is the music discovery component or lack there of.  The computer app offer related artist info, while the mobile app, at least on the iPhone will only show what is new and popular in terms of tracks and artists.  As a result we’ve heavily relied on apps such as Pandora and SoundHound to discover new tunes.  The latter app listens to a track playing over a speaker and identifies it. However, there was no way to automatically find those tunes in Spotify, that is until.

Starting yesterday, SoundHound began including links to Spotify tracks after the service had identified a track.  Users commence playing.  This works for those that subscribe to Spotify’s premium service, but for those that don’t, they’ll be asked to purchase Spotify before proceeding to the track.

But here in lies the rub: this is currently ONLY available in Europe at the time of this posting.  But it’s safe to assume SoundHound US will soon provide the same update, though users on a mobile device that don’t subscribe to the Premium service won’t be able to stream tunes on their mobile device unless they make the $10/month investment.

For the record, SoundHound provides free, unlimited “music recognition, sing and hum recognition, lyric search and voice-recognition for music search, as well as rich features including lyrics, ‘Underplayed’ charts, song previews, YouTube videos, seamless links to iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, Twitter, Facebook and more.”

Expand your musical listening experience with some wireless speakers! We’ve picked out a 7 of the best solutions under $500 on the market, which allow you to play your favorite playlists, Internet stations or music subscriptions in any room of your pad, regardless if your audio system isn’t WiFi compatible. It’s time to step up your musical game!

7. CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER WIRELESS ($150)

Easy and super simple, Creative’s SoundBlaster provides a great wireless solution without all the fuss. If you want music from point A to B, without having to worry about setting up all kinds of wires, then you’ve found what you’re looking for! The starter kit ($150) comes with a dongle for your Mac or PC, as well as a single receiver with 35mm or RCA stereo jacks.

Bonus: The hardware is pre-paired and works right out of the box!

6. PLAYGO USB WIRELESS SPEAKER ($500)

Enhance wireless streaming of your favorite jams with playGo’s USB Wireless Speaker System. Simply plug in the USB into your computer and your tunes will be wireless sent to any accompanying receiver unit. It’s price might be a tad scary ($499.99), but it features a stylish looks and is very durable.

Bonus: It can endure practically anything since it’s made from Corian, which is the stuff used to make countertops.

5. KLIPSCH LIGHTSPEAKERS ($599/$249 each)

Although it’s not entirely a complete WiFi solution, these speakers are capable of streaming music wirelessly from your PC …but also functions as a light source. Simply screw the Lightspeakers into any 5-or 6-inch socket and you have a light source.

Bonus: You can never go wrong with two-for-one devices, but this one is only great for PC peeps!

4. LOGITECH WIRELESS SPEAKER ($40)

Logitech’s Wireless Speaker Adapter allows for WiFi using Bluetooth so you can listen to all your music, movies and games that are on your Bluetooth-enabled gadgets on your home audio’s speakers. You’ll get a much better sound quality using this than with what you’d get from your mobile device’s tiny built-in speakers.

Bonus: Its $39.99 price is totally affordable and its sleek, modern design is pleasing.

3. APPLE AIRPORT EXPRESS ($100)

For those Apple enthusiasts who like to keep everything Apple-based comes their AirPort Express. Featuring blazing fast 802.11n, the AirPort Express may be tiny, but it’s powerful enough to connect up to 10 users on its network.

Bonus: Its small size allows you to take it anywhere!

2. AUDIOENGINE W1 AND W2 ($99)

The Audioengine W1 is a wireless audio adapter that sends music from your computer, iPod or any other audio device straight to your headphones or home audio system. It’s a great way to eliminate audio cables and features CD-quality HD stereo sound, making your music sound that much better. The W2 is a wireless adapter specifically made for your iPod. Send music wireless from your iPod or iPod Touch to any speaker or audio system in your home.

Bonus: It’s $99 price makes both a great bargain!

1. SONOS PLAY:3 ($299)

Plug in the Sonos Play:3 to enjoy music anywhere you want. The all-in-one wireless system allows you to stream your entire music library, any music services you subscribe to Internet stations without any real hard work. With HiFi sound quality and the convenience to place anywhere, all you need to do is plug in the Sonos Play:3 and listen anywhere.

Bonus: Free Sonos Controller apps for Android, iPhone and iPad let you control your zone players, music on the Internet and your computer right from the palm of your hand.

“Glee” is hitting the big screen with the release of Glee the 3D Concert Movie, and for all the “Gleeks” out there, we’ve prepared some cool stuff to inspire your musical talents and get you moving and grooving like some of your favorite “Glee” characters.

Sing-A-Long Tongs

Bust out a note and pretend you’re on “Glee” while you cook with these cool Sing-A-Long Tongs that feature a locking handle that this faux mic in place as you get ready for dinner and a show!

iDuck Wireless Waterproof Speaker

We’re sure many of you Gleeks like to sing in the shower, which is where the iDuck Wireless Water Proof Speaker comes in handy! Not only is it the perfect bath companion, but the duck is fully waterproof with a built-in speaker so that you can listen to your favorite tunes and sing along (also great for drowning out the sound of your bathroom performance if you prefer no one to hear).

iPod Toilet Paper Holder

Here’s another great way to practice your Glee-inspired singing in the bathroom, this time while you’re “handling business” with the iPod Toilet Paper Holder. It’s both a speaker set for you iPod and a fully functional bath tissue holder!

iKaraoke Microphone for iPod

Practice your favorite “Glee” moments as you bust some karaoke using the iKaraoke Microphone that’s designed to interface between iPods (with dock connectors) and your home stereo system. It’s great for parties or right after you watch “Glee” when you’re most inspired! The iKaraoke mic also features cool built-in reverb effects, so that you can transform your voice like a pro!

Shazam Encore LyricPlay

Not sure of some lyrics? Don’t fret because Shazam Encore LyricPlay lets you sing along to every song! It’s a new update for Shazam’s Encore app ((Encore is the premium version of Shazam where you have to pay $3.99/year or a one-time fee of $5.99), that will definitely come in handy when you need to rehearsal that song you just heard on “Glee” and don’t know the words to. It’s available for Android, iPhone, iPad, iPo, Nokia and BlackBerry devices.

Just Dance 3

Learn to move and groove to all the latest songs that are often performed on “Glee” on your favorite gaming station with the game Just Dance 3! Made for all platforms, including Wii, Kinect for Xbox 360 and Playstation Move, the game will have busting new moves in no time.

4.5 out of 5 stars

I don’t care who you are, everybody needs music. It’s a necessity and without it life just wouldn’t be the same. But just how much your mind craves music will probably influence the level of investment you’re willing to make. I for one don’t regularly attend live music performances. But despite that I still enjoy finding new music and even listening to some of the main stream pop, hip hop and R&B that crosses our airwaves. So with that said, and with some apprehension, I invested in Spotify, the latest streaming music service to hit US shores.

Spotify as you may know, has long existed in the Europe. It has received rave reviews and buzz that is has even the most popular of tech startups drooling with envy.

So what makes Spotify what it is? The service provides access to over 13 million songs. If you’re one of the lucky few to already receive an invite to the free version of the service here in the US, then you know that you can stream any of these songs free of charge on your computer, provided of course you’re willing to cope with ads every once and a while. However, if you’re patience has grown thin, you can get Spotify today, that is if you’re willing to pay for the service.

They offer two paid versions: unlimited and premium. Unlimited costs $4.99 per month and allows you to access 13 millions songs on your computer commercial free. The Premium version costs $9.99 and in addition to a commercial free experience, it enables you to stream music, and download it, directly to a compatible handset or computer. Both paid versions, on any device, provide 320kb quality sound, where as the free version is limited to 160kb. The free version does not allow you to download music to your computer’s hard drive.

Update: Only Premium offers a higher audio bit rate and offline mode.  Thanks Pat.

Spotify’s selling point is not only the breadth of their catalog and price, but the fact that the service is extremely fast when it comes to finding and playing music.  The service is built upon a comparable technology to Bit Torrent and Skype, and by that I mean P2P.  Users of the service must launch an app on their computer to play music.  The app initially looks for the music stored locally and if it doesn’t find it there it makes a call to a server that finds it stored locally on other users’ computers.  This means that Spotify’s users do the bulk of the heavy lifting when it comes to streaming and hence why they’re currently giving away unlimited streaming for 6 months to those that sign up and score an invite to the service, which just launched last month.  After that Spotify users will be limited to 10 hours of free streaming, unless of course they’re willing to pay.

COMPUTER APPLICATION

In order to access Spotify you’ll need to download their application.  While their logo leaves something to be desired, the UI is intuitive and easy to use. Searches are fast and speedy, and the music streams without any delay. Pretty damn impressive considering that amount of people probably already accessing the service. You can connect the app with your Facebook profile, which allows you to see which friends have done the same and share playlists amongst one and other. While the app’s homepage will show you new releases and a feed of information regarding news and friend’s playlists, it does not have a recommendation engine based on your tastes, much like Pandora (more on that later). It will, however, show you related artists and what your friends (via Facebook) are listening to.

You can connect your Spotify account with your Facebook account. This allows you to view friend’s public playlists as well as what they’re listening to. Useful if you often depend on your friends for new music, but you’ll need to click on each friend’s profile, located on the right of the app, to view their playlists and info.

Even though Spotify lacks a recommendation engine comparable to that of Last.fm or Pandora, you can view related artists. To do this you must enter an artists page. So if you search for say ‘Jack Johnson’, Spotify will present a variety of artists. You must click directly on his name to enter the artist page. Once on that page there are a few tabs that include ‘overview’, ‘biography’, ‘related artists’ and ‘artist radio’. The latter option allows you to see other artists, but we’re not sure how the differentiates from ‘related artists’.

There are a few bugs in the computer app.   For instance, I searched for “Spoon” and once I entered the artist’s page, each album appeared more than one time. Additionally, many fellow free users are reporting that the music intermittently stops. This hasn’t been a problem for me, but I’m also a paying user, so safe to assume my stream will take priority over another, not paying user.

THE IPHONE APPLICATION

Streaming music on the iPhone application, which requires you to pay $9.99 a month, is robust and intuitive to use. While it reflects a fair bit of the UI incorporated by the iPhone’s iPod player, it does boast its own spin to accommodate Spotify’s offering. For instance, you can locate a track and then explore the other songs on that album. It also allows you to “star” tracks and add them to a playlist, which is also available on the computer. You can also add tracks to an existing iTunes playlist. If you so choose, you can sync Spotify with your iTunes library, allowing you to access all your songs on the mobile app free of charge – you already own it so Spotify effectively becomes a cloud player.  You can sync over WiFi or connect your iPhone to your computer, though the first option is slow and tedious.

Streaming tunes over AT&T’s 3G service worked virtually flawlessly, though it significantly eats into the iPhone’s battery life. However, Spotify can work without an Internet connection. There is a switch (you must enable the option in the ‘settings’ menu) that allows you to enable “offline” mode. This mode downloads your “starred” tracks to the iPhone’s storage, letting you access the music without a connection. But don’t think for a second that you can subscribe to the service for one month, download all the tracks your heart desires and then discontinue your subscription. You must reconnect to Spotify every 30 days for those tracks to remain active, which is the same DRM we’ve seen instituted on other services, such as the now legal Napster and Rhapsody.

In terms of using the app it’s relatively straightforward. Unlike the iPhone’s iPod player, you can swipe the screen to skip tracks. Instead of a volume slider at the foot of the screen is the time lapse. To adjust volume you must use the iPhone’s volume rocker switch or enter the “info” screen. There is however one small flaw with the application. If you play a track, lock the iPhone’s screen and try to skip forward a song using the shortcut controls accessed by double tapping the home button, the music will stop playing. Annoying, but not a deal breaker.

With a bit of tinkering, I managed to discover a handy shortcut. Swipe your finger to the right across any track and it brings up a set of shortcuts, allowing you to add that song to your queue of playing music, add it to the general playlist, share the track with a friend or view the artist’s entire catalog available on Spotify.

Unfortunately, the iPhone app lacks a related artist tab.  In fact, it lacks all of those tabs that I mentioned in the computer app, which makes music discovery a bit more challenging on the iPhone app.  Also, the search can be a bit iffy at times.  Punching in “Cold Play” as opposed to “Coldplay” doesn’t bring up the well known band, but generally speaking it’s very accurate and find what you’re looking for.

Update: You don’t need to enable “offline mode” in the settings menu to download songs.  However, if you don’t want your phone to connect to the Internet, or if you’re on a plane, this is when you’d enable this option.

OTHER MUSIC SERVICES

Pandora and Spotify are to a large degree completely different beasts and if used together can provide a fulfilling experience. Pandora’s service randomly plays tunes based on an entered artist, genre or song. But, unlike Spotify you can’t play a specific track when ever you want. So what I’ve done, is utilized Pandora to find new music, bookmark the artist or song, and then explore more tracks based on that artist using Spotify.

Napster and Rhapsody have long offered a comparable service, but both ask a $5 premium ($14.99) over Spotify when it comes to their mobile version. Additionaly, Spotify claims 3 million more tracks, as to their relevance that still remains a question; the 3 million could be garage bands for all we know.  I haven’t used Napster or Rhapsody, at least not in recent, but I can only assume tracks don’t play as quickly since they don’t depend on any P2P tech.

Update: It’s not clear how large Spotify’s catalogue is.  I’ve read 15 million and 13 million.

iTunes and Amazon, which is probably the biggest competitors to Spotify just given the size of the services, is a different model.  In their case you’re buying the music where as with Spotify, relatively speaking, you’re renting it.  However, with iTunes and Amazon you can physically share your tracks with friends.

SOUND QUALITY

The sound quality of Spotify is beyond impressive. As mentioned the streaming quality is limited to 160kb using the free or freeium service. But if your’e willing to invest $4.99 a month the quality improves a two fold to 320kb, though it’s questionable if one could discern the difference in quality beyond 256kb. But nonetheless, it’s CD quality sound in a streaming package.

Update: I was wrong,  Only the Premium option provides the higher bit rate.

CONCLUSION

What it really comes down to is whether you’re comfortable with not owning your music.  But as a society, at least in the US, we’re becoming more comfortable with not owning our media, hence the popularity of Netflix.  Sound quality is stellar, you can download your tracks, build playlists, share tracks and playlists with friends and listen to an almost unlimited amount of artists without throwing your money at any given one.  The apps are well built, they’re slick, fast and seem to work without any major hiccups.  Bottom line: If your’e already spending $10+ a month on music, get yourself a Premium Spotify account, you won’t regret it.

Pros:

• Seemless streaming without any delays
• Free for everyone with unlimited plays for the next 6 months; 10 hours after that
• iPhone app works almost flawless, plus it’s intuitive
• Can download tracks that last for 30 days provided you don’t reconnect to Spotify

Cons:

• Lacks a discovery engine like Pandora and those alike
• You don’t own the music
• iPhone app doesn’t show related artist or bio info

Today, SONOS announced an all new, smaller, friendly home music player/speaker called the PLAY:3.

Much like their S5, it’s a single box that contains a set of speakers, an amplifier and can be controlled using a computer or smartphone running their compatible app.  Hidden behind the mesh grill are 3 integrated speakers (one tweeter and two 3” mid-range) and 3 dedicated Class-D digital amplifiers.  A special sensor detects if the speaker is positioned vertically or horizontally and modifies the speaker’s output accordingly to “ensure clean, balanced, room-filing sound in any position”.

Since there is no actually storage or drive on the PLAY:3, it connects to the Internet and can suck down music from a variety of locations include Pandora, Napster, Spotify, a NAS, your laptop, iPad, iPhone, iPod and 100,000+ Internet radio stations.  And it just wouldn’t be a SONOS if it wasn’t multiroom capable, which means that it can sync wirelessly with other players allowing you to enjoy perfectly syncronized music throughout every room in your home.  

But herein lies the rub.  You’ll still need to purchase SONOS’ wireless Bridge – it connects wired to your home’s router – which is necessary if you want to connect the PLAY:3, or any of their other players to the Net to stream music.  This is despite the fact that their players have built-in WiFi.  Fortunately, SONOS has seen fit to drop the price of the Bridge to $49 and you’ll need just one in your home, provided of course all of your players are within its wireless proximity.

So if you’re down with SONOS, you can pick up the PLAY:3 today for $299, which is the cheapest of their offerings.

Read

Wurlitzer is synonymous with the word jukebox, so it’s no surprise to see the company whip up a digital version called the Lyra.  At the center of this music machine is a 15-inch touchscreen that incorporates their own special interface that replicates the turntable experience.  From there you can access Internet radio or 320GB of stored music thanks to the built-in hard drive.  Adding tunes is as simple as popping in a disc into it’s CD/DVD burner.  Alternatively, you can just plug-in a portable device or memory card into one of its compatible slots.  Two high fidelity speakers blast out the high and mids, while a 10-inch active subwoofer handles the lows all powered by a 200 watt amplifier.

We’re hearing that costs close to $5,000.  For that kind of money we’d rather have the real thing.  After all, nothing beats old world charm.

Via: Gearpatrol

Read

Not only can you save money on your normal purchase of an MP3 album over traditional format you also have the ability to get yourself $2 of free Amazon Credit with your purchase. In order to take advantage of this new offering you first need to view an album for purchase such as this one, click “Redeem a gift card or promotion” and apply the code CLOUDMP3 which will dispatch your credit. Remember that this album is simply an example and this code applies to any MP3 Album on Amazon.com

Amazon is offering an unbeatable low price on the new Lady Gaga Born This Way Album (MP3) for only $13.86 – $12.87 Instant Off + Free Shipping = $0.99 today only!

If you’re a fan of Lady Gaga’s music then definitely take a look at her brand new album at an unbeatable price! Born this way includes 14 new tracks which adds up to just over an hour of new musical content, this edition is fully digital and downloadable in MP3 format and also comes with a Digital Book in PDF format which can be downloaded along with it. Amazon is experience a high volume of demand and downloads today and promises to maintain the $0.99 price as long as you order today.

Google ain’t taking the news of Amazon’s recently launched Cloud Music player sitting down.

Today, a new version of Android’s Music app, analogous to that of the player found in Honeycomb, was accidentally leaked to developers.  It includes a new rating system and options for what is purportedly Google’s cloud music service.  However, and despite the app being available for download, no one has had any luck with pushing or playing music from the cloud.  This is not surprising since Google probably hasn’t allowed the service to be accessible to those who aren’t employed or cleared by Google’s project managers. Perhaps a trip to Mountainview and logging into Google’s network will resolve that.  Any takers?

So should Amazon be nervous?  Hells yes.  The app will ship with all Android phones, and if we’ve learned anything from Microsoft’s past it will surely lead to some sort of law suit with citations to the good old monopoly clause often invoked by those that feel as though their capitalistic opportunities are being infringed upon.  But on the the other hand, Amazon has been at this for a long time and presumably amassed a vast array of knowledge that should give them a leg up in terms of infrastructure.  Plus it doesn’t hurt that they’re the world’s largest online retailer.

Read

For most, the iPad satiates one’s need for watching videos, surfing the net and other sorted activies.  But for others its range of capabilities are much more alluring, especially for those cut from the cloth of a musician.

The Stompbox from Griffin works in tandem with Frontier Design’s iShred LIVE guitar app, which let’s you jam out on your iPad to a variety of settings and controls.  The Stompbox facilitates real time switching of guitar effects directly within the iShred LIVE app without the need to remove your hands from your instrument and place them on to the tablet – it’s all down by the way of the foot.  Each switch is assignable and effectively recreates the experience of an actual pedalboard with an almost endless array of options.

Griffin is mum on a launch date, but the price will be $99.99 and includes a heavy-duty dock connector cable.

Read

4 out of 5 stars

Pros:

• Fun and easy to get into
• Polished presentation and gameplay
• Decent sound

Cons:

• Non-Working multiplayer
• Battery killer
• Landscape mode can hinder speaker port

When Apps first became available on the iPhone, Tap Tap Revenge was the first “touch” music game to hit the App Store.  Fast forward to now and we have the console heavy hitter Rock Band Reloaded in our grips.  Beautifully designed and dripping with lacquered polish is Rock Band Reloaded, a $7 dollar music game available now.  Besides a couple of minor gripes, this is a great buy for anyone looking to satisfy their hand-eye coordination itch over the holiday season.

Graphics And Presentation:

While there’s not a whole lot going on graphically, Rock Band Reloaded does its best to flavor up the screens with as much as they could given the nature of the game.  The set pieces are fun and keep the background moving but aren’t so busy that they distract you from the business at hand (hehe).  The menues are clean, clear and easy to navigate and all of the touch functions feel smooth and reactive.  Additionally, your touch stroke also feels really natural during play which is really imperative for this type of game.

Sound:

Despite the speaker port being partially obstructed by your right or left hand while playing RBR, the sound is still ever present and clear.  MTV Games and Harmonix did an excellent job picking out the tracks used in the game as most if not all of them have clear cut patterns for the user to latch on to. For example, I generally suck at these type of games, but found it easy to match the onscreen patterns with what was happening musically even on the medium setting. You’ll obviously have a better audio experience using a pair of headphones or earbuds, but it may stifle your playing style and subsequently your score.

Gameplay and Multiplayer:

As mentioned earlier, the touch response during gameplay is excellent and really sells the Rock Band experience on the iPhone.  Whereas Tap Tap Revenge and the first Rock Band was played vertically, RBR utilizes landscape mode and separates the buttons accordingly, therefore making the game extremely playable.  On a negative note my hand did get tired after a couple songs and RBR is a huge battery killer.  If you’re an achievement whore then RBR has you covered – there are various medals and pins being awarded for accomplishing feats and progressing through the world tour.  As far as multiplayer is concerned I can only give it a negative score due to the fact that I couldn’t connect to any gigs and I tried several times.

Replay Value:

With World Tour, Quick Play, and Multiplayer, RBR has packed a lot of value into a $7 game.  Most avid Rock Band players gauge their prowess by points and scores – there’s plenty of that to be had with the Reloaded version.  If you wanna prolong the journey past the included 20 songs, you can log onto the EA store and buy additional song packs.  This is clearly indicated by an alert next to the App icon addressing all the unbought packs.  I’m not sure if all of these tracks can be implemented into World Tour or not so make sure you double check before you buy.

Final Endings:

If you have a fervent penchant for all things Rock Band and have an iPhone, I highly suggest picking up Rock Band Reloaded this holiday season for killing time spent traveling or by the fire with your family.  It addresses the majority of qualms found in the first iteration and is a great overall package in terms of gameplay and presentation.  Chop off a couple points for a non-working multiplayer and short song list and you have yourself a very quality music game that should easily garner $7 from your credit card.

Credit cards expire and gift cards will ultimately be rendered useless once the credit has been spent.  Or will they?

The Pick Punch tool recycles those old cards by stamping out custom guitar picks.  Not only does your green thumb improve, but you’ll have the most unique set of picks any groupie has ever laid eyes on.

The device looks to be about the same size as your average desk stapler and costs $25.

Read

3 out of 5 stars

Pros:

• Cheap
• Lightweight

Cons:

• Tepid, stale sound
• Mildly uncomfortable
• Cheap

When it comes to choosing a pair of head or earphones the most important factor is generally price.  Next to that is sound and style.  I still see fools using those crappy Apple Earbuds and I guess some people just don’t care, or they have no discerning audio palette that would even point them in the direction of what good tone is.

SkullCandy broke the marketplace wide open several years back with affordable head and earphones that sounded decent and had skater boy written all over them.  Wicked Audio wants a stake in that same marketplace it seems.  With a wide assortment of products to choose from, I am giving the “Gain” headphones a run for their money.  And their money is around $20.  Entry level at best, these are the headphones you give to your kid or as a gift to some other kid to tote around the skatepark.  The aesthetic is mildy gaudy, oozing with a mild Jersey Shore essence.

The construction is light and airy and the size of the headphone itself is definitely around child size.  I didn’t find them that comfortable during periods of extended use.  They didn’t feel super cheap, and they might even survive some light wear and tear.  Left and Right markings are clearly evident which is nice and there’s some excellent grip action atop the band to help you easily adjust the length of the phones to fit your head.

The sound was shallow at best.  Mp3′s sounded lame and unbalanced.  The stereo field was way muffled, distant, and generally duller than a petrified shank.  There is a decent amount of bass but it cuts out before you really feel it.  I felt like I was trapped inside the shell of rotting tree.  They sounded much better when playing portable video games on my PSP and iPhone 4 as well as podcasts.  Honestly, I’ve reviewed so many headphones and earphones that categorizing Wicked Audio’s “Gain” is too easy.  You get what you pay for.  At $20, these will be fine for some teenager as he/she loiters in front of Hot Topic.

At the end of the day, I like these headphones for what they are, but what they are is not much.  Still, not a bad product given their price point.  You can find them at your local FYE on your way to Hot Topic of course.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, like all the past Guitar Hero titles, comes with a brand new wireless guitar controller. While it doesn’t compare to the real guitar for the upcoming Rock Band 3, it’s pretty darn good in it’s own right. How good? We compare it to the past Guitar Hero guitars to find out.

The Guitar Hero franchise is built on, well, guitars. Obviously. The first plastic instrument for the Xbox 360 (not pictured) was wired, but each subsequent guitar is wireless. Numerous changes occurred since the earliest model, each getting closer to perfection. The original developers of Guitar Hero, Harmonix, took a different route for their music games, and frankly I can’t stand those models.

My affinity towards Activision and Neversoft’s guitars has been based on two major factors: the clicky strum bar and the very button-esque buttons. The resounding click of the strum bar gives confidence in each stroke, so I never feel like I didn’t strum, and more importantly, I know when I didn’t. The buttons feeling like buttons, something durable and curiously enjoyable to push. No one cares about realism when there’s 50 notes to play in 3 seconds on the screen. So long as I’m focused on playing well and not worrying about the buttons, I’m happy, and the Rock Band Guitars never gave that satisfactory feeling.

As for the wireless Guitar Hero guitars, not much has changed. The body has grown and evolved, and I like the openings where the sides connect to the base. It’s more convenient to move the guitar slightly by picking it up on the center, where the weight is. That center mass makes the guitar feel solid, more than the others, though I’ve dropped it twice now and both times the attached sides unclipped and fell off. They’re a snap (literally) to put back on.

Everything else is much tighter. The buttons feel just as good as the previous two guitars. (Note to new buyers, if you don’t already know, it takes about an hour to break in the new buttons. During this period, they’ll feel slightly unresponsive. You should continue playing with the guitar for at least two hours before worrying about poor responsiveness.) The strum bar is slightly louder, which can be a bother, especially in quiet settings. Likewise, the whammy bar is identical to the most recent previous model.

The big difference is in the battery enclosure (moved into the guitar neck), which is less convenient than the simple back panel of previous guitar, but barely so. I like that it keeps the weight distribution centered, and helps the neck feel more solid, ever so slightly. The back and start buttons are huge, especially the back button. And, compared to the most recent wireless controller, there is no more touch-sensitive fret bar. I actually told the guys at Activision while playtesting Guitar Hero 5 (or World Tour) that it’s useless, because moving your hand away from the buttons is too hard, and pressing the buttons super fast is actually pretty fun. So it was good to see them remove it completely in favor of a buttons-only guitar.

And playing on it? The best videogame guitar experience yet. With past guitars, I wore an armband because my wrists would hurt from leaning on the sharp edges. Activision fixed with their latest axe. It feels good to hold, mostly because of the centered weight. The strum bar is a tad loud, and I found that playing Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock with headphones is much more enjoyable than with speakers. The openings on the sides, and the larger back button, help gameplay move along faster because there are multiple ways you can strum, all equally comfortable. Prior guitars were very specific in how users could hold the guitar, so it’s nice to finally have plenty of options.

I absolutely recommend purchasing the new guitar, if you need to upgrade. There isn’t a big enough difference to switch from either previous wireless guitar, but if you’ve had yours for years and it’s time to upgrade, definitely do so now.

The Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Guitar is available only as a bundle, with the game, on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii. The bundle retails for $100 at all major electronics and videogame retailers.

Amplitube has alway been widely recognized as a premier tone shaping plug-in and stand alone application that has pretty much become synonymous with all things associated with digital recording.  IK Multimedia has now taken their tried and true GrooveMaker formula and applied it to Amplitube.  Aimed at guitarists and bass players, Amplitube and the iRig connector effectively transform your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad into a very portable and convenient practice studio. Before I get to into the review, let me first say that this application doesn’t have any multi-tracking.  As much as I wanted it to, it is purely for practicing and jamming along with your favorite MP3′s.

Anybody that’s familiar with the several Groovemaker applications available will feel right at home with Amplitube.  The design is near flawless with it’s ease of use and friendly interface directives.  The sliders feel smooth and navigating the application really couldn’t be easier.  The graphics are representative and clear, never allowing you to feel like you’ve led yourself astray through navigational choices.  For those that may be new to this sort of thing, there is a fair amount of help and a whole demo embedded within the App to get you where you need to be. The iRig 1/4 Inch to 1/8th Inch adapter (purchased separately) is the liaison between your guitar and the iPhone.  Super simple, it plugs right in and works as soon as the App is booted up.  The whole piece has a nice matte finish to the plastic and it is almost weightless.

As far as performance goes, Amplitube is a sure fire winner.  I didn’t notice any such latency and everything about the App responded in a moments notice.  There was some slow down here and there when loading stomp boxes and amps but it it wasn’t too bothersome all things considered.  One thing I did run into was that you need to extend the auto-shutdown time of your phone as I ran into some issues with Amplitube not knowing what was going on.  It does in fact work with the screen shut down (see pic below) but there were times when weird and pervasive digital noise invaded the headphones upon screen shut down.  It was very unsettling, so watch out.  Other than that, I was impressed with how Amplitube dealt with the live conversion from analog to digital and most guitar players will agree that they’d never imagined playing guitar so smoothly on their IPhones.

The biggest disappoint for me was the quality of the sound reproduction.  Way too digital.  For the sake of reference, I was using an ESP LTD Viper 400 with Active EMG 81 Pick-Ups.  A decently “hot” guitar, I was also using a pair of Sony MDR-7504 Headphones as monitors.  At no point was I blown away by the tones produced through Amplitube.  However, knowing what you’re doing will definitely help you get the most out of Amplitube and the iRig.  Trying to get a suitable clean tone while using the Metal Amp isn’t going to work and vice-versa.  You can chain three effects simultaneously in conjunction with an Amp set-up, your cabinet of choice, and either a dynamic or condenser microphone.  I liked the Clean and Metal Amp set-ups the best.  Crunch and Lead Amps were filed in the “whatever” category but it will largely depend on what type of guitarist your are.  I got some real heavy Stoner Metal style tones out of the Crunch Amp but it was rather muddy and useless for more precise and technical playing.  Most all clean tones sounded OK with occasional distortion appearing when the strings were hit harder.

If you want to jam along with some of your favorite songs, you can import up to 20 tunes wirelessley provided that your phone and computer share the same wireless network.  The app gives you and IP address for you to input into your URL, and then you upload the tracks from there.  Overall the process was easy and painless.  The preferred format is MP3 but I had no trouble booting up an Mpeg-4.  Once the track is in the App it just takes a moment to expand and then it’s forever yours.

All the effects sounded as they should with some being better than others.  The wah pedal effect was a bit weak but the envelope filter and octave pedals were killer.  The noise suppressor is totally essential and without it your are going to be hearing your fair share of digital hiss, so you need to incorporate it with all of your set ups.  When it came to distorted tones, the low gain ones were pretty unbalanced even when set at high gain.  During other set up experiments I couldn’t dial in enough treble and everything sounded like it was coming from the neck pick up.  They were all pretty harsh, but I honestly wasn’t expecting all that much given the fact that even my MacBook Pro can’t render live tones all that well (Amplitube Metal w/ Pro Tools LE).  Changing around the cabinets and microphones will definitely provide some much needed “scooping”, but by and large you are going to find a couple key tones and make them presets and stick with them, in which the App can hold up to 36.  It’s quite the astonishing feat that IK Multimedia has succeeded where it has with bringing live guitar to such a small device, and I’m interested in seeing if it will sound any better on the iPhone 4, as I did all my testing on an iPhone 3G and an iPad.  I didn’t notice any differences between the two minus the fact that Amplitube has yet to be optimized for the iPad’s larger screen.

There are several choices one can make when buying Amplitube and the iRig.  The iRig itself will cost $39.99 when it is released in the first week of July, and there will be 3 different versions of Amplitube for you to consider.  The full version with all 11 stompboxes, 5 amps/cabinets, and 2 microphones will run you $19.99, whereas the LE version with 5 stompboxes, 1 amplifier/cabinet, and 2 microphones will cost $2.99.  Lastly, the Free version will contain 3 stompboxes, 1 amp/cabinet, and 2 microphones.  With either the LE or the Free versions, you are welcome to buy stomp boxes at an A La Carte price of $2.99 each.  None of the versions will work without the proprietary conversion of the iRig so you know.  You can also use the headphone input as an out to an amp but that sort of defeats the purpose of the App.  If I were me, I would buy the iRig and start with the Free version, as if I’m just jamming and not recording all I need is a clean and distorted channel without craving such effects as flange, phase, and delay.

My overall impression of IK Multimedia’s Amplitube and iRig for the iPhone is one of vast applause.  Never has digital instrumentation been this accessible and innovative.  Even if the sound reproduction isn’t stellar, the impact of convenience and low to zero latency will surely standout.  I know that Line 6 has a similar product, but I’ve yet to test that one out.  While I would have greatly appreciated the inclusion of multi-tracking or tone sharing, I still think that Amplitube and iRig is a huge step forward for guitarists looking to keep their chops tight no matter where they are.  I can see this as being a great alternative for when you’re home for the holidays, away from your other rig, or practically anywhere you need to get your jam on.

Pros:

• Zero to low latency
• Quality user interface
• Multiple options for the budget conscious

Cons:

• Tone shaping
• No multi-tracking

If you already downloaded iOS 4 for the iPhone then you’re deep into multitasking. With that said make sure you download the latest version of Pandora.  The freshly updated app is iOS 4 tested and allows you to stream music in the background while surfing the web or navigating to your destination.  I tested it out and it works flawlessly.

Read