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Apple is reportedly buying Shazam and its music identification tech
In a bit of Friday afternoon news, TechCrunch reports that Apple plans to buy Shazam, the company behind the popular audio identification software and app. Apparently, the site's sources indicate the deal could be announced Monday, but it's quick to note the timing on these things isn't always solid. As you can imagine, rumored terms of the deal, including a sale price, aren't reliable just yet. The acquisition would give Apple ownership of the music, TV and movie identifying tech and a group of features it could easily take advantage of with its own products.
Shazam brings its music-recognition skills to Samsung TVs
Samsung and Shazam have partnered up to put an end to the head-scratching torment of hearing an unidentifiable song on TV. Samsung's newest update for its 2017 smart TV platform will give viewers access to Shazam at the click of a button, allowing them to identify the title, artist and lyrics of a song playing on screen. This can happen live, or via content delivered through HDMI. Viewers can also speak "what is this song?" into the Samsung One Remote to access information, plus stream the music they identify and create playlists that can be accessed without running an external app.
The ridiculous Not Hotdog app from 'Silicon Valley' is real
Our long national nightmare is over: Thanks to HBO and Silicon Valley there's finally an app that will tell you if the object you pointed your phone's camera at is a hot dog or not. For fans of the show, it's a cute joke, but everyone else might be a little puzzled. As a brief bit of background, T.J. Miller's character Erlich Bachman accidentally invested in an app he thought had something to do with Oculus, when, in actuality, it was an application with recipes for preparing octopus rather than anything to do with virtual reality. A common mistake, to be sure.
Recommended Reading: iFixit wants to show you how to repair everything
Meet the $21 Million Company That Thinks a New iPhone Is a Total Waste of Money David Whitford, Inc. We're no stranger to iFixit's in-depth teardowns here at Engadget, but the company has a plan that's much more than ripping apart the latest gadgets to see what's inside. Inc. takes a look at how the the company is helping the masses repair everything from smartphones to kitchen appliances and why they offer guides for doing so free of charge.
Recommended Reading: Radiohead's 'OK Computer' predicted the future
The Radiohead Prophesies: How 'OK Computer' Predicted the Future Stuart Berman, Pitchfork Pitchfork is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Radiohead's OK Computer this week, including a pretty interesting look at how Thom Yorke imagined the future in 1997. Released at a time when the internet was still a new thing, the album's content ties in directly to 2017. As Berman notes, "OK Computer is really more like the first draft for a never-filmed pilot episode of Black Mirror."
There's Shazam in my Snapchat
Abracadabra! And just like that, there's Shazam in your Snapchat.
Shazam for Mac leaves the mic on after the app is turned off (updated)
Shazam brought its music-searching chops to the Mac over two years ago, but former NSA hacker and Mac security guru Patrick Wardle revealed this week that the app has a big flaw. With the version of the app for Apple desktops, the software keeps a computer's microphone on after it a user turns it off. That's right, the microphone on a Mac was still hot even after Shazam performed its duties and users flipped the switch. The company says it isn't recording or saving anything, processing your conversations or storing what it overhears on its servers.
Shazam adds in-app music video channels
You still probably got Shazam pegged as the app to launch when you want to ID a song. And it still does that, expect it now also comes with a bunch of extra features. The latest addition to its offerings? Videos, thanks to its partnership with music video platform Vadio. Now, when you ID a song, a curated music video channel will pop up that you can play within the application itself. It's not clear at this point whether you'll get something relevant to the song you Shazamed or something completely random.
Shazam Lite for Android requires less storage and data
Shazam has introduced a "Lite" version of its app today, designed specifically for Android users in emerging markets. Just like Facebook and Messenger Lite, it uses less storage and data than its full-featured sibling. Despite being a pared-down variant, it can still do what you mostly use Shazam for anyway: identify sick tunes, so you can look them up and listen to them again later. It can even ID music while offline and save your most recent results.
Rifftrax app takes the guesswork out of syncing jokes to film
For fans of snarky, alternative film commentary, Rifftrax has long been a haven of amusement. For only a few dollars, one can hear MST3K veterans Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett rag on classic and modern cinema. There was only one problem: syncing these audio tracks to the actual movies could be a minor nightmare. Fortunately, those days seem to be behind us: the group's new RiffTrax app will do it for you.
Shazam's background listening feature comes to Android
Shazam can build you a Spotify playlist, help you discover new tunes and identify magazines, but song recognition is still at the heart of the app. Even with this core feature getting faster and quicker to start up, sometimes it can still be a race to ask for Shazam's ear before the DJ drops the next track. In the latest update to its Android app, though, Shazam has added the 'Auto' background listening feature so you never have to let a hot beat pass you by.
Shazam finally syncs matched tracks across devices
Shazam has a lot more competition from Siri, Cortana and other services, but the music recognition service has tried to stay on top with Google Now integration, faster recognition and other new tricks. The company has just added a feature that seems indispensable, but somehow wasn't available before: syncing across devices. As long as you're logged in to your account, it remembers any songs you identify and lets you see them from the desktop, iOS or other devices.
Starbucks' app is now a Shazam for coffee shop beats
You're in a Starbucks. A sick beat suddenly kicks in over the PA. You must know who is filling your ears with musical wonderment. Normally, you'd pull out your phone, launch Shazam (or maybe consult Siri or Google Now) and sample what there is to offer. Now, Starbucks insists, you should choose its official app, which today gained the ability to identify what track is currently playing in your local store and let you save it to your Spotify account, regardless of whether you're a Premium subscriber or not.
Shazam's song recognition just got a lot faster
Shazam is doubling down on what it does best with its latest update: Recognizing songs when your memory (or pop cultural knowhow) fails you. And, for the first time, the app now highlights a search feature on its main page, which lets you dig for more information about songs and artists. The goal, naturally, is to convince you to stay within Shazam rather than hopping over to the web for music research. In my brief testing, the new Shazam app recognized songs from television and radio in a few seconds -- at times it even found a result in under a second. It feels significantly faster than previous versions of the app, which sometimes took over five seconds to lock onto a song. That's not a huge difference, but given that Shazam has been around for years (it was one of the first killer apps back when the iPhone's App Store launched in 2008), it needs to keep improving to keep up with competitors like Soundhound.
Rdio's collapse will hurt Sony, Roku and Shazam
When a company goes under, the firms that it still owes money to have to bear the pain of those unpaid debts. Rdio's collapse has, unfortunately, sent ramifications through the tech and music industries that'll see firms like Roku and Shazam reaching for the Tylenol. Music Business Worldwide is claiming to have details of Rdio's bankruptcy filing that reveals that it owed $2.7 million to Roku and $1.7 million to Shazam. In addition, the service had promised Sony Music $2.4 million and Facebook $495,000. Ouch.
Shazam update adds songs to Spotify and Rdio playlists
Shazam is great for discovering new music and settling a friendly bet. While you could already listen to full-length songs from Rdio or Spotify inside the app, now you can add identified tunes to your playlists parked at those two streaming services, too. Without leaving Shazam, simply hit the plus in the top right corner of the screen after the app gives you the track details. Shazam will then display a list of saved playlists for you to choose from. Once you make a selection, you're directed back to the song page in the music discovery app. I gave it a shot this afternoon and it works well, especially if you want to put a song somewhere other than the playlist that Shazam automatically creates, and continually populates, for songs after you link your streaming subscription.
Shazam shows you the music artists are discovering
The ability to follow your favorite music artists on Shazam isn't new, but that feature is now getting a huge boost. Starting today, the service will let you see how entertainers are using Shazam to discover tunes, too. Because famous people -- they're just like us. With the refreshed iOS and Android apps, you'll start seeing the option to follow hundreds of artists, including Alicia Keys, Coldplay, Enrique Iglesias, Pitbull and Shakira, and view the music any of them are identifying through Shazam. Better yet, you can listen to these songs directly from the application. Don't expect artists to make everything they try to recognize public, though, since there is an option to keep guilty pleasures (or blunders) private.
The new Shazam identifies boxed items, books and magazines
It's true: Shazam's adding more useful features to its application, as was reported by Reuters back in March. Now, the famed discovery software can identify more than music, movies, TV shows and commercials, which has been the core functionality to date. With this new version, introduced today, Shazam is capable of recognizing packaged goods (like a Blu-ray or themed toys), books and magazines, as well as other merchandise that's typically available at physical retail stores. To use it, the only thing you have to do is open the app on your iPhone/Android smartphone, fire up the camera and, lastly, point it toward a compatible item's Shazam-printed logo or QR code.
'OK Google, Shazam this song'
Siri started handling song queries when iOS 8 arrived, and now Google's voice commands recognize Shazam as a prompt to do the same on Android. That's right, Android devices now recognize the "Shazam" command, in addition to "recognize" or "name" for "track," "song" or "tune" identification. It's not the only one either, as a few other apps like NPR One, TuneIn, Zillow, Flixster and TripAdvisor (a complete list is here) are also enjoying early access to the Custom Voice Actions feature. Previously you could search apps that way, but with this access developers can get more specific. It seems like the perfect kind of feature to use along with something like Android Auto, just when your phone is slightly out of reach.
Want some apps for that Apple Watch? You'll need iOS 8.2
We already got the big Apple Watch reveal last fall. But today, Tim Cook took the stage at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco to let us all know what wonders that very Apple smartwatch can perform, like make and receive calls! Oh yes, and there's also a host of apps to take advantage of Apple Watch, but to get them, first you'll need to download the new iOS 8.2 software update for your iPhone. Good thing it's available today.
