Have you ever heard some music, be it in the background in a shop, or played on the radio and ever wished you knew the track's name? That's the dilemma Shazam sets out to solve.
By launching the application, holding your iPhone to the sound source you want to 'tag' and waiting a few seconds to sample the track, Shazam will tell you what that track is, and present you with links to buy the song using the iPhone's built-in iTunes store, as well as doing a YouTube search for the track to see if there's any related videos you could see.
In our testing here at Download Squad HQ, the application performed very well with all the music we threw at it (classical, jazz, rock and pop) and even when tested in the middle of a busy city-centre street playing music from another iPhone's external speaker, the application still correctly identified our tracks. Best of all, Shazam is a free application from the App Store and available now.
We've covered the BBC iPlayer in great depth here at Download Squad - from its inception to nationwide rollout - and today, the BBC has announced version 2 of the (hugely successful) project. The new-look site has been heavily re-designed, bringing together both Radio and Television shows in a central portal. Personalisation also seems to be the key to the new release, which incidentally runs side-by-side (at least for now) with the previous version. The iPlayer site keeps track of what you last watched, listing up to ten recently-viewed shows and if that weren't enough, a list of 'last night's TV' is available to help you find shows to catch up with. The video playback size also increased from 512 pixels wide to 640 pixels (a jump of 25%) and the BBC has promised a more 'cinematic' feel to pages playing video.
The iPlayer continues to use Flash to stream videos online for seven days after broadcast, and remains available only to UK residents due to the BBC's publicly-funded status - but if you're a UK resident then you can get started with this new beta here.
One of the fundamental tools for developers is not just their development environment of choice, but also their version control system of choice. The debate over just which version control system is undoubtedly set to rage on for eternity, however one of the more popular systems is Subversion. On the Mac, up until now there's been a number of choices: Terminal (command-line) which is built into the OS and includes Subversion as part of OS X Leopard, svnX - another open-source graphical user interface, or using the built-in Subversion support in Apple's OS X development IDE Xcode.
For some of us here at Download Squad, a fear of the command-line, compounded with a little loathing of the svnX interface made the announcement of Versions.app - over a year ago - more than a little exciting. Promising an elegant and truly OS X interface to work with Subversion, it's taken a long time to come to fruition - however the betas to date do appear to deliver.
After having used Versions on a daily basis since its debut 2 weeks ago, it's certainly showing a great deal of promise - and makes version control far friendlier. As others have noted, the application not only makes working with existing repositories easy, but also has quick links to Subversion web-service Beanstalk, allowing you to easily create a new online repository and add it to Versions.
Pricing for Versions will be set 'when version 1.0 ships', and currently all (free-to-use) betas expire on July 1st.
Oh the promise of Digital Rights Management. Ever since the dawn of technology, DRM of some form has existed with the promise being that if large companies supported it, the removal of basic (and somewhat fundamental) consumer fair use and rights would be made irrelevant. The likes of Apple and Microsoft aren't exactly going to kill their own music services and DRM servers, in turn locking you out of music you've actually paid money for. Are they?
Sadly, that's not entirely the case. Whilst Apple understands the PR nosedive that would follow any attempt to 'disable' DRMed purchases, Microsoft perhaps does not. Today they've announced that, effective August 31st 2008 "[Microsoft] will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs ... purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers" which basically means this: once you've activated your allocated number of computers for the music you've paid your hard-earned cash for, you can kiss you music goodbye if you ever change your computer or operating system. Yes, you can still burn your tunes to a CD and re-import them in another (DRM-free) format. But the questions remains, why should this even be necessary?
Time and time again, DRM has proven not only totally ineffective in preventing piracy but also a method by which legitimate paying customers get treated as criminals for doing the right thing. If there's one thing consumers are repeatedly learning the hard way is that ultimately DRM only shafts paying customers. There is but one question now: how long will it take the labels to realize that DRM is about as welcome at the digital party as Lynne Spears at the Parent of the Year awards....
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is renowned for his developer evangelism, and is well known in the tech community for his rousing, if presumably fruity-smelling, cheerleading on stage. Clearly, the active lifestyle maintained at conferences is something that Microsoft wants to instill in all developers, leading to their latest online offering: 'Active-Build Live Developer Workouts Beta'.
According to Microsoft, "when we looked away from the Windows Vista team, we realised that most developers spend a serious amount of time in front of their computers, y'know, coding. To aid our developers further, we've launched Active-Build Live Developer Workouts Beta with a whole series of fitness videos from Steve Ballmer himself".
The service, included with every MSDN subscription, takes the form of a YouTube-esque player, a desktop client that prompts developers to take a break, as well as links to the Zune Marketplace to download videos for on-the-go use.
Sources at Microsoft say that distribution talks are 'ongoing' with a number of other providers to further the reach of the series, and that in a moment of post-workout delusion Ballmer attempted to negotiate with Apple for an iTunes release. Senior executives at Apple, speaking on condition of anonymity, are reportedly clueless on how to proceeed: "The iTunes intern who brought up the idea, along with [Apple CEO] Steve Jobs, are both currently under sedation after an internal meeting. It would appear that the videos fell somewhat below [Jobs'] 'impeccable taste threshold' and until Steve is fit to return to work and fire the intern, we're not sure how to proceed on any projects, internal or otherwise."
As usual, Apple PR declined to comment on 'market speculation', however recent rumours indicate that John Hodgman will appear once again at the start of Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference keynote in an OK-GO-inspired Mac/PC 'Treadmill' Advert.
Here at Download Squad HQ, we're (sadly) all-too-often reminded of the archaic buffoonery found in the world of big-business digital music and video. Whether it's the notion that DRM prevents piracy (hint: it doesn't) or the fact that by being blood-relatives of mafia bigshots label executives you are likely to escape a kneecapping lawsuit, the music industry has never been short of controversy as it struggles with piracy.
Since the dawn of Napster, the music industry has been crying, nay screaming, out for a digital music czar. Someone who 'gets' the digital arena. Someone who's been around the block, and never missed a beat (if you'll excuse the terrible pun) when it comes to the digital domain. So of course when Warner Music yelled from the rooftop 'We've got a Digital Music Guru!!', we believed that all equilibrium in the world had been restored. And then we read about this digital guru's next big plan, and our jubilation promptly turned sour.
Earlier in the year, at least one blogger was stopped by drooling unprepared TSA agents rightly wary of the so-far-unseen beast known as a MacBook Air. Of course, the incident brought to the TSA's attention the fact that the MacBook Air might not be your conventional laptop, and that agents might mis-identify the machines as something more suspect. Thankfully, the administration responded, giving MacBook Airs the green light, and promised to try and X-ray a MacBook Air.
True to their word, the TSA has announced that they have indeed X-rayed an Air, and published a video for all the Apple-loving readers clearly wanting to gaze in awe at an X-ray of Cupertino's finest. By now you're wondering: "Why on earth is this posted here at Download Squad. I don't want to see no photos of a MacBook Air!". So here's where this tale takes a rather ironic turn: the video's certainly online, but for Mac-using fans (arguably the main target audience of the video) it's something of a non-starter because the video can only be found in the most Mac-incompatible format known to man: Windows Media Video - the antithesis of Mac-friendliness, surely?
After a long invite-only beta, and a recent general-public release, Pownce has finally released their full-blown API that allows 3rd-party applications to post to the Pownce service. Back in our initial run-down of Pownce, the lack of a complete API was one of our major criticisms of the initial launch, and the basic Pownce API that's been around for a fair while merely allowed 'reading' of API data, not the 'posting' of updates. This meant you had to use either the mobile or Pownce websites, or the Adobe Integrated Runtime application, which some of us are less than fond of.
For better or worse, competitor Twitter has always stayed ahead of Pownce with a more comprehensive API (something that in our opinion made the Pownce/Twitter debate a one-horse-race until now) and now that Pownce is fully open to the developer masses, it'll certainly be interesting to see what applications appear. Talking of which, the first that we've seen is a rather handy 'Pownce it!' bookmarklet for quickly and easily sending links to your Pownce account. Sweet!
Pownce developer Leah Culver, apologizing for the delay to the API, says "We've taken great care to provide the best experience for developers". Given Twitter's continuing instability, it'll be interesting to see developers put the Pownce API through its paces, and see whether Twitter's instability will eventually begin to undermine the API-headstart that's attracted so many users (not to mention developers) to the service.
[Tip of the hat to Download Squad alumnus David Chartier for pointing out the bookmarklet]
For all the talk of Facebook being the $15-billion dollar social network de jour, it would appear that the heavyweight may be losing its touch, at least in the UK. The BBC quotes Nielsen Online figures for last month, showing Facebook dropping from 8.9 million to 8.5 million visitors -- the first drop in visitors since records started for Facebook in July 2006.
Now, the drop of just 400,00 may not be all that substantial, but some of us here at Download Squad know of folks still rather mad at being unable to close their accounts (well, at least of free will) and certainly among contacts of ours there is, shall we say, a weariness with Facebook right now. Whether that translates into a continual drop in Facebook's visitor numbers, or this is just a monthly lull (perhaps brought on by friends posting less than endearing photos after the New Year) is anyone's guess.
Update: Facebook have since got in touch to say: "The number of users for Facebook continues to climb in the UK. Our internal monthly active user numbers rose between December and January in the UK and are now at more than 8.3 million. Facebook tracks active monthly users, rather than registered user or unique visitors. Active users reflect those who have used the site in the past 30 days."
So you've got the Monday blues, and are looking for Download Squad to find you something stimulating, perhaps even intellectual to waste some time with? Look no further for we've got the perfect thing for you. "How Many Countries Can You Name" is a very simple, yet effective game in which all you need to do is think of, and type into your browser, as many countries names as you possibly can. In five minutes. With nearly 300 countries in the world, it's just as much a game of 'how fast can you type?' as it is 'just how many countries can you name?'
In the name of research (honest!), we've been playing with this a little, and managed to get the number of remaining (i.e. un-named) countries down towards the 200 mark, but we're sure that readers can do better!
Sony's Connect music store has been around a fair while, in fact, a fair while longer than perhaps some of us expected. Sony -- a company once so powerful and successful in portable music -- cooked up the Connect service as a response to Apple's all-powerful iTunes Store. The plan was a store to supply music to the dozen or so users who bought one of its NetMD or MP3 players, and couldn't play media on these devices in a format other than Sony's proprietary ATRAC-3 format.*
Of course, Sony is also a record-label and (as with all of Sony's digital music efforts) the Connect service was clearly put in front of some executives who were absolutely terrified of the 'Cloverfield monster' otherwise known as piracy. The executives, so hell-bent on protecting their content, forgot that actually they had to sell the service to the public and decided that they'd allow Connect, but that the DRM would be so visible and limited that no-one would dare think of pirating music again. If you hadn't guessed, here at Download Squad, some of us have 'issues' with Sony's digital mis-steps -- issues best explained in another post -- so we'll skip forward to the present day.
Never mind the Twitter speculation -- there's bigger fish to fry this morning, as Microsoft has proposed (and we must reiterate: proposed) to acquire Yahoo! Here's the quote from the Microsoft Press Release:
"Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) today announced that it has made a proposal to the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) Board of Directors to acquire all the outstanding shares of Yahoo! common stock for per share consideration of $31 representing a total equity value of approximately $44.6 billion. Microsoft's proposal would allow the Yahoo! shareholders to elect to receive cash or a fixed number of shares of Microsoft common stock, with the total consideration payable to Yahoo! shareholders consisting of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock. The offer represents a 62 percent premium above the closing price of Yahoo! common stock on Jan. 31, 2008."
Whether Yahoo! accepts the offer, or enters into negotiations, remains to be seen. First thoughts here at Download Squad? Assuming it goes ahead, what does that mean for the likes of Flickr? Does this suggest that Microsoft is choosing to acquire the momentum of an already-well-known services company instead of internally developing its Windows Live (nee MSN) services? The deal is primarily focused on the bringing together of Microsoft and Yahoo!'s advertising platforms, but the other services that form part of Yahoo! certainly add another dimension to the deal.
More on this as we have it -- Yahoo has, at the time of writing, not published any press releases about the Microsoft offer.
Update: Microsoft is to host a Press Conference Call at 05:30am PST / 08:30am EST to discuss the proposal. Update 2: Yahoo! stock is up 60% in pre-market trading. Update 3:Yahoo! is to "evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo!'s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders."
RSS is a fantastic technology, but what about 'on-the-go'? Sure, you could use Google Reader, or Newsgator Mobile, but what if you wanted to be SMS-messaged when a new post appears on a particular feed? That's where Pingie comes in.
By now, you're probably wondering what on earth the service could be used for. Let's share with you a few examples. Perhaps you're wanting to follow Download Squad's coverage of a particular operating system, category of software, or even a particular author's posts (all of which have feeds found by adding /rss.xml to the page's URL), you simply enter the Feed URL, your email address and your mobile phone number and Pingie does the rest. Easy!
With 2008 fast approaching, if you're needing a printed calendar in time for the new year, your opportunities to grab one are fast running out. Thankfully CreativeTechs have posted three rather nifty calendars and templates for you to use. Along with a compact calendar, there's a clever business-card sized calendar to slip in your wallet and even an Adobe InDesign template if you're wanting to create something a little more bespoke in your free time.
Mac-using readers may well already know of Flip4Mac, the free Quicktime components which allow OS X users to playback Windows Media files within Quicktime. For Windows users, that may seem a bit unusual, but given that Microsoft no-longer develops Windows Media Player for Mac and actively points to the Flip4Mac site, the Telestream components are certainly welcome for those requiring access to Windows Media content on Mac OS X.
Since Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's launch in October, users have been left without Windows Media support, however that absence is no more, for Flip4Mac is now Leopard compatible. Not only that, but the developers have also announced that the paid-for tools and plugins which allow the exporting of Windows Media content on OS X now also offer 'Export to Silverlight' options. If you're unfamiliar with Silverlight, it's Microsoft's answer to Adobe's dominant Flash format for online interactivity and media.
If you own the Flip4Mac tools already this update is, like the playback components, free and available from the Flip4Mac site.
Have you ever heard some music, be it in the background in a shop, or played on the radio and ever wished you knew the track's name? That's the dilemma Shazam sets out to solve. 
Here at Download Squad HQ, we're (sadly) all-too-often reminded of the archaic buffoonery found in the world of big-business digital music and video. Whether it's the notion that DRM prevents piracy (hint: it doesn't) or the fact that by being blood-relatives of 
Sony's Connect music store has been around a fair while, in fact, a fair while longer than perhaps some of us expected. Sony -- a company once so powerful and successful in portable music -- cooked up the Connect service as a response to Apple's all-powerful 
Never mind the 
With 2008 fast approaching, if you're needing a printed calendar in time for the new year, your opportunities to grab one are fast running out. Thankfully CreativeTechs have 
Mac-using readers may well already know of 
