Music

Perfect! We can all start back to making our own ringtone.

Ambrosia Software has released an update to its popular custom ringtone software, iToner, now supporting iPhone firmware 1.1.1. If you are already a user, download the update now. If not, get it!

iToner allows you to quickly transfer custom ringtone for your iPhone - without modifying, hacking or having to reset your iPhone in any way.

It is tough finding earphones that will fit the iPhone. Why Apple decided to make it so hard—who knows, but if there is a will, there is a way, right?

I found some pretty nice earphones that fits the iPhone without needing a pesky adapter. There are a few out there already, but I actually used a pair of the Shure earphones. If they sound anything like those, they will be not only made for the iPhone, but amazing also. Shure’s SE earphones were made just for the iPhone’s recessed headphone jack. The whole SE line will be ready for the iPhone so you don’t need to purchase an adapter, thank goodness.

The Apple earphones that ship with the iPhone are decent, but Shure SE makes those sound like white noise in comparison. Unfortunately, these amazing earphones come at an amazing price—$120 to be exact. I have never paid that much for earphones in my life, but I am considering…

Perfect for the new firmware update rolling out soon. You’ll be able to use the WiFi Music Store with a great pair of earphones!

.
A while back, I did a review of Efiko’s iPhoneRingToneMaker. To this day, I am still using the software. I love it, but something that was missing, that I failed to mention in my review, was support for protected AAC songs. So all the songs that I purchased from iTunes (which is a lot of songs) were not able to be used as a ring tone. I found that somewhat odd considering it was an Apple product on which I was placing the music.

Labor Day came, and not only was I able to relax, but I was also able to import protected AAC ring tones to my iPhone. Why? Because my request was answered! On Monday (Labor Day) the maker sent me an email announcing the released copy 1.3.1 which adds support for those pesky protected songs I have been wanting to try out as a ring tone. I am a happy camper now.

iPhone is shareware, but allows you to try a full demo of their product before purchase, so check it out.

I don’t know what’s more exciting, waiting for the hordes of lawyers to be dispatched from the RIAA to unleash a wrath so terrible that all who encounter are never the same or the parodies we’ll see in a few days. Either way, you can get your fix of Apple Ad music goodness thanks to iPhone Alley.

There are two ways to obtain this clip. First is the legal way provided courtesy of TUAW. You can grab the entire song the clip is based from via iTunes (clicking this link will take you to the iTunes store) where you can purchase the song Perfect Timing by Orba Squara for 99 cents.

This other way would be considered a grey area by many but iPhone Ally has provided us with a 30 second clip of the song which is very close if not the same to the clip in the Adverts. You can head on over to iPhone Alley to nab the 30 second clip.

This is perfect for all of those attempting iPhone parodies (we haven’t seen that many) but want to add that Apple touch.… more...

It really surprised me when the iPhone was released with no way to customize, or add ringtone. It didn’t bother me though, because I knew there would be plenty of third-party software makers to please me. Of the few out there, I was able to get my hands on an extremely easy-to-use program called iPhoneRingtoneMaker.

The software is what the name suggest—a ringtone maker for your iPhone, which can support .MP3, .WAV, or .OGG. I thought the software was going to be difficult to use, but I was making ringtone like a pro in no time. Once installed, you’ll see the simple user interface. Two great big buttons at the bottom of the program will allow you to preview or create the ringtone. First, you’ll have to get your music, and as the program itself, is a very simple task. On the left side, you will see “Get My Music” and you can do so by file or folder. You can also go into your music folder yourself, right click the music file you want and within 30 seconds, your ringtone is made.

Once you have found what you… more...

“iPhone on training wheels.”

Not the words of yours truly. Rather, the words from Dave Dederer, founding member of the Presidents of the United States of America band (Remember Lump?) and a representative from Melodeo, when describing his company’s new mobile music service.

The new offering, called nuTsie, allows users to stream music from their iTunes libraries directly onto their cell phones. This name, an anagram of “iTunes” is in this writer’s humble opinion, perhaps the worst possible name a company could give a new product. To save some of you the trouble, and anagram basically means the same letters shuffled to make a new word. The term “nuTsie”, athough admirable in concept, clearly was approved by a bunch of non marketing savvy folk.

Digressions aside, this product is currently free to download and works on a select number of existing phones.

[Via Seattlepi]

Sprint Nextel, the nation’s third largest wireless carrier said yesterday that they will begin selling a new Samsung phone with $0.99 over the air music downloads.

This new device is called the UpStage and although it is trying to get a foothold in the over-the-air music download space, I don’t think Apple should be too concerned. Because even if the phone is all that it says it will be, it still only maxes out with 2GB of external memory. And that is a max out. The factory install comes with a mere 64MB of MicroSD memory.

Sure, it is innovative: if you consider innovative being a device that looks like a phone on one side and a cheap Creative Zen on the other. There won’t be any iPhone killer talk coming from Sprint Nextel.

[Via AppleInsider]

Here is a link to the music used in the iPhone Oscar ad. The song is called, “Inside Your Head” by an artist named Eberg. On his site, he is getting mad props by people who have learned about his music through the commercial. The most amusing is a posting on the site messageboards where a user named, Arturo offers this nugget: “I used your free sound clip as background music homevideo of my dog Marley the sheepdog, fantastic!!! thank you. Wish you the best on your music journey. Awesome cover art!”

There you have it…whether you are into the iPhone or sheepdogs, Eberg is for you.

In an attempt to beat Apple to the punch, an alliance of 23 mobile companies and every major music publisher announced a mobile music service that will launch by second quarter this year.

According to an article on ZDNet, this initiative was led by Omnifone. The new service, called MusicStation, is destined to best Apple’s plans by offering unlimited music downloads to your mobile device for 2.99 euros ($3.88) a week. According to Rob Lewis, Omnifone’s founder, each European country will have access to an average of 1.2 million tracks. And with way more compatible phones for the service, they hope to have over a million subscibers within a year.

[Via ZDNet]

An interesting article from Bloomberg News via STLtoday. In it, the writer Matthew Lynn offers up 3 reasons why “Apple is unlikely to make much of an impact on [the mobile] market.”

He cites, that Apple is late to the party, and that they need cooperation from more providers. But the most interesting point he makes is the notion that Apple released the iPhone as a defensive product. One in which they are trying to maintain their hold on the iPod market and may be threatened by the increase music capabilities with today’s phones.

This is the first time, I have heard of this argument and I am intrigued. I am not fully convinced that people want to combine phone functionality with their music. Email? Sure. Instant messaging? Of course. But music and video may be a different story.

Here are 3 clues that lead me to believe Apple isn’t releasing the iPhone as a defensive product:
1. Only 8GB capacity - Are you serious? I haven’t had… more...