Music
If there was ever an App that screamed "let me run in the background", it's Pandora Radio. Although I've had this App for quite a while I've never really gotten into it until now. Pandora is a like a customizable personal internet radio station. You simply identify artists that you like and Pandora will start playing songs by that artist at random and other songs that are similar that you might like. You can give a song a thumbs up to hear it and more like it again or a thumbs down to never hear it again. After a while of this type of voting Pandora will get pretty good at knowing what you like to listen too. Sounds great right? The only problem up until iOS 4 was that on the iDevices Pandora always had to run in the foreground meaning that you couldn't do anything else while it was running. That all changed this past Monday when Pandora released their latest update and Apple released iOS 4 with Multitasking for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4.
Start Pandora playing and then go do something else
Just like the iPod App, you can now start a track playing in Pandora and hit the home button to go to another App while the music keeps playing. If you double tap the Home button you'll be able to see the other apps running for quick switching and if you slide them to the right you can access the Pandora audio controls without having to return to the Pandora App. If you hear a song you like you can tap a link, to bookmark the song or have it take you to the iTunes store to search for the song automatically and all while the music keeps playing. Pandora is also a "+" App, which means it runs natively on the iPad too.
Is Pandora really free? Well yes for most people. The App is definitely free. However, your Free account only get's you 40 hours a month of "free" listening. After that, it's either 99¢ to finish out the calendar month or you can pay an annual fee of $36. However, according to Pandora most people never hit this limit. I never even knew there was a limit until a friend of mine told me that she hit it because she listened to it non-stop at work all week long (40 hours). More details here.
Pandora Radio is now what I would consider a Must Have App for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It's FREE and available here from the 
I don't get to live concerts very often and it's usually because by the time I find out one of my favorite artists is coming to town, it's too late to get good tickets. So when my buddy Scott turned me on to iConcertCal I had to take a look and see what this App had to offer? It's almost like magic. I know I shouldn't be surprised anymore by the ingenuity of some App developers, but every time I see an App like this I just smile and think, "how clever!"
iConcertCal knows who's coming to town
Chances are you have many if not all of your favorite artists in your iPhone or iPod touch. You probably have at least one song by each one if not several. iConcertCal scans all of your artists and then uses your location to present you with a list of upcoming concerts in your area (or area that you indicate) that feature your favorite groups. It's so automatic that you really don't have to do anything. You can even buy the tickets by taping the Tickets icon and it takes you to Ticketmaster and directly to the page featuring that particular concert.
By no means is Shazam a new app. I've had it for months (released in July 2008). However, this week my buddy Dave was looking at my iPhone apps and he said, "what's Shazam?" Sometimes I take for granted that everyone already has the older cool apps. He had never heard of it. So I decided to make it my iPhone app of the week.
Have you ever wondered: What's the name of that song?
You hear a song playing and you really like it or it's one that you know and you've heard before, but you just can't place it. It happens to me all the time. Maybe it's a song playing on the radio or a song playing at a party or gathering you're at. That's where Shazam comes in for your iPhone. When you launch the app there's a simple button that says "Tag Now." You tap the Tag Now button and your Shazam will "listen" to a few seconds of the song that's playing. After it hears enough of the song, it uploads that information to the Shazam servers and then it analyzes it. After a few seconds, it will then come back with the results. If it recognized the song, you'll get the song name, artist, album and even a link to go preview or buy it on the iTunes store! Pretty slick.
Your tagged songs are kept in the app so that you can tag as many songs as you want and then buy them if you like when you get back to your computer or directly on your iPhone.
The Bottom Line
Shazam is great, but it's not perfect. While it gets most songs for me, it doesn't always get the songs I try. However, it does work for me more times than not. Shazam works on the iPhone and the 2nd generation touch (the first generation doesn't have a microphone capability/option). The best part is Shazam is a FREE app and you can download it from the App Store here:
