Twitter released their new music discovery app, Twitter #music today, currently only for iDevices. In a world crowded with all kinds of music services how does this new one from Twitter stand out? Well, let’s take a look.

As you already know, there are many other services out there such as Pandora (great for instant playlists and background music), Spotify (to hear something specific), and iTunes and Rdio and Xbox Music and many more. The new Twitter #music puts more fun into music discovery and offers a good looking user interface.

Launch the app and log in with your Twitter account, you can check out accounts of artists you follow. The app presents four categories: Popular for the most viewed songs, Emerging for not so popular artists, Suggested showing musicians recommended specifically for you by Twitter, and there’s also #NowPlaying for checking out songs shared by the people you follow.

The songs are arranged in a grid showing album covers and just tap on an artist to listen to a sample of their music via iTunes. You will need to connect with Spotify or Rdio if you want to listen to the full song. If you want to purchase the song all you have to do is tap the iTunes button. As you will see in the video below, the whole experience is pretty smooth.

The app is certainly very easy to use and it doesn’t overwhelm you with stuff. It just brings to you tracks the people being followed by you have tweeted, and just one song per artist.

Is it perfect? Not exactly, though it is a solid first effort. They can surely improve some things on the new app such as the search function which won’t allow you to search for songs. It’s just for artist profiles.

Check out the video below and Twitter #music is available here on the App Store. An Android version is expected to be available sometime in the not-too-distant future as well.

[Source]

[Video Source]

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Once in a while, you hear about a boy or girl that racked up a huge bill through in-app purchases. For example, one boy managed to build up £1710.43 in charges playing freemium hit ‘Zombies vs Ninjas’. Despite their previous decision to not refund those purchases, it seems like Apple will be handing out a good deal of money instead.

An Apple spokesperson had this to say about the matter:

“All iOS devices have built in parental controls that give parents and guardians the ability to restrict access to content, eg internet access and age rated content such as music, games, apps, TV shows, movies etc.”

Now, Apple has agreed to give 23 million iTunes users a $5 credit. Although this may sound more like an insult to injury, it is most likely the amount of money that these users lost in the first place. The credit will be given to those users who “made a Game Currency purchase in one or more Qualified apps”.

If you’re looking to get in on this deal, Apple is not providing anywhere to sign-up. However, you can probably make your case with Apple via their support website. According to 9to5 Mac, the claim will not be followed through until later this year or even until 2014.

Have you been affected by an in-app purchase mishap? Perhaps you’ve had a child that overspent on in-app purchases? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Apple Plans to Refund 23 Million iTunes Customers For In-App Purchases appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

There have been rumors going on for a while now that Apple is considering its own online radio service. The idea of online streaming as an extension of iTunes isn’t surprising and makes a great deal of sense as offerings like Spotify and Pandora continue to grow and expand their services.

Now BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield says that 2013 could likely be the year that Apple launches such a service. Greenfield claims Apple is already in talks with record labels to get song catalogs and will most likely see integration with iTunes and iOS.

There is no word on exactly when such a service could be announced, by WWDC seems like a likely time of the year for such a service to be unveiled.

You have to wonder though, is Apple to late to the game? Services like Spotify already have great multi-platform app support and have an excellent library. The only thing I can really personally think of that Apple could add to the table is the hype generated from its brand name.

Apple’s brand carries a lot of weight and power, but is it enough to steal away from established streaming and cloud music services? What do you think?

[ source ]

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Looking for an exceptional deal on iTunes gift cards? Deal granted. There are two different ways to get 20% off on cards right now.

The first option requires you to be a RewardZone customer at Best Buy (sign-up is free). The cards here are for amounts from $15-$100, which will cost you just $12-$80. This deal is offered from now until the 29th both in-store or online. For those without Rewardzone memberships, you can still get 15% off at Best Buy, though.

The second way to get in on this deal is through the GiftCardMall via Ebay Daily Deal offers, which provide a $50 iTunes card for $40.

This is a great deal whether you are a truly buying these cards for late gifts or simply using them for yourself.

[ source ] 

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This comes by way of an “anonymous source” to CultofMac, but this insider has come through with some juicy details before. In this instance, the upcoming Apple HDTV is going to look mostly like the existing LED backlit Apple Cinema Displays, except much larger. We can probably expect a small handful of models in the 40-inch to 60-inch range.

What’s interesting is that we’re hearing the new Apple HDTV will feature an iSight camera for FaceTime as well as the Siri personal assistant (from the iPhone 4S) for some navigation. Aside from that, details are sketchy, but we have heard that Foxconn has invested $1.6 billion in Sharp’s TV unit. There has to be a reason for that.

I don’t really expect Apple to make a TV just for TV’s sake. It’s going to be like the iPod or the iPhone in that they’ll create some sort of closed environment to “revolutionize” the experience. You can probably expect heavy integration with the iTunes Store, possibly at the expense of ousting “alternative” entertainment sources like conventional cable TV. We will see, but according to TV analyst Paul Gagnon, we should see this come to light some time in 2013.

[Source]

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We know that many of you have been waiting for a while for this moment; the Sparrow mail app is finally available for the iPhone. From now on, you will be able to enjoy a simplified way of checking your Gmail, iCloud and other accounts.

Just in case you are new to Sparrow, it is a third party email application and was a Mac-only app until now. The new mobile version comes with a range of features and, according to reports, is almost as good as the Mac version.

Sparrow for iPhone offers support for IMAP mail accounts like Gmail, iCloud, or Yahoo, but there’s no POP support. The app brings a unified inbox, and navigation is possible via swipes and gestures. The app is also coming with “smart contact list”, which will suggest possible recipients for your email (a faster way of emailing frequent contacts), the ability to attach pictures directly from within the app, and much more. But the absence of push email might be a deal-breaker for many.

And updates in the future will also bring in a built-in web browser, a landscape mode among other features. Sparrow is currently available from iTunes and it costs $2.99.  The app will work on iOS devices which run iOS 5.0 and above.

The post Sparrow For iPhone Is The Mobile Email Client Google Couldn’t Build appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The “App Pick of the Week” cards were already made available in the United States, but now Canadians can get them too. As you wait for your princess drink custom GMO latte beverage to be constructed by your barista, you can ask to get one of these cards from the cashier. They might also just leave them out on the counter for the taking.

In either case, you simply take the card and nab the promo code that is shown on the back. You can then enter this code on your iPhone or, if you’re patient and would rather wait, you can enter it into iTunes on your computer. EA’s Scrabble was a recent offering as a pick of the week. I still like Words with Friends, but free is free.

Ironically, as I type this, I have a cup of Starbucks coffee next to me, fueling my ability to type these words. I did not get a free iPhone app, but to be fair, I don’t have an iPhone either.

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You will need to jailbreak your iDevice first, since MultiTunes is only available (for free!) through the Cydia Store, but it effectively lets you sync to multiple iTunes libraries on a single device. The libraries don’t really merge though. Instead, you have to switch between them on the fly if you want to access the different sets of tunes.

First, you select the library in MultiTunes and then you sync the corresponding library with the computer. You repeat the process with new libraries. When you want to listen to your music, you go into the MultiTunes apps and pick the library you want, flipping over to the Music or iPod app to find the tunes in that library. When you want music from a different library, you go into MultiTunes to pick that one instead before going back to the Music or iPod app.

[ source via Harrison Apps ]

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Earlier today Google updated its official Google Translate iOS app to include an interface for the iPad. Previously, the app was only for the iPhone (and iPod Touch).

The update heavily resembles the iPhone version although the interface elements proted to the iPad’s screen are much larger. Overall there is nothing new or special about the iPad version versus the iPhone , still one really can’t complain as it is a welcome feature.

Now iPad users everywhere have access to easy text translation between 63 languages, voice-to-text translation in 17 languages, and text-to-voice translation in 24 languages.

The app can be downloaded for free right now from the iTunes App Store.

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I don’t think I’ve ever used “Apple” and “open source” in the same sentence without having to throw in a “no” or a “not” in there somewhere. Throwing my head into a bit of a loop, Apple has now formally announced that they will offer their Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC) to the open source community.

Making me wonder if this was a part of Steve Jobs’ plan all along or whether it came from someone else in the company, I suppose Apple recognizes that the reverse engineering community had already figured out Apple Lossless back in 2005. Since then, we’ve seen the audio compression format make its way onto such players and platforms as Plex, VLC, XBMC, and Boxee.

In case you’re not as familiar, Apple Lossless was a codec originally introduced in 2004, compressing audio files between 40% and 60% without any noticeable loss in quality. That’s why it’s a “lossless” audio codec; it’s been used across all Apple products since then, including Macs, iPods, and iPhones. You can get more details about the open source project at MacOSforge.org. It’s being made available through the Apache license.

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