Category Archives: Music
RIM provides kit to bloggers @ WOMAD UK festival
Rating: GoMo makes a guest appearance on Guardian site
Here’s an interesting piece of branding. The WOMAD (World Of Music And Dance) festival held over the last weekend [27th – 29th July 2012] had as its media partner, the UK national newspapers – the Guardian and the Observer [Sunday only]. Now the editors say they “are committed to an ‘Open’ form of journalism. So they invited readers to join in by contributing to its web site with their music reviews and festival observations. But it just so happens that the Guardian festivals are sponsored by BlackBerry. Notice how RIM at least acknowledges that the public only recognises its brand. Anyway, as a consequence RIM provided the full kit to enable bloggers to write directly from the event. Continue reading
GoMo accidentally downloads ‘exclusive’ music app to HP TouchPad
Rating: Samsung had supposedly struck exclusive content deal
An exclusive deal has supposedly been struck between leading Android handset manufacturer, Samsung and mobile music specialist MusicQubed. The first handset to come with the Official Top 40 singles chart app preloaded will be Galaxy Ace II. However, this app is also available from Google Play here. When we tried to download it to a non-Galaxy phone the server said it was incompatible with all of our devices except the Cm_tenderloin. We clicked on that and suddenly realised the app had been sent to our HP TouchPad tablet running the Cyanogenmod version of Android. And, yup, it works, folks. Continue reading
Guest Post: Matt Rawlings looks at the BlackBerry Music Gateway
What’s it all about?
The Music Gateway is one of the newest accessories on offer by RIM to anyone owning a BlackBerry smartphone such as the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 or Curve 9350, 9360 and 9370. With a UK release date set for June [2012], what is the Music Gateway and why do you need one? This tiny device allows you to stream music from your phone from anywhere there’s a compatible stereo – at home, at work or in the car. You can play, pause, skip tunes and adjust the volume with remote control operation and the music automatically fades if a call is received. Continue reading
Digital music sectors hots up with moves from Amazon and Tesco
Rating: Apple’s iTunes dominance is under threat
It seems that Apple’s dominance of the digital music space via its iTunes Store may be weakening as other big instry players try to muscle in on its dominance. Recent news has confirmed that Amazon has just signed a deal with four major record companies in the USA for full licensing rights to their music. The idea is that if music lovers decide to store their own music in Amazon’s cloud based service they can listen to it anywhere. This is particularly appealing to smartphone and tablets users who probably hold the majority of their music collections on a desktop or laptop computer. The other major news last week was that Tesco has purchased a majority stake in We7, a British digital music service. (See our previous story on We7 here). Continue reading
GoMo discovers Microsoft’s answer to Shazam
Rating: ‘What song is this’ hidden away in Bing
We’re not quite sure why Microsoft hasn’t publicised it better but it turns out that there is a music recognition built into the W7 Mango Windows Phone OS. Microsoft’s answer to Shazam is integrated into the standard Bing search facility. An eagled-eyed reader spotted it and notified us of the relevant help page on the official Windows Phone site here. Naturally this being Microsoft, the whole facility is tied into Zune Marketplace. As with rival offerings this service only works with commercial music. If you’re trying to hum a tune which you can’t place, ‘What song is this?’ won’t help. Continue reading
Jays’ earphones come with free Android app
Rating: Deal with Sweden’s Phone House could set European precedent
Nowadays, it’s commonplace to find an Android app associated with a particular piece of hardware. But an app for a set of earphones? Well, Swedish audio accessory manufacturer, Jays, has managed it. Simply called the Jays Headset Control, this Android app can be download for free from the Android Market here. Crucially this app is purpose designed to work with its latest mobile phone earphones, the a-JAYS One+. Now, Jays might have the best mobile audio products in existence but getting them into the hands of consumers is a massive hurdle. Luckily, this Swedish company has just done a deal with Sweden’s largest independent retailer – Phone House. The retailer has 112 stores across Sweden and – you guessed it – is actually owned by the UK’s Carphone Warehouse. If this deal is repeated across Europe – then who knows? Continue reading
More eco-friendly portable charger from Duracell
Rating: Top model may give you an extra five hours talktime
Given the massive interest in our previous story about recharging your portable devices by pedalling (see here), we thought that the latest news from power specialist, Duracell. The company has streamlined its range of portable USB chargers down from three devices to two. The new kid on the block is Duracell’s 5-hour Portable Charger which as the name implies should provide up to 5 hours extra talktime for a smartphone or wireless PDA/tablet. Better still it can charge two devices simultaneously via a USB cable. There’s also a 3-hour version formerly known as the ‘Instant Charger’. Both devices are due to go on sale on Amazon UK from any day now. Continue reading
Nokia aims phones at fans – 1D ones that is
Rating: One Diection (1D) is a boy band, apparently
[caption id="attachment_29139" align="alignleft" width="149" caption="It's Symbian as well as 1D"]
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Having recently questioned whether Nokia even has a clue where it is going with its handsets, GoMo News has discovered a new initiative which might well help to preserve its appeal with the UK’s young ladies. The handset vendor claims that it has created the first ever (music) fan’s phones via limited-editions of its Nokia C3 and C202 handsets. And just to make them even more limited, the company has struck an exclusive deal with distributor, Carphone Warehouse. The handsets won’t even ship until October 4th [2011]. Continue reading
Sony launches Qriocity enabled Walkman handset
Rating: Access Sony’s music and video subscription service
A new handset, the Live with Walkman, has just been launched by Sony Ericsson (SE). The company claims a range of built-in apps turn this Android Gingerbread (2.3) handset into a real social music machine. GoMo News believes that this is the first handset from Sony Ericsson that actually has the Qriocity apps built in. The music version of Qriocity – Music Unlimited was released as an Android app back in June [2011] and the video version back in July [2001]. The company implies that you can only run these Android apps on its Xperia range of handsets but we’re not so sure. If the system had accepted our credit card number we might have been able to prove otherwise. Continue reading
Shazam displays song lyrics in real time on your mobile
Mobile music application Shazam is one of the longer-lasting success stories in the industry. The company has gotten big enough that today it has announced its very first corporate acquisition – it has bought a chunk of technology from a subtitles/captioning company called Tunezee. Continue reading
Smaato and Aupeo! join forces for mobile radio advertising
Berlin-based Aupeo! is pretty clear on what it wants to be – a personal, digital radio service. It’s not bound to computers, tablets or mobiles; Aupeo! wants to stream audio to any Internet capable device. With users in over 40 countries, Aupeo! is looking at ways to start making revenue from the scale it has achieved, and has just announced a deal with mobile advertising company Smaato. Continue reading
Zune brand to be replaced by Ovi?
Rating: Sure signs that Microsoft might kill the name
If there’s one big asset which Nokia has and Microsoft hasn’t, it’s a successful online store for mobile applications. In theory, the Microsoft rival to Ovi is Zune Market. So it’s no co-incidence that there has been a spate of rumours suggesting Microsoft might be seriously contemplating killing off the brand name. The suggestion even comes from avid Microsoft watchers such as ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley in her All About Microsoft blog here. The clincher for GoMo News is when Redmond Channel Partner’s Lee Pender posted ‘Zune, We Hardly Knew Ye’ here. If those on Microsoft’s doorstep seem to think so, there’s a good chance it’s true. Continue reading
Mobile music: Play.fm launches on Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7
Just earlier today, I mentioned that operators and studios can be a powerful force in mobile music – but they need to get a move on, because plenty of other people are catering to that audience. Well, here comes another one: internet favorite Play.fm is launching for smartphones. Continue reading
Mobile music: studios and operators are natural allies
When you got your first mobile phone that could play MP3s, that was cool. When your mobile phone became able to buy and download music, that was even better. But that capability still isn’t widely spread, and is relatively underused. However, some recent news items make me think that maybe music studios and mobile operators are finally realizing that they can create truly popular mobile music services by working together. Continue reading
Two mobile giants combine for music mega app: Shazam and Spotify
The world of mobile music has gotten somewhat brighter, with the announcement that two of the most exciting services in the industry are joining forces. Music discovery service Shazam and music streaming service Spotify are integrating their services. Continue reading
