Check out these great music streaming apps for Windows Phone
Price: 30-day free trial;$9.99/month If you're using a Windows Phone, you're likely familiar with Microsoft's Xbox Music app. It's more of a traditional music store, in the vein of something like iTunes; you can browse for new songs, listen to 30-second snippets, and buy the tracks or albums you like. Paying $10 a month gets you access to Xbox Music Pass, which unlocks unlimited, ad-free music streaming and offline listening on just about every device under the sun: there are Xbox Music apps for iOS and Android, and you can also listen to music on Windows PCs and on the Web. And then there's the Radio and Smart DJ tools, which will build smart playlists on the fly of music related to artists you like. That Xbox Music pass becomes especially valuable if you also own an Xbox 360 and Xbox One, as you can stream music videos too. There's also a 30-day free trial, so you can spend a month giving it a whirl to see if the music you want is available. What's great: Support for plenty of platforms and extra benefits for Xbox fans make this a solid option if you're already enmeshed in Microsoft's ecosystem. What's not: There's no free, ad-supported option, so if you're wary of paying a subscription for streaming music, this one likely won't be for you.Pandora Pandora is one of the more popular music streaming services around.Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET Price: Free; $4.99/month to remove ads Pandora is one of the oldest and most popular streaming services, and its Windows Phone app is one of the more robust ones you'll find. For the uninitiated, the service is basically a do-it-yourself Internet radio station: pick an artist or song you like, and it'll attempt to line up tracks that should match your tastes. You can't build playlists of favorite tracks, though; instead, you'll create radio stations that remember your preferences. The app does give you an option to buy songs you like on Xbox Music, so you can check them out later. It also offers a Live Tile that'll show you what track is currently playing, and it can take over your lock screen, so you can see track info without unlocking your phone.You can even pin the radio stations you create to your home screen, which is a great way to get right to the music you want to listen to.I prefer a more hands-on approach to curating a streaming music library, but if you just want music you like playing in the background, this might be the app for you. It's also free, though there are ads. To get rid of them, you can sign up for a Pandora One premium account for a mere $5 a month. What's great: Pandora is a great way to discover new music based on your existing favorites and offers neat Windows Phone-only features. What's not: There's no way to create playlists of particular tracks, nor offline playback. Spotify Spotify's Windows Phone app lags behind other mobile platforms.Screenshot by Nate Ralph/CNET Price: Free; $9.99/month for more features Spotify is a popular music streaming option that's available on every platform under the sun, and the Windows Phone incarnation is a solid effort. It's really attractive, adopting Windows Phone's flat aesthetic to create its own singular look and feel for fans of the operating system. But the app lags behind the versions on other platforms, which can create big problems if you plan on using Spotify elsewhere. Earlier this year, Spotify changed the way its apps organize music. Instead of "starring" songs and creating a favorite music playlist, you can now simply add music you like to an all-encompassing music library. The Windows Phone app has yet to be updated, and it's still stuck on the Starred music system. Songs you star will still appear on a generic "Starred music" playlist, and you can create your own playlists, as expected. But if you also use Spotify on the Web or a non-Windows Phone device, there's no elegant way to get the music you've added to your general library onto your Windows Phone, short of creating a whole bunch of playlists.If this seems like a minor inconvenience to you, then there's a good chance you'll like Spotify -- an update should alleviate that complaint, too. Spotify is also free to try (with ads), so there's no harm in signing up. A premium account will set you back $10 a month, but it removes ads and offers offline playback. What's great: Spotify is available on just about every platform under the sun, including the Web, so you'll always have access to your music. What's not: The lack of support for Spotify's new Your Music library makes the Windows Phone vastly inferior if you're using Spotify elsewhere.Slacker Radio Slacker Radio offers plenty of stations to choose from.Screenshots by Nate Ralph/CNET Price: Free; $3.99 and $9.99 monthly subscription plans for more features Slacker has a lot in common with Pandora. It's a streaming radio service that lets you build stations around particular artists and songs, and then finds related music you might also like. In some respects, Slacker goes quite a bit further: artist- and genre-centric music stations are joined by proper radio stations with DJ personalities and the like, so you can get something like the terrestrial-radio experience on your Windows Phone. Or on the Web, or iOS and Android devices -- Slacker is available there, too. Slacker's interface is a bit garish. The resolution of the album art on the playback screen is really low, and advertisements run along the bottom of the currently playing track; that's in addition to the ads that'll occasionally interrupt music playback. And while the app also offers more robust features, like the ability to create a radio station for a single artist, download music, and listen to radio stations from media outlets like ABC and ESPN, all of that is locked behind a paywall: $4 a month for an enhanced radio experience, and $10 for on-demand music. What's great: Slacker's radio stations are a great way to replicate the old-fashioned radio experience on your phone. What's not: Most of the best features are locked behind a paywall, and a basic account doesn't get you much more than competing services.
Report- Apple iAds deals could cost $1 million
Report: Apple iAds deals could cost $1 million
And marketers who want to be part of the launch of iAd, Apple's new platform for serving ads on its mobile devices, could pay as much as $10 million for the privilege, said the Journal, citing a source familiar with the matter. At the moment, advertisers reportedly pay somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000 for similar placement on mobile phone apps.Set to launch with Apple's new iPhone OS 4.0 in June, iAd will give marketers the ability to embed dynamic and interactive ads within a mobile app. In his iPhone OS 4.0 demo earlier this month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs touted the ability of iAd to smoothly display ads within an app rather than bring the user to a separate Web page.The process and price scheme for advertisers starts with the banner ads that attempt to lure people to view the full ad. Advertisers will have to pay Apple a penny each time a user sees a banner ad and then an additional $2 if the user clicks on the ad, according to the Journal. Given enough views and clicks, a large ad buy could easily cost an advertiser $1 million.Advertisers will be able to target specific ads to users based on such factors as their iTunes download choices and their location, though they won't be able to direct ads based on a user's personal information. Initially, Apple will create the ads itself to ensure that they meet a certain style, format, and functionality. But the company plans to eventually release a developers kit to allow advertisers to build their own ads. Even then, each ad will also have to go through a review process at Apple to determine if it meets the company's approval.Despite the high visibility and potential profits, at least one advertiser quoted in the Journal story expressed concern over Apple's initial control of the ads. "As a creative director, I can completely understand that they created this new baby and they want to make sure it gets born looking gorgeous," said Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer at WPP's Ogilvy, according to the Journal. "But as a creative director, I don't feel completely comfortable letting Apple do the creative."Jobs has also promoted iAd as a way for developers offering free and inexpensive apps to recoup some of their development costs. On its end, Apple would sell and serve the ads, taking in 40 percent of the sales and leaving 60 percent for developers who embed the ads in their apps.Apple has set a date of June 7-11 for its upcoming World Wide Developers Conference, at which time the company will offer sessions for developers interested in creating apps for the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0. The new iAd advertisements should start popping up on the iPhone and iPod Touch in June, followed by the iPad later in the year, according to the source cited by the Journal.
And marketers who want to be part of the launch of iAd, Apple's new platform for serving ads on its mobile devices, could pay as much as $10 million for the privilege, said the Journal, citing a source familiar with the matter. At the moment, advertisers reportedly pay somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000 for similar placement on mobile phone apps.Set to launch with Apple's new iPhone OS 4.0 in June, iAd will give marketers the ability to embed dynamic and interactive ads within a mobile app. In his iPhone OS 4.0 demo earlier this month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs touted the ability of iAd to smoothly display ads within an app rather than bring the user to a separate Web page.The process and price scheme for advertisers starts with the banner ads that attempt to lure people to view the full ad. Advertisers will have to pay Apple a penny each time a user sees a banner ad and then an additional $2 if the user clicks on the ad, according to the Journal. Given enough views and clicks, a large ad buy could easily cost an advertiser $1 million.Advertisers will be able to target specific ads to users based on such factors as their iTunes download choices and their location, though they won't be able to direct ads based on a user's personal information. Initially, Apple will create the ads itself to ensure that they meet a certain style, format, and functionality. But the company plans to eventually release a developers kit to allow advertisers to build their own ads. Even then, each ad will also have to go through a review process at Apple to determine if it meets the company's approval.Despite the high visibility and potential profits, at least one advertiser quoted in the Journal story expressed concern over Apple's initial control of the ads. "As a creative director, I can completely understand that they created this new baby and they want to make sure it gets born looking gorgeous," said Lars Bastholm, chief digital creative officer at WPP's Ogilvy, according to the Journal. "But as a creative director, I don't feel completely comfortable letting Apple do the creative."Jobs has also promoted iAd as a way for developers offering free and inexpensive apps to recoup some of their development costs. On its end, Apple would sell and serve the ads, taking in 40 percent of the sales and leaving 60 percent for developers who embed the ads in their apps.Apple has set a date of June 7-11 for its upcoming World Wide Developers Conference, at which time the company will offer sessions for developers interested in creating apps for the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0. The new iAd advertisements should start popping up on the iPhone and iPod Touch in June, followed by the iPad later in the year, according to the source cited by the Journal.
Facebook throws potentially suicidal users a Lifeline
Facebook throws potentially suicidal users a Lifeline
Facebook announced today that it's working with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on a program designed to help save lives. The new service will enable Facebook users to click on a link and be taken to a page where they can enter into a live chat with a suicide prevention specialist.There is also a reporting link where users can alert Facebook, if they see something on a person's profile that causes them to think that the person is in severe distress. Facebook will send a message to that person to encourage them to contact the Lifeline.The company isn't using technology or people to look for suicidal posts. It is relying on users to reach out.In the past, Facebook would contact the Lifeline with the name, e-mail address, and city of anyone who had been reported as potentially suicidal, but with this new system, the communication goes only to the person in distress, according to Lidia Bernik, associate project director of the Lifeline (scroll down for the full podcast interview).Service lets users chat with a suicide prevention specialist.Screenshot by Larry Magid/CNETThe Lifeline has been working with Facebook since 2006, according to Bernik, "to basically reach out to individuals who are flagged or reported for suicidal content." She said the Lifeline has heard from its users that "a lot of people would rather communicate via chat or text, as opposed to calling." She added that "this is an attempt to reach people in a medium where they are most comfortable." The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached via chat or by phone at 800-273-TALKScreenshot by Larry Magid/CNETBernik said "it's probably pretty surprising to folks how many people will disclose thoughts about suicide on Facebook."She saidLifeline encourages people to "reach out directly to their friends, and offer them the Lifeline and offer them support, but if they don't feel comfortable doing so, they can also report it, and Facebook will do the same thing."In a guest post linked from the Facebook safety page, Dr. Regina Benjamin, the Surgeon General of the United States," said, "I'm excited about the new initiative to augment its response to potentially suicidal members by offering the opportunity for a private chat with a trained crisis representative from the Suicide Prevention Lifeline in addition to providing the Lifeline's phone number."Disclosure: Larry Magid is co-director of ConnectSafely.org, which receives financial support from Facebook. ConnectSafely was involved in some early meetings between Facebook and suicide prevention experts. Click below to listen to seven-minute interview Listen nowYour browser does not support the audio element.Subscribe now:iTunes (audio) |RSS (audio)
Facebook announced today that it's working with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on a program designed to help save lives. The new service will enable Facebook users to click on a link and be taken to a page where they can enter into a live chat with a suicide prevention specialist.There is also a reporting link where users can alert Facebook, if they see something on a person's profile that causes them to think that the person is in severe distress. Facebook will send a message to that person to encourage them to contact the Lifeline.The company isn't using technology or people to look for suicidal posts. It is relying on users to reach out.In the past, Facebook would contact the Lifeline with the name, e-mail address, and city of anyone who had been reported as potentially suicidal, but with this new system, the communication goes only to the person in distress, according to Lidia Bernik, associate project director of the Lifeline (scroll down for the full podcast interview).Service lets users chat with a suicide prevention specialist.Screenshot by Larry Magid/CNETThe Lifeline has been working with Facebook since 2006, according to Bernik, "to basically reach out to individuals who are flagged or reported for suicidal content." She said the Lifeline has heard from its users that "a lot of people would rather communicate via chat or text, as opposed to calling." She added that "this is an attempt to reach people in a medium where they are most comfortable." The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached via chat or by phone at 800-273-TALKScreenshot by Larry Magid/CNETBernik said "it's probably pretty surprising to folks how many people will disclose thoughts about suicide on Facebook."She saidLifeline encourages people to "reach out directly to their friends, and offer them the Lifeline and offer them support, but if they don't feel comfortable doing so, they can also report it, and Facebook will do the same thing."In a guest post linked from the Facebook safety page, Dr. Regina Benjamin, the Surgeon General of the United States," said, "I'm excited about the new initiative to augment its response to potentially suicidal members by offering the opportunity for a private chat with a trained crisis representative from the Suicide Prevention Lifeline in addition to providing the Lifeline's phone number."Disclosure: Larry Magid is co-director of ConnectSafely.org, which receives financial support from Facebook. ConnectSafely was involved in some early meetings between Facebook and suicide prevention experts. Click below to listen to seven-minute interview Listen nowYour browser does not support the audio element.Subscribe now:iTunes (audio) |RSS (audio)
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