Written on 11th March 2009
5 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Last.fm have released a neat little tool called Boffin which aims to turn the music on your computer into your own personal categorised radio station.
The desktop application scans your music collection and automatically categorises/tags that tracks based on Last.fm’s now established knowledge base.
Once it has completed the scanning which takes between 5-30 mins (depending on the size of your music collection) you’ll be able to select one or tags from your database of music and hit play. For example, you may be in the mood for a little chillout hiphop, so you select “hiphop” and “chillout” followed by “play” – pretty straight forward.
Last.fm have made clear that it “strictly a tech demo” so expect is to be very basic at the moment. However, I wonder whether this would have been better integrated into itunes itself so we could at least rate tracks for example.
What’s cool? Well, it works well and has already found tracks of mine that I love but didn’t know I had. I love the basic concept of being able to select multiple tags and it feels great to be able to be able pause tracks unlike Last.fm radio online (!). Also, using last.fm’s official desktop app – you are able to “love” tracks but there isn’t a built in “love” option in the app itself.
All in all, it’s a start and definitely gives you an decent alternative to iTunes “genius”.
You can download the application for mac or windows here.
As an iPhone user there’s always one thing that keeps on amazing me. Their App Store. There are so many things Apple did exactly right when they created this new mobile store. And by doing all these things, they showed the world how mobile phones will undisputedly become more than an instrument to stay in touch.
Future of mobile connectivity
At first, Apple has showed the world where the future of mobile connectivity lies. Which is a blessing for people in the mobile marketing industry. As a mobile marketeer, evangelizing is an important part of your job, you basically have to convince every single soul of the purpose of your existence. Last year the iPhone has become an important and very convincing actor in that story. Where many people always assumed that all Internet activity on phones had to happen in a browser, like on PC’s, this is not how mobile Internet will evolve. You have to think of a browser as an application that uses the mobile internet connection. It’s about connectivity. (more…)
ReadWriteWeb wants you to jailbreak your iPhone. Since “a non-jailbroken phone is only half the phone it could be”. You’re missing out on recording video, directly uploading to YouTube, live streaming, zooming in with your camera, and themes. Yes, you’ll break your warranty agreement, but you can always format the iPhone and start all over again.
I can understand that your willing to follow the advice of Sarah Perez, the temptation is too big. But please make sure you rule out of one the greatest risks.
When you own a jailbroken iPhone, you can’t have anything to do with the iTunes store sync. Certainly not updating it via the infamous App Store. Unfortunately, after months of answering “yes” to every question Apple asks, you might click it without even noticing.
Start all over again
What you WILL notice, is that iTunes erases all your settings and files. There you go, an empty iPhone. What happens when you lose everything? You just start again, start all over again. There goes another hour of spare time.
If you’re the kind of guy or gal who clicks yes too soon, buy the Tune Blocker. With the flip of a switch, the cable allows you to choose whether you want to simply charge your your iPod or iPhone, or sync it to your iTunes library as well.
Now you can safely hack that shiny iPhone of yours.
Written on 29th November 2008
2 COMMENTS Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
FluidTunes is a new Mac app which lets you control iTunes using only your camera, hands, head or feet. Swipe your hand from left to right or right to left over the screen center to breeze through your collection. Wave quickly at buttons to activate them. Without using a keyboard or mouse, you can navigate through your music and play or pause songs.
I’m not a morning person. The moment my iPhone’s terrible “alarm” rings, I curse the day. There’s only one reason why I make it to the office, or anywhere besides my bed. Music.
It fuels my life. And those of my friends. We exchange music every day – our drop boxes are working overtime. The Hypemachine, a secret new music service, and some specific friends on Twitter supply us with inspiration for new songs and albums. There’s only one downside.., my iTunes collection is a mess.
In comes TuneUp
Actually, my iTunes collection was a mess. Ever since I’ve discovered TuneUp, I can browse my collection Cover Flow style without being agitated by the lack of covers.
TuneUp is a management tool that let’s you clean dirty tracks (like the ones that have the artists’s name in the song title), find missing cover art, receive upcoming concert alerts, and enjoy music videos.
The PC version is available in French, Spanish, Italian, German, and English, so most of your European folks can use the service in your native language. People from Holland, Scandinavia, and Eastern European countries must remain patient for a while.
Still in beta, we have 50 invites
TuneUp for Mac is still in private beta, meaning it made my Mac crash once and it loads very slowly. But still, my collection looks way better now. So grab yourself one of those Next Web invites to try it our yourself. Send an email to thenextweb@tuneupmedia.com, the first 50 will be invited to the TuneUp Mac Beta.
The normal program is free for 500 songs/50 album art cleans, and $19.95 for unlimited (Gold version).
This weekend Apple approved our second iPhone app titled ‘iTips‘. We started development on the app during the Dutch iPhone Dev Day which was held August 30 here in Amsterdam.
The App is very simple but promises to be THE app every iPhone should buy first. It contains 100+ iPhone tips for beginners and experts and I’m sure that even YOU will discover a lot of things you didn’t know before.
Here are a few examples:
Apparently the App struck a cord because we have seen a nice amount of downloads in the first 24 hours since it is live. The app is only $0.99 in the US and €0.79 in Europe.
Of course you could also spend a few hours finding these tips online or by reading ALL the documentation you can find. If you value your time you might consider making us rich.
If you do: thank you! Download iTips from the iTunes store.
So far, I haven’t reported about the whole Nano buzz. Kevin Rose’s guesses, the sneering reactions from the blogosphere, the “Let’s Rock” invitation from Apple and the leaked photos: it’s all one big joke to me. And although a lot of Apple fanboys seem to think about it as matter of life and death, there are actually some who seem to agree with me. Like Lonnie Lazar from Cult of Mac. He created a Keynote bingo card to keep all the attendees at the Yerba Buena Center entertained. Cool move! After all, it was a success with Leah Culver at Supernova. So here’s my plan of action.
Let’s vote Lazar’s post to Digg’s frontpage (click) to get it under the attention of all the fanboys out there.
Let one of these fanboys create an bingo app (that actually generates different cards)
Install this thing en masse, and start touching away during the Stevenote.
Here’s the iPhone app Stevenote Bingo mock-up
It took me way too long to design this, but hey, I gotta give you a good idea of the app I have in my mind.
Ok, so the phrases are displayed as phone keys. Click one and it transforms into a light-blue button. If you want to join a world-wide competition, type in your username and click “join”. The app can be used for every Stevenote to come, but this obviously is the one for the “Let’s Rock” edition. If you and your friends are bored, you can always choose the first iPhone keynote and watch it on the Apple website. After the click you can see what happens when you have bingo (nothing much actually). (more…)
Not ‘you’ but iTunes U. Apple is now offering downloadable videos of museums, cultural institutions and a bunch of world renowned universities such as Yale, Duke and MIT. Just login, select a few courses you are interested in and download them to your iPhone or iPod, for free.
Now your favorite destination for music and movies is also a great place to entertain your brain. iTunes U in the iTunes Store offers free audio and video content from top universities, famous museums, public media stations, and other cultural institutions. So whether you want to learn from the world’s leading thinkers, get a sneak peek at the latest MoMA exhibition, or simply brush up on your Spanish, iTunes U makes it easy.
I admit, this isn’t regular ‘Next Web’ stuff but the content is delivered to you online and you can watch it anywhere so to me this is about as extraordinary as it gets. Get started now and tells us what you want to learn…
UPDATE: “Though the program has existed on a smaller scale for a few years, it now offers more than 50,000 audio and video tracks “. Guess I missed it before and Apple has just now decided to promote iTunes U more actively. Either way, check it out.
With the online music business heating up – MySpace created an online music venture with three music giants to start a battle with iTunes – YouTube also wants a piece of the action. They’re aiming for the baby boomers by partnering up with one of world’s most legendary rock bands. Together they’ve started the entertainment channel Living Legends.
Although there might be some exceptions (like me), most of the Rolling Stones fans tend to be somewhat older than average. And now the Google-owned company wants to lure them into the endless archives of videos. The news came out yesterday, though I was then busy conference blogging. However, I didn’t want to risk the possibility that one of you guys missed the news about the web-moves of this British band.
So considering YouTube to be a film-focused site there must be some connection with movies or other forms of visual expression. And of course there is, since fans can upload questions about the Stones documentary Mr. Scorsese is working on – called “Shine a Light“. Either Keith Richards or Mick Jagger will answer the best questions – especially the “burning ones”:
Although Keith Richards looks like an I’m-really-still-rock-’n'-roll grandpa in the video, the gentlemen apparently like to keep up with new technologies. Or when being a bit more cynical: they just want to promote their new documentary whatever the medium. Anyhow, YouTube will find it’s way to the growing group of people in their fifties and sixties who are exploring Web 2.0.
Written on 11th March 2009
5 COMMENTS 
Last.fm have released a neat little tool called Boffin which aims to turn the music on your computer into your own personal categorised radio station.
Written on 19th January 2009
As an iPhone user there’s always one thing that keeps on amazing me. Their 
Written on 13th January 2009
If you’re the kind of guy or gal who clicks yes too soon, buy the 
Written on 20th October 2008
So far, I haven’t reported about the whole Nano buzz. 
Not ‘you’ but 
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
