mobile

Band Apps Get Sound Around [Launch]

By Ryan Van Etten on 06/30/2010

Last week I told the story behind the new band apps-as-a-service startup, Sound Around, whose mantra is ‘iPhone apps for every band.’ Today they rock their full-on launch. Want to get in on this action and try Sound Around free for three months? Well, you’re in the right place because we have a couple promo codes to dish out to bands or musicians.

Posted in Apps, iPhone Apps, Music, Music Flux, News | Tagged app services, bands, CMS, communication, demo, direct-to-fan, integration, iPhone, launch, mobile, mobile music, music apps, musicians, promo code, service, social media, Sound Around | 2 Responses

Sound Around: 2 Bros, 1 Mission.

By Ryan Van Etten on 06/22/2010

The story of the new mobile music startup, Sound Around, starts in 2009, in a little place called Raleigh, North Carolina, where brothers Scott and Steve Klein had been brainstorming tech startup ideas. Both were students at NC State, but with opposite majors—nearly yin and yang. Add entrepreneurial DNA, and they’re Pinky and The Brain.

Posted in Apps, Editorial, iPhone Apps, Music, Music Flux, Narrative, News, Popular | Tagged app services, business, development, entrepreneurs, indie, interaction, iPhone, Lauchbox Digital, MobBase, mobile, mobile dev, mobile music, music apps, music startup, musicians, NC State, Pinky and The Brain, platform, resources, service, smartphones, social music, Sound Around, startup story, startups, story-driven, TechStars | 2 Responses

Skype It Up: Hooked On Data [Infographic]

By Ryan Van Etten on 05/30/2010

Call me crazy, but I was surprised to see that only 13% of international call minutes last year were on Skype. I thought that number would be higher—I think it will be within a few years because of the amplifying access to computers both at work and home. Then there’s mobile VoIP. Skype already has apps for iPhone/Blackberry/Android/Symbian, and it’s only a matter of time before the majority of cellphones are smartphones.

Posted in Infoculture, News, Visual | Tagged communication, data, infographic, mobile, mobile VoIP, skype, smartphones, stats, trends, usage, visualization, VoIP, wi-fi | 7 Responses

Musician Apps—What Do Fans Want? 5 Key Components.

By Ryan Van Etten on 05/12/2010

Last year I covered four platforms that musicians can use to build iPhone apps—Mobile Roadie, MobBase, iLike, and Kyte. Sound Around is another one, and is currently in private beta. Discussion from yesterday’s autoplay poll got me asking myself, “what do fans really want in an artist app?” I thought about it for a while and came up with 5 key components.

Posted in Apps, Design, Discussion, iPhone Apps, Music, Music Flux, Popular | Tagged app design, app services, artist channels, communication, community, development, direct-to-fan, fans, geotagging, ideas, iPhone, key components, Kyte, location, MobBase, mobile, mobile music, Mobile Roadie, music apps, musicians, networks, services, social media, Sound Around | 4 Responses

Music Photography: Quality vs. Memory [Poll]

By Ryan Van Etten on 04/16/2010

Last week, with the help of photographer Adam Jackson, I posted a photoset from the Ultra Music Festival in Miami. UMF was a sellout event, but only a few photographers seemed to capture it. Adam voiced his frustration that for such a huge event like UMF, only a relatively small amount of decent media makes it to Flickr and YouTube.

Posted in Editorial, Infoculture, Media/Journalism, Music | Tagged culture, flickr, Internet Generation, live music, media, mobile, motivation, music photography, paramore, photojournalism, poll, quality, sentimental value, tips, youth, YouTube | 2 Responses

Bay Area Beatmaker Freematik Makes Album with iPhone

By Ryan Van Etten on 03/17/2010

Freematik (Tom Freeman) is a San Francisco-based hip hop music producer. But outside of his fully-equipped studio, he is armed only with his iPhone and imagination. For months he’s been experimenting with apps that let him make beats and riffs on the go. The iPhone’s limitations forced him to improvise and he found himself feeling “more creative than he had in while.”

Posted in Apps, Interviews, iPhone Apps, Music, News, Popular, Reviews | Tagged album review, app review, Bay Area, beatmaker, beatmaking, creativity, development, DJing, flare, freematik, hip hop, idrum, imatik, interface, interview, iPad, iPhone, jasuto, mobile, mobility, music review, phat beats, production, psychedelic, scratching, technology, touchscreens | Leave a response

Multitouch—The Human GUI?

By Ryan Van Etten on 02/08/2010

Multitouch may be next GUI—is there a doubt? For decades we’ve used the mouse, but as GUI technology improves we’ll find more limitations in a mouse-based system. Clayton Miller’s 2009 project called 10/GUI demonstrates the potential of multitouch. According to Miller, “the industry is now at a crossroads.”

Posted in Boundless, Design, Discussion, Editorial, News | Tagged 10/GUI, augmented reality, brain, Clayton Miller, computing, con10uum, Design, gesture recognition, gestures, graphical, GUI, human, human-computer, interaction, interface, iPhone, mobile, mobility, multitouch, nintendo, Pranav Mistry, science, sixthsense, technology, TED, touchscreens, UI, virtuality, virtualization, wii | 3 Responses