A Love Affair With Spotify

...damn you Spotify and your sleek, efficient and high-quality streaming capabilities. I've been getting acclimated with Spotify's functionality over the past few days and I must say it's becoming something I don't think I can live without ("my precious"). Besides making extensive playlists and being able to access them offline, the instant gratification factor is just so unbelievably convenient and time-saving. The only thing I haven't been able to is stream Spotify through my Apple TV, but I have found a solution that can handle such a conundrum . It's called "AirFoil" and it works like a charm. Unfortunately, the program isn't free, but for $25 it can stream Spotify music through your Apple TV (you can download and run it in trail mode, which steams for 10 min, after adding noise to the audio tracks). I think it's worth the $25 personally, but if you can't swing the price I'm sure you know other means of obtaining such an application.

Five Best Music Streaming Services (via Lifehacker)

This is an excellent look at the top 5 music streaming services (including the newly US established Spotify).

http://lifehacker.com/5480688/five-best-music-streaming-services

What's Google+?

Google+ is Google's social platform aimed at rivaling Facebook. It's main goal is to bring the “nuance and richness” of real-life sharing and connections to our online world. Imagine an extremely flexible and customizable Facebook without the constraints of being connected strictly through friends. Google+ consist of an array of features (too many to discuss here). If you're one of those overly enthusiastic people dying to know more check out the link below.
*And if you one of the people scouting for an invite, stop looking. Google has suspended new accounts until Google+ goes live supposedly in the not too distant future. The iphone version of Google+ just went live, but it too requires a invitation to take advantage of it's features.

http://www.slashgear.com/slashgear-101-what-is-google-circles-huddle-28161844/

A Weekend With Spotify

This weekend I took a trip to Paulina Lake in Eastern Oregon with my girlfriend (and dog) and decided to give Spotify an opportunity to provide the soundtrack to the much needed vacation. Here's a breakdown of my discoveries after spending three days with the steaming service.

First, Spotify offers 3 tiers of service. I decided to give their premium service a try ($9.99 per month) to see how well it performs on mobile devices, particular my iPhone 4 (they also have a free service, which requires a invitation code---I'll explain the free service later). Once signed up, I downloaded the Spotify application via app store on my phone and began searching Spotify's approximately 15 million tracks of high quality music. To my surprise, my first three inquiries provided extensive catalogues of the artists I searched. These included Madonna, Elliott Smith and Outkast. As we began our drive friday morning with an adequate 3G signal, each of the tracks I chose played without a single hiccup. It wasn't until we got into verizon-only land (aka the forest) that we lost 3G and began steaming off the EDGE network. I quickly learned that Spotify is useless on the EDGE network so don't even attempt to use it unless your on a solid 3G network (a low quality option can selected under "settings" if one so desires). I decided the lack of connectivity was forgivable considering I was streaming high-quality audio tracks (@320kps). By the time we reached our destination, we had absolutely no service (thanks AT&T) and the soundtrack to our trip came to a screeching halt. As we departed sunday morning, my 3G service kicked back in around bend, OR and I began using Spotify for the next two and a half hours.

Concluding my trip, here's the lowdown:

*The quality is as good as advertised
*I had no trouble streaming any of the tracks I selected (not audio dropouts whatsoever on 3G network)
*I found their library to be extensive but not as vast as they advertise (Adele's 21 was nowhere to be found)
*No Beatles (with the exception of tribute tracks/albums)
*Compatible with android and most other smartphones
*For $9.99, a good service if you don't have an extensive music library at home.
*Most of the music I selected I actually owned on my computer, but it was extremely convenient to have those tracks at my fingertips without have to transfer them to my phone (also bypasses any worries about running out of storage).
*itunes and facebook integration
*Advise using over WiFi unless you are still one of the lucky ones with unlimited data.

I give Spotfy a 8.7 out of 10 for quality, price, service provided and size of catalogue of music at your disposal.

In order to get a "invitation" to Spotify's free streaming service (includes annoying ads, and no mobile phone capabilities), you need a code, which is given to people who pay for the service (they gave me two invitation codes upon signing up for the premium service). This being my very first post, I've decided to give one of those codes away to my very first reader.

Invitation code: bhMV7s9NbEMqJddJ