Here’s the scenario, you’re in one of your favorite stores, you know, the trendy store that always plays really hip music. You’re humming to the tunes as you’re shopping and hear a tune that you’re familiar with, but you just can’t recall the name of the group who sings it. Fear no more, Shazam is there to save you from wondering all day long, as you’re humming the tune, racking your brain out trying to figure out just who sings that tune. All you have to do is just pull out your iPhone, open up Shazam and let it do its magic.

Here is how Shazam works: when you hear a song that you want to know more about (either from the radio, TV, film, or in a store) just pop out your iPhone, open up Shazam, press the ‘Tag Now’ button, which is in the upper left corner, and hold it toward the location of the music. Keep holding it (for about 10 seconds) until you feel your iPhone vibrate, then, look at your iPhone and you will see the results.

You will be presented with the name of the song, name of artist/group, album name, genre, label and the date you tagged the song. But that isn’t it….you are then given the option to preview or purchase the song via iTunes, view any available videos in YouTube, Tweet your result, send a post card via email, view the Biography of the artist/group, and view the Discography of the artist/group. It gives you a few other options like taking a photo (I guess of the location) of where you are when you tag the song, attach a photo or just delete the song result.

What I really like about Shazam is the clean UI and its accuracy. However, it does have a difficult time identifying some underground or lesser-known artists. I have tried to hum a tune to see if it would work. It didn’t. I think only once or twice it wasn’t able to decipher a tune. But I’ve used it hundreds of times and more often than not, it usually found what I needed. Oh, I forgot to mention, the price of this app…..it’s FREE! Yay!

Technical Info: Shazam was released on July 7, 2008 with a few updates here and there. Made by Shazam Entertainment, Ltd. It is compatible with iPhone and iPod Touch and requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later. It is also available for use with Android and Blackberry phones. To view more information about Shazam, you can visit their website: http://www.shazam.com/music/web/home.html which contains a lot of other information. To download it from iTunes, click on the iTunes App Store button at the bottom or just type ‘Shazam’ from the App Store on your iPhone.

If anybody has used Shazam and wants to share their experiences with Shazam, leave a comment and share the wealth with our fellow readers!

I love my iPhone and I must say, I’m an app junkie. Before I started using Pandora Box, I used to go into the App Store on my iPhone and go down each category by Released Date to find apps that peaked my interest. Trust me, it took at least an hour or more of my day to search for apps. Then, I found Pandora Box and it cut that time by 75%!!! Now, I check it once a day before going to bed and download away.  In this article, I will give some brief descriptions with screenshots (as usual, anything with underlines will bring up a screenshot when clicked). So, let’s get started…

Brief Description:

Pandora Box is similar to the App Store. Sometimes, app developers will have a sale or give their apps away for free (Some for a limited time and some become free permanently.) Pandora Box updates the app throughout the day keeping the lists fresh. Pandora Box is from the company AppZap and is compatible with iPhone/iPod Touch. It requires iPhone OS 3.0 or later. Oh, I forgot, it’s Absolutely FREE!

Screen Features:

What’s Hot and Wish List display cool and popular apps.
On Sale (Free/Paid) display apps that have dropped in price or are now free displaying the original price crossed out and the new price shown.
New Apps (Free/Paid) – display the latest apps available
You can also toggle between the Free and Paid tabs in both On Sale and New Apps tabs.
Favorites (is used for apps you may want to track and nab when it goes on sale)
More (is where you search or change settings)
Ability to edit categories (choosing which categories you want to be displayed) is displayed at the upper right-hand corner by clicking the lined icon.

How it Works:

Pandora Box upon opening brings up the Featured screen with a What’s Hot and Wish List tabs at the top of the screen and five tabs at the bottom of the screen (Featured, On Sale, New Apps, Favorites and More tabs) by default.
In any of the screens you are in, you just slide up and down the screen and click on an item that peaks your interest.
When you click on an item, the next screen displays a thumbnail of the app, name, company who developed the app, category, and a star rating of the app. You will also see the price of the app (FREE or the price), an Add to Favorites Button and a Tell a Friend button. Then it gives you a brief description about the app along with an image of the app opened at the bottom of the description. You can click on the image to view other screenshots of the app. If you choose to download the app, it directs you to the App Store on your iPhone. If you choose to Add to Favorites, it will add that item to your Favorites. When you choose to Tell a Friend, it opens up an email screen with the information about the app.  All you do is fill in an email address and send it.
When you click on the More tab, the next screen displays the Search tab (by default), Settings tab and another More tab which takes you back.
Search Tab gives you the ability to search for apps by name or you can browse apps by selecting from a list of categories. The search results display results start displaying as you type with a list of possible apps. Then, when you have finished entering the information into the search field, it will break the results down to a closer match.
Settings Tab brings up a screen with the Currency tab and Categories tab.
The Currency tab allows you to change the currency settings and the Categories tab allows you to decide which categories to display.
This concludes my description of Pandora Box. If anyone uses this app and has comments that will help others, feel free to comment. If you would like to download this app, click on the iTunes App Store button below to be directed to Pandora Box in iTunes. I hope that this article has helped you better understand how Pandora Box works. Thanks!
-TINA