An Apple A Day...

In the spirit of some of my own favorite bloggers, I'm going to try my hand at a little series.

First up: My fave smart phone applications. I'm an iPhone drone, but with so many jumping on the iPad, and the iPod Touch being practically everywhere, apps are pretty approachable even if you don't want to sign a contract with AT&T.

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Being... thrifty, I try to stay in the Free-99 cent range as much as possible, and it has served me well.

Number 1 in the series? Shazam.

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This amazing little technological snack allows you to, with the touch of a button, secure the artist name and song title through any speaker playing music. Simply open the app, click the screen to "shazam" the song, and the iDevice will 'listen', analyze, and produce the info complete with album art.

And of course offer a button to take you directly to iTunes to purchase. It is an Apple product, after all.

However, it will keep a catalog of the songs you've 'zam'd if you don't want to purchase right away. The only drawbacks I've found are minor: The free version of this app only allows 5 tags per month. If you want more prepare to shell out $4.99 for the "Shazam Encore" to receive unlimited tagging. Also, if there is any ambient noise the analysis can stutter a bit and need to be retried.

All-in-all a fab app that has nailed down new music, hard to find remixes, and even some songs from tv commercials for this gal.

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