Shazam for IPhone
You know that song? On the radio? By that band? What's it called? You know, the one with the guitars? That really catchy one?
An app for the iPhone purports to answer questions like that. It's called Shazam. You've undoubtedly heard of it. Apple featured the app in one of its cute TV spots touting the iPhone: "You know when you don't know what song is playing? And it's driving you crazy? With the Shazam app from the App Store, you just hold your iPhone to the song and in seconds you'll know who sings it and where to get it."
That's about half right. Shazam Entertainment's app will sometimes tell you what a song is and who sings or performs it. Sometimes Shazam will surprise you. Often, though, it will drive you crazier than you were to start with.
Briefly, here is how Shazam works: You launch the app and tap the "tag" button at the top right of the screen. Then hold your device close to the source of the song you would like identified. Take utmost care not to cover the microphone! (Because it requires a mic to work, Shazam isn't compatible with the original iPod touch; second-generation models are supported.) Shazam will take a short sample of the track, "analyze" it, and spit back an answer a few seconds later. About a quarter of the time, the answer is "Sorry, we can't tag this music."
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