Rhapsody’s iPhone app already provides subscribers (Rhapsody To Go subscription costs $15/month) with over 9 million full-length tracks that can be streamed over Wi-Fi, 3G, or Edge, but the company is looking to make their service more enjoyable and much more convenient with the ability to download songs to your iPhone or iPod touch, pending Apple’s approval of course. Rhapsody’s recently released YouTube video shows the offline listening feature in action.  It demonstrates how you will be able to download a single song or entire playlists to your device so you won’t have to rely on finicky wireless signals.  Downloaded songs and playlists will be highlighted with an orange color while streaming songs remain blue for easy navigation.  Besides the obvious upside of not requiring a wireless signal, downloaded songs help preserve your device’s battery life by a relatively large margin. Rhapsody has stated that the update will be submitted to Read More

Rhapsody is a service that offers music listening and downloading for a monthly fee. Now they have released an app for the iPhone that allows users who pay for a subscription to listen to music right on their device. The app let\'s subscribers search for any song that they can think of that is in the Rhapsody library, play it, and even form playlists within the app for later use. In concept, this is an exciting prospect for iPhone users as it is access to unlimited amounts of music. But it is not without it\'s caveats and issues. The largest issue of all of these is the monthly subscription. Even subscribers to the pc service must still pay another monthly subscription on top of the one they already pay in order to have it on their iPhone. Another large complaint is that the quality is extremely low. There are arguments over Read More

The Beatles may not have arrived in the iTunes Music Store just yet, but it’s not all disappointing news: the App Store has been updated with a new look and a stack of new iPhone apps have been released. As ever, here are my picks from the latest additions. My top pick for this week is Hitchcock, plus I’ve also checked out Newsstand, Blades of Fury and Rhapsody. Hitchcock ($19.99) There’s a fantastic range of apps on offer to budding iPhone-based photographers at the moment. Tools such as QuadCamera and ColorSplash make for fun and effective photo-enhancing toys, and, once you’re done touching up your latest masterpiece, you can share your photography on Flickr via their official app. For folk who want to take their photography a step further and start dabbling in film, Hitchcock has arrived. Don’t let the messy interface fool you, this is a powerful app that’s packed Read More

RealNetworks’ Rhapsody app has been approved and is now in the App Store. The app, which provides on-demand streaming music, had reportedly been submitted to Apple just over two weeks ago, and it appeared to stall in the approval queue. The RealNetworks blog elaborates on how the app works for subscribers and those who wish to try out the service: “If you’re already a Rhapsody To Go subscriber, all you need to do is download the app and sign in. If not, we invite you to try out the all-you-can-eat service for free! The app is yours to test out, and learn to love, for seven days (no credit card required). After that, you’ll need to either subscribe or continue not hearing what you want, when you want.” When first opening the app after downloading it, Rhapsody subscribers can get started right away by entering their username and password. Those who Read More

Rhapsody, the online streaming music service, just launched its iPhone and iPod touch app (iTunes link). While there had been some discussion about whether Apple would actually allow this 'iTunes competitor' on the iPhone, the approval process looks to have been relatively smooth for Rhapsody. The app feels very similar to Apple's own iPod app. From within the app, you can search Rhapsody's library of 8 million tracks, surf genres, create playlists, or find new music released this week. Overall, we came away quite impressed after testing the app out for a while, though the $14.99/month subscription fee (after a free 7-day trial) will surely keep some potential users away. In our tests, the app was very responsive though we should point out that it also crashed a few times during our tests this morning. Songs generally started to play after just a few seconds, though your mileage may vary depending Read More

Some skeptics were fearful that Rhapsody's subscription-based music on demand service would never make it to iPhone, well it did and baby it's ready to go. iPhone and iPod touch users can easily stream some 8 million songs over Wi-Fi, 3G or Edge. If you're already a loyal Rhapsody subscriber with an iPhone firmly in hand then you win. Otherwise a $15 monthly hostage plan is required to enjoy the long term benefits of this music streaming app. The company is gifting a free seven day trial as a proof of concept, hoping that iPhone users will be instantly hooked on the epic offering. That's yet to be seen. Rhapsody for iPhone is expected to make it's way over to Europe, but for now the app is only available in the US. After spending some time tooling around the app myself, waiting for songs to load, I found it to be Read More