music

Judging by the genres represented in my iTunes library, I listen to a wide variety of music, from alternative, blues, and country to R&B, reggae, and rock, with a bit of electronica/dance, hip-hop/rap, and jazz in between. I don't always adjust iTunes's equalizer, but when I do, I find it helps. For the last year or so, however, I've switched from using iTunes to Spotify for the majority of my listening pleasure. I love Spotify's seemingly limitless library and its ability to load in a fraction of the time it takes iTunes, … Read more

With a name that evokes images of Jean-Luc Picard aboard the USS Enterprise, the ZTE Engage is actually just an Earthling-created, contract-free phone from Cricket Wireless.

But even if I could get engaged (ha, multiple definitions!) to this handset, I wouldn't want to. Yes, it sports higher specs than what you would usually see from a midlevel ZTE handset, but its poor call and camera performance would tempt any user, not just me, to break things off.

Design With its all-black design and flatly rectangular construction, the ZTE Engage doesn't break any design boundaries. At 5.4 ounces, … Read more

Spotify has been around for a good year and hasn't changed much; it's still one of our favorite applications for music on-demand and music library management. Taking cues from iTunes, Spotify integrates your existing music libraries with its own giant catalog of songs from artists all over the world. Where it trumps iTunes is that all the music is pretty much available to stream for free, with offline functionality for an addition ten bucks a month. In their in-app advertisements, claimss like "Piracy is overrated" are quite justified; it's seriously one of the most easiest … Read more

TuneIn Radio has an intuitive interface that makes it a snap to listen to streaming radio while you're on the move. It offers more than 50,000 stations and 120,000 shows from around the globe, plus, with the help of your iPhone's GPS, it can even serve up all of your local favorites.

Upon launch, TuneIn lets you drill down to exactly what you want to listen to. You can browse local radio, recommended stations, stations for different languages, and even podcasts. You can also choose from categories like sports or talk radio.

Like other radio-streaming apps, … Read more

iHeartRadio is an old favorite of mine that lets you stream radio from over 1,500 live radio stations or create custom stations based on a song or artist. The best thing about it, though, is that your custom stations are completely ad-free.

Live radio stations from all over the U.S. are available, including everything from pop, country, rock, electronic, and urban, to talk and college stations. You can browse by genre or location and listen to music until you hit a song you don't like, then hit the Scan button to move on to another radio station (… Read more

Pop a properly manufactured CD into a CD player, and you'll hear music in a second or two. In more than 30 years of playing CDs I've never once encountered scanning, searching, or error messages; after I press "Play," the music starts. Stick a properly manufactured DVD or Blu-ray in a working player, and you always have to wait a while to start watching the movie -- or it might not play at all. You might have to do a firmware update to play the disc. With DVDs and Blu-rays, there's no such thing as … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--At an invite-only press event in San Francisco, popular streaming music service Slacker Radio last night unveiled a completely revamped brand. The company's name remains, but Slacker's look and feel have been significantly simplified.

Of course, with the rebrand, Slacker's Web site and product designs have been updated with cleaner, more modern looks as well. Gone are the dark tones, textures, and gradients that crowded Slacker's interfaces in the past. Now, Slacker's multiplatform face is made up of brighter colors, clean lines, and lots of white space, which bring it more in line with … Read more

I've always had a soft spot for the iPod Shuffle. Tiny, simple, elegant, and able to clip just about anywhere on your person, it's arguably the best MP3 player ever for the gym, the treadmill, or the open road.

It's also $49. If you don't mind a knockoff, MidnightBox has an iPod Shuffle-like clip-on MP3 player (2GB) for $7.95, plus $3.99 for shipping. That deal is good today only, and while supplies last.

Details about this no-brand, no-name player are slim, to say the least. It's available in your choice of eight colors, … Read more

It's awards season in the U.S., with the focus primarily on the upcoming Oscars and Sunday night's Grammys.

Last year, I wrote about how the Oscars missed an opportunity to use hashtags the right way on TV, and I look forward to seeing if the organizers learned anything from this year's Grammys. (Note: CNET parent company CBS owns the broadcasting rights to the Grammys, but I am writing this unprompted and on my own).

Here are six things the Grammys did right on social this year -- plus one they didn't -- and what folks … Read more