fm

Ask.fm, the troubling secret playground of tweens and teens

Spy on Ask.fm's public stream and you'll feel like you've been transported back to middle school, dumped in the center of he-said, she-said dramas -- sometimes innocuous, sometimes not. Here, hormone-crazed young boys and girls banter about their after-school plans, tease their peers, boast about their most recent hookups, and try to appear cool with expletives and graphic language.

Ask.fm is a 3-year-old question-and-answer app that's wracked up 57 million users and is adding members at a rate of 200,000 a day. It's spreading from kid to kid, infiltrating middle schools and … Read more

The 404 1,215: Where we stand up to stereotypes (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Beatles fan exhibits record store that only stocks The Beatles' "White Album," featuring more than 650 first pressings. Here's a preview.

- Stereotype.fm comes up with quirky statistics about music fans, like "MJ fans likely to join a cult."

- Nine new ways to sit, thanks to tech.

- Illegal music downloads took a nosedive in 2012.

- Check out Samsung/GameSpot's Unicorn Apocalypse contest for a chance to win $25k.

- Ghostbusters HQ Lego creation by Orion Pax.… Read more

Livio demonstrates FM Connect Web-connected FM radio tech

LAS VEGAS--Livio, a company that has made a name making it easier and safer to interface with the apps on your phone, is now working to make it easier and safer for drivers to interact with your favorite terrestrial radio stations, and has announced that it is developing a new technology called FM Connect.

While listening to a Livio Connect-enabled FM radio that is paired via Bluetooth to a smartphone running the Livio app, users gain the ability to communicate with the broadcaster or access rich data at the touch of a connect button.

For example, if an advertisement for … Read more

Get answers with Ask FM

Social answers have become the latest trend in social media. You ask your question to a group of people on a site and receive both fun and informative answers, depending on the question. Joining the likes of popular sites such as Yahoo Answers and Formspring is Ask FM. It's a fun service, but it won't win anyone over with this mediocre app. Ask FM app doesn't bring anything to the experience that the site itself doesn't do.

Ask FM app looks like a front door to the site's Web page, which isn't even mobile-friendly. … Read more

Griffin iTrip FM Transmitter adds Aha by Harman integration

LAS VEGAS--We're not what you'd call fans of FM transmission technology, but Griffin's iTrip with app integration for Apple's iPhone is easily one of the best in that class. At CES 2013, Griffin and Harman announced Aha app integration with the iTrip Auto FM hardware.

Aha provides a way to to listen to your Facebook and Twitter feeds, audiobooks, podcasts, news, and other audio content -- Harman claims more than 30,000 stations are accessible by the app, with new stations being added constantly.

Now, in addition to using the iTrip app to scan for open … Read more

Play your music through an FM station with the FM Transmitter Case

FM Transmitter Case is an app that allows you to play music from your iPhone or iPad over any FM frequency, for use in your car or home. You can access your full music library on your mobile device, sending it through an FM transmitter to any FM radio.

The FM Transmitter Case interface is clean. It shows a rotary dial with FM frequencies displayed on it, as well as a digital readout in the center. There's a set of buttons at the bottom for favorite FM frequency presets, as well as control for your music streaming. However, to … Read more

Drip.fm: Record club for the 21st century

If there's one thing music lovers enjoy, it's discovering new favorite artists, and there are now a wealth of online services that offer this. I was first exposed to digital music subscriptions in 1999 when They Might Be Giants released "Long Tall Weekend" via eMusic. It was one of the first Internet-only releases, and while listening to those files now shows the limitations of MP3 at the time, eMusic rebooted a concept that had fallen into disaffection: the "record club."

The first major record club began in 1955 by Columbia Records and was a way to sell music directly to the customer often with a "record of the month" suggestion. While the service and the others like it have faded from popularity, digital music sellers are now trying something similar.… Read more

Ford Sync advises what to do on a date

Seeking new apps to integrate with its cars through Sync AppLink, Ford hosted its annual Developer Challenge at TechCrunch Disrupt. This year's winner is startup Dates.fm, a Web site and app designed to give couples suggestions about what to do on date nights.

Dates.fm and its sister site, BeCouply, are currently in beta. A counter on the BeCouply site says it will launch in 3 days and 21 hours. The founders of Dates.fm, Becky Cruze and Pius Uzamere, attended the TechCrunch Disrupt event and entered the Dates.fm app in the Ford Challenge, using the Sync … Read more

Get more out of Spotify with Swarm.fm

I occasionally catch a glimpse of what my Spotify-using Facebook friends are listening to when their activity flashes by on Facebook's sidebar, and I can see published playlists on Spotify of the few friends that endeavored to publish such playlists. Other than these two outlets, my Spotify experience thus far has been rather a solitary one. Until I installed Swarm.fm.

Swarm.fm is a Spotify app. It can be found in the App Finder, which you can access in the Apps section in Spotify's left panel. After installing, you'll see a Swarm.fm entry gets added … Read more

Get a Livio Bluetooth Internet radio car kit for $29.99

The lovely Mrs. Cheapskate has a smartphone, but her minivan lacks a stereo input jack. Thus, there's no easy way for her to listen to her playlists, podcasts, Pandora stations, and the like.

A new breed of FM transmitters promises to solve that problem. Like this one: Today only, 1SaleADay has the Livio LVC02A Bluetooth Internet Radio Car Kit for $29.99, plus $4.99 for shipping. It's new, not refurbished, and it sells elsewhere (like on Amazon) for at least $76.

Update: Sadly, but unsurprisingly, this is now sold out.

Update No. 2: Back in stock!

The … Read more