The release of iOS 7 brought new colors, 3D effects, and enough change to make us think we had a brand new iPhone. While the  iOS 7 time stamps are cool– yes, now you can see time stamps for every text, and many love the compass app that shows you, complete with bubbles, how level a surface is, iTunes Radio is by far the greatest part of the update. 

iTunes Radio is basically a replacement for every other music app you currently have sitting on your phone. It’s also possible that you can now ditch Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and all of those other streaming music apps you tried out and only used once.  Here are 5 reasons iTunes Radios is the best part of iOS 7.

1.  More ’90s Hits

With iOS 7, iTunes Radio allows you to select from over 25 genres ranging from the “Best Mix of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and Today!” under Adult Contemporary (which also includes 340 other streams) to College/University, Eclectic, Hip Hop, Talk Radio, and 84 streams of ’90s hits. With this new iTunes, there is essentially no reason to use other music providers, especially those that charge fees to stream music.

2.  10 Million More Songs Than Pandora

If you are familiar with other music streaming options, you have likely run into the frustration of finding the perfect channel, only to end up, ten songs later, listening to songs that either don’t fit the category. “Um, so why is Skrillex playing on my Beyonce station?” With iTunes Radio, this is less likely to happen – like ten million times less likely, because while services such as Pandora can spin a million songs, iTunes Radio can spin tens of millions.

3.  Guest DJ Katy Perry

iTunes Radio has also set up various special events and DJs for their Featured Stations with celebrities like Katy Perry, Jared Leto. On Katy Perry’s station for example, you get occasional commentary such as an introduction to her new single, Dark Horse (feat. Juicy J), and TMI about how she and her boyfriend make out to Drake. You can then decide to “Play More Like This” “Never Play This Song” or “Add to iTunes Wish List.” iTunes with iOS 7 has also made it extremely convenient to immediately purchase the songs you are listening to. Perhaps even too convenient.

4.  History of Songs

Okay, so maybe it’s just Apple’s way of getting me to purchase every song that plays on the Lisa Lisa Cult Jam station, but I love that the new iTunes radio records your history, and every song you’ve listened to is available for purchase. This is handy when you’re running like mad on the treadmill and have no clue what the name of that song was that you listened to 20 songs ago.

In the old days, if you missed the name of the song playing on the radio, you were basically SOL unless you could somehow get through to the radio station to ask them. And no one normal did that. To find the list of songs you’ve listened to in iTunes Radio, press the History button next to iTunes Radio. This is also where you will find your Wish List.

5.  Share Stations With Friends

There is currently no way to share specific songs through Facebook or Twitter, but who needs to tweet that they’re listening to “She Don’t Use Jelly,” anyway? However, if you do want to share a specific station, such as ’90s Alternative Radio, you can text, email, tweet, or share the link to the station on Facebook. This is done by selecting the circled “i” at the top of the song screen. This is also where you will find the options to create a station by artist.

You will likely find more reasons to love iTunes Radio once you get in there and start discovering new songs and setting up your Songs to Make Out To stations. While the iOS 7 update was long and scary for some of us who wondered if our iPhone might be stuck forever in update mode, the new iTunes Radio totally made it worth freaking out about. In a good way.

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5 Mobile Apps for a Non-Toxic Lifestyle

Music on the Go: Explore the New Indie Shuffle iPhone App

Photo Credits: mizzicatto and Cmajaski

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Keep plastic out of the landfill with a clever gift card alternative.

Plastic gift cards: those little irresistible envelope stuffers are everywhere – markets, book shops, warehouse stores. Thousands are being printed up for Father’s Day, alone.

Add that batch to the 1.6 billion cards made and shipped across the country each year, prompting sites like Treehugger to question if these are the new bottled water.  Arguably the most convenient and least creative gift to pick up, this new currency is often coated with polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a known human carcinogen. After being swiped and spent they are usually tossed out, since few recipients are aware of online alternatives or take part in gift card recycling programs aimed at reducing our plastic jungles.

Among the forward-thinking alternatives: GiftRocket, an entirely digital email-based gift card recently launched as a start-up venture by three founders who decided it was time for the redemption process to go digital. You simply go to the site and purchase a customized and personalized gift for a friend, perhaps $50 for the coffee shop in their neighborhood. The recipient is notified of the gesture via email or Facebook. They stroll to the shop for breakfast, click a button on their phone to redeem, et voila, free scones and cappuccinos! The money is instantly transferred to spend as you like.

“A way that we are different is we send out reminder emails to make sure they are used, a feature you would never get with a physical gift card,” explains co-founder Kapil Kale. “At my college graduation, I received so many gift cards they ended up being lost. I’m sure I still have a drawer full of them at home.”

Kale argues going digital curbs the no-brainer physical act of grabbing a card on the run and instead adds some thought to the process, since another cool feature is the giver isn’t limited to businesses enrolled in a gift card program. They can choose any business they like and GiftRocket will manage the money in an escrow account until it is redeemed.

It’s a good way to go, consider just how wasteful some of those printed plastic cards are, such as the iTunes card which can be gifted and downloaded electronically. This way, there is nothing to lose. And nothing to get swiped by a sister or roommate. Best motivator: No wallet filing. It’s hard enough keeping track of those frozen yogurt cards that reward you with a freebie after buying a few dozen you probably don’t need.

Images: Apple; GiftRocket

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I’ve just discovered this satellite radio channel called 1st Wave. It plays alternative ’80s rock that’s mined right out of my undergrad years. The Cure, REM, The Smiths, Pretenders, The Clash. I guess it’s kind of like my oldies station. (I can’t believe I even have an oldies station.) I drive around listening to this stuff and the memories pour in. Not just where or when I heard a song (read: what party, with whom and how wasted), but deeply visceral sensations, echoes of entire swaths of time and their accompanying gestalts – i.e., that summer of love or that winter of discontent. It’s about memories, yes, but it’s more than that. These songs actually reproduce a mood. It’s an odd sensation that I’ve chalked up to some kind of clinical nostalgia.

But maybe not. My editor just sent me this story from the BBC: “Study to develop ‘musical prescriptions’ for patients.”

Turns out these scientists at Glasgow Caledonian University are using a “mixture of psychology and audio engineering” to see how music can elicit specific responses. The plan is to analyze everything from tone, to pitch, to lyrics and even “associated thoughts” to accurately chart listeners responses and perhaps one day create music regimens that can take care of emotional needs. The potential here is to write music prescriptions to “help those suffering physical pain or conditions like depression.”

It isn’t any secret that our environment affects our moods. And if you pollute your ears, your mind will surly follow (sorry). So, in some ways there’s a No Sh*t Sherlock factor to this story. The BBC itself reported not too long ago stories such as “Music therapy ‘restores vision‘” and “‘Music helped me recover from stroke.'” Of course, too, there’s the Washington Post reporting  just last month that “single French women were more likely to accept the advances of an average-looking man after listening to a romantic song.” And not to put too fine a point on it, there was another nifty story just the other day called “Five ways to have better sex through music.” Indeed.

The goal of the study is to “develop a mathematical model that explains music’s ability to communicate different emotions.” In the future, computer programs might be able to identify very specific sound packages that will have very specific effects on our states of mind.

“Music expresses emotion as a result of many factors,” says Audio engineer Dr Don Knox, who is leading the study. “These include the tone, structure and other technical characteristics of a piece. Lyrics can have a big impact too.” Indeed, the BBC story points out, some online music stores and services use terms like “happy” and “sad” to describe a piece of music objectively, like musicovery. Of course, memories also play a role, and our subjective perceptions also factor into a response.

What form could an Rx take? Of course, there would be the free prescription that costs a couple hundred an hour. “Listen to this and call me in the morning.” But programming presentation descriptors – think iTunes happy section or Pandora mellow music – could soon have a real scientific basis to them. Mood Music. No, really.

Next time you’re jamming to some tune, your mood swaying to and fro along with the rest of you, know that somebody’s looking into it. And who knows, maybe one day Pfizer will wonder why sales are slumping and there’s dancing in the streets. Maybe The Cure were, in fact “¦

Image: flattop341

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