nutsie

Handicapping the mobile music services

I'm a big proponent of cloud-based music services for mobile devices. I struggle figuring out which 500 songs I want on my 8GB iPhone at any given time, and the problem gets worse as as I download more apps. So it's gratifying to see an explosion of mobile music services in the last six months. Start-ups and established companies alike seem to believe that the current model, where users transfer songs from a computer to their phone using a wired connection, is not long for this world. Instead, these companies are coming up with various ways to dispense … Read more

HP buys mobile music company Melodeo

Computer giant Hewlett-Packard has acquired Melodeo, a Seattle-based start-up that specializes in music applications and services for mobile devices, the companies confirmed on Wednesday.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but an anonymous source told TechCrunch that the price was around $30 million. The acquisition vaults HP into the battle for mobile music services.

I've written about Melodeo's products a couple of times, most recently in January, when I got a demo of a forthcoming update to Melodeo's Nutsie app for Android phones. Nutsie (the name is an anagram of iTunes) runs on several mobile platforms, … Read more

HomePipe music streaming works but isn't pretty

In the wake of Google's acquisition and temporary burial of Simplify, Seattle-based HomePipe has launched a similar free service that lets users stream their full iTunes library over the air to their iPhone or Android phone.

HomePipe launched in March with a new take on remote computer access. While consumer services such as LogMeIn or corporate technologies like Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services offer full keyboard-video-mouse, or KVM, access to your computer, HomePipe reasoned that mobile-phone users mainly want their data--for example, to show pictures or read documents locked away on a home PC.

On Thursday, HomePipe updated its … Read more

Nutsie brings iTunes to Android via the cloud

Version 3.0 of Nutsie, a mobile application soon coming to Android phones, is more than an anagram for iTunes.

As I watched Melodeo engineering Vice President Bob Wise demonstrate the new Nutsie on a Motorola Droid at the company's Seattle office on Monday, I had to wonder why Google doesn't have its own Nutsie-like app.

The basic idea behind the current version of Nutsie is simple: you have a bunch of songs stored in iTunes on your computer that you'd like on your phone, but you don't want to buy an Apple iPhone (perhaps because of AT&T). … Read more

Effin Genius is like Pandora's smart little brother

No matter how much music you have on your iPhone or iPod Touch, sometimes you get bored with it or just want somebody else to drive.

That's the appeal of apps like Pandora and Slacker, which build personalized radio stations based on a particular artist, then let you customize those stations to various degrees.

A new app called Effin Genius, from Seattle company Melodeo, takes a different approach: instead of forcing you to enter the name of an artist or musical genre--or anything at all--Effin Genius analyzes the playlists in the iTunes library on your iPhone or iPod Touch, … Read more

Alltel phones get a little Nutsie

If you've ever hankered to listen to your iTunes selections from your Alltel phone, now you can. Alltel Wireless announced Wednesday that it's offering Nutsie--which lets you upload your library to the Web and then stream it to your phone--on more than 10 of its devices. There are some restrictions, however.

Developed by Melodeo and launched last year, Nutsie will be available on Alltel phones including the Motorola Razr V3m and V3c; the Motorola Krzr K1m; the Motorola Razr2 V9m and Motorola Rokr Z6; the LG AX565, Wave, and AX8600; the Samsung Muse and Wafer, and the … Read more