radio

Playing the new Grand Theft Auto: Vice City on my iPad (it's coming soon for Android) made me nostalgic for other GTA games. Not so much for the gratuitous violence, but for the radio stations that have become a hallmark of the series.

Indeed, these in-game stations play not only a huge variety of commercial tunes (in GTA IV alone, you'll find everything from Count Basie to Genesis to Kanye West), but also some crackling DJ banter and hilarious fake ads. (The Public Liberty Radio station is bust-a-gut funny.)… Read more

Jet Set Radio, the cult classic Dreamcast title from 2000, is now available for iOS and Android, following its HD rerelease on PSN, XBLA, and Windows.

Easily one of the most creative, as well as subversive, video games ever conceived, gameplay consists mainly of "grinding" (aggressive inline skating) across a colorful neo-Tokyo, tagging walls, and recruiting new members, who then become playable characters, to your gang, the GGs -- all while while evading police, rival gangs, and listening to the pirate radio station from whence the game gets its name, hosted by DJ Proooooofesssoooooor KKKKKKKKKKKK.

Jet Set Radio … Read more

If you've finally decided to pull the trigger on a Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone, you might want to wait until Sunday -- then head to your local Radio Shack.

Starting that day, you'll be able to get a free second phone (among other goodies) when you buy a Galaxy S3 for $99.99 (with contract, natch) from any of three major carriers. Here's the rundown of the 'Shack's BOGO deals:

AT&T: Buy a Galaxy S3, get a Galaxy S2 Skyrocket for free.

Sprint: Buy a Galaxy S3, get a Galaxy S2 (that link is … Read more

It seems that every couple months, rumors heat up about Apple releasing a Pandora rival. But this time, analysts give a rough time frame of 2013 for "iRadio," which they say will be "vastly superior" to Pandora.

What could Apple's streaming-music service offer that would make it superior to any of the other services that are out there right now? Let us know in the comments!

Also this week, a Facebook rumor gets debunked in around 48 hours, and Asus might be cooking up another low-cost tablet, but we're too into watching TV to … Read more

Pandora Radio is an app that provides a free audio feed that is customizable to your musical tastes. The free app provides the basic service, or you can upgrade (for $3.99 a month) to a higher-quality feed that removes all ads and has fewer interruptions. The app installs easily from iTunes.

When you start Pandora Radio for the first time, you select a favorite artist, song, or album, and Pandora Radio will start to create customized playlists with similar music. As the playlists go on, you can fine-tune the types of music you like or dislike and the feed … Read more

There are tons of music-listening apps in both of the big app stores, but when you want to find new music, there's nothing better than a streaming-radio app. These apps are set up for browsing through stations and genres so you can get a fresh dose of new options based on the music you like.

The obvious choice here is an app like Pandora (free - iOS|Android), but there are a few I like that have other options that might appeal to different types of music listeners.… Read more

Apple could soon take on Pandora and Spotify directly, market-research firm BTIG Research writes in a new report.

The firm today predicts that Apple will launch a streaming-music service at some point in 2013. The research outfit, which says that it came to the conclusion after holding interviews with industry executives, said Apple's iTunes 11 launch yesterday is only further proof the service is coming.

BTIG pointed to the addition of a "Radio" option in the horizontal bar in iTunes 11, saying that while the current offering of stations "is unappealing to most consumers today, we … Read more

WASHINGTON D.C.--The technology sector is supposed to be one of the new power players in national politics. But you might be wondering what happened to its newfound political capital after watching its hapless attempts to lobby Congress to pass the Internet Radio Fairness Act (IRFA), a bill that would reduce the music royalties paid by Web radio services.

At a hearing yesterday before a House subcommittee studying IRFA, the tech world seemed to be the same amateurs in navigating Washington as they were before January's triumph over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Pandora and the other … Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Two representatives from the technology sector told Congress today that distributing music online is a losing business and that's due to the high cost of music.

A House subcommittee is holding a hearing this morning on the Internet Radio Fairness Act, a bill that would reduce the royalties Web radio services, such as Pandora, must pay for music. One of the six witnesses who testified was David Pakman, the former CEO of Web music service eMusic, who is now a partner at Venrock, the venture arm of the Rockefeller family.

The music industry, which opposes the legislation, … Read more