New Wireless Earbuds Bring Tech to the Next Level

Bluetooth earbuds have been understandably popular for some years now, but it was not until recent years that companies finally achieved the push for wireless with headphones and especially earbuds. Since they did emerge, there are now dozens of truly wireless earbuds, with no cord connecting the left and right together, on the market. While not the first available commercially, the Apple AirPods were the first to really bring wireless earbuds into the public eye. Unfortunately, they were not good for sporting due to a lack of water and sweat resistance, nor do they stay in your ears with excessive movement, so a large part of those who would find them beneficial do not find them useful. In 2017, Jabra released the Elite Sport earbuds to deal with this issue, designing them with athletes in mind, and they have reinvented them with the Elite Sport Upgraded. Read more »

Traditionally, there has been little technological innovation in sheet music; the greatest innovation in hundreds of years, it would seem, is the ability to view music tabs to play along to online. This is no longer the case thanks to an app called Chromatik. With Chromatik, players any instrument of any skill level can upload, make notes on, and share sheet music, and it can even help make practicing an instrument more fun and organized for kids. There is also a social component to both the site and the app with strong privacy protections that allow kids to connect with fellow students, family members, and trusted teachers.  With Chromatik, users can not only practice anytime, no matter where they are, but they can also discuss music, share recordings, get feedback, and more. Read more »

Medical research from such reputable sources as Harvard Medical School, the National Institute of Health, and McGill University reveals that singing can have a profound impact on our physical, emotional and cognitive fitness. Medical technology has made strides in dealing with developmental disabilities, rehabilitation from brain trauma, and dementia, and now an app called SingFit combines the benefits of singing with mobile technology to, in its creators’ words, “turn music into medicine.” Studies have shown that many patients who cannot speak often can still sing, and music has been a part of healing in many cultures for millennia. Singing activates the entire brain rather than using only the left hemisphere, as in speech. SingFit works by engaging both sides of the brain to give the left hemisphere a boost and get those suffering from brain damage or disabilities moving and speaking again. Read more »

Entertainment is a focus of evolving technology, and music is a large part of that market. While iTunes and similar services are excellent resources for collecting music from all genres, a few apps available offer a little extra innovation. Groovebug is one of them that its creators say enables users to effortlessly connect with and follow their favorite bands while discovering new music along the way. It works by scanning the user’s music library and creating a personalized music magazine, and it goes beyond single music tracks or albums. It collects not just music but videos, images, news from the Internet, and music from similar artists according to the user’s music taste. Whatever musical genres you prefer, Groovebug creates a personalized music magazine that relates to you.

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Many people consider music to be an essential part of their everyday lives.  Most mobile devices and computers come with a music player built in, and there are subscription services that allow people to listen to music whenever and wherever they want. The problem with these subscription services is that they require an Internet connection to use them, and stock music players do not have the features that many people want.  Poweramp is a music player that offers much more than the stock music apps that ship with phones.  It offers a smooth interface, speed, ease of use, plenty of themes to choose from for personalization, and more ways to tweak the sound of the music you are playing than almost any other music app available. Read more »

It is no new revelation that music can help to motivate and inspire people. The concept has been in practice for centuries, whether the tunes were to motivate soldiers going off to war, celebrate a happy event, or to inspire a sports team before a big game. This can come in many forms, including getting someone pumped up and ready for a task or distracting someone from focusing on their fatigue during physical activities. Music can set the mood and get you in the mindset you need to be in for whatever activity you happen to be doing at the time. Today, many people use music to help get in the mood for exercise or to motivate themselves to run just one more lap. Spring Moves is a music streaming app designed specifically with this kind of use in mind. Read more »

Crowdfunding is one of the biggest innovations the web has provided to small startups and independent artists in recent years.  The biggest crowdfunding sites, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo, support all types of crowdfunding campaigns, whether they be for a technology product, a video game, an independent film or even a theater production.  However, it is also very easy for projects to become lost on these larger sites. People aren’t just competing with others in their field for attention and support, but also projects in many other areas.  Cool product in technology Musicraiser is a crowdfunding site designed specifically for musicians.  By keeping the type of crowdfunding projects listed on the site limited to only music-related campaigns, Musicraiser gives individual artists and bands a better chance at achieving notice from fans.  Read more »

While music hobbyists and casual players often only own one or two instruments, professional musicians often have to manage a huge variety of musical instruments and accessories.  Moving these items from place to place for gigs as well as keeping track of all the necessary accessories and parts is more difficult than many people realize.  Fortunately, cool person in technology Steve Cook founded InstrumentLife to assist professional musicians in managing their countless guitars, keyboards, drums and other instruments. Cook creates products that use computer technology and the web to aid people as they care for their instruments. Read more »

DJs who mix and perform sets of Electronic Dance Music, or EDM for short, usually require large set-ups of computer hardware and digital turntables to put on a performance.  The amount of work involved in setting up equipment for each gig is substantial and can be limiting for DJs who make their living from their mixing and performance work.  Cool product in technology Mixify is an online platform that not only makes it possible for DJs to avoid large set-ups by streaming performances remotely in high quality audio, but also lets them stream mixes and sets to multiple locations at once all over the world.  Read more »

People have been creating personalized playlists since before music was digital.  Thousands of people still remember recording personal “mix tapes” on cassettes and sharing them with their friends or giving them as gifts to loved ones.  Digital playlists are, in many ways, the modern version of these personalized mix tapes and just like the mix tapes of old, people have a desire to share the playlists they create today.  Enter cool person in technology Darius Fong who has created a new service designed around the idea of everyday users crafting personalized playlists and sharing them with the world.  Fong’s product goes by the name of weeSPIN, emphasizing the social aspect of the service by using a play on the plural pronoun “we”.  Read more »