Rhapsody Adds Offline Listening To iPhone App
Online subscription streaming service Rhapsody has added the ability to download playlists for offline listening via its iPhone application. Also, this past weekend Israel formally lifted its ban on iPad imports, and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak revealed that an Apple engineer was fired for showing off a 3G iPad.
Rhapsody adds playlist downloads
Released on Sunday, version 2.0 of the Rhapsody iPhone application (iTunes link) still requires a $10 per month subscription to the online service. But the latest update allows users to download playlists to their device, and listen to music when an Internet connection is not available for streaming of media.
“The 2.0 version of the Rhapsody app lets subscribers download their favorite Rhapsody playlists to their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad so they can listen anytime — even when they’re not connected to the Internet,” the company’s official blog reads. “Now, your favorite songs will live on your device, and you can listen to them anywhere: on the subway, on an airplane, even on a submarine.”
Playlists can be downloaded through a 3G or Wi-F connection, and can allow downloads of a range of songs on a playlist, or one specific album in its entirety.
It’s quite a change from last August, when the subscription service submitted their application to Apple without even knowing if the Cupertino, Calif., company would accept it onto the App Store. At the time, some had speculated that the fact that the product would allow users to bypass Apple’s iTunes Music Store could lead to its rejection.
The download feature has also beaten rival platforms Android and BlackBerry to the punch. Rhapsody said it plans to release versions for those platforms in the next few months. And it said it will offer a new iPad-specific application later this year when iPhone OS 4.0 offers multitasking capabilities.
[Via appleinsider.com]
Tags: Apple, apple engineer, Calif., download, G iPad, iphone, Israel, itunes music store, Rhapsody, Steve Wozniak