Shazam have been at the music recognition game for a while - and they've come up with a native S60 version of their flagship Shazam ID utility, which samples music snatches from the radio and then lets you know where it's from. Ewan's been trying to catch it out but ended up quite impressed.
The S60 native version of Shazam ID is nothing new - I've been using it for at least 18 months, although it was only semi-officially available. There was a download link for an N95 version from a Vodafone site doing the rounds on various boards, which although not advertised as compatible, worked perfectly on my 6120 Classic on T-Mobile. This same version does not work on my 6220 Classic.
All your screen shots are from the old version - the new version from the Shazam site (which does work on the 6220) has a spruced up user interface. More importantly, it seems more accurate.
You don't need to hold your phone next to a speaker. Depending on the tune itself and the background noise (and probably the phone) you can be some way from the speaker, and in a noisy environment. The new version did a great job in a noisy pub the other night even though I didn't get up and go anywhere near the speaker and the music wasn't blaring.
Over 18 months or so, I've been really impressed at how obscure some of the tracks are that it can recognise - even special mixes of unknown dance tunes. It also works fine abroad, though obviously there is a little bit of internet bandwidth to pay for (not very much I think).
Some handset maker ought to integrate this into their default music application, that really WOULD be a "unique selling point".
It's exactly the kind of thing mainstream newspapers love to report, could get a phone a lot of publicity. If it was integrated with an on-board music service it would also be a great way to sell tracks.
N96
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