Hasta La Gadget!

Back in February, Spotify announced a partnership with Ford in which its app will be part of Ford’s Sync AppLink system. Now it looks like Spotify has teamed up with another car manufacturer, Volvo, and they will be bringing a voice-navigated version of their music service to future Volvo models. As you can imagine, driving while fiddling with your radio is probably not the smartest idea, especially when you’re trying to navigate to your favorite song, which is why this voice navigation feature sounds like it could be a good idea for convenience and safety.

For those who would rather not navigate using their voices or who find that the error rate is a little too high for their liking, they will still be able to navigate Spotify via the Sense Connected Touch dashboard system which comes with a 7” display. Users will be able to attach 3G or 4G dongles for streaming, or even tether their phone if they wish. The UI of Spotify is also expected to be similar to the Android version so if you’ve used Spotify before on your Android device, the learning curve shouldn’t be too steep. This new feature will debut in the Volvo V40, V40 Cross Country, S60, V60, XC60, V70, XC70 and S80 this coming May, but owners of Volvo vehicles made in 2011 will be able to retrofit it if they choose.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Spotify Coming To Ford Cars In North America, Next-gen In-Car Audio System Concept Revealed By B&O, Audi And Fraunhofer IIS,

Reel-to-reel tape machines are hugely outdated these days. Justifiable reasons to use them are dwindling. Unless you are like Wouter van Veldhoven, in which case you are a tape-machine wielding musical genius. More »

It was previously rumored Google could possibly introduce a music streaming service for its Android platform, and today, it looks as though a portion of that rumor is true as in addition to its Google Play for Android, it will be launching a music streaming service on YouTube.

According to a number of Fortune’s sources, the upcoming service planned to launch on YouTube will allow anyone to listen to music tracks for free with additional features available for a subscription fee. When reached for a comment regarding YouTube’s possible addition of a music-streaming service, the company shared the following statement:

While we don’t comment on rumor or speculation, there are some content creators that think they would benefit from a subscription revenue stream in addition to ads, so we’re looking at that.

If Gangnam Style has taught us anything it should be that K-POP is extremely addictive and people have been turning to YouTube for their music-listening needs for several years now. Maturing the brand to become a music-streaming service is one we’re sure many people would adopt as soon as it’s announced, which now that the cat may be out of the bag, would be soon.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Radio Buttons Found On Jailbroken iPad Corroborates iTunes Streaming Service Rumor, Apple’s Rumored Pandora-equivalent Radio Service Predicted For 2013 Announcement,

Gramophones for the most part have been relegated to furniture pieces, put on display to add that touch of retro to the room. Now the good news is that if you’re looking to shake things up as far as your home audio setup is concerned, but don’t want to deal with the hassle of buying vinyl records, audiophiles Pavan Bapu and Jeff Parrish have come up with a device called the Gramovox. On the surface it appears to be a regular gramophone, but underneath it lies a Bluetooth radio which is in place of physical media. This will allow listeners to pair their Bluetooth compatible devices, such as smartphones or tablets, with the Gramovox and play music through this.

The reason behind the creation of the Gramovox was inspired by “natural” smartphone sound systems where the sound from smartphone speakers are amplified by relying on natural acoustics, as opposed to plugging it to a set of speakers. No word on when the Gramovox will be released but we have to admit it looks pretty cool if you’re into vintage/retro devices. There has not been any mention of price either, but its creators are aiming for a Q3 release, so head on over to their website to sign up for updates, or check out the video above for more information.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: YouTube Music Streaming Service Coming This Year [Rumor], These Ceramic Speakers Look Great, But It Will Cost You $481,

The Tesla Model S is an undeniably cool vehicle. The car looks great and has zero emissions while offering very impressive performance. The car has been dinged in recent reviews over its driving distance, but any purely electric vehicle will produce range anxiety. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently showed off a relatively unknown feature that the Model S offers.

It turns out that the high-tech car will play any song you ask for whenever you ask for it. You don’t have to have the music on a connected iPod or smartphone either. You simply press the steering wheel button, tell the car what song you want to hear, and Musk says the car will go on the Internet, find a stream of the song, and begin playing it immediately – presumably using the car’s built-in 3G data connection.

From the video demo, it appears that the whole process happens impressively fast. I’ve owned a car with the Ford Sync system in the past that would play songs from my iPhone using voice commands, and the delay for that system and a local device appears to be about as long as the Model S needs to grab a song from the Internet.