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- All of these new features, including the dark mode and live lyrics are now available in the stable version of Apple Music, and rolling out to users.
Earlier this month, Apple Music received a beta update that added a new dark mode and synchronized lyrics with the music. While that did cross off two of the most wanted features in the app, there was still one request that Apple hadn't yet answered: Chromecast support. Now, nearly four years after the service launched on Android, it can finally play our tunes on Chromecast speakers.
iHeartMedia is one of the last titans of the radio industry, with more than 850 AM and FM radio stations under its belt. The company's iHeartRadio mobile app, which allows users to listen to all of its stations over an internet connection, currently has over 50 million installs on the Play Store. However, it yesterday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as part of an effort to restructure its debt.
Internet radio app iHeartRadio is pretty popular with Android users and with good reason. It's built up an impressive feature set to go along with its attractive interface and is frequently updated with useful additions, such as Google Home support earlier in the year. The latest version brings with it a dedicated Android Wear 2.0 app, and you don't need your phone for it to work.
Google Home has supported playing radio through TuneIn since launch. Simply ask it to play a local AM/FM or internet station, and it will start streaming in seconds. Now it looks like Google is in the early stages of rolling out support for iHeartRadio.
iHeartRadio has been on a roll with new features over the past few weeks. It introduced paid Plus and All Access plans and promised support for Google Home, and now the service is ready for more novelty.
iHeartRadio, the online radio service, recently announced its paid on-demand All Access plans and it's now officially making them available (even though they have been accessible for almost a month). But that's not what we're here for. Another announcement coming from the company at CES is its upcoming integration with Google Home and a few other hardware and software partners.
Are you discontent with the many dozens of on-demand music services? Well, here's one more for you to try and hopefully love... or maybe hate, because let's be realistic, if you still haven't found one that works well for you, it's going to be very difficult to satisfy your taste. But iHeartRadio would sure like to take on that challenge with its two new paid plans.
There's some great news if you're an Optus customer. Starting from May 2nd, they will be zero-rating a number of online streaming services for their prepaid customers, allowing them to listen to as much music as they want without racking up a heavy data bill.
Android Auto hasn't arrived in vehicles yet, but interested parties are already getting their ducks in a row. We've seen car manufacturers announce support and a handful of aftermarket radio makers show off their products (Parrot, Kenwood, Pioneer), all stuff to get excited about. But for any of this to be good, app developers have to get behind the platform as well. So it's good to see iHeartRadio add Android Auto support in the latest app update.
The stable of apps that support Google's Chromecast device just seems to keep growing. In addition to NPR One and Watch ABC last month, Google just announced a handful of new apps that have been enabled today. The biggest additions for our readers are probably Twitch, the online game stream broadcasting service, and iHeartRadio, the radio streaming service from ClearChannel iHeartMedia. Both of them should be ready to stream content to your TV now.
If you're a regular user of the iHeartRadio service, there's a big update waiting for you in the Play Store. The most useful addition in the new version of the Android app is undoubtedly the expanded control options: you can now pause, play, or advance your streaming music on the lockscreen or the new notification. The notification is even expandable - are you watching this, Pandora?