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The Rhapsody mobile app that has already laid root in iPhone and Android is now getting cozy with BlackBerry. It’s been in a closed beta for a little while now, but has since opened up, and anyone with a BlackBerry (touch or traditional) can get downloading.
The Rhapsody music service is pretty standard; for $10/month users can make their own playlists using the Rhapsody’s 10 million song-plus library, stream tunes on-demand over Wi-Fi or 3G, or give the suggestion engine a shot, which automatically generates a playlist based on a particular artist or genre (though it doesn’t look like there’s a thumbs up/down system to further tweak your tastes). If you want to download the tracks for access whenever and wherever you like, they go for $0.69 – $1.29 each.
Rhapsody nice enough, but these days I’ve been spending most of my time on Grooveshark, mainly since for the price of three months on Rhapsody, I can get a whole year on Grooveshark. I think Real’s best contribution to mobile so far has been their conversion tools in RealPlayer. Not only does it let you rip Flash videos from your desktop web browser, but it also provides easy conversion tools for facilitate easy video viewing on a number of phones. Compatibility with video formats can be shaky territory to say the least, so it’s really nice to have a company step in and provide a free, easy solution.
For now, the beta for Rhapsody is free, but once it wraps up, subscription requirements will kick in, when you can expect to pay up. Offline caching is still in the works, but we can probably expect it once the beta tag is peeled off. Head over to Rhapsody.com in your BlackBerry’s browser to download, just keep in mind that for now it’s U.S. only. Oh, and here’s a little video showing the app in action.
[RT @Rhapsody]
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
