As you may have read previously in our blog, we have optimized Snowtape Phone for the iPhone’s 4 Retina Display. This version 1.3 is now available to download via the iTunes App Store. But today I like to point you to other enhancements we made for this release.

Last.fm Scrobbling

First of all we added support for Last.fm Scrobbling. With Last.fm you can share your music taste with others and find out about great music you may also like. Setting it up is pretty easy. All you have to do is enable Scrobbling in the Settings and enter your Last.fm username and password. And that’s it. Snowtape will start scrobbling the music you are currently listening to immediately. And if you find a song especially great, shake your iPhone or iPod and hit the “Add” button when Snowtape asks you if you love this song and like to add it to your list of Loved Tracks. Last.fm will create a list of songs you like most. And if you like to share you’re music habits with other Snowtape users, you are always invited to become a member of the “Snowtape Scrobblers” Last.fm group. In this group you can connect with Snowtape pros and beginners and share your thoughts and opinions.

Task Manager Playback Controls

In version 1.2 we added support for the iOS4 task manager playback controls for track playback. This version also adds support for pause and resume of currently running radio streams.

Support for the iPod Sleep Timer

The iPhone app “Clock” has a built-in function to stop iPod playback after a certain period of time. In version 1.3 we added support to Snowtape for that feature. So if you just need a little bit of radio music before you can go to sleep, just create a timer and select “Sleep iPod” in the “When Timer Ends” options.

Snowtape 1.3 is a free update and cost $1.99 to buy. Follow us on Twitter, because we send out promo codes from time to time and always provide you with instant news.

A lot of people ask us why we haven't released an update for Snowtape Phone yet with a user interface optimized for the Retina Display. The answer is really simple. The user interface of Snowtape Phone so highly customized that it was a rather huge task and took a little bit longer as we hoped. But nevertheless we think that the wait has been worth it. I today proudly present the Retina optimized user interface of Snowtape Phone!

In addition to the higher resolution interface we also doubled the resolution of cover artwork throughout the app. If you don't have an iPhone 4 you can't really begin to image how crisp this new interface looks like on the new display. It's really awesome!

The update to Snowtape Phone 1.3 will be available next week with some additional features, which I don't want to disclose just yet. Stay tuned for more info and now let us stare on the screen posters!

As many of you know, Apple just published iOS 4.0, a brand new version of the iPhone OS. And with that they actually enabled us to create a version of Snowtape for iPhone that can run radio and recordings in the background. We took the chance and created Snowtape 1.2 which has just been published by Apple today. I like to take the time and explain what’s new and how you can benefit from the new possibilities.

Get iOS 4 and an iPhone 3GS or an iPhone 4

The first thing I like to point out is that to actually use the new multitasking features you need to update your device to iOS 4.0. Also multitasking is not available on older devices. You need to have an iPhone 3GS, a new iPhone 4 or an iPod Touch 3rd generation. The iPhone 3G can have the new iOS 4 as well, but you won’t be able to use the new multitasking features due to memory and performance constraints. We actually tested iOS 4 on an iPhone 3G and can not even advise to update since is awfully slow.

Listening to Radio in the Background

If you meet all the requirements above you should be able to get multitasking running smoothly. Start listening to radio and hit the Home button. Music will continue playing and Snowtape will even continue recording. Hit the Home button twice and you can fast-switch between apps. Do what ever you like to do and come back to Snowtape later to check what songs have been recorded and save them for permanent storage. If a phone call comes in Snowtape will automatically pause radio. If you then like to continue listening you need to switch to Snowtape and hit the continue button on the dialog that has been popped up. Same happens when you hit the remote control of the Fast-App-Switcher or on your iPhone head phones to start iPod playback.

Remote control Playback of Recordings

As you may know, Snowtape lets you define folders with your favorite recordings which can then be played back in a playlist. This now also works in the background. Play back your favorite music while you’re doing Twitter or playing your favorite game. In addition to background playback, Snowtape also let’s you remote control it with the Fast-App-Switcher remote control or with the buttons on you iPhone headset. It works just like the iPod app. You can even pause playback from within the lock screen.

We think that this new version of Snowtape will blow you away and finally makes listening to radio on your iPhone a no-brainer. Snowtape 1.2 is a free update and cost $1.99 to buy.

Follow us on Twitter. We'll send out promo codes over the next days.

We're dropping the price of Snowtape Phone for a short period of time. Don't wait any longer, it's not going to be any cheaper!

I am happy to announce that the Apple review team just approved the update of Snowtape Phone 1.1. It is available for download and for update on the App Store. We listened to our customers and added lots of new features! I just want to highlight some of the most wanted:

More than 2300 Radio Stations

A lot of our customers wanted to listen to their local radio station. Obviously this was a demand we weren‘t able to foresee when we released version 1.0. So we limited the initial version to the most compatible and best radio stations we knew. However we now know that local radio stations are very important when it comes to listening radio at all. So we added all radio stations we currently have in our directory that use MP3 or AAC as their streaming format. Windows Media streams are not available at this time, but we are working on it.

Pimped Radio Directory

In addition to adding more and more radio stations, it was also necessary to give you more flexibility to browse the online directory to better find what you are looking for. So we added country lists, our Top 100 station list and a text search. Of cause not all radio stations are submitting title information, which is needed to automatically cut the recordings. Therefore we had to add an option to manually split a recording. You can do this by tapping on the small scissors icon in the right lower corner. And if you don‘t want to record at all, you can even disable it alltogether.

Manage your Favorites

Also a much requested feature was to mark a radio station as favorite. You can do this by tapping the star icon in the lower right corner of the radio view when listening to a radio station. Favorite radio stations are stored in a category called „Favorite stations“. You can also add your own radio station (assuming it‘s compatible with Snowtape) as a favorite by entering a URL to a stream or to a playlist file.

Update now and please give us a little hug in the App Store review section! More info on the new features here.

We are still waiting for Apple to approve Snowtape Phone 1.0.1. It is now 14 days in review. I can't say why and what the problem is. I have no idea. Apple is keeping us in the dark as usually. Maybe we still have to wait a little bit longer.

In the meantime we are shifting our focus again to the Mac version and releasing a public beta version today. We improved Windows Media playback and the overall responsiveness of the app. If you like to try, you need to enable beta releases inside the app. Here is how.

Please send us feedback about bugs and problems.

Note: SnowRemote 1.0.6 is not compatible anymore. You need to update to version 1.0.7 which is currently in App Store review.

Note: Make sure you backup your database and your original app before trying a beta release. Use at your own risk.