I will start by saying that I am a huge supporter of Pandora. When I heard about this Pandora like service being built into iTunes, I am stoked because Pandora is looking like it might go out of business. I was very hopeful that iTunes 8 would fill the void in my life that is going to be created when/if Pandora disappears.

I have been playing with iTunes 8 and the new Genius functionality, and I am not very impressed. I like the new viewing options available in iTunes 8, and the new visualizations are stunning, but iTunes Genius is a different story.

iTunes Genius goes through and analyzes your music collection when you first install iTunes 8. From there, it allows you to click the Genius button when you select a song, and it will auto create a playlist filling with a preset number of songs that iTunes believe are along the same style of music. Well, it doesn’t work. I am going to give Apple the benefit of the doubt, that this service will improve once more people experiment with it, but for now, it is no good. Let me give you and example:

As you can see I created a iTunes Genius playlist based on the song I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry, and what is this, Disturbed showed up in the results? Those songs could not be more opposite.

What are your thoughts on iTunes 8 and the new Genius integration? Have you had any strange results appear when using the Genius playlist creator?

Hot off the press, Apple C.E.O. Steve Jobs just announced a new function in iTunes 8. This function called Genius is essentially Pandora. Based on rating, number of plays, and style of music, iTunes 8 will make other recommendation of artist and songs it thinks you will like. The Genius function will also analyze your library and create playlist based on the artist. Like Pandora, this will auto create playlist of music that sounds alike. I think it is a functionality that is well over due to iTunes which is now the largest distributor of music in the US.

This service seems like a compelete rip of the famous service my Pandora Music. Most people are saying that this is a welcome addition to iTunes because Pandora is doomed to shutdown soon.

As you all already know, I am loving my new iPhone. While the phone itself is awesome, the true enjoyment of the phone comes from the third party apps. Below I am going to walk you through the useful apps I have choose to follow me everywhere I go. This list is only the useful apps; I am going to review games in Part 3 of my iPhone coverage.

If you think I am missing some great apps, please let me know so I can check them out.

WeatherBug

The default weather app on the iPhone SUCKS! It is missing a lot of information that one might want when looking for a weather report. WeatherBug gives you all the normal stuff like current temp, heat index, humidity, and a few day out forecast, but what I really find useful is that WeatherBug allows you to view radar maps that use the Multi-Touch pitch zoom functionality.

While I have had some issues with the radar maps not loading completely, it has not really bugged me. WeatherBug also allows you to view weather webcams around your area. Also, you can track multiple locations very easily.

iTunes Download Link: WeatherBug

Twitteriffic

As most of you know, I am a twitter fanatic. I love posting tweets when I am away from my computer. I have been doing this for sometime via text message, but now I can easily post tweets without using up my text messages.

Twitteriffic has some nice extras too. You can post photo tweets directly from Twitteriffic as it is integrated with the Twitpic.com service. Twitteriffic also uses the built in iPhone GPS to update your profile on Twitter with your exact location. I find this to be a little to intrusive on my privacy. I don’t want people knowing exactly where I am all the time so I don’t use this function.

There are 2 versions of this app, a free version and a pay, I use the free because well, it is free. The only real difference is that with the free version, you see an ad appear in your Twitteriffic home screen. This does not bug, because the ads are tastefully done, and placed in non annoying locations.

Additional Note: Twitteriffic is very complex and might be overwhelming at first, but read the hints and give yourself some time to figure out how it all works then you will love it!

Associated with: http://www.Twitter.com/
iTunes Download Link: Twitteriffic