Rdio Revamps Their iOS App; Missing "A" Presumed Lost

Rdio, from the founders of Skype and haters of the letter A (we presume), have announced that their iOS app has gotten a huge update, revamping a bunch of the app's features. If you're not familiar with Rdio, it's a subscription service that lets you search for an and stream music on their service (which includes most if not all major popular releases) to devices that support their service, including iOS and Android apps. It's a subscription-based service, costing $9.99 per month for unlimited streaming and the ability to sync songs straight to your device for when listening when you're offline. They also offer a $4.99 per month subscription, for access via the web only.

The app features a bunch of new features. First, the homescreen has been redesigned in a more Springboard-esque design (similar to the Facebook app's home screen), with the ability to customize and rearrange the icons on the homescreen itself. As well, they've added access to see top charts and new releases, so if you need to stay hip on what's new, you can look at it, be befuddled as to who these people are and why they all sound like robots, before going back to your music with distorted guitars and incomprehensible screaming. That may just be me, though. Thankfully for people like me, personalized recommendations based on what you listen to are offered as well, so you can further envelop yourself in your bubble of specific taste. There's a fairly solid social aspect to the whole system as well, where the recommendations can be pulled from friends and taste leaders whom you "follow," a la Twitter.

As far as actually listening to music goes with the Rdio app, there's now a bar at the bottom of the app that lets you easily call up your currently playing song list and controls, so you can easily play/pause and skip tracks without losing your place in the app. You can also set your specific syncing options, so if you want songs to sync to your device only on wifi and never on 3G, or if you want to never actually download anything to your device, you can do so. Rdio is a neat service for legally listening to music on demand, and the app comes with a free 7-day trial so you can check out the service risk free, without entering any kind of payment information. If you've been looking for a streaming music service for your iOS device, Rdio is worth a look.