It simply hooks into the iPod functionalit and submits the Artist, Track and Album information to my Last.FM profile. Having been an avid, subscribing scrobbler for nigh on three years now, I can’t bear to listen to anything that doesn’t get posted to my profile. I’m very OCD about it; no CDs in the car (my HU has a ‘Made for iPod’ interface), no radio, no net streaming (except for the last.fm client).
It’s therefore been a bit of a struggle moving away from my iPod to _just_ the iPhone.

The current last.fm client isn’t able to scrobble iPhone plays in the same conventional manner that it does for iTunes or iPod plays. Apparently the way an iPhone syncs is completely different to iPod classic.

Anyhow, MobileScrobbler not only does this for you, it also does it over Edge/GPRS so it’ll scrobble in real time, on the move. Network permitting of course. (If it can’t scrobble it keeps the tracks in a cache until it can).

Simply brilliant, I can’t wait to get time to see what other goodness is available through Installer.

[EDIT]  I just checked out the dev guys blog, he’s almost got the whole Last.fm client functionality down including the streaming and last.fm wiki integration.

Here are the the first couple of tracks I put through MSc.

Uploaded with Skitch!

[tags]iphone, last.fm, scrobble, MobileScrobbler, music, Stereophonics, Paramore[/tags]

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Opening the platform up with proper SDKs, whether sandboxed or via 1337 root access, is sure to propel the platform forward exponentially.  As it goes, I picked up a Macbook earlier in the week and have started exercising my brain with some Cocoa coding so that i’m up to speed by the time the SDK is released.

One final thing I thought i’d mention is battery life.  I’ve left it for 3 days now without charging it up.  Having used it as normal, including phone, SMS, WiFI, iTMS, iPOD, Safari (pretty much all of the functionality!) the battery indicator is currently at aprox. 50%.

Final Words 

Granted, the camera is a weak point as is the EDGE network and they’re both items which can’t be addressed in a software update.

So, am I bothered by the lack of camera? 
No, not really. 

Whilst it’s a nice to have, i’ve just looked through the pictures on my previous phone.  I’m not going to save any of them.  All I used the camera for previously was for opportunistic clicks.  I’ve generally got my ‘proper’ (not DSLR proper!) camera with me anyway.

Is the EDGE network a pain in the ass?
Sometimes, but it’s not as stupidly slow as some internet comments have portrayed. 

I’ve been able to find WiFi access when I needed it and haven’t gotten annoyed or frustrated with EDGE at all.

Unfortunately, what with the hype around the iPhone, it seems that the device is suffering from over popularity.  Its become an easy target for comparisons and complaints, a good example is my earlier post – written out of frustration that it wasn’t the all singing, all dancing cure for cancer that it had been hyped up to be. 

Compared to my previous phone, it’s definately a step up and in the right direction.  Yes there are shortfalls in comparison with established devices and platforms but in it’s own right, and IMO it’s a cool and useful device.
I’m just waiting for Last.FM to include iPhone scrobbling support!

[tags]Apple, Cocoa, iPhone Review, Macbook, N95, last.fm[/tags]

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