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Shazam was one of the early App Store success stories, offering users the ability to easily identify music by capturing a snippet of the song and matching it against a database to provide title and artist information. The service has since expanded to integrate with the iTunes Store, YouTube, lyrics, and more, with TV shows and ads even adopting Shazam to allow users to easily learn more about the show or product.

Shazam has offered separate apps for the iPhone and iPad since 2010, but the company today unveiled a universal version of the iPhone app that includes a completely rebuilt experience for the iPad. A number of new features have shown up in the iPad version of Shazam, most notably a background tagging feature that allows users to have all matching incoming audio tagged even while using other applications on their devices. TechCrunch explains a bit more about how it works:

[A]fter downloading the updated version, users will be walked through a brief tutorial that explains what Auto-Tagging is all about, then allowing users to switch it on, if desired. If they do so, the app will run in the background, listening for anything it can identify, and loading those items into a carousel at the top of its homescreen.

From here, users can interact with the content much as before – sharing it on social media, buying the song, show or movie from iTunes or Amazon, or in the case of TV shows, learning more about the cast and episode, viewing a playlist of songs in the broadcast, or heading off to sites like Wikipedia, IMDb, the official website and/or store, and more.

Other new features arriving in Shazam 6.0 include a mapping system that allows users to see popular music on a city-by-city basis, Rdio integration, streamlined sharing, and automatic resubmission of tags for users in areas with poor reception. The iPad app is also adding for the first time Shazam's LyricPlay feature that shows lyrics on-screen in sync with the music.

Shazam is a free download from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Users interested in an ad-free Shazam experience can either upgrade through the free Shazam app or directly purchase Shazam Encore for $6.99. [Direct Link]

Popular email app Mailbox, which launched for iPhone in early February with a reservation system that saw well over one million users sign up before the company eliminated reservations last month, has now gone universal with a native interface for the ...

As noted by Gizmodo, iLoveHandles has launched a new Trunk Lightning charging cable for the iPhone 5, offering an innovative posable design that allows the short cable to also serve as a stand for the device.

Unlike the short, flaccid charging cables on the market, you can bend Trunk vertical to charge on the wall, bend it the other way and use GPS in the car, or straighten it out and put it in a pocket when you're on the move.

Why do you need all that cord? With Trunk, there is no wrapping, no tangling -- no mess.

Trunk is available through the iLoveHandles online store for $19.95.

Logitech today announced the upcoming launch of its Wired Keyboard for iPad, a $60 accessory specifically targeted at schools. The keyboard is available in both Lightning and 30-pin varieties and aims to eliminate the complexity of pairing numerous Bluetooth keyboards with their respective iPads in a classroom setting.

“Schools are increasingly purchasing iPads for use in the classroom,” said Mike Culver, vice president and general manager of mobility at Logitech. “While tablets are enabling new ways of teaching and testing, there’s a challenge when a teacher needs to simultaneously pair multiple iPads with multiple wireless Bluetooth keyboards. We developed the Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad to specifically solve this problem, so students can now simply plug it in and start typing.”

Logitech has also given the keyboard a sturdy design to support the demands of classroom usage, with spill resistance and key lifespan of over five million strokes. The keyboard also includes a dedicated row of function keys to provide easy access to shortcuts for Siri, copy/paste, search, media playback, and more.

The Logitech Wired Keyboard for iPad with Lightning connector is expected to launch in August, with the 30-pin connector version following in October.

Anatolia News Agency reports that Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Apple yesterday as part of a tour of Silicon Valley companies ahead of the country's move to purchase 10.6 million tablets for its schoolchildren. Erdoğan also visited Microsoft's Bay Area outpost and Google during his trip.

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (left) visits Apple
The meeting at Apple was just the latest of numerous interactions between Apple executives and Turkish government officials as Apple seeks to win the massive tablet contract. A number of Apple executives including vice president for education John Couch traveled to Turkey back in February to meet with Turkish president Abdullah Gül, while Gül had visited Apple in May 2012.

Ahead of the education tablet bid, Apple is in the midst of a significant push into the Turkish market, having launched the iTunes Store for music and movies there last December and begun hiring for future retail stores in the country.

(Thanks, Paul!)

Cult of Mac points to a report [Google translation] from Taiwanese site TechNews claiming that Apple will be including a sapphire-covered capacitive home button on the iPhone 5S in order to accommodate the fingerprint sensor rumored to be coming as a differentiating feature for the device.

Apple is expected to do away with the traditional physical home button, which has long been one of the most unreliable components on iOS devices. It’s thought that using sapphire crystal, which has a hardness second only to diamond, will prevent the button from getting scratched and ruining the fingerprint sensor. [...]

They insist Apple will employ a capacitive touch home button for the first time with the iPhone 5S, eliminating one of the most unreliable components in an iOS device (the physical home button has a tendency to fail after long periods of use).

TechNews has not, however, been a regular source of Apple rumors, and thus it is difficult to place much faith in this rumor. Rumors of a capacitive home button to replace the physical button that has been a staple of iOS devices since the launch of the original iPhone in 2007 have circulated for several years, but have never gained serious traction.


Reports of a fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S have been gaining steam following Apple's acquisition of mobile security firm AuthenTec last year, with high-profile Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo repeatedly predicting that the device will include such a feature "under" the home button, although details on exactly how it will be incorporated into the device remain unknown.

Sapphire crystal as a scratch-resistant covering has also been a popular topic of conversation since Apple began using the material for the rear camera on the iPhone 5 and fifth-generation iPod touch last year. Earlier this year, we noted that the material may someday replace glass as the protective layer for mobile device displays, although it will take some time before costs become reasonable for such an expansive use of sapphire.

Earlier today, Nowhereelse.fr highlighted new part photos posted by Japanese vendor Moumantai showing what is claimed to be from the iPhone 5S or perhaps Apple's lower-cost iPhone. The part corresponds to an iPhone 5 part attached to the top end of the...

As noticed by iGeneration [Google translation], Apple has added new Flyover imagery and 3D buildings for Paris, France. The new imagery, which extends into the Paris suburbs, marks a significant enhancement for Apple's 3D maps in France given that the ...

Jim Dalrymple, the veteran Apple journalist behind The Loop, is launching a new magazine for iOS devices today. Rather than simply being an iOS version of the existing site, the magazine version of The Loop is a separate publication hosting longer form writing from a variety of contributors and perspectives. As Dalrymple notes in his welcome message:

For many years people have been asking me why I didn't release an app for the iPhone and iPad. The answer was simple: I couldn't find anything that added value to what I did on The Loop. I wanted something more than a side-scrolling news app that basically imitated what I'd already linked to or written on the Web site. [...]

It wasn't until I saw the format that Marco Arment used in The Magazine that I realized what I really wanted for The Loop -- a design and reading experience that matched what I had on the Web site. An easy to read magazine that focused on original content, not on selling ads.

The inaugural issue of The Loop magazine includes a half dozen articles:

- A piece on enduring design from developer Matt Gemmell
- An autobiographical piece from Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess talking about the impact of technology and how he has embraced it in his work
- An essay on the impact of the smartphone revolution bringing computers into our pockets from Creative Strategies analyst and Time contributor Ben Bajarin
- A look at the balkanization of the Mac gaming industry by The Loop co-founder and iMore senior editor Peter Cohen
- A personal look at disruptive problem solving from Flexibits co-founder Michael Simmons
- A brief introduction to wine for newbies from event planner Brenda Singer

The Loop magazine is available through Apple's Newsstand automatic subscription delivery service and published twice per month, with subscriptions priced at $1.99 per month. [Direct Link]

As the ongoing court battles between Apple and Samsung continue, Bloomberg reports that Apple has become more aggressive in pushing for Google to turn over Android-related documents that may be pertinent to the case. Apple argues that Google's refusal to reveal the search terms it is using to find documents requested by Apple as part of the pretrial discovery phase of the latest lawsuit between Apple and Samsung suggests that Google may not be finding certain relevant documents.

Apple, as part of its second patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung in the same court, argues that Android is used in all of Samsung’s allegedly infringing products and “provides much of the accused functionality” in Apple’s claims, according to a court filing.

“It’s a question of transparency,” Mark Lyon, a lawyer for Apple, told Grewal yesterday, referring to the documents. “We have concerns that they’re not doing a full search.”

Google lawyer Matthew Warren has argued that Apple is seeking an unfair advantage, keeping Google out of the formal case in order to prevent reciprocal discovery efforts while still prying into Google's internal documents through third-party discovery. According to Warren:

Turning over the search terms Apple wants may lead to “future discovery that we don’t think they’re entitled to” and give Apple “ideas about how to proceed that they wouldn’t have had.”

The case at hand relates to some of Apple's and Samsung's latest handsets, including the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S III. It is a followup to a previous case that saw a jury award Apple $1 billion, although the judge in the case has voided nearly half of that judgment due to jury errors and a new trial to determine corrected damages is set for November.