Simplify Media (iPhone) beta build 1010

The music-sharing application Simplify Media has a growing network of fans, and now can be used to share the music on your iPhone and iPod Touch. Getting started requires registering for free at Simplify Media's Web site, but once that's done users can stream their music libraries. It can take a few minutes for the application to scan your directory so don't be surprised if it doesn't work right away.

Once you're all set up, the iPhone version of Simplify Media will display available libraries on your touch screen, and you'll be able to browse through song lists by genre, artist, and song--just like iTunes. The program also brings up album art for the artist you're listening to, along with artist biographies and a lyric sheet for the current song. In our tests, the artist bio and lyrics pages sometimes were only displayed as far as the bottom of the screen, with no option for scrolling down. The program worked almost flawlessly using Wi-Fi, but on 3G it wasn't as reliable and would pause to buffer the stream.

In theory, the application works much the same as the desktop client version, where you can share music with up to 30 friends' libraries. Overall, though, it seems it still needs work. Those with reliable Wi-Fi or a strong 3G connection should experience the best results, but the application was definitely buggy and crashes were not uncommon.