Smule Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Billboard nominates music app awards

by Mike Schramm (Sep 2nd, 2010)

Billboard has announced that it will be giving awards out for iOS music apps (of all things). At the Music App Summit on October 5th, Billboard will choose winning iOS apps in six different categories, from Best Artist App and Best Music Creation App to Best Branded Music App. You can find the full ...

Smule's Glee app puts a song in your heart and on your phone

by Michael Rose (Apr 15th, 2010)

Enthusiastic fans of Fox's hit teen angst 'n jazz hands show Glee refer to themselves as 'gleeks,' a portmanteau of glee and geek. It's a sure bet that the gleeks will be beside themselves when they hit the App Store today and see the new US$2.99 Glee app, which brings the show's musical numbers to ...

Found Footage: Cat and iPad play well together

by Steven Sande (Apr 14th, 2010)

If you're not in the market to buy an iPad for yourself, at least get one for your cat. YouTube user Rautiocination captured his cat Iggy and his iPad, both apparently in a playful mood. It appears that iPads may soon become the toy of choice for well-heeled felines! Smule's Magic Piano is the ...

Tons of iPad app releases on the App Store now

by Mike Schramm (Apr 2nd, 2010)

Embargoes on every app in the iPad's app store broke this morning, and there's almost too many new iPad apps to write about. But worry not, dear readers -- we've sifted through the flood of press releases in the inbox this morning, and we're here to bring you the brightest and best iPad app news ...

Macworld 2010: TUAW interviews Dr. Ge Wang of Smule

by Mike Schramm (Feb 12th, 2010)

We've talked to a lot of people at Macworld already, but Dr. Ge Wang is one of my favorites -- he's the co-founder of Smule, creators of popular apps for the iPhone that combine music and social experiences in a very interesting way. Wang's day job is an associate professorship at Stanford, and you ...

Smule turns you into T-Pain

by Mike Schramm (Sep 4th, 2009)

God bless Smule. I panned their Ocarina app way back, but since then they've pushed right along without me, releasing idea after idea on Apple's App Store. And I think that, though the Leaf Trombone didn't really capture my attention, this one might finally be the big winner in my book: they've ...

Leaf Trombone out now in the App Store

by Mike Schramm (Apr 16th, 2009)

I've been down on the fine folks at Smule in the past -- I've said that their app Ocarina seems kind of silly (even if people have created some pretty awesome stuff with it and other less annoying music apps). And about the only thing they could have done to make it up to me was to develop some ...

Smule raises $3.9 million in funding

by Mike Schramm (Feb 13th, 2009)

There's money in them thar App Store! Smule, the company behind the popular Ocarina and Zephyr apps for the iPhone, has informed us that they raised a whopping $3.9 million from a round of venture funding led by a firm named Granite Ventures. That's a lot of capital -- while a lot of people are ...

Make a video with Cat Piano, win a DS

by Mike Schramm (Feb 4th, 2009)

It's probably time for me to lay off of Smule -- I've said that their Ocarina app might be the silliest musical app in the App Store, but we have a new winner: Cat Piano is just plain loony: a piano made up of cats meowing, like those old Christmas recordings, but playable. There are a few different ...

Smule's Zephyr sends snowy messages around the world

by Mike Schramm (Dec 29th, 2008)

As much as I hate to do it, I'm always willing to admit when I'm wrong, and I was wrong about Ocarina. Not about the app itself, per se -- I still think it's one of the silliest, most pointless apps I've seen on the App Store. But it has been nothing but popular since its release, so apparently lots ...