On: Apple has completed its acquisition of Shazam

[lobo_tuerto]

I don't understand why you do expect others to know about that when Shazam is ubiquitous and you haven't bothered to try it yet. See for yourself.

Expecting people to know how is it different from an LG Chocolate is just absurd...

[icebraining → lobo_tuerto]

Apparently Verizon's LG Chocolate came with a service called VCast Song ID, that did the same thing as Shazam: "On certain phones, users can record a 10-second clip of a song, have it automatically identified, and optionally buy a copy of it for playback on a phone or computer." (https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/name-that-tune-with-ver...)

That said, Shazam is actually older, having started as a shortcode service in the UK way back in 2002.

[chrisfinazzo → icebraining]

I am equal parts amazed and horrified when I hear that some app started out as an MMS hack on feature phones. Dictionary lookups, directions, and multimedia, all on "candybars". It's one area the US never really got behind and jumped straight to smartphones and discrete apps.

How exactly did this come to be?

That's the anthology I want to read.