What Apps We're Playing With - Cardinal by assn

Last week I went to this conference, essentially a learning session/have fun meetup for iPhone and other mobile platform developers (but mostly iPhone).

If you go to conferences, you should almost always follow the associated Twitter hashtag. Because you'll probably won't get to interact with everyone there, and since these things and Twitter are all about self promotion and sharing ideas, they work really well together.

As was such the case with @smixx and @assn_ca, a Calgary developer. I was reading over some tweets, and I came across one where he said he was giving away his Cardinal app in the iTunes store.

Cardinal is a TERRIFFIC app for sharing what you're listening to with your Twitter or Facebook followers. Starting the app up shows what's currently pumping in your earphones, even a bit of cover art. Another tap and you're sending on a little pregenerated tweet. Or if you're like me, you're editing it up a bit. And it does it all with an iTunes link so you can buy it. it's all very seamless and very smooth.

I use blip.fm a lot, but I always found it kinda cumbersome. I had to search for what I was listening to, then pick it, then generate some text. Cardinal is like blip.fm, but better. Not because it's native, but because it's much more intuitive, much more tied into the entire iPhone experience.

Now, I know some of you have beef with iTunes, and that's totally fair and understood. But consider this. It's an iPhone app. I would LOVE to have links to Amazon or eMusic, or AmieStreet or CD BABY orinsound, but I can't buy music on my iPhone from any of those sites.

And since a majority of iPhone users purchase music on their devices as opposed to in the store (and that iTunes is still the biggest digital music retailer on the block), it's a tighter and better intergration. Linking to iTunes in this case is a great idea. There's a greater chance that people will buy music this way, compensating artists and labels (even shitty arti$ts and labels).

assn has the app for free for the next four days (normally $2, a very small price for something very cool). Pick it up and show us what you're listening to.

Check out Cardinal in the iTunes App Store (this should just open a web page)