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Zensify, the makers of the Zensify iPhone app, have a new iPhone app out called Zen News that helps users discover the latest headlines from a dozen news sources. These range from established media powerhouses like The New York Times, BBC News, and The Washington Post to TweetMeme and soon other online-only news sources.

The app makes use of the same tag cloud navigation found in Zensify, the company's social aggregation tool. This takes the most prevalent topics or keywords and organizes them by size, with the larger words being more important. Users can then drill down into each keyword, which filters the group of stories the app displays.

Once you find a story you want to read, the app gives you a quick summary, as well as the option to either read it in the embedded browser, or hop out to Safari proper. It also lets you "favorite" a post for reading later. These favorites can currently only be viewed while in the app, but the company told us that third party centralized bookmarking tools like ReadItLater and Instapaper are on the road map to be added in later versions. This would let you find stories within the app, then read them when you get back to a machine with a larger screen.

There are plenty of things to like about this app. It's quite zippy over 3G, and switching sources is a breeze. In that way, it's quite similar to the iPhone's included weather app--you just flick your finger and it changes the source. You can also customize what sources you want to see with some simple toggles in the settings menu. This will be more important as that list of sources continues to grow.

Zen News will remain a free app, although Zensify intends to create paid versions of it for businesses that want to hunt for specific topics from a specialized list of sources. The company is also planning to make its currently-free Zensify iPhone app a paid tool beginning November 16, when it will jump up to $1.99.

Zen News lets you view the big stories by keyword (left) or topic (right).

(Credit: CNET)

Twitter continues to fidget with the way it's implementing search on it site.

For several weeks, the company has been testing a news presentation of Twitter search among a small subset of its users. The format placed the search box high on the home page but delivered the search results on a separate page.

"It turns out that's not the awesome way to do it," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone wrote late Wednesday in a blog post.

Here's how Twitter search is shaping up.

(Credit: Twitter)

Now Twitter is making a trial run with putting the search results directly on the home page. Wrote Stone:

We went back to the original sketch and made everything far more awesome. Currently, a small subset of Twitter users are trying this new search feature in the sidebar of their Twitter home page.

When you do a search, you don't go to another page; the relevant tweets instantly show up where you'd expect them to--right on your home page, where tweets love to be.

Other changes in the design include the ability for users to save particular search terms for searches they do regularly. There's also a Trends feature in beta, Stone wrote.

Stone didn't set any timetable for when the changes would be rolled out more broadly, save to say that "the technical infrastructure to support it is mostly in place" and that Twitter would "get these features out to everyone as soon as possible."

At CNET sister site ZDNet, Sam Diaz has positive things to say about the changes, but he cautions that they may not be enough to overcome the allure of outside tools. Wrote Diaz:

With an open API, there is no shortage of Twitter applications being developed, allowing users to do all of their tweeting from apps, instead of their home page.

For example, I use Twitterific for the Mac. It pops up every 10 minutes or so along the right side of my screen, stays there for about 10 seconds, and then disappears--unless I click on the window. From Twitterific, I can do pretty much everything (though I haven't found a way to follow new people through it). Otherwise, I can all go all day without ever visiting Twitter.com.

Music search and recommendation tool Mufin is opening to everyone this morning. The service, which launched in private beta in early October, lets you find music that's similar to a track you know based on a scientific analysis of its composition.

New on Thursday is both a Facebook app and the previously mentioned iTunes plug-in that scans your library to give you recommendations. Unlike Apple's "Genius" analyzer system in iTunes, Mufin actually scans your tracks for relational relevance instead of giving you an aggregate hodge-podge of recommendations based on the playlists and purchases of iTunes users. The only catch here is that you're limited to Mufin's relatively small 4 million-song database, which is roughly half that of iTunes.

Users are also getting the option to save playlists and notes--the service's equivalent to a shopping list. Previously these would disappear between sessions, which kept it from doubling as an ad-hoc music streaming tool.

As for the Facebook application, it's little more than a widget that lets you search for tracks without leaving the social network. It does however give you a "discovery wall," which lets you share and view tracks bookmarked by friends--similar to the MySpace version that was available back at launch. If you're looking for something a little more anonymous, the Mufin team is now providing weekly recommendations for music to look out for, although you'll have to purchase them off-site.

Previously: Mufin lets you discover new music with science

Note: The iTunes plug-in is currently Windows-only. You can download it here (.EXE warning). Here's what it looks like:

The new iTunes plug-in scans your library and offers up song recommendations based on musical similarities. (click to enlarge)

(Credit: Mufin )

Launching in private beta on Wednesday is Mufin, a Berlin-based music discovery service that helps users find similar tracks based on identifiers within a song. It scans each track for its density, tempo, and rhythm, then draws comparisons with other songs that match. What you get is a system that lets you find similar tracks by sound, even if they cross multiple genres.

Last week I chatted with Petar Djekic, the service's marketing manager, about this process and its origins. What's interesting is that it's a spinoff from the technology that was created to identify songs from short clips--the same thing that's found in Midomi and Shazam. The difference here is that songs must first be worked through a cataloging process that takes just a few seconds to scan a 10 to 20-track album.

The information gets fed into a massive search engine which assigns a percentage of similarity from track to track. It can also do the same for albums, so if you're in love with the specific work from an artist you can see other entire albums you might like.

You might have wondered what other songs are similar to Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up.' Mufin knows.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

You might be asking yourself how this could be at all useful in an age where two of the highest profile MP3 players (iPod and Zune) now have built-in recommendation tools both on the player hardware and computer software. Djekic's answer to this is that both of these solutions, as well as those found on Last.fm and Amazon.com, are all based on user behavior. You can get similar tracks, but not without some effort either on your end or that of other users. Djekic says anyone can simply come to Mufin with their existing library and get a list of related tracks without having to make friends or provide ratings.

In addition to its search tool, Mufin provides a playlist creator for tracks that have streaming rights. You can't share these playlists with anyone else (yet), but you can save them for later, as well as pop them out in their own window to play while you're off doing other things. If you're more keen to own the tracks the service is integrated with iTunes, and soon Amazon's MP3 store, so you can buy what you like.

Mufin is a really cool and handy service. There are already 3.8 million tracks in the catalog, which is growing rapidly. It's currently in private beta, although we've got 100 invites to give out. To get yours, visit the service through this link.

Note: Last.fm is owned by CNET parent company CBS Interactive.

Note 2: Information regarding album processing times has been amended. It was originally stated that it took 2-3 days to process an album, whereas that's how long it takes to be fed into Mufin's search index.

When the news broke earlier this week that Facebook had hired D.C. veteran Ted Ullyot as its general counsel, many news outlets (this one included) took it to mean that this was the first time that the young company had hired executive-level internal counsel.

Not so: as reported by Law.com, Facebook's prior general counsel, Rudy Gadre, had left the company in July "to move to Seattle and spend more time with his family." Gadre had actually been at Facebook since 2006.

Regardless of the validity of the ages-old "spend more time with the family" explanation, we now have an update on Gadre's whereabouts: search-and-discover start-up Evri, which is based in Seattle, has hired him as vice president of business operations. He'll be in charge of legal issues, intellectual property, and various marketing and "audience building" tasks.

Prior to working at Facebook, Gadre had spent time at law firms Beacon Law Advisors and Perkins Coie, as well as Amazon.com.

This spring, Evri CEO Neil Roseman, also an Amazon veteran, said his company's aim is to construct a "data graph of the Web." Evri has been funded by Vulcan Capital, the venture firm founded by Paul Allen.

Bands in Town is a simple ticket finder for upcoming concerts. It figures out where you're connecting from and filters the names of artists with shows in your area, complete with links to buy tickets and subscribe to a band for future tour dates.

Last.fm users can plug in their credentials to whittle down the ginormous tag cloud or artists. Doing this also highlights and suggests the ones you like or it thinks you'd like. Even without a Last.fm account, it's a far superior browsing experience compared to parsing your local paper.

To further aid the search, there's a set of simple sliders on the left-hand side where you can dial up or down how much you want to pay, and how far you're willing to drive to go see a show. There are also filters to set whether you're looking to see just indie and unsigned artists, or a high profile pop band.

Speaking of the bands, each artist has its own page that hosts a small biography, a "mix tape" compiled of streaming music, and a list of upcoming shows complete with links to selected ticket sellers. Missing, however, is some of that all-important information like when you should be getting up at 5 a.m. to buy tickets for a show.

Compared to Songkick (coverage), Bands in Town is missing the integration with music jukebox software like iTunes to figure out what you're interested based on your listening habits. Of course this won't be an issue for heavy users of Last.fm, but iPod users with a few years of rating history will be left out of the loop.

Bands in Town does just what it says by telling you what concerts are coming to your area. It also links up with Last.fm to let you listen to a band before getting tickets.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

If you like Flickr's explore section but want something with a little more personalization, you should check out Photoree. It's a photo browser that lets you rate a photo up or down like what StumbleUpon does for Web sites. As you continue to rate photos, the engine will tune itself to your tastes--hopefully spewing out more shots you'd find pleasing.

The engine says it needs 100 ratings from you before it can start figuring out what you like and what you don't. In that time you'll probably see a huge chunk of landscape shots and some scantily clad women--at least I did. If you're worried about something offensive popping up on screen there's a no nudity filter that does its best to weed out the NSFW material, however, on or off, you're unable to see what photo is coming next.

There are five different filters in all, but the personalized one is the site's main draw. The others like "most debated" and "most popular" serve up only truly gorgeous shots that have been vetted by other users. Going through the recommendation process yields a potentially better mix of shots.

Rank photos up or down to get recommendations on ones you'd like. Like StumbleUpon, the more you rate the better its suggestions should be--in theory that is.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

My problem with this system is that all the photos I saw, even during the first 100 ratings, were drop dead gorgeous. You're going to have to be quite picky with how you rate them for it to work its magic. More than anything I noticed the frequency of shots similar to what I had favorited going up after breaking the magical 100 mark. The tool would be far more interesting if it started you off in a general pool of users shots (even ugly ones) instead of taking you straight to the good stuff that's already been given the thumbs up from both the Flickr and Photoree community.

The tool does have some really fun layers of interactivity to play with, like built-in bookmarking for the shots you like. You can simply click on any of these to be taken to the Flickr page where it's hosted. It'll also give you some neat statistics like which other Photoree users share your tastes and which Flickr photographers you like the best. After 105 ratings I had achieved about 50 percent compatibility with a good number of users, and after tipping 280 it bumped up close to 60. You can befriend these folks to get access to their up-rated photos, or see them openly if they've set their feed to be public.

Another service that's somewhat similar is inSuggest's image suggestion tool (coverage). This lets you drag three images you like from a pool of thumbnails and it will link you to a handful of shots it thinks are similar. The same company makes a tool that analyzes your bookmarks and taste in Web sites as well.

Last.fm's music-centered social network is one of our favorite ways to discover, share, and stream music online. Currently in version 1.01, the Last.fm application for the iPhone and iPod Touch allows many of the best features of Last.fm to break away from your computer and go on the road with you. The Last.fm app isn't perfect, however, and people looking for a straightforward Internet radio application would do better with offerings from Pandora and AOL.

The Last.fm app's main menu offers many ways to hear streaming music...maybe too many.

When launching the Last.fm iPhone app for the first time, you'll be prompted to enter your existing Last.fm account username and password, or you'll be offered the option to create a new account. If you're new to Last.fm, we recommend you get started with the service using your home computer, since many features depend on an ongoing analysis of your computer's music collection (also known as scrobbling).

Once you're logged in, the Last.fm app offers eight ways to stream music over EDGE, 3G, or Wi-Fi. You can listen to songs Last.fm has already scrobbled from your computer's music collection, treat yourself to recommended songs, do a cold search for new music, or hear what your friends have been listening to. The music playback screen is similar to Apple's own iPod screen, displaying large cover art, volume, pause, and skip controls, as well as an iTunes purchase link and Last.fm's own song rating buttons, which help to steer the quality of song recommendations. On the very bottom edge of the screen you'll find tabs for the currently playing track, artist biography, similar artists, events (such as related concerts), and a More tab that includes the track's tag information and Top Listeners.

With all its features, tabs, and buttons, the Last.fm app is one of the most in-depth and dynamic streaming music applications available for the iPhone. Unfortunately, despite its ambitious list of features, the program is bogged down with performance issues that make it frustrating to use at times. During testing in both Wi-Fi and 3G modes, we often experienced 5 to 10 second buffer delays each time we initiated a music stream or skipped between songs. The buffer issues subsided under ideal circumstances where Wi-Fi or 3G reception was strong; however, similar streaming audio applications from Pandora and AOL offered better streaming performance under more realistic conditions.

With any luck, future updates to the Last.fm app will improve streaming music reliability and refine the somewhat confusing assortment of menu options and playback screen features. In its current state, the Last.fm app presents a bite-size version of the Last.fm Web site experience in a way that may satisfy existing users, but is unlikely to win new converts.

Editors' note: Last.fm is owned by CNET's parent company, CBS Interactive.

We swear, there's no reading required to expand your musical horizons these days. Well...aside from this article, at least.

(Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)

When you're young, new music is everywhere: radio, Facebook profiles, borrowed iPods, or even burned CDs. It's not hard to find tunes you love. The music appetites of 13- to 21-year-olds are voracious and the consequences of being musically unhip can be punishing.

Then something happens: you get older; work a full-time job; get married; have a mortgage; have children; adopt a particularly demanding parrot; and so on. You wake up one day and realize your taste in music hasn't budged since your early '20s and the prospect of discovering good, new music now seems like an overwhelming chore, fraught with disappointment. I know, I'm living proof.

We're all familiar with the long, depressing list of activities that seemed easy in youth that now take effort. Fortunately, finding good music isn't as tough as working off that middle-age gut. Since its inception, the Internet has helped us--mostly illegally--discover new music. Finally, tools for legal and efficient online music discovery are hitting their stride.

To help you help yourself, we've collected our favorite techniques to help the lazy, hurried, or unhip (or, face it, aging) connect with good, new music.