Two-man startup AppLoop has added to its suite of self-service tools for iPhone developers by launching App Generator, which automatically turns any blog with an RSS feed into a native iPhone app modeled after that of the The New York Times.

To create an app, all you have to do is answer a series of questions for the App Generator’s setup wizard. These include your blog’s address, name, icon and logo, as well as how much you’d like to charge for your application (if anything) and what color scheme you’d like to use. Once you finish the form (and verify that you are indeed the owner of the domain in question), AppLoop will submit your application to Apple for approval and, once approved, you can start promoting it to your readers.Source:TechCrunch

Okay, this has to be the coolest hack of the week. Visual search engine SearchMe has just added a music search tab that brings back results with free, legal, unlimited full-song streams and cover art you can flip through. It’s CoverFlow on the Web. And it actually trumps the experience one Yahoo’s music search, which also offers free full streams through Rhapsody—but those are limited to 25 streams a month per searcher.

SearchMe instead is tapping into imeem’s vast catalog of fully licensed music. (Along with Rhapsody and MySpace Music, imeem is one of a handful of companies with comprehensive music streaming rights from all the major labels). But SearchMe is not using imeem’s API, which is limited to apps on imeem itself. Instead, it using the widget loophole in imeem’s licensing deal with the record labels. Imeem users can stream any song and create playlists on imeem itself or through imeem’s widgets which can be embedded elsewhere.

SearchMe is essentially grabbing the imeem widget for each song search result. As with all imeem music widgets, there are buttons on the bottom that will let anyone buy the song from iTunes, Amazon, or eBay.

Last week, Google’s chief economist Hal Varian gutted a study that claimed a Yahoo-Google advertising alliance will result in a 22 percent increase in advertising rates. And today, Google’s advertising chief Tim Armstrong reiterated some of Varian’s points in an attempt to dispel the notion that the advertising deal with Yahoo will raise prices. From Armstrong’s post on the Google Public Policy Blog:Source:TechCrunch

Searching for music is one thing, but have you ever wanted to search for an artist and play their songs without needing to visit other sites? If so, Yahoo and Rhapsody have launched a new service that will let you do just that.

Staring today, users who search for an artist on Yahoo Search will be able to play the artist’s songs in the search results, thanks to a shortcut sitting at the top of the page. Even better, the songs will be played in their entirety through Rhapsody’s FoxyTunes Player. According to Yahoo, the new feature is just another elemt of its “play the Web” strategy and its desire to open its site for outside content and services.

Yahoo and Rhapsody have joined forces and starting today whenever you search for a song or artist on Yahoo you’ll be able to play any of the songs right there in the search results.

The Full Monty

By empowering its music search engine with Rhapsody, Yahoo will be able to provide full song playback for more than 5 million songs. Also, Yahoo recently partnered with Rhapsody on another venture involving their subscription music service, which now includes playback within Yahoo Search. This means you can now listen to 25 free full-length songs every month. Once you’ve played those 25 songs you can either subscribe to the Rhapsody unlimited streaming service or continue to listen to an unlimited number of 30-second samples until the next month starts.

You Foxy Thang

Yahoo’s FoxyTunes Player is the key to music playback within Yahoo Search and Yahoo Music. Clicking on a play button in a search result will launch the player near the bottom of the browser. The player is customizable as there are plenty of special plugins and skins.

Conclusion

This musical union is all part of Yahoo’s “Play the Web” strategy, which includes being more open to other sites when it comes to featuring content. Being able to play full songs or even samples from search results makes the process of finding music more enjoyable and a real time saver. This partnership shouldn’t hit any sour notes any time soon.

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iLike, the music discovery service with a number of popular applications across social networks, has announced that it will now offer full track streaming through a partnership with Rhapsody. That means that users of iLike’s applications on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and hi5 will now be able to listen to complete tracks, as opposed to the 30 second samples offered previously. Users can listen to up to 25 free tracks per month, at which point they can either subscribe to Rhapsody or will be reverted back to the samples.

The deal also has an interesting business model for artists – they earn revenue each time their music is played. Hadi Partovi, President of iLike, told me in a conversation last week that “in the past, music social networks have been a promotional vehicle [for artists], but now it’s also a way to help fund the music industry through our deal with Rhapsody.” Competitor Last.fm rolled out a similar program earlier this month, dubbed the Artist Royalty Program.

In addition to free streaming, iLike, which now claims 30 million users, has announced a new advertising platform for concert promoters. The self-service platform allows advertisers to target music fans based on their tastes, what events their friends are attending, and location. Promoters can include multimedia in their ads, such as tracks and videos.

Finally, iLike has also announced that they plan to launch a developer platform later this year. The platform will enable developers to access iLike’s music catalog and stream songs in their own applications, and also allow them to integrate other features of the service. Similarly, Imeem opened up its music catalog to developers back in March.

Overall, iLike, imeem, and Last.fm seem to be moving in very similar directions of offering free streaming music across social networks and relying on alternative business models – for iLike, concert promotion and now upselling users to Rhapsody. Which one will win out? The latest stats from Google Trends show Imeem in the lead, but the comparison isn’t exactly apples-to-apples since much of iLike’s userbase never visits the actual website and use the company’s applications within the social networks that it supports.

—Related Articles at Mashable! - The Social Networking Blog:Ringtones on iLike, Powered by ThumbplayHear The New R.E.M. Album on iLike Before it Hits the StoresiLike, Billboard Team Up for New Music ChartsFree Music at Rhapsody. Just Buy a Hot, Juicy Burger.Rhapsody Does DRM-Free Music, Teams With Yahoo and VerizonRhapsody Music Now Available Through TiVoiLike Launches New Tools for Artists

Wired music writer Eliot Van Buskirk decided to cancel his online subscriptions. His anti-DRM talk made me sleepy, but what woke me up was the ludicrous amount of time Van Buskirk spent on the phone with Napster and Rhapsody. No doubt many subscribers hang up after half an hour and let the charges accumulate. The real moneymaker for these companies may not be DRM, but CRM.