Last night on Twitter, Diddy announced his latest interactive venture: An iPhone app. It teams him up with BlackBook magazine to provide city guides for 50 different metropolei around the world. Using the iPhone's GPS chip, the app will figure out where you are and then tell you all about the nearest Diddy-approved restaurants, hotels, bars and clubs. Most major American cities are represented (as well as luxury spots like Park City, Aspen and the Hamptons) as well as a number of international spots (Paris and Milan, sure, but also Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Cabo San Lucas and Dubai, among others).
"BlackBook has invested in making sure that when it's time to play, you know where the fun is," the app's description reads. "We asked ourselves, who is the one person on this planet who has even more access than BlackBook? The answer, we realized, was not a person at all — more like an empire."
BlackBook is a publication that serves a pretty high-end clientele, and considering Diddy is a jet-setting mogul (and on the cover of BlackBook's October issue), the recommendations tend to skew towards luxury establishments like Jean Georges (a super-chic eatery in Trump Tower), get after-dinner drinks at 1Oak (a swanky lounge with a very loud Web site) and of course shop at the Sean John anchor store.
The app is available for free from the App Store on iTunes, and all told it's an interesting look into what it's like to live like Diddy.
By Daniela Capistrano
We're all about artist iPhone apps in the Newsroom — from Lil Wayne's "Be Like Lil Wayne" app to the Fray's live-concert-streaming app, we love tracking the latest features designed to entice fans.
Music mogul and new-media king Sean "Diddy" Combs wants you to get onboard Last Train to Paris with a free iPhone app designed to build anticipation for the September 22 release of his new album.
Diddy's new app will aggregate all of his various social-networking profiles and bring news directly to his fans via his integrated Twitter feed, a feature (right now) that most artists don't provide. And, similar to Fall Out Boy's and the Fray's apps, "LTTP" allows fans to upload their favorite photos to a fan site through their iPhone. His twist on this now standard functionality is that instead of sharing concert photos of the artist, fans are asked to submit photos of themselves and their friends, particularly photos of their travels.
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By Daniela Capistrano
Lil Wayne's "Be Like Lil Wayne" app lets you customize your iPhone photos with grillz and other bling, then share with friends. On Fall Out Boy's app, you can follow them on tour via GPS. Pink wants you to challenge friends through multiplayer racing on "Fast and Furious: Pink Slip." And the Pussycat dolls want you to play their games on the go.
No longer a space reserved for the tech elite, artists are seeing the potential of iPhone apps and using them to develop an army of young fans who are increasingly mobile.
Nine Inch Nails, Snow Patrol, Justice, Moby and the Fray are just a few other artists who have jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, eager to maintain a connection with their tech-savvy audience. Despite the hefty price tags of iPhones and the iPod Touch (considering our bummer economy), more teens are rocking these slick mobile devices than ever before. Aware of this trend, artists are collaborating with iPhone developers to create branded apps with all the benefits of a MySpace page — without the restrictions of logging on to a computer.
With new apps in the works for Britney, Beyoncé and Akon, fans have the opportunity to connect with their favorite artists — and other fans — in a brand-new way, no matter where they are.
(Who else is releasing an iPhone app? Find out, after the jump!)
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By Andrew Ross Rowe
I've been waiting since the first iPhone to own one. I even made the iPhone commercial-song ringtone to put on my normal phone! Having a drop in price made the deal sweeter. But would standing in line Friday morning secure me the next model?
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· And just like that, Warren G is off the hook. After his reps released a statement earlier in the day in which they explained his arrest Sunday for possession with intent to sell marijuana, "They were in the Hollywood area for Kanye's party. He was a passenger asleep in the front seat when the car was pulled over. They charged him because he didn't debrief. Whatever was found wasn't his, it was in the car." The Los Angeles District Attorney tossed the case due to insufficient evidence.
· Guess who got their own radio show (kind of)? "American Idol" season-one runner-up Justin Guarini. On Tuesday, the co-star of "From Justin to Kelly" will debut "The Justin Guarini Show" on BlogTalkRadio.com, where he'll "take to the Internet airwaves to help aspiring musicians find their inner idol" by playing unsigned artists and interviewing producers, managers and agents. Whew, at least he's not still skating along on the whole "Idol" thing. Read more...
