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One of the first apps that showed off the power of early iPhones was Shazam, the app that let you hold up your iPhone to “listen” to music playing and could identify the artist and offer you options to buy that music.
Today, Shazam Entertainment announced a new update with Shazam 5.0 that makes the app even better than before. The company says the app now launches a second faster to let you identify media much more quickly. It also can take as little as 1 second to identify media once you touch the button, and even starts “listening” the second you open the app in case you’re trying to identify media in a hurry.
Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET
Shazam is no longer limited to music in this latest version. The company says you’ll now be able to use the app to identify Shazam-enabled television shows and ads to quickly find out what you’re watching and see additional content for the show or ad, and products and apps related to the content. This means that if a show is Shazam-enabled, you can run the app to get complementary content or an associated app in the iTunes App Store.
Among the smaller changes to Shazam, the company says it has listened to users and made it possible to edit tweets; streamlined the app for smoother scrolling and a much more responsive user interface; improved the speed of the friends feed; and improved the sync on LyricPlay — the feature that lets you view lyrics as the song is playing.
Shazam 5.0 is available now at the iTunes App Store and all the major versions including Shazam (free) Shazam Encore ($5.99), and Shazam Red ($5.99) all offer the latest features.
