01:51 PM CST on Wednesday, March 15, 2006

By WALT ZWIRKO / WFAA-TV

Snaptune

You're listening to the radio. You hear an interesting song.

You think, "Wow, what a nice tune. I wonder who sings it?"

Your computer may be able to supply the answer the next time that question comes up if you have Snaptune One software installed.

Snaptune actually "listens" to the radio on your behalf.

Following the directions, you can use a cable to plug the audio output of a radio into your PC, or you can use a tuner accessory card to pull in the signal.

In either case, you'll get a security alert from Windows XP when installing Snaptune because the software has to communicate with company headquarters as part of a music identification process.

You can use the software's incredibly flexible scheduling options to set up recordings at specific times (like a VCR)—or you can just let it record around the clock (as long as your PC is turned on).

The tunes are saved in a folder of your choice, and after a few hours, you'll see a listing of the music Snaptune detected.

Exactly how this works, the company isn't saying. It's likely Snaptune has developed a way to look for a digital "fingerprint" that uniquely identifies each song; the software probably tries to match that fingerprint with its music database.

But not only does it attempt to identify the songs on the radio; the free edition of Snaptune also lets you listen to them on your computer and copy up to 20 tunes to a CD or a portable music device. A $40 upgrade offers unlimited song transfers.

Snaptune also links every identified song to a page on Amazon.com where you can purchase the original CD.

We'll revisit Snaptune in a future Computer Corner segment with a look at whether it lives up to its promise.

Watch Computer Corner every Wednesday on News 8 Midday at noon, or online any time.

E-mail askwalt@wfaa.com