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Thought this looked cool: an Android mobile app called Magic Radio that creates custom streams of music that combines 7Digital's 13 million-song library with the listener's local collection and playlists.

The app, made by a company called Double Twist, uses music intelligence from The Echo Nest to create the streams, which can be further customized by the user. Note that when music from the listener's local collection is part of the stream, there's savings in both data usage/bandwidth, and royalty obligation (since the user already possesses a copy of the music, it isn't being "publicly performed.")

The service is $4/month, and Double Twist is offering a free 7-day trial. There's a video demo here. Read more in Hypebot here.

Live365 has launched a new mobile app called Studio365, which allows station programmers to manage their radio stations from their mobile device.

Broadcasters can record "Shout Outs" (short, recorded announcements) directly from their phone, and set them to play on their station via the mobile app. The app also gives broadcasters the capability to "go live" on the microphone, again right from the device. Programmers can also manage station ID and pre-roll messages, update station profiles, review listening stats, and monitor stations.

Live365 says the new Studio365 mobile app is the first of many new products they'll release this year. Read more here.

U.S. wireless carrier Sprint announced that select new Android and Windows phones will enable FM radio listening by way of the NextRadio tuner app.

To be clear: the phones will receive on-air, FM broadcast content (as opposed to streaming via the data network).

The NextRadio app, developed by Emmis Digital and announced in November, will enable "backchannel" data that will allow broadcasters to supply additional information ("now playing data," images to accompany ads, for instance). This data link will also allow communication in the other direction (for the listener to interact with programming).

Unrelated to the FM radio news, Sprint also announced a streaming app bundle called "Entertain Me" for the "Sprint Zone" on Android phones. "Enterain Me" will include apps for iHeartRadio, Slacker, Spotify, and Sprint Music Plus (downloads and ringtones) -- as well as other entertainment options.

A company called SoThree, founded by three former Google engineers, has unveiled a new smartphone app for the 94 million or so in the U.S. who can't read a newspaper while driving to work. It's called Umano ("human" in Italian).

Umano's team chooses about 15 news stories a day from the web, which its team of voice actors reads and records (material that's "geeky (which is code for techy/gadget stuff), scientific, entrepreneurial, and inspirational," according to PandoDaily.com). The company hopes to expand its coverage to 100 articles a day over the next six months.

Now, if the software could incorporate local weather, traffic, and sports, they might really be on to something novel!

PandoDaily's (pretty unironic) coverage is here.

Buzzam Radio (at Buzz.am) is a new mobile app that can add local news and weather to your music listening (either local files or services like Spotify and Rdio), plus other nonmusical content (think Twitter and Facebook updates) to create "an audio stream customized for each user."

Buzzam, according to president/COO Greg Starling, was made in response to the shortcomings of Internet radio. "The problem with Internet radio services is that they omit critical elements of radio, like news, weather, commentary and other entertainment."

The app is in the iTunes store (there's no desktop version of the service). According to Wired.com, news options include BBC, NPR, CBS, NBC and Fox. You can also add podcasts to the stream. A "robot voice" reads your social media updates and local weather.

Read more in Wired here.

Livio Radio founder and CEO Jake Sigal was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the 12th annual Automation Alley Awards Gala in Troy, MI. Automation Alley is a technology business association for tech professionals and engineers in southeast Michigan.

Livio creates mobile apps, a Bluetooth device, and manages Livio Connect, its "APIs" that work with car companies and app developers -- all designed to connect the mobile phone experience to the car dashboard.

General Motors announced in September its plan to work with Livio for in-dash radio functionality for the 2013 Chevrolet Spark equipped with MyLink Radio (here).

Read more in Crain's Detroit Business here.