Normally when a tech company launches a product or feature that's billed as a potential "killer" of a popular incumbent, there's cause to be skeptical. Quite often, that's just unsubstantiated hype either on the part of the company itself or tech writers.
In the case of Spotify's new Web radio feature, we're not going to go so far as to say that it's a "Pandora killer," but its inclusion in Spotify's desktop client is going to give the up-and-coming streaming service a tangible advantage over the 11-year-old Web radio service.
Hewlett-Packard has finally had enough with trying to figure out what to do with its failed acquisition of mobile platform webOS. So, it is doing the easiest thing possible to get out from under the burden of supporting the platform: turning it loose to the open source community.
In its press release announcing the open sourcing of webOS, HP said all the right things. It will continue to invest and be an active participant. It will provide inclusive governance to avoid fragmentation. It will be purely open source. Those almost seems to be conflicting statements. HP may think that it is trying to create a new Android ecosystem, but HP and Google's approaches to mobile are going in opposite directions.
The Google Gmail team announced that Gmail and Google Contacts will start seeing Google+ integration over the next few days. With the update, users are going to be able to add people to their circles directly from Gmail, filter mails by Google+ Circles, and share photos to Google+ directly from your inbox.
Probably the most interesting feature out of this update is the ability to filter mail by circles. If your contacts are on Google+ and you have them in your circles, you'll be able to view mail that's just from those circles.
Ending months of rumors, Google today launched its own personalized news-reading app for tablets and smartphones. Google Currents, as it's called, is an app for iOS and Android that presents content from magazines, news sites and blogs in a format that's far more digestible on mobile devices.
It lands in a somewhat crowded space occupied by offerings from Yahoo and AOL as well as from startups like Flipboard, Flud, Pulse and Zite, which was acquired by CNN earlier this year. Even before today's launch Google Currents was billed as a potential "Flipboard killer." After taking Google's new app for a spin, we're not convinced it poses a credible threat.
These days, with the traditional structures of the music industry blown wide open by the Internet, artists are constantly looking for new ways to market themselves and, if at all possible, earn money in the process. From streaming services to DIY online marketing tools, there's seemingly no limit to the digital tools available to musicians these days.
One such tool, StageIt, is hoping to put an innovative spin on live performances by bringing them online.
Have you noticed that the cost of some new e-books seems to be a few dollars higher than it was before? The U.S. Justice Department certainly has and they're investigating why that is and if it's legal. Specifically, the DOJ is looking into whether Apple and major publishers colluded to set e-book prices in a manner that would violate antitrust laws, the agency confirmed yesterday.
Media reports have pointed to the existence of such an investigation since last year, but yesterday an Justice Department official publicly acknowledged it, saying, "We are also investigating the electronic book industry, along with the European Commission and the states attorneys general." That's right, Europe and a handful of U.S. states are concerned about e-book pricing as well.
Ever since peer-to-peer file-sharing technology became popularized, it has been a thorn in the side of the companies who have traditionally profited from the distribution of entertainment-related content. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) succeeded in killing off Napster, but has waged war against BitTorrent and others ever since. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has waged a similar battle, reportedly costing the film industry more than piracy itself does.
As vilified as file-sharing has historically been, the practice has been gaining favor in somewhat unexpected places lately. The Songwriter's Association of Canada recently threw its support behind the idea of legalizing file-sharing and finding ways to monetize the practice, rather than cracking down on it through legal means.
For iPad owners, the personalized, socially-curated digital magazine Flipboard is one of the absolute must-install apps for the device. For many, social news-reading apps like this have begun to replace printed magazines and newspapers all together. Pretty much since it first debuted on Apple's tablet in July 2010, users have been clamoring for an iPhone version of Flipboard. Today, that wait ends.
Flipboard's latest update, available now in the App Store, brings the same social media-fueled reading experience to the smaller screen of the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Telecommunications giant Verizon is reportedly working on a Web streaming service akin to Netflix, according to a report from Reuters. The new service could be available to as many as 85 million U.S. households beginning next year, sources said.
At first glance, a company with the size and clout of Verizon would appear to be a formidable potential challenger to Netflix, who has been especially vulnerable lately. Still, there are reasons to doubt that Verizon would be successful in making a dent in Netflix's dominance of this space.
When you're holiday shopping this year, there's little doubt that Amazon would prefer that you buy that copy of the Steve Jobs biography or Snuggie on their site, rather than in an actual store. That's why the e-commerce giant offers things like free shipping and a mobile app that lets you scan barcodes and compare prices.
In many cases, the price Amazon pulls up on its Price Check app for iOS is going to smaller than the one stuck to the item you're holding in your hand. They know this, and so to further encourage you to buy from them, Amazon is offering a 5% discount on items purchased via the Price Check app.
