Prince is still using Spotify to promote new music, one song at a time
Prince may have pulled his music from nearly every streaming service, but that’s not stopping the artist from using them for promotional purposes. He has a new single, titled “Stare,” that’s available for streaming as a Spotify exclusive. Don’t get your hopes up, though, as the new track is the only song you’ll be able to stream from the service. Earlier this month, Prince pulled all of his music from Spotify, Rdio, Deezer and others leaving Tidal and Google Play Music All Access as the only two places you could listen via subscription. Despite revoking access the full collection of albums, it seems the musician still sees value in those other services as he’s certainly using them to circulate new music.
[Image credit: Cindy Ord/Getty Images for NPG Records 2015]
Filed under: Internet
Via: Fact Magazine
Source: Spotify
Luxury smartwatch maker Olio adds 24k gold to its repertoire
Back in March, Olio introduced a new kind of smartwatch to the world: the Model One. Olio aimed to set itself apart from other smartwatches by going premium; really premium. We’re talking surgical grade stainless steel, precision forged housing, leather sourced from Italian tanneries and basically the same materials and processes you’d expect from a high-end Swiss watch. It’s so premium that Olio only made 1,000 of them — 500 in black and 500 in steel — in its first, limited batch. They were priced over $500. They were also sold out in a matter of weeks. Today, Olio is introducing its second batch of watches. It has the same black and steel options as before but now? The watch also comes in two different shades of gold.
The new hardware is available in either 24 karat gold or 18 karat rose gold and the material is supposedly “very pure real gold,” as Steve Jacobs, Olio’s founder and CEO, tells me. He speaks especially highly of the rose gold, saying that it’s a custom alloy that the company itself designed. “It’s a chocolatey rose gold, with a very sultry tone,” he said. And it’s not just the gold material either; Jacobs tells me that instead of iron exchange glass, the new gold watches were made with sapphire glass.
Like the other watches, the gold ones come in either a link bracelet or you can opt for either a black or brown alligator grain leather strap. The leather ones are $1195 each while the all-gold link bracelets are $1395 each. But even if you do have the cash to buy one, you’ll be wise to hurry up and get one. Just like with the first edition, the second batch of watches will be limited in quantity: there’ll be 500 each of the black and steel ones, and only 100 each of the two gold options.
“The way we’ve built our company is very akin to a craft brewery or an artisan coffee shop,” says Jacobs, who’s done product design for companies like Apple, HP and Google. “We make really high quality stuff in small batches.” He says that in addition to the design and the materials, the company also focused a lot on the watch’s feel. There are steel ballasts in all four corners, and he says the company actually “shaves microns off at a time” to get at the right weight. “It has beveled edges so it doesn’t hit your wrist bones.”
That said, the watch is still a big and heavy thing. This, he says, is aligned with the current trend of oversized watches. But as I tried on a few different pairs of the Olio, I knew it was a bit too hefty for me. Still, Jacobs says that in the future, they hope to reiterate and come up with smaller designs. The watch has an inductive charging coil on the back for wireless charging (it ships with a small travel-sized charger) and it also has conventional watchband straps so you can swap them out with your own if you like.
I also couldn’t help but notice that the watchface isn’t a complete circle; it falls victim to the same sliced off look that the Moto 360 has. According to Jacobs, when they designed the watch two years ago, there was little choice but to squeeze in all of the phone’s sensors in that little half-circle, if only to make sure the rest of the watch wouldn’t be too clunky. He did say, however, that the company is working on different watch designs going forward.
What’s particularly interesting about the Olio, however, is its proprietary software. Instead of opting for Android Wear, the Olio is actually compatible with both Android and iOS. As such, it doesn’t come app-laden like most modern smartwatches. Instead, its UI is pretty simple: from the watchface, you can swipe down to reveal settings and swipe up to show useful controls like a music player or navigation. Jacobs says you can even use it to remotely start your car or control a Nest thermostat. It can do this without apps, he says, because of any service can communicate through notifications and open APIs. Olio is also working on directly integrating a few services with the watch, though Jacobs wouldn’t say which ones.
Swiping left and right will reveal “earlier” and “later” screens: “Earlier” shows the notifications you’ve missed, while “Later” reveals your upcoming schedule. Other features include the usual stopwatch and timer functions and the weather forecast. What I found intriguing is that the watchface itself is dynamic: at night, it has a starry night aesthetic, while it’s brighter during the day. There’s also an astral pattern on the watch that shows your last 12 hours of digital activity — if you received a ton of tweets and emails between 2 and 4pm, for example, those areas of the watch would be filled with rays. It’s a unique touch, Jacobs says, that means the watchface will never be the same for any one person. Additionally, the watchfaces are uniquely designed for each style of watch too; so the black and steel watchfacees have different designs than the gold ones.
Another interesting touch is something called Olio Assist, which Jacobs describes as a cloud-based personal assistant. The way it works is this: Say you receive a text message from your boss asking about your project. You’re driving at the time, so you can’t answer, but you simply swipe “Yes” on your watch. Because the watch knows through location and movement that you’re driving, it could respond to your boss saying that you’re driving, but you’ll be happy to respond later. And then when you arrive at your destination, the watch will ping you to remind you to respond. “The idea here is that it’ll continue to learn your behavior over time,” says Jacobs.
The target audience for the Olio, Jacobs says, is likely the modern-day professional. “Our best-selling models, are the most expensive ones. People aren’t coming to us looking for the cheapest thing, people come to us for a luxury timepiece that’s also intelligent and functional.”
Filed under: Wearables
Source: Olio
‘Mr. Robot’ creator on the evils of Facebook and hackers in Hollywood
You’d be forgiven for being skeptical about Mr. Robot, USA’s new hacker thriller starring Rami Malek and Christian Slater. In general, movies and TV shows haven’t done a great job of portraying hackers, and really, technology of any sort. Even the king of cinematic cool, producer Michael Mann, couldn’t make cybersecurity exciting with the film Blackhat. But that’s what makes Mr. Robot so special: It’s a show about hackers that actually features live computer screens with working code and viable cyber attack vectors. It centers on a disaffected cyber security expert named Elliot (Malek), who stumbles on a clandestine group of hackers dedicated to disrupting the global economy. We sat down with the show’s creator, Sam Esmail, for a long conversation about how it came to be.
What was your inspiration for Mr. Robot? I’m seeing plenty of elements from Fight Club and Taxi Driver in the show.
The hacker side of it actually was a combination of my frustration with the way hacker culture and tech culture was represented in Hollywood. I thought it was a very inaccurate, forced and cartoonish way of representing that kind of a culture. I never understand why they felt the need to use cheesy CGI graphics, and make magical leaps — logic leaps — in action when the actual reality is far more interesting and compelling.
The other side of that is my passion for wanting to do a story about this culture, just because I thought it deserved better. I personally found it compelling and fascinating. The reason why I even had this inclination is because I was a nerd growing up, my friends were nerds… And they actually kind of served to be my inspiration as well. I just found them interesting and fascinating … and lacking in Hollywood, and that kind of all added up to the genesis of Mr. Robot.
Although, when you boil it down from there, I really wanted to do a character piece about one specific character from this world. I wanted to be inside his head as intimately and as close as possible. Then the character of Elliot started to form. Taxi Driver hands down is probably one of the best character pieces in cinema, so of course that was an inspiration. The use of VO (voice over) and the sort of isolation, in terms of the filming and storytelling, really you’re just locked in with this guy.
Did anything inspire the idea of using technology to change the world?
I’m Egyptian, and I have a lot of cousins out in Egypt. I went out right after the Arab Spring and my cousins were part of the whole movement. They were 20 year-old kids who used Facebook and Twitter to sort of start this movement and bring about this dramatic change, unlike any I’ve ever heard of in the history of Egypt. That moved me so much, and I found that so inspirational. Obviously that ties so well into that sort of ongoing monologue in my head about wanting to write a story about a hacker. When I talked to my cousins and heard their passion and anger, there’s this kind of a fine line. What I thought was interesting was that anger was typically considered a negative emotion. But this was not negative, this was positive and channeled in a very positive way to bring about much needed change over there. If it wasn’t for that [emotion], it wouldn’t have happened.
There was a huge amount of respect I had for my cousins, a huge amount of fear… The bottom line is that it was very gripping, and that became a huge component in writing Mr. Robot.
Do your cousins actually attribute technology to much of the Arab Spring? There’s plenty of commentary online against that idea.
Absolutely. The thing about Egypt is there’s a lot of control over the newspapers, over the television, so information cannot really be disseminated really easily there. So it’s hard to organize in Egypt without that… There is no way to control the Internet, the beauty of the internet is that it’s incredibly decentralized. There isn’t one on/off switch. And as much as Egypt has tried to control it, there are major loopholes and ways that young people can sort of circumvent the system. And it’s beautiful… that that wound up being the thing that shifted the power, because it’s just something the older generation couldn’t fully understand.
I remember talking to my aunts and uncles, who belonged to the older generation, and they still don’t quite get that the internet is a compilation of computers. I don’t think it’s an educational thing. If I were to ask people here in the states if they could describe what the internet looked like, I think people still think it’s a machine in some closet somewhere. So it’s fascinating how that one piece sort of shifted this huge amount of power to the younger generation. And I actually think that’s beautiful.
Around that idea of the internet being this open place for an exchange of ideas, there’s a lot of controversy about Reddit these days. Is that something you’ve been following?
I need to give Reddit a shout out (on the show), because I actually think it’s a great platform. In terms of social media, which I’ve actually gone on record of not being trustful, Reddit I would say feels very genuine in terms of being open. [Esmail also recently held a Reddit AMA session.]
So you’re not a big Twitter user?
Twitter I actually mind less because I think it’s meant for publication, for publishing. It’s not necessarily about relationships, it’s more of a platform to distribute entertainment via witty tweets, links, or whatever… But Facebook is where I really have the problem. Because those are meant to be my private interactions with my family and close friends. And here we are giving it to a large corporation. … They have all this information on us, and that’s exactly how they make money, and they’re going to monetize it. and there’s just something incredibly dangerous about that.
Are you at all worried about Facebook trying to consume the web? That’s kind of where they’re going now by having media companies publish their content directly on Facebook.
There were these discoveries that Facebook has been conducting psychological tests and social experiments, and then using the information they know about you to manipulate how you feel about certain things. I mean, just think about the consequences of that. A corporation whose sole purpose is profit, knowing all these personal intimate details of your life, and then using this against you in some sort of subtle, subliminal psychological warfare to compel you to either buy products, or switch from one product to another. To me, that’s just incredibly disgusting and Orwellian. I don’t really know why there’s isn’t more of an uproar.
USA did a survey when our show premiered, targeting Millennials, and asked if they could go back in time and start over, would they join Facebook. And I think overwhelmingly most people said no, which is great. [The survey actually noted most Americans wouldn’t join any social media site.] I still don’t know why it’s as popular as it is. I’m hoping either that changes, or Facebook changes. But I doubt Facebook will.
The hacking elements feel a lot more realistic than other shows and films. How did you achieve that?
I was probably a huge tyrant about it on set. I’m sure I didn’t make many fans because of it, because it takes a lot of work. Everything from the writing of it, to the execution, to the production design, to the shooting, we don’t shoot any green screen when we deal with a computer screen. That’s all done practically. So that required a production design to build all the screens beforehand. And it required our tech consultants to walk us through what those screens would look like. And then it required the actors to follow all the commands and type all the commands that an actual hacker would need to do. All of that required a lot of time and energy and money. And then in post [production] if I saw something that wasn’t right, we had to fix it and redo it by reshooting those screens.
I became incredibly obsessive about it because I just think in reality, this is what goes on. These screens are not fake. I never wanted to conjure anything up, or fake anything, because the reality of it is far way more interesting than anything I could imagine. There were times when people wanted to take shortcuts and I started to understand why I was frustrated all these years. People think that that’s not the drama, it’s not in the coding. Which they’re right, but if you start fudging on that you lose the credibility of the world. And if that starts to go, then the drama goes with it. I hope we proved it.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
[Images: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images]
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
More ‘iPhone 6s’ Part Photos Surface as Production Ramps Up
With less than two months before Apple is expected to launch the so-called “iPhone 6s” and “iPhone 6s Plus,” new photos of leaked components for the next-generation smartphones continue to surface from within the supply chain. The images support rumors that claim the next iPhones will have minimal design changes compared to the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
The main part shared by French website Nowhereelse.fr is a purported iPhone 6s single flex cable that houses the volume rocker, mute switch, power button and LED flash. The blog also shared photos of the device’s Lightning connector and headphone jack assembly, rear-facing camera rings and home button enclosure, which appears to be anodized in a gold or champagne color.
Apple has returned to using a single flex cable for the iPhone 6s after splitting the flex cables for the iPhone 6, but otherwise that part and the Lightning connector assembly remain largely unchanged, which is unsurprising given Apple’s “tick-tock” refresh cycle for iPhones. Apple typically makes major changes in a “tick” year (iPhone 6) while focusing on smaller improvements and refinements in a “tock” year (“iPhone 6s”).
The leaked camera rings suggest that the “iPhone 6s” and “iPhone 6s Plus” could also have a protruding rear-facing camera lens, a design choice that Apple received some complaints over for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Particularly, some users expressed frustration at being unable to lay their smartphone flat on a table because the camera lens sticks out about one millimeter.
“iPhone 6″ and “iPhone 6s Plus” production is believed to be underway, with leaked images of the front panel, rear shell and logic board surfacing earlier this month. The smartphones are rumored to feature an A9 chip with 2GB of RAM, Force Touch, a faster Qualcomm LTE modem, an improved 12-megapixel rear-facing camera, 7000 Series aluminum and more.
Sony teases new Xperia phone on August 3rd
Sony Mobile has just let us in on a new Xperia phone coming our way soon. It’s just a tease, so not much was said. But we know that its camera abilities are in focus.
Lately, we’ve been seeing manufacturers ramp up autofocusing speed in their smartphone cameras, using either phase detection or laser autofocus methods. Last year, Sony revealed that they managed to squeeze their 192-point phase detection focusing technology into a mobile Exmor RS sensor. It was assumed that the Xperia Z4 would have arrived touting it, but now Aug. 3rd appears to be the day.
What’s also interesting is the timeframe of this announcement. This robust camera technology seems fit for an Xperia flagship. However, Sony typically launches their Fall flapship at IFA in September. Could Sony be following Samsung’s lead to move forward their launch to avoid butting heads with Apple?
Either way, we’re always excited for new smartphone camera development. Sony’s new sensor is said to be 21 megapixels and capable of 4K recording at 30fps (with HDR support at this resolution).
Assuming this phone comes stateside, are you excited to see another contender for the top smartphone camera spot?
The post Sony teases new Xperia phone on August 3rd appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Android at Work expands to 40 partners; carriers now involved
Google on Thursday announced its Android for Work program has expanded to include 40 partners, including wireless service providers. Among those joining the initiative are AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile; Canadian providers Rogers, Bell Canada, and Telus Mobility are getting involved, too.
Launched earlier this year,is designed to provide security, device management, and other tools for smartphones. Samsung, for instance, brings its KNOX services to the table while Silent Circle’s Blackphone 2 will offer enhanced privacy and security features.
Working collectively, the consortium can make it easier for IT managers to remotely work with devices. Additionally, the BYOD space is more consistent when everyone chips in.
According to Google, more than 10,000 businesses are testing, deploying, or using Android for Work. Notable names already include the World Bank, the U.S. Army, SAP, and Guardian Life Insurance Company.
The post Android at Work expands to 40 partners; carriers now involved appeared first on AndroidGuys.
Pebble Time Steel starts shipping next week
It may be a little later than planned, but the Pebble Time Steel, that’s the metal version of Pebble’s latest smartwatch, will begin shipping out to customers in the first week of August. However, there are some delivery delays for those who ordered the steel band too.
Originally, Pebble planned to include the steel band and smartwatch in a single shipment. However, manufacturing delays with the band mean that Pebble will ship the two separately, in order to get the watch into customer hands as soon as possible.
Disappointingly, it sounds like the metal wristbands won’t be available until at least the end of September. To help make things right, Pebble will be swallowing the extra shipping costs and will begin putting everything in a single package should availability improve. The Pebble Time Steel ships with a leather strap in the box anyway, so customers will still be able to wear their watch once it arrives.
The initial batch of Pebble Time Steel smartwatches left the factory on July 27th and the first wave of customers should begin receiving their shipping information next week. Keep an eye out for that email.
Alleged rear cover belonging to the LG-made Nexus phone has surfaced
OnLeaks posted on Twitter an image of the rear camera setup of the new upcoming LG-made Google Nexus. According to recent reports, the LG-made Google Nexus will not be based on the design of the LG G4, but the device will feature a 3D camera. The leaked image shows a drawing of what could be the rear casing of the new Nexus device.
The image shows two equally-sized circles nearly on top of each other and a rectangle next to the top circle. The two circles could accommodate two cameras for depth-focused shots while the rectangular shaped box is presumably for flash.
The LG-made Nexus could launch as early as October, alongside a larger Huawei-made Google Nexus.
Source: OnLeaks (Twitter)
Come comment on this article: Alleged rear cover belonging to the LG-made Nexus phone has surfaced
Sony posts $780 million operating profit for Q2, but mobile sales continue to decline
Sony’s second quarter numbers are in, and while overall things are looking up for the company, their mobile division is still floundering.
The company posted an operating profit of $780 million for the second quarter of 2015, with an overall revenue of $14.5 billion. Sony’s image sensor division had a fantastic year, bringing in $249 million, while its music portion made $260 million. The gaming division of Sony focused around its PlayStation consoles grew to $160 million. Mobile phones and tablets didn’t look so hot, though, with an operating loss of $188 million.
Sony has shifted their focus away from mobile phones, but they’re still committed to the high-end market with the likes of the Xperia Z4 that was released this year. But with how competitive the mobile market is, it just doesn’t make sense for the company to continue releasing half-baked phones that stand no chance of succeeding against giants like Apple and Samsung, not to mention how much market share is being eaten away by cheaper smartphones.
source: Sony
Come comment on this article: Sony posts $780 million operating profit for Q2, but mobile sales continue to decline
Samsung is planning on giving the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge a permanent price cut
With the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus launching on August 13th, Samsung seems to be feeling the pressure. Very concerned about its smartphone sales, Samsung is planning on giving the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge major price cuts that will be permanent moving forward.
At this time, we have no word on how much the price cut will be, but with new handsets on the horizon, you can expect the discount to be a pretty penny. The company didn’t mention when and where the deal will take place, but stated it’s putting this deal into effect in order to maintain ongoing momentum. In case you have forgotten, the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge didn’t include some features that were in previous iterations: water resistance, removable battery, and expandable storage. Samsung seemed to change its strategy when it comes to high-end devices, and so far it is proving to be a good move.
Source: CNET
Come comment on this article: Samsung is planning on giving the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge a permanent price cut
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