Spotify’s deal with Dubset means more remixes to stream

Back in March, Apple reached a deal with Dubset to make sure sampled artists in remixes and DJ mixes on its music service were properly compensated. Last week, Spotify did the same, inking an agreement to leverage Dubset’s MixBANK distribution platform to ensure that both the artists creating the mixes and those being sampled receive the royalties they’re due. The MixBANK system checks an uploaded track for copyrighted material before getting permission for its use from the correct label and/or publisher.

In terms of content, the deal means that Spotify users will get access to radio shows and individual tracks that didn’t previously clear the licensing hurdle. What’s more, it means that users will be able to upload any tracks that they create à la SoundCloud. The deal was just announced a few days ago, so there’s no word on when the Spotify’s remix library will start adding new material.

Via: Fact Magazine

Source: Music Week

Watch Mars make its closest approach to Earth in 10 years

Mars is about to make its closest approach to Earth in the space of a decade… and this time around, it’ll be trivially easy to watch this rare celestial event. Slooh is offering a live stream that will kick off around 9PM Eastern, when the sky should be dark enough to observe the Red Planet in vivid detail (the closest approach is technically at 5:34PM, around when this story went live). Gizmodo notes that you can also get a first-hand look if you point a telescope to the right of the bright star Antares.

It’s important to remember that “close” is a relative term here. Earth and Mars will still be 46.8 million miles apart, so you aren’t about to spot the details of Olympus Mons with your naked eyes. However, the shortened distance makes it comparatively trivial to get a good peek without resorting to particularly advanced optics. Given that most of our Solar System neighbors are too far away for this kind of observation, it’ll likely be worth watching for at least a brief moment.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: Slooh

What’s on your HDTV: ‘Roots,’ ‘Top Gear,’ ‘Archer’

This week A&E revisits the classic series Roots, while BBC America airs the season premiere of Top Gear with its all-new cast. Cinemax is premiering a new series from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, called Outcast, and you can watch the first episode below. We also have a couple of new Ultra HD Blu-ray releases, with Gods of Egypt and Now You See Me. For gamers, PS4 is snagging a few Xbox One releases, as Smite and Oxenfree come to PSN, on the same week that Sony’s network kicks off season two of its exclusive superhero series Powers. Netflix has season three of Peaky Blinders on deck, plus a new Bo Burnham comedy special. Look after the break to check out each day’s highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).

Blu-ray & Games & Streaming

• Gods of Egypt (3D) (4K)
• Race
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
• Now You See Me (4K)
• Triple 9
• The Human Tornado
• Venom
• The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine DLC (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
• The Elder Scrolls Online: the Dark Brotherhood DLC (Mac & PC)
• There Came an Echo (PS4)
• Smite (PS4)
• Wander No More (PC)
• Dead Island Definitive Edition (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
• Plague Inc: Evolved (PS4)
• Oxenfree (PS4)
• The Solus Project (Xbox One)
• Daydreamer: Awakened Edition (PS4, Xbox One)
• Elite: Dangerous Horizons (Xbox One)

Monday

• NHL Stanley Cup Finals Game 1, NBC, 8PM
• NBA Western Conference Finals Game 7: Warriors vs. Thunder, TNT, 9PM
• So You Think You Can Dance (season premiere), Fox, 8PM
• Roots (Part 1 of 4) (series premiere), A&E, 9PM
• WWE Raw, USA, 8PM
• American Dad, TBS, 8:30PM
• The Detour (season finale), TBS, 9PM
• Top Gear (season premiere), BBC America, 9PM
• The Dresser, Starz, 9PM
• 12 Monkeys, Syfy, 9PM
• Mistresses (season premiere), ABC, 10PM
• Hunters, Syfy, 10PM
• Turn, AMC, 10PM
• Extra Gear (series premiere), BBC America, 10:30PM
• Scream (season premiere), MTV, 11PM

Tuesday

• Peaky Blinders (S3), Netflix, 3AM
• Powers, PSN, 3AM
• The Mindy Project, Hulu, 3AM
• America’s Got Talent (season premiere), NBC, 8PM
• 500 Questions, ABC, 8PM
• Roots (Part 2 of 4), A&E, 9PM
• Coupled, Fox, 9PM
• Containment, CW, 9PM
• Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM
• Maya & Marty (series premiere), NBC, 10PM
• Person of Interest, CBS, 10PM
• First Impressions, USA, 10:30PM

Wednesday

• Chelsea, Netflix 3AM
• American Ninja Warrior (season premiere), NBc, 8PM
• NHL Stanley Cup Finals Game 2, NBC, 8PM
• Unsung (summer premiere), TV One, 8PM
• Young & Hungry (season premiere), Freeform, 8PM
• Baby Daddy (summer premiere), Freeform, 8:30PM
• Kingdom (summer premiere), DirecTV, 9PM
• Maron, IFC, 9PM
• Wayward Pines, Fox, 9PM
• Royal Pains, USA, 10PM
• The Real World/Road Rules Challenge, MTV, 10PM
• The Americans, FX, 10PM
• Cleverman (series premiere), Sundance, 10PM

Thursday

• Chelsea, Netflix, 3AM
• Strong (season finale), NBC, 8PM
• Bones, Fox, 8PM
• WWE SmackDown, USA, 8PM
• Roots (Part 4 of 4) (series finale), A&E, 9PM
• Beauty and the Beast (season premiere), CW, 9PM
• Live from Daryl’s House, MTV Live, 9PM
• American Grit, Fox, 9PM
• Red Nose Day, NBC, 9PM
• Alone, History, 9PM
• Game of Silence, NBC, 9 & 10PM
• Burning the Light, HBO, 10PM
• Archer (season finale), FX, 10PM
• Orphan Black, BBC America, 10PM

Friday

• Bo Burnham: Make Everyone Happy, Netflix, 3AM
• Chelsea, Netflix, 3AM
• Masters of Illusion, CW, 8PM
• Outcast (series premiere), Cinemax, 10PM
• Roots: A History Revealed, History, 10PM
• Ben Gleib: Neurotic Gangster, Showtime, 10PM
• ELeague, TBS, 10PM
• Vice, HBO, 10PM
• Comedy! Bang! Bang! (season premiere), IFC, 11PM

Saturday

• NHL Stanley Cup Finals Game 3, NBC Sports Network, 8PM
• Outlander, Starz, 9PM

Sunday

• 2016 Miss USA, Fox, 7PM
• NBA Finals Game 2, ABC, 8PM
• Preacher, AMC, 9PM
• Game of Thrones, HBO, 9PM
• House of Lies, Showtime, 9PM
• Undercover Boss, CBS, 9PM
• Game of Silence (season finale), NBC, 10PM
• Feed the Beast (series premiere), AMC, 10PM
• Penny Dreadful, Showtime, 10PM
• Silicon Valley, HBO,10PM
• United Shades of America, CNN, 10PM
• Veep, HBO, 10:30PM
• Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM

(All times listed are ET)

Qualcomm aims for more efficient wearables with latest chip

Rather than bringing more computing power to wearable devices, Qualcomm is aiming for efficiency with its new Snapdragon Wear 1100 chip. Announced today at Computex, it’s meant for small wearables that won’t be able to fit in large batteries. The company launched the Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip last year, itself a smaller option for wearables compared to the Snapdragon 400-series processors used in some Android Wear watches, but the 1100 model takes things even further.

Qualcomm says it’s meant for “targeted purpose” wearables — things like smartwatches for kids and the elderly, or fitness trackers, all of which won’t need the horsepower that a more powerful smartwatch requires.

Among the Snapdragon 1100’s features is a Power Save Mode (pretty obvious why that’s useful), and an integrated LTE/3G modem. Naturally, it’ll also support Bluetooth and WiFi, and it’ll also offer location tracking with Qualcomm’s “iZat” technology, which uses cell tower and GNSS (satellite) tracking.

Qualcomm’s chips are now being used in more than 100 wearables, the company says. A few partners also debuted new devices at Computex running Snapdragon 2100 chips: Anda showed off its tracking smartwatch for kids, while WeBandz unveiled a location tracker that could be used for children, the elderly or even pets. The Snapdragon 1100 is now shipping to customers, so you can expect to see it in devices early next year.

Twitter tips and tricks

Twitter isn’t exactly the most user-friendly social network to use.

People who aren’t familiar with the symbols # and @ or even terminology like retweet and DM probably see Twitter as some sort of alien spawn they’ll never understand. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Believe it or not, Twitter was made to be incredibly simple. There’s no crafting some elaborate profile or writing big, long statuses or liking tonnes of pages or any of that.

You simply create a profile, find a few people you want to follow, and start tweeting. We’ve explained everything you need to know, including the best tips to get you started and all the tricks that’ll make you a pro.

Twitter tips

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a public company/social network with about 310 million active users as of May 2016. The difference between Twitter and – let’s say – Facebook is that instead of “friending” loved ones and acquaintances, you “follow” them or anyone else you want to see content from in your feed.

Also, instead of publishing long-winded statuses, you post 140-character messages called tweets.

This FAQ page has more information about the company.

What’s the point of Twitter?

Think of Twitter as your RSS feed. You can follow news sites, celebrities, athletes, friends, etc, and their tweets will show up in your feed for you to read. It’s like your personally-curated newspaper – only it’s all happening in real-time. So, if you’re watching a political debate, and you follow many political commentators, your feed will be flooded with news about the debate.

The best part about Twitter is that you can discover news and get the inside scoop as at it’s happening, see events unfold across the world from the comfort of your home, and learn more about topics that are interesting to you.

This FAQ page has more information about the basics of Twitter.

How do you sign up?

• To create an account on the web, go directly to https://twitter.com/signup.

From there, enter your full name, phone number, and a password. Click Sign up for Twitter. You will need to verify your phone number via SMS text message. Once you’ve done that and clicked Sign up for Twitter, you can select a username (aka handle). You can type your own or choose a suggested one. From there, click Create my account.

This FAQ page has more information about signing up.

How do you follow people?

To follow a person on Twitter, navigate to any user’s profile (search for them using their actual name or handle), then click or tap the Follow button when you see it next to a user’s profile photo or on a user’s profile page. You can also click or tap the Follow button next to user search results or anywhere else you see the Follow button on the web.

This FAQ page has more information about how to follow people.

What’s all the lingo mean?

• Tweet: A 140-character message that can not only contain text but also photos, videos, and other forms of media. They are public by default and will show up your followers’ Twitter feeds and searches unless they are sent from protected accounts (private accounts) or as Direct Messages. Tweets can also be embedded in webpages.
• Retweet: A tweet that is re-shared by another user to their followers. There are two kinds of retweets: the standard retweet and the quote tweet. Hover over a tweet and click the Retweet icon to instantly share it with your followers, or you can tap Quote Tweet and add a comment/your input to the original tweet when sharing it with your followers.
• Feed: When you log in to Twitter, you’ll land on your home page. This is also called a feed or timeline. Your feed displays a stream of tweets from accounts you have chosen to follow on Twitter. You can reply, retweet, or like a tweet from within your feed.
• Hearts/likes: When you want to favourite a tweet or show interest in a tweet, you can tap or click the heart icon on it to “like” it.
• Handle: Handle is another way of saying username. Pocket-lint’s Twitter handle is @pocketlint and Twitter’s is @twitter, for instance.
• Mention: When composing a tweet or respond to a tweet, you can tag another user’s handle. This is called a mention. Mentions typically triggers a notification for that user. If you click on a mention, you will be brought to the mentioned user’s bio or profile.
• Direct Message: A direct message (DM) is a private Twitter message. Direct messages typically can only be sent to a Twitter user who is already following you, and you can only receive direct messages from users you follow. However, you can receive direct messages from anyone if you check the box next to Receive Direct Messages from anyone in your Security and privacy settings on twitter.com.
• Hashtag: The hashtag is any word or phrase preceded by the “#” sign. Hashtags are a simple way to make your tweet discoverable to people with shared interests. If you click or tap a hashtag, for instance, you will see all the public and recently published messages that also contain that hashtag. Hashtags first emerged on Twitter and are now used on almost every other social network.
• Moments: Moments is a hub on Twitter that you can find from the service’s menu bar. Go there to access a expert-curated selection of the day’s most interesting tweets and content.

This FAQ page has more information about Twitter lingo.

Twitter tricks

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts can save you precious time. If you use Twitter on desktop, there are a number of shortcuts that will come in handy. For instance, tapping the “n” key will open up a compose box where you can write a new tweet.

Activity dashboard

The Tweet activity dashboard is a tool you can use to learn more about your tweets, including how people engage with your tweets in real time, how they trend over time, and other detailed insights about your audience. To get started, log in to analytics.twitter.com with your Twitter username and password to turn analytics on for your account.

This FAQ page has more information about the activity dashboard.

Download your Twitter archive

You can download your Twitter profile as an archive. This allows you to browse your Twitter information, starting with your first tweet. To download and view your Twitter archive from a desktop, go to your account settings by clicking on the profile icon at the top right of the page and selecting Settings from the drop-down menu. From there, click Request your archive.

Twitter will send an email with a download link your email address. Once you receive the email, click the Go now button to log in to your Twitter account and download a .zip file of your Twitter archive. Unzip the file and click index.html to view it in any browser.

This FAQ page has more information about Twitter archives.

Advanced search

Advanced search is available from here. You can use it to conduct granular searches, making it easier to find a specific tweet.

This FAQ page has more information about Advanced search.

Schedule tweets

There are several apps, plug-ins, and add-ons you can sign into, connect to your Twitter, and use to get access to helpful features that Twitter either doesn’t directly offer or isn’t good at offering. One such app is called Buffer. It lets you schedule tweets to go out at specific times of the day, which is handy if you don’t want to annoy your followers with a blitz of links in 5 minutes.

Connect to third-party apps

A third-party app is a product developed by a company other than Twitter. You can give them access to your tweets and other Twitter data. Buffer, Seesmic, and Hootsuite are all third-party apps. You can learn more about how to connect to apps or revoke access to them from here.

Lists

Let’s say you want to follow a tonne of political commentators but you only want to see their tweets during debates or at some other time. Instead of actually following them you can create a list. This handy feature is basically a curated group of Twitter accounts. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by other users. Viewing a list timeline will only show tweets from the accounts on that list.

This FAQ page has more information about lists.

Mute instead of block

Mute is a great tool for ignoring harassers or annoying followers. It allows you to remove an account’s tweets from your timeline without unfollowing or blocking that account. Muted accounts will not know that you’ve muted them. To mute someone from a Tweet, click More at the bottom of the Tweet and then click Mute. You can unmute someone at anytime, too.

This FAQ page has more information about muting.

Shopping on Twitter

You can buy products from certain sellers in your feed whenever you see a Buy button within the Tweet. But first, you need to add your credit card and shipping information to your profile. Just visit the Cards and Shipping tab within your Twitter settings.

This FAQ page has more information about shopping on Twitter.

Customise your profile

On your Twitter profile, you can add profile and header images, as well as information like your name, bio, location, birthday, and website. You can even change your profile’s theme colour and pin a Tweet that other users will see when they visit your profile. To customise your profile, sign in to twitter.com or open your Twitter app (iOS or Android).

From there, go to your profile and select the Edit profile button. You can learn more about how to edit your information and theme from here.

Tweeting via text message

An alternative way of publishing a tweet – rather than posting through the desktop or mobile apps – is simply texting your tweet. If you add your mobile number to your Twitter account, you can tweet by sending a text message to a short or long code.

This FAQ page has more information about texting tweets.

Accept DMs from anyone

You can receive Direct Messages from anyone – as long as check the box next to Receive Direct Messages from anyone in your Security and privacy settings on twitter.com. You can learn more about direct messages from here.

Two-step verification

Two-step verification (or login verification) is an extra layer of security for your Twitter account. Instead of only entering a password to log in, you’ll also enter a code that is sent via text message to your mobile phone. To set it up go to the Security section under your Account in Settings. From there, drag the slider to turn on Login verification and tap confirm.

This FAQ page has more information about two-step verification.

TweetDeck

TweetDeck is a free Twitter client that Twitter acquired. It’s great for power users, as it lets you set up customised, auto-scrolling columns based around your feed, notifications, searches, trends and more. You can also access advanced searching and filtering tools in TweetDeck.