Pandora may ditch its ticket business to focus on streaming

Pandora bought Ticketfly in 2015 in a bid to cover more aspects of your music experience, but it’s already having second thoughts. Bloomberg sources hear that Pandora is considering selling Ticketfly in case it doesn’t find a buyer for the entire company. In other words, it’d return to its focus on streaming music — important when its on-demand Premium service is still getting off the ground. Pandora has declined to comment, but it’s not hard to imagine why the ticketing business might be on the chopping block.

The internet music pioneer was arguably caught off-guard by the one-two punch of Spotify and Apple Music, which turned on-demand streaming music into a phenomenon. The purchase of Ticketfly was part of a hasty response meant to counter those surging rivals — it was supposed to give Pandora a convenience you couldn’t find elsewhere, and musicians listening data that could help sell more tickets. Pandora didn’t exactly become a powerhouse as a result, though, and some see the $450 million price for Ticketfly as a waste for a company that’s still bleeding cash. A Ticketfly sale could recoup some of that loss and improve its appeal to prospective buyers worried that it might be distracted.

Source: Bloomberg

Disney faces ransom threat over one of its upcoming movies

It appears that the latest studio to deal with an attack by criminals is Disney. The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline have heard that CEO Bob Iger told Disney employees that a group of hackers claim to have access to a copy of one of its upcoming movies, and are trying to charge a ransom in exchange for not releasing it to the public. Speculation points to high-profile flicks like Cars 3, while Deadline reports that it’s the next Pirates of the Caribbean.

This pretty closely follows an incident where someone calling themselves “thedarkoverlord” posted episodes from Netflix’s upcoming season of Orange is the New Black after stealing them from an audio studio and failing at an attempt to obtain a ransom payment. At the time, they claimed to also have content from ABC, FOX, IFC and National Geographic, but not Disney. It’s not clear if that is related to this situation, but of course, it could be worse — remember what happened to Sony Pictures?

Last week there were rumors that an early work print of Star Wars: The Last Jedi had leaked, although that appears to have been a hoax. Oddly, the details Iger reportedly gave employees are similar to the forum posts that kicked off last week’s rumor, claiming that the threat is to release five-minute sections of the film unless they’re paid. Disney has not responded with an official statement or comment, we will update this post if we receive one.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline

No, Twitter won’t add an edit button if you retweet some dude

It’s a strange age when one person can retweet their way to a lifetime of free Wendy’s nuggets, but some social media messages just can’t be amplified into making change. Especially when they’re fake. In case there was any doubt, Twitter has confirmed that the supposed screenshot promising an ‘edit tweet’ function if a message gets 450,000 retweets isn’t legitimate.

“As a number of the replies to the Tweet suggest, this is fake,” a Twitter spokesperson told Engadget over email. The tweet in question screencaps a purported response from Twitter’s Support account saying that 450,000 retweets will get the ball rolling on the editing feature. You’d think the mischievous user would aim a little higher — the free nugget dream needed over 3.4 million retweets to become reality.

Phiaton BT 110 earbuds review

Some people love the over-the-ear feel of headphones, and others love the in-ear simplicity of an earbud.  I am one of the latter, so when I came across the Phiaton BT 110 “Wireless Compact Bluetooth Audio” buds, I was excited.  These earbuds boast up to 4.5 hours for music and calls, and about five days of standby time, all on a two-hour charge.

Design

It’s difficult to find a great way to have truly wireless earbuds with a microphone, so one will see a wire connecting the two earbuds together, along with the volume/call button that doubles as power and pairing. Phiaton has what they call their “RightFit+ technology”, meaning it comes with three silicon ear wings and four sizes of silicon tips to adjust the fit to the wearer’s ears.

Everything fits neatly in a small black bag, so they are ultra-portable, and they look pretty cool. Their total weight is only 16 grams, so they are no burden to travel with, but I found that the buds were not the most comfortable for long periods of time. After playing around with the different tips, I found some that were more comfortable, so even if the out-of-the-box tip fits, I would highly recommend looking through some of the other tips and see if a different one is more comfortable for you.

Sound

These earbuds do not get very loud, but loud enough to hear a spoken-word track or podcast in a public place. You will still hear your train or flight announcements, even with these in your ears, but they muffle enough of the outside sound so you can concentrate on the audio.

The included microphone sounded a little muffled and distant, which unfortunately, is far too common with many earpieces and headsets.  It was not bad, and I could easily be understood and understand what the other callers were saying, but I would not use these earbuds to record a podcast, for example.

There is also a buzzing sound just before and after audio starts to play, like the earbuds are preparing to work, and then go back into standby mode, which is quiet.  Overall, the sound quality is good, but not amazing.

Features

I love special features more than most people I know, and the best one about the BT 110 is the “multipoint connection”.  With these earbuds, I can connect them to more than one device at the same time.  I paired the earbuds with my tablet and was listening to some music while playing a game, and also had it paired with my phone.  I had a friend call me, and it started ringing through the earbuds, interrupting my music–this is exactly what I was looking for.

On both the box and the website, it specifically mentions that one can pair two devices simultaneously, and that’s exactly what it does.  Once I connected my computer to the earbuds, my tablet was no longer connected.

Aside from the multipoint connection, it is IPX4 sweat and water-resistant, so it can be used on-the-go for exercising or walking in the rain–just don’t take them swimming with you.

Battery

The battery life of these earbuds work as expected.  They go from empty to a full charge in about two hours, like the box says, and with normal usage. That is, not sitting around all day with them in, they lasted me about four days before I had to recharge them.

I would typically wear them in 30-60 minute spurts to listen to a podcast or some videos while I would have coffee.  Conveniently, the Phiaton BT 110 charges with a standard micro-USB, so it was easy to grab a quick charge in my car while on the go.  In all, it performs as expected, and I was not disappointed.

Conclusion

I would put these earbuds in the mid-range market.  Although they retail for $119, there are some deals at the sites below. I like these earbuds, especially since I can use one pair for both devices.  My tablet has a 3.5mm headphone jack, but my phone does not, so not having to carry around two sets of earbuds is invaluable to me.

They might not be the perfect set of earbuds, but they do the job, even if they are a little quiet.  Their frequency range is between 20Hz and 27kHz, and work from a 10-meter distance, so that’s not too shabby.

Availability

Walmart has the Phiaton BT 110 on special now for only $50; Amazon has them for just under $60; Best Buy is selling them for $59; Newegg has them for $99.

App Highlight: Goalify – My Goals and Habits

The App

Developed by onebytezero GmbH, Goalify is a new app that will help you reach your goals and succeed in your tasks and tracking your habits. Having been recently updated on May 9 to version 2.5.2, the developer is constantly applying fixes and improving performance with regular updates. Goalify allows you to effectively and efficiently record any goals or tasks that you want to accomplish.

What it does

Goalify will work on tracking everything you do in life, from simple goals and to do lists right up to tracking your habits to improve your persistence and productivity. The app also features a social aspect by allowing you to create challenges and share motivating messages with your friends. You can set up your own daily targets and completely tweak it to suit your lifestyle and motivation. There’s also 7 categories and over 50 ready-to-use goal examples to get you started.

Goalify has also recently introduced a new training plan feature to monitor your activity for professionals. Goalify has a new Coaching Edition that will help you to connect with your students, clients and athletes utilizing the extensive ecosystem for coaching and study support included in the app.

Why we like it

Goalify combines functionality that previously was split over 2-3 individual apps into a single well designed app. With the constant updates and rich feature set, you are able to customize the goals and tracking to your own pace making sure that it works for you. This, combined with the social aspect to provide healthy competition, means Goalify has found a permanent place on our homescreen.

How to get it

Goalify is available for free from the Google Play Store. You can download it right here.

The Pentagon is hunting ISIS using big data and machine learning

Military and civilian intelligence analysts “overwhelmed” by the sheer volume of video surveillance data recorded over the America’s numerous military incursions against ISIS will soon get some relief. The Pentagon announced on Monday that it is tasking its newly-minted Algorithmic Warfare Cross Functional Team (AWCFT), dubbed Project Maven, with using big data and machine learning to accelerate the process of discovering actionable intelligence in all that aerial imagery.

There’s simply too much incoming information for the Pentagon’s stable of analysts, says. Air Force Lt. Gen. John N.T. “Jack” Shanahan, director for defense intelligence for warfighter support. “We’re not going to solve it by throwing more people at the problem…That’s the last thing that we actually want to do. We want to be smarter about what we’re doing,” he told Defense One.

The idea is to reduce the amount of time analysts spend performing administrative tasks, like manually entering data into spreadsheets whenever they find something of interest, and more time actually analyzing. To that end, the AWCFT will leverage and improve upon existing Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (PED) capabilities and automate the data-labelling process.

The group has 90 days to complete its first phase: to either develop the algorithms itself or acquire them from the private sector. The second and third phases, each also 90 days, involve procuring the hardware needed to run the algorithms and implementing the completed system.

The need for a fast turnaround is essential, Shanahan argued. “It’s no good if it’s just shown and demonstrated in a research lab somewhere. We want to deliver — in this calendar year — some capabilities out to the warfighters that make a difference.”

Should this program meet with success, Shanahan hopes to expand Project Maven’s machine learning efforts throughout the rest of the armed services. “We see all sorts of things for intelligence, for targeting, for collection management, for sensor fusion. For the department… logistics, command and control, communications,” Shanahan told Defense One. “Everything that [the tech industry] is working on has some applicability throughout the entire department.” Hopefully that success will also cajole Congress into approving a $70 million transfer of funds until the unit gets its own budget.

Source: Defense One

AMD’s Threadripper processors could put an end to Intel’s dominance in CPUs

Why it matters to you

Although these chips are unlikely to be cheap, they could offer people an alternative to Intel’s top-end line of CPUs.

If the leaked information for AMD’s upcoming R9 Threadripper CPUs turns out to be true, it could mean that AMD created the most powerful desktop processors ever. With up to 16 cores, near 4GHz clock speeds, and support for faster memory than Intel’s upcoming Core i9 CPUs, AMD could be poised to capture the performance crown for the first time in nearly 15 years.

Long-term hardware enthusiasts may remember the early 2000s where Athlon 64 CPUs smashed Intel’s Pentium 4 series processors, creating more competition in the CPU market than we have seen since. Threadripper has the potential to shake things up.

The leaked information reveals the entire Threadripper lineup, which will be compatible with a revised version of the SP3 socket designed for its Naples server components, codenamed SP3r2. Physically, the chips are too large for AM4 chipsets which were released with Ryzen 7 and 5 support earlier in 2017.

The king of the Threadripper hill is the Ryzen 9 1998X and R9 1998, which come with 16 cores and 32 threads apiece, with the former hitting 3.5GHz as its base clock, boosting up to 3.9GHz, while the latter has a more modest 3.2Ghz and 3.6GHz clock speeds. Each chip, however, has a TDP of just 155w, which would make them five watts less than Intel’s planned top of the line, i9-7920X CPU.

Further down the Threadripper range are the R9 1977X and 1977 chips, which have a 100MHz bump to boosted clock speeds, but drop the core and thread count to 14/28, respectively. There is also a 1976X chip, which sports the same 14 cores, 28 threads with a higher clock speed of 3.6GHz and 4.1GHz when boosted.

The 1956X and 1956 drop that down to 12 cores and 24 threads, with clock speeds of 3.2Ghz/3.8GHz and 3.0Ghz/3.7GHz apiece.

The entry-level portion of the range are the R9 1955X and 1955 chips, which sport 10 cores and 20 threads each, with 3.6GHz/4.0GHz and 3.1GHz/3.7GHz clock speeds each. Their TDP is much lower too, at just 125W.

The whole range, however, sports 44 PCIExpress lanes and there is support for quad channel DDR4 memory as well.

All of those specifications are impressive in their own right, but as WCCFTech points out, they even go beyond what Intel has planned for its upcoming Skylake X and Kaby Lake X processor ranges. The Ryzen R9 chips will offer more cores and threads across the range, as well as more PCIExpress lanes at the lower end.

Of course, all of this is leaked information so we will want to await official confirmation before jumping to conclusions, but this new AMD range has serious potential. If it all turns out to be true, AMD could capture the top-end performance crown from Intel for the first time in 14 years and give everyone from professionals to hardware enthusiasts a much greater range of options than they are typically presented with.

Although not officially announced, rumors suggest AMD will unveil the Ryzen 9 lineup at Computex at the end of May, with a launch set to coincide with the Naples chip launch in June.

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Roccat looks to be ‘leader’ in PC gaming devices with Leadr wireless mouse

Why it matters to you

PC gamers who want to cut the cord to their mouse now have a new option from Roccat with the release of Leadr, which packs an Owl-Eye optical sensor.

On Monday, May 15, PC gaming peripheral maker Roccat announced the launch of a new wireless mouse, the Leadr. It features a polling rate of 1,000Hz, meaning the device updates the computer with input information once every millisecond. By comparison, the average wired desktop mouse updates the processor every eight milliseconds or so, thus Roccat is pushing an extremely high refresh rate on a wireless device because in a game, every millisecond counts.

Backing the 1,000Hz polling rate is a custom Pixart 3361 optical sensor Roccat dubs the Owl-Eye. According to the specs, this sensor has a sensitivity up to 12,000 dots per inch, a maximum acceleration of 50G, a maximum tracking speed of 250 inches per second, and a framerate of up to 12,000 frames per second. The sensor comes packed with an IR LED inside a 16-pin molded lead-free DIP package.

However, Roccat says the custom Owl-Eye sensor is optimized for the “golden range” between 400 and 3,000 DPI. Thus, PC gamers may not experience high precision tracking when going beyond that 3,000 DPI threshold.

“9 out of 10 professional gamers choose a DPI under 2,000 due to the undesirable smoothing that occurs at DPIs above that — in every sensor. Our own Roccat pros do the same,” the company says. “When developing Owl-Eye, we focused on accuracy and responsiveness within the golden range.”

Here are the hardware specs provided on the product page:

Wireless transmission:
2.4GHz band
Polling rate:
1,000Hz
Battery duration:
20 hours
Button count:
14 ergonomic + 2D Titan Wheel
Lighting:
16.8 million colors
Separate color zones:
Logo
Mouse Wheel
Processor:
32-bit ARM Cortex-MO chip @ 72MHz
On-board memory:
512KB
Maximum DPI:
12,000
Acceleration speed:
50G
Maximum speed:
250 inches per second
Lift-off distance:
Adjustable
Cable length:
71 inches
Cable type:
Micro USB to USB
Size (inches):
3.18 x 1.81 x 5.07
Weight (pounds):
0.295

According to Roccat, all 14 buttons are fully programmable through the free Swarm software. These buttons are joined by the X-Celerator single-axis analog thumb paddle mounted on the left side, meaning this mouse wasn’t designed for left-handed PC gamers. There’s also a mid-knuckle dorsal Fin Switch “for rapid and instinctive control.”

Packed with the new Leadr mouse is a premium charging dock stand for juicing up the included 20-hour battery. It connects directly to the PC to send and receive wireless signals from the mouse. But if the peripheral has a low battery and the user still needs to game on, the “top-up” cable can be detached from the dock and plugged straight into the mouse.

Finally, in addition to programming the buttons, Leadr owners can customize the two lighting zones as well with the Swarm software for Windows, Android, and iOS. Here users can store their settings in the cloud, share their profiles and macros, and even manage the device through their smartphone and/or tablet. Swarm serves as the hub for all connected Roccat devices, and even supports the AlienFX lighting systems on Alienware desktops and laptops.

Roccat’s new wireless Leadr mouse for PC gaming is available to pre-order now for $140 on Roccat’s website. The peripheral isn’t slated to ship until May 31, 2017.

Artificially intelligent Google Assistant could soon join Siri on iOS devices

Why it matters to you

Pretty soon, you won’t need to choose between Siri and Google Assistant. iOS users could get the best of both worlds.

The artificial intelligence behind the Google Home speaker and Google’s Allo messing app could come to the iPhone within “days.” That’s according to an Android Police, which claims that Google Assistant will arrive in the form of a stand-alone app for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system.

Google Assistant, which the company formally introduced at its annual I/O developer conference 2016, is a contextually aware, anticipatory digital helper with support for third-party apps. It can walk you through recipes, place restaurant reservations, recap the day’s events, and find nearby movie showtimes. And thanks to support for apps like Uber, iHeartRadio, and MyWineGuide, it can summon a car, play internet radio, suggest wine pairings, and more.

It’s designed to be relatable. The Mountain View, California-based company recruited ex-Pixar animator Emma Coats to give the Assistant a personality — and a backstory. “[We] think of the Assistant […] as a conversational assistant — we want users to have an ongoing two-way dialogue,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at I/O 2016.

Google hinted at an iOS version of the Assistant earlier this year, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “I do not think we have anything to announce,” Google product management director Gummi Hafsteinsson told Geekster, “but I think the general philosophy is that we would like to have the Assistant available to as many people as possible.”

And more recently, Google brought the Assistant to more devices. It came to Android TV, the company’s set-top box platform, in February, and launched on Android Auto in May. And in April, Google introduced the Assistant software development kit (SDK), a suite of tools that let developers plug the Google Assistant into any device that meets a base set of requirements.

The iOS launch comes as Apple prepares to bring its own AI-powered assistant, Siri, to new devices. The Cupertino, California-based company is reportedly prepping a smart home speaker ahead of a June launch at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). It’s said to have built-in controls, a far-field microphone array capable of detecting voices from across the room, high-end speakers with Beats technology, and integration with Apple’s smart home platform, HomeKit. It’ll support Apple’s in-home wireless streaming technology, AirPlay, and run a variant of iOS.

Rumors of a Google Assistant app for iOS also follows Amazon’s new Alexa Show, a speaker with a built-in screen and video camera, and Harman Kardon’s Invoke, a high-end stereo powered by Microsoft’s Cortana intelligence.

According to Android Police, the Assistant app for iOS could be announced as soon as next week, at I/O 2017.

Artificially intelligent Google Assistant could soon join Siri on iOS devices

Why it matters to you

Pretty soon, you won’t need to choose between Siri and Google Assistant. iOS users could get the best of both worlds.

The artificial intelligence behind the Google Home speaker and Google’s Allo messing app could come to the iPhone within “days.” That’s according to an Android Police, which claims that Google Assistant will arrive in the form of a stand-alone app for iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system.

Google Assistant, which the company formally introduced at its annual I/O developer conference 2016, is a contextually aware, anticipatory digital helper with support for third-party apps. It can walk you through recipes, place restaurant reservations, recap the day’s events, and find nearby movie showtimes. And thanks to support for apps like Uber, iHeartRadio, and MyWineGuide, it can summon a car, play internet radio, suggest wine pairings, and more.

It’s designed to be relatable. The Mountain View, California-based company recruited ex-Pixar animator Emma Coats to give the Assistant a personality — and a backstory. “[We] think of the Assistant […] as a conversational assistant — we want users to have an ongoing two-way dialogue,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said at I/O 2016.

Google hinted at an iOS version of the Assistant earlier this year, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “I do not think we have anything to announce,” Google product management director Gummi Hafsteinsson told Geekster, “but I think the general philosophy is that we would like to have the Assistant available to as many people as possible.”

And more recently, Google brought the Assistant to more devices. It came to Android TV, the company’s set-top box platform, in February, and launched on Android Auto in May. And in April, Google introduced the Assistant software development kit (SDK), a suite of tools that let developers plug the Google Assistant into any device that meets a base set of requirements.

The iOS launch comes as Apple prepares to bring its own AI-powered assistant, Siri, to new devices. The Cupertino, California-based company is reportedly prepping a smart home speaker ahead of a June launch at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). It’s said to have built-in controls, a far-field microphone array capable of detecting voices from across the room, high-end speakers with Beats technology, and integration with Apple’s smart home platform, HomeKit. It’ll support Apple’s in-home wireless streaming technology, AirPlay, and run a variant of iOS.

Rumors of a Google Assistant app for iOS also follows Amazon’s new Alexa Show, a speaker with a built-in screen and video camera, and Harman Kardon’s Invoke, a high-end stereo powered by Microsoft’s Cortana intelligence.

According to Android Police, the Assistant app for iOS could be announced as soon as next week, at I/O 2017.