EA pulls in-game purchases from ‘Star Wars: Battlefront II’
The launch of Star Wars: Battlefront II has been marred by controversy over the game’s loot system. While players can earn bonuses like new heroes, equipment and vehicles by playing to earn credits that purchase loot crates, they could also buy more crates with “crystals” sold for real-world money. Predictably, the effect of this came off as allowing or encouraging players to pay to win, which has made gamers and even some regulators unhappy. Tonight, EA announced it’s pulling the plug on all in-game purchases, as DICE GM Oskar Gabrielson said the company will “spend more time listening, adjusting, balancing and tuning.”
At first the company tried making some heroes easier to earn, but clearly, that wasn’t enough. Gabrielson says that the plan is for crystal purchases to return eventually, but it’s difficult to see how that will be received well if players are still buying items that have a real impact. While the “digital deluxe edition” has already been playable for a few days, the game’s worldwide launch is happening now — let us know if this changes your decision to buy.
Today, we turned off in-game purchases for #StarWarsBattlefrontII. The game is built on your input, and it will continue to evolve and grow. Read the full update: https://t.co/asGASaYXVp pic.twitter.com/vQSOmsWRgk
— EAStarWars (@EAStarWars) November 17, 2017
Source: EA
Apple Working With Intel on 5G Hardware for Future iPhones
Apple is “leaning heavily” towards choosing Intel’s 5G modems for its future iPhones, according to Fast Company. Apple engineers are said to be already working with Intel on upcoming 5G technology.
Apple’s discussions with Qualcomm about 5G modems, meanwhile, have been described as “limited.”
Citing a source with knowledge of Apple’s plans, Fast Company says that while Qualcomm 5G modems will offer more specialized carrier features, many of those features will not be adopted by carriers, leading Apple to believe Intel’s hardware will be sufficient for future devices.
The end game, multiple sources have said, is to build the Intel modem onto an integrated system-on-a-chip (SoC) that would also contain the CPU, GPU, and other iPhone components. The SoC would be co-designed by Intel and Apple and would be fabricated at an Intel facility.
Intel reportedly has “multiple thousands” of people working on 5G technology in an effort to catch up with Qualcomm and win the contract from Apple.
Intel this morning said that it had made “substantial advances” in its wireless product roadmap to accelerate the adoption of 5G. According to Intel, an end-to-end 5G call based on early 5G silicon has been completed successfully, which Intel says is a “key milestone in its development.”
Intel expects its first 5G chips to roll out in 2019, ahead of the wide rollout of 5G networks. T-Mobile just today said that it is planning to roll out its fifth-generation network across the United States by 2020, and most of the carriers in the United States are already experimenting with limited trials.
5G is expected to deliver speeds that are 10 to 100 times faster than the average 4G connection, at a gigabit per second or higher, along with lower latency and other benefits.
Rumors that Apple is considering Intel’s 5G technology are in line with previous reports that have suggested Apple is considering eliminating Qualcomm chips from its 2018 iPhones and iPads.
Apple and Qualcomm have been embroiled in a bitter legal battle since the beginning of the year, which has continued to escalate over the months. Apple believes Qualcomm charges unfair royalties for “technologies they have nothing to do with,” while Qualcomm claims its technology is “at the heart of every iPhone.”
Apple and Apple suppliers have ceased paying royalties to Qualcomm amid the dispute, while Qualcomm has filed several patent infringement lawsuits against Apple and has asked for import/export bans in the United States and China.
Related Roundup: iPhone XTags: Intel, Qualcomm, 5GBuyer’s Guide: iPhone X (Buy Now)
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Filter promises to let you drink from almost any water source — even urine
Outdoors lovers have a new tool for creating drinkable water with the Fixt Nomad, an intriguing water filter device that promises to let you safely drink out of any non-salt water source.
Public toilets? Check. Stagnant ponds? You bet. Your own urine? Whatever floats your boat! In all cases, you don’t need to worry, since the pocket-sized Fixt Nomad claims it will filter out bacteria, viruses, and any other contaminants.
The pocket-sized filter can be used to purify a single glass of water, attached to a Camelbak or water bladder to purify en masse, or — if that’s not enough — screwed onto your hot water tank to provide hundreds of gallons of clean water in the event of a water outage.
“It uses ionic adsorption, combined with an iodinated resin to kill 99.9999 percent of bacteria and viruses,” creator Ian Stanley told Digital Trends. “Plus, it pulls all the other contaminants through a tortuous path that ensures nothing bad gets through, all while increasing the pH up to a 9.5 to ensure your water is alkaline.”
As an outdoors type, Stanley said he came up with the concept as a way of offering people a “self-reliance” tool that could potentially save their life. “I know water is the difference between life and death in a bad situation,” he said. “We had already made a straw but I wanted something more. That’s how the Nomad was born. I wrestled with quite a few different names, but ultimately called it the Nomad because no smart traveler or outdoorsman or woman should ever leave home without it.”
We haven’t yet got our hands on a Fixt Nomad, but it certainly sounds interesting. If you want to find out more about the project, and potentially even pre-order one of your own, you can do so on Indiegogo. Prices start at $56, with a shipping date set for December of this year — just in time for Christmas. Will it work as well as Stanley claims? We’ll answer that question once we’ve gotten to try it for ourselves, but we certainly hope so. Otherwise, he’s ingested a whole lot of unpurified toilet water.
Editors’ Recommendations
- Take control of your tap water with the DrinkPure screw-on filter
- The Mitte water system doesn’t just purify — it adds minerals to your water, too
- Take a long soak without feeling guilty with the water-saving Rua showerhead
- GardenSpace will water your garden and keep away pests with its robotic head
- Let the river lull you to sleep with the innovative Shoal Tent
Spotify vs. Pandora: Which is better for you?
Pandora and Spotify are both incredibly popular streaming services, built to help users find their favorite jams and to discover tons of new music without having to put in the work. Pandora’s Music Genome Project helped revolutionize the music industry — for better or worse — when it debuted way back in 2000, creating a new standard for online streaming music. Since then, numerous competitors have sprung up, with iHeartRadio, Last.fm, TuneIn, and more aping Pandora’s “radio station” model with varied degrees of success.
Spotify, meanwhile, was conceived by two Swedish businessmen who simply wanted a way to listen to all their favorite music in the same place. The London-based service debuted in 2008 and has since gone gangbusters, growing into one of the most successful on-demand music platforms in the world, with more than 140 million active daily users and more than 50 million paying monthly subscribers. And while Apple Music is the only on-demand service that comes close to matching Spotify’s might, Pandora’s relatively new on-demand service offers even more reasons to give it a shot.
If you’re a music lover, both services are certainly worth using, but if you’re considering upgrading to paid tiers like Spotify Unlimited or Pandora Premium, you’ll want to know what you’re getting for your hard-earned cash. We pit Spotify and Pandora against each other to help you decide which is right for you.
Music catalog
For years, Spotify enjoyed a massive lead in this category, touting tens of millions of songs in an ever-growing library. For most of its tenure, Pandora’s catalog included roughly 1-2 million songs — nothing to scoff at, but hardly a number capable of competing with Spotify or Apple Music. Following the acquisition of Rdio, Pandora inked deals with several major record labels and eventually launched Pandora Premium, its “Spotify Killer” (yeah, right) on-demand service. Spotify still has more music — owed mostly to remixes and covers you won’t find on Pandora — but the libraries are very comparable, and there aren’t any notable artists who appear on one service and not the other. Some artists have exclusive deals in place with other platforms, while others prefer to keep their work away from streaming services entirely. All told, Spotify holds a slim lead in sheer numbers, but there’s essentially no difference between the two here.
Winner: Tie
Social features
There’s no denying music’s incredible power to connect people. Realizing this is a valuable tool, Pandora and Spotify afford their users the ability to connect with friends, share their favorite songs, or simply recommend artists and playlists. However, these streaming clients differ vastly when it comes to comparing the social components akin to each service. Pandora’s rather lackluster attempt at social features essentially offers little to satisfy social media junkies. Users do have the ability to share their favorite stations across Facebook and Twitter, but because on-demand playback is locked behind a paywall, it feels fairly empty.
Spotify easily gets the nod in this category, providing users with a slew of options for sharing music and connecting with friends. Spotify users all have the ability to share individual songs, entire playlists, and even specific artists with any of their friends/followers on Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Skype, or Tumblr by simply clicking the three dots on the right. Spotify also added bar codes to songs, which you can scan with your phone for song data. The service also allows users to collaborate on playlists, and even make them public for anybody to follow. Simply put, Spotify wins this one easily.
Winner: Spotify
Music discovery
Everybody wants to find musical diamonds in the rough, and a big part of a streaming platform’s value comes from its ability to help users find new tunes. Music discovery is the backbone of Pandora. The Music Genome Project we mentioned above is the engine that drives Pandora, offering the uncanny ability to provide listeners with songs they’ll like based on a vast amount of variables. In addition to creating radio stations, the Music Genome Project helps to curate playlists (if you’ve got Pandora Premium) by automatically adding music once you’ve selected a few songs.
Spotify is no slouch in this category, either, and the company has made acquisitions to get better at it over time. The extremely popular “Discover Weekly” playlist, a 30-song list that magically shows up each Monday, blends music you love with music you’re likely to love. Spotify is constantly adding similar features so you can keep discovering. Spotify’s home interface is also brimming with themed playlists, and you’re just one click away from the “Discover” tab, which features personalized recommendations based on your listening history. We’re still inclined to give Pandora the nod here, however. After all, music discovery is its primary function and its radio stations far outshine Spotify’s at present, but Spotify’s Discover Weekly feature is hard to beat.
Winner: Pandora
Free vs paid versions
Both services offer free — albeit limited — access to streaming music supported by occasional ad breaks. The ads aren’t overwhelming, and the free offerings provide a great way to test drive these services before splurging on a premium account, but these services differ greatly.
With a free Pandora account, subscribers are limited to radio functionality — pick a song (or an artist, or an album, or any combination), and it builds you a station. Hit the “thumbs up” button to tell Pandora to play similar music in the future, and hit the “thumbs down” button to make sure you never hear that song (or songs like it) again. Moreover, users of free options only have access to a lower-quality audio stream (limited to 64k AAC+ at best), and aren’t afforded the luxury of downloading a desktop client like users of Pandora Plus or Pandora Premium. Both mobile and web users have access to similar features — the same amount of skipped songs, the same available stations, and the same occasional advertisement.
For Spotify users, the free experience is far more robust. The ads are here, too — as is the loss in audio quality — but with a free Spotify account, you can listen to music on-demand via the desktop and web apps (mobile users are limited to “shuffle play”). You can create radio stations based on selected music, too.
You can also try the ad-free versions of each service for free. Pandora offers a 60-day free trial of its $10/month Pandora Premium service (which includes ad-free radio and on-demand streaming), 30 free days of its $5/month Pandora Plus service (ad-free radio stations, but no on-demand streaming), while Spotify offers a free 30-day trial of its $10/month Spotify Premium service (on-demand listening and radio stations). Both services also offer a discount for yearly membership.
With free access to on-demand music, Spotify takes this category every time.
Winner: Spotify
Cost
While Spotify may offer better choices for free-loaders, Pandora’s $5/month tier is a killer option for those who want to rock out to quality tunes, but don’t have the scratch to shell out the full $10 per month (though we find it hard to believe that’s a burden for most folks). If you want to go ad-free with Spotify, you’ll have to go all in, which gives Pandora the win.
Winner: Pandora
User interface & experience
Though not necessarily a deal-breaker — both platforms look and feel great — it’s worth pointing out how the user experience differs between services. Pandora offers three different methods for playing music; a mobile application for Android or iOS, an in-browser player, or a downloadable desktop program (Pandora Plus or Premium only). With an easy-to-use interface and intuitive controls, each version provides largely the same experience. Users also have the ability to sort radio stations either alphabetically or by date for quick access. No matter which way you listen, you’ll have access to background information on the artist currently playing, listings of similar artists, and links for users to quickly buy any song that strikes their fancy. “Browse” and “My stations” sections allow you to quickly switch between listening and discovering.
Spotify also offers three apps — web, desktop, and mobile for Android or iOS — and they all feature an incredibly polished user interface. The desktop version functions like iTunes (but less cluttered), meaning most people should find navigating it straightforward and intuitive. Searching for music via the program’s search bar produces Google-like results, auto-generating artists, songs, or albums as you type. On both the mobile and desktop versions, the left item bar offers easy-to-access links to saved playlists, local files, downloaded songs, and Spotify Radio stations. When using the Browse feature, users have access to newly released music, daily curated music news, and a discovery tab that recommends new artists and songs based on a user’s listening history. There’s no denying that Spotify offers users a more well-rounded user experience, and its solid platform and slick interface make it an even more attractive option. Pandora’s no slouch, but Spotify reigns supreme here.
Winner: Spotify
Other information
Location: If you’re not located in the United States, go ahead and ignore Pandora altogether — it’s only available stateside following the removal of support in Oceania territories. Spotify, on the other hand, is available in a vast number of countries.
Compatibility: With Wi-Fi-enabled smart speakers reaching an all-time peak in popularity, you might want to consider whether your favorite speaker is natively compatible with Spotify or Pandora. Popular smart speakers like the Sonos One and the Amazon Echo line support both Spotify Connect and Pandora Everywhere via Wi-Fi; here’s a full list of Spotify devices and a full list of Pandora devices.
Conclusion
Despite having existed for nearly twice as long, Pandora simply can’t keep up with Spotify’s impressive versatility and usability. The recent introduction of Pandora Premium means users can finally listen to a massive collection of specific songs and albums at their pleasure, but Pandora is playing catchup at this point, and it’s pretty far behind. Spotify has better social features, better apps, and more value for your dollar. If you’re constantly looking to expand your musical horizons, Pandora is absolutely a reasonable investment, but in general, we recommend choosing Spotify.
Overall winner: Spotify
Updated: Added new information, including Pandora’s on-demand tier, pricing, and free-trial availability.
Editors’ Recommendations
- Jam out to a ‘Hipster Brunch’ playlist with Pandora’s Featured Playlists
- You can now control Sonos smart speakers directly from the Pandora app
- Music junkie? Here are the 25 best music apps for consuming and creating tunes
- Breaking the law not your thing? Here are the best free music download sites
- SoundHound redesigns its music discovery app, adds new discovery features
Spotify vs. Pandora: Which is better for you?
Pandora and Spotify are both incredibly popular streaming services, built to help users find their favorite jams and to discover tons of new music without having to put in the work. Pandora’s Music Genome Project helped revolutionize the music industry — for better or worse — when it debuted way back in 2000, creating a new standard for online streaming music. Since then, numerous competitors have sprung up, with iHeartRadio, Last.fm, TuneIn, and more aping Pandora’s “radio station” model with varied degrees of success.
Spotify, meanwhile, was conceived by two Swedish businessmen who simply wanted a way to listen to all their favorite music in the same place. The London-based service debuted in 2008 and has since gone gangbusters, growing into one of the most successful on-demand music platforms in the world, with more than 140 million active daily users and more than 50 million paying monthly subscribers. And while Apple Music is the only on-demand service that comes close to matching Spotify’s might, Pandora’s relatively new on-demand service offers even more reasons to give it a shot.
If you’re a music lover, both services are certainly worth using, but if you’re considering upgrading to paid tiers like Spotify Unlimited or Pandora Premium, you’ll want to know what you’re getting for your hard-earned cash. We pit Spotify and Pandora against each other to help you decide which is right for you.
Music catalog
For years, Spotify enjoyed a massive lead in this category, touting tens of millions of songs in an ever-growing library. For most of its tenure, Pandora’s catalog included roughly 1-2 million songs — nothing to scoff at, but hardly a number capable of competing with Spotify or Apple Music. Following the acquisition of Rdio, Pandora inked deals with several major record labels and eventually launched Pandora Premium, its “Spotify Killer” (yeah, right) on-demand service. Spotify still has more music — owed mostly to remixes and covers you won’t find on Pandora — but the libraries are very comparable, and there aren’t any notable artists who appear on one service and not the other. Some artists have exclusive deals in place with other platforms, while others prefer to keep their work away from streaming services entirely. All told, Spotify holds a slim lead in sheer numbers, but there’s essentially no difference between the two here.
Winner: Tie
Social features
There’s no denying music’s incredible power to connect people. Realizing this is a valuable tool, Pandora and Spotify afford their users the ability to connect with friends, share their favorite songs, or simply recommend artists and playlists. However, these streaming clients differ vastly when it comes to comparing the social components akin to each service. Pandora’s rather lackluster attempt at social features essentially offers little to satisfy social media junkies. Users do have the ability to share their favorite stations across Facebook and Twitter, but because on-demand playback is locked behind a paywall, it feels fairly empty.
Spotify easily gets the nod in this category, providing users with a slew of options for sharing music and connecting with friends. Spotify users all have the ability to share individual songs, entire playlists, and even specific artists with any of their friends/followers on Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Skype, or Tumblr by simply clicking the three dots on the right. Spotify also added bar codes to songs, which you can scan with your phone for song data. The service also allows users to collaborate on playlists, and even make them public for anybody to follow. Simply put, Spotify wins this one easily.
Winner: Spotify
Music discovery
Everybody wants to find musical diamonds in the rough, and a big part of a streaming platform’s value comes from its ability to help users find new tunes. Music discovery is the backbone of Pandora. The Music Genome Project we mentioned above is the engine that drives Pandora, offering the uncanny ability to provide listeners with songs they’ll like based on a vast amount of variables. In addition to creating radio stations, the Music Genome Project helps to curate playlists (if you’ve got Pandora Premium) by automatically adding music once you’ve selected a few songs.
Spotify is no slouch in this category, either, and the company has made acquisitions to get better at it over time. The extremely popular “Discover Weekly” playlist, a 30-song list that magically shows up each Monday, blends music you love with music you’re likely to love. Spotify is constantly adding similar features so you can keep discovering. Spotify’s home interface is also brimming with themed playlists, and you’re just one click away from the “Discover” tab, which features personalized recommendations based on your listening history. We’re still inclined to give Pandora the nod here, however. After all, music discovery is its primary function and its radio stations far outshine Spotify’s at present, but Spotify’s Discover Weekly feature is hard to beat.
Winner: Pandora
Free vs paid versions
Both services offer free — albeit limited — access to streaming music supported by occasional ad breaks. The ads aren’t overwhelming, and the free offerings provide a great way to test drive these services before splurging on a premium account, but these services differ greatly.
With a free Pandora account, subscribers are limited to radio functionality — pick a song (or an artist, or an album, or any combination), and it builds you a station. Hit the “thumbs up” button to tell Pandora to play similar music in the future, and hit the “thumbs down” button to make sure you never hear that song (or songs like it) again. Moreover, users of free options only have access to a lower-quality audio stream (limited to 64k AAC+ at best), and aren’t afforded the luxury of downloading a desktop client like users of Pandora Plus or Pandora Premium. Both mobile and web users have access to similar features — the same amount of skipped songs, the same available stations, and the same occasional advertisement.
For Spotify users, the free experience is far more robust. The ads are here, too — as is the loss in audio quality — but with a free Spotify account, you can listen to music on-demand via the desktop and web apps (mobile users are limited to “shuffle play”). You can create radio stations based on selected music, too.
You can also try the ad-free versions of each service for free. Pandora offers a 60-day free trial of its $10/month Pandora Premium service (which includes ad-free radio and on-demand streaming), 30 free days of its $5/month Pandora Plus service (ad-free radio stations, but no on-demand streaming), while Spotify offers a free 30-day trial of its $10/month Spotify Premium service (on-demand listening and radio stations). Both services also offer a discount for yearly membership.
With free access to on-demand music, Spotify takes this category every time.
Winner: Spotify
Cost
While Spotify may offer better choices for free-loaders, Pandora’s $5/month tier is a killer option for those who want to rock out to quality tunes, but don’t have the scratch to shell out the full $10 per month (though we find it hard to believe that’s a burden for most folks). If you want to go ad-free with Spotify, you’ll have to go all in, which gives Pandora the win.
Winner: Pandora
User interface & experience
Though not necessarily a deal-breaker — both platforms look and feel great — it’s worth pointing out how the user experience differs between services. Pandora offers three different methods for playing music; a mobile application for Android or iOS, an in-browser player, or a downloadable desktop program (Pandora Plus or Premium only). With an easy-to-use interface and intuitive controls, each version provides largely the same experience. Users also have the ability to sort radio stations either alphabetically or by date for quick access. No matter which way you listen, you’ll have access to background information on the artist currently playing, listings of similar artists, and links for users to quickly buy any song that strikes their fancy. “Browse” and “My stations” sections allow you to quickly switch between listening and discovering.
Spotify also offers three apps — web, desktop, and mobile for Android or iOS — and they all feature an incredibly polished user interface. The desktop version functions like iTunes (but less cluttered), meaning most people should find navigating it straightforward and intuitive. Searching for music via the program’s search bar produces Google-like results, auto-generating artists, songs, or albums as you type. On both the mobile and desktop versions, the left item bar offers easy-to-access links to saved playlists, local files, downloaded songs, and Spotify Radio stations. When using the Browse feature, users have access to newly released music, daily curated music news, and a discovery tab that recommends new artists and songs based on a user’s listening history. There’s no denying that Spotify offers users a more well-rounded user experience, and its solid platform and slick interface make it an even more attractive option. Pandora’s no slouch, but Spotify reigns supreme here.
Winner: Spotify
Other information
Location: If you’re not located in the United States, go ahead and ignore Pandora altogether — it’s only available stateside following the removal of support in Oceania territories. Spotify, on the other hand, is available in a vast number of countries.
Compatibility: With Wi-Fi-enabled smart speakers reaching an all-time peak in popularity, you might want to consider whether your favorite speaker is natively compatible with Spotify or Pandora. Popular smart speakers like the Sonos One and the Amazon Echo line support both Spotify Connect and Pandora Everywhere via Wi-Fi; here’s a full list of Spotify devices and a full list of Pandora devices.
Conclusion
Despite having existed for nearly twice as long, Pandora simply can’t keep up with Spotify’s impressive versatility and usability. The recent introduction of Pandora Premium means users can finally listen to a massive collection of specific songs and albums at their pleasure, but Pandora is playing catchup at this point, and it’s pretty far behind. Spotify has better social features, better apps, and more value for your dollar. If you’re constantly looking to expand your musical horizons, Pandora is absolutely a reasonable investment, but in general, we recommend choosing Spotify.
Overall winner: Spotify
Updated: Added new information, including Pandora’s on-demand tier, pricing, and free-trial availability.
Editors’ Recommendations
- Jam out to a ‘Hipster Brunch’ playlist with Pandora’s Featured Playlists
- You can now control Sonos smart speakers directly from the Pandora app
- Music junkie? Here are the 25 best music apps for consuming and creating tunes
- Breaking the law not your thing? Here are the best free music download sites
- SoundHound redesigns its music discovery app, adds new discovery features
Download the official OnePlus 5T wallpapers right here
A few wallpapers to make your current phone look like OnePlus’s latest.
After weeks upon weeks of leaks and rumors, OnePlus finally took the wraps off of the OnePlus 5T on November 16. The phone is shaping up to be one of the absolute best ways to spend $500 on a new device, and if you’re anxiously awaiting November 21 to get here so you can order the phone, you can now download all of the 5T’s official wallpapers.
The most notable feature with the OnePlus 5T is its large 6-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 2160 x 1080. The aspect ratio’s been changed to a more modern 18:9, and like a lot of other phones we’ve seen this year, OnePlus drastically slimmed down the bezels from every angle.
In an attempt to show off the true power and capabilities of the 5T’s display, the wallpapers that ship with it are, unsurprisingly, filled with a lot of bright and vibrant colors. There are five new wallpapers that’ll be available on the 5T when it’s released, but if you want to download them to your phone right now, you can do just that.
Check them all out below!
OnePlus 5T hands-on preview: Relentless iteration
FCC paves way for 4K over-the-air TV broadcasting
4K films and TV shows have been relegated to streaming services and on-demand media, but the FCC just paved the way for television broadcasters to show programming in the ultra high resolution. The commission adopted new rules today that allow companies to use the Next Generation TV broadcast standard (aka ATSC 3.0) on a ‘voluntary, market-driven basis,’ according to the FCC press release.
Communication and tech companies have spent years tinkering with the technologies that would enable consumers to get 4K media through television channels. The FCC’s new rules make this a reality that will enable broadcasters to show programming on 4K over the 6 MHz channels reserved for digital TV (DTV).
But the commission established a few requirements to make the transition to the Next Generation TV standard a little easier. Broadcasters wishing to adopt ATSC 3.0 must pair with a local station that will simulcast the same programming in the current standard (ATSC 1.0) for DTV, as well as informing customers of the changes. Next Gen TV signals are subject to the same public interest obligations as any other broadcast TV.
You can now replenish your Amazon Cash card at 7-Eleven
It can be tricky to shop these days without a credit or debit card, especially online. Amazon Cash is one way to do so, however, with an online account that you can refill with cash via a barcode you take to participating stores. Now 7-Eleven is in on the act, giving Amazon more than 30,000 locations people can use to refill their Amazon Cash account.
Obviously, this new system is another way to get more folks shopping on Amazon. In the same vein, Amazon also has a discounted Prime membership for those with an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card that lets customers pay $6 per month to get Prime’s free shipping, discounts on household items and video content. While it might seem like a pandering move, it’s likely that many folks will benefit from the same online shopping perks the rest of us can take for granted.
Amazon Prime’s sports streaming expands with more ATP tennis
Like other streaming services, Amazon has been hunting for sporting events to feature on its Prime Video platform. Earlier this year, the company took over NFL Thursday game livestreaming from Twitter. Today, the company announced it’s snagged rights for a string of tennis matches. Amazon Prime owners in the UK and Republic of Ireland will have access to 37 Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) events from 2019 to 2023, while US owners get access to ATP’s streaming service, Tennis TV.
That includes all the ATP World Tour Masters 1000s, twelve of each of the 500s and 250s, and the Next Gen ATP Finals. Fans will also have on-demand access to completed matches, highlights, press conferences and other media. Amazon Prime users in those regions can also pay to see the Nitto ATP Finals at The O2 in London, the Queen’s Club Championships, and the Eastbourne International. Those in the US who are already subscribed to ATP’s Tennis TV will be able to watch it directly through Amazon Channels sometime in 2018.
FCC repeals restrictions on consolidation of media companies
Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed a handful of rules that it said were keeping the media industry out of the digital age, the Washington Post reports. The decades-old regulations were implemented in order to keep a diversity of perspectives within print, radio, and televised media outlets, but FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says they’re out of date and don’t reflect the current media landscape. “Few of the FCC’s rules are staler than our broadcast ownership regulations,” he said. “This agency finally drags its broadcast ownership rules to the digital age.”
The rules rolled back today include one that prohibited a company from owning a daily newspaper and a TV station within the same market, another that limited how many TV stations and radio stations one entity could own within a given market, one that prevented companies from owning multiple TV stations in a single market if it would result in fewer than eight independently owned stations, a rule that required the sale of advertising time on another station to count against the brokering station’s ownership limits and one that prevented a single company from owning two of the top four stations in a market.
These changes are great news for broadcasting company Sinclair, which purchased Tribune Media earlier this year for $3.9 billion and was expected to have to sell off a fair amount of its stations in order to receive FCC approval. These rollbacks mean it will likely not have to do that. The FCC also voted to approve the new broadcast standard Next Gen TV, technology which Sinclair holds key patents to. Yesterday, over a dozen senators penned a letter to the FCC Inspector General asking him to review evidence of Pai’s impartiality when it comes to Sinclair. “Chairman Pai has signaled his clear receptiveness to approving the Sinclair-Tribune transaction and in fact paved the way for its consummation,” they wrote.
Some are pleased with today’s rule changes. The National Association of Broadcasters said in a statement, “These rules are not only irrational in today’s media environment, but they have also weakened the newspaper industry, cost journalism jobs and forced local broadcast stations onto unequal footing with our national pay-TV and radio competitors.” But others are concerned over reduced diversity in the media market and dangerous consolidations of power. “As a result of this decision, wherever you live, the FCC is giving the green light for a single company to own the newspaper and multiple television and radio stations in your community. I am hard pressed to see any commitment to diversity, localism, or competition in that result,” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who has also expressed her concern over the FCC’s Next Gen TV decision, said. “Instead of engaging in thoughtful reform, this agency sets its most basic values on fire.”
Via: Washington Post
Source: FCC
AIVAnet 