Pandora Grants Free Tier Listeners Access to On-Demand Features if They View 15-Second Ad
Pandora today announced that it will now let those who use the company’s free, ad-supported tier access on-demand listening after viewing a 15-second video ad. Listeners can search for a specific song, album, playlist, and then they’ll have an option to view the ad in question, after which a Pandora Premium listening session will unlock.
Previously, users on Pandora’s free tier had to listen to whatever song appeared next on the radio station or playlist they were currently tuned in to. With the new update, these listeners can now get an experience that’s slightly closer to traditional on-demand streaming music services like Pandora’s own Premium service, and Apple Music and Spotify, albeit after being forced to view an ad.
Crucially, Pandora’s press release doesn’t clarify how often free listeners have to view these 15-second ads in order to retain their Pandora Premium on-demand listening sessions.
“Our ad-supported listeners’ top request has consistently been the ability to directly play the specific songs, albums, or playlists they want,” said Roger Lynch, President & CEO, Pandora. “These new features address that need by marrying rewards-based advertising with the best-in-class on-demand experience we’ve created with Pandora Premium. This unrivaled experience will drive listeners to Pandora and drive awareness for Premium, while also creating new opportunities for artists, labels, publishers and advertisers.”
Pandora Premium launched earlier in 2017, combining the existing radio features with a new on-demand service that serves up personalized recommendations for each user. In total Pandora has the free tier, Pandora Plus ($4.99/month), and Pandora Premium ($9.99/month). Plus offers unlimited skips and replays but also lacks on-demand abilities, so the new functionality will also be available for Plus subscribers.
The Pandora app is available to download from the iOS App Store for free [Direct Link].
Tag: Pandora
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Apple Releases VESA-Compatible Mounting Bracket Kit for iMac Pro
With the iMac Pro now available to order, Apple has released a VESA mount adapter kit for the computer on its online store around the world.
The kit comes with everything you need to replace your iMac Pro stand with a mounting bracket, which lets you attach your iMac Pro to any VESA-compatible wall mount, desk mount, or articulating arm to customize your workspace.
With the VESA Mount Adapter attached, your iMac Pro complies with the VESA FDMI (MIS-D, 100, C) version specification. This adapter supports iMac Pro and cannot be used with any other iMac or display. Use the adapter only with a VESA mount that can support the weight of your iMac Pro.
The kit is priced at $79 in the United States and is currently estimated to ship in 2-3 weeks, so deliveries should begin in January.
While ordering the iMac Pro on Apple’s online store, the kit can also be added for $79 as part of a custom configuration.
Related Roundup: iMac ProTag: VESABuyer’s Guide: iMac Pro (Caution)
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LG’s refreshed Gram laptops get a quad-core processor bump
Ahead of CES, laptop makers are hurriedly unveiling the hardware they’ll be showing off at the trade show. Yesterday we got the lowdown on Samsung’s Surface-challenging Notebook 9 range, and now it’s fellow Korean titan LG’s turn to talk up its 2018 Gram line-up. As always, the company is emphasizing the portability of the lightweight ultrabooks, which hopefully won’t come at the expense of a decent display this time round. The new batch includes a 13.3 inch model weighing in at 2.1 pounds, a 14 inch variant at 2.2 pounds, and a 15.6 version coming in at 2.4 pounds.
The trio have the Dell XPS 13 in their sights with 8th-gen Intel Core chips, a full HD display, and carbon magnesium alloy bodies that are MIL-ST 810G tested for durability. The company claims to have packed more display into the 14-incher by trimming the bezels, making it the same size as a standard 13 inch laptop. We’ll be able to check out the difference for ourselves when we roll through CES.
Unlike Dell’s ultrabook, LG claims it’s still managed to cram the webcam above the display, and it’s again touting (frankly unbelievable) day-long battery times. Optional features include a fingerprint sensor, a touchscreen, and Thunderbolt 3. Alas, LG is keeping the lid on the price for now. The 2018 LG Gram range will be available in the US next month, with more markets to follow.
Source: LG
The iMac Pro is fast, but who is it for?
Today marks the release of the iMac Pro, Apple’s first all-in-one desktop aimed at professionals. The question isn’t how it looks (like the regular iMac, but in Space Gray) or how it runs (fast), but who it’s for. It would be tempting to just say “creative professionals” — the term we tech writers always fall back on when describing Apple users — but that doesn’t suffice here. For starters, the sort of photographers, videographers and audio engineers we assume would appreciate the iMac Pro might already be well served by the regular 27-inch iMac. And besides, not all of the use cases are even creative. Other professionals likely to tax their machine include scientists, radiologists and developers, to name a few.
As I’m sure you’re aware, I am none of those things. Neither are my colleagues nor any other tech journalist I know. So it probably wouldn’t disturb you, then, to learn that although I saw the iMac Pro in action this week, I did not personally use it. I’m well trained in reviewing laptops meant for everyday use, but a workstation-class machine that could be used to edit 8K video or render an automotive design? Not so much. Instead, Apple assembled a motley group of developers to perform hands-off demos of their apps on the iMac Pro. Rather than tell you what you already know — that this is the fastest Mac ever made — let’s talk about the people for whom it might make sense to spend $4,999 on a desktop.
What you get for the money
But first, let’s recap why the starting price is so damn steep. For that staggering entry-level price, you get an 8-core processor from Intel’s workstation-class Xeon W series, paired with a Radeon Vega Pro 56 GPU, 32GB of 2666MHz DDR4 ECC RAM and 1TB of solid-state storage. Included is a Space Gray keyboard and matching mouse, though you can order it online with a Magic Trackpad instead of or in addition to the mouse. Regardless of your configuration, the display is a 27-inch 5K (5,120 x 2,880) panel with 500-nit brightness, a billion colors and support for the T3 color range. If those specs sound familiar, it’s because that’s the same panel used on the regular 27-inch iMac. In fairness, it really is a stunning display.
Instead of traditional VRAM, Apple packs in 8GB of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), wherein the memory is built on to the same package as the graphics chip, allowing for that greater bandwidth. Upgrade and you get a Radeon Pro Vega 64 GPU with double the memory.
Apple didn’t discuss this during its initial iMac Pro announcement earlier this year, but under the hood, the machine also makes use of a custom T2 security chip — not dissimilar from the T1 chip in the MacBook Pro that stores your Touch ID login credentials. In this case, the T2 oversees a number of the machine’s components, including audio control, the controller for the FaceTime camera, the SSD controller and system management controller, and the image signal processor. Similar to the T1, it too has a secure enclave for storing things like passwords. It also has a hardware encryption engine, which takes the burden of encrypting data off of the CPU.
If that base model isn’t enough, you can upgrade to a 10-core, 14-core or 18-core processor. (The 14-core option wasn’t known before today.) If 32GB of RAM isn’t enough, you can opt for 64GB or 128GB. Keep in mind that even if you play it safe and get 32GB or 64GB, you can always add more RAM later, though not without the help of a service professional. For storage, you can upgrade to 2TB or — and this is a first for the Mac — 4TB.
All of those configurations are available to order today, but the 14- and 18-core models won’t ship until January. And if you want to see it up close before buying (reasonable), Apple says the iMac Pro will start showing up in retail stores next week.
Who is this for?
I saw the iMac Pro used in eight demos over the course of roughly three hours. Some, but not all, of the use cases were creative. The app Gravity Sketch, which is already available on PCs through Steam, is making its debut on the Mac. I watched co-founder Oluwaseyi Sosanya don an HTC Vive and proceed to flesh out the wireframe of a Renault-style car. I followed his progress on a nearby TV as he laid out base curves and drew in some firmer lines. At one point, he duplicated elements by clicking a button on the Vive controller. The experience seemed smooth (a refrain you’ll hear from me a lot today), with no latency that I could see.
Many of the demos I saw centered on virtual reality — both the experience and the creation of. Twinmotion 2018 is a real-time, 3D visualization software for architects (or Sims nerds like me). The virtual worlds you create there can be viewed on the desktop, in VR or as a 360-degree videos on mobile devices. A new version of the app is being released today, with the ability to control the finest of details — even changing the weather and time of day in a scene. Make it nighttime, and the lights in your building automatically turn on, as do the buildings in the distant skyline. From there, you can drag and drop elements like trees and even people. Then, you can decide how they look and how they’re moving. Yes, we ended up with a dancing man in the departures terminal. What of it?
In a guided demo, I watched as we explored an international airport, rotating, panning out and, at other times, zooming in on the finest of details. As you can imagine, a virtual airport feels about as sprawling as the real thing, but I didn’t notice any lags as we wandered around. No ghosting as we zoomed in and panned out. No waiting for the edges of this virtual world to load. It felt more like being inside a video game than a testing ground where the app was rendering changes in real time.
Later in the day, I found myself wearing an HTC Vive of my own, playing a new game called Electronauts. It’s a music-creation tool specifically for the iMac Pro, wherein you use the controllers to select beats, instruments and even “beat grenades,” not unlike the way you’d choose drawing implements in an art app like Tilt Brush. Survios, the developer behind the app, believes even non-musical types like me might enjoy it (my electronica sounded pleasing enough), but the team also sees it as a space for immersive DJing. As fun as this was to experience, it wasn’t as clear why it wouldn’t perform respectably on lesser hardware. I’m sure Electronauts runs better on an iMac Pro, but I remain unconvinced that caliber of machine is necessary. I think the success of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift on other systems proves that.
Even with its own apps, Apple is taking pains to show it’s doubling down on VR. An updated version of Final Cut Pro X, due out today, automatically recognizes when you’re working with 360-degree video. From there, you can play back the somewhat flattened-out footage, or export it to a VR headset. Of course, Apple admits that most of its Final Cut Pro X (FCPX) users aren’t currently working with 360-degree video. To the extent that the company needs to appeal to traditionalists, it also demonstrated playback of 4.6K raw video shot on a Red camera, with visual effects already added in FCPX. Playback was smooth and the colors, of course, looked vibrant on that billion-color screen. Apple says you can preview 8K video, too, but concedes that you can’t yet expect smooth playback at full resolution on the computer itself.
There were many other experiences, too, that involved heavy rendering. Adobe Dimension, out today, is a design app first teased at the company’s Max developer conference this fall. It brings a relatively simple interface and lots of templates for people who work on things like packaging — but who don’t know a lot about design tools and don’t necessarily care to learn. (The demo I saw was for food packaging.) As with so many other demos I saw that day, the rendering happened instantaneously with logos wrapping around 3D objects like bottles.
And, by the way, not all of the use cases tax the GPU specifically. OsiriX, an app for surgeons and radiologists, loaded an MRI image set containing 1,200 files. Scrolling through a separate CT scan, the app created the illusion that this was always a moving image, as opposed to a series of stills. As someone who has had to wait patiently for doctors to analyze bone scans, I can appreciate how faster rendering will mean faster diagnoses for anxious patients.
Meanwhile, a couple of the demos showed the CPU being heavily taxed. I saw a new version of Logic Pro X (also out today) playing back a project with 83 tracks and only reaching 10 percent CPU usage. A bigger project with 120 tracks and 32 plug-ins sent the usage up closer to 80 or 90 percent, but even then, the machine got the job done. In a different demo, I saw our tester simulating a heavy developer workload, with three instances of iOS running in an emulator; VMWare running Ubuntu in the background; an older version of macOS running in a separate VMWare container; and the Chrome browser on Windows 10 running in yet another background window. Everything ran unabated, and the machine stayed quiet the whole time.
That partially settles the question of who this is for: not just creative professionals (whatever that means), but developers, doctors, scientists and builders. Basically, anyone whose bottom line depends on fast rendering and indefatigable multitasking. The harder question is whether the regular iMac, even a tricked-out model, would suffice. I can’t answer that question for you, and I’m not sure Apple can either. I just assume that people who buy $5,000 computers are a self-selecting group.
Apple Final Cut Pro X is ready to edit VR video
Apple isn’t just making the iMac Pro available to order — it’s also updating the creative software you’ll likely run on that iMac. A new upgrade to Final Cut Pro X adds support for both newer video technology and some key color editing tools. Most notably, the editing tool now handles VR video — you can edit 360-degree footage at high resolutions (8K “and beyond”), complete with motion graphics. And if you need to see how your work looks, you can preview it in real-time on an HTC Vive or other compatible headsets.
There’s plenty if you have no intention of producing a VR masterpiece. FCPX now allows editing two key HDR formats, Rec. 2020 HDR10 and Rec. 2020 Hybrid Log Gamma, and gives you both HDR-compatible scopes (to identify how bright your video will get) and HDR monitoring on external displays through an I/O device. And there’s now some advanced pro color grading tools built right into the app — you can fine-tune brightness, hue, luminance, saturation and white balance through an inspector.
Need more? You can edit HEVC and Cinema RAW Light video, import iMovie for iOS projects, create slow motion footage using the speedy Metal framework and fix audio using Logic Pro plugins. All told, FCPX appears to be much more ready for the realities of modern movie creation.
There’s an accompanying Logic Pro X update that isn’t nearly as dramatic, with one exception: it’s optimized for the iMac Pro and can handle up to 36 cores, which is a rather curious number when the iMac “only” has up to 18 cores. It’s clearly adding a degree of futureproofing.
Source: Apple
Two million identities stolen for fake net neutrality comments
As many as 2 million identities were stolen to leave fake comments in support of the FCC’s decision to kill net neutrality, according to the New York Attorney General’s Office. Based on the 5,000 or so complaints filed with the office, some of the victims are senior citizens, some are minors, while some are already dead. “This is a 13 year old child — she did not post this comment, nor did anyone else in her household,” a report filed by a New Yorker said. A Chicago resident who also filed a complaint called the fake comment made under their mother’s name “sickening.” Their mother passed away several years ago from cancer.
While it’s still not clear how the identities were stolen, the Attorney General’s Office has at least figured out where the fake comments came from: New York, Florida, Texas and California produced 100,000 fake comments each. It has released the details of its investigation along with a letter from Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman criticizing the FCC’s decision move forward with its net neutrality vote. He’s urging the commission to postpone the vote, which is scheduled to take place today at 10:30AM Eastern, and to help further his team’s investigation.
He wrote:
“Millions of fake comments have corrupted the FCC public process — including two million that stole the identities of real people, a crime under New York law. Yet the FCC is moving full steam ahead with a vote based on this corrupted process, while refusing to cooperate with an investigation. As we’ve told the FCC: moving forward with this vote would make a mockery of our public comment process and reward those who perpetrated this fraud to advance their own hidden agenda. The FCC must postpone this vote and work with us to get to the bottom of what happened.”
Schneiderman once called out the FCC for refusing to look into the issue. His office apparently requested for FCC’s records nine times between June and November, but it never received any concrete response. Earlier this month, the commission finally agreed to cooperate with the New York Attorney General, giving Schneiderman’s team a way to finally start analyzing all the anti-net neutrality spam that flooded the commission’s website.
Source: New York Attorney General’s Office
ISS astronauts won’t miss out on ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’
With Star Wars: The Last Jedi hitting theaters across the world this week, moviegoers will finally be able to witness the new space adventures that the franchise consistently delivers. However, actual space explorers will also get the chance to enjoy the film in zero-gravity after NASA revealed that it’ll screen The Last Jedi aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
Space reporter Robin Seemangal first confirmed the new in a tweet, which was backed up by NASA Public Affairs Officer Dan Huot in a statement given to Inverse: “[I] can confirm the crew will be able to watch it on orbit. “Don’t have a definitive timeline yet. They typically get movies as digital files and can play them back on a laptop or a standard projector that is currently aboard.”
I received confirmation from Disney and NASA sources that the crew aboard the International Space Station will be screening Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
More details soon.
— Robin Seemangal (@nova_road) December 12, 2017
Movie screenings are a regular thing aboard the ISS, as evidenced by a Freedom of Information request submitted by Gizmodo last year. There were more than 500 films in total, with Star Wars and Star Trek movies proving popular. The list also included other space-themed or science fiction titles like Moon, Blade Runner, Terminator 2, Armageddon, The Matrix and both versions of Total Recall.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Inverse
Apple Now Offering Free Next-Day Delivery of Last-Minute Holiday Gifts
Apple’s online store is now offering free next-day delivery for all in-stock items ordered by 3 p.m. local time on December 22 in the United States.
Apple normally offers free two-day delivery for most products, but it expands free next-day delivery to all in-stock items towards the end of every holiday shopping season to help customers purchase last-minute gifts in time for Christmas.
Most products and accessories purchased from an Apple retail store and/or received from Apple’s online store between November 15 and December 25 of this year are eligible for return until January 8, 2018 in the United States.
Apple shared its 2017 gift guide in November, with ideas ranging from the Apple Watch and iPhone X to Sphero’s R2-D2 and BB-9E drones.
Other gifts under $200 that an Apple fan is likely to appreciate include the Apple TV 4K, AirPods, BeatsX, an official Apple-branded iPhone case, Apple Watch bands, or simply an Apple Store or Apple Music gift card.
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The Walt Disney Company to Acquire 21st Century Fox Assets Resulting in Majority Control Over Hulu
Following weeks of news coverage about the potential acquisition of certain Fox assets by The Walt Disney Company, today the confirmation of that acquisition has come from Disney with a press release detailing the specific parts of Fox that will now merge into Disney. Notably, Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox, including Twentieth Century Fox Film and Television Studios and Fox-related cable and international TV businesses, for $52.4 billion in stock.
The “definitive agreement” between Disney and Fox will still need to face various customary closing conditions, including shareholder approval and other regulatory and antitrust reviews.
Movie assets that are now Disney-owned under 21st Century Fox include Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox 2000, homes of movies like Avatar, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Deadpool, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water, and Gone Girl. Disney also now owns Fox’s TV production companies including the previously mentioned Twentieth Century Fox Television, as well as FX Productions and Fox21, which brought viewers shows like The Simpsons, This Is Us, and The Americans.
On the TV network and streaming side of things, Disney has also acquired FX Networks, National Geographic Partners, Fox Sports Regional Networks, Fox Networks Group International, Star India, Sky plc, Tata Sky, Endemol Shine Group, and most notably Fox’s 30 percent stake in Hulu. With this particular asset acquisition, Disney is now a majority shareholder of Hulu.
“The acquisition of this stellar collection of businesses from 21st Century Fox reflects the increasing consumer demand for a rich diversity of entertainment experiences that are more compelling, accessible and convenient than ever before,” said Robert A. Iger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company.
“We’re honored and grateful that Rupert Murdoch has entrusted us with the future of businesses he spent a lifetime building, and we’re excited about this extraordinary opportunity to significantly increase our portfolio of well-loved franchises and branded content to greatly enhance our growing direct-to-consumer offerings. The deal will also substantially expand our international reach, allowing us to offer world-class storytelling and innovative distribution platforms to more consumers in key markets around the world.”
According to Disney, all of these new assets will build on the company’s “commitment to deliver the highest quality branded entertainment,” as well as fuel Disney’s ability to “create more appealing content.” The company also references its intent to deliver a “more compelling” entertainment experience to Disney consumers “whenever and however” they choose.
Specifically, Disney said that the Fox assets will even accelerate its use of certain technologies, including the recently acquired BAMTech platform, which it aims to use for its solo-streaming service. The company said these advancements will create more ways for Disney storytellers to share content with audiences, while providing those audiences more choices for how they consume film and TV.
For these reasons, the company said that the newly announced Disney streaming service, ESPN service, and Hulu will all benefit from the Fox acquisition.
Bringing on board 21st Century Fox’s entertainment content and capabilities, along with its broad international footprint and a world-class team of managers and storytellers, will allow Disney to further its efforts to provide a more compelling entertainment experience through its direct-to-consumer (DTC) offerings. This transaction will enable Disney’s recently announced Disney and ESPN-branded DTC offerings, as well as Hulu, to create more appealing and engaging experiences, delivering content, entertainment and sports to consumers around the world wherever and however they want to enjoy it.
Important assets being left out of the deal and staying with Fox include the Fox Broadcasting network and stations, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, FS1, FS2, and Big Ten Network. Immediately prior to the acquisition 21st Century Fox separated all of these assets out into a newly listed company and will spin off ownership among its shareholders.
There are plenty of more details about the Disney-Fox deal — including the “reuniting” of X-men with Disney-owned Marvel — which can be found in Disney’s press release.
Tags: Disney, Fox
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Final Cut Pro X 10.4 Launches With 360º VR Video Editing, HDR, and More as Logic Pro X and Motion Also Updated
Apple today announced it has released Final Cut Pro X version 10.4 and updated versions of Logic Pro X and Motion just ahead of the iMac Pro launching today.
As previewed earlier this year, Final Cut Pro X 10.4 includes 360º VR video editing, HDR support, and new color tools like a white balance picker. It also includes support for HEVC, the new video format introduced in macOS High Sierra and iOS 11, and direct import of iMovie for iOS timelines.
Meanwhile, Logic Pro X has been updated with optimized performance for the iMac Pro, including support for up to 36 cores. Version 10.3.3 also includes performance and stability improvements, including a fix for an issue which could cause user-created content to become unavailable on macOS High Sierra.
Motion has been updated with support for 360 VR motion graphics. Users can now import 360° video and design 360° titles, generators, and effects, and later output the 360° video to a connected VR headset. Version 5.4 also supports import, playback, and editing of HEVC video and HEIF photos from Apple devices.
Final Cut Pro X version 10.4 release notes:
360 VR editing
• Import and edit 360° equirectangular video in a wide range of formats and frame sizes
• Output 360° video to a connected VR headset*
• Open the 360° viewer to simultaneously monitor headset and equirectangular views while editing
• Option to track movement of a VR headset in the 360° viewer in Final Cut Pro
• Add 360° effects including blurs, glows, and more
• Share 360° video directly to YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo
• Use the 360° patch to instantly remove cameras and rigs from the scene
• Use the Horizon overlay to easily change the orientation of 360° video right in the viewer
• Edit 360° video into a non-360° project and animate the pan, tilt, and zoom
• Place any graphic, still, or video into a 360° project, then reposition and resize to fit perfectly into the 360° scene
• Support for monoscopic and stereoscopic 360° videoAdvanced color grading
• Dedicated color tab in the inspector provides one location for all color controls
• Powerful new color wheels improve upon traditional wheels with integrated sliders to adjust hue, saturation, and brightness
• Color curves enable ultra-fine adjustments using multiple control points to change color and contrast
• Hue/saturation curves let you select a specific hue or brightness level to make adjustments while leaving other parts of the image unchanged
• Use the eye dropper in the color and hue/saturation curves to quickly sample parts of an image for adjustment
• Balance Color command includes an eye dropper for manual white balance
• Apply custom LUTs from popular color grading apps and sites
• Adjust color corrections over time with precise keyframe controls
• Speed through color correction using new keyboard shortcuts for color adjustments and role-based timeline navigation
• Color presets are now located in the effects browser for skimmable preview and fast searchHigh Dynamic Range
• Import, grade, and deliver High Dynamic Range (HDR) video as Rec. 2020 HLG or Rec. 2020 PQ for HDR10
• Output video to third-party HDR monitors using third-party I/O devices
• Built-in waveform monitor indicates HDR brightness levels up to 10,000 nits
• HDR Tools effect lets you easily tone map HDR to Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) output as well as convert between PQ and HLG formats
• Option to view HDR as raw values when working without an HDR monitorAdditional features
• Send your iMovie for iOS project directly to Final Cut Pro for advanced editing, audio work, and finishing
• Import, playback, and editing of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, also known as H.265) video clips and High Efficiency Image Format (HEIF) photos from Apple devices**
• Send to Compressor to export video projects in the HEVC format
• Adjust audio using effects plug-ins from Logic Pro X with redesigned, resizable interfaces
• Support for Canon Cinema RAW Light format with additional software from Canon
• Faster Optical Flow analysis using Metal 2
• Support for NFS-based libraries and media
• XML 1.7 with support for new color grading controls, 360 VR effects, and HDR
Apple’s new versions of Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro X, and Motion are available from the Updates tab in the Mac App Store.
Related Roundups: macOS High Sierra, iMac ProTags: Logic Pro X, Final Cut Pro X, MotionBuyer’s Guide: iMac Pro (Caution)
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