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30
May

YouTube Music vs. Spotify: Which is the better streaming music service?


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Can the biggest name in streaming video overtake the biggest name in streaming music?

If there is a throne to be won in music streaming, Spotify won it years ago. They’ve got a great selection, they’ve somehow gotten a better reputation for algorithms than Google, and with their Student pricing, they lure in younger listeners in droves and then hook them into staying long after they graduate. Not even Apple — the name synonymous with music players for the last 20 years — could make much of a dent. But there is a new challenger coming for the king.

If you’re going to try and fight Spotify, you need more than great value, superior selection, and fancy new features — all of which the all-new YouTube Music has. No, you need two things that aren’t found in an app’s feature-list or shiny, new web client.

You need brand power, and you need to have history. YouTube’s brand power and history are far more storied than Spotify’s, but how much of that will translate to YouTube Music this time around?

Plans, Pricing, and Device Limits

YouTube Music and Spotify both offer free versions and paid versions. Neither let you download music for offline listening, but YouTube Music will pause the music when free users turn off the screen or leave the Now Playing window, which means that YouTube Music Free will monopolize your screen and thus your battery while you’re listening to it.

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Spotify Premium and YouTube Music Premium are both $9.99/month for a single user. Spotify offers a family plan of $14.99/month for up to 6 users at the same billing address, and a $4.99/month Student plan that bundles in a basic (ad-support) Hulu subscription. Spotify Premium can bundle with basic Hulu for non-students at $12.99/month. Spotify only has a device limit for downloads, which is 3 devices, each with a download limit of 3,333 songs, which is easy to remember and easy to hit for music addicts.

See at Spotify

YouTube Music Premium’s family pricing is still coming, but right now, users can still sign up for a family plan of YouTube Red/Premium for $14.99/month for 6 users, and get access to YouTube Music Premium, YouTube Premium on the main YouTube app, and Google Play Music’s unlimited subscription. Google has never offered a student discount on its music offerings, but if that changes, we’ll let you know.

The new YouTube Music is also only available right now in 5 countries — Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South Korea, and the US — but Google says it intends to roll the service out to more markets like Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom down the line.

See at YouTube Music

Library and Selection

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Spotify has over 30 million songs in its catalog, and while YouTube Music doesn’t have a hard number for the songs in its service, it doesn’t matter what the official number is, because that would only count the official songs YouTube Music hosts through its deals with record labels.

And there is so much more to YouTube Music’s selection than that.

YouTube Music has official songs and albums from the record labels, and to that it adds official music videos, live concert videos — both official and fan-uploaded, fan covers, remixes, and mashups. Then there’s also the millions upon millions of songs that aren’t in YouTube Music’s official library, nor any official streaming library, in many cases.

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Some of this fan-uploaded content is illegal. When copyright holders serve DMCA requests, YouTube pulls that content, but that’s a constant game of whack-a-mole that most labels don’t have the time or resources to play. There are also labels that have folded, songs that have partially or entirely lapsed rights, songs that labels have lost, and much of that is only available via fan uploads, so YouTube Music will be the only legitimate streaming service that can even hope to have them unless the service has a personal music locker.

In short: Spotify has more official songs, but YouTube has far, far more music that’s actually available to listen to.

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The one caveat to YouTube Music’s awesome library right now is that library management is still somewhat lacking. Everything you do in YouTube Music shows up in YouTube’s main app, from searches to added albums to every song you listen to cluttering up your watch history. YouTube has told Android Central they “are working on making it easy to separate YouTube Music & YouTube Main watch history and will also have a way to hide playlists/albums added from Music in Main.”

Stations and Mixtapes — A battle of algorithms

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Spotify is known for its algorithms. From the Daily Mixes that will adjust and tweak their listening-based stations every day to the much-beloved Discover Weekly to everyday artist- and playlist-based radio stations, Spotify’s recommendations are consistently lauded by tech enthusiasts and music addicts alike. They even break out the algorithm-based Daily Mixes into several different mixes so that you can get more rock recommendations without the teeny pop you play for your daughter sneaking in.

YouTube Music’s algorithms don’t have the pedigree of Spotify’s, and they only have two main mixes for users: Your Mixtape and Offline mixtape. In the new YouTube Music, all genre radio stations have been completely hidden unless you explicitly ask for them. Once you get a station going, though, Google’s stations shine like the diamonds in the rough they are.

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YouTube Music’s station offerings seem inadequate, but only until you listen to one.

Your Mixtape may be a bit diverse in its genres since everything in one mix, rather than separated by genre/type like Spotify, but Your mixtape dials into your tastes very quickly. YouTube Music has years of YouTube history to feed its radio algorithms as well as the recommendations that litter the Home feed. Spotify’s algorithms may package things a little better with Daily Mixes 1-7, but those 7 mixes still haven’t learned me as well in months as YouTube Music has in a week.

Then we have Offline Mixtape, one of the features of the original YouTube Music. Offline Mixtape takes the algorithm from Your Mixtape and uses it to generate a playlist that is regenerated and re-downloaded daily. You choose how many songs the playlist includes, up to 100, and it presents you with a new mix every day to rock out to during your commute. Offline Mixtape is a downloadable Daily Mix, something that not even Spotify’s many mixes can do.

Stability and Sound Quality

YouTube Music is in the “Early Access” stage right now, and it is quite clearly not a final product. There are serious UI bugs, especially when using the app offline, casting, and trying to manage or browse your own library, as every category in Your Library is sorted by date added rather than name.

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YouTube Music’s audio quality right now is also rather average. Spotify offers audio streaming qualities up to 320 kbps via Spotify Premium’s “Extreme” audio quality option, whereas YouTube Music’s current music quality in the app is about 128 kbps. YouTube Music has told Android Central that more robust audio quality settings are coming in an upcoming update. Spotify also has Android Auto support, something every music subscription service should have in 2018, and video-based YouTube Music needs it even more than most.

For now, YouTube Music sounds fine unless you’re an audio snob, and it’s a bit buggy. We expect things to improve soon, but we have to compare what we have right now.

Why Spotify is better right now…


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Spotify has almost a decade head-start over YouTube Music: a decade to build a loyal user base around the world, one of the best-known brands in music, and enough history with its users to deliver consistent and consistently awesome mixes to its users daily, weekly, and yearly. It’s also had a decade to smooth out its rough edges and refine their experience, while YouTube Music is still firmly in the growing pains stage of its development.

Spotify is still the clear winner for students, as $5/month for Spotify Premium and Hulu is pretty hard to beat, and by the time the Student discount ends, most users have too deep a library and history in Spotify to just pick up and move to a new service.

Read more: Everything you need to know about Spotify

…and why YouTube Music is going to dethrone it sooner than you think


Spotify has built itself up as one of the biggest names in music, but its brand power is still a drop in the bucket compared to YouTube, which is one of the most-visited sites on the internet. YouTube’s brand power even extends to music already — from the most viewed music videos ever to viral covers from upcoming artists, from mind-blowing remixes to that one song that you can’t remember the lyrics to.

youtube-trending-music-videos-pixel-gamb Just look at those views.

You already use YouTube for music. Google just needs to convince you to pay for it.

YouTube Music has a few very compelling arguments already — if you’re a free user, you have to keep the screen on the whole time, which is a battery drain and keeps you from using your phone for anything else. You also can’t download music for offline playback without Premium, which is a more common practice. However, the most compelling reasons for subscribing aren’t even in YouTube Music — at least, not today.

YouTube Premium is $2/month more than Music Premium, and is the no-brainer for anyone considering paying for a YouTube subscription. For $2 more, you get offline and background playback on all of YouTube instead of just on YouTube Music content. You get rid of YouTube ads on all of YouTube, and you get access to YouTube Originals, should you need any more freebies thrown in.

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Then there’s the news that Google Play Music is going to eventually give its best feature to YouTube Music: its music locker. Google Play Music’s free, 50,000-song music locker is something that doesn’t really have a rival on the market right now. If a user can’t find a song in Google Play Music’s subscription library, they can upload it to their library themselves. That’s invaluable, and it’s coming to YouTube Music, which will combine the biggest, baddest music subscription catalog on the planet with the ability to patch any conceivable hole in it a user finds.

Read more: YouTube Music review

If you’re willing to play the long game…

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YouTube Music is going to be a major competitor soon, but don’t subscribe to YouTube Music Premium right now — or YouTube Red, since Music Premium’s new pricing tiers haven’t quite rolled out yet. Subscribe to YouTube Red, use Google Play Music as a stable music player and robust music locker, enjoy YouTube Red as it gets upgraded to YouTube Premium, and start playing with YouTube Music, building your library and dialing in its algorithm.

Then, when YouTube Music is ready for your full-time use, Your Mixtape will already know you to a T.

On the other hand, Spotify is experimenting with original content and podcasts, and has over 160 million customers, including 71 million paying users. Spotify is going to be the biggest player in the game for a very long time, even if companies like Google, with YouTube Music, are putting them under pressure.

How to sign up for YouTube Music

30
May

LG V35 ThinQ coming to AT&T on June 8 for $900


Preorders begin on Friday, June 1.

Shortly after the LG G7 was announced, it was said that AT&T wouldn’t be carrying/selling the phone in the U.S. and would instead offer “a new LG device this summer only from AT&T.” Now, it’s been confirmed that that phone is the LG V35 ThinQ.

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AT&T and LG recently announced the new handset, and it lines up perfectly with a leak that surfaced in early May. The V35 ThinQ is essentially a modernized version of the LG V30 from last year and offers almost all of the same specs found with the G7.

The front of the V35 is home to a 6-inch 18:9 Quad HD+ (2880 x 1440) display, but it swaps out the G7’s LCD panel for an OLED one. Even better, there’s no notch to be found.

The V35 is almost identical to the G7 — save for the OLED screen.

Around back are the G7’s excellent dual 16MP rear cameras, the primary one using a standard 71-degree angle with f/1.6 aperture while the second one is a 107-degree wide angle sensor with f/1.9. For the selfie camera, you’ve got a single 8MP 80-degree sensor with f/1.9 for the aperture.

Under the hood of the V35 ThinQ is the Snapdragon 845 CPU, 6GB RAM, 64GB of expandable storage, and a 3,300 mAh battery. Android 8.0 oreo is present out of the box, there’s support for Band 14 for lightning-fast data speeds, and is AT&T’s latest phone to support the FirstNet service for first responders.

Pre-orders for the LG V35 ThinQ open up this Friday, June 1, with official sales opening online and in-stores Friday, June 8. The phone will cost $30/month for 30 months on AT&T Next, bringing the final price to a staggering $900.

Now that everything’s official, do you feel like spending that kind of cash for the V35?

LG G7 ThinQ hands-on preview: All about that bass

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30
May

Samsung’s fast wireless charger is down to just $25 at Amazon


Give one a try!

If you have a phone with wireless charging capabilities and aren’t using a wireless charging pad, it’s time to change that. Amazon currently has Samsung’s Qi fast wireless charging pad on sale for just $24.99, which is the lowest price it has ever sold for. You can pick one up in either black or white right now. Recently, it’s been averaging around $35, but has sold for as much as $70 in the past. Best Buy has it priced at $50 right now.

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This wireless charger works with any Qi-enabled device, including Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S9, the iPhone 8, iPhone X, and more. It will fast charge Samsung devices and charge others at standard speed. All you need to do is plug it into the wall using the included power brick, and then set your phone on top. There’s a multi-color LED to help you see the charging status. It’s time to stop fumbling around with cables in the dark and try out an easier way to charge your phone.

See at Amazon

30
May

21st Century Fox CEO Says Apple Still Just ‘Dabbling’ in Original TV Content


In early 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook described the company’s plans for original TV content on Apple Music as placing a “toe in the water” for its television ambitions at the time. Eventually, Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke debuted on the service, but since then frequent reports have indicated Apple is now “completely all in” on original content, shifting from reality TV programs on Apple Music to high-quality, $1 billion investments in hour-long programs on par with shows like Westworld.

Despite Apple’s evolving plans over the past year and a half, 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch still believes Apple to be “dabbling” in the creative original content space. In an interview at Recode’s Code Conference this week, Murdoch was asked what advice he would give to companies who are not traditional TV content-creating companies, but who are getting into the original programming business.

Photo taken by Asa Mathat via Recode
Murdoch explained that 21st Century Fox’s angle is “a creative business” and “very entreprenurial,” where it empowers creators, creative partners, and creative executives to “push the envelope” in storytelling. He said that “being tolerant of failure is important,” leading into his statement about Apple and other companies looking into TV production and their potential fear of failure as an impediment to faster progress.

So, I think the one issue that we see with the kind of, you know, the dabbling, right? If you look at an Apple. Is it … Going piece by piece, one by one, show by show, et cetera, is gonna take a long time to really move the dial and having something mega. I do think that’s gonna be very challenging.

As of now, there are 13 original shows coming from Apple (although how exactly they will launch remains in question), including new episodes of Amazing Stories, an untitled space drama from the creator of the Battlestar Galactica reboot, a Kristen Wiig sitcom, and other projects from names like Damien Chazelle, M. Night Shyamalan, and Octavia Spencer. Apple has set aside a $1 billion “war chest” for the production of these shows, the first of which could launch as soon as March 2019.

Murdoch appears to think that Apple will roll out its shows “one by one,” leading into his argument that it will take a while for the company to have a hit on its hands. It’s unclear why the CEO believes that to be Apple’s plans, however, since neither Apple nor any rumors have suggested how exactly the company will launch its shows, and how many will hit at once.


One of Apple’s rivals in the market will be Hulu, which has its own original TV shows like The Handmaid’s Tale, Marvel’s Runaways, and the upcoming Stephen King anthology series Castle Rock. 21st Century Fox is one of the owners of Hulu, and according to Murdoch about half of the 20 million Hulu subscribers pay for the service’s $11.99/month No Commercials tier, upgrading from the Limited Commercials option at $7.99/month.

There’s an option for the limited-ad experience, and it’s about evens, I think.

I think they say, “You know, for four bucks, I’m getting a limited ad … Four bucks extra, I can do it this. For four bucks less a month, I’ll have limited ads. It’s not a terrible experience, the ads, it’s a much lighter load than you see in broadcast or cable generally.”

So, I think they make a choice. And I think once you empower the customer, and you make it really transparent, that it’s really about how they’re valuing their time, and how they’re valuing and dealing with their priorities, then also they complain a lot less about the ads, because they’ve been given a choice and empowered. So a lot of, I think, what the whole industry is doing is trying to figure this out.

Murdoch also touched upon the company’s plans to sell parts of its media assets to Disney, which now could be complicated with an all-cash offer from Comcast. The CEO was expectedly reserved about specific details regarding what could happen with each offer, but made it clear that the company has given far more thought to the regulatory aspects of the Disney deal than it has to any offer from Comcast, saying Fox will “deal with that as we go.”

Tags: Fox, Apple’s Hollywood ambitions
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30
May

Analysts Cast Doubt on Report of Apple’s Transition to Full OLED iPhone Lineup in 2019


On Monday, a report from South Korea’s ET News claimed that Apple’s transition to a full OLED iPhone lineup will be complete in 2019. This would mark the first time Apple has relied entirely on the organic light-emitting diode panel technology and not included LCD panels in any way, but now a group of analysts have responded to the report and argued that the 2019 timeframe might be inaccurate (via Bloomberg).

Jay Kwon, an analyst with JPMorgan, said that it’s too early for a switch to OLED-only production for the iPhone. This is because the OLED screens would make the smartphones more expensive, removing the chance for a “low-cost” iPhone model like the LCD version believed to be coming in 2018, and Kwon argued that Apple likely needs more time to find additional OLED suppliers besides its current sole supplier in Samsung Display.

While Apple has embraced OLED, most analysts said they don’t see the switch happening in 2019.

“It is unlikely that Apple will be releasing three OLED models next year,” said Jeff Pu, an analyst at Taipei-based Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting. The other major OLED supplier, LG Display, has struggled to move into mass production and isn’t likely to boost OLED production for Apple in 2019 from 5 million to 10 million units expected this year, he said.

While rumors about Apple’s incoming shift to an entire OLED iPhone lineup have been around for over a year, shares of suppliers reacted quickly in response to the new report from ET News. Goldman Sachs analysts Daiki Takayama and Jie Dai believed that “share prices have overreacted” to the news, because they “think it is unlikely that all 2019 iPhone models will switch to OLED screens.”

Arthur Liao, an analyst with Fubon Securities, said he has not heard anything from his own supply chain sources in Taiwan regarding Apple moving to all OLED iPhone models in 2019. Most analysts repeatedly pointed towards pricing as an issue, including IHS Markit analyst Jerry Kang: “Apple hasn’t been able to expand on its iPhone X production because of market demand and price issues.” Kang said that while Apple’s plan is to ultimately “go full OLED,” the real “question mark” is determining what year the company will make that shift.

In an effort to reduce reliance on Samsung Display, Apple has reportedly invested billions of dollars to help LG get up and running with OLED technology, and LG has been rumored to be the supplier for this year’s “iPhone X Plus.” Besides that model, Apple is predicted to release two other iPhones in 2018: a second generation iPhone X and a low-cost, 6.1-inch option with a similar full-face display as seen on the iPhone X, but with LCD rather than an OLED display.

Tag: 2019 iPhones
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30
May

Plex Launches a New Podcasts Beta, Revamps Mobile Apps


Plex today announced the launch of Plex Podcasts, a feature that’s designed to provide Plex users with an intuitive, customizable podcasts experience on any iOS device or Mac with no subscription or media server required.

According to Plex, the new Podcasts feature offers cross-platform playback, so you can begin a podcast on one device, such as your Apple TV, and then pick it up later on another device like the iPhone.

The Plex Podcasts interface displays the latest unplayed and in-progress episodes, just as Plex does for television shows and movies. Podcasts are displayed right alongside your photos, videos, music, TV shows, and more, putting all of your favorite media right in one place.

Standard podcast controls are available to control playback, and there’s an option to add your own favorite podcasts that aren’t already in the Plex catalog by adding the feed URL.

As with other media, Plex Podcasts is designed to enhance the podcast experience with metadata, providing users with info about each episode and related podcasts.

The feature is available on iOS, Android, Roku and the Plex web platform, with support for other devices coming in the near future. Plex also plans to add improved metadata and smart downloading in the coming weeks.

Along with Plex Podcasts, the Plex mobile apps are being overhauled to focus on a more customizable media experience. Users are able to choose the types of content they want to see, adding select categories to the Plex home screen.

Plex for iOS devices can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Plex
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30
May

Snapchat CEO on Facebook Copying Stories: They Should ‘Copy Our Data Protection Practices Also’


Recode’s annual Code Conference is underway in Rancho Palos Verdes, California this week, and on Tuesday Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel took the stage to discuss the ephemeral app’s controversial update, Facebook’s copying, and the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Specifically, Spiegel is said to have “poured salt on the wound” during his 40-minute interview with Kara Swisher as he called out Facebook and its ongoing struggles with user privacy. Referencing Facebook’s decision to copy Snapchat stories in the Facebook app, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp, Spiegel said, “We would really appreciate it if they copied our data protection practices also.”

Photo taken by Asa Mathat via Recode
Snapchat is built around the idea that messages and photos that users send on the platform all disappear after a pre-set amount of time, providing some sense of security within the iOS and Android app. Facebook, on the other hand, is “just a bunch of features” — now including ephemeral stories — placed within an app without an underlying philosophy of user privacy, Spiegel argued.

Spiegel said Facebook — whose name he repeatedly declined to utter — has failed to sufficiently overhaul its user privacy protections after the Cambridge Analytica scandal exploded earlier this spring.

“Fundamentally, I think the changes have to go beyond window dressing to real changes to the ways that these platforms work,” he said.

Spiegel ultimately said that he thinks Snapchat will survive competitors copying the app, because while other platforms are forcing people to “compete with their friends for ‘Likes’”, Snapchat is focused on communicating with close friends. So, while Facebook imitates its features, the CEO remained confident that Snapchat’s “values are hard to copy.”


Snapchat hasn’t been without its own data leak scandals, however, and Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos took to Twitter to point that out. Stamos said that “poor API security” has been a factor that led to mass leaks of compromising user photos. “So no, I don’t think copying Snapchat would be a smart move” for Facebook, he finished.

Many companies have voiced their opinions on the Facebook data scandal, including Apple and CEO Tim Cook, who said he “wouldn’t be in this situation” when asked what he would do if he was Mark Zuckerberg.

Tags: Facebook, Snapchat
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30
May

Watch Virgin Galactic’s second powered test flight of its tourist spaceplane


Whether it’s Branson or Bezos who gets their first, the fact is that commercial suborbital space tourism flights may well be just around the corner. For those with the cash to splash, at least.

In a stunning display of its technology over California’s Mojave Desert on Tuesday, Branson’s Virgin Galactic team completed its second successful rocket-powered test flight of VSS Unity, the two-crew, six-passenger aircraft that will one day take moneyed folks to the edge of space, 62 miles above Earth.

As planned, Unity’s rocket motor burned for 31 seconds during the test flight, propelling it to a speed of Mach 1.9 and an altitude of 114,500 feet (34,900 meters).

The focus of this latest flight was to help the team increase its understanding of the spaceplane’s “supersonic handling characteristics and control system’s performance with vehicle parameters that were closer to the ultimate commercial configuration,” Virgin Galactic said on its website.

The entire outing was captured in a slickly edited video that opens with images of the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft shortly before it took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. There’s a quick shot of Branson signing autographs before we see the two pilots, Dave Mackay and Mark “Forger” Stucky, making their way to Unity. Watch as WhiteKnightTwo, with Unity attached to its underside, takes off and climbs to an altitude of nearly 50,000 feet, at which point the carrier releases the spaceplane. As Unity begins to drop, we see its rocket engine fire up, causing the aircraft to launch into a spectacular climb. Unity landed safely a short time later.

Branson, who himself is planning to be on Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flight when operations commence possibly in the next 12 months, said afterwards: “It was great to see our beautiful spaceship back in the air and to share the moment with the talented team who are taking us, step by step, to space.”

The British billionaire added, “Seeing Unity soar upwards at supersonic speeds is inspiring and absolutely breathtaking — we are getting ever closer to realizing our goals.”

Virgin Galactic or Blue Origin?

Virgin Galactic considers its main competitor in the suborbital space tourism race to be Blue Origin, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin’s reusable New Shepard rocket has so far completed eight successful test launches since its first one in 2015.

Branson said recently that his team is “neck and neck” with Blue Origin to launch a service for tourists, a trip that comes with mind-blowing vistas of Earth and beyond, as well as several minutes of weightlessness.

But mindful of the disaster that hit Virgin Galactic four years ago when one of its pilots died in a failed test flight, the Virgin boss said, “Ultimately, we have to do it safely. It’s more a race with ourselves to make sure we have the craft that are safe to put people up there.”

Virgin Galactic grounded its aircraft for two years after the accident, recommencing operations in 2016 with the first glide test of its then-new spaceplane, VSS Unity.

In April it took a significant step forward with its first jet-powered test of Unity, with the successful outing leading to Tuesday’s second powered flight.

Virgin Galactic has already taken around 700 bookings for its suborbital tourist flights, each one costing $250,000.


30
May

How to sign up for YouTube Music


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Get started with the new YouTube Music in just a few taps.

The YouTube Music app has technically been around since 2015, but it was only recently that Google shifted its focus from Play Music and made YouTube Music its own proper streaming service.

YouTube Music is showing a lot of promise with its new direction, and now that it’s got a brand-new desktop site and redesigned Android app, it’s absolutely worth checking out.

To do so, here’s what you’ll need to do.

Download YouTube Music

Before you can sign up for YouTube Music, you’ll need to first download the app. Doing so is just a few taps away, and the process is as follows:

Open the Google Play Store.
Search for YouTube Music and tap on the first result.

Tap the green Install button.

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Once the app is done downloading, you can launch it by tapping the green Open button or by finding and tapping on the new YouTube Music icon in your app drawer.

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Sign up for YouTube Music

With YouTube Music successfully downloaded, it’s time to actually sign up for the service.

Upon opening the app, tap the blue Sign In button.
Tap the Google account you want to use with YouTube Music.

Tap on your profile icon at the very top right of the app.

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With that done, you’ll now be on your Account page. From here:

Tap the large Get YouTube Red banner at the bottom of the screen.
Tap the blue Try It Free button.
Enter your payment details.

Once the payment goes through, tap the red Let’s Go button.

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That’s it! You’ve officially signed up for YouTube Music!

Have any further questions? Drop a line in the comments below.

YouTube Music review: A mixtape full of promise

30
May

How to Watch Apple’s WWDC 2018 Keynote Live on Monday, June 4


WWDC 2018 starts on Monday, June 4, and as with previous years, Apple is kicking off the conference with a keynote on the first day, offering a look at some upcoming products and providing the first details on new operating systems.

Rumors have suggested we could potentially see new iPad Pro models and perhaps a new iPhone SE, and several Macs are due for a refresh, including the MacBook Pro, iMac, and 12-inch MacBook. We’re also expecting a first-look at next-generation versions of macOS, iOS, and tvOS.

You can watch Apple’s WWDC18 Keynote live as it happens using one of the methods described below. Note that the livestream for the event starts at 10:00am Pacific Time at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. For reference, here’s when the event will begin based on other time zones in the United States and around the world:

  • Honolulu, Hawaii — 7:00 a.m. HAST
  • Anchorage, Alaska — 9:00 a.m. AKDT
  • Cupertino, California — 10:00 a.m. PDT
  • Phoenix, Arizona — 10:00 a.m. MST
  • Vancouver, Canada — 10:00 a.m. PDT
  • Denver, Colorado — 11:00 a.m. MDT
  • Dallas, Texas — 12:00 noon CDT
  • New York, New York — 1:00 p.m. EDT
  • Raleigh, North Carolina — 1:00 p.m. EDT
  • Toronto, Canada — 1:00 p.m. EDT
  • Halifax, Canada — 2:00 p.m. ADT
  • Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — 2:00 p.m. BRT
  • London, United Kingdom — 6:00 p.m. BST
  • Berlin, Germany — 7:00 p.m. CEST
  • Paris, France — 7:00 p.m. CEST
  • Cape Town, South Africa — 7:00 p.m. SAST
  • Moscow, Russia — 8:00 p.m. MSK
  • Helsinki, Finland — 8:00 p.m. EEST
  • Istanbul, Turkey — 8:00 p.m. TRT
  • Dubai, United Arab Emirates — 9:00 p.m. GST
  • Delhi, India — 10:30 p.m. IST
  • Jakarta, Indonesia — 12:00 a.m. WIB next day
  • Shanghai, China — 1:00 a.m. CST next day
  • Singapore — 1:00 a.m. SGT next day
  • Perth, Australia — 1:00 a.m. AWST next day
  • Hong Kong — 1:00 a.m. HKT next day
  • Seoul, South Korea — 2:00 a.m. KST next day
  • Tokyo, Japan — 2:00 a.m. JST next day
  • Adelaide, Australia — 2:30 a.m. ACST next day
  • Sydney, Australia — 3:00 a.m. AEST next day
  • Auckland, New Zealand — 5:00 a.m. NZST next day

MacRumors will also provide a live blog both here on MacRumors.com and on our MacRumorsLive Twitter account, along with detailed coverage of everything Apple announces during the week.

Watch the Keynote on Mac, iPhone or iPad

You can watch the WWDC keynote live on any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch using Apple’s native Safari browser. Bear in mind, to meet the stream’s requirements, iOS devices must be running iOS 10 or later, while Macs need to be running macOS Sierra 10.12 or later.


Launch Safari from your chosen device and follow this link to the WWDC18 Livestream.

Watch the Keynote on Apple TV

You can watch the WWDC keynote live on an Apple TV. Fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV owners will need to download the Apple Events app from the tvOS App Store (see the steps below). Owners of earlier generation devices should see the Apple Events button automatically appear in their Home screen menu. (Second-generation Apple TV or later can also AirPlay the stream from another Apple device running Safari, as described above.)
Open the App Store from the Home screen.
Scroll down to the News category and select Apple Events. Alternatively, input “Apple Events” into the Search field and select it from the results.
Click the Get button to download the app.

Wait for the button to change to Open, and click it again. Alternatively, select the Apple Events app on your Home screen.
The app will tell you to tune in at your local time on June 4 to watch the event live (18:00 BST in our example), so clicking on the WWDC18 keynote button won’t do much until then. Meantime, you do have the option to watch the previous three Apple Events while you wait, including last year’s WWDC keynote.

Watch the Keynote on a Windows PC

If you don’t have an Apple device handy, you can still watch the WWDC18 keynote on a PC running Windows 10. Open Microsoft Edge browser and follow this link to the WWDC18 Livestream.


While Apple offers no guarantees, other platforms may also be able to access the WWDC18 livestream using recent versions of Chrome or Firefox (MSE, H.264, and AAC codecs/extensions must be installed).

Tag: WWDC 2018
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