YouTube confirms music service, will block holdout labels’ videos within ‘days’
The cat’s (partly) out of the bag. After a string of rumors, YouTube has confirmed to the Financial Times that it’s launching a paid music service this summer. It’s not saying exactly how the service will work, but Reuters sources claim that it will work largely as rumors suggested back in November. While free videos will still hang around, a subscription will let you listen to songs ad-free, including whole albums. You should also get offline playback for those moments when streaming isn’t an option.
If you were expecting the company to budge on its negotiations with indie labels over royalty rates, though, you’ll be disappointed. YouTube’s Robert Kyncl doesn’t believe that getting licensing deals with everyone is an “achievable goal,” and warns that the video host will start blocking clips from holdouts within a “matter of days” so that all content on the new service falls under the same terms. He also rejects arguments that YouTube is strong-arming labels into deals they can’t afford. The provider is paying artists “fairly and consistently,” he says. In a statement to Reuters, YouTube even portrays itself as magnanimous — it contends that the paid service gives music partners “new revenue streams” on top of whatever they’re making.
It’s not a net positive to the music producers, however. A label exec speaking to the Times is worried that the terms let YouTube improve its free service enough that customers won’t bother paying for any service, whether it’s YouTube or a rival like Spotify. Kyncl disagrees, insisting that YouTube is doing its best to create “features that fans love” and offer an incentive to pay. Whatever the motivations, the impasse isn’t good news for viewers that may soon be denied videos from Adele, The XX and many other top-tier musicians.
[Image credit: Chema Helmet // Equipo Helmet, Flickr]
Source: Financial Times, Reuters
Tune in to our liveblog of Amazon’s phone announcement tomorrow!
Amazon has taken a crack at e-readers, tablets and even set-tops, so it was only a matter of time before the company turned its sights to the ripe smartphone market. Of course, we’ve also heard about this project for the last three years, so it’s about time Amazon actually launched an official device. And from what we’ve heard so far, the company won’t have to try very hard to be different from its competition: Rumors indicate the new device will come with six cameras, a 4.7-inch screen and a suite of clever 3D tricks. Aside from that, we’re relatively in the dark about what to expect, so you’ll want to stay glued to our liveblog of the launch event starting tomorrow at 1:30PM ET, linked below!
Amazon’s phone launch liveblog
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Google, Amazon
UK spies using foreign loopholes to monitor Google, Facebook and Twitter users
GCHQ, the UK’s intelligence agency, has yet to confirm whether it taps undersea network cables to gather content from ISPs, but we now know how it would justify access if it did. Charles Farr, the Director General of the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism, revealed that spies could intercept British users’ Google searches, Facebook updates and Twitter posts when servers are located outside of the country. The information came to light after Privacy International, Liberty, Amnesty International and a number of civil liberties organizations issued a legal challenge against GCHQ in an attempt to unravel the secrets of agency’s Tempora data-tapping program, which were revealed as part of Edward Snowden’s NSA document leaks.
British law states that agencies do not have the right to spy on internal communications. However, the same restrictions are not applicable for foreign transmissions. Farr argues that if a Briton was to perform a Google search on a server that is located outside of the UK, it would be classed as an “external communication.” Facebook updates and Twitter posts would likely fall under the same classification, although direct communications like emails may be protected, as the sender and the recipient both reside in the UK.
Worryingly, if content is deemed to be an external communication, UK law states that it can be searched, read and eavesdropped upon, regardless of whether the people involved were suspected of any wrongdoing. Farr’s statement notes that the UK has for “many years faced a serious threat from terrorism,” and that the sharing of data has led to the prevention of terrorist attacks and other serious crimes. Microsoft has already begun blocking US government requests to access European data, and now that intelligence agencies are slowly starting to reveal their data access strategies, more companies could follow suit or begin locally hosting servers.
[Image credit: UK Ministry of Defense, Flickr]
Filed under: Internet, Google, Facebook
Source: Charles Farr Witness Statement (PDF), Privacy International
Cyanogen Theme Showcase launches on the Google Play Store
If you like to theme your device then the new Cyanogen Theme Showcase app may be of interest to you as it’s now launched in the Google Play Store.
The app acts as a portal to access Cyanogemod themes on Google Play to the theme switcher included in the CM ROM.
Developers are being encouraged to submit their creations into the app and it supports a variety of icon packs from Nova, LauncherPro, Trebuchet, ADW, and Go Launcher.
Check it out on Google Play for free.
The post Cyanogen Theme Showcase launches on the Google Play Store appeared first on AndroidGuys.
One year in, and Google’s crazy internet-by-balloon project is doing just fine
Even we laughed a little when Google X announced Project Loon — an ambitious experiment built to give rural areas balloon-powered Internet access — but one year later, the company may have proven its point: this could work. Since the project was announced last June, the company has made huge strides in balloon flight time and connectivity. Wired reports that Google’s latest floating hotspots have been given LTE capabilities, freeing them from the range limitations the original WiFi-based designed burdened them with. These new radios offer better transfer speeds, too — as high as 22 MB/s to an antenna or 5 MB/s to a phone. More importantly, the balloons are staying aloft for much longer: earlier this year, one test circled the globe three times before dropping to the ground, and another has been floating for over 100 days – and it’s still up there.
Google explained to Wired a few of the methods it employed to improve balloon performance, some of which were deceptively simple. Many of the balloons, for instance, are manufactured at -40 degree Celsius, matching the conditions they would eventually face at 60,000 feet. The team also found ways to handle the airbags more carefully, ensuring there were less pinhole leaks to sabotage the balloon’s eventual flight. Of course, these more durable and longer flying craft gave the group more problems to solve — the balloons navigate by riding favorable wind currents, but when the airships started to stay aloft for weeks at a time, Google could no longer use standard wind forecasts to plan flights. In the end, the company had to devise its own system of prediction using historical databases of weather data.
Early tests in Brazil have shown huge promise, and the team plans to spend the next year delivering on that promise. Over the next twelve months, Google hopes to run multiple flights that last for more than 100 days, eventually launching a ring of 300 to 400 balloons that can circle the clone and provide continued service to specific areas. That’s an incredibly ambitious goal, but Google X’s Astro Teller is confident his team can pull it off. “On Loon’s two-year birthday, I would hope, instead of running experiments, we’ll have a more or less permanent set of balloons,” he told Wired. “Yes, Loon will be offering service.” Read up on Project Loon’s full story at the source link below.
Filed under: Misc, Internet, Google
Source: Wired
Moto X+1 details and potential launch date surface
Motorola is getting ready for their next big device, which will be known as the Moto X+1. We now have more information and leak shots of the smartphone, courtesy of TK Tech News. According to the source close to Motorola, it will feature a 1080p display (we heard about a 5.2 inch one), 2GB of RAM, 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage, a better camera and a microSD card support.
When you think about Moto X, a phone with mid-range specs comes to your mind, but it seems Moto X+1 will change that perspective and the smartphone will be good enough to go head to head with big boys like HTC One and Samsung S5.
They further said that Motorola will release it in August or September.
Are you looking forward to Moto X+1 as well? Do you think it can revive Motorola’s legacy? Let us know in the comment box below.
Source: TK Tech News
The post Moto X+1 details and potential launch date surface appeared first on AndroidGuys.
[Discussion] Problems with Android 4.4.3: How deep does the rabbit hole Go?
We reported yesterday that a number of Nexus devices, namely the Nexus 5 and Nexus 4, have been experiencing problems with Android 4.4.3. While it appears that not every owner is experiencing the quoted issues, it does still seem very widespread, and some of the issues are quite debilitating considering the software update was supposed to fix the existing issues in Android 4.4.2.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the issues are only restricted to the Nexus 5 and Nexus 4. Issues on the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 have also been reported and reader Rachine S Vernon commented that the issues have even been spotted on the Motorola Moto X, which has apparently negatively impacted the dialer app.
The Android 4.4.3 update is only available to a handful of devices at the moment, however it’s clear that this wasn’t the update that many of us expected or were hoping for. Whether Google is willing or even able to issue fixes for the new issues is currently up in the air as Google has not yet responded to these issues, however, the fact that it took so long just to release Android 4.4.3 as an incremental update isn’t a comforting omen.
We want to hear from you if you are suffering issues on a device that you currently updated to Android 4.4.3; let us know what device and what you are currently experiencing in the comments below.
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Google Play Fitness is going to be announced at Google I/O, Android’s answer to HealthKit
Every year, every Android enthusiast waits with bated breath for Google I/O to arrive and wow us with what to look forward to in the immediate future of the operating system. Google I/O 2014 is shaping up to be a particularly exciting one with new Android hardware and software a possibility as well as the addition of Android Wear related technology which is expected to also make an appearance. One other frontrunner to headline the event has been uncovered recently, as Google is rumoured to be launching a new fitness tracking service called Google Play Fitness, or Google Fit.
As Android Police explains in its exclusive report, Google Play Fitness is expected to be similar in theoretical functionality to Google Play Games, wherein it would collect, organize and spit out fitness information for users to peruse. It’s expected to be a separate entity within Android, much like Play Games, Play Fitness is expected to also use Google Play Services as its conduit to providing its services. This would inevitably mean Play Services will be seeing some kind of an update come Google I/O time. It’s also alleged that with the launch of Play Fitness, Google may be announcing partnerships with fitness manufacturers who will have wearable devices to show off at the event.
Fitness is clearly increasingly important to the mobile community and Google introducing Google Play Fitness and its associated API would be huge for making it far more mainstream in the Android ecosystem. What do you think about Google Play Fitness? Are you looking forward to what the new services will provide? Let us know your opinion in the comments.
Source: Android Police
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Nexus 5 and Nexus 4 owners are experiencing issues with Android 4.4.3 update
The Android 4.4.3 update started going live earlier this month, hoping to fix the issues that have plagued the devices since Android 4.4.2, from which the Nexus 5 appears to have suffered the worst. While it’s expected that not all bugs will be fixed in any given update, we’re already hearing reports that Nexus 5 and Nexus 4 owners have issues with Android 4.4.3 after updating their devices. Some of the issues include Wi-Fi connection issues, lag in the dialer app and random reboots that were supposedly fixed in Android 4.4.3 have resurfaced on the Nexus 4. Other users have reported 3G issues, problems with battery life and notifications, and to top it off, some of these issues have also been spotted on the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10.
This isn’t particularly good for Google seeing as this update was supposed to fix all the issues that owners have been living with for some time now, though with Google I/O just around the corner and the possibility of Android 5.0 having been teased, it’s possible Google’s full development efforts were diverted elsewhere. Whether Google will fix these issues before moving all the way up to 5.0 remains to be seen, but you may just have to make do until then.
Have you updated to Android 4.4.3 and also experienced some of these issues? Let us know if you have down below in the comments.
Source: Android Origin via Phones Review
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You can now tour baseball’s hallowed halls through Google Street View
So far, you’ve had to swing by Cooperstown to pay homage at the National Baseball Hall of Fame — not very practical if you’re a West coast fan. Thankfully, you can honor those sports legends from home now that the Hall of Fame and its museum have landed in Google’s Cultural Institute. The addition lets you browse through the museum’s classic jerseys and other memorabilia in Street View. If you’d rather not do the virtual legwork, there are two photo galleries that show how baseball has evolved over the decades. It’s doubtful that a virtual trip will evoke as much nostalgia as the real thing, but it’s certainly easier than booking a flight.
Via: Google+
Source: Google Cultural Institute
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