Radionomy acquires Winamp and Shoutcast to boost its streaming efforts
There were rumors that Winamp would find a rescuer following its shutdown, and today that rescue is official. Online radio platform provider Radionomy has acquired both WinAmp and Shoutcast from AOL (Engadget’s owner) for an undisclosed amount. The deal is primarily a play for market share; now that Radionomy owns Shoutcast, it’s powering roughly half of all internet radio. The company also plans to improve Winamp, making it “ubiquitous” across multiple platforms that include mobile devices and car infotainment systems. It’s doubtful that Winamp will reclaim the prominence it had during its heyday, but the acquisition should at least give it (and Shoutcast) a new lease on life.
[Image credit: Theis Kofoed Hjorth, Flickr]
Filed under: Internet, Software
Via: Tech.eu
Source: PR Newswire
Google Glass app DriveSafe Turns Glass into a Warning System
We have all been there more than once. Those times where you have been working all day and have to still make the trip back home. Or those long trips where you just want to get as far as possible before you pull over for the night. While it is unsafe and potentially deadly, it still happens. Pair that up with the issues that driving with Google Glass has caused over the last few months and you might be in for some troublesome times. While there isn’t much of a solution for driving with Glass on, there is a new app for those that still brave the roads wearing their gear. A new app, DriveSafe, is now available for those of you that Glass up while on the road.
DriveSafe is currently in alpha testing mode, but is aiming to help drivers be safer on the road. Giving users of the app an alert in the heads up display if it thinks you might be nodding off behind the wheel. Of course, if your eyes are closing a visual pop-up won’t do much good. DriveSafe goes a step further though and will also trigger an audible tone and then uses voice input to help you find a safe place to rest.
While we don’t suggest you solely rely on DriveSafe to keep you awake at the wheel, it is an interesting use of Glass and an argument for their benefits in a vehicle over the distracted driving issues. You can go pick it up at Drivesafeforglass.
Source: 9to5Google
Hyundai and Kia tap SoundHound to help you identify music in your car
Always pulling out your smartphone to identify a song you’ve heard on your car radio? You’ll no longer need to if you buy a new Hyundai or Kia model in the coming year. The Korean automakers have teamed up with sound recognition specialist SoundHound to bring its music discovery tools to select 2014 models in North America, Korea and China. The partnership will see Hyundai and Kia integrate music tagging directly into their infotainment systems, letting you pull up information on a song or artist with a press of the SoundHound icon. If you so choose, the app can keep a record of your searches, giving you the option to pull them up on a mobile device at a more suitable time.
One model that will definitely get SoundHound’s music discovery feature is Hyundai’s 2015 Genesis sedan, which is already set to let owners remotely lock their cars, perform maintenance updates and send Google Maps directions to the car with Google Glass. Not content with that, the car maker is also one of the six founding members of the Open Automotive Alliance. As part of the alliance, Hyundai worked with Google to develop an Android-based version of its custom infotainment system, helping the search giant expand further into the world of connected cars.
Filed under: Transportation, Internet, Software, Mobile, Google
Via: Slashgear
Source: SoundHound (BusinessWire)
Ingress update v1.43.0: New Hack Animation and Lock Screen Bypass
NianticLabs@Google have pushed an update out for the ever popular Ingress game. The update moves it right along to V1.43.0. The Play Store notes that there are some bug fixes and a “Quick app restart feature from lock screen.”
The second addition is actually a pretty cool one. From Ops, go to device and scroll down until you see Show on Lockscreen area. From there tap on enable and it will restart your Ingress app. If the the feature is disabled then you will see your lock screen as usual. However, with it enabled when you wake your device during play it will skip right to Ingress. Saves valuable seconds while in the field.
Also, according to decodeingress.me, there is also a new hack animation as well. We would share it here, but seeing as how they have it unlisted we will just direct you to their site for a glympse.
As always we have the desired APK ready for your download pleasure over at Gappsearly. Go pick it up and let us know what you think.
HTC One X and One X+ Won’t be Moving Past Android 4.2.2
Looks like the 2012 HTC One X and One X+ will be left back on Android 4.2.2 with the Sense 5 package. HTC made the news official in a Tweet response to David O’Rourke asking about if the rumor was true.
@davidjorourke Hi. We can confirm that the One X+ will not receive further Android updates & will remain on the current version of Android.
— HTC UK (@HTC_UK) January 9, 2014
For a device that is only 14 months old, it does seem odd that HTC would drop it so soon. Obviously they are putting all their eggs in the HTC One and the various versions that have released more recently. Still, the One X and One X+ are still new enough and customers are still probably pretty far away from an upgrade that they should have put a little effort into it. While we all know the device is capable of supporting KitKat, HTC Sense Skin might be too much for the phones to handle to make a feasible option. It is funny that they offered up an explanation to The Verge that states both devices have been optimized to their potential for their “amazing camera and audio.”
GoDaddy, Microsoft focus on small businesses with Office 365 partnership
Early last year, Microsoft extended its Office 365 subscription service to small- and medium-sized businesses and now it’s continuing that push with a new partnership with GoDaddy. The web-hosting and domain name company will offer Microsoft’s suite of productivity tools to its small-business customers, including the ability to easily connect users’ domain names to Office’s email services. It also brings the full suite of Office’s productivity software, including shared calendars, cloud storage and instant messaging. The move comes a little over a year after Blake Irving, a former Microsoft exec, took the helm as GoDaddy’s new CEO, where he’s focused on expanding its support for small businesses. Office 365 for GoDaddy is already available in the US and Canada and will open up globally later this year.
Filed under: Internet, Software, Microsoft
Source: Microsoft
Microsoft may preview Windows ‘Threshold’ in April, launch it in 2015
Microsoft may have just released Windows 8.1 a few months ago, but it’s reportedly on the cusp of previewing its next major Windows version, Threshold. The SuperSite for Windows hears from sources that Microsoft will provide a “vision” for the OS at its Build conference in early April. While there aren’t many details of what the software involves beyond an emphasis on cross-platform unity, the tipsters claim that Threshold will likely be called Windows 9 and center around a refined interface that’s better-suited to desktop users. Whatever the OS looks like, don’t expect to see it in action this spring. Provided the rumors are accurate, the crew in Redmond would only start work on Threshold after Build, and it would ship the finished code in April 2015. The sneak peek would mostly set expectations for developers worried about Windows’ future in an unreceptive PC market.
Filed under: Software, Microsoft
Via: ExtremeTech
Source: SuperSite for Windows
CES 2014: Gaming roundup
Gaming is once again a thing at CES! Since splitting from the Consumer Electronics Show in 1995 and creating E3, the game industry has sat out much of the past 20 years. Between last year’s big news from Valve and this year’s reappearance of Sony’s PlayStation, it’s never been a better time to be a journalist covering gaming at CES.
In case the resurgence of gaming news wasn’t enough to solidify our belief, the first ever Engadget-hosted Official CES Awards Best of Show trophy went to Oculus VR’s Crystal Cove Rift prototype. Gaming, as it turns out, is more innovative and exciting than the curved TVs and psuedo-fashionable vitality monitors of the world — not exactly a surprise, but validating our years-long assertion feels so, so right.
CES 2014 saw Steam Machines third-party support go official — we even told you about all 14 partners a full 24 hours before Valve loosed the info — a new, crazy/ambitious project from Razer, and Oculus VR’s latest prototype. And that’s to say nothing of Sony’s PlayStation Now and Huawei’s China-exclusive Android game console, or the dozens of interviews we did.
Steam Machines
The ongoing saga of Valve’s PC gaming living room initiative continued at CES 2014, with company head/beloved game industry leader Gabe Newell introducing just over one dozen third-party Steam Machines at a press conference. This is Valve’s second consecutive year attending CES, and the company behind Steam (not to mention gaming classics like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead) made another big splash in 2014. Pricing, specs, and rough launch windows were given to the various Steam Machines, which brings us all one step closer to the much-ballyhooed “Steambox” reality we’ve been hearing about for years now. Heck, iBuyPower’s is named “SBX” — take a wild guess what that’s short for.
Oculus VR’s Crystal Cove prototype
Depth-tracking? Check. Motion blur vastly reduced? Check check. A fancy new OLED screen? Yup, that’s in there too. The latest virtual reality headset from Oculus VR is nicknamed the “Crystal Cove” prototype — for reasons the company isn’t saying — and it offers a massive step up from even the HD prototype we tried back at E3 2013. The first of the trio of new features is accomplished by adding IR trackers to the front of the Rift headset, combined with a camera facing the player (in-tandem with other data collected via internal sensors).
After trying the latest Rift, I spent the rest of CES evangelizing the device to my colleagues. From mobile phone geeks to in-house photog Zach “Honey” Honig (Hi Zach!), no staffer came away unimpressed. Two evenings of heated arguments later, and we chose Crystal Cove for our Best of CES award.
Razer’s Nabu and Project Christine
A wearable from a gaming company? You’ll forgive my confusion, but Nabu is pretty far from normal for Razer. If anything, perhaps we shouldn’t expect Razer to be pedestrian — this is the company, after all, that created the Razer Edge and routinely names its devices stuff like “Kraken.” Between the unbelievably low price ($50 for the dev model), the two OLED screens, and the sophisticated abilities Nabu offers, though, we’re convinced it’s a great, if bizarre, idea.
Where Nabu is ambitious, Project Christine is insane. The crazy-looking modular gaming PC isn’t the same iterative, bland exercise so much of the PC world continues to produce: it’s exactly the kind of bold experiment we’re excited to share with you. Beyond the fact that it’s a modular PC — which, unto itself, is relatively unknown territory — it’s got a custom motherboard, mineral oil cooling, and a design that dramatically stands out from the pack. Christine isn’t necessarily destined for retail (Razer’s still waiting to hear how consumers respond post-CES), but we sure hope it does become widely available at some point.
The Rest
Microsoft and Xbox weren’t really at CES 2014, but I did spend some time speaking with Xbox head Marc Whitten about the Xbox One’s first big post-launch update and his thoughts on the evolving world of gaming. And beyond our hands-on time with the new Rift prototype, company CEO Brendan Iribe talked to us about Oculus VR’s internal game development aspirations. Company founder Palmer Luckey joined us on the show floor stage once again to talk Crystal Cove, as did the always gregarious Razer head Min-Liang Tan. Sony head Kaz Hirai sat down with managing editor Christopher Trout to talk PlayStation 4, “one Sony,” and the just announced PlayStation Now game streaming service. In case it weren’t already clear, there’s a ton of great original gaming coverage to pour over as the weekend rambles on. And that’s just gaming!
Filed under: Gaming, Wearables, Software, HD, Sony, Microsoft
Beats Music is launching January 21st — here’s a sneak peek
That’s Beats’ new streaming service. No surprise, of course. Seems like the Jimmy Iovine / Dr. Dre’s red headphone-pushing company has been eyeing the space since the World Class Wreckin’ Cru days. Last month, the company offered up a bit of information in the form of an online teaser, noting that it would finally be dropping in January. The exact date, it turns out, is the 21st, though the company happily let us download an iOS teaser of the offering (it’ll be available on “nearly all the major platforms” at launch according to the company). The product is reportedly the culmination of two years of work, an attempt to approach music streaming from a different angle — namely populism. The rep I spoke with told me the company sees many of the current streaming offerings as appealing primarily to the early adopter.
The first part of the solution is the “on-boarding” process. Here you tap bubbles on a series of screens, first designating your favorite genres (one tap for “like,” two taps for “love” and holding down on the bubble to make it disappear — take that, electronic music). Next up, do the same thing with artists, designating your favorites amongst the offerings. Then, the system begins “curating music based on what you like.” The idea is somewhere between a Spotify and a Pandora, offering up custom playlists based on your listening habits, curation that will change as you continue to utilize the service. The playlists, as the company puts it, are based on “”feels like, not sounds like,” and future iterations will also include options to make it possible to follow your listening habits based on location, so you can, say, get a workout playlist when you’re at the gym.
The result of that initial curation is a page full of artwork not dissimilar from Spotify’s current front page, offering up songs and playlists with big Play icons in the middle. This is called Just for You. Swipe to the right and you’ll see the Right Now page, where you choose your location, activity and genre choice, so the app can build a playlist. Another swipe brings you to Highlights, a page of playlists curated by the “experts” and one more brings you to Find It, where you can search for music by Genre, Activities and Curators. All in all, it’s a pretty promising offering, with a sharp and highly dynamic interface — of course, it’s hard to say how much the world is clamoring for another streaming offer. Though most of the ones that come along certainly don’t have the marketing force of a Beats Music.
At launch, the service will offer up 20 million tracks for $10 a month.
Filed under: Software
The best mobile phone tracking software supports parents and employers
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