The streaming music war is getting ugly

Apple, Tidal and Spotify are all vying for listeners and clashing over exclusive deals.

Qrates lets you press your hot beats onto vinyl

 Hello, fellow young people! I, like you, love vinyl. It offers richer, more realistic (pet) sounds and it is great for lugging from squat house to squat house and for sharing on a portable record player while you enjoy some fine beverages on the front stoop of your Williamsburg duplex. But how can you press your own music onto vinyl with a minimum of (hot) fuss?
A Tokyo-based team has the answer. Read More

CBS's streaming service debuts a $10 per month ad-free tier

 CBS's streaming TV service for cord cutters, CBS All Access – and soon to be home to the new “Star Trek” series – is today rolling out the option of a commercial-free subscription for the price of $9.99 per month. The existing subscription is still available at $5.99 per month, and includes the same content lineup. The launch comes at a time when the network… Read More

Steve Jobs Planned to Work on Apple TV Set After Stepping Down as Apple CEO

When Steve Jobs stepped down from his position as Apple CEO on August 24, 2011 due to illness, he didn't intend to leave the company. Instead Jobs told Recode's Walt Mossberg he planned work on an Apple-branded television set to re-invent the television industry.





Recode today shared a full recounting of Jobs' conversation with Mossberg, which took place on the same day that Jobs left the company. The two discussed his plans for television experience that would be "fantastic."

"He was going to still be involved. Their press release made some vague nod toward that. But he wanted me to know that he was going to be involved in big strategic things, and also that he was going to reserve one particular thing for himself."





"I said, 'well, what's that?'"





"He said, 'Well, it's television ... I think we figured out a way to do it, and it's going to be fantastic. I want you to come out, in a few months, and I want to show it to you.'"

According to Mossberg, Jobs didn't share in-depth information about his television ambitions, offering no details on hardware or programming, but Mossberg believes he was talking about a full integrated television set and software experience.





Mossberg says Jobs was "really excited" about the project and he came away with the sense that Jobs was going to "reinvent the whole TV set" at the conclusion of the conversation. Unfortunately, Jobs didn't get a chance to further pursue the television project because he passed away from pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011, less two months after stepping down as CEO.





Jobs famously made similar statements on TV to biographer Walter Isaacson. He told Isaacson that he wanted to develop an integrated television set that's "completely easy to use," syncing seamlessly with iCloud. "It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine," Jobs is quoted as saying. "I finally cracked it."





Since Jobs' death, Apple has tried to gain a stronger foothold in the television industry, but it has failed time and time again to establish the deals that would allow it to create the full integrated television programming experience and television set that Jobs envisioned. Most recently, Apple wanted to create a streaming television bundle of approximately 25 channels at a cost of $30 to $40 per month, but negotiations fell through.





There were also rumors for many years suggesting Apple was pursuing a full television set, but those plans are said to have been shelved because Apple couldn't find untapped features that would give it a clear edge in the television market.





Instead, Apple has focused on its Apple TV set-top box, introducing a new version with a full App Store and Siri support last October. Apple CEO Tim Cook has said several times that "the future of TV is apps," with Apple working to position the Apple TV as a platform that allows other content providers to distribute their content instead of offering a streaming service itself.
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Geekbench 4.0 launches with refreshed UI and new benchmarks

Geekbench, a popular hardware benchmarking app for various platforms by Primate Labs, has been updated to version 4.0 on Tuesday.

The update brings enhancements to the look of the UI and adds a number of new benchmarks to help you get an idea of how fast your computer or mobile device really is.... Read the rest of this post here

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"Geekbench 4.0 launches with refreshed UI and new benchmarks" is an article by iDownloadBlog.com.
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Another shakeup at Nest as software responsibility heads to Google

(credit: Nest)

Just three months after Nest co-founder Tony Fadell left the company and new CEO Marwan Fawaz took over, Alphabet's troubled smart home division, Nest, is apparently experiencing another shakeup. According to a report from Fortune, Google is "absorbing" Nest's software engineers in order to form a "unified Internet of things platform."

Hiroshi Lockheimer, the current head of Android, will lead the group. The Fortune report notes that the combined group will "continue to work" on Google Home, Google's forthcoming Amazon Echo competitor. A previous report from The Information (paywall) stated that Nest's request to work on Google Home was denied by Google. A Nest representative denied this statement and said the integration would be similar to the Amazon Echo.

Google and Nest were definitely not on a "unified" platform path before this. Nest created the "Works with Nest" program along with the wireless protocol "Thread." Google is working on "Brillo," a stripped down version of Android for IoT devices, and both companies are involved with the "Weave" communication standard. It's all very complicated and incomplete.

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Dealmaster: Get 30 percent off the X1 Carbon and all ThinkPads

Greetings, Arsians! Courtesy of our partners at TechBargains, the Dealmaster is back with a big bundle of deals for your consideration. Today we're offering 30 percent off the Lenovo X1 Carbon and all ThinkPads. There's also a sweet deal on the 3D Collector's Edition of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

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Laptop and desktop computers

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For more computer deals, visit the TechBargains site.

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Will Hillary Clinton crack down on revenge porn?

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New Charts Detail Steady Decline in Popularity of 'Pokémon Go'

After weeks of intense usage, new data from Axiom Capital Management (via Bloomberg) paints a picture of Pokémon Go's overall waning popularity as August comes to a close. With research lead by Senior Analyst Victor Anthony, the investment advising firm collected various user engagement statistics -- and even figured out how much attention Pokémon Go brought to augmented reality gaming -- in a handful of charts.





According to Anthony, many other popular apps, which saw a decline in daily active users because of the Pokémon Go phenomenon, were scrambling to figure out ways for former reliable users to return to their app. But now the executives of Tinder, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat "can breathe a sigh of relief," since everything from daily active users, downloads, and the amount of time spent on Pokémon Go each day "are all well off their peaks and on a downward trend."

"Given the rapid rise in usage of the Pokémon Go app since the launch in July, investors have been concerned that this new user experience has been detracting from time spent on other mobile focused apps," [Anthony] writes.





If these declines prove enduring, this would cast aspersion not only on the viability and popularity of Pokemon Go, but augmented reality gaming at large, according to the analyst.

Anthony believes the fad-like quality of Pokémon Go could ultimately leave little lasting impact on augmented reality gaming "at large," due to its fleeting popularity of a few weeks in mid-to-late July. Although not mentioned by the analyst or Bloomberg, it's also worth taking into account how many players actually used the AR camera when catching Pokémon, and consequently how many considered it an "AR game," when it became widely known that turning the mode off made capturing the creatures a slightly easier task.








While it was on everyone's mind, Pokémon Go made waves in both mainstream mobile gaming, and even sent Nintendo's stock rising, despite the company's small stake in both Niantic and The Pokémon Company, the game's creators. Niantic is still pushing out updates to Pokémon Go, attempting to fix issues with the game while also introducing it into new markets like Thailand and 14 other Asian countries.

Tag: Pokémon GO

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The Makeup Industry's Frustrating Cycle of Struggle and Progress for Women of Color

Three years ago, I made a trip to Sephora with one specific purpose in mind: to search for the perfect foundation. Surely, some mystical brown shade existed at the elusive nexus of “good” and “right.” Having spent most of my life wearing solely mascara and a resting bitch face, this was my first time hunting for just one decent cream or powder amid the cascading options available for skin tones ranging from white to very white to kinda brown.

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Let's Talk iOS 149: Awesomely scary

Some discussions about music streaming services and their big exclusives. Twitter reportedly building an app to stream NFL games, but why? Did you know your next Uber ride might be a self-driving car? More talks about iPhone 7 rumors and a 10.5″ iPad Pro.

Subscribe on iTunes

Support Let's Talk iOS: Want to get into HomeKit? Visit idevicesinc.com and use promo code iOS for 15% off your home's evolution.... Read the rest of this post here

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"Let's Talk iOS 149: Awesomely scary" is an article by iDownloadBlog.com.
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Shopify Expanding Apple Pay Hardware and Software to United Kingdom

After launching its point-of-sale system app in the United States in 2013, Shopify today announced that both the company's POS app and physical hardware will finally be made available to business owners in the United Kingdom (via TechCrunch). The app and "Tap, Chip, and Swipe" card reader work in conjunction to accept various kinds of retail payments from customers, while also providing merchants with data about their business, like stock shortages and daily cash intake.

“The UK is Shopify's second largest market,” Hailey Coleman, Product Growth Manager at Shopify, told TechCrunch via email. “The launch of the Shopify POS app and card reader provides small business owners an easy and secure way to accept payments anywhere. Now merchants in the UK can run their entire business with Shopify.”

With its NFC-enabled card reader and connected app, Shopify allows customers to pay with any mobile wallet app, including Apple Pay and Android Pay, and traditional cards from Visa and MasterCard. On the compatability side of things, the Shopify POS app functions with the iPhone 4s and later, the iPad 2 and later, and any version of the iPad mini.





With the new system, business owners in the United Kingdom can also run every aspect of their small business with Shopify's products. The app and card reader not only enhance the retail store shopping experience, but both tie the physical store into the owner's online marketplace, "if they're using Shopify to power their e-commerce."








Merchants in the United Kingdom can pre-order the Shopify card reader for £59 while it's on sale with a £20 discount, and can expect to receive the device beginning on September 30. The company's app is free to use, but incurs a 1.6 percent credit card rate with no purchase fee. Shopify also sells a line of companion hardware to improve the transaction experience in small businesses, including a receipt printer and cash drawer that connect into the Shopify ecosystem.

Related Roundup: Apple Pay
Tag: Shopify

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Is Uber's push for self-driving cars a job killer?

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How to Find Any Email in Outlook 2016

If you use Outlook 2016 and get a lot of email, it can be hard to find an individual message, even if you just received it a few hours ago. My inbox is always a morass of outright spam, newsletters I...

As emoji grow more popular, the “language” also risks fragmentation

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  Emoji in iOS 10.

  
  

  
  
  Andrew Cunningham

  
  

  
  

Emoji have become important. They've permeated our conversations and our messaging apps and our popular culture to a degree that no one could have anticipated just a few years ago, and when your phone or computer gets an update, new emoji are often featured prominently in the release notes or even announced in their own press releases.

That the “language” is so universal and recognizable is due in large part to the Unicode Consortium, the group of major tech companies in charge of defining and approving new emoji (and dozens of other character sets, besides). Every year, it proposes, discusses, and approves new additions to the language, and that heavyweights like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have become so diligent about supporting new versions is a rare victory for standards in an age where every tech company on Earth is trying to lock you into its own proprietary silo.

But the Unicode Consortium can only do so much to influence the way any given emoji looks and is interpreted. Every new version of the Unicode spec includes a description of each character, a sample image, and other broad recommendations for implementation, but companies implementing the spec are free to represent the emoji pretty much however they want. And as the language's range of expression continues to grow, so do the opportunities for misunderstanding.

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Jony Ive's Design Team Nixed Apple Watch Band With Sensors

In an interview with Fast Company, former Apple employee Bob Messerschmidt, who helped design the heart rate sensors in the Apple Watch, gave some insight into what it was like working with Jony Ive and Apple's Industrial Design Group on the company's first wearable device.





After a 2010 acquisition, Messerschmidt joined the Apple Watch team, where he was in charge of designing some of the sensors for the device. In an anecdote relayed to Fast Company, during one meeting, Messerschmidt proposed putting health sensors in the Apple Watch band, an idea that was quickly shot down by the Industrial Design Group because of a desire for interchangeable bands.

One great example is [when] I went to a meeting and said I'm going to put sensors in the watch but I'm going to put them down here (he points to the underside of the Apple Watch band he's wearing) because I can get a more accurate reading on the bottom of the wrist than I can get on the top of the wrist. They (the Industrial Design group) said very quickly that "that's not the design trend; that's not the fashion trend. We want to have interchangeable bands so we don't want to have any sensors in the band."

Messerschmidt's next proposal was for sensors at the top of an Apple Watch worn tightly against the wrist, which was also nixed because "that's not how people wear watches." According to Messerschmidt, it was difficult working within the design constraints at Apple, but it pushed him to figure out "new engineering solutions" and ultimately made for a product with a superior user experience.

Engineers left in a vacuum might say "well, that's maybe not so important; we can get a better signal by doing it the other way so let's do it that way." So, left to their own devices, that would be the way the product would end up. So you have to have a really strong voice supporting the user. I think the idea of focusing on that is uniquely Apple

Messerschmidt goes on to explain other important lessons he learned from his time working at Apple and from Steve Jobs, including that user experience is "everything when it comes to consumer products," that "good enough is not good enough," and that it's important to say no "until it's just right."





Following three years at Apple and integral work on the heart rate sensor in the Apple Watch, Messerschmidt left the company to found Cor, a startup producing a device that draws blood, analyzes it, and provides near-instant health-related information.





Messerschmidt's full interview is worth checking out and can be read over at Fast Company.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 2, watchOS 3
Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Caution)

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The story of Naked Wines

If you're a big fan of wine but still want to run a startup, there may not be that much innovation you can get away with on the product side. Wine, when all is said and done, is still wine. That doesn't mean you can't turn the industry inside out by turning the traditional winery business model on its head - and that's exactly what Naked Wines did. I decided to have… Read More