Thursday, June 27, 2013

Spotify Discover launches for all with integration from Songkick, Pitchfork and more

Hello music discovery. Spotify here.

· Buckle up, lean back and play: Discover feature available to all

Don't know what to listen to next? That's okay. We do. Spotify's Discover page seeks out personalized recommendations by seamlessly combining Spotify's best-in-class technology and social tools with curated content from music experts including Pitchfork, Songkick, Tunigo, and much, much more. Features include:

? New personalized recommendations every day based on the music you love

? New releases from the artists you follow

? All the music and playlists shared by friends and trendsetters you follow

? Find out when an artist you love is touring near you – the information will just bubble up through recommended shows from Songkick

? Related Music: play a song and get instant recommendations on what to play next

"With the Discover page, we're making good on our promise of helping you choose what to listen to when faced with millions of songs," says Gustav Söderström, Chief Product Officer, at Spotify. "We've made your listening experience more personal, more social and more current."

Make sure you also check out our handy Audio Preview feature. Dip into new music without moving away from the song you're playing. Just click and hold over any play button on the Discover page – if you like what you hear, save it for later or play it straight away. The choice is yours.

As of today, the Discover feature is available to everyone on our web player – a great additional feature for times you can't play music through your Spotify desktop app. So whether you're at the office, or over at a friend's house, simply log in to your account on the website and hit play. To check out Discover on the Spotify web player today, simply head to www.spotify.com.

The Discover page will gradually roll out to Spotify's desktop and mobile apps.

Happy discovering!


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Plex releases 3.0 overhaul for Android, 3.2 update for iOS

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Plex releases 30 overhaul for Android, iOS 32 update with remote playback

Plex's Android app revamp has been brewing for awhile, but it's at last ready: the 3.0 app is out of beta and available for everyone. The remake provides a much more polished interface, PlexSync support and speedier access to large libraries. It's facing a rocky start, however. The initial 3.0 release required a myPlex account and didn't include a remote control widget, and those have only just been fixed with a quick follow-up patch. We wouldn't lean on earlier versions of Android, regardless of what features you like -- the interface rewrite cuts off support for OS releases before Android 3.2.

iOS users aren't left out of the upgrades. Version 3.2 isn't as dramatic a makeover, but it does offer tangible improvements over 3.1 that include the Android version's faster media access and fixes for conspicuous PlexSync bugs. Quick updaters even get a reward for their trouble: the 3.2 client lets the iOS app serve as a remote playback target for other Plex-equipped devices. Whichever platform you prefer, the app update (or a fresh $5 copy) is waiting at one of the source links.

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Amazon announces new 'Login with Amazon' service for apps, games and websites (video)

Amazon Announces Login with Amazon to Reduce Sign-In Friction and Drive Higher Customer Engagement


Developers and website owners can securely connect with Amazon's over 200 million active customers

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May. 29, 2013-- (NASDAQ: AMZN) -- Today, Amazon launched Login with Amazon, a new service that will enable the over 200 million active Amazon customers to securely and simply login to apps, games, and websites. Login with Amazon allows developers to easily reduce sign-in friction for their customers, leading to higher engagement and order conversion.

According to a 2012 Harris Interactive study, over half of all American Internet users have five or more unique passwords to remember. Login with Amazon reduces sign-in friction by eliminating the need for users to create an account and password, and instead allows them to sign-in using their existing Amazon account information. Amazon customers can choose to share certain attributes of their account profile with apps, games, and websites by using Login with Amazon.

"Login with Amazon enables app developers and website owners to leverage Amazon's trusted sign-in solution, allowing them to focus on providing a great experience for their customers," said Michael Carr, Amazon Vice President, eCommerce Services. "Amazon customers now have a hassle-free way to quickly and securely sign-in to apps, games and websites, without having to remember yet another password."

As early adopters of Login with Amazon, Zappos and Woot, both Amazon subsidiaries, saw significant customer adoption. Zappos saw 40 percent of its new customers choose to sign-in to Zappos.com with an Amazon account. Woot found that new customers picked Login with Amazon two times more often than any other social login on their site, and those customers had the highest rate of order conversion.

Login with Amazon is available at no charge to developers of apps, games, and websites. The service is easy to integrate, as developers can typically go from registration to launch in a matter of hours. It is based on the OAuth 2.0 authorization framework, allowing developers to leverage a widely-adopted open protocol. For additional details about Login with Amazon, including code samples and the SDKs for Android and iOS, please visit login.amazon.com.

Login with Amazon is the latest offering in an array of services that make Amazon the most complete end-to-end ecosystem for developers building, monetizing and marketing their apps and games. These capabilities include:

The ability for app developers to use Amazon Web Services' (AWS) technology platform for their infrastructure needs. Building blocks such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and Amazon DynamoDB allow developers to focus on what differentiates their app rather than the undifferentiated heavy lifting of infrastructure.
GameCircle, which includes capabilities like Achievements, Leaderboards, Friends and Whispersync for syncing games across devices, and leads to better engagement with games.
In-App Purchasing on Kindle Fire, Mac, PC and web-based games. This enables developers to offer items in their apps and games while allowing their end users to simply use their Amazon accounts to make the purchase.
A/B Testing, which helps developers improve app functionality with the ability to simultaneously test two different in-app experiences to determine which is more successful prior to launching to a broad audience.
Game Connect, which lets developers list their virtual goods for sale on Amazon, increasing discoverability of their games and making the purchase of virtual goods as easy and convenient as possible for customers, leading to increased monetization for developers.
Amazon AppStore submission for distribution to nearly 200 countries globally enables developers to reach millions of Amazon customers worldwide.


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Male Gaze: Keith Urban’s Perfect Highlights

The last time we laid our eyes on the former (or current?) American Idol judge, he appeared to be in pure bliss somewhere along the French Riviera, smooching his Cannes jury member wife. But the Aussie country singer with a voice that can melt butter has since returned from Europe to announce that he'll be releasing his new album, Fuse, on September 10. This not only means that he'll soon be on tour, sharing those perfectly highlighted locks all across the United States, but that he'll also be gratuitously, nonchalantly displaying his bulging biceps for crazed fans everywhere. But for those of you who find his highlights-layers-and-shoulder-length-hair-complete-with-a-middle-part a bit too much, give the blue-eyed man one more shot. Or just try to focus on those dimples and the chin scruff instead. Watch the video to hear a guttural roar of "I love you, Keith!" from a rabid fan and also to see one of Country's Hottest Guys prove that guys with guitars are, indeed, sexier. 


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See Gisele’s First Post-Baby-Vivian Vogue Cover

It should surprise no one that Gisele Bundchen's tummy is already fashion-ready less than six months after she gave birth to her second child, daughter Vivian Lake, in December, because of course it is. Here she is on the cover of Vogue Brazil's June issue wearing the inexplicable combination of black bikini, leather vest, and body oil. Go ahead and insert all exclamations about her amaaazing post-baby body, gravity-defying such-and-such, and inhuman abs here, and just get it over with.


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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

YouTube adds slow-mo feature to its editing tools

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YouTube autoslomo

YouTube introduces builtin slowmo feature

How do you add a dramatic flair to your mundane video clips? You play it in slow motion, that's how. And now that YouTube has introduced a built-in slow-mo feature, you don't even need to capture footage using a high-speed camera. Just click Edit, navigate to Enhancements and hit the icon emblazoned with a turtle to make footage crawl at 12.5, 25 or 50 percent of its original pace. Note that resulting clips can last no longer than 10 minutes, and the feature might not be available in some countries outside the US just yet. Head past the break to compare two samples and see how the new feature can transform your YouTube vids, Dave Chappelle-style.


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Toshiba's Portege Z10t detachable Ultrabook available now for $1,499

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Toshiba's Portege Z10t detachable Ultrabook available now for $1,499

When Toshiba first teased the Portege Z10t business Ultrabook at IDF Beijing last month, our initial hands-on went as smoothly as things usually go at trade shows: we bum-rushed the stage to take a few photos, while company reps declined to answer any of our questions. Fortunately for all of us, the mystery is gone: Toshiba just formally unveiled the Z10t, and it's available now starting at $1,499.

As we reported earlier, this is an 11-inch laptop / tablet hybrid aimed at the enterprise. It will launch initially with Ivy Bridge vPro chips, as well as some industry-standard security features like TPM. What we didn't realize, however, is that it sports a 1080p IPS screen, along with a Wacom digitizer for pen input. In any case, if all you wanted was a firm MSRP and release date following our initial hands-on, well, there ya go. But if you were hoping for a few more details, we've got those too. Meet us past the break for a full rundown of all the features, along with some first impressions. Toshiba Portege Z10t hands-on See all photos 29 Photos

when.eng("eng.galleries.init")Toshiba Portege Z10t See all photos 21 Photos

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The Z10t is home to one of the best tablet displays we've ever laid eyes on: a 1080p IPS panel with a matte finish -- an unusual choice for a device like this. The benefits there are three-fold: it reduces glare, masks fingerprints and, best of all, makes pen input feel more like writing on actual paper. Speaking of the sort, the tablet ships with a stylus, but since this is a Wacom digitizer you can swap in any compatible pen of your choosing. There's also a smaller "emergency" pen with more basic functionality that can be stowed inside a slot on the tablet; the main stylus is too big to fit that hole, though.

On the inside, the Z10t runs your choice of Core i5 or i7 vPro processor. For now, at least, that means Ivy Bridge, but a Haswell refresh will follow sometime in early Q4 (the reason being: Intel isn't launching its next-gen vPro CPUs as early as it is its new consumer chips). We're also told it'll come with a 128GB or 256GB SSD and four gigs of RAM (an 8GB option will be offered after the Haswell refresh). As you'll see, most of the heavy-duty ports (VGA, HDMI, Ethernet) are located on the keyboard dock, but even the tablet itself is home to a USB 3.0 connection, full-size SD reader and a micro-HDMI socket. Not bad, especially compared to what competitors like HP are doing. Software-wise, this comes with Windows 8 by default (natch), but Toshiba is also allowing for Windows 7 downgrades in the event businesses aren't quite ready to deal with Live Tiles. As a bonus, businesses also get a minimum of three years' warranty coverage, though four-year plans will be offered too.

Aside from that stunner of a display, the hardware is basically what you'd expect from a business machine. Which is to say, it's conservative. Serious-looking. The whole thing is made of a brownish high-resin plastic, with a textured finish that's mercifully immune to scratches and fingerprints. It's a bit thick and a bit heavy -- the tablet alone weighs 1.98 pounds -- but with a total weight of 3.1 pounds, it's still eminently portable, even if most 11-inch laptops weigh far less than that. And it's definitely not as heavy as carrying a laptop and tablet separately.

Moving along, the keyboard is backlit and spill-resistant, with a slightly squished layout similar to what was used on the current Z835 / Z935 Ultrabook. Unlike the Z835, though, Toshiba threw in a tracking point in addition to a touchpad. We tried both, and we have to say that while the tracking stick might not be ThinkPad-quality, it does have a nice, textured feel that keeps your finger from slipping off.

Now that we've gotten hands-on twice, the next step is clearly a full review. We hope to bring you one as soon as we can, but in the meantime, enjoy those pics up there.

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