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Volcano World Cup: Semifinals
We’ve reached the Semifinals of the Volcano World Cup and now it really becomes a battle of the titans. The Quarterfinal matches weren’t that close — except for a spirited battle between Chile and Italy that saw Italy briefly take the lead until a late surge of Chilean votes. Now the final four teams vie […]
New Google Drive rolling out to users
Google Drive is being updated today, bringing in an updated UI and usability tweaks. The update is rolling out slowly, but the differences are notable. Simpler and more effective, Drive is starting to look more like a desktop solution than a web-solution-gone-laptop. Drive has long been Google's project for legitimizing their productivity endeavors, aiming to bring in unhappy Office users … Continue reading
Super Pixelander lets you drop Flappy Bird for dubstep
If you're all about fighting aliens, collecting gems, blasting asteroids, and listening to 8-bit beats while you're at it, we've got a game for you. Super Pixelander works with music from Blankfield to make certain you're rolling deep in the beeps while you're trying again and again to avoid getting hit by flying bits. Check some Blankfield music now to … Continue reading
Five awesome devices for your Wink connected home setup
You want a connected home, but what about the expense involved? Quirky's Wink Hub makes having a connected home a pretty streamlined endeavor, serving as a base platform for all your connected devices. The hub itself is low-cost and readily available, but what about the devices that link to it? Here are five that we really like for starting your … Continue reading
Apple Maps make their way to the web via iCloud
Apple Maps has seen its share of issues, but Apple has slowly been working those kinks out over time. Now that Apple Maps is vastly better, it seems as though Apple might be ready to lean on it a bit more. The Find my iPhone feature in iCloud has been reported by many to be using Apple Maps — not … Continue reading
Next Borderlands may yet come to Xbox One and PS4
While Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is guaranteed to be coming to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC first, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are not out of the question. So says 2K Australia's Tony Lawrence. He also suggests that as all Borderlands 2 players are currently playing on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC - or on SHIELD through PC, … Continue reading
Android Wear teardown shows two easily repairable devices
Android Wear is cool, but is it sturdy? More to the point, if (or when, maybe) you break your G Watch or Gear Live, how easy will it be to repair? The team at iFixIt have given both devices their teardown treatment, and the results just might surprise you a bit. The Gear Live from Samsung scored a respectable 8 … Continue reading
Titanfall DLC 2: Frontier’s Edge
The next downloadable content pack for Titanfall has been announced this week, this the second of three. Titanfall: Frontier's Edge will contain three new maps, as the first, and will fall in the same pricing tier as the original as well. In Frontier's Edge, the player will be introduced to Dig Site, Haven, and Export. In Dig Site, you'll roll … Continue reading
FUBU founder returns with crowdfunded smartphone accessories
It's no longer the "FUBU" brand, but the creator stays confident that this line of products is ready for similar success. FUBU founder Daymond John is coming forth with a brand called "Moguls Mobile," describing it as "for executives, by everyone", summoning the original acronym for FUBU: "for us, by us." Speaking with Venture Beat, John also suggested that this … Continue reading
Xbox One July Update release this week
There's a new update for Xbox One coming your way this month, coming with snaps galore. One of relatively few updates coming this month is in snapping your achievements. This means that you can keep your achievements screen open while you game, watching them update in real time. Snapped achievements are sorted by completed tasks and by achievements you're about … Continue reading
Watch YouTube explode with classic concerts
A vast trove of music concerts has arrived on YouTube this week thanks to the folks at Wolfgang's Vault. That's "Where Live Music Lives", if you did not know, Wolfgang's Vault being the pusher of Music Vault, the YouTube channel where you can see it all happen now. Bands from Bob Dylan to Fleet Foxes, Deer Tick to The Who … Continue reading
Contraceptive chip implant is controlled with a remote
Wearable technology includes a subset of devices that are a bit more internal than the term wearable would suggest. Among these devices are envisioned smart pills and medical-related implants designed to aid in healthcare of all sorts. Latest in this category is a contraceptive chip implant that can be controlled with a remote. The implant, which must still undergo testing … Continue reading
Sony Xperia C3 totes 5MP soft flash camera for selfies
Even Japanese OEM Sony is now trying to cater to the selfie-loving crowd. With a 5 megapixel front camera complete with soft LED flash, the Xperia C3 is being poised as the best selfie smartphone. While that may arguably be true, in almost everything else, the mobile device falls rather flat. Yes, Sony is unabashedly selling the Xperia C3 as … Continue reading
Fitbit used by company to drop insurance premium
One industrious company looking to lower its insurance premium used a somewhat novel way to accomplish its goal: Fitbit. The fitness wearable was given to workers at startup Appirio, where data was used to get the company's insurance provider to drop its rates by 5-percent, or $280,000 USD. The Fitbit wearables were provided by the insurance company by way of … Continue reading
Surface Pro 3 software updated to address Wi-Fi issues, improve battery life
Microsoft shared details of the latest Surface Pro 3 software update on Tuesday, saying it is now rolling out in stages. Dubbed "System Firmware Update – 7/8/2014" the changes help improve both Wi-Fi stability and the Type Cover trackpad, and show or hide the on-screen keyboard at the appropriate times. The update will also help reduce power consumption while enhancing battery life. Microsoft says an additional update will follow next week to “further improve Wi-Fi connection and throughput scenarios.” Some Surface Pro 3 users reported poor Wi-Fi connections in certain circumstances, so these two updates are likely meant to resolve those issues.
Amazon makes a direct offer to Hachette authors: Here’s the full letter
As the negotiations with Hachette drag on, Amazon is suggesting a new path that it says will alleviate pressure on Hachette authors.
David Naggar, VP of Kindle content and independent publishing, sent a letter to a few Hachette authors, literary agents and Authors Guild president Roxana Robinson over the weekend suggesting that “for as long as this dispute lasts, Hachette authors would get 100% of the sales price of every Hachette ebook we sell. Both Amazon and Hachette would forego all revenue and profit from the sale of every ebook until an agreement is reached.” The idea, seemingly, is that that loss of ebook revenue would “motivate both Hachette and Amazon to work faster to resolve the situation.”
Hachette would need to agree to the proposal, and the letter makes it clear that Amazon hasn’t actually suggested the idea to Hachette yet: Rather, it wants to “get feedback” from authors and agents first. It is likely that the company suspected the letter would become public.
The idea seems somewhat similar to an idea that Amazon had earlier proposed, in its public statement on the contract dispute: “We’ve offered to Hachette to fund 50% of an author pool — to be allocated by Hachette — to mitigate the impact of this dispute on author royalties, if Hachette funds the other 50%. We did this with the publisher Macmillan some years ago. We hope Hachette takes us up on it.” Amazon’s latest proposal, however, would apply only to ebooks. “If we sell a book at $9.99, the author would get the full $9.99, many multiples of what they would normally get. We can begin implementing this arrangement in 72 hours if Hachette agrees.” In many cases, Kindle editions of Hachette books have been hard to find on Amazon’s website as a result of the dispute.
The letter’s existence, and excerpts from it, were first reported by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
Here’s the full letter:
Dear XX,
I wanted to ask your opinion about an idea we've had that would take authors out of the middle of the Hachette-Amazon dispute (actually it would be a big windfall for authors) and would motivate both Hachette and Amazon to work faster to resolve the situation.
Our first choice would be to resolve a dispute like this through discussion only. We tried that already. We reached out to Hachette for the first time to discuss terms at the beginning of January for our contract which terminated in March. We heard nothing from them for three full months. We extended the contract into April under existing terms. Still nothing. In fact we got no conversation at all from Hachette until we started reducing our on-hand print inventory and reducing the discounts we offer customers off their list prices. Even since then, weeks have gone by while we waited for them to get back to us. After our last proposal to them on June 5th, they waited a week to respond at all, promising a counteroffer the following week. We are still waiting a month later.
We agree that authors are caught in the middle while these negotiations drag on, and we're particularly sensitive to the effect on debut and midlist authors. But Hachette's unresponsiveness and unwillingness to talk until we took action put us in this position, and unless Hachette dramatically changes their negotiating tempo, this is going to take a really long time.
Here's what we're thinking of proposing to them:
• If Hachette agrees, for as long as this dispute lasts, Hachette authors would get 100% of the sales price of every Hachette e-book we sell. Both Amazon and Hachette would forego all revenue and profit from the sale of every e-book until an agreement is reached.
• Amazon would also return to normal levels of on-hand print inventory, return to normal pricing in all formats, and for books that haven't gone on sale yet, reinstate pre-orders.
Here's an example: if we sell a book at $9.99, the author would get the full $9.99, many multiples of what they would normally get. We can begin implementing this arrangement in 72 hours if Hachette agrees.
We haven't sent this offer to Hachette yet – we're sending this to a few authors and agents to get feedback first.
What do you think? Would this be helpful, especially for midlist and debut authors?
Can we talk on the phone later today or tomorrow once you've had a chance to digest?
Thanks and look forward to talking.
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Google Drive Apps added to experimental Chrome App Launcher
Google launched an experimental feature in the Chrome Dev channel on Tuesday that makes it easier to use Google Drive Apps. The latest version of the Chrome App Launcher now shows Google Drive App shortcuts, although you have to enable the feature to see them.
Google evangelist François Beaufort shared a screenshot of the latest App Launcher, showing Google Drive Apps alongside traditional Chrome apps. To turn on this view — you have to be using the Chrome Dev channel — you can simply type chrome://flags/#enable-drive-apps-in-app-list in your browser and click the Enable link. Once Chrome restarts, you should see Google Drive Apps in the App Launcher.
Google Drive Apps are exactly what they sound like: Apps that work directly with Google Drive. Per Google, these can:
- Access and open files in Google Drive
- Create new files through the app
- Access Google Drive files from an app outside of Google Drive
- Save a file to Google Drive from an app outside of Google Drive
- Share any file type, including files created with a Google Drive app
There’s an entire section of the Chrome Web Store devoted to Google Drive Apps, so you can browse it to see examples such as the StackEdit Markup editor, Pixlr Editor for image edits, and the ShiftEdit online IDE for programming, to name a few.
Although there’s no guarantee that the App Launcher changes will migrate up to the Chrome Stable channel, I hope it does. It’s far easier to open an app and then see the files that app works with than to have to find your data files in the Chrome Files app first. And it’s also consistent with how other traditional platforms work: You can typically open an app to manipulate or view compatible files or you can use file associations to open an app from a file.
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Chromebooks may get native Chromecast support with a video player update
Chrome OS devices could soon be able to beam local media to any Chromecast streaming stick without the need to use any workarounds: Latest Chromium commits found by Chromestory.com suggest that the native Chrome OS video player is getting Chromecast support in the near future.
Chromium developers recently started to separate the Chrome OS video player from the Files app and turn it into a standalone app. At the time, it looked like this was primarily about making it easier to use the Files app, which is essentially the Chrome OS version of the Finder in OS X or File Explorer in Windows, and the video player at the same time; however, it now looks like the update could also bring casting to Chrome OS.
Currently, Chrome OS users have to load any media they want to cast into the Chrome browser and then use tab casting, which essentially mirrors the content of that browser tab. However, this process involves transcoding, which can degrade the quality if a video, and generally requires a pretty powerful computer to run smoothly.
In the case of Chromebooks, tab casting often leads to stuttering videos. Native casting should resolve these issues and make beaming videos from a Chromebook to a Chromecast streaming stick a lot more enjoyable.
However, it's unclear when we will exactly see this feature come to Chrome OS. The commit found by Chromestory only refers to setting a flag for Chromecast support, with a developer writing that "the implementation will be committed later."
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Cloudian, a hybrid cloud storage provider, raises $24 million
Hybrid cloud storage startup Cloudian has landed $24 million in funding, which the company said in a release that it will use to expand operations and ensure that its products are being more rapidly deployed. Cloudian's object storage software specializes in setting up both public and private clouds atop the Amazon S3 storage service. The Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Fidelity Growth Partners were new investors to this financing round along with current Cloudian shareholders, including Intel Capital.
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Weak smartphone and tablet sales will dampen Samsung’s second-quarter earnings
Samsung issued second-quarter earnings estimates on Tuesday, which included an unusual amount of commentary and guidance for the Seoul giant. The bad news? Second quarter profit is expected to drop 24 percent from the same quarter last year, down to 7.2 trillion won ($7.1 billion) on revenue of about 52 trillion won.
Samsung blamed its unusually weak quarter on the strong Korean won — which is at a 6-year high against the dollar — and declining smartphone and tablet shipments. Unfortunately for Samsung, declining smartphone sales and piling inventory also affected its display and semiconductor divisions.
In the past few years, Samsung has been reporting quarterly profits north of 8 trillion won, largely driven by its smartphone business. While Samsung’s expensive models, such as the Galaxy S5, might still be selling well, it is facing challenges at the low end of the market, especially in China, as cheap Chinese smartphones become more common. Samsung is also seeing weak overall demand for its line of tablets, noting that “the demand for 5-to-6 inch smartphones cannibalized the demand for 7-to-8 inch tablets.”
South Korean companies do not give guidance estimates in terms of ranges, so the revenue and profit numbers provided are the median value that Samsung expects. The numbers Samsung reported are not audited and are not from the full earnings release, which will be announced later this month.
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Android Wear teardown: These watches are made for tinkering
The two Android Wear smartwatches, the LG G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live, are finally shipping to early adopters, and the iFixit crew has done its customary teardown, pulling off both watch cases and faces to sneak a peek at the electronics underneath.
The biggest surprise? Both of these tiny devices are actually pretty repairable: they are both assembled with Torx screws and a minimal amount of glue, which is good news for anyone hoping to tinker with their smartwatch. The fact that both smartwatches are easy to assemble and dissemble is also particularly appropriate given their status as first-generation devices. Also of note: the Samsung Gear Live’s more complex circuit board has an installed Wi-Fi antenna unused by Android Wear, which was first tipped in FCC filings.
Both devices are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC, which was first designed for phones. So perhaps when there are smartwatch-specific SoCs we could see improved battery life.
The Samsung Gear Live has a 300mAh battery, which is smaller than the 400mAh battery the G Watch sports. Regardless of capacity differences, the volume of both smartwatches is largely comprised of battery and that will continue to be the limiting factor to making these devices even smaller and thinner in the future.
Last week, Anandtech published a separate Android Wear teardown done by chip designer ARM.
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Tesla faces new trademark troubles in China
A businessman in China who registered for a trademark on “Tesla” in Chinese and English is now suing the U.S. car maker, which could complicate Tesla’s expansion plans in the country where it delivered its first Model S cars in April.
According to Bloomberg, Zhan Baosheng filed a lawsuit last week demanding the shutdown of Tesla showrooms and charging stations unless the company pays him $3.9 million for infringing the mark. Tesla shot back that it is Zhan who is stealing its intellectual property, and vowed the suit will not impede its expansion plans.
Tesla’s trademark troubles in China first surfaced last year on news that squatters were sitting on its brands, though the dispute appeared to be moving in Tesla’s favor after a board ruled that Zhan’s trademarks were invalid. Zhan appealed, however, meaning the outcome is not final, and this month’s lawsuit will only add to the uncertainty.
Like other Western companies, Tesla is at the mercy of the vagaries of the Chinese intellectual property system, which tolerates “trademark trolls” like the one that stung Apple for $60 million in 2010.
Intellectual property claims in China are also complicated because of the frequent overlap between Chinese companies and the state, and government’s unspoken policy of using hackers to steal secrets from U.S. companies.
"Tesla is violating my rights every day by selling their vehicles in China," Zhan told Bloomberg on the day he filed the lawsuit. "I want them to say sorry."
Zhan also controls the domain name Tesla.cn, which redirects to his Twitter page:
hi, I am the owner of TESLA trademark in China. The trademark is still in my hand, Tesla Motors is lying. http://t.co/IkuPkIIj4k—
Zhan Baosheng (@chinese) June 24, 2014
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Taylor Swift is right about music, and the industry should act on her ideas
Country-pop star Taylor Swift penned an optimistic essay in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal about the lasting bonds between performers and their fans, and why she thinks the music industry is “just coming alive.” You can think what you want about Swift’s songs, but her take on the business is a welcome change from the doom-and-gloom we normally read.
In her essay, Swift is upfront about what everyone knows: CD sales fell off a cliff and, while streaming and digital sales have grown dramatically, they have not plugged a shortfall that has seen overall music revenue fall from $15 billion in 2003 to $7 billion today.
Often, such numbers are a cue for a musician to launch into a long harangue about piracy and the need for Congress to expand copyright. Instead, Swift does something different. She offers some new insights into about the evolving relationship between musicians and fans. Here’s what she says about autographs, for instance:
There are a few things I have witnessed becoming obsolete in the past few years, the first being autographs. I haven’t been asked for an autograph since the invention of the iPhone with a front-facing camera. The only memento ‘kids these days’ want is a selfie. It’s part of the new currency, which seems to be ‘how many followers you have on Instagram.’
And here is how Swift sees social media changing traditional music deals:
A friend of mine, who is an actress, told me that when the casting for her recent movie came down to two actresses, the casting director chose the actress with more Twitter followers. I see this becoming a trend in the music industry … In the future, artists will get record deals because they have fans—not the other way around.
Swift’s essay also makes a heartfelt plea for the album as art, and expresses a belief that fans will always pay for those special albums that change their lives: “I think the future still holds the possibility for this kind of bond, the one my father has with the Beach Boys and the one my mother has with Carly Simon.”
A way forward
It’s easy to be snarky to Swift. Indeed, others have already pointed out that her faith in revived album sales is misguided, and that the economics of digital distribution mean that only a lucky few, like Swift or Justin Bieber, have the celebrity klout to sell records in this day and age.
That might be true, but it doesn’t mean that Swift’s other observations aren’t helpful — if only the music industry would act on them. Alas, the industry is instead expending its legal and lobbying power on trying to wring more money from 50-year-old music. Just look at the current efforts to squeeze the likes of Pandora dry with ever-higher royalty rates and ill-considered class action suits.
Imagine if the industry directed more of its energy to finding new revenue sources amid all those selfies and Twitter followers surrounding Swift. As my colleague Mathew Ingram has explained in the context of news, new business ideas based on “membership” may offer more promise than attempting to replace past product sales.
Yes, many of the details are still fuzzy. But new user-based companies like Twitter and Instagram and are still developing their business models, and in coming years they will no doubt offer Swift and others a range of money-making ideas that we have yet to to imagine. Meanwhile, YouTube, despite contract scuffles, is already offering millions in ad revenue to famous acts and upcoming ones alike.
In the future, there will also continue to be a growing range of web and app platforms – everything from games to disappearing messaging apps — that offer both music licensing opportunities, and new ways for fans and performers to connect. The money may take time to emerge but, for cynics and the music industry, this is the way forward. Or in Swift’s words, “This is a love story, just say yes.”
This story was updated at 12:30pm ET to reflect that the music industry figures are in billions not millions.
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