Category / Music

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Google Play Music All Access hits some European territories with special launch price of £7.99/€7.99

Screenshot 2013-08-07 at 22.27.12

You! Hey you!

Do you like music?
Do you like the idea of being able to stream an unlimited number of a selection of millions of tracks to your internet connected devices in exchange for a monthly fee with a 30 day free trial before you start?
Do you like such services to force you to remain in a certain ecosystem due to a frustrating lack of platform agnosticism?
Do you think that you don’t give Google enough information about you and your habits already?
Do Spotify and Rdio not have enough letters in their names for you?

If you answered yes to a good proportion of these questions, you should try Google Play Music All Access! Launched in the States at Google I/O, the ridiculously named service (which I affectionately refer to as GPMAAAAAAAAAAA), has finally crossed over the Atlantic, and you can now sign up with a 30 day free trial in the following countries. Note: all are new today unless otherwise specified.

  • Australia (since July)
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • France
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Luxembourg
  • New Zealand (since July)
  • Portugal
  • Spain
  • United Kingdom
  • United States (since forever)

This means that every country that has access to the Google Play Music locker service (with the sole exception of Germany (thanks, GEMA)) also gets the streaming service, which has been priced at £7.99/€7.99 for those who sign up before September 15th, at which point it will rise up to match its main competitors at £9.99/€9.99. I’ve had a few minutes with it and, at least in the UK, I can’t see a reason to pick it over Spotify, which offers the same holes in the streaming library but, most importantly, the true cross-platform accessibility that Google’s offering lacks. Hell, you can’t access All Access outside of the web app and Android yet. Still, those entrenched in Google’s ecosystem and those who like to, well, ‘fill the gaps’ with the music locker service may find GPMAAAAAAAAAAA to be the streaming service for them.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

At last, the BlackBerry Band is back to celebrate BlackBerry 10’s release

BlackBerry Band

Remember the band of BlackBerry executives who made a song to woo devs onto the BlackBerry 10 platform? Well, they’re back.

Source BlackBerry
Via AllThingsD

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

iTunes 11 release delayed by Apple until late November

After being announced alongside the iPhone 5 back in September, music fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of iTunes 11, which Apple said would fall at the end of this month. Now, amidst wholesale changes within the company resulting in the ousting of iOS SVP Scott Forstall and Jony Ive becoming head of Human Interface throughout the company, the company has confirmed that it is delaying the release of the latest version of the software until November.

Speaking to AllThingsD, spokesman Tom Neumayr stated:

“The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right. We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November.”

Sporting a completely redesigned interface from mini player to store, the updated version was seen as one of the highlights of Apple’s event. It is set to take design cues from iOS 6, and many users are hoping that Apple can use the delay to implement performance improvements and solve issues that have plagued the software for many years.

Source AllThingsD

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Apple event liveblog: 7.9″ iPad Mini, 13″ Retina MacBook, iMac, Mac Mini and iPad refreshes

Another month brings another Apple event, and this time we expect to see a whole plethora of new and updated devices, spearheaded by the iPad Mini. Rumoured to have a 7.85″ 1024 x 768 display and a design similar to that of the new iPod Touch, this device looks set to sport a low price tag to take on the Nexus 7 and company. Rumour also has it that the existing iPad will receive a minor update with a Lightning connector and 4G in more territories (such as with EE in the UK) and the Mac family will get minor updates across the board, with the highlight being a 13″ Retina MacBook Pro. We also expect to hear a bit more about iTunes 11 tonight, but whatever happens we will be around to liveblog proceedings on this very page. Enjoy!

Continue reading →

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Chrome extension hides annoying Twitter trends about the likes of Justin Bieber and One Direction

Ever gone onto Twitter and seen the trending topics occupied by ridiculous statements from the fans of Justin Bieber and the like? Things like these seem all too common.


https://twitter.com/catchjdbsfever/status/191592305860411392

https://twitter.com/ThaBieberTeam/status/191660236229181440

Thankfully Ben Hooper, aka @mythofechelon, has developed a Chrome extension that filters out trends relating to Justin Bieber, Rebecca Black, Lady GaGa, Jedward and One Direction, with more plagues artists to follow at a later date. The trend-purging extension is free to download from his site, and Hooper would love some feedback on Twitter or by email. Watch the video below to see the extension in action.

Happy browsing!

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

HTC announces Beats Audio acquisition of MOG

With HTC’s Beats Audio division acquiring music streaming service MOG, TechCrunch has a look at how HTC is acquiring innovation rather than innovating themselves.

by Xavier Voigt-Hill

Vevo redesign shifts away from YouTube towards Facebook

Vevo, the music video service that causes more problems than it solves, launched a major redesign of its site today, notably emphasising Facebook connection and shifting away from YouTube hosting. Why can’t they just hurry up fix the iOS app?

Gigaom

Over the past two years, Vevo has become the default place to watch music online. But, like many other streaming video providers, it had a problem: For users, the act of watching videos tends to be a very disjointed process.

Users search for something they want to watch, find it, watch it and then have to search for something else all over again. Most sites have recommendations when the videos end, but they can be hit or miss — and they tend not to be very personal, not reflective of a user’s viewing history or his social graph.

I’ve written about this a lot in the past — about how the success of streaming video will be driven by improved discovery and through the implementation of a more TV-like playback experience where the user doesn’t have to continually search for the content he wants to watch.

Anyway, the latest update…

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