Wednesday 31 January 2018

Spotify is testing a new app that’s just for listening to playlists

Spotify has very quietly released a new standalone app for Android that’s exclusively dedicated to quick, easy playlist and station listening. The app is called Stations, and Spotify describes it as “the easiest way to listen to the music you love. Totally free.” Stations is also an “experiment,” according to the company.

Stations is listed in the Google Play Store, but as of late Tuesday evening (when Variety noted its debut), the app wasn’t yet compatible with mobile devices in the United States and many other countries. For now, it’s only available in Australia.

We haven’t used it yet, but the app’s design makes clear that Stations is designed to reduce the steps and taps necessary to get to your music. Spotify says that Stations...

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Webpass is leaving Boston in latest sign of Google Fiber’s shrinking ambitions

Webpass, the wireless home broadband company that Google Fiber acquired in 2016, is exiting the Boston market. The Verge received a reader tip on the situation and a quick look around revealed that Boston is no longer listed as a current Webpass market on the company’s website. (It still appeared as recently as December.) Reached by phone Tuesday evening, a Webpass customer service representative confirmed that the company has stopped accepting new customers in Boston. And in a statement, Access — the Alphabet subsidiary that runs Google Fiber — also confirmed the news.

“As with any acquisition, we’ve spent some time evaluating the Webpass business. As a result of our analysis, we’ve made the decision to wind down Webpass operations in...

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You can use Alexa to send SMS messages now, if you’ve also got an Android phone

Amazon is expanding Alexa’s ability to send messages by allowing it to send SMS text messages to any phone, instead of just messaging other people through the Alexa app, via TechCrunch.

The new feature only works for Alexa users with an Android device that also have the Alexa app installed. To set things up, navigate over to Conversations tab, then “Contacts,” then “My Profile,” then switch the “Send SMS” feature to on. There’s no word as to when or even if similar functionality will be available on iOS devices.

By default, asking Alexa to send “a message” will cause the device to first try to send messages to the Alexa app, assuming your recipient has it installed and configured, and will only send through SMS if that option isn’t...

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US regulators are investigating a major cryptocurrency exchange, raising suspicions of fraud

Last month, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) subpoenaed cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and the company Tether, which has launched a popular coin of the same name, anonymous sources told Bloomberg today.

Tether claims that all of its coins are backed by US dollars held in reserve or other fiat currencies, although it hasn’t provided hard evidence to confirm this. Tether’s current market capitalization is $2.2 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com, driven by the recent surge in cryptocurrency prices.

Both firms have the same CEO, Jan Ludovicus van der Velde, although little else is known about him. Although Tether lists Bitfinex as one of the main exchanges it’s integrated with, Bitfinex omits Tether from the dozens...

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Listen to Asus describe why making a router with a hole in it was a bad idea

When I saw Asus’ Blue Cave router, which was announced last May and is now going on sale, I assumed the unique carved-out shape must enable some innovative new way of amplifying Wi-Fi signals to better blanket a home.

But it turns out, it’s not for that at all. It’s just a hole in a square designed to look cool. And while I’m glad Asus went out on a limb and made a weird looking router, even Asus seems to acknowledge that it was a lot of work for nothing.

Just read this quote from Alsa Lo, networking product manager at Asus, describing the various hurdles engineers had to overcome just to put a purely aesthetic hole in a router:

Most high-performance routers use external antennas to get the best Wi-Fi performance. To achieve Blue Cave’s...

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Google took down over 700,000 bad Android apps in 2017

Instagram is finally adding a scheduling feature, sort of

In a move that will bring unbridled joy to social media managers and influencers everywhere, Instagram is now allowing business profiles to schedule posts, the company announced on its Business blog today. Currently, the feature only works for photos, not videos, and it’s only available through third-party social management tools for now. This means that if you want to get your hands on scheduling features, you have to pay for subscription services like HootSuite, Sprout Social, or any one of the companies working as a Facebook Marketing Partner or Instagram Partner.

Post scheduling has never been available until now, despite third-party companies’ best efforts to advertise such features. The only tools around have been ones that let...

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Corsair’s snack-proof keyboard gets upgraded with rainbow LEDs

Samsung topples Intel to become the world’s largest chipmaker

 Samsung has ended Intel’s 25-year run as the world’s biggest seller of chipsets after it posted its 2017 end of year financials. The Korean tech giant’s chipset division — which has long been its biggest hitter — grossed total revenue of $69 billion in 2017, eclipsing the $62.8 billion Intel reported for last year. That was a record year for Intel — and… Read More


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Spotify is testing a new playlist-based music app that’s a lot like Pandora

 Spotify is testing an app that sees it move firmly into Pandora’s territory. ‘Stations’ is a new Android-only app that is being piloted by the company in Australia — it was first noticed by app analytics firm Sensor Tower on Tuesday. This app offers a ‘lean-back’ option to listen to music based on genres and managed playlists. In the description, Spotify… Read More


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Crunch Report | Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway are building a healthcare company

Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway are building a healthcare company, Facebook is banning cryptocurrency ads and TrackR lays off 42 people. All this on Crunch Report. Read More


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At the State of the Union, Trump touts tax cuts and immigration deal

 With a president as mercurial as Trump, it was anyone’s guess what would happen during his first State of the Union address. The appearance is the president’s most high profile public speaking moment of the year and Trump was expected to touch on some of the issues of the moment, including funding for a border wall, infrastructure and an immigration deal. While less likely if… Read More


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Chat app Line announces plan for cryptocurrency services, loans and insurance

 Line, the messaging app with around 200 million monthly users, is embracing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to fend off increased competition from Facebook and others. The Japanese company today announced the creation of a new financial services division which will spearhead a move into cryptocurrencies and other services including loans and insurance. Line already operates a payment… Read More


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DroneGun Tactical is a portable (but still illegal) drone scrambler

 The only thing growing faster than the global drone population is the population of people thinking “how can I knock these annoying things out of the sky?” DroneShield offers a way to do just that, and now in a much more portable package, with the DroneGun Tactical — that is, if you’re an authorized government agent, which I doubt. Read More


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