spotify

No spam in Tuesday's top tech stories:

It's not often we get a shakeup in the email world, but say hello to Microsoft's new free email account, Outlook.com. It'll eventually be replacing Hotmail, but you might want to grab your name now. There's a new, clean look and it ties in your social media contacts. It's not too far off from what you may be used to already in Gmail, as you'll be able to tell from CNET's full overview of the features.

The Mars Science Laboratory rover, called Curiosity, will … Read more

Spotify is bringing Android users into its Pandora-like free streaming service.

The company announced this morning that Android-based Spotify users can now create stations through its application and listen to "millions of songs" from the program. After creating stations and listening to tracks, users can customize what plays by giving a track a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down. In addition, users can save songs they like.

If this sounds familiar, it's because Pandora offers about the same functionality through its own service. And like Pandora, Spotify will play ads to nonpaying subscribers. Those who are Spotify Premium users … Read more

In Slacker Radio, curated stations that are organized by musical genre meet algorithmically generated playlists based on artists you pick (a la Pandora). As with Slacker Radio on other mobile platforms, the Android app lets you stream music from preprogrammed genres and stations, or from stations you set up yourself. As you listen, you can view album art and bios, block a song or vote it a favorite, and skip ahead (limited for free users). If you like what you hear, you can share a link to that station on SlackerRadio.com via e-mail, text message, or Twitter.

Over the … Read more

Here's the dream. You want to walk into your home, cue up some music on your phone, and have it start playing on a nearby speaker. No cables, no docks -- just instant, effortless, wireless music.

For iPhone owners, there's a very clear, prescribed solution: AirPlay. But my phone is Android. It's supposed to have more "does" but what exactly am I supposed to do?

Well, there are a bunch of options out there for Android users looking for an Airplay alternative, and in this How To, I'm going to walk you through my … Read more

Yahoo users will soon be able to stream music from Spotify without leaving the Yahoo site.

Yahoo and Spotify announced a global content distribution and promotion agreement today that will integrate the on-demand music service into Yahoo's media network.

This means Spotify will reach the network's hundreds of millions of unique visitors and that Yahoo gets some cool points with Spotify's 10 million or so active users. Both companies hope the partnership means more user engagement.

Spotify will initially roll out to Yahoo Music before being integrated globally across Yahoo. Yahoo entertainment sites will feature Spotify's … Read more

Tumblr (free), the popular blogging platform, just released a revamped version of its app for iOS. In the major update to Tumblr 3.0, the layout has been completely redesigned (bringing it more in line with the Android version, covered in April by Jaymar Cabebe), giving you many of the tools found on the Web site and intuitive swipe controls for posting.

Several tweaks to the interface make the app both easy on the eyes and easier to use. The revamped Dashboard supports high-res images; you can now post and listen to audio links that stream directly from Spotify; and … Read more

June is the perfect time for backyard barbecues, lemonade and tablet warfare:

Microsoft is taking tablets into its own hands with the Surface. And next week, so will Google. It's expected that Google will show off the Nexus tablet at its developers conference that begins next week. And some reports have Google's tablet launching in July -- which will likely be before the Surface hits stores.

The Surface boasts solid hardware, a kickstand and a cover that also serves as a keyboard. But how much will it cost? All we know is that the light version, using Windows … Read more

Spotify, at one time exclusively an on-demand music service, has updated its iOS app, and users in the United States will get free mobile radio features similar to those that helped make Pandora famous.

The company says iPad or iPhone users can create limitless streaming radio stations, or save tracks they hear on their radio feature to their Spotify playlists just by hitting "like." They can create unlimited numbers of stations by flagging the tracks they hear.

In May, Spotify rolled out a desktop version of the service.

The question worth asking is, if Spotify is mimicking Pandora, … Read more

Spotify has unveiled its latest Android app, which now includes a faster, streamlined interface and higher sound quality than before.

The app has full support for Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and features a new tile-based, "slide-out" navigation with support for high-resolution art.

As far as playback features are concerned, the app includes crossfade and gapless playback, support for "Extreme" 320kbps files, and Last.fm scrobbling.

The app promises a deeper experience than before with enhanced support for friends playlists and profile pages, a "related artists" view, a playback queue, and folder support for better organization of playlists.… Read more