Music

W3C proceeds with Web video encryption despite opposition

The World Wide Web Consortium has decided to go ahead with a technology that will let companies like Netflix stream encrypted video using Web sites -- against the wishes of the Free Software Foundation, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and 25,600 petition signatories.

The Web standards group announced the move Thursday, to nobody's surprise. Entertainment-industry players had approached the group three years ago to discuss the technology, Microsoft has been helping develop it, and Google already has built the specification, called Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) into Chrome.

The standard doesn't actually handle encryption and digital rights management (DRM) to … Read more

The weirdest, most wonderful Windows 8 ads ever

I don't know where these have come from.

I don't even know if they're official Windows 8 videos. [Note: They are. See update at end of story.]

But I do know that these are works of utter, thorough, and complete genius.

Microsoft's Windows 8 has struggled to project an image that is anything that might be described as entirely relevant.

It doesn't mean Windows 8 has failed. But it does mean that it has inspired about as much excitement as the Kansas City Chiefs of late, the Kansas City Royals (until this season), or the authorities at the Heights High School … Read more

PSB Image T6: A high-end tower speaker at an affordable price

PSB Speakers is one of my all-time favorite brands. Its little Alpha B1 monitor ($299 a pair) is excellent, and a couple of years ago I was blown away by the Imagine Mini ($759 a pair), an even smaller but bona fide high-end speaker.

Small speakers are great, but the lucky folks with huge living rooms who like to occasionally play movies and music nice and loud need big speakers. And since it's been a while since I spent quality time with a PSB tower I requested a pair of Image T6s ($1,298 a pair).

The 40.… Read more

Ford cars now sync with Amazon Cloud Player on iOS

Amazon's Cloud Player for iOS is now available in Ford Sync AppLink-equipped cars, a few months after the Android version hit the market, the Internet giant said Wednesday.

Ford owners can wirelessly connect the Amazon MP3 app on their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to the Sync connectivity system to access their entire music library using voice commands or dashboard controls.

Android users have been able to use the app in Ford cars since February.

Carmakers have pushed infotainment as one way to attract new buyers, and it allows app makers to reach consumers in more locations. Ford earlier … Read more

Downloadify lets Chrome users copy MP3s of Spotify songs

A developer published a Chrome extension called Downloadify designed to let people download MP3 copies of the songs they stream over Spotify's Web-based player, but it quickly disappeared from the Chrome Web Store.

"Simple Chrome Extension to Download all Spotify Songs," reads the Downloadify description on GitHub. "Spotify made a great html5 player for their service...But they forgot their encription [sic]...Hey, I don't like encription but love spotify, just pay them for their magnificent content and I am sure they fix it soon."

The extension presents a dialog box that lets a … Read more

BitTorrent to monetize its file-distribution platform

Torrents are indisputably one of the fastest ways to distribute files, but they've been extremely hard to monetize -- until now.

BitTorrent has built a preliminary format called the BitTorrent Bundle, which will let content owners charge for some files within a torrent. The company has partnered with the music label Ultra to test out the Bundle Alpha by sharing a mix of behind-the-scenes music, videos, and a "digital tour booklet" from Kaskade, a star in the realm of electronic dance music. It's all part of the artist's 2012 "Freaks of Nature" tour … Read more

In latest S4 ads, the olds give up iPhones and find their cool

"Did you hear that? I'm cool."

These are the words by which all parents will be greeted, the minute they exchange their iPhones for a Samsung Galaxy S4.

This is the conceit, at least, of one of the latest ads for Samsung's new Phone, which will launch from Monday.

Parents live for grains of approval from their upstart, self-righteously technological children.

Last Thursday, Samsung offered some chilling brutality in a graduation pool party ad that suggested all iPhone-owning parents were gormless social Neanderthals.

With these new ads, it wants them to know all hope of cool … Read more

New Galaxy S4 ad trashes Apple: iPhone is so old

You thought it might be all over?

You thought that Samsung had tired of suggesting Apple was a fading brand for geriatrics?

You may also have thought that the world runs on Cabernet and common sense.

Yes, the Galaxy S4 was launched on a rocket of the beige and the tasteless. But those were just the corporate folks doing their thing.

Now, the American arm of Samsung has returned to its own style. This involves squishing Apple till it's cider.

Here we are at a high school graduation pool party presented by the latest Samsung ad.

The cooler people … Read more

Songza 3.0 for iOS: The single best music-streaming app?

Not to gush, but I've loved Songza from the moment I installed it on my iPhone -- way back in June, 2012.

In fact, it has displaced both Pandora and Slacker as my music-streaming app of choice. That's because Songza builds playlists based on whatever activity I'm currently engaged in (working, making dinner, fighting commuter traffic) or mood I'm in (gloomy, happy, romantic), and does so without interruptions or money. You read that right: the app is free, and the music plays commercial-free.

With version 3.0 for iOS, Songza just got even better. (It's also available for Android, but hasn't been similarly updated yet.) It's sporting a vastly improved UI, handy new search and navigation features, and the promise of better audio quality.… Read more