New Droids are heading to Verizon.
I'm Bridget Carey and this is your CNET Update.
Verizon unveiled a new suite of Droid phones.
The top model is the Droid Maxx, followed by the Droid Ultra, and the Droid Mini and they all arrive August 20th.
These are upgrades to the Droid Razr line of phones, but the name Razr is being dropped.
The Droid Maxx has a max price,
$300 with a new 2-year contract.
It has a tough Gorilla Glass screen and a battery that's supposed to last 2 full days.
The processor is also a serious upgrade compared to the Razr Maxx HD.
As for the Droid Ultra, it's the thinnest Droid ever and will sell for $200 with the contract, and the Mini is smallest in size and price, a 4.3-inch screen for $100 with contract.
All three Droids will have some touchless controls.
You can make a phone call or search for
directions without touching the screen which can be handy for drivers.
The Droids also have wireless charging and a bunch of other little software gimmicks like being able to launch the camera by twisting your wrist.
Expect to see similar software perks in the Moto X which will be unveiled next week.
Hip-Hop pioneer, Russell Simmons is launching a music label for talent discovered on YouTube.
He's working with the Universal Music Group to launch this label called All Def Music and that's in connection with a new network on YouTube
called All Def Digital.
As co-founder of Def Jam records, Simmons discovered artist like LL Cool J, the Beastie Boys, and Run DMC.
Today, YouTube is where many aspiring artist hope to be discovered.
The challenges cutting through the noise to get noticed and pretty much everyone goes to YouTube to find and share music, so it's a natural fit to blend the music label with emerging YouTube stars.
The team of All Def Music will combine their old school music industry experience with new technology that can analyze data on
video traffic.
Microsoft is pushing people to subscribe to Office 365, so if you were thinking about getting the yearly subscription, there is a perk--spend $100 on the annual Office subscription and you get a year of Xbox Live Gold for free which is worth $60.
The promotion only lasts until September 28th.
Facebook is finding new ways to push out advertisements and now is testing ads in your notifications menu.
So, if you're someone who plays Candy Crush or other
mobile games that are linked to Facebook, you could see ads for more games to play right next to the notifications about your photo tags and comments-- yeah, let's hope that this is just a test.
That's your tech news update.
You can find more details at CNET.com/update.
From our studios in New York, I'm Bridget Carey.
