Hasta La Gadget!

Back in November, Rdio rolled out updated iOS and Android apps featuring a refreshed user interface that is cleaner than the previous offering. A couple months later, the music streaming service unveiled free streaming in several countries. Now the company has announced the first of what is suggested to be multiple updates, adding features and improvements users have been asking for.

Rdio doesn’t say how many updates it has planned, nor when we can expect to see the next batch. It does walk us through the four changes that users will see, however, with the announcement stating that some users of the Web and desktop apps could already be seeing the new features. First among them is one tailored towards new listeners, who will now be presented with other Rdio users among their friends

The friends are found based on the new user’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, assuming they’re connected to the user’s account. In line with both this improved social push and the updated iOS and Android apps we mentioned above, users will be presented with a change that Rdio calls a “curated list” of friend recommendations, influencers it feels you should follow, and “hand-picked” music artists.

A personalized station has been added to the streaming service called AutoPlay, which finds and presents music that is based on the previous song you listened to, helping users discover new music and reduce the amount of time spent hunting for music that suits your tastes. There’s also a new Start Station button to launch a new station based on the song currently being listened to.

One particularly hotly requested feature has also been added – thumbs up and thumbs down. It doesn’t matter if the user is listening to the AutoPlay station, a song-based station, or an artist-based station, each can be “taught” about your individual preferences using the news thumbs up and thumbs down feature. All of this is accompanied by a new player, which features what Rdio calls a “visually-evolving listening experience.”

SOURCE: Rdio

Rdio improves music discovery with first round of new features is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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By Omar Sacirbey
Religion News Service

(RNS) Want Muslims to have a better opinion of the United States? Get them on the Internet.

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EL RENO, Okla. — Dramatic television video showed a tornado on the ground west of Oklahoma City, about 30 miles from another Oklahoma community that suffered through a deadly twister last week.

Funnels of various sizes touched the ground Friday evening near El Reno, 25 miles west of downtown Oklahoma City, and at other times funnel clouds remained aloft. Cameras captured debris flying through the air, though radar indicated the storm was going through a mostly rural area south of Interstate 40.

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Melissa Joan Hart has been a TV mainstay for more than 20 years, from “Clarissa Explains It All” to “Sabrina The Teenage Witch” to her current ABC Family hit “Melissa & Joey.”

But when she stopped by “Live! With Kelly & Michael,” the talk show hosts couldn’t help but go way back to where it all started for Hart. The actress actually made her TV debut playing Drew Barrymore’s younger sister in a 1985 made-for-tv female version of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn called “The Adventures of Con Sawyer And Hucklemary Finn” on ABC.

Ripa and Strahan even dug up a clip to show the audience, who got a kick out of the blast from the past. Check it out above!

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Textspresso: Coffee with a text

You will probably never buy Zipwhip’s Textspresso coffee machine in any store — a fact baldly posted on the company’s Web site — but that won’t stop other appliance-makers from using the company’s cloud-based texting platform to one day churn out cup after cup of custom-texted brews.

In fact, Zipwhip encourages such exploration by making the code it used open-source.

With that in mind, Zipwhip hand-delivered its Textspresso machine — really a hacked De’Longhi espresso-maker — to CNET headquarters to demonstrate the future of communicating with your caffeine. Here’s how it works.

Very simply, thirsty users text their menu order — say a single, double, or triple espresso — from a smartphone or desktop texting interface like Google Voice to the Textspresso’s designated phone number. The machine quips back when it starts your order, and then chirps again when it’s finished frothing.

And yes, it’ll let you know when to refill the water or tip in more beans. In a corporate environment, the machine would likely text a facilities coordinator when levels get low.

It’s all thanks to Pi To birth the Textspresso, Zipwhip started with an off-the-shelf espresso machine that costs about $500, then opened up the guts to insert a programmed … [Read more]

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