Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon’s Cloud Player service just scored some major upgrades, including quality and import enhancements. Perhaps most notable is a new 256 Kbps option for matched files, including songs you imported before today. That bitrate, in MP3 format, is available for new tracks and albums added to the cloud — a process that’s been streamlined as well, with Cloud Player scanning your library and automatically offering up matched tracks, rather than requiring manual imports. In addition, music you buy in the Amazon MP3 Store will show up in your Player automatically, including past purchases (in cases where the site has the necessary rights). There’s also an option to edit metadata directly, such as artist and album info, along with album art, or you can use the label information already in Amazon’s catalog. Cloud Drive will also be less integrated with Player — previous uploads will be moved to an “Archived Music” folder and won’t count against storage caps, but will still be accessible and downloadable, while new imports will be stored in Player directly. You can upload up to 250 songs to Cloud Player for free, or pay a $25 annual fee to bump that cap to 250,000. Full details are at the source link below.

Update: Amazon also mentioned that it has secured new licensing agreements with Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group, adding that Cloud Player will be available on Roku and Sonos devices soon as well.

Continue reading Amazon updates Cloud Player with 256 Kbps matched files, faster import, direct delivery (update: Roku, Sonos coming soon)

Filed under: Storage, Internet

Amazon updates Cloud Player with 256 Kbps matched files, faster import, direct delivery (update: Roku, Sonos coming soon) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 13:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung and SugarSync are already cozy with each other, having struck a deal to put SugarSync’s cloud file sharing on Samsung’s AllShare Play-equipped TVs. That relationship just got a lot closer: SugarSync will now be a mainstay for Samsung’s rather successful mobile devices. Starting with the Galaxy S III, any Samsung phone or tablet that supports AllShare Play will have SugarSync built-in, whether it’s for looking at files and media from back home or just to upload the phone’s own photos and videos for sharing later on. The service still offers a free 5GB of storage as a baseline and will scale up to 500GB if you’re willing to fork over up to $40 a month. Between this and a Dropbox deal for most carriers, Samsung has the cloud largely sewn up on its handhelds — if you can’t access it, it probably doesn’t exist.

Continue reading SugarSync to ship with many Samsung mobile devices, make Galaxy S III a home away from home

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablet PCs, Internet

SugarSync to ship with many Samsung mobile devices, make Galaxy S III a home away from home originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple data centers are popping up like spring flowers: following its North Carolina, Oregon and California plans, it’s now pitching a fourth data center in Sparks, Nevada, just outside of Reno. The enigmatically named Project Jonathan hub is expected to light up before the end of the year if it’s given the green light. Not surprisingly, Apple is promising jobs for the area, although the company is choosing the location for a reason: it’s hoping for tax breaks on top of the advantages that previously led it to funnel some of its money through Nevada. We’ll have a better idea as to the fate of the data center when Apple argues for the project on June 27th, but it’s reasonable to think Apple is eager to make the Sparks location a reality. The more capacity and reliability it can build into iCloud and iTunes, the better.

[Image credit: Amy Meredith, Flickr]

Apple pitches data center near Reno, gambles iCloud will pay off among other puns originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jun 2012 17:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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