Spotify marks its first anniversary in the US with 13 billion listens, a whole lot of sharing goin’ on

Spotify marks its first anniversary in the US with 13 billion listens, a whole lot of sharing goin' onThey grow up so fast, don’t they? Spotify’s US launch was just over a year ago, and the streaming music outlet wants us to know just how big its baby is getting. Americans listened to more than 13 billion tracks on the service in the first 365 days, and they shared more than twice as many — 27,834,742, to be exact. Not surprisingly, just over half of that socializing went through Facebook, as you can see in the company’s sugar-coated chart. Spotify is likewise flaunting 2,700 years’ worth of time spent skulking around its app platform. Don’t feel any pangs of regret if you forgot to buy something for Spotify’s birthday, by the way: the company isn’t holding any grudges and says you’ll “love” what it has gift-wrapped for year two. We’re hoping that involves more free radio stations and fewer holdout musicians.

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Spotify marks its first anniversary in the US with 13 billion listens, a whole lot of sharing goin’ on originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 18:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alt-week 7.21.12: Outer space, flying hotels and federal trolls

Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days.

Alt Week

Whether you’ve got your head in the clouds, or your feet firmly locked on terra firma (or is that terrorist firma?) the last seven days in Alt have something for you. We look at a massive aircraft, that could revolutionize air travel as we know it, as well as look back at a real-world project that heralded a significant shift even further up in the sky. There’s the NASA logo that never came to be, and lastly, for those less fond of heights, we hear how a US government department is heading in the other direction — albeit culturally — all in the fight against terror. This is alt-week.

Continue reading Alt-week 7.21.12: Outer space, flying hotels and federal trolls

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Alt-week 7.21.12: Outer space, flying hotels and federal trolls originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 14:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces add-on memory leaks

Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces addon memory leaksCan’t bear to part with your favorite browser extensions, but can’t stand to see them devour your system memory? Maybe you should check out Firefox 15. According to Mozilla’s Hacks blog, the browser’s latest beta should patch up the majority of memory leaks gushing from Firefox add-ons. Also new, is the beta’s support for Opus, a free audio format partially supported by Mozilla. The firm hopes competing browsers will pick up the format as well, calling it “as good or better than basically all existing lossy codecs.” The blog makes quite a case for the format, citing tests and bitrate information, going as far as giving instructions on embedding Opus players in web pages. Check out the codec of tomorrow for yourself at the source links below.

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Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces add-on memory leaks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 08:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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US broadband slower, more expensive than rest of world

If you have broadband Internet access in the US – which you probably do – then you are paying more for less. That is, if you compare the service to other regions around the world. According to a new study from the New America Foundation, cities in Japan, South Korea, France, and more all have broadband speeds that are faster than Americans are used to, and the cost to individual consumers is less.

To be fair, the study looked at the complete cost of “triple play” bundles in the US – not the promotional deals you get for the first 12 months when you sign up. It found that prices range from $65.60 for AT&T’s triple play in Louisiana, to $154.98 for Verizon’s service in New York City. Meanwhile, Seoul and Paris all had comparable packages for less than $40 per month.

And in most other major European cities – London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen – it was less than $50 per month. And in Hong Kong, you can get service for just $37.34, where download speeds are 500 Mbps. By comparison, San Francisco was almost the fastest city in the US at just 200 Mbps. The New America Foundation admits that some of this comparison is like comparing apples to oranges because it’s hard to really get a pulse for the experience you’re paying for with broadband connections, but those huge discrepancies show that there is at least some sort of higher price/performance ratio that US consumers are paying for broadband.

[via Ars Technica]


US broadband slower, more expensive than rest of world is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Digg to get a complete redesign, relaunch in August

Well, that was fast. Not two weeks after Digg was bought out by Betaworks (parent company to Bit.ly, among other startups), we’re learning the crowd-sourced news aggregator is poised to relaunch as soon as August 1. In a blog post, the 10-person engineering team promises an overhaul of the site, once a litmus test for what was popular on the internet. Most interesting, perhaps, is the revelation that while Digg will not be a rebadged version of News.me, the aggregation app already owned by Betaworks, the two services will eventually be folded into one product. And while the team isn’t revealing how, exactly, the new Digg will differ from the old, they did promise it would eventually receive personalization features similar to what News.me already offers. Other than that, Betaworks didn’t share any specifics, but luckily, you’ll only have to wait two weeks to find out what’s in store.

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Digg to get a complete redesign, relaunch in August originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google acquires Sparrow, the Apple-focused email app maker

Google aquires Sparrow, the Applefocused email app maker

Well, we can’t exactly say we saw this one coming. Sparrow, maker of popular email apps for iOS and Mac OS X, has just announced that it’s been acquired by Google. Expectedly, details on the acquisition are being kept under wraps at the moment, but company CEO Dom Leca has confirmed in a blog post that Sparrow will be joining the Gmail team at Google to “accomplish a bigger vision.” Fans of the company’s apps will be glad to know, however, that the team will “continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users” while also working on new things at Google. That does sound like most of their attention will be focused elsewhere, though. You can find Leca’s full statement on the matter at the source link below.

Update: The Verge was able to get some notion of a cost for this deal, with “under $25 million” being a figure assigned to this, a figure that wasn’t inflated due to a bidding war. (That should answer those wondering if maybe Google bought this out from under Apple.)

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Google acquires Sparrow, the Apple-focused email app maker originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“Please don’t stop” Yahoo CEO pleads with staff

Freshly installed Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has urged staff to “keep moving” as the company attempts to find its footing, with a leaked internal memo pleading with employees “please don’t stop.” In the memo, illicitly acquired by AllThingsD, the ex-Google exec says she is “sensitive” to the amount of strategy changes Yahoo employees have had to cope with over the past few months, but insists the firm is “an internet icon” which she has been a fan of since since she was a Stanford student back in 1994.

“Yahoo! is an Internet icon – in terms of brand, reach, user following, in its products and service. There is an enormous amount of opportunity in front of us … The company has been through a lot of change in the past few months, leaving many open questions around strategy and how to move forward. I am sensitive to this. While I have some ideas, I need to develop a more informed perspective before making strategy or direction changes. In the meantime, please do not stop. You are doing important work. Please don’t stop. If you have questions or concerns about whether to continue or not, please ask. However, with the exception of a few things that might heavily constrain us in the future, the answer is most likely: “Yes, keep moving.”” Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo

Countering employee apathy is likely to be a significant challenge for Mayer in the months to come. The company has struggled to find its place in the online ecosystem, having made little use of expensive acquisitions such as Flickr, and axing products like the Livestand digital newsstand which had seen high-profile launches only a matter of months before.

Meanwhile, embarrassing hacks which saw hundreds of thousands of user accounts compromised only served to remind many of those registered with Yahoo that they might want to delete their little-used logins. Mayer’s goal, she says, is to find products and services that “inspire and delight” both the users of Yahoo and potential advertisers.

“Joining was an easy decision, because of the strength of Yahoo!’s talent and the whole team here is apparent” Mayer writes. “We will continue to invest in talent, so we can produce the most compelling and exciting use experiences anywhere.”


“Please don’t stop” Yahoo CEO pleads with staff is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Mayer facing $100m for rescuing Yahoo

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer doesn’t just have the challenge of turning around the beleaguered company to look forward to, but a pay package worth as much as $100m over the next half-decade. Details of the ex-Googler’s new renumeration package were revealed courtesy of an SEC filing, with a base salary of $1m each year and the potential to increase that fivefold if Mayer hits her targets. However, salary and bonuses aren’t the only way the new CEO’s nest will be feathered.

In fact, thanks to the combination of stock, restricted stock units, retention equity and more, Mayer could be earning as much as $20m a year. That’s assuming she sticks it out at the troubled firm: the restricted stock units are set up as periodic rewards, landing in Mayer’s portfolio in stages between now and 2014.

If Mayer can turn around Yahoo’s balance sheet, however, the board and shareholders are likely to consider her well worth the money. The company has struggled to take advantage of its current services, such as Flickr, and to compete with Google and Bing on search.

Yahoo’s share price has climbed in the aftermath of the announcement of Mayer’s role, albeit only slightly, with the shadow of a subpar Q2 2012 hanging over the new CEO. The company confirmed that profit had dipped 4.2-percent year-on-year, to $227m.


Mayer facing $100m for rescuing Yahoo is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.


Rumor: Comcast Readying 305 Mbps Home Internet [Rumors]

If you want blisteringly fast home internet, the best option is currently Verizon’s FiOS Quantum which gives you a connection capable of speeds of up to 300 Mbps. Not wanting to be outdone, though, Comcast is reported to be preparing its own super-fast home internet which can manage 305 Mbps. More »

Comcast reportedly prepping 305Mbps internet service, aims to put FiOS in its place

Comcast reportedly prepping 305Mbps internet service, aims to put FiOS in its place

Sure, at 300Mbps Verizon’s FiOS Quantum is lightning fast — but reports say that Comcast is prepping a new tier that’s just a little faster. According to Broadband Reports sources, Comcast’s Neil Smit told employees that the company would be introducing a 305Mbps downstream tier in Verizon FiOS territories “soon,” but neglected to mention a strict timetable. Details regarding pricing and data caps are similarly scarce, of course. Comcast has yet to comment on the rumor, but we’ll let you know if we hear anything official.

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Comcast reportedly prepping 305Mbps internet service, aims to put FiOS in its place originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 05:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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