Hasta La Gadget!

Remember that Google Play gift card support we told you about just this morning? Well now things got real. Literally. The pic above shows one of the shrink-wrapped critters in a $25 denomination. Android Central claims they were sent a few different pictures, showing $10 varieties also — and as we can see from the box — they’re good for music, movies, books, apps and (mysteriously) “more.” So if you’re after that hot new game, now’s about the time to start dropping hints to your nearest and dearest.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Tablet PCs

Google Play gift cards show up for real, come in $10 and $25 flavors originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week, we took a look at iOS apps that keep you aware of your surroundings as you listen to music through headphones, and found a fairly healthy selection to choose from on Apple’s mobile platform. These apps either allow you to hear surrounding noises while listening to music through your phone’s or headphone’s microphone, or paused the music when a sudden noise was detected. More »

A new report from Nielsen on music consumption habits is packed with loads of surprises about the young consumers of the world. In the last year, only 50-percent of teenagers actually bothered to buy a CD. Who knew? But the more significant news is that 64-percent of teens listen to music on YouTube. More »

Pretty much from day one, the mobile Spotify Radio feature outclassed its desktop counterpart, thanks to the presence of one feature — thumbs up and thumbs down buttons. The ability to more finely tailor the music selection to your tastes is a pretty essential feature for any automatically generated playlist. Finally, Spotify is bringing the buttons to the Mac and Windows clients in an update rolling out today. Your likes and dislikes are synced across platforms and, best of all, the update finally lets you view radio stations you’ve created through the mobile app on your desktop.

Filed under: Software

Spotify Radio gets thumbs up, thumbs down on desktop originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Aug 2012 09:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week it’s been announced that the musical artist known as Beck will be releasing an album comprised of 20 pieces of sheet music called “Beck Hansen’s Song Reader”. This is 20 pieces of music that are not recorded by the artist, instead intended by the artist to be played and recorded by whoever so wishes to do so. Licensing issues and future recordings by associated artists aside, we applaud Beck’s ability to have so much cash on hand that he experiments with each new release.

Beck previously released an album by the name of “The Information” which was also accompanied by a strange method of release. The Information was released, in some cases, with a DVD which included a music video for every single track on the album. The album was also released with a blank sleeve and booklet with one of four different sets of sticks so that no two album covers were the same: “The artwork is going to be customizable. The idea is to provide something that calls for interactivity.”

That quote comes from a Wired Magazine interview in which Beck also notes:

“Artists can and should approach making an album as an opportunity to do a series of releases – one that’s visual, one that has alternate versions, and one that’s something the listener can participate in or arrange and change. It’s time for the album to embrace the technology.” – Beck

Now that Beck has embraced the technology, it appears that his newest release is taking a whole new direction. Just paper in a “lavishly produced hardcover carrying case” with “full-color, heyday-of-home-play-inspired art” created for each track by several artists. What it actually is though, if we might be so bold, is an opportunity to expand in ways a recorded album can’t. If there’s no original, noone can say, “the original was better.”

Will have to wait and see what the Beck lovers of the world do with the treasure trove they’ve just been given – see it soon in stores, of course! December 2012, that is.

[via Beck]

Beck “Song Reader” album cuts out the music is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
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