Hasta La Gadget!

The fine people of Canada may still not have access to Spotify, but Greece, Turkey, Taiwan and Argentina are all getting the ad-supported music-on-demand service starting today. Yes, that’s at least one new country for three separate continents — Spotify’s really spreading the love around with today’s expansion, apparently. According to the company, that puts Spotify in 32 total “markets” worldwide, comprising 24 million “active users” — not too shabby for seven years of existence!

The company’s last big expansion was in April, when it arrived in Mexico, Malaysia and several other territories. Here’s hoping it finally arrives in Canada some time this year as well — our Canadian staffers are getting awfully antsy.

Filed under: Internet, Software

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Source: Spotify

Ben Heck’s Steam box will soon be a legitimate Steam Box. The avid PC gamer can build his Steam Box, the console gamer will be able to buy a Steam Box, everyone can have a Steam Box! That’s all in the near future – hopefully not in Valve Time – with the announcement of SteamOS, a free Linux-based operating system “designed for the TV and the living room.”

According to the teaser page, Valve has progressed far enough with SteamOS Valve to have “achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing”, and now they’re working on “audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level.” Valve also claims that developers are already working with the standalone operating system, with “hundreds of great games” already running natively on SteamOS. In the event that your favorite game doesn’t have a SteamOS version, Valve says you’ll be able to stream a game from a PC or Mac running the Steam client to the machine running SteamOS.

Valve also said that they’re working with media providers to tie in to Steam and SteamOS. Add in Big Picture mode, cloud syncing and the propensity of Steam to drop prices like it’s hot and you could have an all-conquering entertainment machine.

Can Valve finally bring about the rise of the PC-console hybrid? A machine with the idiotproof user interface of a console, but with the futureproof software and hardware options of the PC? Is Valve saving Half-Life 3 for the SteamOS? The bastards?

[Steam via Joystiq]

App catalogs are flush with titles that allow users to play doctor, but according to the FDA, most of them are harmless and don’t warrant regulatory oversight. Instead, the agency has announced that it’ll take a more reactive, risk-based approach and will only require approval for mobile apps that “present a greater risk to patients if they do not work as intended.” Specifically, the FDA will scrutinize apps that perform the functions of regulated medical devices — such as an ECG monitor — along with those that are used as accessories to regulated medical equipment. As a telling statistic, only 100 mobile apps have received FDA clearance within the past decade, so imagine what would happen to the agency’s workload if it tried to exercise control over the Apple App Store and Google Play Store combined.

Filed under: Science, Software

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Via: The New York Times

Source: FDA

This article was written on April 09, 2007 by CyberNet.

Last week we mentioned the latest lawsuit against Microsoft, this time over their “Windows Vista Capable” marketing. In a nutshell the lawsuit claims that Microsoft was being deceptive by allowing PC makers to promote hardware as Vista Capable.

Fast forward to today and now Microsoft is changing their wording on how Vista is marketed. Prior, the program stated that the Windows Vista Capable Stickers pointed out XP-based computers that are “powerful enough to run Windows Vista.”

Now their explanation says that these XP-based Computers with the Vista Capable logo will “deliver core experiences such as innovations in organizing and finding information, security and reliability.  All Windows Vista Capable PCs will run these core experiences at a minimum.” In other words, none of the fancy eye candy that Microsoft tends to use to market Vista the most.

The addition of “at a minimum” now clearly points out that you will not get a complete Vista “premium” experience. Microsoft hasn’t stated that this change was a direct result of the latest lawsuit, but you can bet that it was.

I personally don’t think the lawsuit will stand a chance because Microsoft made an major effort to educate retailers in particular, but consumers as well, as to what expect with the different versions of Windows Vista. Although, if there weren’t so many version, I guess there wouldn’t be all of these issues? The bottom line though is that consumers need to educate themselves and ask questions before they make a major purchase, especially because the information was available to them.

Source: DailyTech

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Google’s Android Device Manager has only been locating phones for over a month, but that’s not stopping Mountain View from adding new features. Android Police spotted that the online dashboard now allows users to remotely lock their smartphones with a new PIN code, overriding previous screen unlock measures. Hardware in airplane mode, however, will be locked once it connects to Page and Co.’s servers. Those who wish to protect themselves from ne’er do wells need only enable the security measure through a handset’s Google Settings app. Click the source link below to foil unsavory types or to test out the fresh functionality.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Software, Mobile, Google

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Via: Android Police, 9to5Google

Source: Android Device Manager