streaming

Thumb war on texting while driving

I would like to give two thumbs up to the thumb sock. Although I wonder if it is too hot to wear thumb gloves now that summer is upon us?

Sure this is gimmicky. And silly. And certainly it wouldn't hinder texting on a phone with physical keyboard phone. But it may serve as a reminder that texting on the road is lethal. And stupid. Don't do it.

Other stories from Monday afternoon's episode of Loaded:

Best Buy launches its Netflix competitor to stream movies and videos

Apple updates the MacBook

Hotmail gets a little hotter with… Read more

Spotify adds two new levels of service

On-demand music service Spotify, which is currently available only in Europe, has been broadly praised by users (including me) for its large selection of music and exceptional responsiveness. Today, Spotify added two new levels of service: Open and Unlimited. The Open tier is more notable because, once again, it opens the service to users without an invitation.

The new levels are the latest step in Spotify's ongoing experiment to broaden its audience without compromising performance. When it launched in 2008, Spotify was free and offered unlimited streams to a PC, but an invitation was required. In February 2009, it … Read more

A few tips for Showtime

Even though Showtime is owned by CNET parent company CBS, I know little about the network and have no influence over it. Which is unfortunate because I have something to say about news that Showtime may launch its own online streaming site. 

If my CBS colleagues at Showtime are reading this, here is a tip: Don't limit a streaming site to current subscribers only. You are locking yourself out of people like myself who would gladly pay a la carte for shows like Dexter, which I shouldn't watch because it gives me nightmares but I do anyway. … Read more

Record any audio output

WireTap Studio is an excellent, relatively inexpensive audio-capture tool that can help you record, edit, and export any audio on your Mac, whether from your overall system audio, a specific app (like Skype or iTunes), or even an external microphone.

For simple tasks, like recording an iChat conversation, you can access many of WireTap Studio's features directly from its streamlined Controller window--including a very cool Live Preview, which lets you hear what your audio will sound like before you start recording (even as you switch formats, compression rates, and more, on the fly). The rest of WireTap Studio's … Read more

Free Bing app streams thousands of top-100 tunes

Microsoft isn't known for giving away software, but right now you can download the Top 100s by Year by Bing app free of charge. (Catchy name, huh?)

The app streams the top 100 songs of every year from 1947 to 2009. That's 62 years, for a grand total of 6,200 songs.

Whose top 100? Not Billboard's, as you might expect. Nor is the list based on sales. Instead, according to developer Nutsie, these are "lists of songs that have stood the test of time based on their initial and lasting popularity, and on their impact … Read more

Why does the record industry hate music lockers?

Once again, it looks as if the recording industry is standing square in the way of giving users what they want: access to their digital-music collections from any device in any location.

Earlier on Friday, a notice appeared on Lala, announcing that the service would be shut down on May 31. Apple acquired Lala in late 2009, and a lot of folks have speculated that Apple would launch its own version of Lala's online-music locker service, which enables users to upload their music collections to Lala's servers, then stream those songs to any Internet-connected device.

(Technically, users don'… Read more

Apple says bye-bye to Lala

Apple will shut down Lala six months after acquiring the struggling streaming-music service.

A note that replaces Lala's home page says the service will no longer accept new customers and informs members that the site will be functional only through May 31.

Lala is a streaming-music site that sells songs for 10 cents apiece and enables people to store their music libraries on the company's servers. Lala has gone through multiple iterations; it was once a CD-swapping service before reinventing itself as a streaming site.

Apple's decision to close Lala isn't much of a surprise as … Read more

B&N delivers meaty Nook update, teases iPad app

When Barnes & Noble launched the Nook e-book reader late last year, the company said it would offer unique features such as e-book lending, free in-store streaming of many titles, and Android apps that would run on the color touch screen at the bottom of the device. Well, after releasing two smaller firmware updates that mainly focused on fixing bugs, improving performance, and tweaking the user interface, Barnes & Noble has finally rolled out a more substantial update that includes the extra features it originally promised would set the Nook apart from Amazon's Kindle.

While the lending feature has been available for several months, one of the key additions is the Read in Store wireless streaming feature. Once the new firmware is installed (version 1.3 should be automatically pushed to your device once you connect to a Wi-Fi network and check for new content in your library), you'll be able to read certain books from the company's e-book catalog free of charge on your Nook when you're in a Barnes & Noble store (free Wi-Fi is offered in stores). As previously reported, you can only access a title for up to an hour per day, but you could return on subsequent days to continue reading. Alternatively, you could also just sit in a store and read a hard copy of the book at your leisure, but that's so old-school.

Barnes & Noble didn't specify just how many books would be available for free streaming, but company reps said that at launch content would be available from all the major publishers and that some bestsellers would be on the list. (We'll be checking just how much content is actually available in the next few days).

Additionally, Barnes & Noble has added two Android games to the Nook--chess and sudoku--along with a Web browser that's labeled with the "beta" tag.

It's also important to note that because the device can now access the Web, you can log in to Wi-Fi networks that require authentication via a Web page. Nook owners have been asking for the ability to access more public Wi-Fi hot spots since the e-reader's launch. The firmware is also supposed to fix some outstanding bugs, including a freezing problem that affected certain units, and to speed up page turns (yes, they do seem faster).

Here's the quick rundown of what's new in v1.3:

Read in Store wireless streaming of certain e-book titles Web browser Two Android games (chess, sudoku) Bug fixes (allegedly addresses freezing problem with certain units) User interface and performance tweaks (faster page turns)

In advance of the update, we got a demo of the Read in Store feature at a Barnes & Noble in Manhattan, and the streaming appeared to work just fine. While only e-books will be available for launch, company reps said the ability to stream periodicals would be added in the near future.

The demo was conducted in an in-store Barnes & Noble Cafe, and a couple of tables away from us, a patron was flipping through a few magazines he'd borrowed from the nearby magazine rack as he sipped coffee. At another table, a customer was using B&N's free Wi-Fi to surf the Web on his iPad, which begged the question, when would we see a new B&N eReader iPad app? … Read more

Netflix: More than half of subscribers tap streaming video

Netflix's transition from a DVD distributor to a streaming content provider hit a notable milestone in the first quarter--55 percent of its nearly 14 million subscribers are now watching movies and TV via the Internet.

To put that streaming media figure into perspective, Netflix said that in the fourth quarter 48 percent of its subscribers watched more than 15 minutes of content. A year ago, 36 percent of subscribers watched streaming movies or TV episodes.

The company delivered the typically strong quarter as it finished the three months ended March 31 with 13,967,000 total subscribers, up 35 … Read more