Report: Apple blocks Spotify app update after in-app subscription removal

Spotify claims that Apple is trying to boost its own subscription music service.

Enlarge / Spotify says Apple is using its privileged position to hurt Spotify's chances against Apple Music.

Apple Music has been around for about a year now, and despite being a little late to the game, Apple boasts that it has managed to pick up about 15 million paying subscribers. Spotify has at least twice that many users, but the company is worried that Apple is using its privileged position on iPads and iPhones to push Apple Music at the expense of third-party services.

According to a report from Recode, Apple has blocked an update to the iOS Spotify app, citing "business model rules." Spotify no longer offers iOS users the ability to subscribe to its Premium tier from within the app, a move which inconveniences users but more relevantly denies Apple its typical 30 percent cut of the revenue. The report claims this led directly to the new update being blocked, which according to Spotify's lawyers "raises serious concerns under both U.S. and EU competition law" and "[diminishes] the competitiveness of Spotify on iOS and as a rival to Apple Music."

The iOS Spotify app used to offer in-app subscriptions but charged users $12.99 instead of the standard $9.99 to compensate for Apple's cut. Spotify recently offered iOS users a three-month trial of Spotify for $0.99 if they signed up through Spotify's site rather than the app, but pressure from Apple prompted the company to remove that promotion and the in-app subscription option altogether.

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Compulab Fitlet-RM is a tiny, rugged PC for $311 and up

Compulab Fitlet-RM is a tiny, rugged PC for $311 and up

Compulab’s Fitlet line of computers are small and fanless. And the latest model is also ruggedized, for use in conditions where it might be exposed to dust, chock, or vibrations.

The Fitlet-RM computer measures about 4.3″ x 3.2″ x 0.9″and features a low-power AMD A10 Micro-6700T quad-core processor with Radeon R6 graphics and a pretty good range of ports, including up to four Gigabit Ethernet jacks.

Compulab is selling barebones models for $311 and up.

Continue reading Compulab Fitlet-RM is a tiny, rugged PC for $311 and up at Liliputing.

Compulab Fitlet-RM is a tiny, rugged PC for $311 and up

Compulab’s Fitlet line of computers are small and fanless. And the latest model is also ruggedized, for use in conditions where it might be exposed to dust, chock, or vibrations.

The Fitlet-RM computer measures about 4.3″ x 3.2″ x 0.9″and features a low-power AMD A10 Micro-6700T quad-core processor with Radeon R6 graphics and a pretty good range of ports, including up to four Gigabit Ethernet jacks.

Compulab is selling barebones models for $311 and up.

Continue reading Compulab Fitlet-RM is a tiny, rugged PC for $311 and up at Liliputing.

Tesla’s Autopilot being investigated by the government following fatal crash

A tractor-trailer crossed a divided highway and an Autopiloted Model S drove underneath.

The Model S uses several sets of sensors, from optical to ultrasonic to radar, to maintain awareness of the traffic around you. (credit: Tesla Motors)

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is about to take a closer look at Tesla's Autopilot, the company revealed on Thursday. In a blog post, Tesla says that it learned on Wednesday evening that the NHTSA is "opening a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot" following a fatal crash involving a Model S.

The incident, which happened in May, involved a white tractor-trailer that crossed the divider on a highway, perpendicular to the path of the Tesla, which was cruising on Autopilot. "Neither Autopilot nor the driver noticed the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky, so the brake was not applied. The high ride height of the trailer combined with its positioning across the road and the extremely rare circumstances of the impact caused the Model S to pass under the trailer, with the bottom of the trailer impacting the windshield of the Model S," Tesla stated.

The company also stated that in a front-on or rear-end collision with the tractor-trailer, the outcome would not have ended in tragedy. It described the driver as "a friend to Tesla and the broader EV community" and expressed sympathy for his friends and family for their loss.

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Allwinner’s new tablet designs feature Qualcomm chips

Allwinner’s new tablet designs feature Qualcomm chips

Allwinner and Qualcomm both make ARM-based processors that are used in devices like Android tablets. But while the US-based Qualcomm’s chips are very popular in the US and Europe, Allwinner’s chips are popular in China (where they compete with models from Rockchip and MediaTek).

So while you’d think Allwinner and Qualcomm would be competing for market share, the two companies actually announced a partnership last year: Allwinner would help Qualcomm gain traction in China, and the deal would give Allwinner something to offer tablet makers that wanted to use chips with integrated support for 4G LTE.

Continue reading Allwinner’s new tablet designs feature Qualcomm chips at Liliputing.

Allwinner’s new tablet designs feature Qualcomm chips

Allwinner and Qualcomm both make ARM-based processors that are used in devices like Android tablets. But while the US-based Qualcomm’s chips are very popular in the US and Europe, Allwinner’s chips are popular in China (where they compete with models from Rockchip and MediaTek).

So while you’d think Allwinner and Qualcomm would be competing for market share, the two companies actually announced a partnership last year: Allwinner would help Qualcomm gain traction in China, and the deal would give Allwinner something to offer tablet makers that wanted to use chips with integrated support for 4G LTE.

Continue reading Allwinner’s new tablet designs feature Qualcomm chips at Liliputing.

Kabelnetz: Großflächige Störung bei Vodafone

Seit den frühen Abendstunden können zahlreiche Kunden in Vodafones Kabelnetz Internet und Telefon nicht oder nur eingeschränkt nutzen. Von der Störung sollen fast zwei Millionen Kunden betroffen sein, das Fernsehsignal funktioniert aber störungsfrei. (Vodafone, Kabelnetz)

Seit den frühen Abendstunden können zahlreiche Kunden in Vodafones Kabelnetz Internet und Telefon nicht oder nur eingeschränkt nutzen. Von der Störung sollen fast zwei Millionen Kunden betroffen sein, das Fernsehsignal funktioniert aber störungsfrei. (Vodafone, Kabelnetz)

Rare Viking “death house” discovered in Denmark

Grave goods suggest that medieval high-born couple may have traveled the world.

Construction of a new highway in Hårup, southwest Denmark, has unearthed farms and houses from the Middle Ages, including a rare Viking dødehus or "death house" dated to 950 C.E., packed with grave goods that reveal a lot about the three people buried within it. The death house was a common form of Viking tomb, but the Hårup death house has a very unusual design. It appears to have been inspired by early stave churches of Western Europe, with large wooden posts holding up heavy roof beams. Inside, archaeologists found other international influences. A ceramic vase came from the Baltic and two silver coins hail from the region now known as Afghanistan. These discoveries are testimony to how far Vikings traveled and how extensive their trade networks were.

The tomb itself is fairly roomy at 13 x 43 feet and was initially the resting place of a wealthy couple. Later, a third grave was added for another man. Though little remains of the bodies themselves, a few strands of the woman's black hair stood the test of time, as did the two keys she wore around her neck. The larger of these keys would have symbolized that she was the lady of a great house, and the other unlocked an unusual shrine. She was buried in a small wooden wagon, an honor also reserved only for noblewomen. At the woman's feet was the shrine, full of golden thread (probably used in fabric), fur, glass beads, and fine wool. Her husband was also buried in high style, with a massive Dane Axe, popular among high status men and seriously destructive on the battlefield. The third man, possibly the couple's heir, was buried with a slightly smaller Dane Axe.

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People eat healthier when real-life emojis literally point them to produce

In these modern times, fruits and vegetables have to step up their marketing game.

(credit: Masahiro Ihara)

Nearly everyone knows you’re supposed to eat heaping helpings of fruits and vegetables every day. But that doesn’t mean that people actually follow through. In fact, in updated dietary guidelines released in January, the federal government called out nearly everyone for not eating enough produce (as well as eating way too much sugar). But now, researchers have followed up with what may be a simple fix.

In grocery stores, big emojis and arrows on the floor that direct and encourage people to head to the produce section actually got shoppers to buy more produce, researchers report Thursday in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. Moreover, after analyzing grocery bills, the researchers found that shoppers didn’t up their overall shopping budget to accommodate the fresh additions. In other words, grocery store goers weren’t simply piling on crops to their already full carts, but, rather, they were swapping other grocery items for healthy fruits and vegetables.

The findings suggest that adding the minor signage to more stores could be an easy way to get consumers to eat healthier produce. And if so, it “could trigger a public health shift” in a general population that is largely struggling with weight and dietary problems, lead author Collin Payne, of New Mexico State University, said in a statement.

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Video game art swiped this week by Beijing hockey team, Ford dealership

Guild Wars 2, Firewatch are latest victims of “infinite free content” syndrome.

Reddit user and Guild Wars 2 fan galveyra2 breaks down exactly how a Beijing hockey team infringed upon a well-known video game's logo. (credit: galveyra2)

On Wednesday, news hit the wire that a video game's indistinguishable logo and art style had been lifted without permission, all done to advertise a wholly unrelated product. Sadly, the news brought on a real case of deja vu. As in: wait, didn't this just happen?

As it turns out, it had. Two very similar stories unfolded within 48 hours of each other, and they each speak to a pair of modern copyright issues: the ease with which images can be lifted and reappropriated by a lazy design firm, and how easy it is for such copycats to be busted by the court of public opinion.

The more recent case involved a professional hockey team from Beijing, which was announced last week as the newest team to join an upstart, highly budgeted Eurasian league known as the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Once the Kunlun Red Star revealed its logo, eagle-eyed hockey fans noticed that it was very nearly a beat-for-beat copy of the dragon head from MMO sensation Guild Wars 2. Eyes, nose, tongue, and general shape—it's very clearly a match, minus some weak width-stretching efforts by Kunlun's Photoshop intern. (Props to Guild Wars 2 fan galveyra2 for the specific image analysis posted above.)

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Google Play Store adds “Early Access” section for beta apps and games

Google Play Store adds “Early Access” section for beta apps and games

Google is making it a lot easier for Android users to find, install, and manage beta apps. The company has been allowing users to try beta versions of apps for a while, but in the past the process was pretty cumbersome.

Now all you have to do is open the Google Play Store, tap the Early Access button and find apps you want to help beta test.

You can browser for “unreleased apps” or “games in development and install them just as easily as you would any other Android app.

Continue reading Google Play Store adds “Early Access” section for beta apps and games at Liliputing.

Google Play Store adds “Early Access” section for beta apps and games

Google is making it a lot easier for Android users to find, install, and manage beta apps. The company has been allowing users to try beta versions of apps for a while, but in the past the process was pretty cumbersome.

Now all you have to do is open the Google Play Store, tap the Early Access button and find apps you want to help beta test.

You can browser for “unreleased apps” or “games in development and install them just as easily as you would any other Android app.

Continue reading Google Play Store adds “Early Access” section for beta apps and games at Liliputing.

Antarctic ozone hole beginning to heal

First fingerprints of Antarctic ozone healing beginning to show.

(credit: NASA/EO)

When the Montreal Protocol phased out the use of chlorofluorocarbons starting in 1989, scientists expected to see improvements in the Antarctic ozone hole that was opening each spring. They weren't anticipating anything immediate—instead, improvement was expected within 20 to 30 years of the protocol’s implementation. Ozone recovery occurs through distinct stages, including a reduction in the rate of ozone decline and a leveling off of the depletion. Only once these are done should we expect to see an ozone increase, termed “ozone healing.”

Previous studies of the Antarctic ozone have provided evidence that the early phases of ozone recovery have been occurring. A new paper published in Science presents the first signs ozone healing may be occurring as well. The data shows an overall increase in the thickness and abundance of the Antarctic ozone layer in the last 15 years.

The Antarctic ozone hole fluctuates in size over the course of a year. It is largest during the spring, which occurs from September to November in the southern hemisphere. Historically, the majority of each year’s ozone hole growth occurs in late August and early September, building to a peak in October.

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