When Apple Music showed up, one of the biggest questions was whether or not it would get at least the same level of third-party hardware support as Beats. Will you have to chuck your Sonos speakers in favor of some Apple-blessed streaming audio gear?…
Technical
Formula E’s first season of electric racing comes to a close
After several months of occasionally intense competition, Formula E’s first season of all-electric racing is over. Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird has won the second race of the London ePrix, while NEXTEV TCR’s Nelson Piquet managed to do just well enough (…
Asteroid-bound spacecraft gets its first scientific instrument
NASA has begun attaching scientific instruments to the OSIRIS-REx probe, just over a year before it starts making its way to asteroid Bennu. The first instrument to arrive at Lockheed Martin’s HQ is Arizona State University’s microwave-sized device c…
For post-Snowden cloud startups, privacy proves a hard sell
In the two years since Edward Snowden’s revelations about pervasive government monitoring of the Internet first made the news, developers have worked to build hardware and software to help Web users reap many of the benefits of cloud-based services w…
Meerkat’s embeddable player puts your streams all over the web
Want people to see your Meerkat streams in more places? Well, you’re in luck. The company announced an embeddable player today, a feature allows you to place your channel on the web so that folks don’t have to venture too far to find your video. If y…
SiriusXM will pay $210 million to use songs recorded before 1972
Before now, satellite radio company SiriusXM wasn’t paying royalties on the catalog recorded before 1972 that it beamed to customers. Today, the company agreed to pay $210 million for those songs, compensating both independent and major record labels…
Google’s unique self-driving cars hit the streets of San Francisco
Google has been testing self-driving cars on the roads of San Francisco for a while, but now the company’s own models are hitting the streets. Last month, Mountain View revealed that its rather unique vehicles that were built specifically to drive th…
UK spy agency found to be conducting unauthorized surveillance… on itself
We’re still learning about all the different surveillance tactics and targets of the UK’s GCHQ spy agency, but the latest organization found to have been snooped on unnecessarily may surprise you. When it’s not spying on civil rights groups, looking …
Facebook Messenger no longer needs a Facebook account
Facebook wants as many people using Messenger as possible… and after today, that includes people who aren’t using Facebook at all. Anyone in the US, Canada, Peru and Venezuela can now sign up for Messenger without using a Facebook account. You only…
Cablevision boosts internet speeds enough to make the FCC happy
If you subscribe to Cablevision’s standard Optimum Online service, we have good news: you’re getting a free upgrade. The company has boosted the download speed on its core internet tier from 15Mbps to 25Mbps, making this basic option much more viable…
Google Play Music takes on Spotify with free streaming
Google must not be content to sit on the sidelines as Spotify tries to conquer the streaming media world — the internet behemoth has unveiled a free, ad-supported version of Google Play Music’s streaming service for the US. It’ll be familiar if you’…
Lenovo is the latest to hop on the PC-on-a-stick bandwagon
Who knew that stick computers were suddenly in vogue? In the wake of pocket-sized desktops from Intel, Dell and Google, Lenovo is joining the fray with the Ideacentre 300 Stick. The extra-tiny Windows PC is much like a sleeker, more polished version …
Videophone lets kids call Grandma but not surf the web
Want to encourage your kids to stay in touch with family, but don’t trust them with a smartphone? A product called the ILY family phone from startup Insensi may do the trick. It’s designed to help young ‘uns place video phone calls to anyone else who…
SoftBank’s cutesy Pepper robot sells out in one minute
If you always wanted a robot butler to greet guests, amuse kids or be a live-action version of Cortana, you’re way too late. The Pepper robot that does all that sold out exactly one minute after it went on sale in Japan on Saturday, according to manu…
Cassini captures detailed images of Saturn’s moon Dione
This is a photo of Dione, one of Saturn’s moons. Just like the planet’s most stunning images, this picture was also captured by NASA’s and ESA’s Cassini spacecraft, as it flew by on June 16th. The vessel, which has been orbiting Saturn for over a dec…