Yesterday’s Apple Music announcement was seen as a long-overdue swipe at streaming music services like Pandora and Spotify that have dominated the market that Apple helped to create with the introduction of the iPod and iTunes, along with the iPhone and iPad mobile devices that people listen to the music on. Given Apple’s ability to instantly reach the large swath of iOS users, you wouldn’t fault these competitors from being frightened, but the Chief Financial Officer of Pandora doesn’t seem terribly worried. [More]
beats audio
Apple Recalls Beats Pill XL Speakers Due To Fire Hazard
When you spend a few hundred dollars on a portable speaker, you probably assume that you’re buying a quality piece of electronics that will sound nice and not overheat and catch fire when it’s not supposed to. That is not the case for the Beats Pill XL, a signature product for the headphone company, which is now part of Apple. [More]
Spotify Has 10 Million Paying Customers, Still Loses Money
There have been three broad eras so far of online music. There was the era of Napster, when rampant piracy was great for music-loving young people, and a seeming catastrophe for artists and record labels. There was the era of iTunes, which allowed fans to buy only the single song that they wanted to hear. Now the era of Spotify lets us simply stream music on a variety of devices. It’s convenient, but is it sustainable for everyone…especially Spotify, which still doesn’t turn a profit? [More]
New Monopoly Teaches Kids The Importance Of Xbox, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and EA!
The folks at Hasbro have never had a problem letting everything from towns to universities to movies to big-name commercial brands slap their names on licensed versions of Monopoly, but a new version of the classic board game is unabashedly all about learning the value of today’s biggest fast food, retail, tech, and entertainment companies — everything a growing child needs to get ahead! [More]