Apple Music is not the first streaming radio and music service to come along. But it is an amazing service, and it’s going to do amazing things just because it’s baked in to the Apple ecosystem. Plus it’s easy to use. And there’s no software to download if you’re already running iTunes.
Apple Music is not the first streaming radio and music service to come along. But it is an amazing service, and it’s going to do amazing things just because it’s baked in to the Apple ecosystem. Plus it’s easy to use. And there’s no software to download if you’re already running iTunes.
This week, I look at how streaming music services are changing things for me, what’s going on with Microsoft and its Windows Phone, Internet outages of the day, and an update from the world of robots.
Apple Music has changed the way I listen to tunes
Apple Music launched in Canada last week. And after I updated iTunes and was able to use the service, I was floored at the music I was listening to.
I selected the “Mixtape” playlist and heard Madness, The Cure, early INXS, The La’s, Jane’s Addiction, and Blondie. All in one session without me having to do anything. When “Come on Eileen” was followed by “Smells Like Teen Spirit” I was done wondering if Apple Music was going to be worth my time.
It’s like having my formative, growing up years fed right back to me in one endless playlist.
Now i know that there are other music streaming options out there, including Spotify, the biggest player thus far. But until now I’ve never considered any of those options seriously because I have a good library of music and it’s all in iTunes. With Apple Music I can have all the music in iTunes. it’s easy for me, and that’s one of the things that makes Apple’s solutions so appealing to people.
It’s easy.
And using voice commands on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, it’s even easier. You can tell Siri to play the top song from a particular year, for example. Like and skip songs with a simple word, and Siri makes a note in your music preferences.
In addition to Spotify, there are other players in the music streaming and subscription space, including Google Play Music, Spotify, and Tidal. Xbox Music just changed its name to Groove (for Microsoft, the Xbox brand is reserved for gaming).
And Rdio announced this week that it is adding curated stations to its programming lineup. Record labels (including Canadian companies Arts & Crafts and MapleMusic) and “influencers” (Exclaim! magazine and Consequence of Sound).
If I’ve got a complaint about Apple Music it’s that the service bogs down an already problematic iTunes app. That’s a bigger issue that I suspect Apple is already working on. They’d better come up with a fix fast, though.
But my early experience with Apple Music reminded me of something that I’ve been missing from music for more than 10 years: discoverability. When I’m only listening to the music I’ve collected, I’ll never know what else is coming out.
That’s how we end up like our parents, listening to the same old music for the rest of our lives.
Apple Music will cost $10 a month, or $15 a month for a family plan, which covers up to 6 people.
What’s up with the Windows Phone?
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella gave employees a heads-up today that some 7,800 people in the phone division will be getting cut in the coming months. Along with that, the company is taking an “impairment charge” of about US$7.6 billion related to its acquisition of Nokia.
Despite all this, in the email to staff Nadella wrote: “I am committed to our first-party devices including phones. However, we need to focus our phone efforts in the near term while driving reinvention. We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem that includes our first-party device family.”
That sounds to me like he still wants Microsoft to have a hand in the hardware. What that will look like is unclear.
Today, the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading for about three hours. “The issue we are experiencing is an internal technical issue and is not the result of a cyber breach,” the organization tweeted.
Last week, a technician installing a robot at a Volkswagen plant in Germany was killed by the robot when it struck him and held him against a metal plate, according to the Financial Times.
It’s an unfortunate incident, and would have been largely ignored by the rest of the world were it not for a Tweet about the story by a FT correspondent.
The journalist’s surname isn’t “Connor” as in the Terminator movies, but “O’Connor”. That fact made no difference at all.
Not long after she reminded Twitter that someone had died.
A few weeks earlier, the DARPA Robotics Challenge finals took place in Los Angeles. Twenty-three teams manoeuvred robots through obstacle courses that were designed like disaster scenarios.
The robots moved slowly, and sometimes not at all, and many of them fell over. (There’s a great round-up of animated GIFs at Motherboard showing these robot fails that will have you laughing out loud.)
The point? Making robots is hard. The world of Terminator and Short Circuit is well off.
Until then, let’s revel in the fact that there is going to be a battle between two giant robots.
“We have a giant robot. You have a giant robot. You know what needs to happen.”
This week, remembering some of the tech that came from Canadians, and a look at the spectacular explosion of a spacecraft.
Celebrating Canadian tech innovation
Happy Canada Day, so a perfect opportunity to remember some of the amazing technological inventions developed here.
IMAX: The first company to deliver a “large-screen film experience”, IMAX began at Expo ’67 in Montreal. The first presentation used multiple screens and required syncing nine film projectors to run seamlessly. Now the company has special cameras that can be used to shoot the high-resolution, 70 mm film and has come up with a digital remastering process to convert other films for its hundreds of domed theatres around the world.
Video games: One of the first entertainment video games developed was Evolution, designed and programmed by Vancouver high-school students Don Mattrick and Jeff Sember. The pair would create Distinctive Software which became Electronic Arts Canada.
BlackBerry: The company may be on the skids now, but the smartphone as we know it wouldn’t exist without the invention of BlackBerry mobile devices. And its BlackBerry Messaging service still has great value for the company, as it’s still the industry leader for encrypted communication.
Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell moved to Canada when he was 23. He had already been experimenting with sound and electricity, but it would be another six or so years before the telephone came to be. Bell split his time between Boston and a summer home in Brantford, Ontario.
Walkie-talkie: Development of the portable radio is credited, in part, to Donald Hings (others, including Toronto-born inventor Alfred Gross, and engineers at Motorola, were working on similar devices). Hings was working for a Canadian mining company that would become Teck Cominco (now Teck Resources). It became an essential communications tool during the Second World War. After the war, Hings settled in Burnaby and founded Electronic Labs of Canada. He died in 2004.
Pacemaker: Invented by Winnipeg electrical engineer John Hopps, the first artificial pacemakers were external. They help regulate the beating of a patient’s heart by delivering electrical impulses.
Canadarm: Originally designed for NASA’s space shuttle program, five “arms” were delivered to NASA between 1981 and July 2011, when the final shuttle mission was completed. Canadarm2 is currently being used on the International Space Station.
That rocket “blowed up real good”
While we’re on the topic of space…
Last week, SpaceX attempted a launch of its Falcon 9 craft to take its Dragon cargo vehicle to the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 exploded — spectacularly — just as the first stage was about to shut down.
It’s a reminder that going to space is difficult and dangerous. Things can and do go wrong, and when they do the consequences are catastrophic.
The hope is that the data SpaceX gathered during the flight will help them resolve the problem and get closer to success.
Governments can’t do space exploration efficiently. Industry can, and that’s why NASA is supporting the efforts of commercial space development (to the tune of some $500 million to SpaceX, for example).
You can watch the SpaceX Falcon 9 liftoff and subsequent explosion below. I love the phrasing used by the NASA engineer narrating at 2:33. He says, “Data coming back shows vehicle on course, on track.”
That’s the point at which it seems like something goes wrong with the Falcon 9.
There is 30 seconds of silence, then he says, “We appear to have had a launch vehicle failure.” What an understatement.
This week, take better iPhone photos with Nova flashes, cancel sending that email criticizing your boss before it’s too late, and what it’s like to become the Dark Knight.
Nova portable flash make iPhone photos more professional
Nova is a LED flash the size of a credit card that connects to your iPhone with Bluetooth. It’s a powerful device that can provide a range of lighting options, from low-level fill light to a high-powered key light.
Because the flash is not connected to the camera, you have control over the position and angle of the light you use to take a photo.
And now you can control up to 10 of them at the same time from one iPhone.
The Nova is only Cdn$60 at the Apple Store. You can get a four pack of Mint Novas direct from Sneaky Squid for US$177.
Can a short email send delay save you from your stupidity?
Google’s email client, Inbox, designed for mobile users, is now in open release, so anyone can use it. (Previously it was only available to select users who were invited to beta-test it.)
Using Inbox will take some retraining, because it doesn’t operate in the same way as Gmail or other email apps. It groups emails it considers to be similar in “bundles” and it highlights messages it thinks are most important to you.
Inbox also gives you access to an “undo” feature that lets you cancel delivery of a message if you change your mind after sending it.
Google announced Monday that it was going to enable “undo send” for Gmail, too. Within a couple of weeks, Gmail users will be able to configure a setting that allows them to delay sending an email by between 5 and 30 seconds.
Arkham Knight game raises the stakes for Batman
Developed by Rocksteady Studios, the latest Batman game, Arkham Knight, is the best Batman game yet.
With the first game in the series, Arkham Asylum, Rocksteady has made being the Dark Knight believable, from the flowing movements and fighting to gliding through the air to using investigative techniques as a detective.
All of those things are still true, but even more so. And while I was skeptical about introducing the Batmobile into a game that made it so much fun to fly through the air, I’m happy to have been proven wrong. The vehicle only adds to the fun of traversing through Gotham.
Spoiler altert: WIth the Joker dead (that happened in Arkham City, the second game in the series), Scarecrow is the villain in this game. And while you can be the Batman, you can also be Robin and Catwoman, who are playable characters.
The actors are at the top of their game, and the plot is exactly the kind of dark and twisted story that we expect from an Arkham Batman story.
This week in tech, PayPal makes buying online a bit more comfortable, when you can expect to run Windows 10, and all the news that’s fit to print from Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference.
Better buyer protection when purchasing online
I do a lot of purchasing online. Having things delivered right to my door is too convenient. Office supplies and equipment. Clothing and small appliances. I even find ball bearings and patterned duct tape when I was making hula hoops for my daughter’s birthday.
Some people are concerned about the security of their information when buying things online, but the truth is that most businesses have fairly robust security. And when there have been data breaches, the information at risk wasn’t just from online purchases, but has included cards used in stores.
Many credit cards have programs in place to make sure you’re protected against fraud, too.
The bigger issue with buying things online is that some of the things we’re buying aren’t exactly returnable. How do you return an ebook? Or an app?
Starting on July 1, PayPal will be extending its buyer protection program to include “intangible goods, which includes services and digital goods”.
A release from the company says, “If you pay for one of these items using PayPal and it is significantly different from how it was described, or you pay for a service or digital product and it is not delivered, PayPal will ensure that the money is credited back to your account.”
Windows 10 release date is July 29
The next big operating system for many computers will be arriving this summer. And for the first time, Microsoft is making Windows a free update. For most people.
Users who are using official versions of Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 will have a year to upgrade to Windows 10 at no cost. Everyone else will pay $119 for the home edition of the software and $199 for the pro version.
This is a significant update, and not just because of the low cost. The Start Menu is back. Internet Explorer is replaced by a new browser client called Microsoft Edge. Microsoft’s voice-activated assistant, Cortana, is integrated into the entire operating system. And you play games from your Xbox One on your computer through your Wi-Fi network.
And you can even run Windows 10 on a Mac. If you want.
News from Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference
The annual Apple convention is underway in San Francisco, and on Monday CEO Tim Cook unveiled a bunch of new things coming from the computer company.
iOS 9 and El Capitan coming this fall
The next versions of Apple’s operating systems are all coming this fall. iOS 9 introduces more multitasking features, including dual-app display on your iPad and improvements to Siri. (There’s also a new app to help people migrate from Android to iOS.)
watchOS 2, meanwhile, brings performance imporvements and better app functionality (like being able to reply to emails, for example).
And El Capitan — Apple used to name operating systems after large cats but presumably ran out so is now using mountains (to suggest steadfastness?) — will give your computers better performance, too, and will share some of the new app features that are coming to iOS.
As usual, these operating system updates will be free.
Apple Music, Apple Music Radio, Apple Music Connect
The bigger announcement from Apple was the reveal of Apple Music, Apple Music Radio, and Apple Music Connect.
The full featured music product includes streaming access to the entire iTunes catalog complete with curated playlists as well as Genius-generated recommendations, as well as a 24-hour radio station. There’s also Apple Music Connect, which Trent Reznor describes as being “an ecosystem we hope can start to provide the tools to grow, nurture, and sustain careers.”
Reznor isn’t the only name attached to Apple Music. Drake was on stage in San Francisco talking about the benefits of Apple Music Connect for musicians.
Recall that Apple wasn’t the first company to release an MP3 player. But the iPod quickly became the category leader. It will be interesting to see how well Apple Music does against existing players like Rdio and Spotify (two services that have a free service available in addition to the paid premium version).
And here’s another interesting fact: Apple Music will be available on Android devices, too.
The Mind Control Division is the intelligence arm of Blaine Kyllo's Solo Corps Creative Incorporated. This department conducts investigations and experiments into media and technology culture.
