Day: November 9, 2016

Pandora’s new website points to an on-demand future

Pandora has generated a lot of buzz about its rumored on-demand platform based on Rdio, and is working on an extensive re-branding ahead of that. It recently unveiled a new logo , and today launched a completely revamped website. As part of the new changes, you’ll now see radio stations in a grid of album art instead of an ordered list, much like with Google Play Music . The control bar with thumbs up/thumbs down, play, pause and song information has moved from the top of the screen to the very bottom now as well. The design makes lets you navigate “between past, present and future listening, ” Pandora says, making it easier to create and organize stations. Interestingly, Pandora cribbed from Spotify and is offering tour dates on both the Now Playing and artist profile pages. Finally, you’ll be able to replay and skip tracks, provided you’re willing to watch a video commercial, while subscribers to the $5 Pandora Plus option will be able to do it ad-free. There are no options to stream songs on demand, but that will likely change soon. Pandora will reportedly launch a $10 on-demand service like Spotify or Apple Music based on the technology it purchased from bankrupt Rdio. When it arrives, Pandora plans to expand to new countries and has ambitions to triple its subscriber base to 11 million by 2020. Despite having 78 million monthly listeners and 3.9 million subscribers, the company lost $170 million last year. Given all that, it no doubt wants a strong launch for its on-demand site, starting with the new logo and website refresh.

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Pandora’s new website points to an on-demand future

A lightbulb worm could take over every smart light in a city in minutes

Researchers from Dalhousie University (Canada) and the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) have published a working paper detailing a proof-of-concept attack on smart lightbulbs that allows them to wirelessly take over the bulbs from up to 400m, write a new operating system to them, and then cause the infected bulbs to spread the attack to all the vulnerable bulbs in reach, until an entire city is infected. (more…)

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A lightbulb worm could take over every smart light in a city in minutes

You can stream songs from Wu-Tang Clan’s ultra-rare album

Whatever you think of the outcome of the US election , it’s providing a surprise for music fans. You see, Martin Shkreli (the infamous pharma exec who jacked up prices on an HIV/AIDS pill) bought the Wu-Tang Clan’s one-copy album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and said he’d release it if Donald Trump won the presidency. Well, he honored that promise… sort of. After word of Trump’s win got out, Shkreli livestreamed both the intro to Wu-Tang’s album and one of its tracks . These weren’t intended as permanent copies, but this is the internet — listeners ripped the video feed and put the tunes on other sites. They’re not album-quality recordings, of course, but this might be the only chance you get at listening to this exceptionally rare composition. Don’t expect Shkreli to livestream more cuts, let alone put high-quality copies online. As he explained , he genuinely wasn’t expecting Trump to pull ahead. If he ever wants to formally release Once Upon a Time , he’ll need to get permission from RZA , Method Man and crew to distribute it to the public. The original agreement prevented the buyer from publicly releasing material for 88 years. We wouldn’t completely rule that out, but it seems unlikely. The whole mystique of the album revolves around its exclusivity, and it wouldn’t be very special if you only had to wait a year to find out whether or not it justifies its multi-million dollar selling price. Via: The Daily Dot , Pitchfork Source: Scarey Pros (YouTube) , Mitsuba Marui (YouTube)

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You can stream songs from Wu-Tang Clan’s ultra-rare album

Nanoloop’s cartridge turns your Game Boy into an analog synth

Nanoloop has been providing ways for music and gaming enthusiasts to create tunes with a Game Boy for years now. The company is back with a new card for the original Game Boy handheld: the Nanoloop Mono. With the €69 (around $76) accessory, you can transform that classic gaming device into an analog mono synth. Thanks to one pin of Game Boy’s cartridge connector working as an audio input and a built-in amplifier, the Nanoloop Mono can generate sound and output it through the headphone jack in a completely analog fashion. The Nanoloop Mono packs in three analog filters and a noise generator on its hybrid sound chip. There’s also a step sequencer with per step control of the parameters and eight memory banks than can each hold 15 patterns per channel. While the card works best with the OG Game Boy, it will also provide some noise when used with the Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Color. However, Nanoloop says sound quality suffers with those gadgets. It doesn’t work at all with the Game Boy Advance, but the company makes another card for that handheld: the Nanoloop 2.0 . While you decide whether or not to turn your collector’s item into a music making machine, the video below shows the Mono in action. Via: FACT Source: Nanoloop

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Nanoloop’s cartridge turns your Game Boy into an analog synth

Web of Trust, Downloaded 140M Times, Pulled From Extension Stores After Revelations That It Sells Users’ Data

According to multiple reports, Web of Trust, one of the top privacy and security extensions for web browsers with over 140 million downloads, collects and sells some of the data of its users — and it does without properly anonymizing it. Upon learning about this, Mozilla, Google and Opera quickly pulled the extension off their respective extension stores. From a report on The Register: A browser extension which was found to be harvesting users’ browsing histories and selling them to third parties has had its availability pulled from a number of web browsers’ add-on repositories. Last week, an investigative report by journalists at the Hamburg-based German television broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), revealed that Web of Trust Services (WoT) had been harvesting netizens’ web browsing histories through its browser add-on and then selling them to third parties. While WoT claimed it anonymised the data that it sold, the journalists were able to identify more than 50 users from the sample data it acquired from an intermediary. NDR quoted the data protection commissioner of Hamburg, Johannes Caspar, criticising WoT for not adequately establishing whether users consented to the tracking and selling of their browsing data. Those consent issues have resulted in the browser add-on being pulled from the add-on repositories of both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, although those who have already installed the extension in their browsers will need to manually uninstall it to stop their browsing being tracked. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Web of Trust, Downloaded 140M Times, Pulled From Extension Stores After Revelations That It Sells Users’ Data

Zero’s latest electric motorcycles boast 200+ mile range

With some of the world’s biggest bike makers now dedicating time to electric models , Zero Motorcycles knows it has its work cut out. The company has spent the last 10 years refining its gas-free lineup , gradually adding more power and (more importantly) increasing the range, giving riders the incentive they need to make the jump. For its 2017 roster, Zero has done the same again, updating its Zero S, Zero SR, Zero DS, Zero DSR, Zero FX and Zero FXS models, giving some the ability to go 200 miles on a single charge. Zero boasts that the Zero S and Zero SR models are the world’s first production electric motorcycles to exceed that milestone, but says that owners will only get that kind of performance when riding in the city. The company’s option Power Tank accessory, which does the heavy lifting, also provides enough juice for over 100 miles on the highway. For those seeking instant torque, Zero has improved its Z-Force powertrain and included interior permanent magnet (IPM) motors, resulting in greater acceleration and 116-ft-lb of torque. To ensure that riders worry more about riding than keeping their bike serviced, Zero is also debuting a new free mobile app that offers performance customization — including settings for maximum torque, top speed and regenerative braking. It also lets owners update their motorcycle’s firmware, saving a trip to the dealer. Oh, and each lithium-ion battery is backed by a five-year, unlimited mileage warranty. Zero says the 2017 models are already making their way to dealers and will retail for between $8, 495 and $15, 995. US buyers will also receive a 10 percent federal tax credit on top of any state incentives. That extra range will cost, though, with the Power Tank setting customers back an extra $2, 695. Via: Electrek Source: Zero Motorcycles

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Zero’s latest electric motorcycles boast 200+ mile range