Amazon Releases Cloud Music Player for iPad

Apple has released its Cloud Player app for the iPad, some six months after it came out for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Your music. Everywhere. Listen to your music collection from the cloud on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad anywhere you are. You can download or stream your library from the cloud – or play the music you already have on your device.

Amazon has made several moves to expand its cloud music platform in recent months. It has optimized its music store for mobile Safari, made free digital copies of all CDs ever purchased on Amazon.com, and introduced a new "scan and match" service similar to iTunes Match.

[Source: MacRumors]

StreamPortô Universal: Transform your Sound System with Wireless in less than 60 Seconds

Bayan Audioís StreamPortô Universal is a wireless audio adapter which lets you stream impressive near-CD quality audio from media players (phones, tablets, notebooks) to existing audio/speaker systems without the need for cables - freeing up your favourite gadgets to stay by your side for browsing.    

 

Many audio systems need media players to be physically connected, making them awkward to use and forcing a choice between music and tweeting, or Spotify radio and games. By enhancing these sound systems with the StreamPortô Universal, your personal devices can finally stream audio whilst simultaneously being used to multi-task - without any need to compromise on quality or convenience.

The StreamPortô Universal enables you to stream music, podcasts and Internet radio from any Bluetooth A2DP-compatible device (including many Apple, Android & Windows players) to your existing sound system (including Hi-Fi, docks and soundbars). Such extensive compatibility eliminates the need for you to worry about expensive upgrades or maintaining a single-brand system in order to enjoy quality wireless audio.

Will Large Screen Smartphones Wipe Out Tablets?

We have been seeing a major push in smartphones lately, especially smartphones with a large screen. Large screen smartphones are nearly as big as a small tablets now. At the moment, there is a massive trend for companies to make and push out phablets (phablet = a screen size of 5 inches or more). We have been seeing a lot of these new devices being released at MCW 2013. Below, I have listed some of my favourite devices, that really do stand out. 

Mobile phones or phablets are all well and good but if your in an area with poor or no signal and are looking for a better solution then a set of Mototrbo radios would be advised.

• LG Optimus G Pro - This beast is a phablet that has a 5.5 inch full HD IPS screen with a 1920x1080 resoluto and 440ppi.

• Nokia Lumia 720 - This is one of the many new smartphones that Nokia have released at MWC. However, I really like this particular smartphone because it has a stunning unibidy type of design. You can wirelessly charge it, and it has 8GB of internal storage.

• ZTE Grand Memo - This is another very large screen phone. The screen size is 5.7 inches. It runs Android version 4.1.2. This phablet also has a 13-megapixel camera on the rear with a 1-megapixel on the front.

• Fujitsu Arrows X - This is a new flagship smartphone from Fujitsu. It's rocking a Tegra 3 CPU, with 2GB of RAM. It has a 5-inch 1080p screen with a finger print scanner!

Will a large screen smartphone eventually overtake a tablet? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below. 

Nintendo Wii Mini arriving in the UK on March 22nd

When Nintendo's Wii Mini landed in Canada, as far as we were concerned, the land of Due South was welcome to it. After all, the company had robbed the budget model of its internet connectivity, backwards compatibility and its, you know, charm. Unfortunately, Nintendo now feels that the UK deserves its own opportunity to be underwhelmed by the hardware, and so will launch the system in Blighty on March 22nd. Naturally, there's no word yet on pricing, but we'd get even tetchier if Nintendo tried to price it over, say, £70.

[Source: Engadget]

Apple no longer most admired company, but tops UK brand list

Apple could be about to drop off the top spot from Forbes magazine's prestigious World's Most Admired Companies list. The list doesn't come out until later in the week, but according to a blog post by Brad Chase, the company isn't likely to retain its number one placing.

It's not all bad news for Apple though. It's just been voted top of the Business Superbrands list here in the UK, and second in the Consumer Superbrands. Swings and roundabouts.

Chase writes that while Apple "isn't going to disappear anytime soon," the company's image isn't what it once was. "[T]he value of the once-invincible brand is teetering on the edge of a long, steady drop," he writes. And what does he reckon is the cause of this discontent among Apple fans? He puts it down to "glitches, missed deadlines and high prices", citing the debacle over Apple Maps, ethical issues with Foxconn plants in China, the proliferation of viruses attacking Macs, and increased competition from Google and Facebook, among other things.

Apple has won the Most Admired award five times on the trot, so it'd be quite a shock if it was snubbed this year.

The company is still doing well on these shores though, only behind Rolex in the minds of consumers according to the Superbrands survey, which identifies the UK's strongest brands. Apple came one spot ahead of Microsoft, and four ahead of Google. Facebook was the only other tech company in the top 20, placed at 14.

Apple also topped the Business Superbrands list, two places ahead of Google, five ahead of IBM, and seven ahead of Microsoft.

The consumer Superbrands survey asked more than 2,900 consumers which brands they thought had the best reputations. The business poll quizzed more than 1,900 professionals about their companies of choice.

[Source: CNET]

Instagram Hits 100 Million Active Monthly Users

Instagram is feeling no ill effects following its terms of service nightmare from last year. Instead of seeing a “max exodus,” the company is actually still growing, on Tuesday announcing the app sees 100 million monthly active users—10 million more than last month. TechnoBuffalo added to that tally.

On Instagram’s blog, co-founder Kevin Systrom reminisces about the company’s humble beginnings, and the amazing community that has shaped the app’s success. “It’s easy to see this as an accomplishment for a company, but I think the truth is that it’s an accomplishment for our community,” Systrom said.

It’s quite the accomplishment for a company that still has such a small team, and shows the community is an integral part—you, me, friends, family. Instagram has never been about the filters, but the sharing. And it seems more and more people each month are finding what a joy it is to share their experiences from around the globe.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Visa Partners With Samsung to Bring PayWave to Next Generation Samsung Devices

PayWave, Visa’s mobile wallet app, will be preinstalled on the “next generation” of Samsungdevices, Visa confirmed on Monday. The platform is part of the “Visa Ready Program,” which allows companies (banks, carriers, manufacturers) to connect to Visa’s network. To that end, future Samsung owners will be able to use NFC to take advantage of the system for mobile payments.

Unfortunately, The Verge suggests PayWave likely isn’t coming to the states, though Visa didn’t outright say so in as many words. Visa said it’s more focused on markets that have less “heavily operator subsidized models,” so take that for what it’s worth. We can certainly expect Verizon to skip out—if it does come to the U.S.—as the company has its own solution and has previously shunned Google Wallet.

Seeing as the next generation of Samsung devices will receive the PayWave treatment, perhaps we’ll see it first on the Galaxy S IV. That we won’t know until March 14.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Huawei and O2 bring Windows Phone to the masses as Ascend W1 debuts

Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, is announcing today that its powerful entry-level Windows Phone smartphone, the Ascend W1, will be on sale exclusively with Telefónica O2 UK from March 7.

The Huawei Ascend W1 will be available in store and online for £119.99 on prepay and for free on contracts from £13.50 per month. It will be available in ‘Electric Blue’ from March 7 and in ‘Electric Pink’ also from March 18. The Ascend W1 will be supported by a significant ATL marketing campaign across UK media.

The Ascend W1 is designed for hectic modern lives; for users to make the most of their precious time by giving order and access simultaneously to their social and business worlds. It combines latest smartphone hardware and functionality with the innovative Windows Phone 8 operating system to enable quick and easy access to people, information and entertainment.

The Windows Phone 8 start-screen lets you customise and pin Live Tiles with topics of personal interest, providing real-time updates that are uniquely yours. Additionally, a dynamic lock screen allows you to select the photos or updates most important to you and have them ready at a glance, even when the phone is locked.

The Ascend W1 brings this powerful experience to a broader audience, and underpins it with great hardware. Its bright 4-inch IPS LCD 480 x 800 touchscreen has a low reflective IPS LCD display with full lamination technology, providing brilliant visibility under different lighting conditions. Its 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcommprocessor and Adreno 305 GPU combine as a powerful engine for immersive video streaming and game-play.

In addition, the Ascend W1’s 1950mAh battery provides the longest standby time of smartphones in its class. It also features a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, and includes 4GB on-board memory, expandable to 32GB with a micro SD card.

The Ascend W1 is a smart and stylish alternative for consumers looking for great technology at the right price.

All PlayStation 4 Games to be Available Digitally

Gaming on the PlayStation 4 will not necessarily require going out to a brick and mortar shop to grab a copy of a new game. In fact, unless you live in a part of the world with less than stellar internet, news has come that suggests Sony will make it possible for you to buy each and every one of your PlayStation 4 games without any physical transaction at all.

The word comes from Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida in an interview with The Guardian. Here’s the bit about game releases as digital downloads:

We’re shifting our platform more and more to the digital side – PS4 will be similar to PS Vita in that every game will be available as a digital download, and some will also be available as a disc.

The “some” that Yoshida mentions will, of course, be standard retail titles. Stuff like Uncharted, Killzone and LittleBigPlanet will ship with physical discs. The digital download exclusives will be the titles that you’d expect to see only on the system’s online store. The Witness, for instance, will be a PSN game.

What do you think about this push towards digital? Personally, as long as physical games still exist, I don’t mind it at all.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

App.net goes gratis, announces invitation-only free accounts

Since its inception, App.net has been working hard to improve its growing platform, giving all of its paid users a 10GB bucket of cloud storage and opening up its File API so devs could use the data stored there. Today, folks wanting in on the fledgling social platform can do so without paying the $36 annual fee -- provided you can score an invite from a paying member. And, there's something in it for paid accounts who refer folks. Both the inviter and invitee get an extra 100 MB of storage (up to 2GB) if the invitee subsequently follows 5 people and authorizes a third-party app.

Should you be lucky enough to score an invite, you won't have the same level of access as your paid brethren, however. Free accounts can only follow up to 40 users -- paid accounts have no such restriction -- and get a 500MB cloud locker. Also, while paid accounts can upload 100MB files, gratis accounts are limited to 10MB uploads.

We got to speak with Dalton Caldwell, CEO of App.net about the shift to a freemium model and he told us that the move has been in the works for some time. The reason it took awhile to do so is that App.net wanted to ensure that it had a market for its paid services and that it had enough of an app ecosystem to make App.net appealing to free users as well. Caldwell also informed us that in order to keep the number of free accounts manageable, paid members will get a limited number of invites to start -- with more invites appearing as the company finds it prudent to do so.

[Source: Engadget]

iOS 6.1.3 Beta 2 Fixes Exploits Used for Evasi0n Jailbreak

The upcoming iOS 6.1.3 update, which was seeded in beta form to developers last week, will put an end to new versions of the evasi0n jailbreak. 

Forbes reports that evad3rs team member David Wang (akaplanetbeing on Twitter) tested the patch over the weekend and found that one of the five exploits the hack uses was repaired.

Wang tells me that he's analyzed the 6.1.3 beta 2 update and found that it patches at least one of the five bugs the jailbreak exploits, namely a flaw in the operating system's time zone settings. The beta update likely signals the end of using evasi0n to hack new or updated devices after the update is released to users, says Wang, who says he's still testing the patch to see which other vulnerabilities exploited by the jailbreak might no longer exist in the new operating system.

Despite evasi0n's record number of downloads, hitting seven million installs just four days after release, Apple has been relatively slow to patch the bugs that make evasi0n possible, compared to some previous jailbreaks. 

The Cupertino-based company pushed the iOS 6.1.2 update six days ago, without a fix for evasi0n, which has now been available for download for three weeks. According toForbes, it took Apple just nine days to fix Jailbreakme 3.0, the jailbreaking tool for the iPhone 4. 

Wang is predicting that the iOS 6.1.3 update might take as long as a month to be released, and he also mentioned that the evad3rs have discovered additional bugs in the operating system, which could lead to a new jailbreak in the future. 

iOS 6.1.3 will bring improved Maps to Japan along with a fix for the Passcode bug that was discovered after iOS 6.1.

[Source: MacRumors]

Sony Says it Will Introduce Phone Running Firefox OS in 2014

In partnership with wireless carrier Telefonica, Sony said it wants to introduce a phone running Firefox OS by next year. The multi-year agreement will see Sony flex its Android muscles, but more interesting is how the partnership wants to explore development of the fledgling Firefox OS—not something in the Windows Phone camp—which has more freely reared its head at Mobile World Congress.

Sony said the decision to explore Firefox OS is so it can “deliver the premium user experience that Sony’s consumers expect.” We won’t know how, exactly, Sony’s Firefox efforts will translate into a premium experience until 2014, but the company’s backing of Mozilla’s OS is certainly a big one, and shows it wants to capture emerging markets.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]