US Version of Spotify Hits Another Delay, “Back To Square One”
Spotify’s a popular music service in Europe. It’s convenient, quick, and satisfying. We should know, as we’ve had access to the service since mid-2009 (and I’ve been using it every day, mind you). But for the rest of us in the United States, Spotify is still not available — and it should have been late last year, according to initial time frames put out by the company.
Billboard is reporting that Spotify negotiations with record labels in the United States have completely broken down, and the company is reportedly “back to square one.” Certainly not good news, but the company is still said to be aiming for a late 2010/early 2011 launch Stateside.
Of course, that launch is entirely dependent on the ongoing negotiations — and as of this moment, things are seemingly looking grim. More information as it becomes available.
Research In Motion Explains BlackBerry Platform in New Awesome Commercial
Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion has posted a promotional video on YouTube explaining the BlackBerry platform and its many features. The video is absolutely brilliant. It grabs your attention right away, and it gets the point across. We love the simplicity, intricacy, and artfulness of it.
Anyway, you can find the video embedded in the full post.
Google: We’re Not Blocked in China
On late Thursday, it was widely believed that several of Google services were blocked in China after the official Google Mainland China service availability monitoring page indicated a full or partial blockage on some of the services. Many Chinese users took it upon themselves to report on Twitter that the services were in fact available and working normally in the country.
Now, Google has confirmed that its services were not blocked at all. Google states that the Mainland China service availability dashboard is not updated in real-time. The monitoring page was in fact erroneously showing the status from the previous night, in which some of the services were temporarily blocked for a small period of time.
Google Soon to Announce Zynga Partnership
A recently published article by the Wall Street Journal would suggest that Google will soon be announcing a partnership with social gaming company Zynga.
From the article:
When asked about Google’s partnership with Zynga, Mr. Schmidt said “we haven’t announced it” but “you can expect a partnership with Zynga” in the future. Google’s partnership with Zynga was reported earlier by the blog TechCrunch.
That is true, TechCrunch did indeed let some details loose on Google’s investment in Zynga, signaling a partnership in the works potentially at this very minute.
Though we’re soon to get official word from Google on the partnership, no information with reference to when said word will come has been mentioned. Stay tuned.
Sprint to Officially Upgrade HTC EVO 4G to Android 2.2 on August 3
HTC EVO 4G owners, rejoice! Moments earlier, Erictric reported that according to a leaked internal Sprint document, the carrier would begin rolling out Android 2.2 [Froyo] for the HTC EVO 4G as soon as tomorrow. However, Sprint has just officially announced that the upgrade process will begin on August 3, and it should be completed by the middle of the month.
According to Sprint, Android 2.2 will enable the following features on the popular HTC EVO 4G:
- Voice Dialing Over Bluetooth.
- Application Storage on External Memory, giving users more storage room for all their apps.
- Camera 4-way rotation allows the camera icons to rotate with the camera.
- Improved Browser Performance including a faster JavaScript engine and Flash 10x Support improving the user’s ability to view videos and available content associated with web pages.
Although user will be automatically notified of the update, Sprint will offer a user initiated option to easily download the upgrade for the impatient ones. According to Sprint, “customers can access the software update through their HTC EVO 4G under the Settings Menu System Updates HTC Software Update. This will initiate the three-step process also.”
Press release available in the full post.
Jersey Shore 2 Premiere Lights Up The Web
It’s not too often we chatter about television ’round these parts. Moreover, I don’t think we’ve ever mentioned MTV’s hit series Jersey Shore, a reality show that follows young “guidos” and “guidettes” partying, having a good time, and getting absolutely trashed.
I’ll admit, as a tech blogger, it’s embarrassing to admit that I’ve watched the show. I’ve learned that G.T.L. stands for gym, tan, laundry, and that our accents on the East coast of the United States are awfully annoying.
But here’s why I’m writing about this. It’s quite simply lighting up the web. Over 500 Jersey Shore-related tweets have appeared before me in a matter of minutes. Why? Simple. Jersey Shore 2 premieres tonight on MTV.
Scores of users are tweeting of their anticipation for the season premiere at 10PM Eastern, and perhaps more are writing of their excitement on Facebook. I would know; that’s all I’ve been seeing on my feed this evening.
See for yourself. Run a search on Twitter. Hell, visit the Twitter homepage and see it as a trending topic. Strange how a TV show can create so much buzz.
“Party’s hea!”
Google Indicates Services Are Blocked in China – Users State Otherwise [Updated]
The Google Mainland China service availability monitoring page indicates that many of its services, which are usually available in China, are currently blocked. The affected products appear to be Web Search itself along with Google News, Google Images, Google Ads, and even Google Mobile services. Interestingly enough, users in China have reported on Twitter that all of the aforementioned Google products are working normally.
Independent tests have confirmed that Google services in China are indeed available.
Research In Motion Makes New BlackBerry App World 2.0 Available
Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion has made available its new and improved BlackBerry App World 2.0 to select members of the BlackBerry Beta Zone. The company sent out today invites to eligible members this morning. I was lucky enough to get an invite, and therefore access the brand new BlackBerry App World 2.0.
My first impressions are that the application is now faster and snappier than it used to be. As many of you might or might not know, the new BlackBerry App World also introduces several new great features such as new payment options, QR Codes support, better browsing, and BlackBerry ID, which is a new account system that allows users to easily manage and transfer their information to other BlackBerry smartphones.
The new BlackBerry App World 2.0 is definitely great, and much better than its predecessor. If you are able to access the beta, let us know what your impressions are in the comments below.
Press release available in the full post.
U.K. Concludes that Google Street View Cars Did Not Gather Personal Details
After a long investigation, the U.K. Information Commissioner Office [ICO] has concluded that payload data ‘accidentally’ collected by Google Street View cars from unprotected Wi-Fi networks did not include “significant” or “meaningful” personal details. The conclusion comes after the ICO reviewed and investigated samples of the the data in question.
According to BBC News, the ICO stated:
“On the basis of the samples we saw, we are satisfied so far that it is unlikely that Google will have captured significant amounts of personal data. There is also no evidence – as yet – that the data captured by Google has caused or could cause any individual detriment.”
The ICO, however, did say that it was “wrong” that Google gathered all of that information. Additionally, you must take into account that the data sampled by the ICO included only information collected in the U.K. Officials from other countries such as the French data protection authority have previously indicated spotting sensitive information amongst the data samples.
