Beats Music launching in ‘the next few months’ in the United States

Beats recently purchased back stock from HTC to expand the company beyond headphones and software associated with HTC smartphones. Now Beats is planning on launching Beats Music in the United States in coming months.

Like Spotify and Rdio, Beats Music will offer curated playlists offering a “real depth of personalization.” Luke Wood, president and COO of Beats, also said that Beats Music will “focus really heavily on playlists.”

Along with web access, Beats Music will support Android and iOS with connected apps and Windows 8 in the future.

It’s unknown what subscription costs will be associated with using Beats Music and with only a vague release date, it’s unknown exactly how Beats Music will compare with existing music streaming services.

Source: The Next Web

Spotify celebrates fifth birthday

Spotify is 5 years old. The streaming music service was launched in 2008 in Sweden, France, Britain, Spain, Finland and Norway. To celebrate, Spotify has published an infographic highlighting its achievements so far.

Of the more than 20 million songs in Spotify’s library, 80% have been played at least once, which means there are at least 4 million songs that have never been played. Playlists are really popular, with over a billion created, including 150,000 called ‘Twerking.’

Click on the infographic below to see the full size image.

Spotify is available on Windows, Mac, iOS, Windows Phone, Android, Blackberry and Linux. There is also a web app.

Spotify is hugely popular with users, who love being able to stream such a huge library of songs wherever they are. But some artists like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke have criticized its business model and questioned whether it’s a good development for the music industry. Spotify has 24 million active users, and 6 million payed subscribers, so it looks unlikely to go away in the near future.

Read more about Spotify:

Notch: I’ll never be able to top Minecraft

Minecraft creator Marcus ‘Notch’ Persson lamented on Twitter today that he will ‘never be able to top Minecraft.’

Notch is one of the most open developers on Twitter, and often quite emotional. He’s worth following on Twitter just to hear his opinions about gaming. Minecraft has allowed Notch to set up a growing game company, Mojang, which has three games in development: Minecraft, Cobalt and Scrolls.

A fourth game, an open world space game called 0x10c was announced, but then put on ice as Notch said he’d reached a creative block.

Minecraft was first released on PC in 2009, and quickly became a phenomenon, and has been brought to Android, iOS and home consoles too. It’s the 6th best selling PC game of all time, and has sold over 33 million copies over all platforms. That’s a tough thing to top, and it’s easy to understand how Notch might feel the pressure to do so.

You can play the Minecraft demo here, it just requires a free Mojang account to play.

Read more about Minecraft:

GTA V: How to make money

Wanna get rich in Los Santos? In GTA V there are countless simple ways for Franklin, Michael and Trevor to make cash.

Robberies can make you money, but organizing them is time-consuming and takes a lot of effort. Why risk your life when you can make a few extra dollars more easily and quickly? With this in mind, we’re going to share a few ideas to get you some extra income in Los Santos.

How to make money

Step 1: Random events

You’ll see random events all over Los Santos. These are represented by a blue or red dot(depending on whether it’s someone who needs your help or someone who’s a threat) which will appear on your map as you pass by.

It’s impossible to list all the random events in GTA V so I’ll highlight the type of events that’ll help you make money.

Step 2: Attacking armored trucks

Easily recognizable, the armored trucks are a great option for an easy grand. Dispense with the guards, grab the vehicle and take off… It’s likely that the police will give chase, but it’ll be a bit half-hearted. Besides, it’s worth being chased by the cops in exchange for a ton of cash, right?

  • Take advantage of robberies and assaults

Theft is pretty common in all Los Santos neighborhoods: you’ll see robbers trying to steal from a poor passersby. If you see one of these attacks, simply take out the thief (firearm or fists, you decide). Then you can decide what to do with the stolen wallet or purse… Do you give it back to its owner? If you do, they’ll certainly be grateful and you’ll likely get a small reward, about $50. If you don’t. you’ll take the booty for yourself, and it’s not usually less that $500.

The same goes for robberies at stores: if you are “good” you’ll only get the owner’s thanks, whereas if you decide not to return the loot you’ll probably be looking at $2000.

  • “Recruit” followers to the Altruist Cult

When you’re controlling Trevor you’ll sometimes come across people who need you to take them to another part of the city. You can either do this as a favor or pretend to do it while actually recruiting them for the Altruist Cult (this will show up on your map when you get into the car). If you decide to turn your passenger into a prisoner for the sect, you’ll be rewarded with $1,000 each time…Not bad for a lowly chauffeur, huh?

By now, I’m sure you’re asking, are there other ways to get money through random events? Of course there are! We’ve only listed the higher-income options, but they’re not the only ones.

Step 3: Street crime

Is finding random events too slow for you? Do you need money more urgently? Then you can always make use of foul play: knocking over or shooting at passersby and seizing their belongings…Sometimes they’re not carrying much, but others have a few hundred dollars on them, especially people that look likely to be drug traffickers – or senior executives.

Another quick (and, let’s be honest, immoral) way to get easy money is assaulting people while they’re at ATMs. These are scattered throughout the city.

Finally, you can hit up to 19 stores throughout the game, mainly supermarkets and drugstores in Los Santos. They’re not usually super lucrative, but you can raise some funds and it’s relatively easy to escape.

Step 4: “Honest” professions

It’s not all about crime… there are honest ways to make a living in Los Santos too.

  • Cab driver

To begin your career as a cab driver you need a cab. Once you’ve done this, press the relevant button (the game will tell you) and start transporting passengers. You won’t get large sums of money with this activity, but if you like driving it’s a good way to do it with some added benefits.

In addition to these missions, if you buy the cab company in the city you can do additional missions that’ll earn you major amounts of cash.

  • Hunter

If being a cab driver is classic Grand Theft Auto, then hunting is a bit of a novelty in the series. To earn some cash as a hunter all you have to do is go into any hunting reserve as Trevor (after unlocking them to meet Cletus) and begin shooting the animals.

Each animal has a market price: sell a few and watch your income grow. Just keep in mind one thing: you can’t sell animals you’ve killed outside the hunting areas.

Step 5: Strange or crazy missions

Do you have a bit more time? Then you might want to try the Strange or crazy missions, which appear on the map with the question mark icon, often accompanied by an initial.

Most of these missions have several phases, like this: you’ll meet a character who may later give you other tasks, or, you can choose when you do them by calling later (in this case, the game tells you when to do it).

Between Michael, Trevor and Franklin you’ll meet 16 characters like these, but which of them offers the greatest rewards in terms of cold, hard cash? Mainly Maude, a woman who lives in Sandy Shores, near Trevor, and gives us several missions for finding and arresting criminals. The reward for each head is 5,000 to $10,000, depending on whether you fulfill the relevant objective of bringing them back dead or alive.

There are other strange and crazy missions offering money, while others only serve to help you complete 100% of the game. The best advice is to explore Los Santos and discover them for yourself.

Long-term investments

Between primary and secondary missions, and other activities you’ll have saved a few thousand dollars. Now you just have to make your savings work for you.

Invest in the stock market

GTA V has its own stock market, which is accessed from the cell phone of each character. Take time to look at the evolution of each company and acquire shares in a few of the most promising ones. Moreover, since some real-world events are related to companies that are on the exchange, keep track of inside information and invest before they occur (for example, if you’re in charge of killing a senior executive at one of these companies).

At first, you’ll not seem to get a lot of money, but be patient and you’ll build up your wealth.

With a little patience, you can strike gold on the stock market

Become an entrepreneur

As we mentioned in our review, GTA V is extremely comprehensive; you can even buy properties throughout Los Santos. True enough, you need capital to do so, but a couple of robberies will be enough to buy a business.

Not only can you make money without doing anything, but in some cases (like the taxi company we mentioned earlier), you can do other missions to earn more cash.

The most expensive property is the Country Club… it also offers the most perks

 

Have you come up with any other great ways of making money in GTA V?

Let us know in the comments below.
Original article written by Maria Baeta for Softonic ES.

European Half-Life 3/Portal 3 trademarks exposed as fake

Last week two new trademark filings were seen on the Trademarks and Design Registration Office of the European Union (OHIM), for Half-Life 3 and Portal 3, both games from Valve. Both have now disappeared and were most likely hoaxes.

ValveTime, a site dedicated to the game company points out that even if the trademark filings were real, they would not be much to get excited about. Companies often register numerical trademarks on their titles for possible future use. Electronic Arts has Battlefield trademarks all the way up to 20, for example!

There is no evidence that Valve is even working on Half-Life 3 at the moment. There is a movie in the works, but nothing else. There is also little to suggest that a sequel to Portal 2 is on the way either, as recent leaks showed no development team for Portal 3.

Half-Life 3 is one of the most highly anticipated games that might never exist in the history of video gaming. Many people are looking for any tiny scrap of evidence that it might be on the way, but it’s worth remembering that even Portal 2’s famously oblique teaser campaign was easy to verify as legitimate, whereas Valve has been careful to drop no official hints about Half-Life 3.

[Source: ValveTime]

How do you compete with Windows 8? Google tries running its own OS from Chrome

Google is experimenting with Chrome for Windows 8, and taking advantage of the feature that allows browsers to open in the Modern UI to run a version of the Chrome operating system on top of Windows.

The current stable version of Chrome for Windows 8 can be run as a ‘Metro’ style app, but is simply a browser. But upcoming versions look exactly like Chrome OS when opened – with an start button and app menu giving you access to Google products like Chrome, Gmail and Youtube. You can also open your Chrome apps as stand-alone windows.

This looks like Google sticking their own eco-system on top of Windows 8, and while it’s packed full of features, it’s easy to see how this might upset Microsoft. Chrome OS has not been a huge success for Google, but much like Google+, the search giant has decided this is where its future lies, and is baking the product into other services to make sure we get used to it.

Windows 8 is seen as a more closed system than previous versions, and Google isn’t the only company looking for strategies to deal with it. Steam’s co founder Gabe Newell has been a vocal critic of Windows 8, but took an alternate route, announcing a Steam OS based on Linux.

It’s hard to say any of this is good for users. Running an OS on top of another has to be inefficient, and separate operating systems altogether is inconvenient. It feels as if the competition between Google, Microsoft, Apple and others is resulting in second-rate workarounds. We want to be able to use our favorite apps easily in our favorite operating systems, and currently it feels like none of the software giants really want us to have that choice.

It’s also hard to see Microsoft allowing a browser to be a Trojan horse for a separate operating system, so it will be interesting to see what its response will be.

Read more about Chrome:

Skype working on chat synchronizing across devices

Skype has announced the improvements coming to the service over the coming months. This includes rolling out message and notification synchronization for all your devices with Skype.

The iOS apps for iPhone and iPad have also been updated with a new look for iOS 7. It’s a flatter design, in line with Apple’s new OS, but not a radical change.

Many people use Skype on multiple devices: their PCs, tablets and phones. Skype is working synchronize the status of chats on all your devices, which is currently not always the case. Skype’s chat isn’t its most developed feature, although it had to replace the Windows Live Messenger service.

Another area Skype is working on is how to deal with the move away from desktop PCs to mobile devices that aren’t always connected to the internet. Skype is based on peer to peer (P2P) technology, but as more people use the service on less powerful mobile devices, Skype has had to develop its cloud services to ensure that people can connect and messages are delivered.

Skype is available for Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android, Windows Phone.

NSA Scandal: How closely is Big Brother watching us?

A lot has been said about the NSA scandal, and its easy to get carried away when it comes to Big Brother and government conspiracy theories, but what exactly does the NSA scandal mean for our privacy, and how worried should we really be?

Big Brother is watching like its 1984

The NSA is capable of decoding anything we transmit online: bank transactions, emails, documents. According to whistleblower Edward Snowden, the NSA can read virtually anything.

But how exactly does the NSA overcome the firewalls that supposedly protect our privacy online? We don’t have all the technical details, but according to Snowden, the NSA have managed to interfere in the development of encryption standards, forcing big companies to weaken their encryptions, supply them with data or provide back door access.

These are the protocols which, according to Snowden, the NSA can easily overcome (source)

Luckily, Snowden recently confirmed that it is in fact possible to use secure encryption systems. Bruce Schneier, a well-known figure in the stealth field of cryptography, said that the math behind encryption keys is powerful, and that no computer, not even a quantum supercomputer (basically, a really powerful computer), would be able to break a key like the one we use every day to browse Facebook.

You’re probably not a target

Whatever tapping system is being orchestrated by the NSA, the probability that you’re the target is quite low. Of course, the NSA is on the defensive, trying to rationalize its efforts.

If you don’t have anything to hide though, then you don’t really need to worry, and if you live outside of the US, then you’re most likely in the clear (although the scale of the NSA’s monitoring is definitely global and affects all types of devices, where it actually reaches is not clear).

You’re not defenseless

We don’t know exactly how the NSA managed to outsmart the encryption systems in place on web browsers and cell phones, but one thing is clear: they still can’t break the most powerful encryptions. They can only get around them.

Like we mentioned in our ‘10 apps to secure your online privacy‘ article, there’s a ton of useful tools which, when used properly, will improve your privacy and security without making you compromise the way you use the web.

Secure browsing

  • Tor, the system for browsing anonymously, has been noted as hackable by the NSA, but using it is still better than not using anything at all if you want to maintain some anonymity.
  • Some browsers are more secure than others: epic browser, for example, only works in incognito mode, and has a proxy to anonymize your connection.

Email and messaging

  • There are mobile apps which allow you to chat privately, either by destroying the messages, using encryption, or both.

Keeping a low profile is recommended

Being excessive with your security and encryption efforts could actually raise red flags and make you a target. Only use encryption when you need it – using complicated anonymizers when you’re sending your wife the grocery list, for example, is not recommended!

According to info leaked by Snowden, the NSA keeps encrypted data for longer, precisely because of the risk it could potentially pose. Their logic is simple: “If you use encryption, you have something to hide”.

You should limit the use of encryption to messages with sensitive information that can only be sent electronically and need to be protected. In the majority of cases, you won’t need to encrypt them simply because nobody is actively listening and you theoretically having nothing to hide.

So, to encrypt, or not to encrypt? That seems to be the question. The answer: use your own judgment to decide what really needs protection and what isn’t as important. The unfortunate part is, we now have to think about it.

Will you think twice about using encryption?

Original article by Fabrizio Ferri-Benedetti, published on Softonic ES.

Latest Twitter for Android beta features new UI

If you’re wondering what the next version of Twitter for Android will look like, this is it. Droid Life reports of a massive redesign in the latest Twitter beta for Android. The biggest change is the persistent tool bar at the bottom, which allows users to quickly post a picture from the gallery, take a picture, or compose a tweet. The top menu bar is also gone, replaced with just three tabs: Home, Discover, and Activity.

Twitter beta for Android

While the new app functions the same as the old one, it’s odd that Twitter has decided to go against the Android style guide. The app looks more like something you’d find on Windows Phone than on Android. There’s no cards, which Google has popularized, nor do the bottom buttons conform to Google’s standards (notice the transparency).


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You’ll have to be part of the Twitter beta (sign ups are now closed) in order to download the app and test it yourself.

[Source and image credit: Droid Life]

GTA Online patch for PS3 out now, Xbox 360 coming later today

Rockstar is keeping its promise of working around the clock to fix issues plaguing Grand Theft Auto Online players. Today, the company released an update for the PlayStation 3 with a Xbox 360 updating following “as soon as possible today.”

The PS3 update fixes an issue where the number of simultaneous players was limited. The issue stemmed beyond that just limited simultaneous players as it prevented many from accessing GTA Online altogether.

GTA Online has been met with a bunch of issues since launching Tuesday, with users reporting time outs, disappearing characters, and other bugs. Some users report not being able to access the online mode at all. Rockstar responded by quickly patching the game and removing micro-transactions until the company feels the game is stable enough.

Rockstar apologized to players, saying “Please know that the entire team here at Rockstar and all of our relevant partners are and will continue to be working around the clock to get the experience to be as smooth as possible, as soon as possible.” The company urges players to follow the Rockstar support page for updates as well as submitting bugs and other technical problems to the support team, either on Twitter or on their own forums.


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[Source: Rockstar]