Webware

A triumvirate of companies have come together to deliver a new way of handling playlists, both in the browser and through Spotify.

Microsoft, Spotify, and a "music intelligence" start-up named The Echo Nest announced yesterday the launch of a visual playlist tool called MixShape. The feature allows users to toss their Spotify playlists of up to 300 tracks into MixShape and come away with a finely tuned playlist, complete with visual display. MixShape analyzes the tracks and creates a mix for the "optimal flow between songs." That flow depends on the "mood" the user … Read more

I'm a cloud-computing, Chrome OS fanboy for the most part. But today was one of of those days I was glad to have old-school Mac and Windows PCs lying around my home office.

I'm no power user, but Google Docs suits me for word processing, while Google Sheets works fine for creating spreadsheets. However, when it comes to importing and editing files from the incumbent power, Microsoft Office, Google just isn't meeting even my low-end needs.

Google handles such documents -- in either the older .doc and .xls formats, and the newer .docx and .xlsx formats -- … Read more

Google has put some pressure on Sweden's Language Council after it tried to add "ungoogleable" to its list of words, according to a report out of the country.

Swedish news outlet Sverigesradio is reporting today that Google's lawyers contacted the Language Council after it announced that it would make "ungoogleable" (or, in Swedish, "ogooglebar") an official word. After "a long e-mail exchange" with the lawyers, the Council decided to drop its bid to make it a word, saying that it took "too much time and resources away from other … Read more

Microsoft has tweaked its Mail, Calendar, and People apps for Windows 8 and RT users with some much-need improvements.

The three core apps, which are bundled together, received some long overdue tweaks last night that make them a bit more user-friendly. But along with those improvements comes one negative: the Calendar app will no longer sync with Google Calendar appointments.

On the plus side, the Mail app now offers full folder management. You can create, rename, and delete folders and subfolders to better organize your e-mail.

Managing individual messages is also much easier. You can select multiple e-mails to delete, … Read more

Bruce Livingstone, founder of the iStockphoto site that grew from a small stock-art community to a multimedia juggernaut, is launching a competitor called Stocksy United today that he hopes will bring the business back to its roots.

Stocksy is a startup, but it won't attract venture capital, won't be acquired by a larger rival, and doesn't have an exit strategy. Instead, it's a cooperative run by its own photographers who get paid a relatively high percentage of the royalties generated by each image sale: 50 percent. On top of that, photographers split the profits left over … Read more

Digg, the social news site that has gone through its fair share of ups and downs, provided a few more details on its anticipated RSS reader.

The company today discussed the four feature ideas it says it received from users that they'd like to see incorporated into the company's upcoming RSS reader. Chief among the suggestions was that the platform "keep it simple." Users also asked Digg to make it fast and work across a wide array of devices. It should be easy for users to import their feeds from existing Google Reader accounts.

Google Reader prompted Digg to fast-track an RSS reader of its own. … Read more

A "Zombieland" TV series could rise from the grave on Amazon if enough Prime members give it the thumbs-up.

"Zombieland" is the 13th and latest original series to bite off a pilot on Amazon's Prime video service. Six other comedy pilots and six children's pilots will also air on Prime Instant Video and Lovefilm UK exclusively for paying subscribers. Viewers will be able to watch and review each pilot, helping decide which of them will score a full season's worth of episodes.

Amazon told CNET that the pilots are "coming soon" … Read more

Rumors have been swirling about Apple and Samsung building smartwatches, but they're not the only ones. One Chinese company is reportedly looking to get into the time-keeping game Firefox OS.

Known for its e-readers and an Android-fueled smartwatch released last year, a subdivision of massive Chinese tech outfit Shanda called Guoke plans to sell a smartwatch in June called the Bambook Smart Watch. The Bambook will come in two flavors, according to TechNode. One will run Android, the other Firefox OS. Reportedly, the watch will cost more than $100, and will have an e-ink screen.

Like Samsung, Shanda has … Read more

YouTube is clearly eyeing paid subscriptions, though it won't reveal if such an option has gotten the green light.

Speaking with reporters in Los Angeles yesterday, Robert Kyncl, a YouTube vice president, said that paid subscription channels are "incredibly important" in order to create "additional revenue streams" for content creators, the Wall Street Journal reported today. YouTube has reportedly already been chatting with producers about offering channels that would require a fee.

Possibly debuting as soon as next quarter, the first of such channels would charge users between $1 and $5 a month and initially … Read more