Consumer content

You don't have to be the host of "American Idol" to use Twitter Music anymore.

A little more than a month after CNET broke the news that Twitter was working on a stand-alone music discovery app and a week after that app was rolled out to an invite-only group of celebrities and others -- including Ryan Seacrest -- the general public can now get its hands on the music discovery app.

Twitter officially unveiled #music on Thursday during "Good Morning America." The company later provided more details about the service in a blog post, saying … Read more

Twitter said today that it has added the ability for advertisers to target ads at people based on keywords from those users' recent tweets.

In a blog post this morning, Twitter characterized the new feature as "an important new capability -- especially for those advertisers looking for signals of intent -- because it lets marketers reach users at the right moment, in the right context."

To be sure, millions of people are letting the world know what they're thinking in real time by sending out tweets about what they're doing, links they've noticed, news they'… Read more

Google users should once again be able to access their apps, files, and e-mail.

Following a service disruption earlier today that took down Google Drive, Google Apps, and Gmail, all three appear to be back in business. Google's Apps Status Dashboard page shows all three as accessible, with comments that the problems should be resolved.

Service disruptions also had affected Google Groups and the Google Admin Control Panel used by organizations to manage their Google Apps services. But the status page points to both of those as accessible once again.

The status page updates show that the disruptions were … Read more

Amazon may be cooking up its own anonymous mobile payments system.

Published yesterday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the Amazon patent application appropriately dubbed "Anonymous mobile payments" describes a system that would let mobile users pay for items without having to reveal their name, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal details to the seller.

The invention follows in the footsteps of other mobile payment systems. However, Amazon takes it a few steps further.

Beyond shielding the personal information of the buyer, Amazon's system would use a special code, or temporary identifier, to conduct … Read more

Google Drive and Gmail both experienced service disruptions today.

As of about 6 a.m. PT, Google's Apps Status Dashboard was updated to say that Google was investigating reports of issues with both services and would provide more information shortly.

And things got worse from there. Some 10 to 15 minutes later, the dashboard also showed disruptions affecting Google Documents, Google Spreadsheets, and Google Presentations.

The Google Apps Status Dashboard also reported a service outage this morning with the Admin control panel / API.

But even amid the complaints, by 6:30 a.m. PT, some users were saying they'… Read more

Windows 8.1 could be more user-friendly than its predecessor, at least based on the features revealed in the latest build.

Popping up on file-sharing sites this week, Windows 8.1 Build 9369 includes a new Files app branded with the SkyDrive logo, according to The Verge. The app itself lets you navigate both your local files and those stored on SkyDrive.

Multi-tasking has also been enhanced. When opening a Windows 8 app, users can decide whether to open it full-screen or alongside an existing app.

The addition of an apps button lets users more easily access the apps screen. … Read more

Twitter has pulled the rug out from under Flattr, a service that let users send a digital thank you to anyone favoriting one of their tweets.

In a blog post today, Flattr noted that it will no longer be able to offer its service because Twitter felt it was a violation of the social networking giant's API terms.

"Recently Twitter contacted us and told us that we are violating their API terms citing [a] clause saying 'Your advertisements cannot resemble or reasonably be confused by users as a tweet. For example, ads cannot have tweet actions like follow, … Read more

Spotify continues to turn up its music service around the world.

As of today, Spotify is now officially available in eight new countries, including Mexico, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Iceland. The latest launches extend Spotify's global reach to 28 different countries.

CNET actually uncovered the news yesterday based on information from "a person familiar with the situation." CNET News reporter Paul Sloan reported the rollouts in the new markets with the launch date pegged for today.

Spotify kicked off in the U.S. a year and a half ago and now has 24 million active users, … Read more

Would you spend $1 million for a video ad on Facebook?

That's allegedly what the popular network is aiming to squeeze out of advertisers when it starts rolling out video ads sometime this summer, says a story today in Ad Age.

Citing information from one "executive briefed on the product," Ad Age reported that the video ads would carry a price tag upwards of $1 million, run for no longer than 15 seconds, and be scheduled so that no Facebook user sees more than three such ads per day.

Facebook has been chatting up ad agencies to … Read more