digital

One issue holding up Apple iRadio: The economics of skipping songs

Apple, which has been aiming for a summer rollout of a streaming music service, has hit a negotiating snag with Sony Music over some of the features that it is building into its product.

More specifically, Apple and Sony Music, the world's second-largest music label, are still trying to hammer out details over how much Apple would pay for songs that people listen to a fraction of and then skip, according to people familiar with the negotiations. There could be other points of contention as well.

Apple's streaming music service, which most closely resembles Internet radio leader Pandora, … Read more

New photo tools in Google+ show promise (hands-on)

Google rolled out a few photo-related updates at this year's Google I/O conference, and more than anything they deftly illustrate the simultaneous benefits and pitfalls of automation. Highlights promises to select the choicest photos from your endless stream to display only the best, most interesting captures. Auto Enhance promises to clean up on demand the underexposed, flat, and out-of-focus photos that pollute all of our photo streams. And the joyfully named Auto Awesome purportedly creates animated GIFs, all-smiles family portraits, and perfect panoramas.

When they work, these are great features. When they don't, you want to bang … Read more

Google close to launching streaming music service

Google is close to unveiling its streaming music service, as it prepares to take on Pandora, Spotify, and possibly Apple.

In March, Google signed a deal for two streaming services with Warner Music -- one tied to YouTube, the other to Google's Android music platform, Google Play. And now Google has struck deals with Universal Music as well as Sony Music, according to a report in The Verge, which suggests that Google could make the announcement at tomorrow's big developer conference, Google I/O.

While Google has been working with the music labels on two services, sources tell … Read more

FCC again balks on telephone network shutdown

Six months after wireline telephone operators and trade groups asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to begin shutting down their aging switched networks, the agency responded late Friday, calling for further study.

In a public notice (PDF) issued by an agency task force created in December 2012, the FCC reiterated the importance of accelerating the transition from switched networks to native IP infrastructure. But rather than approving limited trials to test technical and regulatory obstacles to a full conversion, the agency instead raised more questions about the trials and called for more rounds of comments.

The task force also … Read more

Nikon 1 series gets a really fast prime

One of the hardest parts of making an interchangeable-lens camera series attractive to people who use more than just the two basic slow zooms is the process of ramping up the lens selection. It's been a year and a half since the company announced its Nikon 1 series, and Nikon is still slowly filling out its lineup with the fixed focal-length lenses that attract the more advanced users. As of now, the company only offers eight lenses, six of which are pretty slow zooms. The latest addition, a 32mm f1.2 (with an equivalent angle of view to 86mm … Read more

DOJ: We don't need warrants for e-mail, Facebook chats

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI believe they don't need a search warrant to review Americans' e-mails, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and other private files, internal documents reveal.

Government documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union and provided to CNET show a split over electronic privacy rights within the Obama administration, with Justice Department prosecutors and investigators privately insisting they're not legally required to obtain search warrants for e-mail. The IRS, on the other hand, publicly said last month that it would abandon a controversial policy that claimed it could get warrantless access … Read more

Edit like a pro with Zoner Photo Studio 15, now 60 percent off

Update May 9, 2013: This offer has been extended, thanks to the folks over at Zoner!

The full-featured image-editing suite Zoner Photo Studio 15 has a bit of something for everyone, from budding amateurs to eager enthusiasts to professional photographers. Whether you need to retouch a few snapshots or batch edit huge photo collections, ZPS has you covered. Need to organize your entire image gallery? Try Zoner Photo Studio's built-in Manager feature. You can create beautiful panoramas, have fun with high-dynamic range (HDR) imaging, or even develop eye-popping 3D images.

Zoner Photo Studio is easy to pick up without … Read more

Blockbuster rolls out iOS app

Dish Network on Thursday launched its Blockbuster On Demand app for iOS devices with pre-purchase movie rentals from its online library.

The app had already been available since January for desktop computers, Samsung Smart TVs, and Android devices, but today the movie watching app is finally available for iOS.

Like its desktop counterpart, Blockbuster On Demand lets iPhone and iPad users browse, rent, and stream movies from its On Demand catalog, featuring almost 5,500 movies that include new releases as well as titles across several genres. The app also provides movie ratings courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes, and lets you … Read more

Bug-eyed! This digital camera tech gives 180-degree view

A team of researchers at several universities around the world has created a new digital camera technology that takes cues from bug eyes.

The technology, which has not yet been named, is designed after the eyes found in arthropods. The camera is equipped with a a slew of image sensors and focusing lenses around a hemispherical base. With the sensors arranged in that way, the camera can take complete 180-degree pictures with no interpretive mistakes in image quality.… Read more

YouTube to advertisers: You need us to attract a younger crowd

NEW YORK--Google on Wednesday made its pitch for advertising on YouTube, telling companies that the site is a vital way to reach the highly desired 18- to 34-year-old demographic and a way to build a base of loyal fans.

However, the company didn't announce any new major projects or partnerships. Instead, executives positioned YouTube as hip and in tune with what younger viewers desire -- something it said its online rivals and traditional cable networks lack. And it noted that the transition to online viewing has already happened.

"The future is already here," Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt … Read more