Alan Buckingham

Regardless of what genre of music you like, concerts are a fun way of enjoying the sound first hand. Studio albums are great, but there's something to be said for the live experience. Pandora seems to agree and wants to begin making this connection between fans and artists.

The streaming service has announced the acquisition of Ticketfly, which is one of the leading ticket sellers online. It claims to have booked "over 16 million tickets to more than 90,000 events".

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Home automation is a catch phrase these days, though some of it is not quite ready for prime time. But things are improving all the time with new products being released at a rapid rate. Logitech's Harmony brand of remote controls has been at the forefront of controlling these devices.

Now, after adding things like the Nest thermostat, the company is announcing compatability with even more devices. This time around it's adding ZigBee and Z-Wave.

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Roku has long been the darling of the set-top box market with its tiny devices that bring internet TV to your big screen. Want to watch Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime? Roku will let you do that from the comfort of your sofa. But what about the next wave of devices? We just saw Amazon reveal its new offerings, and now Roku is following suit.

The company announces version 4 of its device, bringing with it lots of goodies like 4K, which is considered the wave of the next generation TV. It also comes along with version 7 of the operating system, a more powerful quad-core processor and a remote control with voice search. There's also still a headphone jack, just as the Roku 3 remote control had.

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We already knew there was a Microsoft event tomorrow in New York City and BetaNews will be there to help bring you full coverage. The event kicks off at 10am EDT and you can watch it numerous ways, including right here.

However, that's just a prelude to a couple of weeks of other events around the world. Microsoft plans to showcase new devices from a number of OEM partners -- one per day (mostly) beginning October 7th.

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Looking for a set-top box? There's no shortage of choices with Fire TV, Apple and Roku. The latter is probably the most popular solution, though new offerings from competitors aim to change that. But the device has been a bit isolated, not being offered everywhere.

That is slowly changing as Roku is now available to our friends south of the border. Yes, the tiny device is arriving in Mexico now.

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Music streaming services seem to be a dime a dozen these days, with plenty of choices and new ones cropping up all the time. But how do you pipe that sound through your home entertainment system? There are a number of options, but the latest is Spotify for Chromecast.

The streaming service is arriving on Google's tiny HDMI dongle, which was just recently updated. Spotify claims this was highly requested and now users can have it.

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Yesterday was the big Google event and we got to see new Nexus devices and an updated Chromecast. It was enough to satisfy the geek in most of us, but we always want more, so what's next? Well, an improved Chromecast needs better functionality, right?

Sling TV thinks so and it's bringing its service to the tiny Google HDMI dongle. The service claims that Chromecast support is its most requested feature.

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Amazon Prime added music streaming to sweeten the service, going with the free two day shipping, video streaming and more. The problem in doing this is inevitably the record labels who can be a hassle to negotiate with.

Now the online retailer is announcing one more big addition to its music streaming service. The company has managed to sign Universal Music Group to bring customers a greater variety of choice in playing their tunes.

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Fast food may not be the ideal staple of a diet, but most on us indulge, at least from time to time. The sign just seems to beckon sometimes -- the Whopper, the Quarter Pounder, the fries. Now Taco Bell wants to make life even easier for those stopping by for a quick meal.

The company is announcing its new site -- ta.co. Obviously the name is catchy and easy to remember, but there's more to it than just browsing the same menu you'll find in the restaurant. Instead you can customize your dish however you want utilizing options that aren't available when you walk in. You can even pay right on the site.

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While it seems odd to many people, the whole world isn't online -- though it may seem that way sometimes when you visit sites like Facebook. Not all countries have the infrastructure in place to support the deployment of broadband. Google is looking to help.

The company claims that one billion residents of India are without a connection. To remedy this the company is going to the heart of transportation in the nation, the railway stations.

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Adobe Flash and other programs can be a security problem. There's a reason the company releases regular updates. It's advisable to install them, as it likely means you're vulnerable if you don't. Perhaps the biggest offender is Flash, which powers many things on the web.

Now Adobe is quietly testing a beta version of Flash 19. It is currently a Labs project, but anyone can grab a copy if they'd like to try it out.

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Next month the Buffalo Bills take on the Jacksonville Jaguars, but they do so while both being "on the road". The game will be played in London, England, and is the one of two matches set for that destination, as the Dolphins and Jets will clash there later this season as well.

Want to see the game? You can do so multiple ways. Yahoo is bringing you all of the action from every touchdown to every sack. The search and content company announces today that it will have a "Destination" for all the information and action.

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There's been a lot of talk lately about ad-blocking thanks to iOS 9. It's a tough call, given that some users don't want to see ads, but the sites they visit wouldn't exist without those ads -- block them and the sites go away, eventually. That makes for quite a conundrum, and Mozilla is trying sort it out. The Firefox maker refers to it more benignly as "content blocking".

Mozilla hasn't quite figured this all out and it is looking for users to help with the puzzle. The organization isn't interested in what the problem is, but is focusing more on why users choose to do this by utilizing blocking agents.

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In June of 2014 music streaming service Earbits closed down. It seemed a shame, but the big players in the game like Spotify and Rdio are hard to compete with. However, Earbits had a niche, allowing new artists to be heard and discovered by record labels. The shutdown lasted only three days and the company emerged again.

While we knew it had found financial backing, details were not made available. Now finally, after more than a year, we learn that it was acquired by You42.

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Remember parachute pants, Members Only jackets, leg warmers, Swatch and other accouterments of the 80's? Well, you aren't the only one if you answered "yes", because apparently Pebble not only remembers, but wants to revive that bygone era.

The company's latest offering is a round version of the new Pebble Time and it comes in multiple colors. The company claims it's lighter and thinner than any other smartwatch. Like its cousin it still sports an E-Paper display that is always on. The display allows for excellent battery life, at least in my experience.

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