Rdio is one of the fastest growing music streaming services on the market these days. The company is trying to keep pace with a number of rivals in the increasingly competitive field of internet and mobile entertainment.

Today Rdio is announcing that it's expanding to a staggering 60 nations. This is an additional nine countries being added to the existing regions, and puts the service on six different continents.

Continue reading →

It may seem as though Google feels the sharp end of many tongues -- be it about problems with Glass, for shaping the content of the internet, or the way it handles advertising. But more often than not, the big G finds itself on the receiving end of criticism for being in bed with the NSA for the way it handles user privacy. In spite of all of the ammunition unleashed in Google's direction, the company has -- incredibly -- been awarded a full six stars out of six by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for protecting user data from government requests.

The EFF's Who Has Your Back? report ranks and rates the performance of some of the biggest names in the world of tech for handling user privacy in the face of government data requests. Finding ourselves in a world now tainted by the activities of the NSA, privacy and accountability have become more important to internet users than ever before. The Electronic Frontier Foundation prides itself on "defending your rights in the digital world", and its annual report looks at the performance and promises of 26 companies who handle your data.

Continue reading →

Music services these days are a dime a dozen. New ones pop up all the time, and some make it, while others fail. It's a tough business, given the amount of choices available to customers. Now we learn of one more that failed to find the niche it needed to be a successful business.

Ex.fm has announced it will close up shop on May 19th. This didn't come as a major surprise -- the company had given warning signs previously, but managed to keep things afloat a few additional months. However, now a blog post from the company tells the tale.

Continue reading →

The revelations made by Edward Snowden have irreversibly changed the face of the internet. There is now suspicions at every turn, every site and provider is the subject of questioning, and web users are warier than ever before. The use of encryption to hide the content and nature of online activity is nothing new, but it seems that it is very much on the increase. As reported by TorrentFreak, analysis from Sandvine shows that there has been a global increase in the use of encryption.

The figures have been reached by looking at the levels of SSL traffic over the past year, and these show that in North America, during peak hours, encrypted traffic just about doubled. In Europe the increase is even more marked, jumping fourfold so that it now accounts for over six percent of peak time traffic. Europe appears to have a greater interest in encryption than North America, with the latter's SSL traffic accounting for 3.8 percent of peak time traffic.

Continue reading →

Vinyl Software has announced the release of Winyl 3.0, an extremely major update to its popular music player. A new Radios menu gives easy access to nine internet radio stations, and you can add more as required.

Lyrics now appear automatically whenever you play a recognized song. Well, usually -- they’re not yet visible in all skins (try iTunes if you have problems).

Continue reading →

Spotify has been a bit behind with its Windows Phone features, concentrating mostly on both Android and iOS. But today, the music service has set things right, adding new features to the mobile version of its app for the Microsoft platform.

"Today we’re introducing a new update to our Windows Phone users. The update brings features Discover and Browse, meaning it’s easier than ever to discover new favorites, as well as finding the perfect playlist for every mood and moment", states the company's Channtal Fleischfresser.

Continue reading →

Each and every month Netflix ranks ISPs by the level of service it observes, based on streaming speed. In the past we've seen Comcast drop significantly in these rankings, though once Netflix agreed to pay the cable company, things suddenly changed.

With latest rankings, the service added Canada to it's list, and there, Bell Aliant and Bell Canada were tops in speed. In fact, average speeds in the nation topped those provided by US carriers, though ranked behind most European nations.

Continue reading →

We've known for a while now that Netflix was planning a price increase, though the company hadn't specified the amount it would up the cost to customers. That changes today and, while the increase is minor, the company has thrown in a bit of confusion to keep folks on their toes.

The actual change in cost for the streaming movie and TV service is $1, upping the fee from $7.99 to $8.99 per month. However, it is not all just that simple.

Continue reading →

A new deal could be struck between ISPs and representatives of the music and film industries in UK in a bid to combat online piracy. But the proposed scheme does not go anywhere near as far as had been hoped by the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) and the MPA (Motion Picture Association). Four of the country's biggest ISPs -- BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media -- have come together to create the Voluntary Copyright Alert Program (Vcap) which has the aim of educating downloaders of pirate material of the error of their ways. As the name suggests, the program is completely voluntary.

There have been years of debate on the topic, and the BBC has seen documentation that shows ISPs will be doing little more than sending out letters to those suspected of downloading pirated material. The letters are described as having an "educational" tone, while the industry bodies had been calling for warning letters to be sent out alerting downloaders to the possibility of legal action. They had also asked for access to a database of web users known to have downloaded pirated material.

Continue reading →

TuneIn Radio is one of the hottest music services right now, allowing customers to listen to both terrestrial and internet-based stations. Now the company is implementing a radical upgrade to the way it works.

The service is trying to become more social, a bit like a Twitter for music fans. "TuneIn will connect millions of listeners and broadcasters from all over the globe with new features including a personalized live feed, profile pages, and the ability to share content with the Echo feature", states the company.

Continue reading →

Security news a-go-go once again this week, starting off with a massive security flaw that was discovered in Internet Explorer. The problem affects everything from Internet Explorer 6 to 11, but it was Windows XP users who were particularly at risk due to the fact that Microsoft has ended support for the operating system and is releasing no more security patches. At least that was the case before this problem came to light, causing the company to change its mind and give users one more hit of update goodness.

While Microsoft's latest security whoopsie did leave Microsoft licking its wounds a little, there was cause for celebration for OneDrive for Business users as storage was boosted to 1TB -- and the cloud is becoming ever more important with predictions suggesting 50 billion online devices by 2020. Microsoft was also able celebrate finally having a launch date for the Xbox One in China. In other security news, AOL email service was hacked leading to the leaking of customer data and a new report suggested that just about every website dealing in pirated material is also home to scams and/or malware.

Continue reading →

Whether you've been following Alan's guide to cutting the cord and have opted to ditch your traditional TV service in favour of something web-based, you're keen on sticking with your cable or satellite setup, or you're a gamer, sound is incredibly important to any setup. You could opt to go down the 5.1 (or even 7.1) surround sound route, but all too often this will involve trailing cables around the room in somewhat untidy fashion.

In recent years there has been something of a surge in interest in soundbars -- single units that pump out pseudo-surround -- and there is a huge range to choose from. Many are big and bulky, but the latest offering from Humax -- of set top box fame -- has something of a unique claim to fame: it is, allegedly, the slimmest soundbar in the world.

Continue reading →

Many people think nothing of grabbing the latest episode of Game of Thrones, Blacklist -- or whatever the current show du jour may be -- via one of a seemingly endless number of sites that provide access to pirated material. If you've ever visited such a site, you'll be aware that there is always something of a payload. You'll find advertisements -- usually of a pornographic nature -- fake chat windows, misleading links and all manner of other nasties. For the web-savvy, this is nothing new, but for every tech-minded torrent aficionado who is able to traverse through the online ghettos with an element of safety, there are countless others who are less well informed. And the world of pirate material is a dangerous one for the novice.

While this may not be news in itself, the figures involved are really quite surprising. A report published by The Industry Trust reveals that virtually every one of the most popular sites used to download or stream pirated films and TV shows are riddled with malware or credit card scams -- a staggering 97 percent. The report goes on to suggest that 75 percent of people who have made use of such a site have then experienced problems with their computers. The study was limited to 30 of the most frequently used pirate sites, and monitored them over a two week period. Just one site was found to be free from malware or credit card scams.

Continue reading →

As the streaming music business continues to heat up, Spotify is taking another step to stay ahead of the competition. The service is one of the more popular, but staying at the top is not as easy as it seems.

Now Spotify is teaming with mobile provider Sprint to bring a new deal to potential customers -- of course, you'll have to be on the mobile network in order to take advantage of this new offering. "Starting from May 2nd, all existing and new postpaid Sprint customers can get a 3 and 6 month free trial for Spotify Premium. This offer will launch in all channels on all compatible Sprint postpaid devices", says Spotify's Candice Katz.

Continue reading →

A little while back I wrote a post asking you, the readers, if you planned on getting rid of your pay TV service this year. The response was overwhelming, but the comments were also somewhat surprising. Many of you had already done it.

For those who have not, I thought it would be a good opportunity to point out the services available that can help to fill that time when you sit on the couch simply wanting entertainment to relax to. I don't promise that this will make up for everything, but let's see how close we can come.

Continue reading →