You might assume that Netflix, the world’s most popular video streaming service, would put out a fierce condemnation of online piracy, but CEO Reed Hastings is taking a much more accepting stance.

Speaking ahead of his company’s launch in Spain in October, Hastings indicated that piracy creates a market receptive to watching content online -- a necessity for his businesses to succeed.

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It was not the industry's best-kept secret -- Sony let the cat out of the bag a little early -- but at WWDC today, Tim Cook officially took the wraps off Apple Music. Set to compete with the likes of Tidal and Spotify, Apple's new streaming music service sits neatly alongside iTunes and has the involvement of Dr Dre, Trent Reznor, and Jimmy Iovine to name but three.

Cook stepped into Steve Jobs' shoes for a moment, introducing the famous "one more thing" that has been missing from more recent Apple events. Not a company to hide its light under a bushel, Apple's Music service is not just a music streaming service, but "the next chapter in music". But there's more than just Apple Music; there's also Beats One, Apple's first ever radio station.

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On June 3rd, music streaming service Tidal updated its Android app, which in my extensive testing over the weekend resolves a catastrophic bug that skips songs. The previous version jumped tracks before they finished playing on my Nexus 6 or 9. Last week, the lossless listening provider acknowledged the problem. The fix is in, and I am satisfied.

Tidal delivers HiFi streaming—1411kbps Free Lossless Audio Codec—at the premium price of $19.99 per month. For a music streamer charging more, about double other paid service competitors, the glitch was inexcusable. I first reported the erratic behavior nearly a month ago.

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If Apple's streaming music service launches tomorrow at WWDC and is branded with the company's name/logo, look for broad naming changes ahead. My guess, and it's only that: the lower-case letter before products like iMac or iPhone will disappear; over time. Under CEO Tim Cook, the branding strategy differs from Steve Jobs. That's sensible considering where the company is today compared to 1998 when the cofounder introduced iMac.

Apple Watch foreshadows the new nomenclature. Contrary to months of iWatch rumors before launch, the device is identified by sound as Apple Watch, but what you see is the company's logo, which is one of the most recognizable brand icons ever created. If Apple Music turns out to be more than just streaming, but the replacement for or displacement of iTunes, consider that as sign of future naming conventions to come. If I am mistaken -- well, Apple should do what I predict.

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It has been rumored for as long as we can remember (well... almost...). The idea that Apple would launch a streaming music services -- bearing in mind everything else Apple does -- is something that just makes sense. Now the cat is out of the bag as the rumor is confirmed by Doug Morris, CEO of Sony Music.

The official announcement will come from Apple at its World Wide Developers Conference tomorrow (Monday 8 June), but Morris' statement in an interview in the Midem Music Industry Festival in Cannes is a solid source. He said that the launch will represent a "tipping point" for the industry as music listeners make the move from downloading tracks to streaming them on demand. Just don't expect Apple service to be free.

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Last year Amazon rolled out its competitor in the set-top box market, the Fire TV. The box seemed to be a hit, and the price point was right to compete, at $99. That places it squarely in the crosshairs of Roku and Apple. But how is it fairing in this tight market?

According to a recent report the answer is "quite well". According to Strategy Analytics, the retail giant is pulling in a whopping 30 percent of the current streaming media device market. In fact, the top four makers account for 90 percent of the total market.

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Football season is coming, despite that it isn't even officially summer yet. The draft is behind us and OTAs are underway. Training camp is just around the corner in July. But one thing has lacked with the National Football League, and that's live streaming games. Thanks to a deal with DirecTV, the league has been locked up while other sports like MLB have thrived in this market. Things are changing though, but the wheels turn slowly.

The NFL has inked a deal with Yahoo -- yes, the also-ran search competitor -- to live stream a game for free, It's a start and we'll see where things go from here. In the meantime write down the date October 25th. That's the day the Buffalo Bills take on the Jacksonville Jaguars. Sound like a boring game? It isn't, because it will test this new plan.

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My third month as a Tidal subscriber started today, but nearly not at all. Last week I prepared to cancel the pricey, streaming service after encountering a disastrous functional flaw listening on either Nexus 6 or 9. Songs skip to the next track part way through playing, which is unacceptable behavior—made more so because of expectations that higher audio fidelity and loftier monthly subscription fee set.

I would have stopped subscribing yesterday, at the billing cycle's end, if not for Tidal offering a free month of service. Whether or not our paying relationship continues depends much on the music streamer resolving an app problem. "There is a bug with Nexus and Sony phones with Android 5 unfortunately", according to a tech support specialist, "We are working on fixing this. Mostly after 26 megabytes have been streamed, it skips. So for now we do not have a solution yet",

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The EFF (Electronic Freedom Foundation) has involved itself in lots of online battles -- including the fightback against NSA surveillance, and the drive for net neutrality. The latest fight sees the organization joining forces with web performance and security firm CloudFlare in tackling the site blocking activities of the record industry.

The digital rights group is battling record labels which it says are forcing web firms into becoming the "copyright police". The move was prompted by the closure of Grooveshark, a music website run by one of CloudFlare's clients. It re-opens the question of who is ultimately responsible for the content that appears on sites -- those posting it, those hosting it, or any other company involved in the delivery?

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If you haven't been following the news today, Lenovo is currently holding its Tech World show. We have seen new laptops in various price ranges. But a hot item these days for the home theater is sticks, as opposed to set-top boxes. We've seen them from Google, Roku and Amazon, but all three had some experience in the market. Now Lenovo is jumping in feet first with its own offering.

The Chinese hardware maker has announced Lenovo Cast to allow customers to share the videos from their phones and tablets, but do so on the big screen -- obviously more comfortable than having folks gather round that hand-held device.

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Roku, the small set-top box, has become wildly popular in recent times. It is also constantly adding new content via "channels" and trying to improve the hardware offerings as well. Now folks in the UK will get the latest improvements.

Roku Search is, perhaps, the biggest part of the announcement, as it allows customers to more easily locate the content they wish to watch. For the moment it only covers a few key channels -- Netflix, Snagfilms and Popcornflix -- but Roku plans to add many more channels in the future.

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For many folks, music gets them through the day, or even life. There's also no shortage of services out there looking to get users to choose them. While some are lesser known, Spotify certainly isn't, as it's an industry leader that boasts 25 billion listening hours since it launched.

Now the streaming company is making some improvements that should satisfy customers even more. Users of the mobile app can expect what Spotify terms a "richer experience" for the Now app.

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When it comes to coffee, I am pretty open-minded, brewing many different brands with my Keurig. Hell, the use of that single-cup brewer is sacrilege to many aficionados, but I enjoy it. Away from home, however, I drink Dunkin' Donuts, 7 Eleven and, of course, Starbucks. While the Seattle-based Starbucks is not my favorite coffee, I go there more often than the other two. Why? The ambiance. I enjoy being in the coffee shop, as it is trendy and they play interesting music. Oh, and free Wi-Fi!

Apparently, I am not alone in enjoying the music that is played in Starbucks, as the company is joining forces with my favorite streaming music service, Spotify. While this partnership seems odd on the surface, it actually makes a lot of sense.

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Video games and set-top boxes. They don't seem to go together, but these days they do. You can play games on many of them, though they won't be confused with an Xbox One or PS4. But today video games aren't just about playing, it's become a spectator sport as well. Much of that is due to the Twitch service which allows people to post videos and watch others.

Now the Twitch channel has arrived on Roku, one of the most popular set-top boxes on the market. The manufacturer is adding the channel now, allowing customers to begin streaming the videos that seem so popular in today's culture.

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Online video services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are undeniably popular, but they are set to explode in the next few years. A study published by Juniper Research suggests that in a period of just five years (2014-2019) the number of people subscribing to streaming video services will rocket from 92.1 million to 332.2 million.

Despite what many people may have thought, it is not growing use of mobile devices for entertainment that will be responsible for the increase. The nearly fourfold growth will be driven by the success of the likes of Google's Chromecast and Amazon's Fire TV Stick.

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