Technology, hardware, and gadgets. WiFi speakers, digital dashboards, and more.
Chevrolet and OnStar teamed up for the second connected-car announcement of CES 2014. OnStar will provide high-speed (4G LTE) Internet connectivity in selected Chevy models. Along with the rolling Internet, Chevrolet will provide a bundle of built-in apps. Ford and Chevy are promoting opposing conceptions of the connected car. Continue Reading
Ford, a veteran participant in the CES feeding frenzy, made a pre-pre-show announcement about its AppLink software that powers infotainment functions in SYNC-equipped cars. That’s a lot of buzzwords. Click through to see what it all means. Continue Reading
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is an important snapshot of the digital product landscape, with a view toward the future. As such, CES commands attention, but each year brings a different focus. CES 2014 is the most important CES in memory, for anyone interested in radio, Internet radio, audio, and mobile infotainment. Continue Reading
Today, Gracenote announced a new developer product called Gracenote Rhythm, which competes directly with The Echo Nest, whose music intelligence technology powers over 400 services. How will the two companies differentiate? Continue Reading
Reports are circulating that Google is extending its Glass Explorer program to subscribers of Google’s arduously-named Google Play Music All Access on-demand music service. This makes perfect sense, since Google recently added music-control features to Glass. Continue Reading
WiFi speakers arguably replace home radios except in one aspect: price. Wireless-enable speakers cost hundreds of dollars each. Samsung feels our pain, and has announced a younger sibling to its Shape M7 wireless, 400-dollar, Internet-enabled speaker. Continue Reading
The Echo Nest has worked with Microsoft before, providing technology underlying the Xbox Web Playlist feature. But Xbox Music Radio is a more basic function, bolted into the platform’s primary navigation, and intended to compete with Pandora, iTunes Music, and all other lean-back pureplay experiences. Continue Reading
Streamripping: a once-popular (and still practiced) way of pulling songs out of an Internet radio stream and saving them as MP3 files. Shazam and SoundHound bring free-or-cheap music collecting to the user’s encounter with music anywhere, including radio. Life is a stream, and Shazam rips it. Continue Reading
Is HD Radio evolutionary, revolutionary, or neither? That depends on who you ask. The digital transmission technology is expanding its footprint — again, either slowly or quickly depending on who you’re talking to. We spoke to Bob Struble, President and CEO of iBiquity, the developer and owner of HD Radio technology. Continue Reading
There’s buzz and activity around podcasting these days. Podcasting isn’t new, but I think it’s become reinvigorated of late with a few players moving things forward. Continue Reading
Songza updated its iOS and Android apps today, adding Chromecast capability. Google Chromecast is a thumb-sized WiFi device that plugs into a digital television’s HDMI port. when activated, Chromecast streams content from partner providers, or from anything playing on Google’s chrome browser. Continue Reading
Streaming music is gaining popularity fast, but lags behind the web in understanding its users.
Internet content sites can tag, track, and categorize people as they move about the web, creating deep and accurate user profiles that follow most of us as we move among digital properties. Combined with programmatic ad buying, it means that when a user visits a certain website for the first time, that site can display an ad that is more-or-less precisely relevant to that user. Advertisers pay more for effective targeting. Continue Reading