Tag Archives: music

Neil Young’s Surprising Comments On Piracy

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Though his recent statements are unlikely to shock the many young music fans who grew up downloading albums and songs illegally, many were surprised when Neil Young said he didn’t really mind piracy.

“It doesn’t affect me because I look at the internet as the new radio,” Young said at a recent conference. “I look at the radio as gone … Piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around … That’s the radio. If you really want to hear it, let’s make it available, let them hear it, let them hear the 95 percent of it.”

Young also invoked Steve Jobs to illustrate his point, noting that while Jobs was pivotal in the digitization of music, the late Apple CEO would listen to vinyl at home.

Vigorous anti-piracy efforts in the United States and abroad continue to dominate tech headlines. The founder of Pirate Bay, one of the web’s most popular torrent websites, was recently arrested in Cambodia and sent back to his native Sweden, where he’s facing a one-year jail sentence.

It’s worth noting that Young’s new message is a slightly different tune than the one he was singing three years ago, when he blasted YouTube for not paying him and Warner Music Group for hosting their songs.

In January, Young defended both record companies and pirates, while appearing to be most concerned with the quality of the music being delivered to consumers, arguing that CDs and digital downloads offered a dismal listening experience.

More Neil Young (on YouTube!) below.

desktunes Music at your fingertips! ... Desktunes offers free music streaming within a simple set up and an elegant design. You can build your own playlists and view your ?ow Playing?track and album art. You?l have live radio at your fingertips with hundreds of radio stations. Keep your music on your desktop and download Desktunes now ?for free! click here Free music streaming - Stays on your desktop - Simple set up and elegant design - Build your own Playlists - Keep your Now Playing track visible

Neil Young’s Surprising Comments On Piracy

Leave a reply

Though his recent statements are unlikely to shock the many young music fans who grew up downloading albums and songs illegally, many were surprised when Neil Young said he didn’t really mind piracy.

“It doesn’t affect me because I look at the internet as the new radio,” Young said at a recent conference. “I look at the radio as gone … Piracy is the new radio. That’s how music gets around … That’s the radio. If you really want to hear it, let’s make it available, let them hear it, let them hear the 95 percent of it.”

Young also invoked Steve Jobs to illustrate his point, noting that while Jobs was pivotal in the digitization of music, the late Apple CEO would listen to vinyl at home.

Vigorous anti-piracy efforts in the United States and abroad continue to dominate tech headlines. The founder of Pirate Bay, one of the web’s most popular torrent websites, was recently arrested in Cambodia and sent back to his native Sweden, where he’s facing a one-year jail sentence.

It’s worth noting that Young’s new message is a slightly different tune than the one he was singing three years ago, when he blasted YouTube for not paying him and Warner Music Group for hosting their songs.

In January, Young defended both record companies and pirates, while appearing to be most concerned with the quality of the music being delivered to consumers, arguing that CDs and digital downloads offered a dismal listening experience.

More Neil Young (on YouTube!) below.

desktunes Music at your fingertips! ... Desktunes offers free music streaming within a simple set up and an elegant design. You can build your own playlists and view your ?ow Playing?track and album art. You?l have live radio at your fingertips with hundreds of radio stations. Keep your music on your desktop and download Desktunes now ?for free! click here Free music streaming - Stays on your desktop - Simple set up and elegant design - Build your own Playlists - Keep your Now Playing track visible

The Ping Is Dead

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All good Pings must come to an end, and for Apple’s social network Ping, that end date is coming soon.

Apple has officially announced that Ping, its music-based social network baked into the iTunes desktop player, will shut down on September 30. Clicking on the Ping tab (try it, just once, while you can) brings up a message that says just that; 9to5Mac has a larger screenshot:

ping bye bye

AllThingsD also points out that Apple’s old website for Ping has vanished from the face of the Internet.

Introduced at a September 2010 Apple event as “a social network for music,” Ping never really caught on with music-listeners. A kerfuffle with Facebook over sharing activity may have doomed Ping from the start: Facebook blocked access to Ping, which made it impossible to find Facebook friends who were also using Ping.

Ironically, Ping will be replaced with deep Facebook integration in iTunes 11. When that version of iTunes becomes available in October, you’ll be able to see whenever your Facebook friends “Like” an artist, song or album on iTunes.

You can read more about the new iTunes — which will be, for the first time in two years, Ping-less — here.

desktunes Music at your fingertips! ... Desktunes offers free music streaming within a simple set up and an elegant design. You can build your own playlists and view your ?ow Playing?track and album art. You?l have live radio at your fingertips with hundreds of radio stations. Keep your music on your desktop and download Desktunes now ?for free! click here Free music streaming - Stays on your desktop - Simple set up and elegant design - Build your own Playlists - Keep your Now Playing track visible

R.I.P. Apple’s Headphones, 2001-2012

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At its event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Apple introduced “earpods,” a set of newly-designed headphones that will replace its iconic “earbuds” of old, which will come bundled with all Apple mobile devices from now on. Because this represents the end of The White Earbud Era, I thought I’d say a few words, to mourn the passing of Apple’s stalwart headphones.

What will I miss about Apple’s earbuds? It would be easy to answer “Absolutely nothing are you kidding me?”: The sound quality was bad; they wouldn’t stay put in my ears; they were more prone to tangles than a box of Christmas tree lights; it took almost no force at all to bust them open and render them inoperable. But on reflecting upon this, the day the iconic white headphones will disappear forever, I did come up with a few things I will miss. For example:

- I’ll miss the extra exercise I would get when I made the mistake of trying to go running with my Apple earbuds. Because they were so poorly shaped, the buds would constantly fall out of my ears, so that every three steps I would have to lift up one of my arms to shove the dangling bud back into my auditory canal, making it stick for at least another five seconds, until it would inevitably fall out again. This doubtless built up much-needed muscle mass in my biceps.

- I’ll miss being able to listen hip-hop and jazz without hearing any bass whatsoever.

- I’ll miss having to wait to listen to music for ten minutes while I painstakingly attempted to untangle the incredible knot my headphones had managed to get themselves into while sitting at the bottom of my bag, a tangle so incredible it was as though little gremlins in my backpack had deviously tied everything together while I wasn’t looking.

- I’ll miss the way that accidentally falling asleep with an earbud in my ear inevitably meant an earache so painful that even a light breeze the next day would send a shock of agony throughout my entire body.

- I’ll miss the way that the rigid earbuds would stretch the entrance to my ear canal, perhaps permanently distending the very architecture of my ear.

- I’ll miss the way that, whenever anyone said “earbud,” it would immediately remind me of “Air Bud,” a movie from my childhood about a dog who was really good at basketball. I loved that movie, and I love dogs, too. Just think about a golden retriever dribbling a basketball, and you’ll smile, too. Dogs can’t play basketball!

Apple’s upgrade to these new “earpods” is, in other words, fantastic for the ears of iPhone and iPod owners everywhere, and quite possibly the most exciting announcement I heard come from San Francisco. At its heart, the iPhone 5 represents an incremental upgrade that should have been made last year, with a much-needed boost in display size, the addition of the more current 4G LTE connectivity, and what appears to be a meaningful speed increase in the processor. The iPods Touch and Nano that Apple introduced are enticing, but the dedicated MP3 player feels like an afterthought in 2012, a dying breed of gadget that may not be around much longer. The changes to iTunes, meanwhile, make it a real competitor with WinAmp to top my list of Best Desktop Music Apps of 2003. (Here’s hoping that, at the very least, iTunes 11 loads faster than iTunes 1-10).

The earpods, though: The earpods are genuinely exciting. There aren’t very many phone manufacturers that include headphones with their phones anymore: It’s a bygone perk. Samsung does, though its buds are as equally low-quality as Apple’s old ones; HTC phones were shipping with Beats headphones for awhile, but that is apparently out of the plan. It’s a small advantage, almost immeasurable, but given the early positive reviews its earpods are receiving, it’s a nice one to have. Apple now appears to be the only company sending out quality headphones with its phone; given that most people use their smartphones as a dual phone/MP3 player, count this as a tiny but meaningful upgrade to the iPhone package, and really good news for the tender, tender ears of Americans everywhere (not to mention the audio quality of the music that is pumped into them).

New Version Of iTunes Announced

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The iPhone 5 isn’t the only thing Apple unveiled at its press event Wednesday in San Francisco.

The company revealed that iTunes is getting a major revamp. Sure enough, a redesign had been rumored for months. This is the most notable overhaul to iTunes since it launched in 2003, Bloomberg reported.

The new iTunes, which will be “dramatically simpler,” according to Apple SVP Eddy Cue, will feature a grid user interface. Users can change the order of upcoming tracks within a queue. Search has been upgraded with inline results: one click for information, double-click to play. There’s also iCloud integration, and users will be able to watch movies from iCloud.

In addition to the new features and improved UI, Apple is also promising “improved performance throughout,” per Engadget.

The redesigned iTunes 11 launches with iOS 6 for iPhone and iPad on Sept. 19, and it’ll be coming to desktop in October. Some minor updates in the form of iTunes 10.7 will be available today.

Apple CEO Tim Cook explained the rationale behind the iTunes refresh: “Apple loves creating music products. Music is deeply embedded in our DNA. This is the reason that we created iPod and iTunes, and these products have gone on to revolutionize the music industry.”

Apple also announced some major milestones for iTunes: 435 million accounts, 26 million songs, and 20 billion songs purchased since it launched nine years ago.

For more on what Apple announced at its big September event, click on over to our rundown of all the new products, browse our gallery of gorgeous iPhone 5 photos and then take a look at our big news page for full coverage of the event.

New Documents Reveal How Apple Really Invented The iPhone

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Like many of Apple’s inventions, the iPhone began not with a vision, but with a problem. By 2005, the iPod had eclipsed the Mac as Apple’s largest source of revenue, but the music player that rescued Apple from the brink now faced a looming threat: The cellphone. Everyone carried a phone, and if phone companies figured out a way to make playing music easy and fun, “that could render the iPod unnecessary,” Steve Jobs once warned Apple’s board, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography.

Fortunately for Apple, most phones on the market sucked.

WATCH: Is This Really A ‘Leaked’ iPhone 5 Commercial?

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A video that’s purported to be a “leaked” commercial for the highly-anticipated iPhone 5 is making the rounds on Twitter.

According to the video’s YouTube description, it was “leaked by an anonymous apple [sic] employee.”

While some features, such as the bigger screen, mini dock connector and 4G LTE capability, have a pretty good chance of being included in the new iPhone, it’s hard to believe this ad is legitimate.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE

The clip, which was uploaded to YouTube on Monday, features music, branding and overly detailed specs that seem inconsistent with something Apple would produce.

The iPhone 5, or New iPhone, or whatever it’s going to be called, is expected to be announced at an Apple event in San Francisco on Wednesday. If all goes according to plan, the phone is expected to go on sale the following week.

This certainly isn’t the first iPhone 5 “commercial” to hit the web. Check out this fantastic parody from last month as well as the concept video from Dakota Adney that went viral over the summer.

What do you think of the video? Let us know in the comments.

LOOK: iPhone 5 Rumor Roundup

WATCH: Is This Really A ‘Leaked’ iPhone 5 Commercial?

Leave a reply

A video that’s purported to be a “leaked” commercial for the highly-anticipated iPhone 5 is making the rounds on Twitter.

According to the video’s YouTube description, it was “leaked by an anonymous apple [sic] employee.”

While some features, such as the bigger screen, mini dock connector and 4G LTE capability, have a pretty good chance of being included in the new iPhone, it’s hard to believe this ad is legitimate.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE

The clip, which was uploaded to YouTube on Monday, features music, branding and overly detailed specs that seem inconsistent with something Apple would produce.

The iPhone 5, or New iPhone, or whatever it’s going to be called, is expected to be announced at an Apple event in San Francisco on Wednesday. If all goes according to plan, the phone is expected to go on sale the following week.

This certainly isn’t the first iPhone 5 “commercial” to hit the web. Check out this fantastic parody from last month as well as the concept video from Dakota Adney that went viral over the summer.

What do you think of the video? Let us know in the comments.

LOOK: iPhone 5 Rumor Roundup

Shira Lazar: Mike Shinoda Shares How Linkin Park Takes Risks That Pay Off in the Digital Space

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Musician, producer and artistMike Shinoda, member of the hugely popular Linkin Park, took a moment from his tour to sit down with me and discuss the band’s latest interactive music video and upcoming projects.

Mike shared that Linkin Park’s new album, Living Things, as well as the single, “Lost in the Echo,” are more personal, in contrast to the previous release, which was a concept record. “So we figured we’d try something extra personal with the video… when viewers watch, it’s Facebook connected, so it’s basically pulling them and their friends and family into the video,” Mike says.

While the band was a bit late to the Twitter craze, Facebook has long been a strong platform for them in terms of engagement, as their page currently has almost 45 million Likes and almost a half million people talking!

Bouncing off of our first round of fan questions, it’s evident that Mike has an artist’s soul. “I grew up painting and drawing,” he says. “That’s actually what I thought I would be doing for a living right now, but the music thing kind of took off.” Mike still stretches those muscles, however, by helping to design album art for Linkin Park.

Speaking of musical inspirations, Mike says he grew up listening to hip-hop and, amazingly enough, most of the artists he enjoyed — Beastie Boys, Run DMC, LL Cool J — were produced by Rick Rubin, who he now works with today. “That actually made me really nervous the first time we worked with Rick,” Mike laughs. “Of my top 10 favorite albums, he’s probably produced more than half of them.”

Mike goes on to praise Rubin’s experience with and appreciation for a range of different genres, which proved a massive help when Linkin Park was trying to solidify their unique and hybrid sound.

Rounding back to creating the band’s brand new, Facebook-based music video, Mike says, “It takes risks like that to do something new,” but next time he’d like to expand the next visual project to more social sites in order to reach a broader fan base.

To join in on the hype and see it all for yourself, watch Linkin Park’s interactive music video “Lost In The Echo” and follow Mike on Twitter.

For more YouTube exclusives and interviews with your favorite celebrities, subscribe to What’s Trending and join us LIVE every weekday at noon PT / 3 pm EST on YouTube.com/WhatsTrending!

Shira Lazar: Mike Shinoda Shares How Linkin Park Takes Risks That Pay Off in the Digital Space

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Musician, producer and artistMike Shinoda, member of the hugely popular Linkin Park, took a moment from his tour to sit down with me and discuss the band’s latest interactive music video and upcoming projects.

Mike shared that Linkin Park’s new album, Living Things, as well as the single, “Lost in the Echo,” are more personal, in contrast to the previous release, which was a concept record. “So we figured we’d try something extra personal with the video… when viewers watch, it’s Facebook connected, so it’s basically pulling them and their friends and family into the video,” Mike says.

While the band was a bit late to the Twitter craze, Facebook has long been a strong platform for them in terms of engagement, as their page currently has almost 45 million Likes and almost a half million people talking!

Bouncing off of our first round of fan questions, it’s evident that Mike has an artist’s soul. “I grew up painting and drawing,” he says. “That’s actually what I thought I would be doing for a living right now, but the music thing kind of took off.” Mike still stretches those muscles, however, by helping to design album art for Linkin Park.

Speaking of musical inspirations, Mike says he grew up listening to hip-hop and, amazingly enough, most of the artists he enjoyed — Beastie Boys, Run DMC, LL Cool J — were produced by Rick Rubin, who he now works with today. “That actually made me really nervous the first time we worked with Rick,” Mike laughs. “Of my top 10 favorite albums, he’s probably produced more than half of them.”

Mike goes on to praise Rubin’s experience with and appreciation for a range of different genres, which proved a massive help when Linkin Park was trying to solidify their unique and hybrid sound.

Rounding back to creating the band’s brand new, Facebook-based music video, Mike says, “It takes risks like that to do something new,” but next time he’d like to expand the next visual project to more social sites in order to reach a broader fan base.

To join in on the hype and see it all for yourself, watch Linkin Park’s interactive music video “Lost In The Echo” and follow Mike on Twitter.

For more YouTube exclusives and interviews with your favorite celebrities, subscribe to What’s Trending and join us LIVE every weekday at noon PT / 3 pm EST on YouTube.com/WhatsTrending!

Chris Barnes: Yes, A Guns N Roses Dryer Exists

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A lot of people use music memorabilia as statement decorations, like autographed posters, instruments and records or even stage worn garments and costumes. I proudly have a drumhead signed by members of the hardcore metal band Hatebreed on display next to a snare drum signed by Metallica’s Lars Ulrich on display at my place. But the winner of this eBay auction will have the most amazing piece of rock and roll memorabilia ever: Guns N Roses’ clothes dryer.

guns n roses dryer
Image via eBay

The lucky bidder will not only be getting not only a Kenmore Ultra Fabric Care Electric Dryer. They will also be receiving a sturdy tour case, so you can bring this household appliance when you go out on the road. Currently going for $132.50, it’s a good price for a working, pre-owned dryer, but the shipping might not make it the most cost efficient option. But if you live in the Los Angeles area, you can pick it up directly.

To me the really interesting thing about this is that the road case probably is worth more than the dryer itself. And the possibilities are endless. Just imagine decorating the whole laundry room with other GNR paraphernalia and calling it Paradise City. You know, where the shirts are clean and pants are pretty.

Maybe there will be enough of a demand for this that they could start a line of Guns N Roses-themed household appliances. We live in a world where KISS sells caskets, so anything is possible…

Charyn Harris: ‘A’ Is for App

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As a music educator in South Los Angeles, I am always looking for innovative trends to educate, empower and inspire. With music being limited in our educational system, the only access many kids have is sadly through the same 10 songs that are in heavy rotation on the radio. In contrast, schools and communities that are fortunate enough to integrate music and arts education are developing youth who are more likely to be academically aligned, aiming for higher academic and personal goals and have an appreciation and respect for culture and diversity. I’m sure I don’t have to be redundant in citing the statistics of high school dropout rates, gang activity, incarceration, etc., among youth without access to the arts.

A few years ago, I stumbled upon Silicon Valley based app creators Smule, most notably recognized for creating the most cutting edge apps available. “Magic Piano,” “Ocarina,” “I Am T-Pain,” an auto-tune app and “Glee,” have been among the most popular with millions of downloads. Co-founders Ge Wang and Jeff Smith are both highly respected in their field. Wang, a Stanford professor and Smith, a Stanford Ph.D. candidate, are not only brilliant, but incredibly clued-in to inspiring creativity through music and having fun in the process. I invited Turner Kirk aka “The Mule” from Smule to visit my classroom and demonstrate a few popular apps for the iPhone and iPad. My objective was to peak the interest in some of my most uninspired students as well as to show them that their teacher was kind of ‘cool’ and ‘in-touch.’ The results of the workshop were astounding. Even my most stubborn students who were learning music against their own will took interest and benefited from instant gratification, which is of utmost importance.

Keeping in touch with Smule and following the app giant over the years, I was thrilled to learn about their acquisition of Atlanta based app firm, Khush and the launch of several new cutting-edge apps. Enter Prerna Gupta, an amazingly brilliant young woman, CEO of Khush and app inventor who is responsible for probably what will be the hottest app to the hit the market for some time. AutoRap has the capacity to take anything that can be spoken and create patterns that are stretched into a rhtyhmic grid. Not only is speech turned into rap, but there are a variety of very cool original beats and popular rap songs to chose from. What is most amazing about this app is the duality it holds in the capacity of entertainment and education. I had the opportunity to speak with Prerna who shared with me that AutoRap is actively used as a learning tool.

Here is a bit more of what Prerna had to say:

It’s incredibly exciting to see teachers around the country using AutoRap as a tool for education. They find that the entertaining “rappification” technology helps students memorize new concepts, such as multiplication tables and even complicated math formulas, and make otherwise drab assignments naturally engaging. Many teachers have also said that AutoRap has provided them the ability to connect with students in their own world, and come across as uncommonly cool!

So, could AutoRap be a missing link? Most kids I know can sing the lyrics to any song without even thinking. Here’s where this concept can become interesting. Simply recording a lesson in multiplication, science, history or art into AutoRap turns the assignment into an interactive exercise that can be memorized as easily as a track from Carly Rae Jepson, Bruno Mars or Taylor Swift. Could the integration of AutoRap revolutionize basic learning, audio and cognitive skills as well as increase GPAs across the board? I’m looking forward to circling back to this subject very soon.

Check out AutoRap.

Is Bruce Willis ‘Considering Legal Action’ Against Apple Over iTunes Collection?

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Bruce Willis may be about to learn that when it comes to Apple and digital music rights, old habits Die Hard.

According to unconfirmed reports by The Sun and the Daily Mail, the 57-year-old actor is ‘considering legal action’ to make sure his children can inherit his iTunes music collection.

The papers suggest that Willis is concerned that his vast library of music will not pass to his three daughters on his death.

There is currently no legal way to give ownership of iTunes downloads to a third party. The purchase of music on iTunes is actually of a ‘license’ to play a track, and not the file itself.

Both papers cite no sources for the news, however, and the Huffington Post could not confirm that Willis is considering any action.

The reports add that the Expendables 2 star has asked “advisers” will either set up a trust to keep hold of his download, or support separate legal cases brought by iTunes users against Apple.

The Sun says he is “preparing to take Apple to court” – although again, no statement to that effect has been made by Willis.

Whether or not Willis is really suing Apple, it is true that downloaders often do not realise the limits of their ownership rights.

Apple’s terms and conditions state that:

“This license does not allow you to use the Licensed Application on any Apple Device that you do not own or control, and except as provided in the Usage Rules, you may not distribute or make the Licensed Application available over a network where it could be used by multiple devices at the same time”

… meaning technically you will not be able to pass on that music.

bruce willis
Actor Bruce Willis pictured with wife Emma Heming (L) and daughter actress Rumer Willis

Jim Killock, exécutive director of the Open Rights Group, told the Huffington Post UK that while the law is clear on legality of transferring digital goods, “of course that’s wrong, morally speaking”.

Killock said: “You can see why it’s been set up like that – it’s difficult to track if somebody has deleted something and has sold it in a second-hand market. But obviously when you die, this is about a huge value of material you’ve collected over a lifetime.

“It’s amazing that Bruce Willis has spent £40,000 on iTunes, but I suspect lots of people are spending thousands of pounds on digital books now. And certainly will do over a lifetime. And it’s wrong to say these books, and your intellectual legacy, can’t be given to your children.”

Killock added that Willis’ challenge was “incredibly important” but that a quick solution could be found – if companies like Apple felt it was in their interest.

“Companies could resolve it, and could negotiate terms with copyright holders that would allow them to pass such material on in their wills,” Killock said. “They haven’t done it because from their standpoint it’s not in their financial interest.”

Russell Bishop: GPS for the Soul: At the Oasis

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2012-08-30-Untitled.pngEarlier today, a husband and wife team from a major news outlet came by the Oasis at the Republican Convention seeking a respite from the heat — both political and tropical. As she said, “My husband is about to have a meltdown.” A few minutes with the beta version of our soon-to-be-released killer app for better living, GPS for the Soul, and balance was restored.

GPS for the Soul has been an off-the-hook hit with press and delegates alike. People are marveling at this game-changing innovation featuring a sensor that provides a useful proxy for stress while offering just-in-time suggestions to help restore a sense of inner balance and relaxation.

The free app will launch initially for iPhone users in mid-October. The app is being developed through an unprecedented partnership between The Huffington Post; HeartMath, an industry leader in research-based stress management programs, techniques and technologies; and bLife, a wellness innovation company that has developed the platform on which GPS for the Soul app is being built.

Why GPS for the Soul?

Arianna happened by and the once-melting husband asked how we came up with the idea for an iPhone app that could relieve stress. He asked, “Aren’t these devices more the source of stress than a source of relief?” Here’s what Arianna had to say:

The Huffington Post has a huge commitment to bringing practical health and wellness tools into everyday life. Indeed, GPS for the Soul is founded on a paradox. The idea that an app can help free us from our hyper-connected lives in order to reconnect with ourselves is truly counterintuitive.

With all the stress, demands, and challenges we face in everyday life, it’s more difficult than ever to achieve our goals and still maintain a sense of balance. We lead hyper-connected lives, and far too often that hyper-connectedness is keeping us from tapping into our own creativity, empathy, and wisdom.

Given the huge amounts of stress we are facing, it’s crucial that we use all the tools at our disposal to get back on course as individuals, and as a society. Just as a GPS system in a car helps recalculate your route, GPS for the Soul will tell you when you’ve gone off-course. And, much like your car GPS, it will provide instant, on-demand feedback to help you course-correct.

Since no one knows better than you what helps you de-stress and find your balance, you can customize that feedback, programming the app to send you just what you need to get back to center. It might be soothing pictures, relaxing music, breathing exercises, guided meditations, or yoga instructions.

How It Works

The mobile app builds on the content in the GPS for the Soul page on The Huffington Post, offering an array of anytime, any place stress relief to help free users from their hyper-connected lives. Ranging from HeartMath’s Quick Coherence® technique to guides featuring meditation examples, soothing music and images, the app allows users to get back in sync quickly, easily and virtually anywhere they have their iPhone. Music and images can be selected from the user’s iTunes and iPhoto accounts or from pre-installed guides created by well-known celebrities ranging from Dr. Mark Hyman and Deepak Chopra to Kathy Freston, and even one from Arianna herself.

Users can personalize the app’s guides with music, poetry, affirmations, breathing exercises, and pictures of their loved ones — right from the iPhone. In addition, users can access guides from friends and family, or from people they may have never met but whose guides resonate with them. People can even share their customized guides on social media platforms such as Facebook.

This exceptional partnership, combining the wide array of offerings within GPS for the Soul with HeartMath’s unique feedback mechanism at the core of the app, make this a true game-changer in the world of apps and well-being.

Click here to stay up to date on the latest developments for the GPS for the Soul app and be amongst the first to download the free app when it is released in mid-October.

As the journalists were leaving, the woman comments: “My husband was about to have a major meltdown — thank God the Oasis was nearby. We really do need an Oasis in everyday life — GPS for the Soul is a great way to take the Oasis with us everywhere we go!”

For more by Russell Bishop, click here.

For more on GPS for the Soul, click here.

For more on Oasis 2012, click here.

WATCH: Deadmau5 Fights Gerard Way In New Video

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Here’s a music battle to remember.

In this new high-octane music video for Deadmau5′s recent single “Professional Griefers,” watch as the Canadian superstar DJ takes on My Chemical Romance’s frontman Gerard Way (who is featured on the track) in a futuristic UFC brawl that is set in a world where men don’t fight alone.

They fight, instead, with giant robots.

Surrounded by screaming fans as they duke it out in an Ultimate Fighting Championship ring, Deadmau5 and Way control massive mouse mechs that battle it out till the brutal end.

The video is fast, frenetic and unabashedly over-the-top — which, as MTV points out, is likely what Deadmau5 was going for:

For the uninitiated, the term “Griefer” refers to the folks in multiplayer video games who deliberately harass other players in the game, usually in the most annoying ways possible (verbal insults, intentionally killing other players, siding with the enemy, crashing servers, etc.). They are basically the bane of the video game universe, bold and brash and unapologetic about their actions. And this video…is all of those things and then some.

In a behind the scenes video posted on YouTube, Deadmau5 claimed that this was the most expensive electronic music video ever made. Though the veracity of that comment has yet to be verified, there’s no question that the production costs of this video — with its myriad special effects and props — was hefty, to say the least.

Who wins the clash of the music heavyweights? Watch the video to find out. More mau5 below.

Pandora Finds Its Groove

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(Reuters) – Pandora Media Inc reported better-than expected results and raised its outlook on strong quarterly advertising sales.

Shares of the online streaming music service rose 8 percent in after-hours trading. They closed at $10.08 on Wednesday.

Pandora said second-quarter revenue jumped 51 percent to $101.3 million, beating analysts’ expectations of $100.94 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

On a Non-GAAP basis, the company broke even, besting analysts’ expectations of a loss of 3 cents per share.

The Oakland, California company, which is more than 10 years old, is being carefully watched as a new model for radio listening as more people use the Internet to stream music to their cars, home stereos and mobile devices.

Pandora is dipping into its coffers to aggressively build out a local sales force since it largely depends on advertising revenue.

Advertising revenue rose 53 percent.

The company must pay for the rights to play songs, and as more people listen, the more expensive it becomes.

Pandora’s market share of people listening to U.S. radio is at 6 percent and growing — in a crowded field that includes Clear Channel, Sirius XM Radio and Spotify.

The company raised its full-year revenue forecast to a range of $425 million to $432 million from $420 million to $427 million.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba; Editing by Gary Hill, Bernard Orr)

Dominique Karg: Why Justin Bieber is the Only Hope Left for Information Security

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I recently had an eye opening experience. My wife confessed to me, in tears, that she liked Justin Bieber’s music. She asked for forgiveness, as I walked out of the room mumbling some unrepeatable curse words. My wife used to like Led Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails and similar stuff. But I don’t blame Bieber for her succumbing to the dark side; she has played with fire already, listening to Enrique Iglesias once before.

Wanting to know more about this presence that has invaded our home, I looked at some astonishing numbers:

Justin Bieber Facebook Likes: 45,633,916 (45,633,937 by the time the page opened)
Twitter Followers: 25,580,060

The invasion was for real, and it was on my doorstep.

As a reference, Andrew Hay is considered by many to be the Bieber of Information Security. When it comes to the voice, the looks and teenie followers, he doesn’t compare. Just take a look at the following stats:

Andrew Hay Facebook Likes: doesn’t even have a fan page.
Twitter Followers: 4,187

Anyway, how does this relate to our favourite subject – Information Security?

We read in the news every day that we are essentially in an arms race, a race that we have failed to win or even keep up with so far. The antivirus and endpoint industry has been failing miserably for 20 years now; the “why don’t we write good code for starters” technology is not there yet, and won’t be until people start dying because of bad code; and then there are the categories of detection, awareness, and remediation, all of which are being hotly pursued by vendors small and large.

Where does our teeny idol Justin fit in all of this? Well, Justin Bieber holds the power to change this. We will never be able to convince those 40 million plus hormone-laden teenagers to take up IT security, share attack data, code better or help spread the gospel of security. But one word from Justin, one message to his minions and we’d have quite a few enthusiastic helpers in the fight against cybercrime. It may not be 40 million, but even if 10 million of his fans took note, then imagine the impact this could have.

Think about it for a moment. Instead of Justin saying or writing things like this during a performance or on Facebook:

“People write to me and say, ‘I’m giving up, you’re not talking to me.’ I just write them a simple message like, ‘Never give up,’ you know? And it changes their life.”
“I’d like to be an architect. That would be cool. I like drawing.”
“I also try to read all of my fan mail. A lot of them send me candy, which I’m not allowed to eat ’cause my Mom says it might be poisonous.”

He could be directing all this force to spread information security awareness, by saying things like:

“Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.”
“The user’s going to pick dancing pigs over security every time.”
“If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”
“Computers let you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history – with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila.”

(Quotes and attributions from http://www.nativeintelligence.com/ni-free/itsec-quips.asp, none of them are mine)

This is a wake-up call. Without a high profile spokesperson to fight in the corner of Information Security and educate younger generations, the future of the Internet as we know it will be lost too.

Now is the time for the security world to find its own Bieber, to pick up the gauntlet and raise a security conscious generation.

Google officially announces gift cards, coming to RadioShack, Target, and GameStop

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Google officially announces gift cards, coming to RadioShack, Target, and GameStop

Gift cards have been expected to launch in the Google Play Store ever since the latest version of the Play Store was revealed to contain an area for redeeming gift card codes.

Today, Google officially announced the information as well as the important details surrounding its terms of use and purchase locations. To begin, the gift cards will be able to purchase Android apps, in-app purchases, movies, music, and books.  Unfortunately, Google will not allow gift cards to be used on app subscriptions, magazine subscriptions, hardware purchases, or accessory purchases.

As mentioned in the title, RadioShack, Target, and GameStop will be among the first partner stores to launch the gift cards.  Interested customers can make a visit to any of these retail stores within the next couple of weeks.  At this time, it appears Google Play gift cards are limited to the U.S. only, but hopefully that changes.  In addition, Walmart.com will begin offering the gift cards later this month for those who wish to purchase one online.

Lastly, the gift cards will be availble in $10, $25, and $50 denominations as detailed by the picture above.  Again, the gift cards will be available for purchase in RadioShack, Target, GameStop, and Walmart.com in the next couple of weeks.

[Google Play]

Win a Slacker Premium 3 month subscription courtesy of Androinica

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Win a Slacker Premium 3 month subscription courtesy of Androinica

Slacker is a great music streaming service for Android and is available in three options: Free, Radio Plus, and Premium.  Today, we will be handing out three (3) subscriptions for the Premium service with each lasting three months.

To enter, simply leave ONE comment below saying what your favorite Android device is.

The comment must be left from an account with a valid email address. (Do not put email in comment, we can see it from the admin panel.)
We’ll select three people at random on Monday, August 27,  2012 (the contest closes at 12PM EST).

The Premium subscription is valued at $30 and will make a great gift for you or your music loving friend.

Slacker Premium offers ad-free listening with unlimited skips, ability to choose which song plays next, create custom playlists that can be saved, create single artist stations, and save any type of playlist for playback without using data or WiFi.  Your account will be upgraded for the three month subscription to the Premium service if you win.

Winners will be notified by email and have 24 hours to reply or another person will be chosen.  Good luck!

Would You Let Your Kids Set You Up Online?

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You may ask your kids for their thoughts on music, that new outfit or what to have for dinner … but on who to date? That’s the premise behind myLovelyParent, a new online dating website for people 50 and older based in Britain.

The site was created by two brothers (one is 34, the other in his early 40s) who want to help their “very lovely single mum in her 60s” find “handsome chaps” for friendship or companionship. According to their blog chronicling the new website’s beginnings, it’s an idea that’s sat with them for awhile:

…we’re trying to open up the world of online dating to our parents’ generation. They’re a generation who, on the whole, are less digitally proficient, less accepting of social networking (in its most literal sense) and who are incredibly discrete when it comes to matters of the heart. …There are plenty of people out there who don’t want to be alone. And we believe, through digital, we can bring them together.

While a number of studies say otherwise when it comes to tech-savvy post 50s, we’ll bite. So how does the online dating site work? British sons and daughters can sign up their single parents and create an online profile for them. They can then search the site for people they think would be perfect for their parent and “recommend” standout profiles to their lovelorn ‘rents. Automatic emails with their kid’s suggestions are sent to the parents, and who knows? A love connection could happen! The start up is still in beta and accepting requests for invitations when it goes live in September.

From what we can tell, this is the first online dating site of its kind, putting the task of selecting a potential date primarily in the hands of your children (the UK has mysinglefriend.com, which lets your friends write your profile for you, though we’re sure a few people have done this on existing sites). The sons may get a date for more than just their mom: According to their site there are 1.7 million widowed women and 5.8 million people 45 and older living alone in the UK; in 2010 there were 119,589 divorces in England and Wales. MyLovelyParent may just be the ticket — there’s even talk of bringing it across the pond!

Have your children set you up on a date? Would you trust their judgment when it comes to fixing you up with Mr. or Ms. Right? Tell us in the comments!

Earlier on Huff/Post50:

(h/t Good)