The shocking news of Prince’s death has fans, new and old, turning to their Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music apps, only to find them barren of his hits. Unfortunately, your options for streaming the music of His Royal Badness are limited. Last year The Purple One removed his music from popular streaming music sites, save …
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China takes mobile payments to a whole new level
China may not have the best Internet access in the world, but from what I’ve seen so far, it’s on top for mobile payments. My friends Amy Deng and Eric Liu moved from San Francisco to Shanghai about a year ago. When I asked them over lunch in Shanghai about some of their favorite tech in China so far, they …
Read More »A new ‘Independence Day: Resurgence’ trailer, timed for Earth Day
Enjoy Earth Day, as it may be our last, according to a new trailer just released for the upcoming sci-fi film “Independence Day: Resurgence.” The 20th Century Fox film debuts internationally on June 23 and in the US on June 24 — but April 22, otherwise known as Earth Day, was a savvy date to drop a new long-form trailer. …
Read More »Lian Li’s motorized standing desk doubles as a beefy gaming PC
A standing desk is a great way to avoid sitting on your rear all day — but many standing desks don’t have a great place to put your PC. Taiwanese case manufacturer Lian Li has an intriguing answer: a motorized standing desk that brilliantly doubles as a unique case for all your PC components. Enlarge Image Lian Li The Lian …
Read More »Things to look out for when booking an Airbnb
There’s a reason Airbnb is such a phenomenon: it’s cheap. People put their unused spaces up for rent, make a little cash while they’re out of town, and the total cost of your vacation can be cheaper than if you stay in a hotel — or you can get more luxurious. It’s a win-win for everyone involved…except when it isn’t. …
Read More »Internet sheds tears of ‘purple rain’ for Prince
The Internet is spilling tears Thursday following the news that music icon Prince, patron saint of all things purple, is dead at age 57. Since the news broke, hundreds of thousands of fans have taken to social media to grieve and share their devotion. “This is what it sounds like when doves cry,” some have written, quoting one of the …
Read More »The best places to recycle old cables and chargers
E-waste is a growing problem, and the rapid advancement of technology is only making it worse. We use a gadget for a while and discard it once the new model comes out, which, of course, has a brand-new port, rendering your massive collection of charging cables virtually useless. If you’re anything like me, this has happened to you several times …
Read More »Facebook to start filling your newsfeed with articles you’d actually read
In a company blog post, Facebook says it will rely more on time spent reading an article as a metric for deciding if similar content should be more prominent in people’s news feeds. In the post by Moshe Blank, a Facebook software engineer, and Jie Xu, a research scientist, the pair says, “We’ve found that there are stories people don’t …
Read More »Only Prime members can buy these games and movies from Amazon
Gaming website Videogamer.com has spotted several products on Amazon.com that were only for sale to Amazon Prime members. Games such as Grand Theft Auto V for the PlayStation 4 or the film “Birdman” on Blu-ray are not available to buy directly from Amazon, and potential purchasers see the following message: “This item, sold by Amazon.com, is currently reserved exclusively for …
Read More »What’s the best TV streaming service?
Amazon has spun out its Amazon Prime Video service into a standalone monthly subscription, just like Netflix and Hulu currently offer. Instead of paying a flat $100 fee every year for Amazon Prime (which includes free two-day shipping on most items, cloud storage, streaming music and video), you can opt to pay $8.99 monthly to watch movies and TV shows …
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