Amazon wants to take on Apple and Spotify, and the Echo speaker is its secret weapon. The online retailing giant on Wednesday launched Music Unlimited, a $10-a-month service that looks a lot like Spotify and Apple Music. The real standout feature is a $4-a-month option that only plays to your Amazon Echo speaker. It’s just …
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Android Experiments encourage developers to explore new ways for people to interact with its mobile devices. One experiment, Sprayscape, is now available as a free app from the Google Play store — an iOS version is in the works. The app self-describes itself as a “perfectly imperfect VR-ish camera.” And that’s an accurate description of my experience using Sprayscape. Sprayscape …
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CNET’s Cheapskate scours the Web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. And find more great buys on the CNET Deals page. Today’s deal is not for cheapskates. I mean, it is, but you need to be a cheapskate with deep pockets. When you’re ready …
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Forget “You break it, you buy it.” In the world of virtual reality, a better warning might be, “Sneeze in front of it, it’s yours.” China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba is developing a system designed to let shoppers in VR malls pay by simply nodding. “It is very boring to have to take off your goggles for payment,” a technologist working …
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Eager to read Amy Schumer’s autobiography, “The Girl with the Lower-Back Tattoo”? Or Stephen King’s latest, “End of Watch”? How about the new Rick Riordan title for your mythology-obsessed teenager? They’re all available for Kindle, of course, but they’re all $14.99 apiece. I’m not saying they’re not worth it, merely that you might prefer to wait for a sale. Because, …
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg might have just showed us the future of selfies — and maybe of social networks, too. Long story short, Zuck expects people to start hanging out with their friends in VR spaces, each person represented by a cartoony avatar. Related coverage Oculus is Zuckerberg’s big bet on the future PlayStation VR is pretty damn cool Palmer …
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If you’re a Comcast customer, prepare to watch out for how much internet data you’re consuming. The cable giant is set to roll out its Terabyte Internet Data Usage Plan across all of its territory starting November 1. As the program’s name suggests, customers will be limited to 1 TB of data each month. Those who go over will have …
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Google just ratcheted up the pressure on Apple. For starters on Tuesday, it debuted products Apple lacks — the Daydream virtual-reality headset, the Google Home digital assistant-powered speaker, the Chromecast Ultra streamer that can pipe 4K video to your TV. On top of that is a broader competitive threat. Google designed its new devices on its own, reflecting an evolution …
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Wireless isn’t new. The Microsoft HoloLens is wireless. The Intel Project Alloy is wireless. Qualcomm has a wireless VR headset too. None of them create a virtual world as stunning as what the Oculus Rift’s annoying tether can produce. But just tried a wireless Oculus Rift. And by “tried,” I mean I tried to break the illusion as hard as …
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Oculus has another new VR platform on the horizon, and it looks like something different from PC- and phone-connected virtual reality. At Oculus Connect on Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a lengthy appearance to discuss the future of VR software. He also introduced a surprise, acknowledging the need for something different — hardware that’s not a PC or mobile …
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