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This article is about a music streaming service that Google might release for their Andriod Operating system. A few months ago, Apple was supposedly working on a music streaming service for their iOS and now Google is joining in, increasing the rivalry between them. Because of the on going rivalry between Andriod and Apple, both companies are trying to take all the necessary steps towards buying over their fans. The music streaming service would enable the customer to play music without actually having to download it. You would stream the music from the application with your internet connection, and since Google and Apple are developing these services, all the audio files that will be streamed will be playable on the device in use. This is a good way to get people to listen to music without actually having to download the song illegally and listen to the song they want to buy before purchasing it. This service could boost hardware sales, but they would not make a lot of money from the actual service itself, since its hard to make money with an ad-supported music streaming service.

This article is about how Google is negotiating with music labels to launch their own streaming service. Google is currently working to argument their current download store with a streaming service that could take on the likes of Slacker and Nokia music. The outlet's sources suggest that Google is currently in the negotiation stage with record labels, and that it's service would likely feature both paid and free ad-supported components. While this news remains a rumour for both Apple and Google, it seems that the race is now on for which company is both willing and able to supplement it's music store with a streaming service. 

It is well-known that Apple has access to almost any music that one can think of. However, according to the New York Post, Apple is low-balling record labels for the rights to use their music in a new music streaming service. The company is only offering labels 6 cents per 100 listens, where as Pandora offers 12 cents per 100 and traditional radio pays 22 cents per 100. One can say that Apple is trying to enter this business, but not willing to go through all the trouble and complications that other music streaming services has to go through. I personally do not think this is right because record labels go through a lot of work just to try to get a little profit from the music industry. With Apple offering such a low price to use their music, it is not fair to those who work hard for a result.

A recent survey has proven that the downloading of illegal music has decreased by 26 percent from 2011 to 2012. It seems that fewer people are illegally downloading music for three specific reasons. With the introduction of P2P music sites a few years ago, illegally downloaded music was becoming more and more common. Since, the music industry has responded very negatively trying to shut down these sites.A famous example was the shutting down of the huge P2P site and software, Limewire, after they were found guilty of copyright infringement. Limewire had millions of users that ripped off artists music millions of times and the record companies were not just going to stand there and watch. People are also not downloading illegal music as much because of the new music streaming services, such as Songza.  These sites stream music to many computers and devices free of charge for the listener to enjoy. The last reason that people are downloading illegal music less is because of the malware and spyware risks that downloading this music poses. You may think you are downloading your favourite techno song when really you are downloading a trojan virus that will steal all of your passwords and personal information. I think this is a sign that people are finally realizing that this is an immoral act and they are taking away money from the artists that make the songs. I personally have bought all of the songs I own and I rarely use the music streaming services. Hopefully by 2014, there will be no illegally downloaded music by anybody.

This article is about new apps that help disabled people. Many computer science researchers have been looking for an app that would help the disabled, and now they have created a few. One is called VizWiz. This is an app that helps the visually impaired. The user takes a picture of what he/she has a question about, asks a question, and receives an answer by a worker at Mechanical Turk. Mechanical Turk is a service, featuring many people that answer questions. Another app is Scribe. This app helps the deaf and hearing-impaired. Users send an audio stream to many of the Scribe workers who provide real time transcription. Since only highly trained transcribers with special equipment can transcribe all of the words in a live stream, Scribe coordinates a group of six or seven amateurs to transcribe the stream.

Social media has slowly become part of everyone's daily lives. Whether twitter or facebook, social media has shaped our society and has formed a strong bond between people from all over the world. Social media is so powerful that it has also affected politics in nations. The public has a new way of sharing their voice and opinion to the world in political processes. Thanks to social media, Wendy Davis was able to hold a filibuster for 12 hours voting against abortion clinics. Online viewers of the live stream were able to see when the session ended and when the vote was cast. Clay Shirky, a social media theorist, explained that the idea of the live stream played a role in the legislative process and that this phenomenon is not restricted to just the USA. Other political movements, such as the Arab Spring, and the protests in Turkey have also been influenced by social media. I personally think that social media playing a role in politics is a great idea. It allows people who believe they don't have a voice speak their mind and be heard by other supporters of the cause. Social media is everywhere so it was bound at one point to have an influence on things such as politics.

Over the years, the internet has become faster and faster and as this has happened our patience has decreased. We have come to expect fast speeds and short loading times on the internet and anything slower is considered unacceptable. However, before reading this article I didn't realize how impatient we had really become when it comes to the internet. This article talks about the results of a study that showed that users were likely to give up on a video after only two seconds of loading! This had come as a surprise to me. To me, two seconds seems like only an instant, but I have to admit that I still am not willing to wait much longer than that for a video especially if the video is only 10 minutes or less. However, I find it interesting how two seconds of loading has become an issue, while we are still waiting through 30 seconds or more of advertisements before we are able to view our video. If we have already spent so much time watching an ad a couple more seconds shouldn't seem like a big deal. This article shows how our expectation of high speeds has affected us and our lifestyle. We have come to expect our video to load almost immediately and if it doesn't do this then it isn't worth the time. Our ability to wait is being altered. We're no longer used to having to wait for things that we want to watch, see or listen to on the internet. We've changed into thinking that if it doesn't load instantly, then it isn't worth watching. Of course, our patience should have limits. If it really is taking longer than the length of the video itself to load then perhaps it is time to abandon the video, but I feel that waiting only two seconds before moving on shows how impatient we have become with technology.

While the United States' largest video game specific retail chain is not ready to announce specifics regarding hardware, GameStop has confirmed with GamesIndustry.biz that they have selected a tablet for their game streaming service. This GameStop branded device is already a pre-existing unit, though from which company and what model they would not say. However, it is running a version of the Android OS.

This article is about the ranks on YouTube videos. The Google-owned video-streaming platform is changing the way it ranks the results when you search something that you want to watch. It is looking to reward videos that receive the most watched time. Recently, YouTube added ''Time Watched'', so if you like to create videos, you can better evaluate the performance of your videos and channel. YouTube was already making moves in this direction, and back in August, it announced that it was updating it's discovery features with a view towards surfacing videos with the most time-spent on them, rather than the most clicks. The results is leading to bigger change, as it looks to keep people on it's videos for longer. This article can relate to many people because a lot of people upload videos to YouTube and even more watch videos on Youtube.

Game of Thrones, the fantasy series that came out of a series of novels written by George R. R. Martin and adapted by HBO has just recently aired its third season with a bunch of people watching it during its premiere. The bad news is that the amount of people pirating the show is more then half the amount of people who actually watched it on HBO. With the premiere having around 6.7 million viewers and the amount of pirate viewers at 4.4 million. These stats are quite impressive but HBO can expect a lot more views when it counts on-demand, DVR, online streams with a gross audience of 11.6 million viewers when counting non-live viewers. On the other hand, TorrentFreak claims that GoT has been the most-pirated show over the past year and that the pirated audience is growing even faster. A few hours after the first torrent of the show was uploaded, it had around 110,303 leechers and 52,786 seeders, a total of 163,088 people. This number actually broke the previous record with 144,663 peers for another show called "Heroes".

This article is about a pot, called "The PowerPot" that can charge USB devices like smartphones, GPS Devices and LED lamps. This works by using thermoelectric modules to convert temperature differences into a 5-, 10- or 15-watt regulated power stream. So basically, you can charge your devices while cooking food or boiling water.

This article is based on a modem called the SurfBeam 2 Pro Portable invented by ViaSat. This modem has a download speed up to 12mbps. The SurfBeam 2 Pro Portable will be very convenient for PC or Mac users who use the internet regularly. This is because users of the internet are very reliable on downloading things such as movies or games, and streaming videos. This modem is also useful for social networking because it will help upload photos faster for people who like to share images.

This is something everyone can use. You could use this to turn off your computer when you're on the go, access files and much more. This could come in handy for students. If they were to forget to email a file from their computer to their laptop they could access and print the files from their desktop. You would also be able to stream media to your devices from your phone. I know I would be using this frequently. 

This article is about a channel on a game streaming site that allows users to 'join in'. The channel's creator, Polygon, has formulated a way in translating chat comments into control inputs. Over the past few days this Pokemon game has received over 35 000 players typing in commands all at the same time, causing lag and a lack of cooperation. However, despite the slow progress in leading the hero around the playing field, players are still determined to defeat the game's eight gym leaders. What is really amazing about this is that Pokemon even after all this time is very popular and people are still finding different ways to program and play this game. It also shows that you don't have to create a new advanced system or another pacemaker to be successful in computers.

I'm not entirely clear what the connection is to careers in computing. Please clarify

AdBlock is tool that many of us know of, and would totally never use because it can take revenue from content creators *shifty eyes*. All of us hate annoying ads, whether they be prerolls on videos or pop ups, or less than appropriate advertisements on streaming and torrenting websites. Adblock is a wonderful creation that hides most of those, and is thusly loved by many. Recently Adblock has done another thing which will undoubtedly make its user base happy, the web application now also blocks trackers, malicious cookies and scripts. This can be extremely important to people who value their privacy as it helps to ensure that as little of your private data is being sold as possible. The issue of online privacy has been gaining traction over the past few years and especially sine the Snowden revelations. I personally commend Adblock for their goal to protect their users, I and many others care about privacy and make active decisions to stay anonymous (I, for instance, use encrypted search engines and web browsers that encrypt data). This decision by Adblock isn't a huge step forward in online protection and privacy, but it is a step, and that's important.

The company behind Animal Planet has bought a two-year-old network called DogTV. The channel broadcasts 24/7 content for dogs with three categories: relaxation, stimulation, and exposure. The target market for this channel is for owners that feel guilty about leaving their pets home alone. The idea is not new either, a channel called Puppy Channel was launched in 1997 and still has a website today. In August, DogTV closed its distribution deal with DirecTV and DirecTV estimated that half of its 20 million customers are dog owners who would be interested in the channel. DogTV has gone with the HBO style charging their monthly subscription $5 on the channel and $10 for online streaming. If the owners of the dogs are interested in watching the channel as well, the channel may add advertising to it. Dan Fox, Discovery's senior vice president of corporate development, says that DogTV is a very natural fit and is lacking big-name stars. This is good because unlike other very popular shows, the channel will not have to pay a lot for salaries. I think this is a great ideas for dogs who have to stay home because their owners are not allowed to take them out. It will keep the dogs busy as well as keep them entertained and stimulated while the owner is out doing whatever they need to do without having to worry about if their dog is ok.

The hugely popular music streaming service Spotify has expanded its European coverage with the launch of its service in Denmark. The company announced its expansion in a post on its blog earlier today, and users in Denmark can begin accessing the service immediately:

Netflix has decided to scrap plans to split their business into two separate operations: Netflix was to be just for online streaming, while the brand new Qwikster would handle the DVD by mail arm ofBefore they decided to change their minds, back when Qwikster was first announced, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings mentioned that the company would be bringing video games to their library.  the service. Now, however, Qwikster appears to be dead.

This article is about how Google has a new web engine for Chromium and Chrome. What they basically did was they "forked" with WebKit and Blink. WebKit is described as the glue that binds the modern web: the rendering engine powers Apple's Safari, Google's Chrome, and many mobile browsers both past and present. Google believes that Chromium's multi-process approach has added too much complexity for both the browser and Webkit itself, so it's creating a separate, simpler fork named Blink. Although the new engine will be very similar to WebKit at the start, it's expected to differ over time as Google strips out unnecessary code and tweaks the underlying platform. The company has also confirmed top us that both Chrome and Chrome OS will be using Blink in the future.