Apple Music launched this week after much anticipation and the reviews are pouring in. Apple Music includes features that Spotify and Tidal already pioneered, like curating your own playlist and access to an incredible library of over 30 million songs. So what will make Apple stand out? The built-in user base of pre-existing iPhone owners already gives them a well-known advantage. So far users seem to love the unique-to-Apple features, such as waking up to any song you choose via the Apple Music alarm clock functionality, but are not huge fans of the “Connect” feature, a social network for artists to connect with fans. So is Apple Music a hit or miss? Read More
UBER SAYS GOODBYE TO UBERPOP SERVICE IN FRANCE
Uber announced today that after the violent protests in France last week, it will officially suspend its Uberpop service. This comes days after local authorities branded it an illegal taxi service and French prosecutors indicted two top Uber executives. Uber released this statement: “We have decided to suspend UberPOP in France…primarily to assure the safety of Uber drivers,” Uber France head Thibaud Simphal told Le Monde daily. Read More
GOOGLE PHOTOS “IDENTIFIES’ BLACK PEOPLE AS GORILLAS
Sigh. As the world becomes increasingly automated, how many more of these episodes will we have to see? This week a Google engineer apologized after the automated Google Photos app mistakenly labeled two black people as gorillas. To be fair this is one of the downsides of automation that no one predicted would happen and as soon as the issue was tweeted Google’s chief social architect Yonatan Zunger responded quickly with an apology. Read More
UBER ACQUIRES BING MAPS TECHNOLOGY
PAYPAL BUYING ONLINE MONEY TRANSFER COMPANY XOOM
PayPal is $890 million closer to world domination. On Wednesday, the online payments company announced its plans to buy money-transfer company Xoom. The deal will not only expand PayPal’s global money-transfer services, but it will also give PayPal users increased options for sending and receive money across international borders (thanks to Xoom’s capabilities) on their smartphones and personal computers. Read More
SIRI ROASTS IPHONE USERS WHO ASK THE ANSWER TO ZERO DIVIDED BY ZERO
Apple’s spunky built-in personal assistant Siri is known for having clever and humorous responses to inquiries. This week users discovered that Siri has an especially snarky response to the question, what’s zero divided by zero? Somehow it involves the cookie monster and you questioning your life choices. If you don’t have the option of conversing with Siri yourself, click here to hear what her response to the question is