Google's long rumored music streaming service became a reality today with the announcement of Google Play Music All Access. The company has already cleared licensing deals with all three major labels left standing - Warner, Universal, and Sony - meaning they'll have millions of songs available upon launch.

Beyond the expected streaming service, All Access will also feature a Pandora-like radio service that allows each individual song to become a radio station with a simple button press. The service will also feature a component called Listen Now, which will highlight new releases and recommendations based on your listening habits. Music from your Google Music locker will also be included.

All Access will require a monthly fee of $9.99, with no free ad-supported option like competitor Spotify, though anyone who signs up before June 30th will get $2 off the...

Florida woman Debra Hilton filed a class action suit against Apple alleging that the power button on the iPhone 4 sports a manufacturing defect that Apple is well aware of and chose not to fix. The suit specifically claims that the iPhone 4's flex cable is defective and designed to cause the power button to malfunction shortly after the 1-year warranty on the device expires, thereby forcing users to either get it repaired for $149 or spring for an entirely new device.

The complaint reads in part:

The Apple iPhone 4 is plagued by a latent defect that causes its Power Button to fail, usually shortly after the 1 year warranty covering the device has expired, thereby rendering the phone unusable.

Apple knew when it manufactured, marketed, and sold the device that this defect existed, but failed to disclose it, instead touting the purported superior attributes of the...

A Google-made appeal filing in the Motorola Mobile versus Apple smartphone patent trial in Judge Richard A. Posner's court has been made public. Controversially, the Google-owned Motorola claims that the still-pending FTC consent decree it agreed to does not prevent it from seeking an injunction against Apple products -- claiming that in refusing a 2.25 percent fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) license, Apple is unwilling to negotiate in good faith for use of the patent....  ...

Apple will be the focus of a US Senate hearing next Tuesday, Politico says it has learned. The company's CEO, Tim Cook, is expected to testify in front of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation regarding offshore tax practices. Other witnesses are also expected to speak, such as representatives from the Treasury Department and the IRS....  ...

Eight years after Google launched Maps as a beta product, the search giant is reinventing the map for a new data rich web that lives on fast broadband, and runs on computers with oomph to spare.

Glad to see it.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Exactly one week after the last OS X 10.8.4 beta was released to developers, Apple on Wednesday seeded build 12E52 of the upcoming maintenance update with no known issues.   ...

Apple’s App Store today reached 50 billion downloads, as noted by the end of the official countdown. As the site says, “The grand prize winner will be announced soon. Stay tuned.” The person who downloaded the 50 billionth app will win…

Gizmodo:

On December 21st of last year, Commander Hadfield and his team (Expedition 35) docked with the ISS after a two-day flight in aboard a Soyuz TMA-07M, and began their mission.

Hadfield was the first to realize, on a large scale, that we don’t want a lecture, we just want to see cool stuff. So he told what amounts to the Good Parts version of living in space. He got results, too. His most popular video has 7 and a half million views, with several more in the millions or hundreds of thousands.

Commander Hadfield made all Canadians very

∞ Read this on The Loop

You can’t knock improved language support.

CrossOver, the popular virtualization program from CodeWeavers, has been updated to version 12.2.1. The new version, a 78.9 megabyte download, is available as a demo, offers the following fixes and changes:

- Updated Chinese support,

CrossOver 12.2.1 retails for US$59.95 and requires Mac OS X 10.6 and or later and an Intel-based Mac to install and run.

If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

Apple announced that its 50 billion download promotion is over, though the company has yet to announce the winner of the event. Announced on May 2nd, the App Store's home page now shows the simulator counter at 50 billion, and clicking through to that page offers the following image:

Politico reports today that it has learned Apple CEO Tim Cook is expected to testify at a Senate hearing next week related to an investigation into the offshore tax practices of the company:

Apple has been under fire for its tax practices. The company recently avoided paying as much as $9.2 billion in taxes by buying back stock with debt instead of offshore cash, Bloomberg reported. Apple has a reported $100 billion in offshore funds.

The hearing is part of the panel’s continued examination of how companies shift profits offshore and how that impacts the tax code. Representatives from Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard testified in September 2012 in a hearing on the same topic.

Apple spokesperson Steve Dowling provided Politico with the following statement:

“Apple is one of the largest taxpayers in the United States, having paid $6 billion in federal corporate income...

Apple's Stocks app on iOS isn't terribly exciting, but in typical Apple fashion, it does have a bit more functionality lurking beneath the surface.

Pictured below is what you typically see when you fire up the Stocks app.

The information is pretty basic. We see that Apple's current share price is $456, and to the right of that in green we see how much Apple's share price has gone up for the day, in this case $3.98.

If you tap the green rectangle, however, the display changes to reveal Apple's current market cap.

If you tap the green rectangle once more, the information changes yet again, this time displaying Apple's daily gain or loss as a percentage.

So with a few taps, one can quickly toggle through Apple's market cap and information as to how the stock is performing percentage wise or terms of dollars and cents.

But wait, there's more!

If we take another look at the default Stocks view, you'll note that there are three circles...

Less than two weeks after Apple started counting down to 50 billion app downloads, the App Store on Wednesday reached the landmark number.    ...

Apple and Google both passed important financial milestones during Wednesday trading, notes The Next Web. While Apple's market value has fallen under $400 billion, Google's value has climbed over $300 billion. The surge in the latter company's worth is being linked to today's Google I/O keynote, where the company showcased several new products, services, and features, such as unified messaging and a Galaxy S4 with stock Android....  ...

Verizon has confirmed to AppleInsider that the carrier will indeed be offering the iPhone 5 for just $100, but only to select customers as a promotional effort to encourage smartphone adoption.   ...

Google I/O is going down today (as you have probably noticed from all of the Google updates), and one of the new products announced there is a new version of the Google Maps app, due out to the App Store later on this summer. Google says the new Maps app will include integrated information from Zagat, and a redesigned routing process that will now take into account traffic incidents and push you around obstacles in real time. The new version will be targeted at more personal use, so it will combine those reviews with user ratings and even some Google Offers options as well.

Additionally, the app will boast a new tablet experience for the iPad. Google had a road bump...

This morning at Google I/O the company announced that Google Play is coming to iOS. No, not the Android store, but Google Play Game Services -- a new group of application programming interfaces (APIs) the company is releasing to developers today. The APIs allows gamers to pick up their games across platforms, meaning if some is playing a game on an Android phone and it dies, their game state is uploaded to the cloud allowing them to pick up where they left off on an iPhone.

In addition to cloud save, the new API includes support for achievements and leaderboards. These features will also be worked into its Google+ social network, allowing players to compare stats with their friends. In addition Google+ users will be able to use their Circles in the social network to find friends for online gaming.

You can watch the announcement below.

...

With ABC adding live streaming to its iPad app and the growth of live TV services via iOS in the past few months, the time is right for Belkin to announce Dyle mobile TV receivers for the iPhone and iPad. The US$129.99 device is about the size of a half a deck of cards, weighs around 6 ounces, and includes a carrying case. It's only compatible with devices with 30-pin dock connectors at the moment. It'll bring live TV to an iOS device without the need for an Internet connection.

However, as Victor pointed out in his review of the Dyle receiver created by Elgato, is still pretty limiting. If you're in an area where the service is pretty strong, the...

We showed you significant updates to Google Maps which leaked early this morning, and Google just announced updates to Maps at Google I/O.

Google also announced that its Maps API is used by over 1 million active sites and accessed by 1 billion unique visitors weekly.

Maps will now feature a 5 star rating system for locations across all platforms. Users can now swipe across results in a simple, gesture user interface. Zagat reviews are now more prominent with badges and cards simplifying its appearance. These cards now include a new Offers experience with partners including Starbucks.

Google Maps for Mobile also includes improvements to rerouting in transit and explore features. Google Maps for iPad was demoed during the keynote, which we expect to see with the iPhone update this summer.

//

Maps...

[Updated with Verizon confirmation] Earlier today, Verizon briefly posted a $100 pricetag for the 16GB iPhone 5 on its website this morning, a move the company later confirmed was a genuine offer, but only for select customers. The phone typically sells for $199 with a two-year contract, which was also a stipulation for the $100 cost. Verizon quickly reverted the price back to normal, and in response to inquiries would only say it doesn't discuss rumors....  ...

Google announced a new Hangouts app at its I/O conference, which will be available for iOS today. It's not out as I'm typing this, but the brief keynote demo showed a family of participants taking part in a long-running conversation of photos of text.

From what we saw, it looks like Messages with a whole lot more oomph. We'll have a look at it as soon as it has been released.

Google announces new Hangout app to hit iOS today originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 15 May 2013 13:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Source | ...

A mystery bidder has shelled out more than half a million dollars to win a charity auction for an audience with Apple CEO Tim Cook. On Tuesday afternoon, bidding for a 30 minute to 60 minute chat with Cook over coffee closed at online auction site Charitybuzz. The winning bid: $610,000 — more than twelve times the $50,000 price at which the auction began. Proceeds from the auction will be given to the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, an international nonprofit founded as a memorial to Robert F. Kennedy.

Google just announced a new unified messaging service today that will be available across multiple platforms and now the iOS app is officially available to download on the App Store.

The free Hangouts app is available as a universal download...

Turning back to the browser, Pichai said that Chrome now has 750 million active monthly users—an increase of 300 million users from last year. Much of that growth is happening on phones and tablets: Chrome works on both Android and iOS, and Pinchai stressed that its goal is to “move the mobile Web forward.”

It will be interesting to see what Google is going to do with Chrome, but I did see it as an operating system alternative right now.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Google has shown a significant number of changes to Google+ at its Google I/O developer event, as part of its attempts to attract users. The redesign of the social network is accompanied by the rumored unified messaging system, branded Hangouts, and the automatic enhancement, editing and highlighting of photographs uploaded onto its service....  ...

Google today announced that it is revamping the Google voice search feature available in Chrome on the desktop. While users have always been able...

EA has announced that its Frostbite game engine, used to power popular game like "Need for Speed" and "Battlefield 4," is coming to iOS. Dubbed Frostbite Go, the game engine is set to give a big graphics and performance boost to cutting-edge iOS games. From the Frostbite website where the engine was officially announced for the first time:

One of our most exciting current projects is called Frostbite Go, a mobile division empowering EA game developers with Frostbite's proven excellent workflows and features to bring true Frostbite experiences to all major mobile platforms.

Currently there's no release dates for any games using Frostbite Go, but the site does mention that EA games using Frostbite Go are actively in development.

EA's Frostbite engine could improve iOS games originally appeared on...

Update: The app is now live on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

Google today launched its much rumored messaging service live on stage at its I/O keynote and announced the service would be coming to multiple platforms later today. While some thought the service would be dubbed “Babel,” Google instead rolled out a standalone app called simply “Hangouts” that will be making its way to iOS, Android and Gmail on the desktop.

Google execs provided a demo of the app running on Android , but also gave us a glimpse of the iOS version as pictured above. The demo mostly focused on showing a list of conversations (not contacts) as well as one-on-one and group messaging, photo albums stored in the cloud, and the ability to start text conversations and video calls with contacts in one tap.

As for Gmail:

//

What does this mean for...

Square's new stand does more than simply hold your iPad: Thanks to its built-in credit card reader the Square Stand turns your iPad into a complete payment station without the look of a clunky cash register or bland card reader. It works with Square's Register app so that's customizable for what you sell, and it works with the Square cash drawer, receipt printer and barcode scanner to make a complete POS terminal that looks sleek on your shop counter. Square Stand is priced at US$299 and should be on store shelves in July, but you can pre-oder from the company now.

It's time to save some of that hard-earned cash with our Daily Deals, featuring a handy list from Dealnews and our own hand-picked selections that include some sweet deals on iOS and OS X software (all prices are USD).

Deals from Dealnews

• li>StackSocial: [Mac Software] MacX Video Converter Pro for Mac for free
• MacMall: [Apple Computers] MacMall Mac Blowout Sale: Up to $1,099 off Macs, iPads, and more
• Other World Computing: [Computer Accessories] OWC 2012 Featured Move 'em Out Sale: RAM, accessories, HDDs, more
• ...

On Wednesday, Google introduced its long-anticipated Spotify competitor: Google Play Music All Access, a "uniquely Google approach" to subscription music service.   ...

In advance of the bench trial in which Apple will have to fight off charges that it colluded -- and fostered collusion -- with publishers to raise prices on e-books, both the iPhone maker and the US Department of Justice have filed initial court documents to lay out their respective cases. At issue is both the use of Apple's "agency model" pricing scheme, as well as former CEO Steve Jobs' overtures to the major publishers -- seen by some as trying to wrangle publishers into raising prices.... ...

The next time your Samsung Galaxy-toting friends try to annoy you, here's a piece of information you can throw back at them. According to a study published yesterday by investment bank Piper Jaffray, iPhones depreciate at less than half the rate of similar Android devices from Samsung.

Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray referred to the new index as "a pulse on what consumers are willing to pay for unsubsidized phones in the US." The index compares US eBay auction ending prices for the iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II over a rolling 8 weeks to create a trend on resale prices.

"The key takeaway from 8 weeks of data is that the iPhone is holding slightly more of its value compared to the top two Galaxy phones," according to Munster. The iPhone 5's eBay auction ending value dropped about 11.2 percent in the last 8...

From 9to5Google:

Google just announced its much rumored new music service called Google Play Music “All Access” live on stage at its Google I/O event keynote presentation.

Google execs focused on showing off curated playlists but also made a note of pointing out a “radio” feature that will automatically create an endless radio station based on the song you’re currently...

You can create a standalone OS X installation drive without having purchased OS X from the App Store.

From 9to5Google:

We knew from leaks in the weeks leading up to I/O that Google was planning some gaming related announcements and today the company has officially announced the service in a press release ahead of its Google I/O keynote taking place now. Not only will the service allow Android developers to build in real-time multiplayer, social features, achievements, and leaderboards while storing game saves and settings in the cloud, the SDK for Google Play game services will also be available to iOS and web developers.

Google noted a few titles for Android have already been updated with the feature including World of Goo, Super Stickman Golf 2, Beach Buggy Blitz, Kingdom Rush, Eternity Warriors 2, and Osmos.

Not surprisingly, the cross-platform gaming service will also build in Google+...

Keep it short and sweet, folks.

Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Apple’s voice interaction system Siri has been updated, this time specifically to ask users to keep it short. Siri’s system doesn’t deal well with longer user queries, so if you happen to ask something that’s just too long for Siri to deal with, she’ll interrupt you, giving you a quote from a famous person, and then asking you to rephrase the question, shorter or in fewer words. Siri herself doesn’t have the authority to change your speech patterns, apparently, so she’s recruited figures such as William Strunk and Thomas Jefferson to make her point more clearly.

So,...

You can’t say ABC’s not investing in the iOS side of things…

Per AppleInsider, Tuesday saw the launch of of version 3.0.0 broadcaster ABC’s iOS app, one that for the first time will allow users in select markets to watch live television from a U.S. broadcaster.

The new version saw ABC’s app’s name change from ABC Player to Watch...

Mac Geek Gab cohost Dave Hamilton joined the Mac Roundtable crew to talk about the the lull in Apple news, and what type of leadership the company needs.

Handy updates are handy updates.

Late Tuesday, Adobe released version 11.0.03 of its Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat Pro applications. The updates, which can also be snagged through the Adobe Update Utility, add the following fixes and changes:

Japanese support:
- Automatic signature detection is supported.

- Added support for the Japanese Postal Code barcode.

EchoSign integration:
- Acrobat and Reader now intelligently detect if a document may need to be...

Mac Geek Gab listener Stephen is trying to update an app on his Mac, but the app's installer won't work because the app, or its processes, are still running. We show him how to quit those pesky apps and kill their hidden processes so that he can safely update or remove the app from his system.

Last year’s party at WWDC went so well, I decided to have another one this year. This is an invite-only event and I do ask that you RSVP. Invitations will be emailed out today.

An app called Buycott is giving iPhone owners the chance to make a political statement each and every time they shop. The concept behind the app is simple: when you're in a store, scan an item's UPC code to see what parent company owns the product.

"What company owns the product?" you might ask. "Wouldn't that be the name of the company on the package?"

Not necessarily. Popular brand names are often subsidiaries of bigger corporations. And those corporations might have their fingers in things you politically disagree with. This means that even though there is no way you would support the corporation's political activities (say they donate to political campaigns you don't like) you may be inadvertently supporting that corporation by buying one of its subsidiary's products.

Gallery: Buycott

...

Apple has denied U.S. Justice Department claims that it colluded with publishers to artificially raise ebook prices and is saying the companies had independently decided they wanted to break Amazon's stronghold on the market ahead of iBookstore negotiations. The company said it ultimately negotiated individually with publishers to strike content deals through what it called hardline talks.

The Mac Observer Spin:
Apple is the only company that hasn't agreed to a settlement in the DOJ's ebook price fixing case, and it's lookinging like the company is ready to see this through to the end. Since the accused publishers all agreed to deals Amazon was able to start setting its own ebook prices again, so regardless of the case's final outcome, it looks like Amazon is already the winner.

...

Fixes issues recognizing connected video cameras and improves compatibility with iMovie for iOS($14.99 new, free update, 1.08 GB)

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Daniel Eran Dilger:

Malware targeting mobile devices is rapidly growing in both the number of variants found in the wild and in their complexity and sophistication, but the only platform being actively targeted is Google’s Android, which researchers now say is resembling Windows on the desktop PC.

Perfect.

∞ Read this on The Loop

Beleaguered smartphone maker BlackBerry has announced that its Messenger service will come to iOS and Android this summer. The chat service, one of BlackBerry’s most loved features, is still used by 60 million people a month, generating 10 billion messages per day (that’s five times as many iMessages were sent per day as of January 2013). But with BlackBerry’s woes of the past few years, the release still feels like a rearguard action.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Facebook Home has come under attack both for not doing enough and for taking over too much of an Android phone.

But the folks behind Facebook’s mobile project say that, like many engineering efforts at the company, the goal was to get out a product that did a set of features, and then tweak things from there.

Speaking at the recent Dive Into Mobile conference, Facebook’s Mike Schroepfer and Cory Ondrejka talked about how Home came to be, and also hinted that the software could soon span areas beyond the home screen and messaging, with photos and dialing among the areas of interest.

Facebook also used the appearance to announce the arrival of the Chat Heads feature for the...