Microsoft leaks Xbox Music Pass pricing model, and no surprises here, it looks exactly like Zune Music Pass

Many Xbox Music features will be ported from Zune Music, and based on the Xbox dashboard update for beta testers, the same applies to the cost of the service.

No surprise here: Microsoft’s leaked Xbox Music service pricing model is no different from every subscription music service out there. Unlimited streaming music on Xbox will cost £8.99 (about $14.50) per month, or you could elect for a slightly discounted upfront cost of £89.90 ($145.15) per year.

With the intention of letting select Xbox owners try out the new Windows 8 interface, Microsoft accidentally leaked the pricing model with the dashboard update, according to The Verge. From what could be determined based on photos taken of the interface, users will be offered a 14-day free trial (Spotify offers 30 days of its premium service for free, for the record) and it also looks like Microsoft will offer a free, ad-supported version of its music service. But in order to use Xbox Music on your console at all, beta testers are reporting that you’ll be required to own a subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold.

The pricing model is similar to Microsoft’s existing Zune Music Pass service, which currently charges $9.99 per month or $100 per year, and it’s likely that the U.S. subscription cost to Xbox Music will be structured similarly. Like Spotify, it could be a possibility for the service to offer additional tiered pricing models based on the amount of access that you’d like.

Microsoft is clearly looking to compete in the music streaming market, with Xbox Music replacing the Zune brand that’s soon to be canned. Xbox Music is essentially a big rebranding effort of an existing service that Microsoft hopes will reenergize its foray into music, a sector that the company has been falling behind compared to its competitors.

From what we know so far, our expectation is that many of the Zune Music Pass features will be ported to Xbox Music. Users will be able to access Xbox Music across multiple devices, including the Xbox, desktop PCs, smartphones, and tablets that are running the Windows 8 operating system, and the service even includes Zune Music’s “Smart DJ” function, which plays a mix of similar music based on the songs in your collection. It also appears that the ability to sync your playlists with other devices will make its way from Zune Music to Xbox Music.

Although the music streaming industry is crowded enough as is with just about every major tech company — Sony, Samsung, and Google all have streaming products, and you can’t discount popular services like Pandora, Rdio, Last.fm and Spotify. And it should be noted that none of these services have yet to debut a Windows 8 specific app, making Xbox Music the de facto music streaming service for Windows device owners once its launched. 

The launch date of Xbox Music has yet to be announced by Microsoft.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Motorola joins the club of Apple’s map service critics, claims your iPhone 5 will get you lost

This should hardly catch you by surprise, given that the company is under Google ownership. Motorola has followed Nokia’s example, and released an ad, which pokes fun at Apple’s far from perfect Maps service.

The ad, released by Motorola in Twitter and Google+ put the Apple iPhone 5 next to the company’s latest DROID RAZR M. Both devices have the same search query entered with Apple’s handset returning a rather questionable result.

Here is the full ad from Motorola.

With Apple’s Maps clearly far from perfect, perhaps it would be the right thing for the Cupertino giant to allow iOS 6 users the luxury of Google Maps until it sorts its own service out. What do you think?

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com

Fujifilm to end production of movie film as digital dominates

As the movie industry further embraces digital technology, Fujifilm has it announced it will soon stop making movie film for shooting and projection.

Perhaps the biggest surprise about Fujifilm’s announcement that from March 2013 it will no longer make film for motion pictures is that it didn’t come earlier. With movie makers and theaters turning increasingly to digital-based products, the Japanese manufacturer said it had no choice but to exit the market.

One of the big players in the business, Fujifilm has been making film for shooting and projection since it was founded in 1934. However, in a statement issued Thursday, the company said a dramatic fall in demand had led to spiraling costs, forcing it to make the decision to end production. It also pointed out that it will continue to make film for still photography.

“Digital cinema camera shooting has been gaining momentum, and digital editing that heavily uses CG composition and VFX processing has now become common in motion picture production,” Fujifilm explained in its statement. It added that the number of movie theaters abandoning film projectors in favor of digital projection has increased significantly in recent years, pushed by the increase in 3D motion pictures.

The company said that instead it intends to focus on other areas of the film industry, providing products and services designed for the digital workflow of movie production and projection.

Digital detractors

While digital-based movie making is undoubtedly gaining ground, there are still a number of high-profile Hollywood directors who don’t want to see celluloid die.

Christopher Nolan, director of blockbusters such as The Dark Knight Rises, which, incidentally, was shot on film, thinks celluloid still produces a better picture, and that the switch to digital production is being made purely to reduce costs.

At the recent Produced By Conference in California, Nolan said going digital risked “devaluing what we do as filmmakers.”

The filmmaker acknowledged that the quality of digital images has improved greatly in recent years, but that it will be some time before it equals that of film.

Nolan added that while he uses digital technology for editing and special effects, he wants to shoot and show his movies on film. He envisages a day when digital will be comparable to film, but insists it’s not there yet.

No doubt Nolan’s eye is better trained than your average movie goer, but I’ve never heard anyone coming out of a theater saying, “The image quality of that movie was terrible. Ah, I see, it was digital.”

Fujifilm is sensibly doing what it believes is best for the future of its company, abandoning a part of its business that no longer makes any money and instead turning to digital products. One wonders how long will it be before the entire movie industry goes digital, pulling the curtain down on celluloid forever.

[Image: K. Jakubowska / Shutterstock]

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Will new iPods join the iPhone at Apple’s September 12 event?

Apple may reveal a range of new iPods at its event on September 12, and given the amount if iPhone leaks, they could be the only surprise.

Apple’s talk about “doubling down” on secrecy appears to have been bluster, as a steady stream of leaks over the past few months have built an almost complete picture of what many believe to be the next iPhone.

There’s so much information out there, that its big reveal on September 12 could be less exciting than Apple events of old. Provided that is, the leaks really do relate to the new iPhone, and aren’t part of an elaborate smokescreen to obfuscate the true new device.

If that’s the case, then Tim Cook and his team will have done an impressive job of fooling us all, but if it’s not, then will the event hold any surprises at all?

Leaving aside the prospect of an iPad Mini, what about the iPod range? 9to5mac.com suggests a new Nano and Shuffle could join the new iPhone at the Yerba Buena Center this week, along with the possibility of a third — potentially new — iPod model too.

The report says the new Nano and Shuffle will come in various colors, and that one — presumably the Nano — will come with a choice of memory capacities, while the other will only have one option. Nothing is known about the mystery third device.

Apple’s last Nano refresh was in October 2011, but the current seventh-generation Nano is almost identical to the sixth-generation device, with the differences between them almost solely software-based and applicable to the older 2010 model too. Apple doesn’t even list the seventh-gen Nano as a device on its own site, preferring to stick with the sixth-generation Nano introduced in 2010.

The Nano is perfectly placed for an update then, and as Apple combined the iPhone and iPod launch for its October event last year, it’s not a stretch to see them doing the same this year.

The good thing is, we’ve not seen or heard very much about any new iPods — bar a version of the Nano sporting a camera at the beginning of the year –  so even if the iPhone looks familiar when it makes its debut, at least they’ll be a surprise.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

VIDEO: Humpback Whales Appear Near California Coast

A small pod of humpback whales along the coast of California  gave some onlookers quite a surprise this weekend.

Image credit: Courtesy Michael Brink

Several boaters, paddlers and kayakers who were in the water Saturday narrowly missed becoming whale food when the marine mammals burst through the surface to lunge-feed.

Bill Bouton, a retired biology instructor who was photographing birds off San Luis Obispo, snapped the whales’ rare close encounter with people that day.

“I was sitting in my car, parked along the shoulder of the road overlooking the beach. Got to use my tripod, thank goodness,” he  said on his Flickr page, where he’d posted the shots.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 gets treated with an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update

Users of the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 got treated to a nice surprise today, as the manufacturer has begun seeding the promised update to Google’s latest Android Jelly Bean 4.1 over the air.

Expectedly the Adobe Flash functionality will disappear with the new OS version. The TF300 users however, will get treated to Google’s latest Android additions and that buttery smooth browsing experience, which has quite a few people talking these days.

In case you are an owner of the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300 and have received and the update, feel free to drop us a line with your experience in the comments section below.

Source : blog[dot]gsmarena[dot]com