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Tile now offers $1 QR code stickers as a low-tech way to recover lost items
Tile has just launched "Lost and Found" QR labels that are a essentially a low-tech way to get your stuff back.
Bandcamp Fridays are back again
The music marketplace will waive its fees on the first Friday of each month through December.
Bandcamp is bringing back monthly commission-free Fridays
For 2022, Bandcamp is bringing back its once-a-month commission-free sales days starting on February 4th.
Bandcamp will keep waiving its fees one day a month through the end of 2021
Artists and labels have earned $56 million from Bandcamp Fridays.
Facebook finally delivers on its promise to label ‘state-controlled’ media
Beginning today, Facebook will label media outlets that are wholly or partially under the editorial control of their government.
NVIDIA's AI will help USPS handle packages 10 times faster
The US Postal Service (USPS) delivers an estimated 146 billion pieces of mail annually, including 6 billion packages. In an attempt to process package data more efficiently, USPS is experimenting with AI. Today, NVIDIA announced that it will provide USPS with its AI tech. NVIDIA claims its system will process package data 10-times faster and with higher accuracy.
YouTube will label videos to help European users avoid fake news
Google has launched some new tools in a bid to fight misinformation about upcoming elections in Europe. A large part of that effort is focused on YouTube, where Google will launch publisher transparency labels in Europe, showing news sources which receive government or public funding. Those were unveiled in the US back in February, but had yet to arrive in the EU. "Our goal here is to equip you with more information to help you better understand the sources of news content that you choose to watch on YouTube," the company said.
Twitter is testing new labels for conversation threads
In a tweet today, Twitter announced that it's experimenting with new labels on conversation threads. The labels -- author, mention and follow -- are another attempt to make the platform more conversational and easier to follow. This may never move past the trial phase, but it's further proof that Twitter is bent on helping users make sense of threads.
Merlin and Dubset strike a deal to help indie artists monetize DJ mixes
Last August, Sony Music made a deal with Dubset, a company that helps rights holders identify samples in songs to ensure they get paid. Apple and Spotify also connected with the licensing company for the streaming services' unofficial mixes, too. Now, indie label Merlin has struck a new deal with Dubset that will hopefully help independent musicians monetize their own samples.
SoundCloud inks licensing deal with 20,000 indie labels
SoundCloud continues to lend a hand to independent artists, and today the music site announced a royalty agreement with Merlin. While the name may not ring a bell, Merlin works with 20,000 indie labels and distributors including Beggars Group (Vampire Weekend), Secretly Group (Bon Iver), Domino (Animal Collective), Kontor Records (Tiësto) and more. Merlin works with smaller outfits to negotiate things like royalties and licensing, which is exactly what it's done here with SoundCloud. The deal means that on top of being able to pipe in content from labels and distro, the streaming repository will offer compensation when tunes are played. "You'll also be able to discover and listen to more new tracks from the best independent label creators on the planet, safe in the knowledge they'll now have the opportunity to get paid while you listen," a blog post announcing the deal explains.
Epson invents a clever label printer that works with iOS
Epson was nice enough to send me a review unit of its new Labelworks LW-600P portable label printer (US$99.00). I didn't feel I had much personal need for labels around the home office, but that quickly changed when I got the printer up and running. Specifications The printer works with iOS or OS X. A free iOS app communicates via Bluetooth, while Mac owners can use the included USB cable. The printer can be powered by six AA batteries or the AC power supply. Its maximum printing resolution is 180 DPI, and labels can be bought that measure 6, 9, 12, 18 or 24 mm. The labels are mostly peel off with adhesive backing. After your label is printed you can specify that it be automatically cut. There are a variety of colors and finishes available for the labels, even iron-on types. The printer itself is small, 6" H, 2" W, 5" D. It can go in a medium sized briefcase or laptop case. Design and installation highlights Set up was quite easy. Once the batteries were installed, a flashing blue light indicated it was waiting for pairing. I opened my iPhone and the printer showed in the Bluetooth menu, ready to pair. From there it was ready to print. Labels are easy to load and it was obvious how the label carrier needed to be inserted. I really didn't need a manual. Using the Epson LW-600P Bring up the Epson app, enter text, choose from a variety of fonts, and send your work to the printer. There are 400 label design templates, or you can choose plain text. It can also print barcodes or QR codes. The app also supports Apple's speech-to-text, so just talk to the app and the text for the label will appear. That's pretty cool. Once I got started I found lots of uses for the printer. I was labeling cables behind my home theater system, folders, food containers and the drawers in my parts chest. The only glitch I saw was that my iPhone doesn't always immediately recognize it, so I had to open the Bluetooth Menu and tap the printer name. Then it paired instantly. Conclusions The Epson LW-600P is just a really excellent portable printer. With an iOS device and the printer running on battery and Bluetooth you can be a printing demon around the house or office with no wires. Print cartridges that feature 30 feet of label average around $20.00, and that is a lot of labels. I was pretty neutral about this product until I used it. Give it a serious look if you have need of professional looking labels that are really easy to create.
Need for Speed can 'learn a lot' from EA Sports
When Andrew Wilson became CEO of Electronic Arts in September, he named Patrick Soderlund as his replacement as head of EA Sports. The company immediately made structural changes in how it handles its EA Labels, shuffling its games under the EA Studios brand. Along with that change, the Need for Speed series became part of EA Sports, a decision that Soderlund thinks will have a positive impact on the racing property. "I think that we can learn a lot from the sports games and what they've done," Soderlund told Polygon. "When you play a sports game, the controller in your hand will dictate how good the game is. It's all about player control and input and how it feels. It's a feeling, right? I think that focus on pure gameplay, is something that can benefit the Need for Speed brand in a very positive way." EA Sports-branded games have shared assets and design philosophies over the years, such as the NHL team at EA Canada adapting FIFA's Player Impact physics engine to bolster collisions between players in NHL 14. Soderlund noted that the change doesn't necessarily indicate a sudden move away from the sandbox-style action seen in Need For Speed Rivals. "It's a way for us to push innovation and push a different creative brain or mindset onto Need for Speed," Soderlund said. Need for Speed Rivals is now a launch game for PS4, and will arrive on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on November 19, launching with the Xbox One on November 22.
Amazon rumored clinching major labels for cloud music rights, iTunes Match feels the heat
When we last checked in, Amazon was thought to finally be pushing for full music rights in its Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services. It might be a smooth operator at the negotiating table: subsequent tips to CNET maintain that the top four major labels (a currently-independent EMI as well as Sony, Universal and Warner) have all signed deals that will let Amazon offer the same scan-and-match music downloads and streaming as Apple's iTunes Match. The pacts would let Amazon offer access to every song a listener owns without having to directly upload each track that wasn't bought directly from Amazon MP3. Aside from closing a conspicuous gap, the deal could end a whole lot of acrimony from labels who were upset that Amazon preferred a free-but-limited service over having to charge anything. The online shop hasn't said anything official yet (if at all), but any signatures on the dotted line will leave Google Music as the odd man out.
Google partners with Universal, EMI, Sony Music, 23 independent labels on Google Music, scores exclusive content
A music store isn't much without plenty of music, and Google's new offering launched with some big backing today. The company is partnering with Universal, EMI, Sony Music and no less than 23 independent labels on the service -- according to Google, that covers about 13 million songs in total, 8 million of which are available today. Speaking at the launch event, Universal's Rob Wells said that he expects Google Music to be a "rich new revenue stream for our artists," and further noted that he's excited about the "global rollout" across all Android devices, although we're unfortunately not hearing many specifics about availability outside the US just yet. What's more, Google also announced that Google Music will have a number of exclusive offerings from the labels, including concerts from the likes of The Rolling Stones, Coldplay, Pearl Jam and The Dave Matthews Band, and the exclusive debut of Busta Rhymes' latest album.
Gmail v2.3.5 for Android adds label-specific ringtones and sync priority mail only options
If you love Gmail and need to access it on the go, you probably already know that Google's Android platform is the best way to do so, and with the new v2.3.5 it's getting even better. The top two new features this time around include the ability to sync only priority messages (saving battery life and keeping unimportant messages at bay) and the ability to individually set notifications and ringtones for any of the labels in your inbox. The Android Market website is still showing version 2.3.4.1, but we successfully upgraded via the Market on our devices. Also new are features like remembering "Show Pictures" for specific senders, a toggle for sticky message actions in all orientations as well as improved overall performance and TalkBack screen reader support. Update: The website is now showing all the details for 2.3.5, hit the source link to update or just check the official list after the break.
Apple's iCloud bags last major record label, will cost $25 / year to sign up?
We'd heard that Universal was the only holdout, and now CNET says the deal is done -- Apple has reportedly signed all four major record labels for its upcoming iCloud service. We'll be bringing you all the confirmed details on June 6th, but while you wait, here's some food for thought: the Los Angeles Times says that Apple will eventually charge somewhere around $25 a year for a subscription to the cloud. That will help supplement the 58 percent piece of the pie it's planning to take from the music industry for songs distributed though the network, and possibly some ad revenue as well. 30 percent will reportedly go to the labels, and another 12 percent to publishers, who will apparently be signing their own agreements with Apple tomorrow. Update: There's actually an interesting discrepancy between the two sources here: the LA Times reports that Apple's taking that nice, juicy 58 percent, but CNET says that the labels will take 58 percent while Apple claims its traditional 30 percent instead. We're investigating. Update 2: The LA Times has updated its piece, with different percentages still -- reportedly, Apple will take 18 percent, publishers get 12 percent, and labels 70 percent of the proceedings.
Apple, others in talks to improve quality of music downloads
CNN reports that Apple is in touch with record labels to try and improve the quality of the downloadable music it sells on iTunes and elsewhere. Currently, the MP3s sold on iTunes are formatted as 16-bit files, but under the new proposal, they'd be upgraded to 24-bit files, which means the files would have more audio data included, and thus be able to play out at a higher resolution. As Chris Foresman at Ars argues, however, it may not matter. While higher quality is always nice to have (and there's no reason Apple shouldn't have it, unless the audio needs to be compressed further for streaming or other memory concerns), most people won't hear the full resolution anyway. You can have the highest quality audio files you want, but when you're playing them through a set of cheap speakers (or even the MacBook's default built-in speakers), you're not going to hear all of the highs and lows that you should. Still, it will be nice to have the higher resolution, and it'll give Apple and iTunes yet another selling point if the agreement can be made (not to mention sell a lot of higher-quality audio speakers and other products as well). So, I expect we'll see it happen before long. Remember way back in 2007 when Apple raised the encoding rate to 256 Kb/s? [via Electronista]
Misuse of labels: On the definitions of "mobile" and "computer"
In the world of corporate communications, a big part of delivering a message involves defining the terms of the discussion. Over the past few weeks, both Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have been caught up in this action while discussing the mobile space. During the most recent Apple quarterly earnings call, Jobs tried to redefine what an open platform is when comparing iOS to Android. Zuckerberg raised eyebrows last week when he declared that the slim and lightweight iPad was a computer, not a mobile device. The problem is that while people like to categorize stuff for easy black-and-white comparisons, we live in a universe of color. Applying one label to a device (or person or action) does not necessarily preclude other labels from also being true at the same time. For example, when Zuckerberg said that the iPad was not mobile, he later clarified that he meant that it wasn't a phone, which was the main topic of discussion at the Facebook event. The iPad is obviously both mobile and a computer, but it isn't a phone. Similarly, an iPod touch is not a phone, but it is mobile; it also has many properties of a computer, though most people wouldn't call it that. The Barnes & Noble Nook Color is clearly an e-book reader by design, despite its lack of an e-ink screen. So how do we get around this conundrum? We need to stop insisting on easily digested sound bites and call out anyone who tries to inappropriately apply labels in an attempt to misdirect the conversation. Describe what something does and doesn't do, and let people decide for themselves if it is the best choice for them.
CTIA sues San Francisco over cellphone radiation law
San Francisco may have signed cellphone radiation labels into law, but the stickers won't stick without a fight -- the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA) just filed a complain in federal district court, claiming the new law supersedes the FCC's authority to regulate radio emissions and misleads consumers into believing some phones are safer than others. As we've discussed previously, the CTIA does have something of a point. Every phone that makes it to market is rigorously tested for cell phone radiation levels, and those that pass fall below a specific 1.6 watt per kilogram threshold already. But hey, we're all for bombarding our brains with that much less radiation, as long as our calls stay connected and our text messages arrive on time. If only there were a label for that... Read the CTIA's full complaint at our more coverage link.
San Francisco considers displaying phone radiation levels next to price tag
If the San Francisco Department of the Environment gets its way, starting as soon as next month Bay Area residents might start noticing the radiation levels of cellphones displayed prominently next to their respective price at retail outlets. This is, of course, despite no definitive research that the handsets cause harm and the FCC's insistence that the devices sold to consumers are safe. The proposal is being endorsed by Mayor Gavin Newsom, who as it's noted is not about to stop using his iPhone anytime soon. Not to worry, Maine, you'll still keep the top spot for most ridiculous cellphone warning label.
