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Digital music may not have saved the environment after all
Logic would suggest that music downloads and streaming are good for the environment. You're not buying physical copies, right? Not so fast -- there's a chance things could be worse. Researchers have published a study suggesting that greenhouse gas emissions are higher now than they were when physical media was all the rage. While going digital has reduced the amount of plastic, the combination of extra power demands and the sheer popularity of music (you can listen to virtually anything for $10 per month, after all) may have offset other gains. Where vinyl produced 346 million pounds of greenhouse gasses at its height in 1977, downloads and streaming are estimated to pump out 441 million to 772 million pounds.
VLC reaches three billion downloads, will soon add AirPlay
VLC, the video player that'll crunch every format you've heard of, plus all the ones you haven't, is about to hit a huge milestone. Variety spotted an installation at VideoLan's CES booth that's counting ever-closer to the three billion download mark. The VideoLan team expects the (really) Big Three-Oh to be hit at some point on Friday, with around 25 percent of all downloads going to mobile devices.
Nintendo is delaying the Switch's 64GB game cards
To get around the Switch's current 32GB limit on game cards, Bethesda spilt Doom into two parts. The campaign is what shipped on the game card, and multiplayer was a separate download. It sounds like that might be the norm for a bit longer. The Wall Street Journal reports that Nintendo won't start supplying 64GB game cards until 2019, around six months later than the original mid-2018 target. The reason? Those pesky "technical issues" cropped up again, according to WSJ's sources, and Nintendo wants to ensure that product quality is up to snuff.
US music sales keep climbing thanks to streaming
Last year, streaming generated more money in the US for the music business than all other forms of distribution for the first time ever, and that trend is continuing in spades. In the first half of 2017, the industry raked in just under $4 billion, up 17 percent over the same period last year, with 62 percent of that coming from streaming. If the trend continues, the industry should easily surpass the $7.7 billion it earned in 2016, which was already the best year for music since 2009.
YouTube Music adds song and album downloads almost two years later
It's pretty surprising that Google is updating the YouTube Music app instead of scrapping it wholesale. Before the most recent update it mainly served as a way to cast tunes that don't exist on the Google Play Music app to a Chromecast Audio. With the new patch, though, it's getting a little more useful. Now you can download albums, playlists and individual songs to your mobile device instead of a random mixtape based on your listening history. Pretty cool, right? Time to stock up on some obscure remixes for this weekend's camping trip before you leave WiFi behind.
Streaming topped all forms of US music consumption in 2016
Remember in early 2013 when Apple hit 25 billion iTune song downloads? And Tim Cook said it took Sony 30 years to sell 220,000 Walkmans? Well, fast-forward just under four years, and Nielsen has revealed that Americans streamed 431 billion songs in 2016 alone, surpassing total digital sales of songs and albums for the first time in history. "The landscape is evolving even more quickly than we have seen with other format shifts," said Nielsen SVP David Bakula.
Netflix updated its video encoding to make downloads look better
From time to time, Netflix updates the technology it's using to convert and compress each of the digital copies of movies it streams to customers. Because people watch from so many different platforms, in so many different situations, it has to be ready for any number of possibilities. Late last year, it revealed the use of a smarter way to apply compression, recognizing that different types of content (animation like Bojack Horseman vs. dark action scenes in Daredevil) need different levels of bitrate or resolution to look their best. Now it's focused on enhancing the efficiency of compression, starting with the video it delivers to mobile devices.
Netflix says it is finally adding offline playback
Netflix has long said that it had no intention of ever offering an offline playback mode for when you're stuck on an airplane or anywhere else with no internet connection. But it seems like the company is changing course: An enigmatic tweet from the Netflix account says that "your favorite stories are now available for download any time." It's accompanied by a cute video with scenes from a bunch of Netflix original shows, but it seems as if the feature won't be limited to only the company's original content. Regardless of any catches, the message is clear: Netflix will finally let us save shows to watch when we don't have an internet connection.
Opera Mini can download videos for offline viewing
If you're often in areas where mobile data is spotty or pricey, the Opera Mini browser for Android has a helpful new feature: video downloading. When you're at home or have solid WiFi, you can visit sites like Facebook, IMDB and GQ.com and download videos directly to your phone. Later, if you're without a signal or want to keep your cell bill down, you can watch the videos offline at your leisure.
'Deadpool' downloads are setting sales records early
Fox's Digital HD plan to sell movies online ahead of their disc release appears to be paying off, as it just announced that CGI-heavy Deadpool is the fastest selling superhero digital HD movie. Of course, it being incredibly well-received doesn't hurt, but racking up a million sales before the Ultra HD Blu-ray / Blu-ray / DVD debut next week is pretty nice. According to Fox, it's the studio's "best performing" movie ever under the program, which saw it go on sale via the likes of iTunes and Vudu on April 25th.
An Australian carrier's 'free data' day was totally abused
Mobile carriers rarely give anything away for free, so when Australian provider Telstra offered customers unlimited downloads for a whole day, they more than filled their pockets. To atone for a network outage last Tuesday, the operator turned its apology into a marketing stunt with the launch of "Free Mobile Data Sunday." There were no restrictions on what could be posted, browsed, shared and streamed, allowing Telstra customers to gobble up a record 1,841 terabytes of data in 24 hours.
EPIX enables mobile downloads for offline movie watching
Joining the likes of Google Play Movies and iTunes, streaming content provider EPIX announced on Tuesday that it will allow subscribers to download movies onto their mobile devices for later playback, whether or not there's an available internet connection. The feature will reportedly be available on iOS and Android devices as well as Amazon's Kindle, beginning this month. Available titles will include The Hunger Games, James Bond and Star Trek. There's no word on limits to how many titles subscribers will be able to concurrently download or how long they'll be able to keep each one.
Nintendo opens digital download store on Amazon
US Amazon users can now buy Nintendo titles like Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U through a digital download space on Amazon. According to the page, you can purchase one of the 61 titles listed, including Mario Kart 8, Splatoon and Yoshi's Island, then just click the Nintendo Network link on the 'thank you' page. From there, the content code will be automatically redeemed and the game sent directly to your Wii U or 3DS console. The new store means there's now another way to purchase downloadable games other than through Nintendo's eShop -- even though it still comes directly from Nintendo.
Almost a fifth of online Brits are enjoying content illegally
The UK government is increasing its efforts to clamp down on online piracy, and now we know the reason why: illegal downloads and streaming are on the rise. Research commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) shows that the number of people accessing content illegally has risen from 17 to 18 percent since 2013. (That equates to roughly 7.8 million Brits pirating at least one item over a three-month period.) Nine percent of internet users aged 12 and above admitted to downloading or streaming music illegally at least once between March and May 2015. Six percent confessed to pirating a movie and seven percent revealed they had watched TV shows illegally. These figures are mostly consistent with the last batch of research conducted by Kantar Media two years ago -- only TV programming has shown change, rising by one percentage point.
BBC iPlayer Radio app will soon let you download shows
One of the reasons why podcasts are so popular is because, unlike live radio, you can download episodes and listen to them when you don't have a connection. The BBC has long understood their popularity, offering both dedicated podcasts and shows cut from its daily broadcasts. Now, however, it's going one step further and adding radio show downloads to its iPlayer Radio app. The feature should blur the line between the two mediums, making it easier for listeners to catch up with their favourite shows and DJs.
UK ISPs ordered to block e-book piracy sites
In a major victory for book publishers, the UK's High Court has ordered internet service providers (ISPs) to block several sites offering pirated e-books. The decision means that BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and EE now have 10 days to comply and ensure their customers can't access the following link depositories: AvaxHome, Ebookee, Freebookspot, Freshwap, Libgen, Bookfi and Bookre. The Publishers Association (PA), which sought the blocks under the UK's Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988, claims the sites collectively hold around 10 million e-books, and that at least 80 percent of them are infringing copyright. It's been described as the "first action of its kind brought by UK book publishers," following similar ISP blocks levied against sites hosting music, movies and TV shows.
Sky+ update makes it easier to manage your TV recordings
Ready for a new Sky+ update? The broadcaster's HD set-top boxes are getting a minor refresh in the coming months that add a few useful, if not particularly groundbreaking features. The TV guide "Planner" is being spruced up a bit, making room for a new "Scheduled" tab that keeps track of all your planned recordings. Meanwhile, a new "Delete All" option makes it easier to wipe complete series, freeing up vital space on your hard drive before Game of Thrones is back on the telly. We suspect parents will be most interested in the "Family" setting, however, which bundles together Sky's various parental controls. These include hiding adult channels, restricting Sky Store purchases and PIN-protecting playback of 12+ on-demand content before the watershed. None of these features are going to blow your socks off, but they're welcome additions all the same. Sky says the update is rolling out now and should hit all Sky+HD boxes before June.
Canada's digital spies are watching what you download
It's not just American and British spies who want to know what you're downloading. Documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal that Canada's digital surveillance agency, the Communication Security Establishment, has been monitoring the file transfer activity of at least 102 sites, including Megaupload (while it was running), Rapidshare and Sendspace. The effort, codenamed Levitation, is meant to spot foreign terrorists using these file services to conduct their operations. It may only net a user's IP address in many cases, but the CSE can run its findings through databases from allied intelligence agencies (such as GCHQ and the NSA) to get names, email addresses and other personal details.
Technics has a hi-fi music download service, too
In order to give its high-end audio wares the proper content to offer pristine listening, Panasonic's Technics brand is building its own hi-fi music store. Launching in the UK and Germany next year, Technics Tracks will serve up a library of 24-bit FLAC audio files, a number of which will boast a 92kHz sampling rate. In addition to the high-resolution selections, a collection of 16-bit/44.1kHz CD-quality tracks will be available as well via the service being tooled by 7Digital -- an outfit that operates a high-quality download repository of its own. Of course, Neil Young's Pono service and player are on the way as well, and with Tidal's recent launch, your high-resolution listening habit can now afford to be a bit more selective. When it arrives in Janurary, Android, iOS and desktop apps will be available for shopping and organizing cloud-stored music until you're ready to download.
ComScore: Most people in the US don't download apps on a regular basis
While smartphone apps come in handy for a variety of uses from sharing photos to navigating a new locale, it appears that most folks in the US barely download them at all. According to ComScore, 65.5 percent of those users 18 and above who wield a handset in the US go a full month without visiting their respective app store for new material. This means that 34.5 percent load up at least one new selection every 30 days, and figures indicate that the top 7 percent of users are responsible for around half of a month's total. What's more, the iOS crowd primarily focuses on news, radio, photos, social networks and weather, while the Android faithful fire up Google Search and Gmail most often. And to the surprise of no one, Facebook is tops in terms of popularity and amount of time spent on its app. All of that said, most folks seem to load up their phones with the usual suspects early on, and don't tend to divide their attention too often thereafter.
