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An early look at the Gramofon, a cheap Wi-Fi router that lets you stream Spotify to any speaker

Jul04
by on July 4, 2014 at 11:31 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets, Product Reviews

gramofonfeat
It should be simple for multiple people to control and stream music through a single sound system. But too often, it’s not. Some speakers support AirPlay, but Apple’s walled garden rules out Android hardware. Bluetooth is an adequate solution, but all too frequently your playlist is interrupted by an incoming text message, or when you step outside and suddenly notice your smartphone is out of range. Gramofon is a cheap, small and stylish Wi-Fi router from Fon that turns any speaker into a music streaming jukebox. To get started, you’ll need to plug the box into a power supply and then…

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Mind Candy gets social with Instagram-inspired PopJam app for kids

Jul04
by on July 4, 2014 at 10:00 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Product Launches

PopJam icon
Mind Candy, the creator of Moshi Monsters, is back with another mobile app for children. It’s called PopJam and offers an Instagram-inspired “creative community” where anyone can share drawings, photos and stickers with their friends. Each post is a square-crop, just like Facebook’s popular photo-editing app, although here Mind Candy has traded filters and adjustment sliders for colorful stamps and paint brushes. All three modes – draw, photo and sticker – can be used separately or combined for a truly eccentric piece of art. Users can then share these with their friends, or like and respond to other posts with…

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The BBC launches first ‘virtual’ radio station in a bid to reduce costs and improve audio quality

Jul04
by on July 4, 2014 at 9:13 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Insider, UK

BBC Announces 2,900 Job Losses
The BBC is experimenting with a ‘Virtual Local Radio‘ setup that will see four of its stations leveraging the same back-end infrastructure and equipment managed in a remote data centre. BBC Radio Northampton is the first ‘virtual’ radio station to begin broadcasting this way. The studios might look the same, with the usual play-out system and mixing desks, but all of the audio files are now stored, streamed, mixed and processed in a different location. The BBC says this should improve audio quality and the ability for stations to share content with one another. The BBC says this approach could “potentially” reduce…

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Little trouble in big China: Flickr, OneDrive, Line and Kakao Talk suffer accessibility issues

Jul04
by on July 4, 2014 at 8:01 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia, flickr, Insider, kakao

China flag
There is currently trouble brewing in China as several foreign internet companies are experiencing accessibility issues in the country for their services — including messaging apps Line and Kakao Talk, as well as Yahoo-owned photo sharing site Flickr and Microsoft’s storage service OneDrive. Tech in Asia first spotted that there were problems with Line in China. A Line spokesperson told TNW its service in Mainland China (provided in conjunction with a local operator under the name of Lianwo) is still experiencing a connection issue that began on the night of July 1. “We are currently investigating the issue and trying our best…

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