Music streaming service Grooveshark shuts down after years of legal troubles

Before Spotify, there was Grooveshark – and today, the latter is no more after the company posted a notice and apology letter on its homepage. “We started out nearly ten years ago with the goal of helping fans share and discover music. But despite [the] best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes. We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service,” the company wrote. “That was wrong. We apologize. Without reservation.” Grooveshark had been battling a six-year settlement with major record companies including Universal Music Group, Sony Music and Warner Music…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1bI2r4e

The Apple Watch can now tell you all about your local Apple Store

Not content with your shiny new Apple Watch? The Apple Store app for iOS has been updated with Watch support so you can find the nearest place to buy yet more gear from the Cupertino giant. In addition to helping you locate your nearest store, the Watch app lets you browse nearby in-store courses (my local store has a thrilling-sounding primer on Numbers spreadsheets in a few hours from now) and get updates on any recent orders you’ve made from the online store. You’ll need to Handoff to your iPhone to book courses or do anything else, but serious Apple-heads…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1zvTAOl

Autodesk goes full-on Microsoft with HoloLens and 3D printing pact

Microsoft’s Build 2015 developer conference may be all about code, but that doesn’t preclude significant deals as well. Autodesk, a power player in the graphic art and design sector, has teamed up with Microsoft to embed its Spark 3D platform into Windows 10. The graphics company also says its 3D models will be compatible with Microsoft’s HoloLens augmented reality device, now under development. The announcements are separate but related. The Spark initiative gives Windows users access to reliable, optimized and streamlined 3D printing processes designed to augment additive manufacturing process related to software, material and printers. Spark APIs will be available for free to Microsoft developers. In…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1Q4ejwq

Tweet #mouthness and these giant mountains will read out your message

Ever wanted giant mountains on the internet to yell out your tweet? Today’s your lucky day! This Chrome Experiment is two giant mountains, the “Mountains of Mouthness“, that will do exactly that in a deep, booming voice for all the internet to see. I just spent the last hour laughing at these mountains reading the most ridiculous things. All you have to do to get the Mountains of Mouthness to read your message is either send a tweet on the #mouthness hashtag or to @momouthness. If you use your phone to visit the site, you’ll see it from a different interactive…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1dyoTxM

Apple is testing Analytics for the App Store

Apple today began inviting developers to a preview of a new App Analytics tool that was promised way back at WWDC last year.   A number of developers tweeted emails informing them of the launch of a beta program for app analytics which promises to show how many customers an app’s page, how often users open the app, how well it sells and more. Third party tools already exist that offer similar functionality, but much of the data is guesswork and this marks the first time Apple has made available an offering that promises to give insights into how apps and…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1I1Cgn0

Scenes from Microsoft Build 2015

It might seem that Microsoft’s Build 2015 developer conference was all code and no play — though to developers they may both be the same thing — but as TNW stalked the show floor, we found plenty of team work and camaraderie from the booths and kiosks to the various hands-on workshops. Read next: Everything Microsoft announced at Build Developer Conference 2015: Day 2

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1QQ6EmI

Screwing with Microsoft’s age guessing machine is frickin’ hilarious

In the three-hour keynote of Microsoft’s second day of the Build Developer Conference, one of the more amusing highlights was How-Old.net, an age-guessing algorithm that does what it advertises using face-recognition technology. Although the website warned that the demo does not promise complete accuracy, most have been able to get fairly reasonable results. (I turn 26 later this year, this photo was taken a month before my 25th birthday). Others? Not so much. Nailed it. http://t.co/Mf6PCn5iAW @rwaggoner http://pic.twitter.com/Fqbb1jYZ54 — Lauren Cunningham (@LaurenSlypig) April 30, 2015 As with most computer algorithms, you can totally game the whole system if you wanted…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1DZxcbB

Kendall Jenner versus a graffiti drone: the age of airborne vandalism begins!

EXT: New York City, the early hours of Wednesday morning. A hacked DJI Phantom drone in possession of a can of spray paint tags a Calvin Klein billboard graced by the over exposed visage of Kendall Jenner. New York graffiti artist KATSU 1, Kardashians 0 Wired has the full story on what KATSU is up to. This is only v1.0 of his graffiti drone so authorities needn’t get too worried…yet. Rest assured though, airborne tagging is going to get a lot more common. ➤ KATSU Drone Drawing 2015 on Kendall Jenner [YouTube via Wired]  Read next: Watch This Millennium Falcon Drone Then Build…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1DNsBtO

Everything Microsoft announced at Build Developer Conference 2015: Day 2

Microsoft has officially wrapped up its second keynote for this year’s Build Developer Conference. Today’s keynote wasn’t as announcement-heavy as the first, but here are the highlights. Windows 10 comes to Arduino and Raspberry Pi This was hinted yesterday during the demo of HoloLens on a Raspberry Pi robot, but today Microsoft went a little further in its demo that ran its Windows 10 OS on both Raspberry Pi and Arduino. The demo focused on using the boards as a way to create “Internet of Things” functionality, such as enabling remote control on an Arduino device or building a camera using the boards to act as a…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1I1fY4J

Microsoft Azure gets GitHub Enterprise support

Microsoft announced a new partnership to bring GitHub’s Enterprise tools to Azure during its Build developer conference today. Although GitHub is popular hub for programmers to access open-source code, larger companies have taken to using the platform’s enterprise features for managing their own code. GitHub recently began supporting Amazon Web Services in an update November of last year, so a move to support Azure as well isn’t a huge surprise. Additionally, developers will now be able to open GitHub repositories right from Visual Studio or easily load the code into Visual Studio right from a button right on GitHub’s website.…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web http://ift.tt/1zhcqZ0