Jay-Z and Basically Every Famous Musician Just Launched Tidal, a High-Def Music Streaming Service

Jay-Z and a whole bunch of famous music artists joined together on Monday afternoon to re-open the doors to TIDAL, a music streaming service recently taken over by Mr. Carter that looks to take on the likes of Spotify and Rdio. 

At a press conference, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye West, Daft Punk, Jack White, Rihanna, Madonna, Alicia Keys, Jason Aldean, members of the Arcade Fire, Nicki Minaj, Chris Martin of Coldplay, Deadmaus, and other musical superstars appeared onstage to celebrate the launch of Tidal, which the company says will offer higher-quality audio streaming than competing services. The service is owned by Jay-Z, the stage name for Shawn Carter, who recently bought Tidal for a reported $56 million from parent company Aspiro. 

The company’s minority owners are apparently the artists who joined Jay-Z onstage on Monday, according to an article in the New York Times; Carter granted them all small stakes in the new service in return for their participation in promotion, per the Times.  

This is, officially, a relaunch: Tidal existed before Monday’s “launch event.” The service originated as WiMP in 2010, and was known as either WiMP or Tidal in various countries. Because it’s a legacy app, Tidal already has 25 million songs in its library. That’s a comparable library to competitors like Spotify, Rdio, MOG, and Google’s music service.

Tidal will cost $10/month for streaming in AAC (which you’ve heard if you’ve ever bought a song off iTunes) or $20/month for streaming in lossless FLAC, a music compression standard that does not decrease the quality of the song. You will be able to toggle between the two, if you are streaming over a mobile connection and wish to save your data. 

There will be no free tier; services like Spotify and Pandora offer free tiers supported by advertisements that interrupt the service. You’ll have to pay at least $10 per month to listen to Tidal. 

Aside from high-quality streaming –– which many listeners may not be able to distinguish from compressed AAC tracks –– Tidal will also apparently offer exclusive content from the artists involved, as well as special events for paying members. It’s not yet clear how this will play out in reality. 

The Tidal player is available as both a website and an app for iOS and Android; there is no desktop player, nor is it possible to upload music to the service. It will also stream to a number of speaker systems, including the popular Sonos set. Like Spotify, Tidal will offer the ability to save songs for listening without an Internet connection. 

There were rumors that the artists, like Taylor Swift, who have battled streaming services over meager payouts might exclusively bring their albums over to Tidal. Several of Swift’s albums are available on TIDAL, though not her latest, 1989. If Tidal can convince other artists to exclusively plop their music on the site, rather than on competitors, it could gain an advantage. 

The TIDAL website. 

If you’re interested, you can try Tidal online here. The website includes several songs and playlists that are meant to showcase the high-quality music format that Tidal offers. As of right now, you can also re-watch the Tidal launch event, which will almost certainly go down as the most star-studded startup event of 2015. 

Unless, that is, Dr. Dre can convince a lot of his friends to attend the rumored relaunch of his Beats Music service under Apple in the coming months. 

IBM to invest $3B in building Internet of Things business

IBM is getting serious about the so-called Internet of Things, the idea of connecting more devices and objects to the Web.Sean Gallup/Getty Images

IBM on Tuesday said that it will create a new Internet of Things unit and invest $3 billion over four years to build it out.

The move formalizes IBM's existing Internet of Things efforts. IBM's smarter-planet and smarter-cities businesses are connected to the Internet of Things trend. The rough idea behind the Internet of Things is that sensors will be embedded in everything and networked to create data. This flow of data could improve operations.

For IBM, the formation of the Internet of Things unit follows a familiar playbook. IBM targets a high-value growth area, invests at least a $1 billion to get the effort rolling and throws its hardware, software and consultants at the issue. In this respect, the formation of the Internet of Things unit rhymes with what IBM did with e-commerce, analytics, and cloud and cognitive computing.

IBM faces a fierce battle for enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) business. Cisco has targeted IoT, as has almost every tech vendor.

Meanwhile, nontraditional IBM rivals have strong IoT efforts. For instance, General Electric, which happens to make many of the things that will be networked, has an IoT platform called Predix. GE has invested $1 billion in industrial software development. Although GE calls the Internet of Things the industrial Internet, the concept of networking things and layering analytics on top is the same.

For IBM's part, the company said it will have more than 2,000 consultants, researchers and developers aimed at IoT and the analytics that go with it. IBM said the unit will include:

• A cloud platform for industries aimed at verticals. IBM will offer dynamic pricing models and cloud delivery to various verticals.
• Bluemix IoT platform as a service so developers can create and deploy applications for asset tracking, facilities management and engineering tools.
• An ecosystem of partners ranging from AT&T to ARM to The Weather Company.
Separately, IBM announced a partnership with the business-to-business division of The Weather Company, owner of The Weather Channel. The partnership will deliver micro weather forecasts using sensors from aircraft, drones, buildings and smartphones.
The Weather Company will also move its data services platform to IBM's cloud platform and integrate Big Blue's analytics tools such as Watson Analytics.
To be sure, IBM has a bevy of IoT projects under way with customers. The new unit will hone and focus those efforts while bringing in IBM's expertise in analytics.

You Can Now Test Project Spartan, Microsoft's Internet Explorer Successor

By Tom Warren

Microsoft is releasing a preview of its Internet Explorer successor, Project Spartan, today. The new browser, which will be the default web experience in Windows 10, is part of an update to the PC Windows 10 preview. Microsoft promised faster builds for testers, and it’s delivering on that promise today. After less than two weeks, Windows 10 testers can now download a new build (10049)that will include the Project Spartan browser. If you’re already running a preview version of Windows 10 then it’s available immediately from Windows Update, otherwise you can join the Windows Insider program to test Project Spartan and Windows 10.

While Microsoft demonstrated a variety of Project Spartan features back in January, not all of them are enabled in today’s preview. Cortana, Microsoft’s digital assistant, is included with features like contextually aware suggestions, and assistance for weather or stocks information. While Cortana is present, calendar and flight information won’t be available as part of today’s preview, and the digital assistant is limited to the US for now in Project Spartan. Similarly, an updated Reading View mode is available in the Spartan preview, but roaming across devices and saving offline aren’t available just yet. Both features are planned for the final version of Windows 10 and Project Spartan which will ship in the summer.

One of Spartan’s more impressive features is the ability to annotate notes with a pen. While recently leaked builds of Spartan didn’t feature this, today’s preview will include this new Web Notes function. You can write or type directly on to a webpage, and share the comments through email, social networks, or through OneDrive. Microsoft even supports OneNote too, for easy clipping of web pages and inking comments or notes on them.

Today’s preview is just an early look at Project Spartan, and Microsoft is promising to update its new Windows 10 browser frequently. “Project Spartan will be regularly updated,” says Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore. “The team is engaging with customers and partners closely to tune and update plans.” Microsoft previously revealed it also plans to support extensions in Project Spartan in a future update, so new features are clearly in the works. Microsoft is also preparing to release a new Windows 10 for phones preview, and it’s likely that Spartan will be included in that release.

While Project Spartan is a successor to Internet Explorer, Microsoft is still planning to ship its “legacy engine” browser in some versions of Windows 10. The Verge understands that the software giant is currently evaluating a number of different ways to ship Internet Explorer in Windows 10 to those who require it, and that it will be primarily targeted at enterprise customers. Microsoft is not pinning Internet Explorer to the task bar or Start Menu in Windows 10, and Project Spartan will take over. Today’s preview includes that new behavior, and we hear that Internet Explorer could eventually become a Windows feature that you have to enable to get access to the old browser. Internet Explorer itself (the app) might not be fully dead just yet, but Microsoft is killing off the brand name in favor of a new name for Project Spartan, and the company says it’s the future of its browser efforts.

Raptr's Instagram-like service lets gamers preserve their special moments

Plays.tv will let users curate a profile of video game highlights to let others see what they're playing.Raptr

Dennis Fong thinks video games are full of moments as sharable as perfectly captured brunch omelets and beach sunsets.

Those game clips just need their own version of Instagram, where gamers can share their special moments, too. As chief executive of Raptr, Fong has a social networking service that can do just that.

"There are these moments that you can experience when you play: the feeling of accomplishment, success, failure, funny moments," he said. "It's kind of sad that most of those moments are ephemeral. They happen and they're not memorialized or preserved and there's no way to relive it in a social setting for your friends."

That's where Raptr's Plays.tv comes in. The service, which has been quietly running for a few months now but launches to the public Tuesday, is essentially an Instagram for PC game highlights. Users can create a Raptr profile and upload clips through any video-capture technology. Plays.tv will feature a constant stream of highlights to show what people have played and what they feel is worth showing off. Raptr will automatically transition its 46 million users to the service.

Video game footage has become one of the industry's most lucrative markets over the last few years. Gamers are flocking in the millions to services like Twitch, which lets them record themselves or watch competitive matches as they occur. Yet Twitch is much like a live television channel for watching professional game-playing. Fong wants Plays.tv to be space where gamers can post their highlights after the fact.

"Twitch is an awesome service, but it's really for someone that wants to perform and entertain," Fong said. With Plays.tv, he said, you "don't have to feel like there's an audience," much in the same way an everyday smartphone user can share a shot to Instagram with zero interest in making money off the service or growing in popularity.

Plays.tv will also offer Raptr's same-name capturing service, which it originally launched last year with AMD as the Gaming Evolved client and with Intel as part of its Quick Sync service. Like other tools on the market, the service will constantly record 15 seconds to 20 minutes of game play that you can save and upload with the press of a button. Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One game consoles also feature comparable recording capabilities.

While it may not directly brush up against Twitch, Plays.tv faces an even larger competitor: Google's YouTube video service. YouTube "Let's Play" videos, in which everyday gamers add audio commentary and share their game screen with strangers, have already launched the careers of numerous online personalities.

Swedish producer Felix Kjellberg, who goes by the handle "PewDiePie," has racked up almost 35.7 million subscribers and 8.3 million views of his gaming videos. He earned $4 million in 2013. While he has by far the largest following, Kjellberg is just one of thousands who have made YouTube the primary destination for recorded game-related videos.

As Fong sees it, gamers flocked to YouTube only because they had no viable alternative. He hopes Plays.tv will be more than just a place to passively view game clips.

"There are gaming moments in your life that you want to remember," he said. "And guess what? There's a whole community of people that have experienced something similar."

10 apps that will make your life infinitely easier

BY Karissa Bell

We get by with a little help from our apps.

From smartphone apps that help get you places to those that remind you about morning meetings to those that give you life updates from friends, many basic tasks have become much easier.

But, as a simple scroll through Google Play or the App Store will prove, the app space is crowded; there's a lot to choose from. So we saved you the work and rounded up 10 of our favorites — from maps to news to restaurants — that will help you get things done faster and more efficiently.

Take a look through our list, and then let us know in the comments below which apps help to supercharge your productivity.

• 

  Citymapper

  Citymapper will help you navigate some of the biggest cities in the United States and Europe. The app pulls in data from local public transit and puts maps and directions at your fingertips.

  It also works offline, so you can get around even without data connection. Citymapper connects with Uber and Hailo to help you get rides around town, too.

  Available for: iOS and Android

  IMAGE: CITYMAPPER LIMITED

• 

  Flipboard

  Whether you're a news junkie or simply want to browse headlines on your way to work, Flipboard has you covered. After you select the topics you’re most interested in, the app creates themed magazines that are personalized to your tastes. You can also connect Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to quickly flip through updates from all your social networks in one place.

  Available for: iOS, Android, Windows Phone

  Also try... If you fall into the "less is more” camp, check out Yahoo’s News Digest, which offers a handful of carefully curated stories twice daily.

  IMAGE: FLIPBOARD INC.

• 

  Flush toilet finder

  When you have to go, you have to go. Flush will prevent the frantic rush to find a suitable place to do your business.

  The app has listings for more than 100,000 public restrooms around the world, including information on disability access, key requirements and user reviews.

  Available for: iOS and Android

  IMAGE: JRUSTON

• 

  Google Now

  Turn on voice searches to find everything from directions home and weather conditions to recipes, simply by saying, “OK, Google.” The app also acts a personal assistant with Google Now cards that show reminders and other information you need to know about your day.

  Available for:: iOS and Android

  Android users, step it up a notch with the Google Now Launcher, which puts Google Now’s superpowers directly on your home screen.

  IMAGE: GOOGLE

• 

  Pocket

  The simplest way to save things you want to find or read later. If you’re browsing in an app or on the web, save articles, videos, recipes and other items to your Pocket account for easy access later. Your account syncs across all devices and on the web; offline capabilities ensure you can always find that #longread when you want it.

  Available for: iOS and Android

  IMAGE: READ IT LATER, INC.

• 

  Shazam

  One of the first apps that made the iPhone seem magical, Shazam can identify that song you hear but just can't place -- in seconds -- even with background noise or voices. Music charts show you the latest trending tracks around the world, and its discovery features recommend new music based on your music tastes.

  Available for: iOS and Android

  Also try… Have a song stuck in your head but no clue what it is? Try SoundHound, which can identify songs based on singing or humming.

  IMAGE: SHAZAM ENTERTAINMENT

• 

  Sunrise

  There are a lot of great smart calendar apps on the market, but Sunrise's balance of features and its dead-simple user interface make it a winner. The app syncs with Google, Microsoft Exchange and iCloud accounts to put all your appointments and reminders in one place.

  The app also pulls in weather and Google Maps data to add relevant info to your calendar events and connects with Facebook and LinkedIn so you can see the faces of people you’re meeting right in your calendar.

  Available for: iOS and Android

  Also try… If you’re a calendar power user and want even more features, try Fantastical 2, which helps you manage nearly every aspect of your day and has an almost endless range of customization options.

  IMAGE: SUNRISE ATELIER

• 

  Venmo

  Hands-down the easiest way to pay friends, Venmo makes it simple to send money to people you know. You can also use the app to request payments, and money sent through app is easily transferred back to your bank account. Check out our beginners' guide here.

  Available for: iOS and Android

  IMAGE: VENMO

• 

  Waze

  If you spend a lot of time in the car, this is a must. The app crowdsources traffic data, road conditions and other information like speed traps and camera lights. If you're sitting in traffic, the app will automatically reroute to bring you to your destination more quickly. It also displays nearby gas stations (and prices), along with other nearby businesses.

  Available for: iOS and Android

  IMAGE: WAZE INC.

• 

  Yelp

  Regardless of whether you’re looking for a new restaurant to try or just want to double-check a menu, Yelp remains one of the best ways to check out most businesses in town. If you’re searching late at night or an otherwise odd hour, be sure switch on the “open now” filter.

  Available for: iTunes, Android, Windows Phone
  
  Also try… If you’re after a reservation, try OpenTable, which will help you snag a table.

Chinese Smartphone Ad Compares Apple to Hitler

We’ve heard of people comparing Apple to an evil empire. But comparing the company to Hitler? That’s going just a bit overboard.

But that’s exactly what the founder and CEO of Chinese Internet video site Leshi TV, Jia Yueting, is doing to promote his company’s new Android-powered smartphone. We’re guessing Google, which makes Android, isn’t going to like this.

Spotted by The Verge, the ad, which was posted to Yueting’s Weibo page includes a South Park-ish caricature of Hitler standing with his arm raised in a salute, while his other arm wears a red Nazi armband. But instead of a swastika, the band has an Apple logo. Opposite the dictator is a group of mostly smiling children.

The image is meant to show that Apple’s iOS is a closed ecosystem that stifles innovation.Or something like that. 

For most readers in the West, the use of any kind of Nazi iconography in an advertisement is viewed as abhorrent and unacceptable. In many southeast Asian countries, however, Hitler and Nazi images have been coopted into the mainstream. Last December, a popular Korean pop group dressed in outfits that resembled Nazi uniforms. Chinese couples have posted wedding photos to the web in which they are wearing Nazi military uniforms. And in Thailand, students have worn Nazi-style clothing to school, while the government released a propaganda film that appeared pro-Nazi. (”Hitler is huge in Thailand,” the Daily Beast proclaimed.)

So while it’s difficult to imagine the CEO of a major company outright comparing Apple to Hitler, it’s worth pointing out that there is a large cultural difference between Asia and Western countries when it comes to sensitivity toward Nazism.

That still doesn’t excuse the use of such imagery — not by a long shot — but it helps give the Leshi TV ad a bit more context.

4 Cool Games for Spring

BY ADITYA KUMAR SAROJ

Bloodborne (March 24 | PS4)

Hop into bed with the latest controller-throwing action-RPG from the makers of the legendary Souls games. But while Bloodborne is undoubtedly difficult, it’s also incredibly rewarding and chock full of things to kill. And things that will kill you.

Mortal Kombat X (April 14 | PC, PS4, Xbox One)

Get over here and check out the latest version of the legendary fighting game. It’s got all the carnage we've come to expect, but brings a few new twists, from ever-evolving online challenge Towers to a meta-game that lets you represent one of the game’s warring clans in a global battle. But mostly, it’s about doing terribly painful things to perfectly good warriors.

Grand Theft Auto V (April 14 | PC)

Gamers have had a hard time watching the PC release of the massively successful open-world crime game get pushed back countless times, but it looks like it’s really happening this April. It’s not just a port of the console version, either: the PC GTA V adds weapons, vehicles, wildlife, and graphics capable of displaying in 4K resolution. If you've got the rig, consider Los Santos for Spring Break. 

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (May 19 | PC, Xbox One, PS4)

If you like your role-playing games epic, mature, and filled with a combination of swordplay and magic, The Witcher 3 should be high on your wish list. It’s been delayed a few times, but with a game this ambitious – it’s 30 times the size of The Witcher 2 - that’s probably a good thing.

BlackBerry shows signs of life, posts surprise quarterly profit

"Our financial viability is no longer in question," BlackBerry CEO John Chen says.Sarah Tew/CNET

You can't keep BlackBerry down.

The struggling smartphone manufacturer posted a surprise profit on Friday for the second quarter in a row, eking out gains thanks to a massive cost-cutting effort and an adjustment to the value of its investment in a broad patent portfolio.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended February 28, BlackBerry posted earnings excluding certain items of 4 cents a share, compared with Wall Street's forecast of a loss of 4 cents a share.

BlackBerry shares rose 3.2 percent to $9.60 in premarket trading Friday.

The Canadian company, a once-dominant phone maker that has fallen far from its peak, is in the midst of a transformation under CEO John Chen. While its core BlackBerry business continues to be a focus, Chen is streamlining the business and shifting its resources into the potentially more profitable software and services realm. At the same time, he is more narrowly targeting big business customers as the company gets away from its earlier attempts to be a mass-market brand.

"Our financial viability is no longer in question," Chen said in an earnings conference call, noting that he is halfway through his turnaround efforts.

The company earlier this month said it plans to bring some of BlackBerry's key elements -- including its security services and "BlackBerry Hub" interface -- to the iPhone and Android smartphones. It also announced a partnership to team with Google to support Android for Work and is working closer with Samsung's Knox security feature.

That's not to say BlackBerry has given up on the smartphone business. At the Mobile World Congresstrade show earlier this month, the company unveiled two smartphones: an affordable, all-touchscreen device called the BlackBerry Leap, and an as-of-yet-unnamed smartphone with a curved edge like theSamsung Galaxy S6 Edge and a slide-out keyboard.

BLACKBERRY LEAP SWAPS KEYBOARD FOR TOUCHSCREEN...SEE FULL GALLERY

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BlackBerry shipped 1.3 million BlackBerry smartphones in the quarter and said customers snapped up 1.6 million units at an average sales price of $211. Its main BlackBerrys, the Bold-like Classic and the squat Passport, finally hit the US carriers at the beginning of this year.

"The early reports of those sales are encouraging," Chen said.

He noted 160 carriers in 86 countries are selling BlackBerry smartphones, which he touted as the widest support the company has had in several years. Of the BlackBerrys that shipped, 90 percent are the more profitable, newer-generation devices.

BlackBerry posted a fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $28 million, or 5 cents a share, when all charges and adjustments are factored in, compared with a year-earlier loss of $423 million, or 80 cents a share.

Revenue, however, fell by a third to $660 million, below Wall Street's expectations of $786 million.

Blackberry ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $2.88 billion.

For fiscal 2016, Chen said he is focused on sustainable profitability, on making sure the company generates free cash flow from operations every quarter and on stabilizing its declining revenue. He believes the devices business will be increasingly profitable in the second half of the year.