Amazon launches Cloud music service, Kindle offers NYT subscriptions, Facebook may cause depression, and Google teams up with with MasterCard and Citigroup. Plus a new less pervy Chatroulette, some Freespeech, and pretty pictures made from pictures. It’s all here with more in today’s Tech Roundup!
1. Along with new Kindle advances, Amazon now claims to have beat Apple with a new music player called The Amazon Cloud Player called Cloud Drive. With membership comes 5GB of free storage space and the ability to access it at any time from any computer.
A few other additional perks:
- Normally, 20 GB of Drive storage will cost $20 for a year. 50 GB is $50. 100 GB is $100. And so on. All the way up to 1 TB for $1,000.
- The Cloud Drive storage isn’t just for music — Amazon notes that 1 TB will hold 70 hours of HD video.
Check out full list of extras here. [TC]
2. NYT Convenience. Getting tired of carrying around the newspaper, or having to read the news on your computer? Well luckily Amazon has got you covered! The Kindle now allows readers to subscribe to the New York Times for easy portability. The subscription includes free web access as well. [Engaget]
3. Love is in the air. Forget jet trails, sports announcements, and rooftops,…as much as we love the classics, times are a changin’. A tech nerd named Jordan C recently proposed to his girlfriend with an engraved ipad! Food for thought for those thinking of a creative new way to pop the question to their lucky loved ones. [Mashable]
4. They call it “Facebook depression,” and whether it’s a new phenomenon or a new twist on an old problem, researchers say it’s a real and growing issue for teens.” But there are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem, said Dr. Gwenn O’Keeffe, a Boston-area pediatrician and lead author of new American Academy of Pediatrics social media guidelines. “With in-your-face friends’ tallies, status updates and photos of happy-looking people having great times, Facebook pages can make some kids feel even worse if they think they don’t measure up.” [PsychCentral.com]
5. Facebook is disputing it causes depression. Their statement says the report from the American Academy of Pediatrics does present useful information for parents and doctors and has a section that talks about the benefits to young people of using social media. [CTV]
6. Have a fear of AI? Then you may feel a bit uncomfortable with this, but for those who love how quickly technology is advancing check this out! It will blow your mind. The high-tech quadrocopter can now can interact with its fellow quadrocopters in a calming game of catch. If your all, huh, what? It’s robots that play catch. Take a look at the video. [CrunchGear]
7. Google keeps expanding it reach further than what seems possible. With the recent launch of Think Quarterly, Google now wants a mobile phone credit card. In the latest move they’re planning, they teamed up with MasterCard and Citigroup and plan to allow users of Android phones pay for purchases using ‘near-field communications’ [ZMEScience]
8. A long-distance parenting app? Nursery Rhymes with StoryTime allows parents to keep up a bedtime story ritual without always being in the same place as their children. Both you and your child will open up the app on your respective devices and flip through stories such as Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty and Three Blind Mice together and hear each others’ voices as you read. [Today]
9. Twitter users may be chatting it up with bots. Earlier this year researchers created the socialbot that interacts with unknowing Twitter users to see if the bot can be “influential.” [NewScientist]
10. Want to get in touch with people’s emotions. Facemood quickly tells other users how their Facebook friends are feeling at moment. [Gizmodo]
11. Tickets to the Apple World Wide Developer Conference sold out in hours, despite the $1,599 price. SVP Phillip Schiller is said to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS at the event. WWDC is set for June 6th through the 10th and is to be held in San Francisco at the Moscone Center. [Gearlog]
12. Nintendo’s much-hyped 3DS, which features glasses-free 3D effects, just launched. Here’s a roundup of what critics are saying! [Newser]
13. Freespeech is a new App that allows non BlackBerry users the same convenience of BBM. Quick and fast, this new application allows all smart phone owners the same luxury others have had for a while. Features include free text messages, group texting, and sending & receiving notifications. What luck! We love free speech! [Freespeech]
14. Did you really like talking to random strangers on Chatroulette but hated all the penis? Pick or Skip uses the same connection/conversation aspect, put with pants. [PickOrSkip Via Mashable]
15. Will D Angelo is making really cool pictures with other pictures. “I wanted to convey the idea that with technology today we can capture everything we see. The photo is made up of about 5 different mosaics of various sizes all cut and layered differently. The main pic was taken with a Canon Rebel XSI, Off camera flash set behind two colored glass vases and a tripod,” he explains. [Gizmodo]
