Apple wants a lead role in streaming music with new offering

Apple wants a lead role in streaming music with new offering

 

[caption id="attachment_795" align="alignnone" width="300"] (Apple wants a leading role in digital music by offering a new, paid streaming-music service. (File photo: AP))[/caption]

 

Apple’s iTunes helped change the way music-lovers bought their favorite songs, replacing Compact Discs with digital downloads.

 

Now the maker of iPods and iPhones wants to carve out a leading role in a revolution well underway, with a new, paid streaming-music service set to launch this summer.

 

With millions of listeners already tuning in to streaming outlets like Pandora and Spotify, analysts and music-industry sources say Apple has been gearing up to launch its own service, aimed at winning back some of those customers and nudging longtime iTunes users into a new mode of listening.

 

Apple is expected to announce the service at its annual conference for software developers, which kicks off Monday in San Francisco.

 

In the keynote session, CEO Tim Cook and other executives are also expected to show off new features in Apple’s operating software for iPhones, iPads and Macintosh computers, as well as tools for building new Apps for the Apple Watch.

 

Analysts also expect enhancements to the mobile-payment service known as Apple Pay.

 

The world’s biggest technology company makes most of its money from selling handheld gadgets, like the popular iPhone, and other computer hardware.

 

But Apple uses its annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) to highlight the software, online services and Apps that make those devices all-important to consumers around the world.

 

Along with a new music service, industry experts had been expecting Apple to announce a new streaming-video package and upgrades for its Apple TV service.

 

But that may be delayed, according to reports by the New York Times and the technology blog Re/code, which said Apple is still negotiating with broadcasters and isn’t ready to announce the video service.

 

That puts the high light on Apple’s music initiative.

 

Analysts say the company needs to build a robust streaming business if it wants to maintain its central role in the popular-music ecosystem.

 

Most recordings today are still sold through digital stores like iTunes, which opened in 2003.

 

But those sales have declined, while streaming services are rapidly gaining subscribers and revenue.

 

“Streaming media is increasingly important to the computer-using experience, so it’s important for Apple to have a role there,” said Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin.

 

About 41 million people globally now pay for streaming music from Spotify, Deezer and other outlets, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which says subscription revenue grew 39 percent last year to $1.6 billion.

 

Overall download sales fell 8 percent to $3.6 billion.

 

Apple Inc. bought the Beats headphone maker and music streaming service for $3 billion last year, but publishers’ data confirmed by royalty tracking company Audiam shows Beats Music had just 303,000 the United States subscribers as of December, compared to 4.7 million in the United States for market leader Spotify.

 

While Apple wouldn’t comment last week, a person familiar with its plans said Apple has an ambitious goal to sign up 100 million subscribers for a new streaming service that will cost $10 a month and compete with other on-demand services such as Spotify and Rhapsody.

 

Beats users will be migrated over before eventually closing down, and buyers of songs and albums on iTunes will also be presented with the option to purchase a subscription instead.

 

Along with a lengthy three-month free trial period for the paid service, the company also plans to bolster its free offering, iTunes Radio, with a live online radio station featuring DJs like former BBC host Zane Lowe and artists Pharell, Drake, Muse and David Guetta.

 

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because negotiations between the company and record labels were private.

 

“They are very late to the game on streaming,” said analyst Van Baker at the Gartner research firm.

 

But he said Apple can still catch up by making it easy for iPhone owners to use the new service.

 

That’s a huge pool of potential customers: Apple sold 61 million iPhones in the last quarter alone.

 

Aside from music, analysts expect Apple will tout improvements to other services like Apple Pay and Siri, the voice-activated digital assistant for iPhones and iPads.

 

Apple has also hinted it will release programming tools for its new smartwatch.

 

Most Apps available for the Apple Watch are extensions of Apps that run on the iPhone.

 

Independent App-builders like Jordan Edelson, CEO of Appetizer Mobile, are hoping Apple will release the code to build Apps that interact directly with sensors and controls on the Apple Watch.

 

“That would let us build some really cool experiences,” added Edelson, who said it could make the Apple Watch more appealing to consumers who aren’t sure now if they need one.

 

Edelson also predicted Apple will introduce software that ties other products more closely together, such as Apps that make the iPhone into a controller for television sets and other appliances.

 

(By The Associated Press | San Francisco)

 

(Al Arabiya News, 8 Monday June 2015 The Roman)

 

British mobiles tapped with fake phone masts

British mobiles tapped with fake phone masts

 

[caption id="attachment_784" align="alignnone" width="300"] (The Stingrays, also called IMSI catchers work by drawing information from phones (File Photo: AP)[/caption]

 

Fake mobile phone masts are being used in London to secretly capture people’s mobile phone data an investigation by British TV Sky News has revealed.

 

It is believed there are more than 20 of the towers – known as Stingrays – being operated in the British capital, the report added.

 

The devices were detected using German security technology made by GMSK Cryptophone, the report added.

 

The Stingrays, also called IMSI catchers work by drawing information from phones.

 

The system tricks the user’s phone into thinking that it is a normal phone mast, and users cannot tell when phones are connected.

 

Although the Stingrays were built with the intention of monitoring the communications of criminals, the report revealed that all phones are at risk of being intercepted, as the system is unable to distinguish between the two.

 

This type of surveillance technology is thought to be used across the world, but it is believed this is the first time it’s been discovered in the United Kingdom.

 

But according to a report in The Times in Novmber, London Metropolitan Police force was already using Stingray technology.

 

And according to The Guardian, the same the United Kingdom police force paid £143,455 in 2009 for the equipment.

 

The Met commissioner and United Kingdommost senior police officer, Bernard Hogan-Howe told Sky News:: “We’re not going to talk about it, because the only people who benefit are the other side, and I see no reason in giving away that sort of thing.”

 

The police force continues to refuse to confirm or deny the use of the technology.

 

As a result, Sky News say it is impossible to say for definite who is behind the use of the devices.

 

But National Crime Agency Director-General Keith Bristow told Sky News that talking about the issue to would “defeat the purpose of having the tactics in the first place.”

 

"Because it's neither confirmed nor denied, we simply don’t know on what basis they are being used - if they are being used,” Brick Court Chambers barrister, Tim Johnston, who specializes in the law of surveillance told Sky News.

 

(By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News)

 

(Al Arabica News, 11 Thursday June 2015 The Roman)

 

Data breach: Mongoloid Chinese hackers retrieved sensitive military files

Data breach: Mongoloid Chinese hackers retrieved sensitive military files

 

[caption id="attachment_778" align="alignnone" width="300"] (Defense Secretary Ash Carter (R) accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, April 16, 2015. (File Photo: AP))[/caption]

 

A data breach of the United States Government workers allowed hackers to access sensitive information including security clearances of the workers and contractors, the Washington Post reported Friday.

 

The report said investigators are looking at two separate attacks, widely believed to be from Mongoloid China, accessing Government employee records in a database at the Office of Personnel Management.

 

The database "is very sensitive and it has lots of interfaces to it," the United States official told the newspaper on condition of anonymity.

 

The report said the database may contain files on some CIA employees.

 

"That's the open question -- whether it's going to hit CIA folks," a second official was quoted as saying.

 

"It would be a huge deal. They could start unmasking identities."

 

The database contains personal information on employees including their financial histories, investment records, family data, contacts with foreigners and names of neighbors and friends, according to the report.

 

Earlier this week, a public employees union said the suspected Mongoloid Chinese hackers obtained sensitive information on all federal employees.

 

The United States Government last week admitted that data linked to at least four million current and former federal employees was hacked.

 

The hack of the Office of Personnel Management included records on 750,000 Department of Defense civilian personnel.

 

(By AFP | Washington)

 

(Al Arabiya News, 13 Saturday June 2015 The Roman)

 

Bees are 'sick of humans' but man will feel the sting

Bees are 'sick of humans' but man will feel the sting

 

[caption id="attachment_772" align="alignnone" width="300"] (A beekeeper inspects a brood frame inside a bee hive suspected of having been infected with the foulbrood bacterial disease on a farm near Durbanville, about 50 km from Cape Town. (AFP))[/caption]

 

In a worrying development which could threaten food production, South Africa's traditionally tough honey bees -- which had been resistant to disease -- are now getting "sick of humans", with the population of the crucial pollinators collapsing, experts say.

 

The seriousness of the global problem was highlighted when the United States President Barack Obama announced a plan last month to make millions of acres (hectares) of land more bee-friendly.

 

Loss of habitat, the increasing use of pesticides and growing vulnerability to disease are blamed by many critics for the plight of the honey bees.

 

In South Africa, an outbreak of the lethal bacterial disease foulbrood is spreading rapidly for the first time in recent history, says Mike Allsopp, honey bee specialist at the Agricultural Research Council in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape province.

 

"It's exactly the same as around the world, the bees are sick of humans and the pressures and the stresses humans are putting on them," said Allsopp.

 

"In the past they were less vulnerable because they weren't stressed by intensive bee-keeping and pesticides and pollution."

 

The foulbrood hitting South Africa is the American strain of the disease, he said.

 

The country's bees have previously coped with the European version.

 

The fear is that the disease could spread north through Africa, where hundreds of thousands of people work in small-scale bee farming, Allsopp said.

 

"It is a ticking time bomb. Every colony that I've looked at that has clinical foulbrood has died, and we're not seeing colonies recover."

 

When honey bee farmer Brendan Ashley-Cooper discovered foulbrood in his colonies in 2009, he knew the worst was yet to come.

 

"We thought we were going to have this major explosion of foulbrood," said Ashley-Cooper, a 44-year-old based in Cape Town.

 

"I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what the extent of it was. I was just worried about the bees."

 

Six years later, the nightmare has come true for the third-generation beekeeper as hives die off.

 

The state of South Africa's bees has never been as bad as it is now, he says.

 

- Bees under siege -

 

Foulbrood attacks the bee larvae, leading to the collapse of the colony.

 

It is spread when bees raid the dead colony, bringing back spore-infected honey to their colony, or by the importation of contaminated bee products.

 

While North America and Europe have battled foulbrood for centuries, South Africa's bees have stayed healthy -- a resilience attributed to the country's diverse bee population, which has naturally fought off disease and pests in the past, as well as strict regulations that require any imported bee products to be irradiated.

 

Yet today the hardy South African bees are under siege.

 

"Foulbrood has spread massively in the last five months, it has now spread over a 500 by 400-kilometre (about 300 by 250-mile) area where most beekeeping operations are infected," said Allsopp.

 

"It is growing rapidly and I can think of no reason why it will stop unless human intervention stops it or controls it."

 

The stakes are too high for bee keepers to ignore, said Allsopp.

 

"We cannot afford to lose our bee population, not because of the losses of honey, but because we have 20 billion rands ($1.6 billion) worth of commercial agriculture that requires bee pollination."

 

Faced with the realisation that the bees can't adapt to the foulbrood threat fast enough to sustain agricultural pollination, South African officials say that they are in talks to introduce stiffer regulations to tackle foulbrood.

 

"There is a team that is currently working on an action programme that will be between industry and the department that will be announced in the next few weeks," said director of agriculture Mooketsa Ramasodi.

 

The Government plans to clamp down on the registration of beekeepers, heighten awareness of the issue, and enforce beekeeping management measures -- such as checking the larvae regularly -- which are aimed at identifying the disease before it kills the colony, he said.

 

South Africa would use antibiotics to treat hives -- a controversial method -- only as a "last option", Ramasodi said.

 

Ashley-Cooper worries that the Government action may be too little too late for an industry that has a laissez-faire approach to beekeeping.

 

In general, South African bee keepers leave the bees to fend for themselves, confident that they will eventually recover, as they have always done in the past.

 

"It's really a beekeeper issue, it's about beekeeper education and becoming modern beekeepers," said Ashley-Cooper.

 

"We are keeping bees like our grandparents did 150 years ago, there's huge room for improvement."

 

Copyright © 2015 AFP. All rights reserved.

 

(Agence France-Presse, 8 Monday June 2015 The Roman)

 

 

University of the Ryukyus creates database of botanical resources to encourage academic/industrial cooperation

University of the Ryukyus creates database of botanical resources to encourage academic/industrial cooperation

 

The University of the Ryukyus has created a database of botanical information collected in the Kingdom of Ryukyu.

 

Hoping to strengthen cooperation between industry and academia, the University hopes the botanical resources can be used to help develop food and medical products.

 

To promote collaborative research, the University also plans to work with the Kyoto Senior Venture Club Union in Kyoto, which has a number of active entrepreneurial ventures.

 

Using the networks and the experience of the union, the University aims to connect with companies throughout Japan.

 

667 kinds of plants in the Kingdom of Ryukyu have been registered on the database, which will be made available online in June.

 

Users will be able obtain various botanical information such as a plants’ characteristics and medicinal benefits.

 

The database makes the botanical informations more accessible for businesses.

 

The collaboration with the Kyoto Senior Venture Club Union is expected not only to promote collaborative research between universities and companies but also to expand markets throughout Japan for any products which may be developed.

 

The University of the Ryukyus General Planning and Strategy Division Director Zenshu Ohama said, “This is one of the projects where the University would like people to recognize its contribution to the economic development of the community.”

 

(English translation by T&CT and Megumi Chibana)

 

(Ryukyu Shimpo, 22 May 2015 The Roman)

 

 

NASA to test supersonic parachute in flying saucer launch

NASA to test supersonic parachute in flying saucer launch

 



 

The United States space agency plans to try out the largest parachute ever deployed Wednesday during a flying saucer launch that will test new technologies for landing on Mars.

 

The test flight of the flying saucer, known as the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator, will be broadcast live on NASA's website beginning at 1:30 pm (1730 GMT).

 

Since the atmosphere on Mars is so thin, any parachute that helps a heavy, fast-moving spacecraft touch down needs to be extra strong.

 

The United States space agency figured out how to do this decades ago, beginning with the Viking mission which put two landers on Mars in 1976.

 

But with the goal of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s, the agency is now testing a more advanced, new generation of parachute technology, known as the Supersonic Ringsail Parachute, that could allow even heavier spacecraft -- the kind that may have humans and months of food and supplies on board -- to land softly.

 

"We want to see if the chute can successfully deploy and decelerate the test vehicle while it is in supersonic flight," NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement.

 

The test vehicle weighs 6,808 pounds (3,088 kilograms), or about twice the weight of the kind of robotic rover spacecraft NASA is currently capable of landing safely on Mars.

 

The parachute, described by NASA JPL as "the largest parachute ever deployed," is 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter.

 

The goal is for the chute to "slow the entry vehicle from Mach 2 to subsonic speeds," NASA said.

 

The test will involve sending the saucer, an inner-tube shaped decelerator and parachute to an altitude of 120,000 feet (37 kilometers) over the Pacific Ocean with the help of a giant balloon.

 

The balloon will release the spacecraft and rockets will lift the vehicle even higher, to 180,000 feet (55 kilometers), reaching supersonic speeds.

 

"Traveling at three times the speed of sound, the saucer's decelerator will inflate, slowing the vehicle, and then a parachute will deploy at 2.35 times the speed of sound to carry it to the ocean’s surface," NASA said.

 

The first test flight of the flying saucer was in June 2014, and another test flight is planned in 2016.

 

A different kind of parachute known as the Supersonic Disksail was tested in the 2014 flight but it did not inflate as hoped, and shredded to pieces at the high speed and altitude.

 

NASA said researchers have since "gained significant insight into the fundamental physics of parachute inflation," and the team "has been re-writing the book on high speed parachute operations" since last year, the agency said.

 

Copyright © 2014, 2015 AFP. All rights reserved.

 

(Agence France-Presse, 2 Tuesday June 2015 The Roman)

Seals help scientists probe remote seas

Seals help scientists probe remote seas

 

[caption id="attachment_787" align="alignnone" width="300"] (Seals fitted with sensors on their heads are helping scientists explore the oceans. (Photo AFP – Martin Bureau))[/caption]

 

Seals equipped with sensors on their foreheads are helping scientists collect data from some of the most remote corners of the world, advancing research on global warming, ice cover and weather forecasting.

 

The project has involved more than 1,000 seals since it began in 2004 and on Monday the international scientists behind it launched the portal "Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole-to-pole" (www.meop.net) with the data collected so far.

 

"They are taking data from places where there has been virtually no data before. It's unique," said Mike Fedak, head of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrew's University, which developed the tags.

 

"This data can be used in lots of different ways including for measuring the movement of glaciers, which impacts on the world's oceans," he told AFP.

 

The monitors are battery-powered and intended to last for months at a time, collecting measurements for salinity and temperature that are then beamed back to researchers via satellite in short messages.

 

Other monitors being developed would measure oxygen levels in the water and the amount of chlorophyll, which would be a way of measuring carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and the phenomenon of ocean acidification.

 

Since the start of the project, some 400,000 environmental profiles have been produced.

 

Each profile is based on a seal dive, some of which can go down as deep as 2,100 metres (6,890 feet).

 

"The information sent back to us gives us details about the seal's immediate physical environment. It's like tweeting," said Lars Boehme, a lecturer at St Andrew's.

 

The sensors are non-invasive and fall off when the seals molt.

 

They have been tried out on around 100 marine species, including turtles, whales and sharks.

 

"They're not easy to do. They require a lot of sophisticated software and they have limited energy," Fedak said.

 

"You have to make the most of the battery. You want it to last 10 months through the Antarctic winter!"

 

The project involves an international consortium from 10 countries: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Greenland, Norway, South Africa and the United States.

 

Copyright © 2014, 2015 AFP. All rights reserved.

 

(Agence France-Presse, 1 Monday June 2015 The Roman)

Gallery : Lotus 1-2-3

Gallery : Lotus 1-2-3

 

[caption id="attachment_690" align="alignnone" width="300"] (Photo AFP – Toshiki Shirose)[/caption]

 

This is Lotus 1-2-3 2.4 J for DOS/V.

 

Lotus 1-2-3 for Japanese MS-DOS.

 

This is upgrade kit, but we can install Lotus 1-2-3, no problems.

 

Lotus 1-2-3 is a database and a spreadsheet software.

 

We use Lotus 1-2-3 to build the budgets for the book makings.

 

Price, number of copies, printing costs, manuscripts, paper fees, our salaries, tax, 1st prints, 2nd prints, etc, we must input many elements.

 

Microsoft Office or Open Office can calculate above these, but we want to use Lotus 1-2-3.

 

We have many spreadsheets that we made for Lotus 1-2-3.

 

To build the budgets for the book makings are editor's work.

 

(Photo AFP – Toshiki Shirose)

 

(R.S.F. toshiki speed news press, Agence France-Presse, 11 Thursday September 2014 The Roman)

Gallery : X-Window (FreeBSD, XFree86)

Gallery : X-Window (FreeBSD, XFree86)

 

[caption id="attachment_700" align="alignnone" width="300"] (Photo AFP – Toshiki Shirose)[/caption]

 

This is X-Window.

 

This X-Window is on FreeBSD 4.1.

 

Window manager is twm.

 

Console and xterm and xeyes and xload and xclock.

 

There are xcalculator and Netscape in X-Window too.

 

Each terminal (Console or xterm) has shell, c-shell (csh) or bourn-again-shell (bash, sh).

 

 

FreeBSD is unix.

 

X-Window is on unix.

 

 

You can understand that unix is a stationary.

 

 

This FreeBSD is running on Toshiba Satellite note PC.

 

Whole hard disk size is 6.4 Giga bytes, MS-DOS is 2 Giga bytes (C drive) and 2 Giga bytes (D drive), FreeBSD is 2.4 Giga bytes.

 

 

This note PC spec is;

 

CPU Celeron 400 MHz

Memory 192 Mega bytes

Hard disk 6.4 Giga byes

Floppy disk 3 mode, 3.5 inches

CD-ROM Drive

14.1 inches LCD 1024 x 768

PCMCIA

Serial Port

Parallel Port

IrDA

LAN Port

RGB out

Sound out

Mic in

PS/2 Port

BIOS ROM

 

 

Second hand PC and these specs is a good for FreeBSD.

 

This FreeBSD is not a server.

 

 

We are naming all unix servers, unix clients and PCs as rosetta + number (Follow as local IP address).

 

Hostname for this FreeBSD is rosetta202.

 

Local IP address for this FreeBSD is 192.168.1.202.

 

192.168.1 means that this FreeBSD is in Firewall.

 

 

We set SunFire to not allow remote login (rlogin), for the reason of a security.

 

Then, this FreeBSD can not remote login to SunFire.

 

If we set SunFire to allow remote login and Firewall through telnet login, then this FreeBSD can remote login to SunFire.

 

If we set SunFire to allow remote login and Firewall through telnet login, we can do one xterm is for local, another xterm is for SunFire client, in this FreeBSD.

 

CPU is not the same, but we can develop, css, PHP softwares, homepage templates and Office template, with free unix and multi clients system and free unix server and local area network.

 

Some CPU emulators are in FreeBSD, we can develop other CPU system programs, for example embed systems.

 

 

We used unix with TSS (Time Sharing System) in University, many users login to a server.

 

FreeBSD and Linux and many PC unix is called a personal unix.

 

PC unix is a personal stationary.

 

We can use unix freely with a personal unix.

 

(Photo AFP – Toshiki Shirose)

 

(R.S.F. toshiki speed news press, Agence France-Presse, 11 Thursday September 2014 The Roman)

 

Supermoon

Supermoon

 



 

Birds sit on the Santa Monica Pier roller coaster track as the "supermoon", sets over the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California, August 11, 2014.

 

Copyright © 2014 AFP. All rights reserved.

 

(Agence France-Presse, 12 Tuesday August 2014 The Roman)