New Technology Reviews!.: internet/web

Music streaming service Boinc announced

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;">
<div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="150" mce_src="http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7729/boinc200200.jpg" src="http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/7729/boinc200200.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px;" width="200" /></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Beyond Oblivion, a media company part-owned by News Corp. has unveiled a pay-once music streaming service to launch later this year, named Boinc.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The Spotify competitor hopes to differentiate itself as a service that requires only a one-off payment as opposed to a monthly subscription, as well as by coming bundled with PC, tablet and smartphone hardware.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Silly name aside, it's an interesting proposition for consumers; one payment sees you synced to a cloud-based music service forevermore, with replacement devices able to take over if you lose or break your gadget.</div>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Craig David all over your Boinc</span></h4>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Boinc claims to have deals with a "leading" PC maker and smartphone manufacturer in the works, as well as having signed up Universal, EMI, Sony Music and Warner Music for its song catalogue.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
We can't help but worry it's not a sustainable money spinner, however; with one-off income from each user and 70 per cent of its annual fees going to the rights holders on top of royalty pay-per-play costs, it doesn't leave much for the company itself.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Spotify, for example, has long struggled to turn a profit, having had to take drastic measures in order to lure customers into shelling out £5 or £10 a month for a premium subscription.</div>
<h4 style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" mce_name="strong" mce_style="font-weight: bold;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Boinc your own device</span></h4>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Perhaps Boinc will fare better by asking for the money up front. Call us cynical, but we can't help but feel it sounds too good to be true:</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
"Unlike any other service currently in the marketplace Boinc offers users access to all music with no download charges, no monthly subscription fees and no ads – while also ensuring artists are fairly compensated," said Adam Kidron, Beyond Oblivion's founder and chief executive.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The company will also be selling Boinc as a paid-for app on iOS and Android devices, with an invite-only beta to hit the UK and US in October.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
All being well, the service will fully launch on our fair shores before the end of the year (presumably that's dependent on all its various deals falling in to place though – we won't hold our breath).</div>
</div>
</div>

Music streaming service Boinc announced

Beyond Oblivion, a media company part-owned by News Corp. has unveiled a pay-once music streaming service to launch later this year, n...

Firefox redesign concepts reveal a Chrome-esque direction

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: small; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Times New Roman','Bitstream Charter',Times,serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding: 0.6em;">
<div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="150" mce_src="http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4378/firefox4200200.jpg" src="http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/4378/firefox4200200.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="200" /></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
A set of Firefox design mock-ups posted by a Mozilla designer hint at a Chrome-inspired future for the popular web browser.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Although the design ideas were created for internal use only and there's no guarantee that any of the elements of them will come to future iterations of the browser, they give a cheeky insight into the kind of ideas Mozilla is looking at.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
The mock-ups do away with the search toolbar, with the address box likely to double as a search box, just like Google's browser.</div>
<div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Mozilla firefox" class="aligncenter" height="189" mce_src="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/2594/firefox142090.jpg" src="http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/2594/firefox142090.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="252" /></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Design elements seem to swing between Chrome and Safari, with round-edged tabs echoing Chrome and the silver translucence of the toolboxes and bars looking a lot like something Apple would brew up.</div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
Rather than having extra buttons taking up room on the toolbar, they're hidden away, accessed by hitting the settings button, which opens up a toolbox of shortcuts and options.</div>
<div mce_style="text-align: center;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px; text-align: center;">
<img alt="Mozilla firefox" class="aligncenter" height="189" mce_src="http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/7861/firefox242090.jpg" src="http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/7861/firefox242090.jpg" style="border-width: 0px; clear: both; color: #444444; display: block; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; line-height: 1.5; margin: 0px auto 12px; max-width: 640px;" width="252" /></div>
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia,'Bitstream Charter',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">
While these elements may not actually make it into the next Firefox, the mock-ups prove that Mozilla is looking to create a cleaner, less cluttered browsing experience and likely hoping to win back its UK lead over Chrome in the process.</div>
</div>
</span></div>

Firefox redesign concepts reveal a Chrome-esque direction

A set of Firefox design mock-ups posted by a Mozilla designer hint at a Chrome-inspired future for the popular web browser. Although ...