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Spotify will allow free tier users of its music streaming service to use its Connect function to stream music to devices.

Spotify Connect allows users to use devices on the same WiFi network to play music. These devices can be games consoles, media set-top boxes, Windows PCs and more. The user can continue to select music using their phone or other devices through Connect.

The feature has been limited to Spotify's premium subscribers to this point. However, the music streaming giant will allow users of its ad-supported service to use Connect soon with compatible devices. Of course, they will still hear ads and still have other limitations of the free tier.

Spotify has been loosening restriction on free tier users recently, allowing on-demand listing for some selected playlists. It has also experimented with skippable ads down under.

Source: The Verge

YouTube has removed clips of Red Dead Redemption 2 after a BBC report pointed out videos showing a non-playable character being assaulted and killed.

Red Dead Redemption 2 was released in October to critical acclaim and staggering sales. Like its predecessor, it allows the player to control the protagonist in a sandbox environment. The player can interact with other non-playable characters in a variety of ways, and the game even has an honor system that reflects the moral values of the player.

Just like with Grand Theft Auto and many similar games, this freedom can allow the protagonist to carry out seemingly violent action against non-playable characters, or NPCs. Some of these actions may seem distasteful.

After the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, plenty of videos of gameplay footage flooded to YouTube as can be expected. Some videos were of the protagonist assaulting or killing an NPC suffragette.

The BBC News website clearly took offense to this footage and went as far as to question YouTube about the videos. As a result, YouTube deleted eight of ten videos the BBC complained about. Furthermore, an unnamed YouTuber with over 470,000 subscribers reportedly had his YouTube account deleted after the BBC complaint.

Google reveals it paid out more than $3 billion to rights' holders through its Content ID tool on YouTube.

Content ID is part of Google's anti-piracy measures on the YouTube platform. It compares content uploaded by users to a database covering millions of works that are subject to copyright. When it detects that a user has uploaded content protected by the system, it enables the real content owner to monetize the video and earn advertising revenue.

It has been criticized at times as too little by copyright holders, and also as too much by some users caught up in bogus claims. The $3 billion payout shows that the system works to compensate creators when their content is put on the service without authorization.

Sometimes users find that their content is monetized even when their use of content falls under fair use provisions. Google has fought that by allowing the third party to earn as well.

Google has invested more than $100 million in Content ID so far.

In addition, YouTube has also paid out over $1.8 billion between October 2017 and September 2018 to the music industry from advertising revenue. To fight piracy, Google has removed more than 3 billion links to infringing content from Search disapproved more than 10 million ads suspected of copyright infringement or that link to infringing sites.

Recently a phenomenon called Initiative Q has been making rounds in the social media. The website – all that it is for now – promises a new revolutionary payment system, but what is it really?

Initiative Q is spreading via invites on social media. Currently the company is trying to raise awareness and increase subscriber base by offering free money.

Well, actually it's free Q money. The currency they are hoping to establish is called Q, and you'll get some amount of it for both joining and inviting others.

The sooner you join, the more you get. According to the website the earliest adopters might get Q worth of $100,000, although that would require a Q economy worth trillions.

Sounds like a pyramid scheme, doesn't it? Fortunately you don't have to invest in this venture, so as far as losing money goes you should be safe.

As a digital currency, is it the next Bitcoin? Again, no. There's really not much in common, although there isn't much detail about how it all works at this point.

What is certain, though, is that Q is not a decentralized and it's not based in a blockchain technology. According to the founder of Initiative Q this is because Q aims to be mainstream.

With ARKit Apple has cemented itself as one of the players in the alternative reality race. Apple's implementation, as is suggested by the API name, is Augmented Reality (AR) which relies heavily on camera tech.

The processing prowess is already largely there for Apple to improve AR applications but there's still some limitations to iPhone cameras that need to be overcome.

According to a reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is developing a new version of Face ID to bolster iPhone's AR capabilities, MacRumors reports.

Upgraded Face ID would bring better depth sensing with what is called a Time of Flight (ToF) technology. Kuo is suggesting the technology will be introduced in iPhones and iPads in 2019 or 2020.

Music business is tough, they say, but streaming music business might be tougher. If there's one streaming service that has been through it all, it's Spotify.

Even after fierce resistance from industry, they managed to cement themselves as the number one spot to enjoy your music. The king of music streaming turned the tide of piracy, one could argue.

It hasn't managed to turn itself profitable, however.

Spotify has revealed that it has passed 87 million Premium subscribers, an increase of four million since July. Last quarter still turned out on red.

All is not lost, though, by any means. Quite the opposite in fact. The loss was only around $7 million, a significant step towards profitability for the company. Previous quarter Spotify still lost over $83 million (73 million euro), according to THR.

Spotify has another 100 million – or 104 to be exact – free tier users who are yet to be converted into Premium subscribers.

The pace to convert new subscribers has slowed down, as is expected when services mature, but it still has a significant lead on Apple Music which is probably closing in on 60 million after reaching 50 million users in May.

Apple has today announced some greatly anticipated refreshes to lines of computers that might not be on the high-end of things for the company, but a dearly loved by Apple fans.

First one was of course the MacBook Air that was in some serious need for a upgrade, but the second one might have needed it even more.

Apple unveiled today a new Mac mini. The tiny computer gets the first redo since 2014, and obviously it means most things have been changed.

The new Mac mini includes 8th Gen Intel processors, which is a bit of a boost from the 4th Gen we saw on 2014 Mac Mini. The top-of-the-line 2018 Mac mini features a six-core i7, which should be more than enough for anything one should do on this adorable computer.

There's support for up to 64 GB of RAM and SSDs range up to 2 TB. I/O ports have been updated to four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports. You'll also have HDMI, Ethernet as well as traditional USB-A ports in the back.

Apple has included its T2 chip, like on the 2018 MacBook Pro, which improves security and adds things like Hey Siri support.

One thing Apple hasn't really touched is the aesthetics. Mac mini still looks like the old Mac mini, which isn't really saying it's bad. It's purpose built to be pretty inconspicuous.

One the more anticipated new devices from today's Apple event is definitely a new MacBook Air.

The update has been rumored for ages it seems, and it is finally here. Apple's light and affordable MacBook got a new sharper display, biometrics, and of course performance boost.

The screen on the new MacBook Air is a 13.3 inch Retina display. This means four million pixels, or 2560 x 1600 resolution, up 4x from previous generation.

Apple has also improved the color accuracy and the color reproduction is now 48 percent better. As with the new iPad Pro the bezels are also smaller.

Inside you'll get newer 8th gen Intel CPUs and thus greatly improved performance. Base model includes 8GB RAM, a 1.6GHz Core i5, and a 128GB SSD.

Connections have been updated to 2 third gen Thunderbolts which can used for both data transfer as well as charging.

The touch pad is enabled with Force Touch and logging in is now easier thanks to Touch ID.

According to Apple, you should be able to hit 12 hour browsing with improved battery life.

Like the iPad Pro, the new MacBook Air will be available on Wednesday, November 7. You can pre-order it starting today at a starting price of $1,199.

Apple is currently hosting a press event in Brooklyn, NY, where it is introducing new Mac products as well as some improved iPads.

The latter is of course the new iPad Pro. The largest and most powerful iPad is getting a major refresh that includes improved displays, new connectivity, and some never before seen features on the iPad.

Let's start with the displays. The iPad Pro gen 2 comes with 11 and 12.9 inch displays with smaller bezels and better picture quality.

Smaller bezels also mean that there is no longer a Home button, and no Home button means no Touch ID. The new iPad Pro has instead Face ID that was introduced last year in iPhone X.

Apple has also revamped the design quite a bit. The rounded edges are no where to be seen, and Apple's new powerhouse iPad is sleeker with iPhone 5 -like sharper edges.

The device is powered by the new A12X Bionic system-on-chip, which offers superior performance in both CPU and GPU. According to Apple, the seven core GPU can perform as well as Xbox One S.

Multicore performance has increased 90 and single core performance 30 percent over the previous generation.

One of the more interesting features is the new USB-C connection. This means that not only is the new iPad Pro able to use generic power cables, you can even juice up your other devices from the iPad.

The Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus held its press event today in New York and unveiled OnePlus 6T first time officially.

After colliding with tomorrow's Apple event the company decided to move theirs to today. The product on display was the already mostly leaked and revealed OnePlus 6T with one of the first in-display fingerprint sensors on the market.

Beyond the cutting edge biometrics the smartphone is as you would expect from a 2018 flagship. It has a huge 6.41 inch display that features 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a Full HD+ resolution.

The display notch has been reduced to what could be called a teardrop shaped notch, a modified version of Essential Phone's notch, and one that OnePlus' sister company Oppo has previously used.

Inside you'll find a Snapdragon 845, the same chip powering the predecessor, 6 or 8 GB of RAM, a 3700 milliamp hour battery that offers an even faster than before – and believe me it was already fast – charging.

According to OnePlus charging has improved up to 20% in the first 30 minutes.

Camera is largely the same with dual sensors of 16 and 20 MP, 4K@60fps video recording, super slow-mo, and OIS. OnePlus 6T has some new trick up its sleeve though. One of them is an improved night mode called Nightscape.

You've probably heard about the visions of foldable smartphones. Samsung perhaps most notably has been painting a picture for years of displays that not only bend but fold, to no avail unfortunately.

Now that the foldable smartphone hasn't panned out, the company is pivoting to laptops, The Korea Herald reports.

According to the paper, Samsung Electronics marketing bigwig Lee Min-cheol has revealed a laptop with a foldable display in development.

There's no word whether there is actually demand for such a product or if it's just a prototype to harvest some reactions. It seems that the only real motive for the product is Samsung's need to make something out of years long R&D on foldable displays.

There's no pictures or specs of the device so everything beyond the comments about the foldable display are speculation.

We'll have to wait and see what Samsung comes up with.

It is clear that laptop manufacturers have been innovating more recently. Innovations include the smartphone as a touchpad from Razer and a second screen touchpad from Asus.

New iPhones landed a month and a half ago, and the last of them, the iPhone XR, became available worldwide today.

The XR is an interesting device for sure. It is the budget iPhone, if you want to call it that with a $749 price tag. It has a subpar display to some (*ahem* me *ahem*).

It also has an odd name. After all, we all know where iPhone XS comes from – Apple has had S versions for years. But what about XR?

Well, fortunately for us, Apple's Phil Schiller has revealed to Engadget exactly what the R stands for, or perhaps more importantly doesn't.

It doesn't stand for Regular or Reduced, none of that. In fact it doesn't mean anything. According to Schiller it just sounds good, kinda like in cars you have special S and R models.

So the closest meaning can be found in motorsport, in which it usually stands for Racing. Then again that doesn't make any sense so I guess Schiller chose it to stand for nothing.

Well anyways, now you can go buy the blue iPhone Ten Racing.

Apple was for years the leader in downloadable digital entertainment but the move towards streaming services killed the traditional iTunes business model.

Now Apple has been reinventing iTunes over the years, and the most obvious example is of course Apple Music.

Apple TV is another evolving entertainment platform and Apple has been investing in it fiercely to develop it into something new. The company has been putting down some serious cash to produce their own content to challenge the likes of Netflix and Amazon, and it is soon expected to materialize.

According to a report by The Information, Apple will be releasing their new streaming service worldwide as soon as next year. Three different sources claim that Apple is planning a simultaneous launch in over 100 countries around the world.

The unnamed service is said to first launch in the U.S. but quickly followed up with launches around the globe. Netflix is already available in most of the world as is Amazon's Prime Video.

At least some of the programming is expected to be free for Apple device owners, although at this point is it clear what limitation this might have.

Facebook is of course known for its core business, that is the world's most popular social media site, but the company is perhaps even more dominant in another space.

Facebook owns two of the world's most popular messaging platforms, namely WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. WhatsApp has continuously held the throne for years, and Messenger hasn't been able to catch up.

Both of them are of course growing, currently WhatsApp has 1.5 billion users and Messenger is still a close second with 1.3 billion. Facebook, however, hopes to get people in Messenger with a new update.

The updated Messenger is quite the revamp to the user experience, and Facebook hopes that the simpler user interface will attract more people.

That is at least what their research has shown, people love simplicity. Up to 7 out of 10 people appreciate simplicity over anything else.

The simpler UI means for example that the iOS app now only has three tabs instead of nine.

They also wanted to make the app more customizable and now the user can choose the color of chat bubbles.

If you want to preserve battery life, and happen to own a phone with an OLED display (e.g. iPhone X or Galaxy S9), you'll probably appreciate the new Dark Mode.

The fight for the fifth generation of wireless data connections is upon us. 5G is landing in not too distant future, and tech companies are trying their best to be the first, and best, one to the party.

One of the more important companies surrounding 5G is American semiconductor company Qualcomm. Known for its Snapdragon system-on-chips, they are trying to equip Android phones with 5G as early as possible.

And now we have a schedule of some kind.

According to Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon, who spoke at the 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong, its 5G modems will be found in plethora of smartphones next year.

There will be two waves of flagship phones next year, first one in the first half and second one in the second half. With the first wave Amon is likely referring to the Mobile World Congress, and press events surrounding that.

Also we might see first 5G phones as soon as early January in CES 2019 in Las Vegas.

Amon obviously didn't give us any other details of the phones or which manufacturer would be releasing what and when. However, Qualcomm revealed that a total of 19 manufacturers will be releasing Qualcomm-powered 5G devices next year.