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Wanna become a top DJ on Turntable.fm? Here’s how
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Internet, Music,
Anyone who's been around the Web might be familiar with a little site called turntable.fm. Many are unfamiliar with how the site works, and others want to become top DJ's. While you wait for your Spotify invite, here's a guide to becoming a top DJ in the latest Web craze.
The site's currently in a semi-private beta. If one of your Facebook friends is in, you can get in, too. Once you're in, you start with 0 points, 0 fans, a long list of rooms to enter, and the option to create your own room. Here's our introduction to turntable.fm.
In my time on turntable, I've found that there have been a number of approaches to getting on the deck. The deck is the panel of five DJ slots. Some rooms don't have any regulations for getting a spot. Once there's an open slot, it becomes a massive click-fest. Other rooms, like the Chillout Tent, have a queue to which users can add their names. Some rooms have a queue with a song limit per DJ.
One of the best ways to earn points is to play to the room. If you're in an Alternative Rock room, do not play Justin Bieber. You probably shouldn't play Bieber in any room, even a Bieber room. If you're in the Chillout Tent, do not play Bob Dylan. It's happened before.
Don't be silent. The chat window is there for a reason. Engage your fellow DJs and listeners in conversation. Topics can range from the band playing to politics to the insanity of DJ Wooooo's room. If you're silent while spinning some tracks, others will assume you're away from the keyboard. AFK DJ-ing is not favored in any room. Step down from the deck if you're going to be gone for a while.
Click to continue reading Wanna become a top DJ on Turntable.fm? Here’s how
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Google will allow users to upload their address book into Google+, importing contacts that might not otherwise be on the company's new social network.
"We've been listening to feedback from our users who want more flexible ways to find their friends on Google+," Rohit Khare, a Google product manager, wrote in a Google+ post on Tuesday night. "One of the most flexible tools is an address book uploader, and I wanted to share the good news that it will be rolling out to everyone over the next few days."
Under the new uploader, users will be able to take their address books (in CSV formats) or vCard electronic business cards, and roll them into Google+. However, Khare pledged to keep the imported contacts separate from the other, existing Google Contacts, and to only store the ones that a user puts into Circles.
Click to continue reading Google+ to to add address book import feature
Firefox 7 in early Aurora testing, Firefox 6 now in beta
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Internet, PC / Laptop, Software,
In its emulation of Google Chrome's quick release schedule, version 7 of Firefox has already appeared in Mozilla's Aurora incubation channel, while version 6 has moved to beta.
Neither version brings the kind of major changes we've become used to in full version number upgrades of Firefox, but they do add welcome performance boosts, standards support, and minor interface and functional tweaks.
Under Mozilla's new Rapid Release calendar, new versions of Firefox will come out every six weeks; this way you'll know it's time for a haircut when a new Firefox version appears. Firefox 6 is scheduled to be ready for release on August 16, while version 7 will move to the beta channel on the same day. Version 7 then moves to the release channel on September 27, at which time Version 8 goes to beta. You get the picture.
Note that the release dates pertain to Firefox for Android as well to the Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop versions, though the mobile browser gets different features than the desktop version in each release.
Click to continue reading Firefox 7 in early Aurora testing, Firefox 6 now in beta
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If you're overwhelmed by the amount of email that you have to deal with on a regular basis, we feel you. I've tried all sorts of Inbox Zero tips and tricks, but at the end of the day, manually processing the amount of email that hits my inbox is a chore in and of itself. However, I finally found something that has made everything better and wanted to quickly share it. It's called SaneBox. It works with Exchange, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo! mail, MobileMe, and just about anything else you can think of. What does it do? Well, it automatically prioritizes your email (way better than Google Priority Inbox does it) into a few different folders that you have full power over managing and defining. You can also set up your own folders for, say, receipts or Groupon purchases or whatever else. All you need to do to train SaneBox is drag an email into the folder that you want those kinds of messages to appear. It just learns based on your actions, and takes it from there. Click the link below for a 30-day free trial of the service. The $5 a month that it costs is totally worth it in our book.
Read More 
| SaneBox
YouTube is offering a preview of a possible redesign, and if you wanna get in on the action to check it out now, you can enable it yourself right now. They're calling is Cosmic Panda, and it definitely brings much more focus to the actual video content across the site, giving much more real estate to the video content (which is what you're there for, right?) and highlighting related content as well. Head on over to the link below to enable the Cosmic Panda design for yourself, and be sure to subscribe to Gear Live's YouTube while you're at it, kay?
The YouTube redesign follows two other Google property redesigns that we saw last week with Gmail and Google Calendar.
Read More | YouTube Cosmic Panda
Amazon Cloud Player now gives unlimited music storage for $20 per month
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Music, Storage,
Amazon said late Wednesday that it will allow customers to store an unlimited amount of music on its Cloud Drive and Cloud Player, provided customers purchase a storage plan.
Amazon also announced a Cloud Player web app for the Apple iPad.
Amazon launched its Cloud Player in March, a companion to the Amazon Cloud Drive. At the time, the service came with up to 5GB of free, online music storage, expandable to 20 GB with the purchase of an MP3 album at the Amazon Music Store.
Additional storage plans start at $20 per year for 20 Gbytes of storage.
To encourage users to subscribe to those premium plans, Amazon is effectively eliminating MP3 files against that tally, allowing users to store 20 Gbytes of photos (or documents, or other content), rather than divvy it up. Amazon also said that users can store all of their MP3 or AAC files that they purchased through Amazon for free, and they won't count against the quota, either. Those files cover new files that a user might purchase as well as older files that a user bought before the new promotion.
Click to continue reading Amazon Cloud Player now gives unlimited music storage for $20 per month
JailbreakMe 3.0 now allows you to jailbreak your iPad 2
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Handhelds, Internet, Mods / Hacks,
JailbreakMe is back with version 3.0, and if you've been wanting to jailbreak your iPad 2, now's your chance. If you're unfamiliar, JailbreakMe is a super-easy way of jailbreaking your iOS devices. All you need to do is head to jailbreakme.com and follow the simple instructions, and a minute later you'll be able to customize, theme, tweak, and install any iOS software that you please. The only trick here is that you can't be running the iOS 5 beta. Other than that, you're clear to go ahead and make it happen.
This morning Facebook announced its new video calling feature, powered by Skype. We've been getting a bunch of reader questions asking just how the heck they enable it, so we figured we'd give you a quick how to. It's simple, but for some reason Facebook hasn't made it super clear. All you need to do is go to the Facebook Video Calling page and hit the green button to turn it on. You can then initiate a video chat session with any of your available friends. If they haven't already enabled the feature themselves, they'll get a prompt to install a plug-in, and you'll be chatting in no time.
Will Google+ survive its own hype?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Editorial, Features, Google, Internet,
Google+, the presumptive Facebook killer, shows tremendous potential. As someone who warms up to any social network with the alacrity of a Galápagos tortoise, this, for me, is saying something.
Yes, I'm one of the lucky ones who got a pre-over-capacity invite. I've tried to share a couple, but new Google+ users are only gaining entrance at a halting pace.
The service, which initially stuck me as a blatant Facebook rip-off, actually has many of its own charms, not the least of which is the useful, somewhat addictive Circles. I know this topic divides Google+ users. Some people do not like to spend time organizing their social contacts. I'm not sure I do either, but the method that Circles employs for discovery and organization (dragging and dropping people into actual circle graphics, for instance) is addictive and easily blows away anything Facebook ever developed.
Click to continue reading Will Google+ survive its own hype?
Google in talks to buy Hulu
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Google, Home Entertainment, Internet,
Google is now in preliminary talks to buy Hulu, the Internet video powerhouse that allows you to watch ad-supported television and movies, according to the LA Times. This is in addition to other companies like Microsoft and Yahoo, who've also met with Hulu about a potential acquisition. Interestingly enough, Google has been hard at work on finding a way to get the content that you typically find on Hulu over to YouTube to make the video sharing site a bigger competitor in the media space (not to mention a bigger money-maker as well.) The rights that Hulu has to current season television shows is obviously a valuable asset, and they've got over 600 advertisers as well. In fact, this year Hulu expects to earn over $500 million in ad revenue. The point here isn't to buy Hulu's technology--it's all about the content deals. The big question, though, is how long before those deals expire, and what happens then? This will be an interesting one to watch.
Read More | LA Times
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