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AP Technology NewsBrief at 1:41 p.m. EDT(Associated Press Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Digital music service Spotify launches in USWASHINGTON (AP) _ Spotify, a digital music service already popular in Europe, is now available in the United States. Spotify lets users listen to songs on computers and mobile devices. It offers access to more than 15 million songs and gives users the ability to add digital music files that they already own. It also allows users to create online profiles of their music preferences, favorite artists and playlists, which can then be shared with other Spotify users. Behind the increase: Why Netflix is raising pricesNEW YORK (AP) _ Why is Netflix raising its prices? In part, because the company miscalculated how many people still want to receive DVDs by mail each month, a more expensive service to provide compared with its streamed Internet videos. Netflix has been trying to lure subscribers away from its DVDs by offering cheaper plans that include movies and TV episodes delivered over its Internet streaming service. In November, it began offering a streaming-only plan for $8, its cheapest option at the time. Yet Netflix customers aren't flocking to Internet video as quickly as some analysts said the company expected. Netflix price hike angers users, some drop planSAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Some Netflix customers called it a slap in the face. Others a betrayal. Many threatened to drop the movie service. On Wednesday, many of them vented on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, seething over Netflix Inc.'s decision to raise its prices by up to 60 percent for the millions of subscribers who want to rent DVDs by mail and watch movies online. Beyond Netflix: where else to get your flick fixNEW YORK (AP) _ Even with a fee hike, millions of Netflix subscribers will be spending less each month than what it costs two adults to watch a single movie in a theater. Yet the company, which is usually well-liked, managed to irk many of its 23 million U.S. customers by raising what it charges for streaming movies and TV shows over the Internet and sending DVDs by mail. The increase is as high as 60 percent. Google social net is about preserving leadershipNEW YORK (AP) _ Google didn't build its new Plus service simply to have an online hangout like Facebook. Rather, Google's new social-networking endeavor is about trying to gain valuable insights into people's lives and relationships. This could help the company do a better job of targeting ads so that advertisers would pay more and have less reason to spend their money on Facebook. Review: Google all the time on the ChromebookATLANTA (AP) _ New laptops running Google's Chrome operating system offer a new approach in portable computing: Games, productivity tools and anything else you might need are handled by distant computers connected to the Internet. With this method, you don't store data on a hard drive inside the computer. That streamlines things, at the cost of having stronger, standalone applications that normally handle these tasks. But the trade-off might be worth it for the more casual consumers of online content. Pentagon to publish strategy for cyberspace warsWASHINGTON (AP) _ Facing escalating risks of cyberattacks by hackers, criminals and other nations, the Pentagon is developing more resilient computer networks so the military can continue to operate if critical systems are breached or taken down. In a broad new cybersecurity strategy to be released Thursday, the Defense Department lays out its vulnerabilities to attack from both outside and within its own workforce. Formally declaring cyberspace a new warfare domain, much like air, land and sea, the new strategy stresses the need for the military to continue to operate if its computer systems are attacked and degraded. European envoy: China may alter rare earths policyBEIJING (AP) _ A European trade envoy said Chinese officials indicated Thursday that Beijing might change its curbs on exports of rare earths after a World Trade Organization panel rejected similar restrictions on other metals. China accounts for 97 percent of world production of rare earth metals used in mobile phones and other high-tech products. It has alarmed global manufacturers by reducing exports while it tries to build up its own industry, prompting pressure from Europe and the United States to treat foreign and domestic buyers equally. Study at Samsung says cancers unrelated to workYONGIN, South Korea (AP) _ A study commissioned by Samsung into cancers among six of its semiconductor workers found they were unrelated to exposure to chemicals on the job but the electronics giant is not yet releasing the full results. U.S.-based Environ International Corp. on Thursday announced the broad findings of a study it conducted over the past year of several Samsung chip manufacturing facilities. Computer game gives people shot at managing budgetWASHINGTON (AP) _ Think you might do better than President Barack Obama and congressional leaders in picking and choosing what government spending to cut _ or taxes to raise _ to stave off a debt showdown that could wreck the economy? A new computer game gives you, too, the chance to play "Budget Hero." "Budget Hero 2.0" is an update of an original version that came out in 2008. It shows players just how difficult it might be to carry out their grand policy objectives _ universal health care, extending the Bush tax cuts or ending foreign aid _ and still keep the government from either becoming irrelevant, or going broke. (c) 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |