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AP Technology NewsBrief at 2:51 p.m. EDT(Associated Press Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Digital music service Spotify launches in USLOS ANGELES (AP) _ Digital music service Spotify arrived in the United States on Thursday, aiming its addictive, free song service at American listeners in the hope that they will then pay for more features, just as nearly 2 million have done in Europe. Spotify gives people access to more than 15 million songs on computers for free as long as they listen to a few 15-second ads. It then tries to persuade them to pay $5 a month for a computer-only version that strips out the ads, or $10 a month for one that can be used on mobile devices including iPhones and Android-powered devices. Inquiring minds want to know? Google it!WASHINGTON (AP) _ Researcher Betsy Sparrow was watching the 1944 movie "Gaslight" one evening and wondered who the actress was playing the maid. So she reached for her computer and Googled it. That set Sparrow to thinking, before the Internet, how did we answer these questions? 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 discloses largest-ever cyber theftWASHINGTON (AP) _ The Pentagon on Thursday revealed that in the spring it suffered one of its largest losses ever of sensitive data in a cyberattack by a foreign government. It's a dramatic example of why the military is pursuing a new strategy emphasizing deeper defenses of its computer networks, collaboration with private industry and new steps to stop "malicious insiders." William Lynn, the deputy secretary of defense, said in a speech outlining the strategy that 24,000 files containing Pentagon data were stolen from a defense industry computer network in a single intrusion in March. He offered no details about what was taken but said the Pentagon believes the attacker was a foreign government. He didn't say which nation. 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. (c) 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |