38815599
submission
guttentag writes:
On Monday, Microsoft plans to announce a service called Xbox Music that will offer access to a global catalog of about 30 million songs. The service will let consumers listen free to any song on computers and tablets running the latest version of its Windows software, as well as on the Xbox console. Microsoft will not initially limit how much music can be streamed, though that could change over time.
The service is part of a broad set of bets Microsoft is making this fall to help regain ground it has lost to competitors Apple, Google, Amazon, Pandora and Spotify. In addition to Windows 8, which will start shipping Oct. 26, the company is close to releasing a new version of its Windows Phone operating system and the tablet device called Surface.
37975581
submission
guttentag writes:
Hitachi has announced (original press release in Japanese, translated to English) a new storage medium that uses a laser to imprint dots on a piece of quartz glass that correspond to binary code. The dots can be read with an optical microscope and appropriate software. The company says this medium is resistant to extreme heat, radiation, radio waves and should still be readable after a few hundred million years. It's intended as an archival format with data density similar to a music CD (40MB per square inch with 4 layers). Additional stories at Tom's Hardware and ZDNet.
31903925
submission
guttentag writes:
The New York Times reports that India said Thursday it had successfully launched a missile with nuclear capability and a 3,100-mile range, giving it the ability to strike Beijing and Shanghai. It is suggested that this intended as a "deterrent" against attack by China. One hopes that China will not respond by announcing plans to deter India from using this.
31159169
submission
guttentag writes:
The New York Times has published a large collection of law enforcement training documents obtained by the ACLU. The documents describe in detail what kind of information can be obtained from cell phones and cell phone carriers, and how to obtain it. The 189-page PDF also contains dozens of invoices from the major carriers for their services to law enforcement that describe the fees for those services.
22443036
submission
guttentag writes:
The Huffington Post is reporting that Netflix streaming has been down since about 5 p.m. EST. This comes just days after Netflix announced price increases for the service, prompting outrage among subscribers. Calls to Netflix's "24/7" customer service number were initially answered by a machine that hung up on the caller after advising them to call back later, but they are now met only by a busy signal. DownRightNow has a graph of when reports of trouble started to come in.
