Here's What the iPhone Would Have Looked Like in 1985

Some of my fondest childhood memories involve booting up my parents’ Macintosh Plus to play Super Munchers or make pixelated masterpieces in MacPaint. Alas,

Quick comparison: Shield Android TV vs. Nexus Player vs. Razer Forge TV

The Android TV offerings are expanding, and we're taking a quick look at the three set top box options.

Google's Skynet Drone Crash-Landed in the Desert and Nobody Noticed

While everybody’s eyes were on Google I/O this week, another little bit of Google news nearly managed to slip under the radar:

With Android Pay, Google gets mobile payments right

Even though Google started the whole mobile payment thing years ago with Google Wallet, it never really took off with the masses.

There is a good argument for why the creator of Silk Road shouldn't go to prison

Free Ross UlbrichtRoss Ulbricht

Ross Ulbricht, the creator of online black market Silk Road, was sentenced to life in prison by a judge in federal court Friday. 

Windows 10 preview build 10130: Cortana shortcut and more

Microsoft has pushed out the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build, bringing it to build 10130. Because the builds are fairly far along at this point, they no longer bring with them big changes that add big features — rather, at this point, it’s more polishing things up and tweaking things when needed. As such, you’ll find a lot of smaller changes with build 10130, perhaps some that you were hoping would happen, including things as simple as a new shortcut for Cortana to customization of the Start experience.

There are some new icons, which those with the build can find in the File Explorer. There’s the aforementioned ability to customize the “Start experience”, as Microsoft calls it — this can be done by heading into Settings and then Personalization, followed by the Start menu. Options include stuff like full-screen “Start”, display recent items, and more.

Those pesky icons, which caused a lot of uproar early on, have been refined and made more subtle, as well as a bit more stylish (and we do stress only a bit). Whether you like them is personal, but Microsoft says it took the ample feedback into consideration when designing them.

As well, there’s improvements to the Jump Lists’ UI, bringing it in line with the rest of the UI, continuum improvements when in Tablet mode, various improvements to Project Spartan (aka, “Microsoft Edge” browser), changes to task bar settings in virtual desktops, a name change for printing to PDF (it’s now called, appropriately, “Microsoft Print to PDF”), tweaks to video playback, and that Cortana shortcut (Win key + C).

SOURCE: Windows Blog

from  SlashGear

 by  Brittany Hillen

This woman’s Instagram of perfectly arranged fruit totally blew up after celebrities became obsessed with it

instagram.com/myfruitplatter

Instagrammer Jenny Zhang is trying to get more fruit into your daily internet diet. 

Two years ago, Zhang, a 21-year-old university student, started taking pictures of her afternoon snacks from her dorm room in London and posting them on her 

What it's like using the Apple Watch's biggest competitor

Christian Storm/Business Insider

In the spring of 2012 the startup Pebble wasn’t much more than a few people with a Kickstarter page.

Twitter Is Giving Advertisers More User Data In The Hope That They Spend More

Twitter is hoping to help marketers better understand their Twitter audience by adding a tool that will give them deeper user behavior around organic tweets.

Carl Sagan's solar-powered spacecraft is in trouble

The test flight of Carl Sagan's LightSail craft is in jeopardy after a computer problem left it unable to communicate with its mission controllers.

Look at the ridiculous level of detail Apple takes to make sure the letters on its keyboards can be seen in the dark

Flickr/ CJ Sorg

The keys on your Mac glow in the dark. Simple enough right? Not really.

Apple goes to a ridiculous amount of trouble to make sure the keys on its keyboards glow to just the right extent.

One of Apple's patents, filed back in 2013, shows how this works. 

To start with, there's a keycap with a partially or fully transparent covering. Then, the first layer of opaque coating is put on top. A second layer is then put on top of the first:.

It looks like this:

United States Patent and Trademark Office

After that, at least the first layer of coating is etched off part of the key, so light can come through.

  

United States Patent and Trademark Office

But then – this is the important part – a portion of the first etched area is etched off to a second depth to create a second etched area:

United States Patent and Trademark Office

This means that the section that has a larger depth etched away – down through the second layer of the key's coating – can transmit more light than the section of the key which only has the first layer etched away.

This can create a few different effects, the document explains. For example, a keycap may be etched away to form a graphic or letter, with the outer portion etched deeper to create a brighter border.

United States Patent and Trademark Office

So, why has Apple filed a patent for this? It's only etching, after all — a process that has been used in manufacturing for centuries.

A clue comes in Apple's background statement of purpose for the patent. The company says it is obsessed with making everything ever-so-slightly better:

... there is always a desire to provide new and improved designs or techniques that result in even more aesthetically pleasing graphics.

Worldwide Smartphone Growth To Slow In 2015, As China Reaches Saturation

The writing has been on the wall for some time, but analysts at IDC are again confirming today that the worldwide smartphone market will continue to see its overall growth slowing in 2015. The firm says that global smartphone shipments will grow just 11.3% this year, down from 27.6% the year prior. The changes are attributed, in part, to the Chinese smartphone market reaching saturation, which will make 2015 the first year that China’s smartphone growth (2.5%) will be slower than the worldwide market.

China’s slowdown will also impact Android’s growth, IDC says, as the Google-developed mobile platform is also expected to see slower growth than the worldwide market at 8.5% in 2015.

The figures are in line with smartphone shipment reports IDC released earlier this year, which had predicted 11.8% worldwide growth in 2015.

China’s smartphone market is still the largest in the world, but it’s no longer growing as before. Previously this month, it was reported smartphone shipments in China had decreased for the first time in nine years. During Q1 2015, 98.8 million smartphones shipped, down 4 percent year-over-year, and 8 percent on the previous quarter.

China, which is often still perceived as an “emerging” market, is actually similar to other more mature markets like the U.S., U.K, Australia, and Japan, IDC analyst Kitty Fok had explained at the time. In other words, smartphone vendors are now in the position of having to convince current Chinese smartphone owners to upgrade their devices, and that’s more difficult than converting first-time buyers.

Ryan Reith, Program Director with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, explains today how the shifts in China’s smartphone market are now affecting the top mobile OS platforms, iOS and Android.

“This has implications for Android because China has been a critical market for Android smartphone shipments in recent years, accounting for 36% of total volume in 2014,” he says. “As Chinese OEMs shift their focus from the domestic market to the next high-growth markets, they will face a number of challenges, including competition from ‘local’ brands.”

Reith added that Apple faced a similar situation in 2012 to 2014, when its own year-over-year growth rates were slightly lower than the worldwide market. But when it began to offer bigger-screen phones, its volumes increased. This year, IDC expects iOS smartphones to grow 23%, remaining above the worldwide market growth rates. In fact, Apple had capitalized on the fact that it was able to convince many Android owners to switch back to iOS after they had previously left the platform for bigger-screened Android phones, says Reith.

While worldwide growth and China in particular is slowing this year, there are still a number of markets that are expected to experience “robust growth” this year and in years to come, IDC claims, which will help push smartphone shipment volumes to 1.9 billion by 2019.

Featured Image: JOHANNES EISELE/Getty Images

from  TechCrunch

 by 

Sarah Perez

iOS 9 : ce que l'on peut attendre

En recoupant fonctionnalités attendues mais manquant à l'appel d'iOS 8, habitudes d'Apple et projets prévisibles, il est déjà possible d'imaginer ce que pourrait apporter iOS 9.

En gardant en tête les habitudes d'Apple, les fonctionnalités attendues qui ont pu manquer à l'appel d'iOS 8, et les insistantes rumeurs concernant la feuille de route et les projets de Cupertino, il est déjà possible de se projeter pour essayer d'imaginer ce que pourrait apporter la prochaine mouture d'iOS.

Lancement et date de sortie d'iOS 9

Chaque année, depuis 2007, Apple présente une nouvelle version d'iOS en juin lors de la keynote d'ouverture de son événement WWDC. 2015 ne devrait pas faire exception. Cette année, cet événement se tiendra du 8 au 12 juin. Si Apple suit ses habitudes, iOS 9 devrait donc être présenté le 8 juin 2015. Ceux qui ont des comptes de développeurs Apple pourront explorer dès cette date une version bêta qui sera plusieurs fois mise à jour avant d'être lancée en version finale à l'automne suivant.

Un OS plus stable, mais moins riche en nouveautés ?

Sur le site spécialisé 9to5mac.com, Mark Gurman, souvent bien informé sur les projets de Cupertino, donne le nom de code d'iOS 9 : il s'agit de "Monarch". Il affirme aussi qu'Apple se focalise beaucoup sur l'amélioration de la stabilité de l'OS, l'optimisation des performances et la correction des bugs qui ont pu apparaître après les dernières mises à jours, très riches en nouveautés. Bref, l'idée serait plus de nettoyer le code qu'en ajouter avec une pluie de nouvelles fonctionnalités. Cela ne veut pas dire pour autant qu'iOS 9 n'apportera aucune nouveauté.

iOS 9 et la poursuite de l'offensive sur les maisons et objets connectés

Apple a commercialisé sa montre connectée, son "Apple Watch". Il est dès lors fort possible que de nouvelles synergies, entre ses iPhone, iPad et sa montre connectée soient présentées lors du WWDC 2015 et fassent partie des nouveautés d'iOS 9.

Plus globalement, il ne serait pas surprenant qu'Apple poursuive son offensive dans les objets connectées, dans les voitures par exemple, mais pas seulement, et cela pourrait bien continuer d'impacter iOS. Peut-être cela passera par un enrichissement des possibilités du HomeKit apporté par iOS 8 et qui doit transformer Siri, les iPhone et les iPad en véritable télécommande pour maison connectée.

Un service de streaming de musique signé Apple dans iOS 9

Concernant les conséquences du rachat de Beats, le Financial Times a écrit sans conditionnel qu'Apple l'intégrera dans iOS sous la forme d'une app préinstallée proposant le service d'abonnement au catalogue musical. De son côté, Mark Gurman affirme que ce service sera proposé à 7,99 dollars par mois, soit moins qu'un concurrent comme Spotify, qui le facture 2 dollars de plus. Un app Android serait aussi en préparation.

Le "Force Touch" supporté

9to5mac.com affirme que les iPhone de prochaine génération allaient être dotés d'un écran sensible au "Force Touch" c'est-à-dire sensible à différentes pressions tactiles, comme peuvent l'être les trackpads des nouveaux MacBook. iOS 9 devrait donc supporter cette technologie de "Force Touch". De quoi permettre, explique 9to5mac, à un lecteur média de réagir en fonction de la pression tactile. Ces pressions tactiles pourraient aussi ajouter de nouveaux événements dans son agenda ou de nouveau lieux dans Plans.

La voix via la 3G, ou "VoLTE" pour Voice-Over-LTE ?

iOS 9 devrait intégrer la technologie VoLTE (pour Voice-Over-LTE, ou voix sur LTE). Ce qui permettrait aux iPhone 4G de recevoir les appels sur le réseau LTE-4G. Une telle fonctionnalité, aussi déjà attendue pour iOS 8, nécessite cependant d'être d'abord mise en place par les opérateurs. En France, ils ont évoqué l'arrivé de cette fonctionnalité l'été dernier, SFR, Orange et Bouygues l'annonçant pour le premier semestre 2015, mais presque rien n'a été communiqué depuis.

D'autres fonctionnalités toujours attendues...

Restent aussi d'autres fonctionnalités attendues par des utilisateurs, parfois depuis assez longtemps, et qui pourraient finir par voir le jour avec iOS 9. Comme la possibilité de changer certaines apps par défaut (navigateur, gestionnaire de mails, cartographie...), gérer le multi-compte, ou mieux accueillir des widgets. Un mode très économe en énergie, comme il en existe sur des terminaux Android, est aussi souhaité par certains utilisateurs.

Ceux qui attendent des améliorations concernant Plans pourraient bien les avoir avec iOS 9 : cette année, Apple s'est en offert Coherent Navigation, une entreprise spécialisée dans la cartographie de haute précision. Et une voiture louée par Apple a été aperçue en train de photographier les rues...

Le multitâche en multi-fenêtre était aussi une nouveauté pressentie pour les iPad tournant sous iOS 8, et, si elle n'a pas été officiellement annoncée lors de la WWDC 2014, un développeur l'a bien découverte, cachée dans une version bêta d'iOS 8... Certains prédisent qu'Apple introduira officiellement cette fonctionnalité avec iOS 9.

Les terminaux qui n'auront pas droit à iOS 9

En général, tous les terminaux d'Apple ne peuvent pas bénéficier de la dernière mise à jour d'iOS. En suivant la logique déjà observée, les plus anciens modèles commercialisés par Apple qui ne devraient pas avoir droit à iOS 9 sont, selon des déductions et de pures spéculations : l'iPad 2, et l'iPhone 4S, ainsi que, peut-être, l'iPad Mini 1.

ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini Launched In India

ZTE announced their ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini back in March and now the company is launching the handset in India.

The ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini is the first ZTE smartphone to launch in India and the handset will be sold through Amazon in India.

As a reminder the Nubia Z9 Mini is equipped with a 5 inch Full HD IPS display that has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.

Processing is provided by an octa core 64-bit Qualcomm Snpadragon 615 processor and the device also comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built in storage, there is also a microSD card slot for expansion.

Other specifications on the ZTE Nubia Z9 Mini include an 8 megapixel camera on the front for Selfies and a rear facing 16 megapixel camera. The handset also features dual SIM card slots, WiFi, Bluetooth and 4G LTE, powering the handset is a 2900 mAh battery.

The Nubia Z9 Mini comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop and its features the Nubia UI 2.8. the device will retail for the equivalent for $267 in India.

Source Android Central

Senate blocks NSA reform bill and Patriot Act extensions

The USA Freedom Act aimed at addressing the NSA's bulk collecting of phone call metadata wasapproved by the House of Representatives ten days ago, but blocked by the Senate tonight

Ecocapsules are pint-sized solar and wind-powered micro homes

Ecocapsule is a small, egg-shaped abode that could be the perfect home for someone who wants to let it all go like Elsa and live off the grid.

Silk Road Survival: In conversation with 'Deep Web' director Alex Winter

An unassuming, Mormon family man. A brilliant physics and engineering student with a goofy smile. Five years ago, neither of these men knew each other, let alone suspected that they'd be drawn into a web suffused with libertarian dogma, hard drugs and the sort of rhetorical dedication that allegedly drove that student -- Ross Ulbricht -- to order a hit on that family man.

The Aria Lets You Control Your Smart Watch Without Touching It

After nearly a month of time with the Apple Watch, there’s been a few moments that drew attention to the downside to having a computer strapped to one’s wrist. Brushing one’s teeth, eating, and even holding your significant other’s hand on a walk all preclude accessing your wrist with your other hand, preventing you from responding to notifications or using apps.

LaunchKit Now Helps Developers Keep Track Of Their App Store Sales

LaunchKit, which aims to give developers a tool set that makes launching new apps easier, announced its newest service this week. The free LaunchKit App Store Sales Reporter helps developers track the sales they generate from Apple’s App Store (just like its name implies).

NASA's Plan To Make Cheap Spacecraft That Will Explore Distant Worlds

Right now, the cost of studying the atmosphere of a distant planet or moon is a multi-million dollar mission. But NASA is working to make space exploration way more affordable—using cheap, lightweight CubeSats.

Netflix to add BoJack Horseman season 2 this July

If you like yourself some adult-friendly cartoons, good news: Netflix has decided to nab a second season of the not-for-kids animated series BoJack Horseman, which revolves around a man that is half-horse and voiced by Will Arnett. Season 2 will consist of

Twitch app now lets users watch past content from their favorite streamers

Popular game streaming service Twitch has finally added video on demand (VOD) support to its Android app.

In an update to its Android app today, Twitch has finally added support for video on demand—a feature many gaming fans have been anticipating for a while. VOD, which has been a main feature of Twitch's web interface for a while, will allow users to browse and watch past recorded footage from any given streamer that has enabled the feature for their channel.

LG G4 camera tips and tricks

The LG G4 has one of the best cameras on an Android phone. Make your photos even better by following a few basic steps.

Android Central Photo Contest: Stairs

Walk on up and snap a photo.

It's time for another photo contest, and this week the subject of your pictures will have to be "stairs." We don't always have escalators, ramps or ladders around, but stairs are pretty universal — and that means there's pretty much a limitless supply of them available for your to photograph. So get out there and get some stair shots, and enter them into the latest photo contest.

Seinfeld will start streaming on Hulu starting June 24

Late last month it was revealed that Hulu will be the exclusive streaming home of Seinfeld, and though we found out at the time that it would arrive in June, a specific date was not provided. Today

X37-B: Everything we know about this secret Air Force space mission

The United States Air Force X37-B Space Plane (one of two) takes off into orbit above Earth in its fourth secretive mission. The craft itself is not a secret - we know what it's capable of. The contents of the craft are not entirely secret - we know MOST of what's inside.

Pick Your Own Apple Toy Giveaway

We have a great contest for our readers this week, once again we have teamed up with our partners at Stack Commerce and you can pick your own Apple device up to the value of $700.

Arduino Yun Mini Now Available As A Mini Wireless Development Board

Arduino the makes of the popular development boards has this month launched a new miniature version of its Arduino Yun board in the form of the aptly named Arduino Yun Mini.

HTC One ME9 Images Leaks Along with Specifications

HTC is reportedly working on another variant of its One smartphone known as the HTC One ME9. Recently, the alleged device was spotted on Zauba.

Microduino mCookie Arduino Compatible Modules (video)

Microduino Studio has launched a new Kickstarter campaign today for its Arduino compatible electronic modules that are small and stackable and called the Microduino mCookie.

Sony Xperia Z4 Lands On Softbank Mobile Japan

Sony recently announced their new Sony Xperia Z4 smartphone in Japan and now the company has announced the launch of the handset with another carrier, Softbank Mobile.

Apple Watch To Get Find My Watch Feature

Last week we heard that the security on the Apple Watch could easily be bypassed and now it looks like Apple is working on some security updates for the device.

Ansible Partners With Cisco, CSC, HP And Rackspace To Make Deploying And Managing OpenStack Easier

Enterprise IT automation service Ansible today announced that it’s partnering with HP, RackSpace, CSC, Cisco and the open source community to help make deploying and managing OpenStack clouds easier.

The Case For Finding Your ‘Lime Equation’ And Keeping It Secret

Editor’s note: Dane Atkinson is the CEO of SumAll.

Sixteen years ago, I thought that owning a bar and running a tech startup simultaneously would be a great match for my ADD. 

Microsoft Is Hosting A Solitaire Tournament, Tempting You Into Procrastination

Microsoft will host a Solitaire tournament, pitting the public against the best of its employees. The news comes on the heels of the release of the card game for Windows 10, the company’s next operating system.
The tourney is centered around the 25th anniversary of the game’s release on Windows. Don’t think that you can win with only your regular game. Oh, no:

First, an internal competition among Microsoft employees kicks off today to determine who leads the leaderboards here. Then, starting Monday, June 5, Microsoft winners will go head-to-head with public players in a 25^th Anniversary Tournament hosted within the game.
From Klondike to FreeCell to Spider, TriPeaks and Pyramid game modes, you’ll be challenged to bring your best to defeat our best.

Microsoft did not announce prizes — call me, Microsoft, you have the number — so I will personally offer anyone who wins the contest at the expense of a Softie a free dinner in SF, or about five rounds of drinks, whichever you prefer. No weirdos.
Oh, and who the fuck still plays Solitaire?
Featured Image: the_progressive/Flickr UNDER A CC BY-SA 2.0 LICENSE (IMAGE HAS BEEN MODIFIED)

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Canonical Launches Ubuntu Advantage Storage Support Service For Ceph And OpenStack Swift

Canonical may still be mostly known for its Ubuntu Linux distribution, but the company now also offers a number of (paid) services for enterprises, often with a focus on the OpenStack platform.

Lyft Experiment Lets Passengers Rate Each Other And Connect After The Ride Is Over

It reads like the plot of an awful but inevitable romantic comedy: two strangers share a Lyft Line. Sparks fly; love blooms.

Pinterest Co-Founder Evan Sharp On International Ambitions, The Apple Watch, The SF Housing Crisis And More

As part of a larger story about Pinterest’s Jumpstart program — a new experiment in its international expansion — I sat down with Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp to talk about the company and its current goals.

Price Tracking Service PoachIt Shuts Down

Price monitoring as a standalone service doesn’t seem to be resonating with consumers. The latest example? PoachIt, a smart shopping tool that helped consumers track price changes and find discounts via both web and mobile, announced today that it’s shutting down. The company had raised $2.8 million in outside funding, according to CrunchBase, and had grown its shopping community to over 300,000 users.

Founded in 2012 Gidi Fisher, an early BuzzMetrics employee, PoachIt initially began as a web application before later making the jump to mobile.

To date, shoppers saved over $40 million using PoachIt, which offered a web extension that allowed consumers to track over a half million products at thousands of stores, then receive email updates when those products dropped in price. The extension could also locate valid coupon codes to be used at checkout. A similar feature set was available on mobile, via an app that also included a barcode scanner to track prices for items you found while shopping at brick-and-mortar retailers.

However, with very little notice, PoachIt announced to its users today that its service would be shutting down on Thursday, May 21st. Users have until then to visit their profiles and save their product information. There’s no “export” option available it seems – you’ll simply need to login and click each link then save it to your browser’s bookmarks or another online service.

Though focused primarily on the consumer savings associated with online shopping, PoachIt may have struggled to compete with Pinterest’s social bookmarking site which already offered a Price Alerts feature. The company claimed that Pinterest was more about “aspirational” collecting, not active shopping, but it seems that many today still use Pinterest as a way to keep tabs on their favorite potential purchases from around the web. That could have impacted PoachIt’s growth.

In addition, PoachIt may have also faced problems common to e-commerce businesses in general, like finding that its emails ended up in users’ spam folders, or dealing with the fact that Amazon can often beat prices without the need for coupon codes.

Plus, many of these price tracking services are challenged when it comes to tracking sizes and colors – as PoachIt was – which makes them less appealing to consumers who want to track a specific item.

PoachIt’s service is not the first price-tracking utility to meet an abrupt end – New York-based Hukkster, which was backed by Winklevoss Capital, also closed up shop last year. Meanwhile, another price tracker Nifti pivoted into group polling and mobile messaging last year after seeing a general slowdown in the price-tracking space. And before that, the team behind Farecast (bought by Microsoft) found they couldn’t make price tracking a big consumer business, and exited to Ebay in fall 2013.

With PoachIt’s closure, there are only a handful of companies still standing offering sale alerts for online shoppers, including Covvet, Pricify, Trackif, Shoptagr, Savelist and others.

The full email sent to PoachIt users today is included below. The company so far has not responded to emails, messages or calls:

Dear PoachIt Family,

In the past three years, we built a community of over 300K avid online shoppers, saved you over $40M, and delivered millions of Poach Alerts and validated coupon codes straight to your inboxes.

Our mission was to make your life a little easier and a lot happier, all while saving you real money along the way. Unfortunately, we regret to share the news that PoachIt’s price tracking and deal reporting service will end this Thursday May 21, 2015. Please make sure to visit your profiles and grab your product information before we shut down so you don’t miss out on anything you’ve saved under our care.

We have been honored to serve as Your Shopping Sidekick and “the only coupon you’ll ever need.”

Sincerely,
Gidi Fisher
Founder & CEO

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Jay Z Mocks Apple, Google, YouTube, Spotify In Tidal Freestyle

They’ve got the money, but he’s got the microphone. This weekend,  Jay Z threw some punches at the big tech companies who compete with his upstart music streaming service Tidal. The freestyle came as part of the Jay Z’s “B-Sides” concert, a performance of some of his rarest songs that was supposed to “exclusively” be available for livestream on Tidal.

Naturally, videos of the show immediately ended up on YouTube.

Tidal touts exclusives from its all-star lineup of partnered artists like Kanye West, Daft Punk, Beyonce, Arcade Fire, and Madonna. The problem is that fans don’t take kindly to pay walls, and inconvenience encourages piracy.

For more on why Tidal sounds doomed, check out my rant video:

Why Jay-Z's Music App Tidal Sounds Doomed

But something special did come out of Jay Z’s show. He ripped on Google as well as Jimmy Iovine, head of Apple’s Beats Music, for apparently trying to buy him out. He roasts YouTube for what he considers tiny payouts to artists.

Then Jay Z, also referring to himself as Jigga and ‘Hova, addressed criticism that Tidal’s partnered artists are rich, so why should fans care about making sure they’re paid? He admits his Tidalers “own shit” but asks why people don’t have a problem paying Apple for iPhones or Phil Knight’s Nike for shoes. Plus Spotify is valued at $9 billion so they’re not exactly starving artists themselves.

“Don’t ever go with the flow. Be the flow.

I don’t need no middlemen to talk to my n*ggas / I understand if you don’t understand I figure I’m Jigga / That’s where we differ / I take what’s mine you accept what they give you, I get you /  I don’t take no checks, I take my respect / Pharrell even told me ‘Go with the best bet’ / Jimmy Iovine offered a safety net / Google dangle ‘round a crazy check / I feel like YouTube is the biggest culprit / Them n*ggas pay you a tenth of what you supposed to get

You know n*ggas died for equal pay, right? / You know when I work I ain’t your slave, right? / You know I ain’t shucking and jivin’ and high fivin’ / You know this ain’t back in the days, right? / But I can’t tell by the way they kill Freddie Gray right / Shot down Mike Brown like the way they did Tray, right? Let ‘em continue choking’ n*ggas / we gon’ turn style / I ain’t your token n*gga /

You know I came in this game independent, right? / Tidal / My own label / same difference / Oh n*ggas is skeptical cause they own shit / You bought nine iPhones and Steve Jobs is rich / Phil Knight’s worth trillions, you still bought those kicks / Spotify’s nine billion and they ain’t say shit / ‘Lucyyy you got some splainin’ to do’ / The only one they hatin’ on look the same as you / That’s cool / I know they tryin’ to bamboozle you / Spending millions on media tryin’ to confuse you / I had to talk to myself ‘Hov, you used to it’ / It’s politics as usual.”

But for all of Jay’s witty rhymes, Tidal’s problems remain. It’s starting way behind in the music streaming race, it has no free ad-supported tier to pull in users to pay $10 a month, few will pay $20 for HD sound, and its top exclusives get pirated. At least Tidal is raising the question about how artists can be fairly compensated, even if it doesn’t have the answer.

Featured Image: Theo Wargo/Getty Images

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Microsoft’s New Edge Browser Is A Windows-Only Play For Now

Microsoft has no immediate plans to let its new browser out of Windows 10.

Videopixie, A Video Production Startup That Connects Buyers And Creators, Raises $1.1M

Videopixie, a Y Combinator alumnus that handles video creation and production (like filming and post-production editing), has raised $1.1 million in seed funding.

Here’s Your First (Ridiculously Short) Look At The New Doom

Doom. The game that introduced an entire generation to the idea of using computers for more than spreadsheets, the game that set the bar in 1993… has had a rough couple years.

European powers team up to build homegrown drones

Drones are sufficiently commonplace now that if you aren't building your own, you get a serious dose of FOMO.