Rhapsody's Listener Network makes finding new music easier

All of the big music services have pretty much the same catalog, high profile holdouts like Taylor Swift aside. At this point, most of the innovation happening in streaming music is around trying to surface songs from those massive catalogs that users haven't heard before. Apple Music has its curated editors playlists, Spotify has Discover Weekly, Google Play Music has its Songza-powered radio stations, and now Rhapsody (aka Napster) is ready to unveil its own solution. It's called the Listener Network, and it leverages all the info the company has about what music its users play to find new songs and albums you might enjoy.

That data is used to find you new music to listen to in a variety of ways, one of the most important of which is called Music Match. This looks at everything you've added to your library as well as everything you've favorited and compares that listening history with other users. So now, when you click on a user, you'll see a "match" percentage telling you how much your musical tastes overlap. Someone with a 15 percent match you probably won't be interested in following, but someone with a 75 percent match seems a lot more likely to surface music you'll care about. (I confirmed that someone with a 95 percent match probably won't have a lot new for you to discover; Rhapsody will use its algorithms to surface people who have high match ratings that still have some room for finding new songs.)

Naturally, you won't have to go hunting for users to follow. For starters, Rhapsody will offer a playlist specifically containing music from people with high Music Match scores, and all of the songs on it will be things you haven't yet played. When you click on songs in the playlist, you'll be able to drill down to the user that Rhapsody's algorithms pulled the song from. From there, you can start following that new user if you want to see more of their musical tendencies in your feeds. You can also get a similar playlist but only based on music trending from people you already follow, if you want to play it safe. When you're visiting the profile of any user that you have a good music match with, you can also listen to a "matched playlist" of songs based on your similar tastes.

These trending playlists feel like an answer to Spotify's aforementioned Discover Weekly feature, which surfaces a playlist of new songs you might be interested in every Monday. But while it's not entirely clear how Spotify pulls together that list for you, Rhapsody wants you to be able to see every listener using the service and how their tastes influence what you're hearing. And to one-up Spotify, those playlists are updated every single day, so there's always a fresh stream of songs coming in both from users you directly follow as well as users who you might not know with tastes that intersect.

Rhapsody gave me a preview build of the app for iOS, but unfortunately I haven't used the service enough for it to surface any meaningful recommendations or playlists. But, it seems like a smart and unique feature that most other music services in the market don't have. Spotify makes it easy to see exactly what everyone you follow is listening to at a given moment, but trying to get a holistic overview of what's trending amongst those friends is more of a challenge -- and it's also not that easy to find users who have similar tastes.

The notion of surfacing what's trending amongst your entire listener network actually feels a lot like a feature the dearly departed Rdio used to offer -- it was dead simple to start a station based on what was trending in your network, and Rdio was also very good at suggesting albums based on the listening habits of your friends. As someone who misses Rdio quite a bit, I could definitely see this feature being useful. Of course, for starters, you'll need to both build up a listening history and find some friends; I have no listening history on Rhapsody right now, and none of my Facebook friends use the service. But for the 3.5 million current Rhapsody subscribers out there, this has the potential to be a solid set of new discovery features. I plan to spend some time with Rhapsody to build up a listening history over the next few weeks and see just how good it can get at helping me on the never-ending quest for new tunes.

Google's self-driving cars to face their toughest test yet

One of Google's self-driving cars in Mountain View, California.

Google is taking its self-driving cars to a fourth city in an expansion of its ongoing development. The latest location for testing is Phoenix, Arizona, which is significantly more arid than any city previously used as a proving ground.

Speaking to Reuters, Jennifer Haroon, Google's head of business operations for the self-driving car project, noted that the desert conditions will further the company's understanding of "how our sensors and cars handle extreme temperatures and dust in the air." Modified Lexus SUVs have already begun to map the Phoenix area, checking for street layouts, lane markers, traffic signals and curb heights.

The move to Phoenix is the second new area for Google this year. In February, it began testing in Kirkland, Washington, which is significantly wetter than previous locations. Those previous locations were in California and Texas, though, so that's not saying much -- Kirkland is still dryer than the US average for inches of rainfall per year.

It's suggested that, in addition to providing a new set of environmental challenges for self-driving cars, Arizona is potentially more open to the testing than California. Google's home state recently proposed new rulesthat would require a wheel, pedals and a driver to be in self-driving cars -- all things that are not present in Google's current prototype.

Source: Reuters

In this article: alphabet, arizona, autonomous, gear, google, googlecar, phoenix, science,selfdrivingcar, transportation

Google puts money into cementing green energy standards in Asia

Plenty of big tech companies are looking to source green energy whenever they can for their substantial energy needs, and Google is the same. But it looks like it's hard to find the renewable energy you're looking for in Asia -- specifically China, which is why the company says it's offering seed funding to the Center for Resource Solutions. The non-profit is going to bring its experience in setting up and running renewable energy certification programs to Asia, starting in Taiwan. That's good, because that's right where Google needs green power for its data center.

While its parent company tries all kinds of things to chase renewable energy, its Google itself that is coaxing certification and standardization along here. However, it's not stating outright how much cash it's putting down: "The system for getting proper credentials for renewable energy sources is virtually nonexistent on the continent."

Via: Recode

Source: Google Asia Pacific

In this article: centerforresourcesolutions, china, crs, datacenters, google, green, GreenEnergy,

ICYMI: Pollution concrete, EV wireless charging and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: Scientists at UCLA have made concrete by first extracting greenhouse gases from power plant smokestacks. An EV prototype to wirelessly charge cars is making the rounds, and the group's big plan is to design a 50 kilowatt charger that can juice up cars as they drive. You could put that future charger inside your garage where a new opener comes with extra modules that can detect obstacles and about 10 other things.

Finally, we were tickled by the idea of a robot that can best you at Settlers of Catan, so please check that out. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for@mskerryd.

Algae's enzyme might hold the secret to mass producing biofuel

croscopic pond and lake alga named Botryococcus brauniimakes big amounts of liquid hydrocarbons that can be used to makebiofuel. Problem is, we can't use the organism itself as a source, because it grows very slowly. A group of scientists from Texas A&M AgriLife Research, however, is looking into what genes are responsible for producing its enzyme that initiates the production of oil. See, the group wants to replicate its ability to make big amounts of oil in other plants more suitable for mass production. And they think the key is to express the enzyme's associated genes in those other organisms, such as faster-growing algae.

The team's lead scientist, Dr. Tim Devarenne, said:

"One of the issues with Botryococcus is that it grows very slowly. You just don't get a lot of biomass and on an economic scale that means it would not work to use this alga. It takes about a week for one Botryococcus cell to double into two cells, whereas a faster growing algae -- but one that doesn't make a lot of oil -- can double in about six hours. Maybe if we can transfer the genetic information to make these oils into quicker growing organisms like other algae that grow a lot quicker or a land plant that can produce large amounts of biomass, we can have them produce oil for us."

Of course, solar and wind energy are much cleaner sources of energy. But if scientists can find a way to activate the genes in other algae that can grow more quickly, then biofuel sources wouldn't have to take up land that could be used to plant food instead. Devaranne and his team still has to look more closely into the process, though -- they're still "a ways away from making a commercial product" at this point in time.

Via: Popsci

Source: Texas A&M AgriLife Research

In this article: algae, biofuel, Botryococcusbraunii, enzyme, green, science, texasamagrilife

Watch the first trailer for 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'

It's been barely three months since Star Wars: The Force Awakens swept into theaters, showing the world what's become of the far-flung galaxy since Return of the Jedi. Now that the film is available to purchase, the folks at Disney and Lucasfilm are turning their attention to Rogue One, starting with a brand new teaser trailer. Set before A New Hope, the film follows a group of Rebel rogues trying to steal the plans for the original Death Star. As such, you can expect plenty of throwbacks to the original trilogy, including classic stormtroopers, X-wing starfighters and Star Destroyers.

Felicity Jones' character is the focal point of the trailer, painting her as a rebellious type that frequently breaks the law. She's brought before the Rebel Alliance and described as "reckless, aggressive and undisciplined." Clearly, they need her help though, as she's later shown in the battlefield taking down Empire goons and running towards AT-AT walkers. We also get a glimpse of some secondary characters, including an Empire general that's undoubtedly the main villain. It's tense, exhilarating stuff, with plenty of explosions and blaster fire to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Rogue One is being directed by Gareth Edwards, who worked on Monstersin 2010 and the Godzilla reboot in 2014. It's one of many standalone Star Wars films that include a Han Solo origin story and a (likely) exploration of Boba Fett. Rogue One comes out on December 16th, before Rey, Finn and the gang return to our screens for Episode VIII on December 15th, 2017.

Facebook makes finding your Messenger friends way easier

Facebook announced on Thursday that it is implementing three new features for its popular Messenger app. They're designed to make finding and connecting with other users easier. Specifically the company is rolling out "Messenger Usernames," "Messenger Links" and "Messenger Codes."

Messenger Codes work in essentially the same manner as Snapchat codes; you simply scan the code that someone sends you to instantly connect with them. Usernames and links perform the same base function -- giving other people a quick means of finding you on Messenger. Usernames can easily be added to business cards and other physical media, as theFacebook blog announcement suggests, while links are meant to be integrated into email signatures. The new features are being made available to businesses as well as individual users, which should dovetail nicely with the company's rumored efforts to enable purchases directly through the app.