Google's cloud-based music-matching service has arrived... and it's free

Price isn't the only difference—Google has higher quality files and no "sin tax."

 Google has announced its own music-matching locker service, but unlike Amazon's cloud player and iTunes match, this new service is free. Google play in this new in carnation, first debuted in Europe a month ago and now it has finally come stateside.

Google music beta (as it was then-called) first debuted in 2011—the new service will scan your computer's music collection, then check that against Google's servers and serve you with a stream of those songs. Previously, the service required you to upload each song through its client application.
“Our new music matching feature gets your songs into your online music library on Google Play much faster,” the company wrote Tuesday on its Google+ page. “We’ll scan your collection and quickly rebuild it in the cloud—all for free. And we’ll stream your music back to you at up to 320 kbps.”
Importantly, folks who were hip to Google Music Beta/Google Play back in the day don't have to go through this rigamarole twice.
"If you’re a longtime Google Play Music user, you don’t need to re-upload your files to have them matched," the company now says. "In the next few months, we'll automatically match what we can of your existing library."
This is where the Wall Street Journal identifies a second big difference. Rather than employ Apple’s or Amazon’s strategy—having users pay a “sin tax” for music that may not be 100 percent legally acquired—Google is simply writing “big up-front checks” to the major music labels.
And if this sort of thing matters to you, Apple’s iTunes Match and Amazon’s Cloud Player only offer 256kbps downloads, rather than Google’s 320kbps.
Ars will have a full review of Google Play in the coming wee

Bing Updates Its Image Search Results With Enhanced Photo Viewer, Speed Improvements

Microsoft updated Bing’s image search results pages with larger thumbnails and less white-space earlier this year and today, the company is taking this one step further by also introdcing a ew way to explore imagery on Bing. Instead of loading the actual page with the image after you click on a thumbnail, Bing now brings up a large image viewer that, as the company says, places “the image center stage.”

The image itself does indeed take up most of the screen, with a photo strip of other search results at the bottom and a list of recommended searches in the right sidebar. The actual site the photo comes from has now been relegated to a thumbnail in the bottom right corner. To go the site the photo originated on, users have to click on the site’s thumbnail. While site owners may not love this feature, it is actually a step up from the old system that just featured a link.



 


One nice feature here is that you can use your arrow keys to navigate between the various images on the photo strip. It’s also quite remarkable how fast the experience is. As Microsoft notes, the Bing team rebuilt the viewer “from the ground up focusing on speed improvements so you can see a picture immediately, without wasting time waiting for the page to load.”
The new image search experience also dims the background to make viewing images easier on the eyes and offers a full-screen mode for viewing the most interesting images up close.

Desperate iOS users download Google Maps 10 million times in 2 days

It seems iPhone users missed Google, huh?

More than 10 million iOS users sprinted back into the arms of Google Maps the weekend after the new third-party app was released, according to a Google+ post from Jeff Huber, a senior vice president at the company. Though the number accounts for less than 2.5 percent of iPhones sold worldwide, it’s clear that many iOS users were eager to see the return of the mapping service.
Google hinted that it planned to release its own mapping app after getting forced out of the native suite of apps with Apple’s iOS 6. The reaction to Apple’s own mapping app has been, to put it lightly mixed, and users have been impatient for the return of Google’s app.

 Google Maps was finally released early on Friday. At long last, some holdouts could be talked down from their iOS installs and convinced to upgrade. And while the new Google Map app doesn’t integrate with the OS the way the old one did (and the way Apple’s does), it has already made some customers happy, with an average rating of 4.5 stars over 20,000 evaluations.
According to our own polls, a healthy portion (about a third) of Ars readers will be sticking with Apple's map, and many more found their way to new navigation apps in Google Maps' absence: more than half were happy to stick with Google, wherever it may lead them.

Apple request for Samsung phone ban is denied

A federal judge ruled late Monday that Samsung could continue to sell smartphones that were ruled to have infringed Apple's patents.

The eight Samsung phones involved in the case, including the popular Galaxy S II, will not be taken off store shelves because there is no evidence that customers were specifically seeking out the features that Samsung copied, the judge indicated.
In August, a jury found that Apple should be awarded $1 billion in damages for Samsung copying of the design and software features of the iPhone. But U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said Monday that Apple had not proved a connection between the patent infringement and a loss of iPhone sales.
"Obviously, this is a serious and surprising set-back for Apple and its legal team," said Michael Kasdan, a partner at Amster Rothstein & Ebenstein. "it is extremely unusual in competitor vs. competitor cases for the patentee not to be granted an injunction. Apple will surely appeal."
Apple had claimed that the harm caused by Samsung was "irreparable," noting that the iPhone had lost market share. Apple also said that future iPhone sales would be fewer in number, and that its ecosystem of devices and software like the iPad, Mac and iTunes were also damaged. Judge Koh wasn't buying it.

"While Apple has presented evidence that design, as a general matter, is important to consumers more broadly, Apple simply has not established a sufficient causal nexus between infringement of its design patents and irreparable harm," Judge Koh wrote in her order. "Though evidence that Samsung attempted to copy certain Apple features may offer some limited support for Apple's theory, it does not establish that those features actually drove consumer demand."
The ruling is a major setback for Apple, which hoped to ban eight of the 21 devices found to have infringed its patents and also add Samsung's latest gadgets to the injunction. That includes the mega-popular Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone, which had outsold Apple's iPhone as recently as September. Many of the devices that Apple wanted taken off store shelves are still on the market, but they are all more than a year old -- ancient by smartphone standards.
In August, a California jury issued what amounted to a worst-case scenario for Samsung. The jury found Samsung had infringed several of its patents, including software features like double-tap zooming and scrolling, as well as design features that included hardware style or icon setup. Judge Koh has not yet ruled on other important post-trial proceedings, including whether all of the $1 billion award should be upheld. She must also decide if Samsung's copying was intentional. In that case, damages could be tripled.

Judge Koh did issue a separate ruling on Monday that denied Samsung's request for a new trial based on its claims of juror misconduct. Samsung had claimed that the jury foreman Velvin Hogan had been prejudiced against the company, because he had been sued by Seagate, his former employer. Samsung became the largest investor in Seagate after selling a division to the hard drive maker in 2011.
"It was always a true uphill battle for Samsung, given the standards for showing that a new trial was warranted," said Kasdan.
Separately, Samsung announced on Tuesday that it was dropping lawsuits against Apple in Europe.
Investors seemed pleased by that development. Shares of Apple, which have plunged more than 26% since hitting an all-time high in September, rose more than 1% in premarket trading Tuesday.

RIM sets BlackBerry 10 event for January 30

Research In Motion sends out invitations to the media for BlackBerry 10's unveiling at a New York City event. What 2013 holds for RIM beyond that remains to be seen.

 Research In Motion has officially announced a BlackBerry 10 event for January 30.

The company today sent out invitations to select media outlets, inviting them to Pier 36 in New York City that day for the global unveiling of BlackBerry 10: "You can see it first." RIM didn't provide any details on the event, but its tagline is, "Re-designed. Re-engineered. Re-invented."
RIM announced last month that it would launch BlackBerry 10 in january 30. The company is expected to unveil a full touch-screen device and another that could resemble its current Bold handset.

 BlackBerry 10 has been plagued by delays that only exacerbated the company's broader issues. RIM's market share has been on the decline, and even in the enterprise -- once a space it dominated -- Android and iOS are making inroads. BlackBerry 10 is believed to be RIM's last, best hope for a turnaround.

 Since that last delay, RIM has been working hard to bring its operating system to the market on time. In October, the company announced that it had started carrier testing, a sure sign that progress was being made. Earlier today, RIM also announced that its BlackBerry 10 Technical Preview program has kicked off, allowing government and enterprise customers the chance to beta test the operating system.
RIM is expected to show off a new BlackBerry 10 feature called "Notebooks" at the January 30 event. The developer documentation describes the feature as a "folder-like object that contains notebook entries." The operating system will also include improved major applications, including e-mail, contacts, and calendars.

HTC Reportedly Drops Plans for Large Windows Phone Device

HTC  has given up on producing a large-screen Windows Phone-based smartphone, Bloomberg reports citing a source familiar with the project.
The reasoning behind this decision lies in Windows Phone 8's maximum allowed screen resolution: 1280x720 pixels. HTC reportedly thinks that this is too low for a smartphone with a screen size larger than 5 inches, as competing Android models have a much larger resolution.
For comparison, HTC-made Verizon Droid DNA (also known as HTC J Butterfly) has a 5-inch screen with a 1920×1080 pixel resolution.
Another reason for the decision could be HTC's dwindling market share. According to comScore's latest report, the company's smartphone market share in the U.S. fell to 6% in October 2012. Struggling to regain its position in the smartphone market, HTC probably wants to focus on devices that offer the most to consumers.
Can 5-inch Windows Phone 8 smartphones, with their maximum allowed resolution of 1280x780, compete with similarly sized Android models? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Google Maps: Is the iPhone version actually better than Android?

Google Maps is good, much better than Apple Maps. We all know that. But in his write-up of the new app, New York Times reviewer David Pogue said that even Google though its new design was superior to the same app on Android.

Maybe that unnamed Google employee was just playing a sales-and-marketing role, talking the app up to generate interest, but it's still a shocking statement.

Product ecosystems are one of the most fiercely competitive areas of tech right now. Companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft generally keep the best features of their products for themselves and deliver merely adequate iterations for other platforms.
So is the Google Maps app for Apple's iOS really better than Google's baked-in, native version for Android?
It depends on what it's used for. Those who expected the Apple app to be a lesser version of Android's software are wrong -- but those expecting a carbon copy of the Android experience are also sorely mistaken.
The basic, core experience is essentially identical. Maps are the same, as are search results.. Both provide walking directions, public transit routes and voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation. Street view and 3-D maps are included. There's no critical flaw in either app that makes one significantly better or worse than the other.
But make no mistake: these are different apps.
The Apple iOS version quickly and cleanly delivers the needed navigation data. From the very first screen, the experience is simply more intuitive. Instead of a search button in the bottom corner of the screen, the iOS app has a search bar along the top, instantly guiding people to the most frequently used feature of a maps app.
Next to that is a button taking users to a menu where they can choose among preset locations for home, work and other saved locations. That saves you from repeatedly entering the same addresses. The Android version has this feature, but it's buried in a layer under the app's home screen, obscuring it from the sight of less savvy smartphone users.
And then's the info cards. When a user searches for a point of interest and taps on a pin, the information pops up in a bar at the bottom, instead of as an overlayed box on the map. Tap that box and it moves up, occupying 2/3 of the screen (leaving the last 1/3 for the existing map). You can swipe left and right to move between different search results, and can dig into business info, Zagat ratings and navigation options. When you're finished, you simply swipe down and you're back at the home screen.
It's far cleaner and more intuitive than what the Android version offers.
But that's not to say that the Android app doesn't have its own advantages. Android is all about raw functionality. Offline maps are an exclusive perk, along with the less-essential but still intriguing indoor maps, terrain maps and bicycle-route overlays. And, by virtue of Apple's fickleness, it enjoys the benefits of optimizations that come from being built straight into the operating system: smoother panning and zooming, enhanced functionality while running in the background, and default maps-app status.
There's deep integration with other Google  services, which can't be found in the iOS version. Access to local recommendations, offers, Wikipedia overlays and recently checked-in locales can all be accessed through the Android software.
The distinctions make sense. That Google chose to make any aspect of its product superior on another platform seems nuts until you look at the context in which the two different platforms are used.
Apple's iOS is manically focused on delivering an intuitive user experience, so it got a better user interface (which will probably work its way into the Android version someday). Android prioritized customization and power-user functionality since day one. Anyone who immerses themselves in Google's services -- and therefore wants deep integration with them -- probably has an Android phone.
Releasing an equally high-quality product on a competitor's platform is a smart, insightful move. It's great for consumers, and in the long run, that's great for Google.