Spotify just filed for a direct listing in the U.S., sidestepping the traditional IPO process, and now we’re starting to see some of the true financial guts of the company — and some of the significant risks it faces from challenging services from Apple and Google.
Apple, for example, charges apps a percentage of revenue for subscriptions processed through the App Store. Apple Music, meanwhile, will always deliver Apple 100% of the subscription revenue that it receives from subscribers (sans record fees and all that kind of stuff, of course). Apple, too, has a direct integration with its iOS devices and also a huge amount of brand recognition even though Spotify is a massive service. Spotify says it has 159 million monthly active users and 71 million premium subscribers, while Apple has 36 million paying subscribers as of February 2018.
Here’s the full boilerplate from the filing:
Our current and future competitors may have higher brand recognition, more established relationships with music and other content licensors and mobile device manufacturers, greater financial, technical, and other resources, more sophisticated technologies, and/or more experience in the markets in which we compete.
In addition, Apple and Google also own application store platforms and are charging in-application purchase fees, which are not being levied on their own applications, thus creating a competitive advantage for themselves against us. As the market for on-demand music on the internet and mobile and connected devices increases, new competitors, business models, and solutions are likely to emerge.
As owners of the platforms themselves, Apple and Google will always be able to dictate the terms. And while Spotify is a massive service, its success still hinges on users listening on their mobile devices. It may be able to build a strong brand and create some inertia against potential changes from Apple that could incite user backlash, but at the end of the day, Apple runs the system where its users actually get the service.
As Apple begins diversifying its revenue streams to create a services branch that the company likes to say will be the size of a Fortune 100 company, music is increasingly becoming a core part of that. Google, too, owns its app store platforms, and will recognize 100% of the revenue from its own service. We haven’t seen the full potential of these companies’ approaches to the music space, in particular with Apple Music which appears to be steadily growing, but Spotify is clearly recognizing it as an existential threat.
Apple's first smart speaker finally emerges, well after Amazon's Echo speakers and the Google Home family dominated the conversation.
For Apple's HomePod, it's better late than never.
The smart speaker became available for advance orders in the online Apple Store in the US, UK and Australia on Friday. While you can typically put in an order for new Apple products at 12:01 a.m. PT, the HomePod wasn't available until just before 5:45 a.m. PT.
A little patience was required for Apple's latest product. The consumer electronics giant unveiled the HomePod at its developer conference in June and said it was slated to ship in December, but it ended up delaying the release to early this year. The device will hit stores Feb. 9.
The HomePod is available for $349, £319 or AU$499 in white and space gray. Apple has positioned it as a speaker first, smart device second. You'll be able to ask Apple's Siri voice assistant to do things like play a song on Apple Music, send a message to a friend through WhatsApp or control your smart lights. Later this year, you'll be able to link two HomePods together for multiroom listening and stereo sound.
Unlike recent iPhone launches, the HomePod didn't immediately sell out Friday, and the Apple Store didn't have glitches that prevented people from placing their orders. As of 5:45 a.m. PT, both the white and space gray versions of the speaker were still available, and the shipment date lists Feb. 9. Apple's hottest iPhone models have tended to sell out within minutes.
Anticipation for Apple's HomePod is likely nowhere near as high as demand for a new iPhone. Despite efforts to get into new markets like wearables and the smart home, Apple still makes about two-thirds of its sales from its smartphones.
Working against Apple's smart speaker is the popularity of Amazon's Echo and the HomePod's higher price compared to rivals. The speaker also doesn't easily stream music from third-party services like Spotify, and the number of other tasks you can ask of Siri is limited. Siri itself has been deemed a subpar voice assistant by researchers. And even though Apple is pushing HomePod's audio capabilities, that may not win over as many people as it hopes.
"There is not a large market for high-quality audio," Creative Strategies analyst Ben Bajarin said. "Most Echo owners are completely content with the sound quality and say it is 'good enough' for their needs."
Siri, can I buy a HomePod?
When Apple showed off the HomePod for the first time in June, it positioned its new device as a music experience rather than just a smart-home hub, ostensibly to "reinvent home music." It has better audio specs than other hub speakers and an A8 chip for processing (the same chip that's in the iPhone 7). It uses a wide-array mic that supposedly can hear you over the music, and naturally integrates with Apple Music. It can also control HomeKit devices.
You'll see Amazon's Alexa dominate the New York Toy Fair as toymakers figure out how to use the digital assistant to add new sound experiences to games.
Alexa, shall we play a game?
Amazon's smart assistant is making her way into playtime, with Mattel and other toymakers adding Alexa voice commands to products to enhance game play. Several such toys are due this fall, and this weekend some will be on display at the ginormous New York Toy Fair.
In many of these products, you can't actually play against Alexa. Instead she's a guide, keeping score, reading rules and setting the mood with sound effects and music.
In an age when parents are accustomed to syncing toys with smartphone apps, it's not much of a leap for companies to want to leverage smart speakers. Industry watchers expect Amazon's Echo speakers to be in more than 66.3 million US households by 2022.
Why make your own voice recognition system and battle privacy worries when you can use one already trusted in millions of homes?
"We know that more than one in five parents of connected children own a voice-controlled internet-connected smart speaker," said Sven Gerjets, Mattel's chief technology officer. "Nearly all parents who have a smart speaker feel comfortable with their child using it."
Mattel's first dip into Alexa isn't geared toward young kids, though. It's a puzzle-solving game for adults called Escape Room in a Box: The Werewolf Experiment. It costs $29.99 on Amazon. Having an Echo isn't required, but it does add ambiance by playing a spooky soundtrack while also acting as a timer and a source for hints.
Alexa is required to play Sensible Object's "When in Rome," a travel trivia game out later this year. Sensible Object
London-based Sensible Object is taking a similar approach with its upcoming voice-augmented board game Voice Originals: When in Rome. The travel trivia game, to be priced at $29.99, uses voice actors and sound effects as the players explore the world. Alexa, and eventually Google Assistant and Apple's Siri, will help keep track of scores and will give guidance on rules. (Basically all the boring things.)
"No one wants to be the guy or girl that reads the rules and tells people they are doing something wrong," said Alex Fleetwood, chief executive and founder of Sensible Object.
But playing with Alexa means having to invoke her name throughout the game with the correct trigger phrase. "Alexa, which team is winning?""Alexa, ask Escape Room for a hint." "Alexa, this isn't my suitcase."
One startup is getting around that.
Novel Effect, based in Seattle, created a way for music and sound effects to play when parents are reading a classic book to their kid. No one wants to interrupt the middle of a bedtime story with Alexa commands, though. In "Where the Wild Things Are," when Max cries out to let the wild rumpus start, he's not asking Alexa for permission.
So Novel Effect is collaborating directly with Amazon to make the actual words from the books be the trigger words for sound effects (as long as you first activated the Novel Effect skill program).
Right now Novel Effect exists as an iOS app. But CEO Matt Hammersley says that when his Alexa program launches, it'll be smoother and quicker than opening up the app.
Voice over visuals
Voice assistants can replace the need to stare at a smartphone screen. The Play Impossible Gameball is a Bluetooth-connected foam outdoor ball stuffed with sensors. A smartphone app displays challenges for tossing the Gameball around, and and it keeps track of your progress and speed. Later this year, Play Impossible wants to just let Alexa keep track of your prowess.
Scout, the latest voice-recognition talking toy from Elemental Path, is scheduled to hit stores later this year. Elemental Path
Voice technology is tricky for toy companies to tackle. Parents can worry about the privacy of a toy that's always listening. And creating voice-recognition systems that understand little kid babble isn't cheap -- especially when the responses need to be safe, fresh and fun.
Take it from Elemental Path co-founder John Paul Benini. His company has been investing in this technology for three and a half years, creating several educational talking toys for kids ages 5 and up. According to Benini, Elemental Path has raised roughly $4.5 million so far, and later this year it plans to launch Scout, a $150 robot buddy programmed with a childlike curiosity that prompts it to strike up conversations with its owner.
Can Alexa show Barbie how to get down?
Mattel canceled an earlier attempt at doing voice on its own. Hello Barbie Hologram, revealed at last year's Toy Fair, was designed to be a type of personal assistant for young kids. A voice-controlled animated Barbie projection lived inside a glowing, pink speaker box. Powered by Mattel's own blend of secure software, it answered to "Hello, Barbie" and would report on the weather, set reminders, play music, give yoga lessons -- and also throw dance parties on request.
The problem? Too expensive. It was to be listed for $235, and Mattel's consumer testing found that it was too pricey for the play value, according to a company spokeswoman. It never made it to store shelves.
Leveraging Amazon's system is, of course, much more cost effective for toy companies big and small.
So perhaps Barbie may have to use Alexa to throw her next dance party.
Commentary: Art like "Black Panther" overturns stereotypes to reclaim the past and reimagine the future. To understand the film's power, you need to understand Afrofuturism.
There's a secret at the heart of Marvel's superhero adventure "Black Panther": the African nation of Wakanda, bursting with advanced technology and hidden from the world.
Afrofuturist icon Janelle Monae at the Los Angeles world premiere of "Black Panther" in January. Alberto E. Rodriguez
But that's not the only thing this Afrofuturist epic uncovers. By drawing directly from Africa as its source material, "Black Panther" gives us a new way to think about a past, present and future rarely seen in mainstream movies. (Here's CNET's review of the film, which opened in US theaters on Friday and earlier worldwide.)
Marvel's latest superhero flick is the perfect example of the genre and movement known as Afrofuturism. It combines elements of sci-fi, fantasy and African history and culture to create a new world to explore and escape into.
The term Afrofuturism was coined in the early 1990s to refer to an analysis of African-American sci-fi. But it's since become a method for speculative thought, imagining "what if" scenarios in fiction, music and even architecture that reclaim and reinvigorate depictions of the black experience. By re-examining historical events through an African lens, we can more deeply understand where we are today and, in sci-fi creations like the high-tech culture of Wakanda, imagine possibilities beyond the status quo.
"Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman, who plays T'Challa, said he expressly thought about how he should approach his accent as Wakanda's king from a purely African perspective.
"He's the ruler of a nation," Boseman told CNET in a November interview. "And if he's the ruler of a nation, he has to speak to his people. He has to galvanize his people. And there's no way I could speak to my people, who have never been conquered by Europeans, with a European voice."
Ryan Coogler directs Chadwick Boseman on the set of Marvel's "Black Panther". Matt Kennedy/Marvel Studios 2018
The "Afro" in the Afrofuturism of "Black Panther," isn't just evident in the predominantly black cast, also featuring Angela Bassett as T'Challa's mother, Ramonda; Michael B. Jordan as zealous villain Killmonger; and Lupita Nyong'o as spy Nakia.
It's everywhere in the aesthetics, from the vibrant design of the sets and costumes to the fictional rituals of Black Panther's home, Wakanda. Look at the ochre earth that covers the floor of the Wakandan throne room. Or the thatched roofs on the country's gleaming skyscrapers. Or gadgets in the form of traditional necklaces and beads. Even the natural landscapes of Wakanda draw on the variety of Africa's beauty, with rolling green hillsides and magnificent snowcapped mountains taking the place of the stereotypical parched desert.
King T'Challa's throne room is an example of Wakanda's combination of African heritage and comic book technology. Marvel Studios
Yet Afrofuturism is more than a visual style bringing African influences into the mainstream. Even before the first (white) men walked on the moon in the 1960s, African-American writers, artists and musicians like Sun Ra looked to space and to the fantasies of science fiction to find the freedom denied them on Earth.
"Afrofuturism does a couple of things," filmmaker, author and futurist Ytasha L. Womack explained in a keynote speech at Canada's McGill University in 2015. "It affirms the agency of people who pull from aspects of the African or black experience in the future ... but it also recovers this lost history, heritage and perspectives that aren't talked about in our education system. You can pull from these different aspects to shape your present -- and the future."
Representation of the historical black experience on screen has often focused on slavery, from 1915's "The Birth of a Nation" to 2013's "12 Years a Slave." In the present, black people are regularly depicted as passive victims of police brutality and gang warfare who come from violent, impoverished communities the world over.
Lupita Nyong'o (left) and Letitia Wright (right) fire up Wakandan high technology. Marvel Studios
In other words, humanity has been living with a Westernised narrative. But in "Black Panther," the black people and culture we see are very different from stereotypical representations. Wakanda's past is free of colonisation and enslavement. Wakandans of the present are active citizens with agency over their country's resources. And they combine their chief resource, Vibranium, with their knowledge and ingenuity to develop futuristic technology outstripping the rest of the world.
"One of the things that we really wanted to make sure about Wakanda is the technology, and I think that that's something that all the fans want to see," the film's production designer, Hannah Beachler, told Black Girl Nerds. "The other thing that we really talked about was keeping the tradition of several different African tribes. We really delved into what that was and how we mix this new and this old."
For Beachler, Afrofuturism means taking a familiar narrative and "mixing it up and reowning it ... going back to an older time and modernizing it, and reclaiming it, and owning it in a different way."
Art meets the Afrofuture
You'll find Afrofuturism in fiction such as Octavia Butler's 1976 time-travelling slave narrative novel "Kindred", or more recently, the novel "Who Fears Death" by Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor. Set in a postapocalyptic future version of Sudan, "Who Fears Death" is scheduled to be made into an HBO series produced by "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin.
Even before academic Mark Dery coined the term Afrofuturism in 1993, we saw it in the work of artists like otherworldly jazz performer Sun Ra. His experimental music, extraterrestrial-inspired cosmic philosophy and flamboyant performances produced works like the psychedelic 1974 film "Space Is the Place," in which he comes to us as a "Universal Being" not of this dimension.
Sun Ra and his Arkestra look to the future in 1978. Getty Images
African-American singer, songwriter and record producer George Clinton of Parliament/Funkadelic fame shared many of the cosmic viewpoints of Sun Ra. His music was infused with an Afrofuturist vision of protest, hope, intergalactic mythology and fun, and he was one of the many who laid the groundwork for the evolution of electro. In the 1980s, hip-hop ambassador Afrika Bambaataaappeared as a being somewhere between a robot and an ancient Egyptian godhead for his influential 1982 hit "Planet Rock."
More recently, my personal favourite, Janelle Monae, adopted an android alter ego to take us on a tour of futuristic museums paying homage to rebel artists on the albums "The ArchAndroid" and "Electric Lady."
"I watched 'Metropolis' and was really inspired by it," Monae told The Irish Times. "Then I started to get into 'Alien' and 'Blade Runner', and I started to look at the android as the form of the other, all the discrimination that the android faced in these films. I could relate to that, the idea of being the minority within the majority."
Monae's next album and film will be titled "Dirty Computer" and will continue to explore sci-fi themes. No wonder she was the perfect choice to appear in "Hidden Figures," the award-winning 2016 movie reclaiming the contribution of African-American women to the space race.
By looking to both the past and the future and imagining new possibilities in stories like "Black Panther," we can inspire the present. At Afro Futures_UK, a UK-based collective of researchers, artists, programmers and activists, we explore new ways of seeing ourselves. Through seminars, workshops and social media, our black-led group aims to get more people involved in science, technology and the arts to do our bit toward self-determination and liberation.
As "Black Panther" sinks its teeth into huge box office success, Afrofuturism is now mainstream. A smash hit Marvel blockbuster made by a black cast, director and filmmakers should pave the way to change how Hollywood portrays Africa, the birthplace of humanity. That's the irresistible freedom of Afrofuturism.
Commentary: CNET's Eric Franklin, a lifelong comics fan, will go back to the theater over and over to relive these parts of "Black Panther." Warning: Spoilers, and tears, ahead.
The more I've watched "Black Panther," the more I've come to appreciate how fantastic it is. (I've seen it four times now, about double my recent average for MCU films at this stage in their release.) I'll acknowledge that the movie isn't perfect. For starters, I really wish it was easier to see what was going on in that opening action scene. But I care less about perfection and more about how movies make me feel.
I've been a comic book fan most of my life, and I've been anticipating a Black Panther movie since I first started reading Christopher Priest's run in 1998. As a fan of the books, I couldn't wait to see how Wakanda and T'Challa would be interpreted. ("Civil War," of course, gave us a nice appetizer.)
But "Black Panther" carried an even larger expectation for me as a black person.
A big-budget movie with a predominantly black cast set in a fictional country with the most technologically advanced society on Earth? All happening in what's arguably -- there is still Star Wars, after all -- the most popular current movie franchise? You wanna talk about stuff I've never seen before? Stuff I didn't think I'd ever truly see? Stuff I've been dying to see on screen since I was old enough to realize it was missing from my life?
So, yes, the movie worked for me as a film -- and as the ultimate fulfillment of this big-budget pop-culture representation I've been longing for. And the impact it's having (like the #BlackPantherChallenge to pay for underserved kids to see the movie and the push to register voters at the theater) is so great to watch.
Here are my favorite moments from "Black Panther" in the order they appear. There are at least 100 more moments that deserve to be on this list, but unfortunately the Time Stone is still tucked safely away in Kamar-Taj (last I checked), and I would rather prioritize seeing the movie another half dozen times right now.
1. Welcome to Wakanda
What happens: T'Challa, Okoye and Nakia fly into Wakanda.
Why it's on the list: This is the first time we see Wakanda in the film, and in the MCU. And it's worth the wait. As the sun rises on T'Challa and Nakia, powerful African vocals deliver Ludwig Göransson's incredible score. Okeye proudly tells T'Challa and Nakia, "We are home." The ship decloaks and flies over the Wakandan outskirts, revealing a deep majestic canyon and a taste of the film's amazing cinematography by Rachel Morrison, an Oscar nominee for "Mudbound." The ship then swoops through a valley where we see herds of animals rushing, almost as if welcoming the king back home. The herders themselves wave as the ship flies by. My favorite images from this scene, though, are the Border Tribesmen on horseback, racing along, signaling to the ship.
Drum beats reach a fever pitch, and T'Challa's line, "This never gets old," mirrors how I will likely feel about this scene even 20 years from now. Finally, the ship dives right into the hillside and climatically breaks through the holographic barrier to reveal Wakanda in all its glory as the horns come barreling into the score.
Marvel Studios
I shed manly tears experiencing these first shots of Wakanda. The scene did not disappoint.
2. The Challenge Day ceremony
What happens: The Dora Milaje, the four tribes and T'Challa's family festively dance and drain the river in preparation for T'Challa to arrive to his coronation.
Why it's on the list: This scene, an instant classic, is the reason to see a spectacle film. Once again, the music is key. It's festive at first and then builds to a majestic high (there's a lot of majesty in this score) as T'Challa exits the ship to the sound of everyone chanting his name. T'Challa takes a moment to truly appreciate what a big deal this is as he looks around at his fellow Wakandans swaying and bobbing in celebration of their soon-to-be new king. This scene could have easily been ruined by a voiceover preemptively explaining the lore of the challenge, but the filmmakers are smart enough to just let a scene be.
Marvel Studios
I loved every aspect of this -- from the symbolic shot of the spaceship leaving the frame to the effects when his powers are stripped away as everyone rhythmically shrugs their shoulders (god, I love that detail). This is also when you first get to see Ruth E. Carter's incredibly vibrant, eclectic costumes penetrate the screen.
It feels like nothing I've ever seen before.
3. Shuri names her new invention
What happens: Shuri introduces new footwear to her brother.
Why it's on the list: This whole Shuri as "Q" James Bond scene is one of the most entertaining, but my favorite joke is Shuri's meta sneakers joke. No, not the "What are those?!!" one, although I quite enjoyed that one even before I knew it was a Vine reference. The other shoe joke about her new "sneakers."
What sold me was not just Letitia Wright's brilliant delivery, but Chadwick Boseman's reaction and then her response to his reaction. It's subtle and easy to miss. Watch both actors next time you see it. Their performances in this scene, and especially this moment, are brilliant.
4. Killmonger walks to the throne
What happens: Yes, literally just that.
Why it's on the list: This is the best shot in the movie. Everything about it is incredibly expressive: the music, the crazy rotating camera angle, the acting (Michael B. Jordan's stylish swagger as he heads to the throne is noticeably different from the way the other Wakandans carry themselves), the sandals he's wearing. Wakanda has just been turned on its ear and this shot captures that perfectly.
5. M'Baku threatens Ross
What happens: Everett Ross, played by Martin Freeman, starts speaking, but gets cut off by Winston Duke's M'Baku. Why it's on the list: Winston Duke's perfect comic timing is everything here. When Freeman starts talking, I cringed. I expected that tired cliche of the outsider explaining things to an antagonist in a way the main characters can't, getting them out of a bind. "Mr. M'Baku I'm not from around here, but if there's one thing I do know is that T'Challa..." UGH, no thanks!
Marvel Studios
But when M'Baku and the rest of the Jabbari basically bark him into submission, I was beyond relieved. And then, M'Baku threatens to feed Ross to his children. The implications of that line evoked too many "African savage" stereotypes for me. A big African black man threatening to feed the feeble white man to his assumably cannibalistic children?
But Ryan Coogler is a genius and I should have trusted him. He deftly subverted my expectation, and what followed was my favorite joke and delivery in the entire movie. It brings the house down every time I've seen it. Vegetarians, indeed.
6. T'Challa vs. Killmonger 1
What happens: T'Challa and Killmonger fight for the throne of Wakanda.
Why it's on the list: This is an incredible fight, though the first time I watched it, I wasn't really feeling it. It didn't hit me like a Winter Soldier kind of fight, which I guess is what I was expecting? But every time after that, it got better and better. I realized it tells a very specific story. The way the fight builds, T'Challa has a couple of chances to end it early, but instead shows mercy. As Erik gets the upper hand and you slowly realize T'Challa's not going to win, it's heartbreaking. The almost deafening score punctuates this.
Faceoff. Marvel Studios
The knee to the head, the punch to the gut. Killmonger's taunting question: "Is this your king?!" Nakia getting the Queen Mother and Shuri away. If you've watched this scene and you thought the fight was boring, watch it again and pay attention to the small details. Incredible.
This tweet perfectly mirrors my feelings on it:
7. Killmonger's vision
What happens: Erik Killmonger goes through the coronation ritual to become the new Black Panther.
Why it's on the list: This is, full stop, the best scene in the movie, from the way it's shot, again to the music, to the editing and writing choices. Namely the choice to use the kid version of Killmonger to talk to his dad. Erik has never gotten over the pain of losing his father. He's still that kid who found his father murdered by the king of Wakanda all those years ago.
Full disclosure: I've never seen an episode of "This is Us," but I'm now a huge Sterling K. Brown fan because of this movie, and mostly because of this scene. He kills it here and Michael B. Jordan is impressive, but it's child actor Seth Carr who makes this scene. His delivery of "People die ... that's just the way it is around here" is perfect. And as a guy who grew up on the west side of Chicago in the '80s and '90s, is something that's incredibly relatable for me.
8. The Dora Milaje trap Killmonger
What happens: Three members of the Dora Milaje trap Killmonger to attempt to remove his suit. Why it's on the list: This moment speaks directly to me. One of the things I love in superhero comics is seeing highly skilled but otherwise regular humans believably keeping up with (and sometimes even beating) superpowered individuals. (See a depowered Storm defeating Cyclops for leadership of the X-Men in "Uncanny X-Men #201.")
Marvel Studios
In this scene, Killmonger has the powers of the Black Panther and one of his suits, yet three Dora (who don't have superpowers, just powerful weapons and know how to work as a group) are able to trap him with their spears and nearly take him out. He ultimately uses the powers of the suit to break free, but this sequence made the Dora even cooler than they already were.
I also have to believe writers Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole are also wrestling fans, as this is textbook "looking good in defeat," where a character comes close to beating another, stronger character, but is ultimately defeated, yet still having earned the fans' respect.
9. The final scene
What happens: T'Challa and Shuri visit Oakland.
Why it's on the list: T'Challa, forever changed by Erik Killmonger, comes to Oakland to start to slowly, thoughtfully help struggling black and poor people out in the world.
This scene impacted me in a way I didn't expect. It speaks to the 14-year-old version of me who wrote my own stories about cool sci-fi stuff happening in my neighborhood. In my stories, the main protagonist, the guy with the coolest weapon and fighting ability, was always black, because I frankly didn't see that enough in movies. Seeing this dramatized in a movie was like seeing a dream literally come true. It was an extremely emotionally complex moment. As the credits rolled, so did my tears.
The Audiophiliac and ELAC’s speaker designer Andrew Jones set out to demystify speaker impedance.
I wouldn't blame you if you assumed an 8 ohm speaker is always 8 ohms, but it's not. Far from it, an 8 ohm rated speaker is actually 8 ohms only a small percentage of the time because the speaker's impedance varies, depending on the frequencies the speaker is playing at any given moment. Sometimes an 8 ohm speaker might be 7 ohms, or at times 29 ohms, or even 44 ohms. It's all over the place.
ELAC speaker designer Andrew Jones. ELAC
All speakers have an impedance rating in ohms, which represents how difficult the speaker is to power. The lower the impedance, the more efficiently it allows the electric signal, which is basically the music, to pass through the speaker. Most speakers are rated at 4, 6 or 8 ohms, and cheaper receivers can sometime have issues driving low-impedance (namely 4 ohm) speakers.
But that rating is just a baseline. Look at the impedance graph ELAC speaker designer Andrew Jones provided for this article. This speaker's impedance is rated at 6 ohms, but when you look at the graph you'll see the speaker's impedance peaks at 47 ohms at approximately 25 Hertz, plummets to 5 ohms at 200 Hertz, rockets up to 35 ohms at 2 kHz, falls to around 9 ohms at approximately 7 kHz and so on.
Look at the graph one more time and you'll see this 6 ohm rated speaker is rarely 6 ohms. The rating is a shorthand that's mostly concerned with a speaker's lower impedances.
Andrew Jones thinks some speaker buyers fret too much about impedance, especially when they're considering buying 6- or 8-ohm rated speakers. Those speakers are in the sweet spot for amp matching, no worries there.
This is an impedance graph for a 6 ohm speaker Andrew Jones
Four-ohm speakers are another story, they can place higher demands on 6- or 8-ohm rated receivers and amps' power reserves, but even those receivers/amps won't run into trouble with 4-ohm speakers, as long as you're not playing music or movies at a very loud volume.
But even if you pushed the volume too high for a party the receiver/amp's protection circuits would likely shut down the receiver or amp before any damage was done. No wonder speaker impedance confuses lots of buyers!
When in doubt about a 4 ohm speaker's compatibility with a receiver, check with the speaker's and/or receiver's manufacturer. If your speakers are rated at 6- or 8-ohms, and most are, don't worry about matching impedance with your receiver or amp. The above YouTube video features an in-depth interview with Jones discussing impedance.
So while speaker impedance can be confusing, most of the time it need not be.
Pandora Premium, which allows listeners to listen to specific albums and songs, is getting a website to accompany its app.
Pandora's box is opening wider.
The curated music service launched a web client for Pandora Premium, which allows listeners to listen to specific songs and albums on-demand. Until Thursday, you were only able to do this through Pandora's app.
Pandora Premium was the online radio company's answer to Spotify, and launched last March for $9.99 a month. For a while, listeners on Pandora were limited only to songs automatically selected based on radio stations.
With the new website, Pandora Premium users are able to do everything they can on the app, but from a computer screen. This was the most requested feature from Pandora users, a Pandora spokesman said.
The website also has new features not available on the app, including listening history, collections under "My Music," and better playlist controls.
Keyo modernizes housing with rent auto-pay that boosts your credit
Today in dense urban areas, tenants frequently change apartments as their income grows and they tire of different neighborhoods...
T
here’s nothing we spend more money on for a worse experience than housing. Keyo wants to fix all of it. The audacious startup envisions a world where a building’s other tenants get $20 to show you an available apartment on your schedule. Where you auto-pay your rent online and it improves your credit score. Where you get local business perks and can communicate maintenance requests through an app by renting in a Keyo location. And where it’s all free because landlords pay Keyo to fill their units faster. It’d seem like a crazily ambitious startup idea if it wasn’t already working. Keyo has 4,300 units under management in Brooklyn. And now it’s ready to come out of stealth with a $2.5 million seed fundraise led by a Silicon Valley fixture it won’t disclose that follows Keyo’s $1 million friends-and-family round.
“Renting hasn’t changed much. It needs to,” declares founder Kiran Bellubbi. “You pay rent on time and get nothing in return.”
Bellubbi might have come from the music world, not real estate, but he’s studied in the art of redefining a behavior pattern. His app Band of the Day usurped the traditional music blog, running for five years and winning runner-up to Instagram for Apple’s App of the Year in 2011. Bringing his total fundraise to $10 million, Bellubbi pivoted Band of the Day into Applauze, a concert ticket app that combined official and secondary sales so you could always see the show. Applauze was secretly acquired in 2016 by a joint venture between Azoff MSGE & Live Nation.
Keyo faces the daunting challenge of changing the behavior of landlords who either have been collecting checks the same way for decades, or use property management software designed for them but not necessarily the tenant. But similar to how Uber recruited BLACK-car drivers by enticing them with mobile customer demand, Keyo could incentivize landlords by getting prospective residents to demand its perks.
How Keyo works
Today in dense urban areas, tenants frequently change apartments as their income grows and they tire of different neighborhoods. High prices to buy a home and the desire to delay having kids are leading people to rent for longer. “Twelve to 20 percent of inventory churns every year,” says Bellubbi. “I have no allegiance to a building. I just leave.” Keyo gives them a reason to stay.
Bellubbi brought the idea for Keyo to me six months ago when it was just a crowdsourced door-opening service that paid locals to show you an available apartment whenever you wanted. Rather than hassle with coordinating a time with a real estate broker, you could preview apartments in the app and go see them immediately. But Keyo needed a better way to get control of properties.
Now Keyo has blossomed into a full-scale software-as-a-service for landlords, targeting small-to-medium-sized renters with 20 to 5,000 units. It’s either full-featured or trying to do too much, depending on your perspective.
The iOS and Android apps are free for tenants, and the pitch to them has five key(o) parts:
On-Demand Apartment Viewings – Keyo pays the building’s super, another resident or even the current tenant $20 to act as “scouts” to show you available apartments so you don’t have to wait for a specific real estate broker to be able to meet you
Online Rent Auto-Pay – Tenants don’t have to deal with remembering to send checks because Keyo connects with their bank for ACH payments
Credit Score Improvement – Paying rent on time qualifies as a way to boost your credit score, but most landlords don’t go through the trouble of integrating with the credit agencies the way Keyo does
Local Perks – Being a Keyo tenant is like joining a club that gets you discounts at nearby gyms, dry cleaners and coffee shops looking to attract long-term business from nearby residents
In-App Maintenance Requests – Instead of nagging your landlord or super to fix something via annoying phone calls and emails, you can easily file requests through the Keyo app, and they can send back building announcements
The idea is that these benefits will generate demand for Keyo apartments, more quickly filling those already available. “Last month you paid 2,500 and got nothing back,” says Bellubbi. Keyo hopes the benefits spur tenants to ask their landlords to sign up and pay $5 per month per unit. They also pay Keyo one month’s rent per rentee it delivers. That might sound like a lot, but that fee plus paying the scout can be up to 40 percent lower than paying a real estate broker the standard 1.5 months rent.
In return, Keyo’s software gives landlords:
A Faster Way to Fill Units – Keyo lists a building’s available units on top sites for no cost while tracking and optimizing the landlord’s ads
Tenant Marketing Analytics – Landlords can see exactly which units they have available when, which sites are driving leads and how often people are visiting them
Simplified Paperwork – Tenant applications, credit checks, background checks, digital contract signing and lease management all happen for free instead of being passed on as fees to the tenant, which can suppress demand
This offering has led Keyo to sign up 4,300 units in 60 buildings in Brooklyn. Next year it’s looking to expand into more markets.
But first it will have to convince more landlords to modernize or replace their whole software stack. That could be scary with so much money at stake, and some might just want a piece of the suite like the credit-building rent auto-pay. They also might not want any Keyo branding on their building. Expansion beyond the densest cities will be a slog.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of landlord software options. Yardi, appFolio, RealPage and MDSGo are all focused on property management. They have big budgets, brands and track records. But many cater toward larger enterprise real estate titans, and don’t focus on the customer experience with bonus perks.
The millennial generation and beyond want everything to be mobile. In an era when all your subscriptions pay themselves, having to stamp and mail a physical check on time is a pain. And because people are renting for longer instead of buying housing, they don’t have the same opportunities to build up solid credit. By using rent auto-pay and credit as a wedge, Keyo could pry open a lucrative market that hasn’t kept up with the times.
The first product from the secretive, Google-funded augmented-reality startup has finally been revealed. Founder and CEO Rony Abovitz shares some key insights about Magic Leap One.
It looks like a cross between Maz Kanata's goggles or Snap Spectacles evolved into steampunk gear. But Magic Leap, a company that's stayed in secrecy for years, finally has hardware to show off, and it looks like it'll be here in 2018.
The Magic Leap One is an augmented-reality headset, using light field display. And while I haven't tried it yet, Brian Crecente at Rolling Stone has. Based on his exclusive hands-on experience -- and the several other AR headsets and mixed-reality technologies I've tried in the past year -- we can put Magic Leap's surprise announcement in perspective, and talk about how it shakes up the emerging AR/VR landscape as we head into CES and 2018.
The controller has haptic feedback, and is more compact than Oculus Touch or Vive's controls. Magic Leap
The Magic Leap One is a headset, a controller and a computer
The round-lensed goggles house the displays, audio and external camera sensors. A handheld controller with touchpad looks like an advanced version of the wands that come with the Samsung Gear VR and Google Daydream View's phone-based VR headsets. The system connects to a round computer that clips to your body and makes everything work.
It's self-contained and doesn't need to be tethered to a phone or PC. But we don't know a specific price or release date yet. There's a pair of glasses (called Lightwear), a belt pack (called Lightpack) and a controller.
Intense-looking, but also somewhat compact. Note the camera placement. Magic Leap
There are a lot of cameras in the headset
Much like other mixed-reality and AR headsets, including the Microsoft HoloLens, the Magic Leap One has cameras that help track movement and map space. There are a number of cameras across the sides and bridge of the goggles, but Magic Leap hasn't mentioned much about how the tech works. The head-mounted sensors and cameras are self-contained, and there are no separate room sensors needed, as with VR systems like Vive and Oculus. In that sense, it's got something in common with Microsoft's HoloLens proposition.
The Lightpack is a processor and battery, and clips to your side. Magic Leap
How is this different from the Microsoft HoloLens?
It sounds like the Magic Leap is a more advanced method of displaying 3D images using light field technology, and it has its own specialized controller with haptics, unlike the HoloLens. The field of view, according to Brian Crecente, who tried it, is larger than the HoloLens... but still limited.
The most impressive trick the Magic Leap One can do seems to be how it handles scanning room environments and layering in holographic objects: Virtual things can now block real things, like they would in the real world. A demo Crescente saw involved a robot that was able to stand in front of someone else realistically. By comparison, if a person walks "behind" a virtual object in Apple's ARKit, they appear in front of it from the viewer's perspective, ruining the illusion.
The Magic Leap One also promises persistence of objects, mapping and remembering environments. Simultaneous location and mapping (SLAM), which builds a map of your environment and remembers it, has already been in use in other AR tech. Is Magic Leap's better?
What is a light field display?
The Magic Leap One is augmented (or, mixed) reality, and projects 3D holographic experiences into the real world. But it promises to do that with light field technology, which projects what's effectively a full 3D image onto your retinas that can be focused on in the same way that real objects can. According to Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz, who answered some questions in a phone interview with CNET, "We've taken a very complicated problem and reduced it to a wafer," promising "low cost and high volume and reproducibility" of the chips involved.
Not Magic Leap: I tried Avegant's light field headset earlier this year, which enabled me to focus on objects. James Martin / CNET
I haven't tried the Magic Leap (yet), but I have tried another light field mixed-reality headset prototype from Avegant earlier this year. That demo wowed me. I was standing in a room, looking at a solar system projected in front of me, and I could focus on planets close to my eyes or on planets far off in the distance. A tank full of virtual fish let me walk up and examine a fish up close, and focus on the scales. It feels more natural than the flat focus you'd experience in something like the Microsoft HoloLens. Abovitz discusses a blend of analog and digital that can be perceived by our retinas, making the illusion work: "your retina is like a mixing board."
It's meant 'for creators'
The first version of the Magic Leap One that should arrive in 2018 is aimed at creators, mainly, said Abovitz. It's not just a development kit for just development types: sure, Abovitz says it's for game and app developers, but he says it's also for people like artists, sculptors and engineers.
Early demos are clearly aimed at the melting point between creativity and technology: a recent demo with Pitchfork showcases "music spirits" created by Icelandic music group Sigur Ros.
It could work with phones, or with phone content
Abovitz recognizes that a lot of people will want to work with 3D things made on their phones. The Magic Leap One sounds like a tool to bridge that content, maybe like how Microsoft imagines its mixed reality platform as co-existing in Windows. But, it also gets stranger: Abovitz says volumetric spaces called "prisms" can be able to be created quickly, even on other devices, and then shot into mixed reality and the Magic Leap.
"If you create something on a phone, we want a Magic Leap user to experience that object in a native way," he says. "The phone is a tiny portal. Magic Leap is the peak of the mountain to experience that thing." He imagines a "world of Magic Leap users, a world of phone users and a hybrid passability between ecosystems."
It won't do VR, yet
Rony Abovitz says that the Magic Leap One is aimed at mixing the real and virtual world together, but he envisions future versions of the Magic Leap being able to go just into VR-type experiences, too. "You could see future editions of Magic Leap that could go between analog and digital," says Abovitz. "[The Magic Leap] One is like the real world plus CG blended. As the portfolio grows, you should be able to [move between] virtual and physical seamlessly."
What does this mean for 2018, AR and MR?
Augmented reality jumped into the mainstream in 2017 thanks to fun demos on iPhones and Google's Pixel phones, but Magic Leap's sudden reveal points to bigger things happening next year. It's been years since the Microsoft HoloLens first showed its tech off, and the industry seems due for big movement. Avegant's light field headset, the Magic Leap One and who knows what else is in store? With a few years of VR having trained creators on how to develop virtual tools, maybe Magic Leap's approach to new mixed-reality interfaces and experiences are exactly where AR, VR and MR need to go next.
Will Snoke steal the show? Can Caesar seize the day? Are you rooting for Groot? Digital characters are vying for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Last year we saw some gobsmackingly gorgeous blockbusters explode into movie theaters. This weekend, the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects will recognize the movie magic that created these stunning scenes -- and this year it's the battle of the digital characters, as every film features a major role that was conjured by computer-generated imagery.
Rachael in "Blade Runner 2049". Groot and Rocket in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2". Kong in "Skull Island". Snoke in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi". Caesar and chums in "War for the Planet of the Apes". Which of these CG creations will bag the Oscar?
Nominees: John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover
Also up for best cinematography, best production design and two sound gongs, the hauntingly beautiful "Blade Runner 2049" takes us to a future of flying cars and androids. Like most of today's blockbusters, it's a team effort among various effects companies, including Framestore, Double Negative and MPC.
"2049" has already won Bafta and Visual Effects Society awards. The digitally created characters are incredible, but perhaps even more impressive are the immersive environments. Of all the films on the shortlist, it's this one that builds the most complete world.
Marvel Studios
'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2'
Nominees: Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner and Dan Sudick
Multiple Marvel movies have been nominated for this award, but none has won so far. By venturing beyond Earth for most of its run-time, "Guardians" takes the Marvel cinematic universe into full-on fantasy worlds. From epic space battles to a climactic punch-up between two shape-shifting living gods, "Guardians" is easily the most colorful and riotously imaginative of the films nominated.
What are the chances?
The Visual Effects Society recognized the swooping cinematography of the virtuoso opening scene, which combines a space battle with some cute dance movies from adorable arboreal Baby Groot. The question is whether the Academy will decide the sci-fi silliness serves a strong-enough story.
'Kong: Skull Island'
Nominees: Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza and Mike Meinardus
The flamboyant visual styling, period music and over-the-top acting made this Vietnam War-era creature feature way more fun than it had any right to be, even if the story was monstrously bad. You can't beat the sight of a giant ape fistfighting helicopter gunships, especially when the inventive cinematography puts you right in the crashing choppers. And it's a mark of good visual effects when your entirely digital monkey has more personality than your star -- I'm looking at you, Tom Hiddleston.
What are the chances?
He might be 100 feet tall, but in this battle of the apes, Kong is something of an underdog. Smashing up helicopters and fanged beasties is one thing, but when it comes to soul and personality, he's no match for his "Planet of the Apes" cousins.
Disney
'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'
Nominees: Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Neal Scanlan and Chris Corbould
Rian Johnson's galactic opus divided fans, but if there's one thing we can agree on, it's that it looked amazing. From the opening space battle to the fabulously opulent casino on Canto Bight to the lumbering walkers of the climactic battle, "Last Jedi" is visually stunning. The effects work of Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), founded by George Lucas for the original "Star Wars", is a huge part of that.
What are the chances?
Almost all the films in the saga have been nominated for this award, but none of them has won since the effects wizards of the original trilogy took home special awards for their contributions to the craft more than 30 years ago. Will the cutesy porgs, glittering crystal wolves and crusty Supreme Leader Snoke be enough to change that?
Steve Zahn as a child-like chimp in "War for the Planet of the Apes." Twentieth Century Fox
'War for the Planet of the Apes'
Nominees: Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon and Joel Whist
This film has an ape up its sleeve -- or rather, several apes. The intricately animated characters were conjured to life with heartfelt motion-capture performances by Andy Serkis, Steve Zahn and others. Animators from effects house Weta meticulously created the ape characters down to the most infinitesimal detail of hair, skin and eyelashes. Then they put them in various environments including snow and rain slicking their fur. But the real triumph is in the personality of sympathetic and soulful characters such as Caesar and Bad Ape.
It's also worth noting that this is the last chapter in this "Planet of the Apes" trilogy, which might see the Academy's voters reward the series as a whole. Something similar occurred with the "Lord of the Rings" films, which were of course the starting point for Andy Serkis' motion-capture journey. Could we see Weta and Serkis come full circle? And what does Andy Serkis have to do win a darn Oscar?
What are the chances?
"Apes" already claimed four awards from the Visual Effects Society, which named Caesar as the outstanding animated character in a live-action movie. If these incredibly soulful CG apes don't get their hairy hands on the 2018 Oscar, I'll be a monkey's uncle.
Will you finish them all before the Academy Awards on March 4?
Frankly, the best place to catch the bulk of the 2018 Oscar-nominated films will be in theaters. But if you want to check off a few viewings from your sofa, here's what Netflix has to offer.
Netflix picked up distribution rights to this period drama directed by Dee Rees after it screened at the Sundance Film Festival. The film received four Oscar nominations, including Best Adapted Screenplay, and a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Mary J. Blige. Rachel Morrison also made history as the first female to ever receive a Best Cinematography nomination in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's 90-yearhistory. If you only have time to watch one film from the list, I highly recommend you choose "Mudbound."
If you're wondering what technical award this was nominated for, I'll save you a search. It's Visual Effects. That doesn't mean this Marvel film isn't worth your time. The Guardian films are humorous, visual candy that groove along in space to the tunes of classic oldies music. Plus if you haven't seen it, it's worth catching up on all the big Marvel films before "Avengers: Infinity War" releases in May.
'Last Man in Aleppo'
This documentary on the Syrian Civil War will leave you on the edge of your seat. It follows the lives of three men who are White Helmets, an organization that does search and rescue after bombings. "Last Man in Aleppo" already took home the Grand Jury Documentary award at Sundance. It's a heavy watch, but also a powerful one.
Unfortunately, Netflix doesn't have any Best Picture nominees available to stream. But it does have one Best Foreign Language Film nomination, the Hungarian "On Body and Soul." It's a romantic, if not strange, story of two slaughterhouse workers having shared dreams that they are deer in the forest.
Another contender for Best Documentary, "Strong Island" is an incredibly moving film about a family's history and their struggles with racism in America. The movie is centered around a horrific tragedy in 1992, when William Ford Jr., a 24-year-old black high school teacher on Long Island was murdered by a white 19-year-old. Yance Ford's documentary on his brother's death is a heart-wrenching film that tries to celebrate William's potential.
Bryan Fogel's documentary "Icarus" about sports doping may as well be called a thriller; while making this documentary he accidentally uncovers a massive Russian doping scandal after meeting with a Russian scientist. "Icarus" is an insightful yet scary look at the complex world of sports and the politics surrounding them.
Yep, "The Boss Baby" was nominated for Best Animated Feature. Alec Baldwin voices a baby who is a secret agent in a war between puppies and babies. I'm not going to try and sell you on the premise; I don't get it either. But hey, at least there's a film here you can watch with your kids.*
*Actually, there are two films you can watch with your kids. 👍 This live-action remake of the animated classic received nominations for both Production and Costume Design. It's not quite as magical as the 1991 version, but the film is still charming and well suited for a family movie night.
Snowman's sequel to the already amazing Alto's Adventure from 2015 has finally arrived, and new tricks, new scenery and an amazing soundtrack make it worth the wait.
After delays pushed the final release of Alto's Odyssey well past its planned summer 2017 launch date, the iOS game hit Wednesday, proving that developer Snowman's decision to take time to make it just right was a smart move. This is an excellent sequel.
Alto's Odyssey is worthy of its critically acclaimed predecessor, with enough additions and changes to the original formula to keep the game fresh. The beautiful scenery and weather effects you remember from Alto's Adventureare even more streamlined in the sequel, with new environments such as dunes, canyons and ancient temples.
When you see a cliff face with a dot grid, just tap when you get there to start wall riding. Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET
The one-touch control system that made the original so elegant is still here, but with a major improvement. Instead of just tapping to jump and do backflips, you can now use wall rides that make pulling off longer trick combos much easier. Alto's Adventure already let you do combos of tricks, but you didn't really have control over them.
With the new mechanic, you can grind a line of flags, go to a wall ride, do another grind on a roof, then backflip to a landing. In other words, it's one more trick option in your arsenal that gives you more ways to combo.
As with the original, you'll be able to buy items for in-game currency that will boost certain skills, but the advantages are temporary. Also like the original, you'll be able to unlock six additional characters as you play, each with its own set of skills and abilities. Pay-to-win elements aren't evident yet, and Snowman says in its game description: "Alto's Odyssey is a premium game with no ads or in-app purchases. Purchase once, play forever."
When you don't want to worry about scores or coins, try the game's Zen Mode for a relaxing ride. Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET
When you just want to take in the scenery and music of the game, you can switch to Zen Mode, which has its own relaxing soundtrack and no coins or power-ups to collect. Instead, you just speed down the hills and take in the game's sights and sounds.
People were disappointed last summer when Alto's Odyssey was delayed with no release date in sight, but Alto's Odyssey has proven worth the wait.
As for an Android version, Snowman says to stay tuned.
"As a small team we have to prioritize one platform for launch, but we haven't forgotten about our Android players," said spokesman Ryan Cash. "We aren't committing to a release date and don't have any pricing details at the moment, but we will definitely be bringing Alto's Odyssey to Android."
