By Gilbert Falso :: 3:35 PM
AOL has closed its music business, AOL Music, including the music news and information website Spinner.com.
Staff of the music division were notified this afternoon of the closure. Just before 3:00 PM. the Twitter account for Spinner.com Tweeted, “Hey guys. Just found out from AOL that we’re shutting down. Today is our last day. Seriously.” That Tweet has since been deleted.
Spinner had originally been founded as an Internet radio website in the 90s. It was acquired by AOL in the summer of 1999. In 2002, AOL joined Spinner with Netscape’s portal product to form Netscape Radio.
During its heyday, Spinner broadcasted over 100 radio stations. Five years ago, AOL revamped the website from an Internet radio station to a music and entertainment site, geared toward the music aficionado audience. Since then, the website offered interviews with recording artists, audio and video streams of albums and live performances, and music downloads.
Dan Reilly, editor at Spinner confirmed the closure and layoffs on his Twitter account. “Well, we all just got laid off. AOL Music is finished,” he said at 2:46 PM. See additional Tweets below.
AOL has not yet publicly addressed the closure of the music division, or the layoffs.
Sitting in an HR meeting right now, trying to negotiate keeping our computers for a few more days.
— Dan Reilly (@danreilly11) April 26, 2013
Well, at least I found a good reason to finish off the whiskey at my desk.
— Dan Reilly (@danreilly11) April 26, 2013
By Paul Thomson :: 2:31 PM
Over 30 subway stations in New York City have been outfitted with Wi-Fi and cellular telephone reception capabilities.
The first phase in a multi-year plan to bring connectivity to the subterranean transportation system, the eventual goal is to bring wireless connectivity to over 275 stations. “It is a befitting tribute to our mission to enable state-of-the-art wireless service to all of the underground subway stations by kicking it off underneath the most famous crossroads in the world: Times Square,” exclaimed Ă‚Â Transit Wireless CEO Bill Bayne.
Bayne’s company and the city’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) originally launched a pilot program in 2011 that offered Wi-Fi and cellphone service at select stations along the L, A/C/E, and 1/2/3 subway lines. Service is expected to expand to the remaining 241 subway stations by 2018. The plan calls for platforms in Queens and Midtown Manhattan to be next on the list, followed by the East Side of Manhattan and the Bronx.
The company spent around $200 million to design and build the network, and partnered with hotspot providers Boingo, T-Mobile, and AT&T Wireless to generate revenue for the project.
NYC commuters can check the subway’s wireless status for stations on a website established by Transit Wireless.
By Gilbert Falso :: 7:58 PM
Last week, during the chaos that unfolded in and around the city of Boston following the Boston Marathon bombings, and the subsequent area-wide manhunt for the two bombers on Thursday night and Friday, the Internet discovered one of the bombers’ Twitter accounts.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger of the two, participated on Twitter under the handle @J_tsar, and went by the name Jahar. He joined Twitter in October, 2011, and had Tweeted nearly 1,100 times before his capture on April 19th. His last Tweet was sent out early in the morning on April 17 – “I’m a stress free kind of guy,” he said.
His Tweets provide a glimpse into the life of a fairly typical 19-year-old college kid – not counting his theories that the September 11, 2001 attacks were an “inside job,” he claims.
The younger Tsarnaev’s Twitter account had around 100 followers before it was discovered last Friday. Then, it skyrocketed over the weekend, adding tens of thousands per day. The account hovers around 99,000 followers as of today. He was also originally following about 106 people, but a few of those have blocked him, causing his following count to decline to 97 in recent days.
Why the sudden rush in followers for an alleged criminal who would probably never Tweet again?
Scott Stadum, digital metrics analyst at NPR believes that it was, “a combination of morbid curiosity, but also potential for gleaning information about the suspect.”
“Social media,” Stadum believes, “is providing a look into the lives of suspects and criminals in a manner that was only possible retrospectively in the past.”
Social media strategist Leslie Richin agrees. “It’s the same curiosity that leads people to follow celebrity accounts. People want answers. By human nature we are curious to learn about people who have have done unthinkable acts. What could have caused this person to act this way? What was this person doing the date and time the tragic events unfolded? Who was this person interacting with? Where did this person grow up and go to school?”
Indeed viewing the account and combing through his Tweets may give some a feeling of understanding about Tsarnaev’s background and frame of mind.
“It’s not closure, but it’s a sort of explanation,” said Jim Booth, a business consultant who was just a few blocks away in Boston when the blasts struck. Booth, who viewed Tsarnaev’s past Tweets, but didn’t follow the account, doesn’t understand the rational for following accounts under these circumstances.
“If I follow him, it’s like I’m supporting him, like I believe in him,” Booth explained. “I don’t want to support him, I just want to find out what was in his mind that made him do this. His Twitter account is probably the closest I’ll get to doing that.”
Tsarnaev is currently under lockdown in the same hospital where many of the victims from his bombing are also recovering from their injuries. Facing federal charges of using a weapon of mass destruction (among a whole host of other charges), he will likely never Tweet from his account again.
By Gilbert Falso :: 6:13 PM
Betaworks, the parent company behind news aggregation site Digg, has acquired Instapaper, the web service that allows users to tag webpages and save them for later reading.
The purchase of Instapaper is not a great surprise, given that Digg is working on a social reader application that is widely hoped to replace Google Reader. The Instapaper acquisition positions Betaworks well to be a big player in the social reading, sharing and discovery market.
Terms of the deal have not been immediately disclosed.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 9:14 PM
Microsoft has set the date for the big reveal of its next generation gaming console – circle May 21 on your calendars.
The successor to its current Xbox 360 will be unveiled in a presentation at the company’s Redmond, Washington headquarters, according to invitations sent to members of the press this morning. Microsoft also plans to stream the event via live video.
Xbox’s director of programming, Larry Hryb wrote in a blog post, “we’ll share our vision for Xbox, and give you a real taste of the future. Then, 19 days later at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, we’ll continue the conversation and showcase our full lineup of blockbuster games.”
Other than the details around the announcement logistics, Microsoft did not release any other information about the new console. It has been widely expected, especially in gaming circles, that it will require an always-on Internet connection – a contentious practice with many gaming fans.
A date for availability of the new console was not given, but earlier reports peg its date on store shelves to be sometime in the latter part of the year.
Until May 21, you’ll just have to wait and see what Microsoft brings.