MacRumors

Spotify has announced the launch of "Daily Mix," a new intelligent playlist system -- in the vein of Discover Weekly and Release Radar -- that puts together a "near endless" collection of songs for users every day (via The Verge). The songs include a mix of music and artists they have listened to previously, as well as new music based off their interests.

When Daily Mix is updated each day, Spotify will introduce "between one and six mixes" to each user, mostly depending on how broad their music tastes are. Each mix avoids specific labels and instead opts for visual album clues as to what's inside of each, with four album covers providing context of the songs within each playlist. Matt Ogle, leader of music discovery and personalization at Spotify, said "we found that the mixes were much better received when we leaned back and let people describe them themselves."

It uses the same basic approach as Discover Weekly, selecting songs based on your listening habits. "But that’s where the similarities end," said Matt Ogle, who helps lead development of music discovery and personalization at Spotify. "In a lot of ways it's the opposite of Discover Weekly." Instead of trying to take the work out of finding music that's new to you, "Daily Mix is trying to take the work out of hitting a button and always hearing music that you love."

Instead of the refresh that Discover Weekly and Release Radar get each Monday and Friday, respectively, users might notice that Daily Mixes are much more subtly altered. Songs within playlists might be added or removed, specific mixes could get swapped out for new collections, "but it won't be a complete refresh of songs each time." Ogle compared Daily Mixes to radio stations, because of the way each mix sticks to specific themes and moods instead of throwing a bunch of random genres together.

In mid-September, Spotify announced that it has reached over 40 million paid subscribers, in contrast to Apple Music's more than 17 million paid subscribers confirmed earlier in the month. Apple continues to bolster various aspects of its streaming music service, most recently introducing "My New Music Mix" and "My Favorites Mix" into Apple Music as the company's answer to Spotify's weekly curated music recommendations.

Users worldwide on the Spotify iOS [Direct Link] and Android apps should start seeing Daily Mix playlists today, whether they have a paid subscription or not. The company noted that new users will gain access to Daily Mix "after approximately two weeks of listening," and a rollout to additional platforms is coming soon.

Honeywell has introduced the Lyric T5, its latest Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat with support for Apple's HomeKit platform.

The Lyric T5 has a square, glossy black design with built-in touchscreen controls for adjusting the temperature and other settings, or the smart thermostat can be controlled at or away from home with an iPhone or iPad using the accompanying Honeywell Lyric app [Direct Link] from the App Store.

Meanwhile, like Honeywell's more expensive Lyric Round smart thermostat, HomeKit support enables the Lyric T5 to be controlled with Siri voice commands or through Apple's new Home app on iOS 10. The Lyric T5 is also compatible with Amazon Alexa-enabled devices, Stringify, and Yonomi, with other partners to follow.

The Lyric T5 can help homeowners save money by entering energy saving mode when someone leaves the home, based on the location of their iPhone or iPad via geofencing technology. Likewise, it can detect when the first person returns to start making the home comfortable ahead of time.

Like the Nest, ecobee3, and many other smart thermostats, the Lyric T5 is able to learn a home's heating and cooling cycles, enabling it to bring the home to the optimized temperature at the requested time. There is also the option to set up the thermostat on a more traditional seven-day schedule.

The thermostat's other features include auto changeover between heating and cooling mode, filter change reminders, and extreme temperature warnings.

Lyric T5 will be available in October for $149 online and at select retail stores. Honeywell products are typically available at, among other places, The Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.

Vehicle accessory start-up Pearl, which was founded by three former Apple engineers, has begun shipping its "RearVision" car camera system to the first round of pre-order customers, while also making the $500 device available to purchase for everyone else on its website. The company announced RearVision back in June, focusing "on the existing install base" of people with older cars by introducing a high tech, attachable license plate accessory that connects via Bluetooth to an iOS or Android smartphone, displaying a 180-degree rear-view field of vision when backing up a car.

Pearl claims that RearVision "installs in minutes," thanks to a "theft resistant" camera frame for a license plate, and a simple dongle that's plugged into a vehicle's diagnostic port. The system also comes with a vent mount for the smartphone, so users can get a hands-free view each time they begin backing up their car. A few other features of RearVision include:

Automatic Updates​ — Pearl RearVision is the one backup camera and alert system that will never be outdated. The Pearl App updates just like other apps on your phone, with new features and enhancement delivered automatically.
Dual HD Cameras​ – Advanced dual HD cameras deliver super-wide views of what’s behind your car, and Night Mode provides stunning clarity in low-light situations.
Intelligent Alerts​ – Audible and visual alerts warn you when objects, cars and people are in your path. It includes a range of alerts, from simple ripple at further distances to a firmer warning when an obstacle is close by.
Hands-Free ​- Dock your phone in portrait or landscape on the versatile Pearl Phone Mount. Included as part of the RearVision platform, the Phone Mount will also be sold separately at pearlauto.com.

One of the biggest features pushed by the company is RearVision's ability to "never be outdated," thanks to persistent updates to its smartphone app. Specifically, Pearl stated that by the end of the year the app will gain the addition of back-up path lines, rich notifications on iOS, and app auto launch on Android. With today's shipment announcement, the company said that because "response has been so great" to RearVision, "it could take several weeks to fulfill every order" originally placed over the summer.

In addition to the announcement that RearVision is heading out to pre-order customers, Pearl confirmed that it has partnered with Amazon and Crutchfield so that anyone interested will be able to purchase the RearVision system on either website "this holiday season." Those who would prefer not to wait can purchase RearVision for $499.99 from Pearl's website today, which currently has a 2-3 week shipping estimate for new orders at the time of writing.

Live radio station service "Dash Radio" recently announced the launch of a new filtering solution for toggling between clean and explicit lyrics in real time, a feature that's "the first of its kind" (via The Verge). DJ Skee, the founder and CEO of Dash Radio, said that "it's a complaint we've gotten since day one," from parents who might want to listen to certain songs without the potentially explicit language common from some artists.

To achieve this, Dash Radio has built an entirely new system on its backend "to manage the multiple streams and libraries it takes to make a feature like this work." To activate the toggle, all users need to do is long press on a Dash Radio station icon to switch between clean and explicit tracks. Dash Radio, at its core, is still a Pandora-like service, so on-demand music listening isn't an option, although it doesn't have any advertisements or commercials.

After using the filter for the past week, I can tell you it's pretty seamless. Simply long press on a Dash Radio station icon and it will instantly switch between clean and explicit versions.

"It’s been a complaint we’ve gotten since day one," DJ Skee, the founder and CEO of Dash Radio told The Verge. "It’s like how do we make stations cool but also work in all different environments, and we think we have it. For the first time ever, we’ve found that solution. It’s something that nobody’s done and it’s something that in real-time people can control the filter. If your kids are in the car or your grandma, you can change it instantly and when you’re by yourself you can listen to it as unfiltered as you want."

The service has over 80 radio stations hosted by partners including Snoop Dogg, Tyler the Creator, Isaac Hayes, and more, and the company is introducing the real-time filter into "numerous" live and pre-recorded radio shows as well. Dash Radio has filed a patent for its new explicit language live filter, and the company plans to introduce a set of parental controls in the future that lets parents create profiles for kids which specifically filter or outright block certain radio stations.

On Apple Music's Beats 1 radio station, the company has decided to keep the music played there entirely clean, most likely for the express purpose of making it easier for users to listen around impressionable family members. Elsewhere on the service, parental controls allow parents to block any song tagged "explicit" from being played, but that's the extent of Apple Music's language filtering features.

Any user on Dash Radio's iOS [Direct Link], Android, web, and car-based app will be able to try out the new feature. The first area of the service supporting it will be the hip hop station "The City," and the company said that it plans for the new filtering tool to be available on every station by spring of 2017.

Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi has responded to Apple's iPhone 7 with the launch of a pair of new high-end smartphones.

The two handsets succeeding the company's flagship Mi 5 phone are called the Mi 5s (5.15-inches) and the Mi 5s Plus (5.7-inches), the latter featuring dual cameras as per Apple's own 5.5-inch Plus device. The 12-megapixel cameras come with an f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash, phase detection auto-focus, automatic HDR, and video recording of up to 4K resolution at 30fps.

Both phones have a 1080p display and a fingerprint scanner under the front glass, which Xiaomi says "recognizes a 3D map of each user's fingerprint through ultrasonic waves", so no physical button is needed. The use of ultrasonic is also said to tolerate dirty fingers better than the capacitive sensors found in Apple's devices.

Both dual-SIM handsets are also powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, but the Pro is clocked higher and has 6GB RAM and 128GB storage, whereas the Mi 5s features 3GB RAM and 64GB storage as standard, with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage as optional add-ons. Similarly, a higher spec Mi 5s Pro is available with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage.

Google has announced YouTube Go, a new app that lets users save videos for offline viewing and allows sharing of videos with nearby users over Bluetooth (via The Verge).

The app includes options for previewing videos before download, and controlling video quality and file size, all of which are intended to benefit users concerned about cellular data limits and those who are located in areas with limited connectivity.

The announcement was made at a Google event in Delhi, India, where the app will launch initially for users to test, before a broader rollout at a later date. The app will also make use of YouTube's Smart Offline feature, which automatically downloads videos overnight so that they can be watched at a later time in areas without a data connection.

YouTube product management VP Johanna Wright said in a statement:

YouTube Go is a brand new app to help the next generation of users share and enjoy videos. YouTube Go was designed and built from the ground up with insights from India, in order to bring the power of video to mobile users in a way that is more conscious of their data and connectivity, while still being locally relevant and social.

Users in India can sign up to YouTube Go immediately, but it's unclear exactly when the app will launch in the country or elsewhere.

Musician Drake today debuted a 23-minute visual companion to his most recent album "Views," exclusively on Apple Music (via Billboard). Titled "Please Forgive Me," the short film follows Drake and his girlfriend in the video (Belgian model Fanny Neguesha) as they attempt to make off with a wealthy man's fortune. From Views, the songs "One Dance," "Controlla," "9," "Views," and more are featured.

Recently, Apple began preparing to bolster its video content on Apple Music through the purchase of Carpool Karaoke, and the creation of original programming like Dr. Dre's Vital Signs and the reality competition series Planet of the Apps. Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue has said Apple is "not trying to create original TV shows" to become a Netflix or Amazon Video competitor, but will "help" producers on projects that are designed to promote its existing products.

On the music side of the service, Apple's collection of streaming exclusives has come under fire from labels and music industry critics. Specifically, Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge has prohibited the practice of exclusive music streaming moving forward, meaning popular artists like Kendrick Lamar, Taylor Swift, and The Weeknd could all be removed from future Apple Music exclusivity deals since they each belong to various UMG labels.

Google will formally announced its Wi-Fi enabled smart home device, Google Home, at its upcoming October 4 press event, according to a new report by Android Police. The device is rumored to cost $129 and the company will sell different color plates so users can personalize the look of Home.

At $129, Google Home would be $50 cheaper than Amazon Echo, which offers a selection of similar services and features to users. Google originally discussed Home at its I/O Conference in May, detailing how users will be able to make voice-enabled Google searches, manage everyday tasks, enjoy music and entertainment, and more using hands-free "OK Google" voice commands.

Continuing in the vein of other smart home speakers, Home can play and control music, sync with various online services that provide traffic reports and weather forecasts, and interact with other smart home products like Nest. It's believed that Google could use a version of its intelligent chat AI Google Assistant -- which it uses in Allo -- to fuel Home's voice-control abilities.

The October 4 event is thought to be the launch pad of a few other Google products, including the $69 Chromecast Ultra (with 4K and HDR streaming), a new Daydream VR headset, and the company's new lineup of Android phones.

The connected smart home speaker device is slowly becoming a popular platform following Amazon's success with Echo and Echo Dot. Apple is rumored to be entering the space with a Siri-enabled alternative, which might have facial recognition but is otherwise thought to offer many of the same search inquiries, music listening, and voice assistant features of Echo and Home.

Recent reports have placed the device in prototype testing, which could mean it's between six months and a year from making it to market, but because Apple hasn't officially finalized any plans it "could still scrap the project."

Beddit has announced that its new Beddit 3 sleep tracker will be available at select Apple retail stores, alongside Amazon and Beddit.com, on October 4 for $149.

The Beddit 3 Sleep Tracker continuously measures sleep, heart rate, breathing, and snoring in detail when a person lies down in bed, providing personal insights to help users develop improved habits for better sleep.

The thin, flexible, and soft sensor is designed to be placed under the sheet on top of the mattress, with no charging needed. Beddit says the sensor works with all beds, even with two people sleeping side by side.

Beddit 3 also taps into a network of healthcare professionals through integration with eClinicalWorks and Healow.

Utilizing the industry’s most comprehensive and accurate set of data and features, the Beddit 3 Sleep Tracker enables access to a vast network of professionals. It is the first dedicated sleep tracker integrated with eClinicalWorks and Healow, the largest Electronic Healthcare Record (EHR) service in the United States with more than 115,000 physicians across all 50 states.

Beddit's Sleep Tracker app is available on the App Store for iOS 10 and watchOS 3, while data can also be shared with Apple's Health app.

Apple recently updated the iOS and tvOS App Stores with a collection of apps that will be able to live stream tonight's first presidential debate, airing at 9PM eastern at Hofstra University. The debate between presidential nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump marks the beginning of the seven week final stretch between the first debate and election day on November 8. There will be three presidential debates in total, and one vice presidential debate.

On both App Stores, Apple's "Watch the Debate Live" section contains a few of the same apps. For iOS, top billing goes to major social networks Twitter and Facebook, and then news outlets CBS News and ABC News. Twitter recently launched a live streaming tvOS app, so it's also first on the Apple TV app store, followed by CBS News, ABC News, Washington Post Video, Reuters TV, and more.

For those with a cable subscription, Wired reported that all three upcoming presidential debates will be broadcast simultaneously across most major networks and cable channels: ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Univision, and C-SPAN.

Earlier in the month, the Commission on Presidential Debates confirmed that both Facebook and Snapchat will be covering each debate to provide content for users of both social networks. Users can comment and ask questions on Facebook Live videos, and follow along to Snapchat's Live Stories "from the different perspectives of students from the debate host universities, volunteers, media and many others."

Although not included in Apple's collection of apps, other streamable services will support debate coverage, including: BuzzFeed News, Hulu, PBS, Yahoo, and more.

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