Can Sprint’s $200M buy-in raise Tidal?
Sprint has finally pulled the trigger on their long-simmering plans to invest in Tidal, the streaming music company owned by rapper Jay Z and a couple dozen other artists. Billboard reports Sprint now has a 33 percent stake in Tidal, which cost them about $200 million. The service will now become available to 45 million Sprint customers, and the company says they will move forward to expand and promote Tidal with exclusives and so on.
That’s a big boost for team Jay-Z, which is scrambling to refute a claim by a Norwegian media outlet accusing them of inflating Tidal’s subscriber numbers. Jay Z brought Tidal to the public’s attention in 2015 when he bought the service from a Swedish company for $56 million. Tidal has struggled somewhat since then but has a dedicated core fan base, especially among users who love their high-quality audio option. Get more details on the story here.
Sorry, update does not include photo torpedoes
On the heels of a NHTSA investigation that cleared Tesla’s Autopilot driver assist system in a fatal crash, Tesla has rolled out a major update to the system, but, don’t expect your car to just auto-update and then start driving itself around. The Autopilot update is only for cars with second-generation Auto-pilot hardware, knowns as “HW2” cars, and even some of those cars are going to require some service at a Tesla dealer to be compliant with the new software.
CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to answer some questions about the update, saying some cars will need their cameras adjusted before the update will work. He also said Autopilot’s “auto-steer” function will be limited to 45 miles an hour for now, at least until they get “more data.” Musk has made no secret of his desire to produce self-driving cars as soon as possible, but this latest update looks to be more of a slower jog toward that goal rather than a full-on sprint.
New Chromebooks to get shiny Android update
Been thinking about taking a Chromebook for a spin? This might be the year. Google says all Chromebooks debuting in 2017 will include a novel feature: the ability to run Android smartphone apps. OK, not exactly earthshaking news but you gotta admit, combining the ability to run smartphone apps on a laptop is pretty cool, especially for messaging and gaming – Super Mario Run is coming out in March. But what if you already own an older Chromebook?
It looks like you’re pretty much out of luck, even if you update. However, some recent Chromebooks may update to the new feature, and we’ve got a list here of which models will indeed update. Google says Chromebooks are catching up to Macs in schools, and they hope the ability to run apps will continue that surge. Time will tell.
