It’s Tuesday, August 23 and it looks like Amazon is launching a new music streaming service that’s expected to be half the cost of a standard Spotify or Apple Music subscription. But, there’s a catch. The new service will be available only to owners of Amazon’s Echo speaker lineup which includes the full-size Echo, the portable Tap, and the tiny Dot speaker.
The Echo can already play music Spotify and Pandora accounts, but this new service would let users ask Alexa to play any song in the library.
To be clear, Amazon already offers a streaming music service to its Prime customers, and the company has been preparing a stand-alone streaming service for a while now. It just seems as if this new option would be a special perk for those who purchase an Echo speaker.
No word yet on whether the same service might be offered to Fire TV or Fire TV stick owners, though Alexa is available on those devices, so it seems like a logical move that Amazon might eventually expand that service out to those customers as well.
Autonomous cars for everyone!
If two huge auto parts makers have their way, autonomous cars will be readily available through a variety of car brands by as early as 2021. According to the Wall Street Journal, Delphi Automotive and Mobileye have teamed up to create an end-to-end autonomous driving system that automakers can simply drop in to existing vehicles. The system is expected to be complete by 2019, but it will take a couple of years to make its way into vehicles.
With competition coming from Google, Uber, Apple, and select automakers like Ford, this new system could give other auto brands an easy way to break into an emerging market without having to shoulder the burden of research and development. No doubt, it will make self-driving cars much more commonplace in just a few short years.
Tesla rocks the Twitterverse with new car announcement
Tesla CEO Elon Musk created a stir once again this morning when he took to Twitter to announce a forthcoming announcement would be coming at noon Pacific time today. Tesla stock shot up on the news and we now know what the excitement was all about …
Introducing the Tesla Model S P100D, billed as the quickest production car in the world, with a 0-60 MPH time of just 2.5 seconds. The new electric car also comes with a 100 kWh battery which should help the car go up to 315 miles in the US and 613 km in Europe, that makes it the longest range production electric vehicle by, like, a lot. And it’s a family friendly car, seating up to 5, with plenty of cargo space.
It’s going to cost a pretty penny, but Tesla is quick to point out that it is the sale of the more expensive Model S and Model X vehicles which is funding the production of the more affordable Model 3, for which there are some 400,000 pre-orders.
Finally, if you own a P90D or are waiting on a P95D, you can upgrade to the new battery pack found in the P100D for $20K and $10 K respectively.
