27 March 2014

Google Play Music Match



How to tell if a song from Google Play Music was uploaded from your computer or it was simply matched with a copy from Google's servers? Click the 3-dot icon next to the song's name in the desktop interface and see if you can find a menu item called "fix incorrect match". If so, you'll listen to Google's version of the song.






"In order to upload your music quickly, Google Play matches your music files with copies on our server. Occassionally we might match with the wrong song. Report the problem here and the song will be corrected to use your copy instead of the matched copy," mentions Google's dialog.






If you click "fix match", you'll get this message: "Please make sure that the computer where you keep this song is running Music Manager and is connected to the internet. The song will be uploaded again within the next day."






Google's copies have a bit rate of 320kbps, so many of your songs will be "upgraded". You can check this by clicking "edit info".





Google Play Music Mini Player and Browser Upload



There's a new experimental feature in Google Play Music Labs: it's called Google Play Music for Chrome and it lets you "control music playback with a new mini player, add your existing music collection, and download free and purchased songs without installing Music Manager."






The Labs feature only works in Chrome and it uses Native Client to bring many of the features of the Music Manager app to the browser (great news for Chrome OS users). It also lets you install a Play Music app that shows a mini player that lets you control your music.









The mini player doesn't work if you close the Play Music tab, so you still have to keep it open.






You can also upload your music directly from Chrome. You can pick your folders or use the iTunes library. By default, Google will continue to monitor your folders and upload new music.






This is the "media file permissions" dialog:






I've picked my Music folder.









You can continue to use Play Music while the files are uploaded. You can check the progress at the bottom of the window, in the left sidebar.






If you don't have a lot of files to upload, you can use drag and drop. Just drag the files the Play Music tab.






When you downloaded multiple files, for example when downloading an album, Google used to create a ZIP archive. Now you can set a download folder and all the files are automatically downloaded to that folder.









{ via Google Play }

Top 7 TV News Outlets That Accept Your Newsworthy Pictures And Videos



photography

7th July 2005 saw four bombs going off in London. It was one of the worst terror attacks on English soil. A year later, an anonymous Londoner received a citizen journalist award for his timely click of the aftermath. Broadcasters like the BBC featured his photo. The photo wasn’t a professional snap by media standards but Vicky Taylor, BBC News Interactivity editor and one of the judges in the prize jury said, I went with the pictures which were taken by people almost by chance. They did not set out to photograph an event, it just happened in front of...


Read the full article: Top 7 TV News Outlets That Accept Your Newsworthy Pictures And Videos



Turkey Twitter War, Gmail Snooping, BlackBerry Leaks, MS-DOS Secrets [Tech News Digest]



twitter-typography

Today in Tech News Digest, Twitter at war with Turkey, Google reading your Gmail, BlackBerry attacking leakers, Sony revealing Project Morpheus, Google comparing foodstuffs, MS-DOS giving up its secrets. Twitter At War With Turkish Government The best responses to Turkey’s Twitter ban: http://t.co/YeQqs4HxoM http://ift.tt/1p3Dimf — HootSuite (@hootsuite) March 26, 2014 Turkey recently banned Twitter, with the Turkish government deciding the social media site was a disruptive influence on the country’s citizens. Twitter isn’t giving up without a fight, however, and is taking decisive action to try and get the ban overturned. In an official blog post, Twitter spells out what...


Read the full article: Turkey Twitter War, Gmail Snooping, BlackBerry Leaks, MS-DOS Secrets [Tech News Digest]



Can I Install Windows 7/8.1 On Windows XP Computer?



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Windows XP, the most successful desktop operating system in terms of market share, is going out of support on April 8th, 2014. Microsoft has been doing its best to move Windows XP users to Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1, but millions of users are still happily using the aging Windows XP. A couple of days […]

Google Presentation and Drawing Apps Add Image Cropping, Masks and Borders



Google-Presentation-Drawing-Cropping-Mask-Borders

After cutting prices on storage for Google Drive and delivering new features on the Spreadsheet app (which are now available for everyone), Google has now turned its attention to the Presentation and Drawing apps. Since images are a big part of those, a new update brings simple image editing tools, like cropping, shape masking and adding borders. The cropping tool is pretty basic. When you upload or select any image in a slide, click the new “Crop” button in the toolbar. Drag and drop the the blue handles until the image has been cropped the way you want. A shadow...


Read the full article: Google Presentation and Drawing Apps Add Image Cropping, Masks and Borders