In order to commemorate the Golden Globe awards its original show ‘Transparent’ received, Amazon have its Prime membership a serous discount. Today only, signing up for Amazon Prime will cost you $72, not the usual $99.

The $72 one-day price tag of the membership is not a coincidence. Read more »

Complying with US sanctions on Crimea and following in the footsteps of Apple, Google will soon restrict the use of some of its services in the peninsula. Late last year the US government issued a new round of sanctions to retaliate against Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and this is the direct result of that.

Google can’t collect money for services from the peninsula, nor can it make payments to anyone over there. So the company will cut off services – some that will mostly impact businesses, such as AdWords and AdSense, but also one that will have an effect on ordinary citizens too, namely the Play Store. Read more »

Just over a couple of months after the company entered into a new partnership with Microsoft, Dropbox has announced that its cloud storage app is now available for Windows phones and tablets.

The company is claiming that the new apps will offer all the standard features, which means that you can use them to automatically back up your photos to the cloud storage service, mark files as favorites so you can access them even while offline, as well as access both your personal and work accounts at once. Read more »

Kim Dotcom, controversial founder of the online file sharing service Mega, has announced a new service called MegaChat. MegaChat is a video calling service that competes with Skype and integrates within the Mega service within your web browser.

The main draw of MegaChat is that it is end-to-end encrypted. This is unlike Skype, which has in the past revealed to have allowed the NSA to monitor communications. MegaChat also does not require installing an application and can be accessed from within your web browser. It also uses Mega’s file sharing feature to securely share encrypted files over the video chat. Read more »

The much leaked Web interface for WhatsApp is now live. As you may have imagined, this allows you to use your computer to send and receive WhatsApp messages. But, true to this app’s very obvious “mobile first” mantra, the Web client is acting simply as an extension of your phone.

Thus, all the messages still actually live on your handset, they’re just shown to you on the Web as well. So your phone needs to be connected to the Internet while you’re using WhatsApp Web on your computer, keep that in mind. Read more »

Ride-sharing startup Lyft, whose cars are identified by a large pink moustache attached to the front, is getting rid of its signature Carstache, and replacing it with the Glowstache – a much smaller, plastic mustache (about the size of a banana), that glows during night, and is designed to float on Lyft drivers’ dashboards using magnets.

“It was this big giant fuzzy thing,” said Lyft President John Zimmer, referring to the Carstache. “If you were going to an important business meeting, it might not be the best way to roll up.” Read more »

Media streaming service Plex has released their popular app for the PlayStation platform (PS4 and PS3) in North and South America. The app was previously launched on the platform in December but only available in Europe until now.

Plex is a local streaming service that streams local content from the Plex media server on your computer to the Plex app running on your mobile device, game console, smart tv, or something like the Chromecast or Apple TV. Read more »

Netflix will begin streaming Sony’s controversial movie ‘The Interview’ this Saturday, on January 24. The content delivery giant delivered the new in its Q4 financial report.

The above new means that Netflix will be streaming the movie a month before it is available on DVD and Blu-ray. Read more »

The deepening dispute between the US and Russia over Crimea has started affecting the tech world, as Apple has begun sending notices of termination to Registered Apple Developers (RAD) residing in the disputed region, a move that will prevent them from publishing apps in the App Store.

“The new sanctions on the Crimea Region announced by the US Government on December 19, 2014 and announced by the European Commission on December 18, 2014 prohibit the continuation of the RAD Agreement between you and Apple,” the Cupertino-based company said in the notice. “For more information, please review Executive Order 13685 and the European Commission Notice.” Read more »

Just over a month after the city of Portland, Oregon issued Uber a cease-and-desist order, the company has been slapped with a similar order in South Carolina. The Public Service Commission of South Carolina has ordered the company to stop operating until it gets a certificate of public convenience and necessity, which is required by law for any motor vehicle carrier, including taxi cab services.

“Consumers benefit from, and deserve choices in, the marketplace. However, those choices must be consistent with state law intended to protect the public,” said the Commission in a legal filing which names Rasier LLC, a wholly-owned Uber subsidiary that operates the company’s UberX service. Read more »

Google’s updated a lot of Android apps recently, but now it’s apparently the turn of its Web-based Play Store. This is in the process of receiving a slight redesign. The rollout seems to be gradual, but more and more people are reporting seeing the new Play Store on the Web.

The main new thing unfortunately isn’t 100% adherence to Material Design. That’s still not available, but in the meantime the “Similar” apps list has been moved. Read more »

Like many places around the world, UberX is illegal in most Australian states, as the law clearly says that ridesharing services must be provided in a licensed taxi or hire car, by a driver holding a taxi driver’s license, and that’s the reason why the country’s transport officials have been conducting sting operations to fine UberX drivers. However, according to an ABC report, the company is outsmarting transport inspectors by blocking their smartphones from accessing the service.

The report cites emails obtained under Queensland’s Right To Information (RTI) laws, revealing the problems being faced by undercover investigators tasked with penalizing the service’s drivers. “Due to blocking by Uber, only two covert rides were undertaken [today],” said an official from the Department of Transport and Main Roads in an email to colleagues last year, adding that “time was spent purchasing new credit cards, activating Gmail accounts, and setting up two more phones.” Read more »

Facebook may be ubiquitous in people’s personal lives, but not that much when it comes to intra-office communications. The company obviously wants to change that, so it’s launching Facebook At Work.

This is best described as the social network for your workplace. It has mobile apps for Android and iOS, which should launch today, as well as a website that’s accessible from computers. It looks like Facebook, but will get your company’s branding. Oh, and Facebook won’t show ads inside it, nor will it track what you do or hold your data. Read more »

The wearables market may have created a lot of buzz over the past few quarters, but looks like it will take some more time for that buzz to convert into genuine consumer interest. According to a latest research report from GlobalWebIndex, which surveyed around 170,000 adult internet users across 32 markets, only 9% said they have a smartwatch, and even less, 7%, said they own smart wristbands.

In contrast, around 80% of the people surveyed said they own a smartphone. While that’s undoubtedly a major chunk, it’s still less than the proportion (91%) using PCs. As for Android vs iOS, the data presented in the report puts the former far ahead of the latter (see image below). Read more »

Spotify is undoubtedly one of the biggest revolutions to come to the audio industry ever since Napster was stirring up heat online. With the New Year the music master has a lot to be proud of as it recently announced that it now has 15 million paid subscribers and the whopping 60 million plus active users.

Last November these very same numbers were circling around 10 million paid and 40 million total users, so this represents a huge leap forward and foretells a bright future for the streaming service, provided that legal issues don’t get too severe. Read more »