Hello, Skype … and WhatsApp: Viber has 200M users and a new, spiffy desktop video-calling client

May 7, 2013 8:56 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

The result is a combination of just about every kind of communication you could wish for in a single client: mobile text-message-like messaging, audio, and video. Which means that not only is Viber competing with mobile messaging platforms like the massive WhatsApp, it's also competing with existing VOIP giant Skype.

SoundCloud: Why sound will be bigger than video online

December 4, 2012 5:42 AM Ciara Byrne
Ciara Byrne

The audio-sharing network SoundCloud, which allows users to share not just music but any audio recording -- from company earnings calls to cat impersonations -- has just launched a new version, "Next SoundCloud," at LeWeb in Paris.

SoundCloud refreshes its mobiles apps to focus on audio editing

September 20, 2012 8:55 AM Tom Cheredar
Tom Cheredar

Audio service SoundCloud has updated its mobile apps on Android and iOS with a slew of new features aimed at improving a user's ability to edit sound clips on the go.

DoubleRobotics: telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)

August 13, 2012 11:41 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

oubleRobotics has just released a telepresence solution that isn't ugly, awkward, or the apparent product of a Junkyard Wars amateur hour competition.

Google+ studio mode hangouts: awesome if you’re wearing headphones

August 13, 2012 10:34 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Music over online conference lines or video-conferencing software mostly sucks -- because the conferencing world is optimized for voice, not song.

Google's trying to change that -- and bolster its social network, Google+ -- by adding Studio Mode to Hangouts on Air. Call it the MySpace gambit: if we bring the bands, the fans will follow.

Beats rebuys 25% of its own shares from HTC for $150M

July 21, 2012 9:37 PM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

If you thought it was silly for HTC to invest $300 million in Beats Electronics last year, prepare to feel vindicated: HTC announced today that Beats has bought back 25 percent of its shares for $150 million.

The companies described …

Who’s watching the watchers? If the ACLU has its way … you!

July 5, 2012 12:35 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

In an age of surveillance, when over 200,000 cameras watch London ceaselessly and unmanned government spy planes patrol U.S. skies, the New Jersey ACLU is providing tools for citizens to engage in “reverse surveillance.”

The tool is a smartphone app, …

Flipboard turns up the volume and adds audio content, SoundCloud support

May 15, 2012 8:38 PM Heather Kelly
Heather Kelly

The problem with most magazines is that they’re just too quiet. Flipboard, the gorgeous iPad and iPhone reading app, is teaming up with SoundCloud to add audio content to its mix of news, photos, and social media.

The partnership kicks …

SoundCloud unveils Next, a completely revamped web app

May 9, 2012 11:01 AM Heather Kelly
Heather Kelly

The audiophiles at SoundCloud, the large sound-sharing platform, unveiled a completely rebuilt web app at its office in San Francisco Wednesday. The new app is only in private beta to start, though ten thousand invites are being sent out today.…

Forget 7.1 surround sound, Dolby’s next-gen Atmos theater system supports up to 64 speakers

April 23, 2012 10:15 AM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

Now that digital and 3D movie projection is off to a strong start, it’s time to upgrade other aspects of our theater-going experience. Dolby today announced its next-generation theater audio system, dubbed Atmos, which sounds like it will blow away …

Philips debuts headphones line for the Android fanboy in all of us

January 12, 2012 12:05 PM Sean Ludwig
Sean Ludwig

Major electronics manufacturer Philips debuted a new line of headphones and earbuds targeted at Android phone owners at the Consumer Electronics Show this week.

The company makes some of the best-sounding, affordable earbuds on the market, and now it is …

Demo: Qwip offers users an easy voice-to-text messaging service

September 14, 2011 10:35 AM Tom Cheredar
Tom Cheredar

New startup Qwip, which launched today at the DEMO Fall 2011 conference in Silicon Valley, offers users a way to voice their short updates to Twitter and Facebook rather than be forced to type them up.

Qwip’s new iOS app …

SoundCloud wants to unmute the web

April 28, 2011 9:48 AM Ciara Byrne

SoundCloud may be the biggest music startup you’ve never heard of.

It’s a large-scale platform for people to share the sounds they create and has quietly conquered the professional music community, amassed 4 million users and expanded into all kinds …