Yesterday, AT&T announced new data plans for their smartphone line, including the iPhone and iPad tablet, which will be less expensive for customers, but will also limit data use. The carrier also eliminated its unlimited plans for new subscribers starting June 7th.
Slacker, the online radio service, has announced today that iPhone supported offline playback is now available, giving Slacker Radio Plus subscribers the chance to download up to “thousands” of audio tracks from custom stations then listen to it later without the need for an active Internet connection.
The music caching feature has been standard on Android and BlackBerry devices since earlier this year.
Slacker’s announcement is great news for future iPhone owners, who may be fans of streaming music but will be trapped with capped 3G data thanks to the new data plans. Slacker subscribers can now download the music they want while connected to a home wireless network or a Wi-Fi hotspot, and then play it back later while saving bandwidth.
All that is needed for current Slacker subscribers is to download the updated Slacker 2.0 app.
Result for: offline
Spotify, the popular music streaming service available in Europe, has announced today the launch of two new variations of the service, Spotify Open and Spotify Unlimited.
“Unlimited” gives users “round-the-clock,” ad-free access to Spotify for €5 a month. Unlike the more expensive “Premium” version, you will not be able to move files to your smartphone or play in offline mode at all. You will need to be connected to the Internet at all times to play the tracks.
Premium is £9.99 per month, however.
“Open” is completely free, but also lacks most of the options of the other variations, including some that are even included in Spotify “Free,” which is free but requires an invite to sign up.
Spotify Open lets anyone sign up and receive 20 hours of streaming per month, with no other obligations. You will hear ads, just like in the Free version, however.
You can see the full comparison sheet here:
Result for: offline
A new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project has revealed that 61 percent of Americans now get their news online, although local TV remains the most popular method of getting the news.
Overall, 50 percent of Americans read local print newspapers, and 17 percent read national papers. 59 percent of Americans get their news from online and offline sources, with only 2 percent getting their news exclusively from online sources.
Figuring out where users get their news is not as easy, however. 65 percent do not have a favorite site, and 80 percent use 2-5 sites for their daily news. 56 percent use portals such as Google News, Yahoo News or AOL, and younger users follow specific news organizations or journalists via Twitter and Facebook.
18 percent listen to daily podcasts from the news organizations.
What are people searching for when they go online? 81 percent looks for the weather, 73 looks for national events, 66 percent look for health events, 64 percent look up finance or other business. Rounding up the top 5 is international events, at 62 percent.
Pics via RWW:
