Spotify now offers US college students half-price music streaming (updated)

Don't think you can afford a paid streaming music service as a cost-sensitive student? Think again -- the price may finally be within your reach. Spotify has launched a US student program that lets you pay just $5 per month for Premium access (half of the usual price) as long as you're attending a post-secondary school that qualifies for federal aid, whether it's a college or a vocational outlet. Be sure to time your registration well, though. Much like an equivalent offer in the UK, you'll only get the discount for a year. Still, the $60 you spend may be worthwhile if it gives you enough studying music to get through a couple of tough semesters.

Update: Helpful reader will noticed that the discount merely lasts for a year at a time -- you can renew it three more times before you're paying full price. In other words, it should cover your entire degree.

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Via: San Francisco Chronicle, Rich DeMuro (Twitter)

Source: Spotify

Tags: discount, education, internet, music, spotify, streaming, student, students Next: Augmented reality concept uses Google Glass to make reading the newspaper more like... reading a website .fyre .fyre-comment-divider

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Titanfall on PCs will soon support 4K and NVIDIA's latest graphics tricks (updated)

Many gamers already argue that the PC version of Titanfall is the best-looking of the bunch. Pretty soon, though, it won't even be a contest. Respawn plans to update its robotic shooter to handle both 4K displays as well as a host of technology from NVIDIA's GameWorks program, including full support for multiple GeForce cards, improved antialiasing and more realistic shadow effects. The upgrades aren't all that surprising. Some modern video hardware is powerful enough for 4K gaming, and developers have already used GameWorks to spruce up flagship titles like Assassin's Creed 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts. Still, the visual improvements are bound to make a big impact -- Titanfall is one of the most important games of the year, and a good excuse to pick up a new gaming rig.

Update: Right now however, Titanfall is getting some tweaks on its servers that will change how it plays on PC and Xbox One. The updates will roll out over the next day, but you can see a changelog on Respawn's forums here. There are a number of fixes and updates included, and among them it appears the controversial Smart Pistol is having its effectiveness reduced, with slightly lower accuracy from hip fire and decreased damage when it's not locked-on. A troublesome glitch that allowed Burn Cards to be duplicated has also been fixed, and point values for certain actions in Hardpoint and Capture The Flag games have been adjusted.

Hey guys, Titanfall servers being updated! Changelog here http://t.co/7Q84dARBaf

- Drew McCoy (

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Microsoft: We have the right to search your Hotmail account (updated)

An ex-Microsoft employee was recently arrested for allegedly leaking company secrets, all because Redmond found evidence against him in his contact's Hotmail account. Hold on, is it even legal for the company to go through someone's account without permission? Well, according to Microsoft, it sure is -- in fact, Hotmail's Terms of Service apparently states that the company can "access or disclose information about you" for a number of reasons. Since Microsoft's actions are quite dubious, it was forced to defend itself (read the full statement after the break) when news of the arrest broke. The company says that while its ToS (which people don't usually read) clearly states that it has the right to look through a user's account, it does so "only in the most exceptional circumstances."

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Samsung Galaxy Beam successor spotted in China (updated)

At Mobile World Congress in 2012, Samsung announced a pico projector smartphone known as the Galaxy Beam. Although it was a cool concept, the phone's downfall was its middling specs, aging OS and large chassis. Two years later, it appears that Samsung's working on a successor to the Beam called the SM-G3858, according to China's government database. The Tenaa entry even comes with a few pictures, most of which offer an indication of a projector: there's clearly a bump on the upper back which opens up to a wide lens on the top, and we also saw an extra button that models after the original Beam -- in fact, the icon above the button looks eerily like the one seen here. Curiously, Samsung has shed the sporty misshapen look in favor of a sleek metal build, which certainly seems a better fit for professionals.

The database also gives us a glimpse at its specs, some of which are an improvement over the original Beam; the China Mobile-branded phone reportedly packs a 4.66-inch WVGA (800x480) display, Android 4.2.2, a quad-core 1.2GHz chipset with 1GB of RAM, microSD slot with up to 32GB external storage, as well as TD-SCDMA and GSM connectivity (no LTE on this model, although there's a chance this is simply a 3G-only variant of a global model). It's also 11.6mm thick, which is much thicker than most Samsung smartphones but still is nearly a full millimeter thinner than the original. It's still too early to determine whether this is going to be exclusive to China Mobile or available to a global market, but at least we know the phone exists for now; Samsung, we're hopeful, will provide us with the rest of the story at some point down the road.

Update: The more we look at the images, the less likely it seems that the G3858 actually uses a metal exterior. Rather, we'd guess that it simply has a plastic back cover that just happens to feature a glossy brushed metal finish. 0 Comments Share

Via: WeAnd, Engadget Chinese

Source: Tenaa

Tags: beam2, chinamobile, g3858, galaxybeam2, mobilepostcross, picoprojector, samsung, samsunggalaxybeam, samsungsmg3858, sm-g3858, tenaa Next: US to reduce its oversight of a key internet governor, but don't expect big changes
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HP woes continue as 5,000 more employees face the axe (updated)

It certainly won't be a happy new year for thousands of HP employees -- not when the company has increased its layoff numbers yet again. Hewlett-Packard already adjusted the number of people it needed to let go from 27,000 to 29,000 a year ago, but it's now added another 5,000 to the total. According to HP's new SEC 10-K filing, cutting off 34,000 positions will save the ailing firm $4.1 billion per fiscal year. Since the company's only done removing 24,600 people, it's bound to let go of 9,000 more until October 2014. The good news (for everyone left anyway) is that CEO Meg Whitman has promised that this will be the last big round of layoffs. HP's undergone several management changes and restructuring efforts these past few years, though, so here's hoping Whitman's words hold true.

Update (01/01/14): An HP spokesperson reached out and clarified that the company has known it'd likely go beyond 29,000 since early 2013. A SEC filing from March last year states that "the total expected headcount reductions could vary as much as 15% from

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