Techdirt. Stories filed under "pop" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "pop"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Fri, 12 Oct 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Smarter Soda Machines Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101011/11391711366/dailydirt-smarter-soda-machines.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101011/11391711366/dailydirt-smarter-soda-machines.shtml
  • A Coca-Cola vending machine in South Korea will dispense free Cokes if you dance for your drink. The machine uses a Kinect controller and promises not to make fun of your Gangnam-style moves. [url]
  • Intel has demoed a Coke machine that uses one of its Core i7 processors so that it can handle a giant touchscreen interface with interactive videos. Hopefully, the blue screen of death won't inconvenience too many thirsty patrons. [url]
  • Vending machines are going to start telling you how many calories are in the beverages they sell. Pretty soon, these machines will also start guessing your BMI and suggesting diet sodas... [url]
  • The Coca-Cola Hug Machine was dispensing free drinks to people who hugged the vending machine. Getting to first base with the soda machine didn't offer any additional benefits. [url]
    • If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101011/11391711366     Thu, 12 Apr 2012 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Making Sweet Music Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100412/0101058959/dailydirt-making-sweet-music.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100412/0101058959/dailydirt-making-sweet-music.shtml
  • Researchers have developed a piano tuning algorithm that can perform the task almost as well as a trained human ear. Yet another job that robots are going to take away from humans.... [url]
  • Genetic algorithms are often taught in machine learning classes, and these algorithms have been applied to all sorts of fields -- including music. Computer-generated fugues might not sound too pleasant, but neither does trance music... [url]
  • Using a 'Hit Potential Equation', computers can analyze pop singles and predict future hit tracks. The researchers behind this project admit, "musical tastes evolve, which means our 'hit potential equation' needs to evolve as well." [url]
  • To discover more interesting tech-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  
    • By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100412/0101058959     Wed, 13 Oct 2010 16:48:38 PDT New Pope Confuses Technology Reality And Fiction Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101012/18103511403/new-pope-confuses-technology-reality-and-fiction.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101012/18103511403/new-pope-confuses-technology-reality-and-fiction.shtml Slashdot drew our attention to an article about the Pope warning of the dangers of new technologies, that came with the title: New technologies confuse reality and fiction: Pope. However, I'd argue that flipping the words around a bit, as I did in the title to this post, seems a bit more accurate. For years, with pretty much every new media/technology invention there's been some sort of moral panic about how it's somehow harming people's ability to tell truth from fiction. And there never seems to be any sort of evidence to support this. In fact, it seems that the only people still confusing reality and fiction are those who insist that technology has this magical property of ruining people's ability to tell reality from fiction.

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    ]]>     fixed-that-for-you http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101012/18103511403     Fri, 30 May 2008 00:34:57 PDT When Even Pop Boy Bands Don't Need Record Labels... Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080527/1729081241.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080527/1729081241.shtml should still have a place in the modern music landscape, if they're willing to change their business models to meet with the new marketplace reality. However, if they keep doing stupid stuff, they're not going to get very far. Reader SteveD writes in to point out that, McFly, a popular British pop boy band -- the type of band that you would think is one of the few that still fits into the sweet spot of the major label marketing machine -- has ditched their label and is considering "pulling a Radiohead" in letting their fans set the price. I'd encourage them to pull a Reznor instead, as the Nine Inch Nails experiments are much more well thought out in terms of the business model.

    Either way, the key sentence in the article explaining why the band split from the label:
    The band felt that their old label wasn't embracing those changes and are keen to experiment with new ways of getting music to fans. Tom said: "There's not a set way of doing things anymore. Now, especially with stuff like downloads, or giving music away, there's so many options for what you can do."
    If that's not an indication of a record label shooting itself in the foot, it's hard to see what is. This is the type of band that could use a big label's help in distributing the music in the most effective manner, and the label is refusing to help. No wonder the record labels are struggling. In this case, by the way, the label was Island, a subsidiary of Universal Music, which has been one of the most proudly thick headed labels in trying to understand the new digital landscape.

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    ]]>     ...-the-record-labels-are-in-trouble http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080527/1729081241