O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: June 30

  • Verizon announces it won’t cut off service due to billing, will waive late fees until June 30

    With various wireless carriers easing billing restrictions during the pandemic, Verizon has followed suit, and announced on Monday that it will not disconnect individual customers and small businesses unable to pay their bills through June 30.

    The company has stated that service will not be terminated and that no late fees will be collected, the policy applying to postpaid wireless, residential, and small business customers that notify Verizon of an inability to pay their bills. For those experiencing financial troubles and need their fees waived, this process can be started by filling out a form on Verizon’s website to avoid fees.  

    Verizon has been waiving late fees and keeping customers connected since March after signing the FCC’s “Keep Americans Connected” pledge. 

    The company has also offered customers an additional 15GB of hotspot data for free in April and May, which has been automatically offered to users with consumer and small businesses with shared plans, hotspots, and jetpacks.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.

    Via MacRumors and Verizon

  • Leaked document shows Apple Music to pay industry standard subscription revenue to artists upon launch

    applemusicicon

    When Apple Music hits, it’ll pay artists about the industry standard.

    A leaked document shared by Digital Music News shows that with Apple charging between US$9.99 and US$14.99 per month for its upcoming on-demand Apple Music service, with 58 percent of its subscription revenues going to record labels. For every US$9.99 Apple collects from subscribers in the United States, it will pay out US$5.80 to labels. Additionally, Apple pays approximately 12 percent to publishers and/or songwriters, leaving the company with somewhere around 30 percent of the revenue from the Apple Music service.

    (more…)

  • Apple announces Apple Music streaming service, cites June 30th launch date

    applemusic

    You knew it was coming.

    It wasn’t like the universe needed another streaming music service, but Apple’s thrown its hat into the ring and announced “Beats One”, or the Apple Music service, which will be available for US$9.99 per month for a single account, US$14.99 per month for a family account and feature on-demand content and curated playlists. The service will launch on June 30 for Apple devices and Windows, but will also come to Android and Apple TV this fall.

    (more…)

  • Google announces All Access music streaming service

    google_logo1

    When in doubt, offer some additional competition.

    Per AppleInsider, Google on Wednesday introduced its long-anticipated Spotify competitor: Google Play Music All Access, a “uniquely Google approach” to subscription music service.

    Google engineering director Chris Yerga announced the new music service during the keynote for the search giant’s annual Google I/O developer conference. As was previously rumored, the streaming service is similar to popular music service Spotify, but it also adds elements similar to Internet radio service Pandora.

    “We set out to build a music service that didn’t just give you access to the world of music,” Yerga said, “but also helped guide you through it.”

    All Access has a focus on personalized recommendations, using a feature called “Explore”. Explore allows users to start a radio station from an individual track. Once the station is established, users can tailor the tracks that will play to their likes by stopping tracks that they don’t want to hear.

    The new streaming service will also suggest new releases and other tracks that Google thinks users will enjoy based on their listening habits. All Access will also allow users to blend their own Google Play-stored tracks in on playlists with All Access songs.

    The move into streaming will bring Google into competition not only with Spotify and Pandora, but also potentially with Apple. The iPhone maker is said to be working on its own radio service to debut some time this summer. Much of the negotiations with the major record labels is said to already be done, but holdouts among some labels are thought to be holding up the rollout of Apple’s streaming option.

    All Access is available in the United States as of May 15 for US$10 per month. Google is opening up the service to all users in the country, though, for a 30-day free trial. Users beginning their trial before June 30 will be able to take advantage of a special discount, getting access to the streaming service for US$8 per month.

    Stay tuned for additional details as they become available and if you’ve tried All Access and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

  • 30 days and counting to switch from MobileMe to iCloud

    If you were putting the transition to iCloud off for a while, you might want to take care of it.

    Per AppleInsider, MobileMe users now have just 30 days remaining to download their photos and files from iDisk, Gallery and iWeb before Apple’s service concludes.

    Legacy MobileMe users began receiving e-mails this week warning that the deadline is fast approaching. The company originally announced a year ago that MobileMe will cease to exist as of June 30, 2012.

    The deprecated service, which used to be offered for US$99 per year, has been replaced by Apple’s new, free cloud-based offering, dubbed iCloud. As part of that transition to iCloud, the iDisk, Gallery and iWeb services will no longer be offered.

    Before MobileMe goes dark on June 30, users should log in to their account and back up and save all of the content that is stored on the Web in the iDisk, Galleries and iWeb services. A step-by-step tutorial on how to do this was published on Friday by the cool cats at Ars Technica.

    For those who want to continue using Apple’s cloud-based services, a MobileMe account must be rolled over to iCloud. The transition must be completed by June 30 for users who want to keep their Apple e-mail account, as well as calendars, working properly.

    In April, Apple began attempting to entice users to upgrade to iCloud from MobileMe by offering them a free copy of Snow Leopard. The company has also granted MobileMe subscribers a free 20 gigabytes of storage on iCloud until September.

    Apple is expected to announce further enhancements to iCloud later this month at its Worldwide Developers Conference. One report has claimed that Apple will launch a new photo sharing feature, while a beta website that was temporarily available to the public suggested Apple plans to add Notes and Reminders to the iCloud.com website.

    If you have any feedback as to the transition, please let us know in the comments.