Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Deals: B&H Photo Offering $100 Off 2018 MacBook Air, Exclusive Speck Discount, and Harry Potter Sale on iTunes

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B&H Photo has debuted a new sale this week, discounting the 2018 13-inch MacBook Air by $100 and marking one of the first major discounts for the notebook, which Apple just launched less than one week ago. With the sale, the entry level model of the MacBook Air is now down to $1,099 from $1,199.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

Below we've listed each of the SKUs on sale in Space Gray, and you can find the Silver and Gold options on B&H Photo as well. B&H Photo lists these MacBook Air models as pre-orders, so shoppers will likely have to wait a little longer to get the notebook in, but sales tax will not be collected on orders in certain states.
For today only, B&H Photo is also offering Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar from Mid 2017 (3.1 GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) for $2,199.00, down from $2,999.00. Additionally, the retailer is offering another model of the same notebook (3.1 GHz, 16GB RAM, 2TB SSD) for $2,799.00, down from $4,199.00.

In an exclusive sale, Speck is offering MacRumors readers a 35 percent sitewide discount through tomorrow, November 14. To get access to the sale, enter the promo code RUMORS35 during the checkout process.

Speck's website is full of accessories compatible with iPhone XS, XS Max, XR, 8, and 8 Plus, 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and many more. The company also sells laptop bags and power accessories, so be sure to check out the site before the exclusive discount code expires on Wednesday.

Lastly, those looking to round out their Harry Potter iTunes Movies collection -- or complete it in one go -- should check out the latest sale on Apple's digital movies storefront. In the sale, each individual film is marked down to $7.99 and the complete collection bundle is down to $49.99.


Originally, individual movies in the series were around $14.99, and the bundle of all eight films was priced at $79.99, so if you've been waiting to add the series into your iTunes Movies library, now is a great time. Additionally, all eight films are available in 4K Dolby Vision.
For more deals, visit our Deals Roundup and read our Black Friday Roundup if you're planning out your shopping for next week.

Related Roundups: MacBook Air, Apple Deals
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Air (Buy Now)

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Nokia TA-1136 Passes FCC Certification, Could be the Nokia 2.1 Plus


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Pandora Announces Personalized Podcast Curation With the 'Podcast Genome Project'

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Following its acquisition by SiriusXM in September, Pandora today announced that it will begin offering specialized podcast curation under the Podcast Genome Project. Similar to its Music Genome Project, the PGP will launch in a public beta format and combine human curation with advanced machine learning to offer users specific podcast recommendations, "down to the episodic level."


Pandora says that the Podcast Genome Project will evaluate content based on more than 1,500 attributes like MPAA ratings, timely topics, production style, content type, host profile, and combine this with listener signals like thumb ratings, skips, and replays. Machine learning algorithms, natural language processing, and collaborative filtering methods will also work in tandem with Pandora's in-house curation team to give each user unique podcast recommendations that evolve as their preferences change.
“It might feel like podcasts are ubiquitous, but, eighty-three percent of Americans aren’t yet listening to podcasts on a weekly basis, and a majority of them report that’s because they simply don’t know where to start,” said Roger Lynch, Chief Executive Officer, Pandora. “Making podcasts - both individual episodes and series - easy to discover and simple to experience is how we plan to greatly grow podcast listening while simultaneously creating new and more sustainable ways to monetize them.”
Pandora's podcast partners include PM, Gimlet, HeadGum, Libsyn, Maximum Fun, NPR, Parcast, PRX+PRI, reVolver, Slate, The New York Times, The Ramsey Network, The Ringer, WNYC Studios, and Wondery. The company says that these partners and the amount of podcasts on the platform will continue to grow over time.

Besides podcast listening, Pandora offers online radio streaming to its users, and last year launched "Pandora Premium" as a competitor to Apple Music and Spotify. At $9.99 per month, subscribers can ditch ads, search for and play any song, create playlists, download music for offline listening, and receive unlimited skips and replays.

While Apple Podcasts has been the hub for many users to listen to their favorites shows, more of the company's competitors have begun supporting podcasts as interest in the format grows. In the summer of 2017, a report by Bloomberg claimed that Spotify was planning to "come after" Apple with a strong push into podcasts, and since then it has added NPR's catalog of podcasts and the BBC's shows into the music streaming app.

Those interested in Pandora's Podcast Genome Project can sign up for the beta here.

Tags: Podcasts, Pandora

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Spotify Officially Debuts Apple Watch App, Rolling Out to Everyone Over Coming Week

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Spotify for the Apple Watch is rolling out to all users over the coming week. Announced by the company today, the release follows a beta version of the app that appeared in early November, and comes well over a year since Spotify hired "Snowy" developer Andrew Chang onto its team to help build the app.


Spotify says the app provides users with useful playback controls and the ability to connect to their music speakers and other devices through Spotify Connect. Like Apple Music on Apple Watch, Spotify subscribers will now be able to hit play, pause, skip, and rewind songs by interacting with their Apple Watch.
We’re constantly on the go—whether bouncing between the gym, work, school, errands, or just chilling—and our smartwatches are the tool to help keep us up to speed. Today, Spotify is introducing a new app for the Apple Watch, giving you the ability to seamlessly access and control your favorite music and podcasts without missing a beat.
Additionally, users will be able to access their recently played songs and favorite the currently playing song by tapping the heart icon on the Apple Watch screen. Down the line, Spotify plans to make music and podcasts available to listen offline on Apple Watch, among other updates it hasn't yet announced.

To get the Spotify app for Apple Watch, the company says that users will need to make sure they have the latest version of the Spotify iOS app (8.4.79), and they should begin seeing the Apple Watch version of the app over the next week.

Tag: Spotify

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Google Opens The Doors Wide For Web Apps To Take Off


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Waymo Set to Debut Autonomous Ride-Hailing Service to Select Arizona Users in December

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Waymo's commercial driverless car service is set to launch in early December, according to someone familiar with the company's plans (via Bloomberg). The service won't be branded as a "Waymo" platform, however, and will receive a new name and compete directly with car-hailing apps Uber and Lyft.


The launch will be small, with only a couple hundred authorized riders in the suburbs around Phoenix, Arizona and covering about 100 square miles. This is the same tactic that Waymo has used in previous tests, and reports about the upcoming autonomous ride-hailing service being tested in Arizona began appearing one year ago.

It's believed that the first group of customers for the service will be taken from Waymo's Early Rider Program, which is made up of 400 volunteer families who have been using Waymo since the spring of 2017. The families who signed up for that program would be released from their non-disclosure agreements under the new driverless service, and encouraged to share their experiences on social media or even take friends for rides.

The service won't be completely driverless out of the gate, it seems. According to those familiar with the plans, there will be backup drivers in some cars "to help ease customers into the service," and to take over driving if necessary. Based on Waymo's accumulated data, the modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans will still drive themselves more than 99.9 percent of the time.

Over time, Waymo wants to plant the seeds of the driverless car service in different cities across the United States, but it will take some time because the company hopes to avoid bad customer experiences and avoidable crashes that could set it back by years. As for pricing, nothing is certain yet, but Waymo is planning to offer fares that are competitive with Uber and Lyft.

Tag: Waymo

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Cheza Chromebook confirmed to get Project Crostini support for Linux apps


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