Beats Music

This week's biggest news stories revolved around the future of Apple and its rumored acquisition of Beats Electronics LLC. According to various sources, Apple is close to closing a $3.2 billion deal with Dr. Dre and and Jimmy Iovine for their high-end music accessories company and music streaming service Beats Music. Apple is also purportedly working with a "team of senior medical technology executives" to build a suite of health related apps akin to the App Store. Both rumors seem to indicate that an Apple smartwatch is imminent.

Samsung attorney John Quinn announced on Tuesday that he will challenge the court verdict that awarded Apple $119 million in damages for patent infringements. Quinn will ask the trial judge to reduce the damages to zero because the verdict was "unsupported by evidence".

Here's a quick look at some of the noteworthy apps, games and jailbreak tweaks released to the Apple App Store and Cydia this week (01/19/14 to 01/25/14). Apple's Free Game of the Week is Where's My Mickey. It will be free on the App Store until 01/30/14.

Beats Music: Free to download, requires $10 monthly membership (Requires iOS 6 or later) Rated 12+

Beats' new music streaming service for iOS, Android and Window devices is for music lovers who don't mind paying $10 a month instead of listening to ads. Beats Music biggest selling point is its recommendation engine comprised of real people, and its fill in the "Sentence" feature that allows users to get suggestions based on what they're doing and who they're with. The Sentence has already spun a meme where users share their most ridiculous answers to the fill in the blank option: "I'm ___ & feel like ___ with ___ to ___".

It looks like the launch of Beats Music was a success. The company announced on its blog yesterday that is has stopped accepting any new subscribers due to some users "experiencing issues." New users who download the free app and reserve a user name this week will be contacted by Beats when registration is reopened. You will also receive 7 additional days on your trial for the inconvenience.

Beats Music was released to the Apple App Store earlier this week. It is a subscription-based music streaming service that offers a library of around 20 million songs curated by "music experts".

Beats has officially launched it music streaming service for iOS devices. Like most mobile streaming services, Beats Music does not offer a free, ad-supported option. Instead, users must subscribe for $9.99 a month. The subscription service offers on-demand access to a library of around 20 million songs.

Beats has teamed up with veteran radio programmers Julie Pilat and Scott Plagenhoef to oversee a large list of "music experts" who will curate channels of handpicked music for a variety of situations. For example, the Beats Music "Highlights" section offers quick access to new music picked by famous DJs and music journalists. The app also features an option that will select the appropriate tracks based on what you're doing and where you're located.

Luke Wood, president and COO of Beats Electronics, LLC told TNW that Beats Music will launch “within the next few months.” The new music streaming service will be available on the Web and on iOS and Android devices.

Wood said Beats Music would be different than current music streaming apps such as Spotify because it is going to "focus really heavily on playlists."

“We’re talking about real depth of personalization and knowing who I am, who you are, what we’re listening to, what we like, what we’ve listened to before and then offering up music that is highly relevant to our taste profile," Wood explained.