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Tesla Support for Spotify in U.S is 'Coming'

Charlotte Henry ·

U.S. Tesla drivers will soon be able to access Spotify directly from their vehicle’s software. Currently, the service is only accessible via Bluetooth. That’s according to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk, spotted by Business Insider.

That’s right: Musk says Spotify is “coming” to Tesla cars soon…While Tesla drivers in Europe have enjoyed Spotify support for years now, Tesla has a deal with the internet-radio service Slacker in North America, so drivers in the US and Canada must contend with that service instead.

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Pandora for Podcasters Launches for Creators

Andrew Orr ·

Pandora for Podcasters, as the name suggests, is a new platform that lets people submit their podcasts to Pandora. All you have to do is submit your RSS feed URL, answer a few questions, and your episodes will be added.

Podcasts on Pandora is powered by the Podcast Genome Project, which helps listeners cut through the overwhelming clutter of available podcasts to simply, easily find the podcasts they love…Starting today, creators who are new to the platform can submit their shows via Pandora for Podcasters here and start connecting with listeners ASAP.

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Tumblr and WordPress Might be Able to Challenge Facebook

Charlotte Henry ·

WordPress owner Automattic bought Tumblr earlier this week, in a potentially significant move in the blogging world. Over on the Colombia Journalism Review, Mathew Ingram wondered if they could provide a viable alternative to Facebook.

As Twitter and Facebook rose in popularity, blogging—which took more time and effort—declined, to the point where you could count the number of independent bloggers on one hand. Tumblr continued for a time, powered in part by porn. Verizon banned pornographic content after it acquired Yahoo, a decision which many believe killed the service. But Mullenweg told The Verge that Tumblr still has a significant number of loyal users, and that he’s hoping to offer them monetization features and other services. Whether WordPress + Tumblr can create something that goes head-to-head with Facebook and Twitter—and whether independent journalists would take to such a thing as an alternative to social networks—remains to be seen.

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App Store Today Stories Now on the Web

Andrew Orr ·

App Store Today editorials from Apple are now available on the web, with full imagery, app lists, and text.

To find a link for an App Store story, open the App Store on your iOS device or Mac. Open a story article in the Today view and scroll to the bottom. There will be a ‘Share Story’ button which lets you copy the URL or send it on using the share sheet.

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Robotics Video: Evan Rachael Wood Meets Sophia

John Martellaro ·

Mashable writes about an upcoming short film featuring two famous robots, one of whom is an actress and one is real.

Unless you live under a rock, you might know of the world’s most famous real-life humanoid, Sophia, the robot…

An enticing trailer for has recently come out for a short film called SophiaWorld starring HBO’s Westworld actress Evan Rachael Wood…

Television’s most famous Robot, actress Evan Rachel Wood, and arguably the world’s most famous real-life humanoid, Sophia the Robot, have a chance encounter in a swanky NY hotel bar…

The short film will premiere on September 4 on Futurism.com.

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AT&T, T-Mobile Rolling Out Call Authentication

Andrew Orr ·

AT&T and T-Mobile are starting to roll out the call authentication feature based on T-Mobile’s SHAKEN/STIR technology.

Call verification won’t eradicate the issue, but it’ll give subscribers the choice not to answer potentially illegal calls, which could be scams or attempts to steal their identity…An AT&T spokesperson also told us that the carrier is testing a way for the SHAKEN/STIR protocol to work for everyone at no extra cost. To be precise, the company is developing a way to make the protocol work with AT&T Call Protect, which can block fraudulent calls for free.

It better be free. Security shouldn’t be an optional purchase.