Sunday
Jul012018

Drake shatters first day release records on Spotify and Apple Music

On the first day of release of Drake’s Scorpion album over the weekend, it has broken a number of streaming records already. According to SpotifyCharts.com, the album’s individual track totaled 132,450,203 streams on the first day, which was 50,000,000 more than the previous record set by Post Malone’s recent album Beerbongs & Bentleys. Spotify has confirmed that the record has been broken by a large measure but isn’t confirming the numbers officially, saying SpotifyChart’s numbers may not be fully accurate. If the album numbers continue to at this rate, it could easily reach a billion streams within the first week. Post Malone also currently holds the record with 236,500,546 streams in the U.S. and 411,816,710 globally in its first week. Drake was also the one who previously held that first-week record for 22-track mixtape More Life, which set the record at 385 million streams.

For Apple Music, he’s also broken the single-day record as well with over 170 million streams, which the Canadian superstar previously held for 2017 release, More Life. That mixtape was streamed 89.9 million times on the first day.

Source: Variety

Saturday
Jun302018

Canadian Reviewer Weekly Roundup 6/24-6/30

Saturday
Jun302018

Instagram tests out persistent Stories bar

If this test becomes a full-fledged feature, you won’t be able to escape Instagram Stories then. The Verge’s Chris Welch noticed on his Pixel 2 XL a change to Instagram’s user interface. While he was scrolling through his main feed, he noticed the Stories bar stayed at the top of the page. When they reached out to Instagram about this, they got the boilerplate response, “We’re always testing ways to improve the experience on Instagram and make it easier to share any moment with the people who matter to you.” If you like checking Stories all the time, this new feature might be up your alley.

Source: The Verge

Saturday
Jun302018

Honda shelves ASIMO robot

You don’t have to be overly familiar with Honda to know ASIMO. At the very least, you’ve seen this four-foot-tall humanoid robot. Well, you’re going to have to say goodbye as ASIMO, which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, is being shelved by the Japanese car manufacturer. The company says it will continue to develop bipedal robots but it will not carry the ASIMO name. Its tech will be adapted for other products though. The company is thinking future robots will be adapted to focus on tasks like nursing care. When ASIMO launched, it was introduced more like a showcase robot that greeted people at events. Honda last updated ASIMO back in 2011 to improve its autonomous decision-making capabilities.

Source: Fortune