YouTube to hold first music awards

YouTube is sponsoring its first YouTube Music Awards this November 3 and will feature big names like Lady Gaga, Eminem, and Arcade Fire. The show will stream live online from Pier 36 in New York City and be hosted by actor Jason Schwartzman. 

The show will be honoring “artists and songs that YouTube fans have turned into global hits over the past year.” The nominees will be announced on October 17. There are also going to be events at Seoul, Moscow, London, and Brazil.

Source: Huffington Post

Introducing speeCup, the road trip-ready Bluetooth speaker

The speeCup Bluetooth wireless speaker can be taken from your home, to your office, to even your car’s cup holder. This Siri/S Voice-enabled portable speaker features a noise-canceling microphone for hands-free communication and integrates smartControl with gesture control. You can play music wirelessly for up to 30 feet away from this 8-inch speeCup and can be used for up to 20 hours.

It works with Apple devices, Android phone and tablets, and other Bluetooth devices and is available in black, white, and red for $129.95.

Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum launches ScopifyROM for iOS, a first-of-its-kind interactive museum app

In an effort to offer its visitors a more interactive experience within the walls of its museum, Toronto's ROM - in conjuction with Kensington Communications - has launched its first app for iOS entitled "Scopify". At first of its kind for any museum, Scopify allows visitors to experience ROM objects in fun and interactive ways, including Animating a dodo, X-raying a mummy, and Skinning a dino. Along with the exclusive range of custom-made ScopifyROM tools, visitors can animate, X-Ray, scan, magnify and otherwise “Select” ROM objects. For instance, users who visit the Schad Gallery of Biodiversity are able to Animate the ROM’s Dodo skeleton with ScopifyROM.  As a famed extinct species, this metre-tall flightless ancestor of the common pigeon and dove comes to life in an instant, moving as it would when Dodos populated the island of Mauritius. Also available is the ability to discover the Galleries of Africa: Egypt; with ScopifyROM, you can CT Scan, and Decode a Mummy. 

Very cool, forward-thinking initiative by the ROM to further engage its cult base of followers. 

Download Scopify for free via the AppStore here, word is the Android version of the app is on its way as well

Learn more about the app via the ROM's website here

Rogers Alerts brings location-based offers to customers

Rogers Alerts, a new location-based mobile solution that allows Rogers wireless customers to access personalized, location-based offers on their smartphone.

The Rogers Alerts platform is powered by technology from Placecast, a leading location-based marketing and loyalty solutions provider. It leverages geofencing technology, which will give retailers the ability to send a text message with personalized and timely offers to Rogers customers in close proximity to their retail locations. 

Rogers Alerts will be sent to Rogers subscribers who have signed up to receive offers at www.rogersalerts.ca.

To celebrate the launch, Rogers is offering $5 off one of their next two Rogers Wireless to wireless customers who text RALERTS to 5050, as long as their Rogers Alerts account remains active for 30 days. 

Who will offer deals, you might be wondering? Sears Canada, Future Shop, Pizza Hut Canada, A&W, Second Cup and Rogers Wireless are amongst the first retailers to take advantage of Rogers Alerts, the first of its kind in the Canadian