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Just 18 months after rapper Jay Z purchased the service for $56 million, it appears that tech behemoth Apple is close to acquiring Tidal.

The company, which currently has the second-most popular music streaming service on the planet, is attracted to Tidal's roster of popular artists that have stakes in the service.

A few of those artists are Kanye West, Jay Z's wife Beyonce, Madonna, Rihanna and Daft Punk, all of which contribute exclusive content. Tidal is also the only service to offer Prince's catalog of music, thanks to Prince's relationship with Jay Z before he passed earlier this year.

Tidal offers a 40 million deep HiFi catalog for $20 a month, or standard MP3 quality for $10 a month (similar to Apple Music and Spotify). Tidal says it has over 4 million paying subscribers, a huge jump from when Jay Z bought it. Apple Music has 15 million paying subs, and Spotify has 30 million.

Specs have leaked for Google's upcoming Nexus device, this one built by HTC.

Codenamed 'Marlin,' the flagship device will allegedly have a 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display, be powered by an unknown quad-core Snapdragon processor and 4GB RAM and up to 128GB of internal storage. Additionally, the phone will have dual 8MP/12MP cameras, Bluetooth 4.2, a 3450mAh battery and the same rear fingerprint scanner as its predecessors.

There have also been rumors of a project codenamed 'Sailfish,' a smaller model of the next-generation Nexus, just like this generation has the 6P and the smaller 5x.

As always, expect an official announcement in the August - October timeframe for the new Nexus devices.

Xbox Play Anywhere, the service that gives gamers access to some games on Windows 10 PCs and the Xbox One with just one purchase, will go live on September 13th.

Microsoft announced the program at E3 last month and there are already 12 games listed as "Play" supported.

When the service launches Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, ReCore, Sea of Thieves, Halo Wars 2, Scalebound, Killer Instinct Season 3, State of Decay, 2Ark: Survival Evolved, Cuphead, We Happy Few, and Crackdown 3 will be available, all at their regular prices.

Microsoft says Play Anywhere saves your progress to a single file in the cloud, as well as a single set of achievements.

Requirements are minimal to use Xbox Play Anywhere but you need to have August 2nd's Windows 10 Anniversary Edition on your PC and the upcoming summer Xbox One firmware update.

Sony's IPTV service PlayStation Vue is said to have reached 120,000 subscribers, largely making it a success among similar services.

The company launched the service in March 2015, but only went nationwide three months ago in the U.S.

Pricing for Vue ranges from $40 and higher depending on major broadcast network availability and the number of channels.

Initially, Vue was available just on select Sony devices including the PlayStation but has since expanded to iOS, Amazon Fire products and Roku players.

We told you about the Finnish startup Ruuvi and its Bluetooth beacon technology that heading to Kickstarter couple months ago. Now the RuuviTag is finally on Kickstarter and before the first five hours passed it was already fully funded.

Now after three days it has been funded over five times the original goal of ten thousands dollars and unlocked the first stretch goal.

RuuviTag is a Bluetooth enabled Internet of Things beacon that provides environmental information with multiple sensors and transmits its data to smartphones via low-power Bluetooth 4.2. Its key selling points are the open source community that builds and enhances the device and a battery life of up to 10 years with just one coin battery.

The variety of sensors give readings about the ambient temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, altitude, and acceleration. Ruuvi says that the beacon works for example as weather station or a physical web address but the possibilities are endless with community support and good ideas.

RuuviTag costs $25 with all sensors and $20 with just the thermometer. Check the video below to get some inspiration for your own beacons.

Google's Nexus devices have served for years as a reference device on Android. Developed by most of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world they have provided different takes on what is a Google phone.

For a long time it has been suggested that Google wants to some day do it all by themselves but so far there hasn't been an official Google phone. According to The Telegraph this is going to change later this year.

Even though Google has always participated in the development of Nexus devices it has never made one from the ground up. The products always reflect the manufacturer and this time around Google wants to make it special.

The rumors have it that the device will be released this year but it won't replace Nexus devices, which are as well still arriving from HTC and possibly other manufacturers this fall.

Like Microsoft after the acquisition of Nokia, Google needs to be careful not to step on its partners' toes. Giving special attention to your own baby might discourage other manufacturers. Those questions were certainly in the air when the search giant bought Motorola.

A group of security researchers have found a vulnerability in Google's Chrome browser that allows downloading movies straight from Netflix. This is obviously not a feature especially the entertainment industry wants in what is the most popular browser on the globe.

David Livshits from the Cyber Security Research Center at Ben-Gurion University in Israel and Alexandra Mikityuk with Telekom Innovation Laboratories in Berlin, Germany have found that the implementation of Widevine EME/CDM technology that is used to stream encrypted video was lacking and enabled downloading of the video. According to Wired, the two researchers informed Google of this bug already in May but it hasn't yet been patched.

This not only works with Netflix but many of its competitors, like HBO. The researchers will not reveal the details to the bug before 90 days has passed since they told Google about it. Google still has time to issue a fix before pirate jump all over this security hole. The researchers have though released a brief video showcasing the vulnerability.

Google has acknowledged that the bug exists and says that it's working on fixing the problem. The vulnerability might also be found on other Chromium based browsers which include for example Opera.

For a long time Netflix was adamant on its pricing. No changes were made for a long time and everything seemed to be good. The markets obviously reacted and more expensive deals and original content meant that price increases, several of them in fact, were needed.

Fortunately for the customers the increase was not a radical one and for many I would argue the new content was worth every penny. However, it might not be all over yet, and there's been even rumors about advertisements.

Will Netflix adopt the Hulu strategy and show ads even for paying customers? Who knows, but if they indeed decide to do it, how will the customers react?

AllFlicks decided to do a poll on exactly that. Approximately 1200 Reddit users answered questions regarding ads on Netflix. The negativity towards ads was clear.

90 percent would rather see another price increase instead of ads. Most of them were at least a dollar or two and over 10 percent were willing to go over 4 dollars more.

The most shocking of the poll results, however, was that nearly three out of four answered that they would rather cancel the subscription than watch ads. That's 74 percent of the people who answered the poll. It's hard to say how many would actually act on it but it's safe to say that Netflix probably doesn't want to try their luck, unless it's the last option.

Spotify has told The Telegraph that it has surpassed the 100 million mark in subscribers. Paying subscribers was earlier this year reported to have passed 30 million. Apple meanwhile is having trouble growing its service past its initial base.

Apple told us in April that it had mustered 13 million Apple Music subscribers which is not much more than it had 9 months earlier just after Apple Music's release. Now though those people are paying and not just enjoying their free three months of music.

Just before the launch of Apple Music Spotify revealed that it had more than 20 million subscribers. So Apple might have beat Spotify's growth within the year but that is mostly because of the launch boom. Spotify has thus been growing faster than Apple Music for most of the past year – or at least on par.

It will be really hard to catch Spotify in this game unless you come up with something completely different. Its free model also is a springboard for potentially new paying customers who are ready to pay for convenience.

The next iPhone will be a major upgrade to current iPhone 6s. This biyearly full upgrade cycle provides us with a bigger upgrade every two years. But how will Apple update its number one product, sales of which has started declining.

The rumors have had for the past few months that Apple will introduce its first dual camera smartphone. After months of speculation it was widely recognized that it's more likely that only the bigger and better Plus version of iPhone 7 will have the double lens.

Now rumors from a Foxconn employee suggest that plans might have changed. According to the subcontractors claims Apple has decided to back down from having a dual camera at all, a plan that it once did indeed have.

This, like other rumors, should be taken with a grain of salt. It remains to be seen if the feature some Android phones already have is there or whether Apple's big new feature is something completely different.

The small Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus took the world by storm two years ago by releasing a super cheap flagship smartphone. They called it the flagship killer, and it indeed challenged the best Android smartphones without big drawbacks and with a tiny price tag. Now the company has revealed this years model.

As expected it is called the OnePlus 3. The third generation is not quite as cheap as the first, or even the second model, but it certainly is worth the flagship killer moniker. Comparing it to Samsung's number one smartphone, the Galaxy S7, OnePlus 3 only loses in screen resolution. Some would say not going QHD was a smart move from OnePlus too.

OnePlus 3 features a super thing 7,4 mm (0.29 in) thin, single-piece aluminium body which holds a 3000 milliamp battery. Performance is ensured by Snapdragon 820 and six gigs of RAM. The sixteen megapixel f2.0 camera features optical image stabilization and phase detection auto focus.

Everything seems to be in order for a good top end smartphone but it's the price what makes the deal sweet. You can buy one unlocked for only $399.

OnePlus has however revealed that the 5,5 inch smartphone will be the only option for now, and there's only the one 64 GB version. The company has discontinued the X model that was introduced last year as the cheaper and smaller option.

Hiroshi Lockheimer, SVP of Android, is either an expert troll or the name of Android N is going to be Nutella.

The executive has been posting on Twitter, using some not-so-subtle hints as to the name of the upcoming mobile operating system.

Here are some of the least subtle references:

Twitter has invested $70 million in popular streaming music service SoundCloud in an effort by both companies to share users.

"Earlier this year, we made an investment in SoundCloud through Twitter Ventures to help support some of our efforts with creators," said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. "They've been great partners of ours over the years, and their community-supported approach mirrors ours in many ways."

SoundCloud has 175 million users while Twitter has 300 million monthly active users, and over 500 million accounts. The streaming service has struggled in recent years, however, with losses in the tens of millions despite increasing revenues. The investment will certainly help keep the company afloat for some time and "enable SoundCloud to remain focused on building value for creators and listeners alike," adds the company.

Apple will continue its crusade against the ultra-vulnerable Adobe Flash soon, blocking the plugin by default starting with the next version of desktop Safari.

Flash will still be allowed to run, but the user will have to activate it on a site-by-site basis.

Apple is following in the footsteps of Google, who announced last month that upcoming Chrome versions will act similarly although Chrome will give exceptions to major websites.

In addition to Flash, Apple is also blocking other plugins like Silverlight and Java, although neither has been as prone to security issues like Flash has been for the last decade.

Music streaming service Rhapsody will soon begin using the Napster brand name.

The service currently has 3.5 million customers, a respectable number, but well below Spotify, Apple and Google.

"No changes to your playlists, favorites, albums, and artists," says a blog post on Rhapsody's website. "Same music. Same service. Same price. 100% the music you love. Stay tuned!"

Napster, of course, started the music piracy revolution in the late 90s and has been widely credited with being part of the start of the downfall of the music industry. Rhapsody acquired the name Napster and some other IP in 2011.

For now, all we know is "Napster is coming" but there was little else in terms of details.