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Thursday
Aug182011

YouTube Relaunches Its Music Site Day after Settling Copyright Lawsuit


YouTube has relaunched its YouTube Music page a day after settling a copyright lawsuit that could have forced it to remove a large portion of its music-video content.

The revamped site includes new partnerships, with music "tastemakers" SPIN, VICE and XLR8R providing curated music selections to help people find new music, Tim Partridge explained on the company's blog. YouTube Music also recommends videos and artists based on what you've watched and...

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Thursday
Aug182011

Google Maps Adds Weather Layer; Directly Challenges WunderMap


Google Maps has added a weather layer -- powered by Weather.com -- that displays current temperatures and conditions worldwide and shows a sun or moon to indicate time of day.

But Google is not the first to create an interactive weather map. In 2008, Weather Underground, founded by online weather pioneers Jeff Masters (PhD in meteorology) and Alan Steremberg in 1995, launched WunderMap, which is actually powered by Google and...

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Thursday
Aug182011

Should You Rent or Buy? Check Trulia's Killer Infographic


We're suckers for a great infographic, and this one from Trulia on renting versus buying is killer in its design. It also makes us feel better about not being able to afford to buy on the west side of Los Angeles.

No surprise that it's more affordable to rent than buy in New York City -- but Ft. Worth and Omaha...

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Thursday
Aug182011

How to Track Your Computer with Prey (Savior of London Ransack Victim)

During the London riots, one hacker reported returning home to a ransacked house to find his laptop missing. Luckily, he had previously installed Prey Project [ @preyproject ], an open-source laptop and phone tracker for Mac, Windows and Linux that helps people locate, secure, lock and recover information if a device goes missing. You could also spy on your kids' online activity (just sayin').

Postscript: the hacker got his laptop back, thanks largely to the thief logging into Facebook [ see our story on British police using social media to catch rioters ].

We were so intrigued by this story that we installed Prey on our laptops and tested it. Brilliant! Here's how you can set it up. If you have a Prey story, share it in the comments or email tips@launch.is.

First, install the software onto the device in order to synchronize it with the control panel. Next...

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Wednesday
Aug172011

Klout Previews Topic Pages, Influencers Will Get First Access of Course



Klout is creating topic pages that will show the most influential content, influencers of that topic and the latest activity.

The beta will launch in September, but those who get the most people signed up for the beta will get even earlier access. Registered Klout users can already give and receive +K for topics Klout says they influence.

UPDATE [11:30am PDT, 8/18/11 ] Chris Makarsky, Klout's director of product, told LAUNCH by email that Klout will launch topic pages "for the majority" of topics they track for individual influence.

Regarding how Klout will determine influential content, Chris explains, "We take the influence...

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