iOS Tips: How to try Apple Music for free without paying later

The highly anticipated Apple Music subscription service has arrived, bringing limitless song streaming to the seemingly endless iTunes library. And the first three months are free!

But when signing up, you'll notice that Apple sets you up to auto-renew at the end of the trial, which means monthly charges of $9.99/£9.99/AU$11.99 (individual plan pricing) or $14.99/£14.99/AU$17.99 (family plan pricing) could kick in without you realizing it on September 30.

Not to worry: you can cancel the auto-renew right now without affecting your free trial, and it couldn't be easier.

On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > iTunes & App Store, and open your Apple ID. Next tap "View Apple ID" and type your Apple ID password to reach the Account Settings screen.

Scroll down until you reach Subscriptions, and tap Manage. Here you'll find everything you're subscribed to, from Apple Music to magazines. Tap your Apple Music membership to bring up details about this subscription. Here you can toggle off auto-renew, or subscribe at any time if you decide to do so.

And that's it! Now there's no chance you'll be charged at some future date, so you can enjoy your free trial of Apple Music worry-free.

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Office 365 integration turns Cortana into your work assistant

Cortana takes a bigger presence in the latest Insider Preview Build 10158 of Windows 10, especially for Office 365 users. Microsoft announced that the Halo-inspired digital voice assistant can deliver alerts for flight information, commuter traffic and package deliveries on the desktop, and Office 365 users can now get a glimpse of their schedule with deeper Cortana integration.

"By integrating with Office 365, Cortana can proactively help you prepare for an upcoming meeting," Microsoft said in a statement. "Cortana brings you helpful information about the people you're meeting with, recent documents they've worked on, and reminders about when and where you need to be next so you won't be late."

Your office assistant

Screenshots posted by Microsoft show that Cortana can complement your schedule with glanceable information, like the weather forecast. On Windows 10 Mobile, the screenshot also shows actionable buttons for an appointment entry so you can notify meeting participants if you're running late, or open Skype if it's a virtual meeting. Mobile integration will occur later this year, but desktop and tablet integration is available now.

In another example, Microsoft shows flight information with a flight tracker to notify if your plane is on time. In the same view, Cortana also delivers traffic information to help you get to the airport on time for your flight.

Microsoft isn't the first to roll out proactive or predictive notifications. Rival Google offers similar alerts on its Google Now platform, but Google doesn't have deep integration with Google Apps.

How it works and how to get it

"Through Office 365, Cortana can pull together insights to help you be more connected – like how you and your colleagues are connected to each other, documents you share and your upcoming meetings with them," Microsoft said. "Cortana will even deliver reminders when that important person contacts you."

Microsoft did not specify where it is gathering the insights to make Cortana more useful for work, but Microsoft demoed various work-related features using data from the Power BI platform at the Ignite conference.

"This lets you ask questions like 'which projects are due to be finished by July?' or 'which countries are my best customers in?' or 'how many PCs do my customers have by industry?' – which sound like the questions you can already ask Cortana, just with a knowledge base about your business rather than more general web searches," we reported in May.

To get Cortana integration, you must be part of the Windows Insider program running the latest preview build, have an Office 365 account from work and be part of an organization that supports Cortana through the First Release program. For organizations that do not want Cortana integration at this time, Microsoft allows IT administrators to opt out of Cortana connectivity in the Office 365 Admin portal.

In addition to delivering your daily schedule, Cortana could be used to send emails with your voice. With dictation, you can tell Cortana the email recipient and compose the message with your voice.

It's unclear if Cortana's integration with Office 365 is the same personal assistant project that Bill Gates confirmed he is working on. Microsoft is also said to be involved with a Work Assistant app.

Windows 10

Windows 10 will be available on July 29 for customers to download. Microsoft offers Windows 10 as a free upgrade during the first year of release for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 owners. For ineligible customers, Windows 10 Home costs $129 (£99.99, €135) and Windows 10 Pro will retail for $199. Microsoft has not revealed international pricing for Windows 10 Pro.

Cortana will be one of the highlight features of the operating system, allowing users to search the web, find local files on their systems or network and receive notifications and alerts. Other new features included in Windows 10 include the return of the Start menu, new multitasking capabilities, the Microsoft Edge browser and Continuum for users who work with convertible notebooks.

In addition to Windows 10 availability, Microsoft has hinted that Cortana could make the leap to competing iOS and Android operating systems.

• Read our review of Windows 10

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Apple Music Is For People With No Clue What To Stream

 You’re no DJ. That’s the biggest problem with streaming services. A search box connected to the history of recorded music can be discouraging. You constantly have to know what to play next. That’s why Apple was so smart to make Apple Music all about telling you what to play next. Apple is the king of making complicated technology accessible to the masses. It turned clunky… Read More

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How to download music from YouTube

Introduction and music quality

The world's most popular music channel isn't iTunes, Spotify or Radio 1 – it's YouTube. 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and much of that video is music – but it's music in a format that isn't ideal for listening to on portable devices such as smartphones or iPods. That doesn't mean you can't download it or change the format, however.

What you need to know about music files and quality

When you use a service such as ClipConverter, as we'll do in this tutorial, you'll be given a choice of different file formats and settings for the music file you'll create. The options you choose here will affect what devices you can play your music files on, and they can also affect how good the end result will sound.

ClipConverter offers three music options: MP3, M4A and AAC. MP3 runs on almost anything from computers to smart car stereos, and it'll play happily on iPods and smartphone music players too. However, it's a fairly old format and it's not as efficient as more modern music standards, which can store higher quality music in the same amount of space.

ClipConverter's other options, M4A and AAC, are two of those standards. They're widely supported too, but you might find that they won't play on some devices such as USB-enabled car stereos. If they are supported, use them over MP3: they don't include copy protection, and at the same quality settings they sound noticeably better than MP3 files do.

Once you've chosen your format, the next step is to decide what bitrate you want. The bitrate is literally how many bits per second the file format uses – the more bits, the higher the quality. Music file bitrates are measured in kilobits per second, or kbps for short, so an MP3 with a bitrate of 256kbps should be twice as good as an MP3 with a bitrate of 128kbps. And that's largely true, because MP3 uses what's called "lossy" compression.

Lossy compression: what it is, and when it's good

Lossy compression is based on a simple idea: a computer analyses the music and gets rid of anything it decides isn't important. That massively reduces the amount of space a music file takes up – compared to CD quality music files, an MP3 file is roughly one twelfth of the size – but the more you throw out, the poorer the quality becomes.

An MP3 file encoded at 320kbps sounds almost indistinguishable from the original, but the same music at 128kbps is noticeably poorer. Unless you're using really bad headphones or speakers, 128kbps MP3s will sound pretty horrible compared to the rest of your music.

Choosing the right bitrate for YouTube music

Watching a black and white film on a colour TV doesn't magically colourise it, and whacking your audio converter's settings up to maximum bitrates won't magically improve the sound quality of a YouTube video if the original isn't up to snuff.

In most cases, the music you'll hear on a YouTube video is an AAC stream of 128 to 192kbps – even though YouTube recommends that video uploaders use a bitrate of 384kbps for stereo audio. That may be for future-proofing, or it may be to get the best results from Google's own music compression, but either way it means there's little point in going beyond 192kbps when you create M4A/AAC files, or around 256kbps for MP3s.

Is downloading music from YouTube legal?

That's a very good question. It's certainly against YouTube's terms and conditions, which say you can only use its content for streaming, and you could argue that it's unethical too: many artists depend on YouTube's ads for their income, so any ad-free playback you do is depriving them of income.

We suspect the legality of this is similar to ad-blocking – content owners would really rather you didn't do it and try their best to stop the tools from working, but there's not a lot they can actually do to prevent you listening ad-free if your listening comes under "fair use" in copyright terms. Then again we're not lawyers, so proceed with this at your own risk.

Step-by-step instructions

Okay, so let's assume you've found an artist who's happy for you to download their music. Here's how to do it.

Step 1

Find the artist whose song or songs you want to download. In this example we're going to use our own music, and we've given ourselves permission to download it because we're nice like that. In the address bar of your browser, select the video's address – it'll be something like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIkBID324so – and use Ctrl-C (Cmd-C on a Mac) to select it.

Step 2

There are lots of YouTube converters out there, but our favourite is ClipConverter.cc as it runs in your browser and doesn't attempt to install unwanted software, toolbars and other irritations. Pop along to www.clipconverter.cc and use Ctrl-V (Cmd-V on a Mac) to paste the clip's address into the Media URL to Download box.

Step 3

Click on the kind of file you want to create. MP3 offers the widest compatibility, but M4A and AAC offer better sound quality in smaller file sizes. If you select MP3 you can choose between Auto Mode, in which ClipConverter sets the quality setting for you, or you can uncheck that and choose the bitrate yourself.

Step 4

Click on Continue and ClipConverter will check the URL and detect the video clip. You don't need to change anything here unless you want the very highest quality option. Give the song a file name and then click on Start.

Step 5

ClipConverter will now do its thing – it's usually very, very fast – and present you with a download link. Simply click on that, find the song in your downloads folder and open it to hear the tune in all its glory. You can repeat the process for as many songs as you like.

• You might also want to read: Top 5 best free YouTube to MP3 converters

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Beware Bitcoiners Bearing Gifts

 During patches of turbulence, pilots are trained to steer into the airborne trouble, much like when a driver encounters black ice. To increase the odds of coming out unscathed in either scenario, it’s critical to remain as calm as possible, even when all hell is breaking loose. Greece is now in a slide and her citizens, young and old, are looking for ways to keep their savings intact. One… Read More http://ift.tt/1HsI2Nj

Trucker Path Raises $20M To Claim The Uber For Truckers Moniker

 Earlier this year Los Angeles-based Cargomatic, announced it had raised $8 million to expand its platform. Why was this interesting? Well, Cargomatic hopes to become an ‘Uber for truckers’, by connecting shippers and truckers who are available to help move their cargo. Truckers would get to make more money, but, in addition, the shipping would be routed more efficiently towards… Read More http://ift.tt/1HsFnDa

Pinterest Has Started Rolling Out Buyable Pins On The iPhone And iPad

 Pinterest is starting to roll out a buy button on its pins today in the iPhone and iPad apps, the company said. Buyable Pins let some retailers who are partners with Pinterest and retailers using Shopify and Demandware. The company unveiled Buyable Pins earlier this month, and said at the time that they would be rolling out later in June. The tool lets retailers add a buy button to pins that… Read More

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Rooomy Lets You Decorate Your Room in 3D

 Launching today, Rooomy is an iPad app which lets you turn 2D images of a room into a 3D space. You can also decorate these 3D rooms with over 500 pieces of virtual 3D furniture from popular brands like Design Within Reach and All Modern. Built by Loft-NedSense, a European company listed on the NYSE Euronext, the app is mainly designed to be as a virtual staging solution for the real… Read More http://ift.tt/1LSWmhH

Updated: Apple Music: release date, price and features

Apple music streaming service

Update: Apple Music has arrived! You'll need to download iOS 8.4 on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to access it, or update iTunes.

If you're unsure how to get Apple Music on your devices, read our handy how-to guide!

Update #2: A Sonos spokesperson has told Business Insider that while Sonos systems won't be compatible with Apple Music at launch, the companies are currently working together towards a solution that will arrive "before the end of the year."

Original article follows...

Apple Music, the name of Apple's long-awaited replacement for Beats Audio and iTunes Radio, is official. And while it may sound like a copycat, Apple's controversial approach will sing a different tune from Spotify and other music streaming services.

Announced at WWDC 2015, the service looks to integrate on-demand music streaming, a 24/7 radio station called Beats1 and a social network that will help fans connect with artists "on the deepest level, building relationships that last a lifetime."

Some of these features will be free. Some of them won't. A lot of it will look like Spotify and Rdio, but Apple has a few tricks up its sleeve to separate itself from the pack.

For one thing, the Cupertino company's bold new venture into streaming isn't all about songs – it's about community and uniting music fans the world over.

Services like Beats1 will have a revolving set of DJs based in London, Los Angeles and New York that keep new music, interviews and news running around the clock. Meanwhile, a new integrated social network called Connect will try to erase our memories of Apple's misguided Ping service.

Cut to the chase
What is it? A new streaming music service from Apple
When is it out? June 30 on iOS 8.4, OSX and Windows, with Android support coming in the fall
How much does it cost? $9.99/£9.99 (about AU$13) per month or $14.99/£14.99 (about AU$20) for families of up to six individuals

But for every move Apple's made to shake, shake, shake up the industry, it's been met with consternation and apprehension, most notably from megastar Taylor Swift.

But before we go too far down the MP4 rabbit hole, let's talk about how big of a hole Apple Music will leave in your wallet every month.

Pricing and release date

There's good news and bad news. The bad news is that Apple doesn't believe in giving away a free meal. Apple's service has a price tag: $9.99/£9.99 (about AU$13) per month or $14.99/£14.99 (around AU$20) for families of up to six individuals.

(This morning's keynote lacked UK pricing and availability details, but we've reached out to Apple for additional information.)

The good news is exactly what you'll get for that asking price.

By subscribing to the service, you'll be able to play and locally save any number of tunes from iTunes's 25-million song catalog without any stipulations. That's 5 million more songs than Spotify has which, for fans of the indie genre, makes all the difference in the world. Plus, for fans of Tidal, you'll also be able to access "high-quality curated playlists" and get "expert music recommendations," if that's more your speed.

Apple will offer a free version of the service, too, to everyone with an Apple ID, but all it includes are the ability to listen to the new global radio station and use Apple's social media service. Comparatively, Spotify and Rdio offer unlimited streaming with ads to its members without a monthly fee, though many similar features, like saving local music, are set behind a paywall.

Apple Music is intentionally limited, clearly, to see users jump into Apple's paid ecosystem. The silver lining is that the monthly service is lessened by a three-month free trial offer that Apple is extending to new users.

Apple Music will be released on June 30 alongside Apple iOS 8.4, with PC and Macs to receive a new version of iTunes around the same time, and an Android version will be made available in the fall.

Music curation

When Apple started hiring ex-music journalists shortly after the purchase of Beats, we knew something was up. What they were doing, apparently, was putting together a comprehensive way to sort and recommend music, using not only the algorithms from the now-defunct Beats service but human curation to present "great music people want to hear."

In theory, this will look a lot like Tidal's curated playlists, jam-packed full of information on artists, studios and producers, combined with Pandora's ability to match you with the most popular songs in your preferred genre.

Realistically, Apple Music has the advantage here by having your entire iTunes library at its fingertips that it can use as a reference point for the bands and artists you listen to the most.

Beats 1 global radio

When Apple said it was going to revolutionize the way we listened to music with a new radio station, it was hard not to laugh.

Beats1 will be a 24/7 music station, like SiriusXM here in the US, and hosted by renowned DJs like Zane Lowe, Blame Ebro and Julie Adenuga from Los Angeles, New York and London. It will be the first in its class that will offer news, interviews and new music from artists around the clock.

A recent report from The New York Times says that we can expect Elton John, Drake and Pharrell to host their own shows, with Pharrell calling "dibs" on the first Apple Music debut of an upcoming song. The report also revealed that the first guest on Zane Lowe's show will be renowned rapper Eminem.

Apple Connect social network

Ping, Apple's first attempt at connecting fans with artists via Facebook-like social media, was a complete failure. It launched in 2010 and was shuttered by the end of 2012 after limited engagement, and what seemed like artist apathy.

Apple Connect, we hope, will be different.

Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue took the audience through a live demo of the service that promises to integrate the on-demand streaming from services like Rdio and Spotify with social media services like the revamped Myspace.

In Cue's demo, he showed a behind-the-scenes video of Bastille composing music for their new album, as well as Alabama Shakes's lead singer and guitarist Brittany Howard in the recording studio.

It's content that will drive Connect. Without it, Apple should consider pulling the curtain early and saving the world a small headache down the road.

Controversy about paying artists

Apple Music's three-month free trial was its ace-up-its-sleeve. To promise every iTunes account holder three months of unlimited streaming sounded too good to be true. It turns out it was. Just not for the content creators.

After its WWDC 2015 unveiling, Apple announced that it wouldn't pay artists a cent for music streamed during a user's three-month trial, and then it would switch to a 70/30 payment system then-after.

As you can well imagine, this didn't sit well with artists - particularly, Taylor Swift. "We don't ask you for free iPhones. Please don't ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation," Swift wrote on her Tumblr blog. Talk about "bad blood."

Indie artists and megastars alike asked Apple to pay up or ship out, and Apple being Apple, decided to do the latter. Apple refused to negotiate with indie artists, giving them an ultimatum to either stream their catalog for free for the first three months or remove their music from the storefront.

It took a threat from Taylor to withhold her latest album "1989" before Apple caved in to demands. Apple has since back-pedaled on its original stance and will now pay out artists during users' free trials, and in return have the exclusive streaming rights to Swift's set of tracks.

• You'll need the best headphones around to get the most out of your music streaming service

Page 2 - Leading up to WWDC 2015

What follows is our take of the service before Apple's World Wide Developer Conference...

Following months of reports, Apple is expected to unveil its own on-demand music streaming service at its annual developer conference. While the tech giant has yet to detail its intentions in full, sources paint a fairly clear picture of a paid subscription model in the vein of Spotify and the fresh-faced Tidal.

There are also talks of Apple overclocking its current iTunes Radio platform with technology from its acquisition of Beats Electronics. Has Apple finally lined up its successor to iTunes, or will this be too little, too late?

It's too soon to make the call, but we've managed to collect as much information as possible in the days leading up to Apple's big developer conference.

What is Apple's new music service?

Apple's new service will allow users to stream unlimited music for a monthly fee, according to a recent report by The New York Times. This service may well be a revamped version of iTunes Radio, its current horse in the race against online radio services such as Pandora.

The streaming service is projected to borrow heavily from Beats Music, following the acquisition of the Beats Electronics brand by Apple last year for a cool $3 billion (about £1.9 billion/AU$3.9 billion). This would likely result in an emphasis on expert-crafted playlists, and using both music downloaded by the user as well as music curation algorithms to create custom, personalized soundtracks. Integrations with social networks such as Facebook or Twitter could also be expected.

There have also been talks of upgrading the iTunes Radio to feature virtual DJs to create a living radio atmosphere and prepare specialized music rotations, with artists such as Pharrell and Drake rumored to take part in the lineup.

How will I get it, and how much will I have to pay?

The app's launch is expected to play out as an update to iTunes and the iOS Music app featured on iPhones, iPads, and iPods, so says USA Today. This method ensures all up-to-date iOS and iTunes users have access to Apple's new music service, which could turn out to be a huge boon for the company as they play catchup to the long-established Spotify.

Considering the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus alone managed to sell over 10 million units the weekend they were released, shattering pre-order records for the company, smartphone users on iOS could become a massive install base once the revamped music service reaches their device.

Payment and account information would most likely be tied to a user's Apple Pay and Apple ID information, as well as be part of the Music app currently pre-installed on all iOS products. This means Apple could get first dibs on a ton a potential customers new to streaming, as well as simplify the onboarding and payment process for established fans of on-demand music.

The most recent report, courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, has an Apple musc subscription costing $10 per month, a rate similar to the rest of the competition, excluding Tidal's HiFi offering for $20/£20 a month.

There will also likely be free trials available, but curiously enough Apple hasn't offered a "free" tier similar in other online services, suggesting that the new Apple Music will only be available to paying customers. Given the streaming side of the service might be premium-only, it is likely that any advertising content will be reserved for its internet radio service, where the DJ-run channels may still be available to listen to for free.

Why now?

Apple is no stranger to spotting trends. Remember, iTunes revolutionized purchasing and playing music in the digital space over a decade ago. Music streaming has rapidly become more popular over the traditional model, with music download sales dropping 8% in 2014 while subscription sales climbed nearly 40%, according to market research by the IFPI music market research firm.

This isn't Apple's first foray in online music listening, either. iTunes Radio made its debut in 2013 as a response to Pandora and other online music services. As more on-demand services gain traction, offering instant access to millions of songs, it would make sense for Apple to make its next step, especially given that the extensive iTunes library already grants it a head-start in music selection.

When is Apple's new service coming out?

Apple's upcoming WWDC 2015 conference begins June 8 and runs through June 12, and it's here Apple is expected to make an official announcement.

While the service could very well be set to launch as early as that week, there have been reports of license negotiations with major record labels going at a sluggish clip.

We'll just have to see if Apple can get its music service off the ground for a June release. Until then, there's still many questions left unanswered. How will prior iTunes purchases factor in? What regions will it be available in? Will there be an offline mode? With luck, these questions and more will be resolved as we provide updated coverage in the coming week.

• Music isn't the only streaming service in the works from Apple. Check out the Apple TV 2!

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