Apple Music and Spotify are the two most popular streaming services in the world; most of us already have our favorite. Fans get into endless debates about which service is better, and for many people, that boils down to two factors: pricing and recommendation algorithms. However, there are many other factors that settle the Apple Music vs. Spotify debateyou could be after better sound quality, sharing features, support for your preferred platforms, and many other things. But which service is superior? It depends on what you're looking for. Apple Music vs. Spotify: pricingIf you're on a really tight budget and just cannot afford to pay for a music streaming service, Spotify's ad-supported free tier allows you to listen without paying a dime. Apple Music offers a three-month free trial, but once that's done, you will have to pay. It's worth noting, though, that Apple Music does not have any ads.Spotify Premium has four plans, with Premium Individual at $11.99/month, Premium Duo (for two accounts) at $16.99/month, Premium Family at $19.99/month (up to six accounts), and Premium Student at $5.99/month (only for students). Apple Music costs the same as Spotify, without a "Duo" option: $5.99/month for the student plan, $10.99/month for an individual plan, and $16.99 for family. The student plan comes with free access to Apple TV+; Spotify's equivalent plan lets you access Hulu's ad-supported plans.If you're all in on the Apple ecosystem, you can get the Apple One bundle for a great discount. Apple One Individual costs $19.95/month for four servicesApple Arcade, Apple Music, Apple TV+, and iCloud (50GB). The Apple One Family plan offers all of this with 200GB iCloud storage for $25.95/month for up to six people.The Premier plan includes all of the above for six people, plus Apple News and Apple Fitness, for $37.95/month.Both services have something to offer for seasoned deal hunters, but Apple Music's promotions generally let you get more for free (assuming you don't just stick to Spotify's ad-supported tier). There are plenty of discounts on Spotify Premium, with the best offer being a three-month free trial. But for example, while Apple Music's free trial usually caps out at three months, at the time of writing, new users can get six months of Apple Music for a one-time payment of $2.99.Apple Music offers better sound qualityIf you're after the best sound quality, then Apple Music is a better option than Spotify. Apple Music allows you to listen to lossless audio files at no extra charge. With the right kind of wired audio equipment, you'll be able to hear the difference in sound quality. Spotify doesn't allow you to play lossless audio files yet.To be clear, the sound quality in both services is quite goodmost people will not feel like they're listening to inferior audio. Especially if you use a pair of cheap earbuds, there's no point in trying to pick one service over another based on sound quality. This matters only for those who have high-end audio gear rather than those with low quality or Bluetooth earbuds. However, Apple also offers lossless audio for certain AirPods when paired with an Apple Vision Pro headset, since that circumvents Bluetooth. The company says, "AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation, and AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C Charging Case provide Lossless Audio with ultra-low latency when paired with an Apple Vision Pro."Apple Music has another advantage in Spatial Audio, which is a form of virtual surround sound and creates a more immersive listening experience.Both services have a vast music librarySpotify and Apple Music both have over 100 million songs at the ready. Most people will find everything they need on either service, but some niche artists or genres may be better represented on either of these services. For example, Apple Music has a whole app dedicated to classical music.Playlists and recommendationsMusic streaming services live and die by their recommendation algorithms. Although Spotify started out with a huge advantage in this area, Apple Music has been slowly catching up. At the moment, Spotify's algorithm is still better at recommending music, but Apple Music has lots of excellent human-curated playlists that may appeal more to some people. This is a highly subjective debate that swings one way or another based on the genres you prefer. That's why it's best to give both services a shot and see if the playlists are recommendations work for you.UI and app experienceApple Music's apps are great on Apple platforms, but they're mediocre on other devices. The service has a web player, an Android app, a Windows app, and is available on other platforms too, but its experience remains sub-par on most of those. In my experience, and that of other users, Apple Music can be slow, laggy, and prone to crashing when used outside of Apple's own devices. If you're someone who's locked into the Apple ecosystem, you'll be pleased with Apple Music, but if you're more of a cross-platform person, Spotify is the better option.Unique featuresApple Music and Spotify both also come with unique features that could help you gravitate towards either one. Apple Music Sing lets you view song lyrics in a karaoke-style UI and syncs them with the song that's currently playing. This makes it easy to follow lyrics, especially on a large-screen device such as an Apple TV. The experience is far more robust than Spotify's synced lyrics feature. Apple Music also offers a great accessibility featureMusic Hapticson your iPhone. It uses the iPhone's Taptic Engine to create haptic vibrations for your songs, ranging from barely discernible to long reverberations, depending on the part of the song that's playing. It enhances the listening experience for everyone and in particular, helps people who face hearing-related challenges.On the other hand, Spotify Connect makes it a lot easier to control music playback on other devices. Spotify also supports collaborative playlistsa feature that's still in beta on Apple Music. For collaboration, Spotify Blend automatically curates a playlist based on your and your friends' tastes and Spotify Jam makes it really easy to create party playlists.Non-music featuresSpotify includes podcasts and audiobooks in its service, which has been a polarizing addition. Some people want their music app to have just that, while others don't mind listening to other forms of audio in Spotify. However, almost everyone is annoyed by the fact that Spotify plays ads in podcasts, even for premium subscribers. The service also offers a few hours of audiobook listening for free, but it charges an additional sum if you want more.Sharing and social mediaAs hard as Apple Music is trying to catch up, Spotify is the service with the better sharing and social media options. Its year-end roundupSpotify Wrappedis simple to post to social media, and you also have neat options to share any song to Instagram Stories. Apple Music Replay's sharing options are rather limited, but you can load the roundup in the Music app itself and also view monthly recaps of your top songs.While you can share song lyrics to Instagram via Apple Music, in general, Apple's social media game isn't as good as Spotify's.

Verizons myPlan wireless and myHome internet subscriptions allow users to choose from a selection of perks, which include Netflix & Max with ads, a Disney bundle, a Walmart+ membership and numerous others. Another one is joining their ranks; this time, its a Google One AI Premium subscription for $10 monthly instead of $20.The Google One AI Premium perk functions the same as the original one aside from the 50 percent discount. It includes access to Gemini Advanced, which is capable of summarizing more information and performing Deep Research. Google says Deep Research can use Gemini to go through 1,500 pages of information and prepare a report for you within minutes. You can also now use Gemini in Google Docs and Gmail. As the cherry on top, theres 2TB of Google One cloud storage and a handful of other benefits like the ability to share that storage with your family and a recurring 10 percent back from any purchase on the Google Store.Verizon customers can select Google One AI Premium as their perk for their plans starting February 6. This applies to new and existing customers, as perks can be swapped. Its worth noting that if you dont care about Gemini, Google has long offered 2TB of Drive storage for $10 a month or $100 a year.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/verizon-is-adding-google-one-ai-premium-as-a-perk-for-some-customers-153943314.html?src=rss

I really hate vacuuming and put it off as long as possible. But, my budget isn't very robot vacuum friendly, so, alas I have no choice. However, that might change, as our favorite budget robot vacuum for 2025 is currently 48 percent off. Right now, the iRobot Roomba Vac Robot Vacuum (Q0120) is down to $130 from $250 a record-low price. There's a reason iRobot's Roomba Vac robot vacuum is across all our best lists (check it out alongside our top smart home gadgets). It's an easy to use, high-performance robot vacuum that's not going to break the bank. For starters, you can control the entire device with iRobot's very easy to use app. All that's required of you is connecting the Roomba to your home Wi-Fi network. The Roomba Vac robot vacuum also offers features like Clean While I'm Away, cleaning schedules and up to two hours of cleaning on one charge it automatically heads back to its charging station when on low battery. Plus, you can get a Clean Map report to see exactly where it cleaned. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/our-favorite-budget-roomba-is-half-off-right-now-152501845.html?src=rss

Apple Music has already started logging the tunes you're listening to, and you can now see your stats for January.

Meta wants to work with industry experts, governments, and others to stop AI from becoming a problem to society.

The music streaming company said it paid a record $10 billion in royalties to the music industry in 2024.

Palantir surged more than 25% on robust fourth-quarter results and guidance.

Art gallery, science exhibition and 21st century funhouse, Paradox Museum Miami takes guests on a tour through optical illusions and other enigmas geared for the age of Instagram.The 11,000 square-foot (1,000 square-meter) museum, housed in Miamis trendy Wynwood arts and entertainment district, features more than 70 exhibits that challenge the imagination, executive director Samantha Impellizeri said.It ebbs and flows between periods of highly tactile and interactive exhibit pieces and fully immersive photo opportunities where you yourself become the paradox and walk away with some really fun and unique social media content, Impellizeri said.Paradox Museum has more than a dozen locations throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The Miami location, which opened in 2022, was the first in North America, followed by Las Vegas and New Jersey.Each paradox is uniquely tied to its community, Impellizeri said. So as you walk throughout the experience, youll notice different themes and art installations that directly reflect not only Miami but the Wynwood community specifically.Many of the exhibits at Paradox Museum harken back to old carnival funhouses, like the mirror maze, the spinning tunnel and the upside-down room. The difference is that Paradox Museum explains the math and science behind each illusion.Were a top field trip destination for pre-K all the way up through college students, Impellizeri said. We have a full curriculum of educational activities to do before, during and after the visit to expand upon that educational scope.Like any museum, Paradox Museum plans to update its exhibits to keep visitors coming back.Were not going to be the same space in a year to three years from now, Impellizeri said. Well be engaging with new technology and layering additional discoveries on top of it.Paradox Museum Miami introduced a new Zero Gravity Room this past fall. Guests step into a giant, slowly moving vertical wheel designed to look like the interior of a space station after placing their camera phones on a spinning mount. The spinning camera is synced to the spinning wheel, so the video appears to show the guests walking up the wall and ceiling, like something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey.Paradox Museum is part of a large trend of immersive art experiences opening all over the world this past decade. Examples include a company called Meow Wolf with several locations in the western United States, as well as an immersive Van Gogh exhibit that has been touring North America, Europe and Asia since 2017. Superblue Miami opened in 2021, featuring interactive and experiential art.Immersive experiences around the world are increasing in popularity and popping up more and more, Impellizeri said. And its exciting to see that this trend of interactive and immersive experiences taking off that allows guests to become part of the art, part of the installation itself.Visitors generally take 60 to 90 minutes to make through way through Paradox Museum. Tickets normally cost $26 for adults and teens and $20 for children.Facundo Ildarraz, 17, and his family came to Miami from Argentina to catch a cruise and had a few days to check out the city. Ildarraz said his mom found Paradox Museum online, and it turned out to be a great chance to take fun photos with his family.Ive been laughing since I went inside, Ildarraz said. Its really amazing.Dennis Speigel, head of a consulting company called International Theme Park Services, Inc., said immersive experiences are a natural progression of location-based entertainment, like go-cart tracks, laser tag, paint ball, indoor skydiving, escape rooms and trampoline parks. They are smaller scale attractions that take visitors a few hours to go through, rather than an all-day activity like visiting an amusement park.Its a lot of little things that weve had in the industry for years, heightened by our new technology, like augmented reality and virtual reality, to make the experience new and something people havent seen, Speigel said. Its kind of an evolution, everything thats old is new again.David Fischer, Associated Press

Nintendos profits tumbled as sales of its Switch console lost momentum, prompting the Japanese video-game maker to lower its full-year forecasts.Kyoto-based Nintendo Co., which created the Super Mario franchise, reported Tuesday an April-December profit of 237 billion yen ($1.5 billion), down 42% from the same period the previous year.Nine-month sales dropped 31% to 956 billion yen ($6 billion), according to Nintendo, which did not break down quarterly results.The company now expects to rake in a 270-billion yen ($1.7 billion) profit for the fiscal year through March, down from the previous forecast for 300-billion yen ($1.9 billion).Sales of Nintendo machines for the nine-month period fell to 9.54 million units from 13.7 million last year.Nintendo now expects to sell 11 million Switch consoles for the full fiscal year, lower than its initial projection of 12.5 million.Game software sales in April-December declined to nearly 124 million from 164 million, although Super Mario Party Jamboree, remained popular, with 6.17 million units sold.The latest Legend of Zelda game software was also in demand, selling 3.4 million units globally after going on sale in September.Nintendo said, while demand has dwindled for the Switch, now in its eighth year after its debut, it was still being purchased by a significant number of people. The number of Switch players remains above 100 million, it said.Nintendo is banking on its successor, called Switch 2, which goes on sale later this year. Events where people can try it out are rolling out from April around the world.Nintendo also noted the opening of Super Nintendo World, an amusement facility, in May at Epic Universe in Orlando, Florida will help woo people to its content.Yuri Kageyama is on Threads:https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyamaYuri Kageyama, AP Business Writer

As Mexico City's art week kicks off, we have chosen a few significant buildings from a list of noteworthy architecture developed with local design studio Davidpompa to celebrate the week.Davidpompa and local restaurant Contramar have collaborated on an exhibition of design objects and food items called Woven Kitchen for Mexico City art week, a collection of events oriented around the Zona Maco art fair.The studio has issued aguide for the city in collaboration with Dezeen, focusing on noteworthy architecture throughout the city, organised by the neighbourhood.Davidpompa and Contramar have collaborated with Dezeen for a guide to architecture in Mexico CityThe buildings included range from a large neoclassical building in the city's core built in the 1930s to the recent David Chipperfield Architects and TAAU-designed Museo Jumex.We've also rounded up a series of design events throughout the city here.Read on for eight buildings worth seeing in Mexico City.Photo by Diego Delso, license CC BY-SAPalacio de Bellas Artes, Centro, by Adamo Boari and Federico MariscalLocated on the edge of Mexico City's Alameda Central, the Palacio de Bellas Artes hosts public programming and stands as a prominent structure at the centre of the city.The building was completed in 1934 after delays during the Mexican Revolution, replacing the former Gran Teatro Nacional on the same site.Photo by Jazzy LiUNAM Ciudad Universitaria, Pedregal, by Enrique del Moral and Mario PaniCompleted in 1954 and declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2007, Ciudad Universitaria encompasses the main campus of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) on a sprawling site that also contains a stadium, the national library and museums.The campus was master-planned by Mexican architects Enrique del Moral and Mario Pani and is well known for its Central Library building covered in mosaics by local architect Juan O'GormanFind out more about the UNAM Ciudad Universitaria Photo by Rory GardinerMuseo Jumex, Granada, by David Chipperfield Architects and TAAUHome to one of the largest modern art collections in Latin America, Museo Jumex was completed by David Chipperfield Architects and local studioTAAU in 2013.The building features a distinct sawtooth roof and sits just across from the anvil-shaped Museo Soumaya by FR-EE Architects.Find out more about Mueso Jumex Photo by Gideon Tsang via FlickrBiblioteca Vasconcelos, Tlatelolco, by Alberto Kalach and Juan PalomarBiblioteca Vasconcelos, or Megabiblioteca, was opened in 2006 and quickly became one of the more well-known projects in Mexico City.The building was designed by local architects Alberto Kalach and Juan Palomar and contains an expansive interior of steel bookshelves.Photo is courtesy NownessCasa Gilardi, San Miguel Chapultepec, by Luis BarragnMexican architect Luis Barragn designed a number of residences around Mexico City, including the La Cuadra estate, and is revered for his colourful modern architecture.Design video channel Nowness captured Casa Gilardi on film in 2016, the last project the architect oversaw in its entirety before his passing in 1988.Find out more about Casa GilardiPhoto by ProtoplasmaKidCentro Nacional de Las Artes, Coyoacn, by Legorreta ArquitectosCompleted in 1994 and masterplanned by Legorreta Arquitectos, Centro Nacional de Las Artes (CENART) is comprised of a number of arts and cultural buildings.Architects such as Teodoro Gonzlez de Len also worked on the campus, which was designed to explore models of education and create a centralised, collaborative space for artistic disciplines such as dance, fine arts, music and more.Photo by Alejandro Linares GarciaPalacio de los Deportes, Iztapalapa, by Flix CandelaCompleted in 1968, the Palacio de los Deportes was created to host basketball events during the Mexico City Olympic Games of the same year.Its spiked roof is made of copper-clad plywood sheets and supported on a tubular aluminium frame resting on steel arches.Find out more about the Palacio de los Deportes Photo by JAGarciaIglesia San Josemaria Escriva, Santa Fe, by Javier Sordo MadalenoMexican architect Javier Sordo Madaleno completed Iglesia San Josemaria Escriva in 2008.The wedge-shaped, curving building was dedicated to Catholic priest Josmaria Escriv Balaguer and was designed to resemble a fish, one of the most prominent Christian symbols.The post Eight significant buildings to see around Mexico City appeared first on Dezeen.