Apple has started actively taking down apps that work with Pebble’s smartwatch, boding poorly for the future of Pebble’s system if iOS users are incapable of downloading apps for their smartwatch.

SeaNav US was the first to bring up the situation, claiming its recent app update was rejected due to having ‘Pebble’ in the description; a term Apple will now venomously remove from the iOS App Store. The company received this notice:

    “We noticed that your app or its metadata contains irrelevant platform information in the app. Providing future platform compatibility plans, or other platform references, is not appropriate for the App Store.

    Specifically, your app and app description declare support for the Pebble Smartwatch.”

This isn’t exactly a new move by Apple, it has blocked apps that mention Android or Windows Phone support before and regularly makes sure its platform is filtered to not include rival platform support.

The major issue isn’t that the platform support has been detailed, it is that Apple seems to be removing apps that in any way work with Pebble. Unlike Android and Windows, Pebble has no platform for mobile phone users, meaning it will either have to create a workaround for iOS or skip that part entirely.

Moving to its own App Store for download might be a smart move, but Pebble’s own app might be in trouble if it ever comes time to update the platform.

It also looks like apps like Android Wear for iOS might have a hard time getting on the platform, with Apple not wanting iOS customers to be buying third-party smartwatches.

Apple Watch is showing strong early performance with two million pre-orders so far, and the company is aiming for 20 million sales in 2015.

Yahoo is planning a virtual assistant service in the vein of Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Microsoft’s Cortana, according to sources speaking to Business Insider.

The service will offer search results, contextual information, important updates and located-based news. Yahoo is working alongside the advertising team on the project—known internally as Index—meaning it will most likely contain ads.

Yahoo is putting all of its own services like weather, mail, sports updates and search into the virtual assistant, allowing it to be more powerful without outsourcing searches to other platforms, like Apple has to do with Bing search.

It plans to make the virtual assistant smarter than others by tapping into Yahoo Mail and understanding the context of a question better. CEO Marissa Mayer put forward an example of JFK, but instead of searching for the President, it would search for the airport, because an email receipt from JFK airport was sent to the email address recently.

This sort of contextual information might be invaluable for people that want to know a lot of things, but when they search, it comes up the wrong subject.

Even though Yahoo has millions of search and mail users, it is hard to pinpoint how Yahoo plans to offer the virtual assistant on Android and iOS, since it will not be allowed the same deep integration with the platform that Google Now and Siri offer.

Yahoo plans to make this a mobile-only application. Several ex-Yahoo executives claim this is a terrible idea and will likely cost the company $500 million per year. Execs claim Yahoo should send all traffic to Google, earning them a nice $1 billion per year in profit from such a deal.

Doesn’t look like that is going to happen anytime soon though, Mayer is clear on making Yahoo great again, and outsourcing all search traffic to Google is a surefire way to make the company irrelevant, like it has been for the past 10 years.

(Science Alert) -- NASA is building the biggest telescope the world has ever seen, and it will give scientists the opportunity to 'see' cosmic events that occurred 13.5 billion years ago - just 220 million years following the Big Bang. Named the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), it will be 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, and is tipped to be fully operational within the next three years.

"What the Webb will really be doing is looking at the first galaxies of the Universe," project scientist Mark Clampin told the press at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in the US this week. "We will also be able, with these capabilities, to look in very dark parts of the universe where stars are being born."

The JWST includes a mirror 6.5 metres in diameter, which is three times the size of Hubble’s mirror, and it will have 70 times its light-gathering capacity. It will include four cameras and spectrometers, the latter of which is designed to take in light, break it down into its spectral components, and digitise the signal as a function of a wavelength for scientists to interpret.

"We have sensors on board, equipment on board that will enable us to study the atmosphere of exoplanets spectroscopically, so we will be able to understand the composition of those atmospheres,” Matt Greenhouse, a JWST project scientist, told the press. "We can make big progress in the search for life."

Unlike Hubble, which has spent the last 25 years orbiting Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope will go all the way out to one of the Lagrangian points - a set of five equilibrium points in every Earth-Moon System - 1.5 million kilometres (930,000 miles) away. This will keep it far enough away from the Sun so it’s not too hot, and will shelter it from radiation and "prevent it from being blinded by its own infra-red light," Jean-Louis Santini reports for the AFP.

"It will follow Earth around the Sun over the course of the year. So it's in a Sun centre orbit instead of an Earth centre orbit," said Greenhouse. "Just as Hubble rewrote all the textbooks, Webb will rewrite [them] again."

The telescope is expected to launch in October 2018.

Source: AFP

Google Chrome has announced the end of support for Windows XP will come at the end of the year, one full year after Microsoft dropped extended support for the decade-old operating system.

Most programs still heavily used on Windows XP remain active through extended support, including Oracle’s Java program. Microsoft removed support due to some businesses not choosing a new system despite prior warnings, losing enterprise revenue on software sales.

“We know that not everyone can easily switch to a newer operating system,” Google Chrome Engineering Director Mark Larson wrote in a blog post Thursday. “Millions of people are still working on XP computers every day. We want those people to have the option to use a browser that’s up-to-date and as safe as possible on an unsupported operating system.”

Even with the assertion Google will be there, it is leaving by the end of the year and warns users about the incoming end of support. The Google Chrome program will still be available, but will not be updated any further, leading to potential security vulnerabilities from outdated software.

Users still on Windows XP are already running risks of massive security threats, due to Microsoft not updating the service to protect against viruses and vulnerabilities that arise after a new patch is released, normally detailing bug fixes.

McAfee, Norton and other anti-virus services still support Windows XP, given the large business demand for security programs. This will not be enough for some firmware and software package attacks though, that sweep through anti-virus scanners.

Windows XP has 16 percent market share, but that is dropping quicker with every passing month. Hopefully Windows 10 will push a lot of users to a new OS, but XP owners will have to pay for the platform update.

Microsoft has snagged another important partnership with the makers of CyanogenMod, a ROM for Android that has become extremely popular in places like India.

The partnership will include CyanogenMod 12 with Microsoft Office, OneDrive, Outlook, Bing, OneNote, and Skype coming preloaded on the update. It is a big list, one certain to annoy Google who adds its own service package.

Cyanogen has been critical of Google in the past for not open sourcing a lot of its services, forcing ROM makers and manufacturers to preload quite a bucket load of apps in order to access the Google Play App Store.

Microsoft made a similar agreement with Samsung to add OneDrive, OneNote and Skype onto the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. This move was apparently in exchange for one year of Android patent agreements, valued at $1 billion, showing Microsoft is serious about getting its services onto mobile platforms.

Even though preloading apps might not be the most friendly way to make users adopt services, it is potent. OneDrive offers 25GB of storage free, Skype has free calls and messages as an alternative to WhatsApp and Office is the best productivity suite in the world.

Recently, Cyanogen went into a partnership with Micromax, the largest mobile phone vendor in India. The exclusive deal meant OnePlus could not launch the One in the region, due to it also running CyanogenMod—this went against Micromax’s exclusivity agreement.

Micromax might not be happy with the incoming suite of Microsoft applications, but it is clear Cyanogen is looking for new partnerships to fund its ROM growth. Microsoft was apparently involved in one of Cyanogen’s recent funding rounds, in order to grab this deal.

(Space.com) -- Liquid water lurks just below the surface of Mars on cold winter nights, according to new research.

The Mars Curiosity rover has found evidence that when temperatures drop on cold winter nights, trace amounts of water from the atmosphere can turn to frost, which can then be absorbed into the upper layers of the Martian soil and liquefied. The liquid water evaporates back into the atmosphere after sunrise, when temperatures start to go up again.

Turning water from a solid (frost) to a liquid requires the presence of a particular type of salt that scientists say could melt the frost, even in very cold temperatures (salt lowers the melting temperature of water, which is why it's put down on icy sidewalks and roads during winter). However, the authors of the new work say the small amounts of liquid salt water in the soil would not be enough to support microbial life. The extreme temperatures would also make the environment too extreme.

 On the move

Dry as a bone — that's one way to describe the Martian landscape today. Although the planet once hosted flowing rivers and massive lakes (and is still home to water ice at its poles), today it appears that all the liquid water on the surface of the planet has either been vaporized or frozen by the extreme temperatures (although scientists have found that some water could be extracted from the Martian soil).

The new results suggest there is more going on underneath this desert than meets the eye.

Digging into the soil of the Red Planet, instruments on board Curiosity found a chemical called calcium perchlorate, a type of salt. The authors say the perchlorate absorbs frost from the soil surface, melts it, and creates a thin layer of salty brine.

The liquefied water can then sink even lower in the Martian soil, mixing with other salts. The addition of liquid water is like a set of wheels for these salts — it allows them to move through the soil and relocate.

Curiosity has not found direct evidence of these salty brine layers. The authors of the new research combined analysis of the Martian soil, as well as the atmosphere just above the soil (humidity and temperature). The state of the perchlorates, the researchers say, suggests an exchange of water between the soil and the atmosphere.

Gale Crater lies close to the Mars equator, the hottest and driest region on the planet. The research, which appears online in the journal Nature today (April 13), suggests that these layers of brine  may be even more abundant in regions of the planet with higher humidity and lower temperatures.

 Curiosity has already found signs that rivers once flowed into a lake that stood where the arid Gale Crater now lies (as much of a fifth of the planet may have been covered in water at one point, making it a potentially habitable environment). These rivers left behind sediment deposits that contained, among other things, perchlorates and other salts.

"Very fine-grained sediments, which slowly fell down through the water, were deposited right at the very bottom of the crater's lake," said Morten Bo Madsen, associate professor and head of the Mars Group at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen and a co-author on the new study. "The sediment plates on the bottom are level, so everything indicates that the entire Gale Crater may have been a large lake."

While the finding does not indicate that life can currently be found beneath the Martian surface, it demonstrates that liquid water may be hidden in an otherwise parched landscape.

Project Development Innovations Conference and Exhibition (Mobile Camp Asia 2015) on March 7, 2015 from 7:30 am to 5:30 pm ITC.

Conference and Exhibition held in order to promote the field of communication and social development through wider use and more efficient.

Events, including top leaders and experts from companies that are doing business in the mobile industry with a roundtable of 5 main topics 5, such as 1) the potential of mobile payments in the country 2) mobile technology will do for education in Cambodia, 3) safe to use the phone 4 ) mobile technology for social and public services 5) strategic advertising and marketing through mobile technology in the country.

Besides the above discussion, there are more than 30 organizations, has presented programs and services to the participants.

Each roundtable discussion and debate in depth in each subject, and all the participants and allowed to ask questions to the speakers as well .

Khmer Youth show new works in the 2nd robot to reach out to a new generation. Competition 2nd robot in 2015. On 6 March 2015, at the national television station, presented by Minister Khieu Kanharith and partners Yoga Mama includes members of the Japanese Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia.

This robot competition in order to promote and train the next generation of ideas that specialize in engineering sense for them to attend all of the praise in industrial and manufacturing sectors in the Kingdom of Cambodia, while emerging country in almost all sectors.

Kem quality delegates Royal Commissioner General of National TV station said TVK are pushing students physical provisions, which are to provide direction to the preferred direction for the purpose of promoting the development of our nation. Robot competition robot fastest will win.

Khieu Kanharith said today the 2nd robot and the youth an opportunity to present their work for the first 2 in order to compete internationally.

Chinese Site Feng.com released new images Specs MacBook Air 13-inch screen, which will be announced on March 9 next week Simultaneous MacBookAir new 12-inch screen.

MacBook Air 13-inch screen has been added and the new Spec higher. Actual Processor Intel Core i5-5250U speed of 1.6GHz or 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-5650U speed with Intel HD Graphics 6000, while only Intel HD Series Graphics 5000. Additionally, the battery back up to 7,422mAh.

MacBook Air 13-inch screen model, the new operating system OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 Build Number 14C2043 4GB RAM MacBook Air 13-inch screen models currently .

Model Identifier of the MacBook Air MacBookAir 7,2 while series MacBookAir6,2.

So far, there are rumors that the MacBook Air 12-inch screen, the iPad Pro 12.9-inch screen and other features Apple’s Watch will be announced at the event Big Spring Forward 9th day ahead. So waiting for track events all of this.

Last Thursday Solidarity Yesterday, Microsoft released Office 2016 Mac preview program that lets you use Download free for use as an experiment until the company put out to full use by the end of this year.

Microsoft has confirmed that the features of Office 2016, users can save and download the file to use Easy OneDrive and SharePoint.

Microsoft has said that the new program has brought a lot of new features and attractive design. In Word are included new features such as Threaded comment, Layout Management Tool, Navigation Panel many other functions. Whereas Excel also brings new functionality Function Keyboard Shortcut and many other functions. PowerPoint adds many new features as well as the “Presenter View” for managing the Presentation, Animation and many other jobs. Add to Outlook software is designed both the use and function are all easy in use.

(The Star Online) -- Our smartphones supply endless possibilities for entertainment, but a new study shows they can diminish the quality of users' time away from work or school.

"The high-frequency cell phone user may not have the leisure skills necessary to creatively fill their free time with intrinsically rewarding activities," says Dr Andrew Lepp of Kent State University.

"For such people, the ever-present smartphone may provide an easy, but less satisfying and more stressful, means of filling their time."

Dr Lepp and his team worked with a participant group of 454 randomly selected undergraduates, quantified each individual's total daily smartphone time and assessed their personalities and notions of leisure.

Separating the students into groups based on their similarities concerning smartphone time investment and personality, the researchers noted three distinct categories were taking shape.

User types included low-use extroverts, low-use introverts and a high-use group who averaged more than 10 hours per day of smartphone time, about 25% of the sample.

This high-use group experienced considerably more stress and anxiety during their leisure time than the other two groups.

For those who can't seem to put down their smartphones, it may not be a question of enjoying them more than others do, the high-use habit could reflect a feeling of obligation to stay connected, according to the researchers.

This obligation can lead to stress, and smartphone-borne stress can spill over into leisure, they say.

On the flip-side, the low-use extrovert group, who used their smartphones on a comparably modest average of three hours per day, expressed very little boredom and distress during leisure time and had a penchant to challenge themselves.

"Being constantly connected to your phone is not likely to enhance your experience of leisure," says Dr Jian Li of KSU.

"On the other hand, disconnecting for short periods of time in order to seek more challenging leisure opportunities is likely to be beneficial."

The study was published in the journal Computers and Human Behaviour.

LOS ANGELES/BOSTON (The star Online) --  Forensics experts hired by Sony Corp to investigate the massive cyber attack at its Hollywood studio said the breach was unprecedented, well-planned and carried out by an "organised group," according to an e-mail obtained by Reuters.

Kevin Mandia, the top executive at FireEye Inc's Mandiant forensics unit, made the comments in an e-mail to Michael Lynton, chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE).

They are among the first comments about the investigation to be made public, yet they do not discuss what people most want to know: The extent of the damage to the studio's network or who was behind the campaign, the most destructive cyber attack reported to date against a company on US soil.

The destructive attack knocked much of Sony's network off line with malware that wipes drives of PCs, making them unable to operate.

It is expensive to repair them because each drive needs to be manually replaced or re-imaged. People close to the investigation have told Reuters that North Korea is a principal suspect, yet a North Korean diplomat has denied that his nation is involved.

Lynton forwarded a message from Mandia to employees. Mandia, whose firm has probed some of the biggest cyber attacks to date, said in his e-mail that "The scope of this attack differs from any we have responded to in the past, as its purpose was to both destroy property and release confidential information to the public."

He added that "The bottom line is that this was an unparalleled and well planned crime, carried out by an organised group, for which neither SPE nor other companies could have been fully prepared."

FBI spokesman Joshua Campbell said the agency concurred with Mandiant's analysis the attack went undetected by standard anti virus software, but declined to discuss progress in the agency's investigation.

Daniel Clemens, chief executive of boutique cybersecurity firm PacketNinjas, said that while the attack was unprecedented in impact, "There are many things Sony could have done to prepare and defend against this attack."

He added that if the government launches probes into the breach, they are likely to find that Sony did not have all necessary safeguards in place to fend off and uncover hackers.

A court case against Apple, which could see the company facing damages of $1bn, might collapse.

Lawyers for Apple have raised a last-minute challenge saying new evidence suggested that the two women named as plaintiffs may not have purchased iPod models covered by the lawsuit.

The case is considering whether the hardware giant abused its dominant position in the digital music market.

The lawsuit covers iPods purchased between September 2006 and March 2009.

During that period Apple used software that meant only rights-protected music purchased from its iTunes store could be played on its devices.

Read more at: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30343686

WASHINGTON (Xinhua) -- It seems to be a common-sense concept that we can't see infrared light but a new study out Monday said under certain conditions, our eyes can sense light that falls outside the visible spectrum.

Using cells from the retinas of mice and people, and powerful lasers that emit pulses of infrared light, an international team of researchers found that when laser light pulses rapidly, light- sensing cells in the retina sometimes get a double hit of infrared energy.

When that happens, the eye is able to detect infrared light, the team reported in the U.S. journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The research, conducted by researchers from the U.S., Poland, Switzerland and Norway, was initiated after scientists in the research team reported seeing occasional flashes of green light while working with an infrared laser.

In order to figure out how they were able to sense light that was supposed to be invisible, the team examined the scientific literature and repeated previous experiments in which infrared light had been seen.

"We experimented with laser pulses of different durations that delivered the same total number of photons, and we found that the shorter the pulse, the more likely it was a person could see it," said Frans Vinberg of the Washington University in St. Louis, who is one of the study's lead authors.

Normally, a particle of light, called a photon, is absorbed by the retina, which then creates a molecule called a photopigment, which begins the process of converting light into vision. In standard vision, each of a large number of photopigments absorbs a single photon.

But packing a lot of photons in a short pulse of the rapidly pulsing laser light makes it possible for two photons to be absorbed at one time by a single photopigment, and the combined energy of the two light particles is enough to activate the pigment and allow the eye to see what normally is invisible, the team said.

"The visible spectrum includes waves of light that are 400-720 nanometers long," explained senior investigator Vladimir Kefalov, associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the Washington University.

"But if a pigment molecule in the retina is hit in rapid succession by a pair of photons that are 1,000 nanometers long, those light particles will deliver the same amount of energy as a single hit from a 500-nanometer photon, which is well within the visible spectrum. That's how we are able to see it."

Although the research is the first to report that the eye can sense light through this mechanism, the idea of using less powerful laser light to make things visible isn't new, the team said. The two-photon microscope, for example, uses lasers to detect fluorescent molecules deep in tissues.

The researchers said they already are working on ways to use the two-photon approach in a new type of ophthalmoscope, a tool that allows doctors to examine the inside of the eye as well as stimulate specific parts of the retina to determine whether it's functioning properly.

(The Star Online) -- A new digital service, called Ignite, will let carriers automatically add more apps to smartphones once they've been sold, and their owners won't be able to stop it.

No one likes ‘bloatware,' the apps and services pre-installed on Android smartphones and tablets by their manufacturers and by network operators.

Not only do they eat into valuable on-board memory space, they may be unnecessary or, worse still, poor imitations of other apps — such as navigation, note taking or music streaming services — that owners actually do want to install and use.

And thanks to a company called Digital Turbine they may become even more common. Its new service, Ignite, allows both device manufacturers and the companies that sell subsidised handsets with a contract to push new apps out onto a consumer's device.

The idea behind the new service, first reported on by Forbes, is to save companies time. Developing and authorising ‘bloatware' apps is time consuming and Ignite will enable devices to ship and be sold more quickly without the apps which can then be pushed out as compulsory over the air updates at a later time.

According to Forbes, Digital Turbine's new service is legal and already boasts major US carriers Verizon and T-Mobile as customers.

(The Star Online) -- A new cooperative wants to help web users protect their privacy when browsing and to give good causes a financial helping hand.

The GoodData launched this week, is the idea of a London-based firm. It's a plug-in for the Chrome Internet browser that, once installed will block data from being harvested and shared.

"An average user can have around 1700 invisible threats per day tracking your online history. For example, even if you've not logged in to social media but if there is a ‘like' button on a webpage, then the social media company can access the data and can sell that on," said Marcos Menendez, director of TheGoodData

There are already plenty of tools out there for people who want greater online privacy and security but what makes TheGoodData different is its charitable focus.

Personal data is extremely valuable, and in many cases can be used to exploit unsuspecting consumers. For example a quoted price for a service could be automatically higher for someone browsing on a Mac than a PC or if their IP address suggests they're based in a wealthier country.

Therefore, with the user's permission, TheGoodData will harvest this data to broker its sale. Half of the proceeds will go to maintaining the service, but the other half will be lent to microcredit projects in developing countries.

"This is an issue of owning your personal data. Fundamentally, nobody should have access to your data without consent or be able to make money from this in exchange of nothing for you," said Menendez.

And because TheGoodData is a "data cooperative," everyone that uses the plug-in and donates their data in this way automatically becomes part of the company and will get a say on major decisions and will be kept up to data with the scheme's progress.

(The Star Online) -- It looks as if the New Year is going to start with the return of the Start Button.

That's because Microsoft is gearing up for the first official consumer demonstration of Windows 10; an operating system that promises to banish all of the things that people hated about Windows 8.

According to The Verge, Microsoft is set to host a large-scale event scheduled for the end of January and it is set to cover not just PCs and notebooks, but also how Windows 10 will improve the way smartphones, tablets and the Xbox One work.

Developers have already had a taste of Windows 10's capabilities and the most interesting and innovative new feature is something called Continuum.

It's a smart user interface that will automatically change based on what the user is doing. So, if the device is being used like a desktop computer — keyboard and mouse — it has the classic Windows feel, but lay a finger on the touchscreen or, if it's a two-in-one device, remove the display from the keyboard, and everything instantly switches into a touchscreen input mode.

Windows 10 is also going to work across the whole ecosystem of Microsoft devices. The January event will be the clearest indication yet of how easy it will be to share documents or tasks across PCs and mobile devices.

The advent of 4K and high frame rate films presents a "huge challenge" for studios using computer-based animation, an expert has said.

Bruno Mahe, technical head at studio Illumination Mac Guff, said the resolution of animated films would have to be increased by about 2.5 times.

The time required to generate such high-resolution images could hit production schedules.

It may mean studios having to re-think the way they make movies, Mr Mahe said.

Read more at: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29940270

At first glance, it looks like an iPhone, but with ugly buttons on the front screen.

However, in fact this is Lenovo's latest Android handset.

Available in China, it appears to have taken inspiration from Apple's latest handset design, with identical curved edges, antenna strips and even placement of buttons and connectors.

However, Lenovo says it is impossible it copied the design, saying, 'Considering the product design lifecycle of any smartphone – at least a year in planning and prototyping – it's not possible to copy a design so quickly.'

Lenovo's Sisley S90 will only be released in China, and it will come with a price tag of Yuan 1,999 or around US$330.

It boasts a 5-inch Super-AMOLED HD display, a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 410 SoC, an Adreno 306 GPU with 1 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM.

It is also dual-SIM enabled and features a 13-megapixel rear camera and 8-megapixel front secondary camera.

It comes just weeks after Apple's British-born design boss Sir Jonathan Ive told the audience at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco his feelings on the matter of copying were 'a bit harsh'.

'I don't see it as flattery,' he said, 'I actually see it as theft.'

Sir Jonathan said seeing knockoff designs made him think of the lengthy development cycle that went into producing the originals.

'When you're doing something for the first time, for example with the phone, and you don't know it's going to work, and you spend seven or eight years working on something, and then it's copied — I have to be honest, the first thing I think isn't 'ooh, that was flattering.

'All those weekends I could have had at home with my lovely family but didn't, but the flattery made up for it.'

The designer was also asked about Xiaomi, a Chinese firm which has been accused of copying Apple's style.

The firm's latest software and handset looks extremely similar to Apple's iOS 8 software.

The designer also gave a rare insight into how his team works, revealing there are just 16 or 17 people.

'It's grown steadily over the last 15 years,' he said.

LOS ANGELES (The Star Online) --  Concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment and youth media company Vice have formed a joint venture to launch a digital platform that delivers live music, documentaries and other programming to online and mobile audiences, the companies said.

The platform will roll out in 2015, a statement from the companies said.

Vice chief executive officer Shane Smith said the companies aimed to provide music-related programming that will appeal to young audiences. Online and mobile research shows younger audiences are passionate about music but dissatisfied with programming options, he said.

"We see this as a tremendous opportunity to make groundbreaking content," Smith said at a briefing with reporters.

Vice has built an audience of younger news viewers with a mix of hard-hitting reporting out of Syria and Ukraine and other world hot spots along with lighter coverage of culture and entertainment.

Investors in Vice include A+E Networks, which is jointly owned by Walt Disney Co and Hearst Corp, and Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox.

The new music platform will include hundreds of hours of original content including long- and short-form video series, live music and other programming as well as ticket sales. The programming will be supported by ads.

The content will include stories of artists returning to their hometowns or the experiences of fans at music festivals. "There are so many stories to be told before and after the show," Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino said.