Instant messaging giant LINE Corp. is expanding into streaming music with a new deal announced with Sony Music Entertainment Inc., and Japanese record label Avex Digital Inc. Joint venture company LINE MUSIC Corporation will offer streaming music to LINE’s 560 million users (170 million active,) but what form it takes wasn’t clear from the press release, ...

Microsoft Corp’s MSN division is now offering a range of apps on both Android and iOS for the first time. The apps, available for download from the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Windows and Windows Phone Stores, and the Amazon App Store include a range of products covering news, weather, sports, money, health & fitness, ...

Another day, another set of legal issues for Uber Inc., with the Government of Victoria, Australia taking on Uber over the car service providing Uber X in the state without licensing. The Victorian Taxi Services Commission (TSC) has filed criminal charges against 12 UberX drivers alleging that they were operating a commercial passenger vehicle without a license. ...

PetziConnect from Petzila Inc. is an interactive pet device that allows you to see, talk to and treat your pets when you’re away from home via your mobile. OK, so it’s basically a webcam and speaker in a box that dispenses dog biscuits linked via an app, but it’s such a stupid idea it may work. ...

Microsoft Corp. has today quietly added support for payments in Bitcoin for digital purchases. The acceptance of Bitcoin means the cryptocurrency can be used to fund purchases in verticals including the XBox, Windows and Mobile stores. In its payment and billing section, the company explains: You can now use Bitcoin to add money to your Microsoft account. ...

Instagram has hit a new milestone today with the company announcing that it has hit 300 million users, passing Twitter’s user count of 284 million. The company, acquired by Facebook Inc. for $1 billion in April 2012, noted in a celebratory post that the site sees 70 million photos and videos uploaded each day. The new ...

Uber Inc., has decided to play with fire in the Kingdom of Thailand by simply ignoring a ruling that it is no longer allowed to operate….while the country is under martial law. As we reported yesterday, the Thai Department of Land Transport said that Uber is illegal because the company uses private cars rather than licensed taxis. ...

Mappsafe Pty. Ltd. is a new company seeking funding on Indegogo for an application that aims to make your journey safer. The Melbourne, Australia-based firm claims that the application is the world’s first crowd-sourced mobile app in this space, and that the it reduces violence in public areas by mapping safe and unsafe places. Mappsafe gathers information from ...

HBO Inc., will be launching its new online television streaming service HBO Online in April, with news that CTO Otto Berkes has resigned due to the company outsourcing the streaming technology for the service to MLB Advanced. The April launch date comes from an internal memo, and will be timed to coincide with the new season of ...

There’s never a dull day for rideshare startup Uber Inc., and today is no different with news of a range of new bans, problems and legal suits. The first ban comes from military junta-ruled Thailand, where the Thai Department of Land Transport have said that Uber is illegal because the company uses private cars rather ...