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Great tip (and links) from Rob Griffiths on replacing any fluorescent bulbs in your house or garage with new LED bulbs. Do it. You’ll have better light and they’ll last forever.

Spotify this afternoon announced that it has hit a new milestone, reaching a total of 50 million paying subscribers. That’s up from 40 million in September, suggesting Spotify is growing at a rapid pace despite the surging popularity of Apple Music.

I wonder where all of these people are coming from. Are the Tidal and Pandora users or are they new users that have never used streaming services before? Clearly, there’s still a lot of growth in the streaming business.

Spotify is preparing to launch a lossless audio version of its streaming service, according to multiple sources. The offering, which is currently called Spotify Hi-Fi, will offer lossless CD-quality audio to users — similar to what Tidal offers in its Hi-Fi service.

I’m interested to see what the response will be to this service. Lossless isn’t something Apple ever seemed to be keen to offer users, but they may be forced into it if Spotify’s becomes popular.

The Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) team was debugging an issue causing the S3 billing system to progress more slowly than expected. At 9:37AM PST, an authorized S3 team member using an established playbook executed a command which was intended to remove a small number of servers for one of the S3 subsystems that is used by the S3 billing process. Unfortunately, one of the inputs to the command was entered incorrectly and a larger set of servers was removed than intended. The servers that were inadvertently removed supported two other S3 subsystems.

It’s good that Amazon got to the bottom of this and let all of its customers know exactly what happened.

I’ve been a huge Hitchcock every since I found out one of my relatives worked with him in the 1950s. As the article points out, we think of him as a director of suspense films but his visual artistry and manipulation of your emotions through images was incredible.

Hockey isn’t the only thing we Canadians do on ice. We can bust a move, too.

If you are a camera manufacturer, these are absolutely brutal numbers. While the camera on your iPhone may not have killed the DSLR market (yet), it has certainly decimated the point and shoot and consumer DSLR segments. The industry had hoped mirrorless cameras would take off but the numbers show no evidence of that.

This additional interoperability can only be good for users and it’s great to see Microsoft opening up to other services like this. Gone are the days when all their customers used their products exclusively and helping users integrate “third party” services helps everyone.

I love that Apple is doing this and I hope they do much more to promote HomeKit. People have endless frustrations in trying to create this kind of automation in their home and HomeKit promises to make things much simpler — in theory.

Very interesting to see the list of companies who have signed this brief.

You probably know it as “wheelchair rugby” but that name doesn’t do it justice. It really can be awfully, wonderfully brutal.

A federal appeals court has thrown out a jury verdict that had originally required Apple Inc to pay $533 million to Smartflash LLC, a technology developer and licenser that claimed Apple’s iTunes software infringed its data storage patents.

Not only did they win the appeal, the judge said the patents should have been ruled invalid.

I loved old gangster movies as a kid (and even still) and you always saw the bad guys with a Tommy Gun. I had no idea of the history behind it.

This is one of those things you don’t think about but, when it gets explained, makes a lot of sense.

Uber Technologies Inc Chief Executive Travis Kalanick on Tuesday said it was time for him to “grow up” and get help after a video was published showing him getting into an argument with a driver for the ride service who complained about pay rates.

Uber has certainly been in the hot seat of late.

This is truly one of those Apple Pencil accessories you never knew you needed until you see it in action. No more hunting for lost lightning caps, that pesky charging cap stays put, even when plugged in. No more rolling away from you when you set it down or storage difficulties, the custom pen clip keeps your Apple Pencil in place on the table and in the pocket. And no more slippery fingers, the leather grip provides a sturdy tactile feel while letting you be as precise as you want.

I do love Pad & Quill’s products.

This is pretty cool. Congratulations to the women honoured and to Lego for creating this set.

Try naming an iconic Canadian designer. You can’t? Here are three: Allan Fleming, who created the Canadian National Railway logo. Georges Huel, the guy behind the symbol for the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal. And Burton Kramer, whose work includes branding the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

I’m embarrassed to say, but I couldn’t have named three designers.

I’m not a heavy Facebook user but I can see how this could be very popular among those who like watching videos on and from the site.

This might be a good deal for some but no CBS, MTV, Comedy Central and the other channels from Time Warner and Viacom might be a dealbreaker for many.

It’s free and offers a little piece of mind for the paranoid among us.

We don’t have a “haggling mentality” in North America but I’ve haggled on all three of the items mentioned in this piece and have literally saved thousands of dollars off the sticker price.

Can you imagine this happening to you? It’s like if Michael Jordan showed up at your local hoop and called, “I got next….”

This is an interesting list. Do you live in one of these ten states? Do you agree with their inclusion or placement?

I attended Apple’s shareholder meeting in the company’s Cupertino, Calif. headquarters this morning as a member of the media. Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the meeting and received a standing ovation before giving a few brief remarks, including a look at next year’s meeting. […]

And people thought Apple’s $300 coffee table book was expensive.

April 7-9, Ellefson Coffee Co., the boutique Coffee brand of Grammy-Winning Megadeth bassist David Ellefson will hold a GRAND OPENING for its first brick and mortar ELLEFSON COFFEE CO shop in David’s hometown of Jackson, MN. In addition to Ellefson himself, who will be in attendance, the event will be co-hosted by special guest comedian, and THAT METAL SHOW co-host, Don Jamieson.

I have to order some of this coffee. The blend names are amazing.

Today, we’re continuing our commitment to give you more options to diversify and expand your library of games with Xbox Game Pass, a new gaming subscription service coming later this spring. Xbox Game Pass gives you unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and backward compatible Xbox 360 games – all for $9.99 per month.

I’m betting this will be popular.

There are some great things for the entire family and friends too. Scroll to the bottom to find a variety of categories, which may make it easier to narrow in on what you’re looking for.

This is either really cool or the beginning of the robot uprising.