London-based digital music provider7digitalhas today announced the availability of itsnew Android application, an app that will bring its MP3 Store and Digital Locker to handsets in 16 countries. 7Digital Music for Android provides Android handset owners with access to a catalog of over 14 million high-quality MP3 tracks, offering the ability to browse, preview, purchase and then download music to their mobile, no matter where they are. Whilst offering access to new tracks, 7Digital while automatically synchronise previously purchased tracks using the service, to the user’s Android handset....

Apple’s in-app subscriptions service and associated terms and conditions are coming under some serious fire as of late, as publishers and app developers query whether maintaining an iOS application will be beneficial to their revenue model if Apple intends on taking 30% of app subscription fees. Today Ben Drury, CEO of music service7Digital, identified that problems will soon emerge as music services including 7Digital and other more high profile services like Spotify will start making losses if they are forced to pay 30% of subscriptions to Apple, other companies wouldn’t be able to afford to launch an app on an iOS device....

Earlier today,Spotify announcedsome massive changes to its service, moving the company into the device management space, rolling out its own download service and opening up its mobile applications to all users. Spotify’s unveiling of its new music download service was perhaps the biggest announcement of them all, with what looks to be the Swedish company’s attempt at tipping the balance of power away from Apple and its iTunes platform. With its new service, users are able to transfer specific playlists that had been created within the desktop application, without having to buy each track separately....

Elementary school would have been much more interesting if educational field trips involved creating our own levels in video games. For one class of seventh graders at Evergreen School, a trip toValve Softwareprovided exactly that. After instructing these students to create their own levels for the popular video game titlePortalusingValve’s Hammer Editor, the results were impressive. Valve Software notes, “One of the biggest challenges in teaching science, technology, engineering, and math is capturing the students’ imaginations long enough for them to see all of the possibilities that lie ahead....

The day when we no longer have to cart around our fat wallets, jammed with credit cards, coins and cash is fast approaching. Several smart mobile payment platforms have emerged over the past few years making it easy to pay our friends securely and in real time from our smartphones. How to pay with your phone Today, there are four primary models for mobile payments: Premium SMS based transactional payments, which is great for users without smartphones, Direct Mobile Billing, which accounts for 70% of all digital content purchased online in some parts of Asia, Mobile web payments (WAP), which includes online wallets such as Amazon Payments, Google Checkout or PayPal and finally Contactless NFC (Near Field Communication)....