Today in Tech News Digest, Chromebooks are revealed to have sold well in 2013, digital music sales are shown to have declined in 2013, the Vine app lands on the Web, Snapchat fails to apologize for the recent hack, a tweet becomes a newspaper advert, Pandora launches an alarm clock, Wikipedia adds a draft function, and a Tumblr tracking the source code used in film and TV gains attention.

Chromebook Succeeds In 2013

The Chromebook may not be to everybody's taste, but enough people bought one of these affordable Google netbooks in 2013 to justify its existence. According to NPD (as reported by Quartz), in the U.S. the Chromebook grew from having a 0.2 percent market share in 2012 to having a 9.6 percent market share in 2013.

This figure pushes the Chromebook ahead of Android tablets, Windows tablets, and Apple Macbooks (with 8.7-, 2.2-, and 1.8-percent market shares respectively). The price of these devices no doubt has some bearing on their popularity, but the speed of ascent managed by the humble Chromebook is still rather astonishing.

Digital Music Sales Decline In 2013

http://twitter.com/scottyxrvc/status/420002756884041728

The digital music market has declined for the first time since the iTunes Store was launched in 2003. According to Billboard, sales of digital tracks dropped 5.7%, from 1.34 billion units to 1.26 billion units, while sales of digital albums dropped 0.1% from 117.7 million units to 117.6 million units.

These figures suggest we're on the cusp of another paradigm shift in the way people consume music (as well as other forms of entertainment media). The shift from physical to digital has already occurred, but the shift from digital sales to digital streaming is just now starting to push through into the mainstream thanks to the likes of Spotify and Rdio.

Vine On The Web

Having been available on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone since early in 2013, Vine has now come to the Web. Vine, Twitter's app for short, looping video clips, can now be accessed on the Web in the same way as it is through the mobile apps.

The Web app has been gifted an exclusive feature too: a 'TV Mode' that allows signed-in users to watch all of the videos in someone's feed in both sequential order and full-screen glory. Vine is promising more improvements coming in 2014, and this is certainly a good start.

Snapchat Not Sorry

http://twitter.com/kmactane/status/418911257182220288

Snapchat recently suffered a major security breach that exposed the usernames and phone numbers of 4.6 million of its users. Snapchat stand accused of ignoring warnings from a security firm, which, if listened to, could have prevented the data hack.

Unfortunately, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel is in no mood to apologize for failing to plug the holes in security. As reported by Valleywag, Spiegel gave an interview to Carson Daly in which he failed to offer up anything even approaching a simple "sorry." But then this is the man who turned down an offer of $3 billion for Snapchat, so a lack of confidence isn't really an issue for Spiegel.

Pandora Alarm Clock

Music fans can now wake up to the sound of online radio station Pandora, with alarm clock features having been added to the latest iOS and Android releases. The Pandora alarm clock can be set for any time you like, with the snooze function allowing you to spend an extra few minutes in bed. So, just like any other alarm then, but with added Pandora goodness.

Wikipedia Adds Drafts

Wikipedia has introduced drafts to its platform, allowing contributors to work more thoroughly on a new entry before submitting it for approval. This should result in less mistakes creeping in as a result of people publishing their addition to the online encyclopedia before it's actually ready for inclusion. It should, but probably won't.

Source Code Tumblr

And finally, the producers of television shows and movies are going to have to be extra careful when choosing the code displayed on computers that are visible to viewers. This is thanks to a new Tumblr titled Source Code in TV and Films which catalogs the source code being passed off as real.

Some producers have been revealed as extremely lazy when showing code, while others have at least tried to find code linked in some way to the storyline. Even Doctor Who, whose ability to traverse time and space knows no bounds, has been found to be at fault. Charlatan!

Tech News Digest… Breaking News Into Bite-Sized Chunks

Image Credit: Kevin Jarrett via Flickr