Xbox Music Will Debut October 26th

Microsoft has been looking to overhaul its Zune music service for a while now, and The Verge is reporting that Xbox Music will launch on October 26th, along with Windows 8. The service will begin accepting new registrations right away, and Zune customers will automatically be rolled over to Xbox Music.

While the move is sort of a strategic re-branding - substituting the successful Xbox brand for the weaker Zune brand - Xbox Music will introduce new features, most notably a free (ad-supported) streaming option like Spotify's. Monthly subscriptions will cost $10; a year up front is $100.

The service will integrate with Microsoft's SkyDrive for syncing music and playlists across multiple devices through the cloud. While there are reportedly plans for cross-platform support of iOS and Android devices, Xbox Music will be available on the Xbox 360, Windows 8 and Windows Phone at launch.

What would Microsoft have to offer to get you to switch from Spotify or Rdio? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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Viral video touting free 'Obama phone' puts spotlight on federal program

A viral video of an Obama supporter touting her “Obama phone” has put the spotlight on an obscure federal program that provides discounted phone service to qualifying low-income Americans.

“Keep Obama as president,” the animated woman says on the video. “He gave us a phone.”

The video is drawing attention to the government program — Lifeline — as a national debate unfolds on entitlements and the growing percentage of Americans who pay no income taxes and get a long menu of government benefits. But even though some beneficiaries may credit President Obama for providing the phones, Lifeline is an extension of a program that has existed since 1985. Still, critics including Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., note the program has swelled from $772 million in 2008 to $1.6 billion.

“It's a government-run, taxpayer-funded program that's running wild and costing more and more,” reads Griffin’s official House of Representatives website.

Private carriers who contract with the government, including TracPhone and Sprint, have websites intended to publicize the program. Some attempt to dispel the program’s connection to the president, such as freegovernmentcellphones.net, while others, including obamaphone.net, embrace it.

“The free Obama phone is an important program, especially for low income families that would otherwise not have access to basic communications,” the homepage of obamaphone.net reads.

The site does, however, clarify that Obama did not start the program and that there's no such thing as an "Obama phone."

"It’s true that government provides free cellphones to the poor and disabled people," the site reads. "But the Obama part is not true as Obama didn’t initiate this program. It’s on the run [sic] since the administration of Reagan."

Griffin, who introduced H.R. 3481 in November to end the program, claims to have evidence of dead people getting free cell phones in the mail, ineligible people getting multiple phones and electronic kiosks in convenience stores to encourage people to get the phones.

“The truth is, though, that taxpayers are footing the bill,” the website reads. “The program is called Lifeline, but in reality it's turned into Uncle Sam's Unlimited Plan.”

Lifeline was originally envisioned as a means of subsidizing landline phone service for poor Americans, paid for with an extra charge on phone bills. To participate in the program, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), consumers must either have an income that is at or below 135 percent of the federal poverty guidelines or participate in a number of assistance programs, including Medicaid, Head Start or Supplemental Security Income. In 2008, the plan was extended to supply cellphones and cellular service as many Americans began using those devices as their primary telephone.

“It's a government-run, taxpayer-funded program that's running wild and costing more and more."

- Rep. Tim Griffin

The program, according to FCC officials, has helped tens of millions of low-income Americans afford basic phone service, which is essential to finding a job or getting help during an emergency. To that end, the percentage of low-income households with phone service has increased from 80 percent in 1985 when the program began to nearly 92 percent in 2011.

A message seeking comment from White House officials on the federal program was not returned Friday.

A family of four with an income of about $30,000 can qualify for a subsidized line, according to Bloomberg News. The program is available to consumers in every state, territory, commonwealth and on tribal lands.

In 2008, there were 7.1 million Lifeline accounts nationwide. There are 12.5 million today, according to Bloomberg News. About half of those are mobile phones sold by Miami-based TracFone, Sprint and hundreds of smaller regional companies. The government pays those carriers up to $10 per month for each program subscriber. Users, in turn, get free phones and 250 minutes of monthly airtime.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., received a mailed solicitation last year informing her she was eligible for a phone, leading her to question the program.

“I am troubled by the expansive potential for the program to be abused," McCaskill wrote the FCC in December.

The FCC, meanwhile, announced in July that comprehensive reforms to the program had saved nearly $43 million and were on track to save $200 million in 2012. The reforms included eliminating unnecessary subsidies, cutting off duplicative subscriptions and requiring better proof of eligibility.  

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China unveils first aircraft carrier to enter service

BEIJING –  China formally entered its first aircraft carrier into service on Tuesday, underscoring its ambitions to be a leading Asian naval power, although the ship is not expected to carry a full complement of planes or be ready for combat for some time.

The Defense Ministry's announcement had been long expected and was not directly linked to current tensions with Japan over a disputed group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

In a brief notice on its website, the ministry said the carrier's commissioning significantly boosted the navy's combat capabilities and its ability to cooperate in responding to natural disasters and other non-traditional threats.

"It has important significance in effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development benefits, and advancing world peace and common development," the statement said.

China had partly justified the launching of a carrier by pointing out that it alone among the five permanent United Nations Security Council members had no such craft. That had been particularly glaring given the constant presence in Asia of carriers operated by the U.S. Navy, which maintains 11 worldwide.

President Hu Jintao, also chairman of the commission that controls the military, presided over a ceremony Tuesday morning at the ship's home port of Dalian, along with Premier Wen Jiabao and top generals. Hu "fully affirmed" the efforts of those working on the ship and called on them to complete all remaining tasks according to the highest standard, the Defense Ministry said.

The carrier is the former Soviet navy's unfinished Varyag, which was towed from Ukraine in 1998 minus its engines, weaponry and navigation systems. Christened the Liaoning after the northeastern province surrounding Dalian, the ship began sea trials in August 2011 following years of refurbishment.

So far the trial runs of the aircraft carrier have been to test the ship's propulsion, communications and navigation systems. But launching and recovering fixed-wing aircraft at sea is a much trickier proposition. It will take years to build the proper aircraft, to train pilots to land in adverse weather on a moving deck, and to develop a proper carrier battle group.

China is developing a carrier-based fighter-bomber, the J-15, derived from Russia's Sukhoi Su-33, along with a prototype stealth carrier fighter, the J-31.

Beijing hasn't said what role it intends the carrier to fill other than helping safeguard China's coastline and sea links. The Liaoning has also been portrayed as a kind of test platform for the future development of up to five domestically built Chinese carriers.

Writing in Tuesday's China Daily newspaper, retired Rear Adm. Yang Yi said the carrier will be used to master the technology for more advanced carriers. He said it also will be used to train in how to operate such a craft in a battle group and with vessels from other nation's navies.

Without specifically mentioning China's territorial disputes, Yang acknowledged other countries' concerns about its growing military might, but said Beijing wouldn't shy from flexing its muscles.

"When China has a more balanced and powerful navy, the regional situation will be more stable as various forces that threaten regional peace will no longer dare to act rashly," Yang wrote.

Whatever its practical effects on China's global status, the carrier embodies huge symbolism for China's political and military leaders as a totem of their country's rise from weakness to strength, according to Andrew S. Erickson, a China naval specialist at the U.S. Naval War College.

"While (Chinese navy) acceptance of this `starter carrier' is the first step in a long journey, it is a journey that will take place in full view of the world, and one that will ultimately take Beijing to a new place as a great sea power," Erickson wrote on his blog.

The carrier's political importance was highlighted in Wen's remarks to the ceremony, in which he said it would "arouse national pride and patriotic passion."

"This has mighty and deep significance for the opening of a new facet in our enterprise of socialism with Chinese characteristics," he said.

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US credit rating under fire again, Moody's warns lawmakers on debt

America's credit rating is once again at risk. 

Moody's Investors Service said Tuesday that it would probably cut its triple-A rating on U.S. government debt by a notch unless congressional leaders can strike a budget deal in the coming months to bring down the deficit. 

"If those negotiations lead to specific policies that produce a stabilization and then downward trend in the ratio of federal debt to GDP over the medium term, the rating will likely be affirmed," Moody's said in a press release Tuesday. "If those negotiations fail to produce such policies, however, Moody's would expect to lower the rating, probably to Aa1." 

The threat comes after one of the other big three ratings firms, Standard & Poor's, downgraded the U.S. last year following the brawl in Washington over the debt ceiling. 

The country is once again headed for a debt-ceiling showdown, with Moody's predicting the country will run up against the ceiling "around the end of this year." Any potential downgrade is not likely until at least next year. 

House Speaker John Boehner, reacting to the latest warning, called on Congress to take major steps to reform the tax code, cut spending and overhaul entitlements. 

"Today's warning by Moody's underscores the point we have been making all year: the threat to American jobs comes not from action on our debt, but from inaction on our debt," he said. 

Lawmakers, though, are unlikely to do much until after the November election, when the balance of power in Washington is more clear.

Moody's said the firm will wait for a budget deal -- or the collapse of one -- before determining the U.S. credit rating. 

The big wild card in the near-term concerns the so-called "fiscal cliff" -- the slew of tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect in January 2013 unless Congress averts them. 

Ironically, Moody's said one of the few ways the U.S. could maintain its current status, of triple-A with a "negative outlook," would be if Congress actually lets those tax hikes and spending cuts happen. 

But even that doesn't guarantee a sterling credit score. Going over the "fiscal cliff" would help close the deficit, but the flip side is it could destabilize the economy. And Moody's said it would need evidence the economy could "rebound" before returning the U.S. rating to triple-A and "stable." 

Boehner expressed doubt Tuesday that much of anything could be done to avert the tax hikes and spending cuts -- potentially good news for the budget, but bad news for the economy. 

"I'm not confident at all," Boehner said. 

The Ohio Republican reminded reporters that the House has passed legislation to both avoid the automatic, across-the-board cuts next year and to renew the Bush era tax rates for one year as well. Republicans warned of the impact of the impending cuts on the military and implored Senate Democrats to act to avoid them. 

The Senate, however, has deadlocked over taxes and failed to address the across-the-board cuts, known as a sequester in Washington parlance. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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