Category: Apps and Software

Games, Apps, Softwares, Operating Systems and Software Hacks

YouTube Launches its Own Music Streaming App, Challenges Apple Music and Spotify

Watch out Apple Music and Spotify, YouTube Music is here. The world’s largest and most popular free music service has started rolling out a dedicated music app, which includes a paid subscription option.

YouTube has been dominating online video streaming for years and has become a household name today. Now the video giant wants to do what it does best – bring music to the masses. YouTube has stuck to free music videos for years to the dismay of some in the music business. The contention was that YouTube doesn’t generate nearly enough revenue when compared to the number of hits it gets on a daily basis.

The YouTube Phenomenon

Videos are becoming the next big thing for social networking sites. Facebook’s big video push is now providing a real competition to YouTube, and Facebook has also shown interest in music, too with the newly launched Music Stories. But the impact on YouTube has been massive and the video giant knows just how big it is. in their official blog, YouTube said that, “today, any artist can upload a video to YouTube and get discovered by over 1 billion people around the globe. That global exposure has allowed YouTube and Google to pay out over $3 billion to the record industry to date. But it’s also provided an incredible source of promotion for artists, helping fuel ticket sales, move merchandise, and boost album and song downloads. Just this month, Adele’s “Hello” became the fastest rising video of the year on YouTube, while also breaking the record for first week download sales.”

The fact that YouTube is coming out with a standalone app when Google Play Music already exists is a bit confusing. However, those who are subscribers to YouTube Red can avail benefits on both the apps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwj1qFPnhow

How Does YouTube Music Work?

The app works like a standard music service. You search for artists or songs and then YouTube suggests more songs based on your search. It’s unlike Apple Music and Spotify in that while the latter services offer curated songs and playlists, YouTube Music doesn’t. The app lets computers rather than humans pick out songs for you, and will do so once you already have a song in mind.

No matter where you start in the app, the music will never stop. Every song you play or artist you choose will take you on an endless journey through YouTube’s music catalog. A simple tap and you’re on your way, enjoying your favorite music and discovering new artists effortlessly. The home tab will recommend tracks just for you and create personalized stations based on your tastes.

You cannot create playlists, however. Instead YouTube Music creates a daily playlist for you in ‘My mix’, which combines tracks you’ve listened to, tracks you’ve liked and some new suggestions based on both. The app is also unlike Apple Music and Spotify in that it is the first music streaming app that includes videos. You can share and listen to music for free, with ads, or go for an ad free version by subscribing to YouTube Red for a monthly fee of $10.

The YouTube Music app is available only in the U.S as of now and YouTube plans to roll out the service in other countries soon. Let us know what you think of YouTube’s newest app in the comments below.

Source: [tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_blank” link=”http://youtube-global.blogspot.in/2015/11/a-youtube-built-just-for-music.html”]YouTube[/tw-button]

November 13, 2015
Apple Pay Likely to Incorporate Peer-to-Peer Payments in 2016

Apple is in talks with a number of top U.S banks to create its own person-to-person mobile payment service, which could see an early 2016 launch. Banks like Chase, Capital One, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bancorp have discussed the prospects with Apple.

Apple Pay currently deals with sending money to businesses, but that could change by next. Currently, apps like PayPal’s Venmo and Google Wallet allow for person-to-person transactions, while some banks have their own apps that allow you to make payments directly. To get this plan off the ground, Apple will have to navigate its way through individual bank platforms and find a way to incorporate the banks within the Apple Pay world.

Apple may look to simply tap into an existing payment service from top banks called clearXchange, and loop that into Apple Pay. That would allow users to send money from a checking account to anyone with an email address or mobile number. Apple may not be looking to make money off this latest idea, and likely wants to broaden the scope of Apple Pay and the overall benefit of the iPhone.

This is all part of Apple CEO Tim Cook’s vision that paper money will no longer exist in the future. “Your kids will not know what money is,” he said during his address at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. In today’s technological world most transactions are taking place online. The biggest challenge here is to avoid cyber attacks.

During his speech, Cook said that Apple will dedicated itself to preventing hackers from stealing customers’ information. “We plan to continue to encrypt end to end with no back door,” Cook said. “We will productively work with the governments to try to convince them that’s also in their best interests in the national security sense.”

November 12, 2015
Bluetooth To Amp Up Speed and Connectivity In 2016

Bluetooth SIG has made some important announcements today regarding an upgrade in the upcoming year. The company is set on increasing the ‘Internet Of Things’ by including updates such as longer range, higher speeds and mesh networking. They also aim at taking a stride towards industries that deal with smart homes, industrial automation, locations-based services and smart infrastructure.

“There is significant demand from our members and the industry at large to enhance Bluetooth with the new capabilities we’re announcing today,” said Toby Nixon, chairman of the Bluetooth SIG Board of Directors

Bluetooth has also further announced that apart from the above mentioned updates, users will also experience a 100% speed boost along with a 4X better range than the usual. Their mesh networking updates are targeted to allow a collection of individual devices to work together to blanket an entire building. With all these developments, 2016 does seem like an interesting year to look forward to, at least in the tech department.

November 12, 2015
Apple Music has Come to Android But With Glitches

Apple Music has finally arrived on Android. The newest music streaming app is the third Apple app to make its way to Android – the first to being Move to iOS and BeatPill+. Apple Music is something many Android users have been waiting for. It is one of Apple’s better launches this year and one that has pleased music lovers all over.

The Android app looks similar to Apple Music on iOS with only some differences that are particular to Android. The design is pretty much the same and all the Apple Music options are there including Beats Radio. True to Android the app has a left slide-out menu that features the For You, New, Radio, Connect, Playlists and My Music tabs. The For You section is packed with albums and curated playlists based on your taste. The suggestions look just like the iOS.

But those are just the pros to the story. The Android beta version of the Apple Music comes with a host of bugs and glitches that are quite putting off.

The app is far from working smoothly at the moment. Saved playlists and album artworks take a long time to load properly even with fast network connectivity, and you’re left with black spaces and a white background that makes the overall app a dull affair.

Downloading multiple songs or a playlist seem to fail occasionally while single downloads work fine. Since it’s still in beta stage one expects the app to come with some issues. The updated version will look to smooth things out.

Furthermore, the app does not sync with your music folder, which one would have preferred since Android users tend to use their phones like an MP3 player, storing music files for years. Thus, the My Music page will only show songs purchased from iTunes and songs saved from Apple Music. Google Play Music allows streaming as well as downloaded music files so Android users may just stick with that.

Apple Music has a massive library of music and one can pretty much find anything in there. For users in India, this means that there is now a great alternative for popular music streaming apps like Saavn, Wynk and Gaana. To download the Apple Music for Android, head on over to the Google Play Store and try it out. As mentioned above, the app has a 3-month free trial after which you’ll have to pay to stay on.

November 12, 2015
Let Your Smartphone Help Cure Cancer as You Sleep: DreamLab

Set your smartphone to work as you sleep. Let it help cure cancer. DreamLab, which is a three year old collaboration between Vodafone Foundation and Australia’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, has started an initiative that attempts to use smartphones to get some help in curing cancer.

You need to begin by downloading the free app from Google Playstore and ensure that the phone is being charged. Next, choose the type of cancer research you want to support -ovarian, pancreatic, prostrate or breast, and then simply choose the amount of internet data you’d like to donate.

This initiative has been made live only in Australia as of now. If the nation there puts their smartphones together, it will provide Garvan with a supercomputer to be able to conduct cancer research more skillfully. Garvans’s head of the breast cancer unit, Dr. Samantha Oakes, said in an official statement:

“As a nation who loves their smartphones, we now have a tremendous opportunity to put them to good use and help find a cure for cancer. Together, we can come to a greater understanding of how to treat it more swiftly. With the help of game-changing innovations like DreamLab, I am hopeful that we will see cures of certain types of cancer in our lifetime.”

The Institute further stated that with 100,000 DreamLab apps working on smartphones in a nation which has about 5 million users, the rate of processing data would increase by 150,000 times and with a speed 3,000 times faster than the current one. The initiative seems a big step in the field of cancer research. Let’s see how long India would have to wait before something like this makes its way to the country.

November 9, 2015
Samsung to Launch its Virtual Reality Headset This Month

Samsung is all set to release Gear VR, company’s virtual reality headset, before Black Friday that is 27th November. It will be first launched in the US, followed by a UK launch a couple of days later and then other parts of the world. The headset would be shipped with the new Occulus Social app. Vimeo and Twitch videos would also be part of the app which can be watched with other people in anywhere in the world, participating as avatars.

Samsung has also launched Samsung Milk VR, it’s own VR video channel, along with a VR camera Project Beyond which is a 360-degree 3D capture camera built specifically to create videos for virtual reality.

Samsung’s Vice President for VR, Nicholas DiCarlo comments on Gear VR and says, ““Some people think virtual reality (VR) will be isolating but I think it’s clear it’s going to be a social medium… It’s the launch of consumer virtual reality.”

Other than the Occulus Social app and Milk VR, there are also plenty of games, apps such as Facebook 360 videos and Jaunt (a technological initiative that commissions and therefore encourages film-makers to make VR-friendly films) which have been developed for the headset. The headset is priced at $99 (close to Rs. 6,500) and can be plugged into the Galaxy S6, Edge, Edge + and Note 5 and any of the other new Samsung handsets.

Virtual reality seems to be the next big thing in the world of entertainment as well as tech. Would you be willing to give it a try?

November 7, 2015
‘Notify’ -Facebook’s Standalone News-Only App to Launch Next Week

Following its announcement of serving over a billion users, Facebook is once again in news -this time for a standalone app for delivering news to readers. According to reports, the app is called Notify and it will put together news from different sources which include The Washington Post, Comedy Central and Vogue, among others.

Rumours of Facebook working on a news-only app has been milling since August. This app aims to standout from others in the league by giving alerts to the reader as and when the story they are following develops. The reader would not have to visit specific stories or categories again to view the updates and changes.

Notify is expected to follow in the footsteps of Apple’s pre-installed News app for iOS 9 which boasts of over 40 million users now since its launch in mid-September. Let’s see how users take to this newest update by Facebook. Do you think it will simply add to the fray of many other similar news-related apps or will it be a change as refreshing and useful as reports are making it sound to be? We’ll keep you updated as and when we get more on this.

November 5, 2015
Google’s New Smartphone App Will Answer Emails For You

Allowing you to take laziness to the next level, Google’s new email app will come up with responses for emails and thereby saving your brain cells the extra effort. The Smart Reply feature of the Inbox by Gmail app was unveiled on Tuesday and offers three responses that can be customised by the user.

Smart Reply, Google’s smartphone app, uses deep learning, a modified version of Artificial intelligence to make the appropriate replies. Over time, the app would study the pattern of responses to emails, and suggest responses based on the most and least often used ones.

The president of the Google for Work program, Amit Singh commented on this, “The possibilities of machine learning are endless.”

Users tend to keep replies short on mobile phones and it was precisely this style of emailing on phones which led to the development of Google’s newest app. Google has also made sure to include or exclude responses which are more commonly used or steered cleared of. This ensures no private replies get mixed with business emails and vice versa. Smart Reply is expected to be available by the end of this week as part of the Inbox app that is compatible with both Android and iOS devices.

[tw-button size=”medium” background=”#07ABE2″ color=”” target=”_blank” link=”http://gmailblog.blogspot.in/2015/11/computer-respond-to-this-email.html”]Official Gmail Blog[/tw-button]

November 4, 2015
MPAA Shuts Down Online Streaming App Popcorn Time

For those of you who secretly watch all the trending TV Shows and movies via online streaming sites such as Popcorn Time – its doomsday for you. Popcorn Time and YTS have been shut down following court orders in Canada and New Zealand.

This isn’t something that has come as a shock, because the Motion Picture Association of America or MPAA had filed a suit back in October against three operators of popcorntime.io, claiming that they had “enabled, authorized and induced copyright infringement via an app that allowed viewers to watch pirated movies and TV shows”.

In Canada, they received an injunction on the 16th of October to shutdown the site while in New Zealand they filed a suit on the 12th of October 2015 against YTS, which is a torrent site. Both sites have therefore, been shut down as the legal procedures continue.

All you can do now, is hope and pray the MPAA don’t get to your favorite site next.

November 4, 2015
Google Targets College Audience As It launches a New Chat App

Google has launched a new app called “Who’s down”, which takes its hangouts concept to another level. Not a much higher level though, just a small step up. What we know so far about this app is that it is currently an invite-only app and is restricted to college students. It allows people who are interested in similar things to ‘group up’ and chat on the app.

The app does not require you to sign up with an academic email address, however, it does ask you which college you are from before joining the wait list. Google is clearly trying to expand into the social media sphere in small ways and yet trying to make a its mark. Targeting college students specifically seems to be quite a good business strategy since most of them, especially the freshers, are hooked to their smartphones all day.

Design wise it is typically Google with its blue-white design scheme. Function wise, first you move the slider that indicates you are online or ‘down’ to meet people, then you type in an activity you would like to do or just select an option from the drop down list. Once you’ve voiced your intent, the app will wait for people to respond. The app will eventually notify you if a good number of people respond to your request. The chats that happen in this chat room will automatically get deleted after 24 hours.

This seems like quite an intrinsically thought out app for Google. However, chat rooms and chatting apps aren’t concepts that are so new that nobody else can make it. So, until then, let’s just hope that Google’s pretty interface keeps us hooked.

October 31, 2015
Not Sure What to Make of Reflexion- OnePlus’ New Photography App

In another of its firsts, OnePlus has now launched a photography app called Reflexion. It has been released as an inspiration of OnePlus X, celebrating OnePlus’ latest device.

“Inspired by our latest device, Reflexion…easy-to-use photography app that explores contrasts and harmony in everyday moments. Capture your world, express your unique personality and share it with those you care about,” says the company.

The app is available for download on both iOS and Android devices. Basically, what the app does is take two photographs, one from the front camera, the other from the rear camera, and it stitches them together in an X-pattern on your screen. Like almost all other photography apps, Reflexion allows for easy sharing options of the picture on social media.

https://youtu.be/XczhUed1X_I

Don’t get too carried away by the fancy video though. We’re not too sure how exciting an addition Reflexion is to the app-world, especially post the song and dance of OnePlus X earlier this week. You can find more information about it on Reflexion’s official website, or you can check out the Google Play listing.

Are you as impressed by Reflexion as OnePlus would want? Let us know in the comments below.

October 31, 2015
Here Are 5 Mobile Apps You Can Use To Scare Friends This Halloween

Halloween is around the corner, and yes, we are aware as Indians we do not need another festival to celebrate in the month of October, but there’s no harm in spooking a couple of your friends out. Here’s a list of five smartphone apps that you can download specifically for the purpose.

1. Ghost Lens App

The first one you can try out is called the Ghost Lens app, which happens to be free on all iOS devices. It’s a very efficient app, where you just have to choose from a selection of backgrounds and filters, then you shoot your own video or pictures and save it. This is what your end result could potentially look like:

2. The Camera Hoax

The Camera Hoax, yet another free iOS app, allows you to choose an image from the given options within the app, such as ghosts, ghouls, UFOs etc. after which you can add a picture of yourself from your phone gallery and upload it. This app comes with a bunch of expert photoshop features too.

Minecraft:

In the spirit of Halloween, even Minecraft has vamped up its settings. Therefore, along with skeletons, and zombies, it now added a Halloween Costumes skin pack as a 79p in-app purchase to give your Minecraft character a Halloween makeover.

Halloween Sounds Pro:

Visual effects aside, sound also plays a very important role in scaring people, therefore to amp up your experience there is a free Halloween Sounds Pro app which lets you choose from a series of gory sounds such as a hiss or a scream to scare people around you. This app comes free on the iOS and has a $1 fee on the Android version.

The Hunting Part 1:

Last but definitely not the least, we have The Hunting Part 1, which basically puts you in a Blair Witch Project kind of simulation that you need to get out of. The film is shot from a first-person view, and it’s perhaps one of the most interactive zombie movie apps till now. This one should be a whole lot of fun to play on the 13th of Friday, after having said “Bloody Mary” to the bathroom mirror thrice. Go save yourselves!

October 30, 2015
Your Words But On Someone Else’s Face – Creepy or Exciting?

A team of researchers from Germany and the US have developed a first of its kind face break-through in video recording. They have developed a method which copies the facial expressions of the source actor and transfers them as it is to the target actor.

The software trackers keep a close track of the subject’s face even when it’s away from the camera, or in different light conditions of the source and the target actor. It was at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, and Stanford University that this technique of facial expression reenactment was developed. It will be presented in the computer graphics conference in Japan in early November.

Imagine your words coming out of one of these pretty mouths.

Even though the software doesn’t register eye motions, it takes into account the shape, size, colour, angle of the face, and then transfers the facial expressions with the help of a proxy mouth on the target actor’s face. The technology holds immense potential if worked upon further. It can be used in multi-lingual video conferences for real-time translation, along with being used in virtual reality and editing.

“It seems like there’s a lot of demand for it. Essentially it can do to video what Photoshop did to images,” says team member Matthias Niessner.

However, as always, this software comes with its own potential dangers if put to misuse. It can be used in identity thefts and wreak different degrees of havoc depending on the person being impersonated. The team which developed this software is convinced that all these activities can be checked and prevented with the right technological regulations.

October 30, 2015
VSCO Cam Joins the Bandwagon With Its Own GIF Making App

Whether or not a consensus has been reached on the pronunciation of the word, GIFs are all set be a bigger part of our virtual lives. VSCO Cam have decided to follow suit with lots of other developers and come up with its own GIF-making app. However, the glitch is this app is only for iOS users.

https://youtu.be/cthr_L7wt5A

DSCO, an Instagram-like app, is unveiled by the company for achieving the moving image effect for a footage of few seconds. This mobile photography app allows you to choose filters and presets, developed along with MTV and others, for your GIF before posting it on one of the social media platforms or on the company’s own portal. The app is available as a free download for all iOS users.

October 29, 2015
This is What Apple Music Could Look Like on Android

Apple haters may hate a lot of things about Apple’s products, but there is one thing that moves beyond hate. Music. And Apple haters and loyalists alike love music. There was a time when Apple revolutionized the way we listen to music with the iPod. But early this year saw the end to the classic iPod. To continue its goal to redefine music, Apple launched the Apple Music.

Apple Music is currently an iOS-only music streaming platform that gives you access to millions of songs from the company’s iTunes library. And for a basic monthly subscription, you can listen to unlimited music. This was Apple’s promise, and this is what they have delivered.

The Apple Music is actually quite brilliant. It gives the most popular music streaming platform today (Spotify) a run for its money. The reason being is that Apple Music is personal. Apple has put a lot of thought in the way the music service works for you. From curated playlists that have about 12-15 songs, which is just right, to Beats Radio, and Connect that lets you see what your favorite artist is up to. There is everything a music lover could ask for. But iOS users already know this. So why are we saying it now? It’s because Apple had promised that its music streaming service will come to Android soon as well.

The company said that Apple Music will be available for Android users this fall, which is any time now. Some screenshots published by Mobile Geeks show what Apple Music could look like for Android, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect. All the main features of Apple Music is present. Users will navigate Apple Music by using a slide-out menu accessible through the hamburger icon or via a swipe from the left side.

The For You section that shows curated playlists and artists based on your choice of music and genre, along with New, Beats 1 radio. Connect and My Music are all there. Presumably the My Music will link your phone’s music folder so all your songs are in one place. For iOS users the Apple Music was a natural extension to the Music app.

So, Android users in India will soon have the option to jump on to the Apple Music service. There are already a few music streaming platforms in India like Wynk, Saavn, Gaana and Hungama, that are pretty good. It is likely that Apple will provide a 3-months free trial of Apple Music for Android users as well. So once the app is out, give it a whirl and see if this is the service for you. The monthly subscription for iOS users is Rs. 120 for individuals and Rs. 180 for families. For Android users, the cost is likely to be around the same.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1zs0uHHoSw

October 24, 2015