The Best Apps On Google Chromecast

At the beginning of last month Google released its Chromecast Software Development Kit (SDK) and API, meaning that the inexpensive HDMI dongle is about to get a whole lot more apps. Add the fact that Chromecast is now available in another eleven countries, including the U.K., Canada, Italy, Sweden, France and Germany,  we should start to see more interesting and useful apps.
There is a growing number of apps in various genres but they can be a little hard to find in the Google Play Store, so thankfully the developer community has created Cast Store, which is a directory of all the Chromecast apps currently available. To help you sift out the more interesting ones, we’ve put together a list of what we think are the best apps.

CastPad

This app is great if you have kids as it allows you draw on your phone (with a stylus!) and then display the work of art on your TV screen. Of course it’s fun for adults too and can make a good game of pictionary lots more fun.

Flixster

This free movie tracking app will provide you with all the movie reference information you will ever need, including local show times, cast, reviews and trailers. A recent update means you can also load movies onto the SD memory card (if you have a Samsung device). Included on Flixster is a host of free and paid movies ready for you to watch when you want.

Haystack.tv

For those of you who like to keep up with current affairs, Haystack.tv is a useful app that allows you to watch news bulletins from across the internet, on subjects that you are interested in.

5by

This video portal will create a personalised playlist of clips from all over the internet, based on your likes, dislikes and what you are doing at that very moment.

Photowall

Google recently released this app, which enables you to not only view your favourite photos on your TV but also share them with others. Photos can be sent via your Android or iOS smartphone, or through the Google Chrome browser. Once all of the photos have been loaded on, the app automatically generates a YouTube video and shares it with everyone who is in the photo.

Flipps

As well as having a heap of channels that cover everything from NASA to MTV and fitness video podcasts, Flipps also allows you to share content from your phone and other DLNA servers on the network.

Pocket Casts

This popular podcast manager has been updated to allow you to stream podcasts straight to your TV screen. You will have to pay a small fee for this app though.

Availability for the different apps does vary, with some only being accessible in the U.S but hopefully this will start to change as more apps are created and more people start to use the little Android device. If you have any recommendations for us then please share them in the comments.
[Images via androidcentral, liliputing, cultofmac, thetechgets & droid-life]

Android Wear Smartwatches Compared

If you are looking for an Android smartwatch then you really are spoilt for choice. Plus there are now six smartwatches that feature Google’s new platform, Android Wear so to help your decision a little easier, we’ve compared prices, specs, designs and screens. Take a look and then tell us which one wins your vote in the comments below.

Samsung Gear Live - $199

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Specs: 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, 512MB RAM and 4GB storage.
Screen: 1.63-inch 320 x 320 AMOLED
The Samsung Gear Live comes in a choice of either a black or magenta-red strap and features a heart rate monitor and a 9-axis accelerometer. Although the AMOLED screen may look great, unfortunately there have been numerous complaints about the snap-on charging mechanism, which reportedly keeps breaking.

Check Out Google’s First Self-Driving Car!

Earlier in the year, pictures and reports of a self-driving car from Google hit the internet in force, resulting in excitement from many, while it left others scratching their heads wondering what they were looking at. To be honest, the pictures were more prototype than anything else, but the right ideas were clearly there, only waiting to be completely fleshed out. Google has good news – they’ve moved from ideas and prototypes and have actually created their first actual self-driving car, and it will be hitting the streets of California in 2015! In their postings about the autonomous vehicle, Google has been careful to point out that everything on this version of the car works – the lights, the brakes, the steering wheel – you know, everything that makes the car stop and go.

While everyone else will be spending the holiday season with friends and family, Google will be hard at work test-driving their new toy to make sure everything works just right before they send it out on the road with other vehicles in the new year. (They’ll be testing out both manual-driving as well as automatic-driving).
What do you think? Are you excited about self-driving cars, or do you feel as if they’re going to turn out to be one huge liability after another? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
[Image via Toronto Sun]
SOURCE: Google

Microsoft’s First Nokia Lumia Ad is All About Making Things Colorful

Ads for phones these days are a big deal, what with all the competition going on. Apple, for example, has recently released a new ad for the iPhone 5s featuring the Pixies, in spite of the phone having been out for quite some time. Samsung does its own part, not missing any chance to send some dissing Apple’s way. But what about Microsoft?

Now that the deal between Microsoft and Nokia is all but set in stone, the company released its first Nokia Lumia ad, and boy, does it make your eyes pop.
Titled “Not Like Everybody Else”, the ad focuses on the colorful aspects of Nokia phones. The scenes are nicely played out, with the background being as drab and uncolorful as it can possibly be; and, of course, we see this lone wolf, this Nokia phone owner who wears eye-popping gear (red and yellow), not to mention his yellow Nokia phone.
Of course, everyone stops and stares at him.

I don’t know if you’ve read The Giver by Lois Lowry, but this Nokia Lumia ad certainly reminded me of that story.
While this new ad may not be nearly enough to boost the sales of Nokia phones and increase the allure of the Windows Phone platform, it just might be a step in the right direction. Touting your phones as devices that make users “not like everybody else” is a smart move in these times. After all, people want to highlight how they stand out from the rest of the crowd, and with all the Android phones and iPhones seen everywhere, new Nokia Lumias (though we know the name Nokia will be dropped at some point) just might be the difference that some people will want.
Here’s the new Nokia Lumia ad.
What do you think? Will ads along these lines attract more users?
[Images via TNW & thailumia]

This Woman Spent $15,000 to Look Good in Selfies

What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever spent a huge amount of money on? A gigantic TV? A video game system? A motorcycle? Diamond jewelry? While “expensive” is a bit of a relative term anymore, I think most of us would agree that $15,000 isn’t exactly pocket change. (Unless your last name is Buffet or Gates). And while I could see spending $15,000 (and upwards) on a vehicle or some necessity like that, I can’t imagine spending that much to look good in pictures I take of myself.
Yet that’s exactly what a 38-year-old woman from Los Angeles did. Triana Lavey, who works as a talent manager, recently shelled out $15,000 so she would look better when taking selfies. The $15,000 paid for a chin implant, a nose job, and some fat grafting. She also gets regularly budgeted Botox injections to her face. I realize selfies are slowly taking over social media, but are they really worth that much? Ms. Lavey would at least say so.

I care about my own appearance, don’t get me wrong, but there’s no way in this world I’d spend that much money just so I’d look good in a selfie. That makes me wonder – what’s the big deal with selfies anyway? Why do we have to take a picture of ourselves anywhere and everywhere we roam? I’m just as guilty as everyone else, and I have absolutely no idea why. It almost seems that we, as a culture, are falling a little too in love with ourselves, walking somewhere along the same path as Narcissus. Hopefully someone will save us before we all wither from staring too long at ourselves.
What do you think? Could you imagine spending that much to look better in selfies? Let us know in the comments section below!
[Image via ABCNews]
SOURCE: http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/women-spends-15000-plastic-surgery-look-better-selfies/#!Geaq7