Vine Video Sharing App Now Available on Google Play Store

The popular video sharing app Vine is now available for Android devices after launching for iOS in January. In case you’re wondering, Vine allows users to share small video clips up to six seconds in length, something like a visual version of the text microblogging on Twitter, which unsurprisingly owns Vine.

Sharing clips is nothing new but Vine provides the Twitter experience with areas to browse trending, popular, and editor’s picks for interesting videos. Of course users can  annotate and upload their own videos and link to clips created by others. You can search for your friends or other known users as well and browse all of their clips. As with any other social app, you can also invite others to join the Vine experience.

While the six-second limitation might at first seem overly restrictive, it forces users to be more discriminating in their use of that precious little time and saves others the hassle of browsing for the next mini viral hit. Vine also offers a creative stop and start recording feature that allows for the creation of stop motion animation. There’s no limit to what a clever animator can do with such a simple but powerful tool.

Recording and uploading video is as simple as possible and video playback is smooth and fast. Vine allows for automatic playback which is convenient because of how short the clips are. The Android version even has a zoom mode that is unavailable in the iOS version.

Vine is available now for all Android devices 4.0 and higher on the Google Play Store. If you’ve been itching to share some viral video with the world, check Vine out, just keep it to six seconds or under.

Source: Vine for Android

[Image Credit: Google Play Store]

Analog Camera on iOS App Store

Realmac Software has released Analog Camera, a powerful yet minimalist camera app on the iOS App Store. It may seem hard to get excited by just another camera app but Analog Camera offers a new take on a clean interface coupled with some simple but powerful features.

Like most other camera apps on the market, Analog Camera allows shutterbugs to control focus, exposure, and apply one of eight different filters to a photo. The focus and exposure features are nothing new but do add a level of sophistication and control that can turn what would be generic photo into something special when applied in the right way. Of course if you just want to snap a quick shot, the app offers an auto mode that chooses exposure and focus on its own.

Analog Camera includes the ability to connect to social media via Facebook and Twitter and photos can be instantly tagged, annotated, and sent via the app. Any photos already on the phone can be adjusted using the provided filters, even if they were taken with a different app. The filters are as fun as ever, you’d be surprised how much you can achieve using just eight of them.

What sets Analog Camera apart from the many camera apps on the market is the simplicity of the interface. It does away with many of the features that are rarely used that would clutter the app and strips photography down to its most fun and useful core. With literally a few taps and swipes, you can capture a professional looking photo, post it to Facebook and be ready for the next shot. Analog Camera is available on the iOS App Store for 99 cents, give it a try.

Source: Analog Camera for iPhone

[Image Credit: Apple iTunes Store]

Hyper for Windows 8 Offers The Full YouTube Experience

The native YouTube app for Windows 8 is the latest casualty of the battle between Microsoft and Google but that doesn’t mean there are no options for YouTube viewing. Hyper is the newest app on the Windows Store to offer up the full YouTube experience and it does a spectacular job.

When you start Hyper, the main view is similar to what you’d find if visiting YouTube via a web browser with the latest “Most popular” and “Top Favorites” videos dominating the screen. As with other YouTube apps or the site, you can login to your YouTube account to view your subscriptions and favorite channels. If you’re logged in, these will appear when the app starts and there are options to further customize how your favorite channels are organized.

Searching for videos is simple and fast with auto-completed results giving the most relevant search terms before you’re even done typing. Once you’ve entered your search words, the most relevant videos appear laid out in an easily accessible group. As with the YouTube site, you can adjust search for relevance, most popular, time frame, category, etc.

Playing a video is as simple as tapping the appropriate tile and the video will begin playing in fullscreen mode. During playback you can add the video to a playlist, adjust the quality and resolution, zoom, adjust volume, and view more details about the video. There are even a couple of features beyond the standard YouTube experience to set the video to repeat or download it directly for later and repeated viewings.

The Settings and Player menus let you control viewing history, rating info, and default video appearance and quality with adjustments to buttons or fullscreen playback.

The Snap views in Windows 8 are great for watching a video on the side while browsing the net or using another app. The experience might sound a lot like what you’d expect from just visiting YouTube on a browser but the added features make it a cut above and worth a try.

Source: Hyper YouTube App for Windows Phone

[Image Credit: Windows Phone Store]

Language Learning App Duolingo Now Available on Android

Have you ever wanted to learn another language? Well, if one of them happens to be Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, or English, the newly released (and free) Android version of Duolingo might be of help. Duolingo provides a series of language lessons and mini-games with scaled difficulty as you gain proficiency.

To begin, you must create a Duolingo account which is super easy (muy fácil) if using a Google or Facebook login. Next, you simply choose the language you’d like to learn and you’re ready to delve into the tools Duolingo offers. The app holds your hand in the beginning, teaching you the essentials of vocabulary and grammar before challenging you with full sentences or phrases.

The app makes learning more play than work and you can unlock achievements by doing well in the lessons. Lessons take the form of various mini-games and you are given four hearts at the start of each series of lessons. If you fail a lesson, you lose one heart and you must complete a series with at least one heart remaining for it to count.

The games (die spiele) are all fun and more important, genuinely helpful in learning the language. They range from fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice and translation to actually entering in the text of a spoken audio clip. The audio exercises even provide the ability to slow the speed of the spoken clip to make it easier to follow. Overall, the variety of exercises is very good (molto buono).

With all of the tools available online to learn a new language, it’s never been easier or more fun to try. Duolingo provides a great service for free and is fun to boot. They’re reportedly working on providing Chinese lessons in the future as well, but in the meantime why not pick up one of the many currently on offer? Of course it will take a lot of practice but c’est la vie.

Source: Duolingo: Learn Languages App for Android

[Image Credit: Google Play Store]

Windows 8.1 Features Revealed

Microsoft has finally taken the wraps off the newest features in Windows 8.1, the forthcoming update to Windows 8. Windows 8.1 seeks to address most of the complaints from casual and power users as well as provide several brand new improvements to streamline the overall experience.

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One of the biggest changes is the return of the much beloved Start button familiar to all Windows users which was removed from Windows 8. Another help to users of previous incarnations of Windows is the added ability to boot directly to desktop mode without having to go through the tablet style interface. One more nod to PC users is a series of improvements in navigating Windows using a keyboard and mouse.

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Beyond these widely desired changes, Microsoft has added several personalization features. These include the ability to customize backgrounds so that they are shared between both Desktop and Start screens to provide a more seamless transition between the two. A new digital photo display mode has been added which allows a Windows 8.1 device to function like a digital frame while in lock mode.

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Microsoft has also tweaked several native apps, including Music, Photos and Windows Store, allowing more integration between the different apps as well as visual and speed upgrades. Search has been given a boost with Bing results being combined into a more complete whole across files on the device, SkyDrive, and of course the internet. Speaking of the internet, Windows 8.1 will be home to the latest Internet Explorer, IE11 which will have several improvements of its own.

Snap views have received a major upgrade and now allow running three apps simultaneously next to one another. Apps can be resized at will (fullscreen 50:50 for example) instead of being forced to occupy only a quadrant of the screen. More than one instance of the same app can also be run at the same time and put into Snap views.

When Windows 8.1 is released later this year, look forward to these improvements and more. It appears that Microsoft has listened to the recommendations of Windows 8 users and is making an effort to woo those reluctant to upgrade from older versions.

Samsung expects Galaxy S4 sales more than 80 million in 2013

When Samsung announced flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone sales had reached 10 million units in one month. But now according to RBC Capital Market analyst, Samsung Galaxy S4 sales will reach 80 million units in 2013.

“Galaxy S-4 demand in the first month of availability has been incrementally better than our estimate of 10M units,” Sue wrote in a note to clients on Thursday. “In comparison, the S-III took nearly 2 months (50 days) to achieve the 10M units mark. Our broad-based channel checks at U.S. stores indicate that demand for the 16G S-4 devices remains strong with 32G Black devices mostly sold-out and 32G White devices yet to make it to the stores.”

Mr. Sue said that Samsung future looks great and it will be a major achievement for the company. However, recently Samsung has unveiled the rumored Galaxy S4 Mini Smartphone. The Galaxy S4 is the stripped down version of flagship Galaxy S4 smart phone. No doubt Korean Smartphone manufacturer Samsung has found the winning formula in the smart phone industry.