You would be wrong to think that News/Press industry are the first to embrace new technologies. In fact, the one industry that is always on the avant-garde and even drives innovation in tech is porn. Don't believe me? Check out this article by Business Insider that dates back to 2013 on "How porn drives innovation in technology" and you will get my point. OK, it's a dated article that remains true today.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you've heard about Virtual Reality or VR. It's all the buzz with Oculus Rift leading the pack, HTC having the Vive up for pre-order and Microsoft choosing to go AR instead with Hololens. With that, one of the first company to launch a new VR channel is not CNN, Time or any other major news company, but PornHub, a market leader in the porn industry. The company has even been giving away 10,000 Google Cardboard to viewers at launch of the new channel. In the meantime...
CNN has pushed an update for its Android app that finally adds support for 360 degrees video. Users will be able to rotate their device to view 360-degree video within the app itself. CNN also finally added support for Chromecast - now Google Cast - so you can use Google first and second generation streaming device to cast videos to your TV. Casting Live TV and Android TV support is coming in another update.
Before checking out Pornhub's VR channel, head over to Google Play store to download or update CNN app for Android.
Next week, March 25th, HTC will unveil the highly anticipated All New HTC One (ANHO), the successor to the HTC One. Unlike any previous launches, HTC is making this one all public. While those who are lucky enough to attend the events in New York and London will be the first to have a hands-on with the device, the rest of us will at least watch as HTC unveils the ANHO and confirms or deny the rumors. Until then, HTC has posted the site where the live streaming will take place with the countdown ticking inexorably towards next Tuesday. Bookmark the link below and mark your calendars.
Watch the All New HTC One launch here.
HTC has launched an Android app that lets soccer fans to follow UEFA Champions league and Europa league on the go. The app, called HTC FootballFeed, has been released today. FootballFeed looks similar to Blinkfeed, the built-in news reader for HTC devices. As such, HTC FootballFeed provides soccer fans with news, stats etc. Also included is push notification and a 15 minutes reminder before a game starts so you don't miss anything whether you're on your couch or away from your TV or home.
HTC FootballFeed is a free download from Google Play Store and requires Android 4.1 (Jelly bean).
Features:
- Designed for an efficient, unique user experience,
- Official updates direct from UEFA and HTC,
- Squad line-ups for each match,
- Push notifications, so you never miss a thing,
- Countdown clock for upcoming matches,
- Standing tables for both Leagues,
- Club pages with relevant facts and stats
Chat heads was initially restricted to devices supporting Facebook Home, the failed attempt by Facebook to take over your device. Home was meant to be the main point of entry to access your phone features as it worked more like a launcher, an intrusive one which did not garner much support from users. But not all was bad about Facebook Home.
Chat head remains quite popular and it seems Facebook has noticed and is bringing it to those devices that cannot handle Facebook Home. In the latest update to Facebook Messenger, they added support for Chat Heads for mid-range devices like the Samsung Galaxy Y and HTC Wildfire. A bug on the Sony Experia U which caused chat heads to appear incorrectly was also fixed.
Finally, the usual bug fixes are also part of the update as well as improvements to use less battery.
With this update, Facebook Messenger reaches version 2.6.1. If you haven't received the update notification yet, get it on Google Play.
