Androidifying

If you spend more than just an hour or two on YouTube daily, then chances are you know who Casey Neistat is . He’s an American YouTube celebrity with more than six million subscribers online. You know what else he had until very recently? An app called Beme. Neistat’s video-sharing app officially launched for Android in May 2016 but was bought by CNN in November. Now, the app is officially no more and gone from the Play Store. See also: Casey Neistat’s video app Beme exits beta and comes to Android May 3, 2016 Beme was famous for all the wrong reasons, really. It first launched for iOS back in 2015, and Android followed suit a year later. Essentially, you could record a very short clip by placing your phone to your chest (or simply by covering the proximity sensor), and the video would be shared instantaneously with your subscribers. Neistat’s vision was idealistic, if not naively impractical: to have an online platform where users can record and share unfiltered, natural...

This post originally appeared on our sister site, VR Source . If you’re interested in both football and virtual reality, this weekend has some interesting content in store for you. As long as you have either a Google Cardboard headset or a Samsung Gear VR , you can check out some of the greatest moments of Super Bowl LI in real time. Obviously Fox Sports isn’t going to let you watch the entire Super Bowl 51 for free… it still has channel subscriptions to sell. What it will do, however, is give you the opportunity to watch highlights and snippets in your own personal ‘virtual suite’ where you can sit back, relax, and watch the game’s best moments on the big screen. This isn’t 360-degree video, but it will give you access to specialized wide-angle video, mapped to a virtual wall just like you’re watching on your own extra-large television. If you’re passionate about 360-degree video however, you can always take your phone out of the Google Cardboard or Gear VR headset and pivot your ...

It’s a great time to be a tech lover. Looking back on the smartphone releases of 2016, the biggest problem we might have is that virtually every new device is great. In fact, many of 2016’s releases features a number of the same specs: a Snapdragon 820 processor, a 5.5-inch display (or thereabouts), metal and/or glass construction, fingerprint sensors. We might as well stop using the word “smartphone” and simply call them mobile phones since there’s hardly a single phone that isn’t smart these days. Interestingly, the high standards exhibited across the entire smartphone market — and even throughout consumer electronics as a whole — has made nitpicking a necessity. If we’re to compare today’s smartphones, pitting them against one another to figure out which is the best, we have to disregard the specs and take out a magnifying glass. As such, many of the defining characteristics of a smartphone, or the features that make a smartphone stand out from the crowd, are frequently not spec...

With less than a month to go before the 2017 Mobile World Congress trade show begins, we can expect the rumors and leaks to pick up speed on the internet from now on. The latest such report claims to have images showing what the unannounced Honor 8 Lite from Huawei will look like. See also: Huawei CEO Richard Yu talks new partnerships, growth in interview at CES 2017 4 weeks ago The report comes from noted gadget leaker Roland Quandt of WinFuture.de . These images show the phone placed inside both clear and plastic cases, so we are not getting quite the pure look at the phone that we would normally get. He added in Twitter posts that the Honor 8 Lite could launch in early March, after a possible reveal at MWC 2017. The phone is also supposed to come in Blue, Black, Gold, and White colors. The images indicate that the phone will have a microUSB port on the bottom, rather than the USB Type-C port that we have been seeing on many recently launched Android phones. They al...

LEGO Life is a new app for Android and iOS where all LEGO lovers can create and share their virtual building sets on a child-friendly platform. See also: Build your own LEGO characters with the new LEGO Brickheadz VR app for Daydream View November 30, 2016 LEGOs are making a huge comeback: I don’t know whether kids these days are going analog or if it’s those gentrification-loving, vintage-seeking hipsters, but it seems like LEGO building is the latest craze. Well, LEGO has opportunely launched a child-friendly social network where LEGO enthusiasts can interact with LEGO characters, get latest news, customize their newsfeed, and interact with fellow LEGO lovers. This safe space is aimed for those under 13, so hipsters: please let the kids have this one. The company has actually worked with UNICEF to bring important safety features to this app. The company has actually worked with UNICEF to bring important safety features to this app: first of all, kids need a pare...

Plex , the popular streaming media app, has made its first major acquisition. The company has bought Watchup, which offers streaming on-demand video news from well over 100 sources. See also: Best media center apps for Android 3 weeks ago Watchup was first founded in 2012. Its app launched initially for the iPad, but has since expanded its reach to other platforms, including Android. It aggregates video news from major sources like CBS, CNN, and others, along with local TV news videos from across the US. It also supports Chromecast , so you can watch those videos on your big screen TV. In a blog post announcing the deal, Plex stated that all of Watchup’s nine employees will be joining the company as part of the acquisition, but it did not discuss the specific financial terms. It hinted strongly that the purchase was part of Plex’s overall plan to offer customers a cord-cutting alternative to getting news and content without a cable or satellite TV subscription. While no...

HTC just can’t catch a break, as one of its most vocal and long serving executives has now announced his departure. Yes, Jason Mackenzie, who worked at the company for 12 years, most recently as its global executive vice-president, officially made the decision public earlier today via his Twitter account. After 12 amazing years, today is my last day @htc . It was a great run & I feel blessed. Thank you Peter Chou, @cherwang , & TeamHTC. — Jason Mackenzie (@JasonBMac24) January 31, 2017 Mackenzie first joined HTC in 2005 and climbed up its executive ladder, eventually becoming President of HTC America. He held that office for over two years before the company promoted him just over a year ago to become its global executive vice-president. Mackenzie didn’t state why he was leaving the company at this time, nor did he give any indication on what his next gig will be going forward.  The company also didn’t reveal who would take over from Mack...