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In case you've forgotten about it, Periscope is Twitter's somewhat-unpopular streaming platform designed for use on iOS and Android devices. There haven't been any major feature additions in well over a year, but that changes today. Periscope users can now invite guests onto their streams, similar to what Instagram added in 2017.
Every few weeks, Google announces (and sometimes re-announces) a bunch of new Assistant features, so it's getting a little difficult to keep track of all of them. Among those was an option to reply to broadcasts, and now it's live.
Amazon is rolling out a feature today that lets users broadcast messages to connected Echo devices. The company is calling it Alexa Announcements, and the functionality is very similar to the broadcast feature Google Home has had since late last year.
I love my Google Home(s). I've been using two of them for nearly a year in my apartment, and they were recently augmented by a couple of JBL Link speakers with Assistant and a Google Home Mini at work. I call upon them frequently throughout the day to ask about the weather, play music, set reminders and calendar events, control my smart home devices, and more. And I have spent countless hours testing and checking everything they can do, which culminated in a very long but super detailed Google Home tutorial that I suggest you read.However, as time passes, there are features that I find myself repeatedly yearning for. Some are so, so, so simple that I can't wrap my head around the fact that the Google Home can't do them yet. These are overdue and it baffles me that we're almost one and a half year in the life of the "smart" speaker yet these options are nowhere to be found on it. So without further ado, let's dig in.
A ton of products and features were announced at Google's October 4th event, and among those was a broadcast feature for the Google Home line. If you have several Homes in your home, this is sure to come in handy when you need to communicate something with the entire house.
Back in September, Plex DVR launched, giving you the ability to record and save any broadcasts that your HDHomeRun tuner and antenna had picked up. It was a Plex fan/cord cutter's dream. But now to sweeten things further, Plex has announced Live TV, which will be available to all Pass subscribers at no extra charge.The biggest thing to note before going forward is that Live TV still requires a broadcast tuner, but the good news is that Plex has majorly increased the number of supported manufacturers that you can use — that means that you're no longer limited to an HDHomeRun. The company has also worked to make sure that this new service supports more than just U.S. OTA standards (Jason Williams, Director of Product and Growth, assured me that reaching a global audience was a priority). At launch, Live TV will also support multiple tuners in a single household for more recording and live viewing options. For those of you for whom this applies, that's great. If you're wondering what tuners will be supported, check out the table below or this link.
Google wants to be the undisputed leader in live streaming video games. With the announcement of YouTube Gaming, Google declared its intention to do battle with Twitch over an industry that may eventually amass a mind-blowing number of viewers. We're now receiving the first major app update to YouTube Gaming, and it's a huge one. Version 1.1 introduces screen recording and live screencasting directly from an Android device. On the content consumption side of things, the Watch Later feature from YouTube has been added in, and there's also a new import tool for quickly and easily porting your gaming-related subscriptions over to the new app.
Why would you want to watch TV shows on a TV? That’s so 2005. The options for live streaming your favorite TV shows on various devices abound. But until now, the options for live streaming on Android were hard to come by. None of the popular apps (Hulu, Netflix, Crackle, etc.) have this feature. This is why Aereo is different. It has been available for a while on iOS, although curiously not through an app, but via the browser. Now it’s available for Android in the Google Play store. This is great news for cord cutters. You no longer need to walk around with your fingers in your ears to avoid those Glee spoilers, while awaiting its availability on Hulu. Well, it’s great for those in seven cities, anyway. Oh, and those with Android 4.2 or higher. However, for that small subset of people, you’ll love Aereo, even with the slight beta glitches.
The time has finally come, couch potatoes: Aereo is here. This service has been making waves ever since it launched in February of last year, offering rebroadcasted over-the-air television across the Internet. The web service and iOS app has been available for entirely too long, but now it's time for Android to play (albeit in beta form). The Aereo app is a free download, but the service requires a subscription... and Android 4.2 or higher.
'Livestream' Android App Update Brings Free Live Video Broadcasting To The Huddled Masses
'Livestream' Android App Update Brings Free Live Video Broadcasting To The Huddled Masses
Google Hangouts have been a great innovation in the world of easy broadcasting. If you're looking for something a bit more powerful, though, Livestream for Producers is a really great tool. The most recent update to the app brings cost-free and ad-free live streaming to an already-robust live blogging platform. Independent journalists should be thrilled.
While I was tapping away on my laptop trying to keep up with the Ice Cream Sandwich event earlier today, the desktop machine was happily recording it for future reference. This should hold us over until Google posts the official HD version - the video is about 1 hours long, but almost every minute of it is totally worth it (at least once you get to the juicy ICS bits):
One of the most exciting announcements of this week was, without a doubt, the unveiling of the 2 new super-slim Galaxy Tabs, the 8.9 and the 10.1, at the CTIA Wireless conference in Orlando.
DI.FM fans, in an announcement on Facebook, your favorite radio station just dropped its Android app (previously available as only an off-Market beta) in the Android Market. Being one of such fans - Digitally Imported Premium is one of the few services I pay for monthly - I can tell you that the app is superb - it's clean, well designed, functional, and not over-bloated with features nobody needs.
Every year Google holds a conference for developers, called Google I/O, and every year most of you - pretty much all of you but the lucky 4000 people, cannot make it for one reason or another (like the price which is $350-400 USD).