After launching a brand new Android app, Plex is now giving its Google TV app more room to roam inside your HDTV. An update allows you to dynamically switch your layout to a “TV style” to better take advantage of your flat panel’s extra breadth, even if you’re running it from an Android smartphone instead (which you totally can). PlexPass subscribers can sideload the app to Google TV or any other Android device via an APK now, and a new Google TV app will arrive on Play within a week. So, if you’ve already got the pixels but need more screen acreage, check the source.
VideoLAN’s original VLC for iOS had a brief and rocky history: open source licensing quirks led to the media player being pulled from the App Store just months after launch. More than two years later, it’s back with a compatible license — and it’s bringing a slew of new features in return for the wait. VLC 2.0 supports all the file formats of its desktop counterpart while throwing in AirPlay, background audio, network streaming and numerous smaller tweaks. It’s also better suited to sharing with support for Dropbox, the iOS sharing prompt, web downloads and WiFi uploads. The revived VLC app is gradually rolling out now, and its source code should be available for tinkering by July 19th.
Take a look at your Android phone. See that background shot? It’s probably kind of cute, but hardly inspiring. In fact, is it bringing you any joy whatsoever? Is it helping you to make rent? Believe it or not, there’s now an app for that. Locket has just launched into the Google Play Store, enabling a limited (for now) selection of advertisers to place ads on your lock screen and then paying you one cent for each time you unlock. Of course, it’s capped at $0.03 per hour (so every other unlock is just making the company money), and you’ll be allowed to cash out, toss the funds on a gift card or donate your earnings to a charity. For now, it’s restricted to users based in the United States. Oh, and don’t worry, we already did the math — you can earn $262.80 by unlocking your phone’s screen three times each hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Or you can just mow some grass.
Evernote has pushed out an update for its iOS app, tossing some more features into the mix, as well as support for Skitch. Those who update to version 5.4 will find Favorites on the iPhone transformed into Shortcuts, the ability to annotate notes with Skitch, and for Premium users, a new related notes feature that pulls up relevant past content.
The shortcuts addition is something that can be pulled up with a tap on the star tab, revealing shortcuts to a variety of content, as well as saved searches if desired. The shortcuts are synced across multiple Evernote apps for those who shift between devices. Shortcuts can be created for notebooks, notes, and such by tapping the same star tab from within the content.
As mentioned, the Skitch integration with the update allows users to mark up their content, whether it is a note, an image, or a PDF. Users will need to grab the Skitch app in order to use the new functionality, after which point a Skitch icon will be available to tap, pulling up the feature. Using Skitch with PDF files is reserved for Premium users.
The related notes is as simple as it sounds – related notes being pulled up beneath newer notes, making it easier to find content you might need from your notebooks while working on something else. As long as there is related content, it will automatically be pulled up underneath the current note. This feature is also reserved for Premium users.
And rounding it all out is Announcements, which is a section that Evernote will use to push it own content for users. Among the announcements will be things like tips, updates, and popular tutorials. This feature is accessible via the Bugle icon. Aside from these big four, the rest of the changes are minor, pertaining to things like performance and stability.
Feeling productive? So are the folks at 6Wunderkinder, who’ve been busy little bees translating the popular desktop and mobile productivity tool, Wunderlist, into a packaged application for Chrome. The Wunderlist for Chrome experience is about as close to native as it can get — because it’s a packaged app, it works outside your Chrome browser, just like the desktop version. Included with the app are nifty features like voice dictation for your to-do list, desktop notifications, offline availability and a tagging system. Linux users will be especially happy to know that the Chrome version brings Wunderlist back to their OS, after having lost it when the company abandoned HTML5. To get your productivity on, head on over to the source link below to download the free app. And for a quick preview, check out the video after the break.
Many habitual Evernote users have giant stacks of notes that can be difficult to sift through. Mercifully, Evernote’s updated iOS app has come to their rescue: it now lets users create shortcuts to favorite notes and surface related notes. It’s easier to mark up those scribbles, too — the update integrates tightly with Skitch, dropping users directly into the companion app for annotations and drawings. Premium users can jump directly to Skitch for PDF editing. There isn’t a corresponding Android update just yet, but serious iOS note takers can get the new Evernote build today.
Telenav has been steadily improving Scout, its personalized navigation platform, ever since its introduction. Today, Scout users will finally get the crowd-sourced traffic info they were promised back in April. Scout for both iOS and Android now provides you the wisdom of its 100 million users and traffic partners, allows you to see which roads are congested and calculates up to three possible routes — letting you find the most efficient way from point A to point B. That real-time traffic info augmented with user input also enables drivers to share a more accurate estimated time of arrival, so your dinner date will know exactly how long you’ll be delayed due to that unforeseen fender-bender on the freeway. Additionally, the update adds several new recommendation categories to its Things to Do feature, so it’ll now tell you about live music, local festivals and outdoor activities, too. Sound good? You know the drill, Google Play and the App Store await.
Few of us reading the morning news enjoy putting our greasy hands on a tablet or newspaper just to flip through articles. With the newly unveiled New York Times app for the Leap Motion Controller, we won’t have to. The release lets news hounds navigate stories (and ads) through a unique interface optimized for touch-free gestures. Both Mac and Windows versions of the NYT app will be available in the Airspace store on July 22nd, the same day Leap Motion ships to customers. More importantly, the app will be free — at least at launch, readers won’t run into the usual paywall. If the prospect of contact-free news has you intrigued, there’s a video demo available after the break.
VLC is arguably one of the most popular media players in the world, thanks to the fact that it can play pretty much any file format that you can throw at it. After being removed from the iTunes App Store over two years ago, the VideoLAN team is set to bring the player back to iOS once again with the roll-out starting later tonight and continuing into tomorrow.
The app will be compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch running iOS 5.1 or higher. Along with the reunification, VLC will be bumping up the version number to an even 2.0 and will retain its open source prowess, with the app’s code being available online at some point tonight or tomorrow.
The app will be bi-licensed under both the Mozilla Public License Version 2, as well as the GNU General Public License Version 2 or later. What’s important to note here is that the app was originally removed back in 2011 because Apple’s App Store rules conflicted with parts of the GPL license. This time around, the Mozilla licensing is applied to avoid the issue from happening again.
VideoLAN teased the iOS icon for the VLC app today on Twitter, using the infamous VLC traffic cone on a field of orange. The icon also looks to be ready for iOS 7, as its design is flatter than the icon from a couple years ago. Furthermore, a VideoLAN developer teased a screenshot of some of the app’s details, which also notes a file size of just 9.9MB for the app.
Of course, iOS users who have jailbroken devices have been able to use a version of VLC for awhile now, but those who aren’t that risky have had the unfortunate experience of not being able to watch their favorite .MKV-formatted shows on their iOS device. A roll-out starting tonight will seem like an eternity of waiting for eager VLC users, but if you waited two years for the app’s return, you can certainly wait just a few hours longer.
In “Firefly Online”, those of you crossing your fingers and your toes hoping for Joss Whedon to reveal a Firefly TV show revival at this years’ SCDD get a half-treat this afternoon. Those in charge of holding the torch for the long-lost cult classic science fiction show have found the developers and backing they need to create none other than a high-flying mobile video game, appearing in 2014 for both Android and iOS devices.
This game will allow you to fly Serenity through space, creating your own adventures as you do so. It’ll be up to you to create the ship from the show – or whatever ship you do so desire to create, while you “explore the Verse”, as they say. This game will feature “cross platform, cross device” support, meaning we’ll be able to pick up where we left off from one device to the other, too.
It’s Fox Digital Entertainment that’s footing the bill on this one, working with mobile game developer QMX Interactive behind the scenes. Those aiming to roll with the game in either mobile or desktop web browser format are able to access updates from the development crew through their official “Keep Flying” website. Upon signing up, the following message is delivered:
“On behalf of QMx Interactive and Spark Plug Games, we want to say thank you.
Together with you, our fellow Browncoats from around the world, we’re about to do the impossible. And that makes us mighty.
FIREFLY ONLINE is going to be a game unlike any other and 99.9% of that will be due to fans like you who are already making it so incredibly special. As a registered FIREFLY ONLINE player, you will receive exciting news updates and be entitled to future discounts and exclusive offers. You’ll be the first to know when our new website features are unveiled, such as the blog, where you’ll be able to track live progress of the game and ask questions of the developers, and the FFO store, which will be absolutely chock-full of shiny virtual loot (and real loot, too).
It’s going to be one mighty fine shindig, if we do say so ourselves.
Again, we humbly thank you for your support. Keep flying!”
– Andy Gore (QMx) and John O’Neill (SPG)
Stick around as we follow the creation of this game and see how it fares in the ever-expanding world of MMORPGs and the like. Until then – Find a Crew. Find a Job. Keep Flying.
NOTE: This game will be out for smartphone and tables initially, but the crew has made it clear that “we’ll see how things go :)”. They followed up to an off-hand question on if the game will appear for Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8 with a “just ’cause you asked 🙂 We’ll make it so.”
The PR team behind this game is clearly underestimating the interest they’re about to have with half-announcements such as these, bless them. They’ll wise up quick!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
