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Google Announced its Best of 2018 List; PUBG Selected the Best Game 2018

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The year is about to end, and Google, following the ritual of selecting best of the year, has published a list of its best apps of 2018, in various categories, including “Most Entertaining” and “Hidden Gems”. There are millions of apps and other content available on the Play Store, and along with apps, the list of bests includes the best movies, TV shows, and books, etc.

Google on the basis of various factors selected the top five among every category and named the best of all. Google, also, first time also added a Fan Favorite category, a user poll, from where the users could support their favourite apps in various categories. On the basis of the voting, Google Pay won the User’s Choice App of 2018 and Google selected Drops as the Best App of 2018.

Google-Play-Best-Of-2018-Awards
Image Source: 9to5google.com

The best app also included other subcategories, and among those categories, Tik Tok became the Most Entertaining App 2018. Unfold won the Hidden Gems of 2018, and Home Workout – No Equipment was named the Best Self-Improvement App 2018. Otter Voice Notes became the Best Daily Helper 2018.

The other main category was the Best Game 2018, and it also had various sub-categories, i.e. Best Game, User’s Choice Game, Best Casual, Most Innovative, Most Competitive and Best Indie. PUBG Mobile won the Best Game 2018 from both User’s Choice and Google. The Best Casual 2018 won by Ludo King, Battlelands Royale named the Most Innovative 2018, Real Cricket 18 won the Most Competitive 2018, and Alto’s Odyssey named the Best Indie 2018.

Black Panther was selected as the Best Movie of 2018 on Play Store, and the top five list includes the following:

  • Black Panther
  • Avengers: Infinity War
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
  • Deadpool 2

Google’s top five TV shows of 2018 are:

  • The Walking Dead
  • Riverdale
  • The Big Bang Theory
  • The Flash
  • PAW Patrol

The top five eBooks of 2018 selected by Google:

  • Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff
  • The Outsider by Stephen King
  • Fear by Bob Woodward
  • 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
  • Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis

In the category of best Audiobooks of 2018, the following win the race of top 5:

  • 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson
  • Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
  • Fear by Bob Woodward
  • Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • The Outsider by Stephen King

YouTube Stories Feature Now Available for the Creators with Subscribers More than 10K

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Stories have been famous for not only Snapchat (that originated it first), but also for other social media platforms like Instagram, Whats app, Facebook and even LinkedIn. Now YouTube has also adopted the same feature for its user to make it more interactive and help them with promotions.

YouTube
Image Source: YouTube

The feature is a similar version of the Stories feature of other social media apps, but with a few changes. This feature is available only for the creators having at least 10000 subscribers. Also, the stories on YouTube last for a week i.e. seven days, unlike for Instagram, What’s App and Facebook, on which the story lasts only for 24 hours. Even the stories posted on YouTube can be seen by the people who haven’t subscribed the particular YouTube channel.

YouTube is one of the biggest platforms for marketing and content sharing and has become the widest stage for the influencers to connect with people, globally. The stories feature is going to help creators, influencers and brands, with sizable followers, for better exposure of their content on the platform.

The stories are located on the right sidebar, with the “Up Next” tab, on the right side for the desktop users and below the video, for the mobile users. The video length for the YouTube Stories is set to be 30 seconds, at max, and can be assembled into a playlist. People can also comment on those stories and interact with the creator. The main goal of those stories is channel promotion and day-to-day community engagement.

The feature was rebranded as the “YouTube Stories” at the Vidcon, last year, and was available only for some selected YouTubers. YouTube had been testing the feature for the other users, for past one year, and had announced that it would become available for them by the end of 2018. The stories feature has been the biggest influencing vigour for mainly Instagram and Facebook, and now it will also help the marketers to endorse their services directly on YouTube at a bigger level.

AT&T’s Ready to Launch its Three Tier Streaming SVOD Service

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Video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime has replaced old traditional television, and now AT&T is also set to launch its new streaming video service by the end of this year, that will feature original movies and television series from Warner Bros., Turner and HBO. The tech giant is ready to transform into an entertainment giant with its new upcoming subscription video-on-demand service and has made some good strategies to achieve that.

at&t
image Source: 680news.com

The streaming service will provide a three-tier subscription, starting with an “entry-level” subscription at the lowest monthly charges, that will accentuate on movies, and the user will get to watch the films from WarnerMedia’s catalogue with this subscription. The second one will endorse the “premium” subscription package, and will include the WarnerMedia TV series and “blockbuster movies”. The third tier is on the expensive side and will provide the user with all the first and second tier subscription services, plus it will offer an access to “extensive library of WarnerMedia and licensed content.”

AT&T had been preparing for the big launch of its video streaming platform, and the news had been confirmed by many of AT&T’s statements in the past. As AT&T has acquired HBO, it will emphasise more on promoting and streaming the content from HBO. Also, soon after its acquisition of TimeWarner, AT&T also established a WarnerMedia entity, to focus on WarnerMedia content specifically.

The tech giant is focused on more consumer engagement, and its goal is to have its share of profits from the consumers who have been spending $150 a month on entertainment and cable services. John Stankey, head of AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit said, “At the end of the day, that engagement is good for all of AT&T’s business.”

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, “We have some of the world’s best content and 370 million direct-to-consumer relationships across mobility, video, broadband and our digital properties. That exceptional combination enables us to deliver a broad spectrum of entertainment experiences, from premium video to skinnier over-the-top and mobile-centric bundles of live content, and a subscription video-on-demand product to launch late next year. And with Xander, our advertising business, we’re using insights from our customers.”

Alongside AT&T, Disney is also planning to start its standalone streaming service, by the fall next year. And like these two companies, there are many other companies including Walmart that are willing to step into the same business. Netflix and Amazon have already made their separate place in the same, and with the combination streaming service that AT&T is about to start, the consumer will be able to get more discount on such service, which can shift their attention from Netflix and Amazon Prime to AT&T’s streaming network.

Amazon Gets into Blockchain Business; Launches Two New Products

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Last year, Amazon was planning for its debut in the blockchain industry with Amazon Web Services (AWS), but due to some reasons, could not come to any conclusions. But, finally, despite the huge plunge that crypto had faced this year, Amazon has launched two of its new products based on the same technology, at the Amazon’s re:Invent conference, held on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

blockchain
Image Source: medium.com

One of the two blockchain platforms that Amazon introduced is the Amazon Managed Blockchain. The platform is specially built for the blockchain developers. It helps them develop blockchain networks without having to create their own blockchain platform. The platform supports the two popular existing blockchain platforms — Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. Right now, the platform is not available for Ethereum.

“Amazon Managed Blockchain is a fully managed service that allows you to set up and manage a scalable blockchain network with just a few clicks,” Amazon said in an announcement.

The other blockchain based product that Amazon announced at the event is the Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB), that is a type of log of transactions, which is transparent, stable, and cryptographically verifiable. A central trusted authority will supervise the ledger. The users can replicate a copy of their blockchain activities with the help of this platform.

“Managed Blockchain can replicate an immutable copy of your blockchain network activity into Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB), a fully managed ledger database. This allows you to easily analyze the network activity outside the network and gain insights into trends,” company website mentioned.

Amazon’s cloud chief Andy Jassy, took three hours to explain about Amazon’s two products as well as talked about its competitors and their products. “We don’t build things for optics,” he said, “AWS only spends resources on something when they understand the problem. This is something that a lot of companies need,” he added.

The availability terms for most of the services announced at the event are still under the wraps, and most of them are going to be more useful for the IT professionals, rather than the business managers. The blockchain services provided by Amazon are open for signups, and after the verification, the users will be able to create their blockchain networks and add more members to their accounts to simulate a multi-member network.

Apple Updates iCloud to Fix the Compatibility Issues with Windows

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Image Source : softpedia.com

Apple along with Microsoft had been working on the latest version of iCloud for Windows, and have just released the newest version of iCloud for Windows version 7.8.1. The Apple device users, having a Windows machine, had been complaining about the compatibility issues for a long time, for that Apple and Microsoft came together and started working to solve the issues.

The problem was occurring for most of the Windows 10 users when they were trying to install iCloud on it, they were getting an error message over the screen, with the failed installation. Also, the users who already had the software installed on their Windows machine were also facing problems with the Photos syncing and more.

Having received so many complaints regarding the compatibility issues of iCloud with Windows, earlier this month, Microsoft blocked its users from downloading iCloud for Windows. It had also noticed that the users were having a problem in updating the Shared Albums after they upgraded to Windows 10 version 1809.

Microsoft had earlier confirmed that it was working with Apple together, to resolve the issue, but, there has been no mention about the update of the iCloud for Windows from Apple. Yet it has listed some of the requirements for using the iCloud for windows on its support page: “iCloud for Windows 7.8.1 requires Microsoft Windows 7 or later; Outlook 2007 or later or iCloud.com (for Mail, Contacts, Calendar); and Internet Explorer 10 or later, Firefox 30 or later, or Google Chrome 28 or later (for Bookmarks).” The update on the iCloud support page has ensured that the problems that the users were facing earlier, won’t be there anymore, and they can now use the software on Windows machines without any difficulties.

Nasa’s Mars InSight Probe Successfully Arrives at the Red Planet

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Nasa’s Mars InSight probe has successfully landed on the surface of Mars after a long journey of 300m-mile, that is covered in seven months. InSight – short for “Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport,” is an $830 million robot, that has been sent to Mars to know the planet better.

The robot landed at the quietest place on Mars, Elysium Planitia, a vast, smooth lava plain, also called as “the biggest parking”, shortly before 8 pm GMT on Monday. There were cheers and hugs among the scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in California, when the InSight robot sent the signals of its successful arrival on the planet.

insight
Image Source: spaceflightnow.com

“It was intense, and you could feel the emotion,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, on receiving a congratulatory phone call from Vice President Mike Pence. “What an amazing day for NASA,” he added. The robot also sent a picture of itself, soon after a few minutes of its arrival on the surface. Due to the dust, the picture came out to be a bit blurred, but NASA claims that the next pictures will be more clear.

NASA launched the mission on May 5, this year, from the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, unlike the other missions, that were launched from the Cape Canaveral. The robot landed on Mars successfully, after it blasted off its heat shield and fired retro-thrusters to slow its descent when it entered into the thin Martian atmosphere and released a parachute.

The robot will accomplish a two years mission and will be studying more about the core, crust and mantle of the planet. The robot is further focused on researching the climate and the formation of the planed more than 4.6bn years ago. The InSight mission is one of the 40% Mars missions that have been successful in the past. The lander is embedded with a seismometer, that will work as an ear listen to the vibrations on the ground. It is capable of recording a dozen to 100 Marsquakes of magnitude 3.5 or greater, during its two years mission on the planet.

It also consists of a heat probe, that will measure the Mars’ heat rate under the ground. The scientists will also calculate the size of the Mars’ core, with the help of the antenna attached to the robot, that will measure the Mars’ wobbles on its axis. There are a lot more enclosed in the mission that will be revealed in steps after the mission moves further.

Bruce Banerdt, the mission’s lead scientist from JPL, said, “When we look at the crust of Mars, that’s a snapshot into the past, of what the crust of the Earth might have looked like 4.5 billion years ago before it got all busy. It will take about two years to collect the data needed to answer the mission’s “deep questions.” depending on how many quakes Mars has in store.”