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Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Google in Talks with HULU as Potential Buyer

HULU has been up for bids for a little while now and latest reports are showing that Google is now one of the players looking to acquire Hulu. They are now doing some preliminary talks with them just like Yahoo and Microsoft. The LA Times article cited anonymous sources close to the situation who say that Google is interested in the advertising potential behind Hulu, as they own the rights to many TV shows and could be a great way to display some ads.

We haven’t heard much other than this little bit but this would be a huge acquisition for Google and could really help them out. Can you imagine having a Google Hulu app coming standard on all Android phones and tablets. Sure would be nice but we will see.

I still don’t like the fact that when you subscribe to Hulu you still see ads, I’d expect ads to be remove if I am a paying customer. Google could offer it free for all phones and tablets and have the same type of ads it already has now. We will report back if we here more.

[via LA Times]

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Skype with Video Chat APK Available to Try on Other Devices

Skype without video chat seemed a bit absurd to me honestly, but yesterday Skype finally brought it to a few Android devices. Well developers aren’t just going to sit around and let four phones have all the fun! A version of the apk has been modified and is now up for download which is working on additional devices.

It turns out that the app itself simply had an array of devices that it was allowed to run on. The developer pulser saw that Skype wouldn’t let him video chat on his Galaxy S II, and wouldn’t have any of it. He has now published an APK which has the restriction removed.

It is important to note that just because the app will not refuse to work on your phone because of this fix, it is NOT guaranteed that it won’t be buggy, or simply force close on your particular phone. There are several devices that have reported it working though including the EVO 3D EVO 4G, Galaxy S and Galaxy S II.

There is no centralized database yet, and the reports coming in are only single cases, so custom ROMs and other modifications could alter success. For now the only way to see if it will work is to download the apk, install it and hope for the best. Follow the instructions below and let us know what phone you have and if it works or not.

1) Download the apk here. (Preferably from on your phone)

1b) Move the apk to your phone’s internal storage or SD card if you didn’t download it straight to your phone.

2) Click on the apk either in downloads, or wherever you moved it to (You will need a file manager to do this).

3) Try it out and let us know how it works!

[via VillianROM]

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Several Tips To Help You Get Started With Google Plus

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Google-Circles-300x300.png?54167" alt="" />Google’s latest attempt to get into social networking has started to slowly get off the ground and so far, the reception has been overwhelmingly positive. That is, if you have managed to snag a beta invite to get in. With invites class="vt-p" href="http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=google+plus&_sacat=See-All-Categories">currently being sold on eBay (289 at time of writing this), demand to get into class="vt-p" href="https://plus.google.com">Google Plus is currently very high and as critical acclaim grows, the number of people clamoring to get through the door will only increase.

The question currently being asked though is “will Plus survive in the long term or will it go the way of Wave and wither at the hands of Facebook?” (ironically Mark Zuckerberg is the most popular person on Plus right now in terms of followers).

MakeUseOf’s usual policy is not to write about closed betas unless we have invites to hand out. But with Google Plus, people are slowly being let in, a few at a time. So I’ve decided to make an exception and let you know some of the things you should know about Google’s new social network, so when you finally manage to enter, you’ll have a broad overview of how it all works.

It’s All About The Circles

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The thing that people love the most about Plus is that you can categorise your contacts into different circles and then only post your status messages to the circles of people who you want to inform. So for example, you can keep your family in one circle, your work colleagues in another circle, and your friends in another. Then, for example, you can discuss your drunken night out that culminated in a stay in a police cell with a traffic cone, and only tell your trusted friends about it, safe in the knowledge that your boss or your mother will never see that status update if you don’t want them to.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/plus2.jpg?54167" alt="" />

When you first start using Plus, your Gmail contacts will be scanned and “suggestions” will be given to you as to who you should follow. A little envelope beside their picture means they haven’t been allowed into Plus yet but they will get status messages via email, if you want that. When you have found someone you want to add, just drag them with your mouse to the circle you want them to be in. Is there not a circle there suitable for a particular contact? Then make a new circle! Make as many as you want. Go on, go wild and make loads of circles. Live life on the edge.

Start Updating Your Stream

class="aligncenter" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/plus3.jpg?54167" alt="" width="568" height="433" />

When you have some circles set up, you can then start to update your stream with status messages. You will soon realise that Google Plus is basically a Facebook clone but much cleaner and more minimalist. No crappy Farmville or Mafia Wars games and “what is your horoscope today?” apps. It’s just people interacting with one another. As it should be.

When you have written your status update, you have the option of attaching a photo, a video clip, a link or your geo-location. Photos can be taken from Picasa Web or your phone (more on that later) and videos from either your phone or YouTube. Then click “add circles or people to share with“, choose the circles you want to send your status update to, then click “share“.

As you can see from the screenshot above, replies are “threaded”, just like Gmail messages. So posts are easy to navigate and you can shrink / collapse posts to read the comments then move on.

Watch The Privacy Settings!

When you post a status update, you have the option of posting to one or more circles. In this case, when you publish the status, you will see “limited” at the top, meaning it is limited to the circles you have sent it to.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/plus4.jpg?54167" alt="" />

But you can also choose to dispense with circles altogether and publish your post to anyone who visits your public profile. This setting is called “public” and will probably be indexed on the web.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/plus5.jpg?54167" alt="" />

The moral of the story is, when publishing something, take extra care to ensure you are giving the post the correct privacy setting! Otherwise that hilarious tale of you and the traffic cone in the police cell will suddenly go global and you’ll find yourself a viral hit – as well as probably unemployed and disowned by your mother!

Update your Google Profile

class="aligncenter" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/plus6.jpg?54167" alt="" />

Obviously you would like people to follow you so you have a few people to talk to. So for them to find you, you need your profile properly filled out. class="vt-p" href="https://plus.google.com/112495062145828779627/posts">Here’s mine. If you already have a class="vt-p" href="http://profiles.google.com">Google Profile, then it automatically becomes your Plus Profile when you sign up for Plus. Make sure you have a good photograph, fill out your bio, your about page and link your class="vt-p" href="https://picasaweb.google.com/home">Picasa Web account, if you have one. If not, make one because it will quickly become invaluable.

Uploading Your Photos To Picasa Web & Your Plus Stream

There are two ways you can upload photos to Picasa Web and your stream. Either through your phone (those with an Android mobile phone, with at least the 2.1 OS, can get class="vt-p" href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.plus&feature=search_result">the Plus app ) or you can upload the photo via the Plus website when you are writing your status update. But what makes Plus cool is that it offers on-the-fly online image editing.

So if you want to edit a photo that is perhaps too dark, just click on it once it’s been uploaded, then underneath the photo, you will see a small menu button called “Actions“. Drop that down and choose “edit photo“. This opens up some basic image editing tools.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/plus7.jpg?54167" alt="" />

Changes are shown in real time and can be undone if you don’t like any of it. Click “done editing” when you’re finished to see your revamped photo. It isn’t Photoshop but it isn’t that bad either. It makes my crappy Android camera phone look cool all of a sudden.

All Your Notification Messages On One Toolbar

style="margin-right: 20px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/plus8.jpg?54167" alt="" align="left" />You have probably already seen the black toolbar that Google has now put at the top of every one of their pages (a bit hard to miss, isn’t it?). But when you start using Plus, that toolbar becomes an instant notification area where you can see how many stream updates there are waiting for you. You can drop down the menu to see what the update is so you know whether or not you have to visit the Plus webpage at that precise moment.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of what Plus has to offer. I haven’t mentioned Hangouts for instance, which allow you to have webcam chats with your circles, or Huddles where you can do group text messaging with the Android app. But MakeUseOf will be covering all of these features in due course. The purpose of this article is just to show you the basics.

Please don’t ask in the comments for an invite because currently Google has suspended all invites. But if you are already in, please let us know what you think of Plus in the comments. Is this a Facebook killer or will Plus go the way of Wave? Is Buzz also likely to be killed off as a result of Plus?/>/> Follow href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/started-google/">Several Tips To Help You Get Started With Google Plus is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google/" title="Google" rel="tag">Google, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-plus/" title="google plus" rel="tag">google plus, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/social-networks/" title="social networks" rel="tag">social networks/>

Motorola Droid Bionic passes FCC with some 4G LTE Radios?

The Droid Bionic from Motorola has had its share of delays and criticism but if this latest bit of news turns out true it may have all been with good reason. We first saw it at CES then heard it was delayed back in April for some changes and improvements. Now we are seeing it should be packing a dual-core and 4G LTE, a true powerhouse over on Verizon.

We first saw the new form factor back in June then a few days later got even more information on the device. The latest leaks suggest it will be packing a 4.5″ qHD display and now we are seeing it with those 4G radios. Everything looks pretty good so far.

Hopefully the Droid Bionic will feature the same dual-core OMAP 4 CPU that the Droid 3 will be rocking. If they opt for that this will be the best of the best regarding phones over on Verizon Wireless. Until we see more or hear more we will just have to wait for another leak, but I have a feeling one will be coming soon.

[via PocketNow]

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Tired Of Watching Videos Alone? Here Are The Best 3 Ways To Watch YouTube With Friends.

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-233.jpg?54167" alt="watch youtube with friends"/>

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/youtube/">YouTube videos have become a big part of our lives. There isn’t a day that goes by without me getting at least one link for the next href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-amateur-viral-videos-youtube/">viral video. But how many videos can you watch? Then, what if a friend sends you a link right in the middle of a chat? Do you stop the conversation for 5 minutes just to watch a video? But if you don’t watch it now, it will just get drowned in the sea of links you get and you’re likely to forget about it.

Maybe you’re like me, and you just don’t like sitting alone and watching all these videos. Having some friends along to share your thoughts and reactions with is so much more fun.

There are many ways to watch YouTube videos collaboratively. Here are the easiest and simplest ways I found out there.

href="http://www.ytsocial.com/">YouTube Social

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-14.jpg?54167" alt="watch youtube with friends" width="488" height="151" />

YouTube Social has one feature over its competitors — you can use it directly from YouTube. If you’re browsing YouTube and find a video you’d like to watch with your friends, all you have to do is add the word “social” after the words “www.youtube” in your address bar, and voila! You’re re-directed to YouTube Social and can invite friends to watch the video with you.

As for the interface, YouTube Social is quite friendly. Once you get to the main page, it’s very easy to search for more videos and create a playlist simply by adding them to the queue. You can invite friends either by a short URL or through Facebook. You can also chat to your friends while you watch, which works well, but I couldn’t find a way to change my nick. I guess this only works when you log in using Facebook.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-15.jpg?54167" alt="watch youtube with friends online" width="580" height="221" />

Another cool feature is the option to give someone else the remote. As a default, the person who created the room has the remote and he alone can control the video. But if you want someone else to take control, you can simply pass the remote! There isn’t a way for more than one person to have the remote that I could see, but this is probably for the best.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-16.jpg?54167" alt="watch youtube with friends online" width="495" height="307" />

href="http://www.synchtube.com/">SynchTube

When you first enter the SynchTube website, you don’t immediately get a room into which you can invite people. The main page includes many existing public rooms you can join, and a big button that lets you create your own room. Once you click it, you enter your room and can start looking for videos and inviting people.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-17.jpg?54167" alt="watch youtube with friends online" width="580" height="286" />

At first glance, I was kind of at a loss as to how to add videos. Good thing they have some instructions on the blank video screen. It said I should search for videos, which drew my attention to the search option hidden on the bottom right side. After you look for videos, you can’t just click on them as I expected, you need to choose from a menu if you’d like to play them now, add them to the playlist, etc.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-19.jpg?54167" alt="watch youtube together" width="404" height="332" />

SynchTube allows you to change your nickname easily on the chat window, and when your friends join, in addition to chatting to them, you can choose to put them in charge, and also kick, ban or mute them! I sure hope it doesn’t come to that, but these options are probably there because the rooms on SynchTube can be public. You can change this using the settings button, as well as some other things such as enabling voting on the video.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-20.jpg?54167" alt="watch youtube together" width="404" height="395" />

I must say I found SyncTube’s interface to be a bit less intuitive, but it generally did the job. On one occurrence when I tried it, it just didn’t work, but it did work on other times.

href="http://www.watch2gether.com/">Watch2gether

This is the bare-bones option, for all those of you who just want something that does what it says and that’s it. Watch2gether doesn’t have playlists, doesn’t have options, doesn’t let you pass control over to other people — you can invite people and watch a video. That’s pretty much it.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-2110.jpg?54167" alt="watch youtube together" width="446" height="394" />

The first thing you need to do when you load Watch2gether is choose a nickname, this is in stark contrast to YouTube Social where I couldn’t even find where to change my nickname. After you do that, you can either paste a YouTube link or search for a video within the room. And, of course, invite friends and chat with them. The chat is a bit old-looking, and every time I selected a new video it shoved a big red notice about it into the chat. Quite distracting.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-227.jpg?54167" alt="watch youtube with friends" width="283" height="311" />

It’s important to note that the first time I invited a friend, Watch2gether didn’t work for him. Only after he disabled a specific YouTube addon he had in Chrome did this start working, and then it worked without any problems.

Conclusion

All these options let you watch YouTube videos with friends. So which should you choose? Let me make it easy for you:

For the polished, feature-rich experience, choose YouTube Social.

For the option to have a public room, to which anyone can join, choose SynchTube.

For a bare-bones, no-nonsense experience, choose Watch2gether.

Any more good options out there? Something that combines the best of all worlds? Let us know in the comments!/>/> Follow href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/tired-watching-videos-3-ways-watch-youtube-friends/">Tired Of Watching Videos Alone? Here Are The Best 3 Ways To Watch YouTube With Friends. is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

More articles about: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/collaboration/" title="collaboration" rel="tag">collaboration, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/friends/" title="friends" rel="tag">friends, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/online-videos/" title="online videos" rel="tag">online videos, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/social-media/" title="social media" rel="tag">social media, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/video-sharing/" title="video sharing" rel="tag">video sharing, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/youtube/" title="Youtube" rel="tag">Youtube/>

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Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Google in Talks with HULU as Potential Buyer

Skype with Video Chat APK Available to Try on Other Devices

Several Tips To Help You Get Started With Google Plus

It’s All About The Circles

Start Updating Your Stream

Watch The Privacy Settings!

Update your Google Profile

Uploading Your Photos To Picasa Web & Your Plus Stream

All Your Notification Messages On One Toolbar

Similar articles:

Motorola Droid Bionic passes FCC with some 4G LTE Radios?

Tired Of Watching Videos Alone? Here Are The Best 3 Ways To Watch YouTube With Friends.

href="http://www.ytsocial.com/">YouTube Social

href="http://www.synchtube.com/">SynchTube

href="http://www.watch2gether.com/">Watch2gether

Conclusion

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