Gadgetory

hello again ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe Hindy the android authority app guy and welcome back to Google Play weekly it's CES week which means hardware is stealing the show as per the norm but there were some pretty cool software things to get announced and there is of course some app news so let's take a look our first bit of news this week a v8 was bought out by Yahoo at CES this year to the attune of 50 million dollars for those who don't remember a beaut is a launcher / personal assistant that's not unlike the Google Experience launcher the reactions so far have been mixed some people are excited to see Yahoo take a long tour like a v8 and see what they can do with it on the other side of the spectrum people still think it's 2008 and that Yahoo is still terrible and will only make things worse so far yahoo has announced that nothing about a v8 will change except will be using their own money to make it better faster what is interesting about the whole thing is a v8's ability to deliver contextual content based on the location and the time of the day it's also been rumored that Yahoo is in talks with Robin labs about obtaining a google now style virtual assistant so there's an outside chance that they're combining these two ideas to create a sort of Yahoo Experience launcher that has a very real possibility of not being terrible just prior to CES samsung announced what they're calling samsung Smart Home what this is is a system that allows you to connect all of your smart gadgets together so that you can control them the idea is actually really cool the idea is to connect your wearable devices smartphones tablets TVs and other smart appliances together all in one big ecosystem that you can control you can then do things like tie your washing machine to work or your oven to clean itself you can even do things like view your house using connected devices that have cameras like your digital camera the big issues with this are that Samsung devices will be the only compatible devices at launch which means for most people it's going to be very expensive outfitting their homes to make this work on the plus side you'll be able to control your TV AC washer dryer and more with the Galaxy gear and this will go down in history as the first and probably only thing about the Galaxy gear that doesn't suck Google is always buying up smaller companies either to improve their portfolio or to bring us new products this last week they purchased a popular application timely for an undisclosed amount the buyout comes with some immediate benefits for people who haven't tried timely yet the app is now entirely free with no more in app purchases and no more obnoxious social media sharing to unlock parts of the application you can right now in the Google Play Store and we'll have a link for you in our written companion even though the app had some shady social media tactics the design is almost universally liked and most people in the media including us are hoping that elements of timely will show up in more Google Apps and possibly even Android itself until may be working to bridge the gap between Android and Windows once and for all as word around the internet is that they're working with PC makers to make Android apps run on Windows PCs according to the verge the Android apps will run in a virtual machine the key beings who make the virtual machines practically invisible so it appears as though you're running just the application this would bring a whole new world of choice and functionality to current Microsoft products this is a highly controversial move by Intel because it would mean that you don't actually need an android device to run most of what makes Android great which are the applications not surprisingly Google isn't too excited about the idea and surprisingly neither is Microsoft according to sources Steve Ballmer things running Android apps would interfere with the unified operating system goal of Microsoft but we can just add this to the ever-increasing list of dumb things that Ballmer has said because Microsoft has everything to gain and nothing to lose if this actually happens our last bit of news this week is my personal favorite thing to come out of CES so far and that's PlayStation now PlayStation now allows you to stream PlayStation games to your smartphone or tablets instead of having to buy them and download them seriously it's pretty awesome especially if you're a fan of the PlayStation 1 into game library it's been demo'd at CES a few times but it's not been released to the public yet word is it there will be a closed beta opening up toward the end of January with a full release planned by the end of summer there are no details yet as to what it will cost so how can you get it sony has stated that it'll work on the PlayStation 3 the PlayStation 4 most 2014 Smart TVs and of course smartphones and tablets eventually some have stated that there will be a discernible lag in the controls because you're streaming the game and not playing it on your device and the graphics can suffer if your connection vows out similar to that of Netflix that said this can be a great option to play some really epic titles on Android devices without downloading 10 gigabyte games and without studios having to port games to the platform so who wants to see some trending applications as usual if you want to check any of these applications out you can find the links in the written companion which is in the video description first up is a 3d live wallpaper called space HD not only did it make the best apps of 2013 list from google play but it also made their app list of apps to watch for this week it's a gorgeous live wallpaper with see from space in addition a recent update added the Andromeda galaxy more comments improved animations and more stability it's only a buck and let's face it you spend a buck on a lot of things that are less awesome than this poweramp ended the year and began this one with some serious update some of which include fixes for KitKat updated icons Romanian translation many many Bluetooth fixes and additions and improved ex fat and ntfs support it's one of the highest rated and most beloved music players on Android and we can't think of a reason that this isn't worth the money to pick up if you enjoyed candy crush saga you'll probably get a kick out of the next game out of those developers called farm heroes saga the gameplay isn't all that different but the graphics and atmosphere are so if you were getting a little tired of candy crush you wanted to try a similar game in a new environment it's worth giving this one a try the jelly is a newly announced social network that's sort of a mixture between Yahoo Answers an Instagram you essentially take the pictures post them and then ask a question about that picture and then people answer you the official Android app was released many people believe it needs to be polished and it's a brand new network so there isn't too much content yet but if you're a fan of being an early adopter it can't hurt to try it we really doubt there are many people anymore who don't have Pandora or at least I've heard of it they updated their app recently to add alarm clock settings this is to compete with iHeartRadio which lets you start your day with your favorite radio station and now Pandora does as well of course they've also had a really active last couple of months so if you haven't used it in a while maybe it's time to give it another chance well that about does it for this week ladies and gentlemen I'm Joe Hindy the android authority map guy and this has been Google Play weekly don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and check out our social media links below also we have Darcy Derek and Josh on the floor at sea ESO check out our YouTube channel to see all of the awesome things they've been seeing this week you can also see a couple of my personal favorites right over there finally don't forget to check out the written companion in the video description for all of the source links thank you again for watching and have a wonderful day