Check These Video Formats Your New LED TV Must Support

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J We all have Televisions in our home, offices and shops. Now-a-days almost everyone purchases Smart TV which comes with Internet and...

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10 TikTok Alternatives for Android To Make Your Day

TikTok is one of the most popular short video making and sharing apps right now. It’s an entertainment app which allows you to edit videos by adding your favorite music in the background and then posting it to your choice of audience public, custom, or private. You can also browse through other popular posts and have a good time.

If you like TikTok and want to explore more apps that let you do similar things, then I got you covered. Today I will share 10 TikTok alternatives for Android that will surely make your day.

1. Funimate: Video Editor & Music Clip Star Effects

Personalize your videos by adding a little music with Funimate and upload them with your people. It is slightly different than others in terms of browsing videos (it allows you to select genre) and you can browse through them.

2. Dubsmash

This entertainment app is similar to TikTok, the app lets you edit videos with the latest music and movie dialogues in the background. It has two sections where you can find the trending videos and your followings. It also allows you to share your videos. Probably one of the best apps in making lip-syncing videos. This app was leading before TikTok took over.

3. Cheez-Funny Videos&Dance

Cheez has lot more features than just making lip-syncing videos. It has thousands of filters, stickers, and visual effects which can make your video more eye-catching plus you can take part in competitions and receive awards. It has trending videos like the other apps you can see in the timeline.

This is the best entertaining app where you can visualize your creativity and do vlogging and make comedy videos.

4. Triller

This video-editing app has auto-edit feature, just upload a video and it will be auto-edit by an algorithm. It lets you add different filters and background music and you can make vlogs, fashion, etc. you can also collaborate with friends and share your videos through social media.

This app is even used by different famous celebrities to get in touch and entertain.

5. Likee – Formerly LIKE Video

This allows you to edit videos and add music, favorite movie dialogues to it. It has the option of merging, cutting or trimming videos. You can share these videos through social media and you can also see trending videos in the timeline.

6. Vigo Video

Quite similar to TikTok and Dubsmash, but this video editing app has creative filters and where you can visualize your thoughts. And you can upload these plus you can see other trending videos too. If you have what it takes to get enough views and comments, you can get paid as well.

7. Kwai – Short Video Maker & Community

Although its name suggests a “short video” but it’s not. This app allows one to edit videos with 4D visual effects and thousand of stickers, animations, GIFS and text font. Also cutting and cropping features are also available.

8. Lomotif – Music Video Editor

Another video editing app with almost similar features but the best part is that you can make a collage of photos and videos plus text overlays and many more. Cutting, zoom-in and out of any video or merging, just install this app to get all-in-one features. It allows you to post videos on social media also.

9. Firework

This is the best alternative through which you do lip-singing on a movie song or a dialogue, all the features like cutting or cropping, filters and many more on this short-video editing app. As like other apps you can do video challenges every week and you can share videos online to any social media network.

10. Shabaam – GIFs with sounds!

Shabaam is an amazing app for GIF-making, you can make funny and creative GIFs for any situation and dub them with your own voice and also you can add more sounds. It basically gives sound to GIFs.

Wrapping up

TikTok is definitely the leading app right now when it comes to making short videos or enjoying what other creators are making. However, these other TikTok alternatives are also worth a look and someone of them have millions of downloads as well. Let us know in the comments which one of these TikTok alternatives you like.

The post 10 TikTok Alternatives for Android To Make Your Day appeared first on Gtricks.



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[Tip] Speedup Start Menu Opening / Launching in Windows 10

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J One thing which I dislike in Windows 10 is the new Start Menu. No matter how powerful the computer system is,...

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[Tip] Restore HTTPS and WWW in Website URLs in Google Chrome Address bar

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J This tutorial will help you in showing full website URLs (containing HTTPS, WWW terms) in Google Chrome address bar. If you...

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[Tip] Create and Apply Your Own Colorful Themes in Google Chrome

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J There are many 3rd party themes available for Google Chrome web browser on official Chrome Web Store and Chrome users can...

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5 Stargazing Apps For Android To Invoke Your Inner Astronomer

Technology is shifting very rapidly and there have been a lot of things which has changed in a little time and came in a better version of itself. I am talking about beliefs and different school of thoughts which has changed with the development of technology. Let’s talk about space and the universe, where beliefs have changed with the rapid growth of technology.

Today I will share 5 Android applications where you can find out more about the universe. There are many different apps through which you can learn and see deep into astronomy and heavy universe objects. Yes, technology has come this far, it feels like they grab the whole universe in your Android phone.

1. SkyView® Lite

If you are obsessed with astronomy, this application is for you. Just point the camera at the sky, whether it’s dark or light, it shows you the real location of the stars and different heavy objects in the sky. Rotate the camera around in the sky and you will find more objects like the moon, Mars, galaxies, satellites, etc aligned with the real ones and with a good view. Furthermore, with every object you see you will find the details (like its past) of the object. It has also a search bar where you can type the name of the object you are looking for and a navigator will guide you to the location of that object.

SkyView® Lite

You will probably need a good camera quality and good low-light performance. This is the free version of the app so you cannot access all the objects and details but even then, you can enjoy browsing through the sky.

2. APOD

If you are wondering about planets and other objects then you cannot miss this application. This app has different pictures about space objects, big bangs, galaxies, milky way, planets, stars, etc. with every picture there is a brief detail given which covers every aspect of the picture, it is regularly updated with new pictures every 2-3 days.

APOD

This app is sourced by NASA and every picture is Ultra-High Definition. You can save pictures and you can set it on the wallpaper which will be updated automatically.

3. Phases of the Moon Calendar & Wallpaper Free

It tells you about the moon illumination and keeps you updated about every detail of the moon, like different phases of the moon with each date and its movement around the earth, about the distance on everyday bases, different spots on the moon plus a slight animation and many more.

Phases of the Moon

I personally like the updates about every upcoming event or past events like a lunar eclipse, red moon, etc. tells you how this event took place. By activating GPS you can know the location of the moon.

4. Solar System Scope

A must-install app to all the astronomy lovers, it offers a virtual tour into the deep space and milky way. While having a tour, all your questions about astronomy will be answered, it’s that simple. As you open, a full solar system will appear and then you can deeply zoom-in with a bunch of information and details about every object you see, click on the planet or stars and it will allow you to go on another deep tour into that particular object with a lot of details.

Solar System Scope

You can zoom-out and go thousands of lightyears far from the solar system and it will show you a galaxy. You can move every object around with a finger to see deeply into it.

5. NASA

It is the official application for NASA, it includes everything about this organization related to deep space, the universe and galaxies. The app could be a useful tool in comparing with truth and realities. It has all the news, astronomy-related articles, different school of thoughts, latest images, TV and audio, live videos from the space, missions and upcoming projects.

NASA

This app is based on reality, how is it differs from the other apps is that it has the real space footages and works pretty smooth. It is the full-pack for astronomy.

Wrapping up

All these apps are useful in terms of astronomy and the Solar System Scope is my personal favorite because it is a complete virtual tour. One should go and check these kinds of useful stuff apart from gaming and entertainment, it’s the curiosity about outer-space which needs to be satisfied.

The post 5 Stargazing Apps For Android To Invoke Your Inner Astronomer appeared first on Gtricks.



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The Rise of the Electric Scooter

In an electric car, the (enormous) battery is a major part of the price. If electric car prices are decreasing, battery costs must be decreasing, because it's not like the cost of fabricating rubber, aluminum, glass, and steel into car shapes can decline that much, right?

ev-battery-costs

On an electric scooter, though, the effect of battery price has to be even more dramatic because scooters are such lightweight, compact, and simple machines. They aren't much more than a battery and an electric motor to begin with. Remember the the Zappy electric scooter from twenty years ago?

zappy-electric-scooter-year-2000

What killed the electric scooter back then is the same thing that killed the electric car of year 2000: terrible lead-acid battery technology. It's too heavy, it lacks power, it doesn't have enough range, it takes too long to charge. These are all different ways of saying the same thing: the battery sucks. It wasn't until Lithium Ion batteries matured that both the electric car and the electric scooter — and pretty much electric everything, if you think about it — became viable.

Thus, one way to see if Lithium Ion battery prices are indeed generally dropping independent of all other manufacturing concerns is to examine the cost of electric scooters over the last few years. Let's consider one of the most popular models, the Xiaomi Mi M365:

xiaomi-mi-m365-price-history-2018-2019

This graph only shows roughly two years, from January 2018 to now; it looks like the original price for the Xiaomi M365 when it hit the US market in early 2017 was around $800. So the price of a popular, common electric scooter has halved in three years. Very good news indeed for electric vehicles of all types!

This dramatic drop in electric scooter price from 2016 to 2019 may not be surprising versus the parallel rise of the quasi-legal electric scooter smartphone app rental industry over roughly the same time period, in the form of Bird, Lime, Skip, Spin, Scoot, etc.

electric-scooter-rentals-bird-lime

Early versions of Bird scooters were actual Xiaomi M365s, slightly modified for rental. Only by late 2018 had they migrated to custom built, ruggedized scooters optimized for the rental market. The rental industries have their own challenges, and ironically have started to pivot to monthly rentals rather than the classic 15 cents per minute.

Bird has experimented with its business model in recent months. In early March, the company altered its repair program in Los Angeles, which had relied on gig workers to fix broken scooters. It moved repairs in-house (though scooters are still charged each night by an army of gig workers). Later that month, the company introduced scooters with locks in some markets, in a bid to prevent theft and vandalism.

In April, it announced the launch of a more traditional rental program in San Francisco and Barcelona, in which users could pay $25 per month to rent a Xiaomi m365 from the company rather than paying per ride.

But this isn't meant to be a blog entry about the viability of scooter rental company business models.

I want to tackle a more fundamental question: are electric scooters the future of transportation?

Even Uber, as screwed up of a company as they still are, knows cars are overkill for a lot of basic transportation needs:

We have plenty of scooters here at my house, and the family and I enjoy them greatly, but I have never actually ridden or owned an electric scooter. So I bought one. It is of course the popular, inexpensive, and well reviewed Xiaomi Mi M365.

m365-scooter

Here's a picture of my electric scooter inside my electric car. (I apologize that I didn't have an electric bicycle to park next to it for maximum smugness, but you can bet your sweet electrons I'll work on that next!)

electric-scooter-in-electric-car

Here's the short version of my review: this electric scooter is incredibly fun, works great, and if you can get it for a price around $300, practically a no-brainer. I love it, my kids love it, and as long as you're conceptually OK with the look, unlike Elon Musk 🛴💨 then you'll probably love it too.

Here's a neat video covering the "one year later" experience of owning the scooter, and what you might eventually run into or want to tweak.

(The main thing to take away from this video is that flats super suck on tires this small, so be warned. I put Slime in my Mi's tires out of an abundance of caution, but you could also go with solid tubeless tires – at the cost of some ride comfort – if you're really worried.)

That's not to say that the electric scooter experience is perfect. There are some challenges with electric scooters, starting with the biggest one: your local government has no idea how to regulate the darn things.

  • Is this regulated like a bicycle? If not, why not?
  • Are they allowed on the sidewalk?
  • Do you have to ride them in the road, with cars … uh, depending on the speed limit?
  • Do you need a driver's license?
  • Do you need a helmet?
  • Are you even allowed to legally ride them in public at all outside of private property?

The answers also vary wildly depending on where you live, and with no consistency or apparent logic. Here are the current electric scooter laws in California, for what it's worth, which require the rider to have a valid driver's license (unlike electric bicycles) and also disallow them from sidewalks, both of which I feel are onerous and unnecessary restrictions.

One aspect of those laws I definitely agree with, however, is the 15 mile per hour speed restriction. That's a plenty brisk top speed for a standing adult with no special safety equipment. Anything faster starts to get decidedly … uncomfortable. Consider this monster of a 1165KWh electric scooter, with dual motors and dual suspension that goes up to forty freakin' miles per hour.

That … is … terrifying. Even the reviewer, in full motorcycle safety gear, wasn't willing to push it all the way to 40 MPH. And I don't blame him! But now that I've shown you the undisputed Honda Civic everyman budget model of electric scooter in the M365, hopefully this gives you a taste of the wider emerging diversity in these kinds of minimalistic electric vehicles. If you want a luxury electric scooter, an ultralight electric scooter, a rugged offroad electric scooter … all things are possible, for a price.

Another reason the M365 is available for so cheap is that is successor, the Xiaomi M365 Pro, was recently released, although it is not quite possible to obtain in the US at the moment.

Having ridden my M365 a fair bit, I can confirm all the Pro improvements are welcome, if incremental: bigger battery and disc brake, more power, better display, improved latch mechanism, etc.

xiaomi-mi-m365-vs-pro

None of those Pro improvements, however, are worth a 2× increase in price so I'd recommend sticking with the M365 for now because its value proposition is off the charts. Did I mention there's a bluetooth connection, and an app, and it is possible to hack the M365 firmware? Pretty cool how electric vehicles are inherently digital, isn't it?

Here are a few other observations after riding my M365 around a fair bit:

  • Please be respectful around pedestrians. Most of the sidewalks around here are not busy at all, but the pedestrians I encountered on the electric scooter were definitely more freaked out than I’ve seen before when using regular kick scooters (or skateboards) on the sidewalk, which did surprise me. An electric scooter has more heft to it, both physically at 26 pounds, and in the 15 mile per hour speed it can reach – but also mentally in terms of how it looks and how people approach it. I recommend slowing down to just above walking speed when encountering pedestrians, and if there is a bike lane available, I'd definitely recommend using that.

  • Hills work great. The kryptonite of traditional kick scooters is hills, and I'm pleased to report that even with a cough sizable adult such as myself riding, I was able to sustain a respectable above-walking speed on most reasonable hills. Where I looked at a hill and thought "this probably should work", it did. That's impressive, considering this isn't the upgraded Pro model with bigger battery and more powerful motor. On flats and downhills the performance is superb, as you'd expect. That said, if you are a really big or tall adult, or live in a particularly hilly area, wait for the Pro model or an equivalent.

  • Portability is good, but borderline. At ~26 pounds, the electric scooter is reasonably portable, but it's not something you a) could really get away with taking inside a restaurant / store with you to prevent theft or b) want to be carrying around on your person for any significant length of time. It's not nearly as nimble or portable as a kick scooter, but that's a high bar. You'll need to carry a bike lock and think about how to lock your scooter on bike racks, which turned out to be … more geometrically challenging than I anticipated due to the small tires, disc brakes, and the engine in the front wheel. They need more obvious locking points on the chassis.

To be honest with you I'm still bitter about the whole Segway debacle. There was so much hype back in the day. That ridiculous thing was supposed to change the world. Instead, we got … Paul Blart Mall Cop.

paul-blart-segway

A Segway was $5,000 at launch in 2001, which is a whopping $7,248 in inflation adjusted dollars. Here in 2019, cheap $200 to $300 electric scooters are basically the transformational technology the Segway was supposed to be, aren't they? Are electric scooters the future of (most) transportation? I'm not sure, but I do like where we're headed, even if it took us twenty years to get there.



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Microsoft 365 (Office) Insider Preview Build 17628.20006 (Version 2405) Released, Here is What’s New and Fixed

UPDATE: Microsoft 365 Insider (previously known as Office Insider) Preview build 17628.20006 (version 2405) is available for download and in...