Category: Apps

Twitter has pulled the plug on the popular video sharing application so its creators have started something new.

The co-founders of Vine have announced the launch of their own new Hype video streaming app. This comes on the heels of an announcement from Twitter that it would be shutting down the Vine application.

That said, what has yet to be seen is whether or not Hype will be able to live up to the noise it has generated.

The Hype video streaming app promises to provide an improved live experience. It is designed to function in a way comparable to Periscope, only with viewer interaction. Throughout the time that a Hype live stream is running, it’s possible to hold a Q and A, run polls and share other types of media with video viewers.

The mobile app has been created so the video won’t necessarily take up the small screen. Instead, the host can set the video off to the side in a bubble while taking part in other activities. This can include looking for other videos, GIFs or highlighted comments.

As the Hype video streaming app format isn’t rigid, it opens up opportunities to enhance viewing.

The streaming experience is highly customizable, which gives video hosts a great deal of flexibility over what they provide. The key will be for video hosts to find the balance between providing an enhanced viewing experience and simply adding too much clutter to the screen. The last thing a presenter will want to do is confuse the viewer to the point that the video and its other features are too difficult to use.

The Hype video streaming app will need to be able to draw a large engaged audience in order to be successful. As it is not explicitly linked to any other existing social network it will essentially be building its user base from scratch. It could be that its creators are taking advantage of the headlines made by the closure of Vine to promote this new application.

At the moment, the Hype app is available only for iOS based devices. So far, the reviews it has received have been pretty good. That said, an Android version of this application is slated for release in the near future.

The modeling clay may be one of the most low-tech toys ever created, but it now offers some high-tech fun.

A new augmented reality app has been launched to bring Play-Doh works of art to life. The majority of us have played with this modeling compound at some point in our lives. That said, the number of kids who are spending time with this type of toy is starting to shrink.

Kids are more likely to look to tablets and mobile devices for fun than they are to modeling clay.

In response, Hasbro has introduced a new augmented reality app. The purpose is to remind kids of all ages about how fun it is to be creative. The new Touch app is now available for iPhones and iPads. Kids and adults alike can use it to scan their Play-Doh creations. Once, scanned, they are brought into a virtual world where they are animated. This may seem rather gimmicky, but the response from both children and grown-ups has been a very positive one. People just seem to love it.

The augmented reality app is both immersive and entertaining, encouraging people to be creative.

In this way, the sixty-year-old brand is giving itself the opportunity to become more relevant among children who are accustomed to seeing a digital version of their playtime. This mobile app can be used for free with any Play-Doh product the kids already have. That said, there is also an enhanced opportunity to play.

With the Shape to Live Studio set, kids have considerably more features available. The set retails at about $40 and comes with seven cans of Play-Doh, character and action stampers, cutters and a white scanning surface. It provides a notably larger environment as well as a larger number of characters for interaction. Overall, it can make the mobile game more fun.

The augmented reality app launches with a digital world that is essentially empty. That said, once a Play-Doh creation is scanned, it is brought into the application through the device camera. The scanning takes around 10 seconds to complete including the aligning of the image and the image processing. Inadequate lighting slows down the process, which must be completed on a white surface.