Software : Now you can ask Bing follow-up questions just like Cortana |
- Now you can ask Bing follow-up questions just like Cortana
- PS4 Share Play to let friends jump in your game, even if they don't own it
- Round up: Top 5 best YouTube converters
- Twitter may follow Facebook's lead and spam feeds with video ads
| Now you can ask Bing follow-up questions just like Cortana Posted:  Bing is getting some new tricks courtesy of Cortana and now users can start asking Microsoft's web search engine follow-up questions. Starting now users can ask Bing back-to-back questions to dive increasingly specific trivia. The operating system maker gave an example of how users could start searching for "who is the president of the united states," then find out who his wife is, how tall she is and lastly who her brother is. It's a small but neat tweak that makes searching for information through Bing more conversational. What's more, it should remove a bit of repetition of having to type out ever query in full. Chatty CortanaIf the feature sounds a bit familiar that's because Microsoft has transplanted it directly from Cortana but really this should not come as any surprise given that Bing largely powers Cortana in the first place. In fact this is the second Cortana feature Microsoft has copied over to Bing. The software maker also gave its search engine a new coat of UI paint earlier this April by adding personalized cards first introduced with its virtual assistant. Bing will probably never get Cortana's sass unless Microsoft ingrates Jen Taylor voice into its website, but it's a step towards making the search engines – and potentially other computing software – more personable and smarter.
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| PS4 Share Play to let friends jump in your game, even if they don't own it Posted:  Life is better with friends, and that sense of togetherness will extend to the latest Sony gaming console with the introduction of Share Play, one of several new features arriving with the next big PS4 update. Sony teased a few of the new features coming to PlayStation 4 with System Update 2.00, including the ability for friends anywhere to jump in your game with Share Play. Scheduled for release sometime this fall, the first major PS4 update adds this new online co-op experience described as a "virtual couch," allowing friends to join in the gameplay even if they don't own that particular title. Sony likens the feature to "handing over the controller to a friend on your couch," except in this case, the screen is shared over an internet connection, so PS4 owners can join from anywhere in the world. Plenty to shareShare Play wasn't the only new System Update 2.00 feature touted by during Sony's press conference at Gamescom 2014. The company also announced dedicated app support for YouTube, an option promised at E3 back in June. In addition to a standalone YouTube app, the PS4 will also be able to upload game footage to Google's wildly popular video sharing service, making it easier than ever to strut your stuff in front of a global audience. Last but certainly not least, What's New will be adding friend-of-friend suggestions, real name search and instant access to friends' broadcasts or recently played games for "enhanced real-time activity." Sony isn't saying exactly when PS4 owners should start priming the System Update pump on their consoles, but the gaming giant did tease additional 2.00 features will be announced "in the coming months."
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| Round up: Top 5 best YouTube converters Posted:  YouTube is a great resource for viewing videos, but at some point or other you might want to download them to a computer or mobile device There's numerous reasons for doing so - from viewing offline to burning to a DVD for watching at a later date (or archiving), converting into an audio podcast for listening to while traveling or burning to a CD for entertainment while driving. The process of doing any of those things sounds simple enough: find a video on YouTube (or a similar website like DailyMotion), download it, and upload it to your device. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen quite so smoothly, as videos and their accompanying audio soundtracks come in a variety of formats that determine aspects like video quality, resolution and whether they can be played back on certain devices. You may have come across the issue before where you've downloaded a video, uploaded it to your PC, smartphone or tablet, opened the file and clicked play, only to stare at a blank screen, a dark picture with sound, or nothing at all. So what's the answer? Hunting down a YouTube conversion tool would be a good start, and luckily there's a few of them kicking about that won't set you back a penny - such is the magic of freeware. We've listed some of the best free YouTube convertors here, and while they're all free, some of them come with some undesirable third-party apps that aren't essential for them to work, and you'll need to uncheck them to opt out. Have we missed a program off our list? Let us know in the comments section below. 1. aTube CatcheraTube Catcher is an appropriately named YouTube conversion tool as it'll catch any number of video downloads you throw its way before converting them to a number of different formats. It supports AVI, FLV, MOV, WMV, MPG and MP4, in addition to less common formats such as PSP, which is used for Sony's handheld games console. The installation process is speedy, and once up and running you'll be presented with a colourful Windows 8-like grid that clearly presents the available options. From there you can dive straight into its video conversion utility for converting to another file format, or you can convert videos to MP3s for audio playback on devices. Grid aside, it's not the best-looking program out there, but it's plenty functional and allows you to easily pick the format you want to convert your video to through a simple dropdown menu. Once you've chosen a format, drag in the files you want to convert and right-click Start to set them going. You can prioritize certain clips to have them converted first, or leaving the program will see it work on the queued files from top to bottom. 2. Free YouTube to MP3 converterFree YouTube to MP3 converter is a freeware program that converts videos from YouTube to other popular video formats - including WMV and AVI - in addition to audio ones formats such as MP3. The program lets you queue up multiple files for conversion and features a clean interface that clearly displays what files are waiting to be converted. It's a particularly useful tool for musicians who may want to download guitar backing tracks to jam along to, or similarly you could grab kareoke backing track to burn to a CD in time for that weekend party. 3. Freemake Video ConverterFreemake Video Converter features an attractive design and supports more file formats than you can shake a stick at. You can convert to more than 200 available formats after downloading a video - including AVI, MP4, WKV, WMV, DV, RM, QT, TS and MTS - and you can choose to rip and convert audio to MP3 too. Freemake claims that a few of its features are unique - including integrated CUDA and DXVA technology that apparently converts videos faster while using less CPU resources. It's certainly one of the fastest on our list, but how quick it carries out conversions will ultimately depend on the power of your PC. 4. YouTube DownloaderYouTube Downloader can download and convert videos from some of the most popular video websites - from Facebook to DailyMotion and College Humor - in addition to YouTube. It features the ability to convert videos into most popular video formats - from MP3 and MP4 to WNV, FLV, MOV, 3GP and AVI. The programme's makers claim that the latest version is faster and more stable than previous releases, and it also has the handy feature of resuming downloads automatically in the event that your internet connection goes down and comes back online. 5. Free StudioDeveloped by DVDVideoSoft, Free Studio comes with a massive 25 video conversion options that can convert your files automatically once they've downloaded for viewing on different devices. It's particularly useful as it bundles multiple convertors into a single program, saving you from having to search around for several solutions when converting to different formats. It's a flexible option that allows you to work with HD video file types in addition to high quality MP4 video. It also comes with an advanced screen capture utility that allows you to record a section of the screen, flip it and rotate it before saving the edited output to disk with the option of burning onto an other device. |
| Twitter may follow Facebook's lead and spam feeds with video ads Posted:  Twitter might be the next social network to incorporate video advertisements into users news feeds, with the firm revealing it has spent much of 2014 testing the new money-spinning feature. In a blog post on Tuesday, Twitter explained how it has been building videos into its media-friendly 'Cards' interface to allow one-tap playback. The company said it is now ready for a beta test of Promoted Videos, which could spell another influx of tweets from brands and company's users have little interest in following. "By using Promoted Video," the firm wrote on its advertising blog, "it's easy for brands to upload and distribute video on Twitter, and to measure the reach and effectiveness of this content." Commercial interruptionThe announcement from Twitter comes following Facebook's deployment of video ads within it's own portals and photo ads on its Instagram photo-sharing app. Twitter has already come under fire this month, after news emerged that the company was experimenting with integrating tweets in from accounts followed by users' friends. That's on top of its promoted and sponsored tweets. With video also added into the mix, will there by much timeline real estate left for, you know, folks Twitter users actually follow? |
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