Chromecast Adds Comedy Central, Sesame Street Go, Nickelodeon, TuneIn And More

Google continues to build out its lineup of content partners for the Chromecast streaming media device. This time, partners include Comedy Central, Sesame Street Go, Nickelodeon, and TuneIn, providing a good mix of comedy, kids and radio/podcast content for direct broadcast to your TV or display.

Other new channels include EPIX, YuppTV and Encore, which add additional TV and movie content, including live broadcast Indian television, and U.S. blockbusters. The new apps debuting today should help make Chromecast an even better companion for Thanksgiving gatherings, offering up something for the family to gather around while waiting on that turkey to brown.

It’s interesting to see some content partners, like TuneIn, debut on Android TV first and then make their way to the Chromecast later. Casting functionality is a different approach to the native, local software available on Android TV, but media providers testing both models will be able to shed more light on what stands the most chance of prevailing long-term.

On the one hand, Android TV built directly into televisions and set-top boxes shows a lot of promise – you don’t need anything else, just pick your app and go. On the other, smartphones are ubiquitous as it is, and you’re more likely to have the content you want on the device you always have with you than on a local service, especially if you’re using it away from home or at a new location.

So long as Chromecast keeps signing on media partners, and those same partners continue to loosen up about how and where their content gets consumed, my long bet is on simple streaming, rather than separate platforms.

How To Hide Text In Microsoft Word 2007, Reveal It & Protect It

Sometimes what we hide is more important than what we reveal. Especially, documents with sensitive information, some things are supposed to be ‘for some eyes only’. Such scenarios are quite common, even for the more un-secretive among us. You want to show someone a letter composed in MS Word, but want to keep some of the content private; or it’s an official letter with some part of it having critical data. As important as these two are, the most common use could involve a normal printing job. Many a time we have to print different versions of a document, one copy for one set of eyes and others for other sets. Rather than creating multiple copies and therefore multiple printing jobs, what if we could just do it from the same document? That too, without the hassle of repeated cut and paste. We can, with a simple feature in MS Word – it’s just called Hidden and let me show you how to use it to hide text in Microsoft Word 2007. It’s a simple single click process. Open the docum...

Boom, the startup that wants to build supersonic planes, just signed a massive deal with Virgin

Have you heard about Boom? Boom is a relatively new startup that’s aiming to build something pretty crazy. They’re not building an app… or a social network… or even some new gadget for the Kickstarter crowd. Boom wants to build planes. Really, really, really fast planes. Specifically, they’re trying to design and build a supersonic passenger plane that goes 2.2x the speed of sound. If all goes to plan, they’ll be able to shuttle people from New York to London in 3.5 hours, and SF to Tokyo in 4.5. Sound crazy? I wouldn’t disagree. It’s worth noting that the company is in the very early days for something as intensive, massive, and hugely expensive as designing and producing a passenger aircraft. They’re still working on their first prototype, and hope to fly it by late next year. But it’s also worth noting that the team behind the plane has some serious talent in its blood: the company’s 11 employees have collectively contributed to over 30 aircrafts — having worked on thin...

Fun Tools to Translate Your Name into Japanese Calligraphy

Japanese calligraphy is an artistic writing style of the Japanese language. Its Chinese origins can be traced back to the twenty-eighth century BCE. Calligraphy found its way into Japanese culture in 600 CE and is known as the karayo tradition. For Westerners, calligraphy is forever fascinating. However, it takes years to learn how to properly draw the signs. Two basic principles must be known to understand Japanese writing: there are different writing styles and different alphabets. Kaisho for example, is a writing style most commonly used in print media. Tensho on the other hand is used in signatures. Other writing styles are Reisho, Gyosho and Sousho. The alphabets include Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. Katakana is used for writing foreign words. It can also serve to highlight words, in analogy to capital letters as we know them from the Roman / Latin alphabet (Romaji in Japanese). Each Kanji character has a meaning of its own, while Hiragana or Katakana characters merely repres...

Kiran Upadhyay

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