Top playlists on the YouTube Kids App for Family Day

By Sonya Davidson

As we head into the Family Day long weekend here in Ontario and other Canadian provinces (and bracing for bitterly cold weather), families are all now looking for things to do with their kids. Where do we often do our research? It's no surprise that we often reach for our devices and Google "things to do" whether it's adventures outdoors, indoor activities or what's open during the long weekend. 

Families with kids, like us, often find we need some downtime in between outings...okay truthfully, I really don't want to go outside and there are so many cake pops we need to make! 

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YouTube to livestream match between 'Go' world champion and AlphaGo AI

We've seen artificial intelligence systems take on different champions of various fields. This time, the AlphaGo AI system wants to take on the highest ranked player of the ancient Chinese board game Go to a match. The system will be challenging Lee Sedol for a US$1 million prize. And you'll get to see this play out on a YouTube livestream. The matches will take place on March 9, 10, 12, 13, and 15.

The game has millions of possible combinations for its pieces, which make developing a system to get to play this well particularly challenging. Previous robots built to play Go couldn't leave past the amateur level. AlphaGo has already defeated the European champion Fan Hui five times in a row. This AI has been trained to use 30 million moves off of games played by experts and it has even learned its own moves. 

Source: The Next Web

YouTube Kids App Launches In Canada

Text and photos by Sonya Davidson

Watching videos on YouTube has become very popular over the past few years and every member of my family has gone on to stream something whether it be a clip from last night's Jimmy Fallon show that I've missed or hubby sourcing a "how to" video for some mechanical gadget gone wrong. The kids too are on there mostly for entertainment as they've heard of videos going viral from their friends.

I don't mind as they are a bit older but I still worry about what might pop up after they've viewed their originally searched content. What may seem harmless fun could potentially roll into the next video which has no filter.

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YouTube now plays virtual reality videos

Get to watch videos that’ll make you feel like you’re there on YouTube. The streaming video giant is letting you watch virtual reality videos on Android. All you need to do is to have a Google Cardboard viewer and the YouTube app on hand. To get to watch a VR clip, just tap on the Cardboard icon seen in the additional options of a video and you’re good to go. You can try out the Hunger Games Experience or the other VR clips here. For creators, Google is offering you check out technologies like Jump to help you make VR videos.

YouTube on Android has also added the capability to watch any YouTube content on Google Cardboard. Again just tap on the Cardboard option from the video’s additional options and get that virtual movie theatre experience.

Source: YouTube Official Blog | Download: Google Play Store (Free)