Top YouTube videos of 2018 reveal the year that was

YouTube Canada is excited to announce today Rewind 2018: The annual look back at all the videos and moments that moved Canadians this year on YouTube.

Celebrities reigned supreme this year, from Kylie Jenner’s 11-minute video about the birth of baby Stormi to Meghan and Harry on their wedding day and Paul McCartney’s epic Carpool Karaoke. Will Smith vlogged all over the world. Oh, and he also jumped out of a helicopter over the Grand Canyon on a dare from Yes Theory, a group of YouTube creators who met while studying in Montreal. Rihanna started her own makeup tutorial series. And of course, Beyoncé's livestream from Coachella gave fans a front-row seat for #Beychella.

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Google confirms it will shutter Allo chat service

Google has confirmed it is shutting down Allo, the messaging app that it hoped would counter iMessage on iOS. Allo will be shut down as will Hangouts for consumers and all the messaging will be routed to Messages. Google has long taken a lot of flak for having too many messaging platforms and while Allo and Due were great for the few who used it, moving all the messaging features to Messages makes sense.

This is another indication that it is difficult for consumers to invest too much into Google products, which can be cancelled at a whim. It often feels like Google is using consumers to beta test their software and then pulling the plug on projects once they lose their lustre. 

Source: Android Police

Samsung gets caught misrepresenting photo shot with DSLR as a Galaxy-shot photo

This is as embarrassing as it is dissapointing. Samsung has apparently allowed a photo taken by photographer using a DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera as a portrait mode photo purportedly taken by a Galaxy A8 smartphone.

The discovery was made by Dundja Dudjic, a Serbian photographer, when her stock photo (which was a self-portrait of the photographer) was purchased and licensed for commercial use. Doing a reverse image search, Dudjic found it was Samsung Malaysia that used her image on their website. Samsung is pretending it was shot on Samsung smartphone and promoting a DSLR-like 'portrait mode'. This is not only shameful and dishonest, it brings a lot of skepticism on images used in smartphone-related ad and marketing materials.

After Samsung got busted for image fakery, a disclosure has quietly appeared on the page under the photos stating the images are simulated. 

Amazon Prime's award-winning 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' returns for season 2

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won all the awards from the Golden Globes to the Emmys and beyond while putting Amazon Prime Video squarely on the map as a producer of compelling comedy and drama. Season 2 of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel brings back the talented and funny Rachel Brosnahan as the newly-divorved Jewish mom who is also a grounbreaking stand-up comic in New York. 

Judging from the trailer, we're getting a more polished season 2 with higher production value and hopefully great writing and situational comedy with a great mix of drama and romance. The full season is available on Amazon Prime Video.