Google connects Netflix to Android TV’s universal search
Nearly two years after we first got our hands on the platform, Android TV is integrating Netflix with its universal search. Just last year we were complaining about the search on NVIDIA’s Shield TV because it could only show results from YouTube, Hulu or Google’s Play Store, and now that’s fixed. Also, it’s available on every Android TV device, so you shouldn’t have to wait for an update before it starts working.
Looking for your next @Netflix binge? It just got easier on #AndroidTV, now with universal search. pic.twitter.com/oh3HzIOoTs
— Android (@Android) June 23, 2016
Given how many people use Netflix, it’s a vital source in any smart TV box’s universal search feature. Apple TV and Roku can both find programs on Netflix from their built-in search, although Amazon’s Fire TV still can’t. Now Android TV is on the right side of that list, and with a renewed push for the platform alongside the release of Android N, hopefully more new features are on the way.
Source: Android (Twitter), Android (G+)
Roku puts your laptop in control of movie night
Roku already had a Windows 8 remote control app for phones and tablets, but to keep up with the times it’s released a new Windows 10 version. Aimed at tablets and laptops, it makes controlling your Roku player as easy as tapping the screen or clicking a mouse. Like Roku’s apps on Android and iOS, you can pop open channels, control playback, search for content or easily play photos and music from your computer to the TV. It’s a universal Windows app, but at least for now there’s no word on a new version for Windows phones. That said, it does have Cortana support, so even if your hands are otherwise occupied, voice control is also an option — grab it from the Windows Store for free here.
We’re thrilled to announce the new #Roku app on @Windows 10 Laptops & Tablets!
Read more: https://t.co/OBmHte6Q3j pic.twitter.com/W2OMYZ6VFp
— Roku (@RokuPlayer) June 23, 2016
Source: Roku Blog, Windows Store
Google creates VR montage of Pride parades around the world
Google has launched a new project to bring Pride parades around the world to people who can’t physically be there. The tech titan calls the initiative #prideforeveryone and deployed employees from 25 different countries to capture their local LGBTQ communities’ festivities using a 360-degree camera. Arjan Dijk, Google’s VP of growth marketing and executive sponsor of Gayglers (a group of LGBTQ employees within the company), told USA Today that what they were “aiming to do is bring [Pride’s] sense of excitement and this sense of community to people who normally would not be able to get to do that.”
A lot of people all over the globe can’t attend Pride due to stringent anti-LGBTQ laws, while those in countries like the US don’t attend out of fear of being ostracized by friends and family. According to a Pew Research Center study in 2013, more than half of the 1,197 adult LGBTQ individuals they surveyed have never gone to one. Dijk added that after the tragedy in Orlando, the message the company is trying to impart — that people should be proud of who they are and who they love — “is even more relevant.”
You can access the Pride VR experience through a VR headset, including Google Cardboard. But if you don’t have any, the YouTube video below works just fine — simply drag the screen around to get a full 360-degree view of the scenes.
Source: Google, #prideforeveryone
Adele’s Album ’25’ Now Available on Apple Music, Spotify, and More
Grammy award-winning singer Adele’s latest album, 25, became available on Apple Music and competing streaming services at midnight last night, seven months after its initial release.
According to Billboard, the full album can also be found on Spotify, Amazon Prime and Tidal, following months in which only the singles “Hello”, “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)”, and “When We Were Young” could be found on music streaming platforms.
Sony released physical and digital copies of Adele’s 25 in November, when it broke the single-week sales record in the U.S., shifting 3.38 million albums. The previous record was set by *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached in 2000, which sold 2.42 million copies in its first week.
The move comes after reports in November last year suggested that Adele had personally chosen not to share the album on streaming music services.
That decision came after Taylor Swift initially refused to share her songs on streaming platforms that offered free tier listening services. Swift later took a stand against Apple when it emerged that the company didn’t intend to pay artists during the Apple Music free trial period. But after the company reversed course, she too changed her mind and allowed Apple Music to stream 1989 and her other albums.
Tag: Apple Music
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Netflix Offline Viewing Now Expected to Launch ‘By the End of the Year’
After Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that the company is keeping an “open mind” in regards to offering offline viewing to its customers, a new report from LightReading this week hints that the feature could be coming to the streaming platform “by the end of the year” (via Gizmodo). The information comes from industry insider Dan Taitz — COO of Penthera, a company that works on mobile video — who described a potential “landscape shift” in the streaming video market when an offline viewing option arrives on Netflix.
“We know from our sources within the industry that Netflix is going to launch this product,” says Taitz. “My expectation is that by the end of the year Netflix will be launching download-to-go as an option for their customers.”
Another source, Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst Dan Rayburn, called Netflix’s offline viewing feature an “open secret” within the streaming community. Rayburn commented that rumors have been swirling “for months” about the impending launch of a download-to-go alternative for Netflix subscribers, potentially even prior to Hasting’s comments on the service back in April.
“It’s a natural progression for Netflix to want to have some of their content available for consumers to watch offline, and we’ve been hearing for months now that they are in fact going to roll something out soon,” says Rayburn.
Netflix’s biggest roadblock on the service could be copyright issues with downloaded film and TV shows, according to Rayburn, who mentioned that — besides Netflix’s own original content — it’ll be a studio-by-studio basis to see how much content is supported as an offline viewing option.
Prior to Hasting’s optimistic comments in April, Netflix Chief Product Officer, Neil Hunt, had previously said offline viewing was “not a very compelling proposition” in the company’s future because it would add too much complexity into a simplistic service. Given that rival platforms, like Amazon and YouTube Red, now offer users the ability to watch downloaded videos offline, it makes sense for Netflix’s interest in the feature to be piqued.
Tag: Netflix
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Dell AE2 Performance USB Headset Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Dave Cheng/CNET
I was determined to like the AE2 the second I put it on. I’d like to tell you it was because of the superior sound quality or a robust feature set, but really it was because I finally found a pair of over-ear headphones that fit comfortably on my enormous head.
Thankfully, the big cups were ringed with leather pads that offered decent noise reduction, the speakers pumped out great sound and better yet, the AE2s will only run you $70, AU$95 or £49. That’s a great price, but with it comes a few caveats.
It runs off a single USB connection (no 3.5mm audio jack to be seen), so it’s strictly computer-only fare — but the SteelSeries branding should have tipped you off to that already. The Danish company is known for computer gaming accessories, and definitely shows its hand in the headset’s impressive emulated 7.1 surround sound.
You can also tinker around with the AES2’s settings via the SteelSeries engine software, which is good news if you want to play with the equalizer or simply must have the RGB LEDs programmed to flash in exactly the right pattern.
Dave Cheng/CNET
The AES2 only really stumbled when I tried to use it as a gaming headset. The low-profile mic nestled against the left cup had me curious. It staved off the usual flight controller aesthetic, but the omni-directional mic was a magnet for ambient noise. While my own voice was clear, if a little tinny, the person on the other end was easily picking up sounds from across the room. The left cup doubles as an easily accessible mute button for the mic, just in case you don’t want to share the TV preferences of anyone else in the room with your squad.
Honestly, it was a bit of a bugbear, but at a sub-$100 price it’s the kind that you’ll find very easy to ignore. The AE2 isn’t really a headset for the hardcore, but when you package over-ear leather pads, remarkable sound quality and SteelSeries engine functionality with such a low pricetag, it’s hobbyist money well spent.
Specs
- USB connector
- Emulated 7.1 Surround
- SteelSeries engine functionality
- Programmable RGB LEDs
- 40mm neodymium drivers
- Headset frequency response 20Hz to 20kHz
- Leather ear pads
- Omni-directional microphone
- $70, AU$95, £49
Dell AE415 2.1 Speaker System Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET
Dave Cheng/CNET
I confess that I’d almost forgotten that desktop speakers existed. The majority of my PC audio needs are gaming related, so I’ve become used to wearing a headset. But Dell’s newest 2.1 desktop speaker set, the AE415, offers a compelling case for why headphones aren’t the only answer.
Mostly spherical in design, the two speakers and the subwoofer look far more stylish and robust than the price tag would suggest. At $69 (converting roughly to £55 and AU$100), the AE415 isn’t breaking the bank.
Before unpacking the 2.1 system, I’d expected it to use USB connectivity, but the system works through a standard 3.5mm jack. The audio quality is absolutely fine — it just seems oddly archaic.
The AE415’s design is fairly standard: Left and right satellite speakers, a decent size subwoofer and a bunch of cables. Setup takes all of around two minutes, as Dell have made it impossible to get the cables wrong.
Controls sit on the left speaker. There’s volume and power, along with additional jacks to plug in a phone or tablet and even to pop in a set of headphones and get that bass sound in your cans. It’s an impressive offering from a budget speaker. The sub itself has a dial letting you pick your preferred level of “unf-unf”, which I initially thought was the volume knob, leading to just a few minutes of confusion.
Dave Cheng/CNET
The sound is bright and clear and the speakers can really pump out some big decibels. I tried the AE415 on the Razer Blade Stealth across a few different games, some music and a few videos. Clarity was excellent across the board. For some games I needed to change the angle of the speakers a little, but honestly that’s more to do with my headphone-based expectations of gaming audio than any issue with the speakers.
If I had any initial complaints, it’s the sheer amount of cabling you end up with. The sub ends up with four different cables out the back, making for a bit of a spaghetti bowl. But there’s plenty to like here — a big sound for a low price, a solidly stylish look and a set up so simple the quick start guide is nothing but pictures.
BitTorrent Announces iOS and tvOS Apps for New Media Streaming Platform
BitTorrent has announced it is launching a new content distribution app called BitTorrent Now, which lets users stream music and video from a library of independent artists and filmmakers.
The app will soon be available for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, and offers a catalogue of free, paid, and ad-supported, on-demand content, including VR content as and when it becomes available.
Use of BitTorrent’s Bundle format will allow content creators to require users to register or pay for media distributed through the platform, and give them greater control over how their content is offered, presented, and shared:
This is what happens when artists have agency: our shared culture becomes more diverse, more whole; more sustainable. And that’s why we started BitTorrent Bundle: to give artists options. Not rules. The freedom to share your story, no matter what form it takes. The right to know, understand, and reach your audience. The right to choose your business model.
The app’s launch can be seen as an attempt by the company to distance itself from the file-sharing protocol of the same name and reframe its brand as a legitimate media service, quite apart from the pirated content often associated with the peer-to-peer network.
The app doesn’t currently rely on peer-to-peer technology, although The Verge reports that BitTorrent is working to include support.
BitTorrent Now is “coming soon” to iOS and Apple TV. Those who request an invite to the service will receive updates on its availability.
Tag: BitTorrent
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WhatsApp users are making 100 million calls daily
WhatsApp users are now making over 100 million calls every day, which translates to over 1,100 calls per second. The popular messaging service crossed 1 billion users earlier this year, with recent reports stating that the app is now used by 95% of all smartphone users in India and 94% of smartphone owners in Brazil, two of its largest markets.
The milestone highlights WhatsApp’s importance in growth markets, where the service is becoming the go-to platform for communication. Making or receiving voice calls on WhatsApp is very straightforward, and the feature works over Wi-Fi, 4G, 3G, and even 2G data connections. There’s even an option to reduce voice clarity to reduce bandwidth usage, which is an added bonus for those on metered connections.
Do you use WhatsApp’s voice call feature?
Will EU roaming become more expensive after Brexit?
Are we in for a roaming price hike when the UK leaves the European Union?
With the British voters having chosen to leave the European Union in the June 23 referendum, one of the many areas affected by “Brexit” is the cost to British consumers of using their phones on the continent. As it stands, EU law restricts how much operators based in one member state can charge for calls, texts and data in another. And in the next year roaming fees between EU countries will be abolished altogether.
So following the referendum result, what does the future hold for European roaming?
Staying in the EU would’ve meant an end to roaming fees altogether from June 2017.
Right now UK networks are bound by EU caps on roaming prices. Starting April 30 2016, calls could cost no more than €0.05, texts no more than €0.02, and data no more than €0.05 per megabyte. Should the UK stay in the EU, roaming fees would be abolished altogether by June 15, 2017.
In effect, that would give subscribers to one EU network coverage throughout the union — assuming the appropriate roaming agreements are in place — thus opening up competition between international providers, particularly in border areas.
When the UK leaves the EU British networks would (eventually) be free to charge whatever they wanted for roaming on the continent. And equally, subscribers to EU networks would once again have to pay to roaming fees when visiting the UK.
Even so, this wouldn’t happen overnight. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union provides a two-year negotiation period for a member state seeking to leave the union. During this time the UK would remain subject to EU treaties and laws, including the planned abolition of roaming rates in June 2017. Article 50 won’t be invoked until David Cameron’s successor as prime minister takes over this autumn, so it’s possible “Brexit” won’t be concluded until later in 2018.
In theory there’d be nothing stopping networks from raising roaming prices — but this couldn’t happen overnight.
This could place carriers (and their customers) in a precarious position whereby European roaming is free for a time, only for roaming fees to be reintroduced 18 months later.
Even so, in a competitive market like the UK, rivalry between the carriers would likely keep post-Brexit roaming prices in check. While UK operators’ roaming prices in some countries are extremely expensive, networks like Vodafone and EE have surprisingly palatable rates for many destinations outside the EU, including the United States, Australia and Canada. The situation may even highlight the issue of roaming fees, and allow some operators to differentiate by offering inclusive EU roaming even after the UK and EU part ways.
For the moment though, the big four haven’t said much about any planned roaming changes, offering basically no information to the BBC as part of a recent feature leading up to the referendum. As with many other aspects of the Brexit issue, customers may just have to wait and see what happens once the dust has settled.
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