Apple TV’s Universal Search Gains Support for Comedy Central, MTV and VH1

Apple last week added three new apps to the universal search function on the fourth-generation Apple TV, introducing support for Comedy Central, MTV, and VH1, three popular networks.

For those unfamiliar with universal search, it is a feature that lets users conduct Siri voice searches or text-based searches to find TV and movie content across a wide range of apps. At launch, universal search supported only a few apps, but Apple has been adding new apps on a regular basis.

With the addition of support for Comedy Central, MTV, and VH1, searching for shows available on those networks will now bring up options to watch content within the respective apps.

Apple maintains a dedicated support document that offers Apple TV owners a full list of content that can be found via Siri through universal search. Apple’s universal search feature is largely limited to the United States. In most other countries, universal search only displays iTunes content, while Netflix is also supported in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 10
Buyer’s Guide: Apple TV (Neutral)
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Tesla no longer wants to guarantee its electric cars’ resale value

A new decision at Tesla has suggested the electric car market is doing well.

The automaker told The Verge it discontinued its Resale Value Guarantee program – which launched three years ago as a way of reassuring early customers there would me a market for their Model S electric cars should they decide to resell them at a later date. People tend to upgrade to newer-model cars every few years, so guaranteeing something like a resale value is an interesting tactic for luring the weary.

Keep in mind a lot has changed for Tesla in the past three years. It is all the rage after scoring 325,000 reservations for the upcoming Model 3 just one week after its release. After witnessing Tesla’s recent growth, several other automakers, including Volkswagen, Nissan, BMW, Daimler, etc, have of course started heavily investing in both the development and production of electric vehicles.

Although there are plenty of drivers who have yet to acknowledge not only the power but also possibilities with EVs, the budding market is steadily growing and is widely considered healthy, and so the need to guarantee such vehicles is of less importance. Tesla’s program, which was “backed personally” by Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, according to a Tesla blog post, will no longer be active for new cars bought after 1 July.

However, you’re still covered if you bought a car under the guarantee. The decision will apparently also reduce Tesla’s interest rates “as low as possible” and make leases and loans more compelling.

Here’s how much tech Amazon sold on Prime Day – its ‘biggest day ever’

Amazon’s second Prime Day is done and dusted.

The sale promotion proved to be a big hit for the retail giant. In fact, it called the day its “biggest day ever”, marking a strategic win for Amazon, which likely landed more Prime members by offering customers deals they couldn’t resist. It also probably made existing Prime members feel better about forking over cash for subscriptions, as they got access to deals regulars customers couldn’t get.

“Prime itself is the best deal in the history of shopping, and Prime Day was created as a special benefit exclusively for our Prime members,” said Greg Greeley, vice president of Amazon Prime, in a statement. “We want to thank our tens of millions of members around the world for making this the biggest day in the history of Amazon. We hope you had as much fun as we did. After yesterday’s results, we’ll definitely be doing this again.”

Amazon said orders surpassed Prime Day 2015 by more than 60 per cent worldwide and 50 per cent in the US. Prime member orders on the Amazon app also surpassed Prime Day 2015 mobile app orders by more than 2 times – largely thanks to more than a million customers who used the Amazon app for the first time on Prime Day to shop and take advantage of the deals.

Amazon Echo owners even bought on average one Alexa-exclusive deal per second using their voice.

Here’s some other tech-related highlights

Amazon Fire TV devices: Amazon sold over 2.5 times more Amazon Fire TV devices compared to Prime Day 2015, with the Fire TV Stick landing the ‘best-selling Amazon device” title.

Toys: More than 2 million toys were purchased.

Televisions: More than 90,000 TVs were purchased.

Kindle ereaders: “Hundreds of thousands” of Kindle e-readers were purchased. Prime Members also saved over $1 million on Kindle Unlimited memberships.

Amazon Echo: In the US, Amazon devices were up over 3 times compared to Prime Day 2015. It was also the biggest day ever for Amazon Echo – up over 2.5 times compared to previous record day.

Dash buttons: In the US, the most popular Amazon Dash Button brands purchased were Cascade, Charmin, and Tide, though there was no mention of how many sold.

Headphones: In the US, more than 200,000 headphones were purchased. And in Canada, the top-selling headphones were the Sennheiser HD 598 Special-Edition Over-Ears.

Robot vacuums: In the US, more than 23,000 iRobot Roomba 614 vacuum cleaning robots were purchased.

Lenovo laptops: In the US, more than 14,000 Lenovo laptops were purchased.

Smart toothbrushes: In the UK, the Oral-B Pro 6000 CrossAction electric toothbrush with Bluetooth connectivity was a top-seller.

Memory sticks: In Spain, the SanDisk USB memory stick was a top-seller, whereas in Italy, the top-seller was the Lexar JumpDrive.

Prime TV and movies: The top three Prime Day deal titles purchased or rented were Deadpool, Kung Fu Panda 3, and 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.

Movies: In France and Belgium, the Game of Thrones DVD (season one through four) was a top-seller.

Want to know more?

Check out some of the best Prime Day deals were in Pocket-lint’s round-up:

• Best Amazon Prime Day deals 2016 UK

Alcatel Idol 4 and Idol 4S specs

The Alcatel Idol 4 and Idol 4S follow up from last year’s surprise mid-range hits, the Idol 3 4.7 and 5.5. But as so many OEMs have done in 2016, metal has replaced plastic, with an emphasis on build quality and performance.

Alcatel Idol 4S unboxing and first impressions

Alcatel’s latest flagship is here, and it offers a lot of bang for the buck.

The Idol 4S was unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2016 in February, and it’s now ready for pre-order. It looks and feels like a high-end phone, but it isn’t priced like one. The Idol 4S features a 5.5-inch QHD (2560×1440) AMOLED display, 16-megapixel camera, dual speakers, dual SIM slots, and more. It’s also bundled with a VR headset.

We’ve been playing with the phone for a couple of days already, so make sure to watch our unboxing video with our first impressions!

More: Read our first Idol 4S hands-on from MWC 2016!

Unboxing video

So, how about that box? This isn’t packaging that you’ll just crumple up and throw away, it’s functional! Check out the video to see how it all works.

Specifications

If you needed a reminder, here’s an overview of the specs you can find inside the new Idol 4S:

First look

The Alcatel Idol 4S feels very nice, with looks to match. There’s glass on the front and back sides of the phone plus a full metallic frame. It’s also thin at just a hair under 7 mm.

The 5.5-inch AMOLED display is sharp, vibrant, bright, and has wide viewing angles. This has dual front-facing speakers, and that’s better than having one speaker or having it on the back or bottom like on other phones.

The left side has the power button, and a slot where you can insert two nano sim cards, or a combination of a nano sim card and a microSD card.

The Boom Key is a bit odd, but does what it claims.

The right side has a Boom Key, which does different kinds of things depending on where you are on the phone. For example, pressing and holding it while the phone is asleep, opens the camera and takes a burst of photos. Pressing it while watching videos improves surround sound and pressing it while listening to music boosts the volume and bass.

While recent phones have started adopting USB Type-C, the Idol 4S still uses Micro-USB which is located at the bottom of the phone. It also has a 3000 mAh battery, so we’re curious how long that lasts after more testing. It also supports Quick charging.

On the back, there’s a 16-megapixel camera that lacks OIS, but offers a small consolation with electronic stabilization, and dual-tone LED flash. We’ll have more details in our full review, but first impressions are good. The auto focus is fast, the images look sharp, the colors look fine, and taking photos were snappy. One thing to point out here is that the camera lens stick out and that might bother some people.

Speaking of cameras, there’s also an 8-megapixel front-facing camera that automatically focuses on faces. It has a built-in real-time beautification filter, which smoothens your skin. There’s a slider at the bottom which adjusts the strength of the filter. The lens is very wide too, so you can fit more people in your selfies. And one more thing. This has an actual flash on top for your selfies. It’s not a trick where the screen turns white briefly.

Also on the back is a fingerprint scanner for security. We didn’t have any issues with it or ever felt it was slow to unlock the phone.

Inside the Idol 4S is the Snapdragon 652 processor. Combined with 3GB of RAM, we didn’t notice any lags from our initial usage. We’ll need to spend more time with it and report back in our full review.

The Alcatel Idol 4S runs Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 and the company tells us it will offer up an Android Nougat upgrade as well. The UI feels close to stock Android with pre-loaded apps such Fyuse, LittlStar, Lamper VR, and the VR Store.

More to come

Overall, we’re impressed with our first look at the Alcatel Idol 4S. The hardware is beautiful, and we didn’t notice any lags.The camera seems like a good performer too, especially with the fast autofocus. Again, this feels like a high-end phone, but with a more affordable price. You also get a VR goggle along with VR content bundled in already.

The Idol 4S will be available for pre-order through Alcatel’s website starting July 15th for $349.99, and will start shipping in early August. Pre-orders will also include a tempered glass protector and a protective case from Incipio. Official sale starts August 3rd for $399. We’ll spend more time with the phone and report back with a full review soon.

See at Alcatel

Are you interested in the Alcatel Idol 4S? Let us know in the comments!

How to find wild Pokémon in Pokémon Go

How do I find wild Pokémon in Pokémon Go?

People familiar with the classic Pokémon game franchise may remember that wild Pokémon were easily found in the tall grass located throughout the land; however, in Pokémon Go, wandering through tall grass will probably get you more bug bites than Pokémon.

Pokémon Go uses your phone’s GPS to track your location, and all you have to do to track down your favorite little creatures is walk! They are out and about all around you in the real world just waiting to be captured. Of course, there are a few different ways of finding wild Pokémon in Pokémon Go, and since we’re not Team Rocket, we will share them with you.

Start walking

Sounds simple, right? That’s because it is! You could completely forget some of the advanced ways of finding wild Pokémon and just enjoy walking around. When you get close to a Pokémon, your phone will vibrate to alert you, and you will see it on the map. Then all you have to do is tap on the Pokémon, and toss your Poké Ball!

Track Pokémon using the nearby Pokémon feature

When in Map View, you’ll notice a small gray box to the right of your virtual avatar, which displays a few Pokémon icons. Some of these icons will be colored in, revealing a complete drawing of a Pokémon. These are Pokémon you have encountered in the game before. Other icons will appear greyed out. These are Pokémon you have not yet encounteres.

Tap that box, and you’ll see a menu pop up with up to nine Pokémon in your local area, each with little footprint markings underneath. The number of footprints indicates how far away that particular Pokémon is. If you see a single footprint or no footprints, it means the Pokémon you are tracking is quite close. On your map, you’ll see little bursts of leaves, which helps indicate where those nearby Pokémon might be hiding.

Anything with two or three footprints means you’ve got some walking to do, though the game doesn’t make it clear which direction you should head in. You’re basically playing Warmer/Colder with the Nearby feature until you find the Pokémon you want.

How do you catch ’em all?

Got any great tips for finding rare Pokémon? Sound off in the comments below!

Pokémon Go

• Join our Pokémon Go forums!
• How to deal with GPS errors in-game
• Which team should you choose?
• How to play without killing your battery
• The Ultimate Pokémon Go Game Guide!

How to get ready for Sky Q 4K Ultra HD

Sky Q subscribers will finally be able to access 4K Ultra HD TV shows, movies and sport from 13 August, but ahead of the launch you can ensure your Sky Q Silver box is ready to play the content.

Sky will be pushing a summer update to your Sky Q Silver box at the end of July that will also add a few other features, including an easier way to scan through and find sections in recordings, but the headline addition is 4K when it launches a couple of weeks after.

As soon as the update has arrived you will be able to get your box ready to receive and playback the new content, through on demand, downloads or live, with Premier League football and Formula One being broadcast in UHD from the beginning of their respective new seasons.

• What is Sky Q, how much does it cost and how can I get it?
• What can I watch in 4K Ultra HD on Sky Q?
• Sky Q summer update detailed: 4K Ultra HD, new episode pointers and more
• Sky Q 4K Ultra HD confirmed for 13 August, will start with return of Premier League

You need to set your Sky Q Silver box to play 2160p content, otherwise you might the first few minutes or so of your first 4K footy match, for example, while making sure your box in compatible at that time. You will be given a prompt before any Ultra HD video plays for the first time, but why wait until then?

Just follow these simple, handy steps instead:

• After the summer update has finished installing on your box, head to Settings>Setup>Audio Visual and set your resolution to 2160p.
• The box will then determine whether your 4K TV has 10-bit or 8-bit colour and set that option accordingly.
• Bingo, you are now ready to watch 4K content when it arrives.

You don’t need to switch the box back to 1080p or lower to continue to enjoy the rest of Sky’s channels, even though they are not in 4K. The box is clever enough to output at the optimum setting for each piece of content.

Sky Q 4K Ultra HD confirmed for 13 August, will start with return of Premier League

Sky is finally ready to unleash its 4K Ultra HD services, as teased during the launch of Sky Q in November last year.

The Sky Q service and boxes were made available to consumers in March, but Ultra HD content was always set to follow in the “summer”. And, as part of the company’s latest Sky Q update, 4K TV shows, movies and live sporting events are about to become available.

Officially, UHD content will be accessible through a Sky Q Silver box from 13 August, the first day of the new Premier League football season.

That’s no coincidence as Hull versus last year’s Premier League champions, Leicester City, will be Sky’s first ever live Ultra HD broadcast. That will then be followed up by Bournemouth versus Manchester United and Arsenal versus Liverpool the day after, on Sunday 14 August.

• What is Sky Q, how much does it cost and how can I get it?
• What can I watch in 4K Ultra HD on Sky Q?
• Sky Q summer update detailed: 4K Ultra HD, new episode pointers and more
• How to get ready for Sky Q 4K Ultra HD

Indeed, all 124 of Sky’s live Premier League matches will be broadcast in 4K, at 2160p. As will the entirety of next year’s Formula One season.

There are no dedicated UHD channels, but 4K sporting events will be received by the Sky Q Silver box through one of the dedicated TV tuners. You can therefore record them to the hard drive. In addition, any match or event that is being broadcast in 4K will give you the option of watching it at the highest resolution if you head to its normal, HD channel listing.

Alternatively, you can select to watch the UHD broadcast through the Red Button on Sky Sports.

All other Ultra HD content will be available on demand and to download. That includes movies on Sky Cinema, which will be available from day one. By the end of the year, more than 70 UHD movies will be offered, include The Revenant, The Martian and Spectre.

Box sets in 4K will also be available, including every season of Blacklist, Sir David Attenborough’s back catalogue and Big Cats: An Amazing Animal Family.

Sky Store will have movies to rent too, including Angry Birds.

All movie and TV show content will be streamed or downloaded onto the box via an internet connection.

Sky Q Ultra HD services will be available to Sky Q Silver customers at no additional cost. Sky Q’s 4K content doesn’t support HDR image technology at present. That might come at a later date.