Time-bending shooter ‘Quantum Break’ arrives on Steam
Quantum Break is a strange video game. Not for its time-bending story, or the way it combines a live-action TV show (although both are pretty interesting) but how Microsoft and developer Remedy have decided to release it. The game started as an Xbox One exclusive before branching out onto Windows 10. Now, it’s also available on Steam, giving even more players the chance to adventure as Jack Joyce. In addition, there’s also the Timeless Collector’s Edition, a physical package that includes five game discs, a ‘Making Of’ Blu-ray and book, the soundtrack and two posters.
It begs the question: Could other Microsoft exclusives make the jump to Steam? Xbox head Phil Spencer has hinted at it. “I look at Valve as an important [independent software vendor] for us on Windows. They are a critical part of gaming’s success on Windows,” he said in June. “I don’t think Valve’s hurt by not having our first-party games in their store right now. They’re doing incredibly well. We will ship games on Steam again.”
The trade-off, of course, would be control. Microsoft has a broader mission to drive Xbox One sales and increase Windows 10 adoption. Pushing all of its games through Steam would, effectively, kill one of its biggest incentives — exclusive software. (Microsoft’s “Play Anywhere” scheme could lure them back in, however.) Regular Steam distribution would also give Valve a not-to-be-sniffed-at-cut of its digital sales. Ultimately, however, PC players just want better access to video games. If Halo 5 followed Quantum Break’s lead, many would be pretty darn happy.
Source: Remedy Games
Apple Maps Now Provides Traffic Data in Four More European Countries
Apple Maps has recently been updated with all-new traffic data in Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, and San Marino, providing users with real-time updates about vehicular traffic in four more European countries. As usual, highly congested areas will have orange or red lines along the roads to indicate that drivers may face delays.
Apple Maps traffic data is available in over 30 other countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, and other European countries.
Meanwhile, Apple Maps transit directions are now available in São Paulo, Brazil.
Tags: Apple Maps, Europe
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Samsung Reports 1 Million Note 7 Users Safe After Recall, but Overheating Stories Persist
Samsung today issued a statement confirming that more than one million of its Galaxy Note 7 customers affected by reports of overheating, and sometimes explosions, are now using devices with batteries “that are not vulnerable to overheating and catching fire” (via Recode). Following the initial wave of reports, earlier in the month Samsung issued an “unprecedented” recall of 2.5 million Note 7 devices less than a month after the smartphone launched.
According to the company, the one million figure includes devices issued as replacements in the recall, as well as Note 7 handsets originally sold in China that Samsung has deemed safe because “they used batteries that came from a different supplier to those that could overheat.” Still, there are reports within China of exploding Note 7 phones that the company is looking into, which it says is not at the fault of the battery.
Samsung, in a statement issued on its China website, apologised to its consumers for failing to providing a detailed explanation why the smartphones on sale in China were safe, as they used batteries that came from a different supplier to those that could overheat. “Currently, the brand new Note 7 products that have been swapped in overseas markets are using identical batteries to those that were supplied and used for the Chinese version,” Samsung said.
Samsung said it takes reports of Note 7 fires in China very seriously and has conducted inspections on such devices. Batteries for the burnt phones were not at fault, Samsung said, adding its conclusion was also backed up by independent third-party testing.
Despite the company’s work at remedying the issue with the Note 7, reports are still coming in of overheating on replacement handsets. A few users in the United States and South Korea have reported that new Note 7 smartphones, which Samsung sent as replacements for the original malfunctioning devices, are “too hot to place next to the ear during a phone call.” Samsung said that this specific issue “does not pose a safety concern” like the original recall, and compared it to normal “temperature fluctuations” on any modern smartphone.
“There have been a few reports about the battery charging levels and we would like to reassure everyone that the issue does not pose a safety concern,” the South Korean giant said in a statement Wednesday, adding that the replacements are operating normally. “In normal conditions, all smartphones may experience temperature fluctuations.”
In one case, Samsung has agreed to replace a customer’s replacement Note 7, but it’s not clear how widespread the faulty replacement device issue is currently. According to the company, more than 60 percent of Note 7 handsets have been exchanged in the U.S. and South Korea through the recall program, which could cost it between $1 and $5 billion, while 90 percent of customers chose to get a new Note 7 instead of seeking a refund or getting a separate smartphone model.
Samsung’s problems with the Note 7 reportedly began when the company decided to push suppliers in order to meet an earlier deadline after learning that this year’s iPhone 7 would have no major design changes. Earlier in September, Samsung America president and COO Tim Baxter apologized to consumers, stating that “we did not meet the standard of excellence that you expect and deserve.”
Tags: Samsung, Galaxy Note 7
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What features would you expect to find in good magazine maker software?
If you have a service or product to promote one of the best ways to do it is produce high quality online content. This is not just about creating an easy to navigate, informative and easy on the eye website; the other online content you produce can have just as much effect. This includes online magazines that you produce. The quality and look of your content is extremely important if you want people to be attracted to it and to remain engaged.
You may be wondering why you would want to produce online magazines or brochures. The answer is simple; it’s an excellent way to convey information and advice to an audience. You may want to provide some additional information about your services. You may also want to give some depth to your product descriptions. A website is not always the best place to do this as it can end up looking too cluttered. Creating a separate online magazine helps you to present the additional content separately, in a structured and easy to read manner.
What are the important features of magazine maker software?
In order to create effective content it’s important that you use high quality software. One of the most important things to consider is ease of use. Take a look at http://flipbookmaker.es/ to see how easy it should be to just upload documents you have already created and turn them into easy to read and impressive looking online flipbooks.
You need to use software that enables you to create flipbooks without too much hassle so that you are not spending an excessive amount of valuable business time on a task that can be completed much quicker. You also need to choose magazine creation software that enables you to include links and external media in your magazines, easily and seamlessly.
This is one of the biggest benefits of using online magazines, as opposed to print, and you need to make sure you take full advantage of it. You cannot underestimate the power of being able to support your information with a well-chosen video or sound clip, or a link to more supporting data. Always make sure that the software you use enables you to create magazines that can easily be read using any device. Do not forget that more and more people are using mobile devices to access the Internet and you do not want to miss out on this significant potential audience.
The importance of great content
Of course it is not all about the software you use; it’s also about the content you produce. No amount of great software is going to help you attract readers if what you are actually saying is uninteresting or poorly constructed.
If you are going to create online magazines you need to make sure you have the right combination of excellent software and well-written and designed content. If you get this combination just right you should be successful in attracting people to your brand and in retaining their interest.
About that Samsung tablet that ‘overheated’ on a plane
If you jam any modern tablet in an airplane seat, bad things are going to happen.
You don’t need to look far for reports of Samsung things catching on fire these days. In the wake of the Galaxy Note 7 recall, the media — and public consciousness — is highly sensitive to anything that looks remotely connected to that phone’s unprecedented battery woes. That’s true whether we’re talking about a completely different phone with no known issues, or a Samsung washing machine made by a completely different division of the company.
In any case, here’s today’s exploding Samsung thing: what appears to be a Galaxy Tab of some description, which started smouldering on a Delta flight from Detroit to Amsterdam.
PHOTO Samsung Tablet suffered a thermal runaway on Delta Airlines Flight #DL138 after getting jammed in a seat. pic.twitter.com/zxOYb1MHn7
— Air Disasters (@AirCrashMayday) September 26, 2016
The flight was diverted to Manchester after smoke was discovered in the business class cabin, then the (utterly destroyed) tablet was found wedged in a seat. The talk of “overheating” and “thermal runaway” here might make you think the tablet’s cracked appearance is unrelated to the apparent battery fire. But what’s way, way more likely is that the battery ruptured because of extreme physical damage — the kind that’ll result from jamming it in an airplane seat.
As Jerry Hildenbrand explains in an earlier article:
Lithium batteries are designed to be lightweight, deliver high output, and be easy to charge. This means that the outside shell and the barrier(s) separating the electrodes are very thin and light, with most of the weight coming from the parts that can actually power your phone.
Because the partitions and case are thin, they’re fairly easy to puncture or tear. If the structure of the battery itself is damaged in a way that makes the electrodes touch, a short circuit will happen. The instant electrical discharge is explosive, which can (and will) heat the electrolyte and create pressure to push it out through any ruptures in the battery case. It’s hot, it’s flammable and it’s in contact with a spark. That’s a recipe for disaster.
A Samsung statement given to The Telegraph blamed “external factors” — it’s easy to see why given the extreme nature of the damage.
MORE: What makes a battery explode?
Everyone is more aware of exploding gadgets following the Note 7 recall, and as a result, incidents like this are often reported in the context of other Samsung gadgets catching fire. Case in point: Reports on a Galaxy Note 2 catching fire over India last week.
What we have here is a case of frequency illusion. (Sometimes called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.) This is a cognitive bias — a trick of the mind — where something which has recently come to the personal or collective attention seems to appear with much greater frequency shortly afterwards.
That’s amplified considerably by the modern media, which is quick to jump on unrelated stories like the Note 2 catching fire over India, and present them in the narrative of the Note 7 battery fiasco. Had the Note 7 not had battery issues, a story about a single smartphone malfunctioning (albeit spectacularly) on an airplane, with no harm coming to anyone, wouldn’t have been splashed around major news outlets as much as it has been.
The very same applies to a tablet battery rupturing after being crushed in an airline seat. Would this be getting so much traction if we weren’t in the midsts of an unprecedented smartphone recall? Probably not.
MORE: Frequency illusion and exploding Samsung phones
How to copy music to your Android phone
How do I put music on my Android phone?
Most phones now have storage capacities that lend themselves nicely to holding all of your favorite tunes. If your phone has a microSD card slot, even better! You can usually transfer your music right onto the card.
Here’s how to copy your music onto your Android phone using either Windows or Mac!
- How to copy music from your Mac onto your Android phone using Android File Transfer
- How to transfer music from your computer to your Android phone wirelessly using AirDroid
- How to transfer music from your Windows PC to your Android phone
How to copy music from your Mac onto your Android phone using Android File Transfer
Once you’ve downloaded Android File Transfer, just plug your phone into your Mac via USB.
Launch Android File Transfer from the Finder or your Dock.
Open a Finder window and open the folder in which your music is contained.
Click either Phone or SD Card, depending on where you’d like to transfer your music to. If your phone doesn’t have a microSD slot, then you won’t have to SD Card option.
Drag and drop individual music files or entire folders onto Android File Transfer.
That’s all there is to it, but be careful: If you try to transfer too many files at once, Android File Transfer will likely just crap out and stop party-way through. Keep your transfers to batches under 1GB.
How to transfer music from your computer to your Android phone wirelessly using AirDroid
If you prefer to go the cableless route (which is probably a good idea if your alternative is Android File Transfer) then AirDroid is where it’s at. It works for both Mac and PC, so just download it and set it up!
Launch AirDroid from your home screen or from the app drawer.
Tap Sign in or Sign up.
Enter your email address and a password.
Tap Sign in.
Tap Enable if you’d like to see the app notifications on your computer in real time. Otherwise, tap Later.
On your Mac, go to http://web.airdroid.com. Alternativey, you can download the desktop client.
Enter your email address and password and click Sign in.
If prompted, click the device you’d like to transfer music to and click OK. You should then receive a notification on your phone that AirDroid is connected.
Click the Music button on the bottom left of the AirDroid options. A window will appear.
Click Upload.
Click to open a Finder window.
Drag and drop music files or folders as you please.
You can drop as many files as you like; you just can’t select whether your music is stored on your phone or SD card. It’ll automatically be stored on your phone, though if your phone has the function, you’ll be able to move your music onto your SD card.
How to transfer music from your Windows PC to your Android phone
PCs make life quite a bit easier in that they recognize your Android phone as a USB device and so long as your phone is in the right USB mode, copying music is as simple as connecting, dragging, dropping, done.
Plug your phone into your PC via USB.
On your phone, tap the USB notification.
Tap the circle next to Transfer files (MTP). The File Explorer will automatically launch.
Launch another File Explorer window from your taskbar.
Find the music files you would like to copy to your phone.
Drag the music files to your phone and to either the internal storage or the SD card, if you have one and release them.
Your turn!
How do you copy music files to your Android phone or tablet? Let us know in the comments below!
Pixel phones and the Nexus line: How we got to ‘Made by Google’
Should the Pixel phones resemble the Nexus line in some way?
When the Pixel phones debut next week — a 5-inch Pixel and a 5.5-inch Pixel XL, if rumors are to be believed — they are going to be compared, whether Google likes it or not, to the Nexus phones that came before.
Google may be attempting a clean break from that legacy of annual Nexus refreshes, but there’s only so much in a name: To many people, this will be yet another Nexus launch.
Last September was the only year Google announced two Nexus phones at once, the 5.2-inch Nexus 5X and the tall, properly massive Nexus 6P. Previous years saw, in reverse order, the 6-inch Nexus 6 (2014), the 5-inch Nexus 5 (2013), the 4.7-inch Nexus 4 (2012), the 4.7-inch Galaxy Nexus (2011), the 4-inch Nexus S (late-2010), and the 3.7-inch Nexus One (early-2010).
Each of these phones has a core set of loyal fans, nostalgic for something or other, be it the compact size of Samsung’s plastic Nexus S, or the shimmering glass back of the Nexus 4. Let’s go through them one by one and have some fun.
Nexus One — early 2010
The OG, the Nexus One was my first Android phone, and such a beast. Rocking Android 2.1 Eclair, its 3.7-inch display was kind of terrible, but it felt so fast and fluid — and it came in this amazing box.
The Nexus One had a colored trackball, one of the most endearing parts of the phone.
More than anything, the Nexus One was a phone for developers. I wasn’t — though I rooted the heck out of it — but the Nexus One felt to me like a blank slate, a phone on which you could do anything. It wasn’t too far removed from the HTC HD2, which started its life as a Windows Mobile device but, even to this day, is used as proof that with enough patience you can basically keep a phone alive forever.
The Nexus One also had that colored trackball, a holdover from the early days of Android, and one of the most endearing parts of the phone. If the Pixel line brings anything unique to the table, I would love the phones to acknowledge the original HTC Nexus phone in some way.
Nexus S — late 2010
After the botched e-commerce launch of the Nexus One, Google stormed back 11 months later with the Samsung-built Nexus S. It was, for all intents and purposes, a reworked Galaxy S (not unlike the Nexus One, which was a retooled Desire), and judging by the screen alone it was worth the upgrade.
This is where the Nexus line got a bit more consumer-friendly, in my opinion. The camera was usable in more situations, the screen was huge for the time, and the interface, running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, was absolutely fluid. And those Live Wallpapers.
I still have a Nexus S kicking around somewhere, and I take it out every once in a while to snap myself back to reality, to reaffirm just how far this industry — and the Nexus line itself — has come.
Galaxy Nexus — 2011
The less I say about this one the better, for fear of Verizon customers storming the barricades. There were so many problems with this phone, from connectivity issues to the fact that Google didn’t actually oversee updates to the phone (on the Verizon/Sprint models), that some would choose to forget Samsung’s second Nexus device actually existed at all.
But once Google got around to selling the phone directly from its newly-minted online store, in the form of an unlocked HSPA+ model, everything was quite different, and Americans got to experience the phone that we in Canada, and many in the rest of the world, had been enjoying since late 2011.
The Galaxy Nexus was a big phone for 2011, with an ever-so-subtle curve that portended Samsung’s eventual commitment to all things edge.
The Galaxy Nexus was a big phone for 2011, with an ever-so-subtle curve that portended Samsung’s eventual commitment to all things edge. It was also a bit of an industry anomaly, featuring a dual-core Texas Instruments processor that would soon stop being supported, and, on the Verizon model, one of the first to support LTE — which brought along terrible battery and inconsistent signal.
I can’t say I loved the Galaxy Nexus in my time with it: the phone was marred by a number of software issues that came along with Google’s biggest-at-the-time Android release, Ice Cream Sandwich. It took until mid-2012 and the release of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean for many of the major bugs to get resolved.
But the Galaxy Nexus also brought the Nexus program forward a considerable amount. It had enormous carrier support in many countries; it had a large HD display; it supported LTE, a burgeoning technology at the time; and it ran Android 4.0, which introduced the Holo design language, on-screen buttons, the deprecation of the physical menu button, and so much more. Android couldn’t be where it is today without the Galaxy Nexus.
Nexus 4 — 2012
The Nexus 4 is still one of my favorite Android phones ever. As the Nexus S was to the Nexus One — a mature, polished successor to a very forward-looking, flawed original — the Nexus 4 was to the Galaxy Nexus.
The Nexus 4 was awesome: it felt fast, had a great screen, and felt amazing in the hand.
Shipping with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Google had by then figured out many of the issues with the Holo design, and the Nexus line was beginning to feel more like a predictable project, less fraught with problems.
The Nexus 4 was awesome: it felt fast, had a great screen, and felt amazing in the hand. It had two fundamental flaws, but they could be overlooked at the time: it lacked LTE, and its camera was kind of terrible. OK, it was fully terrible.
Still, starting at $299 for the 8GB model, sold directly from Google, unlocked and unmarred by carrier interference, the Nexus 4 felt like an Android fan’s dream phone. Sure, the rear glass cracked if you looked at it sideways, but man was it a heck of a looker.
Nexus 5 — 2013
This was the phone that everyone appeared to love at the time, and has since grown to hate. The phone was, as Alex Dobie writes, “a boring plastic nothing with bad battery life and a temperamental camera,” but at $349 it was by far the best value for an LTE phone you could find in late 2013.
It also ran Android 4.4 KitKat, which to this day is an underrated upgrade. The last of the Holo versions, KitKat introduced the Google Now Launcher, HDR+, and a whole bunch of other subtle improvements.
Nexus 5: “A boring plastic nothing with bad battery life and a temperamental camera.”
Unfortunately, the Nexus 5 will likely be remembered more for its terrible battery life than anything else; I don’t think I ever got past 5pm on that thing. And that camera — it may have been better than the Nexus 4, but only barely, and that was a pretty low bar to climb. Still, the Nexus 5 sold buckets, and proved, like the Nexus S, to be a tremendous commercial success. Indeed, while we don’t know the exact numbers sold, it’s believed to be the best-selling Nexus device by an enormous margin, since you couldn’t find anything that matched its price to performance value.
Nexus 6 — 2014
What can we say about the Nexus 6? It was big. Massive. Stupid large. It was the first phone to ship with Android 5.0 Lollipop, and all the problems the new version brought with it. Material Design looked good, but this giant Moto X was too big for most people to use. It was also nearly double the cost of the Nexus 5, a reality that hit the hardcore Nexus community really hard.
The Nexus 6 represents the moment Google reasserted the Nexus as a premium product, meant less to undercut other Android flagships and promote competition than to stand on its own as a really great device. Unfortunately, even with its powerful specs, the Nexus 6 failed to live up to expectations. Battery life was disappointing given its massive 3,220mAh cell. The 13MP rear camera sensor, even with HDR+ and optical image stabilization, struggled in low light. The phone was a mess of contradictions, made even worse by the fact that Samsung had just released the staggeringly improved Galaxy Note 4.
Prior to the Nexus 6, I liked every Nexus phone to some degree. In 2014, I decided to skip a generation.
Nexus 5X and 6P — 2015
The 2015 Nexus phones were — are— great. Both of them. The smaller 5.2-inch Nexus 5X may have had some performance issues well into its lifespan, but it was a worthy successor to the ultra-popular Nexus 5, and brought the entry price back down to a more palatable $379. I never spent enough time with the Nexus 5X to form a comprehensive opinion of it, but I really enjoyed it for the week or so I had it in my pocket last December. LG really nailed it.
The Nexus 6P is undoubtedly the best Nexus phone ever made.
The Nexus 6P is, despite being a bit too tall for my liking, undoubtedly the best Nexus phone ever made, and a candidate for one of the best smartphones ever made, too. In my opinion, of course. It’s one of the only Nexus devices with few, if any, compromises — you can argue its lack of optical image stabilization is problematic, but I find it rarely gets in the way of a great photo — and is one of Huawei’s strongest showings to date.
Both the Nexus 5X and 6P feel easy to some extent: easy to use, with Android 6.0 on board at launch, and easy to recommend. Even the $499 tag seems reasonable after the previous year’s absurd asking price. And both phones are even better now running Android 7.0 Nougat. Google did well with its partners in 2015.
Pixel phones — 2016
So now we come to the Pixel phones, two seemingly-identical devices that will attempt to justify starting price points of $649, if rumors are to be believed. If you look back at the history of the Nexus line, no phone has been able to walk into a plus-$600 market and succeed commercially; the Nexus S, at $529, came close, but that was a very different time.
Google’s Pixels will compete in a highly saturated high-end market.
And while it’s easy enough for us to say that the Pixel phones should be priced lower in order to succeed, there are so many variables we just haven’t considered. What will carrier support be like — we know at least Verizon will offer one or both of them on financing — and what does Google have up its sleeve to differentiate them from other Android devices in that tier? A few software tweaks — redesigned launcher with rounded icons, new navigation buttons, and so on — won’t be enough, and specs alone can’t win any arguments in the highly-competitive Android space these days.
The $650 market is saturated as it is, with Samsung’s Galaxy S7 line dominant in ways we couldn’t have imagined back when the Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus debuted. And in the $350-$400 space, where the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 rested so comfortably, objectively great products from OnePlus, ZTE, Honor, Alcatel and Motorola fit the bill.
In some ways I hope Hiroshi Lockheimer isn’t hyperbolizing the notion that someday we will remember October 4, 2016 as fondly as we reminisce about the debut of Android itself, since the Pixel phones have a huge legacy of beautiful, flawed, complicated products behind them.
It’s also why I hope the Pixel phones in some way resemble the Nexus One, since the idea of Google starting from scratch to build something amazing is what made us yearn for the new Nexus year after year.
Google Pixel + Pixel XL
- Everything we know so far
- New navigation buttons
- Google UI + circular icons
- Android 7.1 Nougat
- Pixel vs Pixel XL
- Older Nexus phones
Gears of War 4 playthrough video shows the first 20 minutes of the game, watch it here
Microsoft has released a video that shows the first 20 minutes of Gears of War 4, taking you through the opening prologue and its initial mission.
Rod Ferguson and Matt Searcy from developer The Coalition play through the game’s beginning, so you can see exactly how it’ll look and feel. Of course, they are experts at it, and should be, so your experience may differ a little, but there are some spectacular scenes even at this early stage in the game.
We do warn you that there are obviously massive spoilers – it’s the entire first 20 minutes of the game, after all – so stop right now if you want to experience it afresh when you play for the first time. However, we feel that this only serves to make us want to play the game more.
- Gears of War 4 in 4K preview: Played on an Nvidia GTX 1070 notebook
- Gears of War 4 multiplayer preview: Grinding those gears
- Xbox One Gears of War 4 Elite Controller: The best gamepad just got even better
The video is only in 1080p although Gears of War 4 will run in 4K on PCs capable of running high resolutions. And it will have high dynamic range (HDR) picture tech on Xbox One S to add a wider colour gamut and more depth of contrast.
Gears of War 4 will be available for Windows 10 and Xbox One on 11 October. It’s an Xbox Play Anywhere title, so if you purchase the digital version on one of the formats, you’ll get the other for free. Save games will also sync between them.
Spotify could be looking to buy SoundCloud
Swedish music streaming service giant Spotify is in “advanced talks” to take over SoundCloud according to the Financial Times, although neither company has commented on the rumours.
While the price Spotify could pay for the service hasn’t been disclosed, it won’t be cheap. Spotify has around 120 million users in total, with around 40 million of those being paying subscribers. Big numbers indeed, but the streaming service isn’t making a profit, which means a buyout of SoundCloud would affect its finances even more.
- Which is the best music streaming service in the UK?
However, the deal would add a large amount of music, including some exclusive content, which is what streaming services are after at the moment to gain new users.
Apple Music for example has exclusive deals with Drake and Frank Ocean.
SoundCloud’s catalogue would add a predominantly DJ sets and dance music to Spotify, which is what its tried to sell to potential subscribers with a SoundCloud Go service.
SoundCloud Go hasn’t seen a great number of sign ups though, so with interest from streaming giant Spotify and a potentially large sum of money on the table, SoundCloud may find it hard to refuse.
Roku Express vs Google Chromecast 2: What’s the difference?
There are a few choices out there if you are looking for a compact and affordable streaming device, but if you want something that’s capable of streaming content from a few different providers (Netflix, Google Play, Hulu, etc), two of the current best choices are the Roku Express and Google Chromecast 2.
These are both great entry level streamers at prices that don’t break the bank, with the Roku Express (part of the new line up from Roku) currently priced at $29.99 and the Google Chromecast 2 marginally more expensive at $35 (£30).
We have compared the two devices to help you see what the differences and similarities are to work out which might be the right one for you. Read on to find out.
Roku Express v Google Chromecast 2: Design
Design is probably one of the main differences between the Roku Express and Google Chromecast 2. The Chromecast 2 is a small device bundled in a round package measuring 51.9 x 51.9 x 13.49mm and weighing just 39.1g. The Roku Express on the other hand, is a little larger than the Chromecast measuring 35.6 x 83.8 x 17.8mm and it comes in the shape of a rectangular box weighing 36.9g.
Both the Google Chromecast 2 and Roku Express connect to your TV via HDMI and they are powered via Micro-USB. The main difference here is, in most cases, the Chromecast will sit hidden behind your TV (if you use a rear HDMI port), while the Express will need to sit somewhere in line of sight as it comes with a IR blaster-equipped remote control – more on this in a minute.
Roku has taken on the Henry Ford model of colouring (“let them have any colour they want, as long as it’s black”), while Google offers the Chromecast 2 in three colour choices black, lemonade and coral. As it is going to be tucked out of view anyway though, it won’t make much difference which colour you choose.
Roku Express v Google Chromecast 2: Hardware
Both the Google Chromecast 2 and the Roku Express pack some pretty smart technology into a small package. They are capable of streaming 1080p on a HD TV and the Roku Express includes Dolby Audio pass through, while the Chromecast 2 supports Dolby Digital+, if you have the appropriate A/V equipment.
When it comes to Wi-Fi connectivity, both streamers offer 802.11 b/g/n/ac with WEP and WPA/WPA2 security so providing you’re getting good speeds, you should be fine. Netflix recommends 5mb/s for streaming HD content, so if you’re able to get those speeds or better, you should have a clean streaming experience without any nasty buffering.
Roku Express v Google Chromecast 2: Control
Both the Chromecast and Express are controllable via their respective mobile apps. The Roku Mobile App offers voice control functionality for searching content, while the Chromecast supports a wide range of apps and has the ability to cast tabs from Google Chrome. Both devices have plenty of flexibility and give you access to a wide range of content straight from your mobile or tablet, or PC or laptop in the case of the Chromecast.
The Roku Express also includes a functional and easy-to-use remote, offering more choice when it comes to control as if you misplace the remote, you can still use your smart device. With the Chromecast, if your device runs out of battery, you’ll be stuck unless you can find another device in the house or a plug close enough to the sofa to keep it charged.
The Roku remote does require line of sight in order to use it though, so if you’d rather keep the area around your television clean and tidy, the Chromecast might be the better option. The Google Chromecast also offers a functionality called ‘guest mode’, which allows nearby friends and family in your home to cast content to the TV via compatible apps, without the need to connect to your Wi-Fi network once they have input a pin.
Roku Express v Google Chromecast 2: Content
Both of these streaming devices offer access to a wide range of content. Google offers ‘over 200,000 TV shows & films, 30 million songs, plus radio, sport, games and more’, while Roku boasts over 350,000 with content from big providers including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, HBO Go, Sling, Google Play Movies, FX Now, Lifetime, History and more.
It’s worth noting that owning a Google Chromecast gives you access to a range of special Chromecast offers, which change on a regular basis and include things like free trials of NOW TV, Google Play Music and Disney Life.
The Google Chromecast also offers the ability to add a backdrop to your TV where you can choose from a range of content to display as a wallpaper on your TV when you’re not using it to watch films or TV shows. This includes access to your own personal photos via the Google Photos app and via Facebook.
Roku Express v Google Chromecast 2: Which should you buy?
There are a few differences between the two streaming devices being compared here, with the main advantage being in favour of the Roku Express in terms of price and practicality. The inclusion of the remote control and on-screen interface, which is lacking on the Chromecast, makes the Roku Express more accessible and easier to use for those who may not be as well versed in the world of streaming technology.
Having said that, the Chromecast is neater and possibly more flexible in terms of the devices, apps and casting it supports. Ultimately, both devices are very good and offer the same, or similar, quality in terms of HD streaming, audio and available content.
Google is rumoured to launch a 4K capable version of its Chromecast in the form of the Google 4K Chromecast Ultra at its 4 October event however, so you might want to consider waiting. The Roku also doesn’t have a UK availability date as yet.
AIVAnet 