The Galaxy Tab S3 is good, but not $600 good

Samsung is continuing its quest to outdo Apple at the tablet game with the new Galaxy Tab S3. The $600/£599 Android slate improves on the already pleasant multimedia experience that the Tab S2 offered by packing a brilliant HDR display and four speakers tuned by AKG. It also comes with an S Pen for on-the-go scribbling. Plus, its beefy processor and long-lasting battery help the Tab S3 better take on rival flagships. But although I enjoy watching movies, playing games and sketching on the Tab S3, I still find its $600 price hard to swallow.

Hardware

If you’ve seen the Tab S2, you’ve basically seen the Tab S3. The new tablet has the same slim silhouette as its predecessor, although it’s gained a glass covering that lends it a more premium feel. That unspecified glass also makes the tablet heavier and very prone to smudges, though.

Aside from that reflective facade and sharp profile, the Tab S3 looks as unassuming as earlier models. I like the minimalist look here, especially how much less unsightly the rear is now that the camera sits flush with the casing. That camera has a resolution of 13 megapixels, by the way, while the front-facer has seen a bump to 5 megapixels. Along the sides is an array of ports and connectors, including a microSD card slot on the right and a USB-C socket and headphone jack at the bottom. Like previous Tab S devices, the S3 also has a fingerprint sensor built into the physical home button below the display. I like that this reader is capable of identifying whether you placed your thumb on it horizontally or vertically, as long as you set it up correctly in the settings.

Overall, Samsung didn’t deviate much from the previous Tab’s aesthetic, choosing instead to build the S3 from more premium materials. It’s not the most inspired or exciting design, but it succeeds in making the tablet feel classier and more expensive.

Display and audio

One of the Tab S3’s highlights is its 9.7-inch Super AMOLED display. Its 2,048 x 1,536 resolution gives it a 4:3 aspect ratio, just like on the iPad Pro. Samsung’s screen here offers HDR support for higher contrast and more vivid colors; indeed, it provides a rich canvas for videos and games. When you view HDR content on the Tab S3, objects in the shadows become clearer and easier to see. But HDR content is not widely available yet, so this feature’s usefulness remains limited for now.

To accompany the rich images you see, Samsung equipped the Tab S3 with four speakers tuned by AKG for louder, fuller sound. Although this setup provides volume that was loud enough to hear over my TV, the actual audio quality is merely decent. Songs like “I Don’t Want to Live Forever” by Zayn come through with ample bass but sound hollow. More percussive songs, like “It’s Just Us Now” by Sleigh Bells, get tinny at times too.

The speakers also support a neat new feature that uses the accelerometer to understand how you’re holding the tablet and then adjusts the audio output to make sure the left and right speakers are tuned to deliver balanced surround sound in either landscape or portrait orientation. Frankly, I didn’t notice a huge difference in the way music was reaching my ears, although I did catch some small volume changes as I rotated the device in hand. It’s a nice feature, but not one that will make you go out and buy the tablet.

Keyboard and S Pen

It’s not easy to get a portable keyboard right, so kudos to Samsung for coming close with the Tab S3’s optional $130/£119 accessory. Typing is mostly bearable on the Tab’s relatively cramped keyboard, which attaches magnetically to the tablet as well as through a POGO connector for power and data. Each button press is satisfying, thanks to ample travel and the springy mechanism underneath each keycap. In general, too, the letter keys were comfortably sized, and I also appreciate the support for shortcuts like Alt-Tab, Ctrl-X and Ctrl-C, although that’s standard for such keyboard accessories.

But the keyboard still presents a few frustrating issues. For one, as a heavy user of keyboard shortcuts, I would have appreciated a second Control button to the right of the space bar, close to the arrow keys. Instead Samsung has placed a so-called Language key in that spot, and it doesn’t do much more than show you what language your keyboard is set to.

The Enter and Backspace keys are also undersized and placed just out of reach of my little finger, so I have to exercise extra care when aiming for them. Finally, even though I initially thought a touchpad wasn’t necessary for a device with a touchscreen, its absence here was jarring — my fingers frequently wandered over to where a trackpad would normally be, only to be left hanging. To its credit, Android does at least support cursor input (unlike iOS), and some similar keyboards, such as the one on the Lenovo Yoga Book, have such a space to make navigating the OS more intuitive when working in a laptop-style configuration.

To be fair, the companion keyboards for the Pixel C and the 9.7-inch iPad Pro don’t have trackpads either, and squeezing one in would have made the keys smaller, so I’m willing to overlook this trade-off. Plus, I rather enjoy using the S Pen as a mouse replacement to scroll through websites or navigate the OS without having to reach for the screen, so it’s a good thing Samsung included it.

Speaking of, the S Pen is another standout feature of the Tab S3. I appreciate that Samsung, unlike Apple, includes the stylus gratis, though I wish there were a way to stow it on the device itself. Still, the pen provides a comfortable, natural writing experience, thanks to its grip-friendly shape, larger size (than the version for the Note phablets) and fine 0.7mm nib.

As the pen hovers over the Tab’s screen, a little circle appears to track its position. Using the button on the S Pen’s side, you can activate Air Command to access shortcuts such as Create Note, Smart Select and Translate. That last one lets you pick a word with the stylus to translate into your desired language.

Drawing with the S Pen feels smooth, and because of the fine nib and bigger canvas, you can achieve fairly detailed drawings. Plus, the new S Pen is twice as pressure sensitive as previous iterations, and can detect up to 4,096 levels of force. This means you can get thinner lines than before, and the extremely wispy strands of hair I drew onto my hapless stick figure is a testament to that level of detail. In addition to the pre-installed Microsoft OneNote and Samsung Notes apps, I also tried the pen out with Autodesk SketchBook and Adobe Draw, both of which offer more advanced controls.

Like the most recent S Pen, this stylus doesn’t need to be recharged, which is convenient. Ultimately, Samsung’s effective integration of the S Pen here will make it a popular new bonus of the Tab line, just as it has become a defining feature of the Note series.

Performance and battery life

Thanks to its quad-core Snapdragon 820 chipset and 4GB of RAM, the Tab S3 was mostly fast and responsive. Jumping between graphics-intensive apps like room-escape games and scrolling through web pages is mostly smooth. There’s a slight delay in launching apps like Camera and Chrome, but once they’re up and running, the apps perform well. I’m tempted to blame the company’s TouchWiz UI for that lag, which is overlaid here on Android 7.0 Nougat in a more restrained manner than usual. It’s still noticeable through the software’s icons and app offerings, though.

* SunSpider: Lower scores are better.

Despite the inclusion of Microsoft’s Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote apps, as well as Android Nougat’s new multi-window features, the Tab S3’s capability as a productivity machine is limited. Android apps in general still aren’t optimized to make better use of the larger screens of tablets, although Google and Microsoft’s offerings have improved in that respect. But with Tab S3, my usual workflow is further hampered by the cramped keyboard and missing touchpad.

Synthetic benchmark results paint a similar picture, placing the Tab S3 just behind the Google Pixel C, which packs a powerful Tegra X1 processor, on most tests. Samsung’s tablet beat Lenovo’s Yoga Book, which uses an Intel Atom chip, on most general performance benchmarks. The three devices also ranked similarly on graphics tests, with the Pixel leading the pack, the Tab taking second place and the Yoga Book falling behind.

Battery life
Samsung Galaxy Tab S3
11:50
Lenovo Yoga Book (Android)
11:09
Apple iPad Pro (9.7 inch)
9:11
Google Pixel C
8:15

The Tab S3’s endurance varies quite a bit depending on how you use it. When you’re not overworking the device by multitasking with a video streaming in the background, you’ll find its 6,000mAh battery is enough to last a day and a half. Start playing games, or run a graphics- and computing-intensive app, and you’ll find the power level dropping at a much faster rate, going from about 60 percent charged to 25 percent in just a few hours. The Tab S3 clocked nearly 12 hours on Engadget’s battery test, which involves looping an HD video at fixed display brightness. That’s three hours longer than what the Pixel C was capable of, and two hours longer than the iPad Pro. The Yoga Book is a closer contender, having finished the same test within 40 minutes of the Tab S3.

The competition

Few Android tablets on the market try to be productivity powerhouses, simply because the OS itself isn’t designed well for that purpose. But that hasn’t stopped Samsung, Lenovo and even Google itself from trying.

The Tab S3’s most obvious rival is Google’s Pixel C, which costs the same (for more storage) and has a similarly premium build. Samsung’s slate comes with the S Pen and has a more brilliant display, making it the better device for creatives. On the other hand, the Pixel has a more powerful Tegra processor, which, despite being paired with less RAM, performs better on benchmarks than the Galaxy Tab. The Pixel also offers a companion keyboard for $20 more than the Tab’s, but neither accessory is a good substitute for a full-size keyboard.

Lenovo, on the other hand, ditches the keyboard altogether with the Yoga Book, which costs $100 less than the Tab S3. Instead of physical keys, you get a smooth surface on which to write notes or doodle, and it has light-up outlines of keys you can tap when you need to type. Artists who prefer a more old-school pen-and-paper experience will prefer the Yoga Book’s integration, which lets you use actual pen and paper to draw and has your sketch appear on the tablet in real time. The Lenovo slate’s biggest downside is its terrible typing experience, and it also trails the Tab S3 in both performance benchmarks and battery life.

Then there’s the iPad Pro 9.7. The different OS aside, the iPad Pro is very similar to the Tab S3. It has a 9.7-inch 2,048 x 1,536 display, a svelte 6.1mm (0.24-inch) profile and quad-speaker setup, just like Samsung’s slate. The Tab S3’s advantages over Apple’s device include HDR media support, bundled S Pen, and a battery that lasts two hours longer than the iPad on a charge. But the iPad will still hold more appeal for iOS fans.

Wrap-up

Ultimately, the Tab S3 is a solid utility tablet that does nearly everything it promises. It provides a bright, vibrant display and booming audio for enjoyable binge watching or gaming, and a fluid S Pen experience that digital artists will appreciate. Its long-lasting battery is also a bonus. I don’t recommend getting the $130 keyboard or trying to use this tablet for any real work (in other words, writing a report or intensive multitasking), though. It’s also $100 more expensive than the 9.7-inch iPad Pro.

Don’t think of the Tab S3 as a laptop replacement and you’ll find it a perfectly capable machine that’s largely inoffensive. Whether that’s worth $600 depends on how much you want a really nice screen and loud speakers.

Alexa on Huawei’s Mate 9 won’t listen unless you press

When we first learned that Huawei planned to bring Amazon’s Alexa to its Mate 9 flagship, there weren’t many details on what that implementation would look like. All we really knew was that it would be rolling out via software update to the phone, and that its availability would be limited. Today, Huawei has unveiled just how the integration will work. Sadly, parts of this implementation don’t make sense, with the most disappointing being the fact that you have to press your phone twice before you can talk to Alexa, which defeats the point of having a voice assistant.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, here’s how the feature will work. Starting today, the company will be rolling out updates over the air that will push the Huawei Alexa app to Mate 9 owners in the US (those in other countries will have to wait, although it’s not clear till when). You’ll have to install that as well as Amazon’s own Alexa app to use the tool, and that’s what will have the information from your Amazon account. Then, whenever you want Alexa to, say, help you order a new book or turn on your lights, you have to open the Huawei Alexa app and tap the round microphone button before speaking.

In a news release, Huawei itself describes Alexa as a “primarily voice-driven experience, ideal for people on the go,” so the lack of hotword support is confusing, if not frustrating. It’s not as if Huawei wasn’t able to create hotword shortcuts for its own “Okay Emy” tool in the past. The company said that this is the way Alexa works “currently,” although it did not say if that will change in the future.

Huawei’s execution of an initially exciting feature is flawed, but having Alexa on your phone is still very useful, considering the assistant’s prowess at controlling smart home appliances and shopping. If you’re disappointed with this news and want an alternative means of getting Alexa on a mobile device, there are also Alexa-powered smartwatches to consider.

Amazon Brings ‘Send to Kindle’ Read-it-Later Feature to Safari iOS

Amazon has added a long-awaited Pocket-style read-it-later feature to its Kindle iOS app that allows users browsing the web to send articles to their Kindle device for offline reading.

Amazon has offered desktop Chrome and Firefox browser extensions to feed into its Send to Kindle feature for some time, but the company had not offered a Safari-compatible iOS solution until now.

The new feature works as a Send to Kindle extension in Safari’s Share Sheet. After updating the Kindle app, users can add the extension by scrolling to the end of the first row of icons in Share Sheet, tapping the More button, and enabling it in the app list.

Users can find saved articles at the top of their library in the Kindle app as well as any Kindle devices associated with their Amazon account.

Articles are saved in Kindle format, meaning users can adjust their look in the usual way via the text, font, page color, and line spacing options. The articles are also compatible with Kindle features like dictionary lookup, translations, Wikipedia search, bookmarking, text highlighting, and annotations.

The read-it-later feature is included in the latest version of Kindle for iOS, which is a free download on the App Store. [Direct Link]

Tags: Amazon, Kindle
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Apple Drops iPhone 7 (PRODUCT)RED Branding in China

Yesterday, Apple announced a special edition (PRODUCT)RED iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, to go with its current (PRODUCT)RED line-up that Apple promotes as a way for customers to support HIV/AIDS charity (RED).

The red handset, which launches on Friday, is the first time Apple has included its flagship phone in the promotional line-up, but the PRODUCT(RED) iPhone branding does not apply across all regions.

Apple’s Taiwan website
As noted by TechCrunch, internet users have spotted that the (PRODUCT)RED branding is missing on the regional China website, but all other details including launch date and time remain identical, indicating that Apple is promoting the red iPhone in the country simply as an additional colorway.

Apple’s China website
Sex remains a controversial issue in China, where traditional values frequently clash with more liberal Western attitudes as the country’s economic boom increasingly opens it to outside influence. In the past, AIDS and HIV have been characterized in China as a consequence of contact with the West, but recent legislation has been more progressive and a lot more successful in treating the AIDS/HIV problem in the country.

Despite the gradual change in attitudes, it’s likely Apple took the decision to drop the (PRODUCT)RED affiliation in order to avoid possible tension with the Chinese government, following recent incidents in which the company has fallen foul of China’s restrictive internet policies.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: (PRODUCT)RED
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Siri and Alexa Battling to Become Go-To Voice Assistants in Hotel Rooms

Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa are being put through their paces in a “tech incubator” hotel chain, in order to determine which voice assistant brings more to the table for guests wanting to order room service, control lights, change TV channels, adjust the temperature, and more (via Bloomberg). The main incubator for the test is happening in Aloft Hotels, which are owned by Marriott.

The Aloft Hotel in Boston is using Amazon Echo devices and a collection of iPhones and iPads to gather information on which voice assistant will ultimately best serve guests in the long run. Marriott hasn’t divulged information on who might be the winner as of yet, but the company did say that it expects to decide if it will expand the test to more chains besides Aloft Hotels “as early as mid-year.”

Marriott expects to decide whether to adopt the technology for one or more of its chains as early as mid-year, potentially boosting sales for the device of choice. More important, it will increase the winning company’s exposure in the market for voice-activated devices, which are gaining more mainstream traction.

“Those two players are in the game right now,” said Toni Stoeckl, who oversees the Aloft, Element, AC and Moxy chains as global brand leader for lifestyle brands at Marriott. There are almost 130 Aloft hotels in the U.S., and more than 100 additional ones planned.

Carolina Milanesi, a market analyst with Creative Strategies, compared the introduction of voice assistants into hotel rooms to when the hospitality industry began putting iPhone docking stations into rooms so guests could easily charge their phone and listen to their own music. Still, personalization with the voice assistants remains a key question for the new tests. As of now it’s unclear whether guests will be able to somehow access their own accounts to use Alexa and Siri, or be treated with a “standard set of skills relevant to a hotel stay,” concerning news reports, weather forecasts, and other default commands that might be easier for guests unfamiliar with voice assistant technology.

In regards to the overall voice assistant battle over hotel rooms, Alexa currently appears to be winning. Amazon’s assistant and its connected speaker system Echo are now helping out guests in hotels like the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa, with Alexa devices installed in 10 of 1,002 rooms and plans to add around 100 more as early as next month. On an even bigger scale, the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas plans to equip all 4,748 rooms with an Echo speaker by this summer.

Although most users agree Siri is inferior to other assistants from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, Apple isn’t out of the running yet in the battle to win hotel rooms, and Siri’s advantageous support of multiple languages could give it a leg up over its competition with international travelers. According to Toni Stoeckl, Marriott’s global brand leader, the company is searching for which voice assistant can become the “ideal solution” and ultimately turn into “a global platform” with Siri or Alexa installed at multiple of its locations around the world. Stoeckl said that the company should have an indicator of where it’s headed by the end of 2017, so “the race is still on.”

Marriott’s Stoeckl said his company is “looking for the ideal solution to make this a global platform.” Aloft hotels act as a “tech incubator” for new concepts, and a successful test may determine whether digital assistants — and which ones — are installed at other Marriott chains, he said.

Of course that means that neither assistant could win, but the company said it will continue to test both out in its Aloft Hotels, and even plans to add more “concierge-like” services in the future, which hint that more personalized experiences are likely to be introduced. These include the ability to connect with a guest’s personal smartphone to fuel actions like setting an automatic wake-up temperature or creating an activation time to open the room’s drapes.

Voice assistants continue to be a dominant factor in the smartphone and tablet market, and thanks to devices like the Echo speaker, they’re expanding into unique product categories as well. Reports have been scarce lately, but last year Apple was said to be “pressing ahead” into prototype testing for its own standalone Siri speaker. The Cupertino company is also believed to be working on “enhanced Siri” capabilities that should beef up the assistant’s presence on iOS devices, likely to begin with this year’s “iPhone 8.”

Tags: Siri, Amazon, Amazon Echo, Alexa
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The Morning After: Wednesday, March 22nd 2017

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

How would you like a stealth delivery of Apple announcements? Well you’ve got them. While there’s nothing earth-shattering, there is a new tablet, a vivid new iPhone and a new video app. Also in today’s Adult Week series, we digitally clear out our PC and feel all the better for it.

Say goodbye to the Air. Apple’s new 9.7-inch iPad is its cheapest yet

Apple just simplified its tablet lineup in a big way. The company has introduced a new 9.7-inch iPad — not the Air 3, just… iPad. You’ll find a slightly older but still speedy A9 processor inside instead of the Air 2’s aging A8X chip, and Apple has doubled the capacities to give you either 32GB or 128GB of storage. There are some drawbacks, however, that come with that cheaper price tag.

Beats two different shades of black. Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus now come in red

Apple has also just snuck out a new special edition red iPhone 7, with barely any fanfare. (Although rumors that something was afoot began earlier today when Apple’s online store went down.) The red aluminum iPhone 7 and 7 Plus will be launching globally, adding some welcome color to the black and plainer metallic shades we’ve had until now. The pair of iPhones (with either 128GB or 256GB of storage) will launch in stores and online this Friday, March 24th, starting at $749.

The 16GB iPhone is dead.Apple doubles the storage of the iPhone SE and iPad Mini 4

Apple is also increasing the storage across all iPhone SE and iPad Mini 4 configurations. The lowest-capacity 4-inch iPhone SE is now 32GB, up from 16GB, and the 64GB model has been scrapped in favor of a 128GB version. Basically, Apple has doubled the storage and finally killed off the last 16GB iPhone, but good news: The prices haven’t changed.

You can try it out todayMeet Android O

Google has officially announced the next version of Android, and it’s O. There’s no dessert-themed nickname yet, but the next big update will have some tweaks aimed at extending battery life. They’ll work by managing how apps operate in the background, limiting services, location updates and broadcasts to help squeeze out more time between charges. Other new features include picture-in-picture on phones and tablets, and an autofill feature that should make it easier to use a password manager. If you want to get an early jump, there’s a developer preview available right now for several Nexus and Pixel devices.

It involves more than just emptying your Trash folder Adult Week: The life-changing magic of tidying up (your computer)

Now that many of us have terabytes of storage at our fingertips (or in the cloud), there’s a temptation to keep everything, from apps to old bookmarks. Despite that, Dan Cooper tried applying strategies from Marie Kondo’s famous book to his digital life, hitting the delete button on things that don’t provide some form of joy.

Deal from the middleThe hidden depth of mobile puzzle game ‘Where Cards Fall’

This top-down 3D puzzler will have players follow a handful of teenagers over the course of ten years, building houses of cards to navigate them along the way. Coming from the developers of Alto’s Adventure, Where Cards Fall will arrive later this year on iOS, Apple TV and Steam with more complex mechanics and story than we’re used to seeing in a mobile game.

How did it not have this already? iTunes movie rentals finally work across multiple devices

Nearly a decade after iTunes added movie rentals, Apple has finally made it work across devices. Previously, if you watched a rental on one phone, tablet or Apple TV, it would be stuck there until it expired. With the latest update, viewers can pause and resume on another iPhone or anywhere else they’re logged into the app. The only problem is that for now, the feature is limited to beta and developer builds, but it should be available widely soon enough.

But wait, there’s more…

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Finally, iTunes movie rentals now let you ‘rent once, watch anywhere’

Why it matters to you

If you have more than one Apple device, this update gives you more freedom when it comes to watching your movie rentals.

Up to now, if you rented a movie on iTunes, you had to finish watching it on the same device.

In other words, if you started watching it on your Apple TV one evening and wanted to watch the rest of it in bed on an iPad or iPhone, you couldn’t. There was no way of switching between devices to carry on from where you left off.

Apple has finally put that right with an iTunes update rolled out on Tuesday.

Version 12.6 of the media-playing software offers what the company calls a “rent once, watch anywhere” feature, telling users, “Now you can enjoy your movie rentals across your devices with iOS 10.3 and tvOS 10.2.”

Ah, hang on … the more observant among you will have noticed that those two software versions aren’t officially out yet, though with both currently available in beta — and with Apple citing them as part of its iTunes update — it shouldn’t be at all long before they make it to the masses.

Regardless of whether you watch a rented iTunes movie on one device or on several, don’t forget that you have 24 hours (in the U.S.) or 48 hours (non-U.S. locations) to finish it. And you must start watching it within 30 days of renting it or you’ll have to start over.

You can grab the latest iTunes update now from the Mac App Store.

More: Apple could offer iTunes rentals of movies still in theaters

Apple’s iTunes update came on the same day that the tech titan quietly rolled out a couple of new products — an all-new 9.7-inch iPad called simply “iPad” that replaces the iPad Air 2, and a special-edition “Product (RED)” iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. A few other extras were also pushed out by the company on Tuesday — here’s an overview of everything you need to know.

Samsung Pay officially rolls out in India with UPI and Paytm integration

Samsung Pay is now officially available in India.

After rolling out Samsung Pay early access a few weeks ago, Samsung has now officially launched its digital payments service in the country. Samsung has teamed up with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express for payment processing, and Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Cards and Standard Chartered Bank customers will be able to use Samsung Pay starting today. Citibank credit cards will soon be added to the platform.

Samsung is also offering a UPI payments solution that will be powered by Axis Bank. UPI payments aren’t live yet on the service, but Samsung mentions that the feature will be added shortly. The platform also has Paytm integration, allowing you to pay by scanning QR codes, undertake peer-to-peer money transfers, and more.

Samsung Pay is available for those using the Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy S7, Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), Galaxy A7 (2016), Galaxy A5 (2017) and the Galaxy A7 (2017), and will be available soon for the Gear S3.

By integrating digital wallets and UPI, Samsung Pay is offering a comprehensive list of options for Indian customers, and its ability to work with NFC as well as older MST POS machines makes it convenient to use the service at a majority of offline retailers across the country.

India is the 12th country to pick up support for Samsung Pay, and the service is live in the U.S., South Korea, China, Spain, Singapore, Australia, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Russia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Sky Q voice search now live, you can finally use that button on the remote

Sky has begun to roll out new firmware for its Sky Q set-top-boxes that adds voice search and a few new features.

Some customers will have the update by now although others might have to wait as it’s being rolled out in stages. All Sky Q customers will have the new software by the “end of spring”, however.

Voice search has been one of the features promised by Sky since the launch of Sky Q. Indeed, the voice button has been on the touch remote since the beginning, but hasn’t been needed until now.

It enables you to find content simply by pressing the button, found on the side of the remote, and simple say what you are looking for. It could be the name of the show, a more generic term, such as “Liverpool game”, or even a famous quote from a movie.

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The voice recognition engine will also recognise genres, star ratings and actors. For example, you can search by just saying “Tom Hanks movies with five star ratings”.

In addition to voice search, the latest update changes the navigation pages and user interface. You will now land on My Q as the homescreen, with recommendations based on your viewing habits being front and centre. A continue watching section will enable you to pick up where you left off in an episode.

Navigation has also been simplified, with the TV guide and recordings being one swipe (or tap) away.

Customers can also link their Facebook profiles to the new UI, which will enable viewing of Facebook videos and photos from within the my photos section.

Netflix launches support for Firefox on Linux

Linux users have a new option if they want to watch Netflix — the streaming service is now compatible with Firefox for the platform. Before this, only Google Chrome could play videos from the website outright. There was even a time when users had to make sure they’re using a version of Chrome with the required Encrypted Media Extension (EME) support. Sure, they could trick the platform into thinking they’re on Chrome when they’re actually using Firefox. That’s easy enough to set up for someone with a Linux PC. But this development means there are no extra steps to take to enjoy Netflix on Mozilla’s browser.

In fact, users don’t have to install any plug-in, and they certainly don’t have to borrow Chrome’s digital rights management (DRM) as a workaround for the limitation anymore. Mozilla added EME support for Firefox on Linux last year, allowing the browser to play encrypted content. It might have taken the organization some time to enable playback of DRM-protected HTML5 videos, but now that it’s here, Linux users can simply load the website on Firefox and hit play.

Source: Netflix