YouTube TV FAQ: All your questions answered!

YouTube TV is coming, and you probably have questions.

It’s always exciting to see a company like Google offer something new, but YouTube TV is not the first time this company has tried to do something innovative with streaming video. Here’s what you need to know about Google’s latest efforts to shake up television as we know it.

What is YouTube TV?

Think of YouTube TV as an internet-based cable television subscription. For a monthly fee, you can stream live television directly to your phone without needing an account through your local cable company. You can use this as a way to watch live television when you aren’t at home, or you can completely replace your home cable service with YouTube TV.

Aren’t there other apps that do this right already?

As a matter of fact, there are three rather popular services offering similar services. Sony’s PlayStation Vue lets you watch and record live TV across many different screens, DirecTV Now is a satellite-free alternative to cable companies, and SlingTV exists as an alternative to watching your favorite shows with a cable box.

YouTube TV is looking to compete with these services by offering a price point in the middle of these services, with expanded features a promise of more consistent streaming video quality.

What channels do I get with YouTube TV?

Currently, YouTube TV is offering:

• ABC
• CBS
• FOX
• NBC
• NBCSN
• USA
• FX
• FreeForm
• Oxygen
• Bravo
• MSNBC
• Fox News
• CNBC
• FXX
• FXM
• SyFy
• Fox Business
• Local Now
• Disney
• Disney Junior
• Disney XD
• The CW
• E!
• Universo
• Universal
• Sprout
• National Geographic
• Nat Geo Wild
• Chiller
• ESPN
• ESPN 2
• ESPN 3
• ESPN News
• ESPN U
• SEC ESPN
• CSN
• Fox Sports
• BTN
• NBC Golf
• Telemundo
• FS1
• FS2

YouTube TV also includes YouTube Originals, which are shows and movies previously available only to YouTube Red subscribers.

There will also be the ability to add networks to your subscription for an additional fee. Currently, Fox Soccer Plus and Showtime are on the list of add-on networks to be available at launch.

Can I record shows with YouTube TV?

You can! YouTube TV includes a “Cloud DVR” service that allows you to record multiple shows simultaneously so you can watch them later. This feature includes a commercial skipping feature if you’re watching a recorded show, available with a simple tap in the YouTube TV app.

This Cloud DVR service comes with unlimited storage, and videos you have recorded can only live on your account for nine months before they need to be erased.

How many people can use my account at the same time?

Each YouTube TV account allows you to connect up to six accounts in a family plan for no additional fee. Currently no other live TV streaming service supports six simultaneous users as part of the base price, and each of these connected accounts will get separate recommendations and offers based on their viewing habits. This means you kids can watch all the Pokemon they want and it won’t interfere with reminders about Game of Thrones or Football.

So far, Google has not mentioned any need to prove those six people live in the same house or share any other Google services.

What do I need to use YouTube TV?

According to Google, YouTube TV will work on just about everything with a screen. Android and iOS apps will be available, as well as a website for watching and controlling your account.

If you have a TV with a Chromecast dongle or Google Cast service embedded, you will be able so stream anything from YouTube to your television easily.

How much does YouTube TV cost?

Right now Google is offering a flat rate of $35 per month for YouTube TV. There’s currently no mention of the individual costs for the add-on networks.

This monthly plan does not include any contracts or commitments, so you can quickly cancel the service if you decide you are unhappy with it.

What about people outside of the US?

As is often the case with Google products and streaming TV services, YouTube TV is currently US only and will likely remain US only for quite a while.

In order to launch in other countries, Google needs to secure streaming rights in each country. That kind of thing takes a lot of time, so the current focus is delivering in the US for now.

Can I get YouTube TV now?

Not yet! YouTube TV is going to be available “soon” and when it is actually available it won’t be available across the whole US all at once. Google’s plan is to make the service available first in the largest US markets and expand rapidly after the launch. In case you are curious, the 10 largest media markets in the US are:

• 1 New York, NY
• 2 Los Angeles, CA
• 3 Chicago, IL
• 4 Philadelphia, PA
• 5 Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
• 6 San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, CA
• 7 Washington DC/Maryland
• 8 Boston MA/NH
• 9 Atlanta, GA
• 10 Houston, TX

To sign up so you can be notified of when this service is available in your area, head here and let Google know you’re eager to try YouTube TV.

We’ll be sure to update this FAQ as more information becomes available!

Google expands its Launchpad Accelerator program to Africa and Europe

The submission process is now open to more technology startups based in emerging markets.

Google is expanding its Launchpad Accelerator program to two more continents. African and European countries have been added to the lineup. They include Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary.

Launchpad Accelerator already fields entries from Latin America and Asia. Those countries include Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The six-month mentorship program provides equity-free support for technology startups. Startups that have been funded in the past include HashLearn, an Android app in Indian that offers on-demand tutoring; iGrow, an app that helps people in Indonesia essentially pay farmers to grow food for them; and Delivery Direto, Brazil’s own on-demand food delivery service.

Entries are open until April 24. If you’re interested, you can apply here. Training at the Google campus in San Francisco begins on July 17.

Here’s a reel of last year’s Launchpad Accelerator startups.

No more renders or blurry shots, this Galaxy S8 leak is as legit as it gets

We aren’t even at peak Galaxy S8 leak yet.

The steady flow of Galaxy S8 leaks continues, and while each gives us a little more information about the design of this phone it’s starting to feel a little familiar. We know the phone is going to be extra tall like the LG G6, and whether it’s a good thing or not the bezels on the side of this thing are going to basically not exist.

This latest leak gives a higher quality look at the outer shell of this phone, and just how impossibly small these bezels are.

The folks at BGR scored a number of decent body shots of the Galaxy S8, and it’s starting to become clear that the outside isn’t really going to tell us anything new. As impressive as that display looks in these shots and some of the videos that have leaked recently, it’s clear the really important things aren’t going to be on the outside.

A lot of people got really excited when it looked like the bottom navigation bar could be customized, and when you couple that with the “Bixby” AI we keep hearing about and the race to make the software more polished and the camera even better, the outer shell isn’t really as exciting anymore. Some of this is because we’ve seen this form factor leak quite a bit, but really Samsung’s big reveal for the S8 is going to be about how capable this phone is and how unique an experience it can create for users.

The outside of this phone is beautiful, but come on leakers. There’s a lot of time between now and when the Galaxy S8 is officially unveiled at the end of March. Lets see a little more of the good stuff!

Peugeot concept learns from your IoT gear to improve the ride

While the Geneva Motor Show is just days away, Peugeot didn’t wait for the festivities in Switzerland to debut its latest concept. Instead, the automaker revealed an autonomous car here at Mobile World Congress. Dubbed the Instinct Concept, the vehicle blends self-driving tech, home automation and cloud-based connectivity to define user profiles. The vehicle uses Samsung’s ARTIK IoT platform to pull in all of your information from mobile devices, wearables and connected home gear to adapt the best driving or riding experience.

It’s not just pulling in the information, either. The car also gives you access to all of those connected devices from the interior of the Instinct Concept. We’re talking about temperature information from your Nest, what you like to watch from your smart TV or details from your virtual assistant on a gadget like Amazon Echo.

Speaking of Amazon, a number of other automakers have already enlisted Alexa to power AI inside their vehicles, Peugeot decided instead to go with Samsung’s cloud platform to collect all of the info and data science company Sentience analyzes the details for what’s relevant to the system. The car has it’s own AI that passengers can interact with via spoken cues.

The Instinct Concept also features four modes that tailor the ride to you. There are two driving modes — Drive Boost and Drive Relax — for performance or more every day driving scenarios. The former configures all of the drivetrain settings to produce the most power while the latter employs semi-autonomous features to ease the burden of evening traffic. There are also two self-driving modes: Auto Sharp will get you where you need to be in the most efficient manner and Auto Soft that makes comfort the top priority. Auto Soft will also take the scenic route so you have plenty of time to take a nap or finish a movie.

This particular vehicle hasn’t been tested just yet, but Peugeot has already been doing trials with the underlying technology in other cars. Of course, at the concept stage there’s no telling if the Instinct will make the leap to a full production model. However, the setup that pulls in all of your information to improve your ride that also makes your sportscar part of your home IoT setup is certainly an interesting idea. The automaker is part of the PSA Group which already has permission to conduct real-world self-driving car testing. Those trials are set to start this month and the plan is for the group to bring autonomous tech to its production vehicles by 2020.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from MWC 2017.

Amazing Samsung Galaxy S8 hands-on pics available already

We appeared to get a bit ahead of ourselves earlier when we reported on a highly detailed marketing render of the Samsung Galaxy S8 was released by Evan Blass aka @evleaks on Twitter.

• Samsung Galaxy S8: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know

Well, now it seems tech website BGR has obtained actual images of an actual Galaxy S8 smartphone. Fortunately, they look an awful lot like the render leaked this morning, so at least the details we reported, referring to buttons and cameras, were correct.

BGR has confirmed the standard size Galaxy S8 has a 5.8-inch screen, while the Plus model will have a larger 6.2in, but the actual sizes of the phones will be more compact than you’d assume, because Samsung has taken up the entire front of the phone with the display.

BGR

Actual specs and features of the two phones should be by and large the same. That means both will get curved Quad HD AMOLED displays with minimal bezels.

The processor for the US bound versions of the phones is expected to be the Snapdragon 835, a chip that Samsung was thought to have exclusivity of until its phones were released, however Qualcomm has since denied those rumours.

The S8 and S8+ phones bound for other markets will use one of Samsung’s own Exynos processors, which will have similar performance to the Snapdragon 835.

All models will get the same 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage and microSDXC expansion support up to 2TB.

BGR

The previously rumoured 12-megapixel Dual Pixel camera has been confirmed to feature on the rear, while an 8MP snapper will be on the front. The rear camera is flanked by a flash and the fingerprint scanner that has been moved from the front.

• Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus: Release date, rumours and everything you need to know
• What is Bixby?: Everything you need to know about Samsung’s assistant

BGR

A dedicated button for Samsung’s own voice assistant Bixby is thought to be on the side, although this hasn’t been confirmed by BGR just yet. USB-C and 3.5mm headphoyne ports can be found on the bottom, and despite having both, the S8 phones are IP68-rated water and dust-resistant.

Samsung has confirmed it will officially unveil the Galaxy S8 at an event in New York on 29 March – although, now we pretty much know everything, there’s not much point – and there’s expected to be available from 21 April

Pizza Hut’s smart shoes will order a pie for you

Pizza Hut is no stranger to using tech as a promo tool, but its latest may be particularly appealing if you’re looking for new footwear. It just unveiled a pair of Bluetooth shoes, Pie Tops (yes, we know), that order a large pizza for you at the press of a button on the tongue — think of them as Reebok Pumps that fill you up instead. As you might guess, there’s a mobile app to both set your order defaults and change the button push requirements. You don’t have to worry that you’ll accidentally order a Super Supreme while you’re out playing basketball.

Like most of the company’s publicity grabs, you won’t get to buy these yourself. However, Pizza Hut tells us that there will be a “handful” released to the public at some point in the future. Will these be as coveted as the latest pair of Yeezys? Almost certainly not, but it’s safe to say that you’ll be the only kid on the block whose hi-tops can order dinner.

The hunt for Windows Phone

MWC — the world’s biggest phone show — is happening all around me. Nearly every new phone that’s been announced here in Barcelona is Android-powered, while the ever-influential iPhone keeps other halls filled with cases, add-ons and every color of Lightning cable imaginable. But where is Windows Phone? We know it still exists, somewhere between dead and living. If you browse through Microsoft’s Windows Phone store online, you’ll see HP’s Elite X3 take pride of place (with a tiny Lumia footnote) … but that’s about it. A Microsoft spokesperson told me that the company “remain[s] committed to our universal Windows platform. We will continue to support and invest in these types of mobile experiences for Windows 10.” But c’mon, this is MWC. There must be something here, right? Here’s what I could find.

Nokia has nothing to do with Windows Phone now

Yes, the return of the 3310 as nostalgia-bait scored some early headlines at MWC, but the company’s return as a global smartphone maker made one thing clear: It’s all-Android now. When I talked to Nokia and HMD execs about its new smartphones, they were careful to be diplomatic, saying that Android “is a brilliant mobile platform for us” and that it would be focusing on Google’s mobile OS at this time. Also, alternative options are scarce when it comes to phone operating systems. Just ask BlackBerry.

Niche phone makers are distancing themselves from Windows Phone

One of the last Windows Phones to appear, NuAns’ Neo came from Japan, a country with a strong tradition of businesses buying into enterprise hardware. The device was also one of the prettiest Windows Phones ever to surface, with interchangeable backs of various materials, textures and colors. Sure, it was a little chunky, but it also handled Continuum, one of Microsoft’s mobile trump cards. The phone is apparently still on sale, but its Kickstarter campaign failed to reach its funding target for an international launch last year.

That brings us to MWC 2017 and the company’s new phone: the NuAns Neo Reloaded. It sounds like a Matrix sequel, and it looks just as charming. The team behind the Neo has upgraded almost everything: There’s a faster Snapdragon processor, a 1080p 5.2-inch display, and dustproofing and water resistance as well as a faster, Sony-made camera sensor. The biggest “upgrade,” however, is Android 7.1. It also keeps the quaint recess under the two-tone covers for your contactless payment (or metro) card of choice.

It’s not for you

Late Monday afternoon, I got a lead. HP’s Elite x3 was the last big Windows Phone launch, built for power users and those tempted by Continuum. It launched at last year’s MWC, and this year it’s back. Well, kind of. HP has added a companion bump for its Windows Phone: a chunky high-end bar code scanner for … scanning bar codes. It’s an enterprise accessory aimed at health care workers and retail. HP teamed up with Honeywell to make a bar code scanner that, while useful, is unlikely to interest mainstream shoppers.

Windows 10 is an increasingly mobile OS

Here’s the rub: MWC had plenty of tablets running full-fat Windows 10. There were convertible, detachable Windows devices, and many of them had LTE radios built in (including the 12-inch Samsung Galaxy Book and Lenovo Miix). This is Windows 10’s current mobile form — even if the resulting devices don’t generally fit in your pocket.

The irony, of course, is that this new wave of devices reduces the need for the Microsoft faithful to invest in a dedicated Windows Phone. You’ll have less desire for Continuum and a completely portable desktop experience when your ultraportable notebook is thin and light enough to carry around everywhere anyway. Windows Phone as we know it is gone. What comes after this? Only Microsoft knows, but for its sake, it will have to stick the landing.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from MWC 2017.

‘Please Knock on My Door’ is a digital life of depression

At first, depression doesn’t sound like the most thrilling topic to explore in a video game. It’s antithetical to the boisterous, action-packed, neon-tinted tone that generally dominates the industry — but that doesn’t mean depression doesn’t make for a compelling game. After all, video games are immersive experiences that can open up new worlds to people across the globe, inviting players to feel what life is like in another body, on another planet, in another universe. In another mind.

Please Knock on My Door is a simple game about a person living with depression. The protagonist, a blocky, inky-black character, lives a fairly standard life: Wake up, go to work, come home, repeat. The days are punctuated with mundane tasks like making a sandwich or showering, but each one carries extra weight as it drains — or bolsters — the main character’s mental fortitude.

Please Knock on My Door drives home the feelings of intense lethargy, self-doubt and numbness that can constantly assault someone living with depression. The game focuses on just one person and one story of depression, keeping the narrative contained and powerful.

For creator Michael Levall, Please Knock on My Door isn’t just a story. It’s a way to express to friends, family and even strangers how depression has infiltrated his own life.

“Every single thing in the game that you get to go through or read through or whatever has some kind of connection to either a true experience that I’ve had, just copy-pasted into the game, or it’s based on an emotion that I’ve felt and I’ve extrapolated that and made a story out of it,” he says.

Combined with organizations like Take This, which aims to open up the conversation about mental illness within the video game industry, Please Knock on My Door is part of a quiet movement urging people to discuss the pitfalls of depression before it consumes them or their loved ones. Please Knock on My Door is set to continue this conversation when it hits Steam later this year.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017!

Google unveils ‘Meet,’ a Hangouts app for businesses

Google has quietly unveiled Meet by Google Hangouts, a big part of its strategy to shuffle the Hangouts app towards businesses and away from consumers. While it hasn’t made a formal announcement, it launched an iOS app and partially-functional website (spotted by Techcrunch), though it’s not yet on Android, oddly enough. The app will likely become part of Google’s Cloud-powered G Suite, though it’s not yet listed there, either.

Google said last year that it would “increasingly focus” Hangouts for businesses, but it wasn’t clear exactly how. We can now see that there’s a few key changes from the current app, though. It supports HD video meetings with up to 30 members rather than 10, lets you dial in to meetings (for enterprise customers only) and join with a single click. G Suite users also get integration with Gmail and Calendar, making it easy to convert a Hangout conversation into a meeting, possibly using the Google Assistant.

Google recently killed its Hangouts API and said that consumer apps that use it won’t work after April 25th. The search giant said last year that it wouldn’t abandon Hangouts, but it’s not clear if it’ll allow consumers to keep using it or push them over to Duo.

To make the product more professional for business users, it recently acquired Sweden’s Lime Audio to improve call quality, particularly on wonky connections. As with recent moves by Facebook and Microsoft, it will likely integrate its Google Assistant bot into the program to help you schedule appointments, exchange contacts and more.

Via: Techcrunch

Source: Google

Watch Epic Games’ GDC 2017 keynote right here!

Unity already had its moment at GDC 2017, and now it’s Epic Games’ turn to take the stage in San Francisco. The company’s “State of Unreal” keynote will be presented by founder Tim Sweeney, who is expected to share new developments around the Unreal game engine. We’ll probably also hear about Epic’s latest efforts in virtual reality and get some captivating demos from its partners, like the Hellblade real-time motion capture from last year. You can watch the event live at 9:30AM PT/12:30PM ET — we embedded a video of the stream below for your convenience.

Click here to catch up on the latest news from GDC 2017!

Source: Twitch (Unreal Engine)