How to watch the 2018 Winter Olympics

With the opening ceremonies completed and the torch lit, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea are officially underway and will run through February 25th. Viewers have plenty of options to stream events this time around — and while you can watch almost everything on NBC with your cable subscription, there are several internet TV providers that include some or all of the network’s coverage through their own service subscriptions.

NBC is livestreaming almost every event through its site and iOS and Android apps. You’ll need to log in with your cable subscription info to watch its coverage, but as the network announced last March, they’re finally ditching tape delays and airing everything live. Starting tomorrow, you’ll be able to watch clips and original programs on Snapchat until the games end.

Comcast Xfinity TV subscribers get access to NBC’s coverage alongside 50 Olympics virtual channels — sort of playlists full of short clips — with daily highlights and athlete features. Users can also watch select programming (ski jumping, figure skating, and snowboard big air) on-demand in 4K HDR with Dolby sound. DirecTV is offering much of the same for the games, including 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos on-demand, though only subscribers of its higher $60 tier get access to Olympics content.

Many Internet TV providers are piping in NBC’s content for subscribers, though you’ll want to check whether your service provides a live feed or stores content. Fortunately, all of them have free trials of varying lengths (YouTube TV’s is the longest at 14 days, while PlayStation Vue’s is the shortest at 5).

Hulu Live TV is going about their Olympic coverage in a different way, prompting users to choose their favorite sports/events to make them a personalized UI. They’ll have access to all of NBC’s Olympics content, but it’ll be presented based on their preferences. Sling TV subscribers with the Sling Blue package can get most of the big events on the NBC, NBCSN, USA and CNBC channels. Note that NBC is only available for Sling Blue users in a dozen big city markets, their website points out. Lastly, subscribers of the sports-focused service FuboTV will have access to all 2,400 hours of NBC’s Olympics content.

Source: NBC Olympics site

‘The Red Strings Club’ explores the morality of transhumanism

If you had the ability to turn off all the negative emotions in your mind — depression, anxiety, rage — would you do it? Would you eagerly implant a device in your body that eliminates these feelings, or would you pause and consider the consequences? Without anxiety, would your drive to succeed stagnate? Without rage, would your body be primed to fight or flee in a sticky situation? Without depression, would you appreciate joy?

Think about it for a moment. We’ll wait.

Now, how would you feel if a massive corporation — say, Google or Apple — planned to remove every “negative” emotion from your psyche in a simple software update, with no warning and without your explicit consent?

The Red Strings Club, the latest game from indie studio Deconstructeam, doesn’t just ask these questions — it demands answers. The Red Strings Club is a narrative adventure game that looks like a pixelated sidescroller from the ’90s, though the story takes place in the indeterminate future: AI-powered androids roam the streets, and people upgrade their bodies and lives with implants. Implants to make the user sexier, more successful on social media, better with money, or less concerned with other people’s opinions, for example.

The company that makes these implants, Supercontinent Ltd., has a secret plan to eliminate “negative” emotions in the majority of the population, arguing the result would benefit society as a whole. As a bartender who deals in the city’s secrets, players attempt to thwart this program by mixing drinks specifically designed to bleed information from patrons, exploiting their unique character traits via assorted spirits.

Essentially, The Red Strings Club has players fight the specter of large-scale technological manipulation with small-scale chemical manipulation. It turns players into hypocrites — and then calls them out for it.

“All the mechanics in the game are about manipulation,” creator Jordi de Paco said. “You have these corporations which do implants and alter the lives of other people, and you have this bartender’s ability to [modify] the feelings of other people. You are manipulating them, making them feel sad or happy. … And the game actually makes you face these questions, it calls you a hypocrite.”

It isn’t just players that get called out in The Red Strings Club. In a moment that rattles the game’s fourth wall, de Paco pokes fun at himself, the designer forcing players to grapple with these ridiculously complex moral decisions.

“There’s a line in the game, towards the end, where an AI says that game design is the most powerful form of manipulation,” he said, punctuated by a laugh.

De Paco doesn’t have the answers. Instead, he’s made a living asking moral and ethical questions in video games, and then watching thousands of people grapple with his twisted scenarios. His first game, Gods Will Be Watching, presented players with clear moral decisions, such as whether to kill a robot, a dog or a human in order to keep a group of people alive as they’re stranded in the frigid wilderness.

“Gods Will Be Watching was really visceral, about eating your friends and killing people, stuff like that,” de Paco said. “I find that the dilemmas in The Red Strings Club are more important to us, because we’re not usually in front of this situation of having to actually eat someone, but we are every day in the situation of having to think what’s good and bad — to what limits it’s okay to go to be happy and where our liberty or freedom ends, and where other people stand.”

With Gods Will Be Watching, I wasn’t really aware of the power of video games as a storytelling medium.

Jordi de Paco, Deconstructeam

Gods Will Be Watching was de Paco’s first attempt at infusing a video game with ethical and moral dilemmas, and it was a resounding success when it landed in 2014. Deconstructeam was thrust into a broader conversation about the power and creativity of indie games, and there was enough money in the bank to start working on the next thing. This time around, de Paco wanted to be more deliberate — Gods Will Be Watching was unfiltered, and in the end, its message got away from him.

“With Gods Will Be Watching, I wasn’t really aware of the power of video games as a storytelling medium or maybe as communicating a message, so I kind of just made the game and put a lot of my instinctive philosophy in there,” de Paco said. “I realized that I accidentally made an anti-system game, in which you have to go against any form of authority, so this time I tried to actually be aware of what I am telling and what I’m doing with the game.”

The result is a concise yet branching cyberpunk story about the awful power massive technology companies can assert over people’s daily lives (and bodies and minds). Through this lens, de Paco asks players how far they would go to obtain or sustain happiness, and what it truly means to be human. When we lose our emotions, do we lose our humanity?

Though the game offers a range of answers in its dialogue trees, it doesn’t actually wrap all of these questions up in a nice, ethical bow. They’re not meant to be answered; they’re de Paco’s grand social experiment, designed to provoke thought and conversation. And here, it seems The Red Strings Club has succeeded.

De Paco said the game itself takes about three or four hours to complete on a standard playthrough. However, many Twitch streamers end up playing for something like 10 hours because they spend most of the time talking through the game’s direct questions with the live chat.

“It comes in really lengthy conversations about what if it’s good or not to get rid of emotions, or how it might benefit society,” de Paco said. “It’s really great.”

Some of the game’s questions are far-fetched scenarios specific to this particular future, but others feel relevant to life today. Scientists may not have developed implants that can alter our character yet, but we enjoy a common stimulus in caffeine and a depressant in alcohol. We have pills that promise to calm, excite and otherwise change our moods. We play with our emotional states every day.

This is a harsh reality for de Paco: Two years ago, some close friends and family members started taking antidepressants, and the experience made him question the essence of humanity on a grand scale, sparking the theme of The Red Strings Club.

“It makes you wonder if they’re still the same person or if they’re happier or not,” de Paco said. “For me, writing this kind of magic technology that is able to remove depression and everything was a way for myself to explore, to cope with the idea of people close to me being changed.”

De Paco isn’t on a mission to end the antidepressant industry. In fact, he wishes the effects of these drugs could be streamlined like in The Red Strings Club, allowing people to alter their moods like code. “I wouldn’t mind to change that for an implant or maybe just changing a variable instead of having to go through the process of taking pills or being medicated,” he said.

If he were given the option, de Paco wouldn’t choose to remove any of his own negative emotions, arguing that would also eliminate a core part of his humanity. He’s more into to the idea of digitizing his consciousness and ditching his body altogether.

“I would totally love to digitize myself,” de Paco said. “I wouldn’t mind not having this body, if I can feel pleasure, and, I don’t know, take digital craps or something like that. I would like to be digitized but I wouldn’t like to lose any of the aspects of my mind. I don’t like being depressed, but usually being depressed is a way to know something is wrong and you have to do something about it. If I take those things from me, it’s like I would lose my ability to discern what’s good and bad.”

Not that de Paco knows what’s good and bad now — he’s still asking questions about the essence of humanity and observing his social experiments across Twitch, Steam and social media. He’s still figuring it out. So is everyone else.

Uber and Waymo Agree to Settle Case Involving Uber’s Alleged Theft of Self-Driving Technology

Over the past five days, Uber and Waymo have been entangled in a court case over Waymo’s allegations that Uber stole its self-driving LiDAR system. Today, the two companies have announced that they reached a settlement agreement, under which Uber will pay Waymo a 0.34 equity stake, “amounting to about $245 million at Uber’s recent $72 billion valuation” (via CNBC).

Additionally, Uber has agreed that it will not incorporate Waymo’s self-driving technology into any of its own hardware or software. Alongside the settlement, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a letter that the company “does not believe that any trade secrets made their way from Waymo to Uber,” nor that Waymo’s tech was used by Uber in any way, but expressed regret for the ongoing trial over the past year and the events that led up to it.

To be clear, while we do not believe that any trade secrets made their way from Waymo to Uber, nor do we believe that Uber has used any of Waymo’s proprietary information in its self-driving technology, we are taking steps with Waymo to ensure our Lidar and software represents just our good work.

While I cannot erase the past, I can commit, on behalf of every Uber employee, that we will learn from it, and it will inform our actions going forward. I’ve told Alphabet that the incredible people at Uber ATG are focused on ensuring that our development represents the very best of Uber’s innovation and experience in self-driving technology.

Waymo’s lawsuit concerned Uber and its acquisition of self-driving trucking startup Otto, with Waymo believing that employees at Otto stole information from Alphabet-owned Waymo and shared it with Uber. Despite Khosrowshahi’s belief that no such data was seen or used by Uber, the company appears ready to put the legal battle behind it through the settlement and payment to Waymo.

As the fight between the two companies stretched throughout last year, Waymo began a self-driving car test in Phoenix, Arizona, which eventually expanded to testing an autonomous ride-hailing service with no safety drivers. With its fleet of more than 600 minivans, Waymo is considered one of the leaders in the field of self-driving technology, which Apple is now attempting to catch up with through “accelerating” its self-driving efforts in California.

Tags: Uber, Waymo
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HomePod is Now Widely Available at Apple Stores

Today is HomePod launch day in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, and as promised, the speaker is now on display and available to purchase at most of Apple’s retail stores in each of those countries.

HomePod box via Kris Jones on Twitter
HomePod has already received rave reviews for its sound quality from both the media and early adopters, but customers who prefer their own listening demo can now visit one of Apple’s stores to hear it for themselves. Of course, customers can also take advantage of Apple’s 14-day return policy and try it at home.

Most if not all of Apple’s retail locations currently have plentiful stock of the HomePod in both Space Gray and White, but we recommend calling ahead before making the trip. To check availability in your area: go to the HomePod order page, click on the link under the “Pickup” section, and enter your ZIP or postal code.

HomePod orders placed online today are estimated for delivery by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, so if you didn’t pre-order the speaker, visiting an Apple Store is the only option to get one in your hands this weekend. Some resellers like Best Buy may also have limited in-store availability.

Meanwhile, deliveries are beginning to arrive to customers who did pre-order the HomePod a few weeks ago. If you’ve received your HomePod, be sure to share your thoughts in the MacRumors discussion forums.

Related Roundup: HomePodBuyer’s Guide: HomePod (Buy Now)
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Companies are sorry about security flaws. Just not sorry enough to change

(in)Secure is a weekly column that dives into the rapidly escalating topic of cyber security.

Reuters reported on February 6 that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a key agency responsible for overseeing financial companies, is neglecting its investigation into the Equifax hack that compromised the personal information of millions. The CFPB allegedly has failed to issue any subpoenas or request any testimony — and has backed off cooperation with other agencies like the Federal Reserve.

Sadly, this isn’t a shocking turn of events.

Sadly, this isn’t a shocking turn of events. Various government regulators have levied fines against companies that suffer security breaches in the past, and a handful of past security failures have indeed cost companies dearly. Most, however, survive unscathed.

Two independent studies have confirmed this. One, conducted by the RAND Corporation, found that most computer breaches cost a company around $200,000. That’s a small figure, even for a small business with a few dozen employees. Another study from Columbia University found that the financial cost of a cyber security breach is, on average, less than 0.1 percent of a Fortune 500 company’s annual revenue.

Where’s the stick?

The moral of this is simple – the consequence of a data breach often isn’t high enough to make companies worry about security.

That’s where government agencies like the CFPB need to step in. They can put their fingers on the scales, using fines to make sure companies see real consequences from their failure to protect consumers. In the past, the CFPB has stepped into that role, though it usually hasn’t been a part of enforcement actions that stem from security breaches. The Federal Trade Commission is also involved in many cases but it, too, rarely levies a fine large enough to pose any real consequence for the companies in question.

Giving Equifax a pass? The Administration should get on the side of consumers and focus on making sure hacks like the #EquifaxBreach don't happen again. My bill with @SenWarren would be a good place to start. https://t.co/iJ4neRvjut

— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) February 5, 2018

Government oversight tends to be lax in the United States, no matter the issue, but cyber security has regulators particularly vexed. It’s usually unclear who is best equipped to handle an investigation, and the damage caused by compromised data isn’t easy to quantify.

In 2013, Yahoo suffered the largest data breach yet recorded, exposing data on all three billion users. What punishment is fair for each exposure? Does the severity of the data loss matter? How can the losses suffered by the victims even be quantified? No one seems to agree and, more importantly, the law doesn’t agree, either. It doesn’t help that the fallout for victims also varies. While some might have their credit ruined or their taxes defrauded, others won’t be harmed at all, and there’s usually no way to link specific breaches with the problems suffered by specific victims.

These complexities allow companies, and other organizations, a chance to dodge responsibility with a meager apology. That’s exactly what Equifax did in the wake of its hack by offering victims free identity theft monitoring. It’s a reasonable and appreciated gesture, but it doesn’t go far enough to protect the victims. Monitoring doesn’t stop identity theft for you and doesn’t reimburse what you’ve lost. It merely helps you pick up the pieces of a bit more quickly than you otherwise might.

Daily data breaches don’t have to be inevitable

There’s only one solution to the problem. We need new, comprehensive laws that hold companies accountable for security breaches.

The Data Breach Protection and Compensation Act of 2018 could be that law. Introduced to congress in January by Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the bill establishes an Office of Cybersecurity, as part of the FTC, which would supervise the data security of large consumer reporting agencies. This new office would have to be notified of any breach within 10 days; currently, companies wait months or even years before disclosing a problem.

Currently, companies wait months or even years before disclosing a problem.

Specific penalties are also noted, starting at $100 if a consumer’s first and last name are compromised, along with at least one item of personally identifying information. An additional $50 is tacked on for each additional bit of info leaked. Although we don’t know exactly what the price of those fines are based on, it’s a penalty scheme that seems to take lessons from mobile data services and ISPs that add steep penalties for data overages. Better yet, half the penalty collected would be given back to the victims.

Those penalties add up. Equifax’s hack would result in a penalty of about $1.5 billion dollars. In fact, the total fine would be higher, but a provision in the bill limits the maximum to a percentage of a company’s revenue. Equifax would no doubt survive such a fine — its annual revenue is $3.1 billion, after all — but it’s steep enough to make any company think twice before slacking on cyber security.

Companies have protested the bill, of course, and it doesn’t seem likely to pass Congress. Yet this is exactly the action that’s needed, and we should all rally behind a push for greater accountability. The near-daily occurrence of major security breaches provides plenty of ammo for this column. But I’d be happy to spend a little more time brainstorming topics if it meant shaking the spectra of imminent identity theft that currently haunts us all, whether we know it or not.

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Yahoo Mail’s latest feature makes it easy to keep up with the Winter Olympics

The 2018 Winter Olympics have officially begun and for those using Yahoo Mail, keeping up with the events is much easier. With its new desktop and mobile app feature, you can stay on top of the Winter Games without having to leave your inbox.

When logging into Yahoo Mail on your desktop, you will see a live medal counter in the upper right of your inbox — allowing you to keep track of which country is winning a specific medal. The graphic will show the specific country and how many of each medal the country has won — which you will see is divided into gold, and silver, and bronze.

Yahoo Mail has also partnered with Yahoo Sports to provide you with headlines as they’re published in real time — which is situated under the medal counter. If you want to read the full story, you can click on the arrow to bring you to the Yahoo Sports landing page.

You can access news about the Winter Olympics through Yahoo Mail’s mobile app as well. When you open the app, you’ll see an icon that resembles a medal in the top right-hand corner of your inbox. Tapping on the icon will automatically bring you to the Yahoo Sports page, where you have the option to switch between two different tabs — the medal counter and headlines.

Under Medals is where you will see the same counter that you do on your desktop — keeping you updated on each country’s Olympic status even if you’ve stepped away from your computer. In the Headlines section, you will have a feed of all the Winter Games coverage to scroll through and read. Yahoo is also encouraging users to provide feedback on their experience, which you can do by going into your Settings and tapping on “Send Feedback.”

The feature will only be around for a limited time and is exclusive to Yahoo Mail users on desktop and through the mobile app. It’s also only available in the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In order to access the new feature on your smartphone, you have to download the latest version of the Yahoo Mail mobile app — available for both iOS and Android.

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Xiaomi CEO vows more global expansion and renewed assault on China market

The founder and CEO of Chinese technology company Xiaomi, Lei Jun, has written an extensive, rousing open letter describing his plans for the company years. His grand strategy includes further global expansion and a major push back in China, where the intention is to retake the number one spot in the mobile market.

Xiaomi hardware is available to buy in 70 countries around the world, which Jun describes as “only the beginning,” and says he has seen “huge market opportunities” in places he has visited over the past year. He specifically mentions India, Indonesia, and Vietnam, where Xiaomi products are already sold, but adds that there are many large parts of the world “waiting to open up” to Xiaomi.

Jun says the company will support the development of more localized products, devote more resources to win over new global markets, and is prepared to increase the amount of Xiaomi staff dedicated to building international relationships. At the end of 2017, Xiaomi made an ambitious launch in Spain, where it opened official retail stores and began selling several phones and other products online. This was viewed as a test case by many, examining how Xiaomi would perform with an official presence in a European country. Jun’s words do seem to indicate it has been successful.

Xiaomi isn’t losing sight of the work it needs to do in China, however. “Only by winning in China can we win the world,” Jun wrote, and has set a goal to retake the position of China’s number one mobile manufacturer in the next two and a half years. Which companies must it take on to achieve this? At the end of 2017, Xiaomi was fourth in China, behind Vivo, Oppo, and Huawei. Apple is also right behind Xiaomi, so Jun is giving his company a massive task, but it’s certainly well prepared.

Xiaomi has not only been No. 1 before, but it’s currently ruling the market in India, and during the final three months of 2017, managed to increase its phone shipments around the world by 83 percent, while the top three only decreased. Xiaomi has also been releasing some superb phones recently, including the Mi Mix 2 and the Mi A1, and there are rumors the company will hold its initial public offering (IPO) in 2018, which may explain Jun’s decision to publicly talk up the company to such an extent. Regardless of intentions, it’s obvious Xiaomi is ready for a battle in China and around the world over the coming years.

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These 8 Valentine’s Day apps help you plan a very special day with your sweetie

Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to do something special for your significant other. Maybe an unexpected trip, flowers, or a fancy dinner reservation is what you need to make the day perfect. If you’re looking for a little inspiration to help you sweep your partner off their feet, you need to check out the best Valentine’s Day apps for iOS and Android.

Send flowers with: 1-800-Flowers

The most traditional thing to do on Valentine’s Day is to buy flowers for your loved one, and 1-800-flowers is one of the most well-known services for sending flowers, plants, and gifts to anyone, anywhere, anytime. If you want to send flowers, cookies, fruit, or chocolates, you can do it through this service. One of the greatest things about 1-800-flowers is that it not only works in the United States, but also around the world in 195 countries.

Download now for: 

Android iOS

Book a last minute getaway with: Airbnb

Airbnb is the perfect app for a last-minute getaway. You can book a home anywhere in the world. Options are divided into categories so you can search by price, neighborhood, amenities, and so on. It’s a great way to discover new and exciting places, and you’ll often get insider information from your host about where to visit. And as an added bonus, you can even take a VR tour of some Airbnb apartments before you make your reservation.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Make dinner reservations with: OpenTable

This is a great app to use not only on Valentine’s Day, but throughout the year. Nothing says “I love you” like a nice romantic dinner at a great restaurant. You can search restaurants and book reservations, even if they’re last minute. There are special offers from some restaurants, and a feature called Dining Rewards Program, which is like a frequent-flyer program, but for eating out. You earn points when you make a reservation using the app, and you can redeem them for a Dining Rewards Gift or an Amazon Gift Card.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Have dinner delivered with: Munchery

If you’re the type who would rather stay in and have a romantic dinner, Munchery is an excellent option. Munchery offers a selection of delectable meals, cooked fresh and delivered to your door. With Munchery, theres’ even same-day delivery in some areas, though meals tend to sell out quickly. And if you’re looking for a little ambience for your romantic evening, Munchery partnered with Google Music to create playlists that pair with your meals.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Find a thoughtful gift with: Giftgram

If you’re looking for the perfect gift this Valentine’s Day, Giftgram has plenty of options. Giftgram offers curated gift ideas at every price point for women and men.  Just select the item you want, enter your loved one’s email address, and Giftgram will take care of the rest. You’ll want to order your gifts a little early, though, because it takes three to five days for your significant other to receive the package.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Make a custom card with: Felt

Want to send the perfect card to your significant other? With the Felt app, you can create a personalized card using your own images and handwriting. Once you’ve completed your card, you write the address information in the app, and your card will be sent via First Class mail.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Make love with: iKamasutra ($3)

If you would rather keep your Valentine’s Day celebrations private and at home, maybe you want to surprise your significant other by incorporating the Kama Sutra into your evening. With hundreds of sexual positions in different categories, all nicely drawn and explained, iKamasutra can teach you a lot of new tricks. The app also lets you track your progress through the positions and make a favorites list. Each position is rated by intimacy, complexity, and strength to help you find the right one for you and your partner.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Save the day with: Postmates

Whether you forgot about Valentine’s Day or just can’t find time to make it to the store, Postmates has you covered. Postmates allows you to easily shop from stores and restaurants in your neighborhood. If you’re looking for something that’s not listed in the app, Postmates Anywhere lets you order from just about any store in your town. And with one-hour delivery, you can definitely pull off the perfect gift at the last minute.

Download now for:

Android iOS

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Android Messages update teardown reveals even more Allo-style functionality

Google may soon introduce a web interface for Android Messages, the default texting app on most Android phones, adding the ability to send and respond to text messages right from your computer or laptop.

The feature was first spotted in a tear-down of an upcoming Android Messages update by Android Police, and it’s one of many Google may be porting over from its instant-messaging app, Allo. If you have never used Allo, it’s a chat app Google debuted in 2016 alongside a stand-alone video chat app, Duo.

Google has previously introduced some of Allo’s functionality to Android Messages before. Most recently, it brought the Smart Reply function to Android Messages for Google Fi users, so it’s not entirely beyond the pale to see more Allo features coming to the texting app, as the tear-down suggests.

The web interface will be similar to the web interface for Allo, which Google launched last year. According to Android Police, users will need to sign in and scan a QR code on the screen to sync texts between the phone app and the web app. Once paired with the phone, you’ll be able to send and receive messages from a PC, similar to Apple’s iMessage feature on MacOS.

Also included in the update is a variety of additions that seek to make your texting experience more similar to your instant-messaging experience. That’s all thanks to Rich Communication Services, which is a major improvement over SMS. RCS usually requires carrier implementation, but the code in the update suggests Google may be able to handle some functions, such as texting over Wi-Fi and data. The update could also add high-quality photo sharing, the ability to see who’s typing a message, improved group chats, and — most interestingly — the option to pay businesses, presumably using Google Pay.

The update hasn’t officially rolled out yet, and when it does, some of the aforementioned features may not yet be available. We can confirm web functionality is still not yet available — still, you can download the APK (Android Package) if you want to try the update before anyone else.

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How to ask Google Home to show the weather on your Chromecast

Assuming you already have a Google Home and Chromecast, the process is dead simple.

Between creating calendar appointments, calling your local pizza place, ordering an Uber, etc., there’s no shortage of things you can do with Google Home. Google’s smart speaker has grown and evolved a lot since its release in late 2016, and it’s now got a new feature that helps it tie-in more closely with Google’s other piece of connected hardware – Chromecast.

You’ve previously been able to ask Google Home to start playing YouTube videos and movies/TV shows on your television, and now Google is expanding this functionality so that your Home can show contextual info on your TV screen that’s related to questions you ask it.

This functionality is currently limited to seeing a weather forecast, and while we’ll likely see it expanded to other questions/commands down the road, here’s how to get started with it in its early form.

1. Make sure you’ve got everything in place

Before you start spouting off commands, you’ll want to first ensure that everything is set up and connected as it should be. In other words, this means having a Google Home and Chromecast (either a 2nd-gen or Ultra) that are turned on, connected to your home Wi-Fi network, and working without any issues.

• How to set up Google Home
• Chromecast Buyer’s Guide

Assuming you’re all good on this front, asking Google to show you the weather on your Chromecast-enabled TV is actually quite simple.

2. Know what to call your Chromecast

When you ask Google to show you the weather on your TV, you’ll need to refer to it by whatever name you’ve assigned to your Chromecast. To double check what this is:

Open the Google Home app
Tap the menu button in the top left and go to Devices

This will show you a list of all your smart devices, and your Chromecasts will appear with television icons next to them and their name. If you want to change what a Chromecast is called, tap the three dots on the card for it, go to Settings, and tap on Name. Once you do this, you can name your Chromecast whatever you’d like.

3. Ask Google to show you the weather

Once you’ve done this, all you need to do next is ask your Google Home to show you the weather. Assuming you name your Chromecast “TV”, you’d say “Hey Google, show me the weather on my TV.” Following this, you’ll get a visual on your TV for the current temperature, 5-day forecast, and more. Along with the visuals on your TV, your Google Home will also read out the weather as if you’d just asked “Hey Google, how’s the weather?”.

Although this is technically a Google Assistant feature, it only works when asking a Google Home or other smart speaker and not Google Assistant on your phone/tablet.

Google Home

• Google Home review
• Google Home Max review
• These services work with Google Home
• Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
• Join our Google Home forums!

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