Review: Philips Hue Play Adds Bright Bias Lighting to Your Entertainment Center

This year marks the sixth anniversary of the first products launched by Philips Hue in October 2012, with an original system that came with three Hue bulbs and one bridge and was sold as an Apple Store exclusive. Over time, Philips Hue added HomeKit support after Apple introduced the software framework in 2014, and numerous new bulbs, lamps, lightstrips, and more have come out of Philips Lighting — now Signify — over the past six years.

The latest lamps are a collection of fixtures that highlight your entertainment area, with one taller set (Hue Signe) and one shorter set (Hue Play) offering new and unique ways to attain bias lighting around your television, favorite pieces of art, and more. Signify sent me one pair of Hue Play lights for the purpose of this review, and over the past few weeks I’ve come to enjoy them as the latest addition to my dozen-bulb Hue setup, although I have yet to find them as indispensable as my other HomeKit devices and lights.

Setup

Like any new Hue bulb added onto an existing ecosystem, initial setup for Hue Play was pretty seamless. Out of the box, Hue Play comes with two light bars that each have a cord to connect with the main AC power adapter (which itself can power up to three Hue Play light bars). If you’re going to lay Hue Play flat, you won’t have to do anything but plug them in to an outlet and place them on your entertainment center, floor, etc.

If you want to stand them up, Hue Play comes with two black plastic stands that can be attached to the bottom edge of each light bar using an included Allen wrench and screw. After this quick installation, Hue Play can sit vertically beside your TV. The box also includes two different plastic stands that attach to the center back of each light bar, with an adhesive tape that attaches Hue Play to a smooth surface, namely the back of your TV.

Once the light bars are installed, you can add them into your HomeKit setup using the Philips Hue iOS app. In the Hue app I searched for and added Hue Play into my apartment’s setup, renaming them and assigning them to the correct room. Once in Hue’s app new lights sync to Apple’s Home app, which is where I primarily interact with my Hue lightbulbs. It was just as easy to set up and add Hue Play into various scenes and automations in Home as it has been for all other Hue bulbs I’ve purchased.

Placement

Hue Play’s design makes it a unique addition to the Hue system, but my own particular entertainment setup never quite gelled with the introduction of Hue Play as a freestanding fixture. I had to make a few placement adjustments to use Hue Play on my main entertainment center (when it wasn’t attached to the back of my TV), which initially impeded my enjoyment of the lights.

For entertainment systems with a bit more space, Hue Play should integrate pretty seamlessly. The unit is quite slim, measuring just under 10 inches long and 2 inches wide at the base. Hue Play is available in white and black as well, so it can blend into multiple design styles.

In my testing, I put one Hue Play light bar on each side of my living room TV in three configurations: vertical standing, horizontal, and attached to the back of the TV. For bias lighting, I already have one full-length Hue White and Color Ambiance Lightstrip on the back of my living room TV, so I had something to compare the Hue Play to, which you can see in images throughout this review.

Attached to the back of a TV, Philips Hue’s marketing shows three Hue Play units providing full bias lighting, with one each on the right and left edges and one on top of the TV’s backside. With just two units to test, I still found that Hue Play’s bias lighting was as good as my six-foot Hue Lightstrip, and was even brighter in most situations.

The other two configurations provided attractive bias lighting as well, and I particularly liked Hue Play when it was lying flat on my entertainment center. With some adjusting, I was able to hide Hue Play this way behind my PS4 Pro and a stack of books, further accentuating multiple objects near my TV and not just the set itself. When it was free standing vertically, Hue Play was just too much of a space hog for my personal setup, so it didn’t stay this way for long.

In all configurations I compared Hue Play to my existing Lightstrip and found every time that Hue Play was brighter than the Lightstrip. Each Hue Play unit outputs 530 lumens versus the Lightstrip’s 1600 lumen strip, but Hue Play’s focused spotlighting versus the Lightstrip’s dispersed lighting gives an overall brighter effect to Hue Play. This was far more evident during the afternoon, when the Lightstrip’s lighting effect could barely be seen in my bright living room, while Hue Play was unmistakable.

At night, the comparison between the two was a bit less evident. I never keep my Lightstrip at 100% brightness at night, usually opting for around 75%. I’ve found this to be the perfect bias lighting level for when I’m playing PS4 or watching a movie, and at this level the Lightstrip and Hue Play were essentially equals. The slight difference came in the exact shape of the light dispersion: Lightstrip is brightest atop my TV at night, while Hue Play (standing vertically) accentuated the right and left edges and was softer on the wall above the TV.

When Hue Play was attached to the back of my TV, two circular auras could be glimpsed on the wall behind the TV. Hue Play lying down horizontally was perhaps closest to the Hue Lightstrip’s light dispersion, with even light that swept up the entire wall instead of focusing on specific sections. Although I could see why someone might prefer one light pattern over another, I personally couldn’t find a positive or negative side to this aspect of Hue Play and Hue Lightstrip to a degree that one had a definite edge over the other.

As an example, here are a few comparison pictures between Hue Play and Hue Lightstrip in the evening and in full dark at nighttime (all images show each fixture at 100% brightness):

Hue Lightstrip (left) vs. Hue Play (right, vertical stand)
Evening
Nighttime Hue Lightstrip (left) vs Hue Play (right, horizontal)

Hue Lightstrip (left) vs Hue Play (right, attached to back of TV)

The difference between the Hue Play and Lightstrip will really depend on your specific use case, and of course the price. If you simply want to add bias lighting to a TV without any visual light fixture, Hue Lightstrip is cheaper at $89.99 (and lower in sales). For $40 more, Hue Play doesn’t really have many advantages over the Lightstrip in this specific category, unless you are looking for visible light fixtures to add as accents to your entertainment setup, want a brighter and more focused light, and you have the room.

I also placed Hue Play behind a picture frame and stack of books on a table beside my couch, and hidden behind a cubed bookshelf, and I particularly liked these placements for the light bar. The 10-inch fixture is the perfect length for accent lighting in unique situations, where a full-length lightstrip would be too long. The included cord is also about six feet long, so you have some room for placement options as well.

The back of the Hue Play has a rubberized texture that’s slightly raised to a point in the middle, allowing the light bar to settle in a perfect angled position that throws light at the wall it’s facing, and slightly upward. This setup is aimed at customers who opt for a single Hue Play kit, which is sold for $69.99, but it should be noted that purchasing just one light bar will not provide bias lighting for an entire entertainment system that’s as good as two light bars or Hue Lightstrip.

Light and HomeKit Controls

Hue Play supports the company’s white and color ambiance features, meaning you can cycle through as many as 16 million colors to output from the light bars. I typically settled on a light blue hue and the dispersion of the light from each fixture looked good from all angles. While not quite bright enough to light up an entire room on their own, I could see a trio of 530 lumen Hue Play fixtures providing a surprising amount of light, particularly for small areas.

On the control side of things, Hue Play is controlled like any other of Hue’s HomeKit lighting accessories. You can use either the Hue or Home iOS app, or simply speak to Siri on any device that supports Apple’s digital assistant. I currently have eight scenes and 10 automations in my Home app, which I typically interact with using Siri on HomePod.

I added Hue Play into a few scenes, mostly those that automate in the nighttime. During my tests, I edited my “Popcorn Time” scene to use Hue Play instead of my Lightstrip, and I also activated them for my “Book Time” scene. I use a completely different lamp for reading, but I liked the added light ambiance Hue Play provided. I also combined the two Hue Play lamps into one HomeKit accessory, making them even easier to tap to turn on and off, or control their brightness and color output simultaneously.

In all instances, Hue Play was easy to introduce into my existing HomeKit setup, it interacted well with other products, and performed consistently well for the past six weeks that I’ve been testing it daily. Of course, every now and then I came across a few “No Response” warnings on Hue Play in HomeKit, just like other Hue products. As usual, these glitches were usually fixed on their own and weren’t particularly pervasive in my daily use of the fixtures.

Bottom Line

Hue Play is a solid and unique addition to Signify’s growing stable of Hue light fixtures, offering three diverse placement styles, colorful lighting recipes, bright lighting, and a sleek body that will fit in most entertainment center areas without much disruption. If you don’t have as much room, Hue Play can still provide quality bias lighting when attached to a TV set, but the cost doesn’t beat the comparatively cheaper and reliable Hue Lightstrip.

How to Buy

The Hue Play can be purchased on Meethue.com in a Single Pack ($69.99) and Double Pack ($129.99). Each of these kits come with the three-slot AC adapter so that you can expand your setup. To do so, Signify sells the Extension Pack ($59.99), which is just a Hue Play light, cable, and mounting options without the AC adapter.

Signify provided MacRumors with a Philips Hue Play Double Pack for this review. No other compensation was received

Tag: Philips Hue
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New iPad Pro Has Comparable Performance to 2018 15″ MacBook Pro in Benchmarks

A series of benchmark results have shown up on Geekbench for the new iPad Pro, and its new eight-core A12X Bionic chip is truly a powerhouse.

The new iPad Pro achieved single-core and multi-core scores of 5,025 and 18,106 respectively based on an average of two benchmark results, making it by far the fastest iPad ever and comparable even to the performance of the latest 15-inch MacBook Pro models with Intel’s six-core Core i7 chips.

We’ve put together a chart that compares Geekbench scores of the new iPad Pro and various other iPad, Mac, and iPhone models.

That the new iPad Pro rivals the performance of the latest 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.6GHz six-core Core i7 processor is impressive, but even more so when you consider that the tablet starts at $799. The aforementioned MacBook Pro configuration is priced at $2,799, although with 512GB of storage.

Even the new 11-inch iPad Pro with 512GB of storage is only $1,149, less than half that of the Core i7-equipped MacBook Pro.

At its special event in Brooklyn on Tuesday, Apple said the new iPad Pro achieves up to 90 percent faster multi-core performance compared to the previous-generation models, and the Geekbench results support that claim. In fact, the new iPad Pro’s multi-core score is 94 percent higher than last year’s models.

The configured-to-order 15-inch MacBook Pro with a 2.9GHz six-core Core i9 chip is still faster than the new iPad Pro in terms of both single-core and multi-core performance, as is the iMac Pro, but Apple’s flagship tablet is quickly becoming one of the fastest products that it sells due to its advanced chip design.

The benchmark results also indicate that the new iPad Pro models have either 4GB or 6GB of RAM depending on the configuration. On Twitter, well-known developer Steve Troughton-Smith said 6GB of RAM is limited to the 1TB configuration, with 4GB of RAM in the 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB configurations.

With the iPad Pro now rivaling some higher-end Macs in performance, there is a compelling case for Apple to start using its own ARM-based A-series chips in some Macs. Apple reportedly plans to do exactly that as early as 2020.

Related Roundup: iPad ProTags: Geekbench, benchmarksBuyer’s Guide: 11″ iPad Pro (Buy Now), 12.9″ iPad Pro (Buy Now)
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Holiday Shopping Begins With Discounts on Unlocked iPhone XS, AirPods, and More at eBay and Amazon

The calendar has rolled over to November and multiple retailers today kicked off pre-Black Friday savings, including eBay and Amazon. On eBay, the company has begun its “11 Days of Deals” event, which will provide a rolling list of savings on tech, apparel, and more, beginning with discounts on a trio of Apple devices.

Today is the first day of the event, and eBay is discounting the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and AirPods for today only, and all of the items are sold as new. These are the unlocked and full-price versions of the new iPhone XS, and one of the first straight cash discounts we’ve seen on the 2018 devices. For AirPods, eBay’s sale is also one of the lowest prices available online today.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

If you’re interested, check out the deals below and head over to eBay to place your order before new bargains replace the Apple deals tomorrow:

• iPhone XS 64GB – $979.00, down from $999.00

• iPhone XS Max 64GB – $1,079.00, down from $1,099

• AirPods – $139, down from $159

Amazon has also debuted early deals for Black Friday, opening up an entire section for the weeks leading up to the shopping holiday. You can shop by Amazon Devices, Toys and Games, Computers and Accessories, Home, Electronics, and more, and many of these deals function similarly to Amazon’s classic Lightning deals and Prime Day deals, lasting only a set amount of time. We’ve listed a few shopping ideas below, but there are many more to be found if you visit Amazon’s Black Friday 2018 page.

Computers and Accessories

• Aukey accessories – Save on USB hubs, cables, and adapters / starting at $5.00 for a USB-C to USB-A adapter
• Choetech accessories – Save on a Qi charging mat ($18.49, down from $21.99) and a USB-C to HDMI cable ($16.99, down from $19.99)
• UrBeats Wired In-Ear Headphone – $37.99, down from $59.99
• Elago AirPods Silicone Case – $9.50, down from $10.99
• JETech Smart Case for iPad Mini 4 – $8.99, down from $11.99
• KAUKKO Lightweight Outdoor Backpack for up to 15-inch MacBook – $28.04, down from $32.99
• Seagate Expansion 4TB Portable External Hard Drive – $89.99, down from $119.99

Cell Phones and Accessories

• Anker Powerline Lightning (6ft) MFi Certified Cable – $8.49, down from $10.99
• VEPOWER Apple Watch Charging Cable – $12.15, down from $15.99
• RAVPower Fast Wireless Charger (7.5W) – $21.99, down from $39.99
• Anker Screen Protectors for iPhone XR and iPhone XS Max – $8.49, down from $9.99

We’ll be keeping track of all the best deals throughout the holiday season, so be sure to visit our Deals Roundup.

Related Roundup: Apple Deals
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The MacBook of 2021 could kiss the keyboard, and Intel, goodbye

Imagine for a moment it’s the year 2021. Lebron James is President of the United States, we’re using the iPhone X2 (pronounced “twelve”), and Apple has a new MacBook coming out. What would it look like? How would it be different?

If you follow Apple rumors and patents, you know Apple is up to something much bigger than the just-launched new MacBook Air. Behind closed doors, Apple’s been working on a mysterious new laptop, codenamed “Project Star” internally. Calling it the “next MacBook” might even be a stretch, since the reports call it a “new device family” apart from the existing brands.

So, take this for what it is: Pure speculation. But using information from reports, rumors, patents, and just plain conjecture, here’s how we imagine it would be to transport to 2021 and buy a new MacBook.

The Touch Bar has swallowed the entire keyboard

Opening up the new 2021 MacBook for the first time, you notice something strange. It has no keys. In place of the conventional keyboard and trackpad is a second, monolithic black screen. Your nervous reflection stares back as you wonder how you’re supposed to type. It’s as if the Touch Bar, once a strip of OLED at the top of the MacBook Pro, has grown downward to fill the entirety of the bottom half of the clamshell device. You didn’t much like the Touch Bar to begin with, but you now see that it was merely a stepping stone to this much bigger sea change.

Furkan Kasap/Behance

As you connect the mental dots, the lack of a keyboard isn’t as surprising as you first thought. A string of devices have shown up recently, ranging from the Lenovo Yoga Book to the Asus Project Precog, each finding ways to cut out the keyboard. Your previous laptop, the MacBook Pro, already had a keyboard with almost no physical feel.

As you boot it up, the floating digital squares fall into place and form a virtual keyboard beneath your fingers. As they touch the glass, you feel the physical vibration trigger at the end of each fingertip.  It doesn’t feel quite like typing on the older keyboards you grew up on, but you’re able to touch type thanks to the effect of the haptic feedback. While it looks like the Touch Bar, it feels like the artificial feedback on the trackpad on your old MacBook Pro.

It feels strange at first, but the content you’re working on fills the entire screen, helping you focus on the task at hand.

You pull open the settings and find that you’re able to rearrange the layout as you like, including the size of keys and the functionality tied to certain apps. You open up the Mac App Store and find it full of apps that are already available on your iPhone. CEO Tim Cook said Apple wasn’t interested in merging iOS and MacOS operating systems, but when it comes to apps, the opposite was happening behind the scenes. The process began in 2018 when Apple changed API structures to help developers port more and more iOS apps over to the Mac. That was just the first step. Nowadays, the two platforms share the same architectural backbone.

You attempt to fold it around, but it doesn’t have a 360-degree hinge. Instead, all interaction within apps on the upright screen happens on the second display. Steve Jobs’ disdain of touchscreen laptops was one thing he’d said Apple still takes seriously today.

Furkan Kasap

You install Photoshop, launch it, and watch as the digital keyboard disappears entirely. In its place is a unique sets of dials, switches, and buttons custom designed by Adobe. As your MacBook instructs you, you learn that most key commands and buttons have been replaced with gestures, swipes, and clicks. It feels strange at first, but you notice immediately how the content you’re working on or watching fills the entirety of your screen, helping you focus on the task at hand.

The way this new Macbook automatically connects through your phone’s 5G hotspot makes it seamless.

As you get familiar with your new laptop, you begin to notice a number of other interesting things about it. First off, you notice you can’t download applications directly from Safari. You search for “Google Chrome” in the search box, but the first result is a link back to the Mac App Store. After doing some research, you realize it’s because this version of MacOS doesn’t allow downloads outside of the Mac App Store.

Apple’s A-series chip has been brought over from the iPhone to power this version of the MacBook, and with it, certain restrictions on what you can install. Apple is always after more control over its products, and the processor and application choice was the next evolution of that instinct. Once the T2 ARM chip was brought over to the iMac Pro to help out with Siri integration and security, it was only a matter of time.

By the year 2021, Apple may very well may be putting its own advanced A-series chips in its MacBooks. Illustration: Nate Barrett/Digital Trends

The second thing you notice is that your new MacBook is always connected to the internet. It comes with 5G LTE built-in, automatically pairing to your iPhone when it’s out of a Wi-Fi signal. On your first day with the laptop, you worked at the park during lunch, and even pulled it out on the bus ride home. LTE has become commonplace in laptops thanks to Qualcomm’s rapid influence, but the way the Mac automatically connects through your phone’s hotspot makes it seamless.

Ending your first day with the new MacBook, you couldn’t be happier. Winding down, you decide to watch some Netflix in bed. You tap on the first episode of Stranger Things season five and pull out your headphones. Your finger reaches around the edges of the device looking for a headphone jack. Your finger finds a single USB-C port, but that’s it.

You toss them aside and search for the AirPods in your bag. You find one ear, but can’t find the other.

Some things never change.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Apple could announce a new MacBook this week. Here’s what we want to see
• Apple preps production of updated MacBook Air for a 2018 launch
• It’s finally here. Apple’s new MacBook Air has Touch ID and Retina for $1,199
• Chromebook keyboard showcase may have leaked Pixelbook 2 images
• DJI’s new Mavic drones are here, and they’re even better than we expected

Crazily-named Royole Flexpai phone folds up for a glimpse of the future

You’ve probably never heard of Royole before, a Chinese smartphone maker that’s going to make headlines with the Flexpai, one of the very first folding smartphones we’ve seen. Whether we can legitimately call the Royole Flexpai a smartphone is up for debate, as is the question of whether we’d actually want to use the device on a daily basis; but there’s no denying it’s a fascinating glimpse of what a near-future design trend may bring us.

With its 7.8-inch screen, the Royole Flexpai — a name we can never say enough, because it’s so fantastic — sounds more like a tablet, but the flexible screen allows it to fold in half without breaking, making such a large device more pocketable. Royole doesn’t really talk about the device’s overall size when folded, but the screen becomes 4-inches. There’s still quite a lot of bezel at one end, so the device will be larger. It lists a 7.8mm thickness, which we take to be in its unfolded state. Expect at least twice this when folded. Or the equivalent of carrying two iPhone XS Max’s around, back-to-back, in your pocket. It also weighs a massive 320 grams, so it’ll feel about the same too.

An unnamed Snapdragon 8-series processor with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM powers the Flexpai, and the 4:3 aspect ratio screen — just like some iPad tablets — has a 1440 x 1920 pixel resolution. There are two cameras, but unusually they’re mounted at the side of the screen and not on the back of the device. There’s a 20-megapixel and a 16-megapixel lens, with an f/1.8 aperture and optical image stabilization too. With the screen folded up, photos can be taken with the camera facing in either direction, and the software adjusting what the screen shows accordingly. Calls can also be taken from either side of the phone. Providing the energy is a 3,800mAh battery, and the operating system is Royole’s own, which is based on Android 9.0 Pie.

There’s no doubt the Flexpai is a lot of fun. However, you probably won’t want to buy one unless you’re in China, as the carrier support is limited to Chinese networks at launch. It costs from around $1,300 for the basic 6GB/128GB model, or up to $1870 for the 8GB/512GB. A limited number will be released in December, and pre-orders can be placed now.

What’s interesting is this may give us an idea of how much a Samsung, Huawei, or LG foldable phone may end up costing. Expect it to be more too, due to Royole’s limited run of devices and lack of internationalization needs.

Editors’ Recommendations

• ZTE Axon 9 Pro hands-on review
• Xiaomi Mi Mix 3: Everything you need to know
• Google Pixel 3 review
• Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact review
• Moto Z3 review

Eerste vouwbare telefoon is de Royole FlexPai

Niet Samsung, niet LG en ook niet Huawei is de eerste met een volledig vouwbare telefoon. Een kleine Amerikaanse start up gaat er met de eer vandoor. De Royole FlexPai is de eerste van vele vouwbare telefoons die we binnenkort mogen begroeten.

Persoonlijk kijken we enorm uit naar het tijdperk ‘vouwbare telefoons’. Niet omdat die onze levens nou enorm gaan veranderen maar omdat ze fabrikanten dwingen na te denken over toekomstige vormgevingen. Momenteel zit die, laten we eerlijk zijn, enorm op slot. En als we ergens een broertje dood aan hebben dan is het wel saai. De Royole FlexPai lijkt op een iPad mini die je in tweeën kunt vouwen. Het scherm meet 7,8 inch en je vouwt het scherm naar buiten toe waardoor hij altijd te zien zal zijn.

Echt loepzuiver is het scherm niet want over de volle 7,8 inch wordt een resolutie geprojecteerd van 1920 bij 1440 pixels. Dat levert een pixeldichtheid op van net iets meer dan 300. Het scherm is een flexibel AMOLED dat beschermd lijkt door een plastic laag. Omdat het altijd aan de buitenkant zit vermoeden we dat het wel eens snel kan gaan krassen. De FlexPai draait op een eigen OS genaamd Water OS maar is gebaseerd op Android 9.0 Pie. Android biedt momenteel (nog) geen ondersteuning voor smartphones met een dergelijke vormgeving. Om toch het maximale uit de interface te halen heeft Royole hem daarom zelf maar gemaakt.

Flinke prijs

In geopende toestand lijkt de Royole FlexPai nog het meest op een tablet, in gesloten toestand juist op een telefoon met dubbel scherm waarbij ieder scherm z’n eigen taak heeft. Er lijkt ook een nachtstand-modus te komen waarbij je hem half gevouwen naast je bed kunt neerzetten waarna een klok zichtbaar wordt. Qua processor is er gebruik gemaakt van een Snapdragon 8-serie van Qualcomm met 8 GB aan RAM en 128 of 256 GB aan opslaggeheugen. Er zijn twee camera’s van 16 en 20 megapixel met een maximale lensopening van f/1.8. Er is een batterij van maar liefst 3800 mAh om aan de hogere energievraag van het scherm te voldoen. De 128 GB variant moet een duizelingwekkende 1318 dollar kosten, omgerekend 1160 euro. Inclusief BTW is dat zelfs 1400 euro. Innovatie mag wat kosten. Echt slim is het trouwens niet om er ééntje te importeren; het toestel ondersteunt de 20 band niet die hier veel voor 4G gebruikt wordt. Mogelijk werkt hij hier dus niet lekker.

Apple Officially Obsoletes iPhone 5, Ending Repair Support

Apple has updated its vintage and obsolete products list to include the iPhone 5, six years after the smartphone’s launch.

The iPhone 5 is now classified by the company as vintage in the United States and Turkey, and obsolete in the rest of the world. The addition was spotted by Japanese blog Mac Otakara.

Apple defines vintage products as those that have not been manufactured for more than five but less than seven years. Macs and other products on the vintage and obsolete list are generally no longer eligible for hardware service.

The iPhone 5 introduced some major design changes to Apple’s smartphone lineup when it was announced in September 2012.

New features included a lighter aluminum-based body, a taller screen with a nearly 16:9 aspect ratio, LTE support, and Apple’s A6 system-on-chip.

The iPhone 5 was also the first Apple smartphone to include a Lightning port, replacing the 30-pin design used by previous iPhone models.

Tag: vintage and obsolete
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Twitter Adds Floating Compose Button and Tests Option to Switch Between Latest and Top Tweets

Twitter has added a new compose button to its official mobile app for iOS that’s designed for one-handed scrolling and tweet composing.

Located in the bottom right of the Twitter interface, the new floating icon can be tapped to start composing a tweet.

Meanwhile, a 3D Touch or long press gesture on the button causes three options to fan out in a radial menu that includes quick access to drafts, images/videos and the GIF gallery.

Elsewhere, Twitter has announced new tools for users to report spam. The standard Report Tweet options remain as usual, but flagging a suspicious or spam tweet offers the following additional options:

• The account tweeting this is fake.
• Includes a link to a potentially harmful, malicious, or phishing site.
• The hashtags included seem unrelated.
• Uses the reply function to spam.
• It’s something else.

In addition to the above, Twitter has started testing an option to quickly access a classic reverse chronological timeline, as promised back in September. The feature, currently only available to a small number of users, comes in the form new icon in the top right of the interface providing a shortcut to switch between the latest and “top” tweets in the feed.

Once the feature officially rolls out, it should allay user frustration with Twitter’s curated selection of tweets, which often includes a mishmash of relatively old tweets, ads, and tweets your friends like.

Tag: Twitter
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Spotify Grows to 87M Paid Subscribers and 191M Monthly Active Users

Spotify today reported its third quarter earnings for 2018, announcing that paid subscribers for its streaming music service have grown to 87 million and total monthly active users (including the free tier) now reach 191 million. This is an increase from 83 million paid subscribers and 180 million total users that Spotify had in July 2018.

In terms of year-over-year growth, paid subscriber numbers have grown 40 percent in comparison to 2017 and MAUs have grown 28 percent. Spotify touted its various multi-partner bundles as a big help to signing up new subscribers, which are also retaining users for longer and driving churn lower. The latest bundle includes Spotify, Hulu, and Showtime for $4.99/month for students.

Spotify is in an ongoing race with Apple Music to add more subscribers, and as of now Spotify is still winning in terms of paid subscribers. It’s been a while since we’ve heard news of updated Apple Music subscriber numbers, with the last count in April 2018 putting Apple’s service at 40 million paid subscribers. Apple Music does not have a free tier like Spotify, but counting users on the three-month free trial along with paid users, Apple’s service hit over 50 million subscribers in May 2018.

These numbers refer to global paid subscriber users, and in a report over the summer it was suggested that Apple Music is actually ahead of Spotify’s paid subscriber count in the United States. Both Apple Music and Spotify were said to have more than 20 million paid subscribers in the U.S. as of July 2018, and at the time Apple was “a hair ahead” of its rival.

Looking into the fourth quarter of 2018, Spotify expects paid subscribers to reach 93-96 million users, while monthly active users are predicted to break the 200 million user milestone and sit somewhere between 199-206 million users globally.

Tag: Spotify
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Apple in Talks to Buy Stake in U.S. Radio Group iHeartMedia

Apple has held talks with iHeartMedia to buy a stake in the U.S. radio company, according to a new Financial Times report citing people familiar with the matter.

iHeartMedia is currently $20 billion in debt, with audiences gradually turning away from radio in favor of digital music services like Spotify and Pandora. The radio group filed for bankruptcy in March, and has been in contact with several potential investors ahead of a deadline later this month to file a reorganization plan with the bankruptcy court.

iHeartMedia is hoping Apple will take an equity stake worth millions of dollars, according to FT sources, although discussions between the two companies are still in the early stages and no deal has been agreed. Apple declined to comment, while iHeartMedia did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The report suggests Apple is angling for a deal in order to gain a platform for wider distribution of its Beats 1 radio station and increase awareness of Apple Music:

A partnership could see Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio station, which is only available through its apps, make its debut on broadcast radio. Extra distribution would give Beats 1 and Apple Music greater awareness among older audiences who are later adopters of streaming services. A deal would also put the Apple station into more cars or kitchens.

Despite being billions of dollars in debt, iHeartMedia remains the largest radio broadcaster in the United States, with more than 850 stations operating across the story. One music industry executive who spoke to FT described the potential deal as a “power move” by Apple, as it aims to persuade more artists and labels to strike exclusive or early releases for its streaming service instead of its biggest rival, Spotify.

Apple Music surpassed 50 million subscribers and free trial users earlier this year, giving it a bigger share of listeners in the U.S. than Spotify, although Spotify is still the global leader with more than 80 million paying users around the world. Earlier this year, Apple acquired music recognition app Shazam for $400 million in order to improve Apple Music’s listening recommendations.

Tag: iHeartMedia
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