Apple Arcade To Salvage Mobile Gaming

Amongst yesterday’s underwhelming Apple announcements, and parade of celebrities, comes a ray of light. Because mobile gaming, on anything but the Nintendo Switch, is often a disaster. In fact, I’ve largely given up on iOS gaming – for both myself and my daughter. As oh-so-many games are riddled with disruptive advertisements and continual upsells. Enter: … Read more

Spotify Entices New Subscribers With Free Hulu Video Streaming

Spotify is making some serious noise this week. Beyond filing a complaint against Apple for anti-competitive practices, the music streaming heavyweight has launched a new customer promotion that bundles Hulu. Same ten bucks for Spotify Premium… but with the benefit of Hulu. Similar to Google packaging YouTube Red with Google Play Music. Except, we’re talking … Read more

AT&T Power Drum Wirelessly Charges Apple Watch & iPhone

While Apple continues to drag its feet on the wireless Airpower charging pad, others have filled the void. And next up is the clever, multipurpose AT&T Power Drum that I inadvertently discovered today while trawling the FCC and confirmed with the Qi Wireless Power Consortium. The compact $100 accessory simultaneously, wirelessly charges Apple Watch and iPhone, up to … Read more

TiVo Takes A Page From Apple; Launches Trade-in Program

In a first for TiVo, the DVR pioneer is testing a familiar-looking upgrade program. Apple recently offered me $250 for my iPhone 7 in the form of credit off the purchase price of a new iPhone XR. My old phone will be refurbished or responsibly recycled and I get a nice discount on a significant … Read more

Poor Sonos, Apple Music Coming To Alexa

Sonos, the original Switzerland stand-in for digital music services, is about to be undercut by Amazon. Apple Music subscribers will be able to enjoy Apple Music’s 50 million songs on Echo devices. Customers will be able to ask Alexa to play their favorite songs, artists, and albums—or any of the playlists made by Apple Music’s … Read more

New TiVo Experience Hits Mobile Apps

TiVo is out with a massive refresh of its Android and Apple iOS apps this week. Most notable is the extension of the TiVo Experience 4 (aka Hydra and Mira) to mobile. And. I gotta say, I actually prefer Hydra here (vs TV lean back) – it provides a snappy and sleek modern look that works well in this content. TiVo also indicates we should expect a variety of streaming performance improvements with more granular config options. Bonus: iPhone X support.

However, as with all initial TiVo releases, to get the software out the door in a timely fashion (one presumes), a number of features have been excised: Downloaded shows are no longer grouped within folders (see bottom left pic) and you can no longer swipe to delete. Also possibly in the negative column, remote control visuals have been updated… dropping the iconic peanut presentation, with mixed results. Still no iPhone cellular streaming, although I’m told it’s on the roadmap.

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Significant Apple TV App Updates Expected in 2019

Noted Apple gossip blog Bloomberg indicates the company intends to beef up its TV app on Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad: Right now, the TV app aggregates content from other providers, allowing people to locate shows from a wide array of apps and channels like ABC, NBA League Pass and HBO, rather than having to … Read more

How Will Apple Distribute Its Original Content?

As Apple’s original video production costs reportedly balloon past a billion and given recent music video app consolidation, I wonder what sort of distribution methods the company will employ when content begins arriving in 2019. Will these shows be accessed via an Apple Music subscription (as Carpool Karaoke is) similar to Google Play Music with YouTube Red … Read more