Starting next month, YouTube will no longer be natively available to stream on the third-generation Apple TV, first released in 2012. 9to5Mac reports that a message is being displayed to users warning them of the upcoming change. The fourth-gen Apple TV HD and fifth-gen Apple TV 4K, the two streaming boxes Apple currently sells, are unaffected.
Here’s the full message being shown to users (via 9to5Mac):
Starting early March, the YouTube app will no longer be available on Apple TV (3rd generation). You can still watch YouTube on Apple TV 4K, Apple TV HD, iPhone, or iPad. With AirPlay, you can also stream YouTube from your iOS device directly to any Apple TV (3rd generation or later).
While it will soon no longer be possible to natively run YouTube on the third-generation Apple TV itself, owners will still be able to stream the service from an iPhone or iPad using AirPlay. We’ve got a guide on how to do so right here.
Other streaming services have also gradually been dropping support for older Apple TV models. Last year, HBO pulled its HBO Now app from second- and third-generation Apple TV boxes, after initially delaying the move due to the pandemic. These apps won’t be the last, either. While its newer devices run tvOS and feature a built-in App Store, the built-in apps on Apple’s old TV boxes relied on streaming services working directly with Apple to offer support.
If you own an old Apple TV and simply can’t live without the YouTube app, then it might be time to replace your streaming device. Our current top picks for the job are the Roku Streaming Stick Plus and Roku Premiere, which are both more affordable than Apple’s current lineup of streaming devices.
Valve will potentially release a public beta for a Chinese-specific version of Steam starting on February 9th, according to Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad, who specializes in the Asian and especially Chinese game industries. This would be the culmination of efforts Valve began in 2018 alongside Chinese developer Perfect World and would see the fulfillment of a promise the company made earlier this January to launch Steam China in 2021.
Perfect World and Valve will launch a public beta of Steam China on Feb 9. DOTA 2 and CSGO will be the first titles to start operations on the new platform. Chinese players will be required to sign up on Steam China to play these games, everything transfers over. pic.twitter.com/f2C07M7RhKFebruary 3, 2021
Valve is positioning Steam China’s release as an opportunity to “bring Steam onshore into China,” which subtly hints at the impetus behind the launch of a Chinese-specific version of the client. While Chinese citizens can currently access the international version of Steam in China, Ahmad points out that the platform offers many games that haven’t been licensed by the Chinese government, which technically makes them illegal and means that Steam is currently operating in China in an unofficial, “gray area” capacity.
At this point, gamers in China can currently access both the International version of Steam and Steam China with no issues. It remains to be seen whether China’s government will block access to Steam International in the future, given it offers unlicensed (illegal) games.February 3, 2021
At this point, gamers in China can currently access both the International version of Steam and Steam China with no issues. It remains to be seen whether China’s government will block access to Steam International in the future, given it offers unlicensed (illegal) games.February 3, 2021
As such, Steam China will be Valve’s “official” entry into the Chinese market. This also explains the partnership with Perfect World, as foreign companies can only legally enter the domestic Chinese market by partnering with a Chinese entity. For instance, Valve and Perfect World have worked together before to distribute DOTA 2 and CS:GO in the Chinese market.
All of this probably explains why Valve’s announcement acts as if Steam hasn’t been present in China for years now.
As for what end users can expect to see from this change, it seems as if the transition will start slow but could ramp up in time. Ahmad writes that Steam China will be a separate application from the International version of Steam and will only offer government-approved games. However, he also states that current Steam accounts will work on both versions, as will current Steam games, provided they have a Chinese SKU.
“It remains to be seen whether China’s government will block access to Steam International in the future,” Ahmad explains. It’s not an unfounded risk, though- Apple removed 39,000 games from the Chinese App Store at the end of last year due to not having ISBNs from the Chinese government.
There will likely, however, still be immediate differences. For instance, Ahmad also says that Chinese players will need to use Steam China to play CS:GO and DOTA 2 going forward, although all their data will carry over from their Steam International accounts.
This could also point to another reason behind the development of Steam China
– monitoring and censoring in-game chat. CS:GO and DOTA 2 are both communication heavy games, and it’s possible that Steam China might be just as, if not more interested in what players are saying in-game as it is in which games they play.
For example, popular Chinese game Genshin Impact attracted notable controversy after its release late last year for censoring the words “Taiwan” and “Hong Kong,” even in its international version. Since then, much of the game’s community has been split on the developer Mihoyo’s intentions here, with players who are aware of the developer’s foreign influences (the company’s splash screen opens by referring to the Mihoyo devs with Japanese slang) arguing that the filter was probably enforced on the company by the Chinese government.
People have asked me why this is:1. MiHoYo is a Mainland China based developer2. China’s laws and games regulator state that games cannot contain “Anything that threatens China’s national unity”3. All Chinese games censor phrases such as Taiwan / Hong Kong due to this https://t.co/QZ6PerqiTCOctober 6, 2020
Ahmad, in particular, also commented on the controversy, saying that “China’s laws and games regulator state that games cannot contain ‘Anything that threatens China’s national unity’” and thus that “All Chinese games censor phrases such as Taiwan/Hong Kong.”
Despite the potential for Steam China to be used to more heavily regulate what Chinese players have access to, there could be a potential, albeit unlikely side benefit for foreign players: we could perhaps see games that were once pulled from Steam to appeal to Chinese influences restored to the app’s international version. For instance, the Taiwanese horror game Devotion was famously
pulled from Steam
and other gaming storefronts last year for containing jokes at the expense of Chinese president Xi Jinping. If the international version of Steam becomes no longer accessible to Chinese audiences, maybe such games could be restored.
In the case of Devotion, it’s unlikely, as the Chinese government still technically sees Taiwan as Chinese territory. But for other games made further outside of the Chinese government’s reach but still containing content objectionable to it, the segregation of Steam China and Steam International might allow them to release elsewhere without risking blowback from Chinese officials.
Granted, there’s also a social pressure to maintain a friendly relationship with the Chinese government and audience, both to maintain healthy business and because China represents a large part of the market (the country generated more than $32.54 billion in gaming revenue the year before the development of Steam China became public knowledge).
As such, it’s also still uncertain how much of an effect Steam China will have outside of China as well. Hopefully, however, you’ll still be able to team up with Chinese friends to play DOTA for years to come.
Last year, AMD released the Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors and finally took the gaming performance crown Intel had held for so long. This final step completed the Red brand’s ascent back into the forefront of the desktop processor market that began with the launch of the first generation of Ryzen CPUs.
With the Ryzen 3000 launch last year came the AMD X570 chipset. Featuring PCIe 4.0 support, X570 was an impressive leap from generations past. Ryzen 5000 did not launch with a new chipset, but many manufacturers are still launching improved versions of their best X570 boards in order to best cater to new AMD adopters. Today, we are looking at ASRock’s newest launch with the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition.
As the name suggests, the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition is a collaboration with Razer, the world’s first motherboard to natively support Razer Chroma RGB lighting. Along with the improved RGB lighting and support for Razer’s Synapse 3 RGB software, the ASRock X570 Taichi Razer Edition also features 2.5 Gb/s LAN from Killer Networking, as well as Killer Networking WiFi 6 and a beefed up VRM design to top everything off.
A brand-new look of an award-winning board, the X570 Taichi Razer Edition has a lot going for it, but is the performance still there?
Specifications
Specifications
CPU Support:
AMD AM4 socket Ryzen 3000, 4000 G-Series, and 5000 series processors
Power Design:
CPU Power: 16-phase Memory Power: 2-phase
Chipset:
AMD X570
Integrated Graphics:
Dependent on installed CPU
Memory:
4x DIMM, support for up to dual channel DDR4-4666+(OC) MHz
BIOS:
AMI UEFI BIOS
Expansion Slots:
3x PCIe 4.0 x16 slots (x16/x0/x0 or x8/x8/x0 or x8/x4/x4) 1x PCIe 4.0 x1 slots
Storage:
8x SATA 6 Gb/s port 3x M.2 port (SATA3/PCIe 4.0 x4)
2x Antenna ports 1x HDMI port 1x Clear CMOS Button 1x BIOS Flashback Button 1x Optical SPDIF out port 1x LAN (RJ45) port 1x USB 3.1 (Gen2) Type-C port 1x USB 3.1 (Gen2) Type-A port 4x USB 3.1 (Gen1) ports 2x USB 2.0 ports 5x 3.5 mm Audio jacks 1x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard combo port
Audio:
1x Realtek ALC1220 Codec
Fan Headers:
6x 4-pin
Form Factor:
ATX Form Factor: 12.0 x 9.6 in.; 30.5 x 24.4 cm
Exclusive Features:
ASRock Super Alloy
XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
Premium 60A Power Choke
50A Dr.MOS
Premium Memory Alloy Choke
Nichicon 12K Black Caps
I/O Armor
High Density Glass Fabric PCB
2 oz copper PCB
Killer 2.5G LAN
Killer 802.11ax WiFi
Killer DoubleShot™ Pro
ASRock steel Slot Gen4
ASRock Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink
ASRock Ultra USB Power
ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
After his social media platform was largely wiped off the web, Parler CEO and co-founder John Matze says he has been fired by his company’s own board of directors, according to a memo obtained by Fox News and a text message confirmation he sent to Reuters.
Parler, of course, is the social network that found itself wholly deplatformed after its role in the January 6th riots at the US Capitol. Both Apple and Google removed the app from their app stores after being unsatisfied with the company’s attempts to moderate the spread of calls for violence. Amazon decided to terminate the company’s AWS website hosting completely. And though Parler did try to sue Amazon, a judge denied a demand for its website hosting to be reinstated.
On January 10th, Matze told Fox News that all the company’s vendors — and even its lawyers — had abandoned him.
Today, Matze claims he was terminated by a board led by Rebekah Mercer, and that he had “met constant resistance to my product vision,” according to his memo. It might also have something to do with the company getting run into the ground under his watch. In addition to the difficulties of simply staying up on the internet, it came to light that Parler may have had some privacy issues. Researchers were able to scrape a tremendous amount of users’ content, including their geotagged locations and videos, which were later converted into interactive maps of the Capitol building attack that proved many Parler users were involved.
The House Oversight Committee even called for an FBI investigation into Parler’s involvement in the attack on the Capitol.
Parler does currently have a website again thanks to the hosting services of Epik, a company that also supports controversial websites like Gab and 8chan, and while Parler originally suggested there that it hoped “to welcome all of you back soon,” the website has mostly been a timeline of grievances about how the company has been treated unjustly. Matze hasn’t posted there since Monday, January 26th. His last post was a Bernie Sanders meme:
Parler didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon plans to install high-tech video cameras in its delivery vehicles in order to better monitor the behavior of drivers as they deliver packages, according to a new report from The Information.
The hardware and software will be supplied by Netradyne, a California company behind a platform called Driveri that uses cameras and artificial intelligence to analyze a driver as they operate the vehicle. The camera then gives real-time feedback — including automated suggestions like “distracted driving” and “please slow down” — while collecting analysis that is used to later evaluate drivers during their shifts, the report states.
An unlisted, week-old video hosted on the website Vimeo details the partnership. It’s narrated by Karolina Haraldsdottir, Amazon’s senior manager for last-mile safety, and outlines the company’s goals as reducing collisions and holding drivers more accountable for mistakes on the road. The initiative mirrors one Amazon has taken with its long-haul trucking fleet, in which SmartDrive cameras monitor freight drivers for signs of fatigue and distracted driving, according to a separate report from The Information.
The marketing video showcases how the cameras record “100% of the time” (though without audio and not viewable live) and upload footage to a dedicated safety team for review if any one of 16 signals is triggered through an incident happening on the road or an action the driver takes. The driver is able to manually disable the camera, but only when the ignition is off. Drivers are also allowed to manually upload footage when they choose to.
Screenshot by Nick Statt / The Verge
“We’re always searching out innovative ways to keep drivers safe. That’s why we have partnered with Netradyne to help make improvements to the driver experience,” Haraldsdottir says on camera. She describes Netradyne as the first company to merge AI with video “to create industry-leading safety systems, reducing collisions by a third through in-cab warnings and another third through improving driver behaviors.”
Haraldsdottir says Amazon wants to “set up drivers for success and provide them support for being safer on road and handling incidents if and when they happen.” But The Information talked with some drivers who are concerned that the use of Netradyne’s technology might constitute unfair and invasive surveillance and place even further burdens on them as they try to meet tight deadlines.
Screenshot by Nick Statt / The Verge
Amazon has historically relied on last-mile operators like the US Postal Service and UPS to get packages to customers’ doorsteps, but the company has increasingly begun using its own growing logistics network of airplanes, trucks, and delivery vehicles to cut costs. For last-mile deliveries, that has included both third-party delivery companies Amazon contracts directly and a growing platform of Uber-like workers using their own vehicles under the Amazon Flex platform.
As part of this network, Amazon operates a fleet of tens of thousands of delivery drivers all over the country that, as part of these third-party firms, are not technically company employees. Nonetheless, these drivers operate Amazon Prime-branded vehicles and are subject to any restrictions or monitoring the company puts in place in many ways similar to the intense control Amazon exerts over its warehouse workers. That includes minute-by-minute surveillance via mobile app of where a driver is on their programmed route and whether they’re falling behind schedule.
Screenshot by Nick Statt / The Verge
Those monitoring tools appear to also include new Netradyne cameras, although The Information says it’s not clear when Amazon intends to install the cameras and how widespread throughout its delivery fleet they’ll be. “We are investing in safety across our operations and recently started rolling out industry leading camera-based safety technology across our delivery fleet,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Information in a statement. “This technology will provide drivers real-time alerts to help them stay safe when they are on the road.”
In using its own network of both professional and civilian delivery drivers, Amazon has faced scrutiny in recent years for prioritizing speed and consumer convenience over the safety of delivery personnel, while at the same time placing increasingly onerous burdens on its drivers dictating the route they take and the order in which they drop off packages to avoid delays.
Last fall, Amazon was caught surveilling contract Flex drivers in private Facebook groups to see whether some were planning labor actions like work stoppages or strikes. In March of last year, Amazon came under fire for declining to pay Flex drivers forced to stay home due to the coronavirus, despite Uber and Lyft opting to compensate their drivers.
Amazon delivery drivers have also caused dozens of accidents over the last half-decade, including some that resulted in deaths, but the company often avoids liability for the accidents due to the way it employs third-party firms and independent contractors, reported The New York Times in 2019. Just earlier this week, Amazon was ordered to pay more than $61 million to Flex drivers as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over wage theft allegations.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If you live in one of the twelve states where Comcast is planning to roll out 1.2TB data caps, we have some moderately good news: you won’t have to start monitoring your bill for extra charges until July. The ISP had planned to start charging customers $10-and-up fees for using more than 1.2TB of data starting this March, but the rollout has been delayed (via The Washington Post). This gives us a few more months until the scourge of Comcast home internet data caps are truly nationwide.
The areas affected are in Comcast’s Northeast region: Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, as well as parts of North Carolina and Ohio. If you live in one of those areas, your bill in August could have up to $100 of overage fees for your July use. That’s a lot of extra money, but at least now you have a bit more time to see if you’ll be affected and to make a plan if you are.
The cap was scheduled to roll out this March, but it’s being delayed after Pennsylvania’s attorney general raised objections, saying that now, when we’re struggling with the pandemic and using the internet for work and school, is “not the time to change the rules when it comes to internet data usage and increase costs.” After negotiations, Comcast has agreed to not only push back the data cap start date, but to also waive early cancellation fees for customers who don’t want to be subjected to the caps, according to a press release from the attorney general’s office.
While Comcast customers in the region are probably happy for the delay, the ability to cancel your service with no fees is only useful if you have another ISP that will provide you service, which many across the US do not. The rest of the country has had data caps for a while, and people haven’t liked them. Yet they’ve rolled out anyway because the ISPs have basically no real competition.
Comcast is, however, giving its low-income customers a bit of a break. It announced that it was doubling the speeds of its Internet Essentials plan yesterday, and it’s apparently not going to be imposing data caps on that plan for the rest of 2021. Comcast confirmed to The Verge that this policy was nationwide.
The 1.2TB-plus overage fees will come to the Northeast in July, showing up on August bills. If you go over the 1.2TB limit, you’ll have to pay $10 for every additional 50GB, with the fees capped at $100. You do get one “courtesy” month, where if you go over you won’t be charged extra, but after that the fees will start rolling in. Of course, if you find yourself going over often, Comcast is happy to upgrade you to unlimited data for only $30 a month or as part of a $25-a-month xFi Complete bundle.
Comcast shows your data usage in its app or on its website.Image: Comcast
If you live in the Northeast and are worried about your bill going up come July, Comcast has a tool to check how much data you use. Since that usage is what they’ll be billing you for, you can see if you’re typically over 1.2TB of usage or not — and now, you’ll have a few more months to figure out what to do if you’re consistently over. It is possible you won’t be, though. Back when I had a data cap, I generally stayed under, and I’m a pretty heavy internet user who backs up a lot of photo and video to the cloud.
Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.
Instagram might try to emulate another element of TikTok’s design with a new vertical feed for Stories, TechCrunch reports. Navigating with vertical swipes up and down would make stories behave more like Reels, the shortform video feature the company added to better compete with TikTok.
The vertical stories feed is not currently being tested, Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch, but code for the change is already in development based on this screenshot developer Alessandro Paluzzi shared. It’s not much to go on, but it does show Instagram is at least considering the adjustment to its ever-expanding features.
Mimicking Reels (which, in turn, was heavily “inspired” by TikTok) would unify Instagram’s various feeds in some sense. If Stories became a vertical experience, it would not only match Reels, but also the app’s original feature: scrolling the feed. IGTV would still function a bit differently, though; those videos are buried in a vertical grid in profiles but feature horizontal navigation once you start watching.
In an interview with Instagram head Adam Mosseri for the Decoder podcast, he said 2020 was about “placing a bunch of bets,” while 2021 would be about “delivering on those commitments and simplifying the experience.” The company is already testing changes to what kind of content can be added to stories, and changing how those stories are displayed could be the next step in that simplification process.
(Pocket-lint) – Apple Fitness+ is a paid-for service from Apple that lives within the Fitness app. Like Fiit and Peloton, it focuses on home workouts, with studio-style on-demand workouts available anytime and anywhere.
If you’re trying to decide between Apple Fitness+ and Fiit, we’ve got you covered. Here’s how the two services differ, how much they both cost and what they offer to help you work out which might be the right one for you.
Fitness+ vs Fiit price
Fitness+: $9.99/£9.99 a month
Fiit: $25.99/£19.99 a month
Apple Fitness+ is available as a standalone subscription, or as part of the Apple One Premier subscription. As a standalone, Fitness+ costs $9.99 or £9.99 per month, or $79.99 or £79.99 per year.
It is included within the Apple One Premier subscription along with News+, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+ and iCloud, though this is $29.99 or £29.99 a month.
Fiit meanwhile, offers monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription options. A monthly subscription costs $25.99 or £19.99, a quarterly subscription costs £44.99 or $57.99 and a yearly subscription costs £119.99 or $159.99.
Fitness+ vs Fiit features
Fitness+: Apple users, Burn Bar, variety of workouts, filters, music
Fiit: All users, leaderboard, Fiit points, live workouts, training plans, variety of workouts, filters, music, review system
Apple Fitness+ is based around the Apple Watch, and while you can do workouts without the Apple Watch, you won’t get the full experience.
With a compatible iPhone or iPad and Apple Watch, a Fitness+ workout will display your Apple Watch rings, heart rate, calories and the Burn Bar in the top left, along with the time left on the workout and the countdown timer when you are doing a HIIT workout for example. The Burn Bar will offer feedback during the workout as to how you are doing in relation to other users who have completed the workout before you. It’s possible to turn it off if you don’t want to see it.
Fiit is compatible with the Apple Watch, among other fitness devices like the Samsung smartwatches and Fitbit, which when linked up will allow you to see your heart rate on the workout screen, as well as your Fiit points. There’s also a dedicated Fiit device (a chest strap) to track heart rate, as well as reps on strength workouts for example. Similar to the Burn Bar though, the Fiit points help you compare your efforts with others who have taken the class prior to you. There is a main leaderboard too – something Fitness+ doesn’t offer.
Both apps offer a variety of workouts, trainers and training types, from Yoga to HIIT, though Fiit has a more accomplished catalogue at the moment. Fiit also offers training plans and challenges, like ’14 Days of Cardio’, or a six week ‘Lift’ plan, which Apple Fitness+ doesn’t yet.
There are also live workouts on Fiit, allowing you to schedule yourself onto a class with at least one every half an hour throughout the day. Currently, Fitness+ doesn’t offer live classes, though it does have dedicated audio workouts for walking.
Both Apple Fitness+ and Fiit have music built into their workouts (unlike Joe Wicks and the Body Coach app) and you can filter by music too on both apps, so if you’re someone who likes to workout to dance music, or RnB, both apps have you covered. The Fiit workouts have a bit more going on, with flashing lights in the background of the trainers, while the Fitness+ workouts keep things simple.
For Apple Watch users, both Fitness+ and Fiit automatically select the right workout type, and once you start, they will end automatically too, with a record in the Summary tab of the Fitness app and allowing you to see all your data from there.
One of the final things to note in terms of the difference in features between Fitness+ and Fiit is the way workouts are run. Fiit offers different workouts for different levels. Some workouts have two trainers, with one offering one level and the other a more advanced level, but otherwise, you would typically choose a workout from the options within your level.
Fitness+ meanwhile, takes a slightly different approach. Rather than have different workouts for different levels, Apple has three different trainers for each workout, with all offering the different levels and you follow the trainer that represents your capabilities.
Fitness+ vs Fiit app
Fitness+: Simple, curated sections, trainers section, summary section in different place
Fiit: More comprehensive, stats section, activity section, more filter options
Both the Apple Fitness+ and Fiit apps are easy to use and they both offer a filter function to help you select the workout that is right for you or what you are after.
The Fiit app is a little more extensive compared to Fitness+ at the moment and it has more filter options, with target body part, target area, and equipment and class level all options. Apple Fitness+ only allows you to filter by the type of exercise, followed by the time, music and trainer.
Both apps have curated sections within their apps, such as “New this Week”. Apple Fitness+ has more of these sections, with a Popular section, My Workouts section and Simple and Quick section.
Both have a Trainers section – allowing you to choose your favourite trainers. You’d be surprised how quickly you warm to certain people’s enthusiasm. We love Adrienne Herbert from Fiit for example, and we like Jamie-Ray on Fitness+, though he is also a Fiit trainer, as is Kim so there is some crossover.
Fiit has a Profile section on the app that will show you your All Time Stats, Stats by Studio, your favourite classes and your activity so you can see all the workouts you’ve done. It also has a rating system, allowing you to rate each workout after you finish it to help it work out which ones you like more, improving its algorithm. You can see your past workouts in the Summary tab of the Fitness app for Fitness+ but there’s no specific section within the Fitness+ tab itself, nor are there any stats or streak information.
Fitness+ vs Fiit conclusion
So which is right for you? Well, that depends on what you are looking for and how much you are willing to spend. If you’re not an Apple user and you don’t have an Apple Watch, then Fiit is a no brainer between these two.
If you are an Apple user and you have a compatible Apple Watch, Fitness+ is good, but it is lacking in a few features. It just depends if those features really matter to you or you don’t mind waiting as chances are, they will eventually come to the platform in some form.
Fiit is more expensive – double the price of Fitness+ in fact – but it offers more workouts, as well as more features. There are live workouts available, training plans, challenges, a leaderboard to keep you motivated, a section for all your activity and the option to review a workout when you have finished it to help the algorithm suggest others you might like. You can also AirPlay it to a compatible TV, or cast or stream using Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon TV or Sky Q.
Fitness+ meanwhile has a good selection of workouts, it’s simple and therefore very easy to use and navigate, it has good curated sections, we love the Burn Bar and it works well with Apple Watch. The workouts are more subdued than Fiit, which some will prefer, while others will like the buzz the flashing lights bring to the Fiit workouts. Also, until iOS 14.5 comes out when AirPlay 2 compatibility is coming, the only way to get Fitness+ on your TV is if you have an Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD. It doesn’t support Chromecast or Amazon TV.
At the moment, we would say Fiit offers more out of these two options, but so it should for double the cash.
TikTok has come to Google’s Android TV platform, marking the short video app’s latest expansion to big screens, according to 9to5Google. Though the app is currently on the Google Play Store, it seems to not be working in every region yet.
The Android TV take on TikTok looks remarkably similar to the TikTok app that arrived on Samsung TVs in the United Kingdom. Videos play vertically (just like in the phone app) in a scrollable main feed, with access to specific categories of videos, and your profile is also available to browse. I haven’t been able to download it on my Chromecast with Google TV to test, but it appears to be a more fully featured option than what TikTok launched on Amazon’s Fire TV, which got a curated selection of videos from TikTok that didn’t require an account to see.
The Profile section of the Android TV TikTok app.Image: TikTok
Many users have been running into the issue of the app not working in their region, with one of the main exceptions being people downloading it in the UK, Android Police reports. Reddit users have also run into the problem even when trying to sideload the app onto other Android TV devices. The app loads, but when one user tried to log in, they were told that the TikTok app was not available in their region yet. The Verge has reached out to TikTok for comment on the app’s availability.
If you’d like to test it for yourself, you can download the new Android TV TikTok experience from the Play Store now.
Following its launch in the US and Canada, Arrow’s subscription video-on-demand and streaming service has now arrived in the UK.
The Arrow catalogue comprises films hand-picked and curated by the Arrow team, naturally including a wealth of titles from the discerning Arrow Films roster. Those familiar with the specialist horror- and arthouse-advocating label will know what to expect – indie horror, giallo, Asian extreme, cult classics, westerns, 4K restorations etc – but it isn’t exclusively an Arrow affair, mind you. This month there’s a season of films from director Lars Von Trier, too, featuring his latest feature film, The House That Jack Built.
Arrow will also “strive” to debut the best new releases each month, with this month’s headline (and exclusive) title being Adam Stovall’s hauntingly beautiful A Ghost Waits. Future debuts are set to include the “sensationally shocking” The Stylist in March, and “must-see” film documentary Clapboard Jungle in April.
The service’s tagline is “The Alternative”, which is enough to tell you that this offering is more about quality than quantity – similar to streaming service MUBI.
New subscribers can take advantage of a 30-day free trial, after which the monthly subscription costs £4.99 (or is £49.99 annually). Sign up now and you can get your first three months for £7.47 (£2.49 per month) thanks to a 50 per cent discount.
The Arrow app is available on all Roku players and TVs, Amazon Fire TV sticks, Apple TV, Android TV and iOS and Android devices. Of course, it can be accessed via web browsers at www.ARROW-Player.com too.
MORE:
Best Netflix alternatives: streaming services for serious film fans
As of February 2021, Spotify boasts 155 million Premium subscribers and 345 million monthly active users. The platform has long been the world’s most popular music streaming service, and with good cause – it got in on the ground floor and its simple interface and vast library make it a compelling choice even in the face of stiff competition from Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, YouTube Music, Amazon Music Unlimited and others.
But are you getting the most from your Spotify membership?
We’ve compiled a list of our favourite Spotify features, tips and tricks to help you get the most out of the service – from mastering offline listening to getting the best possible sound quality, sharing your music to filtering your recommendations. Some of these are only for Spotify Premium subscribers only though, so if you want the full experience, you’ll have to cough up the £9.99 per month…
Spotify Connect: what is it? How can you get it?
Tidal vs Spotify: which is better?
Set up
1. Get the best sound quality
First things first: head to the settings menu (below your account name, top right, and although it’s set to ‘automatic’ by default, you can change the music quality – choose Low (24kbps), Medium (96 kbps), High (160 kbps) or Very High (320 kbps). Admittedly, these aren’t going to sound as sweet as lossless Tidal Master or Qobuz files, and taking the Very High path might take up more of your data allowance to stream. But that’s a small price to pay for better listening.
2. Save music for offline listening
Spotify Premium users can download tracks to listen to offline. Not only does this save you valuable data, it also means you can listen where you don’t have mobile reception. Win-win. Save your playlists in the best possible quality, naturally. Hit the three dots then select ‘download’ on Android, or select the playlist then hit ‘download’ at the top on Apple.
3. Create a new playlist
To create a new playlist, head into the playlist category in ‘Your Library’. At the top you’ll find an music icon with a plus sign on it (Android), or tap ‘Edit’ and then ‘Create’ (iOS) start your brand new playlist. On the desktop app, you’ll see a plus-sign and ‘New Playlist in the bottom-left, underneath any playlists you’ve already created.
4. Transfer your music from other apps
You can transfer your existing playlists on other music services to Spotify. The Soundiiz website is a great way to get it done and supports all the services you’d expect.
Interface
5. See your stats
Click on your profile icon in the top left to see who’s following you and who you’re following. It will also show your most recently listened-to artists and public playlists.
6. Sort your now-playing queue
Cue tracks in Spotify by selecting ‘add to queue’ from the three dots next to the track title. On iOS? You can also swipe right on a track to add it to your now-playing playlist.
7. Search for your favourite tunes
Want to find a track from your own library? On mobile, pull down on the screen when you’re in any of the sub-categories (albums, playlists, artists) in the ‘Your Library’ tab to reveal a search bar at the top, complete with filter options. This searches your own saved tracks rather than the whole of Spotify (which is done via the main ‘Search’ icon at the bottom).
8. Listen using the web interface
Not allowed to install software on your work computer? No problem. Head to play.spotify.com and you can listen without installing the Spotify desktop app (or relying on your phone). Take that, overzealous IT department.
9. Master keyboard shortcuts
Did you know you can control Spotify using just your keyboard? The Space bar is play/pause, next track is Control-Right (Control-Command-Right on a Mac), back is Control-Left (Control-Command-Left on a Mac), Volume is Control-Up or -Down (Command-Up or -Down on a Mac) and to create a new playlist press Control-N. And that’s just scratching the surface.
Check out the full list here.
Organising your music
10. Build your own library
There are a couple of ways to build your music library. Adding your favourite tracks to playlists is one way, saving music to your own library is another. Add tracks, albums, artists radio stations, podcasts and playlists by hitting the plus/save sign (either next to the song in the desktop app, or by tapping the three dots on mobile), then access your music via ‘Your Library’.
11. Add music that isn’t on Spotify
Missing out on those artists that are absent from Spotify? Add them yourself. Go to Spotify’s ‘Preferences’ on the desktop app, scroll down and click ‘Add a Source’, then select a folder containing your own music files. You can then see them in your Spotify library – they’ll be under ‘Local Files’ in the left sidebar.
12. Recover a deleted playlist
Spotify’s Account website can help restore playlists that you’ve deleted. Log in, go to ‘Account Settings’, and select ‘Recover Playlists’. Hey presto.
13. Find clean and explicit versions of songs
If you think a lyric sounds unlike the witty line you remember, chances are an expletive was swapped out in favour of a less explicit word. Spotify can help you track down the original. Scroll down and select the pull-down menu on the right-hand side. If it says ‘1 More Release’, that could well be the explicit version.
Music curation
14. Follow some friends
Is your pal always first with the best new music? You can piggyback off their hard work by following them on Spotify. This way you’ll be able to see what they’re listening to, and pass those killer tracks off as your own discoveries. (We suppose they are, in a way.) Select ‘Find Friends’ to locate them, and instantly expand your listening.
15. Share music with friends using Spotify Codes
Spotify Codes is another way to share music. Scan a code on your friend’s phone to download a tune, or import a code posted by an artist to hear their latest single. You can also scan a code from a poster, flyer or billboard. Tap the ‘…’ context menu next to a song, and you’ll see a Spotify Code appear at the bottom of the album artwork. Use the ‘Camera’ icon to scan it, or tap the Code-enhanced artwork and save it to ‘Camera Roll’ for uploading to a social network.
16. Make a collaborative playlist
Maybe you’re putting together a set list for a friend’s wedding or a party. Start a collaborative playlist and everyone can chuck in their tuppence-worth, no matter how misguided. Right-click on the playlist name, and it’ll give you the option of making it collaborative. Then grant friends access to it, and brace yourself for some terrible choices. Alternatively, you can make a playlist secret, too.
17. Let the Radio option open your ears to similar artists
Stuck for what to listen to? ‘Radio’ can help. On desktop, select it from the left-hand pane, then choose ‘Create new station’ and pick an artist, album or playlist you like. Radio will then serve up a selection of artists/songs similar to your choice, that you’ll (hopefully) like. On mobile? Hit the three dots top right when on an artist, album or song and then select ‘Go to Radio’.
18. Filter out the chaff
Yes, of course you want to listen to James Brown. No, you don’t want anything from his Lost ’80s years. Thankfully you can filter out the wilderness era. Type the artist name in the search bar followed by the years that you want to hear (with no spaces). For example “James Brown year:1970-77”.
19. Sort out your search
Use the word “Not” after your search term to omit artists you don’t want, and the “+” symbol or “And” to include those you do.
20. Listen to Spotify’s Weekly Discover Playlist
This is a playlist of 30 tracks Spotify compiles based on your listening habits. It tends to be scarily good. It updates every Monday and sits in the ‘Made For You’ section (or in Browse – Discover, or you could simply type ‘Discover Weekly’ into the search bar). There’s also the Release Radar playlist that updates every Friday with brand new music releases.
21. Listen to your Daily Mixes
Too impatient to wait a whole week? Spotify now offers six Daily Mix playlists that are tailored to users’ listening habits.
22. Check out the What Hi-Fi? playlist
And we have to mention our own playlist… Each month, we update our Spotify playlist so you can see what we’ve been listening to over the past four weeks. It’s a great mix of tunes we use to test our review kit, as well as a few personal favourites from the team. You know it makes sense.
Connecting other devices
23. Listen through your home cinema speakers
Using the Google Chromecast streaming dongle, you can play Spotify through the speakers attached to your TV. Just select ‘Chromecast’ from the ‘Devices Available’ section of the Spotify app and get playing.
24. Control it with your voice
Good news. The Amazon Echo and Echo Dot speakers play nice with Spotify. Just connect your Spotify account in the Alexa app, and then start barking commands like “Alexa, play me some Bowie on Spotify!” and the Echo will do as it’s told. You’ll be grooving to Let’s Dance in no time. If you set Spotify as your preferred streaming service, you won’t even need to request Spotify by name, either. Apple users can control music playback by asking Siri, too.
25. Send music to your speakers with Spotify Connect
Premium subscribers can use their phone as a remote control and play music on connected Spotify Connect speakers, such as Sonos – although certain devices (the PlayStation 4, for example) are happy to work with Spotify Free. Play a song on your phone and make it fullscreen. Select the ‘speaker’ icon at the bottom of the screen, then select your speakers. Instant house party.
26. Listen in your Uber
Connect your Spotify account in the Uber app and you can then take control of your car’s stereo (assuming your driver has allowed it). They’ll love your choice of music, we’re sure…
More features
(Image credit: Spotify)
27. Share songs instantly with anyone
Heard a song you just have to send to a friend? Tap the three dots, then ‘Share’, then send it on to the social media platform (Facebook, Instagram Stories, Skype even), your WhatsApp groups, or simply copy the song link.
28. Preview music on iOS
Tap and hold the title of a track, album or playlist, and you’ll get a preview. On a playlist or album you’ll see the first five tracks – slide over each piece of cover art and you can preview each song.
29. Use private listening to hide your guilty pleasures
Not everyone needs to know about your love of Wang Chung. If you want to keep your listening private, click ‘Settings’ (top right), then ‘Private Session’ on Android or ‘Settings’ then ‘Social’ then ‘Private Session’ on iOS. That way, friends won’t know you’ve spent all morning blissing out to big-haired saxophone-heavy ’80s cheese.
30. Make a playlist tailored to your running speed
Spotify can also pick tracks that are close to the same tempo as your running speed. Start running, pick a running playlist from the ‘Browse’ screen, and Spotify will use your phone’s sensors to select songs to suit your stride. See it in action here.
31. Link to a specific part of a track
If there’s a great solo you want to alert someone to, you don’t have to tell them to skip to 2:53 in the track. Just send them a link and they’ll jump right in at the relevant part. On desktop, copy the track’s URI (uniform resource identifier) by right-clicking the track and selecting ‘Copy Spotify URI’. Then paste it into an email or text message, and add ‘#time2:53’ to the end. When the respondent clicks it, they’ll be transported to exactly the part you were talking about. Magic.
32. Find out about live gigs
OK, large gatherings aren’t the thing right now, but looking ahead: Spotify can help you see your favourite act in the flesh. To see when an act might be playing near you, click ‘Browse’ on your desktop app, then ‘Concerts’ to see which acts you’ve listened to are playing nearby. Going to be out of town? Just change your location to see what’s happening near you.
33. Listen to podcasts
Did you know you can listen to your favourite podcasts on Spotify? Well, now you do. Head to ‘Browse’ and then ‘Podcasts’ (on desktop) to follow your faves, and go to the Podcasts section in ‘Your Library’ to find all your saved podcasts.
Best music streaming services 2021: free streams to hi-res audio
11 of the best Spotify playlists to listen to right now
Robinhood is running its first Super Bowl ad, just as the company faces a growing brand crisis. CNBCreports that the commercial marks Robinhood’s biggest brand campaign, and it focuses on the idea that anyone can be an investor. That’s been at the center of Robinhood’s message since it was founded seven years ago, but recent stock restrictions have undermined Robinhood’s entire brand.
Robinhood temporarily banned small investors from buying stock in companies like GameStop last week, before placing restrictions on stocks associated with r/WallStreetBets — including GameStop, AMC, and Nokia. The move angered thousands of Robinhood customers trying to buy stocks, and the company’s app got review-bombed on the Google Play Store. While Google initially tried to salvage the app’s rating, it plummeted back down to just one star yesterday.
Robinhood is also facing dozens of lawsuits over the GameStop stock freeze, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) also called on Congress to investigate the Robinhood app. Robinhood claims the restrictions were put in place due to clearinghouses suddenly requiring much higher deposits, but the company hasn’t specifically explained the cryptocurrency restrictions it also put in place.
This new Super Bowl commercial doesn’t address any of the controversy around Robinhood right now, making it rather awkwardly timed. CNBCreports that Robinhood’s chief marketing officer, Christina Smedley, says the ad is designed to let people know more about the app. “It felt like this was a great stage for us to remind people about what we stand for and remind people about why the company was put into existence in the first place,” says Smedley.
Robinhood has disabled comments on the YouTube version of the commercial, but a version on Twitter is already seeing negative responses to this new Super Bowl ad.
Microsoft is updating its OneDrive app for Android this week with a new home screen, Samsung Motion Photos support, and the ability to play 8K videos. The new home screen includes quick access to recent files, offline files, and the “On This Day” feature of OneDrive that reminds you of your old photos.
Samsung Motion Photos support is also included in this update, allowing owners of Samsung phones to play back photos captured with motion in the OneDrive app or online. These photos work like Apple’s Live Photos and capture a still image alongside several seconds of video and sound before the capture. Microsoft says Samsung Motion Photos playback is rolling out worldwide and will require Android version 6 or above.
OneDrive’s new home screen on Android.Image: Microsoft
The final addition is 8K video playback for compatible Samsung phones like the new Galaxy S21 or last year’s S20. While you’ve always been able to store 8K videos on OneDrive, the service now supports playback on compatible screens and devices. This could tempt more to store 8K video on Microsoft’s cloud storage service, particularly when OneDrive now supports up to 250GB files.
This latest Android update for OneDrive focuses a lot on Samsung’s phones and is an example of the ongoing partnership between Microsoft Samsung. Both companies are working on a variety of ways to integrate Microsoft’s software and services into Samsung Android phones, and there’s even a partnership for cloud gaming through xCloud.
(Pocket-lint) – For years Google Wear OS watches have been round in shape. That traditional watch look has been a big draw for smartwatch buyers, particularly with fashion watch brands (mostly from Fossil Group) building watches that look and feel just like watches should.
Despite that, round screens don’t necessarily make the best platform for apps and text fields that appear on screen. After all, it’s harder to get a lot of information on a display that gets narrower at the top and bottom, and so a square screen actually makes a lot more sense from that point of view.
The Oppo Watch is one such square-screened device. The question, then, is whether being this different shape acts as enough of a draw?
Familiar looks
Dimensions (46mm model): 46 x 39 x 11.35mm
Weighs 40g minus the strap
Ceramic & plastic underside
Aluminium alloy case
Fluororubber strap
Getting the elephant out of the room as quickly as possible: yes, the Oppo Watch looks a lot like a certain Apple-branded series of smart wrist wear. Of course, it’s not exactly the same, but if you glance at the Oppo from a distance then you’d likely assume it was an Apple Watch. Even some of the watchfaces are strikingly similar.
There are of course differences to point out. For instance, the glass on the front of the Oppo slopes down towards the left and right edges more noticeably – so it doesn’t have the completely even rounding around all four sides. It’s quite a long/tall display too, which means this 46mm model is going to be too big for smaller wrists.
Just like an Oppo phone the Watch also has very slim and long buttons on the side – with one of these featuring the company’s trademark green accent. These buttons are housed in the side of a very glossy metal case, which in this instance is a midnight blue colour, complimenting the black glass on the front and the matte black silicone strap.
The top button launches your apps screen when on the watch face – press it anywhere else in navigation and it’s a ‘back to watch face’ button. Or press-and-hold it to launch Google Assistant. The bottom button launches an activity by default – or, rather, launches the screen that lets you choose to start a workout. Press-and-hold it and you’ll launch the power/shutdown menu.
The watch itself is comfortable to wear for long periods, thanks to being quite lightweight, and the silicone band has just the right amount of stretch and grip to keep it in place without needing to be over tightened.
On the underside you’ll find Oppo’s take on heart rate monitoring. It’s an attractive setup, with five sensors/LEDs arranged symmetrically inside a glossy dome, with four contact points for the charging base underneath that. You also get a pill-shaped button on the top and bottom sides for releasing the strap.
It’s a little fiddly to get the strap halves removed, but it’s a method that makes a lot of sense from a visual perspective. It gives the strap the look of being a deliberate, seamless part of the watch’s design. With the button pressed in, you simply pull the corresponding strap half off the case to conveniently reveal the two catches that hold it in place.
But it’s also hugely inconvenient, purely because actually getting hold of additional band styles or new straps with this proprietary connection point is not the easiest of tasks. Oppo’s UK store doesn’t even seem to have additional first-party bands to choose from. And looking for third-party options usually leads to inexpensive unofficial ones from stores that we don’t necessarily have huge confidence in.
We think if Oppo is has gone to the trouble of creating this strap removal system, which is quick and easy, then the company also needs to give an appealing reason for customers to want to do that. And the only way to do it is to offer multiple materials and finishes of bands to go with the watch, which in the Western market don’t seem to exist.
Wear OS, but with Oppo flavour
Wear OS platform
Additional Oppo layers
With its own take on Google’s Wear OS platform, Oppo has full taken advantage of the additional screen space offered by its square panel. For instance, launching the apps screen reveals a 3×3 grid of small round icons, which you can scroll up and down through. That means nine app icons fit in one screen at a time without the awkward, curved list of maybe three or four that you get on round screens.
Similarly, dropping down the settings tiles from the top of the screen gives you nine easy icons with tap-to-activate features such as torch, do not disturb mode, Google Pay, find my phone, or access to other everyday settings.
Of course, it’s still very much Wear OS platform, so swiping left on the home watch face goes to your full screen widgets for tracking things like your heart rate, daily activity, or sleep. Swiping right goes to your Google Home Screen with useful shortcuts and updates. Swiping up goes to your notification – and, again, because it’s a square screen, you can see more text and more notifications clearly.
Want to install wearable apps? Easy. Just tap the Google Play Store icon in the apps list and you can find anything in there. Which – when it comes to fitness and health (which we’ll get to it in a bit) – is kind of necessary. There’s even NFC and support for Google Pay, which is accepted in a lot of retail locations and supported by a good number of banks these days.
All of this is displayed on a 1.9-inch curved AMOLED panel which is bright and vivid. It’s worth noting that the smaller 41mm model has a flat 1.6-inch display. Either choice is easy to see outdoors in daylight, while the always-on feature means you can glance and see the time whenever you like. The always-on display option does drain more battery, and switches off your tilt-to-wake functionality, but it gives a more natural watch-like experience.
Fitness and health
Oppo HeyTap Health + Google Fit installed
All day heart rate and sleep tracking
Step counter + GPS
Modern smartwatches are essentially fitness trackers with fancy screens, in the form of a watch. It’s the fitness and daily activity tracking element that makes one a worthwhile investment. It’s where a number of Wear OS manufacturers fall down, though, and why having an ecosystem of third-party apps is needed.
Oppo has built its own fitness tracking platform, however, which does offer all the essentials. It’s called HeyTap Health and it collects information from you including daily steps, estimated calories burned, your daily heart rate averages, and can show you how you slept the night before (providing you wore the watch to bed).
1/2Pocket-lint
It’s quite basic in terms of how it displays the data though. There’s not a lot you can dive into, although if you’re tracking a run with it, you do get to see useful metrics like distance, pace, heart rate, elevation and cadence. And it does seem pretty much on par with our other trackers in terms of location and data consistency.
If you’re into anything other than running, walking, cycling or swimming, you’ll not be served at all by Oppo’s fitness tracking options. Those are the only four workouts you can utilise, and so you’ll need to look at a different watch if that’s what you need.
There’s also Google’s own fitness tracking, Google Fit, which can also track the basics throughout the day. It’s neatly organised to show you how you’re doing versus your heart points and steps goals, while also showing easy-to-understand graphics for any workouts you’ve done. Run sessions, as an example, show up in the smartphone companion app as a neat map graphic with the route lined in blue. You also get to see your heart rate, weight and sleep duration in compact cards.
Performance and battery
430mAh battery – up to 30 hours smartwatch mode
Snapdragon Wear 3100 + 4G LTE
Ambiq Apollo3 Wireless SoC
Magnetic charging
On the whole, the Oppo Watch is a strong performer. We weren’t left waiting for ages for apps to download from the Play Store. Animations are relatively smooth and fluid, and apps load quickly enough.
The one area where improvements are needed – as with many smartwatches – is battery life. In our testing, with the always-on display switched on (showing a low power black and white watch face), and with the ’tilt-to-wake’ feature enabled (so we didn’t have to keep tapping the screen to wake it up properly), the watch gets through a full charge in less than two days. Realistically, then, that means charging it every night, which isn’t great – but then the Apple Watch is much the same.
It’s worth noting, this is without the 4G/LTE connection enabled, just using it as a regular smartwatch connected to our phone for notifications. Even on days where we didn’t do any workout tracking, it didn’t have enough juice left to make it through a full second day, which means sleep tracking being a feature is approaching pointless.
What is the Pocket-lint daily and how do you get it for free?
By Stuart Miles
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To charge it Oppo has designed a magnetic snap-on cradle which uses those four contact points for charging and not a wireless charging method. That’s both good and bad, like a few of Oppo’s choices on this watch. It’s good, because it’s quicker than typical wireless standards. It’s bad because the charging cradly is quite clunky and can be a inconvenient, if only because the plastic build is quite light and the magnets aren’t especially strong.
Practically speaking that sometimes means it’s tricky to get the watch lying on the cradle completely flat, but also that if it gets knocked it can detach quite easily. On the plus side, it does have some quite grippy silicon padding around the hole in the centre to help it not slip quite as easily once you do get it resting completely flat on a surface. But we often found ourselves double and triple checking it was stable and in position before leaving it to charge.
Verdict
With a few refinements and additional features the Oppo Watch could be a genuinely great smartwatch. It’s just a few tweaks short of getting it absolutely right. The lack of customisation choices from Oppo and the fitness features being a little light on data depth and quantity of workout types are the main downsides.
But it’s a good first go with a lot to like. Despite it’s Apple-a-like looks, there aren’t many other square Wear OS watches out there, and this does get all the basics right in terms of smartphone notifications and replying to messates on the fly. It also has Google Pay support and that display is bright and colourful. All for a fair price point indeed.
Also consider
Fossil Gen 5 Garrett
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For a classic watch look, full Wear OS feature list, and easy-swappable bands, there are few watches like the Gen 5 Garret. It looks like a watch should and offers pretty much anything you could need from a Wear OS smartwatch.
Read our review
Samsung Galaxy Watch 3
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Samsung went all-out on fitness with the Watch 3 and now offers some pretty impressive running data and a bunch of other fitness-focused features without losing any of the smartwatch features we’ve come to expect in this day and age.
Classical music streaming service Primephonic has just announced the launch of Maestro, an in-app listening guide offering detailed, step-by-step “walkthroughs” of classic works.
With Maestro, you can listen to classical music alongside a written description of the musical passage and the instruments, as and when they are heard.
The Dutch American classical music specialist added the dedicated music streaming string to its bow in 2017 and it now boasts over 3.5 million classical tracks from 170,000 artists across almost 230,000 albums and 2400 labels. As such, it’s considered the world’s largest specialist library of classical music – and Primephonic says that no other streaming service offers a feature similar to Maestro.
Furthermore, the firm’s smart search is built from the ground up and uses eight parameters to organise its music (instead of three which, according to Primephonic, is the format used by some streaming sites), where each piece of metadata is entered manually by one of Primephonic’s team of classical music fanatics.
Speaking of the new streaming service enhancement, Primephonic’s CEO, Thomas Steffens, said, “We are so pleased to introduce Maestro. Much like our digital CD booklets, an easily digestible listening guide like Maestro is a must-have for classical music enthusiasts. Our subscribers are passionate about the genre and, therefore, want to absorb as much information about the works as possible.”
Interested? You can activate a 14-day free trial at Primephonic or take out a full subscription for £9.99 (Premium) or £14.99 (Platinum) a month.
MORE:
Read our best music streaming services 2021: free streams to hi-res audio
Trying to decide? Tidal vs Spotify: which is better?
Check out 8 of the best classical music tracks for testing speakers
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