Netflix is taking a different route for its new Zack Snyder-directed zombie heist movie, Army of the Dead. Rather than skip theaters and drop the new thriller directly in subscribers’ laps and homes, the company has reached an agreement with theater chains to screen the movie a week early starting May 14th in around 600 theaters, according to Variety.
That’s Netflix’s widest US release yet for one of its feature projects, and it positions the film and the company to capture summer theatergoers’ attention and dollars right as screens are beginning to reopen across the country, and newly vaccinated film fans feel comfortable enough to watch how they used to. Variety says Netflix has partnered with Cinemark, Alamo Drafthouse, iPic, Landmark, Harkins, and Cinépolis theaters to make the release happen. Cinemark will reportedly screen Army of the Dead in 200 of its theaters.
In comparison to a traditional blockbuster release that can reach thousands of theaters, 600 might seem minor, but this is Netflix, a company that’s usually scorned the traditional theatrical release model. Theaters typically want a 90-day window for theatrical releases so that people have a reason to go see a movie in person. This is why Warner Bros.’ same-day streaming and theater release strategy on HBO Max films stirred up so much controversy. Theaters need a reason for people to show up, especially during the pandemic when they’re at their most vulnerable. Streaming services might not feel so generous.
Past major Netflix releases have only chosen to screen in theaters to qualify for awards like the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards, and have sometimes struggled to find cinemas that wanted to play ball. Roma, which won Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, was only shown in around 250 theaters, according to The New York Times. Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman received a limited release in eight theaters initially and hit around 550 theaters at its widest.
There’s only Army of the Dead’s trailer to go off of, but shooting for something closer to a big blockbuster summer release seems to make sense for a zombie movie. It could be fun!
The long-awaited League of Legends animated series is coming to Netflix. The streaming service confirmed today that the show, called Arcane, will be available later this fall. The show was first announced back in 2019 as part of a League 10th anniversary celebration event; last year, developer Riot announced that Arcane would be delayed to 2021 due to the pandemic.
We still don’t know much about the show (you can get an all-too-brief taste in the teaser above), but it’s part of a big push from Riot to expand League beyond just the core strategy game. So far, that’s included comic books, a digital card game, a mobile spinoff, and even an ancient board game. An animated series also makes sense given Riot’s long history with short cinematics.
Arcane also fits into Netflix’s recent strategy of tapping into the worlds of video games for new shows and movies. Outside of the blockbuster success of The Witcher, there’s also a new season of Castlevania coming later this month, an upcoming Tomb Raider anime, and even League’s biggest rival, Dota 2, has its own show.
Just started watching season four of The Handmaid’s Tale and I remember why I prefer the weekly release schedule for this show: Bingeing it is utterly draining (Monica Hesse makes this point much more eloquently in her mostly spoiler-free review in the Washington Post). The show has a conundrum: it can’t kill off its main character (which would be an incredible plot twist) and it can’t take her out of Gilead because that’s where the action is. So June has to keep suffering over and over. And over. After the first three episodes, June’s done plenty of suffering already. Over the rest of the season I’m really hoping to see A) much more of Alexis Bledel and Samira Wiley and B) something good happen to June. Anything.
Here’s the roundup of this week’s trailers:
West Side Story
Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic musical looks a lot like the original 1961 film at first glance (this side-by-side comparison from YouTuber Matt Skuta shows the many differences). But while the earlier film included white actors in makeup to play some of the Puerto Rican characters, Spielberg sought performers of Puerto Rican descent for his updated version. The spectacular Rita Moreno, who starred in the original as Anita appears in the Spielberg version, and is also an executive producer on the film. West Side Story hits theaters (after a lengthy COVID-related delay) in December.
Castlevania
The latest 10-episode season of Castlevania is going back to “where it all started,” according to the new trailer. The official synopsis from Netflix says “Wallachia collapses into chaos as factions clash” and mentions attempts to bring Dracula back from the dead (!!). “These are the end times.” This is the final season with this cast of characters (Deadline has reported Netflix may launch a new series in the Castlevania-verse but with different characters), so expect plenty of blood. Season four of Castlevania drops on Netflix May 13th.
Luca
OK so as a parent, I am always a bit wary of Disney/Pixar movies, because they are typically emotionally devastating for parents to watch (see: Finding Nemo, or perhaps Inside Out, or maybe the final scene of Toy Story 3) (aaand I just cried all over again dammit). Luca is the story of two young sea monsters who become human when they’re not in the water as they explore the surface world in a seaside town on the Italian Riviera. Seems safe enough and the trailer looks beautiful but Pixar always gets you, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Luca hits Disney Plus on June 18th.
Sweet Tooth
Sweet Tooth is a post-apocalyptic fairytale based on a DC Comic, with Robert Downey, Jr. as executive producer (is that the most Verge-y sentence I have ever written? Possibly.). Our hero is a very cute hybrid deer-boy played by Christian Convery, who’s searching for a new beginning after society has been upended by something called The Great Crumble. Sweet Tooth arrives on Netflix June 4th.
Rick and Morty Season 5
The second trailer for season 5 of Rick and Morty picks up where the first trailer left off, which is to say, in the middle of a chaotic space battle? with cyberpunk birds? that is a parody of the Power Rangers? Sure, why not. Rick and Morty returns to Adult Swim on June 20th.
A former Netflix executive was convicted of taking bribes and kickbacks from vendors doing business with the company, according to the US Department of Justice.
Michael Kail, who was Netflix’s vice president of information technology operations from 2011 to 2014, was found guilty by a jury of money laundering, and wire and mail fraud. According to the DOJ, Kail used his position at the company to “unlock a stream of cash and stock kickbacks” for himself
Netflix sued Kail in 2014 claiming he hid payments from vendors by directing them to his personal consulting company. According to the DOJ, Kail accepted bribes totaling more than $500,000, as well as stock options from nine tech companies that provided products or services to Netflix.
Kail’s attorney Julia Mezhinsky Jayne said in a statement emailed to The Verge that they were disappointed in the verdict, which she called “inexplicable and clearly unsupported by the actual evidence and the law.” They plan to appeal. Jayne said Kail was “a tremendous asset to Netflix and helped drive their success as a cutting-edge technology company.”
Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.
It’s nigh-on impossible to find meaningful fault with Netflix
For
Excellent video quality
Big, easy-to-navigate catalogue
High quality Originals
Against
Rarely first for big film releases
Netflix just keeps on getting better, making a more compelling case for your money at every turn. It’s everything you want from a video streaming service: simple to use, available on your preferred platform and filled with content you want to watch.
But it’s now got more rivals than ever and they’ve also upped their game, so is Netflix really the best video streaming service out there?
Pricing
Netflix UK pricing and features (Image credit: Netflix)
Netflix subscriptions start at £5.99 ($8.99, AU$10.99) per month for standard-definition streams to a single screen. Up your spend to £9.99 ($13.99, AU$15.99) per month and get high-def stuff available to watch on a couple of screens simultaneously.
Or go the whole hog (provided you’ve already gone the entire pig on a 4K Ultra HD TV) and spend £13.99 ($17.99, AU$19.99) per month for 4K content on as many as four screens at a time.
MORE: How to use Netflix Party: watch Netflix with friends online
Features
It goes without saying not all content is available in HD (720p) or Full HD (1080p), let alone Ultra HD or 4K. One of the great pleasures of a Netflix subscription is happening upon classic films such as Easy Rider and old episodes of cult TV shows such as Peep Show, and it would be optimistic in the extreme to expect them to represent the state of the technological arts.
But there’s now a huge stack of 4K content available, from The Crown and Last Chance U to Shadow Bone and Snowpiercer, and that stack is forever growing.
Netflix has a continuing good relationship with Sony Pictures that also grants the streamer exclusive rights to some Sony films. There’s also the excellent Studio Ghibli oeuvre now available in most countries.
In terms of bespoke content, Netflix distances itself from any nominal competition.
Netflix now prioritises its own content to such an extent that it seems less committed to adding blockbuster films from other studios than its main rival Amazon Prime Video. And now that Disney+ is on the scene, it’ll likely never be the first streaming service to add a Disney, Marvel or Star Wars title to its catalogue. But Netflix still has a strong selection of older favourites and not-too-aged blockbusters such as, at the time of writing, Arrival and Rocketman.
And as a content provider in its own right, Netflix goes from strength to strength, whether that’s through cinematic adventures or its increasingly impressive run of excellent documentary features and series.
And if you have an HDR (High Dynamic Range) compatible TV, there’s now loads of HDR content on Netflix too. It’s not immediately obvious, as there isn’t an HDR section anywhere in the menus, but if you type HDR into the search box you’ll find a list of HDR content such as After Life, The Witcher and Lupin. You’ll see an HDR logo (or Dolby Vision logo, if your TV supports it) on relevant content.
MORE: Best 4K TVs 2021
Provided your broadband connection is up to the task, it has always been a fuss-free and stable experience, and its broad compatibility is a strong sell too.
PCs and Macs, Google Chromecast, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV devices, Roku streamers, any smart TV worth its salt, games consoles, Blu-ray players from all the big brands, tablets and phones, whether iOS, Android or Windows, are all on the menu. In fact, there’s a strong argument that if a smart device doesn’t have Netflix, it can’t really be considered smart at all. It’s certainly the first app we look for whenever testing a new streaming product.
There’s good news for mobile users too. In the early days it wasn’t possible to download anything from Netflix to watch offline. Since November 2016, though, content can be downloaded to your phone and tablet to watch, glitch free, at your leisure on the Netflix app – and it does not count toward the limit of how many screens you can watch on at the same time. You can’t download literally everything, but there’s plenty of choice and lots of the most popular content is there for you to stick on your device.
MORE: Amazon Prime Video review
Ease of use
(Image credit: Netflix)
Ergonomically, things could hardly be simpler.
Aside from the TV app’s rather retrograde A-Z keyboard (rather than QWERTY) search function, it’s straightforward to browse, create a shortlist and enjoy Netflix’s more-hit-than-miss recommendations based on your previous viewing habits.
You can establish multiple user profiles, including parental locks to prevent the kids stumbling onto Zombeavers or similar.
There are also handy and fun features such as Play Something/Shuffle Play for when you’re stuck for what to watch next, and Netflix Party to watch online with friends.
MORE: 25 Netflix tips, tricks and features
Performance
Whether 4K, Full HD or standard definition, Netflix serves video streams at exactly the sort of quality you expect. Watch a 4K HDR stream such as Formula 1 Drive to Survive on an appropriate display and it’s prodigiously detailed, vibrant and stable.
Colours pop, contrast is punchy and the sheer amount of information available for your enjoyment is thrilling. It almost goes without saying, but if you own a 4K TV or 4K projector, the top tier £14 ($18, AU$20) subscription should be considered almost compulsory.
It’s all equally high-contrast, steady-motion, fine-detail good news for Full HD too. Native 1080p content looks accomplished, though obviously the exact amount of detail revealed in dark scenes (for instance) is to an extent dependent on the source material.
MORE: 15 of the best movies of the 1990s to test your home cinema
Given a fighting chance, though, Full HD stuff such as Collateral is vivid, stable and eminently watchable. As regards standard-def stuff, you take your chances.
The majority of decent TVs – and certainly all the screens we recommend – are equipped with effective upscaling engines and won’t make you regret your partiality for schlocky thrillers such as Ravenous.
5.1 audio is now available on many titles, and Netflix serves it up in the same manner as it does pictures: robustly and positively.
Provided you have the necessary home cinema set-up (or even the right soundbar) at home, Dolby Atmos is also available on a good portion of Netflix’s own TV shows and movies. It presents an altogether more substantial and immersive sound than anything your TV’s integrated speakers can manage.
Verdict
It’s difficult to think of a downside to Netflix. Set your mind to it and you can search for plenty of films it doesn’t have, but the same is true of any movie streaming service and Netflix is better than almost all of those when it comes to the combination of original content, cherry-picked classics, video and sound quality, usability, and individual recommendations.
Disney+ will have turned many a head, but there are plenty who are left cold by the House of Mouse’s output, and, with recent price hikes to Netflix and Disney+, signing up to both services is not quite the financial no-brainer it once was.
Sure, the Premium tier (£13.99, $17.99, AU$19.99) now feels a more considerable monthly outgoing than before. All the same, if we had to live with just one video streaming service, it’s no contest. The quality, consistency and breadth of content available mean that Netflix is still king.
MORE:
Amazon vs Netflix – which is better?
9 simple ways to get better Netflix recommendations
10 of the best sports films and documentaries on Netflix UK
Best movies on Netflix
The 40 best TV shows to watch on Netflix right now
With quality programmes, vast platform support and a great interface, iPlayer is the best video-on-demand catch-up TV service out there
For
Superb content
Intuitive and slick interface
Extensive platform support
Against
Still no permanent 4K offering
It’s free (although you need a TV licence). It’s the home of superb TV shows. There are no ads. And you can download programmes for offline watching. Put simply, BBC iPlayer is the UK’s best catch-up TV service.
Even without considering all the live broadcast TV and radio the corporation provides across many channels, iPlayer is almost worth the licence fee on its own.
Missed the last episode of Line of Duty, need another Pointless fix or want to see what all the Killing Eve or Fleabag fuss is about? BBC iPlayer is your answer. It was already a great desktop service when first introduced in 2007 and, well over a decade on, it’s even more excellent in its incarnation as an app for your TV, smartphone and tablet.
Features
(Image credit: BBC)
Unlike Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, iPlayer is free to use – so long as you pay the BBC’s annual licence fee (currently £159), which has been in place, in some form or another, for almost a century.
The on-demand service is the home of BBC shows that have recently aired, offering a (typically 30-day) window to catch them before they are free to whizz off to the BBC and ITV’s relatively new, £5.99-per-month BritBox streaming service, which is where you’ll find the biggest collection of British TV content ever, combining current and classic boxsets for on-demand viewing.
BBC iPlayer does host some of its most popular TV shows for longer durations, however – Killing Eve (which became the first British-made show to be named the best comedy series at the Emmy Awards last year), Line of Duty (multipleBAFTA Television Awards nominee), Luther (multiple Golden Globe nominee) and Doctor Foster (two-time National Television Awards winner) are, at the time of writing, available to binge in their entirety on iPlayer, for example.
In a bid to boost the nation’s spirits during lockdown, the BBC helpfully added a slew of new long-term boxsets to iPlayer. The ‘from the archive’ tab in ‘categories’ is where you’ll find full series’ of classic fare such as Absolutely Fabulous, Black Adder and The Vicar of Dibley as well as pretty much every Michael Palin documentary ever made.
It would be difficult to guess how many hours of content iPlayer offers at any one time, but there always seems to be at least one show on iPlayer that everyone is talking about – and that’s a credit to the broadcaster’s consistency for quality programming.
As with many streaming services these days, BBC iPlayer lets you download shows onto your smart device for offline watching for up to 30 days. This is great for long train journeys, if you’re travelling out of the country (iPlayer is only available in the UK) or can’t get any internet or data signal.
You can choose whether to restrict downloading to when you’re connected to a wi-fi network or allow downloading over your mobile network data in the app’s settings.
Best media streamers: the best TV streaming devices
(Image credit: BBC)
BBC iPlayer’s familiar grid layout is neat and stylish, with its home screen logically presenting you with ‘Featured’, ‘Recommended for You’, ‘Continue Watching’ and ‘Most Popular’ suggestions. The service dynamically highlights programmes, too, mixing documentaries and comedy panel shows so that there’s something for everyone.
You can also browse programmes by channels (BBC One, BBC Two or CBeebies, for example), categories (Arts, Food and Documentaries, say) or TV guide schedules. Or you can simply search for them. You can add shows to your ‘My Programmes’ list, too, so new episodes are easy to access.
Essentially, each update to iPlayer over the years has made it fresher and more intuitive to use. Scrolling through the service is a swift and smooth process, regardless of what platform you’re using.
This is probably a good time to mention that the iPlayer app is everywhere: on pretty much every smart TV and media streamer, available to download across iOS and Android devices, even on Xbox Series X/S. iPlayer’s not currently on the PS5, but it’s still one of the most prevalent apps across smart devices in the UK.
Just be aware that you need to create a BBC ID account to watch any iPlayer content, although it is free to sign up and stays logged in at all times, keeping your favourites list and watching history synced across all devices.
29 BBC iPlayer tips, tricks and features
Picture
(Image credit: BBC)
With increasingly high-quality screen resolutions on smartphones and tablets, both standard and high-definition shows on iPlayer look as good as you’d reasonably expect them to.
Naturally, we would urge you to play HD whenever you can. Most programmes are available in HD, so long as they’ve first been broadcast on a BBC HD channel.
Then there’s the BBC’s next-level 4K Ultra HD content, which offers a huge step up in picture quality – namely in resolution and detail. While the BBC still doesn’t yet have a regular, permanent 4K offering, it has run several 4K trials on iPlayer since 2016, including Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II on-demand viewing and, even more excitingly, live broadcasts of the 2018 FIFA World Cup football and Wimbledon tennis.
After temporarily removing 4K content during 2020 to help ease the strain on broadband networks, iPlayer has made UHD programming available again. The current ‘trial’ has nine shows available to stream, including His Dark Materials and Black Narcissus. We can’t help but feel it really is about time for 4K to become a permanent fixture of the service.
Despite broadcasting some HD programmes, such as The Proms, in 5.1 surround sound, all content on iPlayer is only available in stereo. This is a bit disappointing, especially when streaming modern films or the flagship 4K documentary Seven Worlds, One Planet, which we know has a lush Dolby Atmos soundtrack on its Blu Ray release. Although some paid-for streaming platforms do have tiers that support multi-channel sound, we understand that the BBC doesn’t have any plans to add that functionality to iPlayer in the short term.
The BBC does provide excellent accessibility features for the visually impaired and hard of hearing. Many programmes will have icons that tell you whether audio description (AD) or sign language (SL) options are available.
Here’s what’s next for 4K HDR streaming content on the BBC
Verdict
BBC iPlayer isn’t entirely free, of course. But when the license fee amounts to less than 45p per day, and you look at the incredible range and accessibility of programming available from the BBC, not to mention the cutting-edge picture technologies it strives to offer in the hopefully near future, we’d happily carry on paying so that we can see more of the broadcaster’s David Attenborough-narrated nature documentaries.
MORE:
Netflix review
Best TVs
Best smart TVs: which smart TV platform is the best?
HBO Max’s new ad-supported tier will cost just $9.99 per month, according to a report from CNBC.
The new service, set to launch in June, will be $5 cheaper than the standard HBO Max tier ($14.99 per month), giving Warner Media a platform that can compete more readily with competitors like Disney Plus ($7.99 per month) and Netflix ($8.99 per month).
To enjoy the lower price, subscribers will have to put up with adverts, but only for content that’s not exclusively available on HBO Max or as an HBO original.
Another major difference between HBO’s two tiers will be same-day access to WarnerMedia’s theatrical releases. Only subscribers to HBO’s standard tier will be able to enjoy streaming WarnerBros films like In The Heights and Space Jam: A New Legacy on the day they launch in cinemas. That benefit, however, is set to end in 2022 as the studio plans to return to sole theatrical releases of new films, but with a shortened gap before digital release.
HBO hopes that the addition of an ad-supported tier will help build awareness of the streaming service, which launched in the US in May, in an increasingly crowded marketplace. With plans to expand into Europe and Latin America later this year, parent company AT&T has raised subscriber targets, projecting to end 2021 with 67-70 million subscribers worldwide, growing to 120 -125 million subscribers by the end of 2025.
MORE
HBO Max explained: price, films, and how to get a free trial
Everything you need to know about the Disney Plus streaming service
Streaming services battle it out: Amazon Prime Video vs Netflix
Sweet Tooth, a new Netflix series based on the DC comic, will debut on the streaming service on June 4th, according to a new teaser trailer that premiered Thursday.
Here’s a brief description of the show, from Netflix: “On a perilous adventure across a post-apocalyptic world, a lovable boy who’s half-human and half-deer searches for a new beginning with a gruff protector.” The trailer, which you can watch here or at the top of this post, shows that Gus, the half-human / half-deer boy, isn’t the only human / animal hybrid in this world — I’m pretty sure I spotted a girl with a pig’s snout. And I have to say that by the end, I was already rooting hard for Gus and getting mad at anyone who would dare threaten him.
The eight-episode series is based on a DC comic created by Jeff Lemire, which ran from 2009 through 2013. The show counts Susan Downey and Robert Downey Jr. among its executive producers.
Comcast said that The Office and WWE were to thank for its new-ish streaming service, Peacock, adding 9 million signups during the first three months of 2021. Peacock now has 42 million members total in the United States. That looks strong compared to HBO’s 44.2 million US customers, but it comes with a huge caveat: Peacock has a free tier, and Comcast doesn’t say how many customers are paying.
Still, Peacock got a sizable boost during a quarter when other streaming services notched smaller growth. HBO added 2.7 million subscribers in the US, and Netflix added 4 million subscribers globally. (Disclosure: Comcast is an investor in Vox Media, The Verge’s parent company.)
Two big names contributed to this quarter’s growth. The Office became a Peacock exclusive on January 1st, after leaving Netflix where it had become a staple of comfort viewing. And on March 18th, the WWE Network launched on Peacock, bringing over around a decade of pay-per-views.
The problem will be whether Peacock can keep this up going forward. Those were two big names, and the service didn’t even have a particularly remarkable quarter — it added 11 million signups last quarter, and it added 10 million signups before the service even fully launched. So 9 million, in comparison, during a quarter when it rolled out some huge names, starts to look a little concerning.
If you’re stuck for something to watch this weekend, Netflix has you covered. The streaming giant is now rolling out its Play Something feature. Play Something (previously called Shuffle Play) picks a show or movie for you based on your viewing history. All you need to do is press play.
Netflix has been testing the feature for months. It’s rolling out now in certain regions on TV-based versions of the Netflix app, and will eventually roll out globally to all Netflix users who watch on a TV. The firm plans to start testing it on Android mobile devices, too.
We’ve tested it in the UK, and it’s working on LG TVs in our test rooms, but not yet on our Apple TV.
Open the Netflix app, and you should see a big Play Something button on your profile screen (it will also appear on the 10th row of the homescreen, and in the navigation menu to the left). Hit it, and the algorithm will pick something for you and start playing.
“Sometimes you just want to open Netflix and dive right into a new story,” Cameron Johnson, Director of Product Innovation at Netflix wrote in a blog post. “That’s why we’ve created Play Something, an exciting new way to kick back and watch.”
What happens if you don’t like what it picks? With another click, Netlfix will pick something else – this will either be from your queue, something you haven’t finished watching, or something else new based on your viewing habits. It could save you hours of scrolling through looking for something to watch. Or, it could fail spectacularly. There’s only one way to find out…
MORE:
Check out the 36 best TV shows to watch on Netflix right now
Here are 25 Netflix tips, tricks and features
Find out: Amazon Prime Video vs Netflix – which is better?
Roku has a strange relationship with remotes: it’s one of the worst offenders when it comes to branded buttons, with a seemingly ever-rotating list of streaming services — Netflix, Sling, even Rdio at one point — that have come and gone over time. One of its remotes even bears a mysterious glyph that’s never been used for anything.
And yet, Roku also leads the pack when it comes to customizability. For the last couple years, some of its remotes have offered programmable buttons, and its recently released Voice Remote Pro elevates them to new heights.
The programmable shortcut keys, labeled with just a 1 and a 2, are almost infinitely customizable. And Roku actually has the software support to back them up in an easy and approachable way, one that the updated Voice Remote Pro’s mic makes even easier with its hands-free commands.
Speak any voice command — be it as basic as opening a streaming app that Roku doesn’t have a sponsored button for, or as complex as “lower the volume to 10 percent” — and then press and hold the button afterward, and you instantly create a shortcut to do that action on command.
As my colleague Chris Welch explains in his review:
The buttons labeled “1” and “2” can save any voice command that Roku supports; just long-press either button after the voice command, and it’ll be set as that button’s function. This can be as simple as using them as two shortcuts for apps that don’t have their own button, like “open HBO Max” or “open Peacock.” But you can also use the shortcut buttons for searches (“show me free movies”), input selection (“switch to antenna TV”), or TV controls (“turn the volume up,” “turn on closed captioning”).
It’s a clever system, one that leverages Roku’s voice controls to allow for complex commands, without requiring that users muck around with complicated software menus to program in exactly what they want. You just say what you want your Roku to do, and then save it for as long (or as little) as you need.
Roku’s customization system is also easily reprogrammable on the fly: want a dedicated button that just plays Iron Man 2? You can have it. Trying to learn French by watching Netflix’s Lupin? You can quickly make a button to toggle captions. The only real limit is your imagination (and Roku’s surprisingly deep bench of voice command options).
Roku’s system also helps to alleviate one of the biggest issues with voice assistants — sometimes, you don’t want to bother your housemates with the noise of you constantly asking your TV to change channels. Once programmed, the shortcut buttons make it possible to use complex or long voice commands silently, making them the perfect complement to Roku remotes’ similarly roommate-pacifying headphone feature.
It’s a system that’s so useful, it’s a wonder that companies like Apple, Amazon, and Google — all of which feature set-top boxes with their own robust voice assistant setups — aren’t looking to offer a similar feature in the future.
Voice remotes are all well and good, but at the end of the day, no one wants to hear you shouting over the sound of the latest episode of your favorite show.
No matter how much web browsers improve, it feels like they can’t keep pace with everything we want to do. Open one too many tabs on a few-year-old laptop, and your fan starts spinning, your battery life dips, your system starts to slow. A faster or cleaner PC might fix it, but a startup called Mighty has a different idea: a $30-a-month web browser that lives in the cloud.
Instead of your own physical computer interacting with each website, you stream a remote web browser instead, one that lives on a powerful computer many miles away with its own 1,000Mbps connection to the internet.
Suddenly, your decent internet connection would feel like one of the fastest internet connections in the world, with websites loading nigh-instantly and intensive web apps running smoothly without monopolizing your RAM, CPU, GPU and battery, no matter how many tabs you’ve got open — because the only thing your computer is doing is effectively streaming a video of that remote computer (much like Netflix, YouTube, Google Stadia, etc.) while sending your keyboard and mouse commands to the cloud.
Skeptical? I definitely am, but perhaps not for the reason you’d think — because I tried this exact idea nearly a decade ago, and it absolutely works in practice. In 2012, cloud gaming pioneer OnLive introduced a virtual desktop web browser that would let you load full websites on an iPad in the blink of an eye and stream 4K video from YouTube. (Quite the feat in 2012!) I called it the fastest web browser you’ve ever used, and OnLive’s asking price was just $5 a month.
Cloud desktop providers like Shadow have also offered similar capabilities; when you rent their gaming-PCs-in-the-cloud ($12-15 a month), you can use those virtual PCs’ built-in web browsers to get similar speeds, thanks to the fact they typically live in data centers with very few hops to (and possibly direct peering arrangements with) major content delivery networks.
Mighty argues that by focusing on the browser (rather than recreating a whole Windows PC), it can give more people what they actually want. “Most people want an experience where the underlying OS and the application (the browser) interoperate seamlessly versus having to tame two desktop experiences,” founder Suhail Doshi commented at Hacker News. Mighty claims it’ll eliminate distracting cookies and ads, automatically notify you about Zoom meetings, quick search Google Docs and presumably other integrations to come. Mighty also says it encrypts your data and keystrokes, among other security promises.
But it’s not entirely clear why it costs so much more, or who would be willing to pay $30 a month for such a subscription — you’d think the kinds of people who can afford a monthly browser bill on top of their monthly internet bill would be the same kinds of people who can afford a faster PC and faster internet to begin with. Gigabit fiber is already a reality for some homes, and it’s not like Mighty will turn your iffy 25/3 connection into a gigabit one; while Doshi tells me it’ll technically work with a 20Mbps connection, he says he’s targeting 80+Mbps households right now.
Then again, it’s not like everyone has a real choice of internet service provider, no matter how much money they make. As Jürgen Geuter (aka tante) points out below, this feels more like an indictment than innovation. It’s been a decade, and we still haven’t solved these problems.
“Streaming your browser to you because rendering the HTML is too slow on your machine” is not innovation but a mark of shame on everyone building websites and browsers.
Tech failed as an industry. https://t.co/JJC0WomArb
— tante (@tante) April 28, 2021
I agree with my colleague Tom: I genuinely want to know who’d actually pay for this and why. Would you?
I want to meet whoever is going to spend $30 a month to stream a Chromium browser from the cloud just to avoid RAM hungry Chrome https://t.co/4pl6jL2zUV
HBO Max’s upcoming ad-support tier will cost $9.99 per month, or $5 less than the standard $14.99 per month that the regular version of HBO Max costs, according to a new report from CNBC.
The upcoming ad-supported tier is still set to launch in June and will feature a few major differences from the $15 per month plan — including access to WarnerMedia’s same-day theatrical release strategy for films like Dune or The Matrix 4, which will be limited to subscribers to HBO Max’s more premium tier. WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar has also confirmed in a March analyst event that HBO original shows won’t get ads added in, so customers won’t have to worry about Euphoria, The Sopranos,or Game of Thrones getting interrupted by commercials.
The $9.99 price tag would mark a new low price for access to HBO’s content, undercutting the $14.99 per month that WarnerMedia has charged for the service for years (whether purchased through cable companies or as a standalone streaming service).
It also would allow for HBO Max — which, at $14.99 per month, is currently one of the most expensive streaming services — to better compete with or even undercut competitors like Disney Plus ($7.99 per month) or Netflix (which starts at $8.99 per month but offers pricier $13.99 and $17.99 per month plans, too).
Netflix has joined the Vtuber trend, unveiling a virtual streamer this week who will host a weekly show on the company’s YouTube channel to promote its original anime series. The character is named N-ko Mei Kurono, and Netflix describes her as the company’s “anime ambassador.” She also happens to be a “sheep-human lifeform.”
Vtubers, or “virtual YouTubers,” are animated hosts who often vlog on YouTube or stream on Twitch. In general, these characters are operated by a single human, who will use motion capture software (and sometimes a motion-capture outfit) to transform themselves into a cartoony character on-screen. Some Vtubers have become hugely popular over the past year, including Projekt Melody and CodeMiko.
Netflix is using the trend as a way to promote its growing interest in anime. The company said recently that it plans to launch 40 anime series in 2021, following a year in which “the amount of Anime watched” on its service doubled in the US. Netflix is about to debut a new anime from Flying Lotus; a new Sailor Moon movie is coming to the service in June; and a Terminator anime is now in the works.
N-ko, the Vtuber, is played by a Netflix employee who works on their anime lineup. Though her primary purpose is promoting Netflix series, she’s also trying to fit in with the rest of the Vtuber community and become a figure viewers might want to watch for herself. “I love singing, dancing, and getting a massage,” N-ko says, “but I don’t like writing kanji or anything that contains elements of horror.” She plans to upload videos highlighting new shows, collaborate with other Vtubers, and maybe sing songs and do video game commentary, too.
Netflix is officially rolling out its new “Play Something” feature today to all its users, adding a button across the streaming service’s UI to automatically suggest new shows and movies that you’ve never watched before.
The Play Something button will appear in several places on Netflix’s app, including underneath your profile when you log in, the left-side navigation bar, and in the tenth row of Netflix’s homepage.
The company has been testing the feature for months, under a variety of names (including “Shuffle Play”), but today marks its official worldwide debut for all Netflix users. To start, the company is rolling out the Play Something button on TV-based versions of the Netflix app, but it has plans to start testing it on Android devices, too.
Netflix is stressing that the Play Something button isn’t just a “random” button that throws you to the metaphorical wolves of the streaming service’s nearly endless well of content. Rather, the feature uses your existing profile and taste in shows and movies to surface similar titles based on what kinds of things you already watch. The button will show a variety of algorithmically curated content, including entirely new shows and movies, series or films you’ve already started, or something on your watchlist.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
