Plex is perhaps the best media server available for customers these days, though that will certainly vary by individual tastes. The server and apps are capable of running across almost any platform, and Google will apparently not provide a stumbling block for that.
The company is announcing it will be ready when Android TV launches later this year. The platform, which had been rumored for sometime, was announced this past week at the Google I/O conference.
Amazon Prime has been busy these days, both adding a music streaming service, as well as launching its own original programming. The latter has already seen complete first seasons for Betas and Alpha House, and more pilots set to launch later this year.
Today the Studio arm of the retailer takes on children's shows, debuting a new title called Creative Galaxy. The show comes from Angela Santomero, who previously worked on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, as well as creating the hit show Blue's Clues.
We've seen this before. Washington DC proving time and again its lack of knowledge about the modern technological world. We witnessed it when Ted Stephens, in a speech to congress, famously referred to the internet as "a series of tubes". Most recently, we've had to deal with the FCC looking to put an end to Net Neutrality -- see John Oliver's description for the best explanation on that. The latter is more likely less about knowledge and more about being in the pockets of cable company lobbyists.
Now the latest blow has been dealt. The Supreme Court has handed down its decision on Aereo. If you aren't familiar, Aereo is, or perhaps was, a TV provider which was moving into various cities around the US. If it was in your market, you could "rent" an antenna which picked up over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts. The company then retransmitted this to the customer via an internet connection. Each customer rented his or her own dime-sized antenna.
Many of us grew up with PBS programming, such as Sesame Street. While that show is still around -- it seems it will last forever -- others are now popular with today's youth. But while we may remember a console TV and antenna, today kids expect things like cable and set-top boxes, even smartphones and tablets. Public television is moving on to meet these new needs.
Today PBS Kids announces an expansion of its reach, coming to Apple TV, Android and even Chromecast. Along for the ride, are many of kids' favorite shows, including that old standby, Sesame Street. Big Bird will be joined by others, though, like Daniel Tiger.
Almost two weeks ago, retail giant Amazon added music streaming for Prime customers. This is in addition to the other awesome benefits, such as a solid instant video service, free two day shipping and a Kindle lending library. For $99 per year, customers get all of these features, and Amazon reaps rewards in the background.
Now the company is boasting of the big first week that its new music service experienced, claiming tens of millions of songs have already been streamed in those opening days. "Prime members across the country have been rockin' out this week, exceeding our expectations for how well this new benefit would be received," says Steve Boom, vice president of Digital Music for Amazon.
This past weekend we wrote about music service Earbits shutting down, effective June 16th. The service sadly ran out of funding after making a good run, competing against the big players in the music streaming business. But rumors of the service's demise were greatly exaggerated -- nod to Mark Twain.
Founder and CEO Joey Flores sent out a message to customers with some good news -- the site will live to fight another day. In brief, Flores states "The sentiment of the community did not go unnoticed. Since then, a strategic partner has stepped forward and provided the necessary funding to bring Earbits back online indefinitely. The web service and mobile apps have been relaunched, effective immediately".
Do you enjoy listening to a bit of Radiohead on YouTube -- well, perhaps "enjoy" might be the wrong word for Thom Yorke's compositions -- but anyway, if you do, you might find that your viewing pleasure is disrupted when the band's music videos are stripped from Google's service.
This could happen pretty soon, according to reports, because of a dispute between the video streaming giant and the independent labels which look after the likes of Radiohead and the Arctic Monkeys.
4K, also known as Ultra HD, is coming. In fact, it's here, few people can yet take advantage of it, but that's OK, as there is little content to view anyway. Netflix made a small splash when it released the latest season of House of Cards in 4K, but now it is diving in deeper.
The streaming service announces that it is bringing all 62 episodes of the hit show Breaking Bad into the Ultra HD revolution. "Netflix and Sony agreed on an early subset of IMF for the transfer of the video and audio files for Breaking Bad. IMF stands for Interoperable Master Format, an emerging SMPTE specification governing file formats and metadata for digital media archiving and B2B exchange", says Kevin McEntee of Netflix.
Whole home audio does not come cheap, and the big player to date has been the Sonos system. Now Samsung is jumping into the market and has found a major music player to partner with in its implementation of the system.
The electronics maker and music streaming service Spotify are announcing the new Samsung Wireless Audio Speaker range (M7 and M5). "With Spotify Connect built in, you can stream your favorite music and playlists directly from Spotify. Hit play on your mobile or tablet, and the music booms out in any room of your home. You can even play through multiple speakers at the same time", the streaming service states.
Just this week Amazon rolled out Prime Music to all subscribers of its video and shipping service, adding one more competitor to an already crowded market. However, tempering that good news was a bit of sadness, as one other service has announced it will be closing its virtual doors very soon.
Earbits, an up and coming competitor in the space, is announcing it will close up shop on June 16th. Earbits was never a major player in the field, but it provided an alternative option, and was a benefit to aspiring artists, so the loss will be felt by many.
Earlier this year Amazon announced it would be raising the annual fee for its Prime service, with the price jumping from $79 to $99. It's still a reasonable deal, given that customers receive access to Netflix-like streaming movies and TV shows, free two-day shipping on orders and access to the Kindle Lending Library.
To help soften the blow of the increased price, and to perhaps grab more customers, Amazon is announcing that a music service is now part of the Prime deal.
Roku, the tiny set-top box, has many entertainment options available for its customers. The options, which the company calls "channels", are available through the store, which is accessed via the box, and there are numerous offerings to choose from.
Some are region-specific, however, and one of those has been added today. UK viewers can now add ITV from the Channel Store. "This is a major addition as ITV Player makes it possible to catch up on content across ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 and CITV! That means shows such as Coronation Street, Britain’s Got Talent, Emmerdale, This Morning, Cold Blood and The Vampire Diaries, as well game shows, news, children’s entertainment and documentaries -- all available to stream when you want, where you want", says Roku's Ed Lee.
Most everyone, at least the tech-savvy who read this, are familiar with VLC Player -- the Video LAN Client. It's a jack-of-all trades media player, that is capable of handling pretty much any format you can throw at it, no matter how obscure it may be.
Now the developers of the project are revealing one more feature that is on the roadmap -- support for Chromecast. The question was asked on the forums and lead developer Felix Paul Kuehne responded that support was in the works. "Yep, this is exactly what we are up to", he states.
If you have been using Netflix on any number of devices in your living room, including game consoles and various set-top boxes, then you're likely familiar with the "Post-Play" option. The feature automatically queues up the next episode of a show and begins it playing. For movies, it displays three recommendations at the conclusion.
Now the streaming service is bringing "Post-Play" to its Android app. For phones, this will work only with TV shows, but on tablets you will get the feature with both shows and movies.
Over the years, many have predicted television's demise, because of competition from the internet. However, it seems that the opposite is happening -- TV is more popular than ever thanks to an increase in quality programming. Shows such as Game of Thrones and Bates Motel have viewers tuning in and on the edge of their seats.
It turns out that the internet is actually complementing television, as more and more people choose to consume TV on the web. According to Adobe, online viewing is up 246 percent year-over-year -- that is a shocking figure. However, this is not just people staring at desktops and laptops, but utilizing game consoles and mobile apps too.