Amazon Prime Video finally gets a Windows app and may add live TV

Streaming services are among the most popular applications on any platform, and that’s certainly the case for Microsoft’s Windows as well. While users on Windows have the option to stream videos from these services in a web browser, they can also opt for downloading dedicated apps from the Microsoft Store. Netflix and Hulu have apps available on the Microsoft Store, and it finally looks like Amazon will be joining the party with its own Prime Video Windows app. On top of that, a separate report from Protocol suggests that Amazon may be looking to add live TV to the mix.

Amazon Prime Video – Finally on the Microsoft Store

First, let’s talk about the Amazon Prime Video app for Windows. This is a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) app which means it is designed to not only be compatible with Windows desktops but also with tablets and Xbox consoles. That’s not major news for Xbox users, though, because there’s already a Prime Video app for Xbox and the Microsoft Store listing only lists “PC” under “Available on.” Netflix, another UWP app, for example, lists “Xbox One, PC, and Mobile device.”

Anyway, the app itself looks to be a pretty standard Amazon Prime Video client. The main screen features horizontal lists of shows and movies with a sidebar on the left. The sidebar can take you to the Amazon Store, channels, categories, “My Stuff,” downloads, and “Kids.” As the Downloads section suggests, the app does indeed support downloading videos to watch offline.

You can find the Prime Video app in the Microsoft Store right now and install it. At the time of publication, if you try to sign in you’ll get an error message. We expect Amazon to officially announce the app’s availability soon. Watching video in a web browser from primevideo.com (outside of the U.S.) or from Amazon.com was never a great experience, especially on Windows 10 on ARM devices like the Microsoft Surface Pro X, so we hope the UWP app provides a much better experience.

Live TV on Prime Video

The next bit of Prime Video news comes from Janko Roettgers at Protocol. According to the report, which cites both several job listings and unnamed sources, Amazon plans to add 24/7 live programming and linear programming to the service. 24/7 feeds would enable customers to watch streams of TV stations airing sports, news, movies, and more. This would make Prime Video a direct competitor to services like YouTube TV and Sling TV.

Prime Video has traditionally focused on on-demand streaming and rentals, though it has dabbled in live content before. Amazon has broadcasted NFL Thursday Night Football games and live Cheddar and ABC News channels in the News app. Users can also sign up for cable TV channels through the Amazon Channels feature.

Amazon’s combination of Prime Video on-demand content and live programming would make it a very attractive option in the streaming space. Even if it doesn’t have the same variety of channels as YouTube TV, it would be the cherry on top of an already popular service. Many people still watch linear TV channels and adding that to Prime Video would bring even more customers over. The fact that job listings for implementing this feature still up suggest that it could be a while before anything materializes, though.

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Source 1: Microsoft | Via 1: Aggiornamenti Lumia | Source 2: Protocol

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Google Chrome for Android can now define words with a single tap

Google Chrome for Android has a variety of tools to help you quickly perform tasks without leaving your current tab. This includes different actions for a single-tap and a long-press. Long-pressing on a word will give you the ability to select text, copy, share, do a web search, and more. A single-tap could previously perform a quick search for the word, but now it appears to be able to define words as well.

As you can see in the example above, Chrome’s existing “touch to search” feature brings up a bottom bar with a very brief description that allows you to pull up to see the full results. The third screenshot above shows a word on the same web page highlighted with a single-tap, but this time Chrome is showing a dictionary definition complete with a pronunciation guide. Pulling up the tab displays the full search results including results from Google’s Knowledge Graph in the same way as before.

We’re not sure if this new functionality will continue to exist alongside the old “touch to search” feature or if it’s a further advancement. Right now, different words bring up different things, some with a more general description and others with the full definition. The new functionality feels like what happens on Kindle devices when you select a word.

We’re also not sure how widely this is rolling out. It’s working for me right now on stable Chrome for Android (v83.0.4103.106). It’s likely being enabled for users with a server-side switch. However, you can enable it right now by toggling the flag found at chrome://flags/#contextual-search-definitions.

Google Chrome: Fast & Secure (Free, Google Play) →

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Via: Android Police

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Facebook discontinues its affordable Oculus Go VR headset

Facebook entered the VR market with the purchase of Oculus VR Inc back in 2014. At the time, the Oculus Rift was the king of VR headsets and can be credited for kickstarting the trend of virtual reality gaming and media consumption. However, VR headsets were priced well out of reach for the average consumer as not only were the headsets themselves quite expensive but they also required being tethered to powerful PC hardware. That’s why Facebook’s standalone VR headsets like the Oculus Go, and more importantly the Oculus Quest, have really taken off among consumers. The Oculus Go, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821, is now being discontinued.

In late 2017, Facebook launched the Oculus Go in partnership with Xiaomi. It was a decidedly entry-level standalone VR headset supporting only 3 degrees of freedom (3DoF) and having a 5.5″ LCD with 1280×1440 per eye, up to 72Hz refresh rate, and a 2600mAh battery for up to 2 hours of gaming or 2.5 hours of video playback. It was followed-up by the Oculus Quest, which was superior in pretty much every way including in the display (OLED display with 1440×1600 resolution per eye), a faster processor (the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835), active cooling, and 6 degrees of freedom. Additionally, an even better Oculus Quest model is reportedly launching by the end of the year with features such as a 90Hz refresh rate, which could bring down the price of the current Oculus Quest. Because of this, there’s little room for the Oculus Go, so Facebook is ending sales of the VR headset this year. What’s more is that the company won’t release any more VR headsets with 3DOF.

Oculus Go XDA Forum ||| Oculus Quest XDA Forum

You’ll still be able to continue using the Oculus Go if you own one already, and it will continue to receive bug fixes and security updates through 2022 after which the device will reach end-of-life (EOL) status. Developers will not be able to submit any new apps or app updates for the device after December 4, 2020, and new apps won’t be published to the store after December 18, 2020. Updates from that point onwards will not include any new features, sticking strictly to bug fixes and security updates as we just mentioned. If you’re looking to buy one now, you might be interested in checking out the Oculus Quest instead, which is a better and more complete device anyway.

New Way to Distribute Apps

In addition to discontinuing the Oculus Go, Facebook is also announcing that they’re working on an easier way for developers to distribute Oculus Quest apps outside of the Oculus Store. In 2021, developers will be able to share their apps to anyone with a Quest without the need for sideloading or being accepted into the Oculus Store. Facebook does not have any details to share yet on how this will work but they’re making this announcement so developers will have time to adapt their apps to target the Quest.

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Source: Oculus

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Developers can now enable hardware acceleration for Wear OS watch faces

Google’s Wear OS platform doesn’t get the same amount of love as Android for smartphones, but it still gets the occasional update that adds new features. That slow approach matches the low number of Wear OS smartwatches we see get launched every year. Wear OS smartwatches with less than 1GB of RAM tend to struggle with UI performance in some areas, but thanks to the addition of hardware acceleration for watch faces, developers should be able to make things run a little better.

The advantage of hardware acceleration for watch faces is the GPU can accelerate rendering the watch face UI and animations/transitions at higher frame rates. I’ve noticed Wear OS watch faces can sometimes stutter, especially right when the display wakes up. Hardware acceleration can help make watch faces feel just a little silkier.

Wear OS apps have been able to take advantage of hardware acceleration for a while, but it hasn’t been available to watch face developers. Last month, Google updated the Wearable Support Library (version 2.7.0) to let developers request a hardware-accelerated canvas. Along with this, there’s more UI performance data by enabling Debug GPU profiling under Settings > Developer options.

There are a couple of catches that come with this change. First of all, Google says “hardware acceleration can greatly lower the battery life of a device.” This is especially the case if the watch face has “long-running animations,” which Google advises against implementing. The second catch is that hardware acceleration for watch faces is only available for Wear OS devices on Android 9 Pie or later.

Like many features, it’s up to developers to implement this in their Wear OS watch faces. Hopefully, many do and we’ll see smoother watch faces. The addition of this feature won’t be a saving grace for Google’s smartwatch OS, but it’s a small step in the right direction.

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Source: Google | Via: 9to5Google

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Nintendo is scaling back its mobile gaming business to focus on the Switch

In the last few years, one of gaming’s juggernauts, Nintendo, has been trying to compete in the mobile gaming space. While Nintendo was once fully invested in only launching games on their own platforms, we’ve seen the Japanese company launch games such as Mario Kart Tour and Super Mario Run on iOS and Android. Nintendo’s decision to launch games on smartphones makes sense, at least financially. Mobile games can be highly profitable despite the comparatively lower development costs, pretty much everyone has a smartphone these days, Nintendo has a very strong brand and IP lineup, and mobile gaming is on the rise around the world. In fact, mobile gaming is predicted to grow to become a $77 billion business this year, in large part thanks to COVID-19 forcing people to stay at home. However, it seems that Nintendo is dialing back its presence in the mobile gaming business a bit, according to a recent report from Bloomberg.

Nintendo had first entered the mobile gaming market out of necessity owing to the Wii U’s failure. Investors hoped the highly lucrative mobile gaming market could offset Nintendo’s (at the time) struggling sales. In fact, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa previously said that mobile games could become a $1 billion business for Nintendo while former Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said the company would release 2-3 mobile titles a year. However, with the Nintendo Switch being a smashing success, there’s not much of a need for Nintendo to focus on the smartphone gaming market right now. Switch titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Fire Emblem: Three Houses have proved to be gigantic successes for Nintendo while the company’s mobile games including Mario Kart Tour, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, and Fire Emblem: Heroes aren’t growing nearly as much as they would have liked in relation to other top earners in the market.

Source: Sensor Tower

Because of this, Mr. Furukawa has said that the company won’t release many new mobile games in the near future. In fact, their mobile release pipeline after Mario Kart Tour is reportedly empty, and the company is not expected to launch another mobile game until at least the end of this year.

The original Bloomberg report cites a few reasons why Nintendo is struggling in the mobile gaming market right now. The mobile market is currently saturated with “Gacha” games: games that, while usually free-to-play, encourage users to spend huge sums of money on virtual skins, loot boxes, characters, items, and more. While Nintendo has toyed with this business model for some of its titles like Fire Emblem: Heroes, the company reportedly fears that going all-in on this model with their most popular franchises can hurt their brand reputation. Additionally, Nintendo doesn’t actually have a lot of series that they can effectively convert to the Gacha business model.

This is not to say that Nintendo will completely retreat from the mobile gaming market, but they definitely won’t be as invested in it as they were before. New games will likely only come in order to appease their shareholders, but they won’t be the company’s focus right now as the Switch is proving to be really successful.

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The TCL 10 Pro and TCL 10L get their first software updates and discounts on Amazon and Best Buy

The TCL 10 Pro and TCL 10L were launched in early April after being announced at CES 2020. These devices make up one of TCL’s most interesting series’ in a while. There was some confusion at first about how many updates these phones would be getting, but TCL later clarified that they’d at least get Android 11 and 2 years of security updates. This week, the phones are getting their first updates and some discounts.

TCL 10L Forums ||| TCL 10 Pro Forums

The changelogs for the TCL 10 Pro and 10L (our review) are pretty similar. Both include camera performance improvements, system stability enhancements, and the May 2020 security patches. The Pro model also gets “improved touch panel performance and user experience.” Check out the full changelogs below.

TCL 10 Pro (version v2.0.4D.H.D):

• Improved camera performance
• TCL watermark no longer turned on by default
• Improved touch panel performance and user experience
• Enhanced system stability
• Android Security Maintenance Releases updated to May 2020

TCL 10L (version v2.0.3C.H.9):

• Improved camera performance
• TCL watermark no longer turned on by default
• Enhanced system stability
• Android Security Maintenance Releases updated to May 2020

In addition to the updates, TCL USA is offering a few discounts on the devices. Both Amazon(1) (2) (affiliate links) and Best Buy(1) (2) have 15% off promotions for the TCL 10 Pro and 10L. Best Buy is offering an additional $50 off if you activate service with Verizon or AT&T at the time of purchase. Sprint customers who activate a new line of service or a new account can get the 10 Pro and 10L for $279.99 and $109.99 respectively, whereas those who upgrade can still get it for $329.99 and $159.99 respectively. This promotion ends June 28th.

Specifications	TCL 10L	TCL 10 Pro
Dimensions & Weight	162.2 x 75.6 x 8.4 mm 180g	158.5 x 72.4 x 9.2 mm 177g
Display	6.53-inch LCD LTPS Dotch display FHD+ 2340 x 1080 resolution 395 ppi 19.5:9 aspect ratio 91% screen-to-body ratio 1500:1 contrast ratio Dedicated display engine Real-time SDR to HDR conversion Gorilla Glass 3 Top left hole punch	6.47-inch curved AMOLED display FHD+ 2340 x 1080 resolution 398 ppi 19.5:9 aspect ratio 93% screen-to-body ratio 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio Dedicated display engine Real-time SDR to HDR conversion Always-on-display Teardrop notch
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 665: 4x Kryo 260 Gold @ 2.0GHz 4x Kryo 260 Silver @ 1.8GHz Adreno 610	Qualcomm Snapdragon 675: 2x Kryo 460 Gold @ 2.0 GHz 6x Kryo 460 Silver @ 1.7 GHz Adreno 612
RAM & Storage	6GB RAM + 64GB EMMC 6GB RAM+ 128GB UFS Micro SD card, up to 256GB	6GB RAM + 128GB UFS 2.1 Micro SD card, up to 256GB
Battery & Charging	4,000 mAh	4,500 mAh Quick Charge 3.0, 18W (50% in 35 minutes)
Rear Cameras	Photo: Primary: 48MP S5KGM1, f/1.8, 1/2.25″ sensor, 0.8µm pixels Secondary: 8MP GC8034, super-wide-angle, f/2.2, 1/4″ sensor, 1.12µm pixels Tertiary: 2MP GC2385, macro, f/2.4, 1/5″ sensor, 1.65µm pixels Quarternary: 2MP GC2385, depth, f/2.4, 1/5″ sensor, 1.65µm pixels Video: 4K @ 30fps 1080 @ 120fps 720p @ 240fps	Photo: Primary: 64MP GW1, f/1.8, 1/1.7″ sensor, 0.8µm pixels, PDAF, CDAF, LDAF Secondary: 16MP 3P9, super-wide-angle, f/2.4, 1/3″, 1.0µm pixels Tertiary: 5MP GC5035, macro, f/2.2, 1/5″ sensor, 1.12µm pixels Quarternary: 2MP OV02K10, depth, f/1.8, 1/2.8″ sensor, 2.9µm pixels Video: 4K/1080p/720p @ 30 fps 1080p/720p @ 120fps 720p @ 24ofps 720p @ 960fps
Front Cameras	16MP S5K3P9SP04, f/2.2, Single Hole Punch	24MP OV24B, f/2.0, Teardrop Notch
Other Features	Rear fingerprint scanner NFC Bluetooth 5.0, Super Bluetooth Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n for 2.4GHz Wi-Fi: 802.11a/n/ac for 5GHz Smart key	In-Display fingerprint scanner NFC Bluetooth 5.0, Super Bluetooth Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g/n for 2.4GHz Wi-Fi: 802.11a/n/ac for 5GHz Smart key
Audio	Audio chipset: WCD9370 Audio amplifier: NXP TFA9890 3.5mm audio jack Bottom firing mono speaker Super Bluetooth	Audio chipset: WCD9370 Audio amplifier: NXP TFA9890 3.5mm audio jack Bottom firing mono speaker Super Bluetooth

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OnePlus is announcing deals and bundles every Wednesday during the weekly “OnePlus Day”

OnePlus is currently on track for an excellent 2020. Recently, they launched the OnePlus 8 series comprised of the OnePlus 8 (our review), a not-too-costly smartphone with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 and a 90Hz display, and the OnePlus 8 Pro (our review), a true premium flagship with a WQHD+ 120Hz display. But that’s not all the brand has planned for this year: A more affordable mid-range phone and two new smart TVs are in the works. In case you’re looking to purchase a new OnePlus device right now, though, keep an eye out every Wednesday for “OnePlus Day”.

As you might have guessed from reading the title, OnePlus Day will consist of weekly deals and bundles for new and existing OnePlus customers and users, available on OnePlus.com. These will mainly consist of discounts on some of their smartphones and/or accessories. So, for example, you might get a discount on cases or accessories, maybe even phones, or a bundle that includes a phone and something else. These deals are only valid for the North American market, but it’s possible we’ll see similar offerings in other markets such as Europe and India down the road.

This week’s deals, which will go live tomorrow on OnePlus.com, include:

• Purchase a OnePlus 8 in Interstellar Glow, get Andre Phone Case + OnePlus Type-C Bullets Earphones (Black)
• Purchase a T-Mobile OnePlus 7T in Blue or Silver, get OnePlus 7T 3D Tempered Glass Screen Protector + Silicone Bumper Case Red + OnePlus Type-C Bullets Earphones Black
• Purchase a OnePlus 8 Pro, get OnePlus Warp Charge 30 Car Charger
• Purchase the OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z Earphones, get $20 OFF, making the price $29.95

OnePlus 7T Forums ||| OnePlus 7T Pro Forums ||| OnePlus 8 Forums ||| OnePlus 8 Pro Forums

All of these deals will be running starting tomorrow and lasting for the rest of the 7 day period except for the Bullets Wireless Z deal which will only be available tomorrow. Next week’s deals will also include the OnePlus 8 in Interstellar Glow, the OnePlus 8 Pro, the T-Mobile OnePlus 7T in Blue & Silver, and the Bullets Wireless Z Earphones.

This might be the perfect time to jump to a new OnePlus smartphone if you’ve been waiting for a deal.

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