Author: Press Room
Marketers love using tech buzzwords to trick you into spending more money than necessary. And ever since HDMI has become the standard way to connect devices to TVs, companies have offered gold-plated HDMI cables that are supposedly of “superior” quality. In reality, this practice has minimal benefits and isn’t something you should pay extra for. You don’t need an expensive HDMI cable, but you should know what to look out for when buying one since they aren’t all the same. Why gold-plated cables offer no meaningful improvement HDMI doesn’t need the Midas touch Credit: Oluwademilade Afolabi/MakeUseOf Manufacturers try to convince you…
While modern smart TVs are far more advanced than their recent ancestors, when used right out of the box, we are only tapping the surface of their potential. Most require add-ons or accessories to perform at their best, such as digital streaming devices or soundbar/subwoofer setups. However, even within the TV itself, you can install a handful of free apps to unlock features that turn it into a truly “smart” device. After installing these five apps, my TV stopped feeling like a generic appliance and started behaving like a flexible, customized entertainment center. Finally, my TV is worthy of all…
I’ve had a 75″ LG Smart TV for roughly 10 years now, and its picture quality has yet to fail me. Instead, it’s been the smart TV apps that have given more jeers than cheers. A few additions to the living room have made nightly TV watching a much more joyful experience, and I can still savor the goodness of my 4K beauty for many more years. After growing frustrated with laggy apps, outdated software, and spotty internet performance on my LG TV, I decided that it was time to make a change. Rather than dropping hundreds to thousands of…
The fifth and final season of Stranger Things is here. What will become of characters like Eleven, Mike, Will, and Hopper? Can they defeat Vecna, the dark entity trying to invade our reality? After nearly 10 years, how will this generational TV show end? As of this writing, Netflix has released four episodes from the final season, with more to come. In the meantime, fans are trading theories about how the series might end. Some of those theories are nuts, like the idea that the whole story was one long Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I’ll try to focus on the…
I watch 100% of my YouTube videos on TV, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. YouTube is rapidly replacing traditional TV, and it’s easy to see why—the app comes pre-installed on most Smart TVs, and with all kinds of high-quality videos being produced by independent creators, TV is the proper way to enjoy them. However, when I first started using the YouTube app on TV, a lot of features seemed to be missing, features that were available on the mobile app, or so I thought. But as I got used to the interface, I found ways to make…
A lot of times, when a new technology or product comes onto the market that’s getting a lot of buzz, people want to talk about it. Whether it’s a new iPhone or Galaxy or the newest feature on Instagram, each one is going to have an audience that cares about it and another that the news of its existence never even gets to them. That’s the way the world is, as people are focused on certain things in their lives and, if a new topic happens to enter their stratosphere, they’ll pay attention. If it’s not in their interests, they…
After a protracted bidding war, it has been revealed that Netflix will purchase Warner Bros., a 100-year-old movie studio responsible for a huge number of movie classics, for $82.7 billion. That means that Netflix will own the rights to the DC Comics movies, the Harry Potter series, the Game of Thrones franchise, HBO, and much more. I don’t want to be hyperbolic, but this is a direct attack on movie fans and threatens to grind our happiness into chalky acrid dust. Netflix hates movie theaters and always has The idea of making movies for movie theaters is “outdated,” says Netflix…
Netflix’s vast library means there is always something new and fresh to watch, but sifting through all the options feels overwhelming. It takes time and effort to filter through shows and movies, and that’s just when you’re watching on your own. Add in another person, and the time taking rises exponentionally. I’m not planning to leave Netflix anytime soon, but as a long time subscriber, I realized that I needed to take Netflix’s catalog into my own hands and plan some strategies to find what I want to watch much faster. No longer will I be stuck for something to…
Every time we reach the end of the year, another service gets the Spotify Wrapped treatment. This year marks the first time YouTube has done a roundup: its new YouTube Recap. And while it sounds like a natural fit for the year-end celebration season, YouTube Recap fell flat for me. With Spotify Wrapped launching a day later and impressing me much more, I’ve worked through why this is. YouTube Recap feels sterile I don’t feel connected to it at all YouTube Recap begins with a list of “things” (the most boring word imaginable) you’ve explored. This is a general list…
The premiere batch of episodes for the final season of Stranger Things has been met with a lot of praise and hype in equal measure, with more hits than misses overall to be excited about. We don’t yet know if the long-running and highly popular Netflix original will stick the landing, but it’s certainly off to a good start. As a major fan of Stranger Things, this is great news for me, because I hate investing years in a series only for it to fall flat at the finish line. But something about its release structure has reminded me of…