We have a variety of Apple and industry related news for you today on the AWT News Update:
- Sling TV announces Cloud DVR support for the Apple TV
- Happy birthday, Apple Watch! It’s the second birthday of the beloved timepiece, and we’ll be discussing it tonight (6:30 PM PDT/9:30 PM EDT) on AWT TV.
- Some of Apple’s self-driving car software testers are rocket scientists…really!
- A problem with the flagship Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ has some users seeing red, and they probably won’t be happy with the “fix”
The text version of the podcast can be viewed below. To listen to the podcast here, click the play button on the player below. Note to Apple News readers: you’ll need to visit Apple World Today in order to listen to the podcast.
Text Version
This is Steve Sande for Apple World Today, and you’re listening to the AWT News Update for April 24th, 2017.
The Dish network’s internet-only TV service — Sling TV — just announced the availability of Cloud DVR support for Apple TV. This option is currently available for $5 monthly in a “first look” state, and lets users record some shows for later viewing. Subscribers to Sling TV can keep their recordings as long as they want, but after 50 hours of content are loaded the service automatically deletes the oldest data to make room for new recordings. The DVR function is blocked on some channels due to rights considerations. To add the DVR package to your account on your Apple TV, you must go to the Sling.com website.
It’s the second birthday of the Apple Watch, and we’ll be discussing the wrist computer, the pros and cons of the device, and what we would like to see in the future on tonight’s AWT TV. We’ll be going live on the Apple World Today channel on YouTube at 6:30 PM PDT/9:30 PM EDT, and invite you to join in on the fun as Marty Edwards and I chat about the Watch and other topics.
Remember our Friday afternoon bit about the Apple employees who are testing Apple’s self-driving car software? Apple has definitely hired some rocket scientists to work on the project, as three of the engineers who will be testing out the cars and software worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. There’s also another ex-NASA researcher now working for Apple who was given the task at one point during his tenure with the space agency to develop an autonomous vehicle to explore one of Jupiter’s moons.
You know how Apple’s devices are working to make sure that colors look as natural as possible in a variety of lighting conditions? Well, if for some reason you decided you had to have a Samsung Galaxy S8, you may be seeing red. A large number of the phones have been exhibiting a visible red tint in screens, with an industry watcher for the Korea Herald saying that it might be due to a color balance problem as “Samsung used deep red AMOLED to strengthen the red.” Samsung is denying that there’s a hardware issue with the phones, despite many examples of the devices showing the red tints. So how is Samsung going to “fix” the issue? By sending out a software update as early as next week that will let users do a manual color calibration. Says Samsung, “In the past, we have received feedback that consumers wanted the ability to customize the color setting of their Galaxy devices due to natural variations in displays, and we provided the option to do so in previous software updates. While the Galaxy S8 and S8+ have the ability for the user to modify the color of the display, Samsung has listened to feedback and has decided to release a software update as early as next week which will provide customers with a further enhanced ability to adjust the color setting to their preference.” Way to go, Samsung, putting the “fix” for a design or manufacturing flaw onto the backs of your customers.
That’s all for today; I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon with another edition of the AWT News Update.
