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Saying good-bye to cable television

[email protected] (Brian X Chen)
October 24, 2016

Consider what's faced by people who want to end their TV subscriptions — what's known as cutting the cable cord. There are multiple streaming services and bills to juggle. And there are numerous streaming gadgets to choose from.

cableSo to make moving away from cable cords easier, we teamed up with the Wirecutter, the product recommendations website, to compile the definitive guide to cord-cutting. The Wirecutter tested services, streaming devices and antennas to come up with cord-cutter bundles for different types of people in 2016: movie buffs, sports addicts, fans of premium TV shows, binge watchers and families with children.

For movie buffsFor movie buffs, plenty of cord-cutting options will make any transition painless. Netflix, Amazon and Hulu all have large film libraries for streaming — Amazon's alone holds 18,400 titles, though the selection regularly changes because of agreements with content providers.

Netflix's library has shrunk over time; the company is no longer trying to offer the glut of back-catalogue movies that every service seems to have. But Netflix has tried to compensate by focusing on movies it has exclusive licenses to, including those from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Lucas film.

Amazon focuses more on quantity, but without the exclusive titles the other services offer. Amazon, iTunes, the Google Play store and Vudu usually get digital versions of recent movies that can be purchased for $15 (Rs 1,001) to $20 (Rs 1,334), or rented for about $5 (Rs 333), even before they're available on disc.

For most people, Netflix will offer the best selection of new movies and original programming — and Google, Amazon or Apple will offer the best selection for rentals or purchases. n Best Service: Netflix plus a la carte rentals/purchases ($8 or Rs 533 to $12 or Rs 800/month)n Best Hardware: Roku Streaming Stick ($50 or Rs 3,336)n Most Affordable: Roku Streaming Stickn Also Works With: Apple TV ($149 or Rs 9,943), other Roku models

For sports addictsA subscription to either PlayStation Vue or Sling TV gets you ESPN and Fox Sports 1, depending on the package. And each system offers additional sports channels, depending on your interests.

You may also want to watch over-the-air broadcast channels, especially for NFL games. Most televisions have a built-in over-the-air tuner that brings in local major networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) using your TV hardware and an inexpensive antenna, such as the Antennas Direct ClearStream Eclipse ($40 or 2,669).

n Best Service: PlayStation Vue ($30 or Rs 2,002 to $45 or Rs 3,003/month)n Best Hardware: Fire TV ($40 or 2,669 to $100 or Rs 6,673) or Google Chromecast ($35 or Rs 2,335)n Most Affordable: Google Chromecastn Also Works With: Apple TV ($149 or Rs 9,943), Roku ($50 or Rs 3,336)

Premium network showsNo problem. HBO, Showtime and Starz can all be viewed on a phone, tablet or streaming device with a direct subscription — no cable or satellite subscription or long-term contract required. That allows access to each network's original programming and the movies each is showing, and you can watch from anywhere.

n Best Hardware: Roku Streaming Stick ($50 or Rs 3,336)n Most Affordable: Roku Streaming Stick or Google Chromecast ($35 or Rs 2,335)n Also Works With: Apple TV ($149 or Rs 9,943), other Roku models

For TV binge watchersNetflix and Amazon Instant Video are your best bets to binge-watch television shows. Each offers award-winning original content, including “House of Cards,” “Orange Is the New Black,” “Master of None,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Making a Murderer” on Netflix; and on Amazon, “Transparent,” “Mozart in the Jungle” and “The Man in the High Castle.”

All episodes are released online at once. Each service also carries recent TV series, like “Better Call Saul” and “Mr Robot,” shortly after the DVD release date. If you don't want to wait, you can usually purchase a “season pass” for current TV shows through iTunes, Amazon or Google Play at a cost of $20 or Rs 1,334 to $30 or Rs 2,002 per season usually. Google Play is generally the least expensive, offering savings of around 15 to 25 percent — and watch new episodes the day they're aired on TV. Hulu Plus focuses on current TV seasons, letting you watch them right after they air instead of when the season has ended. But it lacks many current popular shows.

n Best Service: Netflix ($8 or Rs 533 to $12 or Rs 800/month) or Amazon ($99 or Rs 6,606/year), or a la carte seasonsn Best Hardware: Roku Streaming Stick ($50 or Rs 3,336)n Most Affordable: Roku Streaming Stick

Also Works With: Fire TV ($40 or 2,669 to $100 or Rs 6,673), other Roku Models, Apple TV ($149 — Google and Amazon require an iOS or macOS device)

For children and familiesNetflix offers a wide selection of content, both educational and entertaining, along with original children's programming like the recent “Voltron” reboot. It also offers the option to create a children's profile that lets you limit viewing to particular ratings or age levels. In addition, Netflix has a new partnership with Disney that will make more Disney films available for streaming.

PBS Kids Now lets you stream recent episodes of PBS shows, and the selection is updated every week with the latest episodes of most shows. Amazon Instant Video also has children's content and its own custom children's programming, as well as FreeTime Unlimited, a selection of curated shows, apps and games for children for a monthly fee ($3 or Rs 200 for Amazon Prime members, $5 or Rs 333 for non members). However, FreeTime Unlimited is available only on Amazon's own hardware.

Sling TV also offers a children's package for those who want to stream Nick Jr., Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Cartoon Network and more.

n Best Service: Netflix ($8 or Rs 533 to $12 or Rs 800/month)n Best Hardware: Roku Streaming Stick ($50 or Rs 3,336)n Most Affordable: Roku Streaming Stick (except for FreeTime Unlimited), Amazon Fire TV ($40 or 2,669 to $100 or Rs 6,673)n Also Works With: Apple TV ($149 or Rs 9,943), other Roku models

Why it still isn't perfectThere are still downsides to cord-cutting. JD Power & Associates, a research firm that collects feedback on brands and products from consumers, said two factors made cord cutters less satisfied: customer care and value, according to J D Power.For customer care, cord cutters may run into problems more often than traditional TV subscribers, said Kirk Parsons, a senior director of telecommunications research at J D Power. The streaming content provider may be experiencing issues. Your Wi-Fi connection might be spotty, or your internet provider may be experiencing issues. It's tough to tell.

For value, cutting the cord isn't very cheap if you then subscribe to multiple services to gain access to a diverse set of content. For cable subscribers, paying one bill is less of a hassle than juggling multiple bills. And even after you subscribe to multiple streaming services, there is still some content that you may miss out on because it is available only via cable or satellite.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

Tokyo, Feb 25: Japan's Chitetsu Watanabe, recognized at 112 years as the oldest man in the world, has passed away 11 days after he received the Guinness World Record certificate, his family said on Tuesday.

Watanabe died on Sunday night, Efe news reported.

He received the official certificate on February 12 at a nursing home in Joetsu in Niigata prefecture, where he resided.

Soon after being certified as the oldest man, he began to experience a lack of appetite and respiratory problems, the wife of his eldest son told public broadcaster NHK.

Born on March 5, 1907 in a family of farmers, Watanabe moved at the age of 20 to Taiwan, where he worked at a sugar refinery for 18 years before returning to Japan after the end of World War II.

A fan of calligraphy, custard and ice cream, Watanabe told the Guinness team that the key to his long life was laughter.

He was recognized as the oldest male in the world following the deaths in 2019 of German Gustav Gerneth (in October), aged 114 years, and Japan's Masazo Nonaka (in January), at the age of 113, three months older than the German.

It remains to be seen who will be recognized after the death of Watanabe, the only male on the list drawn up by the Gerontology Research Group of the 30 oldest people in the world.

Japan has among the highest life expectancy in the world and the number of centenarians in the country has crossed 71,000, according to the latest government figures.

Since 2000, the number of centenarians censored has quintupled, raising concern for the economic outlook and future workforce of the country - where the birthrate is on a downward trend.

Out of these, 88 per cent are women.

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Agencies
July 4,2020

Twitter has joined efforts to do away with racially loaded terms such as master, slave and blacklist from its coding language in the wake of the death of African-American George Floyd and ensuing Black Lives Matter protests.

The project started even before the current movement for racial justice escalated following the death of 46-year-old George Floyd in police custody in May.

The use of terms such as "master" and "slave" in programming language originated decades ago. While "master" is used to refer to the primary version of a code, "slave" refers to the replicas. Similarly, the term "Blacklist" is used to refer to items which are meant to be automatically denied.

The efforts to change these terms in favour of more inclusive language at Twitter were initiated by Regynald Augustin and Kevin Oliver and the microblogging platform is now backing their efforts.

"Inclusive language plays a critical role in fostering an environment where everyone belongs. At Twitter, the language we have been using in our code does not reflect our values as a company or represent the people we serve. We want to change that. #WordsMatter," Twitter's engineering team said in a post on Thursday.

As per the recommendations from the team, the term "whitelist" could be replaced by "allowlist" and "blacklist" by "denylist".

Similarly, "master/slave" could be replaced by "leader/follower", "primary/replica" or "primary/standby".

Twitter, however, is not the first to start a project to bring inclusivity in programming language.

According to a report in CNET, the team behind the Drupal online publishing software started using "primary/replica" in place of "master/slave" as early as in 2014.

The use of the terms "master/slave" was also dropped by developers of the Python programming language in 2018.

Now similar efforts are underway at Microsoft's Github and LinkedIn divisions as well, said the report.

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Agencies
July 2,2020

Leiden, Jul 2: Astronomers have discovered a luminous galaxy caught in the act of reionizing its surrounding gas only 800 million years after the Big Bang.

The research, led by Romain Meyer, PhD student at UCL in London, UK, has been presented at the virtual annual meeting of the European Astronomical Society (EAS).

Studying the first galaxies that formed 13 billion years ago is essential to understanding our cosmic origins. One of the current hot topics in extragalactic astronomy is 'cosmic reionization,' the process in which the intergalactic gas was ionized (atoms stripped of their electrons).

Cosmic reionization is similar to an unsolved murder: We have clear evidence for it, but who did it, how and when? We now have strong evidence that hydrogen reionization was completed about 13 billion years ago, in the first billion years of the universe, with bubbles of ionized gas slowly growing and overlapping.

The objects capable of creating such ionized hydrogen bubbles have however remained mysterious until now: the discovery of a luminous galaxy in which 60-100 percent of ionizing photons escape, is likely responsible for ionizing its local bubble. This suggests the case is closer to being solved.

The two main suspects for cosmic reionization are usually 1) a population of numerous faint galaxies leaking ~10 percent of their energetic photons, and 2) an 'oligarchy' of luminous galaxies with a much larger percentage (>50 percent) of photons escaping each galaxy.

In either case, these first galaxies were very different from those today: galaxies in the local universe are very inefficient leakers, with only <2-3 percent of ionizing photons escaping their host. To understand which galaxies governed cosmic reionization, astronomers must measure the so-called escape fractions of galaxies in the reionization era.

The detection of light from excited hydrogen atoms (the so-called Lyman-alpha line) can be used to infer the fraction of escaping photons. On the one hand, such detections are rare because reionization-era galaxies are surrounded by neutral gas which absorbs that signature hydrogen emission.

On the other hand, if this hydrogen signal is detected it represents a 'smoking gun' for a large ionized bubble, meaning we have caught a galaxy reionizing its surroundings. The size of the bubble and the galaxy's luminosity determines whether it is solely responsible for creating this ionized bubble or if unseen accomplices are necessary.

The discovery of a luminous galaxy 800 million years after the Big Bang supports the scenario where an 'oligarchy' of bright leakers emits most of the ionizing photons.

"It is the first time we can point to an object responsible for creating an ionized bubble, without the need for a contribution from unseen galaxies.

Additional observations with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope will enable us to study further what is likely one of the best suspects for the unsolved case of cosmic reionization," said Meyer.

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