#the roku is just a little attachment and remote there's no reason for it to be in a trunk. also i kept asking to go swimming

[pentaghast]

sucks i may never be able to watch ted lasso or succession again bc i watched them while in the hospital and they make my atoms vibrate wrong

[ahnsael]

Today I learned just how difficult it is to install a TV wall mount when you don’t own a drill.

The securing bolts are about 4″ long.

I went out and bought a stud finder (it beeped as soon as I picked it up).

But before I picked that up, I missed the bit about needing a drill.

You know how hard it is to use an awl to make a pilot hole in a wooden stud? It literally took me an hour and a half to get those four bolts into the wall. And hours later, my arms are still sore from the pressure I had to put on them as I was using a not-very-good socket wrench to get them to start gripping into the wood.

But...I got the job done.

The hard part was then mounting the TV to the bracket (it’s above my dresser, and it was REALLY hard to get a good angle to (a) even see the brackets on the TV that I needed to match up to the wall bracket, and (b) reach it in the first place (over a four-foot tall, three-feet-deep dresser that is FAR too heavy to move by myself), and (c) not drop the TV behind the dresser as I climbed on top of it, holding the TV (which is not as light as I thought it would be), to get a decent angle, and (d) hook up the power cord, which was almost impossible, even though my bracket lets me move the TV about 6″ from the wall.

And it’s a good thing I bought the wall mount as an afterthought. If I didn’t have it, I’d still be watching my old TV. If I had to rely on the legs that were included with the TV, well...those would be 45″ apart. And my dresser is 42″ wide. It wouldn’t have worked.

But now I have a gigantic 55″ TV on the wall of my room, and I’ve angled/tilted it so that I see the actual picture, and not the reflection of my bedroom ceiling lighting fixture.

[insert Read More here because I rambled about both the new and old TV]

Turned out that, even using a laser level, I mounted the wall bracket a little crooked -- when I was done, the right side of the TV was about 1″ lower than the left. But the manufacturer accounted for that possibility and included a way to adjust the TV brackets in order to raise each side of the TV separately without disassembling and starting over (and putting more large holes in the wall).

It was a LOT of work (if I’d known what I was in for, I’d have just had Best Buy do the installation [[ free installation was included, but I ordered my wall mount a day later and wasn’t sure it would have been here, and the 5.1 sound bar still isn’t here yet, and I’m too macho in my head for my own good and say “I can install it myself! but there are things that could have been done better than I did them with the right tools), but...it’s up, and it looks fantastic.Any larger would have been too big (not that I wouldn’t want a full-wall TV, but...with the furniture and the wall decorations, this BARELY fit without blocking anything or being blocked by anything). And don’t get me wrong...if it was just hooking up cables to the TV, I would be golden

But a wall mount? That was VERY new to me. And I screwed it up.

But since I ordered it a day after the TV, I said no to the installation, thinking they’d come to install the TV to my wall only to find that I had no wall mount.

It all worked out (so far -- after about 12 hours, my TV hasn’t fallen off the wall, so I’m thinking I probably did it right (despite the fact that one of the bolts went in at about 30º upper-left instead of going striaght int the wood stud) even though the TV is FAR from centered on the mount  -- bust MOSTLY centered where I need it, and angled to where the reflection of my bedroom light isn’t glaraing back at me via the TV screen -- because of where the studs in my wall are).

But for wood stud installations, the manufacturer says that positioning the TV at ANY POINT along the wall bracket works, so I think I’ll be okay.

I leveled it. I raised it on both sides (I was about 2″ short in where I installed the mount, but the TV portion of the mount had a work-around that I used).

And unlike my old TV (which I have to figure out how to legally get rid of -- see below for how Ive decided to try to get rid of it without paying reycling fees; if someone ffers me $5, I’m gonna take it), the new one hasn’t restarted itself once when I didn’t want it to so far (it did restart when it was first turned on and downloading software updates, but that was just part of the update process).

I had thought about waiting until tomorrow to install the new TV, but when I turned on my old TV earlier, the sound cut out -- and it literally took 15 minutes for the TV to reboot with sound. That was when I decided that today was the day. And I was without a TV in my room for HOURS while I installed the new one.

The only thing -- I went into my parents’ room to get a step stool which I knew was there to help me reach where I needed to install the wall mount (and, later, climb on top of my dresser, which I’m REALLY glad I didn’t end up tipping over as I carefully shifted my weight onto it -- there was one pretty close call). Their bedroom door was closed. They usually leave it open when they’re out of town.

And right by their dresser, there’s a 40″ flat screen TV, brand new in the box.

When my mom asked about birthday gifts, my reply included a new TV. They ended up getting me the Disneyland Spirit Award pin (which I mentioned in the same email), but...they may have decided to save that TV for a Christmas gift (and a very nice one, don’t get me wrong).

So tomorrow I’d better text to say Happy Thanksgiving and also mention that I bought myself something nice for my birthday. That way they can (hopefully) return the TV when they get home (if it is for me -- I don’t know that for sure), and if it will have been too long since they purchased it, maybe use it as an upgrade from their own smaller 32″ TV in their room.

Now I’m just waiting for my 5.1-Channel Sound Bar (with wireless sub-woofer and rear speakers -- which now costs $20 more on Best Buy’s website than it did when I bought it in their “pre-Black Friday sale”).

I ordered it in the same transaction as the wall mount, but while the wall mount arrived a day earlier than promised, the sound bar -- instead of being shipped from California to here in a couple days -- was sent from California to Utah for some reason. Even at 2:00 Wednesday morning, the tracking info from UPS said “on time delivery by the end of the day Tuesday the 21st.” Now it’s expected to arrive on the 24th, while I’m at work (hopefully it won’t get stolen from my front porch). I see on the tracking that it made it earlier tonight to the place in Nevada where it will be put on a truck to my house, but UPS also says that they don’t do deliveries on Thanksgiving (which is fine...just hoping that nobody steals this $170 sound bar as it sits on my porch all day until I get home from work.) Also, I decided to sell my old TV on CraistList rather than try to find a legal way to dispose of it (which might cost me money -- Best Buy wanted $15 to haul it away).

But fear not, my integrity is intact. The following is the ad I submitted (which can be seen at https://reno.craigslist.org/ele/d/flat-screen-smart-tv-works-as/6397825672.html):

I just replaced a 38½" 1080P Insignia flat screen Smart TV and it's yours for a low price. The original box (not included) said 39" Class but official diagonal measurement is 38½" (which my tape measure agrees with). For full product details, see https://www.insigniaproducts.com/pdp/NS-39DR510NA17/4863802 (this is the exact model I am selling -- they are still selling it new for $180, so you can save some money here if you can accept that it's a TV bought in July of 2016 and used daily since then). A couple of caveats, because I want to run an honest ad: The TV has a history of restarting itself at random times. You might be watching a favorite show, and the TV will reset, go to the Insignia/ROKU logo, and start from scratch, so you may miss a part of what you are watching. Sometimes the sound gives out, and a reboot to fix it (large square button on the back left of the TV -- hold it down until it starts the reboot process) can take up to 10-15 minutes before you're back to watching TV. The basic restarts happen, on average, once a day (some days it happens twice, other days it doesn't happen at all), and those generally take a minute or two before you're back to watching TV or playing your video game (I would NOT recommend this TV for a gamer who can't press "pause" when this happens, like if you are playing a multiplayer online game). The 10-15 minute reboots, maybe once every two weeks. If you can handle that, the TV has very good picture quality, and fit very well on top of a tall dresser that is 42" wide. No wall mount included. Legs can be easily removed if you have a wall mount already. Usually these restarts happen within 10-15 minutes of powering it on, but once in a while, you can be watching TV for hours, be really into a sports event, and...suddenly, there's an Insignia logo in place of the great play you were about to see, and now will have to look up on YouTube. This is why I replaced the TV after just 16 months -- it was frustrating to me. But if you're okay with this, or know how to fix it, or have a friend that you like a *little bit* that you feel obligated to get a gift for...this could be the TV for you. Cable box and compact DVD/Blu-Ray player fit comfortably in the space between the TV and the surface -- your experience may vary based on the size of your cable/satellite box and/or DVD/Blu-Ray player (actual under-TV clearance: 2" on the left and right of center, 1½" at the center where the LED light and remote control sensor are located). Has original remote, and the legs are still attached. All settings have been restored to factory default. For inputs, see images. To clarify dimensions: TV itself is 3½" deep (9½" if you include the legs), 34½" wide (if you have limited space on your flat surface, a surface 27" wide would accommodate the legs with the TV hanging just over the sides), and 22" high (with legs -- 20 5/8" high without legs). As far as when this sale (or barter, if you've got something you think I might want -- I'm certainly open to negotiations) can happen -- I work in a local casino, and cannot be seen on camera accepting cash when I'm at work since I'm a manager who is ineligible for tips, and a transaction like this could be seen as taking a tip if it happened while I am at work. I work from 3pm-11pm Friday through Tuesday. I would be available after 11:00pm any of those days (before work, I sleep until it's time to get ready for work -- if you work out a 12pm-1pm meeting in advance, I can adjust my sleep schedule for that day). Wednesdays and Thursdays, I am free whenever works for you (this includes today, Thanksgiving). Given the problems that the TV has with restarting, I will accept offers. The $50 list price is not firm. I will say, though, that if I tell you we have a deal, we have a deal. If I get a higher offer while you're on your way, I'm going to honor our deal. If I accept your offer, that acceptance is firm and not going to change, even if I get a higher offer after the fact. I absolutely guarantee that you won't get a call on the way to my house telling you that the deal is off if I agreed to it. That's on me, not you. But if my phone is ringing off the hook (I know, wishful thinking) and people are outbidding each other, I'll keep you all informed as to the most recent deal. Again...this is Craigslist, and I live in a relatively small community, so...what I actually expect is for one person to call (if I'm lucky), offer a price, and then for me to accept that price and you take the TV away and give it to someone you sort of like, but don't like as much as you like [insert favorite food/music/movie/vacation destination here]. And again, I'm not against a barter if you have something cool that you no longer want. Either way, it beats me having to pay to have the TV recycled...especially when it works (most of the time) and has just about as many bells and whistles as the TV I just bought.

If someone actually pays the $50 asking price, I’d be shocked (though the TV does, honestly, work as well as it did out of the box -- it just sucked out of the box but I disclosed that so I wouldn’t feel any guilt), but...the fact that I said “If I get a higher offer while you’re on your way, I’m going to honor our deal” (and not be greedy and go for a higher offer from someone who may call 20 minutes later) might get me some takers. I’ve never sold on Craigslist before, although I helped my parents sell a lawnmower so I’m not a TOTAL newb). but...the promise of “I know I said we had a deal, but someone else just offered $10 more, do you want to match/beat it?” seems like such a slimeball move that.

I don’t want to go there. I’m not a used car salesman. I’m just looking to pawn a mostly-working (but not without problems) TV off on someone else, after being honest with the TV’s pluses and minuses, so I don’t have to pay to have it recycled. Let someone else have my lemon TV -- as long as they have had the chance to see that it’s a lemon before they drop some money on it (honestly, I’d be THRILLED if I got $20 of my $50 asking price...I don’t know Craigslist well, but even getting $20 would be worth saying no when Best Buy said they’d haul my old TV away -- which they sold me -- if I paid them $15.

[pogueman]

Battle of the 4K streaming boxes: Apple, Google, Amazon, and Roku

Here’s a dirty little secret the TV companies would prefer that you didn’t know: You can’t see the difference between 4K and regular high definition.

“4K” means four times as many pixels as on an HDTV in the same space. And from a normal seating distance, on standard TV sizes, the human eye can’t make out the additional resolution.

What you can see—what is worth upgrading to—is a much less catchy format. It’s called HDR, for high dynamic range. (You might either “HDR” or “Ultra HD Premium”—they both mean high dynamic range.)

If you have an HDR screen and an HDR movie to watch, hoo boy: the quality hits you between the eyes. Much brighter brights, much darker darks; more detail in those bright and dark places; and more shades in between. More shades of color, too. Really fantastic.

This is a mockup from Apple, but it does approximate the difference that HDR makes.

Still with us? OK, good—then here’s another dirty little secret about 4K: Not a single TV network or cable channel broadcasts anything in 4K. If you own a 4K television, and you want to watch 4K shows and movies, you have two choices: Buy a 4K Blu-ray player and new movies on disc—or stream your shows online, from services like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, and YouTube.

Streaming your shows, of course, is ultimately less expensive than buying on Blu-Ray, and offers far greater variety and choice of stuff to watch. But to stream them, you need a fairly fast internet connection and streaming box attached to your TV.

As it turns out, all four of the major streaming boxes—Apple TV, Roku, Google Chromecast, and Amazon Fire—have just been re-introduced in 4K HDR versions in the last couple of months.

(Since 4K TV has been around for four years now, what took 4K streaming boxes so long to come out? Simple: Their makers were waiting for HDR to become a thing. Because remember: 4K alone doesn’t make any visual difference.)

Meet the Contenders

I rounded up the four major rivals on a quest to figure out which one is the best: Apple TV ($180), Roku Streaming Stick+ ($70), Amazon Fire TV with 4K Ultra HD ($70), and the Google Chromecast Ultra 4K ($70).

The four new streaming boxes offer 4K—but, more importantly, HDR.

They’re all black plastic. Each plugs into one of your TV’s HDMI input jacks. Each then has to plug a power outlet. (The exception: The Roku stick can get power from a USB jack on your TV instead.)

Most come with a remote control. (The exception: the Google Chromecast. You’re supposed to use a special app on your smartphone to control it, which can be a huge inconvenience. If the person with the phone isn’t home, or if the phone’s dead, guess what? No movies for you.)

Each of these devices starts you off with an absolutely miserable setup experience. You have to download and install each of the “apps” or “channels” you’ll want to watch: Netflix, YouTube, HBO GO, Hulu, and so on. Then you have to enter your account information for each one—your email address and password, usually—by using arrow keys on the remote to skate across an on-screen grid.

It’s awful. It’s a user interface from 1956. It’s tedious. And you have to do it over and over and over.

This is how you log in to every. single. channel. on most streaming boxes.

Apple and Roku offer something called “single sign-on,” which saves you some of that data entry. You log into your TV provider account (cable or satellite); at that point, you don’t have to log into the individual apps for channels you’re already paying for.

Unfortunately, single sign-on is available only for some cable companies, and works with only some channels within them. When it comes to tedium, the Apple TV strikes the greatest blow in your favor: It lets you speak and spell your name and password for each login, using the remote as a microphone, instead of tapping them out on a grid. It’s not only much faster and more accurate, but the magic of seeing it work takes the drudge out of the job.

The power of speech

Once you’ve got everything set up, you discover the beauty of speech. You may now have dozens or hundreds of video sources—how are you supposed to find stuff?

With speech.

The remote control for each box has a little microphone button. Hold it down to search by title, director, actor, or genre. “Find comedies starring Meryl Streep,” you can say. Or “Show me action movies for kids.” Or “Find ‘Inception.’” The search results are instantaneous and usually very accurate.

Here again, though, the Apple box goes far beyond. It lets you specify the service you want: “Find sci-fi movies on Netflix.” It lets you refine your results, too. If you first said “Find Tom Cruise” movies, you can now say “Only the good ones”—and the ones with low Rotten Tomatoes scores drop away from the results.

Once you’re viewing a show or movie, Apple’s Siri also lets you say things like, “Fast forward five minutes,” “Go to the beginning,” “Turn on subtitles,” and “Who stars in this?” None of the other boxes offer this kind of vocal control, and they feel much dumber as a result.

Service selection

When you’re buying a streaming box, you have to consider which “channels” it can show you.

Roku offers hundreds of them, but many are, ahem, not what you’d call must-see TV (Cruise Addicts, anyone? Topic UFO? War Games with Miniatures?)

Not all of Roku’s channels are what you’d call household names.

What you probably care about are the major services, the ones most likely to offer the shows or movies you want. Only one box offers all the major services—Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Amazon, and iTunes—and that’s the Apple TV. (Or will shortly; Apple says that Amazon’s app will be coming to the Apple TV in December.)

Thanks to a corporate feud, Google Chromecast doesn’t have Amazon, and the Amazon doesn’t have Google Play. And, of course nobody offers iTunes except Apple. Most of the movie sources get the same movies simultaneously, but iTunes still gets the occasional exclusives, especially when it comes to indie movies.

To some extent, you can work around the missing-service problem by using the awesome, new MoviesAnywhere.com. It’s a free service that links your Amazon, iTunes, Google, and Vudu accounts, so that a movie you’ve bought on any one of those services show up in a single “channel” on your streaming box (or web browser) alongside all the others! In this way, you can watch your iTunes movies on a Roku or Amazon Fire, or your Google movies on the Amazon Fire.

There are plenty of footnotes, though. You still can’t buy iTunes movies on a Roku or Amazon Fire, or shop Google Play on the Amazon device—only watch them after buying them elsewhere. And Paramount and Lionsgate movies aren’t included. And it affects only movies, not TV shows.

Geek note about standards

There are two competing HDR standards: HDR10 and Dolby Vision. (Remember VHS and Betamax? Those were the days.)

Every HDR movie is available in HDR10, which is an open format; only some come in Dolby Vision, which generally looks a little better. Roku, Amazon, and Chromecast all offer HDR10; only Apple TV can handle both.

On the other hand, Apple TV doesn’t offer the high-end surround-sound format called Dolby Atmos. Very few services, and very few movies, offer Atmos (Vudu has a few, for example)—but now you know. (The Chromecast doesn’t, either; the Fire and Roku can pass along Atmos if you connect them to your receiver.)

The final decision

Now you know the stakes. So, if you have a 4K HDR TV, which box should you buy?

 Google Chromecast 4K

For most people, no. It’s just much more convenient for anyone to pick up a dedicated remote, rather than a phone. It’s missing iTunes and Amazon.

Amazon Fire 4K

The Fire can be introduced to an Amazon Echo, which means that you can speak to it without even using the remote. You can say, ““Alexa: turn on Fire TV,” or “Alexa: find Steve Carrell movies.” That’s pretty great.

But the Fire’s remote can’t turn on your TV or adjust the volume, like the Roku and Apple can. So your coffee table will have to harbor at least two remotes.

Another reason to avoid the Amazon Fire: Amazon has the gall to show ads on your home screen. Half-screen ads for Amazon shows, and banner ads for cars and fast-food restaurants. No thanks.

Why does the Amazon Fire show duplicate channel icons? And why does it show ADS on the home screen?

Roku Streaming Stick+. This company really has it together. The Stick has a sleek, simple, streamlined interface, a do-it-all remote, and most of the major services. If you pay $30 more for the Ultra box instead, you get a remote control with a headphone jack. Meaning that you can listen in comfort at full blast without bugging anyone else in the house. (The Ultra also includes a card slot for playing your photos, and an Ethernet jack.)

Roku’s interface is simple to navigate.

Apple TV 4K. It should be clear that the Apple TV is the best 4K streaming box. Its Siri commands humiliate its rivals’ speech commands. It has the best access to the most services. And here’s a little mind blower: Apple doesn’t charge any more for 4K movies than regular ones!

Here’s another: If you’ve ever bought movies from Apple, they get magically upgraded to 4K for free. When in history has a new video format not required you to re-buy all your movies??

That’s kind of awesome.

(It’s also very nice that when you search for a movie, Apple TV shows you all the services that offer it—but it lists the free sources first. In other words, if some movie is included with your Netflix subscription, Apple doesn’t try to trick you into renting it from Apple; it proposes Netflix. Roku does that, too. Nice.)

Apple says it will soon add the ability to see “apps” for live sports and news coverage, drawn from the channel package you’re already paying for. That’s cool. And, of course, the Apple TV plays beautifully with other Apple stuff: view your iCloud photos on the TV, for example, or transmit audio and video from your Mac or iPhone to your TV with one tap.

The Apple TV’s interface is clean and sharp in 4K.

OK, great—but because Apple has the best streaming box doesn’t mean that’s the one you should buy. Mainly because all of the other 4K boxes cost $70—and Apple’s costs $180, more than twice as much!

(There’s even a $200 version, containing more storage [64 gigs vs. 32] for people who like to download and store game apps.)

The smarter voice control, the broader access to services, and the live news and sports make the Apple TV a joy to use. But at $70, the Roku is a much better buy.

David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes non-toxic comments in the Comments below. On the Web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s poguester@yahoo.com. You can subscribe to his articles and videos here.

[chanoyu-to-wa]

Nampō Roku, Book 4 (21.1):  Displaying the Kakemono [掛物], Part 1.

1)  Displaying four scrolls at the same time¹.

[The writing reads:  kubari no kane ku-den (配ノカネ口傳)².]

2) Displaying three scrolls at the same time³.

_________________________

◎ While Shibayama Fugen considers the four sketches that depict the display of varying numbers of scrolls separately, Tanaka Senshō groups the first two together into one entry, and then the second two -- and, in the interest of limiting the number of posts, I will follow his system.  I added the titles above each of the sketches, for clarity.

    The comments that discuss the details of each arrangement (which are a summary of both of these commentaries) will follow the notes related to each of the sketches.  The same format will be used in the next post as well.

¹Yon-haba ittsui [四幅一對].

    Haba [幅]* is one counting word used for scrolls.

    Ittsui [一對]:  tsui [對] refers to a small group or unit of objects -- “a couple,” “a pair,” and things to that effect (though without the number being predefined as two, as it is in English when we use pair or couple).  Ittsui [一對], then, means “one group,” or, “(as) a single unit.”  This implies some sort of connection between the scrolls -- beyond the simple fact that they are hung up simultaneously and so share the space within the tokonoma.

    Yon-haba ittsui [四幅一對] means the case where four scrolls are hung as a unit.  They are hung at the same time, but, in addition, they have some intrinsic connection with each other.  According to Sōami’s O-kazari Ki [御飾記], these were originally a single large painting that was cut into four pieces for the purpose of preservation.  Consequently, their mountings were supposed to be identical† -- and also as unobtrusive as possible, so they would not distract the eye of the viewer from appreciating the total composition. ___________ *The word haba [幅] literally means a width (of cloth), and this was how cloth was sold in the marketplace.  The relevance to scrolls is obvious.

†Not only in terms of the materials used, but their dimensions -- so that the four paintings could be aligned and appreciated just as if the original painting had never been cut into pieces.

²Kubari no kane ku-den [配ノカネ口傳].

    Kubsri-no-kane ku-den [配りの曲尺口傳] means “the distribution of (the different objects) on the kane is a matter that should be orally transmitted.”

    While only written on the first of the four sketches considered here, Tanaka Senshō points out that this statement applies equally to all four of them; and these details will be considered separately, under each of the sets.

——————————————–———-—————————————————

1) Displaying four scrolls at the same time.

    Quoting from Tanaka’s commentary, “let us suppose that four scrolls will be hung in the toko at the same time.  Regardless of the size of the toko, the [width of the] toko is measured.  Then the width of the scrolls [including the handles] is measured, and the total of these four widths is determined.  This total is subtracted from the width of the toko, which therefore reveals the amount of empty space [that will remain when the scrolls are hanging].  This value is divided by twelve, three parts are allotted to both sides, and two parts are kept in the center [these are shown by the areas shaded in pale blue on the sketch].”

    As mentioned in Sōami’s O-kazari Ki [御飾記], the scrolls should be hung from the right-most toward the left (in the order of one [一], two [二], three [三], four [四]).

    And with respect to the oki-mono [置物], the sketch shows a large incense burner* in the center, with rikka [立華] arrangements on both sides. The censer in the middle is centered on the central kane, while the flower arrangements on the right and left are centered on the spaces between the scrolls (so the arrangements do not hide part of the scrolls).

    Since the toko was supposed to be designed to accommodate the scroll or scrolls that would be displayed in it†, once the positions of the scrolls had been determined (according to the calculations described above), the bamboo hooks‡ for the scrolls were attached permanently to the back wall of the tokonoma. ___________ *It was also permissible to place a large flower arrangement in the middle, with a smaller one on both sides -- as can be seen in the sketch from the Imai family’s manuscript of the O-kazari Ki, shown below.

[The writing reads: naka ni mo sukoshi oki ni te shikaru-beki, mata kōro wo mo okaruru (中ニ少シ大キニテ可然、又香爐ヲモヲカルヽ), which means “when (there is a vase) in the middle, it is appropriate for it to be a little larger; alternatively, it is also possible to place an incense burner.”  These rules also apply to the present situation.]

†In the early days it was very rare for a single person to own more than one scroll (even the arrangements shown in the O-kazari Ki were apparently intended to be recreated every time the given shoin were to be used for a reception -- the idea of changing everything for each occasion did not appear until the Edo period, when everything was being used out of context, and the emphasis was on variety, and the assembling of large collections as a demonstration of ones wealth),  In the case of the sets, these were originally kept together in the same box, and were hung -- and sold -- as a unit. Only around the time of Jōō did these sets start to be broken up, usually because one of the scrolls had been irreparably damaged or lost.

‡While it is customary for only the middle hook to be made of bamboo today (with the others set in tracks that allow them to be moved to the right or left so as to accommodate different scrolls), in the early days only bamboo pegs were used for this purpose.  The reason was that metal hooks can cut or fray the kake-o [懸緒], the silk cord from which the scroll is suspended; and, even if that danger is remote (so long as the scroll is not extremely old -- it was often the case that the mountings were redone when these paintings changed hands), iron hooks can also stain the kake-o, which would be obvious, and reprehensible.

——————————————–———-—————————————————

³San-haba ittsui [三幅一對].

    Three scrolls that are hung simultaneously, as a unit.  While more frequently independent works than the sets of four scrolls, the mountings were usually done so that they would be harmonious, and with at least the outer two being identical (while the central scroll was sometimes more elaborately mounted, to indicate its importance),

    The central scroll is usually referred to as the chū-zon [中尊]*, or hon-zon [本尊].  The scroll on its right side (from the perspective of the viewer) is called the left image (hidari [左]), and the scroll on the left is referred to as the right scroll (migi [右]), since these terms were taken from Buddhist iconography, where they are defined relative to the central image of the Buddha.  A set of three scrolls usually hung as a unit, with their original Muromachi period mountings, is shown above. While sometimes all three scrolls had identical mountings, occasionally the chū-zon was mounted differently, while the other two were always the same, as seen here. ___________ *Son [尊] is the counting word used for Buddhas, or images of the Buddhas.

——————————————–———-—————————————————

2) Displaying three scrolls at the same time.

    Here, rather than speaking in terms of general mathematical formula, Tanaka Senshō cites a specific, historical, example: 

     “The o-toko, in the shoin that opened to the south, was 1-jō 2-shaku 6-sun [一丈二尺六寸]* wide.  While various scrolls might have been hung there, the largest measured 3-shaku 6-sun in width.

    “On the left and right sides [of the toko], 6-sun; and between the scrolls, to the left of the central one, and to the right, 3-sun in each place.  Based on this, narrower elongated scrolls† would be hung in the same way‡.”

    The scrolls should be hung** in the order of, first, the chū-zon [中尊] (the middle scroll); then the scroll to its left [左] (the viewer’s right); and finally the scroll on the chū-zon’s right [右] (our left).

    As for the oki-mono, care must be taken that the things displayed do not hide the lower part of the scrolls.  Originally a naga-joku [長卓] with the mitsu gu-soku [三具足] arranged on it, and possibly a pair of larger rikka [立華] on either side, was the rule.  But when paintings with a clearly secular theme came to be used, it was felt that the mitsu gu-soku was inappropriate††.  Therefore, just the two large flower arrangements could be used, but moved inward so that they were centered on the second and fourth kane, as shown above‡‡.  Care was taken that the arrangements were low enough that they would not hide the lower part of the scrolls (hence, in the sketch, the arrangements are done in basins, rather than upright vases).

__________ *1-jō 2-shaku 6-sun [一丈二尺六寸]:  1-jō is equal to 10-shaku.  Therefore, the tokonoma in question measured 12-shaku 6-sun wide.

†Ko-haba no tate-mono mo [小幅の竪物も].

    Ko-haba [小幅] means smaller (narrower) in width.

    A tate-mono [竪物] is a scroll that is longer than it is wide.  Usually it is at least several times as long as its width.

‡Kore yori ko-haba no tate-mono mo akima migi no kiku nari [是より小幅の竪物もあきま右の規矩なり].

    The same sort of calculations as were used to orient four scrolls are implied here:  after measuring the toko and the total width of the three scrolls (measured from the ends of the handles), the width of the scrolls is subtracted from that of the toko.  The remaining space is divided into eighteen units, with 6-units allocated to either side, and three units in between the scrolls.  These four empty spaces are shaded light blue in the sketch.

    These words are the ku-den -- and are a good example of the way in which such things were transmitted (since they will be misleading except to someone whose preparation has opened his eyes to the actual teaching that is being given:  I suppose my explanation has removed much of the ambiguity,,,).

**As was mentioned above, in the discussion of the case where four scrolls were hung at the same time, the bamboo hooks for the scrolls would have been permanently attached to the wall.    

††These altar decorations were used because originally chanoyu was performed in front of the Buddhist altar, featuring an image of the Buddha in the middle, with an attendant on either side.

    Even in Muqi’s [牧谿] famous triptych “Kannon, monkeys, and crane” (Kannon-en-kaku-zu [観音猿鶴圖]), shown above, the image of Avalokiteśvara assumes the place of the Buddha, and is attended by the figures from the natural world.  Notice that the way the panels are included in the name also indicates the order in which they were supposed to be hung up in the tokonoma -- this is not coincidental.  (The idea, however, comes from the notion that, after the central image, the others should be hung as if the three scrolls were parts of a single painting -- which was the idea used when hanging four scrolls -- first the image where the work begins, and last that where the sequence ends.)

    However, when the paintings figured portraits of Confucian poets, in landscapes of flowers and birds, the use of the mitsu gu-soku might seem even sacrilegious.  Thus the arrangement was simplified by removing the naga-joku, and moving the two rikka from the outermost kane inward to the second and fourth kane.

‡‡According to Shibayama Fugen, depending on their sizes, the oki-mono may also be associated with the outermost kane.  When two flower containers are displayed like this, they should always be identical.

[actutrends]

Too much, yet not enough: Amazon’s Echo Studio, Echo Flex, and Fire TV Cube

I behold the pile of Alexa devices that Amazon has sent me to review, and I do not immediately know what I want to do with them. There’s an Echo Studio smart speaker, a Fire TV Cube, an Echo Flex (which defies description), and a couple of accessories to go with the Flex. Our household already has an Echo Spot (smart clock with a screen), a smart plug, and a pair of Fire tablets for the kids. And of course, we have the Alexa app on our phones.

Given the volume and diversity of Alexa devices now populating my home, I decided to go all in and try to create as unified a smart home system as I can, comprising all these parts and pieces. This is, of course, what Amazon wants. I bow to the will of the tech giant for the purpose of testing out this smart home stuff.

After doing so, I have three key observations:

These devices, what they offer, and what they require are simultaneously too much and not enough.

To extract any significant value from these devices, you need to have a specific problem (or problems) that a specific Amazon device (or devices) can solve.

These Amazon devices cost a lot of money, and in many cases you’ll need more than one to get the full functionality you need.

The task of creating what portends to be a convenient, virtual assistant-enhanced home feels overwhelming — so many devices; so many individual device settings; so many possible types of lists, reminders, alarms, skills, routines, games, and “Blueprints.” It costs a lot of time, work, and mental energy to dig around to find useful ones and set them all up.

There are some 100,000 Alexa skills you can enable on these devices. Some of them are eminently useful, like a “find my phone” skill to help you keep track of your phone, while a great many of them are utterly banal, like the Spongebob Challenge skill that’s just a themed memory game. It can be a challenge to separate a small bit of wheat from so much chaff.

I do not ascribe to a “tech for the sake of tech” ethos. I’m interested only in what sort of tools or new capabilities tech can provide. That’s a necessary approach to take with these devices — not “what can they do,” but “how can they help me.” If all you want is a nice speaker that you can control with your voice, great — the Echo Studio is for you. If you want a way to control your lights with your voice, you’ll need to pair an Alexa device with an Amazon Smart Plug, if not a third-party lighting system that works with Alexa. If you want an alarm system, you can pair a Ring doorbell with an Echo Flex plus a motion sensor accessory. And so on and so forth.

The point is, although Alexa is an extremely broad, generalized tool, the devices on which you find it are incredibly domain specific. Because they have a discrete purpose, each item in the vast and growing ecosystem of Alexa-powered devices has commensurately limited capabilities, too. Combining multiple domain-specific devices can get you increased capabilities, but only to an extent. A fully tricked-out Alexa-powered smart home needs more than just a handful of devices.

And that’s problematic, because these devices are not cheap. It’s true that Amazon kept costs impressively low on things like most of its Fire tablets (never mind that such devices are loss leaders) and some Fire TV devices, but other devices aren’t so affordable. Even the humble Amazon Smart Plug (which works with Alexa but doesn’t have the virtual assistant on board) is $25. The costs build up from there.

All the things

The devices at hand — the Echo Studio, Fire TV Cube, and Echo Flex — are compelling in their own rights, despite their respective costs.

Echo Studio

The Echo Studio ($200) is a smart speaker designed to play high-quality music, as opposed to a smart speaker that’s meant to be simply a hands-free voice assistant. The idea is that the Echo Studio offers the sort of audio range and fidelity that you’d want from a nice home speaker system, with five internal speakers, including a tweeter and a subwoofer. It’s able to automatically adjust to a room’s acoustics, too.

The large black cylinder measures approximately eight inches tall and seven inches in diameter, so it’s reasonably compact, such that you can stick it on a shelf or corner of a kitchen counter and it won’t take up an egregious amount of space. It has the normal slate of Alexa buttons — volume controls, mute mic button, and “action” button that obviates the need to use the wake word– and the telltale LED light ring that shows you Alexa’s status or activity.

Subjectively, the audio quality, range, and spatial sound is on par with the stereo speakers-plus-standalone subwoofer that I was previously using — which is impressive, given that the Echo Studio is a single unit. The volume was sufficient to fill the entire main floor of my house with clean, distortion-free music.

Echo Flex

The Echo Flex is a palm-sized device that plugs into a wall outlet and is designed to control things like your lights, locks, thermostat, and so on. It has its own little speaker (and mic) on board, but that’s for communication purposes only — the tinny, distorted sound is grating if you try to play music through it. You can augment the Flex’s capabilities by plugging in attachments to its USB port. Ostensibly the roster of such add-ons will grow, but the two that Amazon sent along are the Third Reality Smart Nightlight and Motion Sensor.

It’s unclear why the Smart Nightlight exists at all. It’s essentially an overcomplication of the traditional night light, which is arguably already a perfect product. The Smart Nightlight lets you set different colors for the light, adjust the brightness of the glow from 1% to 100%, and determine when it turns on and off.

The Third Reality Motion Sensor is more practical. From its position in whatever outlet you’ve stuck it and the Flex into, it detects movement that crosses its sensor. Then, you can use the Alexa app to enact all manner of subsequent actions, from giving a verbal welcome to using Alexa Guard — a security notification feature that’s part of Alexa — to alert you to intruders.

You configure all of the above from the Alexa app on your phone. The Flex costs $25, or you can buy either (but not both!) of the Third Reality accessories in a bundle with it for $40.

Fire TV Cube

Essentially, the Fire TV Cube can supplant whatever other media streaming devices you may employ with your TV, like a Roku.

It’s small and unobtrusive at a little over three inches square (it’s technically a rectangle, but barely). You have to plug it in to a wall outlet, and it doesn’t come with its own HDMI cable. You’re supposed to position it at least one to two feet away from any speaker, including your TV’s built-in speakers, which can create some placement challenges. However, it includes an IR extender that will help you keep your home entertainment setup’s clean look if you need it.

You can control the Fire TV Cube with the included remote, your voice, or both. The box itself has a mic and Alexa, as well as Alexa buttons, so you can speak commands to it with a wake word and do things like adjust the volume directly from there. The remote has an Alexa action button on it, though, so you can press and hold it and issue voice commands without saying the wake word.

The $120 Fire TV Cube has the same on-screen interface as any Fire TV device, giving you access to streaming channels, live channels, games, and more.

I incorporated all of the above into my home network. None of the devices proved terribly onerous to set up. (You do need to have a Wi-Fi network and your Alexa app handy to perform any necessary configurations.) They joined an Echo Spot (smart speaker with a screen), smart plug, and two Fire 8 tablets that we already had — and of course, the Alexa app on the phones we own.

The app and everything

Even though Alexa is a voice assistant, the organizational center of any and all Alexa devices is the app. It’s where you do everything from adding devices to configuring their settings to checking your device activity.

One could fill numerous tedious pages with all the items and features included in the Alexa app. But a few screenshots tell much of the story:

Most of these items are self-explanatory, like reminders and lists, but some are more specific to the Alexa ecosystem. Routines are essentially a way to string together commands or set up cause and effect relationships between commands. If you tap Things to Try, you’ll get a little overview of all the things that you can do with Alexa, from communication to productivity to music. The Skills & Games section is a sort of marketplace where you can hunt for skills, which are essentially apps for Alexa.

The Activity section is one to keep an eye on; it’s where you can see your personal history with your Alexa devices and even play back to recordings of your commands. (Yes, Alexa records and stores audio files of all your queries and commands, although you can delete them.)

Blueprints is one of the more compelling features. It lets you easily create your own “Skill Blueprints,” which are customized skills that you can create from templates, like a chore chart, special date countdown, or study aids. Like many of the Alexa skills, though, a lot of these are frivolous, like a custom Q&A where you create your own answers such as making your hometown the answer for “Alexa, which is the best city in the world?”

I created a basic but customized to-do list in just a couple of minutes, but it was indeed basic — for instance, I included leading items like “email Mike” and “check my meeting schedule,” but Alexa didn’t follow up on any of those things by, for instance, sending the email or checking my actual calendar and reading off my schedule.

What to do

Armed with a group of Alexa devices and the Alexa app, I had to come up with things to try, given the nature of the devices I had on hand and the specific things that made sense for me to use them for.

Listening to music

My family has a propensity for playing music in the house, so voice-controlled music via the Echo Studio seemed ideal. There’s a Spotify Alexa skill you can toggle on (from the app), which is perfect, because we have Spotify Premium. Setting this up took just a few minutes and a few taps in the Alexa app.

However, Amazon really, really, really wants you to use Amazon Music. By default, that’s the pool of content from which it draws. Some of it is free, but to get the best experience, you’re strongly encouraged (by Alexa, via the Echo Studio) to subscribe. Although we believed we obviated this need with our Spotify subscription and Alexa skill, the Echo Studio seemed unable to tap into Spotify like we wanted.

For example, when I said, “Alexa, play Yola on Spotify,” it played “Yola radio” — which includes Yola’s songs, but also the songs of others. When I specified that I wanted to hear Yola’s album Walk Through Fire, I got the same frustrating result. “Maybe we should just use Amazon Music,” my wife sighed, annoyed but resigned. “But that’s what they want us to do!” I yelled, in the general direction of the Echo Studio.

Whatever tracks we did get the Echo Studio to play sounded terrific, though. We did not spring for an Amazon Music subscription.

Watching TV

In order for the Fire TV Cube to be of any real use to you, you need to subscribe to streaming services. We’re cord-cutters, so that was not a problem in our case. Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, etc. were all there and available on the little cube. All you have to do is install their respective apps and log in to your accounts, all through the Fire TV interface and using your remote.

I found that navigating to and through the various streaming services using Alexa was intuitive and direct. (You can also turn on follow-up mode, where you can ask Alexa trailing, contextual questions without re-saying the wake word.) From the home screen, for example, I could say, “Alexa, play Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” or “Alexa, play Tiny House World,” and it opened Prime Video and took me to the right show. If I’d previously watched an episode, it returned me to the exact spot where I left off.

Only a certain number of the apps on the Fire TV Cube work with Alexa, but for the ones that do, Alexa is smart enough to know that a given show or movie is on multiple streaming platforms. For example, when I said, “Alexa, play Good Girls,” it asked me if I wanted to view it on Hulu or Netflix.

However, when I asked Alexa to play Little Women (which is a new show on Prime Video), it instead suggested that I buy the book on Audible, and by the way wouldn’t you like to buy an Audible subscription? No thanks, Alexa.

You can also use the Fire TV Cube and Alexa to turn your TV on and off. This feature may or may not work on TVs of a certain age, though.

Lists and reminders

One of the advantages of an ecosystem of devices that all have the same virtual assistant on board is that the experience of interacting with Alexa is essentially the same, no matter the device. It’s true that the commands you might make of a given device are dependent upon what it can do, but Alexa offers plenty of capabilities that work across all of them. For instance, you can ask about the weather or the day’s headlines, or set a reminder, or add to a list, whether you’re near the Echo Studio or browsing on a Fire tablet or watching TV show on the Fire TV Cube.

These are applications where you’re using the cloud-centric strengths of Alexa and not the purpose-built tasks germane to, say, a smart speaker. You could say, “Alexa, remind me to take out the trash tomorrow morning,” and as long as you’re within earshot of an Alexa-powered device, you’re good to go.

But even here, you’ll bump into limitations, like if you make a list. It’s ideal in one sense, because it’s in a shared Prime account, and anyone in the house can say, “Alexa, create a new list” or, in the case of an existing list, “Alexa, add [item] to the list,” and there it shall be. But that just creates a “dumb” list. To get any kind of advanced features, like a grocery list that organizes items by food category or shows you which items you’ve ticked off already so you don’t miss anything, you need to locate and enable a skill, or hope that an automatically suggested one fits the bills. Also note that if you try to use the “dumb” list for groceries, you really need to enunciate clearly, because Alexa isn’t trying to match your words to any sort of domain-specific bank of terms. That is why when I said, “Alexa, add to my grocery list,” and it asked what I wanted to add, when I said “beer,” it added “fear.”

You’ll want a skill, like the OurGroceries skill. This was quite handy, because we already happen to use that app. I found it in the Alexa Skills Store on the web, clicked to enable the skill, and had to create and enter a password for the skill. But then, any additions to our shared lists we made via Alexa automatically synced to the app on our phones. The only slightly annoying bit is that you have to invoke the skill every time — “Alexa, ask OurGroceries to add milk” instead of “Alexa, add milk to the grocery list.”

Communications

One of the most compelling uses of Alexa is communications, especially if you have a lot of devices on your network, as we presently do.

You can make calls from an Alexa device to a phone, and vice versa. Setting this up can be a bit complicated, mainly because you have to know contact names, who has which devices, and so on. But for my specific purposes, it was fairly easy: I turned on the calling ability in the Alexa app and made sure every device on the network was enabled, too. If the kids want to get ahold of me while I’m out, or my wife wants to call me hands-free, they can just ask Alexa to do it from any of the many Alexa devices around the house. If I need to call home but doubt that anyone will pick up a smartphone and answer, I can use the Drop-In feature.

Drop-In is a fabulous tool that lets you connect to one of your Alexa devices from another — including your phone. It’s basically a smart intercom. If I’m in the kitchen and don’t want to yell down to the basement playroom for the kids to come up for dinner, I can tell the nearby Echo Studio to drop in on the Echo Flex (which in this scenario is plugged into an outlet downstairs). After confirming that’s the device I intended to drop in on, Alexa will turn on the Echo Flex’s mic so I can talk to the kids, and they can respond that they’re coming. Even if I’m not at home, I can “drop in” on any of the housebound Alexa devices from the Alexa app on my phone.

Airing of grievances

Here is a short list of annoyances I encountered in the course of setting up, using, and evaluating these devices and Alexa — in addition to any aforementioned grievances.

If there are multiple Alexa devices within range of your voice, the wrong one often picks up the command, like when you’re trying to tell the Echo Studio to play a song, and the Fire tablet jumps in instead. (This was abated by Echo Spatial Perception [ESP]), a feature that determines which device you’re closest to if there are multiple Alexa devices nearby. But if you’re shouting at the Echo Studio from across the room while you’re prepping dinner, the tablet your kid is playing with at the kitchen counter may actually be closer to you.) You can change the wake word on the devices so they don’t all respond to “Alexa,” but you can choose from only a few options. Even then, you have to remember which of your devices has which wake word enabled.

When your children interrupt you when you’re in the middle of saying something to Alexa. (This happens no matter what virtual assistant you’re using.)

The presence of multiple voice assistants. In addition to Alexa devices, you will likely have one or more Google Assistant or Siri devices. Sometimes I’ll find myself using the wrong wake word for a given device.

The Alexa app can technically be the default assistant on your phone, but it’s tough to consider ditching Google Assistant or Siri, for all the reasons they’re valuable to your phone experience. If Alexa is not your default assistant, then you have to open the Alexa app and tap the action button in the app before issuing voice commands.

The constant upselling is annoying at best. Amazon wants you to keep buying back into its vast service and device ecosystem. This is why a search on the Fire TV Cube resulted in a pitch to subscribe to Audible, why there are ads and promos all over the Fire TV interface, why the Echo Studio tries to steer you to an Amazon Music subscription, and so on.

Something of value

Any time you add to the roster of devices you depend on, you have to come back to the fundamental question of whether it provides something of value — in particular, something of value that you don’t already have or can’t acquire via easier or less expensive means. Although results will vary depending on what each individual wants or needs, for me there’s very little that I got from the pile of Alexa-powered devices that I found indispensable or superior to other options.

Although the calling and drop-in features are nice to have, we already have a smartphone as a dedicated house phone that serves that purpose. “Dropping in” is way more fun, and potentially more effective because you can essentially call a room and anyone in it rather a specific device. But in order to maximize its effectiveness, you need to have multiple Alexa devices spread out across multiple rooms, such that you guarantee that a drop-in can be heard by someone in the house.

The voice features on the Fire TV Cube work quite well, but in most cases I can navigate to what I need faster by pressing a few buttons on the remote. The interface is more cluttered than, say, that of a Roku device, and although the Fire TV Cube does have more features, such as games, there’s nothing particularly compelling about playing games on a device like this one instead of a phone, tablet, or console.

The Echo Studio provides excellent audio performance, and it’s nice to be able to speak the music I want into existence, but it didn’t hook into the music streaming service I prefer in the way I wanted it to. (And although not everyone has the luxury of such a setup, I have a PC with decent speakers already set up in a common area of the house.)

The Echo Flex, along with its accessories, does offer some functionality that you can’t readily get from other devices, like motion sensing and the resulting routines you can employ such as alerting you to the sound of breaking glass. But in order to really extract value from it, I felt as though I needed two or three of them, plus an accessory for each, placed strategically around the home.

Everyone has their own predilections, but in our house the most useful application we’ve found for Alexa so far is connecting the Echo Spot in the bedroom with a Smart Plug so we can turn off the lamp across the room without getting out of bed.

Of course, there are literally tens of thousands of things that Alexa and its many devices can do, so the specific things that clicked for me won’t necessarily appeal to others, and vice versa. But that brings us back to the notion that before you spend a lot of cash on the Echo Studio, Echo Flex, or Fire TV Cube, make sure that they’re going to solve a problem for you, or make something more convenient, or bring new and valuable capabilities to your home — and that those advantages are worth the setup and management overhead.

The post Too much, yet not enough: Amazon’s Echo Studio, Echo Flex, and Fire TV Cube appeared first on Actu Trends.

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

a Tremendous-Easy Sound Bar That Hits the Proper Notes – Assessment Geek

http://tinyurl.com/y4ebm4wz Ranking: 7/10 ? 1 – Absolute Sizzling Rubbish 2 – Sorta Lukewarm Rubbish 3 – Strongly Flawed Design 4 – Some Professionals, Tons Of Cons 5 – Acceptably Imperfect 6 – Good Sufficient to Purchase On Sale 7 – Nice, However Not Finest-In-Class 8 – Incredible, with Some Footnotes 9 – Shut Up And Take My Cash 10 – Absolute Design Nirvana Worth: $250 Anker Anker is a widely known model within the cellular house: the corporate’s battery packs and different equipment are easy, purposeful, and thrifty. Anker hopes to carry that very same vibe to its Soundcore sub-brand, now increasing into residence theater. Here is What We Like Nice, highly effective sound Easy interface and distant Compact dimension with built-in subwoofer ARC help And What We Do not Questionable Dolby Atmos utility Prime-mounted interface lights are exhausting to see The Infini collection consists of two cheaper soundbars, the usual and “Mini,” each providing stereo sound at underneath 100 bucks. However the Infini Professional is an fascinating proposal from Anker: premium, highly effective sound, with a easy setup that appeals to non-audiophiles who need higher audio from their TV. It makes use of a 2.1 setup with an built-in subwoofer and only a few frills when it comes to connections or settings however provides in Dolby’s Atmos kinda-sorta-surround sound and Bluetooth to assist justify the upper $250 price ticket. And for probably the most half, it succeeds. Anker’s minimalist method to design will undoubtedly be welcome by individuals who don’t know—or care—what ARC or optical audio cables are. The straightforward setup makes it simple to get good sound from kind of something with barely any thought. This comes on the expense of flexibility and the next value—$250 could be greater than some are keen to spend. Preserve It Easy, Soundbar Constructing off the essential success of the Infini and Infini Mini, Anker retains issues easy with the Professional. At a little bit over three toes broad and 4.5 inches deep, the bar is larger than many on this value vary however justifies the dimensions with the built-in subwoofer and top-firing Atmos audio system hiding behind the material wrapping. The upward-firing Atmos subwoofer drivers are exhausting to identify: discover the faint circles on both facet of the management cluster. Michael Crider There’s one thing notable in its absence, nevertheless: a display. Even low cost soundbars usually embrace a small LED for fundamental audio and supply administration, however the Infini Professional does with out.  As an alternative, it makes use of a brief row of LEDs, reverse the {hardware} buttons on the highest of the central unit, to point connection and enter standing. The Infini Professional is a little bit over three toes broad, with devoted tweeters, woofers, and subwoofers. Michael Crider By itself, that’s not a foul thought. Maintaining the consumer interface to a minimal is an efficient name for one thing that’s going to be sitting in entrance of your TV. However whereas the LEDs are pleasantly obscured once you’re watching from a chair or sofa, meaning you’ll want to face as much as see if the enter you’ve modified has any impact. It’s a shocking whiff when it comes to usability. There’s a Bluetooth-powered app, but it surely doesn’t supply any extra choices than the distant. Michael Crider Elsewhere within the field, you get some minimal documentation and an infrared distant, which has a simplified management setup that appears similar to the mini remotes from Roku, Apple TV, et al. The distant is minimalism achieved proper, with an intuitive structure that nonetheless manages to discover a logical spot for each perform. After a few days, I may management the whole lot I wanted to with out counting on a backlight. Which is sweet, because the distant doesn’t have one. You’ll additionally get some small, flush brackets for mounting the soundbar to a wall. Not Wanting For a Hookup The Infini Professional’s enter choices are a bit sparse, however they need to get the job achieved for the overwhelming majority of customers. HDMI pass-through and HDMI ARC will maintain issues for many TV and receiver connections—although if in case you have an audio receiver, I doubt you’d be searching for an all-in-one soundbar resolution. Optical audio enter and an ordinary headphone jack are there if you wish to preserve issues even less complicated. The rear panel contains what appears like a USB 3.Zero port, however the handbook says it’s for service solely: it will probably’t be used for an audio connection or instantly loading native music. The Infini Professional provides customary HDMI, HDMI-ARC, optical audio, and a headphone jack. Michael Crider One additional trick is Bluetooth 5.0, permitting the consumer to play audio instantly from a cellphone. (Or a laptop computer or a pill or perhaps a tv, however let’s be actual right here: you’re going to attach out of your cellphone.) This can be a good inclusion and appears to be anticipated above a selected value level as of late, however I can’t say it’s one thing I depend on frequently. If I’m already in entrance of my TV with my cellphone, I’ll be utilizing Chromecast or simply manually opening music by way of the Roku interface. And yeah, that’s just about it when it comes to I/O. One further perform of the flamboyant Bluetooth is which you can management the Infini Professional out of your cellphone; nevertheless, the Soundcore app doesn’t do something that the distant can’t deal with sooner and extra effectively. You can too management energy, quantity, and supply with the buttons on the bar itself, however they’re contact buttons as an alternative of extra conventional tactile buttons, so that is extra of a trouble than anything. Once more, the distant is the much better choice. The Sound of Shock As somebody who loves low cost TVs, I’m no stranger to low-end soundbars, since they’re vital in order for you to have the ability to hear, effectively, something on a low-end mannequin with its piddly built-in audio system. So I used to be anticipating the Infini Professional to be a minimum of reasonably higher than a budget LG 2.Zero bar I’ve been utilizing for years because it’s greater than twice as costly. What I wasn’t anticipating was simply how a lot better it might be. Regardless of solely a nominal enchancment in total sound and energy (the Infini Professional has 120 watts throughout its tweeters, woofers, and subwoofers, in comparison with the LG’s 100w), the distinction in total sound was dramatic. The upward-firing subwoofers, the “.1” within the Soundcore’s 2.1 score that pull double responsibility as its Dolby Atmos {surround} sound function, supply an enormous enhance to total quantity and steadiness. Resonance chambers add to shocking bass energy. Michael Crider “Built-in” subwoofers are one thing I’ve solely seen on way more costly soundbars, the sort that attempt to mix good sound with a touch of magnificence by ditching the devoted subwoofer field. Anker’s managed to get that function on a relatively economical design. I’d be mendacity if I mentioned I used to be blown away by its energy or high quality, however contemplating the value, the amount, and the comparatively small dimension of the soundbar, it’s a wonderful mixture of options. What about {surround} sound? That’s a bit more durable to make a definitive name on. Dolby’s Atmos system simulates actual {surround} sound by bouncing sounds off the partitions of a room, which is iffy at finest. The Infini Professional’s Atmos mode didn’t make a distinction to the Netflix motion pictures I watched with it (5.1 Atmos-compatible sound enabled); it simply made them louder and extra bassy. That is sensible because the upward-firing subwoofers are the supply of the {surround} channels. The Atmos drivers are exhausting to see, however right here they’re shaking Samus. Michael Crider My lounge isn’t a pristine audio testing chamber, however with my TV and sofa equidistant from partitions on the facet and never removed from the again, it’s fairly splendid for Atmos. Even so, I couldn’t hear any particular profit from the {surround} channels. It may very well be that my surroundings isn’t nice, or it may very well be that it simply isn’t all that efficient in a 2.1 setup (different sound bars with built-in Atmos have a 5-channel tweeter/woofer association within the bar itself). The underside line is that I don’t advocate you purchase the Infini Professional as an alternative choice to a {surround} setup, for all that Anker is pushing the Dolby Atmos function. Premium Options for a Easy Setup At $250, the Infini Professional is a big step up from the underside tier of funds sound bars. And that leap comes with just a few drawbacks, like a comparatively easy setup for I/O, poor {surround} efficiency, and settings which can be exhausting to see from a sitting place. In order for you a sound bar that basically enables you to dig into its settings or connect with half a dozen completely different sources without delay, this isn’t it. The highest-mounted buttons and LED indicators are exhausting to identify when sitting on the sofa. Michael Crider Having mentioned all that: the Infini Professional hits all of Anker’s excessive notes. It’s easy, with a effectively configured distant and an interface that gained’t confuse even novices. And whereas it’s costlier than some choices, it’s punching above its weight when it comes to options, dimension, and sound high quality. When you’re prepared to speculate a little bit extra in your leisure heart’s sound, with out increasing to a full {surround} setup or one thing that wants a number of house, the Infini Professional is a wonderful selection. Right here’s What We Like Nice, highly effective sound Easy interface and distant Compact dimension with built-in subwoofer ARC help And What We Do not Questionable Dolby Atmos utility Prime-mounted interface lights are exhausting to see !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');fbq('init','1137093656460433');fbq('track','PageView'); Source link

[etechwire-blog]

Best last-minute Father's Day gifts 2018: ideas of what to buy dad today

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Best last-minute Father's Day gifts 2018: ideas of what to buy dad today

The best Father’s Day Gifts may be difficult to buy at the last minute, but you don’t have to go to today’s celebration empty handed. They beat the ties, socks, or button-up shirts that everyone is buying for father’s day.

You better start moving, because Father’s Day is today, June 17.

The good news is, we’ve got some leads on the best last-minute tech gifts and more for just about any type of father. Since we know it can be stressful to pick out the perfect Father’s Day Gift for your dad, spouse or yourself (because sometimes dads need to just treat themselves), let us help.

We’ve got some killer Father’s Day gifts – some of which are on sale today – that can come in handy for just about any dad, whether he wants to share a hobby with the kids, capture life’s precious moments, kick back and relax, or just live the dad life a little easier.

Take a look out our picks, and don’t buy Dad another tie he can’t match with any of the belts he got on his birthday.

Last-minute Father’s Day gift quick links

Have more time (or can send a late father’s day gift)? No problem. We have more suggestions for you below. These are the ideal gift ideas for dad.

Father’s Day gifts for the fun dad

Parrot Bebop 2

The Parrot Bebop 2 makes for a great Father’s Day gift for a lot of reasons. It’s one of the best drones, and also one of the more affordable ones. But, its lower price doesn’t mean it lacks feature. It can capture 14MP images and 1080p video, and it has host of features to make it easy to fly for beginners. For dads, it’s not only a fun gadget for playing with the kids, but it’s also a way to record some interesting moments.View Deal

LEGO Mindstorms EV3

Younger dads will almost surely have a pool of nostalgia for LEGO kits. And, while those dads have been growing up, so have LEGO sets. The LEGO Mindstorms set is a highly customizable, programmable robot set with a familiar assembly method: LEGO bricks. Fathers and kids can both have fun coming up with wild creations, and it offers kids a way to learn about programming.View Deal

Father’s Day gifts for the documentarian 

Sony Cyber-shot RX100 V

Capable yet portable; the Sony Cyber-shot RX100 V is one of the best compact cameras around. It’s on the expensive end, but it offers incredible features, with a tucked away electronic viewfinder, high-speed shooting, 40x slow-mo, and 4K video recording. View Deal

Panasonic Lumix LX10

Panasonic’s Lumix LX10 is another highly capable camera in a small form factor, but it comes at a lower price. It can’t shoot as many photos as quickly as the Sony above, but it can still record video in 4K. A big bonus with this camera is the fast auto-focus and wide aperture, making it easy to snap in-focus photos on a moment’s notice and in darker settings.View Deal

Nikon D850

If you want to go all out and have the cash to spend, the Nikon D850 is our pick for best camera. There are few of life’s moments Dad won’t be able to capture with incredible camera.  It has a full-frame CMOS sensor with 45.4 megapixels, 4K video recording, and a long battery life. Careful, this camera might just turn your dad’s hobby into a career.  You can see our full Nikon D850 review here.View Deal

Father’s Day gifts for the busy dad

Tile tracker set

Life can get pretty hectic for a dad, and that makes it easier for keys, phones, or just about anything to get misplaced. Luckily, technology is making it a lot easier to find things we’ve lost. Tile’s trackers can attach to objects, and the Tile App will help you locate them and let you ring the attached Tiles. No more losing the keys in the couch. If he has an iPhone, the upcoming iOS 12 will make it even easier to find these trackers with Siri Shortcuts, one of the many cool new iOS 12 features. Just make sure Dad doesn’t put his phone in the refrigerator. View Deal

Fitbit Versa

A busy father probably has too many notifications coming into his phone, a hard time remembering to charge his electronics, and little time to thing about exercise. Enter the Fitbit Versa, which can help with all of that. It’s able to display smartphone notifications, making it easier to check them, ignore them, or quickly answer with canned responses. Its battery lasts multiple days on a charge. And, it can give reminders to meet fitness goals each day. Plus, it’s stylish. All that is what makes it one of the best smartwatches right now.View Deal

Ticwatch E

If you think your dad would trade fitness features for more functionality in other aspects, the Ticwatch E is another great pick, and our choice for best Wear OS smartwatch. It’s on the affordable side but runs the fully featured Wear OS, and it has a crisp OLED display, replaceable watchbands, an IP67 water resistance rating, and a not-too-shabby battery. Just make sure your dad knows to proofread his text messages when he uses the watched voice response feature. Check out our Ticwatch E review for more details.View Deal

Father’s Day gifts for the top chef

Weber iGrill 2

Want to help your father cook without making him a prisoner to the grill? Weber’s iGrill 2 can help. It’s a handy grilling gadget that connects multiple temperature probes to a simple display that makes it easy to see how well cooked everything is. But, it goes a step further by pairing via Bluetooth with a smartphone app, offering notifications when items are cooked to the desired temperature. So, Dad will be free to roam away from the grill now and then.View Deal

Anova Sous Vide precision cooker

If the weather is no good for grilling, Anova’s sous vide cooker can help cook just about anything to perfection. If you haven’t heard about sous vide, the idea is that vacuum-sealed foods placed in precisely heated water will slowly cook evenly to perfection. The results are extra juicy and incredibly flavorful. Sous vide is also handy for cooking foods in advance or keeping them from being overcooked.View Deal

Father’s day gifts for the Dad still using a flip phone

Moto G5S Plus

If your dad is still rocking a phone from 2005, it’s probably time you force an upgrade on him. The Moto G5S Plus is an incredible budget option that packs a lot of higher-end features, like 4K video recording, a dual-sensor camera, and a metal chassis. Plus, it still has a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired audio. As a bonus, Motorola has this one on sale for Father’s Day.View Deal

Moto Z2 Force

If you think your father could use an even more capable and robust phone for Father’s Day, there’s the Moto Z2 Force. On top of high-performance internals, a sharp AMOLED display, an aluminum chassis, and a shatterproof screen, the Moto Z2 Force has access to Moto Mods. Your father will be able to expand the capability of this phone with attachments like a powerful speaker, extended battery, or even a projector. The Moto Z2 Force is also on discount for Father’s Day right now.View Deal

Father’s Day gifts for the multimedia lover

Kindle Paperwhite

If your dad loves to read, think about getting him an e-Reader. The Kindle Paperwhite is a great pick, with a clear display and high contrast for easy reading. He’ll be able to store more books on it than he’d ever be able to carry around in his own hands. As a bonus, the Kindle Paperwhite and other Kindle models are on sale for Father’s Day.View Deal

Fire HD 8 tablet

With the Fire HD 8 tablet, your dad will be able to take his books, newspaper, TV shows, and movies all over the place. The Fire HD 8 will also let him make use of Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant. This tablet is a great affordable pick, and it’s only better right now because of a $20 discount Amazon has going for Father’s Day. View Deal

Roku Ultra

You can help your dad become a cable-cutter with the Roku Ultra streaming box. The Roku Ultra will let him stream shows and movies in 4K HDR. And, if he struggles to navigate the menus, it has a voice remote he can shout commands into. If your father is the type to watch TV late into the night, he’ll be able to do so without bothering anyone by plugging headphones into the Roku remote as well. Another bonus: the Roku Ultra is also $20 off right now.View Deal

Samsung HW-MS650 soundbar

So, your father already has a great TV and streaming device? Well then, why not up his audio game this Father’s Day. The Samsung HW-MS650 is our pick for best soundbar. While some might scoff a at a soundbar when compared to a traditional speaker setup, the HW-MS650 challenges that notion. This soundbar has powerful sound, surprising bass, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support, and all of that in the simple form factor of a soundbar. You can see our Samsung HW-MS650 soundbar review for more info.View Deal

Xbox One S

If your dad like video games, this is an obvious pick. But, even if he doesn’t like games, there are some good reasons to consider an Xbox One S. This is more than a video game console. It has access to all the biggest streaming services, it has 500GB of internal storage, and it has a Ultra-HD Blu-ray drive. All of that paired with 4K HDR output make it an incredibly capable device to sit at the heart of a media center. As a bonus, having it might make it easier to get your dad into gaming, in case that’s your ulterior motive.View Deal

[depression-matters]

Lego Batman Movie Review: Why Wait For Cable? Watch It Now!

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Lego Batman Movie Review: Why Wait For Cable? Watch It Now!

Freedom to stream movies you want to watch right now!

While you could wait weeks or months for your favorite movies to come to cable, you can stream them to your TV right now. One of these movies that you can get right now is The Lego Batman Movie from Warner Bros. and DC Comics.

Get The Lego Batman Movie on Amazon.com Today!

Batman goes Lego

If you’re looking for a family film to watch or you’re “geeking” out for Batman you may enjoy this fun little film made by Animal Logic, the award winning studio that created the Lego Movie.

Batman is back with his own Lego movie

All star cast

The movie features an all star cast with a self centered, big ego Batman voiced by Will Arnett famous for his role of the now Netflix series Arrested Development and Zach Galifianakis voicing arch nemesis The Joker.

In the opening we find Batman at the height of his career and popularity with the citizens of Gotham City. Acting like a cocky superhero that thinks he can do no wrong, Batman foils Joker’s latest attempt to take over Gotham City with his band of all the top criminals that Gotham has. The Joker, seems like he is doing all this just so he can get the attention of Batman, has his feelings hurt when Batman tells him that he means absolutely nothing to him and that Superman makes a better arch nemesis. Batman who’s image of being a loner vigilante, believes he does not need anyone in his life, Not Friends or family. Not even The Joker who seems to believe he is Batman’s whole reason for being Batman.

The Joker returns voiced by Zach Galifianakis

Spurned by The Dark Knight’s rejection, the Joker devices a diabolical plan to go into The Phantom Zone and bring back all of the supervillains imprisoned there by Superman. You may recognize most of the supervillains from the most popular movies today like the Harry Potter movies, Lord Of The Rings, King Kong and more.

For the first time Batman realizes he can no longer do it alone and needs the help of his friends and family in order to defeat the Joker and his army of supervillains. Now with the help of Barbara Gordon, Dick Grayson his newly adopted son and Alfred his Butler, Batman must stop the Joker before it’s too late.

  Legos, Legos, and more Legos

Lego Batman the movie is an action packed movie of puns and Legos, especially Legos. Although the movie has moments where the story really lags, the rest of the movie is fast paced irreverent and funny.

Cable Alternatives Roku

Watch entire seasons of your favorite TV shows. Watch movies as soon as they come out. Learn the freedom of streaming movies and shows to your TV without cable.

Roku has several different devices for streaming TV shows and movies to your TV set. 

Roku Private Channels: Roku offers several different media streaming devices to meet your needs.

With Roku you can have all your favorite TV shows, movies and sports. Watch what you want when you want. Roku offers so much more TV value for the money you spend so why be a hostage to cable TV?

Do you hate when you come home after a long day at work, pick up the remote and start flipping through the channels and find nothing worth watching? Wish you could veg out on the couch and watch an entire season of your favorite TV show? Then cable only offers one episode maybe 2 at that time?

With Roku it’s easy to catch up on and follow all of your favorite shows and the latest movies!

Roku’s user interface makes it easy to navigate. You can switch channels, browse and search for channels in their Channel Marketplace.  Also search for TV shows and movies.

Check Out Our Guide To Which Roku Streaming Device Is Right For You

Roku offers a line of media streaming devices to fit consumer’s different circumstances, such as:

Price

The kind of TV set you have

Read our guide and find out which streaming media device is right for you!

Stay Informed and be notified whenever I come out with a new post!

[foxtech-blog1]

Roku 3 audit: A set-beat box to trump all other set-best boxes With more than 750 channels accessible and a fresh out of the box new interface, what's not to love?.

Roku is no more bizarre to set-beat boxes—we'd even go so far as to state that the organization has figured out how to set the standard for what these small spilling gadgets ought to offer. It's the substance associations that have made the gadgets so fruitful—customers have a lot of decision with regards to gushing, something that the Apple TV and even the WDTV Play are as yet getting up to speed with.

To be reasonable, Roku, Apple, and Western Digital all offer marginally unique things. Roku is particularly made for the individuals who need to stream an assortment of substance from outsiders, while the other two act more as an arbiter for clients to play content they officially possess while as yet having entry to a portion of the all the more generally utilized outsiders. Notwithstanding, the Roku has been effective in its model, and the Roku 3 proceeds in the organization's custom of conveying a reasonable, highlight filled spilling gadget.

New look, same awesome offerings

The Roku 3, accessible now for $99.99, calls itself the "most intense, responsive gushing box" that Roku has ever manufactured. It highlights an ARM-based processor and different parts all wrapped inside a sparkling, hockey-puck molded body. At 3.5 × 3.5 × 1 inches, it's somewhat littler than the second-and third-era Apple TV and Western Digital's Play set-best box. It likewise feels somewhat like a paperweight, however that shields the puck from sliding around in your amusement center.On the back, the Roku 3 includes an Ethernet port, HDMI port, microSD space, and power plug. It's 802.11 a/b/g/n perfect, with WEP, WPA, and WPA2 bolster. As an afterthought, there's a convenient opening for a glimmer drive or compact hard drive. The Roku 3 no longer components any RCA yields as past cycles have, so clients with more seasoned TVs will need to look at the more seasoned adaptations of the Roku.The Roku's interface experienced a noteworthy update, and it no longer elements the static, flip-through symbol merry go round of more established emphasess. Clients can see more channels initially and change the foundation subject of the interface, and there is a decent move impact while examining through menus. Generally, the new interface is more easy to understand than more established forms of the Roku, as menus are less demanding to explore through. Still, a portion of the "channels" haven't advanced alongside Roku are as yet donning dated interfaces.

The Roku 3 additionally enables clients to scan for substance crosswise over various administrations. Let's assume you're yearning to watch the BBC's Sherlock: essentially sort the name into the inquiry alternative on the Home page and Roku will recover the diverse administrations that are spilling it—a supportive choice for clients who may have memberships to Netflix, Hulu Plus, and even Amazon Instant Video however aren't sure which benefit has the most scenes to offer. It's just a disgrace that there's no voice control like on the Xbox by means of the Kinect, in light of the fact that the console input by means of the remote is a bit slow.The new interface is as of now selective to the Roku 3, however the organization has said that it will push out the refresh to its most recent era of Roku boxes toward the finish of April.

The remote

The Roku remote is an eminent equipment refresh itself. It attaches to the Roku 3 by means of Wi-Fi Direct, so you don't need to point it at the case to change the channel. It likewise highlights an earphone jack and volume catches, so you can tune in to a motion picture or music without disturbing others in the room. You could presumably utilize the Roku remote as a music player around the house, as well, if your place is sufficiently little. It doesn't have the best range, in any case—I exited the Roku 3 connected to the TV on the second floor of my home while it was gushing Spotify, however it started to separate when I took the remote downstairs.The remote has Wii-like movement detecting highlights, however Roku's diversion offerings are thin pickings, and the main amusement that truly made utilization of the movement detecting was Angry Birds Space. I would have likewise wanted to have elastic the catches and OK catch encompassed by the directional cushion as opposed to directly underneath it. The strong catches feel altogether different from different remotes, and it was a touch of an alteration attempting to peruse left and appropriate with the new plastic directional catches.

Playback

Roku has figured out how to end up plainly a center point for the absolute most generally utilized spilling administrations—around 750 and checking. Like a TV, Roku offers channels that are basically applications that connection to a gushing URL. Any channel you download or subscribe to is connected to your Roku account so that it's accessible when you move gadgets. A portion of the real players incorporate Netflix, Hulu Plus, HBO Go, Amazon Instant Video, Amazon Cloud Player, Spotify, and Pandora. It additionally offers the live TV application from Time Warner Cable. Those intrigued by cooking can tune into All Recipes and Recipe.TV, and those searching for instructive substance can watch TEDTalks and NASA TV. There's customizing for youngsters by means of the Disney application, and games fans can watch MLB.TV and buy a superior membership to watch their most loved groups play. In case you're particularly inquisitive or new to Roku, the organization offers an entire posting of its accessible channels on the web.

The main real administration that Roku doesn't offer is an authority YouTube channel, obviously a years of age issue that does not yet have a determination. There are a couple workarounds to this, be that as it may. Adding private channels like Twonky to bar YouTube content from your Android or iOS gadget to the Roku 3 appears to work fine.

The Roku 3 likewise enables clients to stream their own substance. With a glimmer drive or versatile hard drive, clients can play back advanced media documents including MP4, MKV, AAC, MP3, JPEG, and PNG records, however an application is required for this usefulness to work. It doesn't bolster AVI, nor does it bolster DLNA playback, however clients can set up a slight workaround by associating with a current Plex Media Server with the application accessible in the Roku channel store. You can likewise utilize the microSD card to match up Roku channels that are more than 50MB, however it should be designed before you can utilize it.

The application

The Roku application—accessible for iOS and Android—is most likely my most loved thing about this set-beat box. As an Android client, I sense that I don't generally get first pick of the litter with regards to application interfaces and elements. Contrasted with the WDTV Android application for its spilling gadgets, the Roku application is a genuine champ. It's anything but difficult to utilize, promptly responsive, and the console works legitimately inside different applications. It shows the greater part of your downloaded channels initially, enables you to dispatch a channel by talking its name, downloads different applications, and drives content from your cell phone to the Roku itself, however it just backings photographs and music.Should you get it?

On the off chance that you happen to have an original Roku in the house, you will need to consider passing that off to another relative—or pushing it in another room—and securing one of these. In the event that you've quite recently as of late received a Roku into your home, don't fuss—you'll get the new UI soon enough. In any case, the Roku 3 feels quicker than its antecedents as opposed to feeling like an old canine with new traps, as a portion of the more established models once in a while did. While past equipment refreshes felt incremental, the Roku 3 is a great jump forward for the organization. It's as yet a disgrace that the Roku 3 has such restricted choices for privately put away records, however; clients with an accumulate of substance prepared to be watched might need to consider the WDTV Play consequently alone, regardless of its thin application offerings. Apple clients and the individuals who are connected to the Apple environment might be more disposed to stay with the Apple TV, yet they ought to at any rate consider the Roku 3 as a TV partner for "other rooms."Those hoping to dump link and go full gushing ought to consider the Roku 3 as an awesome approach to do only that. The majority of the accessible stations and alternatives to pay for premium substance guarantee that you'll understand that same TV encounter without paying for each one of those stations you don't need, and with the Roku 3's moderateness, you can undoubtedly get one for each TV.

[megaonlineedu-blog]

Roku Express finds the gushing box value base—and its remote endures Impressions: $30 equipment is small and works like different Rokus, with one exception.

Regular Ars Technica perusers presumably have no utilization for another Roku gadget—or, at any rate, not in 2016. On the off chance that you haven't as of now watched media-spilling applications on your TV utilizing an amusement reassure, a HTPC PC, or the TV's pre-introduced programming, then shots are you're utilizing a first-, second-, or third-era Roku as of now (or one of its opponents, including Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV).

In any case, the string cutting upheaval proceeds with apace, Roku still has a lot of potential clients to draw far from satellite TV memberships and toward its gushing biological community. The organization plainly doesn't trust that a one-measure fits-all approach will draw in enough fourth-gen clients, so it as of late presented an astounding six new models. The least expensive of those, the Roku Express, was the first to arrive at Ars Technica HQ.

Also, yes, it's shabby. As in, $30—a Big Mac less expensive than the present business cheapo, the $35 Chromecast. Google keeps its costs low, to some extent, by expelling the remote control from its crate. Roku has done well to position itself as a modest, useful spilling gadget—also one that incorporates a straightforward, simple to-utilize remote. The Roku Express keeps up this notoriety.

Attachment for the Roku army

However the Roku Express incorporates a bargain that ought to offer delay to any individual who has aimlessly prescribed Roku boxes to crisp rope cutters. The new, super-shoddy Roku Express accompanies a remote, yes—yet like less expensive Rokus from years past, it's an infrared (IR) remote that requires observable pathway with the player to work.

Maybe to suit this IR prerequisite, the Roku Express has an alternate shape consider than its boxier and stickier kin. It's more similar to a pager, as though somebody liquefied and remolded a year ago's crate model to be more slender, longer, and similarly as wide. The Express is sufficiently little to vanish into your diversion focus, yet a notice sticker on the unit advises you that you not. "Point remote here," it peruses (in three languages!).If adjusting a more established, IR-just Roku on your TV didn't do the trap, the current year's Roku Express offers a first from the organization (and a component that we've never found in a spilling box, sincerely): a cement strip. Roku needs you to stick this thing to the top, side, or base of your favored TV. Before picking a position, be careful that despite everything you'll need to control the unit, either by connecting it to your TV set's open USB port or by utilizing an included AC control connector. The included USB link is around six feet long, which is precisely the same as the Chromecast's USB link. The included HDMI link, nonetheless, is an inadequate two feet long.

The glue strip doesn't come pre-joined to the Roku Express, so you'll need to peel one half, adjust the strip to the slight indention on the equipment's base, and press immovably. From that point onward, peel the other half, then press the equipment onto your favored TV position for 30 seconds. As this is an impressions article, I tried the cement strip for just 24 hours. I can't address this present strip's capacity to keep going for a considerable length of time or years.

What I can address is the Express' capacity to stick again should you expel it for any reason: around 50-50. The cement strip incorporates a purple tab—sort of like the purple texture tab found on each Roku remote—that you can pull on to relax the strip, which makes peeling the strip off of your TV really simple. The strip will likewise segregate from the Roku Express, so you'll need to press it back onto the equipment quickly thereafter. Subsequent to doing this, I repositioned the equipment—which, truly, I needed to do on the grounds that I didn't understand how short the included HDMI link was in my first pass—and attempted to restick the entire thing. After five minutes, it tumbled off. I restuck once more, pushing down harder. It stayed put for a considerable length of time.

On the off chance that that procedure sounds unappealing, you're remaining alternatives are to discover a spot on your amusement focus where the unit confronts forward, or you can introduce the Roku remote control application on an iOS or Android gadget. Running the application on a similar Wi-Fi arrange as the Roku itself makes for simple matching up without requiring any viewable pathway. From that point, the application imitates the remote's catch format (however with no application marked alternate way catches).

The application likewise incorporates the voice-look usefulness that the Roku Express' remote needs (other, pricier Rokus this year accompany this capacity). Be that as it may, my voice-seek work at times didn't associate with Roku's servers even while the remote application was generally working fine and dandy. When it functioned, it neglected to experience its attempt to seal the deal guarantee of "we'll load each review alternative and make the free one accessible first." Time and time once more, a film or TV arrangement look stacked various applications' adaptations at irregular, for the most part covering the "free with a membership" choice underneath the "pay individually" ones. We'll endeavor to test this with a real Roku voice remote when we survey the higher-end models to check whether that has any kind of effect.

"Simply get a Roku"* (yes, that is an asterisk...)

Once you've set up the Roku Express, you're in for the same Roku encounter as the last era of sets. I introduced more than 20 applications with no notices about memory or capacity (I just use around seven by and large, at any rate). I could switch amongst applications and load video content as fast as I could on whatever other 1080p spilling gadget I had helpful, with the exception of the exceptionally quick Amazon Fire TV display from a year ago, which presently can't seem to be bested in stacking times. I didn't test the combination of crapware amusements covered in the menus, since you ought not utilize the Roku Express to play computer games.

The Express' remote chip just backings 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, so be cautioned if overwhelming system clog is an issue where you live, or in the event that you need speedier velocities. Something else, the gadget stacked 1080p video on different spilling applications at what seemed, by all accounts, to be an indistinguishable quality from other 1080p gushing gadgets snared to a similar testing TV. I didn't see a specific shading, splendor, or spilling quality issues. Roku still backings applications in abundance—an indistinguishable applications from its more seasoned models—including each significant American games class and even adversary video libraries from Google Play and Amazon.

I have constantly enjoyed having the capacity to tell my less technically knowledgeable loved ones "simply get a Roku." They're modest, they function admirably, and they never, ever de-adjust from their included remotes, not at all like matched cell phone and tablet gadgets. Generally, that is as yet the case with the Roku Express. When I had the equipment introduced at an open edge, the Roku perceived the remote basically at whatever point I guided it to my TV (and regularly when I pointed it the other way, since IR signs can skip off of dividers and some other surfaces).But the Express didn't fill in too when I put in a more clouded position. I needed to hold my arm at a particular point to point a remote—and that is a tech time misplacement that better Roku models deserted years prior. It's truly up to your tastes, then. On the off chance that your stimulation focal point of decision has a pleasant place to position an IR-remote gadget, or in the event that you believe a solitary glue strip to keep your Roku connected to one TV set, the 1080p Roku Express will suit you and yours fine and dandy. If not, settle on the marginally slower-performing Roku Streaming Stick for $50 (or search for a revamped Roku 3 box) to get a Wi-Fi remote.

Other fourth-gen Roku gadgets, incidentally, still incorporate Wi-Fi empowered remotes, and some of them incorporate voice-pursuit, 4K, and HDR usefulness. We will have our impressions of them when they touch base at Ars HQ.

[komtech-blog]

Intel’s Core M Compute Stick is an actually usable computer with caveats

Back in January at CES, Intel demonstrated to us a full scope of scaled down desktop PCs that it has been discharging consistently through the span of the year. The first was another, cheap variant of its Compute Stick, trailed by another, standard Skylake NUC, lastly a quad-center NUC box that wasn’t exactly similar to anything the organization had done some time recently.

Presently Intel has sent us the last gadget we found out about toward the start of the year: a Core m3-fueled adaptation of the Compute Stick that sits some place between the Atom rendition and the Skylake NUC on the cost and execution range. It looks pretty much like the Atom rendition we’ve as of now seen, however it presents a couple of perfect thoughts (and enough execution) that it’s really conceivable as a general-use desktop PC.

The awful news is the sticker price, which at $380 (with Windows, $300 without, and $485 with Windows and a Core m5) is quite far outside the sub-$150 spur of the moment purchase zone that the other Compute Sticks exist inside. So how well does it work? What bargains do you make when you recoil a not too bad portable workstation of force into a stick? Furthermore, how huge is the corner for a moderately effective, generally costly stick-sized desktop, at any rate?

A minor bundle with a couple of smart thoughts

The Core M Compute Sticks look a ton like the fresher Atom forms at first redden, yet in the event that you take a gander at the ports it turns out to be more evident which will be which. They just have one USB Type-A port, however they draw power through a USB Type-C port on the other side. A link (a thick, longish one incorporated into the container) gives both force and information, and there are two more USB Type-A ports incorporated with the force connector at the flip side.

It’s a (still-as well uncommon) case of the utility that USB Type-C should convey, an approach to fit more ports into a thing that doesn’t have space for those ports and an approach to at the same time convey power utilizing a standard connector. Associating assistants to ports on a force block that might possibly be effortlessly available isn’t perfect, however for things like wired consoles or other once in a while moved extras it’s a superior choice than purchasing a different center point.

The Windows forms of the stick ship with a moderately without cruft variant of 64-bit Windows 10—you get all the product that accompanies Intel’s drivers in addition to a remote console application for your telephone. One decent touch amid setup is that Windows will really delay to inquire as to whether you’d like to match a Bluetooth console and mouse in the event that it doesn’t recognize one, something that OS X and Chrome OS will do as a matter of course yet that Windows 10 still doesn’t think to accomplish for reasons unknown. You won’t have to uncover a USB console to use with the Compute Stick unless you need to (or in the event that you need to dive into the BIOS settings; the BIOS can work with Bluetooth frill however they should be matched from inside the BIOS).

The Compute Stick looks a great deal like a thick USB drive. It’s a long dark stick with a lustrous plastic completion on the end and a matte complete all over the place else. Its principle offering point is its subtlety—it can fit in spots where a mid-tower or even a NUC can’t go. It can’t draw the force it needs to keep running over HDMI, so you’ll need that force connector, however else it’s really simple to toss it in a sack and attach it to anything with a HDMI port, incorporating TVs in classrooms and inn rooms.

On the off chance that a x86 PC running Windows or Linux is an outright need for you, this is truly helpful, however it’s difficult to envision an excessive number of circumstances in which the Compute Stick would be more advantageous or valuable as a versatile PC than, say, a tablet.

In any case, the Core M form is at any rate sufficiently quick and very much specced enough to serve as a real broad use PC; running Chrome and Office and Slack and Spotify and a modest bunch of different applications on the Atom adaptation, with its weaker SoC and 2GB of RAM, is conceivable yet difficult. 4GB of RAM is indisputably the base I’d need in any PC I was attempting to use for work, and 64GB of capacity implies that altering a bundle of photographs or recordings is most likely out, yet multitasking is sensibly charming, and I could see it being a decent loaner/substitution desktop that IT shops could distribute when a client’s real desktop is in the shop.

Remote execution, a noteworthy issue in the original Compute Stick, is generally not an issue here. Wi-Fi availability appears to be great, however the gadget’s smallish radio wires presumably won’t work extraordinary in ranges where remote gathering is frail or flaky. Bluetooth works fine yet not awesome—if your embellishments are inside three or four feet of the gadget, all that I tried (a speaker, a mouse, and a console) worked fine. Five or six feet out, the mouse specifically began getting glitchier. Remember that on the off chance that you need to utilize the Compute Stick as a TV PC; you won’t get an awesome 10-foot experience in the event that some of your frill won’t work when the stick is 10 feet away.

Posting picture by Andrew Cunningham

Some warmth, some clamor

Both of the Atom Compute Sticks get somewhat warm and have little buzzy fans that twist up when you’re pushing them, yet both are entirely unpretentious; those Atom chips were made for fanless tablets, and their warmth yield is generally negligible.

Center M chips are in like manner generally found in fanless PCs, yet they’re ordinarily 10-to 13-inch convertibles or portable PCs with more space for heatsinks. In the littler limits of the Compute Stick, Core M needs a fan, and the fan and the warmth are two of the stick’s greatest disturbances.

The fan in the Compute Stick is fundamentally continually running, and the span of the fan in addition to the pace it needs to keep running at implies that its weak cry is constantly capable of being heard regardless of the fact that you’re playing music or something. Furthermore, in case you’re focusing on it (where by “focusing on it” I signify “doing anything that hits the CPU or GPU for more than a few moments) it turns up much louder.

What’s more, in spite of the fan’s chivalrous endeavors, the stick still figures out how to get truly hot being used—not so hot that you can’t touch it, but rather sufficiently hot that you wouldn’t have any desire to. Also, that level of warmth makes me stress over life span, as well. How well will this stick be functioning in two or three years, particularly in the event that it’s concealed in a dusty territory some place?

Power utilization and execution

The Compute Stick I tried is a Core m3-6Y30, a double center, four-string chip with an Intel HD 515 incorporated GPU; a business-accommodating Core m5-6Y57 rendition with vPro is additionally accessible. Both incorporate 4GB of 1866MHz LPDDR3 RAM and 64GB of eMMC stockpiling—the last can be enlarged with microSD stockpiling, however the inward memory and capacity are obviously not upgradeable. 867Mbps 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 are given by an installed Intel 8260 connector, the same kind you’ll discover in most Skylake-based portable workstations.

Intel’s item page for the Core m3 guarantees a 2.2GHz top pace, however the most noteworthy velocity I ever saw while I was trying was 2.0GHz, and paces somewhere around 1.4 and 1.8GHz were more regular for ordinary errands like opening and hopping between applications. OEMs can increment or diminishing these chips’ TDP to fit better in a more extensive assortment of gadgets (the default is 4.5W, the maximum is 7W and the base is 3.8W). On the off chance that Intel is utilizing the lower TDP esteem, it would clarify the marginally bring down clock speeds.

The CPU execution is impressively slower in benchmarks than Core M-prepared portable workstations like the MacBook or Asus’ Zenbook UX305C, but since regardless we’re discussing the Skylake design it’s still route speedier than the shabby Atom sticks. What’s more, the GPU benchmarks are pretty much the same story—not as quick as Core M in a tablet, more than twice as quick as an Atom. The upshot is that you certainly won’t have any desire to utilize this as your exclusive PC, and you won’t have any desire to utilize it to play any late amusements, however it has recently enough energy to be usable for an ordinary Windows workload. It’s a multi-reason PC, where the Atom rendition is best utilized for maybe a couple particular assignments.

Capacity rate is better than average given the eMMC interface, yet in any case far beneath the PCI Express or even SATA III stockpiling accessible in portable PCs and NUCs. Dispatching applications and exchanging between regardless them feels sensibly smart more often than not.

The stick’s energy utilization is about where you’d anticipate that it will be, some place in the middle of the Atom Compute Sticks on the low end and the present standard Skylake NUC on the top of the line. It’s somewhat higher than the 4K-competent Roku 4 and altogether higher than the present Apple TV or a Roku 3, in case you’re thinking about it for HTPC use.

The Core M register stick is a truly cool bit of tech. That is a full Windows PC in there! What’s more, dissimilar to more established Atom adaptations of the same thought, this current one’s quite enough and sufficiently proficient to be utilized for universally useful figuring, and not simply essential scanning or stand utilization. 64GB of capacity isn’t sufficient for an essential PC for me, yet it’s more than adequate for a little travel desktop, and for a few people who stream a large portion of their video and music and don’t download a huge amount of stuff, it could conceivably supplant a delicately utilized desktop PC.

And still, after all that, it’s a troublesome buy to legitimize if size or versatility aren’t totally vital. The Core m3 form of the stick will run you $299 with no OS and $380 with a 64-bit establishment of Windows 10, more than twofold the expense of the Atom-fueled Compute Stick (as of this written work, Newegg records the Windows adaptation for $130, which is even lower than the $160 list cost). That is well into “real desktop PC” domain, and you can get a conventionally prepared fundamental tower for around that much from Dell and HP and others. In case you’re searching for a more flexible Windows-controlled other option to a gushing stick, the Atom show as of now does that. The Core M model can do 4K, however just at 30Hz and still, after all that it battles a bit, and it doesn’t include equipment speeding up for things like 10-bit HEVC/h.265 recordings in any case.