Facebook may have started out as a website where people could share status updates and see what their friends were up to. But these days it’s a platform for discovering news (some of which is even real… although some is not), organizing events, and watching videos. Now the company wants to bring that last bit […]
smart tv
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Closer look at Element’s Smart TV with Amazon Fire OS and Alexa
The first smart TV sets powered by Amazon Fire TV software are coming this year. Today Amazon announced that we’d see 4K televisions from Seiki, Westinghouse, and Element Electronics later this year. They all feature the same software that runs on an Amazon Fire TV… plus a few extra features including support for watching live […]
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Amazon begins rolling out new Fire TV user interface
Amazon’s Fire TV and Fire TV Stick devices are getting a new look… or rather, the software that they display on your TV screen is getting an overhaul. The hardware looks pretty much the same. In October Variety gave us a sneak peek at the new Fire TV user interface, which moves the navigation from […]
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LeEco brings $80 smart TV box and (pricier) big-screen TVs to US
In addition to bringing its Le Pro 3 and Le S3 smartphones to North America, Chinese company LeEco is entering the US smart TV space. In fact, the company announced this summer that it was acquiring Vizio for $2 billion. Now LeEco is bringing a line of smart TVs to the region, including models  with […]
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$69 Xiaomi Mi Box with Android TV makes early appearance at Walmart
Xiaomi has been selling Mi Box media streamers in China for a few years, but earlier this year the company announced that it was bringing its first Mi Box to the United States, and that it would be a device running Android TV software that’s capable of streaming 4K video. While the US price and […]
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LeEco acquires TV maker Vizio for $2 billion (update: nope)
LeEco has started to make a name for itself in China recently, where the company’s phones, smart TVs, and even smart bicycles are generating buzz. The company also started showcasing its products in the US this year, hinting at plans to enter the US market in a big way later this year. Now it looks […]
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Xiaomi’s Mi Box is a 4K Android TV box for the US market
Chinese company Xiaomi is probably best known for making smartphones that you can’t buy in the United States. But the company started offering a few products in the US last year, including headphones, a fitness tracker and portable battery. Soon the company will be launching its first Android TV box for the US market. The […]
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GameFly game streaming coming to webOS (on LG TVs)
GameFly Streaming is a service that lets you pay a monthly fee to stream a few dozen games over the internet. When it launched in mid-2015, GameFly Streaming was exclusively available to Amazon Fire TV users. Then GameFly added support for Samsung Smart TVs. Now LG has announced that GameFly Streaming is coming to its […]
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Make your own Firefox OS TV
Mozilla may not be actively developing Firefox OS for smartphones anymore… but the company is still pushing the operating system as an option for smart TVs and Internet-of Things products. Don’t want to spend money on a TV that comes with Firefox OS? You can build your own Firefox-based smart TV device… sort of. Developer fiji-flo […]
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LG introduces webOS 3.0 for smart TVs
WebOS may not be shipping on smartphones or tablets anymore, but LG has been using a version of the software for its smart TVs for the past few years… and the company plans to unveil a new version of webOS at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Among other things, webOS 3.0 includes new features […]
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Samsung Smart TVs can now stream content from Android, iOS, and Windows
Samsung is rolling out an update to its Smart View app, currently available on the company’s Smart TVs from 2011 and later. The biggest change to the Smart View app is that it is now available across Android and iOS devices, as well as Windows-based PCs. The new app is launching as a beta, with […]
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ZTE smart TV may have a smartphone for brains
It’s hard to find a big screen TV these days that doesn’t have some sort of “smart” functionality, letting you stream internet video, play games, or run other apps. LG’s recent models use WebOS software. Samsung’s use a Tizen-based operating system. Panasonic has models running Firefox OS. Other smart TVs use Roku or Android TV […]