Mobile devices have come a long way in the past two decades. There are billions of smartphones in the world that people use to keep in touch, watch cat videos, and argue on social media. They’re basically pocket-sized computers. And while we had pocket-sized computers twenty years ago, they were much slower and much more […]
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Firefox 86 lets you watch multiple videos at once with picture in picture mode
Like most modern web browsers, Firefox is effectively a video player that you can use to stream content from YouTube, Netflix, or hundreds of other sites. Last year Firefox added a picture-in-picture mode that lets you pop the video player out into its own window that remains on the screen even if you switch browser […]
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Plex adds live TV streaming (80 channels and nothin’ on)
Plex is continuing its push into streaming. Originally a service that allowed users to organize their personal media collections and stream them from a PC or home server to a phone, TV, or other device, now you can use Plex to watch live TV. The company has added a new Live TV tab to its […]
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Netflix testing option to speed up or slow down playback on Android
Those of you who stream Netflix on an Android device may soon have a bit more control over video playback. According to a few scattered reports, Netflix is currently testing variable playback speed in their Android app. As you can see in the screenshot shared by Android Police, there are two options to slow playback […]
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Sony unveils Xperia 1 Professional Edition smartphone aimed at multimedia pros
The Sony Xperia 1 that launched this summer is a premium phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor triple rear cameras, and stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos audio, among other things. But its stand-out feature is the display: a 6.5 inch, 3840 x 1644 pixel HDR OLED display with a 21:9 aspect ratio. Now Sony […]
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4 Comments on Raspberry Pi software update brings VLC media player (with hardware-accelerated video playback)
Raspberry Pi software update brings VLC media player (with hardware-accelerated video playback)
4 Comments on Raspberry Pi software update brings VLC media player (with hardware-accelerated video playback)The Raspberry Pi line of single-board computers can run a variety of operating systems, but there is one operating system that’s officially supported by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It’s called Raspbian and it’s GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian. This week the Raspberry Pi team released a new version with a new Python development tool called […]
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Instagram’s IGTV is a new mobile app for long-form video
Instagram is branching out from photos in a big way. The company already lets you use a smartphone to upload and share short videos up to a minute in length. But now Instagram is launching a new service called IGTV that supports videos up to an hour in length. It’ll be available both as a […]
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Open source AV1 video codec released, coming soon to streaming video
One of the things that makes it possible to stream 4K Ultra HD video over the internet is video compression: it takes a lot of bandwidth to stream a 4K video, but it takes a lot less to stream a H.265/HEVC file than it does to stream one encoded using MPEG-2. But now there’s a […]
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Bootlin working on hardware-accelerated video for Allwinner devices running Linux (crowdfunding)
6 Comments on Bootlin working on hardware-accelerated video for Allwinner devices running Linux (crowdfunding)There are a number of small, low-power computing devices powered by Allwinner processors, including single-board computers from CHIP, Pine64, Orange Pi, and others. But whenever I write about one of these products, someone invariably points out that while they can technically run both Android and Linux, you only get hardware-accelerated graphics if you use Android. Now […]
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Brave Browser for Android now plays YouTube videos in the background
Brave is a mobile web browser for Android with a built-in ad blocker. And up until recently, that’s been the browser’s primary claim to fame, other than the fact that it comes from Mozilla cofounder Brendan Eich. But now Brave has picked up a new feature which could make it a more attractive alternative to […]
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You can’t download Netflix on rooted, unlocked Android phones anymore (from the Play Store, at least)
11 Comments on You can’t download Netflix on rooted, unlocked Android phones anymore (from the Play Store, at least)Have a rooted Android phone, or one with an unlocked bootloader? Then you may not be able to download Netflix from the Google Play Store anymore. As spotted by Android Police, the official Netflix app is now described as “incompatible” with devices that have been rooted or which have unlocked bootloaders (even if they haven’t been […]
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Facebook Video app is coming to smart TVs
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 […]