Sky Q is getting better personalisation features and Spotify


All of a sudden, Sky has become the prize in a bidding war between US media giants Fox and Comcast, but for now, it's business as usual on the ground. The pay-TV provider has today announced a number of new features coming to its Sky Q service, primarily focused on making the user experience more personalised. Machine learning will begin to play a more important role throughout -- surfacing different TV shows depending on the time of day, for example. The sports tab is also becoming better tailored, assessing your viewing habits and liaising with the Sky Sports app so it knows your favourite events and teams.

These updates will feed into a "brand new widescreen user interface" that blends personal recommendations with a selection of on-demand TV curated by Sky. New 'most recent recordings' and 'favourite channels' sections on the homepage are intended to connect people with what they want to watch quicker. Additional voice commands that reflect the personalisation push are also coming to the service -- "show movies for me," for instance. Moreover, voice control will be extended to certain apps, meaning you'll be able to ask your Sky Q box what the weather's doing that day.

To complement the Sky Kids mobile app, set-top boxes are getting a new "kids mode." It sounds like a walled garden for the little ones to bounce around in, letting you plop them in front of the TV and know they aren't going to stumble upon a rerun of Dexter or something. Other, top-level updates include HDR support on Sky Q -- the amount of 4K content on the service will also double this year, apparently -- and letting users stream TV to more devices than before (two is the current maximum) via the Sky Q app. Related to that, Sky is releasing Q apps for smart TVs and other "third-party devices" (we imagine this means Apple TVs, Rokus, Fire TVs etc.). Not only will this make multiroom simpler, since Sky Q Mini boxes won't be a necessity, but it's also Sky following through on its plans to offer Q without a satellite dish.

Lastly, Sky Q will be getting its very own Spotify app this spring -- much to the chagrin of MTV and the seven music channels it somehow manages to keep on air. It'll end up being the first high-profile app to come to the platform since it launched two years ago. The aforementioned updates won't be hitting set-top boxes all at once, but Sky's effectively laid out a roadmap of new features it'll begin drip-feeding into the system from next month onwards.

Source: Sky

via Engadget RSS Feed "http://ift.tt/2HRGwsv"

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more