Tag Archive for: sky

Sky Pollution is no more??

Episode 358 – Brassic’s Danny Brocklehurst

Disney Plus Heads To NOW TV!

We all love Disney here at How To Kill An Hour and we also love Sky programming, well today they have enhanced their partnership. As the Disney+ app will also launch on the NOW TV platform. Those who have the NOW TV device will have the option to download the Disney Plus app. Giving NOW TV device customers the option to watch a whole host of brand new shows including The Mandalorian, High School Musical: The Musical: The SeriesThe World According to Jeff Goldblum and more.

With the arrival of the Disney+ app, customers can now enjoy Disney’s new streaming service alongside NOW TV’s slate of Sky originals, award winning box sets, blockbuster movies and favourite Kids shows. This new addition broadens the range of content available on our NOW TV devices and helps to further simplify the struggle of navigating multiple TV inputs to find what you want to watch.” Marina Storti, Managing Director, NOW TV

So, NOW TV devices customers can now download the app from the app store and simply sign in to their Disney+ account to begin watching.

Disney Plus joins the NOW TV app store alongside a range of other additions. Such as Roku Channel, Netflix, All 4, ITV Hub, YouTube and many more!

What can I watch?

  • With over 500 films, 26 exclusive original movies and series and thousands of television episodes from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and more, Disney+ is the streaming home for some of the world’s most beloved stories
  • Also, Disney+ Originals include: The Mandalorian – the finale is fast approaching, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and Elephant
  • Some highlights: Cool Runnings, Sister Act, all of the Avengers, X-Men, Mrs Doubtfire, Inside Out, Finding Dory and Toy Story. But as I say, there’s something in the service for all ages – children, adults, families…

Summary of product facts:

  • Seven day free trial
  • £5.99 per month, or £59.99 for 12 months (this makes it £4.99 per month) – flexible contract, you can cancel at any time
  • Stream in SD, HD or Ultra HD
  • People can have seven profiles and can select that to be a kids account and choose profile icons from a vast range
  • You can stream four streams concurrently

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Episode 349 Bulletproof S2 Ft Noel Clarke and Ashley Walters

Christmas Gift Guide

12 Days of Christmas Gadgets Gift Guide

It’s that time of year again! Here are some of the best pieces of tech that we think will be perfect as Christmas Gadget stocking fillers! Furthermore, once you’ve finished, let us know any that you think we missed!

Sky Soundbox

The Sky Soundbox is the piece of audio hardware to revolutionise your tv viewing experience! It’s the perfect piece of tech to compliment your Sky Q package.

Sky partnered with Devialet, who are one of the most innovative names in audio to bring you the Sky Soundbox. Combining the power of Sky Tv intelligence with Devialet’s incredible, groundbreaking acoustic technology. Together with Sky Q the Soundbox delivers crisp, crystal clear bespoke sound across all of the content you love. Sports, Music, Cinema, it can handle it and produce the very best audio experience to compliment the very best visual experience with Sky Q. (Read More) (Purchase)

Red Dead Redemption 2

Rockstar games always knock it out of the park when it comes to games, Grand Theft Auto is what they are most known for, however when Red Dead Redemption came out in 2010, it changed the game! Everyone has always wanted to be a cow-boy and Rockstar made everyone’s dream come true! Now, 8 years later, Rockstar are revisiting the Red Dead universe in Red Dead Redemption 2. With over $725 million in worldwide retail sell-through during its first three days, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the second-highest grossing entertainment launch of all time next to Rockstar Games’ previously released title, Grand Theft Auto V, which achieved over $1 billion in retail sell-through in three daysNo one would be disappointed with this in their stocking! (Read More) (Purchase)

Marvel’s Spiderman

Marvel’s Spiderman, is an incredible game and one for the stocking this year. We loved it at E3 and we fell in love with it when we played it ourselves upon release. Definitely will not disappoint a PS4 owning loved one! Spiderman is an action and adventure open world game exclusive to PS4. The gameplay trailer that was shown off this year did not disappoint. It looks just like a movie and the devs over at Insomniac have done a wonderful job of seamlessly transitioning between gameplay and cutscenes. (Read More) (Purchase)

Strange Brigade

Another incredible game that would be perfect for stockings this year is Strange Brigade. This game is fun, fun, fuuuuun!! It’s very enjoyable by yourself defeating hordes of the undead. However, get a crew together and this levels of excitement and enjoyment go through the roof!

From the very start Strange Brigade is very charming with it’s friendly narrator (with his over the top British upper class dialect) and it’s 1930’s setting. The graphics draw you in to a world that is full of might magic and mystery. Yet at the same time having an underlying notion of danger when the undead appear. You know you’re in danger! Yet the locations are so pretty!

What makes Strange Brigade different to many other co-op games available today is that the levels and the game will change slightly depending on the numbers in your team. More enemies, lots of twists and turns with the levels and even the puzzles take it up a notch if you have a friend with you. (Read More) (Purchase)

Nintendo Labo

The Nintendo Labo is great for all the creatives in your life that love video games! The Labo is a cardboard video game! Sound crazy?! Well, it is designed to help you get creative with the Switch. Create all different kinds of gaming add ons with the variety kits that are available. Such as fishing kits, play piano or even the most impressive one that we have seen an AR Robot kit!

Nintendo are calling the cardboard kits, ‘Toy-Cons’ and are designed to be solely used with the Nintendo Switch. Just by following the onscreen instructions that are displayed on the Switches touchscreen.

The Toy-Cons are so versatile that you can either use the Toy-Cons independently of the screen itself and you watch what’s occuring on screen. I.e: Fishing. Where all the computing is done inside the joy-con controller, or by using the whole console itself to find new ways to play! An example of this would be the use of a motorbike, whereby the switch is placed in the center of the ‘Toy-Cons’ and ‘Joy-Cons’ are placed either side and the accelerometer acts as a steering mechanism.

The most impressive of the lot was the use of a HUGE contraption, with the Robot ‘Toy-Con’. This cardboard accessory is HUGE and is placed on a users back and utilises cables to detect a users movement. (Read More) (Purchase)

Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2 + SuperAmp

Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2

Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2

After all that gaming, you’re going to need a great piece of tech to talk to all those people online! The Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2 + SuperAmp, is THE gaming headphones for you this Christmas. Are you ready to get an advantage over your gaming competitors? Turtle Beach have announced something that may just help you do that. The Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2 + Super Amp gives users powerful amplified professional grade sound, unmatched comfort and app based controls to their audio.  The Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2 headset has top level audio and is driven by their own E-Sports tuned 50mm Nanoclear speakers. The microphone on the Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2 is highly sensitive and is noise cancelling for crystal clear communication. The SuperAmp adds a brand new way for players to control audio. The one dialled design brings powerful amplified Windows Sonic for Headphones surround sound. It even adds DTS Headphone:X 7.1 surround sound capabilities! (Read More) (Purchase)

Seagate Game Drive

Over Christmas you’re going to probably get a couple more games in your stockings! You’re going to need more storage space, as no one likes to delete stuff! We have the solution for you!

Well there’s a plethora of choices available for external hard drives and we’ve found an incredible one! The Seagate Game Drive for PS4, it comes with a whopping 4TB of storage which allows for 100games! Installation is pain free and super quick. Simply plug in the Seagate Game Drive directly into any USB port on the PS4 and boom, you’re good to go. The PS4 will recognise the drive and walk you through a simple set up. The Seagate Game Drive will be ready to have games installed on it within 3 minutes! (Read More) (Purchase)

DJI Mavic 2

The Mavic Pro 2 is an incredible piece of tech and is a perfect gift for the filmmakers in your life.  It even comes in two configurations! Firstly the Mavic 2 Pro: Made in Sweden, Hasselblad cameras are renowned for their iconic ergonomic design, uncompromising image quality, and Swedish craftsmanship. Since 1941, Hasselblad cameras have captured some of the world’s most iconic images – including the first moon landing.

Co-engineered in partnership with Hasselblad after two years of tireless research, the Mavic 2 Pro comes equipped with the all-new Hasselblad L1D-20c camera. The L1D-20c possesses Hasselblad’s unique Hasselblad Natural Colour Solution (HNCS) technology,  helping users to capture gorgeous 20-megapixel aerial shots in stunning color detail.

Also the DJI Mavic 2 comes in a different configuration: The Mavic 2 Zoom. Powered by a 1/2.3-inch 12-megapixel sensor with up to 4x zoom, including a 2x optical zoom (24–48 mm), the Mavic 2 Zoom is all about dynamic perspectives. Capture everything from wide angle to mid-range shots for even more creative options. (Read More) (Purchase)

Mikme

The Mikme Microphone, is a perfect stocking filler for all the content creators and audio geeks out there! A supremely powerful microphone that  boasts studio quality sound. From experience, we can tell you first hand that this microphone, really does produce some amazing sound quality! Consequently, in a tiny package too, we were seriously impressed when we reviewed this awesome little device! It’s touted as the world’s first wireless mircrophone and audio recorder in one. Simply press the button and voila, you’re recording. While you’ll need a smartphone to connect it to, to monitor what you’re recording, but other than that, you’re set! However, that’s no stress either! Simply connect your headphones to the Mikme to the reverse of the device to listen to the crispy clear audio! (Read More) (Purchase)

Philips One Blade Body Edition

Philips OneBlade

Philips OneBlade

This piece of tech is perfect for all those wanting to look crisp and clean this holiday season. The Philips OneBlade does everything that the original OneBlade did previously. You can trim your beard with one of the three stubble comes, which come in a variety of lengths. There’s 1mm, 3mm and 5mm. However, the OneBlade now comes with a body comb, which is 3mm, which you can use in any direction.

As the OneBlade does not shave like a regular shaver, i.e. getting really close. You’re able to use this to your advantage and go against the grain and easily shave off any length of any hair from any part of your body! Remember to change the blade though! There’s one for the body and one for the face! (Read More) (Purchase)

Astro Bot: Rescue Mission

We recently played this on How To Kill An Hour’s Twitch Stream and it was incredibly fun! It’s a pick up and play game that is perfect for the family and definitely makes use of the VR in a wonderful way. It’s perfect for all the family on Christmas Day and will keep everyone entertained for hours!

Astro Bot: Rescue Mission VR is an incredible virtual reality platformer that’s exclusively created for the Playstation VR. In the game you take control of a character called Astro, the captain of a spaceship traveling search for his lost crew.

Astro Bot: Rescue Mission VR takes gamers across 26 levels that take the platforming genre to brand new heights? Well, the game is across a 360 degree landscape. There are huge towering bosses but be careful as there are precise controls whilst you are Astro. Some of the levels are very challenging so make sure that you use all 360 degree’s of vision otherwise you’ll miss things! Therefore it is vital that you use your entire body to “look” around corners as there may be things that you miss. Consequently there may be paths that you are able to create for Astro to climb. (Read More) (Purchase) (Purchase Playstation VR)

 

Anvio VR

VR has been HUGE this year, so why not fill up the stockings of loved ones with tickets to Anvio VR in London!? Unlike a lot of VR games or events this is an experience in which you’re allowed to play! Hence why they’re describing it as a playground! What we mean by play is that you’re free to move around. As you’re not confined to a small play area. So you get to run around a HUGE room and experience, quite literally, a whole new world!

In the worlds that Anvio VR have created you can run, jump and even wave to your partners whilst in the game, all that and much much more! Their play area is also fully wirless so there’s no worry about running into a wall or falling over wires. Thus creating a much more realistic and immersive experience. Also, there’s guides in the room, who are there to help prevent you from crashing into any walls, if you do manage to find your way to a wall that is! (Read More) (Purchase)

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Episode 303 Astro Bot: Rescue Mission

Sky Soundbox

The Sky Soundbox is the piece of audio hardware to revolutionise your tv viewing experience! For £299 (£499 for Non Sky Tv customers) it’s the perfect piece of tech to compliment your Sky Q package.

Sky partnered with Devialet, who are one of the most innovative names in audio to bring you the Sky Soundbox. Combining the power of Sky Tv intelligence with Devialet’s incredible, groundbreaking acoustic technology. Together with Sky Q the Soundbox delivers crisp, crystal clear bespoke sound across all of the content you love. Sports, Music, Cinema, it can handle it and produce the very best audio experience to compliment the very best visual experience with Sky Q.

The Sky Soundbox brings immersive 360 degree’s of audio experience. Putting you at the heart of the action. Home cinema quality sound from a single speaker. Simply plug and play.

Sky Soundbox produces powerful bass, dynamic volume and huge power, all from a single box. Worried about the depth of the bass. There’s no need for an external subwoofer with the Sky Soundbox, so no need to worry! It is very intelligent and can adjust volume levels automatically to ensure 100% clarity.

Purchase your own by clicking here!

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Netflix on Sky

Netflix On Sky: More content, Save Money

Netflix on Sky is finally happening! If you are a Sky Q customer you can sign up to a new service. A service called ‘Ultimate On Demand’. It will feature Sky’s existing catch up and box set services, plus Netflix!

Netflix on Sky will cost an extra £10 a month if you want to join. But you’ll recieve all of Sky’s ‘On Demand’ stuff as well. Like Netflix’s £10 package you’ll also be able to stream Ultra HD content up to four concurrent screens. However, if you only have Sky Q’s Entertainment subscription, you’ll only receive the standard Netflix plan. No 4K content and 2 screens, this will cost the regular £7.99

If you already have both Netflix and Sky you can merge or move your subscription into one. You can simply sign into Sky Q’s own Netflix app. This will help many users who have Netflix and Sky as by amalgamating the services it means you don’t have to load up two separate apps. Nor do you have to have a smart telly or any other type of device that has Netflix on it. Plus if you have both services you will have a lot more content to pick from! Save a bit of money (If you were paying for both already) and get tons more content as well! What’s not to lose!

There’s no date for when Netflix will land on Sky Q just yet, but it’s “soon”. Customers can register their interest on the Sky website.

(Gizmodo)

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Sky Q levels up

Sky Q levels up!

We love Sky Q here at the office and Sky has recently announced that is going to get much better! So in other words, Sky Q levels up!

Sky Q levels up!

Beginning in March Sky are rolling out a range of updates to it’s customers that will make their experience even better.

Not only that, the world’s most popular music streaming service, Spotify will be available to customers.  As the perfect companion to Sky’s recently released Sky Soundbox, the introductoin of Spotify to Sky’s ecosystem will allow for a top of the range high quality home music solution!

Personalisation is a big part of Sky’s initiative with Sky Q and a households viewing habits are going to be enhanced with this update. Via deeper machine learning your Sky Q box will now be able to suggest you things to watch based detailed algorithms that are learned over time.

With this update, the box will suggest things to watch that reflect the times of day that you watch content, rather than taking in to account what type of content you watch. The sports section is also getting refined thanks to machine learning. So, a customers favourite sport and teams will be shown to them more prominently. Working alongside the Sky Sports app, so a user is always aware of what’s happening in the world of their favourite sport.

Alongside greater personalisation, Sky’s voice functionality is getting a boost. Customers will be able to ask for personalised recommendations by simply saying, “show movies for me”

Sky Q levels up: User interface

To create this amazing enhanced viewing experience, Sky will be updating their UI. In this upgrade the UI will see a wide-screen interface introduced. Plus the amount of Ultra HD content available to it’s customers will double. Offering over 1,000 hours of content!!

A new ‘Kids’ mode is being introduced, giving parents peace of mind over what their children are consuming. Whilst remaining as entertaining as possible for them!

Furthermore, the reach of Sky Q is getting a little boost! The ability to stream content to more than one device is being introduced. As well as a Sky Q app being available to download on Smart Tv’s and third party devices.

 

To listen to the latest podcast please click here!

 

Digital Video outsells Physical Video!

The inevitable happened and in 2016 streaming and downloadable video outsold DVD’s and Blu Rays for the first time in 2016.

Based on data from The Official Charts Company DVD and Blu Ray sales dropped by 17% year on year, (£1Billion – £894Million) Digital sales grew from £250M to £1.3billion according to estimates from market research firm IHS!!

Places like Netflix and Amazon churning out insanely good original content it’s no surprise that digital sales grew by so much and with them continuing to put more money into original content the sales will only continue to grow. Not only that places like Sky Store and Wuaki.tv also means you don’t even have to wait for the latest releases to hit Netflix you can rent them upon day of release!

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!