Page 23 - Aruba Today

TECHNOLOGY A23
Tuesday 29 December 2015

Tech Review:

Streaming TV services: What they cost and what you get

The Associated Press “60 Minutes.”
Restrictions: Some sports
(AP) - Cable or satellite blackouts.
HBO NOW
packages, excluding pro- Price: About $15 a month
Live offering: New episodes
motions, can easily run $70 are available through apps
about the same time they
to $100 a month. That gets are shown on TV.
On demand: Current and
you hundreds of diverse past seasons of most HBO
shows, including “Games
channels — ESPN for sports of Thrones,” ‘’Girls” and
“The Sopranos.” Hundreds
lovers, premium channels of movies.
Restrictions: You must sub-
like HBO and Showtime, scribe through a partner
like Apple, Amazon or An-
the major networks and droid. Cablevision and Ve-
rizon also offer HBO Now.
niche options. But maybe HULU
Price: $8 a month for Plus,
you can find more cost-ef- though many shows are
free on Windows and Mac
fective options online. computers. $12 a month
for a version with no com-
Netflix raised the monthly mercials.
Live offering: None
price for its most popular On demand: Next-day ac-
cess to shows from ABC,
plan by $1, to $10, for new NBC, Fox and CW, along
with some cable channels.
customers (and eventu- Some movies and original
shows.
ally all customers). Online Restrictions: Fox and CW
shows restricted to cable
services, individually, are subscribers for first week.
ABC requires cable or Hulu
still cheaper. Depending Plus subscription during
that time. Plus also needed
on what you like to watch, for viewing on mobile and
streaming TV devices.
however, you may need to This photo shows Netfilx headquarters in Los Gatos, Calif. Depending on what you like to watch, ITUNES
subscribe to several. And you may need to subscribe to several cable, satellite or online streaming packages. And not all Price: Next-day access to
not all of them can play at of them can play at the same time for several family members. shows for $2 or $3 an epi-
the same time for several sode. Live offering: None,
(Associated Press) except for special events
such as iTunes music
family members. festival.q

A sampling of services for lifestyles and world news and rewind, aren’t avail- On demand: All games.

different tastes: available for $5 each, and able for many channels. Restrictions: Lots of black-

HBO for $15.On demand: NFL blackouts on mobile outs. Extra $20 for season

SPORTS RULE: No recording of channels, devices. to watch on mobile and

though some offer older MLB.TV streaming TV devices.

DISH’S SLING TV episodes, including HBO. Price: $110 for a full sea-

Price: Starts at $20 a month. Access to Watch ESPN on- son; the price goes down MUST SEE TV:

Live offering: About 20 demand app. throughout the season. An

channels, including ESPN, Restrictions: Can watch extra $5 for some postsea- CBS ALL ACCESS

ABC Family, AMC and only one stream at a time, son games with alterna- Monthly price: $6.

Food Network. No broad- so members of households tive camera angles — not Live offering: More than

cast channels like CBS or will need multiple subscrip- what’s shown on TV. 100 markets.

NBC, although Univision is tions, although HBO con- Live offering: All Major On demand: Day-after

available in add-on pack- tent can be streamed on League Baseball games, access to shows on mo-

ages. Add-on packages 3 devices at a time. DVR subject to hometown bile devices (on traditional

for sports, movies, kids, controls, such as pause blackouts. computers, it’s free with-

German automakers want out a subscription). Full
seasons for many shows,
not just past five episodes.

real-time car data for maps app Past seasons for a handful
of shows, including “The
Good Wife,” ‘’Survivor,”

FRANK JORDANS happens where, in the very a 1/3rd stake in the com- ‘’The Amazing Race” and

Associated Press moment. It is a live repre- pany, but the aim is to take

BERLIN (AP) — Audi, BMW sentation of the world.” a hands-off approach to

and Daimler want to turn Data collected by cars ownership. The companies

their cars into real-time sen- won’t be limited to traffic will encourage other car

sors that will provide data information. Windscreen manufacturers to cooper-

to the HERE map service wiper use, for example, will ate with the service by also

they recently purchased also be transmitted to indi- providing data, a move

from Nokia, the German cate weather conditions. that would pit the auto in-

automakers said recently. In a nod to consumers’ pri- dustry against Google and

The aim is to speed up vacy concerns, all informa- Apple, whose smartphone

the development of more tion will be anonymized. apps are increasingly used

powerful maps needed “The cars will send data by drivers.

for automated driving and about the current driving HERE president Sean Fern-

other applications, but also situation but not about the back said the backing of

to fend off the threat from driver,” said BMW’s chief three major automakers,

smartphone-based rivals technology officer, Klaus who jointly paid 2.5 billion

such as Google and Apple. Froehlich. It will be supple- euros ($2.7 billion) for the

“We want HERE to become mented with data provided company, would allow it to

the world’s best reality in- from smartphones, wear- develop a new generation

dex,” said Rupert Stadler, able devices and even of high-definition maps and

the chief executive of Audi. traffic lights, he added.The fill out the white spaces in its

“This index knows what automakers will each hold service — notably China. q