The new app for Android TV pairs with the Tablo Tuner to put OTA TV on the Shield without the use of a local network.

Tablo is a pretty terrific product for cord cutters in North America, and the company’s most recent product, Tablo Dual, was its first to incorporate a built in DVR. Now, they’re back with another hot new product and this time it’s for the NVIDIA Shield TV.

Tablo Engine and Tablo Tuner are available starting today. The former is an app that installs on the Shield TV, the latter is a USB TV Tuner that plugs directly into the box.

The Tuner is a simple dongle with a USB connection at one end and the hook up for your OTA TV antenna on the other. It just connects to a spare USB port on the Shield TV and interacts then with the Tablo Engine app to give you your live television channels.

That’s not all either. Here’s a rundown of what to expect:

• Live TV: Watch, pause and rewind live TV in stunning full HD quality
• Fast Channel Changes: Tune to live TV in seconds from the live TV grid guide
• Recording & Time Shifting: Watch, pause, rewind and fast forward completed and in-progress recordings
• 14-Day Live TV Grid Guide: Browse and set recordings for shows airing over the next 14 days
• 5.1 Surround Sound: Enable Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound pass-through for a premium audio experience

Tablo Engine will also work with the ‘Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD USB tuner stick. The dual-tuners built into Tablo Tuner should also allow for watching and recording a different channel at the same time. Naturally, to record TV, you’re going to need plenty of storage. On the Shield TV Pro it’ll store its MPEG2 recordings on the internal hard drive first, on the 16GB model you’ll need external storage attached. There’s also a web app to help you manage recordings when you’re not in front of the TV.

The Tablo Tuner is available starting today for $ 69.99 USD/$ 89.99 CAD from the Tablo store. The Tablo Engine app is a free download from the Play Store, and buyers of a Tablo Tuner will get a free 6-month subscription to the guide data package. After this you’ll be paying $ 3.99 USD/$ 4.99 CAD monthly or $ 39.99 USD/$ 49.99 annually for this package.

At the end of the day, the Tablo Tuner package is another great way to watch television on the Shield TV. Eventually it’ll be available to other Android TV boxes, but for now there’s no denying it’s another feather in the Shield cap. Other solutions to watching TV on the Shield require the use of a local network connection, but this idea from Tablo really does just turn it into a ‘proper’ TV box and DVR system. The drawback is the rest of the world can’t indulge right now, but it’s a compelling option for U.S. and Canada-based cord cutters.

See at Tablo

WhatsApp wants to connect businesses with customers.

WhatsApp started rolling out verified business accounts last week, and the comapny is now detailing its monetization plans. WhatsApp will offer a Business app that makes it easier for businesses to respond to messages, share updates, and more. WhatsApp basically wants to be the app you turn to when you want to place an order with a local bakery or get flight updates from your airline.

As for monetization, WhatsApp will provide its Business app to small-to-medium businesses for free, but will also roll out an “enterprise solution” for bigger companies with a global footprint, like banks, airlines, and e-commerce sites. The latter will be the main source of revenue for the messaging service. From the WhatsApp blog:

Our approach is simple – we want to apply what we’ve learned helping people connect with each other to helping people connect with businesses that are important to them.

We know businesses have many different needs. For example, they want an official presence – a verified profile so people can identify a business from another person – and an easier way to respond to messages. We’re building and testing new tools via a free WhatsApp Business app for small companies and an enterprise solution for bigger companies operating at a large scale with a global base of customers, like airlines, e-commerce sites, and banks.

These businesses will be able to use our solutions to provide customers with useful notifications like flight times, delivery confirmations, and other updates.

We’ll be listening carefully to feedback during our test phase and keeping people informed as we make these tools more widely available. It’s important that we get this right and are thoughtful about the new experiences we’ll provide for businesses and our users.

There’s a lot of potential for a service like this in countries like India, where WhatsApp usage is ubiquitous. Over 200 million users — or a fifth of WhatsApp’s global userbase — is from India, and the messaging platform is already being used by hundreds of local businesses to interact with their customers.

A ticket booking platform like BookMyShow can now leverage the business features to provide its customers with information on upcoming movies and events, and services like Ola and Uber can use WhatsApp to deliver OTPs.

Prepare yourself for a story told across multiple consoles.

One of the biggest questions I saw after E3 this year was about the amount of work needed to prepare for Kingdom Hearts 3. If you think all you have to do is play the Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 remakes on your PlayStation 4, you have been misinformed. The Kingdom Hearts franchise sprawls across multiple consoles, including the Nintendo 3DS and even a mobile game with a global audience. Each of these games offer a piece of the puzzle being formed in Kingdom Hearts 3, and if you’ve never played any of those games you are going to be a little confused by some of the plot points in this new game.

Fortunately for you, there’s a YouTube channel dedicated to making sure you are up-to-date on all things Kingdom Hearts.

Pre-order at Amazon

The Kingdom Hearts Repertory has one goal — to live stream as many of the story cinematic scenes from every Kingdom Hearts games in order as possible, over and over again until the launch of Kingdom Hearts 3.

This is almost everything from the back story in Kingdom Hearts χ Unchained to the Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth be Sleep scenes leading up to the moments right before the start of Kingdom Hearts 3. The YouTube description has a list of scenes missing from the stream, but what is being streamed will offer a ton of backstory you will want before playing this new game.

Want to learn more about Kingdom Hearts 3? Check out the total guide to everything we’ve learned so far!

Samsung is betting on a dedicated NPU to introduce a host of AI-enabled features in its upcoming flagship.

Huawei was the first to roll out its 2019 chipset, with the Chinese manufacturer announcing the 7nm Kirin 980 last month. With the 980, HiSilicon (Huawei’s semiconductor division) doubled down on AI processing, introducing a dual NPU that enables a host of new features on the Mate 20 and Mate 20 Pro.

Samsung is now announcing its own flagship chipset for 2019, the Exynos 9820. The 9820 builds on the strengths of this year’s 9810 — which powered the global variants of the Galaxy S9 and Note 9 — by introducing a fourth-gen CPU and an LTE modem that can hit up to 2Gbps with 8x carrier aggregation.

The highlight with the Exynos 9820 is a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) that will allow Samsung to offer a range of AI features on the Galaxy S10. The chipset also enables 4K video recording at 150fps and 10-bit colors, as well as the ability to shoot 8K video at 30fps. It also supports up to 4K UHD (4096×2160) and WQUXGA (3840×2400) displays, as well as UFS 3.0 and UFS 2.1 storage formats and LPDDR4x memory.

Samsung says that the dedicated NPU leads to a 7x increase in the performance of AI-related tasks, with the platform facilitating on-device AI features like real-time scene detection when using the camera. Huawei has relied on its own NPU to offer a similar “Master AI” feature on its flagships for some time now, and it’s likely we’ll see Samsung do the same next year with the Galaxy S10.

Samsung is touting a 20% increase in single-core performance or 40% higher efficiency, and a 15% uptick in multi-core performance from the Exynos 9810. The custom cores are joined by two high-performance Cortex A76 cores and four Cortex A55 cores that will kick in for energy-efficient tasks. The Exynos 9820 has the latest Mali-G76 GPU, which delivers a 40% performance boost from the Mali-G72 on the 9810.

As is to be expected, Samsung is heavily advertising the AI capabilities of the Exynos 9820 platform, with vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics Ben Hur noting that it will provide a “new dimension of performance:”

As AI-related services expand and their utilization diversify in mobile devices, their processors require higher computational capabilities and efficiency. The AI capabilities in the Exynos 9 Series 9820 will provide a new dimension of performance in smart devices through an integrated NPU, high-performance fourth-generation custom CPU core, 2.0Gbps LTE modem and improved multimedia performance.

Like previous years, we’ll likely see the Exynos 9820 make its debut in next year’s Galaxy S10.

Best answer: No. Almost everyone will find that the benefits don’t outweigh the costs, and there are much cheaper options for better internet connections and fast speeds.

• Go wired: 50ft Ethernet Cable ($ 10 at Amazon)
• Mesh networks: Netgear Orbi WiFi Router ($ 130 at Amazon)

What is a dedicated gaming router?

Gaming routers are like normal internet routers on crack. They’re designed specifically to give you the best wireless connections and speeds for online gaming, and to a certain extent may even go overkill. Most of their designs scream “stereotypical gamer” with their bulky black and red features.

Why don’t I need one?

As mentioned above, most of these routers will be overkill for nearly everyone. You can still have a great gaming experience with excellent speeds without having to spends hundreds upon hundreds of dollars.

Are there situations where I will need one?

If you game 24/7 and are a serious competitor in a household that uses up a ton of bandwidth—whether from playing games, browsing the internet, or streaming movies—purchasing a gaming router should be on your mind. In situations like these, you’ll likely need a more powerful connection to ensure that your gaming experience isn’t taking a heavy performance hit.

What are my other options?

If your console is within line of sight to your normal internet router, you may not even need to purchase anything else. So long as your internet package provides a solid speed, your connection should be fine. If it isn’t, that’s when you may want to invest in a solid Ethernet cable, or consider picking up a cheaper mesh router that can send signals to more rooms in your house.

Great connection

50ft Ethernet Cable

$ 10 at Amazon

Going wired is always better

Using an Ethernet cable is the best and cheapest way to get top speeds and reliable internet. Just because the future is going wireless, doesn’t always mean that wireless is the best method.

Mesh network

Netgear Orbi WiFi Router

$ 130 at Amazon

Whole home Wi-Fi that won’t break the bank.

If you really don’t want an Ethernet cable or wiring it through your house isn’t worth the hassle, an Orbi WiFi Router is a great alternative to give every room in your house fast internet speeds.

It can be enabled manually whenever you want.

The Galaxy S10 has a pretty impressive combo of cameras to work with, and when the lights go down and you still want to snap photos, there’s a feature called “Bright Night” that makes it easier to capture low-light images. As effective as it is, Bright Night is slightly annoying in the sense that it can’t be enabled manually and is only used when the S10 thinks it should be turned on.

Thankfully, that’s changing with a software update that’s rolling out to the Galaxy S10 now.

After downloading the update, you’ll find a new Night mode in the camera app. This is the exact same Bright Night feature, but it can now be used whenever you want. It’s unclear why something like this wasn’t available from day one, but we’re happy to see it make an appearance nonetheless.

In addition to Night mode, this update also includes improved HDR/photo resolution, touch optimizations for Pocket Mode, and the April 2019 security patch.

It’s rolling out now as an over-the-air update, and if you want to do a manual check to see if it’s ready for your phone, you can hop into the settings and go to Software update -> Download and install.

Galaxy S10 vs. Pixel 3 photo comparison: Which has the better camera?

See at Amazon

The dedicated camera night mode will probably make its way to other U.S. Galaxy S10+ models soon.

What you need to know

• Samsung has finally started rolling out the dedicated camera Night mode for the Galaxy S10 series models in the U.S.
• The feature is now being rolled out to the AT&T Galaxy S10+ variant.
• Apart from a dedicated night mode, the update adds a QR code scanner and includes the June Android security patch.

Samsung has finally started adding the dedicated camera Night mode to the U.S. Galaxy S10 models. According to XDA Developers, the feature is currently rolling out to the AT&T Galaxy S10+ model as part of an update that also comes with the June Android security patch. While AT&T is the last major U.S. carrier to roll out the June Android security patch to the Galaxy S10+, it is the first to add the dedicated night mode feature to the camera app. Samsung first pushed out the feature in April this year for the global variant of the Galaxy S10.

In addition to the dedicated night mode and the June security patch, the software update adds a QR scanner as well. Thanks to the addition of a dedicated QR scanner, owners of the AT&T Samsung Galaxy S10+ will no longer have to use Bixby Vision or Google Lens to scan QR codes. It is now possible to scan QR codes directly from the camera app using the Quick Settings shortcut.

Since AT&T has started pushing the update for the Galaxy S10+, owners of the Galaxy S10 as well as the Galaxy S10e on AT&T can also look forward to receiving the same update very soon. What remains to be seen, however, is if the other U.S. carrier variants of the latest Samsung flagship smartphones will also get the dedicated night mode soon.

Unlike the Bright Night feature that the Galaxy S10 series phones shipped with, the dedicated night mode can be enabled manually. With the night mode feature enabled, you should be able to capture more impressive low-light images compared to the default Auto mode. However, don’t expect low-light images on par with those taken using the Night Sight feature on Google Pixel phones.

Get More Galaxy S10

Samsung Galaxy S10

Galaxy S10 From $ 899 at Amazon
Galaxy S10+ From $ 1149 at Amazon
Galaxy S10e From $ 749 at Amazon

• Galaxy S10 Review
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• Best Galaxy S10+ Cases
• Best Galaxy S10 Accessories
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Facebook News will begin rolling out to a subset of people in the U.S. today.

What you need to know

• Facebook has announced the rollout of a new News tab as part of a limited test in the U.S.
• The news section will appear as a home screen tab within the Facebook app for users.
• Some of the participating publishers include The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Bloomberg, and BuzzFeed News.

Facebook today announced that it is starting to test ‘Facebook News’ in the U.S. The dedicated Facebook News tab in the Facebook app will allow users to browse through news stories from major publications such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BuzzFeed, Bloomberg, Fox Business, NPR, and more. According to Recode, Facebook will be paying millions of dollars a year to some of the participating publishers for their content.

Campbell Brown, VP, Global News Partnerships and Mona Sarantakos, Product Manager, News at Facebook wrote in a blog post:

Journalism plays a critical role in our democracy. When news is deeply-reported and well-sourced it gives people information they can rely on. When it’s not, we lose an essential tool for making good decisions.

People want and benefit from personalized experiences on Facebook, but we know there is reporting that transcends individual experience. We want to support both.

The Facebook News tab will feature “Today’s Stories” that will be picked by a “team of journalists” to help users catch up on the news throughout the day. Facebook says users will be able to find new interests and topics on Facebook News, based on the news stories they read and share. Facebook News will also let users link their paid news subscriptions to their Facebook account and hide articles, topics, or publishers that they aren’t interested in.

Facebook says only publishers that are in its News Page Index and those who abide by its Publisher Guidelines can qualify for inclusion. They will also need to have a “sufficiently large audience.”

Facebook Libra loses support from Visa, Mastercard, eBay, and Stripe

Microsoft’s mobile browser now makes it easier to shop.

What you need to know

• Microsoft Edge on iOS and Android gained a shopping feature.
• The feature helps you to explore curated products and to find stores and coupons.
• The feature is currently exclusive to the United States.

Just in time for Black Friday and the holiday season, the mobile versions of Microsoft Edge gained a new shopping feature (via Thurrott.com). “Shopping on Edge Mobile” allows people to find local stores, browse through curated lists of products, and find coupons. The feature is available for the iOS and Android versions of Microsoft Edge in the United States.

Aneetha Jayaraman, the Senior PM over Edge Mobile announced the feature on Twitter.

It’s that time of year- the holiday shopping season is upon us! And we wanted to help make that experience easier. I’m so excited to announce Shopping on Edge Mobile! Tap on the shopping icon to explore curated products, find nearby stores, coupons and more (available in US only) pic.twitter.com/aRiSj3NwHG

— Aneetha Jayaraman (@aneetha_j) November 28, 2019

As pointed out by Thurrott.com, Microsoft Edge is on a bit of a deal-finding kick. The browser recently gained support for Honey on mobile, and now has a dedicated shopping feature on mobile devices.

Microsoft Edge

Free at Google Play
Free at App Store

Microsoft’s browser brings ‘Continue on PC,’ synced passwords and a familiar look for regular Edge users.

A centralized hub for the most talked about topic on the planet.

What you need to know

• Google has created a COVID-19 hub dedicated to highlighting in-depth coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
• Assistant will now be able to offer discrete responses to coronavirus news queries as a result of this backend change.
• Google’s Search homepage will also celebrate health workers and other essential workers this week.

Google is making it easier to access and engage with news revolving around COVID-19. In the Google News app and website, the company has added a new COVID-19 landing page. Upon navigating there from the homepage, you’ll be able to see, at a glance, all the top stories on the pandemic. It’ll be a bit more organized as well, with local news being front and center. The purpose is to let individuals have a grasp of any important updates in their area like lockdowns, testing centers, or even just health updates of local political figures.

On a broader scale, the new hub will let you drill down into coronavirus news by topic or by region. No place or industry in the world is untouched at the moment, and Google wants to make it easier to read in-depth into how it affects areas like healthcare and travel.

These tweaks reach into Search itself. It’ll now surface tweets by public health authorities which are now often used as a mechanism for sharing announcements and information to the public.

Finally, Google Assistant will now be able to answer questions like “Hey Google, what’s the latest news on coronavirus?” and “Hey Google, play news about coronavirus in New York.”

This new News experience will bee made available in 10 countries and regions, expanding to more within the coming weeks while the new Assistant experience will be available globally in 10 languages.

Google will also be launching Google Doodles which recognize the doctors, nurses, teachers, food service workers and so on who remain on the front lines and keep providing essential services to those struck down by the disease or at home.

Coronavirus and tech: Ongoing list of event cancellations, disruptions, product delays, and more