GoKawiil
Tech News
Winamp Group has announced plans to relaunch Winamp in 2027 through a partnership with Deezer, bundling its player with Deezer's streaming catalog and licensing infrastructure. The revival will introduce Winamp's first-ever paid subscription tier, promising a customizable interface, social features, and new music discovery tools, though pricing and supported platforms remain undisclosed.
Many Netflix viewers experience inconsistent audio quality, with dialogue sometimes sounding distant or garbled on certain shows while others play fine. The root cause isn't a weak internet connection or poor TV speakers, but a mismatch between the audio format Netflix streams and the playback device's capabilities. Netflix says the fix typically involves a quick settings adjustment rather than new equipment or a support call.
Netflix's shift from planned physical download boxes to full streaming around 2006 reshaped entertainment, spurring rivals like Amazon, Disney and NBC to launch their own platforms. Over the following decade, cable subscriptions steadily declined as streaming became the dominant way people watched film and TV, though many now juggle multiple paid services.
A tech review explains that standalone streaming devices such as Roku, Fire TV Stick and Chromecast can meaningfully improve on a smart TV's built-in software. Because smart TV manufacturers license operating systems from companies like Amazon, Google and Roku, performance varies widely and often degrades as the hardware ages, leading to lag and crashes. Adding a modern streaming device can restore speed and reliability at a fraction of the cost of replacing an entire television.
The new Star Wars film 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' landed as the second most-streamed movie across all services during its opening week on streaming. The ranking reflects strong viewer demand shortly after the film became available to stream.
Roku introduced more than 30 channel bundles combining services like Starz, HBO Max, AMC Plus and its own Howdy platform, offering discounts of up to 33% off monthly rates compared to subscribing separately. The bundles are permanent offerings, not limited-time promotions, and are purchasable through Roku devices, the mobile app or the Roku Channel website.
Roku introduced more than 30 subscription bundles that combine services like HBO Max, Starz, Hallmark+, and Fox One, offering savings of up to 30% off individual prices. The company also launched a Labs section where users can test in-development apps and features and provide feedback, alongside upgrades to Roku Voice and search.
At a Fast Company event, ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro and Monday Night Football host Laura Rutledge discussed how ESPN is transforming from a traditional TV network into a personalized, interactive digital platform. The conversation, moderated by Fast Company editor Brendan Vaughan, focused on how streaming, social media, fantasy sports and online betting are reshaping ESPN's business model.
IMAX has extended its brand beyond cinemas with an 'IMAX Enhanced' label now appearing on a growing number of titles on services like Disney+. Despite the name, this designation doesn't guarantee top-tier picture or audio quality, since streaming bitrates remain capped to avoid buffering, meaning 4K Blu-ray discs can still surpass IMAX Enhanced streams in fidelity.
JustWatch, best known as a guide for finding where to stream content, announced at the Toronto International Film Festival that it will launch its own platform called JustWatch TV in October. The service will offer three tiers: a free ad-supported option, rental/purchase titles, and a paid ad-free subscription, with initial content from Fremantle, Paramount and Bleecker Street. It will launch across the US, UK, Canada, and several European and Oceania markets, with plans to expand further.
Valve engineers Jeff Leinbaugh and Pierre-Loup Griffais spoke with Tom's Hardware about the Steam Frame headset, explaining that development began right after the Index shipped. They said the focus shifted from raw VR performance to comfort, ease of use, and wireless streaming across a user's whole Steam library, resulting in a lighter, more accessible device than the Index.
Valve has released its new Steam Frame virtual reality headset, a lightweight, technically advanced device that can stream games from a PC or run them independently. It comes in two versions: 256GB storage for £889 and 1TB storage for £1,089.