Chipp.in Tech News and Reviews

F-Droid 1.19.0 released: automatic apps updates

Posted on February 10, 2024February 10, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

A new version of the open source privacy-friendly F-Droid app for Android is now available. F-Droid offers an alternative to Google Play. It features only free and open source software, and includes apps that are not allowed on Google Play due to Google policies.

F-Droid 1.19.0 is the latest version. It introduces a much requested feature: the ability to update apps automatically.

While F-Droid 1.19.0 is already available, it is not pushed to user devices yet. It is necessary to seek the update manually to install it.

To do so, open F-Droid on your Android device. Run a search for F-Droid and select the F-Droid result from the list of search results. Scroll down and expand Versions on the page. There you find version 1.19.0 listed. Expand the version and select the install option to start the upgrade.

F-Droid: apps auto-updates

The main new feature of F-Droid 1.19.0 is auto updating for installed apps. The feature works only on Android 12 or newer devices.

The team notes:

On Android 12 or later, apps will be autoupdated after the first install or first update, no root, no unlocking, no PrivExt needed.

Some older apps can not be updated automatically. F-Droid continues notify users about these apps so that they may be updated manually.

F-Droid users who prefer the old way — inform about updates, but do not auto-install — may restore the classic functionality.

This is done in the following way:

Open the F-Droid application on the Android device.
Select Settings.
Scroll down to the “Other” section and enable Expert mode there.
Scroll all the way down and enable “Force old installer”.

This option disables the new installer and thus also automatic background updates. You may undo the change at any time by toggling the force old installer preference.

Managing other repositories

F-Droid supported using other repos for adding and managing apps for some time. The functionality was limited to adding and removing repositories.

F-Droid 1.19.0 introduces a new option to add repositories. This is done either through the repositories URL or by scanning a QR code. The app fetches repository information and displays the listed apps before the repo is added to the database.

The team writes:

In short, paste repo link or use QR code, see list of apps before adding it, see apps from a single repo, all new features that make repositories a joy to use. Mirrors like to keep things chill and in the background, but they are expanding and getting easier to control, as plain servers, Tor .onion hosted or via IPFS gateways.

Other changes

The new version includes lots of improvements. Lots of apps got updated, and 11 new apps are now available in the main repository.

You may check out the official announcement of the new release here.

A new look is coming soon: Google informs about new sign-in page

Posted on February 9, 2024February 9, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Google users who open a sign-in page on the company’s website receive a notification currently. It reads “A new look is coming soon. Google is improving its sign-in page with a more modern look and feel”.

A click on the dismiss button closes the notification on the sign-in page. There is no link or button to get more information on the change.

The current sign-in page uses multiple pages for the process of logging in to a Google account. Users need to type or paste the email address or phone number first, and then the account password to sign-in. Other authentication options, including using a Google Titan security key, are also supported.

The reason for the “a new look is coming soon” announcement

The announcement offers barely any details. Google does not reveal when it is going to change the sign-in page nor reveals how it will look like. The only information is that the page will change and that its appearance will change.

You may wonder why Google is making the announcement to users. While Google does not reveal its reason, it seems likely that the company wants users to be prepared.

Many may look critically at a different sign-in page. Some may suspect foul play or a successful attack on Google.

The announcement may help reassure some users and organizations. When the new Google sign-in page lands, users who have seen the notification may use it to log in without worrying too much about the change.

It is likely that Google is going to announce the new sign-in page officially on one of its blogs or websites shortly before or after the new page goes live.

Still, some Google users may use a search engine or interactions with an AI to make sure that the change is legitimate.

Making sure it is Google’s sign-in page

It takes just a few clicks to verify the legitimacy of a webpage. First step is to look at the URL in the address bar. Is it a Google domain? The current sign-in page starts with https://accounts.google.com/, which you may verify quickly.

It may be necessary to click or tap in the address field in some browsers, as some information may be omitted.

Next step is to click or tap on the icon on the right of the address. This displays information about the connection. Look for “Connection is secure”, “Connection secure” or a similar message. If you see this, you are on the “real” Google sign-in page.

Now You: do you verify sign-in pages before logging in?

Microsoft confirms Windows 11 version 24H2 as the 2024 feature update

Posted on February 9, 2024February 9, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Last year, rumors began to emerge about a new version of Windows that would focus heavily on AI. Microsoft had just begun its AI push, adding Copilots everywhere. Panos Panay, then leader of Surface and Windows teams, left the company in the same year. Panay was replaced by Yusuf Mehdi.

Windows 12, the name that Microsoft never confirmed officially, was said to focus heavily on AI. This went hand-in-hand with the AI PCs for Windows. One of the requirements of these PCs was an integrated chip, neural processing unit, to speed up AI processing on these devices.

The leadership change and the success of AI products at Microsoft may have played a role in Microsoft’s decision to postpone the release of Windows 12.

The company released a new build to the Insider channel this week. This build introduced a few new features, including sudo.

The release notes include confirmation that the 2024 update for Windows 11 will be Windows 11 version 24H2.

Here is what Microsoft reveals in the release notes:

Starting with Build 26-xx today, Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels will see the versioning updated under Settings > System > About (and winver) to version 24H2. This denotes that Windows 11, version 24H2 will be this year’s annual feature update. As mentioned here, Windows 11 will have an annual feature update cadence that releases in the second half of the calendar year.

While this does not include confirmation that Windows 12 won’t be released this year, there is no indication that Microsoft is preparing another operating system release in 2024. It is possible that Microsoft’s initial plans were to release the functionality of the feature update as Windows 12, but that it changed its mind.

Windows 11 version 24H2

Windows 11 version 24H2 is the feature update for Windows 11 in 2024. It is still assumed that the update will focus heavily on AI, but recent changelogs reveal little about the functionality that Microsoft plans to add.

Rumors suggest that Microsoft could launch an improved version of Copilot on Windows. The current iteration lacks any meaningful Windows-specific functionality, which is why users disable Windows Copilot on their devices. This could change, but Microsoft has not released the updated version for testing yet. For now, Copilot on Windows is more or less identical in functionality to Copilot on the Web.

Microsoft has a few months left before the release in the second half of 2024. It is possible that main AI improvements and tools are tested internally only at this time. Microsoft would have to integrate them into preview versions eventually though. This has to happen in the coming months.

AI PCs may have specific requirements, including an NPU. It seems highly unlikely that Windows 11 version 24H2 will only be available to devices with such a chip. It would block updates for the vast majority of systems and fragment the userbase even further.

More likely is that certain features are limited to devices with a NPU or work a lot better on these PCs.

Closing Words

As it stands, there will be a single major Windows release in 2024. It won’t be Windows 12, but Windows 11 version 24H2. Windows 12 may not be off the table though.

Next year will be interesting. It is the year that support for Windows 10 ends officially. While customers may extend support for several years, for a price, it may also be the perfect year for a Windows 12 release.

After all, with Windows 10 gone, there is only Windows 11 and hundreds of millions of Windows 10 devices that cannot be upgraded to the new operating system.

Now You: what do you expect from Windows 11 version 24H2?

First look at Firefox’s new Tab Previews feature

Posted on February 8, 2024February 8, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Tab previews allow you to hover over open tabs in the Firefox web browser to get a preview of the page’s content. Mozilla added the functionality into Firefox Nightly this week. Reason enough to take a look at the feature.

Tab Previews are only available in Firefox Nightly at the time of writing. The feature is disabled by default, but you may enable it.

This is done by setting the preference browser.tabs.cardPreview.enabled to true on about:config. A restart of the Firefox web browser completes the process.

Tip: you may set this feature to off in Firefox Stable later on to turn off tab previews. This restores Firefox’s display of the page title and URL then when you hover over a tab.

How Tab Previews work in Firefox

Hover over any open tab in Firefox and you see a thumbnail of the page after 1 second. The snapshot displays a screenshot of the top of the page. In other words, it ignores the actual position on the page.

It may look cut off as well, as you can see on the screenshot above. Still, hover over any tab and you do get a preview of the page.

Tab previews is a handy feature at times, especially if you have multiple tabs with the same title open. Think ten eBay auctions that have similar titles.

The 1 second delay is set by Mozilla. There is a preference that supposedly changes it, but it does not seem work right now. Check browser.tabs.cardPreview.delayMs on about:config to change the delay.

Comparison to Google Chrome

Firefox is not the only web browser that introduced support for tab previews recently. Google’s Chrome browser displays tab previews as well now in the Stable version.

Hover over any tab in Chrome and you get a screenshot preview of the tab. Google displays the same information as Firefox plus a tab’s memory usage.

There is one difference though. Firefox displays a screenshot of the top of the webpage all the time. Google Chrome, however, displays a screenshot of the actual position on the webpage.

It is possible that Firefox’s tab previews feature will also support this in the future. It is in development and it may change in the future though.

Closing Words

Not every browser user likes tab previews. It should be easy enough to turn these off in Firefox once they land in stable.

Now You: tab previews, yay or nay?

Google Maps shows weather information now on Android

Posted on February 7, 2024February 7, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Google is rolling out a new feature on Google Maps that shows weather information on Android. Whether this is going to take away usage from dedicated weather apps remains to be seen.

Google Maps on iOS displays information about the temperature and air quality index already. Google is now rolling out the same feature to Maps on Android.

A small and easy to overlook widget in the left corner of the screen displays the current temperature and air quality index when enabled. An icon depicts the weather condition, e.g., rain, sun or clouded, and the temperature in either Fahrenheit or Celsius. Below that is the air quality index, again with a quality indicator.

A tap on the widget displays additional information. You get the weather forecast for the next hours among other information, including the chance of rain.

A tap on the air quality section displays an overlay on the map that uses colors to highlight the quality of air in the region.

Google Maps: weather information widget

The weather widget is only displayed when nothing is selected. Once you make a selection, e.g., by tapping on a place, you won’t see the information in Google Maps.

Google seems to roll out the feature over time. If it is not available on a device, you may want to see if you have the latest Google Maps version installed. Also, weather information is not displayed if you select anything on Google Maps or have any character in the search field. You need to clear any character in the search field before the weather widget is displayed.

The display of weather information on Google Maps is useful but also limited. It can be useful, even when you check out a place that is nearby. While the actual temperature or air quality index may not be that useful, the forecast may be. You can now check how the weather is going to be in a few hours.

As for places far away, it can be useful as well, but not as much. The main limitation is that the forecast is limited to the next few hours. It does not help much if you want to visit the place tomorrow or next week.

Tip: users from the European Union may allow or disallow the sharing of data between Google services.

Closing Words

The Android version of Google Maps features the same weather widget as the iOS version now. The information is useful, but it is also limited, which makes it less useful than it could be. A forecast for the next one or two days would improve the usability significantly.

The information seems to be pulled from weather.com, at least that is what Google links to when you open the details view.

The web-based version of Google Maps shows weather information as well.

Now You: do you use Google Maps?

Here is one way to stop binging on YouTube so much

Posted on February 6, 2024February 6, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Look at those cute cats. Just one more video and I’m done for the day. Promise! One of the many appeals of YouTube is the site’s vast assortment of videos. There is probably nothing that you cannot watch on YouTube, with the exception of prohibited content of course. If you find a video you like, there is a good chance that hundreds, thousands or even more videos exist that are similar.

Google does a good job of pushing video recommendations to users. You get them on the startpage, while watching videos, and even after watching videos. Some vides may also autoplay after you finish watching a video. While it does not mean that these recommendations are great, they are not sometimes, they do parade new content in front of your eyes all the time.

In fact, you could probably spend the whole day on autopilot on YouTube without ever running out of something to watch.

Google knows that recommendations are key to keep users on the site. The more it knows about its users, the more likely it is that the next video may be of interest. Yes, YouTube gets it wrong at times.

I get a lot of Turkish video recommendations on YouTube, even though I do not speak the language and never watched a single Turkish video on the site. Still, most of the time, you get more of the same, which many users seem to like.

Binging may be a problem for some, especially if it keeps you from something more important. Some YouTube users seek for ways to limit binging on the site. While it may be easy for some, all it takes is to close the YouTube tab and that is that, it can be really difficult for others.

Read on to find out about one way that may help you with your binging on YouTube, at least a bit.

Stop binging on YouTube

One of the ways that YouTube may get you is through recommendations on the homepage. Open the YouTube homepage and you will see a list of recommendations. YouTube uses the watch history to show recommendations. The main intent is to provide users with something new to watch. This keeps them on the site and Google earns money through video ads and other ads on the site.

If you turn off the watch history, and delete all watched items, then you won’t get any recommendations on YouTube’s homepage anymore. It is a simple option that does require a Google account.

You could create a simple Google account for that, if you don’t want to stay signed-in on YouTube.

Here is how you disable the watch history on YouTube:

Open the YouTube website.
Sign-in to a Google account, if you have not done so already.
Activate the profile icon in the top right corner and select “Your data in YouTube”.
Scroll down to YouTube controls.
Check the “YouTube Watch History” status. If it reads on, click on the “on” line.
On the page that opens, select “turn off”.
An overlay with information opens. It tells you that you can only pause the history, not stop it entirely. Scroll down until the pause button becomes active and activate it.
Select “Delete old activity” on the next page to delete information about previously watched videos.
Select “all time” on the page that opens.
Select “delete” on the next page to finally delete the information.
Select “Got it” to go back to the main page.

When you go back to YouTube now, you should see no recommendations on the startpage.

You could also hide YouTube Shorts, especially if you do not find Shorts useful on the site, but happen to tune in from time to time anyway.

Closing Words

Obviously, not everyone may want to stay signed-in on YouTube just to limit binging on the video site. Working on self-control may also help. You could, for instance, make sure that everything else is done already before launching YouTube.

Another option that you have is to download YouTube videos instead of watching them online. Use a program like Vividl and download the video that interests you. You can play it locally then and do not get any recommendations while playing the video or afterwards.

Now You: do you binge on something?

Is YouTube slow? Your adblocker may be the reason

Posted on February 5, 2024February 5, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Google implemented a change recently that makes YouTube slow for some users. This is not a bug, but a deliberate action by Google to punish visitors that use adblockers.

It is quite easy to find out. Visit YouTube and check what happens. If you stare at a blank page for seconds, then you’ve experienced Google’s punishment first hand.

The code is rather simplistic. You can break it down to 1) check for adblocker and 2) delay loading by 5 seconds if an adblocker is found.

It is interesting to note that this may also affect YouTube Premium subscribers. YouTube Premium subscribers do not see ads on the site. They pay a monthly subscription fee for that. If YouTube Premium subscribers have an adblocker installed, loading will be delayed as well.

Google wants you to disable the adblocker on the site. While this speeds up the loading of YouTube, it also enables ads on the site. Not a problem for YouTube Premium subscribers, who may try this to resolve the slow loading issue.

Thankfully though, there are some options to speed up YouTube without disabling adblockers on the site.

Options to fix YouTube’s slowness

Option 1: new filter

This is one of the easier options. You add a new custom filter to your adblocker and YouTube should load faster again. Most adblockers support custom filters, but some may not.

Here is the filter:

youtube.com##+js(set, yt.config_.EXPERIMENT_FLAGS.web_enable_ab_rsp_cl, false)

Add this filter to your content blocker, e.g., uBlock Origin or Brave Browser, restart the browser and YouTube should load fast again.

Here is how you add the filter to Brave Browser:

Click on the Shield icon in the Brave address bar.
Select Filter lists.
Scroll down on the page that opens and paste the new filter into the “create custom filters” field.
Select save changes.
Restart Brave.

This is the way if you use uBlock Origin:

Select the uBlock Origin icon in the browser’s toolbar.
Activate the “open the dashboard” button.
Switch to the “My filters” tab.
Paste the line into the field on the page.
Select “apply changes”
Restart the browser.

Option 2: Frontends or third-party clients

This is another option. Instead of using YouTube directly in a browser or the official apps, you’d use a frontend in the browser or a third-party app.

Check out my guide on bypassing ads on YouTube without adblockers for a list of suggestions.

The main difference between a frontend and an app is simple:

Frontends — can be opened in any browser. They work like the YouTube website in the browser for the most part. Some features, for instance some that may require a YouTube account, may not work.
Third-party apps — these install on mobile devices. Run them instead of the dedicated YouTube app or the YouTube website. They may also have limitations.

Video playback and searches work in all instances.

Option 3: switch to extensions that skip or speed-up ads

This type of extension is relatively new. It does not block ads on YouTube, but it either skips them, if supported, or fast forwards them.

Install an extension like Ad Speedup to use the functionality. You need to disable your adblocker on YouTube and the new extension will take over for it.

Closing Words

A cat and mouse game is going on between Google and adblock users. Google seems dedicated to make the life of adblock users as miserable as possible, at least where it comes to interactions with YouTube. Adblock users, on the other hand, need to find new ways to deal with those.

Now You: do you use an adblocker YouTube on?

Windows 10 issue: File system error (-2147219196)

Posted on February 4, 2024February 4, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

Some Windows 10 users reported issues with certain apps on their devices that refused to launch. Users noticed that default apps would not launch anymore on their systems or crash shortly after launch. Some received the error message File system error (-2147219196), others no error at all.

One user reported the issue on Microsoft’s official Answers forum. The thread blew up quickly. 380 users confirmed that they had the “same question”, and 524 replied to the original message.

The thread starter noted that Microsoft’s official Photos app would crash a few seconds after launch on a Windows 10 system. Double-clicks on photos returned the error message File system error (-2147219196) instead of a view of the selected image.

File system error (-2147219196) — source Richard / Microsoft Answers forum

The apps, including the Photos app, were all native apps of the operating system. Even Microsoft’s Feedback Hub app, used to report feedback and issues, did not work anymore on affected devices.

To sum it up: affected users are no longer able to launch (select) native Windows 10 apps on their devices.

Bug hunting

Users reported the issues elsewhere, including on Microsoft’s Answers forum. There, it quickly became clear that the issue could not be resolved easily. Rollbacks of updates and even reinstallations of Windows did not resolve the issue for affected users.

More and more reports poured in and some users managed to find commonalities. It became clear quickly that the issue affected older systems only. Devices with Intel Core 2 Duo and and Quad processors, as well as older AMD Athlon chips were affected, while devices with newer processors were not. All of these processors shared another commonality, the lack of support for SSE 4.2.

Tip: you can use the free program Glow to list hardware information.

Windows 10’s list of officially supported processors does not include Core 2 chipsets. Microsoft did not introduce barriers in Windows 10 to prevent the installation of the operating systems on devices with unsupported hardware.

The company introduced compatibility blocks in Windows 11. The operating system cannot be installed on devices with unsupported processors, at least not without hacks.

Any attempt to install Windows 11 on a device with an unsupported processor is blocked.

Windows 10 gets installed on devices with unsupported hardware. It may run a bit slower, but that seems to be the only sideeffect.

Microsoft is working on a solution

Microsoft employee Mahmoud G Saleh confirmed the issue and revealed that Microsoft is working on a resolution.

He wrote:

Hi, the Visual C++ team has identified the problem as a regression in the vclibs framework package that the Photos app and other apps depend on. The problem affects computers with older hardware (that do not support SSE 4.2 instructions). Microsoft is currently working on validating a solution and it’s expected to rollout to affected customers soon.

He confirmed that the issue is caused by a regression in a framework package, and that devices with processors that do not support SSE 4.2 instructions are affected.

Saleh posted the information on February 2, 2024. It is unclear when Microsoft is going to roll out a fix to affected users.

Good news is that Microsoft is working on a fix. Bad news is that it is unclear when the fix will be released.

Is the main purpose of Windows 11’s Settings Home page advertising?

Posted on February 4, 2024February 4, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

I never really liked the Home page of the Settings app that Microsoft introduced last year in Windows 11. Back then, I described it as half promotion half pointless.

Windows 11 users who open the Settings app see the home page by default. It features a mix of quick settings, which Microsoft calls recommended, account information, and, in some cases, promotions.

These promotions focused on OneDrive cloud storage and Microsoft 365 up until now. One ad unit displays “Try Microsoft 365” to the user, if no Microsoft 365 is detected.

Microsoft 365 is a subscription service that unlocks additional cloud storage and gives users access to the most recent versions of Microsoft Office. A subscription includes other benefits, such as premium templates or a dedicated Microsoft Defender app.

Now it appears that Microsoft is adding another ad unit to the home page. Discovered by Twitter user PhantomOcean3, the new unit promotes the Microsoft Copilot Pro subscription.

Microsoft Copilot is part of Windows. Operating system users may launch it with a click on the Copilot icon on the taskbar or the keyboard shortcut Windows-C. Soon, they may also use the dedicated Copilot key on keyboards of select devices to do so.

Those who do not require Windows Copilot may disable it.

Get Copilot Pro

The new unit is not enabled by default at this time. It was spotted in development builds and it is unclear if and when it lands in stable versions. My guess is that it will land this year in Windows 11, maybe even as part of the upcoming Moment update.

The unit advertises Microsoft Copilot Pro. The subscription gives users priority access to Microsoft’s Copilot AI. It is available for $20 per month in select regions at the time of writing.

Copilot Pro gives users priority access to the AI. Apart from that, it gives users 100 boosts for Designer per day. Designer is an AI image creator and boosts prioritize requests. While boosts are not required to use Designer, using the tool without boosts may take longer.

The Settings home page

The Settings home page has the following sections:

Recommended Settings — displays recent and commonly used settings.
Cloud Storage — lists used and available cloud storage, powered by OneDrive.
Bluetooth devices — manage, add, and remove Bluetooth devices.
Personalize your device — option to change the color mode and a link to personalization.
Microsoft 365 — an advert to try Microsoft 365. Subscribed users see options to manage their subscription.
Microsoft Copilot Pro — an advert for the Copilot Pro subscription.

If you don’t count the Cloud Storage unit as an ad, you get two units on the page. This means that 1/3 of the page is used for advertisement. If you add OneDrive to it, you get 1/2 that is used for ads.

The non-ad units are not that useful. Recommended settings displays dynamic options. While these appear limited, most options are just a click or two away anyway on the system.

Hiding the home page in Settings

Windows users may hide the Windows 11 Settings home page. There is no toggle, though. To hide it, Windows 11 users need to add an entry to the Registry.

Here is how that is done:

Open the Start Menu.
Type regedit.exe and press the Enter-key.
Confirm the UAC prompt.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
- Note: If one of the keys does not exist, create it with a right-click on the previous key and the selection of New > Key. Name it accordingly.
Right-click on Explorer and select New > String Value.
Name it SettingsPageVisibility.
Double-click on the new entry and set hide:home as the value.
Close the Registry Editor.
Restart the system.

The home page of the Settings app is gone. Windows 11 opens the System page instead, which it used to in the past.

You may undo the change at any time by deleting the Registry key again.

Closing Words

The idea of a Settings home page is not bad in itself. It could display popular and often used preferences to the user. Customization options could further expand the usefulness of the Settings page.

It seems unlikely that this functionality is introduced in future versions of Windows.

Now You: do you use the home page of the Settings app?

Ad Free on Prime Video does not mean ad free, apparently

Posted on February 3, 2024February 3, 2024 by Martin Brinkmann

When Amazon announced that it would introduce ads in Prime Video for all customers, it revealed that customers could pay a few bucks per month extra to avoid advertisement on the service.

Prime Video customers from the United States may see ads already when they view shows and movies on the platform. Soon, starting next week, customers from other regions will also see ads on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazon customers who do not want ads on the platform may purchase an add-on, which Amazon calls Ad free. It turns out now that adding Ad Free to the Amazon Prime subscription does not really remove all ads on the platform.

Amazon may show trailers for shows to customers, even if they pay for an ad free experience. Clearly, Amazon does not define these trailers as advertisement. At least some customers may have a different opinion on that, especially since it appears no longer possible to skip these to access the actual content.

When is an ad an ad?

Are trailers for other shows ads? Considering that these trailers promote other content on the platform, they can be considered advertisement.

Back in the days of DVD videos, companies used to put trailers in front of the actual film or TV show. These were often unskippable as well. Now, Amazon seems to use the very same strategy to push other shows on its platform.

At least some Amazon customers who paid the extra $3 think that this is unacceptable.

Amazon may run into trouble in other regions with the introduction of ads on the platform and the option to pay more to remove these again. In Germany, consumer protection organizations believe that this change should be considered a price increase. Price increases need explicit customer approval in Germany and several other European countries.

Several organizations plan to take legal action against Amazon. There is a good chance that the court will decide against Amazon in the case. While this may not help Amazon customers in the United States and, maybe some other regions, it may in some regions.

Closing Words

Streaming services started out as “better” replacements for Cable TV. Customers would get access to an ad-free experience for a monthly fee.

Some services showed ads on their platforms from the get-go. Amazon was one of them, provided that trailers are considered ads.

Now it seems, that streaming is quickly turning into the same behemoth that it initially thought to slay. Most major streaming platforms support advertisement plans now. These are cheaper, but viewers have to watch several minutes of ads each hour.

Streaming service hopping still works as a way to counter price increases and ads on platforms. Sign-up for just a month or two instead of longer periods, and switch services regularly. This guarantees that you don’t miss shows that you want to watch, but without breaking the bank.

Now You: do you use streaming services?