Linked List: October 30, 2015

Friday, 30 October 2015

Christina Warren’s Apple TV Review ★

Speaking of Christina Warren, here’s her review of the new Apple TV:

Now, let’s be clear — this whole talking to the TV thing isn’t new. Amazon did it first with the Fire TV more than 18 months ago.

But what makes the Apple approach different is, out of the box, Siri works with more than just iTunes. It works with Hulu, HBO (Go and Now), Showtime (and Showtime Anytime) and Netflix — with more support coming soon. […]

The Siri search function that works across apps also means that when you search for content that is available on more than one source, you can choose the source you want to use.

If I search for Scandal, I’ll see the episodes available on Netflix (Seasons 1 through 4), the stuff available on Hulu (Season 5) and the stuff on iTunes. Again, because this works out of the box with the major content sources, this instantly makes finding what you want to watch way easier.

We’ll all take it for granted soon, but right now, it just feels fun to search for things on Apple TV. What’s nice is that the search results prioritize “free” — if you can watch a movie or show without paying anything more, that will be the first option.

Yours Truly on the MashTalk Podcast ★

The folks at Mashable’s MashTalk podcast — Lance Ulanoff, Christina Warren, and Pete Pachal — were kind enough to have me as their guest yesterday. A great talk about Apple TV and Lance’s extensive interview with Phil Schiller.

ESPN Is Shutting Down Grantland ★

Brian Stelter, writing for CNN Money:

About 40 writers, producers and editors will be affected by the decision. Writers who have contracts will be honored. Some will continue to write for ESPN’s website and produce videos for the ESPN Films unit.

But an unknown number of others will be leaving. Some of the site’s most distinctive work, like its television show recaps and features about movies, will be going away.

“We’re getting out of the pop culture business,” the senior ESPN source said.

ESPN executives are meeting with the affected staffers on Friday afternoon. Michael Baumann, a freelancer, complained that he found out about the closure through Twitter, not from the company directly.