Networking

A few years ago, only hardcore techies and television fans were cord-cutting. Today, there are more people watching streaming shows than there are paying for cable or satellite TV. 
There are three reasons for this shift. First, the best live TV streaming services now offer pretty much anything you’d ever want from a traditional TV service. Second, even though live TV streaming services costs are catching up with cable, for now, they’re still more affordable. Finally, the video-on-demand (VoD) services, which started the cord-cutting revolution, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, are now more likely to produce “much watch” TV than their older competitors. 
For example, CBS All Access’s Star Trek: Discovery; Disney Plus’s The Mandalorian; and Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit all have huge audiences and are popular with the critics as well. Today, with the exception of HBO, which has its own streaming specific service now, HBO Max, you’re more likely to find the show you want to watch on a streaming service than on antenna, cable, or satellite.
But, which service is right for you? Before describing them, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention there are numerous free VoD services. If money is tight, there’s still a lot of good streaming movies and TV shows out there for you.
What you need to stream  
To make use of any of these services you’ll need broadband internet. If you’re living on your own, you may be able to get by with as little as 10 Mbp. If you’re sharing your home with others and/or you want to watch 4K videos, I recommend you have at least a 25 Mbps internet connection. Not sure how fast your connection is? Run the Ookla Speedtest.
These services’ pricing, show lineups, and how many streams you can watch at one time are all subject to change. For the most part, all of these support the most popular streaming devices. For example, no matter which service you subscribe to, an Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV Cube, Roku Express, or Google Chromecast will almost certainly support it. But if you’re using a more obscure streaming gadget, such as an Nvidia Shield TV Pro or Tivo Stream 4K, it might not work with your preferred service. Smart TVs also frequently don’t support newer streaming offerings. The moral of this story is before subscribing make sure the service will work with your hardware. 
Fortunately, most of these services give you a free 7-day trial period. Before signing up for a trial though check the fine print. You don’t want to end up paying for a service that you really don’t like. 

If you love the BBC, you’ll love Acorn TV

If you’re a fan of British TV like I am, then Acorn TV is for you. On it, I can get my fill of shows like Agatha Raisin, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders, and Lovejoy. It also includes other shows such as the Australian hits Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and  A Place to Call Home.
This service used to have a lot of performance problems. That’s no longer the case. That said, at best, you can only watch shoes in 720p HDTV. You’ll find no 4K or UHD content here. You can, however, stream up to a generous four shows at once. 
Acorn TV costs $6 a month or $60 a year. You can either stream it directly or you can subscribe to it via Amazon Prime Video. The advantage to this latter approach is far more streaming devices support Prime Video than Acorn TV.  
View Now at Acorn TV

Free two-day Amazon shipping and great videos, what’s not to like?

Amazon Prime Video is far more than just videos. For $119 a year or $13 a month, besides free videos, you get free two-day shipping on most Amazon purchases. If you’re already using Amazon Prime for buying stuff, using its Video service is a no brainer. 
The service offers VoD for older movies and TV shows. Many, but far from all, of these require an additional fee to rent or purchase. Lately though, like Netflix, Amazon is getting known for its great original content such as Fleabag, Good Omens, Jack Ryan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and The Boys. I’ll also always owe a debt of gratitude to Amazon for saving the best science-fiction show of all time, The Expanse. 
Many of Amazon’s originals and some newer films are available in 4K and UHD. You can stream up to three shows at once. 
Even if I didn’t shop at Amazon, I’d pay for Amazon Prime Video.
$9 at Amazon

Someday Apple TV Plus will be for everyone, today’s it’s really just for Apple users.

I’m not so sure though that I’d pay much more than the $4.99 per month that  Apple TV Plus costs. There’s just not a lot there. It has relatively few “free” videos in its library and its original content is, well, minimal.
The closest thing to a hit Apple TV Plus has is probably the drama The Morning Show. The what, you say? Exactly.
It does, on the other hand, have many movies you can watch for additional fees. You can share your subscription with up to six people via Apple’s Family Sharing feature. But that’s not as generous as it sounds. Apple caps simultaneous streams to three for most of its content.
One good point is that the content, when it’s available, can be viewed and heard in 4K, HDR, Dolby Atmos, and Dolby Vision. Just make sure you have the right gear to support it, or all that will go to waste.
Apple TV Plus has promise and it’s handy if you’re already deep into the Apple world. But if you’re not a dyed-in-the-wool Apple fan, this is one service you can skip. 
$5 at Apple TV Plus

CBS All Access
All CBS shows, all the time. You know, that’s just fine.

CBS was the first of the big broadcasters to decide to go into streaming in a big way with CBS All Access. Its biggest selling point is the insanely large CBS catalog of past and new shows as well as live CBS news and sports content. I don’t care what kind of show you like, you’ll find something you want to watch on this service.
What it doesn’t have is a lot of original content. What new shows it does have, such as Star Trek: Picard, The Good Fight, and The Twilight Zone, I like. But they may not be for you.
One blemish is that even the new Star Trek shows are only available in HDTV. For now, there’s no 4K or HDR content.
The basic CBS All Access plan, with commercials, costs $6 a month. To get rid of ads, you must pay $10-per-month. Annually, the limited-commercial plan is $60 per year, while the no commercials version will cost you $100 annually. But, pay attention, even with the high-end service, you’ll see ads when you watch live TV.
Is it worth it? I think so. You just need to ask yourself, “How much do I love Star Trek and the rest of the CBS TV library?”

Disney Plus includes content from Disney, Marvel, Fox Entertainment, and Star Wars.

Disney Plus is the one new streaming service I can recommend for almost anyone. The reason? I’ll give you four: the Disney, Marvel, Fox Entertainment, and Star Wars movies and TV show library. For popular entertainment, you can’t beat Disney Plus. 
Disney Plus is still building up its original content library, but it already has one huge hit, The Mandalorian. Honestly, though, tens-of-millions would still be subscribing even if they didn’t have any original content.
With the pandemic keeping us in our homes, Disney Plus is also exploring pay per view (PPV) for movies like the live-action Mulan. If this plan works out, you’ll see other movies, such as Marvel’s The Black Widow, appearing on Disney Plus screens. 
At $7 per month, it’s also one of the cheaper VoD best streaming. Better still, much of its content is available in 4K resolution with HDR color. For streaming, it also currently supports four simultaneous streams. 
There are some people out there, somewhere, who might not find something fun to binge-watch on Disney Plus. I just don’t know any of them. 
$7 at Disney Plus

Now that HBO Max is widely available, if you love HBO, you’ll love HBO Max.

HBO’s new streaming service HBO Max had trouble getting out of the gate. But now that Roku and Amazon Fire are coming on board, its future looks great. That’s because, like Disney Plus, it has a huge library of content people love to watch. Their audiences are different, though, with Disney Plus tending to be younger than the audience for such HBO classics as Deadwood and The Sopranos. 
You may be a little confused as to what’s what with HBO streaming. I can’t blame you. I watch a lot of HBO shows and I cover this stuff for a living, and I’ve been puzzled. Here’s how it works. HBO Go is on the way out. It dies on July 31, 2021. If you’re already an HBO Go’s customer, you’ll automatically be moved to HBO Max. HBO Now is still around, at least for now, but it’s been renamed HBO. 
So, what’s the difference? With HBO, you get, well HBO. With HBO Max you also get access to some movies and TV series from Warner Bros.; New Line; DC, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim; Looney Tunes Cartoons; CrunchyRole anime; and some classic movies from TCM. You’ll also be able to watch some new HBO Max exclusive shows. 
You can watch these on up to three devices at once. Unfortunately, for now at least, you’ll only be able to watch these shows in HDTV. 
If you’re already subscribed to HBO via your cable or satellite provider, you get HBO Max for free. Otherwise, HBO Max will run you $15 a month. That’s not cheap, but you do get a lot to watch for your money.
$15 at HBO Max

Hulu is still well worth a look.

Hulu’s big brother, Hulu + Live TV’s big selling point is it’s the one service which combines both live TV and VoD. It’s a powerful package. Besides great original content, such as exclusive titles like The Handmaid’s Tale, it also has a large catalog of other on-demand shows and movies. On top of that, you get over 65 live and on-demand channels. 
But Hulu + Live TV costs $65 a month, while Hulu, the pure VoD play, costs $6 a month or $60 a year with ads or $12 a month without ads. Is it worth it? I think so.
That’s because Hulu comes with a huge library of 21st Century FOX content, that’s too adult for Disney Plus. It also has a good selection of original content. This includes some of my personal favorites such as Harlots, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Veronica Mars. 
As for the video itself, Hulu supports two simultaneous streams. Some of its original shows are available in 4K, but most of the content is in HDTV.
$6 at Hulu

It’s still the best streaming service around thanks to its wealth of great original content.

The 800-pound gorilla of streaming is Netflix. It has great older TV show and movie content. But what most of us watch on Netflix is its ever-growing collection of original programs. 
Shows such as Glow, Emily in Paris, The Queen’s Gambit, and Black Mirror set the standard in great streaming TV, but I doubt very much you know exactly how many original shows Netflix produces. In 2019, Netflix released 371 new TV shows and movies. That’s more than one new video a day. Trust me, you’re going to find something you can not only watch, but love, on Netflix. 
All of this comes with a rather complex pricing scheme. At the first tier, $9, you can watch on one screen in SD. Move up to $14 a month, which is what I recommend, and you get HDTV and two simultaneous streams. For $18 per month, you get 4K and four streams.
The only thing I dislike about Netflix, and it’s really not the company’s fault, is its video partners are constantly moving shows and movies on and off the service. There’s a reason why there’s a website called What’s on Netflix, which does nothing but track what’s on and what’s about to leave Netflix. 
Still, let’s get real, Netflix is the one essential streaming service. 
$9 at Netflix

With a lot of great old NBC shows, Peacock is a promising work in progress.

Following CBS’s lead, NBC launched its own streaming network, Peacock, this summer. It includes a large collection of old and new NBC shows. 
Peacock, at this point, is relying on its rich library of classic NBC shows such as Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, and Columbo. The streaming network also has the enormously popular Law & Order and Chicago Fire franchises. 
Since Peacock’s parent company owns Universal Pictures, Focus Features, and DreamWorks, we can be sure there will be lots of movies streaming from the service in time. So far, Peacock has little original content. So far, Brave New World and a Saved by the Bell reboot are the most interesting of the shows. 
At best, though, you can only watch these shows in HDTV. On the other hand, you can watch up to three streams at once. 
$0 at Peacock TV

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As companies need to build applications to cater for distributed workforces, the use of public cloud is a no-brainer, but as the parade of companies failing to secure S3 buckets shows, cloud customers are failing to secure it properly.
“What we’ve seen across the board is most customers consumption of public cloud is way ahead of their ability to secure it,” Barracuda senior vice president of data protection, network and application security Tim Jefferson told ZDNet.
“They haven’t figured out how to use the native services securely and how to instrument the controls because in many of those cases they’re very developer focus, so you’d have to essentially be a software developer to really understand how the application teams are using the native services, and then get your head around the best way [of] architecting controls.”
For Jefferson, he believes the solution is sitting right there on the cloud platforms themselves.
“The magic of public cloud is all the instrumentation and monitoring is done, it’s sitting there for free, which is historically the most expensive and hard part to do on premise,” he said.
“The trick now is just knowing how to call those APIs and suck in that telemetry and make it more actionable which companies like us have … we can identify within seconds, every resource that’s deployed, who deployed it, what its configuration state is, and how does that compare against best practice and then you can automate remediation.”
See also: Cybersecurity starts with the network fundamentals

Siran Eren, founder and CEO of zero trust access provider Fyde until November when the company was purchased by Barracuda, added it is possible to keep an eye on multiple clouds through a single interface.
“If you have Azure deployments, if you have a hybrid environment with AWS and GCP in the mix, you might have SaaS solutions like Office 365, Salesforce, you now have a control plane for security controls that basically covers all of them from a single poison policy point of view,” the now-vice president of zero trust access said.
“From this platform, you get a single control plane that spans over all your applications and you can define very broad yet granular policies from a single point. That’s what I think we’re in the business for, not point products any more, something that spans across cloud service providers and SaaS solutions.”
As the shift to working from home at the start of the year began, the old reliance on the VPN showed itself to be a potential bottleneck to employees being able to do what they are paid for.
“I think the new mechanism that we’ve been sitting on — everyone’s been doing for 20 years around VPN as a way of segmentation — and then the zero trust access model is relatively new, I think that mechanism is really intriguing because [it] is so extensible to so many different problems in use cases that VPN’s didn’t solve, and then other use cases that people didn’t even consider because there was no mechanism to do it,” Jefferson said.
Going a step further, Eren thinks VPN usage between client and sites is on life support, but VPNs themselves are not going away.
“I would say to client-to-site VPN is gone — that’s going to be replaced with zero trust — but site-to-site VPN is actually going to remain and zero trust is going to be on top of it,” he said. “They’re complementary.”
Another effect from needing to handle a dispersed workforce has been the collapse of what was formerly a fairly-well defined corporate network perimeter.
Must read: Living with COVID-19 creates a privacy dilemma for us all
According to Jefferson, the new best practice is to push security controls as far out to the edge as possible, which undermines the role of traditional appliances like firewalls to be able to enforce security, and people are having to work out the best place for their controls in the new working environment.
“I used to be pretty comfortable. This guy, he had 10,000 lines of code written on my Palo Alto or Cisco and every time we did a firewall refresh every 10 years, we had to worry about the 47,000 ACLs [access control list] on the firewall, and now that gets highly distributed,” he said.
“We even saw that in web application firewalls where instead of having a single web application firewall across many applications, now you tie [a] single web application firewall rule set per app, which makes it loosely coupled and then you can scale independent with the individual application, you can tune the rules in.
“I think that’s been a big shift … getting away from the tightly coupled centralised policy enforcement to highly distributed push out to the edge loosely coupled architecture.”
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American networking equipment vendor Belden said it was hacked in a press release published earlier this week.

Belden says the security breach took place after hackers gained access to a limited number of its file servers.
The intrusion was detected after the company’s IT personnel detected unusual activity involving the compromised servers. A subsequent investigation revealed that the intruders had copied data of some current and former employees, as well as limited company information regarding some business partners. 
Belden is now notifying customers and employees whose data it believes was exposed in the incident.
“Safety is always paramount at Belden and we take threats to the privacy of personal and company information very seriously,” said Roel Vestjens, President and Chief Executive Officer. “We regret any complications or inconvenience this incident may have caused and are offering assistance to those individuals who may have been impacted.”
The company, which makes networking, audio, and video cables, networking racks & cabinets, as well as various cable adapters, said the intrusion did not have any impact on its manufacturing plants, quality control operations, or shipping, all of which are operating normally.
Belden said it’s now working with cyber-security firms and law enforcement to investigate the incident.

While many security breaches today have often turned into ransomware attacks, Belden has not made any comment about the intention of the intruders to deploy ransomware.
A Belden spokesperson was not available for comment due to the Thanksgiving four-day weekend in the US.
According to data provided by threat intelligence firm KELA, credentials for Belden accounts have been available on the cybercrime underground since April this year, although it’s unclear if they have been used to orchestrate this breach. More

Working from home has put unprecedented pressures on home Wi-Fi. The more devices you add to a consumer-grade router, the bigger the performance hits, and the more problems you get.
The solution is to rip out your consumer-grade Wi-Fi and replace it with something more robust. A lot more robust.
Such as the Meshforce M3s Mesh Wi-Fi router kit. And now you can pick up this kit for less.
Must read: Apple Silicon M1 is everything Apple promised — so what’s next?

Everything you need to upgrade your Wi-Fi

Everything you need to bring your home Wi-Fi setup into the 21 century!
Simultaneous Dual-band WiFi (5GHz: 802.11ac up to 867Mbps, and 2.4GHz: 802.11n/g/b up to 300Mbps)
Support for up to 60 devices
Easy to set-up from a smartphone or tablet (iOS, iPadOS, and Android)
Huge 6,000 sq ft coverage with seamless roaming between satellites
Support for internet speeds up to 1000Mbps
All ports support Gigabit Ethernet 
Guest Wi-Fi and Parental Control
Special price via Prime Exclusive price plus 10% off code MQIA4QDI
Deal valid 11/25/2020 to 12/01/2020
$128 at Amazon More

A year after NBN decided it didn’t like the idea of speed tests as a broadband measurement, the viewpoint has spilled over to the Bureau of Communications, Arts and Regional Research (BCARR).
In the case of the BCARR, it has paid PricewaterhouseCoopers to develop metrics that are more suitable to it. On the hit list was tossing out perennial chart-toppers like South Korea and Singapore.
“No country is easily comparable to another. For example, by global standards, Australia is wealthy and highly urbanised, but our population is also spread across a vast landmass,” the BCARR said.
“Our income and geography mean that Australia is more readily comparable with Canada than with city states like Singapore, or densely-populated countries such as the United Kingdom.”
With Singapore on the outer, the list of comparable countries included a country only 17 places higher in a ranking of places by geographic size, Qatar. The other nations deemed worthy of comparison included Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Finland, Germany, Belgium, Canada, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Israel, France, Japan, and Italy.
Consequently, BCARR claims its analysis showed that Australia placed eighth out of 17 for the ranking of percentage of households able to access fixed broadband, but when the question changed to connections that could hit the 25Mbps-capable requirement imposed on NBN, Australia ranked first.
Once the bar is raised to 100Mbps, Australia is 10th.

After releasing its pair of so-called fact sheets, the BCARR said that it would follow up with more in the coming weeks. Two areas touched on that are currently without analysis are uptake of higher speeds plans and data usage.
Last year, in a report prepared by AlphaBeta for NBN, small countries were also tossed aside, and the report made a lot of complaints about various measures being biased against NBN, before switching to theoretical maximums.
“Australia’s ranking would rise even further if the maximum technical capacity of the broadband technology were accounted for. In this case, Australia’s ranking would rise as high as third compared to major economies,” it said.
If we are going to engage in magical thinking, consider where Australia would rank if it remained on a 93% fibre-to-the-premises network — the theoretical maximums would be sky high.
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I stream. You stream. We all stream. By March 2019, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) reported streaming video subscriptions passed cable television customers for the first time.

But how do you get to all that content? After more than 10 years of streaming, I know a thing or two about streaming devices. Here’s my pick of the best.
I also know streaming services. I recently reviewed both the best free streaming services and best subscription-based live TV streaming services. You’ll also soon be seeing my pick of the best Video-on-Demand (VoD) services. In short, I know my way around streaming.
You may be thinking, “Why bother with a streaming device? Can’t I get all the streaming services I want from a smart TV? Actually, no, no you can’t.
I wish you could, but today smart TVs are still a poor choice. That’s because, generally speaking, TV manufacturers do a poor job of supporting streaming services. For example, last year, older smart TVs from Samsung and Vizio stopped supporting Netflix. If they can do that to Netflix, the most popular of all subscription-based video streaming services, you know they’ll neglect other services as well.  
Some smart TVs also don’t support newer channels. For example, if your kids are demanding Frozen 2 on Disney+ and you have a non-supported Vizio Smartcast TV, you’ll have to explain to your five-year-old that they can’t watch Anna, Else, and Olaf after all. Good luck with that.
A related problem is that smart TVs don’t tend to support the more obscure channels. For example, I like the sport cricket, so I subscribe to Willow TV. If there’s a smart TV out there, which supports it, I haven’t found it yet. 

Eventually. true streaming devices may become obsolete. We’re not there yet. 
Besides, it’s a lot cheaper to buy a new streaming gadget than it to buy a new TV.  So, before you buy any of these, if you like a particular, non-mainstream streaming service, make sure your device supports it. Only Roku supports pretty much everything and anything. And, even then, thanks to business fights, some services may not be supported. For example, until recently, you couldn’t get HBO Max or Peacock on a Roku. 
So, with all that in mind, let’s dig into today’s best streamers.

Hard to beat Roku’s entry-level streaming gadget

If you want the best possible quality from a Roku device, you want the 2020 Roku Ultra. But, if you want the best deal for the money, you want the Roku Streaming Stick+.
For a list price of $50, you get Roku’s easy-to-use interface and access to over 5,000 streaming services. And, yes, as of late November 2020, that includes HBO Max and NBC’s Peacock. 
The Stick+ streams 4K and High Dynamic Range (HDR) video. Like all Roku devices, it includes the best streaming service search function of all streaming devices. 
The remote, which now includes a TV volume and power control, is also easy to use. Thanks to its Advanced Wireless Receiver, you can control your viewing experience from anywhere in your living room or even the largest home theater. 
As an option, you can also get the remote with earbud headphones. With this, you can watch the show you want without bugging your spouse who’s reading next to you.
Really, there’s no reason to look any further if all you want is an excellent video streamer. The Roku Streaming Stick+ is the best of the best.
$29 at Amazon $38 at Walmart $30 at Best Buy

The highest-end Roku is better with the right home theater gear

What’s that you want the Rolls-Royce of streaming devices? In that case, you’ll want Roku’s latest of its top-of-the-line streaming device: The 2020 Roku Ultra.
For a list price of $100, the Roku Ultra has everything the Stick+ and more. Like what? I’ll tell you.
In addition to 4K and HDR, the Ultra also supports Dolby Vision and three-dimensional audio Dolby Atmos acoustics on compatible TVs. With the right television, sound system, and video content you’ll get the best possible streaming experience.
Notice I said with the “right” equipment and set up. Most new high-end TVs support Dolby Vision, with the notable exception of Samsung, which supports its own HDR10+ format. Dolby Vision will give you a slightly better HDR experience than generic HDR. Dolby Atmos is a surround sound format. It goes beyond Dolby Digital’s 5.1-channels to add “height” audio channels for improved realism.  The only way you can experience this is with a home theater audio rig setup to use it. To do that, the Ultra will be the cheapest component of your home theater by an order of magnitude. 
The streaming device supports 802.11ac for an excellent high-speed Wi-Fi connection. It also comes with an Ethernet port, if you want the security of a wired network connection. Personally, I prefer the Ethernet port. 
It also includes a USB port. With it, you can connect an external hard drive or a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) so you can watch your own video library. That way you don’t need to worry about setting up a media server. Personally, I prefer setting running my own Plex server so I can watch my collection of 30s and 40s movies no matter where I am in my home. But you can’t beat just plugging in your video collection into the USB port for ease of use. 
Finally, the Ultra’s remote now has two customizable buttons to open your favorite channels. This is in addition to the default buttons for Netflix, Hulu, Sling TV, and Vudu. 
If you want the best possible streaming experience, and you have the rest of the home theater gear to go with it, get the Ultra. It’s that simple.
$69 at Amazon $70 at Best Buy $100 at Crutchfield

A full-powered TV streaming device

I’ve been a fan of the Google Chromecast since day one back in 2013. All it could do was mirror my Android smartphone and tablet’s screens and my Chrome web browser’s display to my TV. That was it. Screencasting, as it’s been come to be known, is actually pretty powerful. But, this fall, Google decided to make the Chromecast, under the name Chromecast with Google TV, a full-fledged streaming device.
This next-generation Chromecast now comes with a remote. Earlier versions required you to use your Android device to control it. This remote also supports TV power and volume controls. It also lets you change your TV inputs making it something of a simple universal remote. Although if you want a true high-powered universal remote, you’ll still want to buy a Logitech $70 Harmony 665 or $250 Harmony 950. 
Like the Roku Ultra, it supports 4K UHD streaming with HDR and Dolby Vision video support for video and no holds barred Dolby Atmos for outstanding sound. It also comes with the Google TV interface. Behind that, you’ll find the Android operating system with over 6,500 Android TV apps.
It’s best feature, however, is that while other streaming devices make you hop from service to service to find your show. (Example: Is The Queen’s Gambit on Netflix or Amazon Prime? Netflix.) On Google, all your favorite shows, across all your streaming services, are shown on one screen. It’s a killer feature.
Last, but never least, it has a list price of $49.99. With all that, you may wonder why I still prefer the Roku models. Frankly, the only reason at this point is that Roku has a long track history, while this radical new Chromecast is only a few months old. All other things being equal, by this time next year, Chromecast with Google TV may well be my first choice.
$50 at Walmart $50 at Best Buy $50 at Adorama

What do you get when you combine Alexa with a streaming box?

The Amazon Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen) comes with Alexa built-in. Now, I was an Amazon Echo user from the start, so I’m fine with that. If you’re not, keep looking. But if you’re OK with Alexa listening in, then you should check out the latest generation Fire Cube. 
This $120 list price version of the Fire TV Cube is faster than its ancestor. It also supports 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Atmos. It’s also one of the few devices that supports Samsung’s HDR10+. 
It and the rest of the Amazon Fire TV devices also –finally — support YouTube and YouTube TV. For a long time, Amazon and Google were squabbling, and even though you could get Amazon Prime Video on Google devices, such as Android TVs,  you couldn’t get Google-based content on Fire TV devices.
Where the Fire TV Cube excels, as you might imagine, is with voice commands. With this box, you’ll never need to worry about where the remote is hiding this time. It’s inside your couch, by the way; it’s always hidden between the couch cushions, in my vast experience of losing remotes. 
It also, thanks to Alexa, will let you, after setting it up properly, let you switch HDMI inputs and even change cable channels. 
There’s only one real problem with the new model Fire TV Cube, and it’s one it shared with the rest of the Fire family: Amazon is not shy about putting its Prime video offerings front and center in its interface. And there’s no way to change that. As it happens, I watch a lot of shows on Prime, but even for me, it’s gotten a bit old. 
Amazon also offers a wide array of other streaming devices in its Fire family. At  $50, the Amazon Fire TV Stick an affordable, high-quality streaming gadget. 
$80 at Best Buy $120 at HSN $82 at B&H Photo-Video

Apple TV (2019)
Ted deeply into the Apple entertainment world? This is worth the money.

I haven’t been happy with the last few Apple TV generations, but Apple finally got its groove back with the 2019 edition of the Apple TV 4K. For example, it finally supports 4K streaming, HDR, and applications for most of the major streaming services. But I really hoped there’d be a 2020 Apple TV. Alas, there wasn’t.
Of course, the Apple TV 4K is heavily Apple-centric. That’s great if you have your own iTunes or Apple TV app-based media library. On the other hand, it can’t stream a full 4K HDR video from such external services as Netflix, YouTube, or Vudu. It will play them, yes, but it downscales them to 1080p HDTV.
At $179 for the 32GB version or $199 for the 64GB version of the Apple TV 4K, like all Apple products, it’s not cheap. You can save some money by simply getting the $179 version. Unlike earlier models, the Apple TV only uses its onboard storage for applications and games. It streams all its videos. So, if all you’ll ever do with it is steam videos, there’s no reason to buy the pricier model. The Apple TV 4K’s bottom line is it’s great for anyone whose life is built around Apple products or the $4.99 Apple+ streaming service. Others can spend far less to watch the same shows.

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After delaying the 16th Starlink mission on Sunday, SpaceX has now launched its Falcon 9 rocket to bring its Starlink satellite count to 955. 
Deploying its payload of 60 satellites into orbit is the seventh mission for the Falcon 9’s first-stage rocket booster, which landed successfully back on the ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ droneship in the Atlantic. The rocket launched from the Space Launch Complex 40, or SLC-40, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday, November 24 at 9:13pm EST. 
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Per Space.com, this launch puts SpaceX within about eight more Starlink missions before it completes the first phase of its constellation of 1,440 satellites. 
These satellites orbit Earth at an altitude of 550km (340 miles). SpaceX is targeting “near global coverage” by next year. The second phase of satellites will orbit at over 1,000km (621 miles). 

SpaceX last month rolled out its ‘Better Than Nothing Beta’ to users in rural and remote parts of northern US and, as of last week, also to southern parts of Canada. 
Recent Starlink beta tests show that Starlink is delivering data speeds from 50Mbps to 150Mbps and latency from 20ms to 40ms. That blows away speeds that many residents in rural and remote areas of the US and elsewhere can access. 

However, SpaceX says as more satellites go up and more ground stations are installed, along with improvements in its networking software, it will be able to reduce latency even further. 

Networking

Kate Tice, a SpaceX senior certification engineer, said Starlink expects to achieve 16ms to 19ms latency by summer 2021. 
All the availability cells currently in the US and Canada lie within the 43 degree and 53 degree latitudes, but some areas within that band can’t get a Starlink service. 
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However, as more satellites go into orbit, more cells become available. Tice said SpaceX expects to significantly expand its beta program in late January or early February 2021. 
Users who are accepted on the beta program need to buy a dish and modem/router for $499 and then pay a subscription of $99 a month. 
SpaceX engineers explained in a Reddit Ask Me Anything this week that when users first turn on a Starlink terminal, it knows nothing about where the satellites are. Instead, the dish “automatically scans the sky in a matter of milliseconds and locks into the satellite overhead, even though it’s traveling 17,500mph”. 
Starlink currently does not have data caps in the beta service, but its engineers said the company “might have to do something in the future to prevent abuse and just ensure that everyone else gets quality service”.
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Image: ZDNet
Cisco Systems Australia has reported its yearly results for fiscal year 2020 to July 25, revealing it fell just shy of clearing the AU$2 billion revenue mark.
In a filing to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the local Cisco arm saw its product revenue fall by AU$58 million to AU$1.21 billion while its service revenue increased by AU$24 million to AU$435 million. Once revenue from related entities and leases were taken into account, Cisco Australia reported total revenue of AU$1.997 billion.
With a lower cost of sales, the company reported a AU$78 million jump in pre-tax profit to AU$120 million, an income tax expense of AU$39.9 million compared to the AU$58 million booked last year, and AU$79.7 million in net profit compared to a AU$16.1 million loss reported last year.
In 2019, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) caught up to the networking giant, with the company reporting that it paid AU$86.2 million in income tax and made a tax adjustment for prior periods of AU$44.7 million.
Cisco Systems Australia has an immediate parent of Cisco Systems Netherlands Holding B.V. before reaching its ultimate parent Cisco Systems Inc in the United States. In 2020, Cisco Australia paid a AU$43.4 million dividend to its owners.
Over the course of the year, Cisco Australia was charged a total of AU$1.3 billion in service fees and cost of sales expenses by its parents and related parties, with AU$308 million flowing in the opposite direction to the Australian arm. The company said it also purchased almost AU$50 million in “various goods and services” from its ultimate parent and related entities throughout the fiscal year.
Cisco Australia added that it was in the early stages of negotiating a new transfer pricing arrangement with the ATO and the United States Internal Revenue Service.

In January, Cisco Australia parted with AU$118 million to purchase Zomojo, which traded under the Exablaze label and designed and built field programmable gate array network devices.
As of July 25, Cisco Systems Australia had 1,378 employees.
Microcredentials as software updates
Speaking to ZDNet recently, Cisco ANZ general manager of education Reg Johnson said when it came to microcredentials, it is best to think of them as bite-sized software upgrades to knowledge.
“I don’t think a credential is recognising a qualification in total, it’s the sum of the parts, and if you think about cybersecurity and how fast paced the changing landscape is, you’re constantly needing to do updates,” he said.
“That’s a great way of really you’re ensuring that people have kept up to date.”
A benefit of using microcredentials from universities for in-house training by companies is the ability for employees to have them recognised when they move onto their next job, Johnson said.
In July, the federal government said it would spend AU$4.3 million to build and run a microcredential marketplace.
“The microcredential marketplace will be a platform for job-seekers to see what skills they can gain by further study to help them get a new job or to get ahead in their current job,” Minister for Education Dan Tehan said at the time.
For Johnson, the use of these credentials allows universities to shift business models, make up some missing revenue due to the pandemic limiting international students, and perhaps get students into more traditional qualifications.
“This isn’t going away, I think the demands going to continue to increase, I think the quality of the credentials is going to continue to increase,” he said.
“I do think we’re going to see more of these bite-sized learning modules, but more about building blocks to bigger qualifications … [there’s] still a role obviously for degrees and those education programs, but I think it’s a recognition of the pace of technology and the need for moving with that.”
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