New Fire TV Cube coming

It's still nearly a month from actual release, but Amazon did recently announce that a new edition of the Fire TV Cube would be available soon.

I know that most people opt for the Fire TV Stick -- commonly called "Firestick" by many users -- but the Fire TV Cube is the top of the line of Amazon's streaming devices. Personally, I use the Fire TV Cube because of my previous experience with the Fire TV Sticks.

The first Fire TV Sticks were simply inferior devices, especially when compare to the Roku devices. However, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is a very good device, and completely changed my mind about the Sticks. But, if you do want the top of the line experience, the Fire TV Cube is the way to go.

According to the Amazon Fire TV Blog, the new Fire TV Cube will be available on October 25 and have some improvements in power and speed, plus an HDMI input:

An industry-first, Fire TV Cube includes an HDMI input port, giving customers the flexibility to bring their entertainment devices together by directly connecting compatible cable boxes, Blu-ray players, and more devices. Now, customers can just say, "Alexa, tune to ESPN on cable" instead of manually changing inputs to get to the content they want. With Fire TV Cube, customers can easily control live TV, cable boxes, and on-demand streaming via Fire TV's Alexa Voice Remote or hands-free with Alexa. Fire TV Cube also features a USB port for easy connection to compatible webcams for video calling with Alexa Communications — simply say, "Alexa, call mom" to connect with family or friends from the largest screen in the home.

This may pressure other streaming manufacturers to do the same. Until that happens, the Fire TV Cube will be the only major streaming device to offer a feature that's normally reserved for a full smart TV.

The features are interesting, and if someone has been thinking about getting a Fire TV device, this, to me, is worth waiting for. I don't think I'm going to upgrade my current Fire TV Cube however. If you have an older Cube, then I can see that. But as I don't have need of the HDMI port, I don't see it bringing anything to the table for my Streaming Life. But the device sounds great for someone who doesn't have a current Fire TV Cube.

Hallmark content on Pluto TV

Back in August, Pluto TV announced that they would be adding several channels in September, including content from Hallmark.

This week, I finally saw the Hallmark Movies & More channel on Pluto TV. And that is a welcome addition.

Hallmark has been a favorite source of content for family members for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, specials from Hallmark on TV were something that my mother would often enjoy watching.

In later years, family members enjoyed Hallmark's content, particularly their Christmas movies. Having it on cable was nice, and when we dropped cable, the various streaming platforms that carried Hallmark content were things I regularly subscribed to.

Hallmark content has been on some very low-priced streaming platforms, both on-demand and linear streaming. A favorite has been Frndly TV, which at $7/month is the lowest price of the live streaming services that carry the actual Hallmark Channel. Philo, at $25, is another low priced streaming service with Hallmark Channel.

But, you can find Hallmark content for free, though not Hallmark Channel. Hallmark does offer a secondary catalog, still Hallmark Channel content, just not current content. It's almost like Hallmark Classic. Not everything is really old content, just stuff that has rolled off of Hallmark Channel rotation.

For some time, Hallmark Movies & More has been available as a live streaming channel on Xumo and Roku Channel. This month, it finally appeared on Pluto TV.

I've mentioned before about Hallmark content being on Xumo and Roku Channel, but Pluto TV is the big dog when it comes to FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) content.

If you want to watch some Hallmark content, you now have another option to improve your Streaming Life.

A new PayPal scam

We're going off-topic here for something I think is important, and may be a new scam. At least, it's new to me. I've never seen this, and I can see people falling for it.

Last night, a family member received an email from PayPal about a charge against her account. It was for $899 for an iPhone, or so it said.

What seems to have happened is that someone submitted a PayPal charge against her PayPal account, and PayPal sent an email notifying her.

To be clear, the email itself was legit. The problem was twofold, however, and it was within the email.

The first problem was, of course, that she had not ordered an iPhone. The seller/scammer had submitted an unauthorized charge. PayPal has no idea if it's legit or not, so they sent the email notifying her of the submission, for her to decide to pay it or cancel it.

The second problem was within the body of the email, and that's the other part of the scam.

Note the part in the "Seller note to customer." That is content that the seller/scammer sent along with the submitted charge. It's for any communication a normal PayPal seller wants or needs to communicate to the buyer.

However, look at the contents of that:

We've detected that your PayPal account has been accessed fraudulently. If you did not make this transaction, please call us at toll-free number +1 (888)-224-7574 to cancel and claim a refund. If this is not the case, you will be charged $499. 00 USD today. Within the automated deduction of the amount, this transaction will reflect on PayPal activity after 24 hours. Our Service hours:(06:00 am. to 06:00 pm. pacific Time, Monday through Saturday)

Again, and this is important, that is not legitimate! DO NOT CALL THAT NUMBER!

That reads like a message from PayPal, right? Only, it's not a message from PayPal. That is a message from the seller/scammer pretending to be from PayPal.

Note that it also has several of the earmarks of a scam email. First, the amount in the note does not match the amount of the charge. Next, the punctuation is incorrect in many places. And the capitalization is wrong in several places.

Finally, and it says it right in the email but can easily be overlooked, that is A MESSAGE FROM THE SELLER, not from PayPal. The seller is saying the transaction is fraudulent and to call the number.

That last bit got past her briefly (understandable) and she called the number. The person who answered pretended to be from PayPay. Then he gave her a lot of BS about needing her to sign a form but he couldn't email it for security reasons. To get her to sign it, he wanted her to connect to their servers.

I'm gonna stop for a second and bring up a point some might miss here. If an item cannot be sent via email for security reasons, there is no way on earth that any legitimate company is going to let someone's home computer connect to their servers. That would truly be a security risk. Rather, they'd have her connect to a secure Website, not download some software that gave full access to a server.

As an alternate note, the software they asked her to download, TeamViewer, is a legit software package, but it would have granted the person on the phone full access to her computer. Nobody ever needs full access to someone else's computer.

Anyway, this is when red flags started going off and I became a part of the conversation. She added me to the call, and I listened to the scammer tell me the story of why he was needing this. And, like most scammers, was getting pushy.

People who know me know that I don't care for pushy types. And since I'm quite capable of being a little pushy myself, can deal with them on an equal basis. I was calm and polite and said the whole thing was bullshit and suggested to her that she end the call. So the call ended.

She had sent me a copy of the email (you saw a screen shot of that earlier) and noted the note from seller. We had a discussion, and she gave me permission to log in to her PayPal account.There, I found the legitimate way to dispute and cancel the submission. It was easy and only required a single click, much to PayPal's credit.

We both learned something about a new -- well, new to us, anyway -- type of scam. And I thought it might be worth sharing.

Again, this doesn't have anything to do with your or my Streaming Life, but I thought it was worth sharing.

Bally Sports has launched

Well, sports fans, the big day has arrived. Yesterday, in fact.

Bally Sports+ launched yesterday, making the service available nationwide. Well, mostly.

Back in June, the service launched in five markets: Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, and Tampa (or Tampa Bay). Those are the five baseball markets where Bally Sports+ carry the baseball games. None of the other markets that carry Major League Baseball have agreements for the teams to be broadcast over the streaming service.

For example, I live in an area where I would get Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast. And, I would normally get Braves baseball, which is carried on those regional networks.

Yesterday, I became capable of subscribing to Bally Sports+, and can get both Bally Sports South and Bally Sports Southeast, but it states "Braves baseball and related content are not currently available on Bally Sports+."

I can still get all the other programming, just not Braves baseball. And for me, Braves baseball is what I want. NBA and NHL games are available. In fact, from what I'm reading, everything normally carried on the Bally Sports regional networks in my area is available except Braves baseball. And it's that way for the areas covered by all 19 of the Bally Sports networks. Well, except for the five markets -- Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee, and Tampa Bay -- that got the early launch and have agreements for the baseball teams.

It is expected that Bally Sports will be able to negotiate agreements with the other Major League Baseball teams for next season, but it's unknown if any agreements could happen to allow the remaining current season to be carried. Probably not.

The service is $20/month or $190/year. Whether or not that's enough value without baseball is a decision each streamer that is a sports fan will have to make. I would subscribe if they had Braves baseball. And next season, if they carry Braves baseball, I will. Of course, if I was big into NHL and NBA, it would certainly be worth it to me. But I'm me, and it's not.

But for you and for others, Bally Sports+ may be a great addition to your Streaming Life.

Cutting streaming subscriptons to save money

A recent survey indicates that more people in the USA, as well as in Europe, are cutting back on streaming subscription services because of inflation.

Not that streaming services have raised prices, but that everything else has gone up meaning less money for non-essentials. And streaming services are getting hit by this.

While I've not seen the poll, I've seen a write up about it by a good source, The Streaming Advisor, which covers many of the bits of information uncovered by the survey.

There is a definitive generational preference as well. Over two-thirds of Gen Z and Millennials in the US (66% and 76%, respectively) are willing to pay to skip ads, compared to 32% of Baby Boomers, who may be accustomed to ads while viewing TV content. More than half of this generation (the Boomers) are the most unwilling to pay to skip over ads (52%) compared to just 14% of Millennials and 17% of Gen Z who say they are unwilling to do so.

I get this. I'm in that generation, and I usually won't pay to skip ads.

There are other interesting bits, so do go read the article. Of course, I'm not really impacted by much of this. I already cut back on services. I'll subscribe to one a month, watch the content, then cancel and subscribe to a different one the next month.

Over a year, I get all of the content that's exclusive to any service, and I pay a lot less. It is how I conduct my Streaming Life, and I suggest you consider it for yours.

Privacy phone, part 7: Apps

I've been testing some different setups for privacy phones, and have found an issue that's common to them all. The problem is apps.

Now, the whole reason for a privacy phone is to keep information about activity from being sent to Google, Facebook, or other places that collect and sell your data. The easiest way for them to do this is via apps.

If you notice, I didn't say anything about Apple just now. That's not because I'm not concerned about Apple having that data. Apple is actually the least offensive of those that gather your data, but I still don't like the idea of them gathering it. And I don't want iPhone developers getting the data either.

Many apps will collect the data or simply not run. That can be a problem. But the workaround is actually quite simple. Use the Web browser on the phone to access the Website. For example, rather than opening the Facebook app, I'll go to the Facebook Website on my privacy phone. It works pretty much the same. Pretty much. There are some differences. Not enough to make it unworkable, but some differences nonetheless.

However, not all services have Websites that work well with mobile apps. That usually is because the Website is not properly configured to display in a smaller window, such as on a mobile device. Sometimes, it's because of poorly coded Websites.

For instance, if you have a Website where you log in, and if they offer the ability to remember who you are, that's because of it sets a cookie on your phone. However, cookies are not forever. And sometimes, you can tell it to not set certain cookies that are used to track you. The "remember me" cookies don't really track you to the degree of other cookies.

Sometimes, when you go to a Website that wasn't properly coded, it can do some weird things. Like if you don't have certain cookies set, it redirects to a login page. But if the login page sees a certain cookie set, it assumes you are logged in, and redirects to a different page. But that page doesn't see this other cookie that isn't set, so it directs you to the login page. And so on and so on.

This doesn't happen on most Websites, of course, because they use better logic or handling of redirects that prevents an infinite loop from happening. But those that do? Oh boy, are they ever aggravating.

The solution is to remove all cookies from that Website for your mobile phone, but that is easier to do on a computer than on a mobile device. Unless you simply want to remove all cookies from everything. And you don't always want that.

So this transition to a privacy phone is going to have some hiccups, some major and some minor, along the way.

Watching college football games this weekend: Week 4

College football season continues, and while some games are not huge draws -- Big Dawg U vs Cupcake U games still happen this early in the season -- there are also some major matchups.

If you want to watch all of the games this season, you need access to all the networks. And, as you will see, that can get expensive. Of course, you might not want to be able to watch al the games. You may have only a single team, or a few teams, you care about. We'll show you how you can watch the games, whatever the games might be.

Well, most of the games. Four Saturday games will not be on these networks. A couple surprise me, but that's how it goes. Here are the networks carrying games:

• ABC
• ACC Network
• Big Ten
• Big 12 Network
• CBS
• CBS Sports Network
• ESPN
• ESPN 2
• ESPN 3
• ESPN U
• SEC Network
• ESPN+
• Fox
• Fox Sports 1
• Longhorn Network
• NBC
• NFL Network
• Pac 12 Network
• Peacock

Here is how to watch these networks:

ABC

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ACC Network

• Sling Orange, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.

Big Ten Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.

Big 12 Network

Big 12 Network games are available through ESPN+.

CBS

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Paramount+ Premium, $10/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

CBS Sports Network

• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Ultimate, $105/month.

ESPN

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN2

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN U

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.
• Fubo TV Elite, $80/month.

ESPN3

ESPN3 is usually included with a service that carries standard ESPN/ESPN2.

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

ESPN+

ESPN+ is a standalone sports programming service. It is not the same thing as regular ESPN that you get with cable or one of the live streaming services. Some content from ESPN, ESPN2, or other ESPN networks may be available on ESPN+, but often, it's content that is only available on ESPN+.

• ESPN+, $7/month.
• Disney Bundle, $14/month.

Fox

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

Fox Sports 1

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

Longhorn Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.

NBC

• Antenna, over the air, free.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Entertainment, $70/month.

NFL Network

• Sling Blue, with Sports Extra, $46/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, with Sports Extra, $65/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Fubo TV, $70/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.

Pac 12 Network

• Sling Blue, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• Fubo TV Pro, with Fubo Extra, $78/month.
• Fubo TV Elite, $80/month.

Peacock TV

Peacock is a standalone streaming service that carries NBCUniversal programming, including much sports from NBC as well as exclusive sports programming. Peacock Premium is $5/month, but is included with Xfinity Internet plans.

SEC Network

• Sling Orange, $35/month.
• Sling Orange+Blue, $50/month.
• Vidgo Plus, $60/month.
• YouTube TV, $65/month.
• Hulu+Live TV, $70.
• DirecTV Stream Choice, $90/month.
• Fubo TV Ultimate, $100/month.

This list of networks covers all the games airing today. It also covers games next week through Friday, as the early games next week are all on one of these networks.

NOTE: Peacock and NBC are not needed this weekend as Notre Dame is not playing at home.

To watch all the games, having an antenna won't really matter, as in order to get all the networks, you'll need services that cover the OTA stations. So, how much to watch them all?

The services necessary will cost $118 That's $65 for YouTube TV with has most of the networks, $46 for Sling TV Blue plus Sports Extra to get Longhorn and Pac 12, $7 for ESPN+.

If you want college football in your Streaming Life, you have options, though it can get expensive depending just how many games you want to watch.