More price increases: Apple TV+

More price increases make the news. This time, it's Apple's service, Apple TV+, which is going up.

While it's not a large amount that it's going up, it is a large percentage that it is going up.

Previously, Apple TV+ was $5/month. It's now $7/month. You might think that a $2/month increase isn't that much, and it's not. $2/month is not really all that much. But, considering the total monthly cost was only $5, that makes it a 40% increase! That's quite the price hike, when you look at it like that.

And, for Apple subscribers, it's more than Apple TV+ that's going up. Nearly all major subscriptions are increasing, according to 9to5 Mac:

This translates to increases of $1 to $2 per service, with Apple One tiers going up about $3 at the same time. Here’s the full pricing breakdown for the United States:

Apple Music

• Individual: $10.99 per month (from $9.99)
• Family: $16.99 per month (from $14.99)
• Individual Annual: $109 per year (from $99)

Apple TV+

• Monthly: $6.99 per month (from $4.99)
• Annual: $69 per year (from $49.99)

Apple One

• Individual: $16.95 per month (from $14.95)
• Family: $22.95 per month (from $19.95)
• Premier: $32.95 per month (from $29.95)

If you are in an International market, you should also expect to see proportionally similar price increases go into effect beginning today. Current subscribers will receive notifications of the planned price increases 30 days prior to the service renewing at the higher price.

What will be the next price increase to impact your Streaming Life? I'm worried it won't be all that long before we find out.

Dish raising prices

With the focus here on streaming, it may seem out of place that I'm commenting on an increase in prices for a satellite service.

No, I'm not going to turn that news into another reason to go with streaming rather than satellite or cable. I think there are plenty of reasons to stream over usage of those older, traditional services.

And, yes, those older pay TV services do go up in price from time to time, but so do streaming services. So, a price increase in a satellite service isn't exactly a new reason to switch.

Rather, I think it's a sign of things to come with streaming. The reason is that this price increase that was announced last week is for Dish Network. And that impacts streaming because Dish owns Sling TV.

You may already know that Dish owns Sling, but not everyone knows that. Yes, traditional pay TV services are in the streaming business as well. Comcast, one of the largest cable TV services, owns Peacock TV, the streaming service. And of course satellite TV service DirecTV owns DirecTV Stream.

But back to Dish. The company announced last week that prices will be going up in November:

At DISH, we continue to invest in your service and technology to make improvements and provide you with the best TV viewing experience at the best value. However, the price that we pay for programming continues to rise. In fact, the fastest growing cost we and all other TV providers have is driven by the cost we pay the programmers. We will continue to work hard for fair deals with these programmers to keep channel costs and the price you pay as low as possible. Unfortunately, you may have observed some channel interruptions because of this.

Due to these rising costs, we will be increasing the cost of our package offerings beginning 11/17/22.

This is bad news for streamers. That bit about "channel interruptions?" One of those happened recently, and impacted Dish ... and Sling TV.

So, with Dish raising its prices, I'm expecting Dish to do the same, as the settling of that outage led to the price increase for the satellite TV service, and the same company owns Sling, who was impacted as well.

Could Sling go without a price increase? Sure. But I expect Sling TV will up prices soon. And people will get mad at Sling TV, when they should get mad at Disney instead. After all, if there is a price hike in your Streaming Life soon, House of Mouse would be to blame.

Privacy phone, part 8: Testing impacted

A while back, I decided to test three different privacy phone setups. I later added a fourth to the mix, but have ruled that fourth one out. I left it out initially for a reason, then rethought things. After a bit, I came to realize that I was right to omit to initially.

So, I'm down to three, right?

No, I ruled out the first one I tried pretty quickly. The Pine 64 phone running Linux is a no-go. It's just not user friendly. Whether or not it's the hardware or the software, the net result is an experience similar to that of the BlackBerry 10. If you don't remember that, you are a fortunate soul indeed. It was awful. And the Linux phone experience has been awful. So this one is a no-go.

I tried a Teracube 2e running /e/OS. I liked it.

I tried a Google Pixel 4a running Lineage OS. I liked it.

In fact, I've been using the Google Pixel running Lineage as my primary phone for a while. So much so that if I stopped carrying it, I'd feel wrong. Which means I've not had the opportunity to go back to the Teracube 2e.

If I could simply pop out the SIM card from the Pixel phone and put it in the Teracube, I would. But there are issues with the Teracube running that SIM. Not sure if it's the carrier (I think it might be) or the phone (I also think it might be).

The net result is that the Teracube isn't getting any use right now. I'd really like to use it. The interface is good, I like the phone, but I don't like the issues with using certain carriers. The Google Pixel has no carrier issues. So, Pixel will probably win.

The only reason I'm not declaring Pixel running Lineage OS as the winner is because I really want to use the Teracube /e/OS device some more. And I'll get around to that. Some time.

For now, I think my phone going forward will be the Pixel running Lineage OS. I'm almost certain of it.

Watching college football games this weekend: Week 8

College football season continues, with this week featuring a single game between ranked unbeaten teams. The ACC has the lone battle of the unbeatens this week.

There are five games featuring matchups of ranked teams, all games between conference opponents. The Big 12 has two such matchups, while the ACC (the unbeatens), SEC, and Pac 12 each have conference games between two ranked teams.

If you want to watch all of the games this season, you need access to most of the networks, which can get expensive. Of course, you might not want to be able to watch all the games.

This weekend, only one game will not be on these networks. Here are the networks carrying games:

• ABC
• ACC Network
• Big Ten
• Big 12 Network (No games this week)
• CBS
• CBS Sports Network
• ESPN
• ESPN 2
• ESPN 3
• ESPN U
• SEC Network
• ESPN+
• Fox
• Fox Sports 1
• Longhorn Network (No games this week)
• 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: Longhorn Network and Big 12 Network are not needed this weekend.

To watch all the games, having an antenna won't really matter, as in order to get all the networks carrying games, the services also carry the OTA stations. So, how much to watch them all?

The services necessary will cost $85. That's $78 for Fubo TV Pro +Fubo Extra, along with $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.

For MST3K/RiffTrax fans only

If, like me, you're a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, you're probably also a fan of RiffTrax. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, well, MSTies such as me just shake our heads at how unfortunate you are to have missed out on this.

If you're not familiar, there was a TV show back in the 1990s called Mystery Science Theater 3000. The premise is that mad scientists sent a janitor into space to watch bad movies in a scheme to take over the world. He built two robots as companions, and they watched the moves together, humorously commenting throughout the film. The whole thing was simply a reason to show bad movies and poke fun at them.

And, MST3K did exactly that for ten full seasons on three different networks. Later, it was brought back by Netflix for two more seasons. And, currently, it's in its 13th season, with this one financed by a Kickstarter campaign. Yes, I contributed.

After MST3K was canceled, the three main cast members that made fun of the movies -- which by then were Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett -- got back into riffing on movies with The Film Crew (for four movies) and finally RiffTrax (which continues today).

And with that background -- more than you wanted to know, to be sure -- here is the main thing: RiffTrax has an app! Yes, there is an app for Roku and Fire TV platforms. You can watch some RiffTrax content, in addition to content you purchased. And, if you have a subscription, you can watch it all.

Yes, I'm trying it out. It's $6/month, and I'll do that for a while. Maybe I'll watch everything they have. Maybe not. I've enjoyed everything they've done, but that's not really a surprise. I loved MST3K and love RiffTrax.

If you're a MSTie, or think you might want to become one, then the RiffTrax app is something you should consider adding to your Streaming Life.

Streaming the NBA

The NBA season is underway. The first games were actually Tuesday night, with more games on tap last night. If you're an NBA fan, perhaps you got to see some games in which you were interested. But if you're a streamer, what did you do? Well, you could have watched some of the games as well.

All games, except those affected by regional blackouts or games on national broadcasts, are available through NBA League Pass, which can be used on the major streaming devices.

Other games will be available on networks that are part of streaming packages.

• ABC
• ESPN
• TNT
  
• NBA TV

So, how can you watch those channels?

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.

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.

TNT

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

NBA TV

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

If the NBA is something you want in your Streaming Life, you have plenty of options this season. Blackouts may be a problem, but that's how many sports are currently. Perhaps one day, you'll get the ability to watch your favorite team and not worry about blackouts.

New Apple TV lineup

It's been expected for some time, but Apple also did the unexpected, as they'll sometimes do. And the unexpected is very welcome.

Apple introduced a new Apple TV lineup yesterday. All Apple TV devices are now 4K devices. That means the Apple TV device that has been around for a few years is no longer available. Or will be no longer available when they sell out the current stock. Heck, you can't even buy the 1080 version of it online anymore.

All Apple TV devices are 64 GB or higher now. Gone are the 32 GB devices. Gone are the HD devices.

The new lineup featured two versions of Apple TV:

The new Apple TV 4K is available in two configurations: Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi), which offers 64GB of storage; and Apple TV 4K (Wi-Fi + Ethernet), which offers support for Gigabit Ethernet for fast networking and streaming, Thread mesh networking protocol to connect even more smart home accessories, and twice the storage for apps and games (128GB). Customers can order the new Apple TV 4K with Siri Remote today at a new starting price of $129, with availability beginning Friday, November 4.

Both feature the A15 chip, which is a little bit of a bump up. Oh, and talk about burying the lead: if it looks like they are cheaper than they used to be, it's because they are. The $129 and $149 prices are lower than the previous pricing, making them in line with the Amazon Fire TV Cube and only a little more than the Roku Ultra, as well as cheaper than the Nvidia Shield.

If you already have an Apple TV 4K device, there's really no reason to rush out and get one. If your Apple TV is the HD device, then maybe, if your TV is UHD/4K, might it be worth it. But otherwise, no reason to replace a working device.

If you are thinking about adding an Apple TV device to your lineup, don't buy one of the current ones if you find one in a store somewhere. Wait for the new ones that arrive November 4, then enjoy the new Apple TV device as part of your Streaming Life.

Netflix with ads for $7/month

The launch is two weeks away -- actually just over at 16 days away -- but we have a launch date and a price for the new lower priced Netflix ad-supported tier.

Starting November 3, 2022, you'll be able to subscribe to Netflix for as low as $7/month. The current tier of ad-free plans remains. The current $10/month plan gets a slight boost in that the resolution will increase from 480 to 720, which is actually a good bump. It should be noticeable.

There will be no changes to the $16/month or $20/month plans. Just the resolution increase for the $10/month plan, plus the newer $7/month plan.

So, what do you get for $7/month? Well, it's essentially the $10/month plan (including the higher resolution), but with ads.

Basic with Ads offers all the features people expect from Netflix’s Basic plan, with a few differences:

• What stays the same: A wide variety of great TV shows and movies; personalized viewing experience; available on a wide range of TV and mobile devices; change or cancel your plan at any time.
• What’s different: Video quality up to 720p/HD (now for both our Basic with Ads and Basic plans); average of 4 to 5 minutes of ads per hour; a limited number of movies and TV shows won't be available due to licensing restrictions, which we’re working on; no ability to download titles.

It's not a bad deal, or so it seems. The number of commercials is not great, and in line with what Hulu offers for the same $7/month price.

If you're considering Netflix as part of your Streaming Life, or if you have it, but wish it cost less, you'll have this option starting November 3. If you like it, great! You'll have saved some money. If you don't, you can easily upgrade to one of the existing tiers and have the experience to which you've become accustomed.

Just givin' some love to Pub-D-Hub

I've talked about the streaming app Pub-D-Hub a time or two before. I don't bring it up a lot. Not many people do. But it is one of the apps I've used nearly as long as any other, except Hulu.

While it's been free since it launched -- I'm not sure when it launched, but I've watched it for nearly 10 years -- I've been a paid subscriber for many years.

The free service has enough to enjoy, so it's not necessary to subscribe, but there is additional content available to subscribers. Additionally, even if there was no additionally content, I appreciate the content that is offered, and don't mind showing some support. After all, it's less than $5/year to upgrade to a paid account. And yes, that's $5/year, not a month.

In recent years, they increased their traditional lineup of on-demand public domain movies and TV shows, as well as commercials and short films, with live streaming channels.

The selection isn't quite that of Pluto TV, Xumo, Tubi, Roku Channel, or others, but it's still a good selection of live streaming channels, 352 in all.

If you've not checked out Pub-D-Hub, give it a look. It's free. And, if you are already using the free service, consider upgrading for $5/year. It's definitely worth it. It's something I've had in my Streaming Life for years, and expect to have it for years to come.

VPN, but not as most use one

Last month, I mentioned that I was satisfied with the job my Pi Hole installation was doing. And, a month later, I'm still quite satisfied. Even more so, since I added a VPN to the setup.

Many people will use a VPN, either a free ad-supported one, or a paid one, to try to get around geolocation restrictions for streaming content. I use a VPN for other reasons.

I'm using Open VPN to power everything, and am running the VPN on a Raspberry Pi (of course). In fact, it's the same Raspberry Pi I use to run Pi Hole. I can use it to connect devices to my home network.

I'm not connecting to a service in another location. I'm connecting to my home network when I'm not at home. So why would I do that?

Well, most of the time, I'm having my mobile device connected to my network via VPN in order to take advantage of my Pi Hole setup. That way, I can have tracker blocking anywhere. And, if I need to get to something on my network, I can. Now, admittedly, this rarely happens. Very rarely. But using Pi Hole when I'm away from home my home network is great.

I found out how much I liked it yesterday, in fact. A friend was having trouble with her cell phone. She was unable to log in to a particular Website. Now, to be sure, there were several things she could have done, but the way she like to do it involved launching her default browser and logging in to the Website of a particular store. And that's a perfectly legitimate way to do it. It should work.

Well, it wasn't working. She uses ad and tracking blocking on her mobile browser, as well as popup blocking. And recently, this particular store's Website was not longer accessible for logging in. It kept giving her a message about turning off ad and popup blocking.

She didn't need to actually turn everything off, but all of them together were stopping her from logging in. Whether that was because of an update to the browser, or (more likely, in my mind) an update to the login process of the store, I can't say with certainty. But by experimenting, I found that using it all stopped her from logging in. If she turned off, say, popup blocking, but left the ad blocking in place, things worked. So, she had to turn off popup blocking, then log in, and when she was done, turn it back on.

By the way, if she turned it back on in the middle of her session, it logged her off. So, she had to turn off and leave off popup blocking.

I, on the other hand, am able to access the Website with no issues via my VPN. Pi Hole tracker blocking works different from the ad blocking on cell phones. And so it can't tell I'm using it. Remember it's the combination of all that which causes the problem. So, I don't have an ad or tracker blocker on my browser. It's on my home network, and I'm using a VPN to connect. Meaning the superior blocking of Pi Hole is coming into play. I get the benefit, and not the issues she has.

That was something I had considered, but now I'm aware of it, I'm even happier with my VPN setup. While this isn't directly affecting my Streaming Life, it does make my mobile connected life much easier.