Two months after teasing us with the prospect of skinny bundles, YouTube TV is spilling the beans on its upcoming—and marginally cheaper—genre-specific plans, with a sports-focused bundle among the first on the runway.  Among other details, we’re finally pricing for a quartet of the new “YouTube TV Plans,” with rates ranging from $71.99 a month to $54.99/month for existing YouTube TV subscribers, while new subscribers will get limited-time discounts.  Overall, we can expect more than 10 of these skinnier YouTube TV Plans, which are slated to roll out over the “next several weeks,” YouTube says.  The main offering is the YouTube TV Sports plan, which will include sports networks such as FS1, NBC Sports Network, and all the ESPN networks for $64.99 a month, with new subscribers paying $54.99/month for the first year.  The YouTube TV Sports plan will include local TV affiliates such as ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, while ESPN Unlimited access will be added this fall.  Also coming soon is a pricier Sports + News Plan, which includes everything in the sports bundle while adding news networks such as CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, CSPAN, Bloomberg, and Fox Business. The bundle will cost $71.99 a month, while new subscribers will get a discounted $56.99/month rate for the first three months.  Then there’s the Entertainment Plan, which offers Comedy Central, Bravo, Paramount, Food Network, HGTV, and “many more” entertainment-focused networks for $54.99 a month, or $44.99/month for new subscribers for their first three months. Local TV affiliates will also be included in the package.  Finally, the News + Entertainment + Family plan serves up news and entertainment channels while also adding family-oriented content to the mix, including the Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, National Geographic, Cartoon Network, and PBS Kids. The package will run you $69.99 a month, or $59.99/month.  Meanwhile, the YouTube TV Base plan—now known simply as the “main YouTube TV plan”—will remain $82.99 a month.  All the new YouTube TV skinny bundles will offer unlimited DVR access, as well as multi-view and other standard YouTube TV features. You’ll also be able to opt for add-ons such as NFL Sunday Ticket and RedZone, HBO Max, and 4K Plus.  YouTube TV first announced it was getting into the skinny-bundle business back in December, and it’s joining a crowded field that includes DirecTV, Fubo, and Sling.  This story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best live TV streaming services. Read...

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The 2026 Winter Olympics run from February 6 through February 22, split across Milan and the mountain venues of Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy. If you’re watching from the U.S., that means early mornings, long afternoons of competition, and a nightly primetime wrap-up designed for people who didn’t set an alarm for 3 a.m. What’s different this time is how you can watch the Games. For the first time, one streaming service will carry every single event live and on demand—no extra logins, no channel confusion, and no cable box required. This guide is for cord-cutters who want the simplest, cheapest, least annoying way to watch the Winter Olympics. We’ll break down your options, explain what you’ll get with each one, and help you pick the setup that makes sense for how you watch TV now, not how you watched it 10 years ago. The broadcast breakdown NBCUniversal has the U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics locked up through 2036, and this year they’re spreading coverage across familiar ground: broadcast, cable, and streaming. But how you watch depends on how you’re set up. If you still get local channels–with a TV antenna, a live TV-streaming service such as Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV, or (ugh) traditional cable TV–NBC will carry major daytime events along with its usual primetime highlight show, this time branded “Primetime in Milan.” It’s where you’ll find the big-ticket stuff: figure-skating finals, marquee hockey matchups, Shaun White–style snowboarding drama, and the like. The cable bundle gets you USA Network, CNBC, and a temporary revival of NBCSN (NBC Sports Network), all running round-the-clock coverage. Expect a steady diet of curling, hockey, and deep dives into Team USA. It’s the traditional way to immerse yourself if you’re paying for a live TV package. Then there’s Peacock. It’s the only place to watch every event live; plus, full-event replays, highlight shows, and oodles extras. If you want the full Olympic firehose without a cable bill, this is where you’ll find it. Option 1: Stream everything on Peacock Peacock Best Prices Today: $7.99 at Peacock If you want all the Olympics, a Peacock subscription is your best choice. There are two plans that include sports coverage (the $7.99-per-month Peacock Select plan does not): Peacock Premium runs $10.99 a month or $109.99 for the year. Peacock Premium Plus is $16.99 a month or $169.99 annually and adds a live feed of your local NBC station; plus, ad-free on-demand viewing. What sets Peacock apart isn’t just the volume of Olympics coverage, it’s how you can watch it. The Gold Zone channel jumps between live medal moments. You might think of it as a Winter Olympics version of NFL RedZone. Multiview lets you stream up to four events at once, whether you’re on your TV or your phone. And the new Rinkside Live cams offer coaching and bench views for figure skating and hockey—angles you won’t get anywhere else. If you’re a cord-cutter who doesn’t care about traditional channels, this is the cleanest, cheapest path to the full Games. Peacock has strategically stopped offering free trials to its service, but there is a sneaky workaround to getting a free trial to Peacock Premium: Sign up for a free trial to Instacart+ and you’ll also qualify for a free Peacock trial. Peacock Premium is also included as a Walmart+ subscriber perk (you can choose between that service and Paramount+, and switch between the two at will for as long as you have a subscription). A Walmart+ subscription costs $12.95 per month or $98 per year, and a 30-day free trial is available. Option 2: A live TV streaming service If you enjoy channel surfing and seeing what’s on “right now,” live TV streaming services—in industry parlance, virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs)—offer a way to watch the Olympics without giving up that familiar channel grid. These services mimic cable, just without the cable box. Here’s a rundown of your best choices, sorted by price: Sling TV (Blue): $45.99/month. The cheapest option, but NBC is only available in select markets. You do get USA Network, so it works if you mainly want the cable coverage. Sign up for Sling TV (Blue). Hulu + Live TV: $82.99/month. Includes NBC, USA Network, CNBC, and the revived NBCSN, along with DVR service in the cloud. Sign up for Hulu + Live TV. YouTube TV: $82.99/month. The same channel lineup as Hulu + Live TV, but with a better cloud DVR service and the option of sports streaming in 4K resolution, which can make events like downhill skiing or speed skating look incredible (albeit at an added cost of $9.99 per month). Sign up for YouTube TV. DirecTV: Starting at $89.99/month. While it has the same channel lineup as Hulu + Live and YouTube TV, this service comes the closest to replicating the traditional cable TV viewing experience. Sign up for DirecTV. Fubo is one live TV streaming service you won’t want to sign up for ahead of the Olympics, as it’s currently embroiled in a carriage dispute with NBC parent Comcast. And that’s doubly unfortunate because unlike YouTube TV, Fubo doesn’t charge extra for streaming sporting events in 4K. Each of those other services costs more than Peacock, but you’re essentially paying for a traditional TV experience in a digital wrapper. But if you want a grid guide, instant rewind, a DVR, and the ability to flip between events like it’s still 2012, live TV streaming services are the way to go. That’s especially true if you want both broadcast and cable channels in one place. We’ve reviewed all the live TV streaming services in depth and can provide you with more details about each of them. Pro tips to maximize your Olympics experience Don’t sleep through the good stuffMilan is six hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast. That means live events can start as early as 2 a.m. ET and wrap up by mid-afternoon. If you’re not the type to wake up before sunrise for luge, Peacock’s full-event replays are your best friend. Your other option would be to avail yourself of the cloud DVR any of the live TV streaming services offers. Upgrade your pictureNBC is streaming the Games in 4K HDR, which makes fast-action sports like speed skating and snowboard cross look razor-sharp. To see it, you’ll need the right combo: A TV or monitor with 4K resolution (or higher) A 4K smart TV or a 4K-capable streaming device (Roku Streaming Stick Plus, Amazon Fire Stick 4K, Apple TV 4K, or the like; read about our top picks in media streamers) A service that supports 4K streaming (Peacock or or YouTube TV with the 4K add-on) Go old-school to save moneyStill have a TV with an onboard tuner? An inexpensive antenna will pull in your local NBC station in HD (read about our favorite TV antennas). You won’t get USA Network or the deep coverage on Peacock, but you’ll still catch prime-time highlights and marquee events for free. It’s a smart fallback, especially if you’re trying to cut monthly costs. Supplement your TV antenna with an over-the-air DVRSince so much of the Olympic action will occur in the early-morning hours, adding an over-the-air digital video recorder to your antenna and TV tuner will let you time-shift your event viewing to a more convenient time, provided you can avoid spoilers carried by news services. Don’t pay full price if you don’t have toPeacock offers significant discounts to verified students, medical professionals and first-responders, and members of the military. And while we haven’t seen standalone free trials, don’t overlook the opportunity to piggyback a free Peacock trial on top of a free trial to Instacart+ or Walmart+ (see links above). Most of the live TV streaming services also offer free trials, some longer than others. Final recommendation: What’s the smartest play? If all you care about is watching the Olympics—every event, live or replayed—Peacock Premium is the move. It’s cheap, simple, and gives you everything without the clutter of channels you don’t need. If you’re someone who still likes flipping through a guide, Sling TV (Blue) is your cheapest option–provided it offers local channels in your area (you can check by entering your zip code on the Sling website). If local channels aren’t available, you’ll at least get the USA Network coverage. If neither of those scenarios works for you, Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV are your best options. Trying to spend as little as possible? Combine an over-the-air antenna with a month of Peacock Premium and call it a win. You’ll get the biggest moments live on NBC, and the rest on-demand whenever you want. Let the Games begin With the right setup, your Olympics experience can be faster, sharper, and far more flexible than the old-school TV schedule ever allowed. Just stream, watch, and get back to rooting for your favorite underdog in the biathlon. Read...

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With Spring Training just a couple weeks away, baseball fans have something new to get excited about: They won’t have to deal with FanDuel Sports Network anymore. Sinclair’s Main Street Sports Group, which operates 16 regional sports networks under the FanDuel brand, is potentially facing liquidation after failing to find a buyer. Instead of taking chances, nine Major League Baseball teams have walked away, and most are now turning to the league for distribution. This won’t change much for cable and satellite TV subscribers, who will still get the games on TV if their package included them already. But for cord-cutters, the collapse of FanDuel Sports Network will result in a better experience and lower prices. It’s about time. Which teams are leaving FanDuel Sports Network? As of now, nine MLB teams are leaving FanDuel Sports Network in 2026: The Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, and Atlanta Braves. All but the Braves are likely to partner with MLB to distribute their games this season, Sports Business Journal reports, though the Tigers and Angels haven’t made it official yet. (The Braves reportedly plan to launch their own network instead.) The eight ex-FanDuel teams partnering with MLB will join seven others distributing games through the league this year: The Arizona Diamondbacks, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, and Washington Nationals. At least 15 teams will offer in-market streaming through the MLB app with no blackouts.Jared Newman / Foundry In each of these markets, MLB offers the same streaming plans: For $20 per month or $100 for the season, you get all in-market games for your local team with no blackouts. The only missing games will be the nationally televised ones on ESPN, NBC, Peacock, Apple TV, or Netflix. (FanDuel Sports Network didn’t carry any of those games either.) In previous years, MLB has also offered a bundle with MLB.TV, which includes out-of-market games and radio streams. The price last year was $200, versus $150 for MLB.TV alone, effectively cutting the cost of local games in half. A similar package will be available in 2026, though the league hasn’t announced pricing. Meanwhile, pay TV packages that carried FanDuel Sports Network will almost certainly pick up MLB’s channels instead. That means the games will remain on any cable and satellite packages that included them previously. What this means for you For the teams abandoning FanDuel Sports Network, the breakup is not ideal in the short-term, as they’re likely to lose millions in broadcast revenue per year. But for baseball fans, the move to MLB will be a vast improvement. Streaming in-market games will be cheaper with MLB at $100 per season, including Spring Training, versus $123 last year with FanDuel. If you subscribe to MLB.TV for out-of-market games, the cost for local team coverage will be even cheaper through bundling. The MLB app experience is also miles ahead of what FanDuel offered, with more reliable video, more detailed stat overlays, condensed game replays, and a better video player that marks up scoring plays on the timeline. You can even swap the local TV broadcast audio for the radio feed, and there’s a multi-view feature for MLB.TV subscribers that lets you watch four games simultaneously. Swapping TV audio for the radio feed is sneakily the MLB app’s best feature.Jared Newman / Foundry What about cable and satellite customers? If you previously watched the games on TV through FanDuel Sports Network, you’ll still be able to do that (though you’ll also get access through the excellent MLB app at no extra charge). The only difference will be the channel name. If you’re not in a market served by FanDuel Sports Network, fret not. I’ll soon have an update to my baseball streaming guide with all the in-market viewing options for each team. Meanwhile, the rest of us can look forward to a better year of baseball viewing ahead. Let’s just hope ESPN doesn’t find a way to ruin it when it starts distributing games through its own app in 2027. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

The Washington Post had laid off one-third of its staff, eliminating its sports section, several foreign bureaus and its books coverage in a widespread purge that represented a brutal blow to journalism and one of its most legendary brands. Read...

TechHive Editors Choice At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Sleek new design Impressive audio performance Packs Zigbee, Matter, and Amazon Sidewalk hubs Focuses on video chat participants Cons No privacy shutter Alexa+ is still a work in progress Spotty streaming video support Our Verdict Provided you’ve settled on the Alexa ecosystem, the 4th-gen Echo Show 8 is the smart display to get. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: Amazon Echo Show 8 (fourth-generation, 2025) Retailer Price $149.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Amazon has a new crop of Echo devices designed specifically for its big AI revamp of Alexa, including a couple of new Echo speakers, the Echo Dot Max (which we’ve previously reviewed) and the Echo Studio (our review is in the works). Also in the mix are two Echo Show displays: the Echo Show 11 and the Echo Show 8, the latter of which we’re reviewing here.  With both of the new Echo Show displays, Amazon has served up sleek new spheroid designs for the base that make their displays appear to float in mid-air, and their sonics got makeovers as well. Under the hood, the Echo Show 8 ($179.99) has a new processor designed to make Alexa+ respond more quickly and accurately to the “Alexa” wake word, while new ambient sensor technologies help Alexa detect when someone’s in the room, and even who they are.  In terms of a mainstream smart display that you place in your kitchen or living room, the Amazon Echo Show 8 hits the sweet spot. The Echo Show 8 is also an entertainment and communication device, capable of streaming movies and shows on Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, cranking tunes, and letting you connect with far-flung friends and loved ones, either on voice calls or video chat.  But the 4th-gen Echo Show 8 isn’t perfect, and it drops a key feature that might give privacy-minded users pause.  Design  The most striking thing about the new Echo Show 8 (8.2 x 5 x 5.9 inches, WxDxH) is its design; quite simply, it’s gorgeous, and a massive improvement compared to its chunky-looking predecessor. Gone is the wedge-shaped design of older Echo Show displays (the third-gen Echo Show 8 at least adopted an edge-to-edge screen and rounded corners). The new Echo Show 8’s screen is now mounted on a spheroid base that makes the slim panel appear to float in space.  The spheroid design of the Echo Show 8 makes the screen look like it’s floating in space.Ben Patterson/Foundry This display itself measures 8.7 inches diagonally, with slimmer bezels than the previous Echo Show 8 and its 8-inch screen. The volume buttons are on the right edge of the display, right below a privacy button that mutes the microphone array and electronically deactivates the camera lens (which sits in the top bezel). Nice, but the fourth-gen Echo Show 8 loses a key privacy feature of the third-gen version: a physical for blocking the camera lens, meaning you might want to think twice before putting the display in your bedroom.  The 4th-gen Echo Show 8 looks great on its own, but it looks even better when paired with Amazon’s optional stand, a premium-looking metal accessory that magnetically snaps onto the bottom of the display’s base. The Echo Show 8 attaches to Amazon’s optional stand with the help of a strong magnet.Ben Patterson/Foundry The stand feels reassuringly heavy and solid, and it allows you to tilt the Echo Show 8 up to 40 degrees or spin it a full 360 degrees—and yes, you can spin the display without having to hold the stand down with your other hand. Even though it tacks an additional $40 to the Echo Show 8’s price tag, the optional stand is well worth the added expense.  Inside the Echo Show 8’s fabric-covered spheroid base is a custom AZ3 Pro processor that’s been specifically designed for Alexa+, along with a revamped speaker array that includes a pair of full-range drivers and a 2.8-inch woofer, an upgrade from the two drivers and the passive bass radiator in the previous generation. I’ll delve further into the Echo Show 8’s Alexa+ and audio performance in a bit.  You can tilt the Echo Show 8’s display up to 40 degrees and swivel it up to 360 degrees when the device is sitting on its optional stand.Ben Patterson/Foundry Setup  I’ve complained in the past about the process of setting up an Echo Show display—namely, you had to type in your Amazon email address and your password using the on-screen keyboard, a process that’s easy to screw up if you have a strong password. For a regular Echo speaker like the Echo Dot, the process is much more seamless, as the Alexa app will simply detect the speaker and connect it. Why couldn’t the same thing happen with an Echo Show display?  Well, I’m happy to report that since my review of the previous Echo Show 8 (circa 2023), Amazon has given the Echo Show connection process a serious upgrade. Now you simply scan a QR code on the Echo Show display using your phone, and the Alexa app handles the rest.   There are some privacy disclosures and EULAs you’ll need to check off, and you also must designate which room the Echo Show 8 will reside in. You’ll also need to enroll your face if you want Alexa to recognize you via the Echo Show’s camera; the process is similar to setting up Face ID on an iPhone and takes only a few minutes. (Because I had previously enrolled my face for the 3rd-gen Echo Show 8, I didn’t need to do it again for the new model.)  Say goodbye to the wedge-shaped design of earlier Echo Show displays, like the 3rd-gen Echo Show 8 (left).Ben Patterson/Foundry Overall, the Echo Show 8 setup process was a smooth one, and I had the display up and running in roughly five minutes.  Customizing the home screen  The Echo Show 8’s home screen can show a plethora of content, from slideshows of your snapshots and breaking news headlines to popular recipes, smart home controls, sports scores, and shopping recommendations—including sponsored products; i.e., advertisements.  The presence of ads on a device you’ve paid good money for is a vexing one, and in my early days with the Echo Show 8, I grew tired of seeing shopping ads pop up that were clearly based on my Amazon searches. For example, after an afternoon of shopping for VESA mounts on Amazon, I woke to find VESA mount ads on the Echo Show’s home screen.   Luckily, it’s easy to customize what you see on the home screen—and just as importantly, what you don’t want. Under the Settings menu you’ll find a Home Screen Categories section where you can toggle various home screen elements on or off. Disabling the Shopping category nixed the suggested products, for example, and you can also choose whether you want to see local or national news, sports headlines, stock market updates, weather reports, and so on. You can still ask Alexa for shopping recommendations after disabling the Shopping home screen category, but the shopping ads won’t be pushed at you anymore.  You can also add widgets to the home screen for a dashboard-style view of your calendar, weather updates, recently played music, and—perhaps best of all—smart home controls, perfect for giving you touch controls for your various lights, smart plugs, and other smart devices. Alexa is also willing and able to control your smart home, a topic we’ll get to in a moment.  Finally, the Echo Show can display slideshows of either curated images and artwork from Amazon or snapshots from your Amazon Photos library. You can change the speed at which the Show rotates through the images (anywhere from 6 to 24 seconds per slide) and whether your photos should be cropped, “smart” cropped (meaning the display picks the most “interesting” parts of your images to focus on), or shown in their entirety.   Personally, I don’t love the Echo Show in its digital photo frame mode as it tends to sandwich portrait-style images between thick bars, no matter what crop setting you pick. Google’s Nest Hubs have a better solution: they intelligently pair portrait photos side-by-side, thus avoiding the whole window-boxing issue.  I don’t love the window-boxing effect for portrait images on the Echo Show 8’s slideshow mode.Ben Patterson/Foundry Smart hub connectivity  The 4th-gen Echo Show 8’s smart home connectivity options are unchanged compared to the previous version. For starters, the display will act as a Zigbee smart home hub, ideal for connecting Zigbee-enabled devices such as smart bulbs, smart plugs, remotes, water leak sensors, and similar smart gadgets. The Echo Show 8 also packs a Thread border router, meaning it can connect Matter-enabled smart devices to the internet and to each other. And it’s also a bridge for Sidewalk, the Amazon-backed “neighborhood network” protocol that leverages nearby Echo speakers and Ring cameras to connect low-power and far-flung smart sensors and devices (including the new series of Sidewalk-enabled sensors that Ring announced at CES in January).  That’s a fairly comprehensive array of smart connectivity options, but it’s worth noting that the Echo Show 8 doesn’t support Z-Wave, a wireless smart home and security protocol with its own rich ecosystem of devices. (No other Echo devices offer a Z-Wave hub either, although Amazon’s Ring Alarm and Ring Alarm Pro home security systems do.) Also, unlike several other Echo speakers, including the Dot and the new Dot Max, the Echo Show 8 can’t be configured to operate as a network node when connected to one of Amazon’s Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers.  Smart sensors  The Echo Show 8 boasts a collection of onboard sensors that are mainly geared towards detecting when people are nearby—and, if you allow the display to do so, it can recognize who is near it, which is ideal for helping Alexa to give you personalized responses.   The Echo Show 8 offers a wide range of smart home connectivity options, along with on-screen smart home controls.Ben Patterson/Foundry Using an Amazon technology called Omnisense, and with the help of its camera and ambient temperature and light sensors, the Echo Show 8 can detect when people are in the room and act accordingly. For example, the Show can change the style of its on-screen interface, boosting the size of graphical elements when you’re further away and shrinking them as you approach, all the better for adding more details when you’re closer.   Omniverse can also help Alexa—and namely, Alexa+—recognize individuals in its vicinity, allowing it to tailor its responses (such as when you ask about upcoming calendar events). The technology can also trigger Alexa routines when people enter or leave the room, perfect for turning lights on and off based on room occupancy or queuing up a playlist when you arrive home from work.  Alexa+ and smart home functionality  Of course, the star of the show when it comes to the Echo Show 8’s smart home abilities is Alexa+, the long-awaited AI revamp for Alexa that’s coming up to its first anniversary.   While it’s been out for nearly a year and is available for anyone Alexa users who ask for it (and some who didn’t), Alexa+ is still in an “early access” phase. As such, Amazon isn’t charging for Alexa+ yet; eventually, Alexa+ access will be free for Amazon Prime members but $20 a month for everyone else.  Alexa+ will work on practically any working Echo speaker (including the earlier puck-shaped Echo Dot models). That said, the Echo Show 8’s AZ3 Pro processor helps the display to respond to the “Alexa” wake work more quickly and accurately, and it also enables the advanced Omnisense presense-detection abilities I mentioned earlier.  Like the “classic” Alexa (which is still around and will remain free), Alexa+ can control your smart lights, take charge of smart plugs, manage your thermostats, and run automated routines at your command. But while the old Alexa demanded the use of somewhat stilted voice commands (“Alexa, set table lamp 3 to 70 percent”), Alexa+ can understand natural language commands. Say “Alexa, it’s dark in here, can you make it brighter,” and Alexa+ can—theoretically—figure out that a) you’re in the living room and b) that you want the brightness of the living room lights dialed up.   When it works, it’s pretty cool, but as I’ve written before, Alexa+ frequently disappoints as much as it impresses, variously mishearing commands or misunderstanding your intent. Sometimes it accurately guesses that it should send over your Roomba when you declare how dirty the carpets are; sometimes it will just give you a speech about the carpet manufacturing industry. Sometimes it’s juggling your streaming music playlists with ease, tossing your tunes from one speaker to another; other times it seems unbelievably dense, like the time it mistook a collection of Taylor Swift 1989 covers for the actual 1989 album and doubled down when I pointed out the mistake.  In short, Alexa+ is very much a work in progress, which is why it remains in an early access period (and why I’m not giving it a full review just yet).  Just like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude, Alexa+ is constantly evolving, and hopefully improving as it does so. It’s also worth noting that Alexa+ isn’t alone in having smart-home hiccups; Gemini at Home has its share of foibles, too. Finally, you can always go back to the old Alexa if you want; not so with Gemini, which won’t let you return to Google Assistant.  Video calling and communication  One of the best features of a smart display like the Echo Show 8 is two-way video chat, and in this regard the product shines. The vibrant 8.7-inch, full-HD display can’t swivel on its own like the motorized screen on the 3rd-gen Echo Show 10, but the 13-megapixel camera’s software can nonetheless zoom in and follow you if you choose to roam while you chat.  The Echo Show 8’s camera also offers some limited home-monitoring capabilities, allowing users to take a live look through the lens when away from home. That said, the display’s camera can’t function as a Ring camera in the same way that Google’s camera-equipped Nest Hub Max can double as a Nest camera.   Aside from its video-calling features, the Echo Show 8 can handle voice communication, too. For example, you can call or “drop-in” on any other Echo device by asking Alexa. Even better, you can use Alexa to call any number in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico for free, although there’s a catch: you’re limited to just 10 contacts (at least you can swap new contacts for old whenever you want).  In another handy perk, you can connect Alexa to your AT&T, T-Mobile, or Verizon mobile number. You can then ask Alexa to make hands-free calls, and as a bonus, Alexa can announce your callers, answer the call, or even hang up on an incoming call.  Media playback  It probably won’t be the biggest screen in your home, but the Echo Show 8 still works well for playing videos from the big streaming services, provided you’re subscribed to either Amazon Prime Video (which Prime members get for free, although you’ll need to pay a little more to avoid ads) or Netflix. Both of those services offer native apps for the Echo Show 8, making for much smoother navigation and streaming.  For everything else—Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, YouTube and other services—you’ll need to use the Echo Show 8’s Silk web browser, which works in a pinch but feels clunkier compared to the native video apps.  If you want a more well-rounded streaming video experience from an Echo Show display, you’ll need to step up to the Echo Show 15 (either the first or second generations) or the Echo Show 21, with those larger displays supporting the full-on Amazon Fire TV app, complete with support for all the big streamers as well as dozens of niche streaming services.  As far as music goes, you can link accounts from such streaming services as Amazon Music, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Spotify, Tidal, iHeartRadio, Sirius XM, TuneIn, Audacy, and Audible. Missing from the list: YouTube Music and Qobuz.  The Echo Show 8 supports most of the big music streaming services, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Spotify.Ben Patterson/Foundry Audio performance  As I wrote earlier, Amazon has given the Echo Show 8 a serious audio upgrade compared to the previous generation, with the newer version swapping its predecessor’s passive bass radiator for a powered 2.8-inch woofer.  The result is much better bass, which became evident when I played Taylor Swift’s 1989 (yes, the same album I was arguing with Alexa+ about) on the 3rd- and 4th-gen Echo Show 8 displays in succession.   The older Show 8 sounded fine, perfectly serviceable for background music in the kitchen. The newer model, on the other hand, delivered audio performance that you could actually focus on and enjoy. We’re not talking Sonos levels of audio quality, mind you, but for a smart display, I thought the revamped Echo Show 8 sounded quite impressive.  Should you buy the Amazon Echo Show 8?  I certainly have my quibbles with the 4th-gen Echo Show 8. The lack of a privacy shutter for the camera is my biggest complaint, while the iffy video streaming support is somewhat ameliorated by the fact that the 8-inch screen isn’t ideal for serious video watching. And yes, Alexa+ is still a work in progress, although you can always stick with the old Alexa if you prefer.  But in terms of a mainstream smart display that you place in your kitchen or living room, the Amazon Echo Show 8 hits the sweet spot. It looks terrific, it sounds great, it offers a galaxy of smart home integrations plus a wide range of connectivity, it’s perfect for video chat and can even place mobile calls for you. Provided you’ve settled on the Alexa ecosystem and given that Google’s Nest Hub displays are getting long in the tooth, the 4th-gen Echo Show 8 is the smart display to get.  Should you upgrade from the 3rd-generation Echo Show 8? It depends. Yes, the 4th-gen Show 8 boasts a much sleeker design, while the newer Echo Show certainly tops the 3rd-gen’s audio performance, particular in terms of bass response. But the older Echo Show 8 does have a privacy shutter, it offers the same smart home hubs and connectivity as the newer version, it supports Alexa+ (albeit with an older Amazon processor), and while its screen is a tad smaller, it still looks just as good as its successor’s.  So, if you’re drawn to the new design of the 4th-generation Echo Show 8 or you demand bleeding-edge audio and processor performance, sure, go ahead and pony up for the newer display. But if you’re mainly concerned about smart home control, you’ll be fine sticking with the 3rd-generation device.  This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart speakers. Read...

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