If you’ve been using a Roku player or smart TV over the past year or so, you’ve probably noticed some big changes on the home screen. What used to be a straightforward grid for all your installed apps has now become a mishmash of menu options, shortcuts, and content recommendations. While you can still simplify the Roku home screen with some settings tweaks, the trend is clearly toward stuffing it with content that makes Roku money. So here’s my counterproposal: Instead of keeping up the pretense of a simple home screen, Roku should just toss it in favor of something more useful. In fact, Roku already has a perfectly good starting point lurking in a different part of its menu system. Roku’s What to Watch menu is a better home screen you access Roku’s What to Watch menu from the left-hand sidebar.Jared Newman / Foundry Click over to Roku’s left-hand sidebar menu and you’ll see a “What to Watch” section among the increasingly numerous options (which themselves are partially obscured nowadays by a banner ad). When Roku added the Watch to Watch section in 2022, it wasn’t all that useful. Mostly, it was just a way for Roku to recommend more ad-supported content, both from its own Roku Channel and other free, ad-supported streaming sources. Over time, though, What to Watch has improved in a few notable ways: The Continue Watching row lets you quickly resume what you’ve been watching from across different streaming services, including Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, and Peacock. You can bookmark movies and shows for later—either from search or other parts of Roku’s menu system—by adding them to a Save List that appears in the What to Watch menu as well. The Your Apps row at the top of the screen lets you jump directly into apps you’ve already installed on your Roku device. What we have, in other words, is a nearly complete menu system. From a single screen, you can launch apps, pick up where you left off, and discover new things to watch. It’s also arranged in a way that actually benefits users, with content they’re watching and saving prioritized over anything promotional. Roku’s Save List is a great feature, but saved items only appear in the What to Watch menu, not on your home screen.Jared Newman / Foundry If it were up to me, I would simply make this What to Watch menu the default Roku screen, perhaps fleshing it out with quick links to Roku’s live TV and Sports menus. The layout is very much in line with what most other streaming platforms offer today, although Roku’s version is simpler and cleaner than the likes of Google TV and Amazon Fire TV. Roku needn’t ditch the app grid entirely. Instead, it should give the What to Watch section an All Apps button at very front of the Your Apps row, and have it link to a straightforward list of apps, without all the cruft that Roku has been adding lately. By defaulting to a richer and more useful content hub, Roku can free up the app grid to serve its original purpose. Why won’t Roku do this? Everything you need in one place, including shows-in-progress, recent apps, and saved items.Jared Newman / Foundry Part of me was hoping Roku would announce this kind of home screen shake-up as part of its fall software announcements earlier this week. Instead, the company announced some more modest updates, including a new AI-powered voice assistant and a way to tune your home-screen recommendations. I’m not too surprised. The company tends to be conservative with software changes, and the app grid has always been a defining Roku feature. Throwing it out or making it less prominent might confuse some users and invite a backlash. Still, Roku could easily mitigate this by letting users choose their default home screen. Keep the app grid by default for existing users, but let those of us in the know switch to the What to Watch menu instead. Over time Roku could move new users over to the Watch to Watch menu and present a choice to existing users as they set up additional smart TVs or streaming players. Roku’s Home screen, now filled with junk.Jared Newman / Foundry It’s not as if the app grid is sacrosanct for Roku. The addition of recommendation tiles, genre-based menu options, and shortcuts show that Roku itself wants to get away from the app paradigm and make its home screen more content-forward. Doing so helps serve Roku’s business goals of upselling subscriptions through its billing system and promoting ad-supported content. But Roku already has a better version of that idea elsewhere in its menu system, one that’s also more useful for its users. With the What to Watch menu providing a better launch experience, Roku should stop patching up the home screen with Band-Aid measures and finally perform the necessary surgery. the best value in roku media streamers Roku Streaming Stick Plus Read our review Best Prices Today: $38.50 at Amazon And sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV insights. Read...

Roku is jumping onto the AI bandwagon with its next batch of software updates. In the months ahead, the company will add AI-powered voice search for its smart TVs and streaming players. While Roku’s existing voice search can find specific programs, actors, or genres, the upgrade will allow for more conversational queries, such as “What’s the Barbie movie about?” or “How scary is The Shining.” It will also support follow-up questions. Other forthcoming Roku features include a “What do you like to watch?” feature to tweak Roku’s home screen recommendations, live scores in the Sports section, and a search function in Roku’s live TV guide. Roku is also updating its recently-launched Streaming Stick and Streaming Stick Plus to support private listening through Bluetooth headphones and earbuds. TV-focused AI Unlike rivals Amazon and Google, Roku isn’t trying to launch an all-purpose AI that also happens to work on TVs. Roku doesn’t sell its own smart speakers, and users primarily interact with voice control through the mic button on Roku remotes. “Even in this case, with us evolving Roku voice to now answer entertainment Q&A, we are specializing in a TV-related solution only,” Amit Desai, Roku’s director of product and UX for voice and conversational AI, told reporters. He added that the feature will use a combination of in-house and commercial AI technology. Roku While it’s not yet clear what will happen if you ask about non-entertainment topics, Desai said Roku will tailor its responses for TV users, for instance by offering links to the shows being discussed along with related programming. Other streaming platforms haven’t quite nailed that experience. You can ask the same questions on a Google TV or Fire TV device, for instance, but you might get a voice-only response with no quick way to access the movie or show in question. (In Google’s case, that’s because it’s using completely different voice assistant technologies for conversation and navigation.) We’ve yet to see a live demo of Roku’s AI, but it could make for a less frustrating voice control experience if it works as advertised. More features to come Roku Along with Roku’s AI voice upgrade, the company announced a slew of other software features and some hardware news: “What do you like to watch?” This feature will present a series of movie and show tiles that users can mark with a thumbs up. Roku will automatically add suggestions to users’ Save Lists and tweak its home screen recommendations accordingly. Sports scores and reminders: Roku’s Sports section, which tracks upcoming live events from across different streaming services, will display scores (which can be hidden). Users can also set reminders that will trigger a notification in Roku’s mobile app. Roku Channel search: Roku will add a search button to its Live TV menu, with a search function in its live TV grid guide to follow. Trailer links: Trailers that you watch from Roku’s home screen will have quick links in the video player to add the program to your Save List or see where it’s available to watch. Mobile app updates: Roku’s iPhone and Android apps are getting some quick shortcuts for things like closed captions, sleep timers, the remote finder function. The app will also get links to sections such as TV Shows and Sports, along with an easier way to rate shows or mark them as watched. Roku More hardware: Walmart will soon sell a $198 portable projector from Vankyo with Roku’s software built-in. It looks pretty similar to the Aurzen model that launched on Amazon last month for $250 (but quickly dropped to $180 as of this writing). The company has also added Pioneer to its stable of brands building Roku TVs. Streaming Sticks add Bluetooth: It turns out that the Roku’s $30 Streaming Stick and $40 Streaming Stick Plus support Bluetooth after all. A software update will allow them to play TV audio through wireless headphones or earbuds. That’s one less reason to consider the $100 Roku Ultra instead. It’s unclear exactly when the new software features will arrive, other than in the “coming months.” The updates will likely trickle out to Roku TVs and streamers over time, making it tough to product when you’ll start seeing them on yours. Read...

Facing an uproar from grassroots sports and community clubs, the Government is looking to reverse a decision about online gambling. Read...

No operating system is without its merits, and that includes Windows 11, even as much as I complain about Microsoft’s latest operating system. Its handful of useful features continues to grow as time goes on, with more and more being rolled out every year. get win11 pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro But with helpful utilities and settings trickling out slowly, it’s easy to miss a few here and there, especially when the flashier features hog the news headlines. We’ve pulled out 10 features that we don’t think get enough love—if you’ve heard of them and haven’t tried them yet, now’s the time. Further reading: The Windows 11 survival guide for Windows 10 refugees Notepad tabs You no longer need to keep multiple Notepad windows open on the Taskbar.PCWorld Notepad actually predates Windows, but it’s still fully relevant (and useful!) today. The streamlined app lets you open a window to make quick notes. And in Windows 11, you can now manage and navigate between open files in a single window, thanks to the addition of tabs. It’s far tidier than opening a new instance of Notepad for each file—and combined with the new dark mode, it makes the app look and feel modern. Widgets Widgets for Facebook, Spotify, and PC performance monitoring could be coming soon.PCWorld Windows 11 makes a wealth of info available with just one mouse click (or quick tap of Win + W). Right now you can get weather, stock prices, sports updates, and entertainment news, and those cards are slowly being joined by new additions, like for Xbox Game Pass. It’s a much easier way to stay up to date than fully shifting to a browser and poking around in your tabs. Screen recording Click the video icon, then New to start recording a portion of your screen.PCWorld Previous versions of Windows had a Snipping Tool app, but you could only take screenshots. In Windows 11, screen recording finally gets added—and unlike Windows’ Xbox Game Bar’s recording feature, you can use it to capture specific parts of your screen. If you serve as informal tech support for family and friends, this feature can make your life a lot easier when explaining how to tinker with an app or in Windows. (Note: You’ll have to open the full Snipping Tool app for screen recording—it doesn’t appear in the Win + Shift + S keyboard shortcut overlay.) Quick Assist If you need help, you’ll first generate a code to share with the person doing the troubleshooting.PCWorld If your loved ones can manage unfamiliar but basic interactions with a PC, a Windows Pro license isn’t necessary to provide them remote support. You can have them fire up Quick Assist instead. (Remember this app from Windows 10? It’s still around in Windows 11.) Once in the program, they’ll log in to their Microsoft account, and then generate a six-digit code to send to you. You’ll input that code into Quick Assist on your PC, at which point you can then see what’s happening on their end, and even request full control of their PC. Clock info This tiny tweak adds more precision to your clock readout.PCWorld If you’ve needed more precision in your clock readout on the Windows 11 taskbar, you’re in luck. You can now add seconds to the display—but you’ll have to head to taskbar settings to flip it on, rather than your date and time settings. Under Taskbar behaviors, scroll to the bottom of the list and check the box for Show seconds in system tray clock. File Explorer tabs Now if Microsoft would just add a Ctrl + Shift + T keyboard shortcut to quickly bring back closed tabs.PCWorld Microsoft didn’t just add tabs to Notepad. File Explorer got the upgrade, too. You no longer need third-party software to enable the feature (like Stardock’s excellent Groupy). All your numerous Explorer windows can now be grouped as tabs in a single container. Just click the “+” button in the top-most menu bar (or hit Ctrl + T on your keyboard)—each new tab will appear along the top of the window, just like a web browser. Fast Snap Bar access We love Snap, and having fast access to the default layouts makes it even easier to get the right arrangement for your open windows.PCWorld Snap is one of our favorite features in Windows—being able to automatically resize and align windows saves time and makes working a lot easier. And not only do you get more layouts to choose from in Windows 11, but you can access them faster, too. Just hover your mouse over the maximize button in the upper right-hand corner of any window. A small pop-up menu will appear showing six different template options. Roll your cursor over any of the grids, and your current window will get sent to that position. Keyboard users can instead tap Win + Z, then the number of the layout they want. Further reading: 12 handy Windows shortcuts you probably don’t know Power savings Microsoft’s Energy Recommendations can help reduce your power bill.PCWorld Energy costs keep climbing—and in some parts of the world, they’re still at record prices. While you can of course switch your power plan in Windows to something lighter, Windows 11 has a few specific settings you can turn on to reduce idle power consumption. (After all, why pay for the higher electricity use when you’re not active on the PC?) You’ll find these under Settings > System > Power & battery > Energy recommendations. You can then turn on one or more of the suggestions. These more stringent settings will help extend battery life on laptops, too. Virtual desktops You can set different backgrounds for each of your virtual desktops to tell them apart.PCWorld This feature might be one of the most underrated in Windows. Virtual desktops, which first launched in Windows 10, let you spread your active apps and windows among different home screens—it reduces clutter and makes your primary desktop less overwhelming. Some people use their virtual desktops to separate out work from play (or research from daily tasks), while others separate programs by category or function. Navigating between your desktops is as fast as clicking on the Virtual Desktop taskbar icon or tapping Win + Ctrl + Left/Right Arrow. Clipchamp Clipchamp’s video editing capabilities amply cover the basics.PCWorld Davinci Resolve is great if you need deep video editing capabilities, but Microsoft has an alternative free option that’s easier to jump into. Clipchamp can handle quick cuts, fades, and media insertions with ease, and the interface is far less intimidating. It also handles direct uploads to services like YouTube and TikTok, as well as cloud saves for OneDrive, Google Drive, and Dropbox. Combine this program with the built-in recording features in Windows (i.e., Xbox Game Bar or Snipping Tool) and you can be on your way to internet fame quickly. get windows 11 pro for cheap in pcworld`s software store Windows 11 Pro Read...

The teacher aide is said to have been able to go on a camp, an overnight sports trip and coach basketball, and was left one-on-one with a student with learning difficulties. Read...

A round-up of sports newsfrom around the region, including results from the Prime Ministers` XIII rugby league. Read...

Ken Laban has pushed for inclusion across Wellington. Read...

Test your sporting knowledge with our weekly quiz on current sports events. Read...

Swyftx signs landmark multi-year crypto sponsorship with New Zealand Warriors, marking the first crypto deal with a pro sports team in New Zealand. Read...

A good pub quiz team always needs a music and a sports nerd and a celebrity news addict, but for wide general knowledge an MP might be just the thing. Read...