MacRumors

Amazon today unveiled its latest "Fire" branded product, called the "Fire TV Cube." The company describes the device as a hands-free box that streams 4K Ultra HD video using Alexa voice controls. The set-top box appears to have many features similar (or coming soon) to the Apple TV 4K, with 4K HDR content, smart assistant integration, HDMI CEC, Dolby Atmos support, and more.

With far-field voice recognition, one difference between the two devices is that the Fire TV Cube relies on eight microphones embedded into the box to hear users across the room, whereas Apple TV 4K picks up commands solely via the handheld Siri Remote. The Fire TV Cube does ship with an Alexa Voice Remote, however, so handheld commands are also an option.

The Fire TV Cube appears to be similar to HomePod in regard to far-field voice commands, with advanced beamforming technology that suppresses noise, reverberation, currently playing content, and competing voices from other people "to make sure Alexa clearly hears your request."

“We believe voice makes it easier for customers to control their entertainment systems and watch the TV and movies they care about,” said Marc Whitten, Vice President of Fire TV. “And, it’s just the beginning. Amazon Fire TV Cube will only get better over time with the Alexa service always getting smarter.”

Another notable difference is the Fire TV Cube's compatibility with set-top boxes from cable companies including Comcast, DISH, and DirecTV. With the integration, users can ask Alexa to "switch to channel 31" and the Fire TV Cube will speak to the cable box to initiate the command.

With HDMI CEC, users can power their TV sets on and off, with Amazon giving the following example of this interaction: "Even with the TV off, simply say 'Alexa, play Billions on SHOWTIME' and Fire TV Cube powers on your TV and starts playback right where you left off."

Otherwise, the Fire TV Cube has a user interface that Amazon says puts "content forward" and is built around voice control. Commands include "Alexa, find sci-fi movies"; "Alexa, play the trailer"; and "Alexa, show me more results." Users can also initiate searches based on directors and actors.

Additionally, the company optimized Alexa responses for the big screen "with rich visual information," so users can view smart home camera feeds, check out the news, catch up with sports, look at the weather, and more after asking Alexa for each task.

The Fire TV Cube can be pre-ordered today and tomorrow for a special price of $89.99 (for Prime members only), and afterwards the device will cost $119.99. The Cube comes with 16GB of storage, a power adapter, IR extender cable, Ethernet adapter, Alexa Voice Remote, and will begin shipping out to customers on June 21. Anyone who buys the device and registers it by July 1 will get a $10 credit for Prime Video.

Following yesterday's announcement from Sonos that AirPlay 2 will be coming to its speakers this July, more details about the company's partnership with IKEA have now emerged, after first being revealed in December. In a press release shared by the Swedish furniture maker, the two companies detail a "long-term partnership" that's beginning with a new range of speakers called "Symfonisk" (via The Verge).

A few non-functional prototypes of Symfonisk were showcased at IKEA's Democratic Design Day event in Sweden, and the company says that the Wi-Fi speaker system will fully integrate with Sonos' existing products as well as IKEA's own Trådfris smart home line of lights and switches. Of course, Symfonisk will also be compatible with many of IKEA's furniture through a bracket system that can turn the speaker into a shelf or place it under a METOD kitchen cabinet, among other prototyped ideas.

"Sonos' company culture is very similar to that of IKEA. Our shared values and beliefs made us connect from day one. When the actual work started, we felt that we were the perfect match in every way", says Björn Block, Business Leader for IKEA Home Smart.

"Many people dream of built-in sound systems, but few can afford it. Our goal is for our collective work to save space, get rid of cords, make clutter invisible, and bring sound and music into the home in a more beautiful way", says Björn.

IKEA has already gotten into the speaker market, launching a line of minimalist "Eneby" Bluetooth speakers earlier this year. These devices come in 8-inch and 12-inch sizes, can be both mounted on a wall or displayed on a stand, and are designed to fit in the Kallax and Eket storage systems.

In 2017, IKEA launched the Trådfri Smart Lighting System in the spring, and then debuted HomeKit support for the lighting range in the fall, allowing users to easily integrate their IKEA bulbs and switches into the Home app on iOS. The company got inspired by Apple when it launched a new ad campaign for its Qi charging furniture alongside the debut of Apple's foray into wireless charging with the iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus in September 2017.

Amazon Prime Video has secured the rights to stream live Premier League football matches for three years from 2019, at no extra cost to Prime members who live in the U.K.

The exclusive deal, announced on Thursday, means that from next year Amazon Prime will show every game from the first round of midweek matches in December and all 10 games on Boxing Day, with weekly highlights of all Premier League matches throughout the season.

The Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world, and from the 2019/20 season UK Prime members will have exclusive access to watch 20 matches per season, comprising two full fixture rounds – the first December midweek round and the festive Bank Holiday round - featuring live coverage of every Premier League team.

The deal marks the first time a full round of matches will be shown live in the U.K., and while it leaves out the more lucrative weekend games, it shows a big statement from the company, which already broadcasts tennis events like the U.S. Open and ATP World Tour, and NFL games on Amazon Prime Video.

Previously, Sky and BT Sport have shared the rights to the EPL, following an auction in 2015 that saw the broadcasters splash £5.1 billion ($6.9 billion) between them for three seasons. Earlier this year, the Premier League announced that it had sold five out of seven of its U.K. TV packages. BT Sport bought one bundle amounting to 32 games and Sky acquired four bundles, securing 128 matches. BT Sport also secured the last other 20-game TV package, the Premier League confirmed today.

The Premier League remains Europe's most prized live sports broadcast asset and with a growing audience in the U.S., fits in perfectly with Amazon's broader strategy to bring more sports content to its global customers, draw more people to its U.K. Prime membership service, and convert occasional customers into more loyal shoppers. An Amazon Prime membership in the U.K. costs £79 a year or £7.99 a month.

Instagram is gearing up to launch a hub for "longer-form video," according to multiple sources speaking with TechCrunch, in an effort to continue its competition with Snapchat and the "Discover" tab, as well as YouTube.

The dedicated space will feature scripted shows, music videos, and more, which will all be vertically shot and viewable in full-screen 4K on compatible smartphones.

The announcement could come as soon as June 20, and Instagram is meeting with social media stars and other video partners ahead of the reveal.

Videos are expected to be 5-15 minutes in length with a spotlight section highlighting popular videos, and a "continue watching" area for quickly jumping back into videos that users start but don't finish in one session.

Outside of the hub, these longer clips will be able to get featured on the creator's profiles near Stories Highlights at the top. It appears that there will be heavy oversight by Instagram, since creators won't be able to fully shoot and post these longer videos on their own, "as the section will only allow pre-made video uploads."

As of now, no name for the hub or where it will be located in the app have yet to be given. The sources did state that Instagram is planning to let creators eventually earn money off the videos through advertisements.

Instagram is preparing to unveil a home for longer-form video — a YouTube competitor and its take on Snapchat Discover. According to multiple sources, Instagram will offer a dedicated space featuring scripted shows, music videos and more in vertically oriented, full-screen, high-def 4K resolution.

The public shouldn't expect Netflix Originals or HBO-level quality. This is not "InstaGame of Thrones." Instead, the feature is more focused on the kind of videos you see from YouTube creators.

The push into longer videos for Instagram comes after Facebook debuted the "Watch" tab in its own app last year. In Watch, Facebook users can watch original TV shows, jump in on live broadcasts, save items to a watchlist, check out sports coverage, and more.

Snapchat's Discover tab has a "For You" section that highlights the latest Stories from publishers like the NBA, IGN, VICE, The New York Times, and more. Users can subscribe to these creators and get new updates pushed to a subscription box in the tab.

Instagram's long-form video hub will likely take ideas from both of these platforms when it launches later in the summer. Snapchat has had a rocky few months and seen its "slowest user growth rate ever" in the wake of the app's controversial redesign. As TechCrunch points out, "Instagram and its massive user count may be able to seduce publishers to bring longer videos to its app instead," just as it did with users and the Snapchat Stories format in 2016.

Last month, when we asked MacRumors readers what they hoped to see in iOS 12, one of the most frequent requests was improvements to Siri, specifically Spotify integration. Currently, Siri can open streaming media apps like Spotify, but it can't play songs or video from third-party sources.

While Apple has yet to explicitly support the functionality, one of the components in the newly-announced Siri Shortcuts feature in iOS 12 could pave the way for Siri-controlled playback, should Spotify choose to implement it.

Siri Shortcuts lets users connect certain third-party apps to Siri to greatly streamline voice controls, allowing them to connect app-specific actions to an invokable Siri phrase.

As noted by TechCrunch, the Siri Shortcuts feature includes a "Play Media" intent that will let users summon audio and video media from third-party apps, and could theoretically be used to direct Siri on iPhone or HomePod to a designated playlist or artist on Spotify.

It's not yet entirely clear how deep this kind of integration can go, but it's likely to operate much less seamlessly than Siri controls for Apple Music. The Siri Shortcuts that Apple demonstrated during its WWDC keynote for instance were limited to sequential actions across apps, suggesting the "Play Media" intent is a one-off command that relies on specific pre-made shortcuts to playlists, artists, and the like.

Still, in theory, Siri could be used to play an artist or playlist from Spotify, and then the listener could use the standard Siri media playback functions to control the listening experience. But that's still some ways off Siri's existing integration with Apple Music, which extends to individual interface controls and even artist/genre queries.

The other issue of course is that it all depends on whether Spotify chooses to implement Shortcuts, but the new feature in iOS 12 is at least a positive sign that Apple is evolving Siri toward increased compatibility with third-party streaming services.

Apple's latest version of watchOS promises to bring rich HTML content to the wrists of Apple Watch users, thanks to new Webkit optimizations that improve apps like Mail and Messages.

Apple expanded on the new WebKit features at a WWDC session, in which it explained to developers how they can optimize web content for viewing on Apple Watch screens.

Currently in the watchOS Mail app, rich HTML messages are rendered in a text-only format and users are prompted to view the content on another device for the full experience.

Likewise, tapping a URL link received in Mail or Messages directs Apple Watch users to their iPhone to view the web page.

However, in watchOS 5, full HTML emails are capable of being displayed on Apple Watch in cases where text-only formatting can't express the content of the message, and users can also view web page links, as well as interact with them, albeit in a limited way.

For example, turning the Digital Crown on Apple Watch scrolls the HTML content vertically, or users can drag with their finger to move up and down the page, while double-tapping zooms the content in and out, similar to iPhone.

In a Force Touch addition, a firm press on the Apple Watch screen reveals back and forward buttons to navigate through your viewing history (swiping left and right does the same thing).

Apple says it achieved the WebKit optimizations by shrinking the 320-pixel display used by the iPhone SE to fit the 156-pixel width of the Apple Watch display, and then computing the initial scale of the page so that the content width fits within the smaller screen. Basically, this allows text and images to appear smaller while preserving the overall layout of the page.

Apple notes that the optimizations are aimed at quickly consuming content, so some features like video playback and web fonts aren't currently available. However, users will be able to interact with forms within HTML content, and there's also an Safari-like Reader mode, which automatically activates on text-heavy web pages (the Reader Mode option is also accessible via Force Touch, so users can choose to read pages on their watch with extraneous content stripped out).

watchOS 5, due for release in the fall, promises several other improvements and features, including Walkie-Talkie for touch-to-talk communications with friends, automatic workout detection, and updates to the Siri watch face.

Following our Spring Break partnership with Twelve South a few months back, MacRumors is again collaborating with the well-known accessory maker, this time in celebration of developers and Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. The exclusive sale includes 20 percent discounts on Twelve South accessories like the BackPack and Curve, which can be helpful additions to the workflow of developers, and anyone who works on a Mac all day.

The promo code MacRumorsSetups is live beginning today, June 6, and will be available to use on TwelveSouth.com through Friday, June 15, offering 20 percent discounts on five items during this week-and-a-half timeframe. MacRumors readers around the globe will be able to enter the code and take advantage of the discounts, but shipping costs will vary by regions. For United States residents, Twelve South offers free FedEx Smart Post on all orders (5-10 days estimate), and if your order exceeds $95 you'll gain free 2-day shipping.

The products below can be purchased individually or in groups, and the 20 percent discount will be taken off from the total of the order, excluding shipping and taxes. Of course, while this sale is themed around developers and WWDC, any of our readers interested can take advantage of the exclusive promo code, so be sure to check out the full list of Twelve South products on sale below:

Promo Price: $39.99, down from $49.99
Colors: Silver and Space Grey
Compatible Products: MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 3/USB-C (13-inch and 15-inch), MacBook Pro with Retina Display (13-inch and 15-inch), MacBook (12-inch), MacBook Air (11-inch and 13-inch)
Description: BookArc cradles compatible MacBooks (using swappable silicone inserts) so you can clear up desk space and display your MacBook, while still running a connection from the computer to an external display if desired.

Promo Price: $27.99, down from $34.99
Colors: Silver and Black
Compatible Products: 21.5-inch iMac (Late 2009 - Current), 27-inch iMac (Late 2009 - Current), 27-inch Thunderbolt Display/LED Cinema Display, Legacy iMac/Displays may be available through Twelve South support.
Description: Another solution for desk clutter, BackPack hangs on your iMac using two adjustable, non-scratching clips to hide hard drives and USB peripherals, or display memorabilia, action figures, flowers, and more. Up to three BackPacks can be attached to one iMac.

Promo Price: $39.99, down from $49.99
Colors: Black
Compatible Products: MacBook Pro (13-inch and 15-inch), MacBook (12-inch), MacBook Air (11-inch and 13-inch)
Description: Curve is an aluminum stand that elevates your MacBook 6.5 inches into the air and reduces neck strain when working for extended periods of time, particularly when paired when a Bluetooth keyboard.

Promo Price: Non-Deluxe for $31.99, down from $39.99; Deluxe for $47.99, down from $59.99
Colors: Silver, Black, White
Compatible Products: Lightning-enabled iPhones, iPads, and accessories like Siri Remote
Description: HiRise 2 allows you to charge and display your iPhone or iPad, with a perfect angle for FaceTime calls or browsing apps like Apple Music. The HiRise 2 Deluxe includes both a Lightning cable and a Micro-USB cable so you can charge even more devices.

Promo Price: $63.99, down from $79.99
Colors: Brown leather
Compatible Products: 12-inch MacBook (2015-Current), 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro (Late 2016-Current)
Description: For working on the go, BookBook Vol. 2 was created exclusively with Apple's USB-C enabled MacBooks in mind. The combination case and sleeve protects the MacBook with genuine leather in a vintage book design, and also sports an interior hidden pocket for storing documents.

Head over to our Deals Roundup for even more of the latest offers happening this week, and remember to use the exclusive Twelve South promo code before it expires on June 15.

We're teaming up with Pad & Quill for a series of special WWDC giveaways this week in celebration of the developer-focused event.

For those unfamiliar with Pad & Quill, it's a company that makes high-quality hand-crafted leather accessories for iPhones, Macs, iPads, Apple Watches, and more.

For our second giveaway this week, we're offering MacRumors readers a chance to win a Heritage Rolltop Leather Laptop Backpack, a TechFolio Cord Organizer, and a Contega Linen case for the iPad Pro.

Pad & Quill's Heritage Rolltop Leather Laptop Backpack, priced at $339, is a weatherproof backpack that's made from full-grain American bridle leather. It features a dedicated laptop pocket that can hold up to a 15-inch MacBook Pro, a water resistant leather cover flap, and tons of pockets.

There's a main compartment inside to hold all of your accessories, a zippered pocket for small items, an exterior pocket for things you need to get to quickly, and another quick access side zipper pocket. It uses UV-resistant stitching, brass hardware, and copper rivets, plus it comes with a 25-year warranty.

Pad & Quill's Contega Linen iPad Case is a folio-style book-like case that's available for both the 10.5-inch iPad Pro ($120) and the larger 12.9-inch iPad Pro ($130). The Contega case features a baltic birch wood frame with a linen cover in charcoal, gray, or cranberry, and there's even an Apple Pencil holder.

The birch frame keeps the iPad safe from bumps and drops, while the linen cover can be folded to serve as a multi-angle stand for the iPad when watching videos or folded all the way back when playing games. When closed, the Contega case offers all-around protection, with an elastic strap to keep things closed.

The TechFolio, priced at $90, keeps all of your cords neatly organized in one easy-to-access place. Like all Pad & Quill products, the TechFolio is handmade from leather and able to hold a ton.

The TechFolio has three cord organizer pockets, an Apple Pencil slot, a larger zipper pocket for a MacBook charger, two smaller pockets for accessories, and slots for keys or SD cards. All of this folds down into a small package that secures with a rivet closure and fits neatly inside another bag.

We have one prize pack featuring a Contega iPad Case, a TechFolio, and a Rolltop Leather Laptop Backpack. To enter to win, use the Rafflecopter widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

eBay today launched a sitewide savings coupon for Father's Day that takes 20 percent off "everything" on the online reseller's storefront, with a few exclusions including coins and paper money, gift cards and coupons, and real estate. Outside of these categories, you're free to apply the 20 percent off coupon to any other items today, including Apple products like the HomePod, down to a price of $252 for a refurbished model.

eBay explained that the coupon PICKDADSGIFT is valid until 7 p.m. PT tonight, June 6, and it applies to the purchase price of eligible item/items in a single transaction, not including shipping, handling, and taxes. That purchase price has to be $50 or more, and the 20 percent discount will be capped at a value of $100. You'll need to be an eBay member with a registered address located in the United States, Canada, Latin America, or the Caribbean to take advantage of the coupon as well.

Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with eBay. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.

If you meet the criteria, you can essentially shop in any category (barring exclusions) on eBay to find something that might interest you for the discount. Once you find the item you want and it exceeds $50, click "Buy it Now," and before you complete your order type in PICKDADSGIFT in the "Gift cards, coupons, eBay Bucks" section of the checkout process and hit Apply.

For Apple-related items, the Daily Deals tech section is a good place to browse, and one notable savings compatible with the coupon today is a refurbished HomePod (White and Space Gray) for $252.00, down from $315.00. Sold by VIP Outlet, the refurbished speaker has a "Grade A Fully Functional" ranking, described as "Like New, Retail Ready."

More details follow: "Condition has NO cosmetic defects, blemishes, dents, scratches or signs of age. GRADE A items have been restored to meet manufacturer quality standards." VIP Outlet provides a 90-day warranty with all refurbished devices and has a 30-day free return policy. Of course, there are also options for getting a brand new HomePod for around $280, down from the original $350 price tag.

As with any eBay reseller purchase, the savings come with the caveat of buying a device that might not be in brand new condition. Still, today's promo code is compatible across all of eBay, not just its Daily Deals section, so there are many brand new, new, or like new products that you could nab at a discounted price today. Other good browsing ideas include official eBay storefronts for Best Buy, Anker, Mophie, and similar Apple accessory and device sellers.

Head over to eBay to shop, and if you're interested make sure to place your order by tonight at 7 p.m. PT. For more sales information, be sure to visit our Deals Roundup.

Update: As Boatboy24 pointed out in the comments, Best Buy also has a good deal on an open box HomePod, available for $266.12 with the 20 percent off coupon, down from $321.99

Australia is gearing up to release new laws that will force Australian telecommunications companies and global tech companies to comply with law enforcement agencies, when such agencies ask for access to encrypted data on the smartphones of suspected criminals (via ABC News Australia). The laws are the latest in an ongoing global data battle that hit a fever pitch in the United States in early 2016 when the FBI asked Apple for a backdoor into the smartphone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Specifics in regards to the Australian laws have not yet been shared, but they are said to affect companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google, which would face "significant fines" if they choose not to comply with encrypted data requests. Australian telecommunications companies affected under the law include Telstra and Optus.

Cyber security minister of Australia Angus Taylor was asked if the laws would allow surveillance codes to be implanted into smartphones and "avoided directly answering," stating a lack of preparation to get into technical details.

Notably, one detail Taylor did confirm is that the government would not ask companies to install a backdoor into their apps and equipment, nor would they be asked to "provide law enforcement agencies with an encryption key." Because of this, it's unclear exactly how the Australian government's demands would need to be met by companies.

"There's been ideas around for decades that you should create some kind of key that law enforcement can get access to, to access any data at any time — that's not what we're proposing here," Mr Taylor said.

"But at the same time we must ensure that law enforcement doesn't lose access to the data and the information they need to pre-empt terror attacks and crimes, and to hold criminals and terrorists to account."

Taylor explained that the new proposals are an update to antiquated laws in Australia: "Those laws should be extended to a situation where messages are being sent through an app, or via any other means, in ways that the current laws hadn't anticipated," he said. "It's not appropriate to have a world where we can do this for analogue data, analogue communication, but we can't do it in the digital world."

In the United States, last month an anti-surveillance coalition, including Apple, condemned recent proposals for backdoor access into electronic devices. The coalition previously published a core principle pledging to ensure device security through strong encryption and calling on governments to avoid taking actions that would require companies to "create any security vulnerabilities in their products and services."

The news came as law enforcement officials were said to be revisiting proposals that would require tech companies to build backdoor access into devices for better access to data in criminal investigations. Apple continued enhancing user security in the recent iOS 12 beta, where a new setting was discovered that prevents USB accessories from connecting to the iPhone when it's been more than an hour since the device was unlocked.

Law enforcement officials use USB access to iOS devices to connect accessories like the GrayKey box, a tool that plugs into the Lightning port of an iPhone and uses the data connection in an attempt to brute force a passcode. With the new setting, an iPhone's Lightning port data connection will not work with the GrayKey box if it's been more than an hour since a passcode was entered, rendering it effectively useless unless used immediately after an iPhone is obtained from a suspect.

In Australia, draft legislation of the new laws will be presented "in weeks" so more details about the plans should emerge soon. Ahead of the launch, Taylor said that the government is "very sympathetic to the concerns that the tech service providers have had" in regards to forced compliance with data gathering on electronic devices.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.