MacRumors

Netflix is reportedly testing a new tier of service for subscribers that supersedes the existing top tier Premium plan, according to Italian blog Tutto Android.

Titled "Ultra", the new plan would allow up to four devices to receive Ultra HD and HDR video, and audio streaming at the same time. In Italy, the tier is priced at 16.99 euros, or approximately $19.80.

Netflix has three subscription plans at present: Basic ($7.99), Standard ($10.99), and Premium ($13.99). Basic subscribers can watch Netflix on one screen at a time, Standard enables simultaneous viewing on two screens, and Premium allows up to four screens to be used at once to stream the service.

Commenting on the story, Netflix provided CNET with the following statement:

"We continuously test new things at Netflix and these tests typically vary in length of time," Smita Saran, a Netflix spokeswoman, said in an email. "In this case, we are testing slightly different price points and features to better understand how consumers value Netflix."

Saran went on to say that not all Netflix subscribers would see the Ultra tier currently being tested, and the company many never offer the plan and its features to a wider base.

Promotional screens suggests that HDR would be exclusive to the Ultra plan, while the above screenshot implies that the number of simultaneous streams for existing Premium users would get reduced from four to two, with only Ultra subscribers getting four at the higher price. Similarly, users on the Standard plan appear to be getting only one stream instead of the usual two.

If the Ultra tier was ever to be officially adopted, it would essentially mean existing Premium users having to pay around $6 more for the same level of service they're used to.

Netflix has increased the price of its subscription plans in the past. Back in November the company hiked its Standard plan by $1 and its top Premium plan by $2.

Apple's senior director of Siri, Alex Acero, will speak at the AI Frontiers conference in San Jose, California, this coming November.

The event brings together specialists in the fields of robotics, natural language processing, virtual assistants, autonomous driving, and more, with speakers from the likes of Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Uber.

As part of a panel exploring the role of personal assistants, Acero will about how deep learning informs the way Siri works on Apple devices. From the AI Frontiers online schedule:

Siri brought personal assistants to the mainstream after its introduction in 2011 in the iPhone. Deep learning is powering many components in Siri: trigger word detection, large vocabulary recognition, text-to-speech, machine translation, and natural language understanding. In this talk I will show a few examples of how deep learning is used in Siri.

Also on Acero's panel are Amazon Alexa director Ruhi Sarikaya and Google research scientist Dilek Hakkani-Tur.

Acero arrived at Apple in 2013 after spending two decades at Microsoft, where he oversaw research into computer vision, speech, neuro-linguistic programming, machine learning and translation, amongst other areas. His work on Siri takes in speech recognition, speech synthesis, and machine translation.

The AI Frontiers conference takes place from November 9 to November 11. For more information on the event and scheduled speakers, check out the AI Frontiers website.

In the latest beta of the upcoming iOS 12 update, Apple has included a feature that lets users generate iCloud links for sharing pictures via the stock Photos app.

The new sharing option appears in the bottom row of the iOS Share Sheet, and allows users with iCloud Photos enabled to copy an iCloud.com URL link to one or several selected images that lasts for 30 days.

Clicking a link in an email takes the recipient to a web page containing the image in question, as well as an option to download it. Sharing a link in the Messages app also shows a preview of the image right in the chat thread. The link also includes the author's name, the photo's title, and associated EXIF data, excluding location information.

The addition should come in handy for times when you quickly want to share an image from your iOS device, minus the hassle of uploading it to a third-party service. It's also more than likely that the iCloud link sharing option will feature in macOS Mojave.

For more on all the changes coming in iOS 12, check out our dedicated roundup.

Apple today seeded the third beta of an upcoming watchOS 5 update to developers, two weeks after releasing the second beta and a month after introducing the software at the Worldwide Developers Conference. watchOS 5 is the newest version of the software that runs on the Apple Watch.

To install the beta, you'll need the proper configuration profile, which can be obtained through the Apple Developer Center. Once the profile is in place, the watchOS 5 beta can be downloaded using the dedicated Apple Watch app on the iPhone by going to General --> Software Update.

To update, the Apple Watch must have 50 percent battery, it must be placed on an Apple Watch charger, and it must be in range of the iPhone. It would be wise to install the beta on a secondary device instead of a primary device given that this is an early version of the watchOS 5 software that still has bugs to be worked out.

watchOS 5 is a major update to watchOS, introducing Activity Competitions so you can compete on workouts with friends, Walkie-Talkie with push-to-talk functionality for quickly communicating with the people you talk to most, and auto workout detection to make it easier than ever to start and stop workouts.

Other new features include an improved Siri watch face with support for third-party apps, a dedicated Apple Podcasts app, new Workout types that include Yoga and Hiking, new features for runners, WebKit support for viewing some web content on Apple Watch, and enhanced notifications, which will make notifications on the Apple Watch interactive.

Early software betas often introduce new functionality, so we'll update this post if anything new is found in the third beta of watchOS 5. The second beta brought full support for the Walkie-Talkie feature, which was unavailable in the first beta.

watchOS 5 is only available to developers and will not be provided to public beta testers (because there's no way to downgrade Apple Watch software), so non-developers will need to wait until the software is officially released in the fall to try it out.

The watchOS 5 update runs on all Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 Apple Watch models, but it is not available for the first-generation "Series 0" Apple Watch models.

What's new in watchOS 5 beta 3: As of today's beta, the "Raise to Speak" feature that lets you talk to Siri is now working. To use it, make sure Raise to Speak is enabled in the Settings app by going to General --> Siri and toggling it on. From there, you can speak into your wrist to activate Siri without needing to say "Hey Siri." The trick to get it to work seems to be holding it very close to your mouth, but it doesn't always successfully activate.

Apple today seeded the third beta of a new tvOS 12 operating system to developers for testing purposes, two weeks after releasing the second beta and a month after introducing the new software at the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote.

Designed for the fourth and fifth-generation Apple TV, the tvOS 12 developer beta can be downloaded onto the Apple TV via a profile that's installed using Xcode. Subsequent betas can be downloaded via the software update mechanism on the Apple TV.

tvOS 12 brings support for Dolby Atmos sound, which was activated in beta 2. Apple says that iTunes will be home to the largest collection of Dolby Atmos-supported movies anywhere, with Apple upgrading titles customers have purchased for free.

Building on single sign-on, a new zero sign-on feature will further simplify the cable authentication process. With zero sign-on, the Apple TV can detect a user's broadband network and automatically sign them into supported apps they receive through their cable subscription.

Aerial screensavers include location information and there are new screensavers captured in collaboration with the International Space Station.

Other improvements to Apple TV in tvOS 12 include AutoFill passwords from iPhone, an Apple TV Remote automatically added to Control Center on the iPhone or iPad, and Apple TV support on Home control systems like Control4, Crestron, and Savant.

Last month, Ring began taking pre-orders for its Ring Alarm home security system, and today it begins shipping. I've had a chance to spend some time with Ring Alarm, and I've found it's an easy-to-use security system that's useful with or without professional monitoring.

Priced at $199 for the base kit, the Ring Alarm comes with a base station, a separate keypad, one motion detector, one contact sensor for a door or window, and a range extender to help make sure all of your Ring accessories remain connected to your network.

Additional contact sensors ($20), motion detectors ($30), keypads ($50), and range extenders ($25) can be purchased separately to expand your system. Other Ring Alarm accessories including a flood and freeze sensor as well as a smoke and CO listener to integrate your existing detectors into the Ring ecosystem are coming later.

I'm a Ring user, with a Video Doorbell 2 and a Floodlight Cam already installed at my house, but I don't have any prior experience with home security systems. That made for a bit of a learning curve just in terms of figuring out how I wanted to set things up and remembering to arm/disarm the system at the appropriate times. But Ring Alarm is intended as a simple do-it-yourself system that makes it easy for even novice users to get up and running, so perhaps I'm an ideal candidate for testing things out.

Setup

Setup of Ring Alarm is quite simple, and the whole process only took me about half an hour, although I used the included adhesive strips to mount sensors and didn't mount the base station and keypad to my walls, so it would have taken a bit longer if I'd gone all-in with hardware mounting options. I may yet do that once I've decided for sure where I want to put the various components.

Regardless of whether you go the adhesive or hardware route, Ring provides everything you need right in the box, with installation kits for each component of the system conveniently boxed and labeled to make it easy to find what you need. All you'll need if you want to use the included screws and anchors for hardware mounting are a screwdriver and a drill.

The first step of installation involves simply plugging in the base station and hitting a pairing button on the back to start configuring the system via Bluetooth. The Ring app, which is getting a significant redesign to provide quick access to Ring Alarm and improve functionality for other Ring products, walks you through the entire setup process step-by-step, so it's hard to mess things up. Once the base station starts up, you can connect to your home network via either Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and I elected to use Wi-Fi to minimize wires.

With the base station up and running, I was able to verify the address associated with my Ring account, enter my closest cross street to assist emergency responders, and add emergency contacts to be notified if the alarm trips. Adding a verbal password to authenticate my account when Ring calls due to an alarm event was the last step, and I was good to go with the 30-day free trial of professional monitoring. After the free trial, professional monitoring costs $10 per month or $100 per year, and it also includes cloud video storage for any other Ring camera and doorbell products you have in your home.

Once the base station is online and your account set up for monitoring, the rest of the devices in your starter kit are automatically identified in the Ring app and you can set them up one by one. With each one, you can provide a name and room location to help identify the accessories in notifications and the app. With the keypad, you'll set up an access code that lets you arm and disarm the alarm, and you can set up different codes for different people. As you set up each motion detector and contact sensor, the app will have you test each one to ensure that they're probably detecting events.

The keypad includes a reversible mount that can be attached to a wall as a bracket or flipped over and used as a tabletop stand at a slight incline. Ring includes a micro-USB cable and an adapter to power the keypad, but it also has an internal rechargeable battery that can last up to a year depending on your settings, so it's handy to be able to set it up wirelessly on a table or mounted to the wall, only recharging periodically as needed.

Ring suggests that the motion detector should be placed in a location with a good view of a high-traffic area likely to be passed by any intruders, with the detector placed about seven feet off the floor. Motion detection sensitivity can be adjusted in the app if you find you're getting too many false alerts such as from a pet. The detector can be mounted using either adhesive or included screws that attach a bracket to the wall for easy removal of the detector itself.

Contact sensors come in two pieces, a large sensor part and a smaller magnet part, and both pieces must be aligned within 1/4 inch of each other when the door or window is closed. One piece goes on the door or window while the second part goes on the frame, but it doesn't matter which part goes on which side. When the door or window is opened, the two parts are separated, and the sensor triggers.

The Ring Alarm also includes a Z-Wave range extender that helps make sure everything in your alarm system is able to reach your network, but I found I did not need the extender.

Standalone accessories can be added to your setup in a similar manner to those included in the base kit, although you'll have to scan a QR code on the back of them using the Ring app in order to get them to appear. From there, it's the same process of choosing the sensor type, naming it, assigning it to a room, and testing to make sure it's registering properly.

Operation

With everything up and running, you're ready to go. Ring Alarm supports three modes: disarmed, home, and away. Disarmed mode, unsurprisingly, will not activate the alarm if any of your sensors are tripped. The base station will chirp by default when a door is opened in disarmed mode, for example, but these chirps can also be turned off.

In home mode, the default setup is for motion sensors to be ignored while door/window sensors will trigger the alarm to activate. This mode is obviously intended for when you're moving around inside your home but want to be protected if someone enters the house through a monitored door or window. Finally, away mode arms all sensors so that any opened monitored door or window or movement within the house will set off the alarm.

With home and away modes, you're able to customize entry and exit delays up to two minutes before the alarm goes off, giving you enough time to leave the house after arming and enter the access code on the keypad upon returning home. When an event is detected, you'll get a notification on your phone, and the Ring app will display a countdown giving you the configured period of time to disarm the system before the alarm goes off. If you fail to enter the keypad code or disarm from the Ring app within the allowed time, the base station will emit a very loud beeping sound, and if you are signed up for professional monitoring, authorities will be notified.

Ring Alarm supports a sensor bypass mode, which allows you to arm the system even if one of the sensors is currently tripped. For example, if you want to arm the alarm but leave a monitored window open, the system will notify you upon arming that one of the sensors is currently faulted. You can choose to close the window to clear the sensor or bypass it, which will arm the system but not monitor that sensor until the next disarm/arm cycle.

Monitoring

As part of the Ring Protect Plus plan priced at $10 per month or $100 per year, you'll get 24/7 professional monitoring on your Ring Alarm. When your sensors trip and the base station sounds an alarm, after 30 seconds it also sends a signal to Ring's central monitoring system. A support agent will attempt to call you to see if everything is okay, and then tries your emergency contacts if you can't be reached.

Either you or one of your emergency contacts must give the correct verbal password in order to confirm authorization to deal with the alarm situation. Emergency responders will be dispatched if you give the incorrect password, request a response after giving the correct password, or if you and your emergency contacts can not be reached.

Ring does include a practice mode with its professional monitoring, and by default for the first seven days after activating your account authorities will not be contacted if the alarm is triggered. This gives you time to learn how your system works without burdening authorities with false alarms. If you wish to exit practice mode before the seven-day period is up, you can do that, but Ring will warn you in the app about the importance of making sure everything is working properly before you do that.

Some jurisdictions require permits for monitored alarm systems, and Ring will guide you based on the address where you're using Ring Alarm. In some areas, Ring can obtain the permit on your behalf once you pay required fees, but in other jurisdictions you'll need to handle it on your own. Either way, once you have your permit, you can enter the permit number and expiration date in the Ring app to make all parties aware that your system is properly registered. My town does not require permits, so I did not need to go through this step.

As part of professional monitoring, the Ring Protect Plus plan also includes cellular backup connectivity, allowing your base station to contact the monitoring center even if your internet goes down. The base station itself also includes a battery backup that lasts up to 24 hours, so you're even protected if the power goes out.

Beyond monitoring, Ring Protect Plus includes cloud video recording for an unlimited number of Ring cameras and doorbells at your home, an extended warranty for as long as you're on the plan, and a 10 percent discount on Ring doorbells and cameras.

If you don't want professional monitoring, you can forego the Protect Plus plan. You'll still get notifications of alarm events and the base station can sound an alarm, but there will be no connection to a monitoring center and thus no automatic deployment of emergency responders.

Wrap-up

Ring's entire philosophy revolves around making technologically advanced home security simple to install and use without being intimidating, and Ring Alarm certainly achieves that.

What's also important about Ring Alarm is that it sets the stage for future products and integration. The Ring app already serves as the hub to integrate the alarm system with the company's existing cameras and doorbells, but it's easy to see how the alarm can also become the hardware hub for new capabilities and products from Ring and eventually third-party vendors.

Many alarm systems integrate base station and keypad functionalities into a single unit, but Ring has made an interesting decision to separate the two, recognizing that these don't always need to be colocated. The base station serves best located centrally in the home in order to optimize wireless connections to all sensors and to centralize the alarm sound, while the keypad is likely to be placed close to the main point of entry for easy access.

At $199, the Ring Alarm base kit is a relatively low-cost, do-it-yourself way to get into home security, although you'll likely want to spring for a few additional sensors to fill out coverage of your home. Ring's professional monitoring plan is also quite competitive, and overall Ring Alarm looks like a well thought out system.

The one thing Apple fans might miss is HomeKit support, which isn't included in Ring Alarm and still has yet to come several other Ring products for which HomeKit support was promised long ago. Ring declined to offer any new details on its HomeKit plans, but acknowledged that customers continue to request it and promised the company is still working on it.

Note: Ring provided the Ring Alarm base kit and two additional contact sensors to MacRumors free of charge for the purposes of this review. No other compensation was received.

The British government has announced plans to launch a new NHS mobile app that will let patients in England make appointments with their doctor.

The app will also allow users to order repeat prescriptions, manage their long-term healthcare, see their medical records, and quickly access 111 for urgent queries.

In addition, users will have access to patient preferences related to data sharing, organ donation, and end-of-life care.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt described the app as a "birthday present from the NHS to the British people", 70 years after the service was founded.

The NHS app is a world-first which will put patients firmly in the driving seat and revolutionize the way we access health services.

I want this innovation to mark the death-knell of the 8am scramble for GP appointments that infuriates so many patients.

Technology has transformed everyday life when it comes to banking, travel and shopping. Health matters much more to all of us, and the prize of that same digital revolution in healthcare isn't just convenience but lives improved, extended and saved.

As the NHS turns 70 and we draw up a long-term plan for the NHS on the back of our £394 million a week funding boost, it's time to catch up and unleash the power of technology to transform everyday life for patients.

"The new app will put the NHS into the pocket of everyone in England but it is just one step on the journey," said Matthew Swindells, NHS England National Director of Operations and Information. "We are also developing an NHS Apps Library and putting free NHS Wi-Fi in GP surgeries and hospitals."

Developed by NHS Digital and NHS England, the app will enter its testing phase in September and then roll out officially in December. It will be available on iOS devices through the App Store, as well as on Android phones via Google Play.

Facebook has announced it is shutting down three apps that the company either launched itself or acquired from other companies over the last four years.

"Moves", "tbh", and the Android-only "Hello" all face the chop as part of the company's latest app cull. Facebook says the apps are being shuttered because of low usage.

Fitness tracking app Moves was bought in 2014 from Helsinki-based company ProtoGeo Oy for an undisclosed amount. The app records daily activity, including walking, cycling, and running. Moves will shut down on July 31.

British-based Midnight Labs sold its anonymous teen social media app tbh to the social network in 2017 for an undisclosed sum, although TechCrunch reported that the price paid was likely less than $100 million.

Facebook says all user data associated with the apps will be deleted within 90 days following shutdown.

We regularly review our apps to assess which ones people value most. Sometimes this means closing an app and its accompanying APIs. We know some people are still using these apps and will be disappointed — and we'd like to take this opportunity to thank them for their support. But we need to prioritize our work so we don’t spread ourselves too thin. And it's only by trial and error that we'll create great social experiences for people.

Facebook's last app cull came in August 2017, when it removed two standalone apps from the iOS App Store: the high school chat app "Lifestage" and community-focused gathering place "Groups".

Instagram today launched a new "You're All Caught Up" feature, which is designed to let users know when they've viewed all new posts from the last 48 hours.

Instagram has not used a chronological feed for several years now and it can be difficult to tell when all content has been viewed, something the new feature, which has been in testing since mid-May, should fix.

Today, you'll start noticing a "You're All Caught Up" message when you've seen every post from the last two days. We've heard that it can be difficult to keep track of your seen posts. With this message, you'll have a better understanding of your Feed and know you haven't missed recent photos or videos.

Below the "All Caught Up" message, Instagram will display posts that have already been viewed as well as posts that are older than two days old. The feature is rolling out on both iOS and Android starting today.

In related news, TechCrunch says Instagram and Facebook are testing new Do Not Disturb features that will let people turn off notifications from the social networks for 30 minutes, one hour, two hours, eight hours, one day, or until they're turned back on manually.

Instagram and Facebook declined to comment on the possible new feature, and it's not clear when it might roll out.

Instagram can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]