What to expect from Google’s Pixel 3 event

Apple, Amazon and Microsoft have already held their big fall events — and now it’s Google’s turn. Over the past couple of years, the October event has become an increasingly important platform, as the company continues to press into various hardware categories. And really, it’s Google’s last chance to make a big splash ahead of the holidays.

The Pixel 3 will no doubt be the centerpiece of the show. Google’s made no bones about that fact — and between officially sanctioned previews and Niagara Falls-sized leaks, it seems clear we’ve seen what the phone has to offer. Of course, these days, the event is about much more than the Pixel. This time last year, the company rolled out a bunch of additions to its Home line of smart speakers, including the Home Mini and Max. I’d anticipate seeing a fair amount of news on that front, as well this time out. 

The event kicks off October 9 in New York City. We’ll be there, of course. In the meantime, here’s what we think we’ll see, starting with the most obvious.

Hopefully there will be some surprises on the phone front, but I wouldn’t count on it. We’ve already seen both the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL from every conceivable angle, both in still images and video. In fact, Google’s given Samsung a run for its money on the leak front, this time out.

The Pixel 3 XL will embrace Android’s notch love with one of the largest cutouts we’ve seen to date. The Pixel 3, on the other hand, may skip the notch altogether. A new color is apparently in the works, as well — Aqua, to match the recently announced Google Home Minty.

The phones are said to be sticking with a single rear-facing camera configuration, which has served the line well in the past, but some new AR tricks are apparently in the works, to help show off ARCore’s latest additions. The squeeze interface introduced by HTC has also been confirmed via a truly adorable official video from Google Japan. A pair of wired, Pixel Bud-esque headphones are expected be in the box, as well.The new phone should also be getting its very own charging stand — similar to one recently rolled out by Samsung (or, for that matter, AirPower). The stand, interestingly, is designed to essentially turn the Pixel into a makeshift smart display — similar to what Amazon’s done with its Fire tablets via Show Mode.

On that note, Google appears ready to put more skin in the smart display game, after partnering with a number of third parties earlier this year. The Home Hub has already shown its face in a couple of leaks and FCC approvals, with Google finally taking on the Echo Show head on. We know that the Home Mini likely won’t be getting a full refresh, given the recent color addition, but the first-gen Home does seem overdue to get a facelift that will hopefully make it look less like a Glade air freshener.

Like the Hub, a new Chromecast has also made the FCC rounds, though information on new features seems scarce. Given the lukewarm reception of the original Pixel Buds, hopefully we’ll see an update on that front. A new Pixelbook seems entirely plausible as well, along with the rumored addition of a convertible Pixel Slate tablet, adding another premium device to its Chrome OS offerings.

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Netflix Is the Biggest Data Hog in the World

In terms of snaffling internet data, Netflix has everyone else beaten hands down. Netflix is also contributing to video being the biggest drain on bandwidth overall, which, given how many cat videos we all watch, should come as a surprise to absolutely no one.

We know all of this thanks to The Global Internet Phenomena Report from Sandvine [PDF]. Which has drawn data from 150 fixed and mobile operators worldwide. Sandvine claims that this represents “a statistically significant segment of the internet population.”

Stop Watching Videos of Cats

Video as a whole accounts for 58 percent of downstream traffic on the internet. A rise of 22 percent. Video beats web browsing into second place (on 17 percent), with gaming in third (on 8 percent), and social in fourth (on 5 percent).

Netflix by itself accounts for 15 percent of downstream traffic. HTTP media streams, which are embedded videos and other nonspecific video applications, take second place with 13 percent. And YouTube settles into third place with 11 percent.

The 2018 Global Internet Phenomena report is available now!

Download a copy here to learn about network traffic trends and gain insights from data on a global and regional level: https://t.co/QRkogirCPa pic.twitter.com/p18dfurfdL

— Sandvine (@Sandvine) October 2, 2018

What’s scary about these numbers is how they could continue to soar. While Netflix already has a healthy userbase the streaming service could add hundreds of millions of new subscribers as it continues to spend money producing original content.

Then there’s YouTube, which is evolving into a TV-like platform for well-produced shows and famous vloggers. And 4K video, which more people are likely to adopt as it becomes the new standard definition. Let’s just hope video compression improves over time.

The Unstoppable Rise of Gaming

While video is likely to remain the number one drain on data, gaming is slowly but surely catching up. This is thanks to a combination of game downloads, Twitch streaming, and professional gaming. And ISPs are going to have to deal with this phenomenon.

If you already pay for Netflix and are looking to get more out of the streaming service be sure to read our ultimate guide to Netflix. And if you’ve never used it but are wondering what the fuss is about here are some reasons to subscribe to Netflix.

Image Credit: Bob Klannukarn/Flickr

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What Spotify can learn from Tencent Music

On Tuesday, Tencent Music Entertainment filed for an IPO in the US that is expected to value it in the $25-30 billion range, on par with Spotify’s IPO in April. The filing highlights just how different its social interaction and digital goods business is from the subscription models of leading music streaming services in Western countries.

That divergence suggests an opportunity for Spotify or one of its rivals to gain a competitive advantage.

Tencent Music is no small player: As the music arm of Chinese digital media giant Tencent, its four apps have several hundred million monthly active users, $1.3 billion in revenue for the first half of 2018, and roughly 75 percent market share in China’s rapidly growing music streaming market. Unlike Spotify and Apple Music, however, almost none of its users pay for the service, and those who do are mostly not paying in the form of a streaming subscription.

Its SEC filing shows that 70 percent of revenue is from the 4.2 percent of its overall users who pay to give virtual gifts to other users (and music stars) who sing karaoke or live stream a concert and/or who paid for access to premium tools for karaoke; the other 30 percent is the combination of streaming subscriptions, music downloads, and ad revenue.

At its heart, Tencent Music is an interactive media company. Its business isn’t merely providing music, it’s getting people to engage around music. Given its parent company Tencent has become the leading force in global gaming—with control of League of Legends maker Riot Games and Clash of Clans maker Supercell, plus a 40 percent stake in Fortnite creator Epic Games, and role as the top mobile games publisher in China—its team is well-versed in the dynamics of in-game purchasing.

At first glance, the fact that Tencent Music has a lower subscriber rate than its Western rivals (3.6 percent of users paying for a subscription or digital downloads vs. 46 percent paying for a premium subscription on Spotify) is shocking given it has the key ingredient they each crave: exclusive content. Whereas subscription video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video have anchored themselves in exclusive ownership of must-see shows in order to attract subscribers, the music streaming platforms suffer from commodity content. Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, Deezer… they all have the same core library of music licensed from the major labels. There’s no reason for any consumer to pay for more than one music streaming subscription in the way they do for video streaming services.

In China, however, Tencent Music has exclusive rights to the most popular Western music from the major labels. The natural strategy to leverage this asset would be to charge a subscription to access it. But the reality is that piracy is still enough of a challenge in China that access to that music isn’t truly “exclusive.” Plus while incomes are rising, there’s extraordinary variance in what price point the population can afford for a music subscription. As a result, Tencent Music can’t rely on a subscription for exclusive content; it sublicenses that content to other Chinese music services as an additional revenue stream instead.

“Online music services in China have experienced intense competition with limited ability to differentiate by content due to the widespread piracy.” Tencent Music, SEC Form F-1

This puts it in a position like that of the Western music streaming services—fighting to differentiate and build a moat against competitors—but unlike them it has successfully done so. By integrating live streams and social functionality as core to the user experience, it’s gaining exclusive content in another form (user-generated content) and the network effects of a social media platform.

Some elements of this are distinct to Tencent’s core market—the broader popularity of karaoke, for instance—but the strategy of gaining competitive advantage through interactive and live content is one Spotify and its rivals would be wise to pursue more aggressively. It is unlikely that the major record labels will agree to any meaningful degree of exclusivity for one of the big streaming services here, and so these platforms need to make unique experiences core to their offering.

Online social activities like singing with friends or singing a karaoke duet with a favorite musician do in fact have a solid base of participants around the world: San Francisco-based startup Smule (backed by Shasta Ventures and Tencent itself) has 50 million monthly active users on its apps for that very purpose. There is a large minority of people who care a lot about singing songs as a social experience, both with friends and strangers.

Spotify and Apple Music have experimented with video, messaging, and social streams (of what friends are listening to). But these have been bonus features and none of them were so integrated into the core product offering as to create serious switching costs that would stop a user from jumping to the other.

The ability to give tips or buy digital goods makes it easier to monetize a platform’s most engaged and enthusiastic users. This is the business model of the mobile gaming sector: A minority percentage of users get emotionally invested enough to pay real money for digital goods that enhance their experience, currency to tip other members of the community, or access to additional gameplay.

As the leading music platform, it is surprising that Spotify hasn’t created a pathway for superfans of music to engage deeper with artists or each other. Spotify makes referrals to buy concert tickets or merchandise —a very traditional sense of what the music fan wants—but hasn’t deepened the online music experience for the segment of its user base that would happily pay more for music-related experiences online (whether in the form of tipping, digital goods, special digital access to live shows, etc.) or for deeper exposure to the process (and people) behind their favorite songs.

Tencent Music has an advantage in creating social music experiences because it is part of the same company that owns the country’s leading social apps and is integrated into them. It has been able to build off the social graph of WeChat and QQ rather than building a siloed social network for music. Even Spotify’s main corporate rivals, Apple Music and Amazon Music, aren’t attached to leading social platforms. (Another competitor, YouTube Music, is tied to YouTube but the video service’s social features are secondary aspects of the product compared to the primary role of social interaction on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp).

Spotify could build out more interactive products itself or could buy social-music startups like Smule, but Tencent Music’s success also suggests the benefits of a deal that’s sometimes speculated about by VCs and music industry observers: a Facebook acquisition of Spotify. As one, the leading social media company and the leading music streaming company could build out more valuable video live streaming, group music sharing, karaoke, and other social interactions around music that tap Facebook’s 2 billion users to use Spotify as their default streaming service and lock existing Spotify subscribers into the service that integrates with their go-to social apps.

Deeper social functionality doesn’t seem to be the path Spotify is prioritizing, though. It has removed several social features over the years and is anchoring itself in professional content distribution (rather than user-generated content creation), becoming the new pipes for professional musicians to put their songs out to the world (and likely aiming to disrupt the role of labels and publishers more than they will publicly admit). To that point, the company’s acquisitions—of startups like Loudr, Mediachain, and Soundtrap—have focused on content analytics, content recommendation, royalty tracking, and tools for professional creators.

This is the same race its more deep-pocketed competitors are running, however, and it doesn’t lock consumers into the platform like the network effects of a social app or the exclusivity of a mobile game do. It recently began opening its platform for musicians to add their songs directly—something Tencent Music has allowed for years—but this seems less like a move to a YouTube or SoundCloud-style user-generated content platform and more like a chess move in the game of eventually displacing labels. Ultimately, though, building out more social interaction around music will be critical to it in escaping the race with Apple Music and the rest by achieving more defensibility.

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5 Websites to Find Weird, Cool, or Discounted Amazon Products

Everyone tries to sell their products on Amazon, so it’s no surprise when a few items go under your radar. But once you know where to look, you can always find the weirdest, coolest, best, or even the most discounted products on Amazon.

Right now, Amazon’s database is so huge that it feels cluttered, and you need different clutter-free websites to browse the catalog. You essentially need to change the interface, ditching the regular Amazon site for something new. Whether that new interface is by Amazon itself or a third-party, it’s a good way to uncover products that you don’t easily see otherwise.

Amazon Scout (Web): Made by Amazon, for Recommendations Based on Likes

You know how this works with other sites now. You press a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down icon to show if you like or dislike something. Based on that, a smart algorithm shows other things you might like. It’s how Netflix knows what you want to watch, and Amazon is now using it to show you products you might like.

A new site, Amazon Scout, uses the like-dislike mechanism to figure out which kind of items you like in your home. Currently, the categories include furniture, home decor, bedding, lighting, kitchen and dining, patio, and women’s shoes. Scroll, click the like or dislike buttons, and Scout will show you new items based on that.

The big difference from shopping on Amazon is that Scout is completely visual. You don’t view the details of the item, you only judge it by its looks. As the machine learns your aesthetic senses, it will serve up better matches.

CRwatchdog (Web): Consumer Reports Recommendations on Amazon

Consumer Reports is known for its no-nonsense, unbiased recommendations. But you need a subscription to read their list of items to buy. CRwatchdog has taken that list and turned it into a handy resource for anyone.

Currently, the site covers four topics: electronics, appliances, home and garden, and car deals. That last one is particularly important given Consumer Reports is well-respected in that field, and has one of the best YouTube channels for automotive enthusiasts. You can search CRwatchdog, or quickly browse the “all recommendations” article for each category.

Note that you won’t find why Consumer Reports is recommending these items. Instead, you’ll only get a list with a small description of each product. If you want to know why it’s the best, you’ll still need that subscription.

JungleFlip (Web): Hourly “Open Box” Deals on Amazon

Like any seller, Amazon wants you to pay the highest price it can get. But if you’re smart, you can save some big bucks. This is why Amazon hides some deals and discounts, putting them in hard-to-find parts of the site.

One such type of deal is an “open box” item. “Open box” items are things that are returned by users and the original packaging is damaged. Typically, these are unused items, often listed as “Like New” since it wasn’t used but was pre-owned.

JungleFlip tracks down these items in good quality so that there’s one place for you to look at them all. New products are added every hour in a clean interface. You’ll see the item’s picture, its retail price, and its discounted price. From a $175 air conditioner selling for $30, to $200 jackets for $50, you’ll find some incredible deals here if you check regularly.

Lightning Drops (Web): Find Amazon Products Reaching Their Lowest Ever Price

Price comparison apps like CamelCamelCamel will let you track price drops on any item, and see its price history. It’s one of the best tricks to shop on Amazon, but if you aren’t tracking the item, you won’t know about it. That’s why you need Lightning Drops.

Lightning Drops is automatically tracking every single item on Amazon and has an excellent “Lowest Observed Price” section. In here, you can see which products have reached their lowest price in history. The products are categorized by those found in the past 24 hours, the past three days, or the past week.

Now that you have this cheat sheet of items that have dropped in price, you might be able to pick up some amazing deals. Most of these are not limited-time deals either, they are long-term price cuts.

Isn’t This Weird? (Web): Weird and Bizarre Products on Amazon

Sometimes, you see a weird item and go, “Why would anyone make that?” Well, DIY projects can be weird, it’s all about personal taste. But then some companies decide everyone is that weird, so they turn it into a bizarre product and sell it on Amazon.

Come, my fellow weirdos, and gaze upon the hand-curated collection of wonderful weirdness at Isn’t This Weird? (ITW) Try your hand at three-player chess on a circular board. Gift your grumpy friend a “smile maker” to teach them how to smile. Get yourself an avocado saver so that you don’t waste half of it. These are the things you know you don’t need, but you still want.

ITW also makes it easy to browse, in case you don’t have an insane keyword to search. Look for gifts under $20, the most popular weird items, or gifts for men/women separately. There are a few other category-based listings too.

Overcome Amazon’s Limits With Advanced Search

Between these five sites, you should be able to find something useful or kooky without being overwhelmed by Amazon’s cluttered design. In fact, even if you search for things on Amazon, you might not get some of the items listed on these websites.

That’s partly Amazon’s fault because it has made the search function weaker than it needs to be. But as always, it’s about knowing where to look. If you learn how to use Amazon’s Advanced Search, you will almost always find exactly the item you are looking for. It’s not too difficult either, so spend some time reading this article if you’re a regular shopper on Amazon.

Image Credit: thisisbossi/Flickr

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Facebook Messenger internally tests voice commands for chat, calls

Facebook Messenger could soon let you user your voice to dictate and send messages, initiate voice calls, and create reminders. Messenger for Android’s code reveals a new M assistant button atop the message thread screen that activates listening for voice commands for those functionalities. Voice control could make Messenger simpler to use hands-free or while driving, more accessible for the vision or dexterity-impaired, and perhaps one day, easier for international users whose native languages are hard to type.

Facebook Messenger was previously spotted testing speech transcription as part of the Aloha voice assistant believed to be part of Facebook’s upcoming Portal video chat screen device. But voice commands in the M assistant are new, and demonstrate an evolution in Facebook’s strategy since its former head of Messenger David Marcus told me voice “is not something we’re actively working on right now” in September 2016 on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt.

The prototype was discovered by all-star TechCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong, who’d previously discovered prototypes of Instagram Video Calling, Facebook’s screen time digital well-being dashboard, and Lyft’s scooter rentals before the officially launched. When reached for comment, a Facebook Messenger spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that Facebook is internally testing the voice command feature. The told TechCrunch “We often experiment with new experiences on Messenger with employees. We have nothing more to share at this time.”

Messenger is eager to differentiate itself from SMS, Snapchat, Android Messages, and other texting platforms. The app has aggressively adopted visual communication features like Facebook Stories, augmented reality filters, and more. Wong today spotted Messenger prototyping augmented reality camera effects being rolled into the GIFs, Stickers, and Emoji menu in the message composer.

Facebook has found that users aren’t so keen on tons of bells and whistles like prominent camera access or games getting in the way of chat, so Facebook plans to bury those more in a forthcoming simplified redesign of Messenger. But voice controls add pure utility without obstructing Messenger’s core value proposition and could end up getting users to chat more if they’re eventually rolled out.

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Facebook Messenger internally tests voice commands for chat, calls

Facebook Messenger could soon let you user your voice to dictate and send messages, initiate voice calls, and create reminders. Messenger for Android’s code reveals a new M assistant button atop the message thread screen that activates listening for voice commands for those functionalities. Voice control could make Messenger simpler to use hands-free or while driving, more accessible for the vision or dexterity-impaired, and perhaps one day, easier for international users whose native languages are hard to type.

Facebook Messenger was previously spotted testing speech transcription as part of the Aloha voice assistant believed to be part of Facebook’s upcoming Portal video chat screen device. But voice commands in the M assistant are new, and demonstrate an evolution in Facebook’s strategy since its former head of Messenger David Marcus told me voice “is not something we’re actively working on right now” in September 2016 on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt.

The prototype was discovered by all-star TechCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong, who’d previously discovered prototypes of Instagram Video Calling, Facebook’s screen time digital well-being dashboard, and Lyft’s scooter rentals before the officially launched. When reached for comment, a Facebook Messenger spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that Facebook is internally testing the voice command feature. The told TechCrunch “We often experiment with new experiences on Messenger with employees. We have nothing more to share at this time.”

Messenger is eager to differentiate itself from SMS, Snapchat, Android Messages, and other texting platforms. The app has aggressively adopted visual communication features like Facebook Stories, augmented reality filters, and more. Wong today spotted Messenger prototyping augmented reality camera effects being rolled into the GIFs, Stickers, and Emoji menu in the message composer.

Facebook has found that users aren’t so keen on tons of bells and whistles like prominent camera access or games getting in the way of chat, so Facebook plans to bury those more in a forthcoming simplified redesign of Messenger. But voice controls add pure utility without obstructing Messenger’s core value proposition and could end up getting users to chat more if they’re eventually rolled out.

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We’re talking AR with Snap’s camera platform head at TC Sessions: AR/VR

For a lot of consumers, Pokemon Go wasn’t their first exposure to augmented reality, it was the dog selfie lens inside Snapchat.

In the past few years, consumer use hasn’t evolved too heavily when it comes to what people are actually using AR for even though technical capabilities have taken some giant leaps. Snap was an early leader but now the industry is much more crowded with Apple, Google, Facebook and others all staffing up extensive teams focused on smartphone-based AR capabilities.

At our one-day TC Sessions: AR/VR event in LA on October 18, we’ll be chatting with Eitan Pilipski, the VP of Snap’s Camera Platform, a role that would seem to be pretty central to the long-term vision of a company that has long referred to itself as “a camera company.”

Snap has been throwing some updates to their developer tools as of late especially for their Lens Studio product which gives developers access to tools to create AR masks and experiences. There’s a lot of room to grow, and it will be interesting to see how much depth Snap can pull from these short experiences and whether it sees “lenses” evolving to bring users more straight-forward utility in the near-term.

The company hasn’t had the easiest bout as a public company lately, but it’s clear that it sees computer vision and augmented reality as key parts of the larger vision it hopes to achieve. At our LA event we’ll look to dive deeper into how they’re approaching these technologies and what it can bring consumers beyond a little added enjoyment.

As a special offer to TechCrunch readers, save 35% on $149 General Admission tickets when you use this link or code TCFAN. Student tickets are just $45 and can be booked here.

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5 Easy Ways to Remove Backgrounds From Images Without Specialized Software

Users might want to remove the background from an image for different reasons. If you’re selling things online, creating presentations, or even making collages, you can remove the background to highlight the object of the photo or to remove the distracting details.

Instead of trying to accurately enclose a region with the Lasso or Magic Wand tools in Photoshop, you can easily remove the background with these web apps. The bonus being they’re either free or affordable for most people.

1. ClippingMagic

ClippingMagic is a simple web app to remove the background from any image. When you navigate to the homepage, you’re immediately presented with the upload options. Click the Upload Image button to upload the photo from your computer. When it’s done, you’ll see two adjacent panels with your image on the left and a blank panel on the right.

Procedure

Use the green tool (+) to mark the object and red tool (-) to mark the background of the image. You don’t have to precisely mark every edge of the object, show the app what you want to keep, and the tool will do the rest. As you mark the object and the background, the right panel shows you the results in real time.

In areas where the edges are too faint or noisy for the algorithm, click the scalpel tool to manually adjust the clips. Then, click the Review button to inspect the image in detail and apply touch up marks if needed. You can always undo edits or choose Edit > Clear all marks to start from the beginning.

ClippingMagic also offers several tools to let you further refine the image. You can add drop shadows, adjust the color, change the background color, fine-tune the edges, and much more.

Pros and Cons

If you want to sell things online, then ClippingMagic lets you upload a large number of images and clip them in rapid succession. Be sure to set up the default settings, resolution, and crop settings before starting a bulk job. You can upload and edit any number of images, but to download you’ll need to subscribe. Check out the pricing page for further details.

Since the uploading and processing of images takes a bit of time, you always need a constant internet connection to work with the app.

2. FotoFuze

FotoFuze is a specialized photography tool that removes the poor quality background from a photo with the white background in just a few steps. Click the new album button, type in the name, and start uploading your images.

Procedure

Once you upload the image, click the magic highlighter tool to highlight the object. As you finish highlighting, FotoFuze will show you a mini live preview of the image. If your fuze didn’t come out as expected, then check the useful error overlay box. Areas marked in red often suggests that there were problems while fuzing the photo.

FotoFuze also lets you color correct the image, fix exposure related problems, auto-crop the picture, and more. If the photo still doesn’t meet your expectations, try changing the background clarity, brightness, and sensitivity. Click the Finish button to fuze the picture.

Pros and Cons

FotoFuze has built-in support for the Etsy platform. In addition to the image cleanup, you can create, update, draft, and copy your listing directly from the FotoFuze. You can fuze multiple photos without any delay, download high resolution photos, and much more with an affordable FotoFuze subscription.

FotoFuze does not work correctly with textured or uneven backgrounds. It needs a gray, black, or texture-free background.

3. PhotoScissors Online

PhotoScissors online is a free web app to remove the background from any image with just a few steps. Right away, you’ll see an Upload Image button to upload the image. The web canvas has two adjacent panels, with your picture on the left and a blank panel on the right. The app also guides you with a quick interactive tutorial for newbies.

Procedure

PhotoScissors uses the same selection mechanism as ClippingMagic. Use the green tool (+) to mark the object and red tool (-) to mark the background of the image. You do not have to carefully select the area, just ensure to put the green marker within the lines of the object you want to cut out. Once you mark the image, let the algorithm take care of the details.

If you think you made a mistake, click the Undo button and repeat the procedure. The app also gives you the option to smooth and offset the boundary. You can swap the background with an alternate image or solid color, move the object, and add shadow effects.

Pros and Cons

With just a few mouse clicks, PhotoScissors gives you reasonably accurate cut-out images. But where it lacks is precision. The online image editor lacks sophisticated tools to refine the image. Consider using these free web apps to edit photos.

There’s also a limit on the image size and resolution. You cannot upload a photo bigger than 5MB or with a resolution of greater than 2.1 megapixels. To remove these restrictions and get more features, purchase the desktop app for Mac or PC.

4. Background Burner

Background Burner is a free and intuitive web app to remove the background from any image. As usual, you start by uploading your photo to the app. It’ll then try to remove the background from your image automatically. Once finished, it outputs 3–4 copies of the processed images. Out of these, you choose the best picture.

Procedure

If the photo you uploaded isn’t complex, you’ll most likely find the perfect image. Click the Select button to download the image. The app also gives the option to touch up a nearly perfect image. Click the Touchup button to open the new editing window. Behind the scene, the app uses the ClippingMagic mechanism.

You can choose from three brush sizes, undo the steps, and zoom images to mark them with precision. Then, click the Pixel Tools button to manually erase the background (or restore the foreground), or use the polygon shaped tools to fine-tune the edges.

Pros and Cons

Background Burner does pretty much all the heavy lifting itself. Since the app is free to use, you can save both time and money. If you’re planning to remove the background from several pictures, then this app should be your first choice.

When it comes to images that are a bit more complex, the automatic results are not as good in comparison to other apps. Background Burner lacks complex editing tools to fine-tune the images, bulk clipping mode, and custom settings.

5. Microsoft Office

If you have Microsoft Office 2016 installed, you have another easy method to remove the backgrounds from images. The process is identical for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Procedure

To get started, insert the picture into a document. Now choose Picture Format > Remove Background (in case of Mac). The app will then try to figure out the background, and mark them in purple. If the image is simple, it’ll easily cut out the background. For more complex images, use the Mark Areas to Keep and Mark Areas to Remove button to fine-tune the selection.

The marker is not intuitive to use. It just lets you draw straight lines around the object you want to keep or get rid off. Once you’re done, click the Keep Changes button to save the image.

Pros and Cons

If you’re looking for a quick way to remove the background from photos and that too offline, then Microsoft Office is the best choice. But you shouldn’t buy or subscribe to Microsoft Office just for this purpose. Also, the marking tools are a little hard to use, so they may not give you the best result on your first try.

Learn to Take Better Photos

Removing background from photos is not an impossible task. Using one of the tools mentioned above, you too can remove the background from any picture without learning how to use Photoshop. These tools cover only one part of the process.

If you fail to take good photos in the first place, then removing backgrounds might be more difficult. See our top photography tips for beginners and our guide to digital photography to learn the fundamentals of good photography.

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Reelgood’s app for cord cutters adds 50+ services, personalized recommendations

Reelgood, a startup aimed at helping cord cutters find their next binge, is out today with its biggest update yet. The company has been developing its streaming guide over the past year to solve the issues around discovery that exist when consumers drop traditional pay TV in favor of streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Prime Video, and others.

The company first launched as a website in the summer of 2017 before expanding to mobile last fall. During that time, it’s grown to over a million monthly active users who now check in with Reelgood to find something new to watch.

With today’s update to its iOS app, Reelgood is adding a number of features, including personalized recommendations, curated selections, alerts for shows and movies you’re tracking, advanced search and filtering, and the ability to track content over 50 more streaming services, among other things.

As discovery is Reelgood’s focus, the updated app now offers two new types of recommendations.

One is Reelgood’s own take on “Because You Watched” – a type of viewing suggestion you’ll find today on individual services, like Netflix. But those are more limited because they’ll only suggest other shows or movies they offer themselves. Reelgood’s recommendations will instead span all the services you have access to, offering a more universal set of suggestions.

This feature is tied to Reelgood’s watch history, where you track which shows and movies you’ve seen. That means you have to use Reelgood as your tracking app as well, in order for this feature to work.

The app’s other new way of offering recommendations is less personalized – in fact, it’s random. Because sometimes serendipity is a better way to find something, a feature called “Reelgood Roulette” lets you shake your device while on the Discover tab to get a non-personalized, random suggestion.

Reelgood credits Netflix Roulette, created by Andrew Sampson, as the basis for this addition. In fact, it acquired the rights to the software last year, and then updated it to support more streaming services.

The app also now offers more powerful search and filtering capabilities involving Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb scores, plus cast and crew listings. This allows you to query up things like “Meryl Streep’s top-rated movies” or “drama series with an IMDb rating of at least 8.0 that came out in the last 3 years,” for example.

Reelgood’s search and filtering mechanisms have always been the place where it excels, but it’s less useful as a simple tracker. For that, I prefer TV Time, which lets you quickly mark entire seasons or series as “Watched” and offers discussion boards for each episode where you can post photos and memes and chat with other fans.

TV Time, however, hasn’t been as useful for making recommendations – its suggestions have been off-the-mark when I’ve tried it in the past, often leaning too heavily on network’s back catalogs than pushing me to more current or trending content. It makes me wish I could combine the two apps into one for the best of both worlds – tracking and recommendations.

The updated Reelgood app also doubles down on its own curation capabilities by offering editorial collections. For example: 2018 Emmy Nominees, IMDb’s Top 250 Movies, Original Picks, Dark Comedies, British Humour, and more. This can be a good way to find something to watch when you’re really stumped.

And as you discover new shows and movies you want to see, you can set alerts so you’ll be notified when they hit one of the streaming services you’re subscribed to, similar the tracking feature on Roku OS.

Finally, Reelgood’s update includes the addition of 50+ streaming services – that means there’s now support for more niche services like IndieFlix, FilmStruck, Shudder, Fandor, CrunchyRoll, Mubi, AcornTV and Starz, among others.

“Reelgood 4.0 is the culmination of all we’ve learned about how people watch and the increasingly fragmented streaming world,” said Eli Chamberlin, Reelgood’s head of product and design. “Our aim with this release was to take all the streaming content out there, and display it in the most meaningful way possible so that people can get the most out of their existing streaming services without wasting countless hours browsing.”

The new app is rolling out to iOS today on the App Store.

 

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Amazon Music Unlimited vs. Prime Music: What’s the Difference?

When comparing streaming music services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music, most people don’t think of Amazon. But the online giant has two different options to choose from: Amazon Prime Music and Amazon Music Unlimited.

In this article, we take an in-depth look at both Amazon Prime Music and Amazon Music Unlimited to help you determine which one is right for you.

What’s the Difference Between Them?

The most notable difference between the two services, outside of price, is the number of songs available. Amazon Prime Music boasts more than 2 million songs compared to the “tens of millions” of tracks available on Amazon Music Unlimited.

For comparison, Spotify features more than 30 million tracks. So that’s a substantial difference to take notice of, especially if you’re a fan of more obscure music and artists.

Both Music Unlimited and Prime Music allow for unlimited skips and the ability to download songs to an app for offline listening. The services are also free of any advertisements.

What Does Amazon Music Unlimited Cost?

New listeners can take advantage of a 30-day free trial for Amazon Music Unlimited. After that, the most affordable plan costs $3.99/month. But don’t get too excited just yet—that plan only gives you access to the service on one Alexa-enabled device like the Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Spot.

If you’re considering buying an Echo device, find out which Amazon Echo device is best for you.

If you’re a college or university student, there’s another way to subscribe for less: the discounted student plan costs $4.99/month and features all of the perks of a regular subscription. You will, however, need to verify enrollment in a degree-granting college or university to nab that option.

For Amazon Prime members, a regular Amazon Music Unlimited subscription costs $7.99/month or $79/year. If you’re not an Amazon Prime member, the standard price is $9.99/month.

For multiple users, there is also a family plan that costs $14.99/month for up to six shared members. Amazon Prime members have the option to pay $149/year for the family plan.

On the other hand, Amazon Prime Music is free for all Amazon Prime subscribers. Take a look at our primer to decide which one of the Amazon Prime payment options will work best for you.

If you’re already an Amazon Prime member, the biggest factor in deciding whether to pay more for Amazon Music Unlimited is whether Amazon Prime Music’s small selection of music is enough for you.

How to Listen to Amazon Prime Music/Music Unlimited

Like Amazon Prime Music, you can access Amazon Music Unlimited through a web player or downloaded app. The Amazon Music app is available for just about every platform you can imagine, from an iPhone to your car.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest downsides for users is that the web player and PC/Mac apps aren’t as polished as the clients from more well-known streaming services. It might take some work to find what you’re looking for, and you’ll need to put in a little more effort than you do with Spotify or Apple Music, but they work. Eventually.

Comparing the Music Selections

As you might expect, with tens of millions of songs available, the music selection is significantly better on Amazon Music Unlimited than it is on Amazon Prime Music.

When comparing the two options, I found many more of the classic and modern artists I enjoy listening to on Amazon Music Unlimited. While there are a lot of great choices on Amazon Prime Music, the difference between the two is pretty obvious.

But the availability of your favorite music may be different depending on your own tastes. That’s a big reason you should take advantage of the 30-day free trial for Amazon Music Unlimited before making a commitment with your wallet.

Is Amazon Music Unlimited Worth Paying For?

The biggest question for most music fans is whether or not Amazon Music Unlimited is worth paying money for, especially when Amazon Prime Music is one of the overlooked perks of being an Amazon Prime member.

Obviously, it depends on whether you’re happy with the two million songs currently offered by Amazon Prime Music. To be fair to Amazon, that’s a huge number of songs. Whether your musical tastes are well represented, however, will depend a great deal on which genres and artists you like.

If you have wide-ranging tastes, listen to a lot of music, or just aren’t satisfied with the selection offered by Amazon Prime Music, the monthly fee to upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited is probably worth it. That’s unless you already use, and are happy with, other options like Spotify, Apple Music, or Google Play Music.

If you’re new to the world of Amazon and are wondering whether an Amazon Prime subscription is worth the money, we’ll help you decide with our comprehensive primer for Amazon Prime.

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