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Microsoft is one of the most consistent at updating their apps for Android with the company’s launcher, Microsoft Launcher being no exception.  The latest beta of the launcher is rolling out to testers and it shows that the Redmond company isn’t just updating their launcher, but listening to what users want in it.

The new beta build is version 4.7 for those keeping score and it brings an expansive change log with it.  First, you can now get a new daily background on your phone.  While you can do this today, it only can come from Bing daily wallpapers.  Now, based on user requests, you can set up your own custom set of wallpapers to be rotated daily on your device.  Oh, and those wallpapers can be set to be scroll-able.

Joining the ranks of several other retailers, the Microsoft Store is now offering the new Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ for pre-order.  The unlocked variants of both phones will start shipping on March 16th, like other retailers.  The S9 is priced at $719.99 while the S9+ is $839.99.

The addition of these new Samsung phones falls in line with what the company did with the S8 last year, offering it as a pre-order.  With the S7, they made a “Microsoft version” of the phone that came with several of the company’s apps pre-installed.

A new report from Voicebot.ai suggests that 19.7% of Americans have at least one smart speaker in their homes with nearly 72% of them being Amazon Echo devices powered by Amazon Alexa.  The report goes on to suggest that by the end of the year, nearly 50% of households will have at least one smart speaker in their house.

The reports is based on a survey of 1,057 US adults and extrapolated from there.  While it may not be the largest sample size, it does give a solid indicator of where smart speakers going in the market and their adoption rate.  While Echo adoption was at 71.9%, Google was a distant 2nd at 18.4%.  The likes of the Hardon Karmon Invoke, powered by Microsoft Cortana, falls into the “other” category which accounted for 9.7% of devices.

YouTube TV, the television streaming service, has updated their available networks page with some exciting new content coming soon.  The changes indicate that Local Now, a local news service, will be added to subscriptions at no additional cost.  Perhaps more exciting is that NBA League Pass and MLB.tv is coming soon too.

Both sports networks will be coming to YouTube TV at some point this year and both are listed as add-on networks.  That means there will be a monthly fee associated with each network but, for NBA and MLB fans, you’ve already been paying it anyway.  This should simplify life.