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Google’s announcement today of YouTube TV, a subscription based streaming service of live TV, has been met with mixed reviews.  When you compare the service to those of DirecTV Now and Sony Vue, it certainly has big holes in the offering.  It is pretty clear that Google was able to negotiate deals with the national carriers like ABC, CBS and NBC but weren’t (or haven’t completed yet at least) the big brands in cable like Viacom and AMC.  That means things like HBO just aren’t there in the offering.  That doesn’t mean they won’t be later, but Day One, nope.

So is it worth the $35 per month price tag?  It really depends on the content you are wanting to get.  For sure, having the ability to stream your local stations and have them stored in a Cloud DVR has a lot of appeal.  I rarely watch a show in real time.  It is always on my DVR or via an app on my phone or tablet.  I’m not alone, nor are you, and YouTube knows this as well.  The ability to record this week’s Big Bang Theory then watch it when I have time is a big bonus.  So having local channels while I’m on-the-go is nice.

But the real winner for viewers may be sports.

This week’s update of LineageOS has a lot of fixes and improvements that will be coming to users in the latest builds.  There is a pretty solid list of improvements that you can ready about on the developer’s site but for those who just want the highlights, here you go.  First, there is support for more than two cameras in Snap (think devices with dual rear cameras), a fix for when accounts where not showing up in settings, Dual SIM UI improvements and the AOSP file manager has replaced the CyanogenMod file manager.  The blog post has links to the repositories for those who want to read the gory details on all the changes.

LineageOS already has a massive number of devices that are supported but the list has also grown this week.

Added 14.1 devices

• LG G3 (AT&T) – d850
• LG G3 (Korea) – f400
• Samsung Galaxy S III (GSM LTE) – i9305

Added 13.0 devices

• LeEco LeMax2 – x2

• Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GSM) – n5100

• Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (Wi-Fi) – n5110

• Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (LTE) – n5120

That brings the total count of supported devices to over 100.

Part of the announcement also put out the Help Wanted sign.  If you can help the team with language translations, they could use you.  Hit the link to the post to get the details and to volunteer to help.

Microsoft has rolled out a nice update to OneNote for Android today that greatly improves the handling of hyperlinks within your Notes.  The new update is in the 16.0.7 train (actual build numbers will vary by device) and once you have it, you will be able to open, edit or remove a link within a note.  If you tap to open the link, you will be taking to your default browser.  Previously, in the mobile apps, links could be copied and then pasted into your browser but opening them directly from OneNote wasn’t an option.

The improvement should increase productivity for users of the app, especially for those who share notes with others.

With Google Assistant expanding to Android Marshmallow and Nougat devices, it only makes sense that Google Home start expanding too.  News has come from Google that starting next quarter (March-May) the smart speaker with Google Assistant embedded is going to make its way to the United Kingdom.  The news came from the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones who reported on a conversation he had with Google’s Rick Osterloh who indicated Home was on its way to the UK.

Google’s Rick Osterloh tells BBC that Google Home is coming to UK in Q2, claims its AI skills and vast data will help it beat Amazon Echo pic.twitter.com/qs3oZabak0

— Rory Cellan-Jones (@BBCRoryCJ) February 28, 2017

This will certainly be good news for readers in the UK.  Home, to this point, has been exclusively US-based but that hasn’t stopped some from buying them and having them shipped to the UK even though it isn’t support.  That, of course, has created some problems in that some of the services won’t work.