# The Sizzle

### Issue 63 - Wednesday 13th January, 2016 - I Say, Get Over It

- Microsoft discontinues support for IE 8, 9 and 10
- Uber lets 3rd party apps display content in your Uber app whilst you're in an Uber vehicle
- VLC arrives on the Apple TV
- Spotify adds Genius integration for in-depth, crowd-sourced lyrics info
- Valencell claims Apple ripped off their heart rate sensor design

- The Nexus 5X is on sale from Google & JB Hi-Fi
- A Mac menubar item to show live cricket scores
- The BBC plays around with H.265 and likes it

NEWS

Microsoft discontinues support for IE 8, 9 and 10
Ding, dong, Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10 are dead. Ding, dong, your shitty company's intranet or some lame vendor's product interface will still require it. Even though Microsoft has ended support for IE 8, 9 and 10, that doesn't mean people won't stop using it or upgrade their trash to support modern browsers. Wired explains how we ended up in this situation of celebrating the discontinued support of a web browser.

Uber lets 3rd party apps display content in your Uber app whilst you're in an Uber vehicle
Uber has been busy lately, talking up its intentions to show you "content" (aka, ads eventually) within its app whilst you're in an Uber vehicle. They call it "Trip Experience" and as part of it's API where third party apps installed on your device can do stuff within the Uber app. Uber is also planning to connect you to public transport via a partnership with TransLoc, which will add Uber as part of its route planning (e.g: catch Uber to tram stop, catch tram to train station, catch train to where you wanna go, catch another Uber to your destination).

VLC arrives on the Apple TV
VLC is now out on the latest generation Apple TV. It'll hook up to any file share and play back any video or audio file you throw at it. Very nice. Graham Spencer (who is a Sizzle subscriber, hey Graham!) wrote up his first impressions of VLC's Apple TV app for MacStories. VLC are apparently working on OneDrive (and other cloud storage services) support, which would be really handy I reckon. Download your Torrents/Usenet stuff direct to OneDrive and just stream from OneDrive (where I have 1TB for free). Plex does this now, but you gotta pay US$5/m for it. With VLC it'll be free. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

Spotify adds Genius integration for in-depth, crowd-sourced lyrics info
Spotify has added a new feature called "Behind the Lyrics", taking advantage of the Genius database of lyric info to show you info about how the musicans came up with the words for their songs. Right now it only works on a specific playlist and only on iPhone - not the other various platforms Spotify is on. Genius itself is pretty interesting and integrating it into Spotify is really its natural home I reckon.

Valencell claims Apple ripped off their heart rate sensor design
Valencell, a company who makes biometric sensors and stuff are claiming Apple stole their patented tech from them after Apple showed some interest in their products in 2013 and 2014. The technology they happened to show Apple back in 2013 and 2014 ended up appearing in the Apple Watch's heart rate sensor - allegedly, of course. This same thing happened in the fictional Silicon Valley TV show, which is good and you should watch it.

COOL SHIT

The Nexus 5X is on sale from Google & JB Hi-Fi
I really liked the Nexus 5X and it's by far the best Android phone I have used. JB Hi-Fi is selling the 32GB variant for $547 right now (with free in-store pickup, or $10 delivery). The Google online store has the 16GB for $479 and 32GB $559, with free delivery. Really good price if you're after a new phone, I'd definitely buy this over an iPhone 6s (which is more than double the price, but not twice as good I reckon).

A Mac menubar item to show live cricket scores
If you've been hankering for live cricket scores in your Mac's menubar, Howzatt!! is for you. It grabs scores from Cricinfo's API and will update the menubar item with how poorly your team is doing.

The BBC plays around with H.265 and likes it
The BBC has been messing around with the latest H.265/HEVC and comparing it to H.264/AVC. It reports that H.265 can achieve the same perceptible quality as H.264 in half the bitrate. So a video that was 4GB and encoded in H.264 will fit within 2GB using H.265. A video that required a 10mbit stream only requires 5mbit.

Here endeth the sizzle (until tomorrow!)
--Anthony

The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Like The Sizzle? Tell your friends!