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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and the team discuss the spending on apps in 2020, mobile payment via facial recognition, a campaign to design the next generation of masks, a new 20-member board for social media reviews, Yahoo! Answers shutting down, rumored new Apple home devices, Instagram and likes, a Verizon hotspot recall, Netflix’s revamped profiles, Top Gun being delayed again, and more.
“My question shows my ignorance: But simply speaking, what do I need to do… What do I need to have… to start streaming? I’m old and would just like a simple answer.”
Susan, it depends on what side of the stream you want to be on.
If you want to create your own audio or video streams, then you’ll need – at a minimum – a computer and some kind of microphone so you can have good audio quality. The microphone doesn’t need to be anything too special unless the sound quality is really important to what you’re going to do be streaming. A gaming headset or small relatively inexpensive standalone microphone like those made by Blue Microphones and a pair of earbuds will do.
To get the stream live you can use a service like Restream.io or StreamYard and they’ll take care of putting your stream on several platforms like YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook at the same time.
If you’re looking to consume streams rather than create them, then you’re probably thinking about using services like Netflix, Hulu, and all the rest. If that’s the case, all you need is an account with the services you want to use, which you can get on their websites, and a way to play that stream.
That way can be a phone,tablet, or computer, but you’ll probably want a streaming stick of some kind to just play it on your TV. Something like a Roku, Apple TV, or Amazon Fire Stick will do. A smart TV will do as well, but generally speaking their software is terrible and you’ll probably want a better streaming device anyway.
From that point on there’s really not much to it, you just log in with the user you create it and choose what you want to watch using your remote like you would with an on-demand service from a cable company.
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