Author: Danielle

The meteoric rise of the label “femtech” to describe technology products, apps and hardware addressing women’s health and wellbeing issues divides opinion.

While some say it helps the sector secure vital funding from male-dominated venture capitalists, others argue that it unnecessarily pigeonholes women’s health.

So, does it help or hinder?

I’m sitting in a trendy meeting room in central London, holding in my palm a little device that looks like a pale green egg with a tail.

It’s a smart pelvic-floor trainer from Elvie – a vaginal device that syncs with an app via Bluetooth, so you can follow work-outs on your phone.

The start-up’s chief executive, Tania Boler, reels off a list – which will be familiar to many women – of all the things that can go wrong if you lack a strong pelvic floor.

“I mean, one in three women deal with bladder problems,” she says.

And then, she adds, there’s “prolapse problems, lower-back problems, sex problems…”

I shift a little in my chair.

The British start-up has become a poster child for the rise of femtech.

From period trackers to breast pumps, the term encompasses menstruation, menopause, pregnancy, breastfeeding and fertility – one often-quoted report predicts femtech could become a $50bn (£40bn) industry by 2025.

You could argue: what’s taken so long?

And $50bn sounds like a lot. But when you consider that it’s a sector that, in theory, targets almost four billion women – roughly half the world’s population – suddenly it seems quite modest.

Facebook alone, for example, has a membership of just over two billion people and is worth more than 10 times that figure.

“I think in the future when historians look back, it will seem crazy that until [recently] there had never been a technology term for women,” says Ms Boler.

Femtech has only caught on as a term in the past few years. And not everyone is convinced it will be beneficial in the long run.

Suw Charman-Anderson is the founder of Ada Lovelace Day. It marks its 10th anniversary this Tuesday and commemorates the woman who many consider to be the world’s first computer programmer, as well as celebrating others who have been successful in Stem (science, technology, engineering and education).

She fears femtech could become a double-edged sword.

“If it evolves into just being tech, that’s fine,” she says.

“It only becomes a problem if it becomes something that only female VCs [venture capitalists] invest in, that only female entrepreneurs work on, that only women buy.”

But Ms Boler is convinced the term opens up opportunities – not to mention purse strings.

“People thought we were completely crazy. I mean, this is an intimate device,” she says, recalling the early days.

“And obviously, we’re mostly pitching to male investors. And it’s a women’s health issue that nobody talks about. So everybody said, this is going to be impossible – you’ll never get celebrities to talk about this. You’ll never get it into retail.”

Well, you can now get the trainer in department stores, and Elvie’s other product, a silent wearable breast-milk pump, made it into the 2019 Oscars’ swag bag.

In her book Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez recounts the story of Janica Alvarez, who was seeking funding for a breast-pump device in 2013.

“I’m not touching that; that’s disgusting,” she was told by a male investor.

Would the word “femtech” have broken down that barrier?

While Ms Boler is enthusiastically on-message about the femtech brand and has certainly benefited from it – Elvie has raised $42m this year – she does also have some reservations.

“In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need femtech because 51% of the UK population is women,” she points out. “It’s definitely not niche.”

Femtech and fertility

Critics of femtech also cite the inclusion of fertility issues under its brand as a problem.

According to the NHS, one in seven couples face fertility problems. And while 25% of issues remain undiagnosed, the cause can lie with either men or women.

“If you’re looking at having babies and helping people figure it out, then that is not just a female problem, it’s a family problem,” says Carolina Milanesi, an analyst from Creative Futures.

“Why should it just be labelled a female solution?”

“To be honest with you, just saying femtech makes me cringe a little bit,” she adds.

“When it’s about men and men’s health, it’s not mentech, right?”

Melanie Hayes is an investor whose firm, Bethnal Green Ventures, avoids the term.

“My biggest concern with femtech as a label is that it is used for people to say, ‘Oh, I don’t do that’,” she explains.

Ms Hayes cites an example of one of her own recent investments – a social network that helps people in casual work source better working conditions, pay and flexibility around commitments such as caring and childcare.

“While those kind of products are not femtech, and were certainly never pitched to us in that way, we can’t ignore the fact that the users of the services that benefit disproportionately are likely to be women, because they are most affected by those issues,” she says.

“I’m really interested in technologies that are around healthy lives, a fairer society, and a more sustainable planet. I think femtech could easily touch on each of those things.”

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If you want to start your Black Friday shopping early, Amazon has you covered with a great deal on the Powerbeats Pro true wireless headphones – they’re on sale for the next 24 hours for just $199.99 (regularly $249.99).

In case you missed our full review of the Powerbeats Pro when they launched earlier this year, we called them the best earbuds Apple has ever made… yes, even better than the 2nd-Generation Apple AirPods. 

What makes the Powerbeats Pro so much better? For starters, they’ve got a workout-ready design that holds them tightly in your ears even during the most extreme workouts, and they sport a lengthy nine-hour battery life per charge with an extra 18 hours of charge in the case to keep going through over a day of workouts and commutes. They also come with Apple’s new H1 Wireless Chip that helps them connect faster and stay paired even in crowded areas. 

Best of all, if you aren’t a fan of Beats’ bass-heavy audio profile, the Powerbeats Pro actually do their best to sound relatively neutral with just a minor lift in the lows and highs. 

If you’ve been holding off on buying a pair for the Apple lover on your list, well, you better get moving as the deal is slated to end on October 8 at 2:59am ET – and that sale price probably won’t pop up again until Black Friday comes around in November.

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Roku and Walmart are partnering up to release cheaper versions of the Roku Smart Soundbar and Roku Wireless Subwoofer under Walmart’s Onn brand of electronics, the companies announced today. 

These versions of Roku’s products will be slightly lower-spec’d than the regular versions and look slightly different – but at $129 apiece they will be around $50 less than the standard versions going out to other retailers.

According to information sent to TechRadar, the Onn Roku Smart Soundbar features 40W of peak power versus the Roku Smart Soundbar’s 60W, as well as a different set of drivers, and a Roku IR remote with TV power controls. 

The Onn Roku Wireless Subwoofer features a 10-inch driver like the Roku Wireless Subwoofer, but is slightly smaller and features 150 peak watts of power versus the Roku Wireless Subwoofer’s 250 peak watts of power – meaning that it won’t be as powerful as the regular version.

Audio products for audiophiles on a budget

That said however, the Onn versions will be mostly on par with their respective Roku counterparts: Both soundbars will be able to stream HD, 4K UHD, and HDR video, while the Roku Wireless Subwoofer will be able to connect to either the Soundbar or the Roku TV Wireless Speakers to bring some extra oomph to the low-end.

And, again, they’re $50 cheaper than the regular versions that would cost $179 each.

According to the companies, both the Onn Roku Smart Soundbar and Onn Roku Wireless Subwoofer will be available in the coming weeks, arriving just in time for the annual Walmart Black Friday rush. 

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If the iPhone X’s price is too much for you to stomach, but you still want a big-screened iPhone, then perhaps the iPhone 8 Plus is the way to go. 

It has a 5.5-inch screen and an impressive camera, even if doesn’t have the cache of the iPhone X. It’s still not a cheap phone by any means, so you’ll definitely want to peruse all the iPhone 8 Plus deals that you’ll find here.

Below you’ll find deals from carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon, which include discounts on a second phone and offers for your trade-in. Further down the page you’ll find unlocked options.

If you’d rather purchase directly from Apple, you can expect to pay $799 for the 64GB model or $949 for the 256GB model, but you can get up to $315 in credit when you trade in your old iPhone.

Don’t need such a big phone? Check out these iPhone 8 deals.

The best Black Friday iPhone 8 Plus deals and prices

While you can still shop fantastic offers for the iPhone 8 Plus below, it’s never too early to start thinking about upcoming discounts for Black Friday. To help you score the lowest prices, we’ve put together a guide on how to find the best Black Friday iPhone deals of 2019. We’ll also tell you everything else you need to know, such as when the sale starts, what deals to expect, and other iPhone models that will be on sale.

The best iPhone 8 Plus deals from US Carriers

The best money-saving plans: T-Mobile plans | Verizon plans | AT&T plans | Sprint plans

How much does the iPhone 8 Plus cost?

The short answer is $799. That’s what Apple charges for the 64GB iPhone 8 Plus, available in silver, gold, or space gray.

Of course, if you need more memory, then it’s going to cost you more; your only other option is spending an extra $150 and grabbing a $949 256GB iPhone 8 Plus. 

As we’ve outlined above, there are ways to get a deal, or at the very least, break your cost out into more manageable monthly payments (also available via Apple).

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MSI announced a new gaming laptop with the Alpha 15. While that’s not too surprising from a company that turns out new products all the time, this new laptop has doubled down on AMD hardware and introduced the first generation of AMD Navi graphics in laptops.

The MSI Alpha 15 is kitted with proper gaming laptop hardware. It can run up to an AMD Ryzen 7 3750H processor (CPU) for high performance, and it will use the new AMD Radeon RX 5500M graphics processor (GPU) with 4GB of GDDR6 VRAM. It comes with either 8GB or 16GB of memory (RAM). It has drive space for a 2.5-inch hard drive as well as either a PCIe- or SATA-based M.2 solid-state drive (SSD).

The Alpha 15 rounds out the gaming experience with a keyboard that can include SteelSeries per-key RGB lighting, and a Full HD (1080p) display. MSI will offer both 120Hz and 144Hz displays, and both include AMD Radeon FreeSync technology.

A new leaf for AMD

AMD launched the Radeon RX 5700 and 5700XT earlier this year with impressively competitive prices against Nvidia’s mid-tier offerings. These GPUs are built on a 7nm process, dubbed Navi, which gave them a nice performance and efficiency bump over their predecessors.

Now, we’re finally seeing AMD’s Navi graphics processors show up in the mobile space, as they’d previously only been available as desktop graphics cards.

The RX 5500M will be a step down from the desktop-grade RX 5700. It includes 22 computer units compared to RX 5700’s 36, though it appears to have similar clock frequencies.

Seeing this option jump into the mobile space could give AMD another major boost in the market against its rivals, Nvidia and Intel. We’ve already seen AMD making great strides with its desktop products, and it landed a valuable inclusion in Microsoft’s 15-inch Surface Laptop 3. New mobile graphics hardware will round-out AMD’s ability to compete in the laptop space. Now, all AMD needs to do is launch Zen 2 mobile CPUs.

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Apple’s macOS Catalina is finally here, and you can install it on your Mac right now, provided your device is new enough to actually install it.  We’re going to dive into macOS Catalina, all of its features and how to download it, but first a bit of history. 

Apple first revealed macOS Catalina at its WWDC 2019 conference in San Jose, California earlier this year, during which the company showcased some of the exciting new features that macOS Catalina brings to the table, including its nifty capability to utilize an iPad as a secondary screen. 

So, after a wait that seemingly lasted forever, we can finally download the update. This is a huge update, too, as through a new feature called “Project Catalyst,” iOS 13 and iPadOS developers can easily port their work over to the macOS environment. This means if you update your Mac today – though, you may want to wait – you should have access to many more Mac apps. 

There are some things going away though. For instance, iTunes, the media software that’s been around for almost two decades, has faded into that long night. In its place, however, we get a new Mac-flavored Apple Music app, along with Apple Podcasts and Apple TV. So, don’t fret, you can still listen to your music and watch the new season of The Good Place.

All of that is just the tip of the iceberg that is macOS Catalina. Don’t worry though, we’re going to explore everything that macOS 10.15 has to offer, from the features to which Macs can actually download it. And, be sure to keep this page bookmarked, as we’ll keep it updated with all the latest macOS 10.15 Catalina news as it pops up.  

Cut to the chase

• What is it? macOS 10.15 Catalina, successor to macOS 10.14 Mojave
• When is it out? October 7, 2019
• How much will it cost? Nothing. Apple software updates are always free

(Image credit: Apple)

macOS Catalina release date

Apple hosted its iPhone 11 event on September 10, but the show came and went with nary a mention of macOS 10.15. However, Apple’s macOS 10.15 Catalina page was updated with an “October 2019” release window. Apple didn’t share any more specific information about the release, so when it launched it took us all by surprise. 

Luckily, that does mean you can download macOS Catalina right now, as long as you have a compatible Mac. You might want to wait until the next update comes out, just to make sure that any critical bugs are squashed. We’ll update this hub as soon as we know a new update is live, but if you feel like living dangerously, go ahead and hit that download button. We’ll show you how. 

macOS Catalina compatibility

If you want to get your hands on the latest macOS update, you’re going to need to make sure your Mac actually supports it. Fortunately, if you already have macOS Mojave installed, you’ll likely be in the clear. Unless, of course, you circumvented Apple’s restrictions.

But, just to be on the safe side, we went ahead and listed every Mac with macOS 10.15 Catalina compatibility down below: 

• 12-inch MacBook (2015 and later)
• MacBook Air (2012 and later)
• MacBook Pro (2012 and later)
• Mac mini (2012 and later)
• iMac (2012 and later)
• iMac Pro (2017)
• Mac Pro (2013 and later)

Goodbye, iTunes – hello, Apple Music, Podcasts Books and TV

It’s official, iTunes is gone. From its ashes, however, rises a novel set of exciting apps for macOS: Apple Music, Apple TV, Apple Podcasts and Apple Books – and they’re going to be refined versions of those that already appear on iOS.

Apple Music gives macOS Catalina users access to their entire music libraries regardless of whether the tracks have been downloaded or are being streamed. This also houses music that’s been ripped from CDs, assimilated into the same libraries.

Apple TV, on the other hand, houses the app’s channels and offers more than 100,000 iTunes movies and TV shows available for you to browse, buy or rent. And, content will be available in 4K HDR video and Dolby Atmos audio wherever offered. Apple TV+ will also be accessed through this app as soon as the service rolls out later in the year.

Meanwhile, Apple Podcasts brings the service’s more than 700,000 podcasts, as well as new episode updates, to the Mac in a completely fresh interface. This version of the app also offers better search functions that can pull up episodes by hosts, guests or even discussion topics.

Last but not the least, Apple Books is home to all the audiobooks you can purchase, download and listen to. Much like the other new apps, it also features a familiar interface for anyone who is used to iTunes.

Worried about all your existing music and playlists, as well as iTunes gift cards and credit? Rest easy. All your music and playlists will be transferred over to the Apple Music app in macOS 10.15 Catalina. Plus, any iTunes gift cards or unspent iTunes credits are still valid to be used in these new apps.

In macOS 10.15 Catalina, the iTunes Store, which will be accessed through the Sidebar in the Apple Music app, can still be used to buy new music. And of course, you can subscribe to the Apple Music streaming service through the app as well – if you do, you can hide the iTunes Store for a cleaner, more minimalist interface.

(Image credit: Apple)

With iTunes making its exit, syncing devices in macOS Catalina is now handled by the Finder app. It can backup and sync those devices. According to Apple, it will also be easier to drag and drop files for quick transfers as well.

(Image credit: Apple)

Sidecar turns your iPad into another display

This is probably the most exciting update that macOS 10.15 Catalina offers: the capability to extend your Mac’s display to a nearby iPad, whether wired and wirelessly. A good amount of MacBook users are already iPad owners, so this essentially means that a substantial number of mobile workers just received a secondary display for free.

Probably even more importantly for designers, this connected iPad can also be utilized as a drawing tablet with various specifically supported apps. Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Illustrator and iWork are the first apps listed to support this capability.

We currently don’t have the official word on which iPad models will support the Sidecar feature. However, we can speculate that it’ll most likely be those models that can also run the new iPadOS, which is expected later this year as well.

Apple says that the following Mac apps will support Sidecar’s Apple Pencil input and other enhanced features:

• Adobe: After Effects, Illustrator, Premiere Pro
• Affinity Designer & Affinity Photo
• Cinema 4D
• CorelDRAW
• DaVinci Resolve
• Final Cut Pro & Motion
• Maya
• Painter
• Principle
• Sketch
• Substance Designer & Painter
• ZBrush

(Image credit: Apple)

Screen Time comes to macOS

One of Apple’s most impactful changes to iOS 12 was Screen Time, an app that tracks your iPhone or iPad usage time and offers insights into the trends. This time around, this capability will not only come to macOS with Catalina, but also offer a new “One more minute” feature, giving you more time to save your work or finish up a game.

This information will be synced across your other Apple devices as well, so that you have a complete profile of how often you stare at your collective screens, as well as get tips on what to do with that information. In addition, it will also include parental controls on time spent using a Mac, as well as with whom children are able to interact with on those devices.

(Image credit: Apple)

Project Catalyst

Thanks to Apple’s new Project Catalyst initiative, macOS 10.15 Catalina will soon be populated with a ton of iOS and iPadOS apps. There are a number of them available at launch, but the real promise of this initiative is that it opens up the floodgates for all kinds of apps to make it over to the Mac. 

For developers, it all seems to start with simply ticking off a box within the Xcode app in macOS 10.15 Catalina. A series of new features and protocols then become available to the app in the development phase, from which the developer can choose to add to their apps – presumably with additional yet lighter coding.

It seems to make the process more seamless and even faster, with even the likes of Twitter use the tool to more effortlessly bring its native app back to macOS from iOS.

Other fun improvements

Safari browser now has a new startup page that uses Siri Suggestions to surface commonly visited websites, bookmarks, iCloud tabs and more.

Mail now allows users to block messages from senders, mute message threads from issuing push notifications and send unsubscribe requests from within the app to mailing list providers.

Lastly, Reminders receives an overhaul in visual interface so that it will let users more easily create, keep track and organize their reminders.

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Smart TVs are so common it doesn’t feel necessary to add the ‘smart’ to them. You’d have to hunt high and low to find a new TV that doesn’t come with some form of smart capability or features built-in, whether that’s LG’s WebOS, Google’s Android TV that’s used on Sony and Hisense TVs, or Samsung’s Tizen.

Although the majority of these smart TV platforms function in the same way: giving you access to apps, streaming services and smart home functionality, each has its pros and cons. So, for that reason, we’ve put together this guide to the best smart TV platforms available right now – with the very best smart TV models of 2019 listed at the bottom of this article.

We’ve come a long way from the early days of smart TVs, which were marked by sub-standard performance, non-existent software updates, and a general lack of manufacturer support.

So what smart TV platforms are out there, what do they do, and how different are they from each other?

[Update: IFA 2019 is going to bring us loads of updates on new smart TVs and TechRadar will be live in Germany to cover all the news. Visit us again September 6-11 to get all the latest on the next generation of smart TVs.]

Smart TV FAQ: quick questions answered

• What can smart TVs do? Smart TVs are internet-connected televisions that stream shows, films, and programmes over the internet, alongside (or instead of) terrestrial broadcasts.
• What’s a “dumb” TV? A dumb TV is a set without smart capabilities or internet connection, though set-top boxes or streaming sticks can add those things in.
• What channels are on smart TVs? This varies between country, and also your TV manufacturer. UK viewers will get 12 HD channels and 60 standard channels through Freeview, with more available through entertainment packages like Sky Q.
• Do smart TVs have built-in Wi-Fi? No: you’ll need a home internet connection, either over ethernet (wired) or Wi-Fi (wireless).

Smart TV platforms: which is which?

In 2019, there are five main smart operating systems: Android TV, webOS, Tizen, Roku TV and SmartCast that are used by Sony, LG, Samsung, TCL and Vizio, respectively. In the UK, you’ll find that Philips also uses Android while Panasonic uses its own proprietary system called MyHomeScreen. 

The vast majority of TVs use one of the operating systems listed above – but not all TVs. At lower price points, you probably won’t find any of the above as most TV manufacturers offer a narrow proprietary service instead. These will vary between manufacturers, however, by and large, they’re not as good as the ones listed above for the sheer reason that they aren’t updated as frequently. 

When in doubt, try to buy one a TV with one of the above. 

That said, if you’re completely undecided on which smart TV to buy, it’s worth considering the value of each of these smart systems – which we’ll list below.

(Scale: Awful, Bad, OK, Good, Better, Best)

Android TV (found on 2019 Sony 4K and OLED TVs)

Setup: OK | Ease of use: Good | Speed: OK | Number of apps: Better | Universal search: Better

• Pros: Recommended content row. Clean layout.  
• Cons: Most builds are very buggy and prone to crashing. 

Android TV is the nearest the smart TV universe has to a standardized operating system, but there are still variations between brand executions.

Sony has the most comprehensive Google solution. For UK viewers, it has rather cleverly layered a YouView program guide platform on top, deftly addressing one of Android TV’s big weaknesses – catch-up TV provision. This YouView app ensures that all the main catch-up services are provided, and accessible via a roll-back 7-day EPG.

Other supporters of Android TV are Philips (via maker TP Vision) and in the US, Sharp and Hisense. It’s also available on the Nvidia Shield streaming device.   

While other TV platforms make a virtue of their minimalism, Android stacks the screen with various layers of content: There’s also a row of specific Sony selected content, followed by apps for Netflix, Amazon Video, links to the Google Play Store, Google Play Music, Google Play Movies and TV, YouTube and so on.

Owners of Android phones/tablets can use their device to control Android TVs via Sony’s TV SideView app, and Google Assistant continues to get more and more useful with its own Android TV integration.

Android TV devices also have Chromecast built-in, which simplifies streaming from mobile Android devices (iOS users can download the AirBuddy app to Google Cast). Controllers from Logitech and Razer also promise gaming without needing a console.

There is a caveat though. In our experience, Android is the least stable of the various smart platforms, with Sony TVs exhibiting more than their fair share of failures – it’s not unusual to be notified that various aspects of the Android platform have stopped working, and some of these messages are completely inscrutable (usually the best option is to simply restart the TV).

To be fair to Google, this is becoming less of an issue as successive Android TV updates roll out – the latest incarnation is particularly slick on the Nvidia Shield, for example – but there’s still room for improvement.

WebOS (found on 2019 LG OLED, Nano Cell and some UHD TVs)

Setup: OK | Ease of use: Good | Speed: Better | Number of apps: Good | Universal search: OK

• Pros: Alexa and Google Assistant integration. Fast to navigate.  
• Cons: No major flaws!

LG rewrote the rulebook for smart TV platforms with its webOS, starting the trend for minimal, simplified user interfaces back in 2014.

Since then it’s been gradually refining its offering, leading us to the all-new WebOS 4.5 that’s going to make its debut in 2019. 

The UI, which is still built around a Launch Bar for apps, inputs and features, remains tidy and customizable this year, plus you can change the running order to best suit how you use the set. If you like to Miracast images from your smartphone, grab the Screen Share app with LG’s cursor-based Magic Remote and move up further up the pecking order.

App support is also surprisingly good: Netflix streams in 4K with both HDR and Dolby Vision, as well as Dolby Atmos audio when available. There’s also Amazon with UHD HDR and YouTube in 4K. Other options include Now TV, Sky Store, Wuaki.TV, plus all the main channel catch-up services.

As we’ve seen on earlier webOS builds, these streaming apps remain open and live, even when you navigate away from them. This means you can pause Star Trek Discovery, browse the TV listings for The Walking Dead, and then return to the action.

Other cool features recently added to the platform include 360-degree video playback (from 360-degree videos on YouTube), support for both Google Assistant and Alexa, and an OLED still image gallery. LG TVs also have Freeview Play in the UK, which means a full larder of catch-up television. 

For US viewers, there’s Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and Google Play TV and Movies, as well as Hulu, VUDU, MLB.TV, and FandangoNow.

Tizen (found on Samsung 2019 QLED and NU-Series TVs)

Setup: Good | Ease of use: Good | Speed: Better | Number of apps: Bad | Universal search: Bad

• Pros: TV Plus offers free channels. Fast to navigate. 
• Cons: Universal search can be hit or miss. 

Samsung is another brand keen to keep things simple – its Tizen OS clearly owes much to LG’s webOS interface, in so much as it consists of icons, apps and shortcuts all accessible via icons held a horizontal strip across the bottom of the screen. A dynamically changing ‘Recent’ box in the far-left corner cycles between recently used apps and TV channels.

But it’s not overly intelligent as it stands right now, but that could change in the future when Samsung integrates its TV AI into Tizen.

For now, we like the fact that on-screen icons can be changed: a sense of identity is welcome when it comes to some AV inputs and key apps you use everyday. The OS cuts down on clutter, although this sometimes works against navigation – there are plenty of occasions when it’s necessary to go hunting for a specific app. Thankfully that’s made easier by a Smart Hub multimedia page that divvies up content from apps and from your own USB sticks/home network.

On some of the higher-end Samsung TVs, you’ll also get Bixby built-in as well as Samsung SmartThings that allows your TV to act as the center of your connected home.

Roku TV (found on 2019 TCL and Hisense TVs)

Setup: OK | Ease of use: Better | Speed: Better | Number of apps: Good | Universal search: Best

• Pros: Best universal search. Very easy to use. 
• Cons: Interface feels a bit plain in 2019.

Despite Android TV and all the proprietary portals available, there’s still room for other connected smart offerings. In Europe, Vestel has its own stripped back smart platform, which is used for TV companies it manufactures for, including Toshiba and JVC. It’s unfancy but does the basics.

In the US, TV maker Element now offers a screen with Amazon’s Fire TV OS built in.

But perhaps the most interesting second-division smart OS is Roku TV. 

Announced back in 2014 for TCL TVs, Roku TV has found support with low-cost US TV suppliers. Today, you can find Roku TV on quite a few Haier, Hisense, Insignia, Sharp and TCL TV models.

As a platform, Roku TV borrows the interface and feature set from the company’s popular media streamers, like the Roku Streaming Stick.

What that means is that you’ll find a universal search function able to scan over 30 different apps like Netflix, Google Play TV and Movies, Amazon, VUDU and more to find you the lowest price on the TV show or movie you want to watch, as well as around 4,500 channels of content to watch.

Add to that some neat features like a dedicated app that helps you keep track of upcoming movies and TV shows via the My Feed section, and a private listening mode (via headphones that plug into the remote) when you want to watch TV without disturbing the whole house.

SmartCast (found on 2019 Vizio TVs)

Setup: OK | Ease of use: OK | Speed: Bad | Number of apps: Good | Universal search: OK

• Pros: Has Google Chromecast built-in.  
• Cons: Slower than most other TV operating systems.

SmartCast, on paper, is a great idea. It’s all the fun extras of the Android TV platform – including the ability to Cast content to your screen – with a more logical layout. 

When you turn on a SmartCast TV be prepared to see three rows – one featured row that has huge marquee images to point you to specific shows or movies; one row for recommended content and one row for all your apps. 

If you want to drill down into specific content categories or settings, you can move to one of the other tabs (there’s a tab for movies, TV shows, Support and Extras) or go to the top right of the screen to perform a search.

Unfortunately, while SmartCast provides a lot of versatility in what you can stream, it’s also one of the slower smart platforms and can misbehave on occasion. 

MyHomeScreen (found on 2019 Panasonic TVs)

Setup: OK | Ease of use: Good | Speed: Better | Number of apps: OK | Universal search: OK

• Pros: Fast and responsive.  
• Cons: A bit plain.

If you live in the UK, Panasonic’s My Home Screen 2.0 is one of the most customizable smart TV platforms around. Built on the open-source code of Mozilla’s Firefox TV OS, Panasonic’s My Home Screen 2.0 smart TV interface combines an intuitive minimalism with extensive customization options.

The platform looks simple but has some inspired functionality: the home screen launches with three buttons (Live TV, Apps and Devices), but you can pin more as required, perhaps for a favorite streaming service, or a specific input. There are now also folders for multiple users, while a My App button on the remote can be customised for faster access to favourite content. A revamped Media Player supports 4K HDR10 and HLG HDR, meanwhile.

App provision on Panasonic TVs is good too. Netflix streams in 4K with HDR, and Amazon Video and YouTube also offer 4K support. Catch-up TV service support is integrated through the provision of Freeview Play. This includes iPlayer, ITVHub, Demand 5 and All4, and usability is great across the board.

The OS is extremely convenient to live with, yet powerful enough to cater for a variety of different users, be they family members who just want their favorite channels pinned to the home screen, or TV enthusiasts keen to dive quickly between multiple sources.

Amazon Fire TV (found on some Toshiba and Insignia TVs)

Setup: Good | Ease of use: Good | Speed: OK | Number of apps: OK | Universal search: OK

• Pros: Directly tied to Amazon Video
• Cons: Insignia and Toshiba TVs aren’t great

One of the lesser-known operating systems is Amazon Fire TV that comes installed on some TVs from Toshiba and Insignia. It’s more or less the same operating system that you’d find on Amazon’s Fire TV streaming dongle, but it’s conveniently built right into the TV – no dongle necessary.

The big problem here actually isn’t the operating system – which, by all logical measurements, is totally fine. It’s that the TV manufacturers Amazon has partnered with – Toshiba and Insignia – aren’t great, and usually put out the cheapest TVs in the American market. Some of these TVs are OK, but many (including the ones that use the Amazon Fire TV platform) aren’t. 

That’s something Toshiba is hoping to fix with it’s upcoming Amazon Fire TV Edition with Dolby Vision TV that was announced in June of 2019, but we’ll need to wait for review samples to know for sure how the latest software stacks up.

If you’re interested in the speed and versatility of Amazon’s smart TV platform, we recommend buying an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K instead.

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