Latest News

It’s likely that the phone you’re carrying in your pocket right now is so much more than ‘just a phone’. With the rise of new platforms and technological innovations, such as personal cinema visors, movie and TV streaming capabilities are now available right from the palm of your hand.

Our phones are no longer merely a device – they support our entire lifestyle.

We do everything on our phones now, from watching movies to catching up with the latest celeb gossip, scrolling through social media and staying in touch with our nearest and dearest.

However, when it comes to screening a movie from your mobile, how much do you actually know?

In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at some of the latest technology and how it makes our lives easier – in particular, tech-related to the personal cinema experience.

From making our commute a little less boring to letting us show off our ‘state of the art’ tech to friends, personal movie devices offer a lot of promise.

We wanted to understand what they can really do and take a look at one of the latest market entrants, the TCL smart glasses, set to launch in 2020.

Tech like this isn’t cheap – that’s why it’s so important to protect your gadgets and insure your phone with Gadget Cover. Get a quick quote today!

 

Step into the future with TCL

If you want to catch a glimpse of what the future holds, then look no further than Chinese manufacturer TCL’s latest plans to unveil a pair of premium glasses that allow you to screen movies from your phone, while providing the quality of a VR cinema viewing experience.

Their new prototype devices are informing the future direction of the streaming market.

The company also has huge new plans for shaping the way in which we will consume content on our mobiles over the next few years.

Right now, if you’re like most of the population, you probably enjoy your commute with the help of an ITV hub or Netflix app and a pair of decent headphones that allow you to stream your favourite TV shows through your mobile with no hassle.

And like most of us, you probably think that this is the height of sophistication when it comes to streaming movies from your phone – think again.

Sure, right now that is the most efficient way to stream movies and programmes. However, in recent months, TCL has unveiled a wearable display that gives you a personal cinema experience.

It’s essentially a pair of premium smart glasses that hover over your eyes with OLED displays that allow you to feel like you’re in the cinema. Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it?

 

TCL aren’t the only ones doing it

Although TCL have hit the headlines most recently, they’re not the only ones creating new smart glasses.

That is, ones that give you that ‘cinema experience’ whilst on your commute, in your bedroom or even just walking along the street.

Okay, the last example might be a little risky but you get the idea!

This new technology allows consumers to access their favourite movies and TV shows wherever they like and with amazing quality, too!

The other key market players are the likes of Sony, Avegant and Royole, whose offerings are a little more slick and sophisticated.

Whilst older models that came onto the market a year or so ago were quite clumpy and ugly, TCL has made a product that looks good that also delivers a great service – a win-win.

You can move around with the glasses quite comfortably and take them on the move wherever you want to go.

If you can put up with the strange looks from fellow commuters, these glasses are actually an incredible design.

The plus side? Amazing movie experiences with ease. Wherever you are, you can catch up on any show or movie you might have missed.

The company stipulates that they also won’t put you in danger as the glasses are semi-transparent, allowing you to still see what’s around you –  so you won’t be walking into lamp posts or ignoring the person sat beside you!

What are the downsides?

These glasses sound amazing, but are there any downsides? The semi-transparent nature of the glasses can be both a pro and a con.

At once, you’re aware of your surroundings but when you want to switch off fully from the world a semi-transparent glass makes that harder to do.

You can’t ever quite trick your brain into thinking that you’re really in the cinema which can be a downside when you’re paying a lot of money for a pair of glasses that make you feel like you are in front of a huge screen.

Of course, the weight of the glasses on your face could be distracting and switch you back into reality whenever you move. It’s easy enough to miss your stop without the added confusion of wearing cinema glasses!

 

How do they compare to Google Glass?

If you’re wondering how the TCL cinema glasses compare to the Google Glass, then you might be interested to know that even though Google is the market leader for a lot of tech, their glasses haven’t fared very well.

In fact, they’ve come under scrutiny over the years because of privacy concerns as well as their unusual looking frames that put a lot of consumers off. They got the nicknamed “Glassholes” which certainly didn’t help their reputation.

The TCL glasses are predicted to perform better because of their lightweight nature and the ability for the glasses to blend in more easily with normal, everyday life.

With the recently unveiled TCL, there are no cameras meaning increased privacy and the heavy battery that you can expect with Google Glass as the control pad isn’t built into the frame.

There’s just a screen for each eye that’s lightweight and easy to use.

 

What are the pros of Google Glass?

That’s not to say that Google Glass has no merit, however. When it comes to technology for its age, it certainly delivers.

However, other brands are creeping in and proving that Google shouldn’t be your one and only choice when it comes to streaming movies on your phone.

The good things about the Glass from Google is that they don’t look crazily dissimilar to normal glasses. However, when you compare them to newer models from other brands they can look a little ‘goofy’.

A strip of titanium stretches from ear to ear and the design looks a little too futuristic.

The fact that you don’t see these glasses around much is a testament for how the Google Glass trend came and went and didn’t really garner too much attention.

That being said, the ingenuity of the design for the time does shine through.

Like Google’s other products, the Google Glass is a market leader simply because it was one of the first and the tiny projector, processor, camera, battery and storage are incredibly packed into the design.

However, as competitor glasses have been released, they’ve created a slicker look for a lower cost, and Google Glass has fallen behind.

 

How to stream movies without glasses

If you don’t feel like investing in a pair of glasses that will give you that cinema feel, then you can still use apps like Netflix, BBC iPlayer and ITV hub to stream films and TV from your phone.

This is one of the many reasons that phones are so useful these days and much more sophisticated than they were.

As a result, more and more people look to insure their phone, so their investment (which they use every single day) is protected.

With mobile phone insurance, you can be sure to keep your device safe and protected whether you’re using it on your busy commute or at home to watch your favourite films and shows.

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular streaming services in the UK right now.

 

Netflix

With a user-friendly interface and an impressive selection of content catering to all manner of tastes, Netflix has been at the forefront of content streaming for a few years now.

Its experience is standardised across all platforms making streaming TV shows and movies on mobile a cinch. The platform’s adaptive streaming means that as you watch content, the quality gets better and better as more bandwidth becomes available.

Most content is available in HD at 1080p and 5.1 surround sound and some shows even in 4k, Dolby Vision and HDR.

There are also a number of outstanding series that have been exclusively funded and created by Netflix itself, a few of which have been incredibly well-received by viewers and fandoms – among them Stranger Things, House of Cards and Peaky Blinders.

Subscriptions start from £5.99/month

 

Now TV

Most have come to know Now TV due to it making the highly addictive Game of Thrones series available online in the UK, with avid viewers tuning in every week to get their dose of Westeros.

While it’s not a full HD service, and content only streams up to 720p, it’s quick to use, with episodes and films playing rapidly after they’ve been selected.

It also offers a great selection of all the latest Hollywood movies and a solid sports pay-per-view, which allows viewers to catch up on recent matches.

Its collection of TV shows is perhaps not as overly impressive as that of Netflix or Amazon, though it does carry heavy hitters like The Walking Dead. Like Netflix, it uses adaptive streaming.

It provides different passes, Cinema, Sports and Entertainment that start from between £7.99 and £9.99 a month.

 

Amazon Prime Video

These days, what isn’t Amazon involved in? Along with being an e-commerce and technology giant, it also threw its hat into the streaming ring to compete with the likes of Netflix.

It produces some fantastic original content and has made loads of deals for shows created abroad to be exclusively streamed on its platform. It subscription also comes as a handy extra with Amazon Prime.

Hollywood favourites are available to purchase or rent and streaming is available across all platforms including mobile (and you can download content to view it offline).

While the user experience may not have always been the best, it’s come on leaps and bounds in recent years.

 

Disney Life

While set to launch its own Netflix-worthy rival over the coming year – the highly-anticipated DisneyPlus – Disney’s current, kid-focused platform DisneyLife is excellent for keeping little ones entertained, especially if your family is going on a long road trip.

Alongside digital versions of its most acclaimed movies and TV series, the platform also features a huge library of ebooks and music, all for kids.

While not available across certain devices, the way the content is presented and organised is stellar and representative of Disney’s decades of experience in content creation.

Subscriptions start from £4.99/month

 

YouTube

There’s a reason that YouTube is one of the biggest search engines in the world – because it hosts almost everything!

One of the things to bear in mind with YouTube is that it doesn’t have the greatest user interface for finding and sorting its free movies, but once you know what playlists to look at you can navigate it pretty easily.

You can find free movies to watch on YouTube through playlists or through the simple search feature.

There might be other free movies on YouTube, too, that aren’t included in that playlist; but they will be featured by the production companies themselves.

All YouTube movies are likely to feature ads, but if you can get past that, you can get the app and stream movies from your phone pretty easily.

Insure your phone with Gadget Cover

Mobile phones have become an integral part of our lifestyles and with the ability to play movies with almost cinema-like quality, they are almost taking over laptops and TVs when it comes to meeting our digital needs.

Many of us would never leave home without a phone in our pocket. And, with TV and movie streaming now readily available, we’re even more keen to have our phones by our side, ready to fill any downtime.

These sophisticated, expensive devices that we carry with us every day need to be insured against accidental damage, loss, theft and more.

Remember, once you have signed a contract, you’ll need to keep on paying for your phone even if you lose or damage it!

Make sure that the mobile phone insurance policy you choose offers you all the cover you need. If that includes extra devices you need to mention that and be sure that it covers you.

Remember to check that your policy provides truly instant cover, whether there’s a limit on the number of claims you can make per year, and how much the excess is.

There’s nothing worse than going to claim on mobile phone insurance to find that you need to shell out a huge amount for excess first.

When searching for mobile phone cover, consider mobile phone insurance from Gadget Cover.

Benefits of being insured through us include:

• First month free on policies paid monthly
•  Unlimited claims
• Low excess
• Worldwide cover
• 14-day money back guarantee

Get a quote and insure your phone with quality cover today.