Daily Authority: 📺 A Plex flex

🥕 Good morning! Good fun weird for you today if you keep on scrolling, thanks to carrots.

Plex gets good

I’m haven’t been a Plex guy because I only stream TV and movies like a filthy casual, and I feel like I gave over to the cloud a long time ago. But my colleagues all use it for streaming from services, and use it for their media servers as well, so it’s been overdue for me to try.

And, now, there’s a new update that might see Plex take off as a true mainstream killer app:

• Plex has added a new feature called Discovery to its app.
• It basically beats Google TV at being a universal search for content.
• It’s simple enough — Here’s how C. Scott Brown describes trying to watch the Bruce Willis classic Die Hard, if you’re not sure which platform it’s on:

“Within Plex, you’ll search for ‘Die Hard’ and it will show you a screen for that particular film. On that page, it will tell you where you can watch Die Hard with a preference for the services you subscribe to. If it is on a service you don’t subscribe to, it will tell you that as well.

The order for how services will show up for you is as follows:

1. Any private Plex media servers you have or are connected to.
2. Streaming platforms you subscribe to.
3. Streaming platforms you don’t subscribe to.”

• Not bad! The preferencing looks smart and helpful, and the only wonder I have is how Plex is keeping up as titles come and go.
• Google TV has this, as I said, but it’s not this good.

Also:

• Plex also has a new universal watch list that syncs across devices to keep an eye on content.
• The idea here is that if you think of something you might want to watch now or in the future, or perhaps is only out at theaters; add it to the watchlist, and Plex will keep tabs on it and when it’s available, it’ll pop up. Not bad.
• And, you don’t need to be a Plex Pass subscriber for these features, with the paid tier not required.

Of course, Plex isn’t the only option for media servers:

• Jellyfin and Emby are both popular options as well. And, sure, whatever works for you.
• But Plex just went from interesting-maybe-I-don’t-know to something I’ll be trying on the weekend.

Roundup

📁 Samsung might fix the Galaxy Z Fold line’s biggest problem this year: cameras that weren’t quite ultra (Android Authority).

📱 The Samsung Galaxy S22 FE, S23 series could have MediaTek power (Android Authority).

🍏 Apple iPhone SE (2022) review: The most affordable way to get iOS in your pocket is starting to feel extremely dated (Android Authority).

👉 Nine innovative but whacky LG features that never took off, poor LG (Android Authority).

🍎 Apple’s WWDC 2022 event scheduled for June 6, all-online format. June 6 is probably when iOS 16 will be out, too! (Apple).

👉 Microsoft held a Windows 11 event yesterday that was mostly focused on work, and also “hybrid work,” which it mentioned 23 times in its press release. Main things: File Explorer refresh (The Verge), better video calling(Engadget).

🐤 Twitter is working on an edit button for real, and has been for a while, by the way (TechCrunch).

🎮 Epic launches Unreal Engine 5: powering new games/movies/TV sets/YouTube videos (The Verge).

🚴‍♀️ VanMoof refreshes its e-bike lineup with the $3,000 S5 and A5, adding a useful torque-sensor, new UI, and more, plus a bit more on top of the price, too (Engadget).

🌎 IPCC report: The next few years are critical, and we’re not doing enough. It’s a massive report with many things to consider, but the fact that we absolutely need carbon capture and storage technology is alarming (Ars Technica).

👮‍♂️ Hydra, the world’s biggest cybercrime forum, shut down in police sting — was mostly a Russian language site (Ars Technica).

🚀 Amazon signs massive deal to launch its internet satellites, very deliberately avoids SpaceX (Gizmodo).

🐶 How dogs evolved puppy dog eyes: More human-like facial muscles for more expressions we can’t resist (Gizmodo).

🤔 “Do brands pay McDonald’s to include their toys in Happy Meals or do McDonald’s pay brands to use their toys in Happy Meals??” (r/nostupidquestions).

Weirdness Wednesday

I’m heading over to Fruit Logistica here in Berlin the moment I hit the send button today, but why not some love for the more humble vegetable? I mean, it was International Carrot Day on April 4.

Anyway, on that note:

• Cooking carrots makes them healthier! This isn’t always the case, but cooking carrots helps with absorbing beta-carotene, per a small sample study.
• And, in weirder outcomes, you really can turn yellow/orange from eating too many carrots.
• It’s not even that many: It seems like 5-6 medium to large carrots per day for an extended period of time will contribute enough to give you what’s spookily called Carotenosis.
• It seems like it’s benign, and you just …stop eating carrots and such to make it go away.
• Anyway, here are people on Reddit talking about it when they juiced too many carrots too many days in a row or whatever: “I had this a couple of years ago myself. I would make carrot drinks every day and I was juicing carrots. My hands and feet first turned orange and then my face, eventually. I stopped and it took me at least 4-6 months until I didn’t look orange at all.”
• Does it almost seem like this is a good/bad idea for a Halloween costume that no one knows?

Bonus weird: Pokemon Bread sales to reach 10 million (Korea Herald).

Cheers,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor