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We have a new developer beta for tvOS 18 — the software that runs on Apple TV devices — and with it comes our first look at a major new feature. Insight is Apple’s answer to Amazon Prime Video’s X-Ray, which provides quick and easy access to who’s in a scene, and what music may be playing underneath.
Aside from some basic user interface differences like fonts and design elements — Insight definitively looks and feels like Apple, and X-Ray retains Prime Video’s less-sleek motif — they basically work the same. While a movie or show is playing, you can pause or press down (the latter takes you straight to the info) to see thumbnails of the actors on screen, including their real name (or stage name, we suppose), and the character’s name. Click through one of the thumbnails and you’ll get more information about the actor, and easy links to other things they appear in, or have served in some other capacity. Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein, for example, has movie and series thumbnails, and he also has tiles for producing and writing.
And Apple is very smart about how it handles this. While all the related movie and series thumbnails are in the same style, where they take you depends on where the content is actually available. It might be something available on Amazon Prime Video, or Hulu, Plex – or some other platform that plays nicely with Apple’s TV app. (Presumably that means you won’t find any related content that’s only on Netflix, which remains a holdout.)
Insight also links you to music that’s playing on screen. Clicking into it doesn’t automatically open the song, but it does add it to a “Saved Songs” playlist in Apple Music. That’s nicely done.
The Insight feature is currently only available in the tvOS 18 developer beta, so those not living on the bleeding edge will have to wait a bit before it appears in the TV app on Apple TV hardware. And it’s always possible that things will be tweaked before now and then.
But so far, so good.
Phil spent the 2000s making newspapers with the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, the 2010s with Android Central and then the…
Crunchyroll now available on Amazon Prime Video Channels
Crunchyroll — one of the biggest streaming homes for all things anime — is now available on Amazon Prime Video Channels. Or, in other words, you can now subscribe to it via Amazon Prime Video and have Amazon handle all the billing.
There are a couple options that’ll get you the latest movies and series shortly after they’re released in Japan. The “Fan” plan costs $8 a month and gets you everything ad-free. There’s also a “Mega Fan” plan for $2 more a month that allows you to download videos for offline viewing. And Amazon says other non-video benefits will be added “shortly.” It didn’t say what those additional benefits would be.
Amazon Prime Video is adding advertising in early 2024
Amazon today announced that it will include “limited advertisements” in movies and shows starting in early 2024 in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada. Australia, France, Italy, Mexico, and Spain will follow later in the year.
If you don’t want to see that advertising, you’ll be able to get rid of it for an extra $3 a month, provided that you already are an Amazon Prime member. (Non-member pricing will be announced later, Amazon said.
The best drama series on Amazon Prime Video right now
A subscription to Amazon Prime offers a lot of perks, including access to some amazing shows you can stream via Amazon Prime Video. That collection features a wide variety of excellent series spanning many genres, with critically praised drama projects well-represented among them. The Prime Video library is always changing too, with new shows coming to Amazon all the time. From original shows you won’t find anywhere else to compelling programs that earned acclaim elsewhere, here are the best drama series on Amazon Prime Video.
If you’ve already burned through the Amazon Prime Video catalog and need more ideas, we’ve also put together a list of the best original series on Amazon Prime Video.
