STACK #184 Feb 2020

LIFE TECH FEATURE

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The mantra of the home entertainment revolution was, ‘Watch what you want, when you want!”The rise of the smartphone has since eliminated the ‘home’ from entertainment and added ‘WHERE’ you want. These indispensable devices are a cinema andTV in the palm of your hand. Words Adam Colby NOW SHOWING ON YOUR SMARTPHONE

SCREEN RESOLUTION: If you’re a stickler for Full HD, models like the Samsung Galaxy S9, the Apple iPhone X and the Google Pixel 2 XL can handle 1080p video resolution, while many older models will give you 720p, which is still preferable to SD. Remember though, if you’re streaming in HD, you’ll be rapidly chewing through your allocated data usage if you’re not connected to Wi-Fi. Some SVoD apps will detect if you’re using a mobile network and automatically switch to lower video resolution. AUDIO: While the in-built speakers in today’s smartphones will get the job done for private viewing, a good set of wireless headphones or earbuds will deliver a more immersive, surround-like experience. Moreover, they will eliminate upsetting your fellow commuters when Samuel L. Jackson starts shouting “motherf–er” in the Tarantino movie you’re watching.

TELCO FEATURE

DISCRETION: The above audio advice

I t’s truly a great time to be alive for the film and TV buff, not only for the diversity of content that’s readily available, but also the ability to access it wherever and whenever. Watching movies and TV shows on the go is one of the best innovations since videocassettes first crept into our homes, and a large percentage of viewers – especially younger ones – are now watching as much television and film content on their smartphones as on their 65” flatscreens – perhaps more. Of course The Lord of the Rings or The Avengers should be seen on the biggest screens possible, and when the question is raised of why you’d want to watch them on a smartphone, the simple answer is BECAUSE YOU CAN! And there are numerous delights in watching movies outside of their established spheres. The stress and impatience that arises when discovering your flight has been delayed by five hours can now be assuaged with a viewing of Martin Scorsese’s epic The Irishman , or bingeing multiple episodes of The Mandalorian . There’s also the novelty factor of watching Jaws at the beach, Flying High at an airport, or Train to Busan on a railway journey (sans zombies, of course). Most smartphones running iOS or Android can stream the content you desire, as a majority of Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) and Free- to-Air (FTA) catch-up services offer live streaming apps for viewing on the go. It’s simply a matter of downloading and installing the relevant app, logging into your desired SVoD or FTA account, selecting what you want to watch, and pressing play. [Some SVoD services will also let you download content to watch offline, but this can quickly fill up your mobile's storage capacity.] However, before you embrace your phone’s ability to transform into a portable cinema or television network, there are a few important things to consider:

also applies to the visual medium. When viewing on the go, always be mindful of who might be watching over your shoulder. If it’s something R-rated or features confronting content (remember there are lots of boobs in Game of Thrones as well as dragons), choose something more sedate, or a discreet position that shields the screen from rubberneckers.

BATTERY LIFE: Watching a three-hour movie or a good chunk of a TV season will inevitably drain your battery. Many modern smartphones provide specs on how long the battery will last, but if you’re on a long haul trip, a portable charger is recommended to eliminate any sudden and unwanted cliffhangers.

SCREEN SIZE: Obviously bigger is better. With the standard television aspect ratio now 16:9, smartphones have followed suit and a horizontal flip lets you watch in widescreen. However, some older and smaller models may still feature 4:3 framing, which will create a letterboxed effect.

GET SMART A phone hidden in a shoe with a removable sole allowing access to the handset is the kind of gadget James Bond would reject, but it proved invaluable to secret agent Maxwell Smart (played by Don Adams on TV and Steve Carell in the

ZOOLANDER Early mobile phones were as big as a brick, only to gradually decrease in size as technology advanced – regardless of the fact that the distance between the mouth and ear remained constant. The matchbox-like mobile used by Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) is a hilarious reminder that size does matter.

DICK TRACY Detective Dick Tracy is synonymous

with his two-way wrist radio – developed by a billionaire

industrialist, of course – which he’s been using to communicate since its first use in the eponymous syndicated comic strip in 1946. Today it’s called a smartwatch, and everybody has or wants one.

2008 movie). With the TV series airing in the late 1960s, this could well be considered the very first Smart- phone!

54 FEBRUARY 2020

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