When I mentioned earlier that I wouldn’t be surprised if the One UI 5 Beta went live in the US over the weekend, I didn’t have a hunch or any proof, only that Samsung announced and then pulled a news post saying as much. And well, they can re-post that if they want to because the One UI 5 Beta has indeed gone live in the US for the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, and Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Who wants it? Let’s talk about how to get One UI 5 up and running on your phone.

How to download One UI 5 on your Galaxy S22

For those interested in testing out beta software, you can register and then update to One UI 5 and Android 13 on your Galaxy S22 phone right now. All you need to do is head into the Samsung Members app, swipe through the cards at the top until you see the image below, tap on it, then follow the instructions to get registered.

Once you have registered, Samsung will let you know that it may take a few minutes before the download will be available. You’ll check for the update by heading into Settings>Software update>Download and install. For me, the update was there almost immediately. If you don’t see it right away, give it a few minutes and then try again.

The update weighs in at 2.8GB, has the August Android security patch, and will come with a version number of S901U1UEU2ZVH4 on the Galaxy S22, S906U1UEU2ZVH4 on the Galaxy S22+, and S908U1UEU2ZVH4 on the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

For the full feature list, you will be presented with it at the time of download. The list is massive and we’ve captured it here.

Let us know what you are finding that’s worth sharing!

Want to hear something cool on this beautiful Friday? Your Google TV might soon get free live TV. Yeah, seriously.

Google has apparently been building out live TV into the Google TV platform for some time, but only recently has evidence arrived suggesting it may be around the corner. The evidence also reveals that Google plans to start with 50 channels, none of which you’ll have to pay for.

The report comes from a look inside the code of a recently updated Android TV launcher app by 9to5Google, who found the full list of Google TV channels as well as promo text to inform users of the new freebie.

Should Google launch this soon, you could see a “Enjoy 50 channels of live TV without the need to subscribe, sign-up, or download,” message. The most important parts there surround that section about no “need to subscribe, sign-up, or download.” The idea is that Google TV will feature these free channels, likely with the “Live” tab in the Google TV UI. This is currently where your YouTube TV, Pluto TV, or Philo subscriptions live, assuming you are a subscriber.

As for the 50 Google TV channels, the full list can be found below.

Google TV Free Live Channels List

Confused at this idea? This isn’t a new feature for the world of TV. In fact, Samsung offers Samsung TV Plus to its smart TV owners for free, with a list of 200+ channels. The content is all free to view with advertisements and is more than likely a similar style of offering that Google will do here.

This feature has not yet been announced by Google, but it sure seems like we’re getting close.

Owning a whole bunch of content seems like an awesome problem to have until you try to monetize it all in ways that make a “viable business.” That part in quotes seems to be the key takeaway from this week’s big news in the media space. Warner Bros. Discovery announced during their latest earnings call that they’ll need to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ to get to business viability.

From this report out of Variety, it sounds like Warner wants to slow churn, which is basically subscribers coming and going frequently. By combining the two networks, they might be able to then offer a single subscription that gets the whole family to not want to cancel. That would mean all of HBO’s movies and originals under the same roof as flippin’ and fixin’ up homes in 34 different styles.

We have no idea what the name of this new service will be or how much Warner will decide to charge for it, but we know it’ll happen in the summer of 2023. You have a year left to enjoy HBO Max as it is, without the Gaines’ and the Magnolia Network being further forced into your brains.

Currently, HBO Max has two subscription options, a $14.99/mo plan with no ads and a $9.99/mo plan with ads. Discovery+ has similar options priced at $6.99/mo and $4.99/mo, respectively.

Apologies for my tone here, it’s just that the world of streaming went from being, “Hey, à la carte TV is awesome!” to media companies realizing that was never a “viable business” and going back to the way it always was, by just combining it all into one bloated package full of stuff we don’t want.