Next TV appreciates Black Friday for its brutal, black-hearted honesty – it doesn’t try to sell itself as a holiday revolving around tradition, giving, good food, compassion and spirituality.
It is what it is – all it, consumerism and late-stage capitalism.
And this year we are there. Not quite there. But enough for five great deals on streaming gadgets and services worthy of the busy, modern media consumer.
How about a little more digital storage space for all those streaming apps? How about a little more processing power for all that 4K you’ve been streaming? How about a little break in that monthly subscription bill that now exceeds what you originally spent on pay TV?
just close your eyes Give them your credit card number. The expiry date. The three-digit code on the back of the card. And your address. They will ship it to you in an oversized box full of packaging materials that will be there long after you die. Hopefully it doesn’t get stolen from your front door before you can claim your grand purchase prize.
Happy Black Friday!
Apple TV 4K (2nd generation 2021 release, 32GB model) – $80
In May 2021, Apple released the first major update in four years to its pricey Apple TV 4K device, drawing rave reviews from tech pubs.
The second-generation Apple TV 4K featured a Siri remote that was praised for its elegance and ease of use, a powerful A12 Bionic semiconductor, and digital storage allocations (32GB and 64GB models) that are four times larger than the average streaming Device.
The problem with Streaming Gadgets’ Cadillac has always been its price, with an MSRP of $180 for the base 32GB model.
Apple lowered that hurdle significantly in October with the launch of the third-generation Apple TV 4K — priced at $129, it offers 50% faster processing speeds than the Gen 2 model and uses 30% less power with the A15 Bionic chip . It supports HDR10+, Dolby Atmos, Dolby Digital 7.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and includes the more popular USB-C charging interface. Notably, the base model includes 64GB of storage.
Still, the second-generation 32GB Apple TV 4K device remains more robust than 99% of the streaming devices on the market today.
And it’s available on Amazon (opens in new tab) and Walmart.com (opens in new tab) for under $80 this Black Friday.
Roku Ultra 2022 – $70
Back in May, Roku began bundling its high-end ultra streaming box with its $99.99 rechargeable Roku Voice Remote Pro.
Introduced two years ago as a standalone accessory, Next TV simply enjoyed the Voice Remote Pro for the USB-C charging capability. The device used to get stuck in the sofa cushions or our untrainable, lazy but cute Labrador/Pitbull Bohdi lay on it. The buttons would be accidentally activated. And we would have to constantly replace AAA batteries.
Roku’s latest Ultra device comes with a quad-core processor, 4GB of SSD storage (spacious by Roku standards), Dolby Vision, 4K, HDR10+ and Dolby Atmos support, and the best Wi-Fi around -Reception technology equipped that you can get from Roku.
This Black Friday you can find this bundle on Amazon for $70 (opens in new tab) 30% savings with free Prime shipping.
Samsung 85-inch 4K Crystal UHD Class Smart TV
When it comes to Black Friday, let’s just say Future Plc.’s old North American B2B division, home of Next TV, just dabbles in business. It’s our sister pubs in the UK, inclusive Tom’s guidewho have the real search authority here and offer dozens of great buying options just for the smart tv category alone.
Visit Tom’s guide One item caught our eye this morning – Samsung’s 85-inch 4K Crystal UHD-class Smart TV powered by Tizen TVOS, available today on Walmart.com (opens in new tab) for $998.
Samsung is a prestige manufacturer – even its cheaper devices have excellent picture quality. And you’ll be hard pressed to find a better deal for such a large 4K display.
Hulu (Basic with Ads) – $1.99 per month for one year
The just-deceased Disney CEO Bob Chapek certainly took his lumps this week, but we here at it Next TV had great respect for its entire streaming strategy, unsustainably high as it ultimately could have been for shareholders and the Disney board.
That included the hard-to-find tonal distinction between Hulu and Disney Plus. This year in particular, we’ve been enjoying a steady diet of limited-edition adult-focused biographical drama on Hulu – Intoxicated, Under the banner from heaven, Pam & Tommy, pistol, The Dropout, mike
The acting in gloomy mini-series included The old man and The patient was top of the class, as were the comedic performances in the second season of Only murders in the building. (And we haven’t watched yet The story of the maidwhich says nothing good about us.)
We hooked up too Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers just to see how many times Jeanie Buss’ sentences started with “My dad always…”.
Suffice it to say, we got about as much value out of our Hulu subscription as the more expensive monthly bills from Netflix or HBO Max.
Hulu is offering for Black Friday (opens in new tab) its $7.99 basic service at $1.99 per month for 12 months. You must see some advertising. And it doesn’t look like the deal will carry over into the Disney Bundle.
But that’s a hell of a price to pay for a streaming service that always seems to have the goods. Hopefully Bob Iger doesn’t change that.
HBO Max (with ads) – $1.99 per month for three months
As Next TV Feeling the bite of global inflation and poor career choices, we find fewer and fewer reasons to pay $14.99 a month for HBO Max in the David Zaslav era.
Zaslav told us what he’s skipping from HBO Max for tax write-offs and gun dealers are shows we won’t miss. But we seem to be noticing this endless source of new hit series debuting throughout 2021 – Chop, Mare by Easttown, The White Lotus – suddenly ran dry. (Although we are currently enjoying Season 2 of The White Lotus.)
Sure, we could try to save with the $9.99 ad-subsidized HBO Max tier… and risk the wrath of commercial loathing Mrs. Next TV, and her brutal profanity fueled tirades that often wake up the neighbors and might even provide Susie Essman with character notes. (What can we say? We married strong.)
But with HBO Max offering its ad tier for $1.99 a month for three months (opens in new tab)? Shoot. Maybe we need to consider living in the kennel for a while.
