Disney+ has a secret weapon that isn’t being talked about enough – BGR

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As streaming video providers like Netflix increasingly replace the cable packages that consumers used to rely on for the majority of TV and movie content they enjoy, variations between the respective streamers become more and more important. To the extent that most of us in the media, for example, often fall back on ranking them on the basis of which provider has which show and what you can watch where.

That’s certainly important, especially with new arrivals coming onto the scene like Apple TV+ and Disney+, both of which are launching in November and are using the makeup of their respective catalogs to reel in subscribers.

However, there’s one aspect of all this competition between existing and forthcoming streamers that isn’t talked about enough or certainly on the par with the exclusive content they’ll all carry — and that is what the experience will be like encountering their respective user interfaces. Something that it sounds like Disney+ may finally get mostly right, based on early reports, compared to the services that are out there now.

Disney+ is already being talked up plenty as finally offering Netflix a real run for its money. Not hard to see the point there, based on the massive pile of content Disney+ will exclusively host from beloved brands like Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. Indeed, the entertainment giant over the weekend teased a ton of new movies and shows coming to its streaming service, including the much-anticipated series The Mandalorian that’s set within the Star Wars universe and looks utterly fantastic:

Here’s the thing though. Put aside everything you’ve read about the Disney+ content for a moment. Because based on some initial reviews from reporters who’ve played around with an early version of the Disney+ app, it seems that the service also has a secret weapon that may delight users and keep them happily tied to it. We’re talking, of course, about a simple, clean user experience.

 

Again, all of which is to reiterate that in addition to the strength of its content, Disney+ has a chance to pull ahead of the streaming pack on the basis of its app’s user interface — the kind of thing that needs to be a simple, intuitive, clean experience so users can more quickly get to the content they love. “As a principle, we wanted a simple, elegant experience,” Disney’s streaming services president Michael Paull told The Verge about the forthcoming service and app. “We want to make this easy. We don’t want the product to get in the way of the content.”

The bottom line, according to early takes on the app, is that it seems to have done that, presenting an uncluttered app that makes it easy to find new content, sorts what you love, and highlights important titles without being intrusive. We’ll see what users think when the service finally launches on November 12.

If you want to see where the iPad is going, all you really have to do is take a look at where the iPhone is today. Ever since Apple released the iPad back in 2010, the popular tablet has routinely adopted features originally introduced on the iPhone a year or two earlier.

Well now, the tables may have turned. A new report from The Elec relays that Apple’s iPad Pro model in 2020 will incorporate time-of-flight camera sensors that will able to more ably determine how far away a given object in a room is. If this sounds familiar, it’s because reputed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo previously claimed that the iPhone in 2020 would receive the same feature.

The report further states that Apple’s 2020 iPad Pro will be released in March. If true, and assuming the rumors regarding the aforementioned time-of-flight sensor are true, the iPad Pro would adopt the feature a full 6 months before the iPhone. This is a bit unusual, but Apple has deviated from established trends before.

As to the benefits of time-of-flight sensors, it would enable future iOS devices to offer up better photos, enhanced 3D mapping, and of course, huge improvements with respect to Augmented Reality functionality.

Of course, and as with most Apple rumors, this should all be taken with a grain of salt, especially when discussing products that are still many months removed from hitting store shelves.

While it remains to be seen what Apple’s 2020 iPad Pro brings to the table, we’ll likely have a new iPad to enjoy far sooner. Earlier this month, a report emerged claiming that Apple is planning to release a 10.2-inch iPad this coming September. Though not official yet, it’s widely assumed that the new iPad with a 10.2-inch display will serve as a replacement for the 9.7-inch model.

With Apple’s upcoming media event unofficially slated for September 10, it stands to reason that we’ll know in just about two weeks time what type of hardware we can expect to see from Apple before the end of the year.