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ESPN today announced a redesign of its Apple TV app that brings live streaming auto-play and ESPN Video On Demand to Apple’s fourth-generation set-top box. In addition, the app has been rebranded from WatchESPN to simply “the ESPN app.”

With live streaming auto-play, users will be able to jump right into the network’s stream of sports content with a live video playing immediately when authenticated users launch the app. The new Video On Demand feature will stockpile a collection of user-specific, curated videos that can be browsed and watched at any time, including content from World Series of Poker, X Games, Outside the Lines, and more.

• Live Streaming Auto-Play: Upon launching the app, a live stream of one of ESPN’s networks will now automatically play for authenticated users.
• ESPN Video On Demand: A new collection of curated on-demand videos including hundreds of hours of additional content from 30 for 30, E:60, Outside the Lines, SC Featured, World Series of Poker, X Games and more.
• Sleeker, Simpler User Interface: In addition to visual graphic enhancements to Featured content, users can also browse videos by Sports & Events or Channels.

All of the new features are housed in a new UI that boasts “graphic enhancements” to the app’s featured content, as well as tweaks to the way videos can be browsed, including search by sport, event, or channel.

“From replays to full episodes of on-demand content prior to their telecast premieres, ESPN’s tvOS app is now so much more than our live streaming networks,” said Ryan Spoon, senior vice president of digital product, design and audience development, ESPN. “With this latest update, authenticated users now have the full benefit of engaging with a wide range of live and on-demand video content from the very first click into what is now the ESPN App on Apple TV.”

ESPN is launching the new app today, ahead of the premiere of its new multiplatform original series “We the Fans.” On April 9, four episodes of the eight-episode show will stream exclusively on ESPN’s suite of mobile and tv-based apps two days before premiering on cable.

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Danish hearing aid company GN Hearing today announced the newest iteration of its IoT hearing aid solution, called the ReSound LiNX 3D, as well as new apps for the iPhone and Apple Watch.

The major update to GN’s new hearing care solution is a way for users to get their hearing aids remotely fine-tuned by their audiologist after an initial fitting at their local clinic, through a cloud-based infrastructure called ReSound Smart Fit. The original ReSound LiNX allowed users to adjust their own settings on the fly, but now they can request assistance wherever they are directly from the mobile app, and their doctor can make all the adjustments necessary “to provide a better hearing experience for the user.”

ReSound LiNX 3D is the only device with complete remote fine-tuning capabilities that allows users to stay in touch with their hearing care professional wherever they are, receiving hearing care and getting new settings via the cloud without having to schedule and travel for a clinic appointment. The unique cloud integration enables hearing care professionals to stay connected with users no matter where they are.

Users will be able to share feedback about any hearing difficulty as the situation occurs, rather than trying to remember how to describe it during an adjustment visit to the clinic. Hearing care professionals will have the freedom to offer follow-up services remotely – saving time for both hearing care professionals and users, and creating opportunities for even higher user satisfaction.

The ReSound LiNX 3D includes GN Hearing’s 5th generation 2.4 GHz wireless technology and 3rd generation binaural directionality, providing users with “clear, natural sound, exceptional speech understanding and the best sense of where sounds are coming from.” The company said that the hearing aid’s advantages lie in both quiet and speech-only situations, as well as times when surrounding sounds are loud and the aid optimizes audibility of speaking voices.

The original ReSound LiNX launched with a unique 2.4 GHz protocol as well, developed in careful conjunction with Apple as a way to create a specific link between the hearing aid and iPhone devices. This technology enabled the first LiNX — and now the new LiNX 3D — to support a smarter system that could turn off and on quickly to save battery life, as well as geofencing abilities to intelligently detect where a user is and adapt to the corresponding new environment change with no intervention from the user.

When connected to the new apps on iPhone and Apple Watch, users will be able to access custom control features for the hearing aid, built-in guidance steps to understand the hardware and software, and coaching assistance to get the most out of the system. When compared to competitors, the company said that the ReSound LiNX 3D and companion app are up to 50 percent better at identifying speech across various environments, enable users to hear up to 80 percent more of the sounds around them, and enable users to understand up to 40 percent more speech in noise.

GN Hearing will launch the ReSound LiNX 3D, as well as a hearing aid with similar features under its sister brand Beltone, around the world later in 2017. No more information was given in today’s announcement, but the company encouraged anyone interested to keep track of announcements surrounding the ReSound LiNX 3D by visiting its website.

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