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Senators ask Comcast to open all its WiFi hotspots to students
Senators have called on Comcast to open up all its Xfinity WiFi hotspots to low-income students, not just those in public spaces.
Comcast and Verizon extend no-disconnect pledge through June 30th
Comcast and Verizon have extended their promise to suspend internet and wireless disconnections through June 30th.
Comcast’s X1 TV remote can now ping your missing Tile fobs
Comcast customers can ring their lost stuff.
Comcast, Verizon make some on-demand viewing free
Comcast and Verizon (Engadget's parent company) have been scrambling to help people stay online during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now they're giving customer more to do with that access. On Comcast, subscribers with Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex now have preview access to on-demand videos from several premium TV networks and streaming services for at least 30 days. Epix and Showtime are the highlights if you're looking for pure entertainment, but there's also CuriosityStream (for 60 days), History Vault, Kids Room, The Great Courses Signature Collection and The Reading Corner to keep your family educated, while DOGTV and Grokker respectively provide pet programming and exercise.
Comcast suspends data caps, makes Xfinity WiFi free for 60 days
Yesterday Comcast and AT&T were among ISPs announced some relaxed policies to help people suddenly stuck at home due to countermeasures taken in the fight against COVID-19. Today, along with an announcement that wireless carriers are suspending cancellations and expanding access, Comcast, the largest ISP in the US, followed up with a slew of new policies that will be in effect for the next 60 days to help people stay connected. For the time being, it's suspending the data plan that capped bandwidth usage at 1TB per month, and it's opening access to Xfinity WiFi for free to everyone. The Internet Essentials program for low-income families that costs $9.95 per month will be free to new subscribers for the first two months, and it has also committed to no disconnects or late fees.
CBS All Access is coming to Xfinity X1 and Flex set-top boxes
If you're an Xfinity subscriber, you'll soon have another way to watch Star Trek: Picard when it premiers later this month. Comcast says it's adding CBS All Access to its Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex boxes later this year. The telecom and ViacomCBS announced the move as part of a renewed content carriage agreement that allows Comcast to continue transmitting 23 CBS-owned stations in 15 markets across the US.
Xfinity is giving its customers free network security monitoring
At CES last year, Comcast announced a feature for its Xfinity internet customers called Advanced Security. It's a $6-per-month service that helps keep your home network more secure by keeping people away from phishing sites, blocking malicious traffic incoming from bad sites or any misbehaving smart home devices, monitoring devices on your network for unusual behaviors and more. It's been out for about a year now, and Comcast is making one big change today: It's now free for all Xfinity customers using one of the company's home "Gateway" router / cable modem devices.
Comcast revives 'E.T.' to hawk cable and internet service
Tech companies often like to mine nostalgia for a few quick bucks, but Comcast is probably pushing that emotional exploitation a little too far. The telecom has posted a short film that reunites E.T.'s namesake alien with human pal Elliott to pitch Xfinity internet and TV service. Yes, it's exactly as cheesy and manipulative as it sounds -- it shows E.T.'s comic struggle to adapt to tablets, voice remotes and VR (complete with that music), and basically rehashes major themes of the 1982 movie in the space of four minutes.
Xfinity’s parental controls offer more precise scheduling for internet use
Comcast and its Xfinity brand have put a lot of attention behind the company's xFi internet management services in recent years, offering parents a pretty comprehensive set of tools to manage how much time family members spend online. One of those tools is scheduling a "bedtime mode" which takes a family member's devices offline. While handy, it's a pretty limited feature, letting you pick an offline time for weeknights and a different one for weekends. Today, though, xFi's scheduling features are getting a big upgrade: users can add up to 30 individual "downtime" sessions into each user's profile, giving parents far more granular controls over when their kids (or themselves) can access the internet.
Comcast Xfinity internet customers just got a free speed boost
Comcast's internet speeds just got a lot faster. In what is expected to be a nationwide upgrade, the company has deployed free downstream speed boosts in cities within its West division -- namely Oregon and Washington.
Xfinity internet-only customers now get the Flex streaming platform for free
As of today, Comcast will provide its internet-only customers with its streaming TV service Xfinity Flex at no additional cost. Xfinity Flex, which is essentially a streaming device and platform, launched in March and originally cost $5 per month. Now, Comcast is waiving the fee, and all internet-only customers will have access to the 10,000 free movies and TV shows that Xfinity Flex offers.
Altice adds a $20 mobile plan to its cable service
Yet another US cable provider is attempting to shake up the wireless market by launching a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). This time, it's Altice with Altice Mobile and a $20 plan that is unprecedented in the US market. The plan includes unlimited data alongside unlimited nationwide talk and text. It also features unlimited video streaming at 480p and international roaming in 35 countries.
NBC's ultra-specific sports streaming comes to Xfinity X1 and Flex
You'd think Comcast would have rushed to add NBC Sports Gold's niche sports streaming to its media platforms given that it owns NBC, but not so -- it's just adding the service now. As of September 3rd, customers with Xfinity X1 or Xfinity Flex set-tops can finally use Sports Gold to watch ad-free (and sometimes live) events that often get short shrift on conventional sports channels. Consider this a catch-all for Xfinity cable customers who aren't satisfied with their existing options.
Comcast's Xfinity suffering nationwide outage
Comcast's Xfinity internet service appears to be down in regions across the US, according to Down Detector, tweets from multiple users and one of Engadget's editors. Service is either completely dead or only working partially in major parts of the northwest, California, New York state, Illinois, Michigan, Texas and Florida, according to Down Detector.
Comcast built an eye-control remote to help users with movement issues
in an attempt to improve the accessibility of its services, Comcast announced today the launch of a feature that will allow users to control their television using only their eyes. The Xfinity X1 eye control will give Comcast customers the ability to do things like change the channel, set up recordings, search for a specific show and more just by moving their eyes. The feature is free and accessible through xfin.tv/access.
FTC will examine privacy policies at major internet providers
Just because American internet providers are facing looser privacy regulations doesn't mean they're avoiding all scrutiny. The Federal Trade Commission has ordered AT&T, Comcast, Google Fiber, T-Mobile and Verizon (Engadget's parent company) to hand over information on their privacy policies and practices as part of an investigation. Now that these ISPs are "vertically integrated" companies that provide ad-supported content in addition to broadband, the FTC wants to better understand their approaches to privacy and prevent "unfair and deceptive" behavior.
Comcast launches Xfinity Flex internet streaming TV
Comcast's latest bundle isn't a cable TV service, exactly, since it's aimed at the increasing number of subscribers who only have internet. Xfinity Flex will tie together paid internet video services as well as free ad-supported options in what VP Matt Strauss called a "unified experience, similar to what we've done on X1." Xfinity Flex costs $5 per month (in addition to the internet service customers already have) for access and comes with a 4K and HDR-ready wireless set-top box with an X1 voice remote. It's scheduled to launch March 26th, and will be available to customers who have Comcast internet.
Xfinity Mobile PINs were left as '0000' by default
Comcast is a media and telecoms conglomerate that made close to $28 billion in the last three months of 2018. You would think that a company of that size, and wealth, would be able to avoid a security blunder akin to making all default passwords "password." Alas, according to The Washington Post, the company allowed its customers Xfinity Mobile accounts to be hijacked because the default PIN was... "0000."
Xfinity is using AI to keep your home network secure
Unless you spent 2018 under a rock, you'll know that security and privacy were two of the biggest challenges facing the technology industry. That affects companies like Google and Facebook, of course, but Comcast has also been paying attention to what it can do to keep its internet customers safer online. To that end, the company is announcing Xfinity xFi Advanced Security, an AI-powered service that monitors a customer's network for threats both incoming and outgoing.
YouTube 4K support arrives on Comcast X1 boxes
If you have a compatible Comcast Xfinity X1 setup, you might be pleased to learn you can watch YouTube videos in 4K resolution through your cable box starting today. Netflix and (as of this month) Amazon Prime Video were already available on X1 in 4K, so it's nice to see support for ultra high-resolution on YouTube, which has a large library of 4K videos.
