Netflix is giving its TV user interface a major overhaul. Alongside a fresh, cleaner look, you'll see recommendations that adapt to your activity as Netflix tries to better gauge what you might be in the mood to watch. The company plans to roll out the update over the coming weeks and months. It seems that the aim here, as has long been a goal for Netflix, is to help you find something you want to watch faster. That way, you won't spend an eternity scrolling through the various options while struggling to figure out what to start streaming.

The DIY smart home and home security specialists at Abode Systems have released their first Apple TV app, along with an upgraded version of the company's existing Android TV app. The new software promises to make it easier for Abode users to control their self-installed systems from their couch, using their TV or set-top box remote. The company already has apps for smartphones, smart watches, computers, and tablets. Users will be able to manage their security system and control their smart devices (lights, thermostat, from the Abode dashboard, but the primary attraction will be the ability to view live feeds from up to four Abode security cameras and/or video doorbells on their connected TVs. You can also watch recorded clips, and with AC-powered cameras that have 24/7 recording enabled (more on this in a bit), you can scrub back and forth along a 10-day timeline and jump to specific events.

X just announced a smart TV app for streaming video. Or, more accurately, that it claims it's building one, with absolutely no launch date mentioned. The appropriately-named X TV wants to be "your go-to companion for a high-quality, immersive entertainment experience on a larger screen." By high-quality entertainment, X likely means that one Tucker Carlson video where he's really impressed by grocery carts in Russia. Carlson is featured prominently in the little teaser video.

You know, the first one you see when you turn on the Apple TV set-top box, which alerts you to the latest movies available for rent, TV shows to purchase and the like? Apple sees a bigger future for the app, as a launchpad for a new entertainment service, and a place where folks can subscribe to other subscription services, like HBO and Showtime. This week the company unveiled a new line of iMac computers and iPads, as well as an update to its popular AirPods bluetooth earbuds, to clear the deck and get all the focus on entertainment. Is Apple about to challenge the leaders in streaming? Monday, Apple is expected to sneak peek a new $9.99 monthly entertainment subscription service, offering series and movies from the likes of Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Brie Larson.

Apple TV has grown up a lot since its iTV days. It's not just for iTunes rentals anymore--Apple TV handles just about anything we watch, from House of Cards to Game of Thrones and Major League Baseball games, and now that includes 4K content. Since Apple opened up its tiny streaming box to developers, it's gone from fun to indispensable. With an extensive library of apps, Siri support, and a drop-dead simple interface, Apple TV is one of the underrated players in Apple's lineup. Just like all those years ago, it's still the device that "completes the story" of Apple's entertainment ecosystem, and even without some of the bells and whistles of its competitors, Apple TV is still one of the best streaming boxes you can buy--from SD to HD to brilliant 4K.

And just as we've seen over the past few years, more cord-cutting means more new streaming services, along with better devices on which to watch. Here's the best of everything that cord-cutting had to offer this year: Roku's Streaming Stick isn't the first 4K HDR device to hit $70--that honor went to Google's Chromecast Ultra last year--but it's by far the best value. The Streaming Stick combines Roku's fast and simple interface with a new remote that includes handy buttons for TV volume and power. Unless you feel like spending more than double on an Apple TV 4K or Nvidia Shield TV, this is the UltraHD streamer to get. Calling the Nvidia Shield TV a platform might not be fair, since it's based on the same Android TV software as several other smart TVs and streaming boxes.

That's $110 more than several other 4K HDR streaming devices, including the Roku Streaming Stick, Fire TV, and Chromecast Ultra, all of which do a decent job of playing much of the same content. But just like the regular Apple TV, which remains available for $149, the Apple TV 4K nails the little details in ways its competitors often don't. Its apps are universally best-in-breed, its voice search is speedy and sophisticated, and its home screen is refreshingly free of advertisements. The fact that Apple's streaming box is the only one to support Dolby Vision--a proprietary enhancement over the HDR-10 standard--is just icing. Those small details--and Apple TV 4K's ability to perform as a HomeKit-based smart home hub, a feature this review will not focus on--don't add up to a better value, but they do make for a superior streaming box if you're willing to pay a stiff premium.

The new Apple TV 4K adds support for 4K video (naturally) as well as HDR, or High Dynamic Range, making for a significant upgrade to a product Apple once called a "hobby." The 4K resolution offers four times the pixels of the current 1080p HD model, while HDR provides a greater range of richer colors with supported titles and TV sets. Orders begin Sept. 15, and it ships starting Sept. 22. Customers who've purchased HD movies will receive upgrades in their iTunes libraries to corresponding 4K versions at no additional cost, and new titles in 4K will be sold at the same price as HD versions. Apple said that it's working with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to bring their 4K libraries to Apple TV.

Its venerable phone line wasn't the only newly minted product Apple showed off at the iPhone 8 event on Tuesday. Eddie Cue announced onstage that the company will expand availability of its TV app to seven new countries by the end of the year and will be adding local news and sports programming as well. The TV app will be available in Australia and Canada next month, the spread to Germany, France, Sweden, Norway and the UK by the end of the year. US sports fans (that is, those that live in the country), will be able to track their favorite teams and have Apple TV push an on-screen notification whenever a game starts. By the end of the year, Apple also announced that users will be able to ask Siri directly to switch to a game.

Facebook may launch its own smart-home gadget to get you messaging more friends and looking at more photos. DigiTimes reports from Taiwan that Facebook is building a 15-inch touch-screen smart speaker. Citing sources from the "upstream supply chain," Chinese iPhone manufacturer Pegatron is building the device for a Q1 2018 launch, with a small pilot run having already been produced. It's said to have been designed by Facebook's secretive new hardware lab Building 8, using an LG in-cell touch screen with a magnesium-aluminum-alloy chassis. While no further details are known about the speaker's functionality, it could potentially extend Facebook's feed of photos and videos, plus its dominant messaging platform, into the bedroom, living room or kitchen.