Slash energy bills with new TV button coming to millions in surprise upgrade – and it solves common bedroom problem too
There's a similar feature for your iPhone that you may have missed
SWEET STREAMS Slash energy bills with new TV button coming to millions in surprise upgrade – and it solves common bedroom problem too
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GOOGLE is creating a clever button that could slash energy bills for millions of TV owners.
Telly sleuths have spotted early signs of the feature on Google TV – one of the most popular systems that powers televisions around the world.
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Google TV is one of the most popular ways to watch telly
Credit: Google
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You can get apps, games and telly via Google TV – and lots of televisions use it as their main system
Credit: Google
Google TV and Android TV are Google creations that serve as the "home" for your telly, serving up your apps and settings.
It regularly receives updates from Google adding new features to help improve your television – even after you've bought it.
Eagle-eyed gadget fans at Android Authority have dug into the test version for one of these updates, and uncovered a clever upgrade.
It lets you set up an advanced sleep timer for your telly so that it won't keep playing all through the night.
Falling asleep while watching telly is very common – even if what you're watching isn't boring.
Currently Android TV does offer a very basic sleep timer, but it's very hard to get to, buried deep inside your TV's energy settings. One clever shortcut is to ask the built-in Google Assistant to "turn off TV in X minutes".
But the new version will let you schedule sleep timers, add time to them, pause it, and even get notifications for when it's about to run down.
There's no word on exactly when the feature will arrive, but it would be very handy.
For a start, not having your TV running all night will save you money on energy bills.
It also means you'll get a more restful night's sleep.
First look at Google's new Android XR glasses with life-changing augmented reality
And you don't run the risk of something loud coming on the telly that wakes up your partner or other people at home too. So it may even help you dodge a few rows at home.
The Sun has asked Google for comment and will update this story with any response.
IPHONE SLEEP TIMERS
While you wait for that, there are some clever iPhone sleep timers to try too.
The first is built directly into the official Apple Podcasts app.
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You can easily set up a sleep timer for Podcasts
Credit: The Sun / Apple
Just go into it and start playing something.
Then look at the media playback screen in the app: you should see a small crescent moon icon in the bottom-right. It'll have three "z"s next to it.
Tap it and you'll be able to set up a sleep timer for that podcast.
You can choose times ranging from five minutes right up to an hour.
TRY YOUR IPHONE'S BUILT-IN SLEEP SOUNDS
Millions of iPhone models have built-in 'background sounds'...
They're there to help you get to sleep, or focus on work.
You'll find them in Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Visual > Background Sounds.
Tap on Sound and then choose one of the following: Balanced Noise
Bright Noise
Dark Noise
Ocean
Rain
Stream
Night
Fire
Then go to your Control Centre (swipe down from the top-right corner on a Face ID iPhone, or up from the bottom on a Home Button iPhone).
Go to the edit function and then you can add Background Sounds there as a shortcut.
Alternatively, try going to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut and choose Background Sounds.
Then when you triple-click the Side Button on your iPhone (the one for locking it), Background Sounds will begin playing. Do it again to shut Background Sounds off.
Picture Credit: The Sun / Apple
But the more useful option might be to choose When Episode Ends.
This will kill your podcast once the episode is over, which has the added benefit of meaning you won't sleep through a load of episodes that you wanted to listen to.
There's a very similar feature that works on music for your iPhone too.
It's built into the default iPhone Clock app, and you may well have missed it entirely.
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Apple lets you use its Clock app timers to stop music from playing after a certain amount of time
Credit: The Sun / Apple
This will let you shut off music after a certain amount of time.
So you could play peaceful rain sounds, for instance, and then have it shut off so it doesn't run all night.
This will save energy and hope give you a bit of peace too.
First, begin playing some music.
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You can also get Google TV by plugging in a streaming device
Credit: Google
Then go to the Clock app and head into the Timers tab.
Set a timer for a length of time – for instance, you could choose one hour.
Then on the button for When Timer Ends, don't choose a sound. Instead, scroll all the way to the very bottom.
Tap on the Stop Playing option and then start the timer.
Once it ends, the timer won't make a noise. It'll just switch your music off entirely. Handy.
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