Review: A look back, and a technology wish list for 2016

[...] a double tap of the home button on Samsung's newest phones instantly launches the camera, so you're less likely to miss that magical moment.

TiVo has a smart way to skip commercials and speed up video playback so that you can watch TV shows and movies in half the time.

Even though Dish's Sling TV offers ESPN over the Internet — Sony's PlayStation Vue will also do so soon — you can get it only as part of larger packages.

With lots more online viewing options, we need better ways to keep track of what to watch and when shows expire from streaming services.

Streaming TV devices from Apple, Roku, Amazon and Nvidia let you search multiple services at once to see what's available, but you don't have any way to add shows to a universal queue.

TiVo comes closest to offering a universal queue with its OnePass feature, but it has relatively few streaming TV apps.

Microsoft, for instance, made its Office apps for iPhones, iPads and Android before tackling its own Windows phone system.

[...] streaming devices made by Apple, Google and Amazon typically won't play video bought from each other, at least not without using a backdoor relay feature such as AirPlay.

Google Maps for Android and iPhones now works without an Internet connection, so long as you download mapping data ahead of time.