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This week on The CultCast: SEE, Morning Show, For all Mankind—here are our reviews of Apple’s new TV shows—spoiler free! Plus: the one part of AppleTV+ that needs a total overhaul; and Apple’s new HomePod update includes a new hidden talent.

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On the show this week

@erfon / @lkahney / @lewiswallace

This week's stories

Apple TV+ blesses us with highest-quality 4K streams

• Apple’s new service streams the highest-quality 4K content yet. Better than all the rest.
• That’s according to new tests that measure the bitrate of video streams. They reveal See has the highest bitrate so far, closely following by The Elephant Queen.
• See’s average bitrate of 29 Mbps, which can peak to 41 Mbps, is the highest measured so far. The Elephant Queen averages around 26 Mbps, while Dickinson peaks at around 24 Mbps.

Opinion: The worst part of Apple TV+ is the TV app

• The idea of the TV app, introduced in 2016, was to combine all the TV shows and movies from all of the apps and unify the viewing experience into a single interface, with a combined Up Next queue.

How to play relaxing, ambient sounds with your HomePod

• How about a nice, relaxing rainstorm to help you fall asleep? Or some white noise to fill the space left by your grownup children when they left you behind to start their own lives? If you have a HomePod running iOS 13.2 or later, your smart speaker stands ready to help blank out the soul-bleeding silence of your empty life. You just need to ask.