A look back, and a technology wish list for 2016

This past year brought lots of new products, services and features — including a few that even managed to improve everyday life.

For instance, 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.

But there’s plenty more for tech companies to do. Here’s a wish list for 2016:

Pick and choose online television

In 2015, HBO and Showtime freed themselves from traditional television shackles. Both now offer app subscriptions directly to consumers – with no cable or satellite TV service required.

It’s a start, but lots of worthy channels, including ESPN, remain locked up in packages filled with channels not everyone wants. 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. I’d love to get AMC, ABC Family and Comedy Central as stand-alone subscriptions, for instance.

Managing your shows

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. Instead, you have to go to Netflix to see your list of flagged shows on that service, HBO to see its list, and so on. It’s