Tag Archives: Arts & Entertainment

Hulu Black Friday streaming deals include one year of the Disney+ Hulu bundle for $36

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Black Friday and the holidays are a time for rest, and there are few better ways to unwind and relax by binging a good show or a few movies. The Disney+ and Hulu bundle has a ton of good content, and right now it only costs $36 for a one-year subscription thanks to Black Friday streaming deals. In other words, it’s $3 a month, which is a far cry from its usual $11-per-month price tag. However, only new users or subscribers who canceled their plans at least a month ago are eligible to redeem this discount. If you have an existing Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+ or Disney Bundle subscription, the discount won’t apply.

This bundle with ads contains content from Disney+ and Hulu. The content is still the same as with ad-free plans, including movies and series like Deadpool & Wolverine, Frozen, Godmothered and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, the anticipated Star Wars series only on Disney+. If some of these newer shows aren’t to your liking, there are likely older classics worth your time in the library.

The deal will begin on November 27 and end on December 2. After 12 months, the subscription will renew at the regular price if automatic renewal is enabled. Disney+ is one of the best streaming services out there, focusing on providing family-friendly content but also with some more mature content. If you want even more adult-oriented shows and series, Hulu fits the bill. Both have original content as well.

There are a number of other Black Friday streaming deals available now as well. Key among them are discounts on one year of Peacock and six months of Max. Here are more details:

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/hulu-black-friday-streaming-deals-include-one-year-of-the-disney-hulu-bundle-for-36-140024466.html?src=rss

This Black Friday Meta Quest deal includes a free $75 gift card when you buy the Quest 3S

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It's hard to beat the promise of a big box for one-stop shopping. Target is one of my favorites if I just want to browse with no agenda, because I'll inevitably stumble on something fun or on sale. Or in the case of this Black Friday deal, both. Target is currently selling a Meta Quest 3S for $300, as is Amazon. That's the usual price tag for this virtual reality headset, but both retailers include a $75 gift card along with the tech (On Amazon, use the code QUEST75 to get it.) That covers a lot of impulse buys.

There's a lot to recommend the Meta Quest 3S for a virtual reality fan. In fact, it's our pick for the best budget VR set. Even if you're investing in a lower-range VR headset, you'll want to have plenty of software to run on it. The Quest 3S has a large app library and it can be used to stream games from a PC.

While some headsets can be unpleasant to wear for very long, reviewer Devindra Hardawar found that wasn't an issue with the Quest 3S. And although it has made some sacrifices on the screen and lenses to keep the costs down, this set still delivers a strong, immersive virtual reality experience.

The content included with any Quest headset purchase will help you get started in VR. Batman: Arkham Shadow is one of the most notable exclusive games for Meta's Quest 3 and Quest 3S, continuing the lineage of the Arkham game universe initially developed by Rocksteady Studios. You'll also get three months' subscription to the Meta Quest+ catalog of games. Keeping the subscription after the trial period will cost $8 a month. Or use that gift card and pick up a title to keep.

Check out all of the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/this-black-friday-meta-quest-deal-includes-a-free-75-gift-card-when-you-buy-the-quest-3s-115856500.html?src=rss

LinkedIn is killing the standalone live audio feature you probably forgot about

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Remember in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic when live audio was suddenly everywhere? The trend was made popular by the briefly viral phenomenon Clubhouse before seemingly every other online platform copied the feature for themselves.

Since then, live audio has become mostly a footnote to a weird time when we were all stuck at home at the same time with nothing to do and listening to hours-long streams of strangers talking to each other passed as entertainment. Now LinkedIn, which was somewhat late to the live audio party in 2022, has opted to get rid of its standalone live audio events.

In an update, the company says it will no longer support native audio events beginning next month. Users will stop being able to create new events as of December 2, and previously scheduled events will no longer work after December 31. Instead, the company is “bringing together” audio events with its live-streaming feature, LinkedIn Live. LinkedIn Live, however, requires creators to use third-party tools to set up streams. So while audio-only streams will still be able to exist on LinkedIn, they will take a few extra steps.

LinkedIn isn’t the only company to change course on live audio. Reddit, Facebook, Spotify and Amazon have all shuttered their pandemic-era live audio products.Even Clubhouse (which, yes, still exists) pivoted away from the format last year. The feature is, however going strong on X despite a few high-profile technical issues.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/linkedin-is-killing-the-standalone-live-audio-feature-you-probably-forgot-about-232705727.html?src=rss

Hackers breach Andrew Tate’s online ‘university,’ capturing data on 800,000 users

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Hackers breached an online course founded by far-right influencer, and accused human trafficker, Andrew Tate, according to reporting by Daily Dot. The hackers captured data on more than 800,000 users and revealed the email addresses of around 325,000 of them.

Tate’s self-proclaimed “online university” hosts courses on fitness, finance and content creation, all for the low price of $50 per month. The site currently claims it has over 113,000 active users, which translates to an estimated $5 million per month injected into Tate’s bank account. A source familiar with the breach told Daily Dot that Tate’s website is “hilariously insecure,” so the hack wasn’t difficult.

The unnamed hackers cite “hacktivism” as their motive, suggesting an issue with Tate’s particular brand of toxic discourse and his alleged propensity toward sex trafficking underage girls. To that end, they broke into the website in the middle of a livestream led by Tate, accessing the primary chatroom.

The hackers punctured the safe space of Tate's chatroom and uploaded emojis sure to upset the hyper-masculine influencer and his fans, like a transgender flag and a feminist fist. They also posted an AI-generated image of Tate draped in a rainbow flag. They even got a hold of admin controls and temporarily banned some users. The hackers also downloaded public and private chats made on the platform.

Daily Dot took a look at some of the acquired chat logs. They were filled with conversations about the “LGBTQ agenda” and, of course, “the matrix.” The publication shared the leaked email addresses with HaveIBeenPwned, a site that alerts users when they have been, well, pwned. Incidentally, this isn’t the first time Tate’s site was hacked this year. Back in July, over a million users and 22 million messages were exposed. 

Tate is currently facing five legal investigations in Romania and the UK. He is alleged to have sex trafficked and raped minors, as well as forming an organized crime group with the intent of sexually exploiting women. He denies all of the charges.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/hackers-breach-andrew-tates-online-university-capturing-data-on-800000-users-184800703.html?src=rss

Spotify expands its audiobook library via a deal with publisher Bloomsbury

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Spotify is expanding its audiobook selection thanks to a deal with publisher Bloomsbury, adding over 1,000 books from authors like Sarah J Maas, Alan Moore and Ann Patchett. The new titles are arriving just a day after Spotify introduced new tools for audiobooks, like playlists, visual accompaniments and a sleep timer. 

Some of the new audiobooks include fantasies for adults like Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke), award winners including Cuddy by Benjamin Myers and kids adventure books like Katherine Rundell's Impossible Creatures. The new collection also includes non-fiction titles by historians like Peter Frankopan and Want, an anthology collected by Gillian Anderson. Narration will be performed by high-end talent like Meryl Streep, Emilia Clarke, Adjoa Andoh, and Jamie Lee Curtis. 

Spotify started offering audiobooks in the US a year ago, with Premium subscribers gaining access to 15 hours of content per month (that can be topped up with an additional 10 hours for $12.99). With the average audiobook being about 8-12 hours, subscribers to the $11 Premium tier will be able to listen to about a book per month. Spotify said today that it has paid "hundreds of millions of dollars to publishers on an annualized basis." 

Bloomsbury already offers its audiobooks on Amazon's Audible, with many of the titles mentioned above already available on that platform (Want, Cuddy and others). Depending on the audiobook, it may be cheaper to just buy it outright than topping up your Spotify account, if want to listen to multiple titles in a month. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotify-expands-its-audiobook-library-via-a-deal-with-publisher-bloomsbury-130100585.html?src=rss

Spotify drops a bunch of new tools for audiobooks, including a sleep timer

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The Spotify audiobook experience has been lacking when compared to rivals like Audible, but it looks like that’s beginning to change. The streaming platform just announced a bevy of updates for audiobook listeners and some are downright useful.

Perhaps the biggest one for me is the addition of a sleep timer. Audiobooks are great for lulling people to sleep, but it sucks when you sleep through a hundred pages and can’t remember where you left off. The built-in sleep timer lets users set how long the content will play. This sleep timer already exists for podcasts and music.

Spotify users can also now make audiobook-specific playlists, helping people keep track of what they want to read or, uh, listen to. The platform says this tool will “help you keep your library organized” and that playlists will “be a place for you to aggregate the audiobooks on your reading list.” In addition to traditional playlists, the streamer will publish curated playlists from the audiobook editorial team.

There are new Countdown Pages, which are splash pages for forthcoming audiobooks. These let people save a book prior to the release date, making it easy to find once it actually comes out. Spotify says this feature can be used by authors, publishers, and narrators” to “help promote their upcoming titles ahead of launch.”

An author page.
Spotify

Speaking of promotions, Spotify’s new Author Pages display biographical information on specific writers and will allow perusal of their entire catalogs. This is in a pilot program for now, with only a “select number of authors” having access to the tool. There’s also a new video player specifically for audiobooks, that lets "select authors and publishers submit a short video about a specific title.” The platform likens this to a book’s jacket, offering a “taste of an audiobook before pressing play.”

Finally, some audiobooks are getting a follow-along feature. This is described as an “immersive visual experience” akin to a music video that displays illustrations, photos and graphics as the audiobook is being read. Look for this in the “extras” section of eligible audiobooks.

Last year, Spotify began offering 15 hours of audiobook listening to Premium subscribers. There’s also a subscription specifically for audiobooks that costs $10 per month that provides 15 hours of listening. The Premium subscription, however, costs $12 per month and adds ad-free music to the mix. It’s good to know that humanity’s collective musical output is worth $2 per month.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/spotify-drops-a-bunch-of-new-tools-for-audiobooks-including-a-sleep-timer-173327861.html?src=rss

William Shatner’s Captain Kirk returns one last time in an eight-minute short film

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William Shatner, who once sparred with Engadget over Twitter’s verification policy, has finally reprised his most famous role. Captain Kirk is back in the short film 765874 - Unification. This eight-minute story is live now on YouTube and follows the events of Star Trek: Generations, which was the last time Shatner donned his Starfleet uniform.

The short was made by a graphics company called OTOY, along with Paramount and Shatner himself. It technically exists to honor the 30th anniversary of Generations, but it also acts as a proper send-off to the first Star Trek captain.

Now it’s time to get into spoiler territory, for those who haven’t seen a 30-year-old movie. Captain Kirk is dead. He died on an uninhabited planet after trying to stop Malcolm McDowell from unleashing an extra-dimensional time ribbon called the Nexus on an unwitting solar system of innocent folks. You know the drill. It’s Star Trek!

Anyways, the short follows Kirk after dying on that planet. Is it the after-life or maybe the residual effects of the Nexus? We don’t know. There’s no dialogue to help us along. Instead, a de-aged Kirk, sometimes played by Sam Witwer, wanders an otherworldly realm until he eventually finds an old friend. It’s surprisingly touching, particularly for die-hard Trek fans.

The emotional depth is enhanced by the soundtrack, which is helmed by veteran Star Trek composer and MCU director Michael Giacchino. I knew it was him in like five seconds. The music reminded me of Lost, which was another show scored by Giacchino.

Barring some new life extension technology, this is likely the last time we’ll see Shatner’s Kirk. The man is 93 years old. Paul Wesley has stepped into Shatner’s space boots to portray a younger version of the captain on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Despite his advanced age, Shatner did manage to go to space a few years back.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/youtube/william-shatners-captain-kirk-returns-one-last-time-in-an-eight-minute-short-film-180607202.html?src=rss

Day of the Devs livestream will showcase indie titles a day before the Game Awards

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On December 12, The Game Awards will reveal some of the biggest upcoming games and honor the industry's achievements yet again. The day before it's set to take place, however, a Day of the Devs event will put a spotlight on indie developers and titles in a livestream that fans everywhere can watch online. This Game Awards Edition showcase will feature quite a lengthy list of developer partners, including Heart Machine, which is best known for 2D action role-playing game Hyper Light Drifter and Solar Ash, a 3D platformer set against a neon-colored landscape. 

Panic, the developer behind Untitled Goose Game, will also participate in the event, along with Annapurna, a publisher whose games include What Remains of Edith Finch. There's also Riffraff Games that debuted its first title, Sleight of Hand, a "noir stealth sim" game about a former occult detective who must track down and defeat her former coven earlier this year. The event will showcase 19 indie titles in all and will feature seven world premieres, title reveals and release date announcements throughout. Indie games fans can watch it on the official Game Awards YouTube and Twitch channels on December 11, starting at 9AM PT/12PM ET. 

The Game Awards recently announced this year's nominees, with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Astro Bot leading the pack with seven nominations each. Metaphor: ReFantazio, a fantasy Japanese RPG from the same team behind Persona 5, got six noms. Silent Hill 2 and the poker/roguelike game Balatro aren't far behind, each with five nominations. All of those games, aside from Silent Hill 2, are shortlisted for Game of the Year, along with Black Myth: Wukong and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/day-of-the-devs-livestream-will-showcase-indie-titles-a-day-before-the-game-awards-170002009.html?src=rss

Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 is coming in 2025

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Yesterday, at the Disney APAC Content Showcase in Singapore, the company revealed Volume 3 of Star Wars: Visions. This anthology of nine short animations from nine separate anime studios is set to release next year. In keeping with tradition from prior volumes, each studio is allowed considerable creative freedom and will likely produce shorts with distinctive art styles that fans will recognize instantly.

Based on the Star Wars website’s blog post, we can immediately see four returning studios: Kamikaze Douga, Kinema citrus Co., Production I.G and TRIGGER. These studios are responsible for anime adaptations of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Made in Abyss, Haikyu!! and Kill la Kill, respectively.

To improve the diversity of styles, Disney invited five new studios to create the remaining shorts. They are ANIMA (collaborating with Kamikaze Douga), David Production, Polygon Pictures, Project Studio Q and WIT Studio.

ANIMA is an animation studio specializing in 3D CG movies, and you may know it as the studio behind cutscenes from Xenoblade 3, certain Fire Emblem Heroes movies and Pokemon Unite. David Production animated Fire Force and Undead Unluck, among many other anime. Some Star Wars: The Clone Wars episodes and Tron: Uprising were Polygon Pictures’ work.

Project Studio Q is a less-known name, but it’s responsible for some 3D animation in DARLING in the FRANXX episodes. As for WIT Studio, it’s of Spy x Family and Attack on Titan (the first three seasons) fame.

With such a stacked roster of studios, Disney is sparing no expense on this anthology. The wait might be long, but Volumes 1 and 2 are still available on Disney+.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/star-wars-visions-volume-3-is-coming-in-2025-164557738.html?src=rss

Comcast is spinning out Rotten Tomatoes and cable networks into a separate company

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Comcast is spinning out Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango and a bunch of NBCUniversal (NBCU) cable networks into a separate company. That means USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel will soon have a new home. Comcast is hanging onto other NBCU operations, namely NBC, Peacock, film and TV studios, Telemundo and theme parks. Bravo is also sticking around to help keep feeding Peacock’s ever-hungry reality TV maw.

Comcast says the new entity will be a “tax-free spin-off” and the step is "expected to be accretive to revenue growth at Comcast and approximately neutral to Comcast’s leverage position." In other words, it's to do with money — and perhaps laying the groundwork for further consolidation between major media companies. The spun-out properties pulled in around $7 billion between them over the last year or so, while their future parent will still have a partnership with NBCU. Comcast is aiming to complete the transition within the next year.

In its press release, Comcast calls the spin-off company "SpinCo," which is a placeholder and surely won't be the business' actual name. After all, having "SpinCo" as their parent company's moniker wouldn't exactly be great optics for CNBC and MSNBC journalists. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/comcast-is-spinning-out-rotten-tomatoes-and-cable-networks-into-a-separate-company-151153285.html?src=rss