Technology

Disney today reiterated its commitment to expanding its sports streaming portfolio, with Disney boss Bob Chapek confirming that the company is bidding for the NFL Sunday Ticket. Disney also plans to innovate its product around sports-centric features and its still-vague metaverse plans. Chapek confirmed the NFL Sunday Ticket news in an interview with CNBC during which he discussed Disney’s first quarter earnings for fiscal 2022. Asked by CNBC’s Julia Boorstin whether securing the rights is part of Disney’s roadmap, Chapek responded, “we’re bidding for it.” If the investment creates value for Disney shareholders, he added, “we’ll go ahead and do it, but the moment that it’s not, we’ll back out. And we hope it is.” During the company’s earnings call, Chapek again hammered home that sports pr...

Apple HomeKit users are a patient bunch. The development of HomeKit compatible products has been a slow process, especially when compared to competing platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Home. Case in point, video doorbells. Arguably one of the most popular devices in the smart home, the doorbell camera category is woefully slim on options for Apple users. The new Belkin Wemo Video Doorbell is one of just a handful of currently available options for HomeKit users in the US, joining the Logitech Circle View and the Netatmo Smart Video Doorbell. (Arlo’s wired doorbell also works with HomeKit, but you need a $100 Arlo hub to get started). The $250 Belkin Wemo Video Doorbell is a fast and secure option, thanks to its tight integration with HomeKit and support for HomeKit Secure Video. It ha...

Horizon Forbidden West comes out on February 18th, and while Sony has spent the bulk of its time showcasing the upcoming open-world title on the powerful next-gen hardware of the PlayStation 5, the game is also coming out for the older PlayStation 4 lines of consoles. To prove it, developer Guerrilla Games has shown off a — extremely brief — preview of the game running on a vanilla PlayStation 4 for the first time. Since Horizon Forbidden West was first announced in June 2020, Guerrilla Games has almost exclusively shown footage of the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel on the PS5. A short blog post at the end of January showed off PS4 Pro clips, but base PS4 gameplay has been scarce until now (a scant nine days before release). The 22-second clip doesn’t give the best idea of how Forbidden West wil...

Stephen King’s Firestarter novel tells the story of a young family on the run from the US government as it attempts to capture them and better understand the superhuman mental abilities they all developed after being exposed to an experimental chemical. Universal and Blumhouse’s upcoming adaptation of the book is likely to hit many of the same notes found in the source material and in Mark L. Lester’s 1984 film of the same name. But the new Firestarter’s first trailer leads with an energy that feels decidedly rooted in 2022, and it’s difficult to say whether that’s a good thing or not. Firestarter revolves around haggard psychic dad Andy McGee (Zac Efron), whose ability to influence people’s minds in the novel appears to be reworked as telekinesis here, and his daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera...

Microsoft has announced a set of best practices called the Open App Store Principles for its Windows app store and future game console marketplaces. They amount to Microsoft directly promising not to do things that Google and particularly Apple have been accused of — like gaining unfair advantages over the developers that rely on their app stores. The principles are intended to allay fears about Microsoft’s recent Activision Blizzard acquisition and to distance the tech giant from two of its biggest rivals, whose app store restrictions have spurred lawsuits and legislation. Microsoft says the Open App Store Principles are “grounded in app store legislation being considered by governments around the world,” including the United States and European Union. “We want regulators and the public t...

Up to 40 of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites are expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and subsequently disintegrate due to a geomagnetic storm that hit last Friday. In its announcement, SpaceX said that the storm had warmed the atmosphere and increased its density, thus raising “atmospheric drag” by up to 50% higher than its previous launches. The 49 satellites in total had been launched on the Falcon 9 on February 3, only a day prior to the storm. While some deorbiting satellites may have already reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, SpaceX explained that the satellites don’t pose any collision risk, meaning that they won’t actually hit the planet’s surface. “The Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag—to effe...

The estates of Robin Williams and George Carlin have filed lawsuits accusing Pandora of streaming the late comedians’ jokes without the proper licenses. The suits are joined by complaints from Andrew Dice Clay, Ron White, and Bill Engvall, who also allege they weren’t given “a fraction of a penny” for their work as a result of Pandora’s “willful” wrongdoing. As explained by Puck, comedians are fighting for recognition of two copyrights on a comedic work: one for writing a joke and another for recording it. Companies have traditionally only purchased licenses for the recordings, not the jokes themselves. Puck points out that the argument streamers need both has never really been tested in court, so it’s not entirely clear if Pandora is in the wrong here (although the lawsuits allege Pandora...

Garmin’s back with yet another multisport smartwatch lineup. The Instinct 2 series is billed for “rugged individualists,” but this time there’s an interesting twist. The company says the solar models of the smartwatch can get unlimited battery life thanks to improvements in their solar technology. Garmin has been tinkering around with solar charging for a while now. It introduced the feature with the Fenix 6 Series and later expanded it to other watches, including the original Instinct. When it launched the flagship Fenix 7 Series last month, Garmin noted it had vastly improved the solar charging tech. Now it’s bringing those advances to its mid-range Instinct 2 series. That said, unlimited battery life is a bold claim — especially for a watch that’s catering to very active outdoor enthusi...

NBC’s Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was always a comedy with a pointed focus on celebrating Blackness while also illustrating how there is no singular way to be Black. Bel-Air, Peacock’s new single-cam reimagining of the series from filmmaker Morgan Cooper and Will Smith, exists in a similar narrative space as its predecessor with an updated story about a young knucklehead from West Philly whose mom ships him off to Los Angeles for his own good. But where the original show often felt like a fresh journey you were meant to be embarking on alongside a fictionalized Will Smith, the new series often plays like an uneven mythologization of its central figure that gets bogged down by the weight of its own presumed greatness. Before Bel-Air’s Will (Jabari Banks) has a chance to properly introduce himse...

Samsung’s Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and the S22 Ultra have been announced at the company’s Unpacked event. Each phone has a new design, with new components that put them ahead of 2021’s leading Android phones. As for the S22 Ultra, it absorbed the Galaxy Note’s coolest trick of having an S-Pen built-in. If you want to jump right into our hands-on coverage, you can check out our early impressions with the hardware right here or in the video below. Though, there’s a chance that you’re already sold on the improvements and changes made to this year’s lineup. If that’s the case, I’m going to get right to it and tell you how to preorder the S22 phones so you can get them on launch day. Order before 2/24 to get preorder bonuses No matter where you preorder a Samsung Galaxy S22 from, doing so before T...

In collaboration with Blue Microphones, Logitech for Creators launches its new video-focused talent search Up Next. The new online creators competition will award one aspiring online creator with £30,000 GBP (approx. $40,700 USD), a kitted-out home studio and mentoring from a creator judge. The tech brand started Logitech for Creators to support and encourage young creatives to pursue their online careers. After attracting a large community, it now turns its attention to those who are making streaming and video content. In a survey conducted by Logitech for Creators, the brand found nearly two-thirds of young adults would leave their careers if they could become a successful online creator. With this serving as the impetus for the competition, Logitech for Creators hopes the prize bundle w...

CASETiFY, the tech accessory brand known for its sustainable, protective cellphone cases, is launching a new collection with the Tokyo label, BlackEyePatch. The drop features two exclusive collections, “OG Label” and “Handle With Care,” borrowing BlackEyePatch’s mismatched sticker motif. CASETiFY is known for its eco-friendly approach to tech accessories. Using manufacturing scraps and plant-derived bio-plastics for its case moldings, CASETiFY upcycles old phone cases into high-impact armor used for various iPhone and Galaxy smartphones. BlackEyePatch x CASETiFY upgrades its phone casting with branded graphics, outfitted in red and black colorways, and features a variety of cases, grip stands, AirPod/AirPod Pro protectors, and a co-branded aluminum water bottle. “OG Label” features a monog...