If you cant get your kids to sit through one of the five NBA games airing on Christmas Day, tune into Disney+, ESPN+ or ESPN2 for a special Disney-fied version. ESPN announced that it will air a Dunk the Halls broadcast of the San Antonio Spurs versus the New York Knicks featuring animated Disney characters. The broadcast starts at 12PM eastern. If you just want to watch the game played by regular, boring humans, that will also air on Disney+ and ESPN+ as well as ABC and ESPN. Dunk the Halls wil

Smaller battery packs are great for refiling phones and tablets, but if you need to keep a laptop juiced up while youre far from an outlet, youll need something larger. For this guide, we tested portable chargers with at least a 20,000mAh (74Wh) capacity, but kept the upper limit below 27,000mAh (99Wh), since thats about the maximum size allowed by the TSA in carry-on luggage. Some laptop power banks sport extra features like wireless charging or an AC plug so you can power small devices such as

The holidays are approaching, and you may be scrambling to figure out what you should get dad for the occasion. If youre shopping for a father whos into consumer tech, though, we can help. Below, weve consulted our many hours of gadget testing and put together a list of standout gift ideas, from VR headsets to pizza ovens to meat thermometers. Best gifts for dads in 2024 Check out the rest of our gift ideas here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/best-gifts

If youre one of the people out there making calls with Metas Messenger app, its latest update adds a bunch of new features for making video and audio calls, according to the official Meta blog . When you make a video call, you can add an AI-generated background to your screen by tapping on the effects icon in the sidebar and selecting Backgrounds. So instead of showing your friends and family your grungy apartment or your car that you havent cleaned out since you bought it, you can replace the b

The battle over who will get all of Xs users now that its an utter cesspool continues. Threads just began rolling out its own custom feeds feature to compete with rival Bluesky. Custom feeds have long been a hallmark of Bluesky and now Threads users can get in on the action. Meta announced it was testing custom feeds just last week , so those tests must have been successful. Its either that or they want to stall Blueskys continuing momentum . Simply put, the feature allows users to pin topic-bas

Sony offered a sneak peek at its PlayStation Black Friday deals, which start on Friday. In addition to some (currently nebulous) deals on hardware and games, the sale will include up to 30 percent off PlayStation Plus memberships. The deals will run from November 22 through December 2. PlayStation Plus subscriptions will be up to 30 percent off for a 12-month membership. If youre already a PS Plus Essential Member, you can save 25 percent on the remainder of your plan when upgrading to PlayStati

You don't have to look too hard to find Black Friday deals on Apple devices. For one thing, the Apple Watch Series 10 has dropped to a new all-time-low price on Amazon. The wearable can be yours for $330. That's $70 off, or a discount of 17 percent. That price is for the smaller 42mm model without LTE functionality. However, the 46mm variant is also $70 off at $359 . The Apple Watch Series 10 is our pick for the best smartwatch overall, but it's probably best to look at other options if you're a

Microsoft has announced a long-anticipated feature for Xbox Cloud Gaming. Starting today, you'll be able to stream select games that you own on TVs and Meta Quest VR headsets, as well as supported browsers on phones, tablets and PCs in every country where Xbox Cloud Gaming is available. Microsoft plans to expand the feature to Xbox consoles and the Windows Xbox app next year. You'll still need to be an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member to use this feature, but it means that you're no longer limited

William Shatner, who once sparred with Engadget over Twitters 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

Apple Black Friday deals have started popping up , and this is your chance to grab a new iPad for much less than usual. Our top pick for the best iPad for those on a budget, the 10th-gen iPad has dropped to $280, which is a record low and a $70 discount. The 10th-gen iPad is only slightly thicker and heavier than the iPad Air. It looks similar to the iPad Air, too the tablet no longer has the Home button that its predecessor did, and it has a bigger screen with smaller bezels. The device is pow

While the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale events are arguably the best times of the year to pick up most gadgets, theyre also a great time to save on subscriptions and services you may already have or that youve been wanting to try. Whether its an audiobook service like Audible, a VPN service like ExpressVPN or an online learning subscription like Masterclass, you can typically find good subscription deals during this time of the year. Many of them also make it pretty easy to give a subscript

Black Friday deals have arrived for Samsung smartphones, and now you can get a few of our favorites for a few hundred dollars less than usual. The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is currently down to $950 from $1,300. The Ultra came out in early 2024 and quickly became our choice for best premium Android phone . It scored an 89 in our review thanks to features like its long battery life we often had over 50 percent left after 24 hours. It has a titanium frame and a 6.8-inch OLED panel that peaks at 2,

Amazon just surprise-dropped the Echo Show 21 , a massive smart display with all kinds of bells and whistles. As the name suggests, this device boasts a 21-inch screen. Its also wall-mountable, just like the pre-existing Echo Show 15 . The display boasts a 1080p resolution, which wont be winning any awards, but the audio quality looks to be much-improved from previous models. The Echo Show 21 should be capable of delivering immersive sound, double the bass and room adaption technology. The camer

Weve tested scores of speakers over the years, and the best ones have made their way into three of our buying guides: soundbars , portable speakers and smart speakers . Right now Black Friday sales are already underway, bringing notable discounts to a few of our top picks. Amazon's says its Black Friday deals will start in earnest November 21, and we expect other retailers to follow suit. That means there will be far more Bluetooth speakers, smart speakers, and soundbars on sale at that point a

Square Enix is plunging deeper into the Final Fantasy 14 goldmine with a mobile spin-off. There's no release window for Final Fantasy 14 Mobile as yet, but playtests will soon get underway in China, followed by a global launch soon after. Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida said in a video that developer Lightspeed Studios is working to faithfully recreate the story, duties, battle content and other aspects of the original game. It seems that duties is a reference to the jobs sy

The stream of new video games seemingly never ends but, for some of us, nothing beats the classics. If you dont feel like hunting through eBay and local game shops for old cartridges to add to your loved ones collection, weve got some other gift ideas for the nostalgic gamer in your life from video upscalers for old consoles to retro-themed books and artwork. Best retro gaming gifts for 2024 FAQs Why do people buy retro games? Because theyre fun! Or because video game companies have generally h

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 Drift

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 websites blog post , we can immediately see four returning studios

Apple Black Friday deals have arrived, at least on MacBooks. Were seeing some decent discounts on M-series laptops right now, including the relatively budget-friendly M2 MacBook Air . That notebook with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage has dropped to $749 thanks to various discounts and clippable coupons at Amazon. The regular price is $1,000, so this is a discount of 25 percent. This model easily made our list of the best MacBooks , even with the presence of the newer M3 MacBook Air . Here are

The DJI Osmo Mobile 6 gimbal is on sale via Amazon for just $89 , as part of an early Black Friday deal. This knocks 36 percent off the price and represents a record low for the camera-stabilizing device. For the uninitiated, this product keeps a steady lock on smartphones so as to provide smooth camera and video footage. The Osmo Mobile 6 is a step up from its predecessors in nearly every way. It features a newly-designed handle thats more comfortable to hold and a larger clamp to accommodate a

Were still a week out from Black Friday, but several of the better TV sales we expect to see during the big day are already available. If youre looking to upgrade your living room over the holidays, weve dug through reviews and checked price histories to find the Black Friday TV deals that are actually worth checking out. Right now, those include high-end OLEDs and budget LEDs alike from Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL. As in recent years, a few of those manufacturers kicked off their Black F

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 Peacocks ever-hungry reality TV maw. Comcast says the new entity will be a tax-free spin-off and the step is

This time of year has a lot of merry and bright things to be excited about, but it can be stressful if youre stumped on what to get your mom, dad, best friend, coworker or kids teacher as a holiday gift. Whether you enjoy or dread buying gifts for people, its safe to say we all want to give our loved ones things they will enjoy and appreciate. But theres a lot of noise, junk and bad deals disguised as good deals to sift through as we get closer and closer to the holidays. Allow us at Engadget to

Black Friday is usually a good time to restock on video games and gaming gear at a discount, and this year should be no exception. If youre looking to pad out your backlog, pick up a new console or refresh your desktop with new peripherals, were rounding up the Black Friday gaming deals that are most worth your attention below. To be candid, the selection as of Wednesday morning is fairly light we expect tons more discounts to pop up Thursday and Friday, after Amazon , Best Buy , PlayStation an

Ooni is discounting all of its ovens and accessories by 20 percent as part of a Black Friday deal. This sweeping sale means you can snag one of our two top choices for a home pizza oven. If you're looking to splurge, the Ooni Karu 16 Multi-Fuel pizza oven is available for $519, down from its typical price tag of $799. We appreciate that this model can use wood, charcoal or gas to sizzle up your slices, plus it has a built-in digital thermometer and can fit up to a 16-inch pie. If you'd rather no

Strinova is a third-person hero shooter coming out this week, and its recent closed beta functioned more like an open beta despite the label. Its anime art style caught my eye, so I decided to register and try it out. While this hero shooter had much in common with others in the genre, I thoroughly enjoyed the new mechanics it introduced. This new third-person shooter from iDreamSky has elements players of Counter-Strike 2, Overwatch and Valorant will find familiar, such as game modes and Agent

Black Friday deals have come for Blink security devices, including the new-this-year Blink Mini 2 . You can snag a two pack of the updated, wired security cameras for only $35, which is half off and $5 less than you'd usually pay for just one of them. Thats a record low and cheap enough to qualify as a stocking stuffer . There are a bunch of other Blink devices on sale right now as well, including the Blink Video Doorbell , which is also half off and down to $30. The compact security camera has

A MasterClass subscription is perhaps one of the best gifts you can get for yourself if you love learning new things or honing your skills, and it will now cost you up to 50 percent off. The website is holding a pre-Black Friday sale, so this is your chance to sign up at a discount if you find its regular rates a bit steep. MasterClass' Standard subscription, which allows you to access its content on one device, will cost you $7 a month instead of $10. If you want to watch classes offline, thoug

Apple has rolled out updates for its operating systems, which come with security fixes for vulnerabilities that may have already been used to target its customers. The updates are now available for Macs , iPhones, iPads, the Vision Pro and the Safari browser. In its notes, Apple revealed that the security patches will fix bugs affecting WebKit, the rendering engine Safari uses, and JavaScriptCore, which runs JavaScript code on macOS and iOS devices. If JavaScriptCore is fooled into processing ma

Boses most recent QuietComfort headphones have dropped to $199 for Black Friday, bringing the over-ear cans down to a record-low price. With this 43-percent discount, you can get a pair of headphones with excellent active noise cancellation for a fraction of their usual price. And whether youre eyeing them for yourself or for someone else as a gift, you have seven colors to choose from. A version of these cans made our list of the best wireless headphones , so theres plenty to recommend. The bat

Other than a bike, helmet and a few emergency maintenance essentials, there arent many things a person needs to enjoy a bike ride outside. But having the right accessories can go a long way towards making the experience more fun, more safe and, ultimately, more rewarding. The list of recommendations below cover the gamut of things you can give to the cyclist in your life, from must-have safety accessories like bike lights, to more techie gadgets like bike computers. However, each represents an i

The UK government is expected to launch a parliamentary inquiry into the roll of social media in summer riots, particularly around the use of generative AI , The Guardian reported. As part of that, MPs (members of Parliament) wish to cross-examine X owner Elon Musk, along with senior executives from Meta and TikTok, as part of a Commons science and technology select committee social media inquiry. [Musk] has very strong views on multiple aspects of this, said Labour chair of the select committee

The Department of Justice is reportedly planning to make Google sell its Chrome browser to address its search monopoly . Its in response to a 2020 lawsuit filed by the DOJ and several US states that was finally ruled upon in August. Google has, naturally, said such a sale would be a terrible idea and would harm American competitiveness in the tech industry. Im more curious about how much inherent value Chrome has without the backing of its parent company. Dan Cooper Get this delivered daily dir

Uber is rolling out some new features for the holiday travel season. On Wednesday, it announced a new, super-duper-sized option with extra trunk space for airport travel. In addition, there will be a third shuttle route for NYC travelers. UberXXL is the companys new extra-spacious rideshare option. These airport-only rides offer more trunk space and plenty of comfortable seating room for you and your group. Uber says pricing for the new jumbo-sized service will fall somewhere between UberXL and

What qualifies a video game as depressing? The most obvious answer is that game you simply cannot beat no matter how hard you try, but thats not what were talking about here. Instead, were looking at games that just have a pall over them, whether its directly from story beats or a more subtle vibe given off by the visuals, music or activities the player has to participate in. The games on this list dont have a lot in common on the surface there are big-budget action thrillers, smaller independe

Weve long considered Apples iPads to be the best tablets on the market, but determining exactly which model you should buy isnt always straightforward. Do you just want a big screen for streaming and web browsing? Do you want to use it like a pseudo-laptop? Do you care about those Apple Intelligence features the company has been pushing so hard in recent months? If you arent quite sure, allow us to help. Weve tested and reviewed just about every iPad ever made, including all six tablets in Apple

Sony announced that it will run a beta test for cloud streaming on its PlayStation Portal gaming handheld. The feature will begin rolling out in an update today, with Europe due to get it starting on Wednesday. Only PlayStation Plus Premium members will be able to access cloud streaming during the beta test, but it's a promising sign that Sony is finally working on this function, even though it took a year to get here. Adding cloud gaming to the Portal addresses one of the big critiques in o

Twitch is now on the docket for Xs lawsuit against companies that stopped advertising on the social media site. X amended its lawsuit on Monday to include Twitch as a defendant in its lawsuit in a federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas, according to Reuters . The new complaint claims that the gaming stream site owned by Amazon stopped purchasing ads on X at the end of 2022. X alleges that Twitch and other companies conspired with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) networks Global Alliance

A Minecraft Movie has dropped its first full-length trailer today, expanding on the blocky world hinted at by the teaser released in September. While the game Minecraft gives players only the barest sense of direction, there will be a traditional story driving A Minecraft Movie . Jack Black provides a voiceover about how his character, Minecraft mascot and stock avatar Steve, was drawn to the mines as a child and discovered the Overworld. He teams up with four other people, seemingly from the re

If you tried to get some flight time in Flight Simulator 2024 today only to find yourself staring at a loading screen, youre not alone. The official X page for Microsofts flight sim @MSFS_Support posted an update that several users are reporting long initial loading times. Not exactly the debut anyone was hoping for. The post blames the games slowdown on the large number of server requests trying to log into the game at once maybe something Microsoft should have expected. The post also recommend

Youve probably been tempted to jump on the air-fryer bandwagon in recent months and, if you have not yet taken the plunge, were here to help. Like the ubiquitous Instant Pot that came before it, air fryers have surged in popularity as of late, promising extra crispy foods of all kinds without the mess and danger of a big vat of hot oil. These small appliances come in all shapes and sizes now and they can be a versatile addition to your kitchen, so long as you know what they are (and arent) capab

The winter months can be a tough time for keeping up with health and wellbeing as colder, darker weather sets in. For anyone looking for a gadget to help them manage their sleep, activity and other health stats, now could be the right time to look into a wearable. The basic finishes of the Oura Ring Gen 3 are on sale for $249 ahead of Black Friday. That's a $50 savings for the black or silver finish, which is the biggest discount we've seen to date on this wearable. You can also snag the luxe fi

I can't stop staring at Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Whether I'm exploring the game's home base in the dream-like Fade, or a forest shimmering with golden leaves and wild magical energy, the game simply looks gorgeous. And, if you've got the graphical horsepower to see it, it also delivers some of the most sumptuous ray tracing I've ever seen. There's a level of polish across every aspect of the game, including its new action-oriented approach to combat, that's simply g

OpenAI is paying the digital media company Dotdash Meredith at least $16 million per year to license its content, according to public financial documents reviewed by Adweek . We already knew about this burgeoning partnership , but we didnt have a financial figure. Now we do. The actual payout could rise above $16 million per year, as it only reflects the fixed component of the payment. The variable component will be calculated in the future, according to a recent earnings call led by the chief o

Dust off your pickaxe because Mojang Studios and Merlin Entertainments are building a new series of theme park style attractions called Adventures Made Real that will bring the world of Minecraft to life. Merlin Entertainments will create two permanent Minecraft theme park locations including one in the US and another in the UK with a plan to open them between 2026 and 20277. The new Minecraft parks will have interactive attractions from the top-selling video game, along with all the usual exper

Last month, Sonos debuted its latest premium soundbar in the midst of a difficult year . The company initially delayed launching the $999 Arc Ultra , devoting more time to fixing the major issues that plagued its app since a botched update in the spring. Now that the soundbar is here, Sonos has rolled out its first product to feature its Sound Motion technology that offers increased bass performance from smaller components. This new transducer allowed the company to make other improvements to th

While pretty much every TV is a smart TV these days, you might still want a dedicated streaming box to do the heavy lifting or maybe you'd like to have one for a projector. There a number of Black Friday deals on streaming devices, including the latest Roku Ultra. That box has dropped by $20 to $80 , which is an all-time low-price for the streaming box. Roku unveiled the 2024 Ultra in September . It claims that the device is at least 30 percent faster than any of its other players. As such, app

Black Friday may still be a week and a half away, but if you were hoping to score a deal on Samsungs Music Frame, theres no need to wait until Thanksgiving. Ahead of next week, both Amazon and Samsung are selling the speaker for under $250. At $150 off its regular price, thats an all-time low for the Music Frame, which will usually set you back $400. Considering Samsung only released the device earlier this year, this is a great opportunity to pick up one (or even two) for your home theater. For

If you're keen on giving Audible a try, this Amazon Black Friday sale will be right up your alley. New subscribers can get three months of Audible Premium Plus for only $3 , which comes out to just $1 per month for the first three months. The only catch is that the deals is only available to new users, so anyone who has previously dipped their toes in the Audible waters are out of luck. This Black Friday offer is available now, and it runs all the way until midnight on New Years Eve. Its only fo

Remedy just announced that Control Ultimate Edition will be released for Mac computers on February 12, 2025. The developer didnt say which Macs would run the title, but its a safe bet that the game will only work on M-series computers. Control Ultimate Edition contains the original game, post-launch patches and season pass expansions. It hasnt been revealed if this version will include the updates for current-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. This information comes from the companys