On this podcast, we talk about: Samsung and Qualcomm 5G phone prototypes Hulu adding Funimation anime and exploring “pause-break” commercials  Avengers 4 trailer hype The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and analysis about the top stories of the day, brought to you by the CNET News team in New York and producer Bryan VanGelder. Check …

Comcast is opening its gates to Amazon Prime Video, the cable giant’s latest integration with a tech rival that has some of the most directly competitive content yet.  The two companies said Wednesday that Comcast would be rolling out Amazon Prime onto X1, the cable company’s high-tech pay-TV service used by nearly two-thirds of its residential cable-TV customers, over the …

Apple may have flirted with the low end of the streaming-TV market.  The company considered a low-priced streaming-TV dongle, similar to Google Chromecast, Roku Streaming Stick or Amazon Fire TV Streaming Stick, according to a Wednesday report by The Information, citing people familiar with the matter. The device could have served as a lower-priced entry point to unlock access to Apple’s …

Amazon has a game plan for more sports.  The e-commerce giant has bid on Disney’s 22 regional sports networks, CNBC reported Tuesday, in another sign of Amazon’s widening video ambitions. Amazon declined to comment. Disney didn’t immediately return a request for comment.  Amazon has been pouring money into the video-streaming facets of its Prime memberships, not only with its original shows and movies but also with top-dollar licenses …

You can breathe easier, film fanatics: AT&T’s WarnerMedia may be killing off its classic-movie streaming service FilmStruck, but it’s resuscitating the same idea under a different banner.  WarnerMedia and the Criterion Collection on Friday said they would be launching a streaming service, the Criterion Channel, next spring that “will be picking up where FilmStruck left off.” It’s expected to cost $10.99 …

Comcast’s latest channel is one that’s never been on cable before: Tubi TV, one of the most popular free movie-streaming services.  Comcast is incorporating Tubi into X1, the cable giant’s internet-inclusive platform. The partnership means Tubi’s library of movies and other programming will be available and searchable on Comcast X1 like a regular channel or show, the two companies said. Rollout …

Curious what it feels like for Oprah Winfrey look you in the eyes from the body of an all-powerful purple bug on a treadmill? Now you can.  Winfrey joins other big-name stars, like John Legend, Constance Wu and Diego Luna, in Crow: The Legend, a free 20-minute virtual-reality experience released Thursday on Facebook‘s Oculus store. The Pixar-like journey follows Crow as he attempts …

You may be creeped out by how much tech companies want to know about you. So is Canopy. Canopy — a new startup built by people who’ve worked at Spotify, Instagram, Google and The New York Times — wants to upend a fundamental concept that propelled many of the internet’s biggest companies to power: To get personalized service, you have …

I remember the first sentence I ever read. I sat on spill-resistant carpet in my kindergarten classroom. The sun was bright in the windows, and the little paperback reader was big in my hands. While my classmates horsed around in other parts of the room, I read “the bee flies.” Even more than the words, I remember the feeling of …

Spheres, the virtual-reality experience that made waves earlier this year when it landed VR’s first seven-figure distribution deal, is breaking out of the film-festival circuit and is now available for public consumption: The three-chapter series debuted for $9.99 on Facebook‘s Oculus Rift VR headset Tuesday.  So far, scarcity of quality VR content has been a persistent weakness crimping virtual reality’s growth. …