Disney Plus grew to 129.8 million subscribers as of Jan. 1, Disney said Wednesday. That’s a 37% jump from a year earlier, but it also means Disney Plus reaccelerated its growth after a slowdown in the fall. Disney added about 11.7 million new members in the three-month fiscal quarter, after it had added only about 2 million …

Before you shell out your hard-earned cash and commit to a two-year subscription with a VPN, or virtual private network, read our side-by-side VPN comparison on two of the most popular VPNs on the market. Compared to its peers, IPVanish has one of the best VPN user interfaces, encouraging you to get under the hood and learn the mechanics powering the …

Garmin has added another outdoor smartwatch to its lineup. This one’s called the Instinct 2 and it comes in two different sizes with scratch-resistant glass. It has a solar variant that the company says gives unlimited battery life — as long as it gets enough sunlight each day. Starting at $349 (£300, AU$549) the Inspire 2 is a wallet-friendly alternative …

While everyone’s talking about why Encanto’s Bruno song didn’t earn an Academy Award nomination, another buzzy musical is ripe for awards season attention. Stephen Spielberg’s West Side Story adaptation will arrive on Disney Plus and HBO Max on March 2. Tony and Maria will dance onto the small screen where viewers can watch their love story unfold — on demand. The …

Surfshark might be newer to the VPN scene than its more well-known rivals, but its feature-rich applications and unlimited simultaneous connections make it a tempting offer for VPN users. As Surfshark races to lead the VPN pack, should industry titan NordVPN be worried?  Both VPN providers are excellent choices, but the best way to pick the right one for you …

When we think of app stores, the ones that come to mind are typically those for Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android devices and maybe Amazon’s Fire tablets. But Microsoft said Wednesday that it wants to set itself apart with a series of “principles” it’s publicly committing to that it says will promote competition in its app stores. The tech giant’s Open …

ProtonVPN $5.99/mo at ProtonVPN Get Price Alerts You’re receiving price alerts for ProtonVPN Like Strong reputation of parent company Multihop and split tunneling Open-source Don’t Like Limited torrenting capacity Connection time-stamps No connection in China It’s hard not to be impressed by how far Proton has gone to shore up security and privacy in both its ProtonVPN and ProtonMail service.  …

Editors’ note, Feb. 9, 2022: The VPN industry has undergone significant change in the past few months, with all three of our top VPN choices announcing major changes in corporate ownership. In December, ExpressVPN announced that it had officially joined Kape Technologies, a company that already owns several other VPNs and has raised privacy concerns in the past. In February, …

Facebook Messenger rolled out new features — including splitting payments, vanishing messages and improved voice message recording controls — to iOS and Android users in the US on Wednesday, according to Meta. The payment splitting feature is called Split Payments; Meta started testing the feature in December. You can split a bill evenly among members in a group chat or …

If you’re getting ready to sign up for a monthly or yearly VPN subscription, you’ll probably consider three key factors: security, speed and price. NordVPN and ExpressVPN are CNET’s leading VPN competitors, in no small part thanks to their outstanding performance when we stress-tested their security and privacy promises. Both NordVPN and ExpressVPN are based in countries with especially stringent privacy laws …

Update, Feb. 9, 2022: The Galaxy S22, S22 Plus and S22 Ultra were announced at Samsung’s February Unpacked event alongside the Galaxy Tab S8. The new S22 phones feature some notable upgrades for night photography. The whole lineup is available for preorder now. Here’s how all the phones in the S22 lineup compare, and here’s how the new S22 Ultra …

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 reveal event wasn’t just a standard livestream this year: It also took place inside a metaverse — and I was genuinely excited to check it out. I’ve attended previous Samsung events in VR and found them to be more enjoyable than most other branded virtual experiences. The infamous 2016 photo of Mark Zuckerberg walking down an aisle …

You’ll soon be able to tap, scroll and navigate your phone using your voice on Android. Google’s new Voice Access feature is a move to improve accessibility for anyone who needs to use a phone without relying on their hands or arms. Announced during Wednesday’s Samsung Unpacked, the feature will launch as a built-in option on the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Ultra and Tab …

Samsung’s latest smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch 4, runs a new OS codeveloped with Google. But, despite promises of better Google integration, it didn’t support Google Assistant when it launched. That will change soon: You’ll be able to ditch Bixby and use Google Assistant in the “coming months,” according to news from Samsung alongside its latest S22 phones and tablets at …

The Galaxy S22 may only just be official, but it already has plenty going for it. While this may not grab the headlines, it’s worth noting the new phones’ support for the latest 5G networks — something that will be particularly important for AT&T users.  This year has already started seeing some big 5G upgrades from Verizon and AT&T, and …