Disney’s bumper launch of Disney Plus in the last year has helped all three of the company’s streaming services — Hulu, Disney Plus and ESPN Plus — to rank in the top-five most popular US streaming-video subscriptions, according to estimates from researcher Parks Associates Wednesday. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video continue to hold court as No. 1 …
Read More »Facebook’s experimental iOS app E.gg is now available throughout the US
Facebook on Wednesday said it’s making its experimental iOS app E.gg available for download to anyone in the US. The social media giant unveiled the app, which is based on bringing back the internet of the ’90s, in July. It’s the creation of Facebook’s experimental app team, New Product Experimentation, and is “a platform for freeform creative expression,” the company says. “E.gg …
Read More »AMD Radeon RX 6800 series graphics cards have serious 4K cred
AMD is finally going after 4K gaming with its impressive top-end PC graphics cards, the Radeon RX 6800 and 6800 XT (and 6900 XT) after spending its time concentrating on value buyers. Its still-current RX 5700 XT was formerly the top of the line and designed for 1440p play, though I expect AMD will bring the rest of the Radeon cards up to date with …
Read More »Twitter slows down rollout of new disappearing Fleets
Twitter has slowed down the release of its new Fleets feature, saying it needs “to fix some performance and stability problems.” Fleets is Twitter’s attempt to capitalize on the popularity of other social media platforms like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram by bringing in its own “stories” that disappear within 24 hours. “If you don’t have the feature yet, you may …
Read More »Apple lowers App Store ‘tax’ to 15% for developers making under $1M a year
Apple’s changing the way it treats small developers next year, halving the 30% commission it charges on sales made through its App Store for the iPhone, iPad and Mac computer. The 15% commission will apply to companies making up to $1 million in sales per calendar year. “The savings mean small businesses and developers will have even more funds to …
Read More »Creating the new Call of Duty during a pandemic: ‘We had no idea how we were going to do any of this’
Activision’s Call of Duty is one of the biggest game franchises ever. Last year’s edition, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, made more than $1 billion for the gaming giant within two months of launch. Producing a massive game like Call of Duty is never easy, especially when preparing for new, next-generation game console hardware. Throw in a global pandemic and things …
Read More »Apple to pay $113M settlement over its iPhone ‘batterygate’ slowdowns
Apple is paying $113 million to settle an investigation by 34 states and the District of Columbia over the company’s practice of slowing down the performance of older iPhones when their batteries degrade. The practice wasn’t announced by Apple but rather proved by internet sleuths. That led regulators and customers alike to criticize the company for not being forthcoming, particularly …
Read More »The MacBook is changing fast, but it’s still missing some key features
Apple’s latest generation of Macs has shifted to a whole new set of Apple-made chips. These MacBooks, and a Mac Mini, use an M1 processor that sounds like a more advanced version of the graphics-boosted processors in recent iPad Pro models, and promise incredible gains in performance and battery life. And yet, these MacBooks and Mac Minis don’t look any …
Read More »Chrome and Firefox reportedly now available for Apple’s M1 Macs
Google Chrome has reportedly released an updated version that supports Apple’s new lineup of Macs with its own homemade silicon. According to 9to5Google, the Apple silicon version of Chrome for Mac is available now. You can get it from the Chrome site by clicking “download” and then selecting “Mac with Apple chip.” Developers on Twitter also spotted preliminary support for …
Read More »Logitech G Pro X Superlight wireless gaming mouse sheds weight, not speed for $150
There’s not much to Logitech G’s latest wireless gaming mouse, but that’s sort of the point. The Pro X Superlight is less than 63 grams (2.2 ounces), making it the company’s lightest mouse ever, and 25% lighter than its standard Pro wireless mouse. That’s about a 20-gram difference. To get it that low, Logitech trimmed it up all over — …
Read More »Jabra Elite 85t review: AirPods Pro competitor impresses but doesn’t wow
Like many people, I’d been waiting for Jabra to put out a set of noise-canceling true-wireless earbuds. It finally has: the Elite 85t ($230, £220, AU$349). What I didn’t anticipate, however, was that it would also add noise cancellation to the earlier Elite 75t and Elite Active 75t via a firmware upgrade. This gives you two Jabra noise-canceling options, one significantly less expensive than …
Read More »Houseparty in Fortnite brings in
After acquiring the Houseparty app earlier this year, Fortnite developer Epic Games is bringing in-game video chat to the popular battle royale game. The new feature, called Houseparty in Fortnite, is available for players on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC, and also requires people to have Houseparty installed on an iOS or Android device. “With accounts linked, fire up Fortnite …
Read More »Download MacOS Big Sur now; here’s how
This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET’s complete coverage from and about Apple’s annual developers conference. Apple’s latest operating system MacOS Big Sur is now available for download as a free software update for all users, so long as your Mac is compatible. The newly designed operating system includes major updates to the Safari web browser, and refreshed Maps and Messages apps (we’ve rounded up some …
Read More »12 of the best hidden WhatsApp features you need to know
Looking for ways to get more out of WhatsApp on your Android phone or iPhone? We have your back. For example, rolling out right now is a new setting that will automatically clear out your messages after a week. It’s a Snapchat-like feature, sure, but who says that’s not welcome in other apps? You can even format the text you send in a message, adding …
Read More »Marissa Mayer wants to help you organize your contacts
Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is launching a new app. Mayer and Enrique Muñoz Torres, co-founder of Lumi Labs (now rebranding as Sunshine), have created Sunshine Contacts, an app for managing contacts, according to a press release Wednesday. Sunshine Contacts uses artificial intelligence to organize contacts, remove duplicates and automatically update contact information. “The essential technologies that help us stay …
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