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If you can’t 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” will use Sony’s Beyond Sports technology to turn Madison Square Garden into Main Street USA from the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. The game will also feature appearances from classic Disney characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Donald and Daisy Duck as well as Santa and his elves from the animated Disney short Prep & Landing.

This is the first time the NBA has arranged to air a game with animated characters and graphic overlays. It’s also the latest game in a new trend of mixing live sports events with a network’s signature cartoon characters. ESPN+, Disney+ and the NFL+ app will air an alternative version of the Bengals-Cowboys game on December 9 featuring virtual characters and scenes from The Simpsons. ESPN3’s Full Court Press broadcasts use technology designed by Second Spectrum to create augmented graphics that track players movements and provide real time updates.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/the-nba-will-air-a-christmas-day-game-with-disney-characters-224921665.html?src=rss 

If you’re one of the people out there making calls with Meta’s 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 haven’t cleaned out since you bought it, you can replace the background with a field of sunflowers or an alien landscape as one of its suns is setting. That’s something we’ve seen from basically every other video calling platform, so it’s not a big surprise to see Meta add it here.

Meta also added some new features for video calls including high definition video, background noise suppression and voice isolation “to help you make clearer, higher-quality calls directly from Messenger,” according to the blog.

The HD video feature will be the default mode for Messenger calls made over W-iFi connections. HD calls can also be made on cellular data in settings by turning on “Mobile data for HD video.” Background noise suppression and voice isolation can also be turned on and off in Messenger’s call settings section.

You can also leave voice and video messages for your contacts beyond just a line of text and maybe a cheeky emoji or two. Simply tap the “record message” button on the lower right side of the screen to leave a video or audio message if the person you are contacting doesn’t pick up the call.

Finally, if you don’t have a free hand but need to make a call, iPhone users can ask Siri to make calls and messages for them on Meta’s Messenger app. Simply activate Siri and say “Hey Siri, send a message to [contact name] on Messenger” and dictate the message you want to send them.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/metas-latest-features-for-messenger-calling-include-ai-backgrounds-200047824.html?src=rss 

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. It’s also wall-mountable, just like the pre-existing Echo Show 15.

The display boasts a 1080p resolution, which won’t 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 camera has been refreshed, with “more than double the field of view and 65% more zoom than the first-generation Echo Show 15.” It also looks like the auto-framing algorithm has been improved. This thing could be a beast for video calls, as the unit now offers improved methods for the reduction of unwanted ambient noise.

There’s a built-in smart home hub, with Wi-Fi 6E, Thread, Zigbee and Matter control capabilities. The company says the device should be able to adjust some stuff locally, like lights, switches and plugs. This function first popped up in the Echo Hub, which was first revealed last year.

The panel can double as a Fire TV, which is nothing new, and works with Amazon’s Fire TV remote. However, the Echo Show 21 ships with the Alexa Voice Remote, along with wall-mounting equipment. A countertop stand is sold separately. The smart display costs $400 and is available now.

The Echo Show 15 has also gotten a refresh, for those with limited wall or countertop space. The new model boasts all of the features outlined above, just in a smaller form factor. This one costs $300 and is available now.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/amazon-just-launched-the-massive-echo-show-21-smart-display-174115181.html?src=rss