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Paramount+ has launched its latest streaming offer, giving new subscribers two months of access for $6 total through December 2 for Black Friday. With prices rising across other platforms, this short-term deal offers a chance to explore either the Essential or Premium plan and see which fits your viewing habits best. Yes, you can pick either plan and get the $3-per-month deal — of course, that makes the Premium plan the better option in terms of the greater discount.

Paramount+ continues to expand its catalog with a mix of current CBS shows, exclusive originals, classic TV and live sports. The service is available in two main tiers: Essential, which includes ads, and Premium, which removes most of them and adds a few key extras like 4K streaming, offline downloads and live CBS access. Both tiers include select Showtime programming, giving subscribers a taste of the premium network’s lineup.

The Essential plan provides access to more than 40,000 episodes and movies, along with live coverage of the NFL on CBS and UEFA Champions League matches. It supports up to three simultaneous streams, making it a practical choice for households that share accounts. The Premium plan builds on that by offering ad-free on-demand viewing (with exceptions for live broadcasts), higher-quality playback and the option to watch CBS live in participating regions.

Paramount+’s growing library combines new releases with well-known favorites, offering titles from across CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. Sports fans get live coverage of key events, while movie watchers can find recent cinema releases from Paramount Pictures joining the lineup throughout the year. The inclusion of Showtime series in both plans adds another layer of variety, with dramas and documentaries available alongside the core Paramount+ content.

If you’re keeping an eye on subscription costs, an offer like this is a practical way to test the service without paying full price. It also gives you time to see whether the Essential plan’s ad-supported setup or the Premium tier’s extras are worth the difference.

If you’ve been watching your streaming spend as prices go up elsewhere, this deal from Paramount+ offers a well-balanced opportunity to experience both plan levels at a lower cost. Paramount+ is one of the best streaming services thanks to its vast selection of original shows like Star Trek: Discovery, Ink Master and Frasier. If you’re ready to stream big shows and live events without a heavy commitment this Cyber Monday offer is one to keep in mind.

There are plenty of other Black Friday streaming deals to consider as well. Here are some of the best ones:

Disney+ Hulu bundle — $60 for one year: The Disney+ and Hulu (with ads) bundle is on sale for $5 per month for one year (for a total of $60) through December 1. New and eligible returning subscribers can take advantage of this deal, and considering the bundle typically costs $13 per month, this deal represents more than a 50 percent discount on the standard monthly price.

Apple TV+ — 6 months for $36: Apple TV+ is offering six months of access for only $36 for Black Friday, which comes out to a discounted price of $6 per month for the six-month period. The deal is live now for new and eligible returning subscribers and runs through December 1, giving you a chance to stream shows like Silo, The Morning Show and For All Mankind for less. The biggest caveat to the deal is that you must subscribe directly through Apple and not through a third-party service.

HBO Max — one year for $36: HBO Max’s Black Friday deal gives subscribers one year streaming for $36 through December 1. This Black Friday streaming deal is on the ad-supported option, which normally goes for $11 per month. With this discount, you’re getting it for $3 per month for one year. You can sign up via HBO Max’s website or, if you’re a Prime Video subscriber already, via that service as an add-on.

Sling TV Orange — day pass for only $1: Sling TV launched Day Passes earlier this year, giving users one-day access to a variety of its packages. This deal cuts $4 off the normal price of a day pass for Sling Orange. With that, you get unlimited access for 24 hours to Orange’s more than 30 channels that includes ESPN, CNN, TBS and others.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-paramount-black-friday-deal-gives-you-two-months-of-access-for-only-6-183036349.html?src=rss 

Microsoft just released a spate of software updates for ASUS ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X handheld consoles. Perhaps the most notable feature is the introduction of default game profiles, which are available in a beta mode starting today.

These are performance profiles tailored to specific games so they run perfectly on the handhelds. Once enabled, the software will automatically balance the frame rate and power consumption to strike the perfect balance. This means that players won’t have to head into the settings to make manual adjustments.

These profiles are currently available for 40 of the more popular games on the platform, including Fortnite, Gears of War: Reloaded and Hollow Knight: Silksong. Microsoft says that using the default game profile while playing Silksong, for instance, will add an hour of battery life. To that end, the profiles are only used when playing on battery. I hope this becomes a regular part of the Ally experience and comes to many more titles.

There’s a new search filter that lists games by how they perform on the device, which is sort of a riff on Valve’s “Steam Deck Verified” badge. Microsoft also boasts that gamepad responsiveness has been improved and that game libraries will now load quicker. The company says this is especially noticeable for “players with large game libraries.”

The cloud gaming page should now load quicker and be more responsive. Finally, there’s the usual array of bug fixes and performance enhancements. This is a nice little batch of upgrades, just in time for the holidays.

For the uninitiated, the ROG Ally and Ally X are handheld gaming consoles that run an Xbox-adjacent version of Windows 11 and can play pretty much any Xbox game. We praised the “top-notch performance” in our official review. These handhelds are the real deal, and consumers agree. Sales have been so robust that ASUS recently began ramping up production.

The success of these consoles should ensure more software updates down the line. Microsoft has already committed to adding game save indicators for crossplay. It also plans on improving sleep and wake reliability and upgrading the formatting options for microSD cards. The more powerful Ally X is getting AI upscaling next year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/microsoft-just-released-a-bunch-of-software-updates-for-the-rog-xbox-ally-164802697.html?src=rss 

The number of video game franchises not being adapted for TV must surely now be nearing the single-figure mark, and we’ve known for a little while that a Far Cry show is on the way too. Ubisoft has now confirmed previous leaks that Alien: Earth’s Noah Hawley and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator Rob Mac will helm an anthology show based on its long-running FPS series. FX is making it and it will stream on Hulu in the US.

Every Far Cry game is a standalone experience with no obvious narrative links between them (even if a quick Google tells you that hasn’t stopped series devotees from looking for them anyway). Likewise, the plan for the Far Cry TV show is that each season will feature new characters and a new setting.

“What I love about the Far Cry game franchise is it’s an anthology. Each game is a variation of a theme, the same way each season of Fargo is a variation on a theme,” said Hawley in a press release. “To create a big action show that can change from year to year, while always exploring the nature of humanity through this complex and chaotic lens is a dream come true. I’m excited to partner with Rob and bring our shared irreverent, ambitious sensibility to the screen.”

This technically isn’t the first time Far Cry has gotten the TV treatment. The 2013 “Blood Dragon” expansion for Far Cry 3 was the inspiration for Netflix’s 2023 adult animated series, Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix. However, while that show featured plenty of enjoyably chaotic action sequences and deep cut Ubisoft cameos that ensure you’ll never look at Rayman the same way again, there wasn’t much that was obviously Far Cry about it.

Earlier this month, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Noah Hawley had signed a multi-year deal with Disney that will see him produce shows for a number of the corporation’s networks, including Hulu. As well as the Far Cry adaption, the Fargo creator will be heading up the second season of Alien: Earth, which will reportedly go into production in London in 2026.

As for Ubisoft, raising the profile of its various franchises — notably even the ones that haven’t had a new game for years — through TV seems to be an ongoing strategy for the French publisher. Back in the summer, Netflix finally greenlit an Assassin’s Creed show, five years after penning a deal with Ubisoft, while the long-awaited animated Splinter Cell show started streaming in October and was well received by critics.

The most recent Far Cry game was 2021’s Far Cry 6, which starred Giancarlo Esposito as the dictator Aston Castillo.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/fx-orders-a-far-cry-tv-show-from-alien-earth-creator-noah-hawley-and-rob-mac-154654744.html?src=rss 

IKEA has teamed up with Swedish designer Tekla Evelina Severin on a new line of products dubbed the Teklan collection. The collaboration includes three new standalone Bluetooth speakers and two lamp speakers, each clad in Severin’s distinctive colorful style. The company originally announced this family of products at the start of the year with an expected launch in early 2026, so it seems they will hit shelves ahead of schedule. The ready-to-assemble furniture giant has already released a few speakers since ending its partnership with Sonos earlier this year, but this feels like a more concentrated push to replace those old Sonos products.

A line of round speakers IKEA is calling the Solskydd will be available in three different sizes, each sporting a colorful geometric design. The smallest of the three will be an 8-inch portable speaker with a rechargeable battery, and will retail for $80, while the larger two, measuring 11 and 18 inches, will sell for $100 and $140 respectively and will require a wall outlet.

The smaller of the two can be displayed either hung or on its accompanying base, while the largest version is designed for wall mounting. The Solskydd will also be offered in a plain white version for customers who prefer a more understated aesthetic. The speakers can all connect to one another as well as any other compatible IKEA Bluetooth speaker for multi-speaker mode. Spotify Tap is also supported, letting users pick up right where they left off in their music from within the Spotify app.

The Teklan collection will also include a set of Bluetooth speaker lamps, called the Kulglass. The $130 lamps, whose shades IKEA says were inspired by soft-serve ice cream, come in shades of either green or red and feature a built-in volume knob.

The line also includes a vibrant take on the budget-friendly Vappeby Bluetooth speaker, which is both waterproof and ultra-portable. The Teklan lineup also includes a slew of braided charging cables. Both of these products were released earlier this year. The new products in the Teklan collection will arrive in December, with exact launch dates varying by market.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/speakers/ikea-is-releasing-a-new-family-of-bluetooth-speakers-in-partnership-with-swedish-designer-tekla-severin-160800338.html?src=rss 

Disney has unveiled a new animatronic in the form of Olaf, the carrot-nosed snowman from the Frozen series of films. The robotic character will roam the streets of the upcoming World of Frozen (coming soon to Adventure World at Disneyland Paris) and make “limited-time special appearances at World of Frozen at the Hong Kong Disneyland resort,” Disney wrote on its parks blog. 

Olaf, seen in prototype form in a 30-minute Disney video, can walk on his little snowball legs, emote realistically and speak with visitors. During the video, Disney Imagineering Paris exec Michel Den Dulk removes and replaces the robot’s nose and arm, something park visitors will also be able to do. 

To help make Olaf look authentic and toon-like in his movements, the Imagineering team used AI reinforcement learning. That allowed them to teach the robot how to walk and perform “graceful” motions in far less time than it would have taken to program it manually, Disney said. The fact that Olaf has a soft, snow-like exterior also let them “fully articulate his mouth, eyes, and removable carrot nose and arms.” 

The timing of the announcement is pretty wild considering that Defunctland, the amusement park history site, just released a four-hour YouTube documentary about the broken promise of Disney’s animatronics. The main point was that Disney has announced many such characters but only shows them off at a few special events before shoving them away, Westworld basement-style, never to be seen again. 

A few examples of those are the Wall-E robot in the aughts and, more recently, Groot and Star Wars droids. Those served mainly as marketing pieces for Disney, as they only appeared in the parks for specific tests and then disappeared. Disney even made a robot called Big Dino that was 13 feet tall and weighed 11,000 pounds — though it’s probably best that one wasn’t roaming around the parks greeting visitors.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/disney-teases-an-olaf-robot-for-its-parks-151017739.html?src=rss