Kalakshar US

One day after Montana Governor signed the first statewide ban on TikTok into law, the measure is already facing a legal challenge. Five TikTok creators are suing in an effort to block the ban from taking effect.

In court filings, lawyers representing the TikTok creators say the ban is unconstitutional and that it violates their First Amendment rights. They also take issue with Montana’s supposed national security justification for the ban. 

“Montana has no authority to enact laws advancing what it believes should be the United States’ foreign policy or its national security interests, nor may Montana ban an entire forum for communication based on its perceptions that some speech shared through that forum, though protected by the First Amendment, is dangerous,” the suit states. “Montana can no more ban its residents from viewing or posting to TikTok than it could ban the Wall Street Journal because of who owns it or the ideas it publishes.”

In an interview on Fox News, Montana’s Attorney General, Austin Knudsen, said that legal challenges to the ban were expected. “There are some important issues here that I do think we probably need the federal courts to step in and answer for us here,” he said. “And that was part of our calculus in bringing this.”

The lawsuit is among the first legal challenges to the law, and will likely be closely watched as federal officials consider a nationwide ban on the app. Right now, the Montana ban is set to take effect January 1, 2024, though lawsuits challenging it could delay that timeline. TikTok itself hasn’t commented on whether it’s planning to bring its own litigation in Montana, but said in a statement following the bill’s signing that it planned “to defend the rights of our users inside and outside of Montana.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/tiktok-creators-sue-montana-over-statewide-ban-of-the-app-225725851.html?src=rss 

Sony may be having some problems with PlayStation Plus games today. Commenters in forum posts on Reddit, ResetEra and NeoGAF report various users being alerted to an alert, reading, “The game will expire in 15 minutes,” and then booting them to the PlayStation home screen. Engadget’s Kris Holt also ran into the issue Wednesday evening while playing Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

Users experiencing the glitch say it appears to happen with any game in the PS Plus catalog. Fortunately, you can apparently return to the game from the home screen and quickly continue playing. However, the cycle seems to repeat in regular 15-minute (and possibly other) increments.

It isn’t yet clear how widespread the issue is. (Some users in the Reddit post claim they’re playing PS Plus games without problems.) Additionally, the bug doesn’t have any known fixes. PlayStation hasn’t yet acknowledged the issue publicly; Engadget has reached out to ask for a comment, and we will update this article if or when we hear back.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/playstation-plus-bug-warns-that-games-will-expire-in-15-minutes-205015372.html?src=rss 

If you want to lose a lot of money, become an automaker. Cars are incredibly difficult to build and scaling manufacturing is nearly impossible. It took Tesla years to get the Model 3 to market after bringing the Model S and Model X to the road. So Vietnam’s VinFast decision to become an EV automaker after it spent a few years building vehicles based on BMW’s platform is sort of insane. And yet, this week we had the opportunity to drive the VF 8, the first VinFast EV to land in the United States.

Driving the VF 8 in San Diego was a stark reminder of the difficulty of building a vehicle. While we were impressed with what the company has done, we also have to report that the VF 8 electric SUV needs work if it’s going to truly compete with the rest of the US EV market.

Oddly, VinFast had us drive the lease-only California edition that’s actually only available in the Golden State. It has a shorter range than its competitors and the standard version of the vehicle that’s hitting US shores right now.

Overall though, we found the car needs a few more months of tweaks (most of which are software) to battle it out in the increasingly competitive mid-size electric SUV market. But don’t count them out: VinFast has the foundation to be a major player sooner than you think. Watch our first drive video below for the full story.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/vinfasts-first-ev-is-almost-ready-for-the-world-190049624.html?src=rss 

Apple added a multiview feature today for watching live sports on the Apple TV 4K. You can now watch up to four live streams of Major League Soccer matches, Friday Night Baseball games and the studio shows MLS 360 and MLB Big Inning. Previously, multiview options for Apple’s set-top box were limited to third-party services like FuboTV, YouTube TV and March Madness streams.

After choosing a compatible match, other available live games will appear at the bottom of the screen in the Apple TV app. There, you can customize whether to watch one stream prominently (with others tiled in smaller windows to the right) or two to four matches in split-screen (of equal sizes). In addition, it lets you choose which audio to hear, including home radio broadcasts for MLS and home or away feeds for Friday Night Baseball. Finally, you can switch to full-screen mode with one click if a stream demands your total attention.

MLS Season Pass, which has no obnoxious blackouts, requires a $15 / mo. (or $99 / season) subscription to watch and use multiview. (Apple TV+ subscribers pay a bit less at $13 / mo. or $79 / season.) Additionally, Apple offers a one-month trial for new and returning subscribers until the end of October. Meanwhile, Friday Night Baseball is available to all Apple TV+ subscribers.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-tv-adds-multiview-for-live-sports-192952130.html?src=rss 

Hulu has a bit of “good news” for Futurama fans. The streaming provider announced on Twitter today that Bender and the gang (yes, John DiMaggio will be reprising his role as Bender) will return for season eight on July 24th. After the eighth season’s announcement in early 2022, DiMaggio said in a tweet that he would not be returning to the show after a pay disagreement with Disney and Hulu, though he quickly changed course. Series creator Matt Groening and producer David X. Cohen are returning to lead Futurama once again.

As reported by Variety, the eighth season will consist of two parts, with an initial run of 10 episodes. The new season airs on Mondays, on a weekly basis on Hulu. Notably, this is the second time (or fourth time, depending on who’s asking) the show has been brought back, and the first time the show will be airing first on a streaming platform. Hulu did not announce an air date for part two, which will include an additional 10 episodes.

Futurama originally debuted in 1999, with the first four seasons airing on Fox. The show then had a new home on Comedy Central, which aired seasons six and seven, which ended in 2013. The so-called “fifth season”, which was also under Comedy Central, was a series of four movies that were eventually split into short-length episodes. Now, after being canceled and renewed several times by several cable networks, the next season lives on in the streaming world nearly 10 years after the last season had aired.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/futurama-returns-july-24th-as-a-hulu-original-after-a-10-year-hiatus-203316031.html?src=rss