Category: Tech

Trying to solve the Wordle today? If you’re stuck, we’ve got a few hints that will help you keep your Wordle streak alive.

Connections is the new puzzle game from the New York Times, and it can be quite difficult. If you need a hand with solving today’s puzzle, we’re here to help.

Starting today Google is planning to bring three new AI powered features to its popular Chrome browser.

Samsung just launched the Galaxy S24 series with an impressive set of features. Here are a few that I wish Apple would copy for the iPhone 16.

Have a Google Pixel phone? Don’t install any new software updates that you receive. If you do, there’s a good chance you may break your phone.

These are the five movies leaving Netflix at the end of January you need to watch. Our picks include Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Call Me by Your Name.

From Barbenheimer to Poor Things, these are the 2024 nominees for Best Picture, ranked from worst to best.

It’s that time of year again. Oscar nominations are in, setting off a firestorm of debate and speculation until the awards ceremony in March. This year, the streamers absolutely ruled the roost. Netflix snagged 18 nominations, including best picture, which technically puts it in first place, according to a breakdown from Variety.

I say Netflix “technically” received the most nominations because it depends on your point of view. Disney actually scored 20 nominations across various categories, but only when you don’t split up its various sub-brands. Remember, Disney owns just about everything, including 20th Century Studios, Hulu, Lucasfilm Ltd., Marvel Studios, National Geographic Documentary Films, Pixar Animation Studios and Searchlight, among others. All of them together came to 20 nominations, including a best picture nomination for Poor Things.

Apple came away with 13 nominations, including best picture nods for Napoleon and Killers of the Flower Moon, which isn’t bad for a company that just started creating original content around four years ago. Universal, an actual old-school production company, also nabbed 13 noms, including best picture for one half of the summer’s hottest cinema event, Oppenheimer.

The other half of the equation, Barbie, was also nominated for best picture. However, Greta Gerwig got snubbed for best director, which is not sitting right with denizens of the internet. Also, Margot Robbie didn’t get a best actress nomination, while Ryan Gosling got one for best supporting actor. To be fair, that best actress category is crowded with stellar performances from relative newcomers like Lily Gladstone to long-time veterans like Annette Bening.

The films with the most nominations include Oppenheimer and Poor Things, both with 13. Production company A24, however, was the only studio with multiple nominations in the best picture category, thanks to Past Lives and The Zone of Interest. A24 was also behind the Netflix limited series Beef, which took home a slew of Emmy awards last week. Inexplicably, A24 also produces the hilarious, yet decidedly low-brow, sitcom Tacoma FD. That’s your useless fact for the day. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-grabbed-the-most-oscar-nominations-with-stiff-competition-from-disney-and-apple-171221880.html?src=rss

With today’s release of Chrome M121, Google announced it will introduce new generative AI features that will make the browser easier to use. The new additions will include a tab organizer, a writing assistant that helps draft text and the option to customize the artwork and themes throughout the browser. The “Experimental AI” toggle must be flipped on in the Settings page — found in the three-dot dropdown menu — to enable these new features.

The Tab Organizer will do pretty much what it says: The built-in AI will automatically suggest ways to classify any open tabs in your Chrome windows and suggest the option to create groups. This might be helpful if you have a lot of recurring tabs open. When you click ‘Organize Similar Tabs,’ the AI will aggregate open pages together based on topics. For example, tabs related to shopping might all cluster together and the AI could suggest a name like ‘Ski-trip shopping gear.

Chrome’s new text assist too might also have some practical applications. It will launch as an experimental tool that will help users draft text — including Google reviews or social media posts. To enable this when it launches, you need to select “Help me write” to let the tool finish your sentences or suggest options for continuing the text.

Google

Customization is not new to most Google tools like Mail or Docs and now on Chrome web browsers, you can personalize the browser’s visuals — something the company considers an extension of the AI wallpapers it built out for Pixel phones recently. To do so, you need to select the ‘Customize Chrome’ button on the side panel and instruct the AI to generate a theme for you. You can search for a description, such as ‘small beach town’ or ‘Blade Runner vibes,’ and preview the AI-generated theme options before selection.

Introducing these new tools will naturally rival Microsoft’s AI-infused Bing engine, which introduced AI-powered tab grouping and a text composition helper back in September. Chrome, however, still dominates the US browser market share by a wide margin, which Bing is usually lumped into the “others” category, well below competitors like Firefox and Opera.

Google

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/googles-next-chrome-update-adds-three-new-generative-ai-features-170032292.html?src=rss

It’s a mighty fine time to be a pro wrestling fan. The industry is going through a bit of a boom period, with multiple companies churning out quality content on the regular. Barely a week goes by without fans enjoying at least two or three excellent displays of scripted athleticism and jacked human beings slapping each other in the chest really, really hard.

It’s an even better time to be a pro wrestling fan if you have a Netflix subscription, since the streaming service will soon be the new home of WWE’s flagship show in the US and pretty much all of its programming in other territories. Starting in January 2025, Netflix will livestream Monday Night Raw every week in the US, Canada, UK, Latin America and some other countries, with more to follow.

The deal is even sweeter for those outside of the US, as Netflix will stream WWE’s other two main weekly shows — NXT and SmackDown — along with its major events like the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. WWE documentaries, other original series and future projects will hit Netflix internationally starting next year.

It seems that Peacock will remain the home of WWE’s library and major live events in the US for the foreseeable future. Peacock’s parent NBCUniversal also owns Raw‘s current broadcaster, USA Network (it’s unclear where the show will air between the expiry of those broadcasting rights in the fall and the Netflix partnership starting in January). USA Network will be the home of SmackDown starting this fall when the show moves over from Fox. NXT, which also currently airs on USA, is moving to The CW.

NBCUniversal and USA Network are said to be paying $1.4 billion for SmackDown rights over five years, while The CW will reportedly pay between $100 million and $125 million for NXT over the same timespan.

It seems the Netflix deal far outstrips those, however. According to multiple reports, the company is paying WWE north of $5 billion over 10 years. That’s said to be around double what NBCUniversal currently pays WWE for Raw rights. Amazon was also said to be in talks to become Raw‘s new home.

This marks a mammoth change for both WWE and Netflix. It will be the first time in the 31-year history of Raw that the show doesn’t air on a linear TV network. But, just as the wrestling company took a big risk with shifting from a pay-per-view model to its own streaming service a decade ago, this could very well pay off for WWE at it seeks to grow its already-large fanbase.

“This deal is transformative,” Mark Shapiro, president and COO of WWE parent company TKO said in a statement. “It marries the can’t-miss WWE product with Netflix’s extraordinary global reach and locks in significant and predictable economics for many years. Our partnership fundamentally alters and strengthens the media landscape, dramatically expands the reach of WWE, and brings weekly live appointment viewing to Netflix.”

Meanwhile, it’s a major first for Netflix. The company only started dabbling in live content last March with a Chris Rock stand-up show. Since then, it has aired live award shows and a few one-off sports events, though it was forced to cancel its second attempt at a livestream due to technical issues. Raw marks Netflix’s first major push into live sports (or sports entertainment if you want to get sniffy about it) and it’s set to become the company’s first live weekly streaming show.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/netflix-will-be-the-new-home-of-wwes-flagship-show-monday-night-raw-in-2025-165434172.html?src=rss