Hasta La Gadget!

HBO Max is looking to beef up its subscriber numbers with a solid discount on the annual plan. You can save 30 percent if you sign up for a year (or over 40 percent compared with a monthly plan). If you don’t mind dealing with ads, the service will cost $70 for 12 months, down from the usual $100. If you prefer not to see ads on HBO Max, you can pay $105, which is $45 off the regular price.

Buy an HBO Max annual subscription – $70 or $105

The offer is available through October 30th and it only applies to the first year of a subscription. A monthly plan costs $10 with ads and $15 without for a total of $120 or $180 per year. So, you can save quite a bit if you’re willing to commit to a one-year membership.

HBO Max is introducing the offer just days before the Game of Thrones spin-off show House of the Dragon premieres. You’ll also be able to stream the original show in 4K HDR.

In the past, we held up HBO Max as one of the best streaming services around, in large part thanks to its extensive content library. However, executives at newly merged parent Warner Bros. Discovery have been culling content and canceling high-profile original movies as part of a major cost-cutting drive. Meanwhile, HBO Max and Discovery+ will merge into a single streaming service next year.

Whether your campus stay involves a college’s dormitory, trying your luck at a nearby frat house or sorority, or venturing out on your own in your first apartment, odds are you’re not going to have a lot of living space if your pursuit of higher learning takes you out of town.

Read more…

Are you one of the consumers that buy a new version of your favorite smartphone each and every year, whenever your favorite brand reveals a new model?

It’s been less than four months since Snap unveiled a selfie drone called Pixy, but it seems the company is already giving up on the device. CEO Evan Spiegel told employees that Snap is halting further work on Pixy amid a reprioritization of resources, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The $250 drone can take off from and land in your hand. It has four preset flight paths and can capture photos and videos that you can transfer to and share on Snapchat. For now, at least, Pixy is still available to buy from Snap’s website. The Journal suggests Snap will keep selling Pixy for the time being. Engadget has asked Snap for comment.

Like many other companies, Snap has been feeling the brunt of a broader economic slowdown. In July, it posted its weakest quarterly sales growth to date, which sunk its share price by around 40 percent. Snap’s stock has fallen by around 80 percent over the last year. The company also said last month that it would significantly slow down hiring.

Several major tech companies have been shifting priorities in recent months. Meta, for instance, reportedly shelved plans for a smartwatch with two cameras and it’s said to be refocusing Portal devices as enterprise products. Others have slowed downhiring plans and laidoffemployees.

They’re everywhere. In the air you breathe, the water you drink, and the soil we grow our food in—decades of industrial and commercial production and use have left basically no corner of our lives untouched by PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances), commonly called ‘forever chemicals.’ The two most important things to know…

Read more…