The new Transformers animated series, Earthspark, is doing a lot of things that might make dyed-in-the-wool fans wary at first. It’s a family show, in that its primary focus is on its robotic heroes as they sit hand-in-hand with two young kids and their parents. It’s also not about Autobot/Decepticon conflict, in so…
The next major phase of NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is slated to start today. Orion is scheduled to conduct a burn at 4:52PM ET that will take it into a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon. The uncrewed spacecraft will be around 50,000 miles above the lunar surface and it will travel around the Moon in the opposite direction that the Moon orbits the Earth (hence the “retrograde” aspect of this phase).
NASA says that, due to the size of the orbit, it will take Orion six days to go halfway around the Moon. It will then exit the orbit and start making its way back to Earth. The agency has noted that this process will provide Orion with a “highly stable orbit where little fuel is required to stay for an extended trip in deep space.” The orbit is stable because Orion will be subject to the gravitational pull of both the Earth and the Moon, which will help it to stay in position while minimizing fuel consumption.
During the distant retrograde orbit, NASA will be able to put Orion’s systems through their paces in an environment far away from our planet. The Artemis 1 mission is primarily about testing Orion before the spacecraft takes humans back to the Moon for the first time in over half a century.
Earlier this week, Orion successfully carried out a flyby of the Moon wherein it got as close as 81 miles to the lunar surface. This was the first of two maneuvers needed to get Orion into its retrograde orbit before today’s burn.
You’ll be able to watch the distant retrograde orbit burn live below. NASA says the feed will include real-time views of the mission whenever bandwidth allows.
Subscriptions and memberships make excellent gifts, but they’re also great to give yourself — especially when they’re on sale for Black Friday. We found a slew of services running discounts, with deals on streaming services, learning programs, fitness and mental health apps, gaming memberships and a few more. Most sales end by Cyber Monday, so right now is a good time to try out something new or sign back up for a subscription you’ve let lapse, saving some money in the process. Black Friday sales aren’t just for stuff you can wrap, and these are the best subscription deals we could find.
Options for streaming services continue to grow, and the costs adds up. If you’ve been thinking about checking out Hulu but didn’t want to add another $8 to your monthly bills, their Black Friday deal gets you an entire year for less than $25. Billed at $2 monthly for the next 12 months, the ad-supported version gets you access to all the shows and movies Hulu offers, like ABC’s Abbott Elementary and FX’s The Bear, along with Hulu originals like Reboot and Only Murders in the Building. The offer ends on Cyber Monday (11/28) and is available to new subscribers and former subscribers who haven’t had a Hulu subscription within the past month.
Subscribe to Hulu (with ads) for $2 per month
Disney+ will switch to a two-tier model on December 8th. After that, the ad-free version, which is the only way the service is currently offered, will increase to $11 per month instead of $8. The new ad-supported plan will then go for $8. If you want to hang on to that $8 per month price for an ad-free plan, you can sign up before December 7th and pay $80 for a year of ad-free streaming. That works out to a 39 percent discount over the elevated $11 per month plan. If you didn’t already know, Disney+ includes a dominating trove of content from Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, and National Geographic.
Subscribe to a year of Disney+ (ad-free) for $80
Switching to an all-streaming diet often means forgoing live TV and other content cable offers. YouTube TV is one way to get back some of the live sports, live news and “cable channels” you’re missing. YouTube’s limited time offer gives you your first three months for $55 per month, with no contract required. If you decide you like what you’re seeing, don’t cancel and the price will revert to the regular $65 per month.
Subscribe to 3 months of YouTube TV for $55 per month
At this point, Peacock is almost a required subscription for fans of Premier League soccer, Sunday night football or WWE. But there’s plenty of non-sports fare too, including NBC shows the day after they air and a catalogue of Universal movies like Nope, the new Jurassic World, and Brian and Charles — titles that stream exclusively on the service. Right now you can get 12 months of Peacock Premium for just $1 per month. After navigating to the site, enter the code SAVEBIG in the promo box to activate the offer. It’s only available to new subscribers and probably won’t last long after the weekend of Black Friday.
Subscribe to Peacock Premium for $1 per month
There’s no way to declare a clear winner in the best original content war, but HBO is a serious contender. You could even say it’s responsible for launching this whole “prestige TV” thing twenty years ago with The Wire and The Sopranos, but we digress. Right now HBO Max is offering three months of its ad-supported service for $2 per month. After that, it’ll jump back up to $10 per month if you want to keep watching, and there’s plenty to watch, including Insecure, Succession and all the Studio Ghibli movies. The offer ends on Cyber Monday (11/28) and only extends to new or returning subscribers.
Subscribe to HBO Max (with ads) for $2 per month
While some subscription deals time out after a few months, Alo Moves is offering half-off annual subscriptions for life. The going rate for a yearly membership is currently $200, so this brings it down to $100. The online fitness service currently has more than 3,000 classes, and new classes are added weekly. You can watch on your laptop or via app on an iPhone or iPad. Yoga, pilates, HIIT, and core classes are available, along with meditation and mindfulness sessions, including a power nap sound bath.
Subscribe to a year of Alo Moves – $100
Annie Leibovitz teaching you photography, Serena Williams teaching you tennis and Walter Mosley teaching you fiction is the idea behind (and three actual classes of) Masterclass. Memberships are annual and include access to all 180 classes they offer. Right now when you buy any membership plan, which range from $180 to $276 per year, you’ll get a second free membership to give away. Naming the classes feels a lot like name dropping, with classes from Martin Scorsese, Usher, Carlos Santana, Questlove, Alice Waters, David Lynch and 100 other people you’ve heard of. Classes range from a little over two hours to five-plus hours and are broken into between 12 and 30 lessons each.
Buy two MasterClass subscriptions – $180 per year
For those who have “get organized” on their New Year’s resolutions list, Evernote is offering a 25 percent discount on yearly Evernote Professional plans starting on Black Friday. The yearly price is usually $110, and the discount brings that total down to $82.50. New subscribers and people currently on the free plan are eligible for the deal, which runs through Wednesday, November 30th. If you aren’t already familiar, the browser- and app-based software helps you apply structure to your notes, to-dos, schedules and projects, allowing you to better TCOB, both at home and work or the blurry blend of the two many live in today.
Subscribe to Evernote Professional – $8.25 per month
Like Masterclass above, this Rosetta Stone membership doesn’t make you decide what you want to learn up front. And instead of a yearly membership, this one is for life. The usual price for a lifetime membership is $300, but is half price for the Black Friday deal. With it, you get access to all 25 languages Rosetta Stone offers, complete with customizable lesson plans and immersion learning methods. The deal runs from now through Friday, December 2nd.
Buy a lifetime membership to Rosetta Stone – $149
Putting a little mental wellbeing in your pocket just got far less expensive. Right now Headspace is half price for a full year, and the deal applies whether you want to pay month-to-month or a full year at once. The annual plan is down to $35, and the monthly price is $6.50 per month for 12 months. The app, available for Android and iPhone, offers audio and video guides covering areas of sleep, mindfulness, mediation and stress relief.
Subscribe to Headspace – $6.50 per month
A favorite of Engadget staffers, the Paprika recipe manager helps you digitally collect recipes from anywhere on the web and will even create smart grocery lists for you, organizing items by aisle. Each version, for iOS, Mac, Windows, or Android, are sold separately, with a cloud sync option to switch between devices. All versions are between 40 and 50 percent off for the entire month of November.
Shop the Paprika Black Friday sale
If you want to get more out of your Discord experience, the company’s Nitro plan grants gives you unique server profiles for each of your servers, custom emojis and stickers to use anywhere, bigger file uploads to share bigger clips, and increased character counts in your messaging. Buy either the monthly or yearly Nitro plan, currently $10 per month or $100 per year, and you’ll get a free month of the service. The offer ends on Cyber Monday (11/28) and you can find out how to upgrade your current Discord account here.
Get a free month of Discord Nitro with any Nitro subscription
A password manager doesn’t just give you fewer things to remember, it also keeps your data safer by making sure your passwords are never weak or reused. Right now LastPass is offering 25 percent off both of their paid plans from now through Tuesday, November 29th. That brings the Premium Plan to $2.25 and the Family Plan, which gives password protection to up to six people, down to $3. There’s always the free plan, but unlike the unlimited-device paid plans, the free version works on only one device.
Subscribe to LastPass Premium – $2.25 per month
Maybe you rideshare a lot and want those pickups to come a little faster in 2023. Then now’s a good time to opt for a Lyft Pink membership. Joining gets you free upgrades to Priority Pickup, roadside assistance for your own car, relaxed ride cancellations, and a year of Grubhub+ for free. From now until Cyber Monday (11/28) Lyft Pink memberships are half price, making them $49.50 for the year.
Subscribe to Lyft Pink – $49.50 per year
The reasons you might want a VPN are many and include working over public WiFi, accessing online content from your home country while abroad or just plain keeping your online activities private. NordVPN is one of the biggest and best known players in the VPN game and right now their Black Friday deal gives you a 63 percent discount off the two-year Complete Plan, bringing down from $447 to $162. They’ll even throw in an extra three months of their VPN service for free. If you just want a one year plan, the different tiers are between 45 and 59 percent off.
Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps includes more than 20 apps, including Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Illustrator and InDesign. Right now Adobe’s Black Friday sale takes 25 percent off the monthly price for your entire first year. That brings the price down from its usual $55 per month to just $40 per month. It’s a pretty good deal for a hard-to-replace suite of software, especially when you remember a time when a static, un-upgradable Photoshop by itself would set you back $800.
Subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps – $40 per month
To get the most out of that PS5 you’ll probably want a PlayStation Plus subscription, as it’s the only way you’ll be able to play online multiplayer games. Right now until Cyber Monday (11/28) you can get 25 percent off any of the three tiers of PlayStation Plus annual memberships. That makes the Essential Plan $45, the Extra Plan $75, and the Premium Plan $80 for the year. The base plan grants online multiplayer gamer access as well as free games each month and discounts in the PS Store. The higher level tiers offer what the base tier does along with access to play games in the Game Catalog featuring a rotating library of titles.
Subscribe to PlayStation Plus Essential – $45 for 12 months
You can think of Tidal’s HiFi membership as Spotify for audiophiles and music super fans, delivering up to 1411 kbps of lossless audio quality to your Android, iPhone or desktop. A membership also includes curated playlists, access to Tidal original documentaries and interviews with musicians, and of course it’s all ad free. The Black Friday deal gives you two months for $2, and bumps up to $10 a month after that.
Subscribe to Tidal HiFI – $2 for two months
Your Cyber Week Shopping Guide: Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter. Also, shop the top Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals on Yahoo Life. Learn about Black Friday trends on In the Know, and our car experts at Autoblog are covering must-shop Black Friday and Cyber Monday auto deals.
Lindell’s comments come as Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel seeks reelection in January.
Constructed and customized to order by Etsy shop DragonTempl8, this elaborate role-playing table is the ultimate in tabletop gaming. I mean, just look at this thing. Featuring workstations with card and dice compartments for 8 players (7 + dungeon master), the table also includes RGB LED lighting to set the mood (with a setting for standard day/night light), as well as A SMOKE MACHINE to intensify the atmosphere and a 22″ flatscreen in the center! It instantly moved to the #1 spot on my Christmas list this year.
The table starts at around $8,700 and goes up from there, depending on customization. It measures 160cm x 160cm (62″ x 62″) with a 200cm (78″) height and is going to be the focal point of my home from now on. I’m not going to lie; at first glance, I did think it was the control console inside a TARDIS, which makes me want it even more.
Now all I’m missing is a group of friends that actually want to play role-playing games with me, and I’ll be all set. I’ve tried playing alone, and it’s… difficult. And don’t even get me started on trying to get the cats to play – they just steal the dice! It’s like they get way too into their rogue elf characters.
Although it’s a game that can trace its origins back over 700 years, most people know Dominoes as a fun chain reaction toy that’s actually only fun when it comes to knocking them down, not the stressful process of stacking them up. With that in mind, Grant Davis built a self-stacking and self-toppling domino machine…
The UK government will amend its Online Safety Bill with measures designed to prohibit abuse of intimate images, whether or not they’re real. If the bill becomes law as is, it will be illegal to share deepfake porn without the subject’s consent. This would be the first ban on sharing deepfakes in the country and if the law comes into effect, violating this rule could lead to a prison sentence.
Additionally, the Ministry of Justice aims to ban “downblousing,” which it describes as an incident “where photos are taken down a woman’s top without consent.” The country banned upskirt photos, which are exactly what the term suggests, in 2019. Furthermore, the government wants to make it illegal to install certain equipment, including hidden cameras, to capture images of someone without their consent.
The UK banned revenge porn in 2015 and the government is aiming to expand the scope to make it illegal for anyone to share any intimate image of someone without consent. As it stands, prosecutors have to prove that the perpetrator had “intent to cause distress.” Based on recommendations from the Law Commission, the government also intends to establish two additional serious offenses, which are “based on intent to cause humiliation, alarm, or distress and for obtaining sexual gratification.” Officials already intended to outlaw cyberflashing, or sending unsolicited nudes, as part of the Online Safety Bill.
“We must do more to protect women and girls, from people who take or manipulate intimate photos in order to hound or humiliate them,” Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister and secretary of state for justice, said. “Our changes will give police and prosecutors the powers they need to bring these cowards to justice and safeguard women and girls from such vile abuse.”
The government hasn’t yet released the text of the amended Online Safety Bill. “The government will bring forward the wider package of changes as soon as parliamentary time allows and will announce further details in due course,” the Ministry of Justice said. The bill has been delayed several times but it’s set to return to parliament in December.
As TechCrunch notes, though, finding parliamentary time to formally read the amended bill, then to eventually debate and vote on it, may not be easy. It’s unclear whether the government will be able to pass the legislation before the next general election is called within the next two years.
Critics have pushed back against certain aspects of the bill, including a revived plan to verify a person’s age before permitting them to access adult content online. For many reasons, that measure may not be workable in practice.
The proposed legislation has also been described as a threat to free speech. On Thursday, an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak signed by 70 cyber security experts, organizations and elected officials laid out some of the dangers to privacy and security that the bill poses. Among other issues, the signatories argued that the Online Safety Bill includes “clauses that would erode end-to-end encryption in private messaging.” The letter adds that UK businesses would have less data flow protection than counterparts in the US and EU, “leaving them more susceptible to cyberattacks and intellectual property theft.”
“The bill is a deeply flawed censorship proposal that would allow UK residents to be thrown in jail for what they say online,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation said this week. “It would also force online service providers to use government-approved software to search for user content that is deemed to be related to terrorism or child abuse. In the process, it will undermine our right to have a private conversation, and the technologies that protect that right, like end-to-end encryption.”
Hubble is still providing dramatic pictures of the universe despite the arrival of the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA and the ESA have released a Hubble image of Arp-Madore 417-391, a strange galaxy collision about 670 million light-years away. Their gravitational tug-of-war has produced an odd ring-like shape where the two galactic cores are relatively close and the star “plumes” form a circle.
The telescope spotted the merger using its long-serving Advanced Camera for Surveys, which has helped detect strange galaxies and even dark matter. Researchers are using the orbital hardware to build a list of follow-up observations for the much newer James Webb telescope, which has sometimes been used in tandem with Hubble to study space objects.
You may not see Hubble leading these discoveries for much longer. The telescope has suffered a number of system failures in recent years, and is expected to plummet to Earth as soon as 2030 if there are no interventions. While NASA and SpaceX are considering boosting Hubble’s orbit to keep it active, that extended lifespan isn’t guaranteed. This galaxy crash may represent one of the telescope’s last hurrahs, even if the observatory has years left in space.
Black Friday deals have proven to be a boon for anyone looking for a new portable speaker. Many of our top picks from our Bluetooth speaker guide have dropped to impressive lows, including the Wonderboom 3, Sonos’ Roam SL and a number of JBL devices. Whether you want something super compact to take with you on roadtrips, or a water-resistant speaker to keep poolside, you’ll likely be able to find one that fits your needs on sale today. Here are the best Bluetooth speaker deals we found for Black Friday 2022.
In true tiny-but-mighty fashion, the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 takes up a small amount of space, but delivered the biggest sound in its size category of the speakers we tested. Usually $100, Black Friday is knocking off $20 to bring it down to $80. That’s a pretty good price for a speaker with 14 hours of battery life and a submergible waterproof rating.
Buy Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 at Amazon – $80
Delivering great sound in a package that can stand upright or lay on its side, the JBL Flip 6 usually runs for $130, but right now is seeing a lowest-ever price of $90. The Flip 6 is drop-resistant, waterproof and lasts for 12 hours on a charge. It’ll even connect up with other JBL Party-Boost speakers for stereo sound, not just other Flips.
Buy JBL Flip 6 at Amazon – $90
A little larger in both size and sound than the Flip, JBL’s Charge 5 is usually $180 but is down to $120 for Black Friday. It has a separate tweeter, and dual bass radiators for bigger sound and of course can handle a dunk in water. It’s got a long 20 hours of battery life and can even share some of that juice with your devices thanks to the USB-C port.
Buy JBL Charge 5 at JBL – $120Buy JBL Charge 5 at Amazon – $120
While its not meant to take on the road, the Monoprice Soundstage 3 is an excellent pick for at-home listening. Usually $250, the sale brings it down to $180 right now. We like its minimalist design and clear, balanced sound. It gets 10 hours of play on a charge, but also has plenty of hard-wire ports if its staying in one place.
Buy Monoprice SoundStage 3 at Monoprice – $180
Bose SoundLink Revolve II is great for bringing your music outside and we found it had a loud and bright sound that carries nicely through the out of doors. It pumps out 360-degree sound and gets 13 hours of play on a charge. It’s usually $220 but is down to $180 right now. We also tried out the Bose Portable Smart Speaker and found it had an even better low end than the Revolve II. That speaker usually goes for $400, but is $50 off for Black Friday.
Buy Bose SoundLink Revolve II at Bose – $180Buy Bose Portable Smart Speaker at Amazon – $350
So big it needs a strap, the JBL Xtreme 3 made our list thanks to its pleasant dynamic sound and the big bass, which does fine outdoors, but really bumps when it has walls to bounce off of. It’s usually $380 but is seeing an impressive 39 percent discount to bring it down to $230. Waterproof and dustproof, it’ll give you 15 hours of play on a charge.
Buy JBL Xtreme 3 at Amazon – $230
Sonos devices don’t go on sale often, and when they do it’s a good time to act. Right now the Sonos Roam SL is down from its usual $160 to a low of $127. It’ll hook up via WiFi or Bluetooth and swaps easily between the two. Waterproof and drop-resistant, the Roam gets 10 hours of play on a charge.
Buy Sonos Roam SL at Sonos – $127
Marshall is another brand that likes to put a limit on their sale prices, so finding this Marshall Acton II on sale is a good sign to move on it. The compact speaker delivers big sound with three amps, dual tweeters and a big subwoofer. Usually $280, it’s down to $150 for Black Friday.
Buy Marshall Acton II at Marshall – $150
The price on the Tribit StormBox Micro 2 is decent at its usual $60, but Black Friday brings that down to $51. We like that it’s ultra portable but capable of kicking out decent volume.
Buy Tribit StormBox Micro 2 at Tribit – $51
Your Cyber Week Shopping Guide: Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribing to the Engadget Deals newsletter. Also, shop the top Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals on Yahoo Life. Learn about Black Friday trends on In the Know, and our car experts at Autoblog are covering must-shop Black Friday and Cyber Monday auto deals.
“They don’t let you out of your house,” one resident of Woburn, Massachusetts, told The Guardian.
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