Hasta La Gadget!

Apple TV+ has a ton of popular originals like Ted Lasso, Severance, Slow Horses, For All Mankind, Foundation and Silo. If you’ve been meaning to check them out, you can do so for less right now. Apple TV+ is on sale right now for $3 per month for the first three months, bringing the total cost to just $9 for the entire period. That saves you a total of $21 off the standard $10 monthly cost of the subscription that we consider to be one of our favorite streaming services.

Apple’s shows won 10 Emmy Awards in 2024, including a Slow Horses victory for outstanding writing in a drama series. Although its films weren’t up for anything at this year’s Oscars, it received 13 nominations in 2024, including Best Picture nods for Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon.

Three months of Apple TV+ for $9 is available through April 24. Both new and qualified returning subscribers (those who haven’t been subscribed for the past 30 days) are eligible. You also must sign up via Apple directly and not through a third-party provider or your mobile wireless provider. If you don’t want to pay full price after three months, just remember to cancel before the renewal date.

Check out our coverage of the best streaming deals for more discounts, and follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/three-months-of-apple-tv-drops-to-only-9-193009187.html?src=rss

The popular chatbot ChatGPT became a trending topic recently because of its ability to generate images in the style of Studio Ghibli illustrations, a feature that previously was limited to paid subscribers (ChatGPT Plus, ChatGPT Pro, and ChatGPT Team users).

However, OpenAI has now made it available to all the users—Yup, including those on the free plan! The announcement was made by OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, through a post on X (formerly Twitter). According to OpenAI’s official blog, free users can generate up to three images per day; Once they reach this limit, they are invited to upgrade to a paid plan for additional image generation.

The rise in interest was largely driven by the appeal of Studio Ghibli-inspired illustrations, influenced by the studio’s renowned films such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and My Neighbor Totoro. The ability to create artwork in this beloved style led to a surge in new users, with ChatGPT gaining over one million new users in just a single hour.

This feature quickly became a trending topic on social media, as users eagerly experimented with AI-generated illustrations—However, the excitement was accompanied by discussions about the potential consequences for artists. Many raised concerns that AI-generated art could devalue the work of human illustrators and impact the creative industry.

Despite these debates, ChatGPT continues to expand its user base at a rapid pace—According to OpenAI, the chatbot now has over 500 million weekly active users. The decision to make image generation available to everyone further cements ChatGPT’s role as a widely used AI tool, blending accessibility with advanced creative capabilities.

As AI-generated art becomes more common, discussions about its ethical and professional implications are likely to continue.

ChatGPT Image Generator Now Available For Free Users, But With Limitations

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

For anyone who misses the way smartphones used to work, Samsung has announced two new “rugged” Galaxy devices, the Galaxy XCover 7 Pro and the Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro, that feature removable backplates and user-replaceable batteries.

The Galaxy XCover 7 Pro is designed for enterprise customers, but it comes packed with some of the same Galaxy AI features Samsung has been pushing on its flagship smartphones, including Google’s Circle to Search and Object Eraser. The phone uses a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip, has a brighter screen and comes with a 4,350mAh battery, but the reason to buy it are all the ways Samsung’s made it tougher and more customizable than the average phone. That includes IP68 water and dust resistance, MIL-STD-810H certification for drops, programmable buttons, built-in pogo pins as another charging option and a battery you can replace yourself just by popping off the back of the phone.

Samsung

The Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro has a 10.1-inch screen and uses the same Snapdragon chip as the XCover 7 Pro, but the tablet offers even more options when it comes to charging. Samsung says the Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro can be used without a battery inside if it’s connected to a dock and you can also hot-swap batteries on the tablet without turning it off. You’ll get to enjoy many of the same durability benefits as the XCover 7 Pro, and the IP68 water and dust resistance extends to the Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro’s S-Pen stylus, too.

Samsung

Neither of these devices are for normal people by any means, but they are good illustration of how formerly common-sense features like batteries you can replace yourself have become niche. We got lighter and sleeker flagship phones in the process, but one has to wonder whether XCover owners are the ones actually living the good life.

The Galaxy XCover 7 Pro will be available to order on May 8, 2025. The Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro is schedule to be released in “early June,” according to Samsung.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsungs-latest-rugged-devices-are-keeping-old-school-mobile-traditions-alive-120056640.html?src=rss

For anyone who misses the way smartphones used to work, Samsung has announced two new “rugged” Galaxy devices, the Galaxy XCover 7 Pro and the Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro, that feature removable backplates and user-replaceable batteries.

The Galaxy XCover 7 Pro is designed for enterprise customers, but it comes packed with some of the same Galaxy AI features Samsung has been pushing on its flagship smartphones, including Google’s Circle to Search and Object Eraser. The phone uses a Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 chip, has a brighter screen and comes with a 4,350mAh battery, but the reason to buy it are all the ways Samsung’s made it tougher and more customizable than the average phone. That includes IP68 water and dust resistance, MIL-STD-810H certification for drops, programmable buttons, built-in pogo pins as another charging option and a battery you can replace yourself just by popping off the back of the phone.

Samsung

The Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro has a 10.1-inch screen and uses the same Snapdragon chip as the XCover 7 Pro, but the tablet offers even more options when it comes to charging. Samsung says the Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro can be used without a battery inside if it’s connected to a dock and you can also hot-swap batteries on the tablet without turning it off. You’ll get to enjoy many of the same durability benefits as the XCover 7 Pro, and the IP68 water and dust resistance extends to the Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro’s S-Pen stylus, too.

Samsung

Neither of these devices are for normal people by any means, but they are good illustration of how formerly common-sense features like batteries you can replace yourself have become niche. We got lighter and sleeker flagship phones in the process, but one has to wonder whether XCover owners are the ones actually living the good life.

The Galaxy XCover 7 Pro will be available to order on May 8, 2025. The Galaxy Tab Active 5 Pro is schedule to be released in “early June,” according to Samsung.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsungs-latest-rugged-devices-are-keeping-old-school-mobile-traditions-alive-120056640.html?src=rss

Spoilers follow for The Last of Us season two, episode one

The heart of all things The Last of Us, whether it’s the games or the first season of the HBO adaptation, is the relationship between Joel and Ellie. It was brought to life in remarkable fashion by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in season one; the pair’s chemistry was the show’s undeniable high point. So it’s a bit of a shock that they only share a few minutes of screen time together in the season two premiere “Future Days” — and that their time together is strained to say the very least.

That all comes near the end of the episode, though. Backing up a bit, the show resumes exactly where we left off, with Ellie saying “okay” to Joel’s lies about what happened in the season one finale. That episode saw him decimate the Fireflies to save the immune Ellie. The Fireflies were hoping to make a cure for the cordyceps infection that devastated the world, but it would have killed her in the process. “Okay” meant that she was accepting his story, even if she didn’t quite believe it. Fast forward five years, and things are tense — so tense that our hardened Joel is in therapy.

We get to eavesdrop on a session with Joel’s therapist Gail, played by the always-wonderful Catherine O’Hara. I’ve been looking forward to seeing how she’d be used since Gail was revealed in an early trailer, and both her and Joel are having a day when they get together. Joel’s relationship with Ellie is apparently what drove him to meet with Gail, and he’s going on about the distance in their relationship — she barely talks to him, sulks and acts distant, and Gail isn’t exactly impressed. She notes that Ellie is acting like every other 19-year-old acts towards their father, and also says it’s clear there’s a lot more going on between them.

Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

Gail then opens up to Joel in an effort to get him to be honest (and because she’s a few drinks in) and drops a bit of a bomb in the process: Joel shot her husband Eugene (a character from The Last of Us Part II who we never met in the game). She says she understood that he had to do it — an implication but not confirmation that Eugene had been infected — but can’t forgive him for the way she found out and can’t help but hate him for what he did. Not the kind of thing you usually hear from your therapist, but that’s The Last of Us for you. She then gets Joel to tearfully admit he did something to Ellie, but when she asks if he hurt her, he responds by saying he saved her and then gets the hell out of her house. Season one showed Joel as a more vulnerable person than his game counterpart, a change that benefitted him given the expanded drama and depth of the show, and I’m glad season two is emphasizing that in a way that’s pretty unconventional for the post-apocalypse world.

We also get a hint at the discord between Joel and Ellie via Dina, a new character introduced as Ellie’s best friend through a conversation she has with Joel. The two of them are getting along just fine; Joel even calls her “kiddo,” showing a similar dad-like affection for Dina that he usually does with Ellie. After a little chat she asks him point blank why Ellie’s angry with him, and he responds with more vagaries about the two of them figuring out what it’s like being a father and daughter at her age while asking Dina to keep the therapy sessions he’s having a secret — his therapy-speak when discussing how he’s dealing with everything was just too on the nose for her to miss.

Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

But the most pivotal scene in this exposition-heavy episode is the New Year’s Eve party where Dina and Ellie share a dance, share a kiss and get shouted at by the drunk town bigot. Just as Ellie is about to treat him like a clicker, Joel intercedes, shoves Seth to the ground and asks if she’s okay — which gets him a disgusted look and verbal smackdown from Ellie, after which he slinks away in decidedly un-Joel fashion.

Things are decidedly unwell between the pair, and while it’s an intriguing note to start the story on, it’s also hard not to be disappointed about the lack of time together for Pascal and Ramsey. Having them at odds is a totally reasonable story beat — even if she was a normal 19-year-old, they’d be having their share of challenges. But the loss of their connection and the lack of interactions between the two put a subdued mood over everything, something that episode writer / director and showrunner Craig Mazin certainly intended and will exploit throughout the season.

Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO

Mazin also paid tribute to the game in some lovely ways in this episode, particularly with the town party scene. Right from the start of season one, I expected to see more scenes from the game done nearly note-for-note in the show, and my expectations have been largely defied throughout, right from the start of the series’ first episode. It’s been clear that the goal of the show is not to reproduce all of the game’s iconic scenes but expand on it while still picking the right moments to deploy some tributes to the source material. The party scene is a perfect example, starting off with a shot of Ellie’s back as she looks over the merriment in front of her; what follows is nearly identical to the pivotal game scene in dialog, set design and framing. What is different, though, is the timing — we’re getting this right off the bat rather than much later in the story as you’d find in the game.

Similarly, the episode’s other most significant scene takes place right at the beginning. After that quick flashback, we’re immediately introduced to Abby, one of the second game’s playable characters. We learn that she and her friends are survivors of Joel’s Firefly massacre at the hospital in Utah, and that Abby in particular is keen on revenge. Mazin and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann have already discussed how they wanted to introduce Abby and get into her motivations quicker in the show than in the game, largely because players build a relationship with her through gameplay. In this case, though, we already know that Abby is after Joel, and the episode ends with her crew reaching Jackson. While “Future Days” focused more on scene-setting than action (with the exception of some pretty tense scenes of Ellie and Dina against some Infected), things are clearly going to ratchet up next week — and not just with Abby, as the show also teased a major Infected threat as well. Let’s get those flamethrowers ready for next Sunday.

Infected score: 6/10

One of the main complaints from fans of the video games during season one was a relative lack of Infected. The showrunners say they’ve changed things up in season two — let’s see if they’re sticking to their word.

Episode one was mostly an exposition episode without a ton of action, but we did see Ellie and Dina stealthily take down a pair of Clickers. But the most exciting bit was seeing a Stalker in action for the first time in the show. It had Ellie completely fooled, even giving her another bite that she had to hide from Dina. Here’s hoping we see more of these creepers as the season goes on. And, of course, the threat of tendrils lurking in the pipe in the middle of Jackson promises bigger problems soon, but we’re not there yet. I’m giving this episode a 6 of 10 — there wasn’t all that much action, but the stalker reveal was intense enough to up this episode’s rating.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-season-two-premiere-future-days-highlights-the-fracture-between-ellie-and-joel-020029565.html?src=rss