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Rick And Morty's Justin Roiland is developing a claymation series for Quibi
Mobile streaming service Quibi is scheduled to launch on April 6th, but the upcoming service has already announced a raft of content from a Steven Spielberg horror series to an ESPN daily sports show, plus a nostalgic reboot of Legends of the Hidden Temple and the return of Reno 911! Now, Justin Roiland, co-creator of Rick and Morty, is set to join the Quibi roster with his own claymation series.
The Morning After: Dell's Concept UFO is like a Switch for PC gaming
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. If you'd told us a few months ago that Dell would try its hand at a portable gaming PC, I'd have called you a dirty rotten liar. But CES seems to bring out the worst in all of us. In Dell's case, it's the Concept UFO, an 8-inch gaming PC with detachable controllers. It's as if Dell took a look at the Switch and immediately thought it could out-do Nintendo. Instead, the Concept UFO is more like the infamous "Homer" car from The Simpsons -- a bloated monstrosity that might not appeal to anyone. Of course, it's still just a concept, so there's plenty of room for improvement before Dell actually decides to sell a portable PC. But as it stands, the Concept UFO is bulky to hold, and its controllers feel awkward in almost every way. Oh yah, and underneath Dell's simplistic interface, it's just a tiny Windows 10 PC. Perhaps in a few years, though, when Intel's graphics are beefier, or AMD manages to create usable mobile hardware, Dell could fashion this concept into something we'd actually want to buy. -- Devindra
YouTube will premiere a Coachella documentary on March 31st
Save for a year off in 2000, Coachella has been held every year since 1999, and YouTube is celebrating two decades of the music festival with an upcoming documentary. Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert will debut on the platform March 31st.
We're live from Sony's CES 2020 press event!
Sony's CES mood in recent years is one of quiet confidence and, well, not many big hardware announcements. Instead, it uses CES press conferences as a showcase for what it did the year before. That's not great news if you were angling for details on the next-generation PlayStation, but expect updates to the company's TVs and audio hardware. Maybe we'll get some new cameras, as both Nikon and Canon have launched new systems in the last year. We'll be liveblogging whatever Sony has planned, so join us here at 5:00 PM PST (8:00 PM EST). Any questions or demands? You can ask me on Twitter (@thatmatsmith).
Tumblr's digital literacy campaign targets fake news and bullying
Tumblr is launching a year-long digital literacy campaign to fight fake news, cyberbullying and other toxic internet behavior. Tumblr hopes the campaign, dubbed World Wide What, will spread internet safety awareness and start healthy conversations with the Tumblr community. (Full disclosure: Tumblr has ties to Verizon, Engadget's parent company.)
Roku makes it easier to connect soundbars and receivers to its TVs
First we got speakers for Roku TVs. Then, Roku gave us a soundbar and subwoofer. Now, the company is opening things up with Roku TV Ready, a new initiative that simplifies connecting soundbars and receivers to its TVs. Once those audio devices are plugged in, the Roku sets will automatically recognize them, turn off their internal TV speakers, and let you control the volume and other settings from your Roku remote.
The Morning After: CES 2020 started and there are 8K TVs everywhere
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. CES 2020 has begun. Of course, it's hard to tell what that means sometimes -- we're preparing for a slew of press conferences today, and the show floor won't officially open until tomorrow. I'm already neck-deep in TVs, we've seen virtually every kind of laptop there is and Samsung is teasing the appearance of artificial people. Keep an eye on the site today for the latest updates, plus liveblogs from Sony's keynote at 8PM ET, and Samsung's usually unusual event at 9:30 PM ET. -- Richard
Netflix wins just two Golden Globes despite receiving 34 nominations
Streaming won big in TV at the 2020 Golden Globes, but Netflix failed to take advantage of its record-setting number of nominations. Despite being up for 34 prizes, the streaming service won just two, Olivia Coleman's best actress win for The Crown and Laura Dern for best supporting actress in Marriage Story in the film category. Most significantly, Netflix's prestigious Martin Scorsese-helmed film The Irishman was completely shut out of the motion picture awards.
Greetings from CES 2020!
For Engadget editors, life is just a series of moments while you wait for CES to come back around again. Sometimes it almost feels like we never left. But we did. And now we're back. CES 2020 is about to get started in sunny (and slightly smelly) Las Vegas. As always there will be plenty of cars, TVs and smart (fill-in-the-blanks). But our real job is to separate the wheat from the chaff and bring you only the best of what the world's largest tech conference has to offer. The show floor hasn't officially opened yet, but we've already seen plenty shiny new laptops, a lot of 8K screens, and even a shower head that's also a smart speaker. Of course, you don't want to miss out on our liveblogs for Sony (January 6th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT) and Samsung (January 6th at 9:30pm ET / 6:30pm PT). And as always we are hosting the official Best of CES awards on Thursday January 9th at 8pm ET / 5pm PT.
'Fortnite' made a historic $1.8 billion in 2019
Fortnite won its chicken dinner in 2019 by grossing $1.8 billion in sales, more than any single-year sales total in videogame history. While the game itself is technically free-to-play, Epic Games offers a $10 per month Battle Pass as well as myriad in-game item purchases -- from clothing and weapons to dance moves and player reactions -- to keep the game's 125 million active players coming back for more. Combined with heavy marketing tie-ins to the year's biggest blockbusters, including both Avengers and Star Wars, as well as the debut of Chapter 2 in October and a marquee eSports circuit in August, it's little surprise that the game remains a cultural touchstone.
The Morning After: Disney+ is losing some old movies
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. Welcome to your weekend, and the calm before the storm. Soon, CES 2020 will start and we'll be overrun by electronic things that are coming to store shelves later this year. The tricky part will be figuring out which ones are worth paying attention to, and which ones will never make it to market. I've been in Las Vegas for less than a day, and so far the biggest change this year is a slight redesign of the hotel we're staying in -- by Monday we should have updates that are a lot more exciting. -- Richard
Google is killing digital magazines in News
Google News will no longer offer paid magazine subscriptions. According to Android Police, the News team sent out an email to customers, telling them that the company is killing print-replica magazines in Google News. A company spokesperson has confirmed the change to Engadget, noting that the program worked with under 200 publishers. Subscribers won't be able to purchase new magazine issues anymore, but they can thankfully still keep accessing old issues (PDFs and other formats) in the Google News app via the Following or Favorites tab. In addition, the tech giant is refunding subscribers their latest payment within 30 days.
The Morning After: Dell's new XPS 13 stands taller
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. By the time you read this, much of the Engadget team will be well on its way to CES 2020. After more than a decade of making this annual trip, I'm still ready to check out more massive screens with impossible-sounding numbers of pixels squeezed inside them. Both 1080p and 4K have taken their turn at the top of the resolution heap, and this year, it looks like 8K is every manufacturer's preferred flavor. With the Tokyo Olympics closing in, these TVs will need to be ready soon -- and we'll have to find out how anyone can get a chance to watch 8K at home. There's more to CES than TVs, of course -- Samsung and Dell have already announced a few interesting-looking laptops -- but if you're on the show floor, you'll probably find me looking at a demo reel somewhere, trying to figure out just how real HDR can look. One thing's for sure, though, this year I probably won't get caught wearing any active shutter 3D glasses. -- Richard
Disney+ loses some movies due to old licensing deals
Some titles have recently disappeared from Disney+, including beloved classics Home Alone 1 and 2: Lost in New York. ScreenCrush has listed twelve titles, in particular, which also include Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Dr. Dolittle and The Wonderful World of Disney: Magical Holiday Celebration. A spokesperson has confirmed to Gizmodo that those shows and movies have departed the service, but it's not due to a glitch or a change in policy. Disney+ had to drop them, for now, due to issues related to legacy deals.
Apple signs former HBO chief to a five-year deal
Apple is clearly ready to make a long-term commitment to streaming TV. The tech giant has struck a deal with former HBO chief Richard Plepler's company Eden Productions to produce movies, shows and documentaries for Apple TV+ over the next five years. There are no clues as to what Eden will make for Apple, but Variety understands the focus is on a small amount of "high-profile" content rather than flooding Apple with shows.
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The Morning After: Samsung's 'zero bezel' TV looks like this
Hey, good morning! And we are back. Welcome to 2020. I'm not sure how your new year goals and resolutions are going, but I'm putting off any of my efforts until CES is over. I am choosing to blame our hotel gym in Las Vegas, which is notoriously awful: a carpeted meeting room with two treadmills and a sad shelf of neoprene weights where none of them match, like a pink and green TJ Maxx shoe rack. Sure, I might not need a gym to get fitter, but I do need a nice space to make me want to workout during one of my busiest weeks of the year. 'Busy' this year looks like more expensive, cutting-edge TVs and displays from Samsung (as seen above) and LG, while other companies are also showing their hand ahead of CES 2020 -- namely a lot of audio tech. True wireless earbuds aren't going anywhere, but they might get better. And more expensive. So, let's kick off the year with something silly, high-tech and oddly desirable: a rolling TV that drops from your ceiling. -Mat
Klipsch debuts noise-cancelling headphones with 30 hours of listening
Alongside new true-wireless earbuds, Klipsch will show off its first pair of wireless over-ear noise-cancelling headphones at CES 2020. For now, they're simply called Over-Ear Active Noise Cancelling headphones. When they go on sale this fall, they'll cost $399. That makes them $50 more expensive than the Sony WH-1000XM3 and the same price as the Bose 700 headphones, two of the best Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones you can buy at the moment. And from a feature standpoint at least, they compare favorably to the competition.
Disney+ moves up 'WandaVision' premiere to 2020
The new year is starting off on the right foot if you're a Marvel fan. Disney has revealed that WandaVision will now reach Disney+ in 2020, months earlier than its originally planned spring 2021 debut. The company didn't narrow down the release window beyond that, but the news still means that you're getting another MCU series this year besides The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Streaming now accounts for 80 percent of the US music market
Streaming has completely reshaped the face of the music industry over the last decade, with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music proving to be overwhelmingly popular with music fans. The Recording Industry Association of America has revealed some stats that underline the mammoth sea change. The organization says streaming accounts for 80 percent of the US music market, compared with seven percent in 2010. Streaming subscriptions rose from about 1.5 million to around 61 million between 2010 and the first half of 2019, according to the RIAA.
