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How PayPal stole Christmas (according to 233 Brits)
Halloween has passed and November is here. For advertisers, that means it's about time to debut this year's festive adverts. PayPal jumped straight in, airing its own during an X Factor ad break on Sunday night, but for hundreds of Brits, it's already destroyed the magic of Christmas. The Guardian reports that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received 233 complaints from viewers arguing that PayPal's advert implies that Father Christmas isn't real.
Roku 4 review: 4K is nice, but otherwise it's not a huge upgrade
It's no surprise that the Roku 4 is a solid set-top box -- Roku has been making them for a while now, after all. It's also not surprising that the new Roku's search is smart, that the interface is fast and fluid or that there's a bountiful selection of apps. In fact, there isn't much that's truly surprising, or revolutionary, about the Roku 4 ($130). It's a solid, if somewhat unexciting upgrade, especially after the Roku 3 from earlier this year, which brought voice search into the mix. Just like the new Fire TV, Roku is betting that the addition of 4K ultra-high-definition video (UHD) is exciting enough on its own. And, while it's certainly noteworthy, it's also something that will only appeal to just a handful of consumers. Basically, if you're happy with your Roku 3, or any other equivalent set-top box, you won't need to rush out and grab this one. Although when you do finally go 4K, it's a worthy choice.
Sling TV now works with Google's Chromecast
Just as Google promised, Sling TV has brought its streaming television service over to Chromecast iOS and Android apps. Even better, the company is offering a few deals to sweeten the pot. New customers who prepay for three months of Sling TV's "Best of Live TV" package (worth around $60, in total) are eligible for a free Chromecast. Current Chromecast owners can instead opt for a two-month trial of Sling TV, which you'll be able to sign up for from the Chromecast site today. We found Sling TV to be pretty solid when we first tested it earlier this year, and it's only gotten better over time, as more channels were added and the overall experience improved. The news also puts Sling TV on pretty much all of the major streaming boxes, aside from the new Apple TV. But we hope to see it there too -- even Plex has made its way to the Apple TV already.
Sony's pricey noise cancelling PS4 headset launches next month
Sony already offers a varied range of official accessories for the PlayStation 4, but in-ear headphones have mostly been shunned in favor of on-ear headsets. The good news is that if you've been waiting for a pair of branded buds, the company is finally ready to step up to the plate. With its new In-ear Stereo Headset, Sony will debut its noise-reducing AudioShield technology, adding more immersion to your gaming sessions, while filtering out any unwanted background noise during your daily commute.
Jay-Z's Tidal music service to offer original TV shows
Under the management of Jay Z, music streaming service Tidal has slowly grown to more than one million subscribers. The company has sought to differentiate itself from the likes of Spotify and Apple Music with a mixture of high-fidelity tracks and exclusive video content, but it now believes that original programming could give it an extra edge over its rivals. Variety reports that Tidal has ordered two new series: Season 2 of New York street drama Money & Violence, which will debut in January, and No Small Talk, a series profiling rising comedians, which hits the streaming service today.
Activision buys 'Candy Crush' developer King for $5.9 billion
Say what you will about the quality of Activision's output, but the company makes incredibly smart business moves. Like the announcement that it purchased Candy Crush studio King Digital Entertainment for a cool $5.9 billion. For comparison's sake, Amazon paid a paltry $970 million for Twitch while Facebook spent $2 billion on Oculus VR and $19 billion on messaging platform Whatsapp. Oh, and Minecraft only set Microsoft back $2.5 billion. Bobby Kotick and Co. definitely think this is a big deal, and considering just how many people play the mindless puzzler this is likely a smart investment.
What's on your HDTV: 'That '70s Show,' 'Call of Duty,' 'Master of None'
This week is all about Call of Duty, as this year's edition arrives on consoles Friday with all single player missions unlocked from the start -- unless you're on Xbox 360 or PS3. If you want Black Ops 3 first them you can of course try downloading it, but if you prefer a disc some Amazon is adding midnight delivery as an option next to the standard midnight release. Also this week, Mill Creek Entertainment is releasing the entire run of That '70s Show on Blu-ray, which isn't cropped or zoomed (like The Wire) since it was originally shot in widescreen on film (like Friends and Seinfeld). Better yet? It's currently available via Best Buy and Amazon for $60. Netflix premieres Aziz Ansari's series Master of None, while the first two season of Game of Thrones are being re-released on Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos surround sound -- check after the break for a trailer explaining how important the new audio is. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed).
Plex comes to the new Apple TV for free
The Plex team just delivered the first version of its media streaming app for the new Apple TV. Now that there's an app store, Plex's media player is accessible without any jailbreaking or even AirPlay sidestepping necessary and better yet, it's free to use. All you'll need is one of the double-height media players and the latest version of Plex Media Server to give it a try -- no in-app purchases or PlexPass subscription necessary. At least for now, Plex says it's using TVML for the app instead of writing a fully native version, which enabled it to get up and running in just five weeks.
A weekend with the new Apple TV
The iPhone 6S and iPad Pro are cool and all, but the Apple gadget that I was most looking forward to this fall was the new Apple TV. It is, quite notoriously, the device that Apple has most publicly neglected over the years. Its last big update was way back in 2012, when Apple finally added 1080p support. And even that third-gen Apple TV wasn't too exciting, since it looked exactly the same as the one released in 2010. So yah, it was about time Apple totally rethought its approach to TV. After finally getting to test one out over the weekend, I found that the new fourth-generation Apple TV was worth the wait -- though there are still plenty of issues to iron out.
Battlezone's PSVR reboot is the ultimate fan service
It could be argued that Atari's 1980 arcade classic Battlezone was the first virtual reality game. In a simple duel of tanks, players looked through a small opening in the cabinet to maneuver their lumbering vehicle, firing at a single enemy and avoiding being struck by projectiles. The game's wireframe design was graphically simplistic, but stenciled in thin green lines on the horizon was a single object that drew the attention of fans: an erupting volcano. Rumors swirled of a secret route that would lead players to the volcano's crater where a castle lay awaiting brave explorers. "Of course, none of this was true," Atari engineer Lyle Rains pointed out in Van Burnham's 2001 book Supercade. But that didn't stop the dreamers. In one case, a fan even wrote to Atari to tell the company he'd reached the mythical castle. After decades of speculation, developer Rebellion, best known for the Sniper Elite series, is rebooting Battlezone for Sony's PlayStation VR and taking players into the heart of the volcano.
'Star Trek' (kinda) returns to TV in January 2017
CBS has announced that it's going to make a brand new Star Trek TV series that'll begin airing in January 2017. The corporation has shoved a big pile of money in the face of Star Trek and Into Darkness co-writer Alex Kurtzman to be in charge of this new series. If you're eagerly soldering your TV's remote to make sure it can never be switched away from your local CBS affiliate, we'd suggest holding off for just a second. That's because only the first episode or two will air on broadcast TV, with the rest of the series becoming an exclusive for CBS' homegrown online subscription service, All Access.
Gfinity needs more cash to build its UK eSports empire
Although demand for eSports continues to rise every day, helped by Twitch and YouTube, making money from competitive gaming can be hard (unless you're a successful player). It's a struggle that UK eSports events company Gfinity knows all too well after it revealed it lost £3.6 million in its first full year. Given that the company invested heavily in getting its business off the ground, which includes the launch of the UK's first dedicated arena, the loss doesn't come as a surprise, but it does highlight the need to quickly convert its growing audience into paying customers.
Warner Bros. offers refunds for 'Batman: Arkham Knight' on PC
The failure of Batman: Arkham Knight's PC port is finally complete -- after being removed from digital stores for being completely broken at launch, going through a four month overhaul and returning with too many lingering issues to forgive, Warner Bros. has finally thrown in the towel. If you bought the game on PC, you're eligible for a refund between now and the end of the year.
Nuka-Cola Quantum available in time for 'Fallout 4'
No one really knows what's in those bottles of Fallout Beer, but they likely won't hit US shores. What will however is Nuka-Cola Quantum. The folks at Fallout developer Bethesda have teamed up with the purveyors of funky fizzy drinks, Jones Soda, to put the "irradiated" refreshment on Target shelves just in time for Fallout 4's launch. Come November 10th, you'll be able to start slugging down what looks like the company's Berry Lemonade (a picture's embedded after the break) in preparation for what we're affectionately calling "Vault Day" here at Engadget. You know, what everyone else is referring to as November 10th, a.k.a. Fallout 4's release date.
Amazon to deliver 'Call of Duty' at midnight on release day in 20 cities
Grabbing a physical copy of a new game on day one usually means either braving an in-store midnight event or waiting through the day for a package delivery. In the case of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Amazon has an alternative: midnight delivery straight to your door, at no extra charge. In 20 metropolitan areas (Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Miami, Minneapolis, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle) it promises to drop the game off -- along with any snacks you might order -- within a two hour window on November 6th through its Prime Now same day delivery service.
Playdate: A (probably terrifying) chat with 'SOMA' dev Ian Thomas
Well, the chat may not be terrifying, but the game certainly will be. Today on Playdate, we're diving into two horrifying, Halloween-worthy games, SOMA and PT. SOMA is the creepy underwater game from Amnesia: The Dark Descent studio Frictional Games, and PT is Konami's once-promising haunted-house exploration teaser for a game that's sadly not going to be made. While we're playing SOMA, we'll conduct a live interview with Ian Thomas, Frictional's level scripter and gameplay programmer. Let's find out what makes a master of digital horror tick. Playdate kicks off at 6PM Eastern/3PM Pacific and you can watch live right in this post, on the Engadget Gaming homepage or on Twitch.tv/Joystiq.
Watch a live Director's Commentary of 'Until Dawn' right now
Until Dawn is a spooky spectacle of classic horror themes and beautifully branching narrative paths -- and today, developers at Supermassive Games will spill a bunch of behind-the-scenes secrets, live on Twitch. Supermassive is participating in an Until Dawn Director's Commentary livestream at 3:30PM ET, on its own channel (embedded below) and hosted on the official PlayStation Twitch outlet. If you have questions about the characters, setting, mechanics or story of Until Dawn, this is where you might find your answers. Were we supposed to loathe Emily? Who was Josh modeled after? Will Sam be our BFF in real life (please)? For the answers, tune in. Who knows -- the devs may even talk about Rush of Blood, the Until Dawn spin-off for PlayStation VR.
SXSW apologizes, launches day-long Online Harassment Summit
South by Southwest organizers earned the ire of the internet this week after canceling two panels aimed at addressing online harassment and "GamerGate" culture in the video game industry. SXSW canceled the discussions because it received "numerous threats of violence" -- a reason that, to many, gave power to those threats and in fact encouraged continued harassment. Both Buzzfeed and Vox Media swiftly announced plans to skip SXSW entirely unless the panels were reinstated. Today, SXSW Interactive Director Hugh Forrest offered an apology and announced the Online Harassment Summit for March 12th. It's a full-day event that SXSW says will feature people from both of the canceled panels, plus a lineup of additional speakers. SXSW will live-stream the summit all day, for free. However, one panel organizer says she's not on-board with this new solution.
The best $500 TV
By Chris Heinonen This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. Read the full article here. After over 100 hours of researching the field and testing five finalists, we found that the Vizio M43-C1 is the best TV that costs around $500. It provides the best image quality under real-world viewing conditions. It also produces contrast ratios that are twice as high as those of competing TVs: Its blacks are twice as dark as competitors', and its whites are the brightest, great for daytime use in rooms with window reflections. This set has five HDMI inputs, two more than every other TV we tested, and it generates the lowest input lag for the best video gaming performance as well. The fact that it offers UltraHD (or 4K) resolution, instead of 1080p, is a bonus.
'League of Legends' shoutcaster loves the game, not the fame
Trevor Henry doesn't like to think of himself as "famous." He prefers the term "recognizable," and then only in certain situations -- like at the League of Legends World Championships in Europe this year. Henry, professionally known as Quickshot, is a shoutcaster for League of Legends, which means he's often the face and voice of professional matches as he commentates on live games and analyzes important moves afterward. Literally millions of people know who he is: In 2014, 27 million fans watched the final match of the League World Championships. For perspective, the NBA Finals in 2014 averaged just 15.5 million viewers per game. Quickshot has been in the shoutcasting game for half a decade, first as a hobby and now professionally in a rapidly evolving industry. He knows where professional League of Legends started and sees where it can go -- and he told us all about it.
