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Jeep's Super Bowl ad teases a powerful off-road electric bicycle
Companies are tripping over themselves to hawk electric vehicles at the Super Bowl, but they aren't all cars. Jeep has posted a Super Bowl ad that's primarily meant to pitch the latest Gladiator, but also includes a brief glimpse of the company's first electric bicycle, simply called the e-Bike. You hardly see any of it (Bill Murray mainly uses it to take a groundhog on a ride), but don't worry. Jeep's partner on the e-Bike, QuietKat, has published a splash page shedding more light on what the two-wheeler will entail.
LeBron James helps GMC pitch its Hummer EV in a Super Bowl ad
GM thinks it has a simple way to drum up hype for its future GMC Hummer EV: give it the kind of celebrity endorsement that sports fans would notice. The brand is airing a teaser commercial during the Super Bowl (in the third quarter for US viewers) that has no less than LeBron James pitching the all-electric pickup truck. Don't expect to see more of the Hummer than you have so far. Instead, this is more about the EV's combination of raw power with near silence... and, of course, equating James' basketball dominance with the Hummer's performance.
Roku and Fox cut a deal in time for Super Bowl LIV streaming
A few days ago, Roku sent out an email to customers informing them that Fox standalone apps would go away after January 31st due to an expiring distribution agreement. That might make it a little harder and more complicated to watch the Super Bowl via streaming this weekend, and certainly more difficult to watch the 4K stream Fox will distribute via its apps. But tonight Roku informed Engadget that they have reached an agreement.According to a Fox spokesperson, "We are pleased to have reached a successful agreement with Roku. Fox's leading suite of apps will continue to be available on the Roku platform." So that means as long as you're able to load up the apps and login with cable or other TV credentials, the Fox Now and Fox Sports apps will work just as well as the NFL and other streaming options on Roku.
You can still watch the Super Bowl for free on Roku (updated)
Last night, Fox apps were pulled from Roku, which left users who were planning to watch Super Bowl LIV via those apps scrambling. While Fox and Roku work out their differences, the NFL says there is nothing to worry about. The league will stream the game via its free Roku app, NFL spokesman Alex Riethmiller told Fast Company.
Microsoft made a Nike Air Max 90 Xbox but you can't buy it
The Super Bowl is right around the corner, so here come all the brand collabs. To celebrate Sunday's showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, Xbox, EA Sports and Nike have joined forces to create a limited-edition custom Xbox One console. Inspired by the special edition Nike x Madden NFL 20 Air Max 90 sneakers unveiled yesterday, the all-white console features red and blue details representing the EA Sports logo and NFL Shield, as well as the iconic Nike swoosh.
Fox apps are abruptly disappearing from Roku before the Super Bowl
If you're planning on watching Super Bowl LIV using a streaming app, then you might not be able to use Roku hardware. While the platform has had a number of Fox apps available for years, their distribution agreement is set to expire after tomorrow, ahead of the big game. Roku is sending out emails to customers informing them that the standalone Fox apps won't be available this weekend to watch and suggesting alternatives. If they can't work out some kind of extension (the Fox Now and Fox Sports apps have already been delisted from the Roku Channel Store) then the simplest workaround may be using another streaming service on your Roku device. Apps like YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV or Sling TV can all work in a pinch, assuming they have your local Fox affiliate. If you'd like to see the game in (upscaled from 1080p) 4K, then Fubo TV will deliver it that way, and it has a seven day free trial. If you'd rather swap out for different hardware, then Amazon's Fire TV 4K stick is ready to stream the 4K and HDR mastered feed of the game on Sunday, and it's on sale right now for $35 (if it won't ship to your area in time from Amazon, Best Buy and Target also have it for the same price). Usually the carriage disputes I've covered involve cable operators, with threats to send antennas out and scrolling ads. Now even that has gone to the next level as streaming platforms are the new landscape, with acquisitions and competition making things stranger every day. Apps can appear and disappear in a blink -- but hopefully this gets worked out so no one has to make backup plans at all. Update: While Roku said that it will be "forced" to remove Fox's apps as of the 31st if a distribution agreement or extension isn't reached, Fox has a different view of things. A "Fox Corporation Spokesperson" called the notification a "poorly timed negotiating ploy," and claimed the company would prefer to see the apps remain available. What will happen after tomorrow? We'll have to wait and see. Update (1/31, 11 PM ET): And....with about one hour to go before January ended, Fox and Roku announced they have reached an agreement so you can go ahead and stream via whichever app you want. The Fox apps will be available on Roku. Fox spokesperson: Roku's threat to delete FOX apps from its customers' devices is a naked effort to use its customers as pawns. To be clear, FOX has not asked Roku to remove our apps, and we would prefer Roku continue to make them available without interruption. Roku's tactics are a poorly timed negotiating ploy, fabricating a crisis with no thought for the alarm it generated among its own customers. Even if Roku unilaterally decides to remove FOX apps, savvy Roku customers know Super Bowl LIV on FOX will be ubiquitously available through streaming providers, FOX apps on the biggest streaming platforms and our website. Only Roku can pull apps from its customers' devices, and we would urge them to stop the intimidation tactics and reconsider the merits of irritating their best customers in pursuit of Roku's own interests.
The best pre-Super Bowl deals for 4K TVs and streaming
With the big game right around the corner -- I mean Super Bowl LIV, in case that isn't clear -- it's once again time to consider making a TV upgrade. If you need a little something extra to make sure football fans stop by your party instead of staying home, a bigger and brighter setup will go further than pushing your array of snacks. Plus, while many of these deals are online, shopping locally can give you an opportunity to see the screen in person, or make for a quick return if you find out that it's just too wide for the stand you wanted to put it on. (I should've measured first.) With prices nearly as low as we saw during the Black Friday push, and likely as low as they'll get until sets start hitting clearance shelves, you have your choice of equipment. Also worth considering is the fact that this year, for the first time, you can watch a Fox Sports 4K/HDR feed. It's upconverted from 1080p, but judging from my experience watching Thursday Night Football earlier in the season, it's sharp and vibrant enough to justify switching over if you can. Fox's plan to capture the game includes eight 4K cameras, as well as three 8K cameras trained on the sidelines and benches -- you'll want every super slow motion zoom-in to look as good as possible.
Porsche's first Super Bowl ad in 23 years is for the electric Taycan
There have been Super Bowl ads for electric cars before, but they've tended to treat EVs as novelties. BMW's 2015 ad for the i3 was practically a crash course in EVs, while Audi's 2019 spot was more to advertise electrification than the still-unavailable E-Tron GT. Porsche, however, is embracing the radical concept of advertising an EV you can actually buy. The automaker is airing its first Super Bowl ad in 23 years on February 2nd to promote the Taycan, and this video focuses more on -- gasp -- the actual car.
Facebook's first ever Super Bowl ad will focus on Groups
Facebook has attempted to overcome a year of PR disasters with some high-profile adverts for its services featuring celebrities, such as Portal commercials starring Kim Kardashian and Jennifer Lopez. Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook taking this one step further by airing a Super Bowl ad.
Daily Roundup: the best ads of the Super Bowl, Raspberry Pi gets an update and more!
In today's Daily Roundup we have a bargain price for a multi-million dollar maritime vessel, some serious upgrades for Raspberry Pi's latest board and it wouldn't be a post-Super Bowl Monday without at least one mention of our favorite ads. Read on for these stories and more!
Super Bowl hits new tweet record, but Twitter still prefers soccer
Gridiron football isn't exactly a world game, but the spectacle of the Super Bowl still draws nearly a billion viewers who do a heckuva lot of tweeting. It just horse-collared its previous Twitter record with around 28.4 million tweets from around the globe, easily surpassing last year's mark of 24.9 million. This year's edition did have a lot going for it: a tight match, a crazy finish, all those pricy ads and the whole Katy Perry dancing shark hoedown. But despite all that, it still couldn't touch the World Cup, which triggered 32.1 million tweets for the finale and 35.6 million for the Germany vs. Brazil semi-final matchup. And most of those likely involved the game, not a gigantic animatronic tiger.
The 10 most-tweeted commercials from Super Bowl XLIX
It was a great night for Rob Gronkowski and the New England Patriots, but it wasn't so good for our friend Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks. It also was a great night for brands trying to hold your attention for seconds with ads to get you talking on Twitter. From the usual highbrow suspects selling soda and beer, to toe fungus medication and superglue, here's our take on the most-talked about spots from last night's big game.
Here's how to stream the Super Bowl on your Apple devices
This Sunday is Super Bowl XLIX featuring the Seahawks, the Patriots, and, hopefully, properly inflated balls. You can watch the big game on your TV if you can pick up a signal, but what about if you've cut the cord to cable or don't have a solid digital tuner? Don't worry, your Apple devices are here to help. iOS Users: If you'll be watching the game on your iPhone, now would be a good time to be a Verizon customer. Verizon users can stream the game for free via the NFL Mobile app directly from their phones. Everyone else will have to find another way. NFL Mobile doesn't work with Airplay, so you'll have to enjoy it on your tiny phone screen. If you have an iPad you can thank NBC Sports for your game experience. NBC has exclusive rights to streaming the game via tablet computers, so download the NBC Sports Live Extra App for your iPad and you're golden. You should be able to stream the game without making an account, but double check before kickoff so you don't miss anything important. Desktop Users: Desktop users should head over to NBCSports.com/liveextra to stream the game, since NBC has also managed to lock down the official desktop stream of the game. Even if you go to the NFL's website to check out the game, you'll find yourself redirected to NBC's website. If you have an Apple TV, use AirPlay to move the action over to your big screen, or connect your machine to your TV via an HDMI cable. You can do this. The game needs you. You have options this Sunday when it comes to viewing. The only thing that matters? Who wins. Let us know your predictions in the comments below.
Your Facebook feed is going to be unbearable during the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl, the enormous advertising event that has some American Football between the commercial breaks, takes place this Sunday. If you're not a fan, then you may have wanted to find some respite inside your Facebook feed but, unfortunately, that avenue has been closed off this year. According to Reuters, the social network is hoping to muscle in on Twitter's real-time advertising turf by letting businesses target users depending on what messages they post.
Real-life, giant Pac-Man maze stars in Super Bowl ad
Bud Light's Super Bowl XLIX commercial sends a clear message: Drink beer, be chased by ghosts. Or is it "Drink beer, have a lot of strangers touch you?" No, no – it's probably "Drink beer, then run around a ton and don't throw up!" Or just, "Pac-Man is still awesome."
NBC will let iOS users stream the Super Bowl with no cable account
If you have an iOS device you're going to be treated to a full day of Super Bowl XLIX coverage thanks to NBC's new streaming promotion it's appropriately calling "Super Stream Sunday." NBC announced the plans today, which include the full live stream of the NFL's season finale along with pre-game coverage that will start at noon EST on Sunday, February 1st and finally wrap up some 11 hours later. All the content will be streamed via the NBC Sports Live Extra app, which has had a bit of a rough go on the App Store since its debut back in 2012. The app holds an overall App Store rating of just two stars with over 20,000 ratings. Most reviewers have taken issue with spotty compatibility on various devices and issues with the ability to log in under certain cable providers. Thankfully, the Super Stream Sunday content will not require you to have a cable provider account, so it's a total free-for-all.
Daily Roundup: Windows 10, weak passwords, SpaceX and more!
Microsoft will unveil Windows 10 to the masses tomorrow, giving us a closer look at what the folks in Redmond have been working on. Meanwhile, everyone on the internet is still using weak passwords like "123456" and Google decided to drop some serious money on SpaceX. Get all the details on these stories and more in today's daily roundup.
Super Bowl XLIX to be livestreamed by NBC
In what has become a tradition since 2012, the Super Bowl will be streamed online again this year. The kind gesture, which is free of charge to anyone in the US, comes courtesy of NBC -- the network that started the trend of livestreaming The Big Game. For Super Bowl XLIX, set to take place on February 1st in Arizona, NBC plans to have an 11-hour block of video coverage over the internet, including pre-game analysis, the popular halftime show and an all-new episode of the prime-time series The Blacklist. As Variety points out, the Peacock channel intends to heavily promote its TV Everywhere efforts during the stream, hoping to drive demand for services like the NBC Sports Live Extra app -- one that typically requires a pay-TV login.
Real-world Pac-Man maze is what dreams, Super Bowl ads are made of
It appears someone on the Bud Light marketing team has shared our daydreams about emulating video game moments in real life. As you can see above, the difference between us is a substantial, dream-fueling marketing budget – according to Game Informer's take on a Chicago Tribune report, this life-sized Pac-Man maze was built in LA's Fashion District to be used in a 60-second Super Bowl commercial called "coin." In the ad, a man will reportedly find a message in a beer bottle that instructs him to go outside, where he will be given a giant coin for use toward a round of real life Pac-Man. We've taken the liberty of mailing a revised script to Budweiser, in which the man graciously gives up his chance to sprint through a glowing, Ghost-plagued maze so that all of us can have a shot instead. The script also notes that we will all run the maze perfectly, thereby forcing Budweiser to build six-foot-tall Ms. Pac-Man-themed mazes in our backyards. For free. We'll be sure to alert you all once our revision is cleared. [Image: LA Fashion District]
Settle those sports arguments with Who Won Sports
Many of us love to argue or rather have animated discussions about a variety of topics, politics, religion, where to go for the best hamburger and the king of argument starters: Sports. Now with Who Won Sports you and your friends can settle those disagreements by just pulling out your phone and using this free universal app. Who Won Sports is a simple app that tells you at a glance just what the name implies, who won. You will find team championships, individual award winners and more for all the major sports. Choose your sport, then select which category you want and Who Won Sports in most cases, provides you with a list of winners by year going back as far back as the beginning of the competition or as long as the award has been given. In the baseball category you can choose from twenty-two different championships or awards. You will find World Series winners going back to 1903, Cy Young winners, home run champs, Gold Glove winners, Manager of the Year awards for both leagues and many more including the winners of the College World Series in Omaha and the first player picked in the annual amateur draft held each summer. Did you know Rick Monday was the very first player picked back in 1965? You would if you had Who Won Sports. Overall the app has eight categories from which to choose: baseball, football, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, hockey, and the Canadian Football League. Golf and tennis feature the four grand slam events in each sport. Tennis includes the Women's winners but no LPGA winners in golf. However the app does include Ryder Cup winners. Who Won Sports makes it much easier to access all this data than using a browser and search engine on your phone. The navigation within the app is a breeze. However I did find a couple of issues that troubled me. For baseball and hockey you will get the winners in whatever year you select but nothing about which team they beat or how many games the series took. However, in the NBA you get a paragraph detailing the outcome of the series and the number of games. In the football category the listing is for NFL Champions but only goes back to the first Super Bowl in 1967. For each winner it tells you what number Super Bowl it was, where it was played and the two teams that played. Why do they provide more details for two of the sports but not the others? Also what about all the NFL Championship games that were played before the Super Bowl started. And what about the American Football League? After all without the success of the AFL, we would have never had a Super Bowl. A little more attention and information would have made this app more complete. I believe you will find Who Won Sports a handy app to keep on your phone and for the most part it will settle a lot of discussions about who won what. You won't find the answer to who is the greatest NFL quarterback of all time but you can see who won the 1928 Stanley Cup if that become important - It was the New York Rangers if you need to know.
