Aussie Paralympian Ellie Cole has fired up at James Magnussen and the Enhanced Games, saying the controversial event `blurs the lines between morality and entertainment`. Read...

Last week, ESPN put a price tag on the standalone streaming service it’s launching in the fall, and it’s not cheap. ESPN’s streaming service will cost $30 per month, with an option to bundle Hulu and Disney+ for $6 more. (A limited time offer at launch will throw in both services free for the first year.) By contrast, ESPN’s carriage fees—the amount it charges cable TV providers to carry its channels—are reportedly around $10 per month, amounting to a 200% markup for a la carte viewing. If you’re having trouble figuring out who would pay for such a thing, the answer might be “hardly anyone.” ESPN’s standalone service is supposed to unappealing enough that people don’t cancel cable to get it, and the high price is a signal that you should probably get the channel some other way, be it through a pay TV package or newer kinds of streaming bundles. You wanted a la carte TV, you got it Let’s say you want you watch all the NFL games that are normally part of a cable TV package. That would require ESPN ($30 per month), Peacock ($8 per month), Paramount+ (also $8 per month), and Fox (whose forthcoming Fox One service will reportedly cost around $20 per month). All that would add up to $66 per month. Opting for the ad-free versions of Paramount+ ($13 per month) and Peacock ($14 per month), which are required for local CBS and NBC feeds outside of NFL coverage, would push the price to $77 per month instead. That’s not much less than a full-size pay TV package. YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV each cost $83 per month. DirecTV’s new MySports bundle is a bit cheaper at $70 per month, but lacks CBS currently. A standalone ESPN subscription might still make sense in conjunction with an antenna, supplementing what’s available for free over the air. And perhaps there’s a certain kind of ESPN superfan for whom it’s the only thing keeping them glued to a pricier pay TV package. But for sports fans who want full coverage of what’s normally on cable, the a la carte route won’t add up. Unlike with general entertainment content, you can’t merely cycle through streaming services one at a time to save money. Outside of password sharing or piracy, bundling will be the only way to defray the costs. Back to the bundle That brings us to the real goal with ESPN’s streaming service, which is to serve as a starting point for new kinds of TV bundles. Just look to Disney’s own bundling strategy as an example. Hulu and Disney+ each cost $10 per month on their own, but $11 per month when bundled together. When you add them to ESPN’s flagship service, the cost for the pair goes down to $6 per month (and, at the outset, free for the first year). Disney’s been branching into bundles with other companies as well. It already offers a $17-per-month package with Disney+, Hulu, and Max (soon to be HBO Max again), saving $4 per month over each company’s separate ad-supported offerings. Disney hasn’t announced a tie-in with ESPN, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t happen given the bundle’s apparent popularity. Disney had also planned to collaborate with both Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox on a joint service called Venu Sports, which combined all three companies’ sports and broadcast channels for $43 per month. That plan died in court, but they could still work together on bundling their individual services at a discount. Wireless carriers have gotten into the streaming bundle business as well. Verizon in particular offers Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ (that’s the current ESPN service that excludes most cable content) for $10 per month with its newest unlimited plans. An option to include ESPN’s flagship service seems like the next logical step. Streaming companies like these kinds of bundles because they discourage subscription hopping, where you bounce between services every month to watch the best content on each. If they set a high enough price for their standalone offerings, like Disney is doing with ESPN now, those bundles start to look even more attractive. But none of this can happen if ESPN doesn’t actually have a standalone streaming service to offer. The new service is less about selling you a $30 per month plan for a single sports channel and more about setting the table for new kinds of streaming bundles. What sets the new ESPN streaming service apart from the ESPN+ Whether this is better than the old pay TV system is hard to say, but it’ll probably beat the alternative of paying for every individual service a la carte. That idea was never going to happen as cord-cutters imagined it. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter weekly newsletter to get more streaming advice every Friday Read...

The SwitchBot Hub 3 smart home controller is now available for purchase. The Matter-capable device is quite different than other smart home hubs we’ve tested, starting with its rotary knob that can adjust the target temperature on a smart thermostat, the brightness of smart lighting devices, or the volume level of a connected speaker. Another feature that makes the $120 controller so interesting is the USB-C cable that connects it to its power supply: The cable senses the ambient temperature and relative humidity in the room where the Hub 3 is installed. These readings are shown on the hub’s display. We have a hands-on review of the all-new SwitchBot Ultra, which is also shipping today.SwitchBot Outfitted with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios, users will be able to control most any of SwitchBot’s own smart home products—ranging from its smart locks to its motorized curtain and tilt-blind controllers—while also rendering those devices Matter compatible. The hub is also equipped with both an infrared transmitter and an IR receiver for controlling TVs and other home entertainment gear as well as appliances such as fans and air conditioners that use that control interface. The device is also compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings. IFTTT support rounds out its near-universal compatibility. Users will be able to send up to 30 programmable commands to trigger automation scenes involving Matter-compatible products from other brands that are already integrated into Apple Home. The SwitchBot Hub 3 comes with a tabletop stand or it can be mounted to the wall with either screws or double-sided 3M VHB tape (both come in the box). The SwitchBot Hub 3 is available now for $119.99. We had a very favorable take on the earlier SwitchBot Hub 2, so look for our in-depth review of this new model soon. Read...

The lineup offers more big screen options, including sizes up to 100 inches, redefining immersive home entertainment for movie lovers, gamers and sports fans. Read...

He was convicted of indecent assault and attempted sexual violation in 2023. Read...

Space Marine II now has official mod support baked into the base game, fresh from the devs’ hands to your eyeballs. This is big news, albeit for a very particular kind of fan. Allow me to give you some necessary context. Space Marine II is based in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Which, in terms of pop culture settings, is about as deep as it gets. Starting with a tabletop strategy game that was itself a spinoff, the setting has been going strong since the late 80s, with ten editions of the main game, all with deep accompanying lore; several alternate games (ditto); hundreds of novels; and dozens of video games. All of that is, to a greater or lesser degree, canon to the game’s story. A story that takes place across literally millions of planets and tens of millions of years, dozens of human and alien species, psychic magic, demons, and sci-fi tech, all rolled together in one miserable, glorious heap of grimdark fiction. Focus Entertainment It’s a lot. I think it’s very possible that Warhammer 40K might have the most information and lore of any media property, ever. It is so deep and so wide that it makes Star Trek look like Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys. (What? Exactly.) And here’s the crazy thing: That’s just the official material. As a tabletop war game that also includes building, painting, and customizing your own incredibly delicate, tiny, and expensive army, 40K attracts the kind of fan who loves to literally get their hands dirty. You can spend thousands of hours and a small fortune painstakingly choosing your perfect fighting force, assembling them, and showing off your skills. And a lot of players aren’t content to simply go along with the game’s official story; they’d rather invent their own “chapters” or “factions” of the game’s various sci-fi legions. They do the same with the fiction itself. There are decades of fan content, an entire culture, surrounding this game, its stories and lore, and even its basic mechanics. I’m not exaggerating when I say you could spend the rest of your life obsessed with Warhammer 40,000 and still never see everything there is to see. Here’s one of my favorites, playing off the Ork’s latent psychic powers. 40K’s space Orks aren’t smart enough to make things like cars or spaceships, but because they believe a car-shaped thing should work like a car, it does. They also believe that painting a car red makes it go faster. For them, it actually does. Space Marine II knows this, knows that its most dedicated fans want to dive into all of that headfirst. While a single video game can only encapsulate a fraction of the full breadth of 40K’s official material and can’t even begin to accommodate all the unofficial stuff, it includes an impressive customization tool that lets you equip and “paint” your giant, grimdark supersoldier in an incredible variety of ways. It’s exactly the sort of thing that makes a 40K fan’s heart go pitter-patter. But for the most dedicated 40K fan, that’s still not enough. Which is why the game now has official, native support for player-created mods. It’s a formula that’s worked well for tons of PC games, from Skyrim to Cities Skylines to Baldur’s Gate III. But because of Warhammer 40K’s unique relationship with both its own medium and its fans, it’s inevitable that an explosion of user-generated content is coming. Within the first release of the official Integration Studio, modders will get access to tools for making new levels, new modes, new NPCs and enemy behavior, and even the base game’s logic. But that’s just the bones of what players can make. They can recreate essential moments from 40K fiction, like, say, the Fall of Cadia or the throne room battle of the Horus Heresy. (That would be roughly equivalent to the bombing of Pearl Harbor or the Charge of the Light Brigade, for those not in the know.) They can add in iconic allies and enemies, from an Avatar of Khaine to Ciaphas Cain. They could bring in some Exodite Eldar and play as an alien elf riding a dinosaur, which Games Workshop has yet to give players in the real game. And again, that’s just emulating the stuff from the official fiction. Warhammer 40K fan content goes hard and crazy, often leaning into the setting’s most ridiculous elements or its largely forgotten satirical bent. (The humans and Space Marines are unequivocally and almost universally bad guys, if not necessarily the Bad Guys, something that’s often overlooked in the video games.) I can’t wait to see Buzz Lightyear marines, or the Angry Marines, or the best unofficial chapter: the Space Maids, who go around in pink maid dresses giving aid and comfort to the armies of the Imperium. This is a joke. But also it isn’t. The Space Maids have semi-official lore, as official as fan content can get. They have divisions of their army with documented insignias, and they have a “Primarch” or founder like all the other Space Marine chapters/legions. They’re based on cutesy anime tropes, including lots of catgirls and baked goods. They’re wonderful. Space Maid Marines are coming to Space Marine II. It is inevitable, and it’s going to be glorious. Read...

I hoard tech devices, but funny enough, I don’t keep piles of tech accessories. I tend to buy cables, dongles, and organizational bits infrequently. I wait until I need them, since I figure I can always buy them. But that soon may not be the case, as a lot of such stuff comes from China. Even as tariff policies are changing, shipments dropped pretty dramatically over the last month and a half. Plus, when availability goes down, prices go up. So I’m biting the bullet and finally stocking up on a few small but key items—the same things that many friends often grumble about not having on hand. Chances are, you’ll want to grab some of these, too. 1) Cables Anker Somehow, I always need more USB-C cables. (I recently rescued an e-reader and an unwanted phone, so that may have something to do with it.) Right now a pack of two is under $10. I also recently decided to rework my layout for networking gear within my home. Longer cords would make the project easier, and I may as well get faster ethernet cabling anyway. A 50-foot CAT 6 cable is $28, but if I’m willing to forgo future-proofing, I can grab a CAT 5e variant for just $10. Plus, I always need HDMI cables. So at least one cheapie $9 six-foot one goes in the cart, too. 2) Zipties HAVE ME TD / Amazon A lot of zipties are made in the U.S.—but since I don’t know if their factories rely on materials and parts made overseas, I figure this is an easy buy now, too. A pack or two of zipties doesn’t take much space or much money ($4/each). I own Velcro ties as well, but I hoard my gigantic roll for PC building projects and other places where I may want to adjust or redo the cabling. I won’t stay rich in Velcro ties if I use them everywhere. (Even if they’re only $10 for 100, they’re preeeecciouuusss to me.) Zipties are more versatile around the house, too. For tech, I use them to tidy up cabling at my desk, behind my PC, and along the back of my entertainment center. But they also come in handy with my plants, organizing craft supplies, securing loose pieces of (cheap) furniture, and the like. Pretty much every time I’m grumbling about a twist-tie breaking but being too stubborn to use one of my precious Velcro ties, I should be using a zip tie. So now I’ll have plenty. 3) USB dongles StarTech / Amazon So, in theory, USB ports can hold up to removing and inserting cables many times over. In practice, death can come faster than expected. (RIP to the charging port on my old laptop after someone tripped over the charging cable.) Whenever I can, I buy USB extender dongles for USB ports I know I’ll be swapping devices in and out of frequently. I’ve been making use of a few older USB 2.0 models I already had, but recently I started using gear needing USB 3.0. So that gets an upgrade, and I’m getting two just in case. (May as well, at $8 a pop.) 4) Cable adapters Cable Matters / Amazon I have a lot of HDMI cables. (At least, in theory I do—they’re stashed all over my place so I can’t always find them right away. Hence buying more because I may as well.)  I don’t have many specialty display cables, like HDMI to mini-DisplayPort and HDMI to micro-HDMI. I use them infrequently, but they’re valuable when doing tech support or stretching life out of older hardware. I could buy more of the specialty cables, but I’m snagging adapters instead. (Right now, I’m starting with a $10 HDMI to mini-DP option.) Converting a standard HDMI cable gives me much more flexibility, like if I need a longer cable than the specialty one I own. Read...

Wide World of Sports presents the Basketball Trans-Tasman Throwdown with the Opals v Tall Ferns, live from Adelaide Entertainment Centre Read...

`The team have nailed it – it’s a strategy that everyone can understand.` Read...

SkyCity Entertainment Group Limited (SkyCity) is taking this opportunity to update previous guidance and expectations for its FY25 full year results Read...