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From legal challenges to OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, to a rethink of the kind of work that may be asked (or not) of computer programmers in the next five years, to AI-generated movie trailers, AI technology and issues continue to raise important questions about the brave new world around conversational AI.

While Stability AI founder Emad Mostaque has a doozy of a prediction about computer programmers, the comments of the week come from a journalism roundtable hosted in mid-June by the International Center for Journalists about how to use AI tech and tools “without losing audience trust.”

“We have a 521 million-year-old technology called the human brain, which needs equal amounts of investment so it can optimize for things like care, compassion, deep listening, fully embodied information gathering, co-creation and dissemination,” said Jennifer Brandel of Hearken, a company that advises startups.

“We humans still have a competitive advantage when it comes to one dimension against AI, that is care. AI couldn’t care less. It cannot intrinsically care. So journalists or those doing acts of journalism need to make up for what’s lost, and care more.”

Here are the other doings in AI worth paying attention.

Goodbye programmers?

The world is talking about AI technology because a group of people, including many computer programmers, got together to advance genAI technology. Well, the founder of one of the most notable AI companies — Emad Mostaque of Stability AI, developer of the popular Stable Diffusion text-to-image generator — is predicting there will be “no programmers in five years.” Mostaque, who was called out by Forbes in June for reportedly making some misleading claims, told tech luminary Peter Diamandis in an interview that much of the work programmers do can already be done by AI engines. Here’s the one-minute exchange from a 31-minute interview Diamandis posted earlier this week:

Mostaque: There are no programmers in five years.

Diamandis: Wow.

Mostaque: I think we always have to look at the unchanging versus the inevitable. So an inevitable is 41% of all code on GitHub right now is AI generated. ChatGPT can pass the Google Level 3 programmer exam and it will run pretty much on a MacBook or phone.

Diamandis: And that’s this year?

Mostaque: This year. Right now.

The takeaway, says Diamandis, “Those of you with kids who are having Python lessons and so forth … Maybe it’s instead helping them to understand how to ask great questions or give great directions or prompts.”

Speaking of kids and the next generation

While students’ use and potential misuse of AI tools may lead to a plethora of similar sounding Social Studies reports on the Constitution, chatbots like ChatGPT have teachers and educators looking for positive ways the tech can transform classrooms. That’s why this CNET analysis, AI’s Teachable Moment: How ChatGPT Is Transforming The Classroom, is worth a read.

So too is the US Department of Education’s 71-page report on AI and the future of teaching and learning, which was released May 24 and announced here.

Why pay attention to AI and education now? Here are the three reasons the department cited:

1. First, AI may enable achieving educational priorities in better ways, at scale, and with lower costs. Addressing varied unfinished learning of students due to the pandemic is a policy priority, and AI may improve the adaptivity of learning resources to students’ strengths and needs. Improving teaching jobs is a priority, and via automated assistants or other tools, AI may provide teachers greater support.

2. Second, urgency and importance arise through awareness of system-level risks and anxiety about potential future risks. For example, students may become subject to greater surveillance. Some teachers worry that they may be replaced – to the contrary, the Department firmly rejects the idea that AI could replace teachers.

3. Third, urgency arises because of the scale of possible unintended or unexpected consequences. When AI enables instructional decisions to be automated at scale, educators may discover unwanted consequences. In a simple example, if AI adapts by speeding curricular pace for some students and by slowing the pace for other students (based on incomplete data, poor theories, or biased assumptions about learning), achievement gaps could widen.

Read the full report here (PDF).

OpenAI not so novel?

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, was hit with a class-action lawsuit in California over a claim it violated copyrights and the privacy of an unknown number of people “when it used data scraped from the internet to train its tech,” The Washington Post reports.

“The lawsuit seeks to test out a novel legal theory — that OpenAI violated the rights of millions of internet users when it used their social media comments, blog posts, Wikipedia articles and family recipes,” says the paper. (If you haven’t seen it, in April, the Post published a story calling out the “secret list of websites” that AI engines are scraping to build out their AI engines, or large language models.)

It’s not the only legal challenge OpenAI is facing. Two authors are also suing OpenAI for allegedly infringing on authors’ copyrights to “train” ChatGPT, Reuters reports. The authors Paul Tremblay, whose work includes The Cabin at the End of the World, and Mona Awad, say in their suit that OpenAI’s training data incorporated over 300,000 books, including using “shadow library” websites that share copyrighted material without permission.

In nonlegal news, ChatGPT saw monthly traffic to its website drop by 9.7% in June from May and unique visitors decline, according to data compiled by analytics firm Similarweb in a blog post saying the “novelty” is wearing off and that users are looking to other tools like Google’s Bard and Microsoft’s Bing.

Still, ChatGPT is “the fastest-growing consumer application ever, and now boasts over 1.5 billion monthly visits,” says Reuters, which calls it one of the top 20 websites in the world. And Similarweb adds that while “Google is in no danger of being eclipsed by the OpenAI tech demo site that turned into a cultural phenomenon … ChatGPT still attracts more worldwide visitors than Bing.com, Microsoft’s search engine, or Character.AI, the second most popular stand-alone AI chatbot site.”

Google steps up with Gemini

Google’s DeepMind AI lab attracted the world’s attention seven years ago when it created an AI program called AlphaGo that defeated a human champion of the strategy board game Go. Now, Wired reports, DeepMind is working on a new large language model called Gemini that’s similar to GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT, but which it claims will do much more than its rival. (Yes, I know, competitors always say they will do more than their rivals.) What is more? Planning and problem solving, Demis Hassabis, DeepMind’s CEO, said in an interview with Wired.

“At a high level you can think of Gemini as combining some of the strengths of AlphaGo-type systems with the amazing language capabilities of the large models,” Hassabis said.

AlphaGo, Wired writes, “was based on a technique DeepMind has pioneered called reinforcement learning, in which software learns to take on tough problems that require choosing what actions to take like in Go or video games by making repeated attempts and receiving feedback on its performance. It also used a method called tree search to explore and remember possible moves on the board.”

Will it truly be better than ChatGPT, which cost OpenAI over $100 million to develop? We’ll see. But what we do know is that Gemini will also be expensive, with Hassabis saying it will cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to create.

Look who’s talking

CNET audio producer Stephen Beacham tried out AI voice generators to create a 5-minute tutorial that shows you how to create a clone of your voice. He used ElevenLabs’ AI text-to-speech tools. I encourage you to watch it all the way through. As Beacham found, it’s “creepy and cool.” And he offers up a surprising twist.

Summertime means movie trailers — fake ones

Back in May, the internet was abuzz over a minute-long AI-generated trailer for Star Wars, if the iconic sci-fi flick was directed by Wes Anderson. Star Wars: The Galactic Menagerie is hilarious, on point, as Anderson fans will attest, and has racked up nearly 3 million views in the past two months.

But that’s not the only AI-generated trailer out there touting some notable flicks, including more Anderson-inspired trailers for The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Matrix and The Godfather. Yes, they are all short, clever and worth watching.

Want more? There are also trailers for fake films, including The Great Catspy (that’s not a typo), a World War 2 movie with a cloned Michael Caine voiceover and a sci-fi saga about the end of the world.

As fun as they may be to watch, these trailers also highlight the very real concern of artists, filmmakers and other creatives who are worried about AI taking away new opportunities for humans to work on creative projects — and for actors (their faces and voices) to be co-opted without their permission, a major discussion point during the current SAG-AFTRA labor negotiations with Hollywood. Some actors have sold rights to their voices: 92-year-old James Earl Jones last year agreed to allow AI to clone the voice he gave to Darth Vader so the character could live on in the Star Wars franchise, according to Vanity Fair, but other actors — including those who voice characters in games — say AI puts their jobs “on the chopping block.”

Editors’ note: CNET is using an AI engine to help create some stories. For more, see this post.

Carlos Alcaraz will be looking to make it seven wins in a row on grass on Saturday as he takes on Nicolás Jarry in this third-round Wimbledon clash.

The Queen’s Club champion hasn’t quite lived up to his men’s world No. 1 status so far in this tournament, having committed 39 unforced errors in his second-round win over No. 84 seed Alexandre Müller on Friday.

He now comes up against Chilean No. 25 seed Jarry, who edged out Jason Kubler 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in a battling display on Court 8 on Friday.

These two players have only met on one previous occasion, with Alcaraz coming out on top with a straight sets win back in February in the Rio Open semifinals.

Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch Wimbledon live wherever you are in the world.

Carlos Alcaraz vs. Nicolás Jarry: Where and when is it?

This third-round Wimbledon match is set to take place on Saturday, July 8, on Centre Court at the iconic All England Club in southwest London. Play is set to begin at 1:30 p.m. BST local time (8:30 a.m. ET, 5:30 a.m. PT in the US and Canada, and 10:30 p.m. AEST in Australia).

How to watch Carlos Alcaraz vs. Nicolás Jarry online from anywhere using a VPN

If you find yourself unable to view Wimbledon locally, you may need a different way to watch the world’s greatest grass-court tennis players — that’s where using a VPN can come in handy. A VPN is also the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic, and it’s also a great idea if you’re traveling and find yourself connected to a Wi-Fi network, and you want to add an extra layer of privacy for your devices and logins.

With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game. Most VPNs, like our Editors’ Choice, ExpressVPN, make it really easy to do this.

Using a VPN to watch or stream sports is legal in any country where VPNs are legal, including the US, UK and Australia, as long as you have a legitimate subscription to the service you’re streaming. You should be sure your VPN is set up correctly to prevent leaks: Even where VPNs are legal, the streaming service may terminate the account of anyone it deems to be circumventing correctly applied blackout restrictions.

Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.

Livestream Carlos Alcaraz vs. Nicolás Jarry in the US

Linear TV coverage of Wimbledon this year is split across ESPN (which, crucially, is showing both the men’s and women’s finals), ESPN 2 and ESPN 3/ABC. However, for tennis fans in the US, the best way to watch the tournament will be via ESPN Plus, with the streaming service providing the most comprehensive coverage across the two weeks of the tournament.

Most live TV streaming services offer a free trial or discounts during the first month and allow you to cancel anytime. All require a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide.

Livestream Carlos Alcaraz vs. Nicolás Jarry in the UK for free

Tennis fans in the UK will be comforted to hear that the BBC is once again showing the entire tournament across free-to-air channels BBC One, BBC Two and the Red Button.

That also means you can livestream all the action from the green sward of SW19 on BBC iPlayer.

Stream Carlos Alcaraz vs. Nicolás Jarry in Australia for free

Tennis fans Down Under can watch comprehensive live coverage of Wimbledon on free-to-air channel 9Gem. That also means you’ll be able to watch the action online via the network’s streaming service 9Now.

For dedicated tennis fans, pay-TV service Stan Sport is livestreaming every match on every court, ad-free.

Stream Carlos Alcaraz vs. Nicolás Jarry in Canada

Comprehensive live coverage of Wimbledon 2023 will be available in Canada via TSN. Cord cutters can watch via the network’s streaming service TSN Plus.

Wimbledon 2023: Men’s and women’s singles full schedule

• Saturday, July 8: 3rd round
• Sunday, July 9: 4th round
• Monday, July 10: 4th round
• Tuesday, July 11: Quarterfinals
• Wednesday, July 12: Quarterfinals
• Thursday, July 13: Women’s semifinals
• Friday, July 14: Men’s semifinals
• Saturday, July 15: Women’s final
• Sunday, July 16: Men’s final

Quick tips for streaming Wimbledon 2023 using a VPN

• With four variables at play — your ISP, browser, video streaming provider and VPN — your experience and success when streaming the tennis action live may vary.
• If you don’t see your desired location as a default option for ExpressVPN, try using the “search for city or country” option.
• If you’re having trouble getting the game after you’ve turned on your VPN and set it to the correct viewing area, there are two things you can try for a quick fix. First, log into your streaming service subscription account and make sure the address registered for the account is an address in the correct viewing area. If not, you may need to change the physical address on file with your account. Second, some smart TVs — like Roku — don’t have VPN apps you can install directly on the device itself. Instead, you’ll have to install the VPN on your router or the mobile hotspot you’re using (like your phone) so that any device on its Wi-Fi network now appears in the correct viewing location.
• All of the VPN providers we recommend have helpful instructions on their main site for quickly installing the VPN on your router. In some cases with smart TV services, after you install a cable network’s sports app, you’ll be asked to verify a numeric code or click a link sent to your email address on file for your smart TV. This is where having a VPN on your router will also help, since both devices will appear to be in the correct location.
• And remember, browsers can often give away a location despite using a VPN, so be sure you’re using a privacy-first browser to log into your services. We normally recommend Brave.

There are plenty of premium wireless earbuds out there, including the highly rated Apple AirPods Pro 2 and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds 2 that are featured on our best of the best wireless earbuds list. However, not everybody can afford or wants to pay upwards of $200 for a set of earbuds. That’s why I’ve tested a variety of budget true-wireless earphones and found some standout options for budget-conscious shoppers that perform surprisingly well for what they cost. All of my picks cost $100 or less — and several of these Bluetooth true-wireless earbuds cost less than $50.

For these mini reviews, I’ve included info on battery life, audio quality and key features, including whether they have active noise canceling or not, plus their IPX water-resistant rating in case you’re interested in using these for running or working out at the gym. Keep scrolling to see the best overall inexpensive earbuds available right now. I’ll update this list as other top affordable wireless earbuds are released.

Read more: Best Wireless Earbuds for 2023

It’s easy to get sucked in by TV sets with fancy new features and gorgeous OLED displays, but you shouldn’t just buy the first beautiful picture you see. TVs aren’t the only way to enjoy your favorite shows and movies, either. If you’re a movie fanatic who needs a home theater experience, it’s worth looking at 4K projectors. They can give you a bigger image than you’d get with a TV, and while they can’t quite match the image brightness and HDR support, projectors have come a long way. The most important part is some of the best 4K projectors are surprisingly affordable these days.

Remember, though, the resolution is just one aspect of picture quality. A projector with a great contrast ratio, color gamut, keystone correction and brightness can easily hold its own over a 4K UHD projector that only offers higher resolution at the expense of everything else. The best 4K projectors combine great performance in all aspects of picture quality along with 4K resolution for truly incredible images.

If you’re ready to take your home theater to the next level, here are the best projectors you can get for 4K content. Check out our list of the best home theater projectors for 2023 for more, often less expensive, options if 4K HDR isn’t your top priority. Or, if portability is your main concern, we also have a list that will help you find a portable projector to take on the go.

Other products we’ve tested

Anker Nebula Cosmos Laser 4K: Since it has a handle and a compact size, the Cosmos Laser 4K is technically portable, but there’s no battery so you’ll need to plug it in. It’s also nice and bright, but the other downsides — lack of zoom, average overall image quality and a steep price for what you get — keep it off the list. Read our Anker Nebula Cosmos Laser 4K Projector review.

LG HU810PW: The HU810PW costs about the same as the Optoma UHZ50, and is also a laser-powered DLP projector with 4K resolution. It has better lens shift, zoom, and is quieter in operation. However, the contrast ratio is quite poor, so it doesn’t look nearly as good overall as other 4K projectors we’ve tested. Read our LG HU810PW review.

Epson Home Cinema 2250: The HC 2250 is an excellent 1080p LCD projector. It won’t look nearly as detailed as any of the projectors in this list, but it’s bright and looks great otherwise. It’s also a lot cheaper. Read our Epson Home Cinema 2250 review.

BenQ HT2050A: The HT2050 has been one of our favorite home theater projectors for several years. Which is to say, it’s not new. So it’s not as bright as some other options, nor is it 4K. However, it looks fantastic and relatively inexpensive. Read our BenQ HT2050A review.

How we test 4K projectors

Every projector we review goes through elaborate objective and subjective testing. CNET editors pick the products and services we write about based on editorial merit. When you buy through our links, we may get a commission.

For more info, check out how CNET tests projectors.

More advice on 4K projectors

• Home Theater Projectors: 6 Things to Know Before You Buy
• Best Home Theater Projector for 2023
• Portable Projector Pros and Cons: Read This Before You Buy One
• Best Portable Projector for 2023
• Affordable 4K Projectors Are Here. What Took Them so Long?
• Why You Shouldn’t Expect Great HDR From a Projector
• Big TV vs. Projector: Pros and Cons of Huge Home Theater Screens
• How to Setup Your New Projector for the Biggest, Best Movie Night Ever
• Backyard Movie Night: Everything You Need for a Private Outdoor Cinema

Purchasing a new TV can be a daunting task, especially with so many different TV options out there. In the end, most people base a decision on the price of the TV and the features it offers. One feature that has nearly become standard is 4K resolution support. It offers a better picture quality than HD TVs and is now the predominant resolution of most TVs released in recent years, so you’ll be able find it on a variety of models these days — even the best TVs under $500.

What are the best 4K TVs for all budgets?

The best 4K TV options run the gamut, encompassing a wide variety of models at budget and premium prices. One of our favorite affordable models is the TCL 4-Series, which starts at less than $300 for a 43-inch model. For a more premium pick, we love the LG OLED C2 — just keep in mind that it can get pricey.

4K resolution just means the TV has a certain number of pixels, 3,840×2,160 to be exact, along with the ability to display 4K TV shows, movies and games from streaming services, devices and game consoles like the Xbox Series X and PS5. There’s a lot more to picture quality than resolution, so you can’t ignore things like contrast, dynamic range, HDR performance and peak brightness. The best-performing TVs in our reviews excel in these areas. Additionally, if you’re looking for a gaming TV, you’ll also want to consider factors like input lag.

The list below represents the best 4K TVs (which are, let’s face it, the best TVs, period) that I’ve reviewed in CNET’s test lab, where I compare them side by side.

Read more: Change These TV Settings for the Optimal Picture

Best 4K TVs

How CNET tests 4K TVs

Our TV reviews follow a rigorous, unbiased evaluation process honed over nearly two decades of TV reviews. Our primary TV test lab has specialized equipment for measuring light and color, including a Konica Minolta CS-2000 spectroradiometer, a Murideo Sig-G 4K HDR signal generator and an AVPro Connect 8×8 4K HDR distribution matrix. We use Portrait Displays CalMan Ultimate software to evaluate every TV we review. In every CNET TV review, three or more similar TVs are compared side by side in various lighting conditions playing different media, including movies, TV shows and games, across a variety of test categories, from color to video processing to gaming to HDR. Our reviews also account for design, features, smart TV performance, HDMI input and gaming compatibility and other factors.

Read more: How We Test TVs

4K TV FAQs

I’ll post the answers to commonly asked TV questions below. If you have any others, feel free to reach out on Twitter (@dkatzmaier), or by clicking the little envelope icon on my CNET profile page. Doing so will let you send a message straight to my inbox.

More home entertainment recommendations

• Buying a New TV in 2023
• Best Soundbars for 2023
• Best Streaming Device in 2023
• Best TV Antennas for Cord Cutters, Starting at Just $10
• Dolby Atmos: Why It’s Cool, How It Works and How to Get It
• Best Sonos Speakers for 2023
• QLED vs. OLED: Which TV Tech Should You Buy?
• HDR Formats like Dolby Vision, HDR10, Technicolor and HLG Explained
• Best TVs for Gaming
• Best 75-Inch TVs for 2023

Apple Arcade added the family-friendly educational game Lego Duplo World Plus on Friday. If you subscribe to Apple Arcade ($5, 5 or AU$8 a month), you can play this game at no additional charge, and without ads or in-app purchases.

This game was developed by StoryToys Entertainment, the same team that developed educational games like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Lego Duplo World was also built around the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework to ensure the game is age-appropriate and meets the developmental needs of children ages 2-5 years old.

This game is filled with colorful mini-games that feature animals, trains and more. Some of the gameplay includes tapping the sun to make sure your Lego produce grows and organizing Lego pieces by color. You and your child can explore the different scenes, learn together and use Lego to build something fun and exciting.

You can access this game, and many others, in Apple Arcade for $5 a month, or $60 annually. You can also try Apple Arcade for free for one month with your first sign-up, or you can get a three-month free trial when you buy a new Apple device. To access Apple Arcade, open the App Store on your iOS device and tap the joystick in the menu bar.

Starz launched in 1994 as a premium cable channel, but it is now known for its streaming service, too. The company has invested heavily in original productions with the ever-expanding Power universe and series such as The Serpent Queen, a strategy that has paid off with audiences. Fans — including me — enjoy P-Valley (which holds a 100% rating with Rotten Tomatoes critics), year-round Power spinoffs and the critically acclaimed Outlander. And you can stream Starz without any commercials.

While Starz may not have a large stable of content like Netflix, Disney Plus and Hulu, the company is locked in a deal with Universal to air films following their theatrical releases. It’s also the place to watch Lionsgate films. You can count on it to watch major features including John Wick 4, and it’s the exclusive streaming home of Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Starz also has a way of attracting rock-star talent. The Foo Fighters’ debut horror flick Studio 666 will land on the platform this year. And if you happened to catch the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, you may have enjoyed hip-hop icons like Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige who graced the stage. With the exception of Dr. Dre, each performer has appeared in a Starz TV series in a recurring or guest role (yes, Eminem too).

But why should you follow 50 Cent’s advice and download the app, let alone subscribe for $10 a month? For one thing, it’s a low price for a service with Starz’s selection and no commercials interrupting what you watch. The network also stands apart by promoting diversity and representation in its originals, elevating the voices of women and people of color. This approach contributes to its growing subscriber base and makes Starz an intriguing alternative to its better-known rivals.

Starz vs. Netflix, Max, Hulu, Disney Plus, Prime

	Starz	Netflix	Max	Disney Plus	Prime Video	Hulu
Monthly price	$10	Starts at $7	Starts at $10	Starts at $8	$9 (or included with $140/year Prime membership)	Starts at $8
Ads	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Top titles	Power Book II, Outlander, Power Book IV, P-Valley	Stranger Things, Queen Charlotte, Squid Game, Dahmer	Succession, House of the Dragon, Titans	The Simpsons, The Mandalorian, Bluey	Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, The Boys, Rings of Power	Handmaid’s Tale, The Bachelor, Bob’s Burgers
Mobile downloads	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
4K HDR available	Yes	Yes (on Premium plan)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Number of streams:	4	1 (2 for Standard, 4 on Premium)	2 (4 for Ultimate)	4	2	2

Starz streaming app vs. Starz cable channels

The Starz stand-alone app is available for $10 a month. However, there are two Starz premium cable options: Starz and Starz Encore, a suite of niche content. Sometimes they’re both included as part of a bundle. Other times, they’re sold separately. Starz Encore is mostly new theatrical releases and ’70s films.

If you pay for the Starz channel through a cable or satellite TV provider or as an add-on to a streaming service such as Hulu, you can sign in to the Starz app at no additional charge. All of Starz’s content is available on the app, but note that Xfinity prohibits its subscribers from using the app.

DirecTV Stream offers Starz as a premium channel (with app access) for $11 a month, while most other providers charge $10 monthly. Unlike Max, for example, the Starz app doesn’t have multiple price tiers. Instead, the streaming service offers a single flat rate for its ad-free content, with no option to pay less if you watch ads.

There’s a standard seven-day free trial for new users, but you can keep your eyes peeled for special promotions to save a little money.

The Starz catalog includes films and flagship originals

Starz has more than 800 movies and 70-plus television shows in its catalog. Viewers can take in all of its originals on the app, including popular series such as P-Valley, award-winning Outlander, Heels, The Serpent Queen, BMF, Black Sails and the Power franchise.

Once upon a time, Power was the No. 2 show on cable after Game of Thrones, bringing in an average audience of roughly 8 million, according to Deadline. These days, Power Book IV: Force and Power Book II: Ghost are pulling in big viewership numbers that rival shows on Showtime and Max. And a 2021 report from Parrot Analytics found that demand for Starz originals was higher than Disney Plus, Max and Netflix — domestically and globally.

Like its streaming competitors, Starz rotates its film selection based on licensing agreements, so some titles are only available for a limited time. Film choices include Saw 1-7, along with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, Men in Black: International, Clerks III and Alice, Darling.

The new Universal agreement also opens the gates to titles from Blumhouse, Focus Features, plus select movies in the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group library like the Despicable Me and Minions films. The deal affects theatrical releases in 2022 and beyond, enabling Starz to broadcast the studio’s big titles exclusively approximately 18 months after their release dates.

Upcoming in-house projects include the 50 Cent-produced Queen Nzinga, a John Wick prequel series and a Spartacus sequel. Starz also greenlit a romance drama from Ava Duvernay, and new seasons of Blindspotting and Shining Vale starring Courteney Cox.

Starz President of Domestic Networks Alison Hoffman told CNET that much of the brand’s success can be attributed to its lineup of diverse content. With women and people of color helming many of the network’s series, the company prides itself on listening to its audience, casts and showrunners by telling stories that may not be represented elsewhere. Additionally, Hoffman shared that Starz is focused on beefing up its original programming slate in the coming year.

Read more: The Best Original TV Shows to Stream on Starz

Starz app offers early access to new episodes

One of the most appealing qualities about streaming via the Starz app is its early release schedule. New episodes of original shows like Power Book II: Ghost, P-Valley and Outlander drop at midnight ET on the day of their air dates, hours before their live premieres on cable. West Coast residents can watch at 9 p.m. PT on a Saturday night. You can watch new episodes as often as you’d like before the live release and then afterward on demand.

How does the app perform?

Starz’s interface is user-friendly with neatly organized categories based on genre, originals, previous viewing habits, popularity, special themes or release date. You can also browse movies and series based on alphabetical order, year or your favorite cast members. Starz allows you to click on actors’ names for a list of their roles in other projects streaming on the service. Occasionally, the app will automatically recommend “cast picks” connected to who and what you watched.

When filtering a search, there’s also an option to choose content based on run time, which ranges from under 20 minutes to over 60 minutes. That includes kid-friendly fare. Like Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max, the Starz app gives you the ability to create personal watchlists and up to five user profiles. It also allows four simultaneous streams on any screen. Another plus? You can download as much as you want to kill time when all you have is your phone. Lunch breaks and travel don’t have to be boring.

With that in mind, your screen size won’t matter when watching movies. One of the downsides of the app is that Starz resizes the aspect ratio for movies. That means if a film was originally shot with letterboxes and a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1, Starz sometimes crops it to fill up your entire screen. That makes some movies look distorted. Also, the company logo lurks on the screen during films, which can be a minor annoyance.

I tried the app on an Android phone and while the sound and picture quality is great, I noticed that playback is sometimes choppy where the video plays at a sped-up pace and throws off its sync. Occasionally, there’s a lag with the rewind and fast-forward feature. Additionally, when using an iPad, if you pause a show for too long, the episode starts over when you return. You have to manually fast forward or rewind. Other Android and iOS users have reported similar issues.

The autoplay feature kicks in at the end of every movie or TV show, but you can disable it in the app’s settings. Within that menu, users can also choose between medium or high quality for downloads or adjust the parental controls on each profile. For playback, Starz allows you to select English or Spanish for audio language or subtitles. It also has picture-in-picture capability, which enables you to watch two videos at the same time, even if one is on another app.

Starz offers value for $10

Compared to its competitors Prime Video, HBO Max, Disney Plus and Showtime, the Starz app is on the lower end when it comes to pricing for ad-free streaming. Disney Plus is $11, Prime Video costs $9, Max clocks in at $16 a month while Paramount costs $11 with similar offerings. While Starz’s catalog may not be as expansive as other streaming services, it’s growing and its exclusive prestige originals make it a viable choice.

The $250 Moto G 5G is not a bad phone. It’s just that you might get more value looking around.

I kept returning to that feeling throughout my weeks reviewing the phone, despite the dramatically reduced price this year’s model hits compared with last year’s $400 Moto G 5G. For instance, I like the phone’s 6.5-inch 120Hz display. But the screen isn’t dramatically better than the 90Hz displays I see in $200 phones like the Moto G Stylus or the Samsung Galaxy A14 5G.

The 5G connectivity is noticeably fast compared with 4G-only phones like the Stylus, but the Moto G 5G’s slower Snapdragon 480 Plus processor coupled with 4GB of RAM aren’t quite enough to power resource-heavy multitasking that truly take advantage of 5G speeds.

Even though the Moto G 5G’s cameras are similar those on other Moto G phones, photos are hit or miss. Images come out nice in bright outdoor areas but struggle with getting detail in low-light environments. I took the phone on a sunny Central Park picnic and got a lot of vibrant photos that I’m super happy with. But the opposite was true when I took the phone to a Kim Petras performance thrown by Motorola, where my photos on the crowded indoor dance floor came out blurry, noisy and lacked a lot of detail. It’s typical for this price range, and is a similar issue across all of the Moto G phones that I’ve tested this year.

When I compare the Moto G 5G against phones that are just $50 more, I realize how much I’m sacrificing. If you can swing it, $300 phones offer a lot of perks that are worth the upcharge. The $300 Moto G Power 5G for instance doubles your available storage space to 256GB, which is the cheapest phone I’m currently aware of offering that much internal space. The $300 OnePlus Nord N30 5G can quickly recharge its battery from nothing to 100% in 45 minutes with its included charger. By comparison the Moto G 5G takes well over 90 minutes to do the same thing.

And whenever the Pixel 6A is on sale for $299 — its power, performance, photography and longer software support outshine all of these $300 and under phones.

The Moto G 5G tries to hit a strange middle ground between $200 phones and $300 phones, but I think it’s more likely you’ll spend slightly less money or slightly more money on a different phone. Again, that’s not to say the Moto G 5G doesn’t offer a lot for $250. It’s just that you can get a very similar phone and save $50, or get a substantially better phone by spending $50 more.

Moto G 5G design, specs, performance

The Moto G 5G is one of the cheapest phones I’ve seen that has a 120Hz refresh rate display. I found the phone animates very smoothly when reading websites, scrolling apps and playing games, and that’s quite appreciated even with the display’s lower 720p resolution. But like I mentioned earlier, due to that lower resolution I don’t feel like the screen looks that much better than the 90Hz 720p displays I see in phones that cost less. It also left me missing the more detailed 120Hz 1,080p displays I see on the $300 Moto G Power 5G and the OnePlus Nord N30 5G.

The phone’s otherwise basic design comes in two color options: Harbor Gray or Ink Blue. The display includes a hole punch for its 8-megapixel selfie camera. The back of the phone highlights its two cameras, a 48-megapixel main camera and a 2-megapixel macro camera. It’s a simple matte plastic design, which does pick up smudges.

Along the sides of the phone are a power button that doubles as a fingerprint sensor, a headphone jack, a SIM card tray and a microSD card slot. It continues to be notable that the headphone jack and microSD card remain standard features in this price range, as they are otherwise rare finds on more expensive phones.

The phone’s performance is adequate. I didn’t experience problems with most tasks such as making phone calls, reading articles, listening to music or playing games. However, more demanding apps might overwhelm the phone’s processor and 4GB of RAM, which I consistently experienced when I tried to play Marvel Snap while toggling between other tasks. The game reloaded whenever I switched apps, which was an issue because I usually like to play it while multitasking since Snap is a card game.

Those who just need a phone for making calls, sending texts, listening to music and reading news articles will likely be satisfied with the Moto G 5G. The phone’s 128GB of space should be plenty of room for storing apps, photos and media — but the option to expand with a microSD card means you can add more if you need to.

The issue with the Moto G 5G, however, is that its middling performance makes me question whether I get that much more value out of this it compared with the cheaper Moto G Stylus. In my Geekbench testing the Moto G 5G’s processor does run faster than the Stylus. Yet in real-world use, I felt like performance between the two phones was about the same — slightly sluggish but gets me through most tasks.

Geekbench 6 Benchmarks

Moto G 5G (2023) 740 1,790Moto G Stylus (2023) 448 1,471OnePlus Nord N30 5G 893 2,037Moto G Power 5G 878 2,206

For some people, a faster data connection is worth the extra money. 5G networks are starting to hit a point of maturity where many devices benefit from faster video streaming and downloading while on the go. However, 4G LTE is still quite capable and ubiquitous. Unless you plan on tackling cloud gaming or have a lot of large files to regularly upload from your phone, there’s hardly anything yet that truly requires a 5G connection.

Another miss for me is that the Moto G 5G, like all Moto G phones, will receive only one software update and three years of security updates.

Moto G 5G photography

The Moto G 5G’s photos are colorful with plenty of detail when taken in daylight. While on that aforementioned Central Park picnic, both regular pictures and portrait mode photos came out vibrant with a pronounced bokeh effect on the latter. However, the mix of bright highlights, like clouds and shadows under the trees show just how limited the Moto G 5G’s dynamic range is.

I took the photo below with the 8-megapixel front-facing camera. This was inside of a well-lit elevator, but the photos has more details than I would have expected.

Below are closeups of pets and food, which look OK.

And here are the pictures that I took at that Motorola event with Kim Petras and Cirque Du Soleil. The Moto G 5G struggled to document the action so poorly that I switched to my personal phone to share photos with friends.

But these camera pluses and minuses aren’t isolated to the Moto G 5G. I had the roughly the same camera challenges across the Moto G Stylus, Moto G 5G and the Moto G Power 5G. Since you’re not getting better camera quality by paying more for the Moto G 5G, Motorola’s cheaper option could be the better choice as long as you don’t mind sacrificing 5G.

In my comparison photos below of the grass wall in CNET’s office, all three phones were similarly able to differentiate between the different shades of green featured in the decoration.

While I’m still in the process of testing the $200 Samsung Galaxy A14 5G, I took a comparison photo of the same grass wall, finding the image quality to be a little more saturated by comparison.

Moto G 5G bottom line

The $250 Moto G 5G does include a lot of value for its price. You get a 120Hz display at one of the cheapest prices I’ve seen so far, along with 5G compatibility. Its processor can stand up to most tasks, even if it struggles with some multitasking. And if your carrier ends up subsidizing the phone to a price that’s free or close to free, it’s a very appealing option for someone that just wants a basic 5G phone.

But if you aren’t getting a carrier subsidy, I recommend you either consider Motorola’s cheaper Stylus or phones that are $50 more expensive. The 4G-only $200 Moto G Stylus includes much of the same functionality as the Moto G 5G along with a built-in stylus, but it comes with 64GB of storage, a noticeable step down.

There’s a lot to gain from stretching your budget beyond the Moto G 5G’s $250 price, if you can. For example, the $300 Moto G Power 5G offers twice the storage, while the $300 OnePlus Nord N30 provides exceptionally fast charging.

The Moto G 5G does include many essential features that I want to see in a cheaper phone, but it just feels lost compared with other options in this price range. In some ways it’s so similar to $200 phone options, that it doesn’t stand out enough to justify the extra money. Yet it also doesn’t stand out enough at $250 when phones that cost just a little bit more are including tangible features that can increase how useful your phone can be.

How we test phones

Every phone tested by CNET’s reviews team was actually used in the real world. We test a phone’s features, play games and take photos. We examine the display to see if it’s bright, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and build to see how it is to hold and whether it has an IP-rating for water resistance. We push the processor’s performance to the extremes using both standardized benchmark tools like GeekBench and 3DMark, along with our own anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution videos and playing graphically intense games at high refresh rates.

All the cameras are tested in a variety of conditions from bright sunlight to dark indoor scenes. We try out special features like night mode and portrait mode and compare our findings against similarly priced competing phones. We also check out the battery life by using it daily as well as running a series of battery drain tests.

We take into account additional features like support for 5G, satellite connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus support, fast charging speeds, foldable displays among others that can be useful. And we balance all of this against the price to give you the verdict on whether that phone, whatever price it is, actually represents good value.

Slay the Spire, the acclaimed deck-building roguelike game, arrived on Apple Arcade Friday, and it’s ready to take up hours of your life. If you subscribe to Apple Arcade ($5, 5 or AU$8 a month), you can play this game at no additional charge, and without ads or in-app purchases (hence this version being called “Slay the Spire Plus” on the App Store).

The game was developed by Meta Crit Games, and was nominated for a number of awards, including for outstanding achievement in game design and strategy/simulation game of the year at the 2020 D.I.C.E. Awards.

In Slay the Spire, you choose from four different characters and start at the bottom of a map, then work your way through different locations until you reach the big boss at the top. The map changes each time you start a new game, too, so each game is different.

As you make your way to the top you build your deck — each character has a different set of cards with their own unique mechanics — and fight monsters in turn-based combat, all while avoiding booby-trapped treasure along the way. Or you can try to deal with the consequences of the trap: I swiped some treasure and ran away from a boulder, like Indiana Jones, but ended up getting crushed and lost a lot of health. I would not recommend this.

Each new game takes about an hour to complete, but the changing nature of the map gives the game a lot of replayability. There’s also a daily challenge and a custom game mode if you want something more difficult.

You can access this game, and many others, in Apple Arcade for $5 a month, or $60 annually. You can also try Apple Arcade for free for one month with your first sign-up, or you can get a three-month free trial when you buy a new Apple device. To access Apple Arcade, open the App Store on your iOS device and tap the joystick in the menu bar.

It feels like summer just started, but before you know it, it’ll be time to load up on school supplies again. Like most everyday items, back-to-school supplies have become more expensive over the past couple of years, so it’s wise to plan ahead in order to get everything your student needs at the best prices.

Online shopping is the easiest way to cross everything off your list in one shot. Whether you need notebooks, pencils, highlighters or even a budget laptop, you can find pretty much everything you need online — without the hassle of ransacked shelves or waiting in line. Online shopping can also save you money since it’s easier to do price comparisons without driving all over.

There are several online retailers that will make your back-to-school shopping a whole lot easier. We’ve rounded up a list of the best places to shop for back-to-school supplies based on prices, availability and the range of items offered. Here are the best places to shop online so you can find everything your student needs to get them through the school year.

More back-to-school recommendations

• 8 Back-to-School College Essentials to Keep in Your Backpack
• Great Back-to-School Gifts for Your Teacher
• Best Back-to-School Gear for $100 or Less
• 15 Dorm Room Essentials You Need From Amazon Now
• Free Apps You Need to Download Before Starting College
• 4 Surefire Ways to Decorate a Backpack to Make It Look Brand-New