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The NFL’s final weekend kicks off with two games on Saturday, with playoff seeding at stake in the first game and a division title up for grabs in the other. The playoff picture is muddier than usual this year heading into week 18 with the status of the Bills-Bengals game still unknown. The game was postponed after Damar Hamlin’s frightening injury last Monday night. Hamlin remains in critical condition at the time this was written on Wednesday.

The Bills and Chiefs are vying for the top seed in the AFC playoffs and home field advantage. The 12-3 Bills are currently a half game behind of the 13-3 Chiefs and travel to Las Vegas to play the Raiders on Saturday (4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT). Then on Saturday night, the 8-8 Jaguars host the 7-9 Titans (8:15 p.m. ET/5:15 p.m. PT) for the AFC South title. Both games on Saturday will be shown nationally on ABC, ESPN and ESPN Plus.

The remaining 28 teams will play their final games of the regular season on Sunday afternoon on CBS and Fox and Sunday night on NBC. Here’s what you need to know to stream the games live this weekend, including RedZone.

What are my streaming options for NFL games?

Paying for cable is the easiest solution, but not the cheapest. For cord-cutters looking to save some money, NFL football streaming options can get complicated, with games played across three different days and nights each week on different channels and streaming services. For the final weekend, games will be shown on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN and ESPN Plus. The majority of the action takes place on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. ET (10 a.m. PT) and 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. PT), with most AFC teams on CBS and most NFC teams on Fox.

All five of the live TV streaming services carry ESPN and Fox, and all but Sling TV carry CBS. All but DirecTV Stream carry the NFL Network. For the games on CBS and Fox, keep in mind that not every service carries every local network, so check each one using the links below to make sure it carries CBS and Fox in your area.

There are three other streaming services that cord-cutting NFL fans should consider. The paid Premium plan of Paramount Plus will show CBS games on Sundays, and the paid Premium plan of Peacock will show NBC’s broadcasts of Sunday Night Football. And ESPN Plus will show both games on the final Saturday of the season.

Wait, there’s one more streaming service to consider for the remainder of the year. Prior to the season, the NFL launched a new streaming service for watching games on your phone or tablet — no casting to your TV. In past years, you could do this for free with the Yahoo Sports app, but now you’ll need to pay $5 a month or $40 for the season for the NFL Plus subscription. With it, you’ll be able to watch every local game on Sunday and the national games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday nights as well as the playoffs and Super Bowl — again, only on your phone or tablet.

Lastly, there’s NFL RedZone, a channel that springs to life each fall and shows live NFL action during the Sunday afternoon games. It pops in and out of the live games and attempts to show each touchdown scored in each game. RedZone is available as an add-on on four of the five major live TV streaming services — all but DirecTV Stream.

Best for everything: YouTube TV ($65)

Our pick from the last two years remains our go-to choice in 2022.

At $65 per month each, YouTube TV checks all the NFL boxes. Local channels CBS, NBC and Fox are included in many markets, and ESPN and the NFL Network are also included so you can watch Sundays and Monday nights. The next best options are FuboTV and Hulu Plus Live TV; both offer the same channels as YouTube TV for NFL fans, but for $70 a month.

Want to follow your fantasy team with RedZone? That’s available on all three services as part of an add-on. If you’re a YouTube TV subscriber, you can add the $11 per month Sports Plus add-on by clicking on your profile and going to Settings, then the Membership tab. FuboTV subscribers can go into My Profile and choose Manage Add-ons to get its $11-per-month Sports Plus with NFL RedZone offering. And Hulu users can now add RedZone for $10 per month with its Sports add-on.

Both YouTube TV and FuboTV allow three people to watch at once (Hulu allows two live streams) and all three have apps on nearly every mobile device and major streaming platform, including Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, Roku and Apple TV.

While all three are largely similar, we like YouTube TV for its superior DVR — unlimited storage compared with 30 hours on FuboTV and 50 hours on Hulu. We also like YouTube TV because it gives you an option to stream in 4K for an extra $20 a month. FuboTV does, too, with its $80-a-month Elite plan. Keep in mind that only Fox and NBC offer 4K NFL broadcasts; CBS and ESPN do not.

DirecTV Stream offers the main broadcast channels for NFL games, but it starts at $70 per month and lacks the NFL Network and RedZone.

Sling TV’s Orange and Blue plan for $55 a month gets you ESPN and the NFL Network, and, in select major markets, Fox and/or NBC, but you’ll still lack CBS. You can also add RedZone for $11 per month with the Sports Extra add-on.

The cheapest way to stream NFL RedZone

A frequent fan-favorite method of following all the NFL action on Sundays, RedZone is a way to catch every big play around the league. The cheapest road to RedZone is to get Sling TV Blue for $40 per month and add the $11 per month Sports Extra add-on.

This option can also be streamed on a host of devices including iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV and web browsers.

Note: If you only subscribe to Sling’s Orange package you won’t be able to get RedZone in Sports Extra. Your base package needs to be either Sling Blue or its larger Sling Blue Plus Orange bundle for you to be able to get RedZone as an add-on. If you choose the latter, the Sports Extra add-on is more, $15 per month, as you will also get additional channels like the SEC Network, ACC Network and PAC 12 Network.

If you mainly plan to watch on a phone, you can also check out RedZone Mobile, which is in the NFL app. This is a separate subscription from NFL Plus and runs $35 for the season (which breaks down to around $7.78 per month for the roughly four-and-a-half months of regular season football). While this is one of the cheapest ways to get RedZone, be aware that — similar to NFL Plus — you will not be able to AirPlay or Chromecast it onto a larger screen and will need to watch on your phone.

Budget alternative for NFC fans in big cities: Sling Blue ($40) or antenna ($20 one-time)

Those looking to save some cash might want to check out Sling Blue for $40 a month. While it lacks ESPN, meaning you’ll miss out on Monday Night Football, in select markets you’ll be able to get Fox and NBC. The catch is that those markets are mainly in big cities, so if you live outside one of those areas, Sling Blue might not be for you.

You can also add RedZone through the company’s $11 per month Sports Extra add-on.

Fox broadcasts most NFC games on Sundays, while NBC has Sunday Night Football. CBS, which broadcasts the bulk of AFC games, isn’t included on Sling at all. But an antenna can fill those local channel gaps without a monthly charge.

Budget alternatives for AFC fans: Paramount Plus (or an antenna)

There are some apps that offer CBS’ slate of Sunday AFC games live, including Paramount Plus’ Premium tier for $10 per month. Depending on where you live, however, your local CBS station (and those NFL games) might not be available. CBS offers livestreaming services in many markets; you can check for yourself if your area has live CBS streaming here.

An antenna is another option for getting CBS. And as we mentioned above, an over-the-air antenna connected to your TV provides another option, no streaming or monthly fee required, as long as you have good reception.

What about Sunday Ticket?

For one more season, NFL Sunday Ticket is still largely limited to DirecTV satellite subscribers. While that is expected to change in 2023, those who live in buildings that can’t add a satellite dish can already get a streaming version to watch football starting at $294 for its To Go package for the season, or $396 for a Max package that includes the RedZone channel (a student version is also available at a discount). You can check your address on the Sunday Ticket site. Both packages have a one-week free trial.

With the season well past the halfway point, those prices have dropped to $220.47 for the To Go option and $281.97 for Max.

The problem here, however, is that even if you’re eligible, it doesn’t include local games. You can only watch Sunday games that aren’t being broadcast on CBS, Fox or NBC in your area. They also won’t be helpful come playoff time — as you’ll need your local stations and ESPN to catch all those games.

The new OnePlus 11 5G phone and the OnePlus Buds Pro 2 wireless earbuds are set to come out in China this Monday, roughly a month ahead of their global release, which is scheduled for Feb. 7. OnePlus announced the release dates Wednesday, while providing the specs and features for the company’s flagship phone. Prices, however, weren’t yet announced for the phone or the earbuds.

The Shenzhen-based company first teased the new models in December, revealing that the OnePlus 11 5G would bring back the Alert Slider, which is designed to make it easier to switch to silent or vibrate mode.

OnePlus’ flagship smartphone, the 11 5G is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, with 16GB of RAM and a 6.7-inch 2K AMOLED display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. The new iteration offers improvements to the phone’s processing speed and camera, which, after a brief absence, once again sports Hasselblad branding.

The 5,000-mAh dual-cell battery offers extended life and quick charging, thanks to Oppo’s 100W SuperVOOC charging technology. When the OnePlus 11 5G eventually gets its global release, we’ll have to see if the version heading to the US includes that charging speed. Last year’s OnePlus 10 Pro supported 80W charging internationally but was limited to a still very fast 65W in the US.

OnePlus’ new wireless earbuds, meanwhile, come with Smart Adaptive Noise Cancellation, which eliminates ambient noise up to 48dB, and a six-axis IMU sensor that monitors the position of your head and recalibrates the audio accordingly. OnePlus says the earbuds will provide 39 hours of music playback from the battery and charging case. The buds will also support connecting to two devices at once.

Both the 11 5G and Buds Pro 2 are scheduled to be available in China on Jan. 9 and worldwide starting Feb. 7.

OnePlus has hinted it’ll further expand its lineup in 2023. In India, where it already sells TVs and monitors, OnePlus has been promoting a mechanical keyboard.

More products could be announced at the OnePlus 11 launch event in New Dehli on Feb. 7.

HyperX, the gaming peripheral arm of HP, has announced a series of 3D-printed add-ons at CES to customize and personalize the brand’s keyboards, mice and headsets.

What makes this line interesting is that the keycaps and headphone stands are all produced on HP’s industrial color 3D printers. Using powdered nylon, they’re more advanced than the basic PLA plastic material used by most home 3D printers, but still nontoxic and environmentally friendly.

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At a pre-CES preview event, I saw a wide variety of styles, some of which were cute and cozy — HP calls this design language “Cozy.” Others had a dark fantasy theme, with lots of skulls and horns. Some of them, like replacement WASD keys — important for gaming — are mostly visual. Others turn keys into towering sculptures and are probably best left for function keys you don’t normally use, as they’re almost impossible to type on.

I also got to see some gaming headsets and mic add-ons. HyperX headsets can be adorned with either cute animal ears or creepy demon horns, and HyperX’s RGB microphones, which have multicolored lighting effects, can sit in special stands like a cozy anthropomorphic mushroom or a skull-and-bones pedestal.

These will be released in limited-edition waves, like other collectible drops, and the first release is a Cozy Cat keycap, which will be available for $20 from HyperX in January. Additional designs in new limited-production releases are planned throughout the year, some in collaboration with game streamers and other celebrities.

Microsoft Office is an essential suite of tools for both your professional and personal computing needs, but if you don’t already have access to its apps on your own computer, you may be annoyed at having to pay monthly to access them.

Rather than stumping up the full price directly at Microsoft, you can snag a lifetime license to Microsoft’s Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, OneNote, Publisher and Access for just $30 instead via StackSocial. That’s back at the lowest price we’ve ever seen, and a whopping 91% off the usual price of $349.

The offer applies to both the Windows and Mac version of the software, which means you can ditch the subscription (with recurring charges) that Microsoft offers for these essential apps. This popular deal has already sold out and been restocked a few times, but we don’t know how much longer it will remain in stock so be sure to grab one for yourself before it’s gone.

Microsoft

Microsoft Office Professional 2021 lifetime license: $30

Save 91%

This wildly popular offer for a Microsoft Office lifetime license is still available for $30. It’s available for both Mac and Windows, so be sure to grab the right one for the computer that you use regularly.

• Microsoft Office for Windows: $30
• Microsoft Office for Mac: $30

$30 at StackSocial (Windows)

$30 at StackSocial (Mac)

StackSocial’s deal is a phenomenal bargain when compared to the online Microsoft 365 subscription suite that costs $10 per month or $100 a year. There is a free online version of Microsoft Office, too, but it has far fewer features.

While the price almost seems too good to be true, we tried it ourselves, and it worked like a charm. (The two big caveats: You get a single key — which only works on a single computer — and there’s no Microsoft OneDrive Cloud Storage included.) In fact, StackSocial has offered a version of this deal since the beginning of 2022. But this lowest-ever price won’t last, so take the plunge while you can.

Mobile gadgets of the future should have the ability to fold, bend and slide, according to Samsung‘s vision. To convey this message, the company provided a small taste of its latest innovations in display designs, such as the slidable and foldable Flex Hybrid, at CES.

The new concept can switch between 10.5- and 12.4-inch screen sizes, thanks to its slidable and foldable design. The left side of the screen folds, while the right side slides. In addition to changing the screen’s size, the prototype can also jump between 4:3 and 16:10 aspect ratios. Although the Flex Hybrid is just a concept, it shows that Samsung is investigating what the next evolution of foldable phones and tablets might look like.

In a Jan. 3 press release, Samsung summarized its new display concepts, but the company plans to showcase the technologies during an exhibition this week at CES. The Flex Hybrid is just one of several mock-ups. There’s also a 17-inch slidable display, which was previewed in September, and a digital cockpit concept meant for self-driving vehicles.

Concepts like these don’t always translate into real products, but the Flex Hybrid feels most in line with Samsung’s current product strategy. Foldable phones only account for a sliver of the broader phone market, but the Galaxy Z Fold and Galaxy Z Flip have become well-established within Samsung’s mobile device lineup. The company’s early entry into the foldable phone space has given it an edge in terms of market share as Samsung accounts for more than 88% of the foldable smartphone market, according to Omdia.

TM Roh, the head of Samsung’s mobile experience business, suggested in an interview last August that the company is already thinking about what’s next after the Z Fold and Z Flip. The introduction of new concepts like the Flex Hybrid underscores that point.

“It’s everything you saw [at CES] plus more,” he said, referencing the display concepts Samsung showcased at CES last year.

But Samsung will also likely face more competition as foldable phones continue to evolve. Motorola and TCL have both shown rollable phone concepts of their own. Oppo’s Find N2, which the company introduced in late 2022, also shows a lot of promise thanks to its lightweight design, as my colleague Sareena Dayaram wrote.

Although Samsung is trying to make foldables a more regular fixture in our daily lives, its goal isn’t to replace regular phones.

“I would not see either just a bar-type, or just a foldable, or just another potentially new form factor dominating the market,” Roh also said during the previous interview. “But rather I see the different categories coexisting together.”

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Finding a proper budget laptop can be trickier than you might think. Pricier models will have casual users paying for a whole packet of features they won’t use or need, but the most affordable models like Chromebooks are severely limited. According to CNET’s Dan Ackerman, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go manages to strike an impressive balance between power and affordability for a truly great budget option. And right now, this budget-friendly model is even friendlier, because you can pick it up for 27% less than its retail price at Woot, bringing the cost of this base model down to just $255. This offer is only available for today, Jan. 4, while supplies last.

Like the “Go” name suggests, this laptop is designed to help you get work done when you’re on the move. It weighs just under 2.5 pounds and is only 0.6 inches thick, while still boasting up to 13 hours of battery life, making it perfect for long days on the road. It features a built-in 720p webcam and a 12.4-inch touchscreen display, so you can easily hop on any Zoom or other video calls throughout the day. It comes equipped with a 10th-gen Intel Core i5 processor and the Windows 10 Pro operating system (and supports Windows 11, if you want to upgrade). And while this laptop only has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, it’ll handle light work and online browsing without a hitch. Plus, you can always utilize cloud storage options if you need a bit more space.

Showtime running a great deal for new subscribers right now. Not only can you try the streaming service free for 30 days, but you can also sign up for a six-month subscription for just $4 a month. That’s a savings of 60% versus the plan’s usual cost — an inexpensive way to see if you really like the streaming service. There’s no coupon code required and you can cancel at any time, the only catch is that you can’t renew a current subscription at this price.

With a Showtime subscription you can stream live or on-demand. You can also download full episodes and movies for when you’re on the go by using the Showtime app on your phone, tablet and other devices. And there’s something to watch for everyone in your household — Showtime offers a wide variety of hit movies, thrilling tv shows and live sports. The subscription gives you access to Showtime’s award-winning, original series, including Dexter and Shameless. It also grants exclusive admission to live contact sports such as MMA and boxing. You can take advantage of this great deal from now until Jan. 23.

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A group of video game testers working for Microsoft’s ZeniMax has voted to form the tech giant’s first union, the Communication Workers of America union said Tuesday.

The CWA, which represents the union, said Microsoft will recognize the union in accordance with a promise Microsoft made to the CWA in June to recognize unions formed by employees. Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, the parent company of game developer Bethesda, which develops the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series, in 2021 for $7.5 billion.

Microsoft confirmed it’s recognizing the new union, saying in a statement “We look forward to engaging in good faith negotiations as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement.”

The video game workers’ unionizing efforts are happening at the same time as the Federal Trade Commission attempts to block Microsoft from purchasing Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, arguing that the merger will harm competition among video game console makers.

President Chris Shelton said that by agreeing to recognize the union, Microsoft is distancing itself from other tech companies that have actively fought against employees’ efforts to unionize.

“Microsoft is charting a different course which will strengthen its corporate culture and ability to serve its customers and should serve as a model for the industry and as a blueprint for regulators,” Shelton said in a statement.

Microsoft’s recognition of the union comes a little more than a week after dozens of video game employees at Proletariat video game studio, which was acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2022, filed for union representation, the third unionizing push that Activision has seen in the past year. Raven Software employees organized in January, and employees at Blizzard Albany voted to unionize earlier in December.

Dell throws everything a worker bee can think of into its new UltraSharp 32 (U3224KB). It’s a new-for-CES 32-inch monitor with a 6K-resolution IPS Black panel (that’s 6,144×3,456 pixels), plus a plethora of graphics and productivity-focused bells and whistles. The IPS Black screen has a higher contrast than typical IPS panels — and it tested well in the 4K version of the monitor I reviewed last year.

What bells and whistles?

• 4K webcam
• Mic array and dual 14-watt speakers
• Clever pop-down front-facing USB ports
• DisplayHDR 600 certification plus 99% P3 color gamut coverage
• Thunderbolt 4 support with DisplayPort 2.1, 140-watt power delivery, automatic peripheral switching between two connected systems and an Ethernet connection
• Support for portrait-orientation rotation

Thunderbolt and the high resolution plus the 140-watt power delivery make it seem especially suitable for use with a Mac, though it may lose some capabilities that might be dependent on Windows-based software (as frequently happens).

Dell expects to ship it by the end of June. There’s no pricing yet, but it probably won’t be cheap.

Two more Dell UltraSharps are getting refreshes: the 43-inch U4323QE with 4K resolution and a USB-C hub (shipping this month for $1,330); and the 34-inch curved U3423WE 3,440×1,440-pixel display, also with a USB-C hub (shipping this month for $1,260).

That’s just the beginning of what promises to be a week full of CES announcements for PCs, monitors and components.