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Belgium’s biggest and arguably toughest race of the UCI World Tour calendar is upon us, as the riders take on the cobbles of the Tour of Flanders this Saturday.

The men’s race follows a scenic 271-kilometer route between Antwerp and Oudenaarde that features 17 calf-shredding climbs.

The women’s race meanwhile includes 12 bergs, culminating with the grueling double whammy of Kwaremont and Paterberg’s ascents.

Highly fancied contender Wout van Aert misses the men’s race after sustaining injuries in a pile-up during Wednesday’s Dwars door Vlaanderen, while last year’s champ Tadej Pogacar has opted to skip the Ronde this year to focus on his preparations for the upcoming Giro d’Italia., leaving Mathieu van der Poel as the clear prerace favorite.

The women’s race could meanwhile see reigning world champion Lotte Kopecky aiming to win her third consecutive Flanders title.

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

Tour of Flanders 2024: Where and when is it?

The 2024 Tour of Flanders takes place on Saturday, March 30. The Men’s race starts at 10 a.m. CEST local time in Belgium, which is 9 a.m. GMT in the UK, 5 a.m. ET or 2 a.m. PT in the US and 8 p.m. AEDT in Australia.

The women’s race follows a little later at 1:25 p.m. CEST (2:25 p.m. GMT in the UK, 10:25 a.m. ET /7:25 a.m. PT in the US and 1:25 a.m. AEDT in Australia in the early hours of Sunday morning).

How to watch the Tour of Flanders 2024 online from anywhere using a VPN

If you find yourself unable to view the race locally, you may need a different way to watch — 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 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 what you want to watch. If your internet provider or mobile carrier has stuck you with an IP address that incorrectly shows your location in a blackout zone, a VPN can correct that problem by giving you an IP address in your correct, non-blackout area. 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 Canada, 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 the Tour of Flanders 2024 in the US

US cycling fans can watch all the action live from Belgium via dedicated cycling streaming service FloBikes.

Livestream the Tour of Flanders 2024 in the UK

Viewers in the UK will need to subscribe to Eurosport or the streaming service Discovery Plus to watch this year’s action from Belgium live.

Stream the Tour of Flanders 2024 in Australia for free

It’s good news for cycling fans Down Under, with the 2024 Tour of Flanders set to be broadcast for free in Australia on SBS.

Stream Tour of Flanders 2024 in Canada

As with the US, dedicated cycling streaming service FloBikes is the place to watch live coverage of this year’s race in Canada.

Quick tips for streaming Tour of Flanders 2024 using a VPN

• With four variables at play — your ISP, browser, video streaming provider and VPN — your experience and success when streaming the Tour of Flanders 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 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.

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Beyoncé has a brand-new album. Her eighth full-length release, Cowboy Carter, is the second part of a three-part project that began with 2022’s house music-inflected Renaissance.

In characteristic fashion, Bey announced the massive, 27-song effort in a major way: via a Verizon commercial that aired during the Super Bowl. She released two singles that same night, Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages, and they both hit the Top 10 on the country charts.

It’s an encouraging response to a project that was born out of a negative experience in which she performed with the artists formerly known as the Dixie Chicks (now just the Chicks) at the Country Music Awards in 2016 and felt unwelcome in the world of country music. Cowboy Carter is her strong musical plea for musicians to shatter genre boundaries when performing music, and for fans to do the same when listening.

Beyoncé insists that Cowboy Carter isn’t a country album, even though country icons Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson are among its many surprising guests. Here’s what you need to know about how to stream what may prove to be Queen Bey’s best album — along with info on the track list and how to spot Easter eggs.

Read more: I Scored Floor Seats for Beyoncė’s Renaissance Tour Thanks to My Sinking Fund. Here’s How

Where to stream Cowboy Carter

Beyoncé’s eighth album, Cowboy Carter, is available to stream in full on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal.

Track listing

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter features 27 tracks, with their titles including the occasional star symbol:

1. Ameriican Requiem
2. Blackbiird
3. 16 Carriages
4. Protector
5. My Rose
6. Smoke Hour ★ Willie Nelson
7. Texas Hold ‘Em
8. Bodyguard
9. Dolly P
10. Jolene
11. Daughter
12. Spaghettii
13. Alliigator Tears
14. Smoke Hour II
15. Just for Fun
16. II Most Wanted
17. Levii’s Jeans
18. Flamenco
19. The Linda Martell Show
20. Ya Ya
21. Oh Louisiana
22. Desert Eagle
23. Riiverdance
24. II Hands II Heaven
25. Tyrant
26. Sweet ★ Honey ★ Buckiin’
27. Amen

Guest stars

Beyoncé worked with known legends and future stars on Cowboy Carter, including 90-year-old Willie Nelson and Bey’s 6-year-old daughter Rumi Carter. Here’s a closer look at the major players:

Tanner Adell, Tiera Kennedy, Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer: Beyoncé chose four Black female artists to collaborate with her on a cover of The Beatles’ 1968 song Blackbird, here stylized as Blackbiird. The song honors her young guests, who are all forging ahead and innovating in the still-divisive country music world.

Rumi Carter: Beyoncé’s 6-year-old daughter appears at the beginning of Protector.

Miley Cyrus: The hitmaking Disney actress turned pop star, whose godmother is Dolly Parton, joins Beyoncé for II Most Wanted, a country smoker’s track that somehow still evokes 2Pac and Snoop Dogg’s Amerikaz Most Wanted duet.

Rhiannon Giddens: Playing on Beyoncé’s No. 1 pop and country music hit Texas Hold ‘Em is just the latest huge move from the Grammy-, Pulitzer- and MacArthur “genius grant”-winning folk musician.

Willie Jones: Jones released the country and hip-hop hybrid album Something to Dance to in 2023. He’s Beyoncé’s guest on the actually somber song Just for Fun.

Post Malone: The track Levii’s Jeans finds Beyoncé getting a bit saucy in a surprising collaboration with Post Malone, the affable pop-rap star known more for modulating his voice digitally than singing without added effects.

Linda Martell: The first Black woman soloist to appear at the Grand Ole Opry, Martell also appeared on the old country comedy TV show Hee Haw. On the track Spaghettii, she questions the need for music genres, and she returns to introduce a track during an interlude called The Linda Martell Show, an encouragement for fans to dig into Martell’s career.

Willie Nelson: The country legend plays a radio DJ for fictional station KNTRY on Smoke Hour ★Willie Nelson and Smoke Hour II. Nelson can be heard inhaling and delivering the central lesson of the album: that genres don’t matter and sometimes you just need someone you trust to turn you on to the “good shit.”

Dolly Parton: Country’s enduring icon, whose most recent album is called Rockstar, pops in to commiserate over stolen men on Dolly P, an interlude which leads into Beyoncé’s cover of Parton’s 1973 hit Jolene. Parton returns uncredited at the beginning of a naughty song called Tyrant.

Shaboozey: The rising Nigerian-American singer and rapper appears on two Cowboy Carter songs, Spaghettii and Sweet ★ Honey ★ Buckiin. His new album, set for a May release, is called Where I’ve Been, Isn’t Where I’m Going.

Various producers: Beyoncé also worked with several producers who are successful artists in their own right and have worked with her multiple times, such as Raphael Saadiq, The-Dream, Pharrell Williams, Ryan Tedder and Swizz Beatz.

Read more: Beyoncé Owns a Lamborghini LM002, We Continue to Stan

Easter eggs

Beyoncé loves to hide Easter eggs in her albums, and Cowboy Carter delivers in that respect. Here are some to look out or listen for:

Lots of IIs: Because Cowboy Carter is “act II” of a three-act project that began with her previous album, 2022’s Renaissance, many song titles have “II” or “ii” in them, such as the duets II Most Wanted with Miley Cyrus and Levii’s Jeans with Post Malone.

Samples: Cowboy Carter is structured like a fantasy radio station with the call letters KNTRY, and if you listen closely, you’ll hear the use of samples in various songs. Interestingly, the late Chuck Berry appears twice on the album: first with a bit of his 1955 hit Maybellene on Smoke Hour ★Willie Nelson, an interlude featuring Nelson assuming his old role as a radio DJ, and later with a slowed-down bit of 1971’s Oh Louisiana in a new Beyoncé song of the same name.

Interpolations: Distinct from sampling, interpolation is the term for when an artist replays or re-sings part of another song instead of directly lifting the work. Cowboy Carter contains interpolations of songs like Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys and Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walkin’ by Nancy Sinatra (on Ya Ya); Patsy Cline’s I Fall to Pieces (on Sweet ★ Honey ★ Buckiin); and even Tommaso Giordani’s 18th century Italian aria Caro Mio Ben, which Beyoncé sings on Daughter.

Read more: Beyoncé and Her Music Arrive on TikTok

Where to stream Beyoncé’s movies

If Cowboy Carter whets your appetite for more Beyoncé, you’re in luck. Some, but not all, of Beyoncé’s musical films are currently available to stream:

Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé (2019): Watch highlights and behind the scenes material from Bey’s historic and large-scale performances at Coachella in 2018 on Netflix.

Black Is King (2020): Disney Plus convinced a lot of the Beyhive to subscribe in order to watch a “visual album” that accompanied her release The Lion King: The Gift, for the 2019 reboot of The Lion King.

Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé (2023): The movie based on her most recent tour has left theaters in the US, leaving fans to wonder whether it will eventually air on Netflix.

Beyoncé’s acting roles: Beyoncé has also acted in music movies such as Carmen: A Hip Hopera (2001), Dreamgirls (2006) and Cadillac Records (2008), all of which are available to watch on various streaming services if you have a premium subscription.

Texas Hold ‘Em and 16 Carriages: You can watch the music videos for her first two songs released from Cowboy Carter on YouTube, as well as the lyric videos for her other songs on the new album.

Do we really need another day of hoaxes? After all, isn’t the internet trying to fool users pretty much every other day of the year too? Regardless, April Fools’ Day is here again, so it’s worth saying: Everything you read on Monday that seems even the least bit weird is possibly false. And this year, the astrological movement known as Mercury Retrograde, which some people believe brings bad luck, begins on April 1. So if you believe in that, get ready for extra weirdness.

Have you ever read the Wikipedia entry for April Fools’? We can’t even trace the origins of this holiday, like we can with Mother’s Day or Earth Day. There might be a connection to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, or to Noah’s Ark, but then again maybe not. It’s perhaps the weirdest — or the most foolish — holiday we have.

How to spot an April Fools’ prank

The best tip is simply to be suspicious. If a company picks April Fools’ Day, or the days leading up to it, to release or announce a product that sounds too odd to be true, don’t be quick to believe in the offering.

Fact-check anything that looks suspicious — especially before spending any money. Make sure you’re on the company’s own site, for one thing. Google the name of the product, or information about the item, to see if anyone has called out the product as a prank. Usually, fake products will offer a page to click to, and that page may simply say APRIL FOOL.

Some of the biggest companies out there have created joke products for the holiday, but not all the shams and hoaxes are corporate jokes. Don’t fall for April Fools’ pranks from random tricksters. It’s easy to spread falsehoods and misinformation on Reddit, Facebook, TikTok or Instagram, where everyone is a publisher and not everyone can be trusted.

And not all pranks are products. Be very wary of “news reports” you see on sites that aren’t real publications. Check the URL. The New York Times doesn’t misspell its own name in its URL, but joke sites may pick a very similarly named web address to try to trick you.

Here’s a look at some of the bigger April Fools’ pranks circulating this year. I’ll add to this roundup as new jokes come out. Note that I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if some of these companies actually release a small number of these products just for laughs. So even if they’re joke-inspired, they could come to life.

7-Eleven hot dog sparkling water

Hot dog water, aka the water you cook hot dogs in, has to be one of the nastier liquids out there. (There’s even a Scooby-Doo character called Hot Dog Water, yeesh.) Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is touting a new flavor of sparkling water named for the hot dogs it sells, Big Bite Hot Dog Sparkling Water. “More details on the availability of this flavor will be revealed on April 1,” the press release says. Hmm…

Adidas box shoe

Adidas makes shoes. Shoes come in boxes. So this year, the company is putting forth not a shoebox, but a box shoe — a fake (we hope) shoe shaped like a box. It’s shown on Adidas’ Confirmed app, and shoes are so extreme these days, who knows? It could be real one day.

Del Taco hot sauce-flavored Tic Tac mints

Del Taco is a fast-food chain with nearly 600 locations. It offers hot sauces for its Mexican-inspired food in mild, Del Scorcho and Del Inferno flavors, and it sent out a press release touting Tic Tac mints in those three hot sauce flavors. Writing as someone who’s been sent actual samples of curry-flavored and Hidden Valley Ranch-flavored lip balms before, I guess this isn’t so tough to believe. But don’t try to buy these mints — it’s a hot prank.

Again, we’ll update this list as more pranks roll out.

The first weekend of March Madness, known formally as the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, is in the books. After the first round saw some remarkable performances and shocking upsets from the likes of No. 14 Oakland, No. 13 Yale and No. 11 Oregon, the second round largely went to the favorites.

Thursday night brought the first batch of Sweet 16 action, and there were plenty of upsets. In the West Region, No. 6 Clemson took down No. 2 Arizona in the first game of the night while No. 4 Alabama knocked off No. 1 North Carolina to set up a 6-versus-4 Elite Eight battle on Saturday. In the East Region, No. 1 seed UConn dominated No. 5 San Diego State, while No. 3 Illinois held off No. 2 Iowa State to advance.

Friday night will bring our last batch of Sweet 16 games, with four matchups on the docket. First up is No. 11 NC State, the last double-digit seed remaining in the tourney, taking on No. 2 Marquette in the South Region. Tip-off for this game is called for 7:09 p.m. ET on CBS.

Here’s everything you need to know for this year’s March Madness, from the Sweet 16 to the Final Four and the National Championship game. The short of it is you need only two apps costing $22 per month combined to stream every game of the tournament: Max (with Ads) and Paramount Plus with Showtime.

Read More: Women’s March Madness 2024: How to Watch Caitlin Clark Today and Every Tournament Game

How can I watch or stream March Madness?

As in past years, the tournament will be shown across four channels: CBS, TBS, TNT and TruTV. The time has come again to find TruTV on your dial.

You can watch these channels with a cable subscription or a live TV streaming service, but the most affordable option is signing up for a pair of streaming services for a month: Max and Paramount Plus with Showtime. If you have the cheaper Paramount Plus Essential plan, you won’t be able to watch March Madness unless you step up to the pricier option.

For just $22, you can watch every March Madness game live. With the cheaper, ad-supported $10-a-month Max streaming service, you can watch the games broadcast on TBS, TNT and TruTV. With the $12-per-month Paramount Plus with Showtime plan, you’ll be able to watch the CBS games.

You’ll have to juggle between both apps but this is the cheapest way to catch all the action.

Which devices can I use to watch March Madness?

You’ll find an app for each service to watch on an iPhone or Android phone as well as an iPad, Android tablet or Amazon Fire tablet. Max and Paramount Plus are also available on mainstream streaming platforms including Roku, Apple TV, Android TV/Google TV and Fire TV, as well as smart televisions from major manufacturers LG, Samsung and Vizio. Both services are also accessible through Xbox and PlayStation game consoles.

For more specifics, check out the full list of supported devices for Max and Paramount Plus.

Can I stream March Madness for free?

Go to the NCAA’s March Madness Live site or use its March Madness Live app and you’ll be able to watch games for free. You can watch March Madness Live on iOS and Android devices along with Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV and Xbox. The app also supports AirPlay and Chromecast.

As with most things that are free, there’s a catch. Without proving you’re a pay TV subscriber, you get only a three-hour preview, after which point you’ll need to log in to continue watching.

What is the March Madness schedule for the Sweet 16?

Here is the schedule for this weekend’s remaining second-round games (all times ET).

Friday, March 29

• No. 11 NC State vs. No. 2 Marquette, 7:09 p.m. on CBS
• No. 5 Gonzaga vs. No. 1 Purdue, 7:39 p.m. on TBS/TruTV
• No. 4 Duke vs. No. 1 Houston, 9:39 p.m. on CBS
• No. 3 Creighton vs. No. 2 Tennessee 10:09 p.m. on TBS/TruTV

Saturday, March 30

• No. 3 Illinois vs. No. 1 UConn, 6:09 p.m. on TBS
• No. 6 Clemson vs. No. 4 Alabama, 8:49 p.m. on TBS

What is the March Madness tournament schedule?

Here’s the remaining schedule, round by round:

• Sweet 16: March 28 to 29
• Elite Eight: March 30 to 31
• Final Four: Saturday, April 6
• NCAA championship game: Monday, April 8

What does the March Madness bracket look like?

You can check out the official bracket to see all the matchups and attempt to identify potential upsets and which teams will make it to the Final Four.

Which are the top teams in college basketball this year?

Looking for help in filling out your bracket? I can offer no such assistance for a single-elimination tournament as wild and unpredictable as March Madness.

What I can tell you is that online wagering site FanDuel currently lists defending champion UConn as the favorite, followed by Houston and Purdue. In the next tier are Arizona, North Carolina and Tennessee. Rounding out the top 10 betting favorites are Auburn, Creighton, Marquette and Iowa State.

What’s the best live TV streaming service for March Madness?

Three of the five live TV streaming services offer the four channels needed to watch every tournament game but 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 in your area.

We recommend YouTube TV to college basketball fans for its relatively low monthly charge and multi-view capability that lets you watch multiple games at once. It’s also one of the three services that offer all four of the channels needed to watch every game. At $73 per month, it’s significantly pricier than getting Max and Paramount Plus with Showtime.

Sling TV lacks CBS but is a good, low-cost option if you don’t need to watch every game of the tournament but want to be sure you can watch the Final Four and national championship game. At $40 per month, it costs nearly twice as much as it would to sign up for a month of Max and Paramount Plus with Showtime which would let you watch every game.

Hulu with Live TV and DirecTV Stream have every channel needed as well, but both are pricier than YouTube TV and lack features like multi-view. Fubo offers multi-view but doesn’t offer the Turner networks (TNT, TBS and TruTV), making it a poor choice for March Madness.

All of the live TV streaming services above offer free trials, allow you to cancel anytime and require a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide.

The field of 68 is down to 16. Upsets have been few, with No. 7 Duke remaining after knocking out No. 2 Ohio State. The other three No. 2 seeds remain in Notre Dame, Stanford and UCLA. All four No. 1 seeds — Iowa, South Carolina, Texas and USC — are still in the tournament, as are the four No. 3 seeds in LSU, NC State, Oregon State and UConn.

While the first two rounds may have lacked the drama usually associated with March Madness, the Sweet 16 matchups look enticing with so many heavyweights advancing to the second weekend of the tournament. The Sweet 16 starts today with four games, followed by another four games on the slate for tomorrow.

Read more: How to Watch the Men’s March Madness Tournament Without Cable

Here’s everything you need to know to watch the women’s March Madness tournament, from the Sweet 16 to the Final Four and the National Championship game.

When does Iowa and Caitlin Clark play next?

The Hawkeyes take on Colorado tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. PT) on ABC.

Catch me up, who is Caitlin Clark?

Caitlin Clark is the best story in college basketball if not all of basketball. The sensational Iowa guard leads the nation in points and assists and broke scoring records seemingly every other week of the season. Clark now reigns as the NCAA Division 1’s all-time leading scorer — men’s or women’s — and has led the Hawkeyes to a top seed for March Madness alongside South Carolina, USC and Texas.

As spectacular as Clark has been, she’s not the only reason to tune into the women’s tournament this year. The state of women’s college basketball has never been stronger. Paige Bueckers was Caitlin Clark before Caitlin Clark. She was named the national player of the year as a freshman and is now back to full strength for UConn after missing her sophomore season last year due to a knee injury.

Meanwhile, several supremely talented freshmen have made impacts this season and ensure that the sport will continue to grow after Clark leaves for the WNBA. JuJu Watkins is averaging nearly 27 points per game for USC — second only to Clark — and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo is fifth in the nation in scoring, while MiLaysia Fulwiley has helped lead a balanced South Carolina team to an undefeated regular season. Then there are the defending champs in LSU, led by juniors Angel Reese and Aneesah Morrow and freshman guard Mikaylah Williams.

What’s the women’s tournament schedule for the Sweet 16?

Here’s the full schedule for the Sweet 16 games (all times ET).

Friday, March 29

• No. 2 Notre Dame vs. No. 3 Oregon State, 2:30 p.m. on ESPN
• No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 4 Indiana, 5 p.m. on ESPN
• No. 2 Stanford vs. No. 3 NC State, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
• No. 1 Texas vs. No. 4 Gonzaga, 10 p.m. on ESPN

Saturday, March 30

• No. 3 LSU vs. No. 2 UCLA, 1 p.m. on ABC
• No. 1 Iowa vs. No. 5 Colorado, 3:30 p.m. on ABC
• No. 1 Southern California vs. No. 5 Baylor, 5:30 p.m. on ESPN
• No. 3 UConn vs. No. 7 Duke, 8 p.m. on ESPN

What is the women’s March Madness tournament schedule?

Here’s the remaining schedule, round by round:

• Sweet 16: March 29 to 30
• Elite Eight: March 31 to April 1
• Final Four: Friday, April 5
• NCAA championship game: Sunday, April 7

Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games will be played in Albany, New York and Portland, Oregon. The Final Four and national championship will be played at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (home of the Cleveland Cavaliers) in Cleveland, Ohio.

What does the Women’s NCAA tournament bracket look like?

You can check out the official bracket to see all the matchups and figure out who might make it to the Final Four.

South Carolina hasn’t lost since meeting Iowa in last year’s Final Four. The two schools find themselves on opposite sides of the bracket this year, which means they could meet in the national championship. Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes face a potential Elite Eight matchup against the defending champs in No. 3 LSU, so their path back to the Final Four is far from assured.

How can I watch the women’s March Madness tournament?

The rest of the tournament will be shown on ESPN and ABC.

Games will also be streamed live on ESPN Plus, but not until the Final Four. Only the two semifinal games and the national championship will be shown on ESPN Plus.

What are my women’s March Madness streaming options?

The best live TV streaming service for watching the women’s tournament is YouTube TV. It offers ESPN and ABC in its base plan, which costs $73 a month. Hulu with Live TV, DirecTV Stream and Fubo each carry ESPN and ABC but cost more per month than YouTubeTV. Sling TV is a poor choice for the women’s tournament for most people because it offers ABC in only a handful of markets.

End-of-tournament streaming option

If you only care about watching the last three games of the tournament, you can spend just $11 for a month of ESPN Plus for the Final Four and national championship.

Each of the live TV streaming services above allows you to cancel anytime and requires a solid internet connection. Looking for more information? Check out our live TV streaming services guide.

Smartphones are essential to our lives. According to a report by the Pew Research Center, 97% of Americans now have a smartphone. We use phones to check email, call or text family and friends, scroll social media and even do our jobs.

But all this activity involves using a lot of data which can be increasingly expensive. A report from the third-party bill payment service Doxo last year found that the average US cellphone bill is $1,342 per year. One solution to reduce your bill is to switch to a prepaid service that gives you the power to only pay for data you actually use.

MobileX is a new wireless service available exclusively at Walmart that leverages AI to provide consumers with hyper-personalized service and avoid unnecessary charges. MobileX offers a variety of plans to fit an array of budgets and data uses, with service starting as low as $4.08 per month. MobileX works with either a SIM card or eSIM and is available on the Apple and Google Play app stores. Currently, when you purchase a starter kit for $9.88, you’ll get a credit up to $10 on a future MobileX bill, covering the initial cost.

Here’s how MobileX works.

What is an eSIM and how does it work?

For your mobile phone to connect to a carrier’s service, it needs to communicate with the carrier via its SIM card. MobileX connects to Verizon’s wireless network for cell service.

SIM stands for subscriber identity module. A SIM comes in two forms, a physical SIM card or an electronic version that is already built into your phone called an eSIM (embedded subscriber identity module).

eSIMs have long been popular for international travel, but the technology is popular for prepaid domestic use, too. When Apple removed the SIM card tray from the US models of the iPhone 14 series, it signaled a shift in eSIM dominance, and other manufacturers like Samsung and Google are following suit. Translation: The physical SIM card’s days are numbered.

MobileX offers both physical SIMs and eSIMs. The service uses AI to learn your data usage and create a personalized plan to help you maximize your data budget.

How is MobileX different from other phone carriers?

MobileX offers users the power to customize their monthly phone bill by giving them the ability to monitor their usage on the MobileX app and choose how much they pay without sacrificing speed or quality.

Contract plans or set pay-as-you-go plans can sometimes throttle your data speeds. MobileX customizes your plan to your unique needs so that you only pay for what you need. The company says that users are not deprioritized compared to customers on other prepaid carrier’s unlimited plans. You’ll also never waste unused data; instead, unused data in Personalized Access plans will roll over to the next month as a data credit so you never lose the data you pay for.

Your first 10 days of MobileX service is free while the AI tool learns about your data habits, after which you’ll receive a recommended personalized plan and price. If you don’t want to wait that long, you can also manually choose how much MobileX data to initially purchase instead. The AI tool continues to learn and make recommendations as your usage evolves, and MobileX’s all-in-one app gives you full control over your service from a convenient interface.

For those more accustomed to traditional plans, there is the option of choosing a Basic Unlimited plan which starts at $14.88/month for 5GB of high-speed data, or $24.88/month for unlimited data including 30GB of high-speed data.

Like other MVNO service providers, MobileX supports devices that are unlocked and paid off. You can check device compatibility on MobileX’s website. When you purchase the MobileX starter kit, you receive a physical SIM card, or you can activate with eSIM if you have a newer phone model that no longer has a SIM card tray.

Get a plan that’s as smart as you

MobileX offers an easy way to personalize and save on wireless. Get your MobileX SIM Card Starter Pack for just $9.88, available only at Walmart.

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

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will take place on June 10, where we expect the company to release the next version of iPhone software: iOS 18.

Apple’s iOS 18 could bring the “biggest” software update in the iPhone’s history, according to the January edition of Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter. In the November edition, Gurman wrote that iOS 18 could bring “relatively groundbreaking” updates to the iPhone complete with “major new features and designs.”

The news comes amid the generative AI hype cycle. Last fall, Google debuted its flagship Pixel 8 lineup with souped-up AI tricks and in January, Samsung launched the Galaxy S24 series with Galaxy AI. In light of this, it’s likely Apple will go in the same direction with the rumored iPhone 16 and iOS 18.

To be clear, Apple already has AI features baked into its iPhones like its photo duplication detection feature, but we’ve yet to see how generative AI will factor into the iPhone and iOS. With iOS 17, Apple included a slew of AI-powered features like the ability to clone your own voice on the iPhone and an updated keyboard with better autocorrect. But the company stopped short of unveiling generative AI products along the lines of Google’s Gemini or OpenAI’s Chat GPT. Still, the rumor mill points to meaningful changes in iOS 18. Here are the most credible ones.

Read more: Best iPhone of 2024

Smarter Siri

Siri has been around since iOS 5 in 2011, but with iOS 18 Apple’s voice-activated assistant could get a lot smarter.Generative AI technology “should improve how both Siri and the Messages app can field questions and auto-complete sentences,” according to Gurman.

Before his newsletter, a September report from the Information, said Apple plans to use large language models, a crucial part of generative AI, to make Siri smarter. An example detailed in that article explained how Siri can respond to simple voice commands for more complex tasks, such as turning a set of photos into a GIF and then sending them to one of your contacts. If that example is accurate, this represents a significant step forward in the capabilities of Siri.

Read More: Apple Just Teased Its AI Plans. You Really Should Take Notice.

Read More: The Hidden AI Features Available on Your iPhone Right Now

Improved texting with Android

Apple has said it will bring RCS support, the cross-platform messaging standard, to the iPhone. According to a November report by 9to5Mac, an Apple spokesperson said it’ll be coming to the iPhone “later next year” and will work alongside iMessage.

RCS support should improve the current messaging experience between iPhone and Android users by bringing iMessage-like features. Those upgrades include sending high-quality photos and videos to contacts, read receipt, typing indicators and, most importantly, end-to-end encryption, something SMS messaging lacks. In other words, if you have an Android phone and are texting someone with an iPhone, you’ll be able to text each other over RCS instead of SMS. However, it’s important to remember that iMessage will remain exclusive to the iPhone and other Apple devices. RCS will not bring iMessage to Android phones.

Read More: Apple’s iMessage Will Probably Never Come to Android. And That’s OK.

As mentioned earlier, details are currently sparse on Apple’s plans and we don’t yet know which iPhones will be compatible with iOS 18. We’ll be updating this article as and when we get more details, so make sure to check back. Until then, you can get up to speed with iOS 17.

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

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When Apple released iOS 17.4 on March 5, the tech giant brought new features and bug fixes to your iPhone, like new emoji for everyone and the ability for people in the EU to download other app stores. But the update also gives you more control over the security of your iPhone by adding more Stolen Device Protection settings.

Read more: You Should Really Download iOS 17.4.1 Right Now

Stolen Device Protection was introduced in iOS 17.3, and as CNET’s David Lumb reported, it puts an extra layer of security on some of your sensitive data. If you’re not in a familiar location like your home, the feature requires you to enter your biometric information once, wait one hour and then enter your information a second time to access and change some information — like changing your Apple ID password or turning Stolen Device Protection off.

However, if you frequent a coffee shop or live in an apartment building and you lose your iPhone at one of these places, your data could still be at risk. Your iPhone might recognize these places as familiar locations and allow another person to bypass this security feature. But with iOS 17.4, you can set your iPhone to always require the one-hour security delay, no matter where you are.

Here’s how to make Stolen Device Protection always on.

How to always require one-hour security delay

1. Open Settings
2. Tap Face ID & Passcode
3. Scroll down and tap Stolen Device Protection
4. Tap the toggle next to Stolen Device Protection if it’s not already enabled. If it’s already enabled go to the next step
5. Tap Always under Require Security Delay

Now, whether or not you’re in a familiar location like your home, your device will always require the one-hour security delay if you or someone else tries to access or change certain settings on your iPhone.

However, Stolen Device Protection only protects a handful of settings, so you still have to take steps to protect your other information. For example, Apple notes you can still use your iPhone’s passcode to make purchases with Apple Pay, so Stolen Device Protection won’t totally protect your finances.

Apple still recommends everyone turn Stolen Device Protection on, even if you don’t always require the one-hour security delay.

For more on Apple, here is what to know about iOS 17.4.1, the other features to land on your iPhone with iOS 17.4 and our iOS 17 cheat sheet.

It’s not often that we see great deals on Nintendo Switch consoles, so when they do pop up, it’s best to act quickly. This Woot deal on the Nintendo Switch OLED is available for a limited time and offers one of our favorite handheld consoles at a steep $30 discount. Both the white and neon red-blue models are available at the reduced price of $320 while supplies last.

Unlike many Woot deals, the Switch OLED models on sale today are offered brand-new, so you don’t have to settle for a preowned or refurbished device. The devices will ship in the regular Nintendo retail packaging with all the accessories you’d expect a brand-new unit to come with. The main downside is that the warranty, provided by Woot, is shorter than you’d usually get, with 90 days of coverage in case of any issues.

The Nintendo Switch OLED is the best Switch console on the market right now. It has a larger screen than both the original Switch and Lite models, with a 7-inch OLED display offering more vivid colors and greater contrast. The device also has a redesigned kickstand and TV dock, along with 64GB of internal storage. Whether you’re investing in a Nintendo Switch for the first time, want to upgrade your current device or are buying a console as a gift, this deal makes it much more affordable — while supplies last.