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Becoming fluent in a second language is an incredibly useful skill for anyone to acquire, from avid travelers to lifelong learners and everyone in between. If you’ve been on the fence about investing in a program to help learn a new language, now’s the time to dive in. Online language programs allow you to learn at your own pace, anywhere you choose. Right now StackSocial is offering subscriptions with unlimited access for just $170. That knocks a whopping $429 off the lifetime license, which includes all 14 language programs. This deal expires Jan. 29, so be sure to get your order in soon if you don’t want to miss out on these savings.

Babbel’s extensive language software includes Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Swedish, Indonesian, Portuguese and more. The lessons are short and to the point, allowing you to practice in 10- to 15-minute intervals that can fit into any schedule. Real-life topics include travel, family, business, food and others. There are also a variety of skill levels available, ranging from beginner to advanced, so the program can grow with you as you improve.

The speech-recognition technology will give you immediate feedback on pronunciation, so you don’t just learn to read and write but how to listen and speak, as well. You’ll also get personalized review sessions to reinforce what you’ve learned. The program works across desktop and mobile devices. And though the internet is required most of the time, there is also an offline mode available where you can access courses, lessons and reviews without Wi-Fi, so long as you download them beforehand. Babbel also syncs your progress across your devices so that you can jump in from wherever is most convenient.

Becoming fluent in a new language is a great way to stay engaged in learning, and the transferable skills you gain can open a lot of doors for leisure, work and beyond. Note that while you can access this program on as many devices as you want, this subscription offer is available only for new users.

Babbel is a great value when compared with other online courses, especially with this current discount. So whether you’re a lifelong learner or just want to pick up some basics for your globetrotting adventures, this is a solid deal.

Read more: 11 Items to Add to Your Travel Checklist for a Smooth Trip

There are two games still to be played to decide the matchup for Super Bowl LVIII. The Baltimore Ravens will host the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship on Sunday, followed by the NFC Championship in San Francisco between the 49ers and Detroit Lions. The winners will advance to the Super Bowl.

The Chiefs are looking to be the first repeat NFL champions since the New England Patriots won back-to-back titles in 2004 and 2005, while the Ravens haven’t been to the Super Bowl since winning it all in 2013. The 49ers have won five Super Bowl titles but none since 1995. And the Detroit Lions are just one of four teams that have never reached the Super Bowl.

The conference championship games will be played this Sunday with the Super Bowl to follow two weeks later. If you have questions leading up to the big game, we have answers.

When is the Super Bowl?

Super Bowl Sunday will take place on Feb. 11 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, home to the Raiders since 2020, when the team moved from Oakland.

What time is the Super Bowl?

Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET (5:30 CT, 4:30 p.m. MT, 3:30 p.m. PT).

If you want to watch live from elsewhere in the world, it’ll likely be at an inconvenient time. The Super Bowl start time is 11:30 p.m. in the UK, 3:30 a.m. in the United Arab Emirates and 10:30 a.m. AEDT on Monday in Australia. Click here to see what time kickoff is in your time zone.

What channel is the Super Bowl on?

Super Bowl LVIII will be broadcast live in the US on CBS and stream on Paramount Plus. The CBS channel is available on cable TV, as well as via live TV streaming services.

If you live in the US in an area with good reception, you can watch the broadcast on CBS for free over the air just by attaching an affordable (under $30) indoor antenna to nearly any TV.

You can also watch a Spanish-language broadcast on Univision and a kid-friendly version on Nickelodeon.

Can I stream the Super Bowl for free?

Yes, you can. As Paramount Plus is one of the few remaining streaming services with a one-week free trial, you likely will be able to try out the service to stream the game and then, should you not want to keep it after the Super Bowl, cancel the trial with no harm done.

Can I watch the Super Bowl in 4K?

Yes: CBS will broadcast the Super Bowl in 4K HDR, assuming you have the proper setup. To get the game in its best resolution, you’ll need service from a company that offers 4K broadcasts (DirecTV, Dish, Comcast, Optimum and Verizon Fios are some traditional cable/satellite companies that offer 4K) or a 4K-capable plan on a streaming service like YouTube TV or Fubo.

The best you’ll get from Paramount Plus, however, is the 1080p feed, according to the TV Answer Man.

Who’s performing in the Super Bowl halftime show?

Usher will headline the Super Bowl halftime show. The 45-year-old R&B superstar is no stranger to Las Vegas, having just completed a 100-show residency at the Park MGM casino.

There are also pregame festivities. Before kickoff, Reba McEntire will sing the national anthem, and Post Malone will perform America the Beautiful.

Who’s calling the game?

CBS’s lead team of Jim Nantz and Tony Romo will be in the broadcast booth, with Tracy Wolfson and Evan Washburn reporting from the sidelines.

Which teams are playing in the Super Bowl?

There are four teams left in the playoffs. The winner of the AFC Championship between the Chiefs and Ravens will play the winner of the NFC Championship between the Lions and 49ers.

Best options for streaming the Super Bowl

Below are our recommendations for the best ways to watch the Super Bowl without cable. Four of the five US-based live TV streaming services carry CBS — all but Sling TV. Keep in mind, however, 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.

As mentioned, Paramount Plus also works for getting the game without requiring a pricier service; the base Essential package is just $6 per month — not to mention that free trial for those who only care about football.

Is there a streaming lag when watching the Super Bowl?

Yes. When streaming the Super Bowl you should expect to lag behind the action on cable, Twitter and sports betting apps. Based on previous years, streaming services lag around 40 seconds behind what’s on the field. Compare that to cable, satellite or antenna TV, where the time gap from on-the-field action is significantly less. It’s usually a transmission delay of about 5 seconds, which allows for broadcasters to prevent unsavory content from appearing on TV.

Streaming services like Paramount Plus, YouTube TV, DirecTV Stream, Fubo and others may have additional latency delays on top of that. For the fastest feed, your best bet is likely a traditional cable or satellite service, or an antenna.

What are my Super Bowl viewing options outside the US?

International viewers should check their local listings to determine the best local option to watch or stream the Super Bowl. In the UK, for example, the game will be broadcast on ITV and Sky Sports. In Canada, you’ll be able to watch the broadcast on CTV or TSN, depending on your location, or the French-language broadcast on RDS. Canadians can also watch the game on the DAZN streaming service.

On Monday morning in Australia, the Super Bowl will be broadcast live on Channel 7 and 7mate as well as the 7plus VOD service.

How to use a VPN to watch the Super Bowl from anywhere

What if you’re traveling outside your home country and want to enjoy the big game, or just want an added layer of privacy for streaming? There is an option that doesn’t require searching the internet for a sketchy website: You can use a VPN, or virtual private network.

With a VPN, you’re able to virtually change your location on your phone, tablet or laptop to get access to the game, which comes in handy if you find yourself unable to view the game locally. A VPN is the best way to stop your ISP from throttling your speeds on game day by encrypting your traffic. Using a VPN is 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.

If you can’t find a convenient opportunity to watch the game where you live, using a VPN with a US-based server should provide access to some or all of the streaming options listed below. 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, as long as you’ve got 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. See our list of best VPNs for more and check out other great VPN deals taking place right now.

Quick tips for streaming Super Bowl 2024 using a VPN

• With four variables at play — your ISP, browser, video streaming provider and VPN — experience and success 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.

Who won last year’s Super Bowl?

Last year, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35. It was the second title and second Super Bowl MVP for Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Hopefully this year’s game will follow a similarly dramatic script.

Honor’s Magic V2 impressed me as soon as I took it out of the box. From the lightweight design and bright, expansive displays to the respectable cameras and dependable battery life, there’s a lot I like about it. Ahead of its European launch, Honor sent me the international version of the phone to test.

This phone is unusually portable, for one thing. And it doesn’t necessarily feel like I’m holding a foldable phone, unless I slide my thumb over to where the screens meet. The V2 is still the lightest and slimmest book-style foldable phone available, even though it was first released last year. When folded, it’s just 9.9 millimeters thick, making it slightly thicker than a bar phone and convenient to carry around. For reference, Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 5, a direct V2 competitor, is 13.46 mm thick when it’s closed.

Read more: Best Foldable Phones in 2024

The Magic V2 weighs 231 grams. That’s 2 grams less than Samsung’s new Galaxy S24 Ultra and more than 50 grams less than the Google Pixel Fold. The V2’s thin and lightweight design makes it feel more like a regular phone and less like an experiment. (I should note that the OnePlus Open, which my colleague Eli Blumenthal reviewed last year, comes close to matching the V2’s svelte, lightweight build.) Despite the phone’s compact size, Honor managed to pack it with flagship specs, including last year’s still-peppy Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, a triple-camera module complete with a telephoto lens and a large battery that supports 66-watt fast charging.

But as compelling as it is, the Magic V2 still has some shortcomings. It doesn’t have an official IP rating for water- and dust-resistance. The Z Fold 5, by comparison, is rated IPX8 for water-resistance and can be immersed under 1.5 meters of freshwater for up to 30 minutes. Nearly all foldables lack dust-resistance apart from the IP52-rated Motorola Razr Plus, which offers some resistance against dust and water splashes. It doesn’t have stylus support either, unlike the Z Fold 5 and OnePlus Open.

Not all apps are optimized for the V2’s screens either, which is a similar issue my peers had reviewing other foldables. The CNN app, for example, isn’t yet optimized for the inner screen when you download them. But you could change the resolution in the Settings panel, and it basically resolved the problem.

The Magic V2 is on sale in parts of Europe and the UK, starting today for 1,700 (converts to roughly $2,160 or AU$3,280) or 1,999 euros. This is a lower starting price in the UK than the 1,749 Galaxy Z Fold 5 ($1,800, AU$2,559), but the Z Fold 5 costs 1,899 euros. Honor says there are currently no plans for a release in the United States.

I previously wrote about my experience with the display and design hardware of the Magic V2, when it was launched in China last year. This article’s coverage will focus on the software, camera, performance and battery.

Using the Magic V2

Thanks to the abundance of screen real estate, the Magic V2’s large internal display makes it a superior multitasker compared to my normal bar phone. I could stream a movie in one window, browse Instagram on the other, and type out an email in a third floating window. I could also take notes when on Zoom calls since I could overlay a Zoom video over a word document.

The Magic V2 runs on MagicOS 7.2 based on Android 13, which Honor says adds a slew of smart features to aid in multitasking. A unique addition to the mix is a feature called Privacy Call. It’s an AI-based “directional sound technology” designed to prevent sound leaking, or when the person you’re talking to on a call can be heard by people around you, even if they’re not speaking loudly. Honor says the screen and the receiver work together to adjust the volume of the incoming audio to suit different environments. I tested it out and it worked as marketed.

Honor also introduced a feature called Magic Text, which reminds me of the iPhone’s Live Text feature from iOS 15 in 2022, that Honor says recognizes text content on an image and converts it into editable text.

The Magic V2’s five cameras

The Magic V2 has five cameras. You get a 50-megapixel main camera, 50-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 20-megapixel camera with a telephoto lens on the back. You can also use this trio to take selfies thanks to the foldable design of the Magic V2, and you can also use the cover screen as a viewfinder. There’s a 16-megapixel camera on the cover screen and a second 16-megapixel camera under the display of the inner screen. Here are the cameras in action.

In general, photos from the V2 are respectable, but they’re not the best you’ll get from a phone. Photos taken with bright light were good. However, I found the images shadowy in indoor or low light environments. If you’re not a die-hard photographer, then the V2’s cameras should be just fine for taking snaps.

To be fair, the V2 isn’t the only folding phone with this issue. Foldable phones’ cameras tend to be a weakness compared to similarly priced non-foldable phones. You’re mainly paying for the phone’s large, flexible display that enables multitasking rather than for the kind of top-of-the-line cameras you find on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Pixel 8 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Magic V2 battery and performance

Honor crammed a 5,000-mAh silicon carbon battery into the Magic V2’s slim and svelte frame. In my experience, the battery lasted throughout the day after moderate use: quick phone calls, social media scrolling, reading emails, watching YouTube videos and listening to music. For the full review, I will provide a range of battery endurance tests.

Since it was released in 2023, the Magic V2 runs on that year’s top-of-the-line processor from Qualcomm, which is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. In my experience, it could handle virtually everything I threw at it, including graphic-intensive games like Genshin Impact and running Zoom video calls while taking notes. Here’s how it stacks up against some rivals.

Performance tests

Phone	Geekbench 6 single-core	Geekbench 6 multicore
Honor Magic V2	1,824	4,254
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5	2,014	5,419
Google Pixel Fold	1,458	3,540
OnePlus Open	1,571	4,556
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4	1,842	4,508

Conclusion

Overall, I was impressed with the Magic V2 folding phone. It has slick hardware that makes Honor’s Magic V2 the most portable book-style foldable phone I’ve ever used. It’s backed up by high-end specs including a zippy processor, a versatile camera module with a telephoto lens, an inner screen with a hard-to-find crease and fast charging. I still have more testing to do, so keep an eye out for my full review next week.

If you’re looking to upgrade your laptop but want to find a model that will work well without breaking the bank, consider the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 lineup. Samsung Galaxy products have a reputation for solid performance and sleek design, and this laptop is no different. Amazon has Book 3 and Book 3 Pro models marked down by up to 32% right now, with prices starting at just $650. We don’t know how long this offer will last, so we recommend making your purchase sooner rather than later.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is our pick for the best Windows laptop for creatives, but it comes with a steep $3,000 price tag. If you don’t need the powerful Nvidia graphics or Core i9 processor the Ultra offers, opting for a Galaxy Book 3 Pro is a more affordable alternative. And it comes with the same AMOLED display resolution and refresh rate as the Ultra.

If you want the most bang for your buck, you may want to grab this 16-inch Book 3 Pro, which comes equipped with Windows 11 Pro and a 13th-gen Intel Core i7 processor. It also sports a whopping 32GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. While it typically lists for $1,900, you can nab one for just $1,300 right now. However, if you’re in need of something a little more portable, you can get this 14-inch model with 16GB of RAM, the same amount of storage and an Intel Core i5 at a $450 discount, bringing the price down to $1,000.

And for those looking for the absolute lowest price to get your hands on one of these laptops, the 15.6-inch Galaxy Book 3 business laptop has the same OS, RAM and processor as the 14-inch Pro model, but has a lower 1080p screen resolution and a more modest 256GB of storage. It’s only $650 right now, saving you $250 on its list price, and it should work well for scrolling the web, completing school work and other basic tasks.

Not the right fit for you? Don’t fret. We’ve gathered plenty of other laptop deals worth checking out.

Read more: Don’t Skip Out on Antivirus Software This Year

The launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series brought a bunch of new AI features with it. Galaxy AI will be available for some older devices but if yours isn’t one of them, it might be time to upgrade. If you’re ready to ditch your old phone and pick up one of the latest and greatest flagship phones, Samsung is currently running some Galaxy S24 deals to help you do just that. You can save up to $970 off any Galaxy S24 phone, plus you’ll get an additional 20% off Samsung Care Plus to protect your new investment.

Samsung’s flagship devices have long been the best phones on the market for Android fans. The new lineup offer some significant upgrades over the Galaxy S23 series, including bigger batteries and brighter screens, though the on-device AI features, powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, are the real headline-grabber.

It’s worth noting that the AI features that will be available on the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus and S24 Ultra will also be coming to the now previous-gen Galaxy S23 phones in the first half of 2024, along with the foldable Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5. If it’s the AI smart you really want, you might be able to save even more by going for a Galaxy S23 deal.

Looking for more discounts? CNET has the best deals from Samsung and many others, along with promo code offers — all updated and verified daily.

Welcome to CNET Coupons, the first stop before you shop, featuring a multitude of deals and discounts from top online retailers. Simply head over to our coupon page and type in your favorite store or brands to find all the deals available for the week.

Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev renew their fiery rivalry with their first clash in a grand slam, as the two players face off in this much-anticipated Australian Open semifinal on Friday.

The pair’s feuding reached boiling point with an infamous encounter at Monte Carlo in April last year, which saw Zverev accuse Medvedev of being “one of the most unfair players in the world.”

World No. 6 Zverev made his way to the semis after blowing away Carlos Alcaraz in four sets on Tuesday in a match that saw the German utilize his powerful serve to stunning effect.

Medvedev, meanwhile, had a more testing challenge in getting past Hubert Hurkacz to reach the last four, with the Russian world No. 3 taken to five grueling sets against the Pole.

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

Daniil Medvedev vs. Alexander Zverev: When and where?

The 2024 Australian Open men’s semifinal match between Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev takes place on Friday, Jan. 26 at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park at 7:30 p.m. AEDT local time. That makes it a a 8:30 a.m. start in the UK and a 3:30 a.m. ET, 12:30 a.m. PT start in the US and Canada.

How to watch the Australian Open 2024 online from anywhere using a VPN

If you find yourself unable to view the tournament locally, you may need a different way to watch games — 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. 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 Daniil Medvedev vs. Alexander Zverev in the US

Tennis fans in the US can watch every remaining singles match of the Australian Open on ESPN. If you don’t have a cable or satellite TV subscription, you can watch the match with a live TV streaming service. All five of the major services offer ESPN.

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.

Coverage is also available via the network’s streaming service ESPN Plus.

Livestream Daniil Medvedev vs. Alexander Zverev in the UK

Tennis fans in the UK will need to subscribe to Eurosport or the streaming service Discovery Plus to watch the Australian Open live.

Livestream Daniil Medvedev vs. Alexander Zverev in Australia for free

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

Stream Daniil Medvedev vs. Alexander Zverev in Canada

Live coverage of the Australian Open will be available in Canada via TSN. Cord cutters can watch via the network’s streaming service TSN Plus.

As we get ever closer to Super Bowl LVIII on Feb. 11, now is a great time to start making game-day plans. You’ll need to make sure you get the right snacks and some drinks to go with them, but most of all you need the right home entertainment setup. If you pledged that 2023 would be the last time you watched a Super Bowl game on old and busted TV, Woot has the deals for you.

Right now Woot will sell you a range of TVs and soundbars from some of the biggest names in the game. Samsung, LG and Hisense make some of the best TVs and audio gear around, and now you can get devices at prices starting from just $175.

That $175 gets you a Hisense Dolby Atmos Soundsystem including a soundbar and subwoofer — a full 50% off the normal asking price. Need a new TV as well? There are plenty of options available including some huge OLED displays. The LG OLED C3 TV is included, with prices starting at just $1,597 with a free Visa gift card worth up to $300 thrown in for good measure. Prefer to go the Samsung route? The Samsung S95C series of TVs starts from just $2,270.

As great as these prices are, there’s still a catch to consider. Woot says that these deals will all come to an end on Jan. 29 at 11:59 p.m. CT, so make sure to get your order in before that time. Not sure these TVs hit the spot? Check out our list of the best 4K TV deals to make sure you’re all kitted out for the game.

Novak Djokovic will be hoping to extend his 33-match unbeaten run at the Australian Open as he takes on Italy’s Jannik Sinner in Friday’s men’s semifinal at the Rod Laver Arena.

The world No. 1 Serbian, who hasn’t been beaten at Melbourne Park since 2018, appears to have gotten over an illness that disrupted his preparations at the start of the tournament, with the 36-year-old coming through a testing four-set quarter-final against Taylor Fritz to set up this tie.

World No. 4 Sinner should prove an even sterner challenge for Djokovic in his pursuit of a 25th Grand Slam title. The Italian is appearing in only his second slam semi, but showed plenty of resolve to battle back from 5-1 down in the second-set tiebreak with Andrey Rublev on Tuesday to eventually prevail in straight sets.

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

Novak Djokovic vs. Jannik Sinner: When and where?

The 2024 Australian Open Men’s semifinal match between Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner takes place on Friday, Jan. 26 at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park at 2:30 p.m. AEDT local time. That makes it a 3:30 a.m. start in the UK and a 10:30 p.m. ET, 7:30 a.m. PT start in the US and Canada on Thursday, Jan. 25.

How to watch the Australian Open 2024 online from anywhere using a VPN

If you find yourself unable to view the tournament locally, you may need a different way to watch games — 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. 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 Novak Djokovic vs. Jannik Sinner in the US

Tennis fans in the US can watch every remaining singles match of the Australian Open on ESPN. If you don’t have a cable or satellite TV subscription, you can watch the match with a live TV streaming service. All five of the major services offer ESPN.

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.

Coverage is also available via the network’s streaming service ESPN Plus.

Livestream Novak Djokovic vs. Jannik Sinner in the UK

Tennis fans in the UK will need to subscribe to Eurosport or the streaming service Discovery Plus to watch the Australian Open live.

Livestream Novak Djokovic vs. Jannik Sinner in Australia for free

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

Stream Novak Djokovic vs. Jannik Sinner in Canada

Live coverage of the Australian Open will be available in Canada via TSN. Cord cutters can watch via the network’s streaming service TSN Plus.

Google has teased an AI-based video generation tool, but it’s not clear when — or if — anyone outside the search giant will be able to kick the tires. It’s certainly fun to look at, though.

On Wednesday, Google’s Research arm released a video highlighting this new text-to-video model, which is called Lumiere.

In a LinkedIn post, team leader Inbar Mosseri said the tool “generates coherent, high-quality videos using simple text prompts” that New Atlas says run up to five seconds. Sample inputs include, “A fluffy baby sloth with an orange knitted hat trying to figure out a laptop” and “An escaped panda eating popcorn in the park.”

In the year or so that generative AI has been the hottest technology going, much of the attention has been focused on tools like ChatGPT that produce text answers to prompts, or those like Dall-E that create still images. Video creation from text prompts is arguably the next frontier, so if Lumiere really can “demonstrate state-of-the-art text-to-video generation results” as Google says, we may already be evolving beyond the “grotesque abominations” of the AI-generated images of 2023.

As the video illustrates, Lumiere’s capabilities include text-to-video and image-to-video generation, as well as stylized generation — that is, using an image to create videos in a similar style. Other tricks include the ability to fill in any missing visuals within a video clip.

That includes the ability to animate famous paintings, like Van Gogh’s Starry Night (“A timelapse oil painting of a starry night with clouds moving”) or Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (“A woman looking tired and yawning”). While the Starry Night example works almost flawlessly, Mona Lisa looks far more like she’s laughing than yawning.

And while many of the animals — such as “a muskox grazing on beautiful wildflowers” and “a happy elephant wearing a birthday hat walking under the sea” — look realistic, there’s something off about some of the dogs. Both a toy poodle riding a skateboard and a golden retriever puppy running in the park are close to passing as real, but their faces — and perhaps their eyes specifically—betray the fact that they’re CGI.

Nevertheless, the video editing tools hold a lot of promise. Using a source video and prompts like “made of colorful toy bricks” or “made of flowers,” users can purportedly change the style of the subject completely. And with inputs like “wearing a bathrobe,” “wearing a party hat” and “wearing rain boots” to add said items to an image of, say, a baby chick, Lumiere may very well make fiddling with videos more accessible to those of us who didn’t major in graphic design.

Though the assets shared so far certainly make Lumiere seem like it’s user-friendly, the description of how it works isn’t. (Google didn’t respond to a request for additional comment.)

A project page describes Lumiere as “a space-time diffusion model,” which sounds like something Doc Brown was working on in Back to the Future. Google Research said this means the text-to-image model learns to generate a video by processing it in multiple space-time scales, which helps create videos that “portray realistic, diverse and coherent motion.”

According to Google, this is superior to existing models, which “synthesize distant keyframes followed by temporal super-resolution.”

Jason Alan Snyder, global chief technology officer at ad agency Momentum Worldwide, explained it this way: “It’s like the difference between watching a puppet show and experiencing a ballet at Lincoln Center.”

That’s because Lumiere “doesn’t just focus on snapshots, it crafts smooth, flowing motion for every frame,” he added.

In other words, if you think about the traditional method of making a movie, you’d have to build key scenes and fill in the gaps later.

“Lumiere is different. It sees the whole movie in its mind, understanding how characters move, objects interact and everything changes over time,” Snyder said. “It’s like drawing the entire flip book simultaneously, ensuring every page flows perfectly.”

So this “space-time thinking” helps Lumiere create videos that feel real, which, he added, means no more jumpy transitions or robotic movements. (Except maybe for puppy eyes.)

Time will tell.

In the meantime, as fans of Beauty and Beast will know, Lumiere is French for “light.”

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