When Orlando Magic point guard Jalen Suggs became one of the first amateur athletes to auction an NFT, it was hard to imagine the technology entering the mainstream. After all, most of us still had no clue what a non-fungible token was at that point. But that was 2021, and now if there’s any sign the NFT craze has hit its peak, here it is. Tom Brady is partnering with ESPN to release an NFT collection celebrating his 22-year career.

Brady’s Autograph brand has signed a multi-year partnership with the Disney-owned broadcaster to release a series of NFT drops, starting with one based on the ESPN+ Man in the Arena documentary series. The first collection includes three limited-edition ESPN zine covers commemorating Brady’s career. The quarterback will also sign 50 NFTs. The drop is set for 3PM ET today, with the auction taking place on the DraftKings Marketplace. It all coincides with Man in the Arena becoming more widely available across Disney’s streaming platforms.

Brady’s foray into NFTs comes just as more people question the technology. Cent, the company that helped Jack Dorsey auction an NFT of his first tweet last year, recently said it was temporarily halting most transactions to address “rampant” sales of fake and plagiarized tokens. Outside of those issues, most reports suggest NFTs are the playground of a few rich players, with a recent study from Nature finding that about 10 percent of traders conducted the majority of NFT transactions in 2021.

On November 1st, 1946, the Toronto Huskies and New York Knicks played what is now considered the first game in NBA history. With the league celebrating its 75th birthday this season, ESPN hopes to take fans on a trip down memory lane.

When the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks face off today at 7:30PM ET, ESPN2 will air an alternative presentation of the game that will feature graphics from past NBA broadcasts. Fans will get to see the 1960s on ABC, the 1970s and 1980s on CBS and the 1990s on NBC represented during the game, with the graphics changing between quarters.

The broadcast will also feature music from those eras during highlights, as well as before and after commercial breaks. Last but not least, ESPN said an “impressive” list of special guests will take part in the broadcast, including a handful of Hall of Fame players. And if you’re not one for nostalgia, not to worry. You can watch the regular broadcast on ESPN.

Since 1972, the Technics SL-1200 has been a go-to for DJs in search of a durable and dependable turntable for spinning vinyl. And in honor of its 50th anniversary, Panasonic will release the SL-1200M7L, a new limited edition version of the MK7, its most recent revision of the deck. The company will offer the M7L in seven colors – black, red, blue, white, green, yellow and beige – with each featuring a handful of nice touches. All seven colorways come with an anodized tone arm and slipmat with a gold-colored Technics logo. Each one also comes with an engraved serial number so true aficionados can know you spent $1,100 to buy your turntable.

Panasonic plans to only sell 12,000 units of the SL-1200M7L. And if it has caught your eye, you’ll need to act fast. When the company released the limited-edition SL-1210GAE, at the time one of the few ways to buy an SL-1200 in black, it sold out almost immediately. Among the retailers that will carry the SL-1200M7L include B&H, Guitar Center, Turntable Lab and Stokyo. You can pre-order the turntable tomorrow, with orders scheduled to ship out in July.   

For today only, you can get $50 off the Xbox Series S through camera retailer Adorama. With the discount, Microsoft’s entry-level ninth-generation console costs $250. That matches one of the best prices we’ve seen for the system to date. To take advantage of the offer, you’ll need to input the code“XBOXS2250” at checkout. Today’s promotion is only available until midnight.

Engadget awarded the Series S a score of 85 when it was first released in November 2020. We liked the console for its compact design and expansive library of Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One games accessible through Microsoft’s backward compatibility program. Since then, its library has only grown with the release of first-party exclusives like Halo Infinite, Forza Horizon 5 and Psychonauts 2.

We called the Series S the next-gen starter pack when it came out. That aptly highlights some of its shortcomings. It only comes with 512GB of internal storage. You’ll need to buy one of Seagate’s expensive expansion cards to add additional space, and those start at $139 for the 512GB model. The Series S is also limited to 1440p and doesn’t offer the same backward compatibility experience as its more expensive sibling. We don’t think those are deal-breakers, but if you have the money to buy the Series X, it’s the more capable console.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

As an audio company, JLab is known for producing affordable but interesting products. Take one of its more recent releases, the Go Air Tones. It worked with nail care brand ORLY to create a set of earbuds available in seven Pantone colors designed to match various skin tones. Its new JBuds Air Pro offer a different value proposition. Priced at $60, they feature 6mm drivers with AAC codec support built-in, IP55 certification and up to 36 hours of playtime with the included charging case. But according to JLabs, the highlight of the JBuds Air Pro is the inclusion of Bluetooth multipoint connectivity.

That feature allows you to connect the JBuds Air Pro to two devices simultaneously. In that way, you can listen to music on your computer and then answer a call that comes to your phone without jumping into the Bluetooth settings of either device.

JLab is positioning Bluetooth Multipoint as a value-add you won’t find on more expensive earbuds like the AirPods Pro. But the reality is more complicated than that. Multipoint connectivity has been a part of Bluetooth since its 4.0 release more than a decade ago, but you have to go out of your way to find headphones that support the feature. Part of that is that it’s challenging to pull off correctly. For instance, on Sony’s excellent WH-1000XM4, multipoint connectivity only works when the headphones connect to a device via AAC. Still, it’s a handy feature and one you won’t find on many earbuds, particularly ones that cost $60.

The JBuds Air Pro are available to order today from the JLab website.

Crystal Dynamics has “just started development” on a new Tomb Raider game, the studio announced today on Twitter. It didn’t share what the game will be called nor when fans can expect to play it, but it did note that it will run on Epic’s new Unreal Engine 5. After working on the mediocre Marvel’s Avengers, the project will see Crystal Dynamics return to the franchise it spent more than a decade making popular again.

It would also appear to signal the end of the studio’s in-house Foundation engine, which powered Rise of the Tomb Raider and the most recent mainline entry in the series, 2018’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Crystal Dynamics said the move to UE5 would help the studio take its “storytelling to the next level.” The next Tomb Raider joins a handful of games already announced for UE5. Those include the next Witcher game and Black Myth: Wukong. Of that group, only the latter has a release date, with Chinese developer Game Science Studio aiming to get it out sometime in 2023.

Devolver Digital will release stylish side-scroller Trek to Yomi on May 5th, the publisher announced today. If Ghost of Tsushima’s Kurosawa mode left you wanting for more cinematic samurai action, you’ll want to check out the 15-minute gameplay trailer Devolver shared alongside today’s news.

First announced at E3 2021, Trek to Yomi tells the tale of Hiroki, a young samurai charged with protecting a rural Japanese town and its residents after his master dies. His vow sets him off on an adventure that eventually comes to involve the supernatural, and you’ll need to use his katana skillfully to defeat both human opponents and vengeful spirits.

Trek to Yomi is coming to PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (including Game Pass) and PC via Steam and GOG.

A24 has shared the first trailer for Marcel The Shell With Shoes On, a film adaptation of the viral YouTube series of the same name. If you’re not among the millions of people who have watched the shorts (the first entry has more than 32 million views), they were co-created by Zootopia and Obvious Child actor Jenny Slate. In the new film, Slate returns to voice the titular Marcel, an anthropomorphic seashell in search of their family. Co-staring alongside Slate are Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, as well as series and film director Dean Fleischer-Camp. The film also features cameos from the likes of Conan O’Brien and Lesley Stahl.

A viral YouTube series more than a decade old may seem like unusual source material for a theatrical film, but then A24 is no stranger to backing such movies. Last year, the company released Zola, a film inspired by a 148-part Twitter thread from 2015. Marcel The Shell With Shoes On arrives in US theaters on June 24th.

Rainbow Six is coming to phones and tablets. On Tuesday, Ubisoft announced Rainbow Six Mobile, a new entry in its long-running first-person shooter franchise that will be exclusive to Android and iOS devices. Set to come out later this year with Ubisoft’s Montreal studio leading development, the company says the free-to-play release will bring the “true” Rainbow Six Siege experience to mobile. Expect five-on-five matches with your team taking turns to play both offense and defense. As with Siege, you’ll need to use the specific weapons, gadgets and skills available to your operator to win.

Ubisoft

Ubisoft Montreal says it has tweaked the game to make matches shorter, but players can look forward to classic Rainbow Six Siege maps, including Bank and Border, making a return. The same goes for game modes like Secure Area and Bomb. Starting today, players can sign up to take part in a series of upcoming tests Ubisoft plans to hold before the game becomes widely available later this year.

Since Steam Deck went on sale at the end of February, Valve has emailed reservation holders about once a week to tell them they can purchase its handheld PC. That’s meant a lot of people have been patiently waiting to get their hands on the highly sought-after gadget, but that wait could soon be shorter.

On Monday, the company said it was ramping up Steam Deck shipments. By just how much, Valve didn’t specify, but what it did promise is that it would start sending more order availability emails each week. If you’re on the fence about buying a unit, Valve has also updated the Steam Deck’s product page to clarify what timeframes like Q2 and Q3 mean in terms of months. If you were to place a reservation today, the page now says you’ll have the chance to order a unit sometime in October 2022 or later. Bottom line: it sounds like Valve is doing its best to get Steam Deck units to customers more quickly.