Turning Red, Pixar’s latest feature film, will premiere exclusively on Disney+, the studio announced on Friday. It follows Soul and Luca as the third Pixar movie to skip a theatrical release. Disney had planned to debut Turning Red in theaters, but likely due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases across the US and much of the world, that won’t happen. What hasn’t changed is the release date: the film will still debut on March 11th as originally planned.

“Given the delayed box office recovery, particularly for family films, flexibility remains at the core of our distribution decisions as we prioritize delivering the unparalleled content of The Walt Disney Company to audiences around the world,” said Kareem Daniel, chairman of media and entertainment distribution for Disney.

The fact Turning Red won’t premiere on the silver screen is a shame because it marks the full-length directorial debut of one of Pixar’s most promising young talents, Domee Shi. She won an Academy Award in 2019 for her work on the short film Bao, which was shown alongside Incredibles 2 in theaters. Like Bao, Turning Red is set in Shi’s hometown of Toronto, Canada. It tells the story of Mei Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), a teen who finds out she turns into a red panda when she gets too excited. Naturally, all sorts of hijinks ensue as a result. Did we mention the fabulous Sandra Oh is also in the movie? Yeah, it will be great.  

The fact Turning Red won’t have a theatrical run is likely to significantly affect its earning potential. In turn, that could make Disney less willing to invest in diverse productions like Turning Red. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that families will at least have the opportunity to see the film from the safety of their homes.

A new playable character with an aggressive mobility-based kit isn’t the only potentially game-changing tweak coming to Valorant with the shooter’s Episode Four update on January 11th. Once the patch is live, new players will need to reach account level 20 before they can queue for competitive games. Previously, you only had to win 10 unranked matches before you could take part in competitive matchmaking.

Many other multiplayer games, including Overwatch and Riot’s own League of Legends, employ similar restrictions. They help ensure new players have had at least some time to learn the game before they jump into a high-pressure match. They also deter a practice known as smurfing. That’s when more experienced players create new accounts to avoid long queues and play against less skilled opponents.

“We believe everyone should take time to learn the ins and outs of core gameplay, and have ample exposure to all the maps and agents Valorant will throw at you before competing in our ranked experience,” Riot said of the change. The tweak will only affect new accounts made from this point forward. So if you recently started playing Valorant and have at least one competitive match on your account, you won’t lose access.

Without much fanfare, IKEA and Sonos have released a second-generation version of their Symfonisk bookshelf speaker. First spotted by Dutch publication Tweakers (via The Verge), the new model features a faster processor, more memory and draws less power when it’s on standby. It also comes with a longer power cable.

However, looking at the new model next to its first-generation counterpart, the most visible change is an updated button layout that sees the volume controls next to one another instead of being separated by the play/pause button as was previously the case.

Sonos updates its speakers in this way from time to time to make them more future-proof. In 2019, for instance, it refreshed the Sonos One to add Bluetooth LE, a newer processor and more memory. More recently, it tweaked the Sonos One SL to add a more efficient wireless radio. If you live in the Netherlands, you can pick up the second-generation Symfonisk bookshelf for €99. We’ve reached out to IKEA to find out when the retailer to plans to release the speaker in the US.

Some Honda cars owners have recently found themselves in something of a time loop. Since the start of the year, the automaker’s forums have been flooded with reports of people complaining that the clocks and calendars in their vehicles are stuck in the year 2002.

The issue appears to be widespread. It’s affecting Honda and Acura models with GPS navigation systems manufactured between 2004 and 2012, and there have been reports of people encountering the problem in the US, Canada and UK. What’s more, there doesn’t appear to a fix at the moment. Each time someone starts their car, the clock resets – even if they went to manually set it beforehand.

“Honda is aware of a potential concern related to the clock display on certain older Acura and Honda models equipped with navigation systems,” a spokesperson for the automaker told Jalopnik. “We are currently investigating this issue to determine possible countermeasures and have no additional details to share at this time.”

The problem appears to stem from a coding oversight. When a GPS satellite broadcasts the date, it does so using a binary 10 digit number that includes a reference to the week. A single GPS epoch includes 1023 weeks, with the system rolling over on week 1,024. After the first GPS systems started counting time in 1980, they rolled over in 1999, and then again in 2019. If a system isn’t properly coded to account for those rollovers, what can happen is exactly what we’re seeing here with Honda’s vehicles: they go back to when the calendar started.

Humorously, this isn’t the first time Honda car owners have run into this problem. Back in 2017, Honda and Acura models from 1999 to 2004 with navigation systems had their clocks reset to 1998. The same issue cropped up more recently in 2021. In both instances, the clocks went back exactly 1,024 weeks. Time knows how to make a mockery of everyone, but it would seem it has a special place for Honda’s software developers.

Valorant is a game of methodical movement. Your weapon is at its most accurate when you’re standing still, and pinpoint accuracy is essential if you want to live. That’s what makes Neon, the game’s latest playable character, so interesting. She’s a hyper-aggressive duelist whose kit is all about increasing the tempo of matches.

Following a teaser trailer released earlier in the week, Riot has detailed all of Neon’s abilities. Her innate skill “High Gear” allows Neon to sprint and slide into combat, something no Valorant agent before her has been able to do. “Speed, everything about Neon came back to that feeling of running forward and moving fast,” said character producer John Goscicki.

Neon’s two other primary abilities, “Relay Bolt” and “Fast Lane,” allow her to throw an electric molly and create two parallel walls of vision-obscuring static. Meanwhile, her ultimate, “Overdrive,” lets Neon shoot out deadly lighting beams, with each kill she obtains resetting the duration of the skill. Her kit is most reminiscent of that of Phoenix who can create a wall of flame to cover his entry assaults. However, the fact Neon can sprint and slide should make weapons like the Stinger, Judge and Frenzy especially deadly in her hands since they tend to dominate in close quarters.

Neon will join Valorant’s roster on January 11th, the same day Riot plans to release Episode Four, Act One. You can get the associated Battlepass for 1,000 Valorant Points, or the equivalent of $10.

Following Ubisoft and Square Enix, GameStop is apparently the latest player in the video game industry that sees NFTs as a way to boost its profitability. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company has hired nearly two dozen people as part of a newly formed cryptocurrency division. The unit is reportedly building an online marketplace for buying, selling and trading NFTs of in-game items like cosmetics. The hub could launch as soon as later this year. Additionally, the division is reportedly close to partnering with two companies to co-invest in games that make use of blockchain and NFT technologies. GameStop is said ot plan to partner with a dozen companies in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

News of the development sent the value of GameStop’s stock surging to $159.77, up from $131.01, in aftermarket trading. According to The Journal, GameStop executives see NFTs as a way for the company to return to profitability, but it’s not clear if the nascent technology has a place in video games.

Many of the recent attempts by some developers and publishers to include digital tokens in their titles have been greeted by outright hostility. Ubisoft, for example, became a magnet for criticism when it announced its Quartz NFT platform. It also seems the negative attention was not worth it for Ubisoft, with a recent Eurogamer report claiming the company had only sold 18 NFTs as of December 21st. But for all the backlash, Ubisoft and others appear unfazed. In an employee Q&A, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reportedly linked the initial backlash to NFTs to earlier outrage over trends like microtransactions and loot boxes. It seems the implication here was that people would eventually come to accept the technology.

Since its debut in 2020, joining a conversation on Clubhouse has involved opening the app. But that’s no longer the case. Starting today, if you live in the US, you can listen to replays and live rooms with replays enabled using a web browser. What’s more, you don’t need to log in to use Clubhouse in this way.

Clubhouse notes the feature is experimental, so expect bugs. However, the company says it will roll out to more countries if people find it “useful.” Similarly, it will consider supporting more room types and other parts of the Clubhouse experience over time.

Separately, the company is updating its share sheet. When you’re in a guest room, you can tap the Share button, located at the bottom of the interface, to post a link to a session through Clubhouse, a social network or messaging app. When you pick the first option, you can add a comment to describe the room. If it’s a live room, your followers will get notification so that they can join.

Notably, both updates see Clubhouse making its app more widely accessible. When the app first launched, you had to obtain an invite to join. But as companies like Facebook and Twitter have moved to add live audio to their platforms, it has been forced to adapt in a bid to stay relevant.

One of the products Samsung showed off at its CES 2022 presentation was the Home Hub, an 8.4-inch tablet for controlling all the connected home devices in your household. The company has now shared more information about it. At launch, the Home Hub will have the ability to connect to every product in the SmartThings ecosystem, including Samsung appliances.

Samsung

In that way, it can tell you how much power your appliances use and if one needs cleaning. Home cooks will find a recipe hub for creating shopping lists and meal plans. Those are just some of the use cases Samsung outlines for the Home Hub. The company says the device’s AI software will anticipate what you need and put that information in front of you exactly when you need it.

Samsung has also pledged to support the upcoming Matter standard, which should open the door for the hub to connect to devices from other manufacturers. Based on the photos shared by Samsung, the Home Hub runs Android, suggesting it may also be possible to use it as a standard tablet. The device also comes with two speakers and two microphones, as well as the company’s Bixby assistant. The tablet will come with the charging dock you see pictured in the photos, and you’re free to take it out of that stand.

At first glance, it’s hard to see the appeal of the Home Hub. After all, it’s essentially a tablet that comes with the company’s SmartThings app preinstalled. You can download that same software on your phone. So it’s not like it’s offering something that isn’t already out there. However, framed another way, it’s a different approach to a smart display. Samsung hasn’t tried to create a device like the Echo Show 15 that wants to be the center of your home. The focus here is narrow, and that’s something that could appeal to people.

Samsung will release the Home Hub in Korea sometime in March, with global availability to follow later. No word yet on US pricing.

Follow all of the latest news from CES 2022 right here!

AMC Networks has acquired anime distributor Sentai. Financial terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, but the purchase includes Sentai’s Hidive streaming service. It will join AMC’s stable of “targeted” streaming platforms, which already includes services like Shudder, IFC and SundanceTV. As part of the deal, AMC has also picked up Sentai Studios, the Anime Network and the company’s extensive catalog of anime titles. Some of the projects Sentai holds the license to include K-On! from Kyoto Animation and Haikyu!! from Production IG.

The acquisition comes less than a year since Sony completed a $1.175 billion deal to buy Crunchyroll from AT&T. At the time, the company said it would work quickly to create a unified anime subscription service that would feature content from both Funimation, which Sony has owned since 2017, and Crunchyroll. If nothing else, today's deal shows just how big of a business anime has become in the west. 

Snapchat creator Snap has sued the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for rejecting an application the company had filed to trademark the word “spectacles” in relation to its wearable of the same name. In a complaint spotted by The Verge, Snap claims its usage of the term “evokes an incongruity between an 18th-century term for corrective eyewear and Snap’s high-tech 21st-century smart glasses.”

The complaint stems from an ongoing disagreement between Snap and the USPTO over whether “spectacles” is a term that can be applied to any pair of smart glasses. In an opinion the agency’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board published in November, the USPTO said Snap’s use of Spectacles had failed to acquire the “distinctiveness” necessary for a trademark. “Spectacles is so commonly used to describe the nature of the product or competing products, rather than any particular source of the product(s),” the USPTO said at the time. In suing the USPTO, Snap hopes to overturn the appeal board’s decision.

Snap first filed for a Spectacles trademark in 2016, the same year it released the first-generation model. Despite a clever marketing campaign involving Minion-like vending machines, the wearable was a bust for the company. At one point, Snap reportedly had thousands of unsold pairs collecting dust in Chinese warehouses. However, even after losing $40 million on the first version, it went on to release two new models and recently debuted a pair of augmented reality Spectacles.

To that end, Snap claims, thanks to social media marketing, word of mouth and media coverage, consumers have come to associate the word “spectacles” with its brand, a claim the USPTO disputes. In the same November opinion, the agency wrote Spectacles’ “social media accounts have an underwhelming number of followers, and the number of followers is surprisingly small.”