As part of Disney+ Day on November 12th, Disney is trying to tempt folks to its streaming service with an offer of one month for just $2, it announced. It's available to new or eligible returning subscribers and will cost $8 per month after that, but you can cancel at any time.

On top of a cheap month of streaming, Disney has special offers at its parks, including an early 30 minute entry at Disney World and Disneyland with free Disney PhotoPass photo downloads. It will also unveil new ShopDisney merchandise from Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars, along with discounted ebooks available at just $1 until November 17th. 

Other perks include 5 and 10 percent off Disney Plus products at WizKids and Funko, respectively, with the code DISNEYPLUSDAY. More than 200 AMC theaters will screen surprise Disney movies on November 12th-14th for $5 per ticket, with special concessions and a Disney Plus poster thrown in. Finally, Disney is jumping onto the NFT bandwagon with golden NFT statues of characters from The Simpsons and other franchises. 

The $2 promotional pricing is now available until November 14th, providing a good way to try out the service. Just remember that it will revert to the regular $8 price a month later, so don't forget to cancel if you don't want to keep it. 

The GoPro Hero 10 Black may look the same as the previous model, but it has a lot of changes under the hood like improved image quality, a faster UI and more slow-motion and frame rate options. The main drawback has been the $500 price, but if you just want the camera alone with no subscription attached, you can now pick one up from Amazon at $450, or $50 off the regular price. 

The Hero 10 achieved a 92 Engadget score, thanks to 5.3K maximum resolution (up from 5K) at up to 60fps, 4K at 120 fps and 2.7K at 240fps. It also comes with the updated HyperSmooth 4.0 that stabilizes even rough jolts, along with new tone mapping and noise reduction that further boost image quality. All of that was made possible thanks to GoPro's new GP2 processor that offers double the speeds. 

As before, it has a front screen for framing yourself when looking at the camera, but it's been boosted to a smoother 30 fps, up from 20 fps. Other features include a new horizon leveling option and faster navigation. The main downside is lower battery life compared to the GoPro 9.

While Amazon has discounted the standalone Hero 10 price to $450, you can still pick one up cheaper directly from GoPro. If you're willing to sign up for a one-year subscription, you can get both the Hero 10 and the subscription for $400. As such, Amazon's deal is more for folks who really just want the camera with no strings (or forgotten subscriptions) attached. 

Get the latest Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers by visiting our deals homepage and following @EngadgetDeals on Twitter.

Last month, Konami dropped Pro Evolution Soccer in favor of the new free-to-play eFootball franchise with the promise of decent gameplay on the cheap. Unfortunately, the launch was nothing short of woeful, with bad player models, numerous glitches and an uproar over a $40 DLC that couldn't even be redeemed until a big version 1.0 update originally scheduled for this month.

Now, Konami is saying that this update is being pushed way back to spring of 2022. As such, it's refunding players who pulled the trigger on that DLC and forcing them to reinstall the game. "If you have pre-ordered the Premium Player Pack and wish to continue to play eFootball 2022, you will need to re-download the core game after the pre-order has been cancelled. We apologize for the inconvenience," the company wrote.

Konami

To make the game more usable in the near term, Konami released an update (v0.9.1) "to fix numerous bugs sequentially on each platform starting today (November 5th)," it wrote. Left unsaid there is the severity of the glitches, which make for some pretty cringe reading. Choice ones include "the referee may be shown as being trapped on the surface of the pitch," "pitch grass is not shown three-dimensionally," and "players may get caught up in the goal net when performing a goal celebration close to the goal." 

It's hard to be optimistic given the issues Konami has had with its football games, but the company did buy itself some more time. We now have to wait until spring 2022 to see if it can do anything to turn eFootball around.

Movie robots are known for helping (or hindering) humans, but in the real world, they have pretty limited social skills. MIT's CSAIL computer science researchers are trying to fix that by teaching robots how to interact with other robots to to further their own goals, according to a new paper. The research could lead to improved human-robot interactions in assisted living facilities, for instance, and even help psychologists better measure social interactions between humans. 

To study these interactions, the researchers created a simulated 2D environment that allowed virtual robots to pursue both social and physical goals. For instance, a physical goal might be to navigate to a tree at a certain point on a grid, while a social goal is guessing what another robot is trying to do and then acting based on that, "like helping another robot water the tree," according to CSAIL.

The robot is rewarded for actions that get it closer to its goals, with a matching reward for helping and an opposite reward for hindering it. The team created three types of robots: The first has only physical goals, the second has physical and social goals, but assumes all robots only have physical goals. The third one assumes the others all have social and physical goals, so it can take more advanced actions like joining with others to achieve a goal. 

Even young infants seem to understand social interactions like helping and hindering, but we don’t yet have machines that can perform this reasoning at anything like human-level flexibility.

The team created 98 different scenarios with all three types of robots. Twelve humans watched nearly 200 video clips of the robots interacting, and then had to estimate the physical and social goals. "In most instance, their model agreed with what the humans thought about the social interactions that were occurring in each frame," the researchers said. 

The researchers hope that the results will act as a "benchmark" that allows others to work on similar social interactions. Next, they plan to create more complex environment with 3D agents that allows more types of interactions. The eventual aim is to not just teach robots how to interact better socially, but "dig deeper into the human aspect of this," said senior author Andrei Barbu. "Can we make an objective test for your ability to recognize social interactions? Maybe there is a way to teach people to recognize these social interactions and improve their abilities."

DJI is best known for drones, but it's possibly the most inventive camera company right now. After unveiling the outrageous full-frame Ronin 4K camera/gimbal last month, it has now launched the $2,200 Mavic 3 drone with not just one, but two innovative camera systems.

As rumored, there are two models in the Mavic 3 family, the Standard and Cine models, along with a "Fly More" combo that bundles more accessories. The main difference is that the Mavic 3 Cine has a built-in 1TB SSD and supports Apple ProRes 422 HQ video recording — highly desirable for professional film productions. The latter is also considerably more expensive, as I'll discuss shortly. 

The Mavic 3's main 24mm (35mm-equivalent) f/2.8 - f/11 Hasselblad-branded camera has a Four Thirds sensor that's considerably larger than the 1-inch sensor on the current Air 2S model. And yet, the camera module doesn't look much bigger and the Mavic 3 weighs slightly less than the Mavic 2 (895g compared to 907g). 

Steve Dent/Engadget

Four Thirds is the same size as the Micro Four Thirds sensor on Panasonic's BGH1 box camera, for example, so it should allow for more cinematic video and photos. The variable aperture, along with optional ND filters, will make it easier to shoot in a variety of lighting conditions. It also comes with a new autofocus system called Vision Detection that supposedly optimizes focusing speeds.

With the main camera, it now shoots 5.1K video at 50fps, or 4K at 120 fps — up from 5.4K 30fps and 4K/60p video on the Air 2S. DJI claims a native dynamic range of 12.8 stops, thanks to the 10-bit D-Log color profile. As for still images, it can shoot 20-megapixel photos in 12-bit RAW.

If you need to get in much, much closer, DJI has squeezed in a second camera directly above the main camera. This one has a half-inch 12-megapixel sensor and 162mm tele lens (35mm equivalent), which is around a 4X zoom, or claimed 28X hybrid zoom. The aperture is fixed at f/4.4, and it offers strictly automatic, rather than manual exposure control. It can capture 4K video at up to 30 fps. 

Steve Dent/Engadget

DJI has confirmed that the Mavic 3 will have up to 46 minutes of autonomy in ideal conditions (40 minutes of hover), as leaks had suggested. That's up pretty massively from the Mavic 2 Pro or Air 2S, both of which offer 31 minutes of flying time. It can also fly a bit faster too, at 47 MPH compared to 45 MPH. Those capabilities were enabled by a higher-capacity battery, more energy-efficient motors/propellers and a more streamlined shape on the Mavic 3's arms, body and gimbal. "Wind tunnel testing shows Mavic 3 produces 35 percent less drag than previous generations," DJI wrote. 

The Mavic 3 also offers enhanced flight safety thanks to its updated APAS 5.0 system that uses inputs from six fish-eye vision sensor and two wide-angle sensors to detect and avoid obstacles. Meanwhile, the ActiveTrack 5.0 system has new options for tracking subjects no matter which way they're moving, and it can even continue to track a subject if it moves out of frame and pick it back up when it reappears. All of that allows "more fluid and diverse drone and camera movement," DJI said. 

It also comes with an improved RTH (Return to Home) system by automatically calculating the shortest, safest and most energy-efficient route to land back at its home point. It can take into account wind speed and power required to calculate the path, giving users a bit more flying time before triggering the RTH action. Another updated feature is O3+ signal loss prevention that allows for a maximum control range of 15 km. Mavic 3 is also DJI's first drone with a 1080p 60fps transmission speed on the live feed, meaning "the camera view is displayed at a resolution close to what the camera actually records," DJI notes. 

Steve Dent/Engadget

Along with the drone, DJI introduced a number of new accessories, including a new DJI RC Pro smart controller, a 65W Portable Charger that's compatible with notebooks and smartphones and allows for fast charging (around 96 minutes), a wide-angle lens and two sets of ND filters (ND4/8/16/32 and ND64/128/256/512) that allow for shooting in bright sunlight. It also introduced a carrying bag that converts into a backpack that can fit the drone, a laptop and other accessories. 

Engadget received the drone just yesterday, so we haven't had a chance to fly it yet — stay tuned for a full review. However, I'm impressed so far by the design and small details like the storage cover that protects the camera, gimbals and propeller (below). It's also clear that DJI has put a lot of thought into the new charging system and batteries that should make operation more practical. Even the carrying bag/backpack is well conceived, with pockets and sleeves for the batteries, ND filters and more.

Steve Dent/Engadget

As you may have noticed, the drawback with the Mavic 3 is the relatively high price. Rather than $1,600 as was rumored, the Mavic 3 starts at $2,200 for the Standard model, which includes the Mavic 3 drone, storage cover, one battery and charger, the RC-N1 remote control "and other essential items." The $3,000 Mavic 3 Fly More Combo adds two extra batteries (three total), a three-battery charging hub, the ND4/8/16/32 filter set and the fancy bag/backpack.

Finally, the $5,000 Mavic 3 Cine Premium Combo gives you the aforementioned 1TB SSD and Apple ProRes 422 HQ recording (arriving in January 2022). It adds a few more accessories to the Fly More Combo as well, including the RC Pro remote, ND64/128/256/512 filters and the DJI 10Gbps data cable. Five grand is obviously lot of money, but it's aimed more at pro film producers. All three drones are now available to order from DJI's website and authorized partners. 

GM's self-driving Cruise division has launched its fully driverless robo-taxi service in San Francisco, with co-founder and President Kyle Vogt getting the first ride. To start with, the service will be available for free to GM employees and certain members of the public, TechCrunch reported. 

"Earlier this week, I requested a ride through our Cruise app and took several back-to-back rides in San Francisco — with no one else in the vehicle," Vogt wrote in a YouTube video description. "There are lots of other Cruise employees (not just me) who are testing and refining the full customer experience as we take another major step toward the first commercial AV [ride hailing] product in a dense urban environment."

Vogt said the Cruise launched the Bolt vehicles on Monday at 11PM, and it "began to roam around the city, waiting for a ride request." He got his first ride from a Cruise Bolt EV called "Sourdough," saying the experience was "smooth." A separate video showed sections before and after the vehicle picked up passengers while it was in "ghost mode" with no one in it.

Early last month, Cruise received a California DMV permit to operate the service between the hours of 10PM and 6AM at a maximum speed of 30 MPH in mild weather conditions (no worse than light rain and fog). It's allowed to run them without drivers and charge for delivery services, but not ride-hailing. For paid robo-taxi rides, it must apply for a final permit with the California Public Utilities Commission. 

GM recently launched its "Ultra Cruise" system for passenger vehicles, promising that it will "ultimately enable hands-free driving in 95 percent of all driving scenarios." The company has spent 10 million miles testing the system, and its previous Super Cruise has generally garnered positive reviews compared to rival systems like Tesla's Autopilot.  

Nintendo has cut its Switch sales forecast due to ongoing semiconductor shortages, the company announced in its earnings report. It now expects to ship 24 million Switch units for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022 instead of the 25.5 million units it had originally predicted. 

The issue came into focus this quarter, as Nintendo managed to ship just 3.83 million Switch consoles compared to 6.86 million during the same quarter last year. So far, its net sales for the year are down 18.9 percent to 624.2 billion yen ($5.46 billion) year-over-year. That's not a huge surprise, however, as Switch and software sales exploded during the COVID-19 lockdown and following that has proved to be impossible — particularly as chips and components have since become more scarce. 

Despite the revised sales expectations, Nintendo expects to match total revenue of 1,600 billion yen ($14 billion) from the previous fiscal year, thanks in part to games. It aims to sell 200 million software units, 10 million more than last year, which would help offset the console sales drop. Upcoming titles include Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl plus a Zelda-themed Game & Watch.

The most popular games so far this fiscal year include Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (3.6 million units sold), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (3.34 million units) and Animal Crossing: New Horizons (2.22 million units). 

Despite the reduced expectations and tepid console sales this quarter, Nintendo has now sold 92.87 million Switch units to date. That's still short of the Wii, which has the current home console sales record of 101.63 million units shipped. However, if Nintendo comes close to matching the 11.57 million units sold during last year's holiday period, the Switch — aided by the new Switch OLED model — could finally top that mark by the end of the year. 

Philips Hue lighting products can do some pretty cool things these days, like syncing with Spotify or helping you sleep. They're not exactly cheap, but luckily Amazon is offering significant discounts on Hue bulbs and kits as an early Black Friday sale, for today only. The deals includes a starter kit with Hue bulbs and buttons, a colored Hue bulb pack and a Smart Lightstrip Bundle, with discounts up to 41 percent.

A good way to get started would be with the Philips Hue White LED Smart Button Starter Kit, now on sale for $80 instead of $100 (20 percent off). That gets you three Hue White LED 60W bulbs that can fit in most lamps, overhead lights and recessed cans. It also comes with the Philips Hue hub that can reliably control up to 50 Hue lights without taxing your WiFi, along with one Smart Button that can be attached with magnets or tape — no hard-wiring required. 

If you want some color on top of that, the above bundle together with a Bluetooth Smart Lightstrip Plus Bundle is also on sale for $144, a savings of 19 percent. The latter product connects with the Hue Hub, allowing you create a colored light experience across the entire six-foot strip for extra ambience around your home. You can also sync the Lightstrip with gaming, music or movies using the Hue Sync app. 

Amazon

Finally, if you want color and simplicity, the best Amazon deal is on the Philips Hue White and Color Ambience bulbs (above). Pick up a three-pack for just $80 ($26.66 each), for a savings of $55 or 41 percent. Up to ten of these bulbs can be controlled directly or by voice control with your smartphone using the Hue App. From there, you can program up to 16 million colors for parties or to set different moods in your house depending on the time of day. 

Apple got some of its MacBook sales mojo back last quarter thanks to discounts on the MacBook Air, according to the research firm Strategy Analytics. The company sold a record 6.5 million MacBooks in Q3 2021, up 10 percent over last year — no doubt contributing to its blockbuster Mac quarter. Meanwhile, Chromebook sales actually declined for the first time since the pandemic started, IDC reported. 

Laptop sales in general were up eight percent over last year to 66.8 million units, due largely to commercial and educational sales. That was aided in part by "higher discounts on premium products like MacBook Air and gaming notebooks," according to Strategy Analytics. 

Strategy Analytics

Sales could have been even higher if not for a shortage of components and higher freight costs that drove prices higher and caused some delays. Lenovo topped the sales list for the fourth quarter in a row with 15.3 million units shipped, with HP, Dell, Apple and ASUS rounding out the top five. 

Chromebook and tablet sales didn't fare so well though, according to IDC. Chromebook sales tumbled by 29.8 percent year-over-year to 6.5 million units, thanks largely to "saturation" in the education market. "Many schools and governments blew out their budgets to provide devices for remote learning and even consumers aggressively purchased devices for learning in 2020," the firm wrote. Lenovo again topped the sales list for Chromebooks, followed by Acer, Dell, HP and Samsung.

Tablet sales slowed 9.4 percent to 42.3 million units, due to reduced demand and limited supply. The exception to that trend was Apple, which saw iPad sales grow 4.6 percent over last year to 14.7 million units. That dominated the category, as Samsung sold just over half that number (7.5 million), followed by Amazon, Lenovo and Huawei. 

If you stream or do videoconferencing and own certain GeForce RTX GPUs, NVIDIA's Broadcast app can be a magical helper. It uses a streamlined, AI-powered toolset to remove background noise, add virtual effects, auto-frame shots and more. Now, Logitech has announced that it's incorporating some of those features directly into certain headsets and Blue microphones via a new beta, with no need to run any NVIDIA apps. 

Thanks to a partnership between Logitech and NVIDIA, some of the Broadcast tools will be available through the G Hub drivers for the following products: Logitech G733 Gaming Headset, Logitech PRO X Gaming Headset, Logitech PRO X Wireless Gaming Headset, Blue Yeti X Microphone, Blue Yeti Classic Microphone and Blue Yeti Nano Microphone. 

The drivers will make it possible for users to eliminate unwanted background noises and/or echo in a single click and clean up their mic signal. "You can even test your mic signal to find the perfect settings for your set up," Logitech wrote. NVIDIA previously showed that it was possible to completely remove the sound of a hair dryer running in the background from your mic, so it's not just some minor noise reduction. It can also remove noise on the listener's end, like someone's clattering keyboard. 

The feature is now available to everyone via an open beta with the latest version of Logitech G Hub. You can also, of course, run NVIDIA Broadcast as a separate app that works with all of Logitech's audio products (or any other audio products, for that matter). The feature is supported on GeForce RTX 2060 and up GPUs, along with Quadro RTX 3000 and Titan RTX or higher.