Arachnophobic Harry Potter fans, rejoice. Developer Avalanche Software has added a new accessibility feature to Hogwarts Legacy that removes spiders from the game. The update coincides with the title’s arrival on PS4 and Xbox One today.

The Hogwarts Legacy update (build 1140773) launched Thursday adds the new Arachnophobia Mode to the game’s accessibility options. It changes all enemy spider appearances to what you see in the image above: a floating meanie with glowing red eyes surrounded by hovering roller skates. The skates are a wink to Ron’s boggart encounter (manifested as a giant spider) in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when students imagine their greatest fears in ridiculous situations that diminish their power; Ron conquers his fears by imagining the arachnid clumsily trying to stand up on slippery skates.

Arachnophobia Mode also “reduces and removes spider skitters and screeches,” “removes small spider ground effect spawners,” and “makes static spider corpses in the world invisible.” However, the game’s creators note that spider images in the Field Guide remain unchanged, so avoid that if static images of spiders creep you out.

It’s the latest example of the gaming industry showing increased sensitivity toward people with common phobias. Similarly, the miniaturized survival game Grounded added a similar mode that turned its spiders into floating orange blobs analogous to those in Hogwarts Legacy. Last month, a patch for Horizon Forbidden Westaddressed fears of deep bodies of water (thalassophobia). Games are ideally a fun time for all, and a little extra work from developers can go a long way toward preventing anxiety triggers.

The Hogwarts Legacy update corresponds with the game’s launch on previous-generation (PS4 / Xbox One) consoles today. It arrived on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X / S in February. A Switch port is due on July 25th. Engadget’s Jessica Conditt found it “the coolest work of Harry Potter fanfiction in years,” fulfilling a teenage dream of being a witch.

Starting today, it should be easier to find what you're looking for on Steam. When you type something in the main search field on the Steam web store or desktop or mobile apps, the suggestions will include tags, developers, publishers and franchises if it seems like there's a good match.

For instance, type in "Sony" and you may see the PlayStation Studios publisher page among the suggestions. Punch in "free" and the quick results could include the free-to-play tag and the Freedom Games publisher page. If you want to see all the Final Fantasy or Star Wars games on Steam, you should be able to access those franchise pages more quickly from the search panel.

Valve has rolled out another handy update to search, which should now be more forgiving of typos. That should come in useful if you're looking for a game but can't quite remember how to spell it or you simply mistype a word. Steam will know what you're looking for if you type "Call of Doo," for one thing. While these updates are overdue and welcome, they could help Valve empty out more of your wallet when the Steam summer sale rolls around.

Sony and Microsoft also made useful updates to their game storefronts recently. Xbox's PC app now enables you to look for games based on accessibility features and estimated playtimes. Last month, Sony added accessibility tags to PS4 and PS5 games on the PlayStation Store.

NYC’s Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) has returned to Twitter after leaving the platform last month. Real-time status updates are once again available across the organization’s multiple accounts. This is good news for commuters, as MTA’s social media accounts are a reliable way to suss out any issues with the city’s subways, buses and trains.

The MTA originally left Twitter the decision to start charging for API access, a move that would’ve cost the organization $50,000 each month, according to Bloomberg. That’s a whole lot of subway tokens. It went on to say that Twitter “is no longer reliable for providing the consistent updates riders expect.”

So what changed? Twitter did. The social network reversed course on charging exorbitant API fees to verified government and publicly-owned services that use the tool for "critical purposes" like emergency notifications, transportation updates and weather alerts. Being as how the MTA is all about transportation updates, it made the cut.

However, just because the MTA is back on Twitter doesn’t mean it changed its tune regarding the social network’s reliability. The organization used today’s announcement to encourage followers to sign up for email/SMS alerts and to download official apps.

Twitter shut down its free API earlier this year, instituting a $100-per-month tier for regular folks and a much higher tier for enterprise customers. Originally, Twitter grouped together institutions that provide a public service (like the MTA) with any other business. This forced many companies and organizations to leave the platform entirely and others (like Microsoft) to drop Twitter from advertising platforms.

As with all things related to modern Twitter, the API access change could flip back tomorrow, so get your real-time subway alerts while you can. In the meantime, the MTA’s various accounts are staffed by actual people, so you can chat with customer service “to get help with trip planning, info on delayed trains, and other issues.”

It's Friday, which means it's time for another roundup of good deals on recommended tech. Among this week's highlights, the second-gen Apple Pencil is back down to an all-time low of $89, while the latest Echo Dot is within $5 of the best price we've tracked at $30. If you need to upgrade the storage of an Xbox Series X or S, Seagate's 1TB storage expansion card is at least a little more palatable at $150, while Samsung's 256GB Evo Select is a good value at $18 for Switch owners in need of a microSD card. Beyond that, we're also seeing deals on MasterClass and Apple Music subscriptions, Anker wireless headphones, Samsung's S95B OLED TV, Shark robot vacuums and Amazon's Kindle Scribe. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still get today.

Apple Pencil (2nd Gen)

The second-gen Apple Pencil is back on sale for $89, matching the lowest price we've tracked. That's $40 below Apple's list price and about $15 below the iPad stylus' average street price on Amazon in recent months. We recommend the latest Pencil in our guide to the best iPad accessories. It's a consistently accurate tool for digital artists and heavy note-takers, and it's the only stylus to offer pressure sensitivity across iPadOS. Since it can attach to the side of an iPad magnetically, it's also easy to charge and pair. Just make sure your iPad will work with the device before you buy.

Seagate Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X/S

For better or worse, the only way for Xbox Series X/S owners to fully expand their console's storage for current-gen games is to use a proprietary storage card. Seagate's Storage Expansion Card remains the only official one of those, but right now both its 1TB and 2TB models are down to all-time lows. The former is available for $150, which is $45 below its typical street price, while the latter is $80 less than usual at $280. While that's still pricey compared to traditional (and PS5-compatible) SSDs, it's at least some savings for those tired of uninstalling games to save space. Recent leaks suggest that cards from other manufacturers are on the way, but it's unclear if they'll cost less than these discounts at launch.

Anker Soundcore Life Q30

Anker's Soundcore Life Q30 is one of the few sets of wireless noise-cancelling headphones worth recommending that cost less than $100, and currently they're down to $68 at Amazon with an on-page coupon. While this isn't the absolute lowest price we've seen, it's $12 below the pair's typical going rate. The Life Q30's active noise cancellation isn't as comprehensive as our favorite wireless headphones, but for a fraction of the price, it's strong enough to be useful. The whole thing is comfortable to wear for hours at a time, and it can last a superb 40 to 50 hours on a charge. Be warned that the pair is extremely bass-heavy by default, but it's possible to even out its sound through Anker's companion app. Call quality and the included transparency mode are just so-so, however.

Samsung Evo Select

The 256GB model of Samsung's Evo Select microSD card is down to $18, which is an all-time low and roughly $6 below its typical street price. This isn't the fastest microSD card on the market, but it's performant enough for devices like the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck, and this deal gets you a good chunk of storage space for relatively little cash. Samsung backs the card with a 10-year limited warranty, too. If you need more room and want something with faster read and write speeds, the previous-gen Samsung Pro Plus is a solid value at its current deal price of $47.

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen)

The latest Amazon Echo Dot is down to $30, which is $5 more than its all-time low but still $10 to $15 below its usual street price. The Dot is the top budget pick in our guide to the best smart speakers: It delivers surprisingly clear and well-balanced sound for its size and remains an accessible entry point for anyone looking to use Alexa to stream music, control smart home devices and do other smart assistant things. The Google Nest Mini remains a worthy alternative for those who prefer the Google Assistant, but the Dot sounds better. If you'd like an LED display that can display the time, weather and other bits of information at a glance, the Echo Dot with Clock is on sale for an all-time low of $40.

Samsung 980 Pro SSD

The 2TB model of Samsung's 980 Pro SSD is on sale for $140, which is within $5 of its lowest price to date. The drive has typically sold between $150 and $160 in recent months. While it isn't the newest PCIe 4.0 SSD Samsung offers, the 980 Pro is still a decent value for those looking to expand the storage of a PlayStation 5. You'll just need to grab a heatsink along with it for another $10 or so. (Samsung sells a version of the 980 Pro that comes with a heatsink in the box, but its 2TB model currently costs $170.) If you only need 1TB of space and want a faster PCIe 4.0 drive, SK Hynix's Platinum P41 is good alternative at its current deal price of $90, which is a new low. If you just want to upgrade an older PC, meanwhile, a less expensive PCIe 3.0 drive like the ones in our best SSDs guide will still work just fine.

Samsung T7 Shield 

Samsung's T7 Shield is a ruggedized version of our favorite portable SSD, and right now its 1TB model is down to a new low of $75. That's about $10 less than this model's average street price over the last few months. Alternatives like the SanDisk Extreme can squeeze out a bit more performance, but the T7 Shield is fast enough for most needs, and its thick rubber shell should provide some extra peace of mind if you ever want to take the drive on the road. It's also water-resistant with an IP65 rating. 

iPad deals

It's a decent time to be in the market for a new iPad, as the iPad Air, iPad Mini and 10th-gen iPad are all at or near the lowest prices we've tracked. The Air is down to $500, which matches the best price we've seen outside of a brief drop to $479 last year, while the Mini and 10th-gen iPad are each at a previous low of $400. As we note in our iPad buying guide, the Air should provide the best blend of price and performance for most people, but the Mini is still worth buying if you'd prefer a more compact tablet. The 10th-gen iPad is more of a compromise, as it doesn't support the latest Apple Pencil and lacks a laminated display, but the broad strokes of its design are similar to the Air, and its landscape-oriented front camera is convenient. We gave the Air a review score of 90 last year, the Mini a score of 89 in 2021 and the 10th-gen iPad a score of 85 this past October.

Anker PowerLine III USB-C cables

If you need to stock up on USB-C cables, this two-pack of Anker's PowerLine III is worth a look at $13. Both cables are six feet long and rated for up to 100W charging, so they can charge many beefy laptops at, or at least close to, full speeds. Anker covers them with a lifetime warranty as well. The one hang-up is that they're limited to USB 2.0 data transfer rates, so they aren't the quickest for moving large files around. But if you already own a fast charger and need some backup cables for the road, this is a nice value. This deal marks the bundle's lowest price to date and comes in about $5 below its usual price. 

Samsung S95B OLED TV

The 55-inch version of Samsung's S95B OLED TV is down to $1,279 at Amazon, which is the lowest price we've seen outside of special discounts for education customers. Though we haven't reviewed this TV, other siteswe trust have consistently praised the S95B for delivering the high contrast expected of any good OLED set without sacrificing too much in the way of brightness. Samsung has replaced this 2022 model with the new S95C, but the upgrades don't appear to be massive, and the S95B is a much better value at this price for those willing to pay for a premium TV. (The 55-inch S95C currently retails for $2,500.) Note that Samsung TVs do not support Dolby Vision HDR, however.

Apple Music 4-month subscription

We recently named Apple Music the most well-rounded music streaming service thanks to its extensive library, lossless streaming support, ability to upload local files, helpful curation and not-overly-cluttered UI. If you've been thinking of switching over, Best Buy is running a promotion that gives new subscribers four months of the service for free. If you've subscribed to Apple Music in the past and are now looking to come back, you can get a three-month trial. For reference, Apple normally gives new members one month of Music for free, then charges $11 a month for an individual plan. Just be aware that the subscription will be set to auto-renew after the trial period ends.

MasterClass

MasterClass has rolled out a Mother's Day promo that brings the price of its annual Duo and Family memberships down to $180. Normally, a year of the Duo plan (which makes the service accessible on two devices) costs $240, while the Family plan (which bumps the device limit up to six) goes for $276. The standard Individual plan, which normally costs $180, is not part of the offer. MasterClass itself is far from essential, but it still offers a wide range of specific celebrity-taught courses, from cooking with Gordon Ramsay to songwriting with John Legend. If you and a loved one (or five) have been curious to try it out, this is a nice chance to save; just note that the membership will auto-renew by default.

Shark robot vacuum sale

We recommend a couple of Shark devices in our guide to the best robot vacuums, and right now a handful of similar robovacs from the company are heavily discounted. Of note is the Shark AV2501AE, which is about $250 off its usual street price at $350. Like the top midrange pick in our guide, it offers LiDAR navigation sensors to more precisely map out your floors and a bagless, self-emptying base that can hold up to 60 days of debris. It can also work with Alexa or the Google Assistant. If you want to save a few bucks, the Shark AV911S is another solid buy at $300, though it has a simpler mapping system by comparison and a smaller self-emptying base. 

Amazon Kindle Scribe

Amazon's Kindle Scribe is down to $283 for a 16GB model, which is $57 off its normal price and a new low. Higher-capacity models are also on sale. The catch is that each deal is only available to Amazon Prime members. Either way, the Scribe is Amazon's highest-end Kindle and the first to support note-taking with its included stylus. With its 10.2-inch display, it's also the largest e-reader Amazon makes. While this isn't the most advanced e-ink tablet for writing, being able to mark up e-books and jot down to-do lists has its conveniences, and it still offers all the same reading benefits of any other Kindle. Amazon has steadilyupdated the device in recent months, too. The downside, besides the extreme cost, is that it's not waterproof. We gave the Kindle Scribe a review score of 85 last November. 

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New York State may soon have its own legislation to prevent crypto scandals on par with FTX's downfall. Attorney General Letitia James has proposed a law, the CRPTO Act (Crypto Regulation, Protection, Transparency and Oversight), that's meant to thwart cryptocurrency fraud and protect investors. Whether or not it's the "strongest and most comprehensive" set of crypto regulations that James touts, it would theoretically prevent repeats of some high-profile incidents.

The CRPTO Act would bar conflicts of interest, such as owning multiple practices or marketplaces that trade for their own accounts. Companies would have to publicly report financial statements, including risk disclosures. There would be a host of investor safeguards, such as "know-your-customer" requirements, compensation for fraud victims and a ban on stablecoins (crypto coins whose value is tied to a safe asset) that aren't pegged directly to US currency or "high-quality" liquid assets.

The bill would let the Attorney General's office shut down lawbreakers and fine $10,000 per violation for individuals, and $100,000 per violation for companies. The office would also have the power to issue subpoenas and demand damages, penalties and restitution. The Department of Financial Services, meanwhile, would be ensured authority to license various crypto service providers.

James pointed to multiple real-world examples of alleged abuse the CRPTO act would potentially stop. Terraform Labs, for instance, promised a very high 20 percent interest rate to investors in one token on its marketplace if they bought the company's other token, supposedly hiding the assets' real value. Celsius, meanwhile, bought up its own token and created an artificial appearance of demand. That left investors "caught by surprise" when Celsius declared bankruptcy, according to the Attorney General.

The federal government is already cracking down on crypto fraud. The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) believe existing rules already cover numerous crypto-related activities, and in some cases have jockeyed to claim primary responsibility for regulating the technology. Politicians in the House and Senate are pushing for nationwide regulations. New York's efforts go one step further by tackling crypto-specific problems, though, and the state's role as a financial hub may effectively let it dictate policies guiding firms across the US.

Bipedal locomotion is the worst. You take a step forward and you end up standing there, legs akimbo, until you repeat the process with your other foot. And then do it again, and again, and again — back and forth, left and right, like a putz, until you reach your destination: hopefully, somewhere to sit.

Even worse, walking requires real physical effort. For our distant ancestors migrating into colder climates, slogging through mud and snow and across ice, on foot, quickly ate into their already tight caloric budgets, limiting the distances they could hunt and travel. Sure, the advent of wheels in the fourth millennia BC drastically improved our transportation options but it would be nearly another 6,000 years before we’d think to strap them to our feet.

A 2007 study by a team out of Oxford University and published in Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London suggests that the practice of ice skating potentially emerged in Finland based on evidence from a set of bone “skates” dated to around 1800 BC. The team argued that the region’s large number of interconnected waterways, which froze over every winter, was the only place in the ancient world cold enough and flat enough to make strapping horse shins to the bottoms of our feet make caloric sense. In fact, the research team found that these skates — even if they were only a quarter as efficient and quick as modern models — offered a ten percent energy savings versus traveling the same route by foot, which added an extra 20 km total distance to travel each day.

“Ice skates were probably the first human powered locomotion tools to take the maximum advantage from the biomechanical properties of the muscular system: even when traveling at relatively high speeds,” the team argued. “The skating movement pattern required muscles to shorten slowly so that they could also develop a considerable amount of force.”

The practice also appears in western China. In March, archaeologists discovered 3,500-year-old skates made from oxen and horse bone in the country's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The dig team, led by archaeologist Ruan Qiurong of the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology, argued that their skates bear striking similarities to those found previously in Europe, suggesting a potential knowledge exchange between the two Bronze Age civilizations.

It wouldn’t be until the mid-1700s that the wheeled variety made their first appearance. Those early bespoke prototypes served in London stage shows as props to simulate ice skating winter scenes, though the identity of their creators has been lost to history. 18th century Belgian clock- and instrument-maker, John Joseph "The Ingenious Mechanic" Merlin, is credited with devising the first inline roller skate, a two-wheeled contraption he dubbed “skaites” and unveiled in the 1760s.

"One of his ingenious novelties was a pair of skaites contrived to run on wheels.” Thomas Busby's Concert Room and Orchestra Anecdotes mentioned in 1805, “when not having provided the means of retarding his velocity, or commanding its direction, he impelled himself against a mirror of more than five hundred pounds value, dashed it to atoms, broke his instrument to pieces and wounded himself most severely."

By the middle of the 19th century, roller skating had migrated out of the art house scene and into the public consciousness. London’s first public roller rink, The Strand, opened in 1857 and set off a decades-long love affair with the English populace. As the burgeoning sport grew in popularity, the skates themselves quickly evolved to flatten the learning curve in taking up the activity.

Merlin’s early two-wheel inline design gave way to the classic four-wheel side-by-side (aka “quad”) build we all remember from the Disco Era. (New York City’s James Leonard Plimpton is credited with their invention in 1863.) Not only did Plimpton’s skates offer a more stable rolling platform, they were the first to incorporate “trucks,” the cushioned, pivoting axles that virtually all modern skates and skateboards use.

A dozen years later, someone finally got around to inventing proper wheel bearings. That someone being William Brown of Birmingham, England. He patented the first modern ball bearing design in 1876 and quickly followed that with a larger design for bicycles in 1877. These patents directly led to today’s ball bearing technology which we can find in everything from skateboards to semi-tractor trailers.

On modern skates, the rotating wheel and the stationary axel are separated by two hollow-disc shaped devices called bearings. These bearings are designed so that the inner and outer surfaces, which each sit in contact with the wheel and axle, can spin freely. They can do this because of a ring of small spherical metal balls sandwiched between the two plates, which roll and rotate without generating significant amounts of friction or heat (thanks to inventor Levant M. Richardson who patented the use of harder steel bearings in 1884), allowing the spinning wheels to do the same. The advent of this tech meant we no longer had to smear our axles with animal grease so that in and of itself right there is a win for humanity, saving us from a future where every indoor roller derby meet would smell of cooked pork fat.

With bearings in your wheels, it's far easier to pick up velocity and achieve a higher top speed, so rather than let the public go “full Merlin” at the local rink, the toe stop was invented in 1876. It remains a common fixture on modern quad skates as well as a select number of inlines - though those more commonly rely on heel stops instead. Despite their origins in the 18th century, The Peck & Snyder Company holds the patent for inline skates, two-wheeled ones at that, from 1900.

From the dawn of the 20th century, roller skating has been an intractable part of American culture despite generational swings in the pastime’s popularity. The sport rolled right over from the UK in the early 1900s and experienced an initial surge in popularity until the Great Depression hit in the 1930s.

To keep the interest of an economically stricken public, Chicago-based sports promoter Leo Selzer invented roller derby in 1935. Selzer had originally owned a string of movie theaters in Oregon but got into live event promotions when they became losing propositions during the economic downturn, which coincided with a national endurance competition fad (think marathon dancing and pole sitting competitions).

Derby as we know it today, grew out of Selzer’s early roller marathon idea. His inaugural Transcontinental Roller Derby in 1935 lasted several days and drew a crowd of more than 20,000 spectators. In 1937, Selzer tweaked the competition’s format to allow for more physicality between contestants and modern roller derby was born.

Derby, and skating in general, fell off during WWII, though many derby stars served abroad as USO entertainers for the troops. It saw a massive resurgence in the Post-War ‘40s and ‘50s when — just like with Rock & Roll and the Blues — white folks helped themselves to the already-established Black skating culture. Skating fell off a bit in the ‘60s but reemerged stronger than ever in the Disco Era when white folks came back around and did the same to queer culture.

At the tail end of the 1970’s the industry once again reinvented itself with the introduction of inline skates. In 1979, Scott and Brennan Olsen happened upon an old pair of inline prototypes in Minneapolis that had been developed a decade earlier by the Chicago Roller Skate Company. Competitive ice hockey players themselves, the two immediately saw its potential as an off-season training aid. By this point, inline skate designs had been patented for decades. The tech itself was known, but nobody had managed to make the wheeled boots commercially viable — until the brothers Olsen founded the Rollerblade company in 1980.

You’d think that we’d have learned from Icarus but no, in 1999, Roger Adams had the bright idea for Heelys: skates that were actually shoes but with small wheels mounted in the heels. Not to be outdone, Razor debuted the Jetts Heel Wheels — imaging just the back half of a set of quad skates but they’re driven by an electric motor that hits 10 mph for up to 30 minutes — in 2018.

And in 2022, our wheeled footwear aspirations came full circle with the release of Moonwalkers: quad skates that are worn like skates but are powered like Jetts and are designed for stepping, not pushing and gliding. Designed “to make you feel like you’re on a moving walkway,” these devices can reportedly accelerate your strides up to 250 percent and adapt to your gait as you use them.

If you have a PlayStation Plus subscription and the ability to log in to a PlayStation 5 (a console that's far easier to come by these days), it’s worth bearing in mind that Sony is offering access to a bunch of great PS4 games at no extra cost. You’ll need to act pretty quickly to snag them if you haven't already though, as the PS Plus Collection is going away on May 9th.

That means this weekend is your last chance to snap up 19 notable first-party and third-party games from the collection. In a similar fashion to the monthly games that Sony offers all PS Plus members, you'll have access to titles that you claim from the collection on both PS4 and PS5 as long as you remain a subscriber. 

You'll need to claim them on a PS5 console, rather than on PS4 or the web version of the PlayStation Store. To do so, go to the Benefits section of the PS Plus tab. The games in the PS Plus Collection are:

• Batman: Arkham Knight

• Battlefield 1

• Bloodborne

• Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Zombies Chronicles Edition)

• Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

• Days Gone

• Detroit: Become Human

• Fallout 4

• Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition

• God of War (2018)

• Infamous Second Son

• The Last Guardian

• The Last of Us Remastered

• Monster Hunter World

• Mortal Kombat X

• Ratchet and Clank

• Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

• Until Dawn

There's something for just about everyone on that list, though it got a little shorter last May when Sony removed Persona 5. The Last of Us, God of War, Bloodborne and Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End are among the most highly regarded PlayStation titles (even if versions of all those except Bloodborne are nowavailableon PC). Some of the games, such as God of War and Ratchet and Clank, have been updated to optimize them for PS5.

It's worth noting that most of the games in the collection are also available to PS Plus Premium and Extra subscribers, so it's a better deal if you're on the Essential plan. However, Sony has started rotating some of its first-party games out of the Premium and Extra catalogs. Claiming the games from the PS Plus Collection now will ensure you have permanent access to them — as long as you keep paying for your subscription, of course.

Ever wish your Fortnite skills could lead to Olympic glory? They can now. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has addedFortnite to the Olympic Esports Finals lineup. A dozen players from the Fortnite Champion Series will participate in an International Shooting Sport Federation-backed sharpshooting competition on a special Fortnite Creative Island. There won't be any last-one-standing battles or building demonstrations, then, but this will give you a chance to see some of the world's best virtual sport shooters in action.

Simultaneously, the IOC has opened up ticket sales for the Olympic Esports Week, which centers on the first in-person finals of the 2023 competition series. If you can make it to Singapore between June 22nd and June 25th, it will cost you 10 SGD (about $7.50) to attend one day or 20 SGD ($15) for the three days of competition starting June 23rd. The Fortnite sport shooting matches take place June 24th. You can stream the events through both Olympics.com and the Olympics' social media channels.

The Olympic Esports Series already included nine games that roughly line up with real-world sports run by international federations. The mix includes Just Dance, Gran Turismo racing, Zwift cycling and even web chess. It's a follow-up to the Olympic Virtual Series from 2021, which covered five digital sports. The IOC sees this as part of a broader effort to foster esports and connect with the video game community.

The addition of a Fortnite island is in step with the Committee's esports goals: this is a "peaceful competition" with a physical equivalent. You still aren't about to see a digital Olympics featuring Counter-Strike 2 or League of Legends. With that said, Fortnite is clearly the most popular game to reach the Esports Series. Theoretically, that could bring in audiences who would otherwise pass in favor of conventional esports tourneys.

Luddites had the right of things all the way back in the 1800s. When textile factory owners in early 19th century England used the industrialization of their industry as an excuse to underpay and overwork employees in dangerous, dehumanizing conditions, the secret organization of workers set about smashing the machines of the capitalists who exploited them. Today, the Writers’ Guild of America faces a similar threat from those in control of a new transformative technology, generative AI, and it’s part of the reason they’re currently on strike for better working conditions.

On March 7, 2023, WGA members voted to approve the 2023 Pattern of Demands by a count of 5,553 voting yes to 90 no’s. On Tuesday morning, more than 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America shut Hollywood down for the first time since 2007 when they last had to fight for their livelihoods.

“Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal … the studios’ responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing,” read a statement from WGA leadership to CNN on Wednesday. “They have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership.”

As such, the guild is demanding significant increases to the industry’s minimum compensation “to address the devaluation of writing in all areas of television, new media and features” as well as standardize the amount writers are paid writing for streaming or theatrically released features, among a host of other long-deferred needs. The guild is also looking towards the future in its negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) in efforts to prevent the studios’ from using AI and their own words) to put WGA writers out of work.

“It is not the tool itself, it's not an objection to the tool,” WGA member and writer behind Sinister,Doctor Strange and The Black Phone, C. Robert Cargill told Engadget regarding generative AI systems. “What we have asked of the studios is that they do not generate any material themselves that they have not been handed by writers.”

This is because writing contracts in Hollywood are very specific about the circumstances of how credit is attributed because residual payments are paid out based on them, Cargill explains. For example, writing the first draft of a feature pays at a higher rate than the subsequent rewrites and the amount of residuals the first screenwriter receives depends on what percentage of their original script made it into the final product.

“The fear here is very simple,” Cargill said, and one that is already being realized in the wake of the strike’s launch. “Which is, they get an idea and they put it into one of the generative programs… and then it kicks out something that looks like a script. Then what they do is they hand it over to a writer and say, ‘we're going to pay you your rewrite wage to go ahead and make it sound more like a human wrote it and to fix any of the problems.”

This would essentially preclude human — more importantly, unionized — writers from earring the highest pay rate while forcing them to still perform the highest pay grade work. “What Hollywood can be doing is cutting us out of that very lucrative first step of generating the initial script and story ideas,” he said.

The guild is also, rightfully, concerned with the potential for their existing writing content be used to train future iterations of generative AIs. “I had a fan reach out to me because he was playing around with [ChatGPT] a few weeks ago and wanted to get a couple ideas to a horror story,” Cargill recalled. “He says, ‘Give me some horror prompts based on, I want to write a horror movie that is a mystery thriller, I want it to be creepy and kind of like Sinister.’”

“What it spit back out was the plot to Sinister,” Cargill, who wrote Sinister. “A family moves into a house and finds a videotape of the murder of the family that previously lived there, and the only thing that was changed from my movie is ours happened on film and not video — and that's how it changed it.”

Cargill’s concern is that “by using our previous scripts, what the studios will be doing is essentially getting lines of our dialogue and our jokes sent back into the industry — but without our attribution, without our credit, without our pay.”

He elaborates that the guild is not seeking a full ban on generative AI’s use and that screen are welcome to use it if they want. In the same way that “you don't have to use a computer with spellcheck. You can write your script on yellow line paper by hand if you want — Quentin Tarantino still does that.”

“You don't you don't have to use the technology,” he continued. “But if you want to you can but what we want is to make sure studios aren't using that to replace that and then pay us lower rates just to rewrite what a computer sent back.”

The WGA did not respond to multiple written requests for comment. The AMPTP issued the following response:

We’re creative companies and we value the work of creatives. The best stories are original, insightful and often come from people's own experiences. AI raises hard, important creative and legal questions for everyone. For example, writers want to be able to use this technology as part of their creative process, without changing how credits are determined, which is complicated given AI material can't be copyrighted. So it's something that requires a lot more discussion, which we've committed to doing. Also, it’s important to note that the current WGA Agreement already defines a “writer” to exclude any “corporate or impersonal purveyor” of literary material, meaning that only a “person” can be considered a writer and enjoy the terms and conditions of the Basic Agreement. For example, AI-generated material would not be eligible for writing credit.

Teachers can be some of the most important individuals in our lives. Whether you had one this past year that truly inspired you, or one that just made getting through the daily grind of classes easier, now’s a great time to show them your appreciation. If you want to skip the standard gift basket or bouquet of flowers in favor of something a bit more personal (or perhaps practical), these are some of the best gifts for teachers that you can surprise them with this year.

Hario cold brew bottles

We recommend the Hario cold brew tea maker in our gift guide for tea lovers because it makes a beautiful, functional gift for anyone who likes loose-leaf iced tea. The heat-proof glass exterior has a wine bottle shape and the green silicone top houses a mesh strainer that keeps tea leaves where they belong. If the teacher you know is more into coffee, you get them the equally attractive cold brew coffee maker from the same Japanese manufacturer. It brews up a batch in the fridge overnight and has graduated milliliter markings that make it look a little like a chemistry class beaker. – Amy Skorheim, Commerce Writer

Ember Mug 2

Many of us rely on caffeine to get through the day and teachers are no different. But dealing with students, lectures and other classroom activities may mean their beverage of choice grows cold before they can drink it all. The second generation of Ember’s smart mug, the Mug 2, doesn’t just keep tea or coffee hot — it keeps it at a steady temperature for a long time. The app integration lets you set the temp of the mug, while interior sensors shut the heat off when the mug’s empty or hasn’t been touched in two hours. The 10-ounce size has a battery life of up to an hour and a half and the 14-ounce capacity adds another 20 minutes. They can also stick the mug on the included charging coaster to keep their java warm all school day long. – A.S.

Aura Mason

If your teacher is a sentimental type, a digital photo frame like the Aura Mason can let them easily add and look back on their favorite snapshots. The Mason itself has a crisp, nine-inch, 1,600 x 1,200 resolution display and a minimalist design that should look normal on a work desk or a side table back home. It can display photos in portrait or landscape mode, and uploading photos (or videos) through the Aura app is uncomplicated. Just note that it can sometimes add black boxes around photos that don’t match its 4:3 aspect ratio.

If you want to save $50, the Aura Carver is a larger 10.1-inch frame with similar benefits, though it has a lower resolution (1,280 x 800) and only works in landscape. You could also gift a multi-function smart display like the Google Nest Hub, but those usually have lower-quality screens and aren’t as simple to mount on a wall. — Jeff Dunn, Senior Commerce Writer

Book of the Month

If you know a teacher who’s still a champion of the printed word, they might appreciate a Book of the Month subscription. I like how BOTM does the hard work of figuring out what’s new and good in fiction so all I have to do is read. The club selects seven or so books each month for members to pick from, and the selection is diverse enough that most readers will find something to meet their tastes. And if nothing looks good, they can always pick something from the back catalog or skip the month altogether. At first I thought it would be too much pressure to contend with a new book every month, but the option to skip effectively just extends their subscription, so there’s no pressure. You can gift a three, six or twelve month membership for $60, $100 or $200, respectively. – A.S.

Belkin BoostCharge Pro with MagSafe

A pick from our guide to the best wireless chargers, Belkin’s BoostCharge Pro is a compact charging pad that should be a useful addition for any iPhone-owning teacher’s desk. It’s MagSafe-compatible, so it can snap magnetically onto the back of any recent iPhone, and it delivers up to 15W of power, which is the fastest rate available for this class of device. It won’t be as quick as using a cable, but there’s a certain pleasure to simply plopping your phone down on it to recharge, and it can still deliver about a 70 percent charge to an iPhone 14 in an hour. The BoostCharge Pro also has a built-in kickstand for propping up a phone to watch videos and the like. This is far from the cheapest charging puck around, but as a gift, it’s a convenient way to top up. Just try to get it with a power supply, if possible. — J.D.

Blue light blocking glasses

Your favorite teacher or professor probably looks at a screen for just as long as you do every day. Blue light blocking glasses can be a great gift since they’ll make it easier for them to get work done while (hopefully) reducing eye strain, headaches and other ailments. These are probably best bought for educators who don’t wear prescription glasses already, since you don’t want to impede their actual eyesight with non-prescription lenses. Plenty of eyewear companies make stylish blue light glasses, but you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg on a pair. Privé Revaux has a ton of options priced as low as $30 each, or if you have a feeling your teacher would like to swap styles more often, Amazon has a number of multi-packs to choose from. — Valentina Palladino, Senior Commerce Editor

Headspace

The most tenured college professor and the newest preschool teacher could likely use a little more calm in their day, and Headspace is one way to get it. The brightly colored app has a slew of meditations, guided breathing sessions and inspirational talks to choose from and each one lists its duration. I often just have a minute or two before I have to get back to what I was doing, and following even a one-minute-long breathing exercise can noticeably change my mood (and posture and general awareness). Headspace includes sleep programs too, like wind-down sessions, stories, white noise sounds and soundscapes. You can gift one year of the service for $70, or three months for $39. – A.S.

Kobo Clara 2e

We don’t want to make generalizations, but if there’s a segment of the population who likes to read, it’s probably teachers. The Kobo Clara 2E is our current favorite e-reader because it’s easy on the eyes, comfortable to hold and offers the right amount of customization. The waterproof design makes it a good candidate for vacations and pool-side reading, and the warm lights make it easy to read late into the night. Considering Kobo now has an unlimited read and listen subscription in Kobo Plus, the company's well-built devices are even better equipped to compete in a space where Kindles have dominated for years. – A.S.

Bellroy Desk Caddy

They say an organized desk is an organized mind. Whether that’s true or not, it can certainly be difficult to keep track of all the tech you need on a regular basis. Bellroy’s Desk Caddy has pockets, pouches and loops to keep cords, plugs, earbuds, and dongles in their place. The structured shape stands up when you load it, but is flexible enough to fit into a crowded backpack if you need to take it with you. We also like that it’s water resistant and made from recycled materials. – A.S.

Trade Coffee subscription

A Trade Coffee subscription can help the teacher in your life shake up their morning cup of joe. It offers a curated selection of more than 450 coffees from across the US and smartly personalizes which ones it recommends to each subscriber. Upon redeeming their gift, your teacher will be prompted to take a brief quiz that asks about their flavor and brew preferences, information Trade will use to suggest a specific bag catered to their taste. They can then give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to any coffee they receive, which the company considers to hone future recommendations. Managing all of this online is straightforward. You can gift anywhere from two to 24 bags, and Trade says any gift subscriptions will not automatically renew, so nobody will have any surprise charges to deal with down the line. — J.D.

Purist Mover

The Purist Mover is the closest thing to a “premium” water bottle that I’ve tried, with a clean, minimalist aesthetic and a satisfying textured finish. Its biggest hook, though, is the ultra-thin layer of glass that lines its interior. Apart from insulating your drink, this is designed to keep fluids from gaining a metallic taste or unwanted odors as quickly as they might with other bottles. The whole thing will still need washing every so often, but in my experience, this has actually worked.

The Mover is an 18oz bottle, but there are different size and lid options to choose from (the “Union” spout top is my preference, though it can be somewhat noisy, if that matters). No Purist bottle is especially cheap, but it should make hydrating a little more convenient for your teacher’s day-to-day, on top of providing a nicer piece of design for their desk. — J.D.

Tribit StormBox Micro 2

For audio-related lessons in class or just enjoying music while out and about, the Tribit StormBox Micro 2 is a highly portable Bluetooth speaker that pumps out good volume for its compact size. Its playback controls are simple to operate, and its built-in strap lets it connect to things like a bag or bike handlebars on the go. It can also double as a power bank and charge a smartphone in a pinch. A speaker this small will never be the fullest sounding, but for what it is, the Stormbox Micro 2’s audio quality is fine as well. If you like the idea of gifting a portable speaker but want something that sounds richer, though, you can check out our Bluetooth speaker buying guide for more recommendations. — J.D.

Criterion Channel subscription

If your teacher considers themselves a film buff, a Criterion Channel subscription might suit their tastes. This is the streaming service of The Criterion Collection, a video distribution company that restores and preserves a carefully curated selection of acclaimed films that span genres and languages. It doesn’t have the same deluge of content as a Netflix or Prime Video, but it also has a lot less trash.

The service bundles many films into helpful collections, from Afrofuturism to Foreign-Language Oscar Winners to Short Films by David Lynch. Various titles come with bonus features like cast interviews as well. Unfortunately, not every film in the Collection is available on the Channel at any given time. (There are gift cards that can go toward films that are only available in physical form.) Nevertheless, for movie-loving teachers who feel like they’ve watched everything on the usual suspects, the service should still provide hours of stimulating works. Gift subscriptions are available in one- to 12-month increments. — J.D.

The Sill plant gifts

You can’t go wrong with a gift of greenery to show your appreciation for a beloved teacher. You could pick up a flower arrangement locally or send them a fancy one from Bouqs or another online service, but something more unique like a plant from The Sill could be a gift they’ve never gotten before. The site has a bunch of options that will appeal to all kinds of people, from those who have never taken care of a plant before to green-thumbed veterans. There are even pet-friendly plant gifts you can buy for those teachers you know have little creatures in their households. The Sill also has regular deals on plants that you can snag (be it for someone else or yourself), so you don’t have to sacrifice even if you’re working with a tight budget. — V.P.

Amazon gift card

If you’re at a loss over what to get your favorite teacher to show your appreciation, an Amazon gift card is a good catch-all solution. Whether it’s supplies for their classroom, household essentials for their family or just something they’ve had on their wish list for themselves, most teachers will find a way to spend a few extra dollars at Amazon (or Walmart, Target or another retailer they prefer). — V.P.

A relaxing video game or two

For teachers who like to wind down with a video game after an aggravating day of work, a recommendation from our list of good relaxing games could make for a gift that’s both thoughtful and fun. A couple of standouts: PowerWash Simulator is a game about cleaning grimy environments that has a similar soothing effect as those deep-cleaning videos on YouTube, while Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is a delightful puzzle game from Nintendo about exploring and reexamining diorama-like levels from new angles. — J.D.