Spectrum owner Charter and Disney have resolved a dispute that prevented millions of customers from watching networks such as ABC and ESPN through their cable provider since August 31. The companies reached an agreement that features some intriguing streaming-related perks for Spectrum subscribers. Those include access to the long-awaited standalone ESPN streaming service, whenever that debuts, for those on a Spectrum TV Select plan.

Those subscribers will also have access to the ad-supported basic tier of Disney+ in the coming months, while Spectrum TV Select Plus customers will be able to check out ESPN+ as part of their plan. According to CNBC, Charter will pay higher subscriber fees to Disney.

It seems that Charter customers having access to ad-supported versions of Disney's streaming services was a point of contention between the companies before they finally reached a deal. In the meantime, Disney started offering Hulu + Live TV at a discounted rate of $50 a month for three months (the usual rate is $70) ahead of a price increase in October.

The newly forged agreement between Charter and Disney means that subscribers again have access to 19 of the latter's networks, including ABC-owned stations, the Disney Channel, FX and the Nat Geo Channel. Just in time for Monday Night Football, the full suite of ESPN networks is back as well. However, Spectrum subscribers are losing the ability to watch Baby TV, Disney Junior, Disney XD, Freeform, FXM, FXX, Nat Geo Wild and Nat Geo Mundo through the cable service.

In the future, when you need someone's help to get a task done, you might find yourself launching the Uber app on your phone. According to Bloomberg, the company is exploring the possibility of offering a new TaskRabbit-like service. Developer Steve Moser found code hidden within Uber's iPhone app for an offering that's reportedly codenamed "Chore." Based on its current iteration, Chore will let you hire "taskers" and will let you specify in the app what you need help with, how long you think it would take and what time you want the tasker to arrive. 

Of course, you'll be able to input the address of where you want the person to go before you submit your request. Uber will then compute a payment that's commensurate with the time required to finish the task, but you will have to pay for a minimum of one hour no matter what it is. Bloomberg says the code Moser unearthed didn't have hints on what types of help you can ask from providers, but the potential service's rival TaskRabbit has a wide range of categories to choose from. These include cleaning, furniture assembly, electrical help, plumbing, TV mounting, packing and moving, snow removal, computer assistance, pet sitting and even senior care. 

Like any other unconfirmed feature still in development, though, Chore may not even make it to public release. If it does, it'll be a huge new undertaking for Uber, which is known for its ride-hailing and restaurant delivery services. Over the past months, Uber rolled out Carshare, which lets users borrow cars from private owner, to more locations as part of its efforts to become a zero-emission platform by 2040. It also started testing a toll-free number — 1-833-USE-UBER (1-833-873-8237) — that you can call to schedule an immediate or a future ride.

You can enjoy Disney's subscription service for a fraction of its usual price if you haven't tried it before or if you haven't been paying for it for quite some time. Starting today until September 20, a Disney+ Basic subscription will cost only cost you $2 a month for three months if you're a new or returning subscriber in the US. The ad-supported tier would typically cost you $8 a month, so that's $18 in savings if you've been thinking of finally signing up or resubscribing for any of the service's upcoming releases. 

The company launched an ad-supported plan for its streaming service back in December 2022. It hasn't raised prices for this tier since it became available, but the ad-free options had a price hike twice over the past year. An ad-free premium tier subscription will set you back $14 starting on October 12. This promo could give you an idea whether you're ready to commit to paying that much for the service every month, or if you could endure the ads Disney+ serves and stick to the basic option.

Of course, a subscription to Disney+ means getting access to its latest show and movie releases. Star Wars: Ahsoka dropped on August 23, while the live action reimagining of The Little Mermaid and the second season of I Am Groot are now also available. In addition, Disney and Pixar's film Elemental will be available for streaming on September 13.

The first trailer for the Five Nights at Freddy’s movie was pretty nifty, but suspiciously light on the game franchise’s renowned murderous animatronics. That issue has been rectified with the latest trailer, as it features prominent appearances from Foxy, Bonnie, Chica and of course, Freddy himself. The homicidal puppets are doing what they do best, murdering people.

You also get a bit more of the plot, which seems to mirror the game. It zeroes in on a character played by Josh Hutcherson, from the criminally underrated Future Man, as he starts a new overnight gig as a security guard at a family entertainment center. However, Freddy and his animatronic gang of thugs pose a terrifying threat to anyone in the building after dark.

As expected, the animatronics look great, nearly matching the game’s original aesthetic. This is no surprise given they were designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. This is a far leap from Kermit and Miss Piggy, however, as the movie contains plenty of “strong violent content, bloody images and language.”

Despite that warning, it’s rated PG-13, so the gore will likely be kept to a minimum. Five Nights at Freddy’s premieres in theaters and on the streaming service Peacock just in time for Halloween, on October 27th.

Max, formerly known as HBO Max, will give subscribers access to several AMC shows, at least for a limited time. The streaming service has struck a deal with AMC to feature some of its more recent programming from September 1st to October 31st. According to CNBC and Variety, their deal encompasses over 200 episodes from titles that include Fear the Walking Dead, Anne Rice's Interview With the Vampire and Killing Eve. AMC will even make more of its shows available through Max this fall. 

While the network has its own streaming service called AMC+, it's been struggling to make money off it and to keep up with rival providers. When company chairman James Dolan sent a memo to staff members in the midst of layoffs last year, he wrote: "It was our belief that cord cutting losses would be offset by gains in streaming. This has not been the case."

AMC's programs will be marked as such on the Max app and will be listed in a tab labeled as "AMC+ Picks on Max." They will be available to both ad-free and ad-supported Max subscribers, though the AMC+ titles will reportedly not include commercials and ads. HBO EVP Meredith Gertler said "[t]he AMC+ collection pop up is an excellent example of how [the company] can use innovative strategies to add value to [its] content offering." 

The parties have yet to announce the other titles arriving on Max this fall, but CNBC says they will not include AMC's biggest shows, such as Mad Men and The Walking Dead. Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, which also won't be making their way to Max, are already licensed to Netflix. 

The release of Dune: Part Two has been pushed back to March 15th amid ongoing writer and actor strikes, according to Variety. The hotly anticipated film was originally scheduled for November 3rd, but Warner Bros. and producer Legendary Entertainment agreed to delay it over four months — likely because the film wouldn't meet its full box office potential without publicity from the star-studded cast. 

The studio and production company held out on delaying the film as long as possible, according The Hollywood Reporter, but would have needed to start advertising the film by early September. It reportedly hoped the extra time would allow the cast, which includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh and Christopher Walken, to participate in a full marketing push.

Along with Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim have been pushed back to April 12th, 2024 and December 13th, 2024, respectively. Those dates were shuffled largely to accommodate Dune: Part Two. 

The ongoing labor actions by writers and actors in Hollywood are a result of long-simmering tensions over a number of issues, but particularly due to residual payments from Netflix and other streaming platforms. Warner Bros. Discovery was at the center of these in the recent past, as it elected to release some films either directly to its HBO Max (now MAX) streaming platform with zero or limited theatrical releases. However, CEO David Zaslav said last year that the company "will fully embrace theatrical" going forward. 

Dune: Part One performed well enough at the box office with a $402 million gross, but hype for the sequel is much higher. "Part One is more of a contemplative movie. Part Two is an action-packed, epic war movie. It is much more dense. We went to all new locations," said director Denis Villeneuve. 

Virgin Galactic might hit another milestone today in its quest to provide trips to suborbital space. If the weather cooperates and everything goes as planned for the company, its first private passenger flight will be taking off from its Spaceport America facility at 11AM EDT. Virgin Galactic's inaugural commercial flight took place in late June, but that one carried Italian government workers, including two Air Force personnel, to space. This time, its three passengers are civilians, and one of them is even the company's first paying customer. 

That distinction goes to Jon Goodwin, a British Olympian who competed in the 1972 games in Munich as a canoeist. According to the BBC, Goodwin paid $250,000 for his ticket way back in 2005 and had been worried that he couldn't go through with the flight after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2014. The other two passengers are a mother-daughter tandem from the Caribbean, Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers. Schahaff won two seats in a fundraising draw for nonprofit organization Space for Humanity and had chosen her daughter, a physics student at Aberdeen University in the UK, to accompany her. 

The company's VSS Unity spacecraft leaves the ground attached to a carrier aircraft dubbed VMS Eve. At an altitude of 50,000 feet, the mothership drops Unity, which then fires up its rocket motor to continue its journey to the edge of space. The spacecraft turns off its motor and glides across space before its descent, giving passengers three minutes to enjoy weightlessness in the cabin while looking at views of our planet through Unity's 17 windows. That is, at least, what the passengers are supposed to experience. As for the rest of us, we can watch them take off via Virgin Galactic's coverage of the launch livestreamed through its website.

Back in May, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the company's streaming service would be getting a price hike later in the year. Now, we know when: during Disney's quarterly earnings call, Iger announced that the ad-free Disney+ premium tier would be raised to $13.99 on October 12. It's the streaming service's second $3 price increase in the last year — the current $10.99 subscription price was set in December. Hulu's ad-free plan is also getting the $3 bump, raising it to $17.99/month for a standalone subscription.

It's a big price increase, but Disney is offering some relief for customers who are willing to bundle the services. A new Duo Premium subscription that bundles both ad-free tiers of Disney+ and Hulu will be available for $19.99. Disney also announced that starting in November, the $8 ad-supported tier it launched in the US last year will be made available in Europe and Canada.

Iger also warned that Disney would be pushing back against account sharing soon, stating that the company is "actively exploring ways to address account sharing and the best options for paying subscribers to share their accounts with friends and family." The company expects to start implementing these new policies sometime in 2024. 

Valve announced today that it’s offering “certified refurbished” Steam Deck units. The renewed devices shave around 20 percent off the prices of their new counterparts, allowing you to pick one up for cheaper than Steam Summer Sale prices. The consoles include the same one-year warranty as new models. In addition, Valve announced that GameStop is now selling Steam Deck refurbs in select stores, although its models are “refurbished at GameStop facilities and will come with their own warranty.”

At the time of publication, Valve has all three Steam Deck tiers in stock. The 64GB model costs $319, the 256GB variant is $419 and the 512GB one is sold for $519 — the same systems in new condition retail for $399, $529 and $649, respectively.

Valve says it thoroughly tests each unit before certifying it for resale. “Every device goes through a complete factory reset, software update, and an extensive examination involving over 100 tests at one of Valve’s facilities,” the company wrote. “Among the tests are all controller inputs, the audio system, the screen, and internals. Battery health is also assessed to ensure proper functionality and longevity.”

The company cautions that the renewed units “may have minor cosmetic blemishes,” but it promises “a reliable, high-quality gaming experience at a lower cost.” In addition to offering the same warranty as new consoles, the refurbished models include a power supply (also refurbished), carrying case and quick-start guide. Valve says refurbished Steam Deck stock is limited “and may fluctuate over time.” The company recommends checking its refurbished stock regularly if they’re sold out.

Meanwhile, GameStop's refurbished Steam Decks are also available today. They’re sold in select retail locations for “up to 20% less than new models” and are only available for customers with a GameStop Pro membership, which costs $25 annually.

NASA has reestablished connection with Voyager 2 after a tense two weeks of not hearing anything from the probe. On July 21st, the agency lost contact with Voyager 2 following a series of planned commands that mistakenly pointed it two degrees away from our planet. While it is scheduled to automatically reset its orientation on October 15th, it's not surprising that NASA scientists didn't just wait for that date to know whether the spacecraft is still running. Voyager 2 was launched way back in 1977, and it's one of the only two probes sending us back valuable data on interstellar space. 

For a few days after July 21st, NASA wasn't even sure what the spacecraft's condition was. It wasn't until August 1st that multiple ground antennas from the Deep Space Network (DSN) were able to detect a carrier signal from the probe. A carrier signal is what a spacecraft uses to beam data back to the ground, but NASA said the one DSN detected was too weak to be able to transmit any information. Still, it was enough to confirm that Voyager 2 was still working and that it hadn't deviated from its trajectory. 

Instead of simply waiting for October, Voyager's ground team decided to take action. They concocted a plan to "shout" a command to the spacecraft across over 12.3 billion miles of space using the DSN, telling it to turn its antenna back to Earth. The whole process illustrated just how vast outer space truly is: It took 18.5 hours for that message to reach the probe, and another 18.5 hours for NASA to start receiving science and telemetry data again, indicating that Voyager 2 had received the command. 

This isn't the first time NASA has had issues with the spacecraft. In 2020, it had to provide tech assistance from billions of miles away after it tripped a system that shut off its scientific gear to conserve electricity. Voyager 2 entered interstellar space — that means it exited the plasma bubble created by our sun — back in 2018, becoming the second human-made object to do so after Voyager 1. Although NASA believes that both Voyager 1 and 2 could remain in contact with the DSN until 2036, it also says that "science data won't likely be collected after 2025." The spacecraft could only be providing us information on interstellar space for less than two years, so it stands to reason that scientists don't want to waste a single day it can send data back to Earth.