NES Classic Edition To Go Back On Sale At Best Buy On April 24

Best Buy will sell units of the NES Classic Edition on Monday, April 24, quite possibly the last chance users will have of getting the now-discontinued product from a legitimate retail store.

Grab An NES Classic Edition At Best Buy While You Can

The sale will be in-store only, so there will be no online reservations or purchases. Units will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis.

Exactly how many units Best Buy has in stock is undisclosed, but the retailer says that it'll be "limited." Moreover, some stores may employ a ticketing process to prevent any potential lineup chaos from happening.

The NES Classic Edition Supply Problem

Upon its launch in November, the NES Classic Edition was a wild hit — stores quickly ran out of stocks. Even Nintendo itself was surprised, admitting that the overwhelming reception was not something it had expected. That sentiment showed.

In the months that followed, those looking to buy one simply couldn't. Every store had sold out their units, and there was no word from Nintendo when it'll restock the NES throwback. Units did trickle down, but slowly and scantily. Not long after its release, eBay scalpers took notice, peddling NES Classic Edition units with ridiculously high markups.

But the hype had not died down. Customers were still looking — looking, still — for units even when supply issues were more than apparent. Often, it would show up in legitimate retail stores but only in limited numbers and, more of than not, in a flash-style sale, where the first to come to the store will get it first. No online reservations allowed.

NES Classic Edition Discontinued

So what was Nintendo's response to the overwhelming and obvious demand for the NES Classic Edition? Well, it killed the product entirely. We're not kidding: Nintendo recently announced that it was discontinuing the NES Classic Edition, just five months after its launch. Many publications called it a baffling move, speculating that Nintendo didn't mean for the console to be such a wide hit.

Of the spate of guesswork, one idea seems to be rising from the cruft: that Nintendo only produced a limited run of the NES Classic Edition, intending for it to be a holiday gift that was nothing more than a plaything. Speculation suggests that, not expecting for it to be such a hit, Nintendo had only entered a limited contract with the manufacturer of the consoles. Nintendo probably saw that extending or renewing that contract isn't wise. After all, it still needs to produce millions of Switch units by the end of the year.

Now, all the NES Classic Edition the world will ever see are the ones already lying around, as Nintendo has stopped manufacturing them altogether. So if you've been meaning to get one for the longest time, hit up Best Buy and try your chances there.

The NES Classic Edition is a "mini" reiteration of the Nintendo Entertainment System released in the '80s. It's much smaller, has an HDMI port for compatibility with HDTVs, and it comes preinstalled with 30 NES titles. There's no way to add more games to the preinstalled library — at least not officially.

Mini SNES

Rumor has it that Nintendo plans to release a Mini Super Nintendo Entertainment System next, a mini edition of the SNES, released in the '90s. Hopefully Nintendo doesn't kill it after five months too.

AMAZON ECHO UPDATE - THIS NEW FEATURE COULD LITERALLY SAVE YOUR LIFE

Amazon Echo and Echo Dot took the UK by storm when they launched last year, racking up awards and praise.

The clever 360-degree omni-directional speaker is powered by virtual assistant, dubbed “Alexa”.

This talkative AI assistant lets Echo owners order dinner, check the weather, turn on the lights, adjust your thermostat, get travel updates on your commute, call a cab, and more, using only your voice. Amazon promotes the smart speaker with the tagline, Just Ask.

Alexa also has access to millions of tracks, albums and radio stations.

Third-Pray developers are building new Skills for the smart home device. And this latest one could be a really lifesaver.

The British Red Cross this week launched a new Skill which enables Echo owners to quickly get access to step-by-step first aid advice.

The new Amazon Echo Skill uses simple, spoken instructions to teach people a wide range of first-aid treatments, including how to deal with a severe bleed, a burn and a seizure.

Once the Skill is installed, which is handled via the companion smartphone app, users can access it by saying “Alexa, open First Aid”, and ask for advice, for example “Alexa, ask First Aid how to help someone having a seizure”.

The Red Cross is the first education provider in the UK to pioneer a first aid app for the device.

Recent research from the charity revealed that up to 59 per cent of “pre-hospital” deaths from injury could potentially have been prevented had more people stepped in with some simple first aid.

First Aid seeks to educate people in first aid as part of their daily lives, making them more confident and better equipped to step in and help in emergency situations, British Red Cross stated.

RAPPER’S RIDE REBORN: LINCOLN NAVIGATOR CHARTS COMEBACK AS FAMILY HAULER

The Navigator’s street cred helped it become the top-selling U.S. premium line, until it was passed up by the Cadillac Escalade. The latest Navigator has been designed for “family time” and aimed at affluent parents.

SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS SAYS GALAXY S8 PRE-ORDERS EXCEEDED S7

Pre-orders for Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's flagship Galaxy S8 smartphone have exceeded those of its predecessor S7, mobile business chief Koh Dong-jin said on Thursday, suggesting many consumers were unfazed by last year's Galaxy Note 7 fires.

The S8, which begin sales in South Korea, the United States and Canada on April 21, will be central to the South Korean firm's recovery from the swift withdrawal of the Note 7 phablet.

The new device has been well-received, and some investors and analysts said it could set a first-year sales record for the smartphone giant.

"It's still a bit early, but initial response to the pre-orders that have begun at various places across the world have been better than expected," Koh said at a media briefing.

The S8 will be the safest Galaxy smartphone to date due to safety measures implemented to avoid the battery failures that caused some Note 7s to spontaneously combust, he said.

Analysts expect Samsung to record its best-ever quarterly profit in April-June, buoyed by strong S8 sales and a memory chip market boom that is widely expected to deliver record revenue for the industry this year.

The new device, equipped with either 5.8-inch or 6.2-inch (14.73 cm or 15.75 cm) curved screens, sports the largest screens to date among all of Samsung's flagship phones due to a redesign.

Koh also said the firm plans to use the S8 to try to recover in China, where Samsung has been out of the top five vendors in recent years due to heightened competition from local rivals such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

He said Samsung will aim to regain market share in China even if it takes time, without elaborating on specific strategies.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christopher Cushing)

JAGUAR’S LATEST SPORTSCAR OFFERS POWER WITH RESPONSIBILITY - SEE MORE AT:

LONDON, April 13 — In a bid to prove that keen drivers put too much emphasis on cylinder count rather than torque, horsepower and weight, Jaguar has decided to take its F-Type sports coupé and jettison the usual V8 or V6 in favour of a four-cylinder engine.

But don’t panic, it’s not just any old four-pot. It’s one of Jaguar’s new hyper-efficient 2-litre Ingenium turbocharged units and therefore is capable of serving up 300PS (296bhp). Throw in the fact that the smaller block and some other adjustments have shaved 52kg off the car’s weight and that little engine is good for a 0-60mph time of 5.4 seconds (exactly the same as the V6 F-Type) and on to a top speed of 155mph.

Yet the car’s fuel economy is a 16 per cent improvement over the 340PS V6 model and emits 163g of CO2 per km.

“The 300PS Ingenium petrol engine is engineered to deliver a compelling blend of performance, refinement and efficiency,” said Ron Lee, Engineering Director of Powertrain, Jaguar Land Rover. “Not only is this the most powerful four-cylinder ever offered in a production Jaguar, it also develops the highest specific power and torque ratings of any engine in the F-Type range. It’s a natural fit for a Jaguar sports car.”

The lighter engine has also changed the car’s handling characteristics, turning it into a vehicle that craves country backroads as much as long highway straights.

“Most of the weight reduction is over the front axle, making the car beautifully balanced and really agile to drive — as you’d expect, the car is really at home on beautiful twisty roads,” said Erol Mustafa, Chief Product Engineer, Jaguar Sports Cars. “This particular F-Type has a character all of its own. I like to think of it as the feisty younger brother of the V6 and V8 models.”

And while the company has cut back on cylinders, it’s been generous with active safety and creature comforts. The car comes with a Touch Pro infotainment system, autonomous emergency braking and lane departure warning; other options include lane keep assist, traffic sign recognition and even a driver condition monitor.

The F-Type 300PS 2-litre will cost from £50,000 (about RM278,000) when it goes on sale later this year. — AFP-Relaxnews

THIS WEEK, NASA ANNOUNCES FRESH DISCOVERY ON OCEAN WORLDS IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

NASA is holding a major press conference this week to reveal its latest results on ocean worlds in our own solar system.

At the said mysterious event, the U.S. space agency will disclose findings on its “broader search for life beyond Earth,” as well as things that could potentially affect “future ocean world exploration.”

News On Oceans Beyond Earth
Cassini’s Planned Demise
Other Recent Space Adventures

The announcements, to be given in a news briefing 2 p.m. EDT this Thursday, April 13, will relate to findings from its Cassini spacecraft as well as the Hubble Space Telescope. They will be made at the NASA headquarters’ James Webb Auditorium in Washington, with remote participation from experts across the United States.

“These new discoveries will help inform future ocean world exploration — including NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission planned for launch in the 2020s — and the broader search for life beyond Earth,” NASA said in a statement.

Participants in the media briefing will include Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for Science Mission Directorate; Jim Green, Planetary Science Division director; and astrobiology senior scientist Mary Voytek.

The panel and remotely positioned experts will entertain questions during the event, while the public can also ask their own questions using the hashtag #AskNASA.

The Cassini spacecraft, launched in 1997 and which arrived in the Saturn system in 2004, is bound to end its two-decade mission on Sept. 15 with a planned probe kill. In a final maneuver, Cassini, currently facing a fuel crunch, will be set on a collision course with Saturn’s atmosphere and is expected to “break apart, melt, vaporize, and become a part of the very planet it left Earth 20 years ago to explore,” according to project manager Earl Maize.

This crash has been planned by the agency to avoid contamination of a nearby moon hoped to potentially harbor alien life.

Afterward, NASA’s planned Europa Clipper will position a spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter to perform a detailed probe of moon Europa. The giant planet’s moon has exhibited strong proof of an ocean of liquid water, situated beneath icy crust and which could be hospitable to life.

Cassini has been deemed generally productive given the high-value investigation of Saturn, its rings, and moons. It transmitted, for instance, images that highlighted Enceladus’ geysers with a hint of an ocean underneath, as well as the Earth-like moon Titan.

Other NASA missions are marking their own milestones. Just recently, the New Horizons probe successfully reached the halfway point between Pluto and its second target for flyby, the remote Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69.

The probe reached this milestone on April 3 at midnight UTC (April 2, 8 p.m. ET), at a distance of 486.19 million miles from Pluto and the same distance to the remote asteroid. New Horizons eyes swooping past the object, located about 1 billion miles beyond Pluto, on Jan. 1, 2019 — another record for space explorations.

New Horizons reached Pluto in July 2015 after its launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida back in January 2006. As Pluto’s first guest from Earth, it is currently 3.5 billion miles from our planet, taking radio signals five hours and 20 minutes to get from the control center in Johns Hopkins University in Maryland to the spacecraft.

MOTO Z2 LEAKS IN A PRESS RENDER, TO SPORT A DUAL CAMERA WITH MOTO MOD SUPPORT

The past few days have been quite interesting especially if you are a Motorola fan. First it was the Moto E4, then the Moto C and C Plus and today we have yet another leak around an upcoming Moto smartphone.

Moto’s flagship last year, the Moto Z, was probably one of the most unique approach towards a modular smartphone design. This year the company is expected to bring a successor in the form of the Moto Z2. According to an alleged press render, you can see that it won’t come with a radical design change. Most of the design queues are going to remain the same.

It still seems to have a slim profile, the 16-pin connectors at the back and a round bulging camera hump. There are minor changes though. The camera module seems to be housing two lenses which means a dual-camera setup. It will be interesting to see how Moto implements the dual setup.

Also, the front facing fingerprint scanner has been changed. The square shaped one from last year has now been replaced with an oval shaped sensor, similar to what we saw on the new Moto G5 series.

There is no information about the hardware, but we expect that Moto will update the internals considering they cannot overhaul the design. In the past we have seen a leak pointing to a Moto Z smartphone running on a Snapdragon 835 SoC.

New Moto Mods are also expected to arrive this year as Moto and Lenovo announced a few at Mobile World Congress when it showcased the new Moto G5 smartphones.

AT&T’S UNLIMITED PLUS WIRELESS PLAN NOW INCLUDES FREE HBO

AT&T’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner hasn’t yet completed, but the company is already leveraging Time Warner assets to boost its own services – first with its streaming TV service DirecTV Now, which is currently giving out free HBO, and now today it’s rolling out free HBO to AT&T’s “Unlimited Plus” wireless plan subscribers. The channel will be offered to both AT&T video subscribers and wireless-only customers, AT&T says.

For any Unlimited Plus wireless customer who also subscribes to one of AT&T’s video services, including DirecTV Now, DirecTV, or U-verse, the channel will be offered for free through the service they already use. If they had previously signed up for HBO, they’ll no longer have to pay for it. And if they didn’t, it will become free.

This goes beyond the “free HBO” that DirecTV Now was touting earlier, as that was meant to be a limited-time promotion that would expire after a year’s time.

That wasn’t the first time that AT&T used HBO to attract customers. Before, AT&T had launched DirecTV Now with an offer of HBO for only $5 extra per month – well under the price for the streaming service HBO NOW, or the add-on available on rival streaming services, like Sling TV.

Along with the launch of free HBO, AT&T is also incentivizing customers to sign up for its video services by offering a $25 monthly video credit towards DirecTV, internet-only DirecTV Now, or U-verse. This credit remains as long as the customers are on the Unlimited Plus wireless plan.

But you don’t have to subscribe to an AT&T video service to take advantage of the free HBO, AT&T says (though clearly it would like you to do so.) If you don’t, you’ll instead be able to log in to either the DirecTV Now or HBO GO app to watch the HBO content.

DirecTV Now users get three HBO channels (HBO, HBO East, and HBO Family), while DirecTV customers get 10 (East and West coast feeds of HBO, HBO2, HBO Family, as well as HBO Comedy, Latino, Signature, Zone, and On Demand). U-verse customers gain 14 channels.

The Unlimited Plus plan itself includes unlimited data, talk and text, plus 10 GB of Wi-Fi tethering per phone, with speeds that slow after 22 GB of data usage per line.

Streaming HBO doesn’t count against the data cap, a practice known as zero rating.

Zero-rated video services is something rival T-Mobile is also doing, through its Binge On service, which also includes HBO NOW, and most other top video services like Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, Sling TV, Hulu, WatchESPN and more.

Under the Obama administration, the FCC was concerned about zero rating – especially AT&T’s plans to zero rate DirecTV Now and Verizon’s zero rating of go90 [disclosure: Verizon owns TechCrunch parent AOL] – which it felt could give the companies an unfair advantage.

But under the Trump administration, probes into zero rating were killed off, as new FCC chairman said the organization’s focus would no longer be on “denying Americans free data.”

We should also note that free HBO via AT&T’s wireless plan isn’t a promotion for new customers – it will apply to existing subscribers, too.

APPLE’S PATENT APPLICATION SHOWS TOUCH BAR FOUND IN MACBOOK PRO COULD BE ON MAGIC KEYBOARD

The Touch Bar OLED on the latest MacBook Pro is one of its iconic and perhaps coolest features. However, for those utilizing the iMac and Mac Pro, you guys are out of luck, for a while at least.

Apple's latest patent application shows the Cupertino-based tech giant exploring the idea of bringing the Touch Bar and the Touch ID to the new Magic Keyboard. There have been images from the new patents published by the US Patent and Trademark Office last Thursday.

There were 3 patent applications, 20170090596, 20170090597, and 20170090654, all of which identified as  "Keyboard with Adaptive Input Row." These patent applications were filed last September 26 crediting 10 people as inventors.

If these were to come true, it would bring the Touch Bar functionality and fingerprint unlocking feature found on the latest MacBook Pro to the iMac and Mac Pro. As an added bonus, the upcoming Magic Keyboard could also be paired with older MacBook Pro models, MacBook Air, and of course MacBook.

The patent describes the Touch Bar interface as a compact screen offering extra commands that the user can trigger, thus changing based on the task the user is performing and its application.

Plus, Apple could have included the separate keyboard image so that the tech giant could cover as many areas with the tech as possible. However, this does not guarantee that Apple does indeed plan on bringing the Touch Bar functionality to the Magic Keyboard.

But at least they are exploring the idea. You never know, this might actually happen in the near future.

In fact, Apple is already holding discussions with Sonder, the dynamic keyboard maker. This could possibly hint that there is more than meets the eye with these recently published patents.

However, the Cupertino-based tech giant has to solve a couple of issues first like frame-rates when using a wireless connection, battery life, and cost. Although judging by the launch of the new Touch Bar functionality, perhaps cost may not be an impossible roadblock to the future of keyboards.

If you want a detailed look at the Apple's published patents, click here. In the meantime, stay tuned for more updates on whether the Touch Bar functionality and other features found on the latest MacBook Pro will make it to the Magic Keyboard.

UBUNTU SWITCHES TO GNOME DESKTOP AND GIVES UP SMARTPHONE HOPES

Some of you may have been surprised when Canonical's founder Mark Shuttleworth announced Ubuntu Linux was ending its "investment in Unity8, the phone and convergence shell". I wasn't. Ubuntu had long been a cloud power and it's been building its Internet of Things (IoT) reputation. Shuttleworth and his executives finally decided to play to the company's strongest suit.

Say goodbye to Ubuntu's Unity desktop. Starting in 2018, Canonical is switching back to the GNOME interface.

In some ways, it was an easy choice. Shuttleworth wrote, "The cloud and IoT story for Ubuntu is excellent and continues to improve. You all probably know that most public cloud workloads, and most private Linux cloud infrastructures, depend on Ubuntu. You might also know that most of the IoT work in auto, robotics, networking, and machine learning is also on Ubuntu, with Canonical providing commercial services on many of those initiatives."

But, it was also a painful one. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, had invested blood, sweat, and tears in its Unity interface for smartphones, tablets, and PCs, and its smartphone. Shuttleworth said, "I took the view that if convergence was the future and we could deliver it as free software, that would be widely appreciated both in the free-software community and in the technology industry, where there is substantial frustration with the existing, closed alternatives available to manufacturers. I was wrong on both counts. In the community, our efforts were seen fragmentation not innovation."

Moving forward on the desktop, Ubuntu is abandoning the long-delayed Unity 8 interface to return to the GNOME desktop starting with next year's Ubuntu 18.04 release.

Some will miss Unity. Software designer and Ubuntu user Richard Gaskin wrote, "'I've found Unity more productive, and have come to rely on it like a trusty friend." Ubuntu Touch developer Mitchell Reese said, "We love Unity8! There is so much promise, and you are so close to success!" If Canonical doesn't move forward with Unity, he, for one, is interested in continuing the project as a fork.

Shuttleworth emphasized that while the company won't be working on the smartphone, the desktop remains a high-priority. "I'd like to emphasize our ongoing passion for, investment in, and commitment to, the Ubuntu desktop that millions rely on. We will continue to produce the most usable open-source desktop in the world, to maintain the existing LTS releases, to work with our commercial partners to distribute that desktop, to support our corporate customers who rely on it, and to delight the millions of IoT and cloud developers who innovate on top of it."

This isn't surprising. Dell, among other PC makers, is investing more in Ubuntu laptops.

Other Ubuntu desktop-related efforts, such as the Mir display server, are also presumed to be coming to an end now. Wayland, another open-source display server, will probably replace it in future Ubuntu releases.

Jono Bacon, noted open-source community leader and former Canonical employee, tweeted: "Tough decision, but the right one. Will make a tighter machine and alignment and overall good for the desktop."

On Google+, Bacon added, "While Unity didn't pan out, and there were many good steps and missteps along the way, I am proud that Canonical tried to innovate. Innovation is tough and fraught with risk. The Linux desktop has always been a tough nut to crack, and one filled with an army of voices, but I am proud Canonical gave it a shot even if it didn't succeed its ultimate goals"

Other open-source industry figures such as Nextcloud founder Frank Karlitschek think Ubuntu's desktop move is a smart one. On Google+, Karlitschek wrote, "This is a welcoming surprise." Others, such as Bryan Lunduke, SUSE's social media manager, saw it as Canonical finally abandoning a failed idea. "Official: Ubuntu ditching Unity for GNOME. Called it. Years ago."

Looking ahead, Shuttleworth outlines Ubuntu's future as investing "in the areas which are contributing to the growth of the company. Those are Ubuntu itself, for desktops, servers and VMs, our cloud infrastructure products (OpenStack and Kubernetes) our cloud operations capabilities (MAAS, LXD, Juju, BootStack), and our IoT story in snaps and Ubuntu Core."

PERSONA 5 TIPS: HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OUT OF THE SOCIAL SIMULATOR, DUNGEON CRAWLER HYBRID

After a couple of delays, Persona 5 has finally been released into the United States on April 4.

For both fans of the long-running Japanese RPG franchise and newcomers to the series, here are some tips on how to make the most out of your Persona 5 playthrough.

Always Save
Stay As Long As You Can In Dungeons
Save SP
Use Your Sense Skill
Spend Time With Confidants
Accept The Fact That You Will Not Achieve Everything
Enjoy The Game

As with any RPG, saving as often as you can could spell the difference between an enjoyable playthrough and a disastrous one. Fortunately, chances to save in Persona 5 are plentiful, and it is best to do so just in case you mess up something such as making a poor decision or fusing away one of your favorite Personas.

It is also recommended that players create multiple saves, so that there is an option to go back at a certain point in the game in case things are not going well in the current save.

Every day counts in the calendar system of Persona 5, so once you decide to enter a dungeon, make sure that you stay as long as possible to maximize the day.

Dungeons, or "Palaces" as referred to in the game, are always best tried to be completed long before the deadline, as trying to complete one on the last possible day and failing will lead to a game over screen. Staying as long as possible in dungeons to progress as far as possible on each visit will prevent such a thing from happening.

One of the ways that players can stay long inside Palaces is by conserving their SP, which is what is used for casting magic. Players who burn all their SP right away by spamming magic right from the start of a dungeon will find it more difficult to make considerable progress.

While reducing reliance on magic and increasing dependence on physical attacks will likely lead to more HP lost for the player's characters, there are many more items and magic that can cure HP compared to those that recover SP.

The Sense skill, which can be activated by holding the L1 button, shows players specific paths that they can take in each Palace, as well as items that can be acquired and later sold.

The Sense skill is not only useful in dungeons though, as when used in the real world, it will highlight the places that the player can visit and the people that they can talk to.

Persona 5 is not just a dungeon crawler, but also a social simulator. Spending time and building up relationships with confidants, referred to as Social Links in previous Persona games, will make Personas stronger and unlock unique skills.

The recommended confidants to focus on are the other members of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, namely, the Lovers, Chariot, Emperor, Priestess, Hermit, and Empress, as well as Temperance, Death, Sun, and Moon.

Persona 5 may seem like an overwhelming game at the start, especially for players who think that they could have a perfect game that includes maxing out all confidant levels, acquiring all Personas, reading every book, completing every request, and more.

While the feat is statistically possible, doing so will require a strict formula that will be very difficult to stick to, and will likely get in the way of the last tip.

The massive content offered by Persona 5 is not there to overwhelm players, but to offer near countless possibilities. As such, perhaps the best tip that can be given for gamers is to simply enjoy the spectacle that is Persona 5, and worry about the details much later.

AT&T’S UNLIMITED PLUS WIRELESS PLAN NOW INCLUDES FREE HBO

AT&T’s $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner hasn’t yet completed, but the company is already leveraging Time Warner assets to boost its own services – first with its streaming TV service DirecTV Now, which is currently giving out free HBO, and now today it’s rolling out free HBO to AT&T’s “Unlimited Plus” wireless plan subscribers. The channel will be offered to both AT&T video subscribers and wireless-only customers, AT&T says.

For any Unlimited Plus wireless customer who also subscribes to one of AT&T’s video services, including DirecTV Now, DirecTV, or U-verse, the channel will be offered for free through the service they already use. If they had previously signed up for HBO, they’ll no longer have to pay for it. And if they didn’t, it will become free.

This goes beyond the “free HBO” that DirecTV Now was touting earlier, as that was meant to be a limited-time promotion that would expire after a year’s time.

That wasn’t the first time that AT&T used HBO to attract customers. Before, AT&T had launched DirecTV Now with an offer of HBO for only $5 extra per month – well under the price for the streaming service HBO NOW, or the add-on available on rival streaming services, like Sling TV.

Along with the launch of free HBO, AT&T is also incentivizing customers to sign up for its video services by offering a $25 monthly video credit towards DirecTV, internet-only DirecTV Now, or U-verse. This credit remains as long as the customers are on the Unlimited Plus wireless plan.

But you don’t have to subscribe to an AT&T video service to take advantage of the free HBO, AT&T says (though clearly it would like you to do so.) If you don’t, you’ll instead be able to log in to either the DirecTV Now or HBO GO app to watch the HBO content.

DirecTV Now users get three HBO channels (HBO, HBO East, and HBO Family), while DirecTV customers get 10 (East and West coast feeds of HBO, HBO2, HBO Family, as well as HBO Comedy, Latino, Signature, Zone, and On Demand). U-verse customers gain 14 channels.

The Unlimited Plus plan itself includes unlimited data, talk and text, plus 10 GB of Wi-Fi tethering per phone, with speeds that slow after 22 GB of data usage per line.

Streaming HBO doesn’t count against the data cap, a practice known as zero rating.

Zero-rated video services is something rival T-Mobile is also doing, through its Binge On service, which also includes HBO NOW, and most other top video services like Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, Sling TV, Hulu, WatchESPN and more.

Under the Obama administration, the FCC was concerned about zero rating – especially AT&T’s plans to zero rate DirecTV Now and Verizon’s zero rating of go90 [disclosure: Verizon owns TechCrunch parent AOL] – which it felt could give the companies an unfair advantage.

But under the Trump administration, probes into zero rating were killed off, as new FCC chairman said the organization’s focus would no longer be on “denying Americans free data.”

We should also note that free HBO via AT&T’s wireless plan isn’t a promotion for new customers – it will apply to existing subscribers, too.

LEXUS APRIL FOOLS' DAY PRANK USES V2V AGAINST LEFT-LANE HOGS

Debuting in the first-ever Lexus LC and all-new LS, the brand has announced "Lane Valet", something they call "a breakthrough innovation that every driver will appreciate". According to Lexus, Lane Valet is activated by the touch of a dashboard button. "We're just trying to give everyone the best possible driving experience". It's pretty annoying, so Lexus has developed a technology to combat that.

"This advanced system will improve traffic flow by assisting the movement of slower moving vehicles from the left lane into the more appropriate right lane, which, in turn, helps make the highway safe and more enjoyable for all parties".

Lexus Lane Valet relies on two big automotive advancements - autonomous driving and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications. It's also certain to raise many questions - if not cause outright panic - about safety, liability, and the ethics of remotely taking control of another vehicle without that driver's prior knowledge.

But then again, isn't it all worth it to keep the fast lane clear of slow, inattentive drivers? This broadcast spot for Lane Valet-out of ad agency Team One-will air this Saturday (4/1) during the NCAA Men's Final Four Game 2 on CBS, on Comedy Central and during an encore presentation of Saturday Night Live on NBC.

This "imaginary" optional feature is being rolled out on all Lexus models on April 1, 2017, a.k.a. April Fools' Day.

MOTO G5 PLUS NOW AVAILABLE; G4 PLUS RECEIVES NOUGAT UPDATE

When the Moto G5 Plus was announced earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress, people were pretty psyched about seeing a budget-friendly device with specs that are more than decent. What we didn’t know is when it will arrive in the US. Now the wondering is over as the device is officially available through various retail channels. For owners of the previous generation Moto G4 Plus, there’s also good news: the Android 7.0 Nougat is rolling out to the unlocked versions in the US.

The Moto G5 Plus has a 5.2-inch 1080p display and is powered by a Snapdragon 625 processor. It runs on near stock Android Nougat already, has a 3,000 mAh battery and is made up of a combination of a metal/plastic body with water repellent nano coating. Camera-wise, it has a 12MP main camera with dual LED flash while the front-facing one has a 5MP shooter. It also has fingerprint sensor as well as the other usual sensors like accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, etc.

The smartphone comes in two variants. The 2GB RAM / 32GB storage costs around $229 while the 4GB RAM / 64GB storage will be at $299. There are two colors available for now, the Lunar Gray and the Fine Gold. When you pick up the device at any of the retailers like Republic Wireless, Amazon, Best Buy, etc, you will be able to use with major US carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

Meanwhile, the Moto G4 Plus is getting a shiny new upgrade as the Android 7.0 Nougat is finally rolling out to the unlocked versions. Users will be able to enjoy all the new features including inline notification replies, multi-window mode, better battery life with improvements to Doze, and other goodies. The update is at 741MB so make sure you have good Internet connection and enough space in your device for the update.

IMAGINATION TECH SHARES PLUNGE AS APPLE ABANDONS BRITISH FIRM

Apple (AAPL.O) has given Imagination Tech (IMG.L) notice that it will stop using its graphics technology in the iPhone and other products in up to two years' time, dealing a major blow to the British company, which could lose half of its revenue.

Shares in Imagination, in which Apple holds an 8 percent stake, plunged by 65 percent.

Imagination said Apple, its biggest customer, was developing its own independent graphics processing chips, which would reduce its reliance on the company.

The technology group licenses its processing designs to Apple and receives a small royalty on every graphics chip used in a iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.

Imagination, however, said it doubted that Apple could go it alone without violating Imagination' patents, intellectual property and confidential information.

"This evidence has been requested by Imagination but Apple has declined to provide it," it said on Monday.

It said that Apple's notification had triggered talks on alternative commercial arrangements for the current license and royalty agreement.

Apple paid Imagination license fees and royalties totaling 60.7 million pounds for the year to end-April 2016, half of its total revenue, and is expected to pay about 65 million pounds for this year, Imagination said.

HERE’S ALL OF GOOGLE’S APRIL FOOLS’ DAY PRANKS SO FAR

As the internet gets flooded with April Fools’ Day jokes — good or lame — it can be hard to keep track of the ones that are worthy of your attention. Google, in particular, is known for rolling out a ton of different pranks. Most of them are actually pretty fun since they are localized to each Google product or regional team.