Technologies

HBO Max Is Now Max: New Movies and TV Shows You Can Watch Right Now

HBO Max has rebranded as Max in the US. Here are its brand-new titles for launch day.

HBO Max is now officially Max, the revamped streaming service that merges HBO Max and Discovery Plus’ libraries. Today, new movies and shows premiere on the service, including a SmartLess docuseries and a family-friendly Gremlins cartoon. (Shazam! Fury of the Gods isn’t totally new, but it’s included in the list below, too.)

Here’s more about what just hit Max on launch day and what’s coming in the future. If you stick with the service long enough, you’ll eventually catch a new Harry Potter series and Game of Thrones spin-off. Max streams Warner Bros., HBO, Max Originals, DC, HGTV, Food Network, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Discovery Channel, TLC, ID and more.

What hit Max on May 23

SmartLess: On the Road: Docuseries that follows actors and friends Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes during the North American tour of their popular podcast.
Bama Rush: Documentary about sorority recruitment at the University of Alabama.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods: Sequel to Shazam!, continuing the story of Billy Batson, a teen with an adult superhero alter ego.
Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai: An animated family series set before the live-action films.
Clone High: Reboot of the 2002 animated series Clone High.
How to Create a Sex Scandal: A docuseries that tells of how «brainwashing, manipulation and disturbing acts caused a small local community in Mineola, Texas, to unravel.»
What Am I Eating? With Zooey Deschanel: An unscripted series in which Deschanel debunks myths about food.

Also coming to Max relatively close to launch are Magnolia Network series Silos Baking Competition (May 28), ID docuseries The Curious Case of Natalia Grace (May 29), Sarah Silverman‘s comedy special (May 27), HBO documentary Being Mary Tyler Moore (May 26) and Reality, an HBO film starring Sydney Sweeney (May 29).

More coming to Max in the future

Everything we learned when Warner Bros. Discovery unveiled Max in April

Max is the streaming home of HBO, so it isn’t leaving Game of Thrones behind. WBD revealed that HBO has ordered a new Game of Thrones prequel series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. The series will be set 100 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when «two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros … a young, naive but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg,» according to its description.

«Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends,» the log line says.

Harry Potter fans will be able to get invested in a new show on Max. Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max content, said, «Over the course of the next decade … we will once again enter the wondrous world of Harry Potter as a multi-season live action series for the first time.» The Max original series will adapt the first seven Harry Potter books and star new actors.

A first look at The Penguin and more:

WBD shared a first look trailer for previously announced series The Penguin, starring Colin Farrell in his role from Matt Reeves’ film The Batman. The spin-off will consist of eight episodes and premiere in 2024.

A drama series set In The Conjuring universe is in development.
A comedy series derived from The Big Bang Theory is in development.
Previously announced comedy series How to Be a Bookie is coming to Max. It’ll reportedly reunite Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre.
More things already on our radar: DC shows Creature Commandos, Waller, Booster Gold, Lanterns and Paradise Lost. Drama series Welcome to Derry, a prequel to 2017’s It and 2019’s It Chapter Two, debuts in 2024.
Several projects that were initially developed for Discovery Plus will now be Max originals, according to Bloys. They include Shaun White: The Last Run and Downey’s Dream Cars, featuring Robert Downey Jr.
Fixer Upper: The Hotel, a new installment in the Fixer Upper franchise, will hit Max in November. Watch a new trailer with Chip and Joanna Gaines.
The Flash hits theaters in June and Max in the fall.
Love and Translation, a fresh dating series from the producers of 90 Day Fiance, hits Max in winter 2023.

Food competition series Ciao House, which premiered on Food Network, will be on Max.
Survive the Raft, a reality show from Discovery Channel, hits Max in July.
Lost Women of Highway 20 will hit Max in 2023. The true crime series features Octavia Spencer.
Rick and Morty: The Anime will debut on Max along with Adult Swim in 2023.

Same faces, different places.

Rick and Morty: The Anime is coming this year to Max and @adultswim. #StreamOnMax pic.twitter.com/GLs6mgH4lB

— HBO Max (@hbomax) April 12, 2023

Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge, a doll-themed home renovation competition series, hits Max this summer.
Tiny Toons Looniversity, a reboot of Tiny Toon Adventures, is coming to Max this fall.
A Peter and the Wolf animated short film, featuring artwork based on original illustrations by Bono, is coming to Max in 2023.
HBO series True Detective: Night Country released a new trailer. It’s coming in 2023 and stars Jodie Foster.

A trailer for HBO limited series The Regime dropped. The show debuts in 2024 and features Kate Winslet.
HBO limited series The Sympathizer also got a new trailer. It’s coming in 2024 and is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name.

Technologies

Google Rolls Out New Travel Features, Just in Time for Summer

Gemini can call around to find that one travel essential you forgot about.

It doesn’t matter that it’s late April. To me, it’s officially summer. With the days getting longer and warmer, and school wrapping up soon, a lot of us are dreaming of summer vacations.

Google launched some new travel features just in time to start planning those trips.

You might already be familiar with Google Flights and AI Mode, but Google’s two latest travel tools can help you round out the experience even more.

New Google travel features

On Friday, Google announced a new feature to track hotel prices and another that can help you in a packing mishap.

Track hotel prices with Google Search

Similar to how you can currently track flight prices, you can now toggle on price tracking for specific hotels on the Google Search results page or via google.com/hotels.

Last year, Google launched a feature that lets you track hotel prices for a specific city, but that only tracks one hotel you prefer.

On desktop, you can open Search, look up a hotel, then toggle on the new price tracking. On mobile, you find the price tracking option under the Prices tab. Once you toggle on price tracking, you’ll get email alerts when rates drop during your set dates, so you never miss a deal.

AI Mode will find products you forgot to pack

Picture this: You land in your dream tropical destination, open your suitcase and realize you forgot to pack sunglasses. A new feature in AI Mode will let you find products in stock nearby. Google’s agentic AI will call local stores for you to see if it has the products you’re looking for and any relevant deals.

To get started, you will just need to briefly describe your need, like «I forgot to pack polarized sunglasses. Where can I get some nearby?» From there, Gemini will call local stores and then send you results on where you can shop.

This tool launched directly on Search in November and is now rolling out over the coming weeks in AI Mode in the US.

For more travel advice, here’s the best time to shop for airline tickets and how to find cheap flights.

Technologies

Are You a Verified Human? Yes? That’s Exactly What AI Would Say!

World ID, an identity system designed to prove you’re human, is expanding to Tinder and concert ticket sales.

It’s hard out here for a human as artificial intelligence bots and agents increasingly take over the web, social media and even Hollywood. How does one prove that they are not a digital creation generated from large language models when engaging in, say, work meetings, online dating or buying concert tickets?

World ID is a platform designed to address this problem, with a familiar name behind it. It was founded in 2019 by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, along with Alex Blania and Max Novendstern, and has evolved from focusing on cryptocurrency into identity verification.

World announced it’s partnering with companies like Zoom to verify humans on calls and with dating service Tinder for online profile verification.

Zoom says it will integrate World ID Deep Face, «enabling real-time verification that meeting participants are human to strengthen trust in live communications.»

For Tinder, Match Group is trying out World ID for age verification on the dating app, starting in Japan. The site will add a verification marker to profiles for those who pass the human test.

World ID has also developed a tool called Concert Kit, a way for artists to sell event tickets with human verification to prevent sales to ticket bots.

It’s also working with companies such as Razer, DocuSign, Shopify and Coinbase for its World ID humanity verification.

It also offers a device for preorder, about the size of a soccer ball, called the Orb. (You can put a $100 deposit down if a futuristic-looking identity camera is on your wishlist.) The website says the Orb is an «open source device that verifies you are a unique human without knowing anything else about you.»