Technologies

Score 1 Month of Paramount Plus for Free With This Code

Stay entertained all month long with plenty of movies, TV shows and live sports on Paramount Plus.

There are a ton of streaming services to choose from these days, and if you want to subscribe to them all, it’ll cost you a pretty penny. However, Paramount Plus you can nab a month of service for free. It’s been 30 years since Cheers aired its final episode, but it remains a beloved and iconic series. Right now you can use code CHEERSATX to bump up the usual one-week free trial to an entire month, giving you the chance to binge the long-running show about a place everybody knows your name — or check out the rest of the massive catalog of TV, movies and live sports on the service.

See at Paramount Plus

There are two different plans to choose from — Essential or Premium — and the code works for either version. The $5-a-month Essential plan gives you access to Paramount Plus shows and movies with limited commercials, as well as NFL on CBS, top soccer games and CBS live news. The $10-a-month Premium plan has no ads (except for live TV), gives you access to additional sports and your local CBS channel, and allows you to download shows and movies. After your trial, your subscription will auto-renew at the regular price unless canceled.

It’s worth noting that the above code also works with the Paramount Plus and Showtime bundle, so you can actually get a month of both services for free if you want. Just be aware that you’ll be charged the bundle price (from $12 a month) on your renewal date if you don’t cancel before then. And be sure to check out our roundup of all the best streaming service deals for even more ways to save.

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.»