Technologies

DirecTV Will Keep NFL Sunday Ticket in Bars, Restaurants and Hotels

Commercial venues won’t need to figure out streaming just yet.

DirecTV is keeping NFL Sunday Ticket… at least for bars, restaurants and other «commercial venues.» The new multiyear deal, which begins with the 2023 football season, was announced Thursday by the satellite company and EverPass Media, the NFL’s new media platform for handling the distribution of «live sports and entertainment content» to businesses.

The new deal is for commercial use only and not for consumers who subscribe to DirecTV’s satellite TV service or its internet-based Stream TV offering. DirecTV says its commercial unit consists of over 300,000 locations and also includes casinos, hotel lounges and shops.

NFL Sunday Ticket was a long-time DirecTV-only product for both businesses and consumers, but the consumer version has now become exclusive to Google’s YouTube TV. The streaming TV service has already begun taking preorders for the football package, with discounted pricing running until June 6 that charges YouTube TV subscribers $249 for the full NFL season. The price jumps to $349 after that date. Non-YouTube TV users can get Sunday Ticket as well through YouTube Primetime Channels, but they will need to pay a higher rate.

Financial terms of the new deal were not disclosed. While it will include all out-of-market NFL games on Sundays, it was not immediately clear if this version of Sunday Ticket would include the NFL’s popular RedZone channel.

When DirecTV offered the full Sunday Ticket package, it produced its own version of RedZone separate from the option that was more broadly available to other TV providers.

For DirecTV, the move to keep Sunday Ticket follows its other deals with streaming services to continue to air sports for businesses, even as the games themselves increasingly become streaming-only for users. The satellite giant has previously struck deals with Amazon (for Thursday Night Football) and Apple (Friday Night Baseball and MLS Season Pass) to air their respective streaming-exclusive games on its traditional satellite network for its commercial customers.

Technologies

Honor’s Shimmering Magic V Flip 2 Has Arrived to Outshine Samsung’s Galaxy Flip

The flip foldable, releasing in China, includes a limited edition model co-designed by Jimmy Choo.

Honor has unveiled a new flip phone in China, and the company is billing it as, «the ultimate selfie device.» The Magic V Flip 2 includes an ultra-wide portrait mode, AI photography features and a playful, sparkly design.

The Magic V Flip 2 adds another device to Honor’s increasing lineup of foldable phones. So far, it’s only releasing the Magic V Flip 2 in China, starting on Aug. 28. It will sell for RMB 5,499 or about $766 USD.

The Magic V Flip2 appears to be geared toward influencers and fashionistas — a limited edition version of the new phone is co-designed by fashion icon Jimmy Choo and is, «inspired by the subtle shimmer of crystals.» It comes in deep sea blue and has a crushed stardust design, according to Honor’s press release.

Honor is also touting the phone’s 5,500mAh battery, which it says is the largest on the market for a flip phone. The also phone features a 200-megapixel main camera, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 50 MP selfie camera. The Magic V Flip 2’s closest competition may be Samsung’s Galaxy Flip 7 FE, which is about $200 more expensive than the Magic V Flip 2.

Technologies

Silksong, Long-Awaited Hollow Knight Spinoff, Gets Release Date: Sept. 4

Announced in 2019, Team Cherry’s follow-up is coming sooner than expected, and it’s on Game Pass on Day 1.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is the follow-up, announced back in 2019, to one of the most beloved indie games of the last decade. In a special announcement video on Thursday, Australian developer Team Cherry revealed that the wait is almost over.

Silksong will be released on Sept. 4, according to the new trailer. The almost two-minute video reveals some of the new enemies and bosses in the upcoming spinoff and ends with the surprise release date.

Originally, Silksong was going to be a DLC for Hollow Knight. However, numerous delays resulted in it being pushed back again and again. Glimpses of the game would show up here and there over the years, but it was this year that it received the most attention from Nintendo as part of its Switch 2 lineup, and from Microsoft, which confirmed it would be available on Xbox Game Pass.

Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available on PC, Switch, Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, PS4 and PS5. It will be available on Day 1 for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.

Technologies

PS5 Prices Go Up Today. Here’s How Much and Why

You can expect to pay more for a new PlayStation, thanks to «a challenging economic environment.»

Sony will increase the prices of its PlayStation 5 consoles in the US, starting today. This follows the trend of console manufacturers such as Microsoft and Nintendo raising prices for their hardware in response to tariffs.

The PlayStation-maker posted about the price change Wednesday. The jump in price is $50 more than the current price for each model.

The new prices are:

PlayStation 5: $500 to $550
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition: $450 to $500
PlayStation 5 Pro: $700 to $750

«Similar to many global businesses, we continue to navigate a challenging economic environment,» Sony said in a post about the price increase.

As of Thursday morning, retailers and Sony’s online store have yet to update the console prices. This jump in price also will likely affect recently released PS5 bundles such as the Astro Bot bundle and Fortnite Cobal bundle.

Sony says accessories have not been affected by the change and this cost hike only affects the US.

In May, Microsoft increased the price of the Xbox Series consoles and Nintendo hiked the original Switch console price and Switch 2 accessories this month.

While the companies didn’t point to the tariffs instituted by President Donald Trump as the reason for the hardware price jump, it would explain the trend in recent months.