Technologies

How to Watch His Dark Materials Season 3

Lyra and Will are back to close out with a bang.

His Dark Materials season three — the conclusion to the HBO adaptation of Philip Pullman’s fantasy trilogy — debuts Dec. 5 at 9 p.m. ET. There are several places online where you can stream the excitement, depending on which country you’re watching from — and whether you’ve got a reliable virtual private network.

Here are the most up-to-date streaming services where you can watch the final season of Lyra and Will’s adventures, along with ways to get around geo-blocks and streaming glitches by using a VPN.

Where to watch His Dark Materials season 3

If you want to stream His Dark Materials online from inside the US, you’ll find it exclusively on HBO Max. The season’s eight episodes will arrive weekly at 9 p.m. EST, starting Dec. 5.

HBO Max also offers a free, 7-day trial if you’re interested in test-driving the service before committing to a monthly cost.

How to watch His Dark Materials, season 3, for free

US viewers who would like to take HBO Max up on its free, 7-day trial offer will be able to stream His Dark Material, season 3, for free as part of that trial. But that only helps you watch the first two episodes of the show’s eight-episode final season, unless you wait for all eight episodes to be released before starting your trial.

Viewers in the UK, Canada and Australia have similar options to get started — but only Canadian viewers will be able to watch the premiere on Dec. 5. Viewers in Canada can watch the debut on Crave’s on-demand streaming platform. The service costs CA$20 monthly but it offers a free, 7-day trial if you’re a new subscriber.

Viewers in Australia will be able to watch the season 3 debut on Tuesday, Dec. 6 on Binge. The streaming platform costs just AU$10 monthly. Its free trial period is more generous, with a full 14 days available to new subscribers.

Finally, UK viewers won’t get to watch the season 3 premiere until Dec. 18 at 7:30 p.m. GMT, when it finally arrives on BBC iPlayer. However, the iPlayer is free to use with a valid UK television license.

We don’t recommend seeking out the TV series on fly-by-night illegal streaming or torrenting sites, but if you’re determined to do so, we strongly advise you to make sure your antivirus is up to date and your VPN is installed before you navigate to them. And remember: Never give those kinds of sites your credit card information.

Read more: Best VPN for Your Smart TV

How to watch His Dark Materials with a VPN

A well-tested, high-performing VPN can make viewing your favorite streaming platforms much easier. Even if you subscribe to a video streaming service where His Dark Materials is available, you may have problems accessing it in the catalog of movies available to you. If you’re internet service provider has issued you an IP address that’s wrong for the video library, or if you’re traveling while trying to watch your home country’s catalog, you may end up only being able to access movies and TV shows outside your normal viewing area.

Here’s how to quickly use a VPN to get access to the correct media libraries, to stream His Dark Materials when it premiers.

Read more: How We Test VPNs

1. Choose the right VPN for your needs.

If you’re choosing a VPN to stream video, you’ll want one with a few key criteria: top-notch speed test performance, a strong ability to disguise its traffic as normal traffic (a feature called obfuscation) and a network of servers that are optimized for media experiences so that your streams aren’t dropping in and out.

If you’re in a country where streaming certain content may be illegal according to local censorship laws, you’ll want to make sure your VPN provider offers well-tested security, and that you are only using the VPN on your laptop or home router — not your mobile phone. You’ll also want to make sure you’ve carefully followed any additional instructions from your VPN provider on configuring your VPN set-up for maximum privacy.

However, if you’re looking for an option that’s friendlier on your budget, we recommend a range of affordable VPNs, like Surfshark, that have also passed our security tests with flying colors.

Looking for other options? Be sure to check out some of the other great VPN deals taking place right now.

2. Connect to the correct country in your VPN.

Once you’ve installed your VPN, you’ll want to open the VPN app up and select the country where His Dark Materials is currently available for streaming on your platform of choice when season 3 premiers. In this case, HBO Max users would select and connect to a US server in your VPN’s list. Crave users would connect to Canadian servers.

After Dec. 6, Binge users would connect to Australian servers to watch the series. And, after Dec. 18, BBC iPlayer watchers would select a UK-based server when connecting.

Remember: It’s important to connect to your VPN before you log into — or create a new account for — your streaming subscription service.

3. Log into your streaming service.

You’ve installed your VPN, powered it on, and connected to the correct country. You’re nearly done!

Now all you have to do is log into your streaming media provider as normal. So navigate to HBO Max, BBC iPlayer, Crave or Binge — and then log in as you typically would. Once you’re in, you can use the platforms search bar to find His Dark Materials.

You’re ready to stream!

If you find that your streaming service still doesn’t work with your VPN running, make sure you’ve followed your VPN providers instructions and installed any browser-based plug-ins your VPN may need. If you’ve followed the directions and your settings are correct — then try closing all windows, restarting your machine, and first connecting to your VPN before doing anything else. That will ensure that your device is securely connected to your VPN and reduce the chances that your non-VPN IP address is interfering with your connection process.

Technologies

TMR vs. Hall Effect Controllers: Battle of the Magnetic Sensing Tech

The magic of magnets tucked into your joysticks can put an end to drift. But which technology is superior?

Competitive gamers look for every advantage they can get, and that drive has spawned some of the zaniest gaming peripherals under the sun. There are plenty of hardware components that actually offer meaningful edges when implemented properly. Hall effect and TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance or tunneling magnetoresistance) sensors are two such technologies. Hall effect sensors have found their way into a wide variety of devices, including keyboards and gaming controllers, including some of our favorites like the GameSir Super Nova.

More recently, TMR sensors have started to appear in these devices as well. Is it a better technology for gaming? With multiple options vying for your lunch money, it’s worth understanding the differences to decide which is more worthy of living inside your next game controller or keyboard.

How Hall effect joysticks work

We’ve previously broken down the difference between Hall effect tech and traditional potentiometers in controller joysticks, but here’s a quick rundown on how Hall effect sensors work. A Hall effect joystick moves a magnet over a sensor circuit, and the magnetic field affects the circuit’s voltage. The sensor in the circuit measures these voltage shifts and maps them to controller inputs. Element14 has a lovely visual explanation of this effect here.

The advantage this tech has over potentiometer-based joysticks used in controllers for decades is that the magnet and sensor don’t need to make physical contact. There’s no rubbing action to slowly wear away and degrade the sensor. So, in theory, Hall effect joysticks should remain accurate for the long haul.

How TMR joysticks work

While TMR works differently, it’s a similar concept to Hall effect devices. When you move a TMR joystick, it moves a magnet in the vicinity of the sensor. So far, it’s the same, right? Except with TMR, this shifting magnetic field changes the resistance in the sensor instead of the voltage.

There’s a useful demonstration of a sensor in action here. Just like Hall effect joysticks, TMR joysticks don’t rely on physical contact to register inputs and therefore won’t suffer the wear and drift that affects potentiometer-based joysticks.

Which is better, Hall effect or TMR?

There’s no hard and fast answer to which technology is better. After all, the actual implementation of the technology and the hardware it’s built into can be just as important, if not more so. Both technologies can provide accurate sensing, and neither requires physical contact with the sensing chip, so both can be used for precise controls that won’t encounter stick drift. That said, there are some potential advantages to TMR.

According to Coto Technology, who, in fairness, make TMR sensors, they can be more sensitive, allowing for either greater precision or the use of smaller magnets. Since the Hall effect is subtler, it relies on amplification and ultimately requires extra power. While power requirements vary from sensor to sensor, GameSir claims its TMR joysticks use about one-tenth the power of mainstream Hall effect joysticks. Cherry is another brand highlighting the lower power consumption of TMR sensors, albeit in the brand’s keyboard switches.

The greater precision is an opportunity for TMR joysticks to come out ahead, but that will depend more on the controller itself than the technology. Strange response curves, a big dead zone (which shouldn’t be needed), or low polling rates could prevent a perfectly good TMR sensor from beating a comparable Hall effect sensor in a better optimized controller.

The power savings will likely be the advantage most of us really feel. While it won’t matter for wired controllers, power savings can go a long way for wireless ones. Take the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, for instance, a Hall effect controller offering 20 hours of battery life from a 4.5-watt-hour battery with support for a 1,000Hz polling rate on a wireless connection. Razer also offers the Wolverine V3 Pro 8K PC, a near-identical controller with the same battery offering TMR sensors. They claim the TMR version can go for 36 hours on a charge, though that’s presumably before cranking it up to an 8,000Hz polling rate — something Razer possibly left off the Hall effect model because of power usage.

The disadvantage of the TMR sensor would be its cost, but it appears that it’s negligible when factored into the entire price of a controller. Both versions of the aforementioned Razer controller are $199. Both 8BitDo and GameSir have managed to stick them into reasonably priced controllers like the 8BitDo Ultimate 2, GameSir G7 Pro and GameSir Cyclone 2.

So which wins?

It seems TMR joysticks have all the advantages of Hall effect joysticks and then some, bringing better power efficiency that can help in wireless applications. The one big downside might be price, but from what we’ve seen right now, that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. You can even find both technologies in controllers that cost less than some potentiometer models, like the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller.

Caveats to consider

For all the hype, neither Hall effect nor TMR joysticks are perfect. One of their key selling points is that they won’t experience stick drift, but there are still elements of the joystick that can wear down. The ring around the joystick can lose its smoothness. The stick material can wear down (ever tried to use a controller with the rubber worn off its joystick? It’s not pleasant). The linkages that hold the joystick upright and the springs that keep it stiff can loosen, degrade and fill with dust. All of these can impact the continued use of the joystick, even if the Hall effect or TMR sensor itself is in perfect operating order.

So you might not get stick drift from a bad sensor, but you could get stick drift from a stick that simply doesn’t return to its original resting position. That’s when having a controller that’s serviceable or has swappable parts, like the PDP Victrix Pro BFG, could matter just as much as having one with Hall effect or TMR joysticks.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 18, #513

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 18, No. 513.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has a fun yellow category that might just start you singing. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: I don’t care if I never get back.

Green group hint: Get that gold medal.

Blue group hint: Hoops superstar.

Purple group hint: Not front, but…

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.»

Green group: Olympic snowboarding events.

Blue group: Vince Carter, informally.

Purple group: ____ back.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.» The four answers are Cracker Jack, home team, old ball game and peanuts.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Olympic snowboarding events. The four answers are big air, giant slalom, halfpipe and slopestyle.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Vince Carter, informally. The four answers are Air Canada, Half-Man, Half-Amazing, VC and Vinsanity.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ back. The four answers are diamond, drop, quarter and razor.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Feb. 18

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 18.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is a fun one, and it’s not terribly tough. It helps if you know a certain Olympian. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.