Streaming services are finding new ways to make sure we spend more money than ever, like cracking down on password sharing. But not all streaming services charge an arm and a leg for their content. In fact, there's a decent list of options that are totally free of charge (and legal, at that). Among those is Amazon's Freevee, a way to watch shows and movies without worrying about your walletat least, it used to be. On Tuesday, we learned Amazon plans to shut down Freevee over the next few weeks, a move that may surprise casual fans, but not others who saw the writing on the wall. The service, as its name implied, offered content to users for free, supported by ad breaks throughout shows and movies. But once Amazon started offering an ad-supported Prime Video plan last year, Freevee started to seem a bit redundant. Undoubtedly, the platform's most famous original show was Jury Duty, a Truman Show-like reality series that tricked one man into serving his "jury duty" with a court full of actors surrounding a fake trial. However, there were plenty of other Freevee originals, including Alex Rider, Bosch: Legacy, and Judy Justice (yes, featuring Judge Judy).Freevee hasn't always been Freevee, however. The service originated under IMDb (a subsidiary of Amazon), as IMDb Freedrive in 2019. Shortly thereafter, it rebranded to IMDb TV, but in 2022, Amazon changed the name again to Freevee.Can you still watch Freevee?The good news is none of Freevee's content is going away. Amazon is simply folding it under its "Watch for Free" category, which will be available with or without a Prime membership. That means you can boot up Prime, scroll to any "free" content, and watch it with ads. Right now, that requires scrolling through a sea of locked content that requires a Prime membership to find, but perhaps Amazon will make this free content more apparent in the coming weeks.

All too often, I've been the person who buys two bags of cranberries a week before I need them only to find that 50% of them are an awful, slimy mess once its time to cook. Alternatively, Ive also been the person who waits until the last minute to find the cranberry shelf has been completely decimated. The choices have always been: Shop too early and the berries turn to mush, or too late and the shelves have nary a cranberry in sight. Both of these options leaves you berry-poor.However, if you store your fresh cranberries right, you can have perfect, unspoiled berries ready for when you need them. Stock up on a few bags right now, and freeze them. Heres how to do it properly so they stay nice and fresh.How to store fresh cranberries in the freezerRegardless of where you stand on the great cranberry sauce debate, whole fresh cranberries are a cold-weather gem. Use them in cookies, cakes, pies, or chill your beverages with them. 1. Sort out the bad cranberriesAfter youve purchased your bounty of (hopefully) top notch, firm, unmarred cranberries, you need to check them over. Resist the urge to just chuck the entire bag in the freezer. Its important to check them now because once theyre frozen you wont easily be able to tell if theyve gone rotten or not. I set up a sorting station with a pan to sort through, a small bowl for the busted berries, and a big bowl for the keepers. Spill some cranberries out of the bag and into the pan. Pick up a handful and take out the bad berries. they go in the small bowl to get composted. Put the good ones into the big bowl. Repeat with all of your cranberries. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann How do you know if cranberries are bad?Gently squeeze them and roll them around to check out all of the sides. Any cranberries that are crushed, extremely wrinkled, brown, or feel like water balloons are on their way out, if not completely rotten already. A good cranberry is hard with a tight, shiny skin. Some flat spots are to be expected because cranberries have internal seed chambers, so they're not always perfectly round. They can range in color from light pink and splotchy-white to dark red, nearly black. Ones that have mushy brown areas are no good.2. Freeze them in a single layerAfter youve sorted out the berries, lay them out on a clean sheet tray or cake pan in a single layer. Put the whole tray in the freezer for 20 to 30 minutes. This step allows the berries to freeze loose from each other and preserve their plump round shape. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann 3. Consolidate the cranberriesOnce theyre frozen, pour the berries into a container or freezer bag. Seal it up tight and store these tart orbs in the freezer until you need them. Theyll keep well in the freezer for eight months to a year. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann When youre ready to use them, measure the frozen berries directly into your recipe. Theres no need to thaw them; they can be used immediately from a frozen state. Pour them into a pot to cook into the best cranberry sauce, or drop a few into your champagne to keep it chilled and festive.

Bluesky may still be the underdog in the race for alternatives to X, but the once Twitter-affiliated service is gaining momentum. The app just passed the 15 million user mark after adding more than a million new users over the last week, the company said in an update.While Bluesky is still considerably smaller than Threads, which with 275 million users is its biggest rival, there are signs that Threads users have been increasingly curious about the upstart. Bluesky has been a trending topic on Threads in recent days and an in-app search suggestion shows there are more than 19,000 posts about Bluesky. Bluesky itself has also made a push to win over Threads users in recent weeks by posting regularly on the Meta-owned service.That effort seems to be working. A month ago, Engadget noted, the service had just under 9 million users. Its mobile app also has the top spot in Apples App Store, followed by Threads and ChatGPT. Its recent success also seems to be driven, at least in part, by frustration with Elon Musk and X following the US presidential election.A recent report from web analytics company SimilarWeb found that more than 115,000 US web visitors deactivated their accounts, on November 7, more than on any previous day of Elon Musks tenure. The report also noted that web traffic and daily active users for Bluesky increased dramatically in the week before the election, and then again after election day, with Bluesky at points seeing more web traffic than Threads. (Threads mobile usage, however, is still far ahead of Bluesky.)SimilarWebIn the US, Bluesky got more web visits than Threads in the immediate aftermath of the election, the report notes. For context, its important to note that both services are app centric, even though they support a web user interface.On its part, Bluesky seems intent on distinguishing itself from its larger, billionaire-controlled rivals. The company, which began as an internal project at Twitter before it spun off into an independent entity, has experimented with novel features like custom feeds, user-created moderation services and starter packs for new users.You're probably used to being trapped in a single algorithm controlled by a small group of people, that's no longer the case, Blueskys COO Rose Wang shared in a video aimed at new users Tuesday. On Bluesky, there are about 50,000 different feeds these feeds provide a cozy corner for you to meet people with similar interests. And you can actually make friends again, because you're no longer tied to a dominant algorithm that promotes either the most polarizing posts and or the biggest brands, and that's the mandate of Bluesky.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/bluesky-surges-to-15-million-users-after-getting-a-million-sign-ups-in-one-week-224213573.html?src=rss

NHL 25 is slated to get a sizable content update at the end of the year. EA announced that the six teams of the Professional Women's Hockey League will be added to the game in an update this December. The Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost, Montral Victoire, New York Sirens, Ottawa Charge and Toronto Sceptres will be available to choose in the game's Play Now, Online Versus, Shootout and Season modes.This EA sports franchise has been putting more women's leagues and female players into the spotlight in recent installments. Women's teams first appeared in NHL 22 back in 2022, and last year NHL 23 showcased Olympic gold medalist Sarah Nurse of Team Canada on its cover alongside Trevor Zegras of the Anaheim Ducks.In addition to the December update with the PWHL partnership, NHL 25 is adding an NHL Arcade mode this Friday. In early 2025, the game will also see new content tied to the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off event.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-professional-womens-hockey-league-will-join-eas-nhl-25-this-year-224023998.html?src=rss

Cavalry 2.2 is out. Check out the new features in the next-gen motion design software, including support for OpenType fonts and the option to create color gradients along paths.https://www.cgchannel.com/2024/11/scene-group-releases-cavalry-2/#latestupdate

Free tool: get the Blender Studio's Brushstroke Tools for Blender. The open-source extension makes it possible to apply painterly brushstrokes to the surface of 3D models to create stylized looks for illustration, animation or motion graphics, and edit the strokes procedurally.https://www.cgchannel.com/2024/11/get-the-blender-studios-free-brushstroke-tools-for-blender/

AI robot trained by watching videos successfully performs surgery.

Today's game has a super-high average score and is ending streaks left, right and center. Mine was nearly among them

Tech giants are investing in the development of "sovereign" AI models in Europe to reduce the region's dependence on largely U.S.-controlled infrastructure.

Japan has announced its latest plan to boost the country's chip and AI industries as it works to regain its leading position in semiconductor technology.