LeBron James is making a high school basketball series for YouTube

YouTube has already lined up a few big names for original shows on its Red subscription service, and now that includes sports superstars. LeBron James is executive producing Best Shot, an eight-episode documentary covering a high school basketball team mentored by former NBA player Jay Williams. It’ll follow the students as they both pursue their hoop dreams and grapple with life challenges. Michael John Warren (best known for his documentaries on Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj) is directing.

The series should be available on Red sometime in 2018.

While this probably won’t be the documentary about LeBron James that some might hope for, it could be effective at reeling people in. Rival services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix have lately used sports documentaries as a way to expand their audiences, and this might do the trick if shows about Katy Perry and Tinder won’t scratch the itch. With that said, this is one show. YouTube may need to step up the pace when its competitors already have multiple shows either available or in the works.

Source: Variety

The best soda maker

By Anna Perling and Jamie Wiebe

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter’s independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here.

After more than 47 hours of research and 155 hours of testing, we’re confident the SodaStream Source is the best home soda maker you can buy. Over the past three years we’ve tested 12 soda makers and siphons, made our own DIY version, and talked extensively with home soda-making experts and scientists about carbonation (as well as consumed many liters of seltzer!). The Source makes some of the bubbliest, best-tasting sparkling water, and it’s easier to use than the competition.

Who should get this

A home soda maker will let you fizz water anytime. Photo: Michael Hession

If you love sparkling water and are tired of lugging home bottles or cans, investing in a soda maker allows you to carbonate regular tap water easily. With a soda maker, you can carbonate about a liter of water at a time and experiment with your beverage choice at a moment’s notice. These gadgets use recyclable or refillable cylinders of carbon dioxide instead of disposable plastic bottles, so you’ll also have a slightly lower environmental impact.

How we picked and tested

Soda makers work by injecting carbon dioxide into water to produce effervescence. The best soda makers add enough carbon dioxide to produce water with a Perrier-like fizz. Most models use a cylinder to inject the CO2, but over the years we’ve seen a few soda makers that use alternative methods such as sodium bicarbonate tablets, or pods filled with carbonator beads.

We looked at soda maker offerings at prominent home-goods retailers, as well as Amazon’s top-rated models. We decided to test two new models against our former picks from previous years.

We set up each soda maker to observe how easy it was to assemble and use. We then carbonated water that we chilled to 39 degrees Fahrenheit, because to make the fizziest results, the water should be cold. We took into account how easy it was to control the fizz level, as well as the mouthfeel and flavor of the finished product. We also conducted a blind taste test with two soda experts, Chris Onstad and Dan McLaughlin of the craft soda-syrup company Portland Soda Works, plus three other seltzer lovers. After carbonating according to each machine’s instructions for the maximum fizz level, we gave each tester 4 ounces of soda water in a smooth-walled drinking glass, and asked the testers to rank each soda maker’s water on a number of factors.

Our pick: SodaStream Source

Photo: Michael Hession

The SodaStream Source makes the best range of bubbly water, and it produces water that’s just as fizzy as that of higher-end soda makers. Our taste testers said that the Source’s water was just as fizzy and delightful as the pricier SodaStream Power’s. And thanks to this machine’s straightforward design, the Source is also one of the simplest soda makers to use, clean, and refill, so you can keep carbonating with ease.

In our tests, the Source produced very fizzy water with medium-size bubbles that were larger than those in the SodaStream Fizzi’s or iDrink Drinkmate’s result. The Source’s water had a rounded, zippy mouthfeel that our testers ranked as second best after the nearly identically fizzy water from the more-expensive SodaStream Power.

We also liked that the Source gives you more control over the fizz level than other machines. You simply press and hold a large button for about 10 seconds, or until an LED light turns on indicating your desired level of carbonation is reached.

Runner-up: SodaStream Power

Photo: Michael Hession

If you can’t find the Source, we also like the SodaStream Power. Its carbonator and refill systems are the same as the Source’s, and it also offers three levels of carbonation to choose from. With the Power, you just press a button once to carbonate, a more convenient method than holding down a button on the Source.

The Power also has a sleeker look, sporting brushed-steel accents on the back of the machine, the buttons, and the bottle. But the Power requires an outlet to carbonate water, which means you’ll be more limited in where you can place it. In our tests, the Power fizzed water to equal bubbliness as the Source, but at this writing it costs around $50 more.

Also great: iDrink Drinkmate

Photo: Michael Hession

If you want to carbonate beverages such as juice, wine, or cocktails, we recommend the iDrink Drinkmate. Although in our tests the Drinkmate produced only slightly fizzy water that wasn’t as bubbly as the Source’s or Power’s, it did live up to its unique claim to carbonate beverages other than water. We also like that the machine comes with two bottle sizes, which can be handy if you’re making components of a cocktail, for example. Plus, the Drinkmate is compatible with SodaStream’s carbonator cylinders, so you can easily find refills.

Compared with all of the soda makers we tried, the Drinkmate was more difficult for us to use, and it didn’t produce especially fizzy water. But the Drinkmate stood out for its ability to directly carbonate drinks such as juice and wine. When we carbonated apple juice in this soda maker and compared it with bottled sparkling apple juice from the same brand, testers unanimously loved the Drinkmate’s juice because of its lush, bubbly carbonation and zippy mouthfeel. We also tried rosé and a mocktail in the Drinkmate, and it successfully carbonated both.

This guide may have been updated by Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.

Note from Wirecutter: When readers choose to buy our independently chosen editorial picks, we may earn affiliate commissions that support our work.

Honda will use targeted Facebook videos to encourage recall repairs

As the Takata airbag recall — the largest ever US auto recall — continues, Honda has been looking for new ways to reach customers who haven’t yet brought in their vehicles for repair. And the company’s next move, as Reuters reports, is to target Honda owners through Facebook. Using the tool that allows advertisers to target particular subsets of Facebook accounts, Honda will match email addresses of those with recalled vehicles to Facebook users. According to the Associated Press, at least some of the messages geared towards those Facebook accounts will be videos from Honda owners who were injured from the faulty Takata airbag systems. You can see one of the public service announcements below.

The recall is ongoing and a report issued last week noted that only one-third of the US vehicles affected by the recall have been repaired. As of now, around 43 million inflators in 34 million vehicles have been recalled and by the end of the year, that number will jump up to 65 million inflators as the next round of recalls is enacted. The recalls have been rolling out on a schedule based on relative danger of the faulty part. So far, the airbag systems — which can spray metal shards if the airbag is released — have killed 18 people and injured nearly 200.

Earlier this year, the US Department of Justice indicted three Takata executives on charges of falsifying reports — the department has said that safety test fabrications went as far back as 2000. In February, Takata pled guilty to covering up the faulty airbags and agreed to pay $1 billion in restitution to automakers, fines and funds to compensate victims. In June, the company filed for bankruptcy.

Among automakers, Honda has one of the highest repair rates for the Takata airbag systems. So far, it has repaired nearly 65 percent of recalled systems, second only to Tesla, which has repaired just over 78 percent. Subaru rounds out the top three with a 50 percent repair rate. At the bottom of the pack is Mercedes Benz, which has repaired less than three percent of its affected vehicles, though a good portion of its vehicles are included in later priority groups, a list of which you can see here.

Via: Reuters

Source: Honda, NHTSA (1), (2)

DJI threatens legal action after researcher reports bug

In August, DJI announced that it was launching a bug bounty program that would give out rewards to people who could find flaws in its software. The company said it would pay between $100 and $30,000 depending on the flaw. But according to an essay written by security researcher Kevin Finisterre, and reported by the Verge, the program isn’t off to a great start.

In his write-up, Finisterre describes his interactions with DJI before and after he reported some pretty significant problems with the drone-maker’s security. Before getting too deep into it, he checked with DJI to see if their servers were included in the scope of the bug bounty program and though it took a while for DJI to respond, it did eventually confirm that servers were on the table. After quite a bit of digging, Finisterre put together a 31-page report that detailed what he and his colleagues had found. That included the private key to DJI’s SSL certificate, which had been leaked on GitHub, allowing Finisterre to see a pile of customer data stored on DJI’s servers.

Finisterre turned in his report and DJI eventually said that the information warranted a $30,000 reward. But what followed was a series of negotiations over the terms of the deal, largely focused on what Finisterre could or couldn’t say about the situation. After a number of lawyers told him that the agreement was risky at best — and as Finisterre puts it, “likely crafted in bad faith to silence anyone that signed it,” — and after being sent a letter stating that he had no authority to access DJI servers and the company was therefore reserving its right of action under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, Finisterre abandoned the deal.

These types of programs are used by a number of companies including Samsung, Apple, Twitter, Facebook and even dark net black markets. But for them to work, they really need to lay out their terms from the get go. DJI has now created a website that provides more information on its bounty program but that wasn’t available when they announced it in August.

DJI has released a statement about the situation. “DJI asks researchers to follow standard terms for bug bounty programs, which are designed to protect confidential data and allow time for analysis and resolution of a vulnerability before it is publicly disclosed,” the company said. “The hacker in question refused to agree to these terms, despite DJI’s continued attempts to negotiate with him, and threatened DJI if his terms were not met.” You can read the full statement here.

Via: The Verge

Source: Kevin Finisterre

FanDuel’s co-founder leaves to create an eSports company

FanDuel co-creator Nigel Eccles has been toying with startup ideas ever since his company proposed a merger with DraftKings, and he’s taking action now that the merger has fallen apart. Eccles has stepped down from his CEO and chairman positions to helm an eSports startup. He won’t say much about what it is (besides “something awesome,” naturally), but this isn’t an acrimonious split — he’s “a little bit sad” to be going. FanDuel’s previous financial chief, Matt King, is returning to the company to fill Eccles’ shoes.

The move isn’t completely shocking. When the merger fell flat, Eccles was faced with the prospect of running FanDuel indefinitely rather than taking a reduced role (namely, chairman) that would have let him pursue a new venture. Clearly, he decided that his entrepreneurial ambitions couldn’t wait any longer.

His departure also underscores the buzz surrounding eSports. As Eccles told Recode in an interview, conventional sports are in a “harvest mode” where the big players are entrenched. The eSports realm, meanwhile, is in a “growth mode” where there’s plenty of untapped potential. It’s easy to see why Eccles would be willing to leave the relative security of FanDuel, then. When major team owners are rushing to stake their claims and gaming leagues are making regular appearances on TV, there’s a real chance that the right startup could hit the big time.

Excited but a little bit sad to be leaving @fanduel today. It has been an amazing 8 years. Really excited to see how Matt King and the team drive the company in 2018 and beyond. For me I’m building something awesome in eSports. Watch this space.

— Nigel Eccles (@nigeleccles) November 20, 2017

Via: Recode

Source: FanDuel, Nigel Eccles (Twitter)

DOJ slaps AT&T with antitrust lawsuit over Time Warner purchase

The US Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against AT&T to block the massive communications company from purchasing Time Warner, one of the world’s biggest entertainment conglomerates. AT&T released a statement calling the move “a radical and inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent” and said it was “confident that the court would reject the government’s claims and permit this merger under longstanding legal precedent.”

AT&T statement on DOJ suing to block its acquisition of Time Warner: pic.twitter.com/b5Mo7nexiv

— Jan Wolfe (@JanNWolfe) November 20, 2017

The deal was made public just over a year ago, and ever since there’s been plenty of chatter about how the deal could be bad for both consumers and rival service providers. Time Warner owns hugely important entertainment properties like HBO, Warner Bros. and the Turner Broadcasting System set of channels, and AT&T would benefit greatly from having all that content in-house. In a lot of ways, it would provide AT&T with its own massive entertainment division to match what Comcast did when it purchased the majority of NBC in 2011.

Today’s antitrust lawsuit doesn’t come as a big surprise, with rumors of the suit swirling for several weeks. Additionally, there have been indications that AT&T would have to sell off significant assets to appease the DOJ and get the deal to happen, with both all of Turner Broadcasting or DirecTV rumored to be potential pieces in the sell-off. Since that report first surfaced, however, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson refuted that the DOJ made any such request.

However, it’s worth noting some unusual factors that play into this lawsuit and that potential asset sale. While on the campaign trail, President Trump made repeated mentions about using the Justice Department to block the deal. Trump also has had many a Twitter spat over CNN’s coverage of his presidency. As CNN is part of Time Warner, the motivation behind the lawsuit are rather murky, to say the least. How exactly this lawsuit will play out remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: AT&T’s plans of having its purchase of Time Warner wrapped up by the end of 2017 are definitely in jeopardy.

B&H Photo and Adorama Kick Off Black Friday Savings for Wide Range of Macs, iPads, and Beats Headphones

We’re just a few days away from Black Friday in the United States, and today a few authorized Apple resellers — B&H Photo and Adorama — have kicked off holiday savings with discounts on a variety of Apple products and related accessories. These include deals on the latest iMacs, MacBook Pros, iPad Pros, Beats headphones, and even a few older models from previous generation devices.

B&H Photo

For B&H Photo, the retailer has launched its Black Friday Apple sale with discounts that hit brand-new 2017 MacBook Pro and iMac models, and even include the Mac Pro and Mac mini from 2013 and 2014 respectively. A few discounts on Beats By Dre headphones are also matching similar sales at Apple, although Amazon and Best Buy still have the best prices on some of these accessories.

Below we’ve compiled a list of some of the products in the B&H Photo sale. You can also visit our Black Friday Roundup for additional listed sales, as well as B&H Photo’s Rebates & Promotions page for the full list.

iPad Pro

• 9.7-inch iPad (2017): 128GB, Wi-Fi – $399.00, down from $429.00

• 10.5-inch iPad Pro (Mid 2017): 64GB, Wi-Fi – $599.00, down from $649.00

• 10.5-inch iPad Pro (Mid 2017): 256GB, Wi-Fi – $699.00, down from $799.00

• 12.9-inch iPad Pro (Mid 2017): 64GB, Wi-Fi – $729.00, down from $799.00

• 12.9-inch iPad Pro (Mid 2017): 256GB, Wi-Fi – $849.00, down from $949.00

MacBook

• 13-inch MacBook Air (Mid 2017): 1.8 GHz, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD – $869.00, down from $999.00

• 12-inch MacBook (Mid 2017): 1.2 GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD – $1,149.00, down from $1,299.00

• 13-inch MacBook Pro (Mid 2017): 2.3 GHz, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD – $1,149.00, down from $1,299.00

• 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Mid 2017): 3.1 GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD – $1,649.00, down from $1,799.00

• 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (Mid 2017): 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD – $2,199.00, down from $2,399.00

iMac, Mac Pro, and Mac mini

• Mac mini (Late 2014): 2.6GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive – $599.00, down from $699.00

• 21.5-inch 4K iMac (Mid 2017): 3.0 GHz, 16GB RAM, 1TB HD – $1,429.00, down from $1,499.00

• 27-inch 5K iMac (Mid 2017): 3.4 GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive – $1,649.00, down from $1,799.00

• Mac Pro (Late 2013): 3.7 GHz, 12GB RAM, 256GB Flash Storage – $1,899.00, down from $2,999.00

• 27-inch 5K iMac (Mid 2017): 3.8 GHz, 8GB RAM, 2TB Fusion Drive – $2,099.00, down from $2,299.00

Beats

• BeatsX – $99.00, down from $149.00

• Powerbeats3 Wireless Earphones – $159.95, down from $199.95

• Solo3 Wireless Headphones – $239.95, down from $299.95

Adorama

Over at Adorama, the retailer is rolling out instant rebates of $120, $150, and $200 off certain Apple products, centering on the iMac and MacBook Pro. Below we’ve listed each rebate category and the products within each. Note that with Adorama’s instant rebate discounts, no mail-in rebate form is required to get the discount on each device. All of Adorama’s devices are the latest mid 2017 refreshes of each respective model.

$120 Instant Rebate

• 21.5-inch iMac: 2.3GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD – $979.00, down from $1,099.00
• 21.5-inch 4K iMac: 3.0GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD – $1,179.00, down from $1,299.00
• 21.5-inch 4K iMac: 3.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive – $1,379.00, down from $1,499.00

$150 Instant Rebate

• 27-inch 5K iMac: 3.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive – $1,649.00, down from $1,799.00
• 27-inch 5K iMac: 3.5GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive – $1,849.00, down from $1,899.00
• 27-inch 5K iMac: 3.8GHz, 8GB RAM, 2TB Fusion Drive – $2,149.00, down from $2,299.00

$200 Instant Rebate

• 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: 2.8GHz, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD – $2,199.00, down from $2,399.00
• 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar: 2.9GHz, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD – $2,599.00, down from $2,799.00

Of the three big Apple resellers, MacMall is now the only site that hasn’t yet posted its Black Friday savings, so you can expect those deals to show up sometime later in the week as Thanksgiving and Black Friday grow nearer. For now, you can visit our Black Friday Roundup to see the full lists of deals currently going on at B&H Photo and Adorama, as well as prepare your shopping lists with sale previews from Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and more.

Related Roundup: Apple Black Friday
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