WWE WrestleMania Backlash 2022: Start Times, How to Watch, Final Card and Peacock
WWE WrestleMania Backlash 2022: Start Times, How to Watch, Final Card and Peacock
In many ways WrestleMania is the finale of the wrestling year, but in another sense it's the start of a new season. (Read our liveblog of WrestleMania Backlash here.) Most of the big WrestleMania matches were the beginning to feuds, not their ending. WrestleMania Backlash, then, is exactly what it sounds like: The sequel to several big bouts from WrestleMania 38.
Cody Rhodes versus Seth Rollins. AJ Styles versus Edge. Omos versus Bobby Lashley. Charlotte Flair versus Ronda Rousey.
Rhodes' match with Rollins was the best on either night of WrestleMania, so that's one worth getting excited over. Styles and Edge was good, but not the classic we know they're capable of. Hopefully they nail it this time around. The biggest rematch takes the WrestleMania clash between Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair, then adds an "I Quit" stipulation on top. To win the SmackDown Women's Championship, Rousey's going to have to make Flair utter those ignominious words.
The main event of the evening isn't a rematch, but rather charts a course to a revived rivalry. Raw Tag Champions RK-Bro will team with Drew McIntyre to take on the three-man team of Universal Champion Roman Reigns and SmackDown Tag Champs The Usos. Surprisingly, none of the titles are on the line, but it points to a future Universal Championship match between Reigns and McIntyre.
Start times
WWE WrestleMania Backlash takes place at Providence, Rhode Island's Dunkin' Donuts Center on May 8. For those without a live ticket, both nights start at 5p.m. PT/8 p.m ET. Grappling fans across the pond will have to stay up late, as the shows start at 1 a.m. UK time. In Australia, WrestleMania Backlash begins at 10 a.m. AEST on Monday.
Match card
Roman Reigns and The Usos vs. Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton and Riddle.
Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins.
SmackDown Women's Championship I Quit match: Charlotte Flair (c) vs. Ronda Rousey.
Happy Corbin vs. Madcap Moss.
Bobby Lashley vs. Omos.
AJ Styles vs. Edge.
How to watch: Peacock, WWE Network
As you probably know by now, Peacock is the new home of WWE's pay-per-views. The WWE Network has, in essence, migrated to NBC's Peacock streaming service, and that's where you'll go to watch WrestleMania Backlash. Peacock has three tiers: Free, Premium and Premium Plus. To watch WWE content, you'll need a Premium subscription. The good news is that'll set you back $5 a month, less than the $10 for WWE Network.
If you're outside of the US, you'll watch WrestleMania Backlash on the WWE Network as usual.
Motorola Moto G6 review: A budget phone shouldn't be this good
Motorola Moto G6 review: A budget phone shouldn't be this good
How do you follow up last year's wonderful budget-friendly Moto G5 Plus? Well, you could start with the outside. Add a second rear camera for portrait mode photos. Trade that Micro-USB port for a USB-C. Get rid of the 16:9 screen ratio and go tall with a trendy 18:9 display that shows more vertically. Say bye to the metallic back side and hello to a glass back with curved edges, specifically Gorilla Glass 3.
The overall result would be a phone that looks decidedly 2018, but with pretty much everything we loved about last year's Moto G5 Plus. And that's exactly what the Moto G6 is.
Last year's Moto G5 Plus hit a sweet spot between features, design, performance and price. The Moto G6 hits most of those, but just misses with a shorter battery life than last year's Motos.
The Moto G6 looks sleek and modern. It has a groomed slicked-back hair vibe that makes it seem anything but affordable. But at $249, £219 or AU$399 it's crazy affordable compared to the $1,000 iPhone X.
Roughly the same size as the Moto G5 Plus, the Moto G6 has thinner bezels and a glass back that curves at the edge for a comfortable grip. Like nearly every phone with a glass back, it collects more fingerprints than the stars of CSI.
But the Moto G6 isn't the only affordable Motorola phone to consider. If you're outside the US and your budget has some wiggle room, the Moto G6 Plus deserves a serious look. If you're okay with last year's styling, check out the Moto G5S Plus which is still being sold.
On the left is the Moto G6 and on the right the Moto G6 Play. The dual-camera unit on the Moto G6 looks like a shocked face emoji.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Moto G6, G6 Plus, G6 Play: What's the difference?
I tested the Moto G6 with 32GB of storage, 3GB of RAM and no NFC. I bring this up because there are three new G-series phones for 2018. To confound things further, each model is tweaked a bit depending on where you live.
Moto G6 Play: This is the most affordable of the three phones. In the US, it costs $50 less than the Moto G6. The Moto G6 Play has a lower resolution display and only a single rear camera, but it also has the biggest battery of the three -- a 4,000-mAh whopper more capacious than the one found in the Galaxy S9. Read CNET's full Moto G6 Play review.
Moto G6: Though it's roughly the same size as the Moto G6 Play, the Moto G6 has a higher resolution display, dual rear cameras and a more powerful processor. In the UK and Australia, the Moto G6 comes with NFC, and there's a "step up" UK version with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
Moto G6 Plus: Despite not being available in the US, the Moto G6 Plus is the highest-end option in the Moto G family. It has a 5.9-inch display instead of the 5.7-inch ones found on the G6 and G6 Play. Its battery is slightly larger than the one in the G6. The UK model has NFC and an optional 6GB of RAM.
Moto G6, G6 Plus, G6 Play top features and prices
Key features of the Moto G phone family
Moto G6 (US, UK, Australia)
Moto G6 (UK)
Moto G6 Plus (UK, Australia)
Moto G6 Play (US, UK, Australia)
Price (without discounts)
$249, £219, AU$399
£239
£269, AU$499
$199, £169, AU$329
Screen
5.7-inch
5.7-inch
5.9-inch
5.7-inch
Processor
1.8 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450
1.8 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450
2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 630
1.4GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 427
Storage
32GB
64GB
64GB
16GB (US only), 32GB
RAM
3GB
4GB
4GB, 6GB (UK only)
2GB (US only), 3GB
Battery
3,000 mAh
3,000 mAh
3,200 mAh
4,000 mAh
Rear camera(s)
12-megapixel & 5-megapixel
12-megapixel & 5-megapixel
12-megapixel & 5-megapixel
13-megapixel
NFC
Yes (UK, Australia), No (US)
Yes
Yes
Yes (UK), No (Australia)
Here's a photo of a cable car taken with the Moto G6. The photo has good dynamic range keeping the sky in-balance with the cable car.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Moto G6 has dual-rear cameras and portrait mode
The dual-rear cameras take solid photos, but your shots aren't going to be on the same level as pictures shot on the Pixel 2, iPhone X or even the OnePlus 6. You'll get the best results when taking photos under bright even light. The Moto G6 has an "active photos" mode which, like Apple's live photos and Google's motion photos, records a tiny amount of video before and after you take a picture.
It's impressive that a phone that costs $249 has a portrait mode.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Motorola added a bunch of fun modes to the camera one of which is portrait mode. The Moto G6 takes serviceable portrait mode shots. Despite the background being blurred out, portrait mode photos don't "pop" as much as they could. I like that the Moto G6 lets me change the focus point and the amount of background blur after I take a portrait mode photo. These little adjustments, like on the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, can turn a less-than-perfect portrait into something pretty good.
The top is a selfie taken with the Moto G6. The bottom is a "group selfie" that is kind of a mix of a selfie and panorama. In this case, it made Lexy's head double in size.
Lexy Savvides/CNET
Selfies are just OK, but there is a front-facing flash which can be handy. There's also a group selfie mode that prompts you to move the phone left and then right, like when you take a panorama photo. The phone then "stitches" the selfie panorama together. The results are hit-or-miss. For example, it "glitched" and doubled the back of my friend's making her look like an alien wearing two pairs of sunglasses on her head -- see the photo above.
The Moto G6 uses artificial intelligence (AI) to identify objects, landmarks and text and optimize things accordingly. It can record video at 1080p. But there's no 4K and no slow-motion mode. And that's fine because I'm not buying this phone to be the next Steven Spielberg. I'm buying it because it's cheap.
Here's a video I recorded with the Moto G6:
Moto G6 battery life, speed and everything else
The G6 runs Android 8.0 Oreo and has Google Assistant and the Google Lens augmented reality tool. Both of them worked well: I enjoyed pointing the Moto G6's camera at buildings and tapping the Google Lens icon to get more information about the things around me. It was like I was on my own private architecture tour.
But any phone that costs a couple hundred dollars is going to have sacrifices and the Moto G6 is no different. In speed tests, the Moto G6 was slower than the Moto G5 Plus, but not by much. In real world use, it handled everyday tasks such as messaging, Instagram, watching YouTube videos and playing games well. I was even able to play PUBG Mobile with the frame rate set at medium -- it's ridiculous that I did this on a phone that costs $250.
Geekbench v.4.0 single-core
Moto G6740Moto G5 Plus830
Note: Longer bars indicate better performance
Geekbench v.4.0 multicore
Moto G63,940Moto G5 Plus4,138
Note: Longer bars indicate better performance
3DMark Sling Shot Unlimited
Moto G6818Moto G5 Plus861
Note: Longer bars indicate better performance
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited
Moto G612,792Moto G5 Plus13,382
Note: Longer bars indicate better performance
The Moto G6's battery fared worse than the Moto G5 and G5 Plus. During our looped video battery tests (in airplane mode), the Moto G6 lasted an average of 9 hours, 41 minutes compared to the Moto G5, which lasted 13 hours, and the Moto G5 Plus, which lasted 13 hours, 22 minutes. Though in real-world use, the Moto G6 had no problem getting through the day on a single charge even after heavy use.
Despite having a glass back, the Moto G6 doesn't have wireless charging. But to be fair, only a few super premium phones support wireless charging. It's not unusual for a budget phone to omit it.
The Moto G6 can be charged fast via its "Turbopower" charger which seems more useful than wireless charging to me. The Moto G6 has a "splash proof" coating but isn't IP rated for water resistance -- so don't drop it in a toilet. But if you do, rest assured that buying a replacement Moto G6 won't break your bank.
Spec comparison of the Moto G6, G6 Plus, G6 Play, G5 and G5 Plus
Motorola Moto G6
Motorola Moto G6 Plus
Motorola Moto G6 Play
Motorola Moto G5
Motorola Moto G5 Plus
Display size, resolution
5.7-inch; 2,160x1,080 pixels
5.9-inch; 2,160x1,080 pixels
5.7-inch; 1,440x720 pixels
5-inch; 1,920x1,080 pixels
5.2-inch; 1,920x1,080 pixels
Pixel density
424ppi
409ppi
282ppi
440ppi
424ppi
Dimensions (Inches)
6.1x2.8x0.3 in
6.3x3x0.3 in
5.1x2.8x0.4 in
5.7x2.9x0.37 in
5.9x2.9x0.3 in
Dimensions (Millimeters)
153.8x72.3x8.3 mm
160x75.5x8 mm
154.4x72.2x9 mm
144.3x73x9.5 mm
150.2x74x7.7 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)
5.9 oz; 167g
5.9 oz, 167g
6.2 oz; 175g
5.1 oz, 145g
5.5 oz, 155g
Mobile software
Android 8.0 Oreo
Android 8.0 Oreo
Android 8.0 Oreo
Android 7.0 Nougat
Android 7.0 Nougat
Camera
12-megapixel and 5-megapixel
12-megapixel and 5-megapixel
13-megapixel
13-megapixel
12-megapixel
Front-facing camera
8-megapixel
8-megapixel
8-megapixel
5-megapixel
5-megapixel
Video capture
1080p
4K
1080p
1080p
4K
Processor
1.8 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 450
2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 630
1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 427
1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 430
2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
Storage
32GB/64GB
64GB
16GB/32GB
16GB, 32GB
32GB, 64GB
RAM
3GB, 4GB
4GB, 6GB
2GB, 3GB
2GB,3GB
2GB, 3GB, 4GB
Expandable storage
128GB
128GB
128GB
128GB
128GB
Battery
3,000mAh
3,200mAh
4,000mAh
2,800mAh (removable)
3,000mAh
Fingerprint sensor
Below screen
Below screen
Back
Below screen
Below screen
Connector
USB-C
USB-C
Micro-USB
Micro-USB
Micro-USB
Headphone jack
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Special features
Dual-SIM, Splash-proof, time lapse video, Turbo Charger
Dual-SIM, Splash-proof, time lapse video, Turbo Charger
New Split Screen Android Auto Redesign Coming This Summer
New Split Screen Android Auto Redesign Coming This Summer
As part of its I/O 2022 developers' conference, Google showcased the next iteration of its Android Auto app mirroring interface for cars rolling out this Summer. The refreshed interface now features a split screen layout that should make multitasking easier by reducing the number of times users will need to return to the home screen for simple tasks.
Android Auto was originally revealed at I/O 2014 before making its way into the first vehicles and aftermarket head units the following year. Today, Google says over 150 million cars globally, from nearly every major auto manufacturer, now have Android Auto connectivity; and every one of them -- from the oldest to the ones still rolling off assembly lines -- should benefit from today's announced updates.
The configuration of Android Auto's new tiles and status bar will depend on the aspect ratio of your car's display.
Google
The new Android Auto is scalable and able to adapt to standard, vertical and ultrawide configurations. Along the bottom edge -- or the left edge for ultrawide screens -- is a bar with shortcuts to the app launcher, notifications and Google Assistant on one end. On the other end you'll find status icons for signal strength, phone battery level and time . The main area of the display is now split into three sections with two tiles dedicated to displaying navigation and media controls -- the features Google thinks drivers prioritize when behind the wheel.
The split screen, three-panel design will be able to scale to fit normal, ultrawide and even vertically oriented displays.
Google
The contents of the third section will shift depending on the context: Sometimes, it's a simple clock. When starting a trip, estimated time to the destination may appear here with a link to share. When a message comes in, a preview will sit in this flexible space waiting for the user to interact or reply. Users will also now be able to quickly respond to those incoming messages with a single tap using Google Assistant AI-suggested quick replies -- like "OK" or "On my way" -- similar to those offered on Pixel devices. Of course, composing a custom reply via voice input is still on the menu.
Android Auto's new look and new functionalities should start rolling out this Summer.
Apps that support long form content like audiobooks and podcasts will soon be able to show a progress bar in the media browser.
Google
Earlier this year, Android Auto rolled out a media recommendations shortcut powered by Google Assistant and today it announced new developer tools to help more apps hook into that feature. Developers will also gain access to new templates to customize how their apps display in the Android Auto interface and new tools to help users more efficiently interact with long form content, such as audiobooks and podcasts. Google will also continue to open up new app type categories, building on the CES 2022 announcement that ridesharing driver apps such as Lyft, along with electric vehicle charging apps and parking services, are coming to Android Auto.
Switching gears, Google also announced new features are coming to its baked in Android Automotive OS -- which runs natively on the vehicles' hardware rather than being streamed in from a host phone via USB or wireless connectivity -- found in vehicles like the Polestar 2, the Volvo C40 and XC40 Recharge and GMC's Hummer EV.
More video streaming apps and even Chromecast support will join YouTube in Android Automotive OS dashboards later this year.
Google
Google previously announced it was bringing YouTube to the dashboard later this year, allowing drivers to entertain themselves while parked and, for example, waiting for their EV to charge. At I/O 2022, Google says to expect more video-based apps like Tubi TV and Epix Now on the horizon, better browsing of video content and even cast support that would allow you to stream content from Chromecast-compatible mobile apps from your phone to the vehicle's larger screen.
Developers should also find it easier to develop for Android Automotive OS with new tools that help translate tablet-sized apps to parked car experiences and speed up the development and publishing of apps for both Android Automotive OS and Android Auto.
Asus gives its gaming router a quad-band boost at CES 2022
Asus gives its gaming router a quad-band boost at CES 2022
This story is part of CES, where CNET covers the latest news on the most incredible tech coming soon.
Asus is using CES 2022 to launch the latest additions to its lineup of high-powered ROG Rapture gaming routers, including the first-ever quad-band gaming router with four separate bands of traffic.
That new flagship is the Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000, and it builds on last year's addition of Wi-Fi 6E support by adding a second 5GHz band into the mix. Both 5GHz bands and the 6E-exclusive 6GHz band offer top transfer rates of up to 4.8Gbps, while the 2.4GHz band promises top theoretical speeds as high as 1,148Mbps (1.148Gbps). The router runs on Broadcom Wi-Fi 6 chipsets and a 2.0GHz, 64-bit quad-core CPU, a step up from last year's 1.8GHz CPU. Other improvements are a matching set of two Ethernet LAN ports capable of accepting incoming wired speeds of up to 10Gbps, plus a 2.5Gbps WAN port and four additional gigabit LAN ports.
As for features, you can expect the usual barrage of tricks intended to eliminate gaming lag, including game-specific server guidance, "triple-level game acceleration" and a new Asus RangeBoost Plus feature that promises to deliver better Wi-Fi coverage throughout your home. And, yep, you can customize the router's RGB lighting effects, too.
Just don't plan on any of that coming cheap -- Asus expects to start selling the ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 worldwide for $649 starting sometime in the first quarter of the year.
Sometime after that in Q2, expect the arrival of another addition to the ROG Rapture line, the GT-AX11000 Pro. With the same spidery design, the same top speeds on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and the same 2.0GHz processor powering things on the inside, it's essentially the GT-AXE16000 but stripping out the Wi-Fi 6E support and the 6GHz band to help bring the price down to $499.
Also missing from the mix: those 10Gbps LAN jacks -- instead, you get a pair of 2.5Gbs ports that you can aggregate together for a double-wired 5Gbps connection.
We'll plan on testing both models out once they hit the market to see how they perform in practice, so expect us to report back once we have more to share.
WhatsApp reportedly expanding group calls to 8 people
WhatsApp reportedly expanding group calls to 8 people
You may soon be able to have WhatsApp group calls with up to eight people, according to a Tuesday report. The Facebook-owned chat service is reportedly rolling out the feature to devices with the latest iOS and Android beta update installed.
Participants with the most up-to-date version of WhatsApp will be able to participate in group voice or video calls, according to WABetaInfo. To launch the feature, open a group and tap the call button. Group members who aren't saved contacts in your phone reportedly won't be added to the call.
Read more:10 free Zoom alternative apps for video chats
Alternatively, you can open the calls tab in WhatsApp, tap the call button and then hit "New group call." You can then choose which contacts you'd like to call.
WABetaInfo says WhatsApp is gradually rolling out the new feature.
Representatives from WhatsApp and parent Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
More People Need to Watch the Absolute Best TV Show on HBO Max
More People Need to Watch the Absolute Best TV Show on HBO Max
In the beginning, Station Eleven annoyed the hell out of me. After three episodes, I'd fallen asleep not once, but twice. I wasn't just frustrated with Station Eleven's self indulgence – I was completely bored.
A post-apocalyptic HBO Max miniseries set in the immediate aftermath of a deadly and highly contagious flu, Station Eleven is a show about a fictional pandemic – shot, produced and released during an actual pandemic. But in many ways that pandemic is subservient and unimportant. Station Eleven is a show about things. About big ideas and themes. It's a show about survival. About trauma. About taking refuge in the transitive power of art and the connective tissue of our shared humanity.
Read more: Review: Station Eleven's HBO Adaptation Came at a Weird, but Good, Time
In other words: urgh.
From the outset, this is a show that spells out grand ambitions in clear terms. This is a show that opens with King Lear. A show that makes flagrant use of Shakespeare as a narrative and framing device, but also has the gall to place itself at the center of a grand literary canon.
Once again: urgh. The biggest urgh I can muster.
Three episodes deep I jumped into one of CNET's many Slack channels to unload on the show with my co-workers. It was self-indulgent. It was boring. It took itself way too seriously. It was high on its own supply. It was fundamentally flawed in comparison with a show like, say, Yellowjackets – which masked its own themes of trauma under the guise of a cunning and compelling mystery box show.
"Station Eleven sucks." I think that's what I typed. I was wrong. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Just seven episodes later, at the show's conclusion, I went crawling back to that same office Slack, on my hands and knees, to tell everyone that – actually – Station Eleven is one of the best TV shows I think I've ever seen in my life and that every human being alive should make efforts to watch it.
So pretentious
Jeevan and Kirsten.
Parrish Lewis/HBO Max
My favorite moment in Station Eleven occurs halfway through episode 9.
Jeevan, one of the show's main characters, has been looking after Kirsten, a child actress obsessed with a comic book – the titular Station Eleven. A comic book she carries with her everywhere as she travels in the post-pandemic world. A comic book that gives her hope in desperate circumstances.
After trekking back to their home base, Kirsten realizes she's dropped the comic book in the snow. Frustrated, not quite understanding why it matters, Jeevan angrily stomps back into the wilderness to retrieve it. During the search, a wolf attacks him, mauling him half to death. As he crawls on his hands and knees, fighting for survival in extreme subzero temperatures, he stumbles across the comic book, buried in the snow. In complete agony he begins reading it, before tossing it aside, screaming: "IT'S SO PRETENTIOUS!"
It's an incredibly cathartic moment. To begin with, it's funny! A perfectly timed moment of comedy in the midst of a dark, visceral moment. I laughed out loud. But it's also an acknowledgement, a crystalized moment of self awareness. The show is talking about itself, directly to its audience. Yes, Station Eleven is pretentious. It is a show actively wrestling with big ideas – swinging for the fences, navigating the value of art in a world filled with suffering.
But Station Eleven is also self-aware enough to knowit's asking a lot. Of its audience, of itself as an entertainment product. That's important.
A big ask
Why should we care about a television show? Why should any kind of art matter? In a world where I find myself drifting away from so-called "prestige TV," Station Eleven forced me to ask myself that question.
Recently I've been more likely to consume endless, disposable anime, or binge watch feel-good reality shows like Old Enough and The Great British Bake Off. Given what we've all gone through over the last two or three years, it's been difficult to summon the "big brain energy" required to enjoy a show like Station Eleven. A show that forces us to reckon with big questions and big ideas.
Station Eleven goes in directions you might not expect.
Photograph by Ian Watson/HBO Max
That's precisely why I found Station Eleven so repulsive in the beginning. In the midst of COVID-19, a period of ground-shaking political strife, you're really gonna ask me to engage with a TV show about a traveling troupe of Shakespearean actors performing Hamlet in a post-pandemic wasteland? That's a big ask.
But Station Eleven works because it rules on every possible level. It's as simple as that. It's a well-written show, with great performances and soundtrack that will haunt you long after you've finished watching.
Station Eleven swings for the fences but hits the ball clean. It takes time to deliver on its bold vision, but if you stick through that initial slow burn – fight through that initial repulsion – you'll be rewarded with a show that has nuanced things to say on every "Serious Topic" it dares to broach. This is a show about families – real and inherited. It's a show about the legacy of shared trauma. A show about art as a refuge. If that gives you the ick, I get it. But in a very real universe where we're deep in the wilderness of our own pain and suffering, Station Eleven is as essential as television gets.
Best Chromebook Deals: 9 Picks for Students From Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo and Samsung
Best Chromebook Deals: 9 Picks for Students From Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo and Samsung
Chromebooks have become standard equipment in most US schools, with many school districts now providing them to students. But the district-provided Chromebooks are usually smaller, underpowered models with limited utility. There's only so much you can do on an 11.6-inch display powered by an outdated CPU. Larger Chromebooks with displays in the 12.2-inch to 15.6-inch range and more modern processors are still very affordable. Comparable Windows laptops and MacBooks come with a higher price. And Chromebooks are easy to use, designed with kids in mind and made to be ready to go from the minute it comes out of the box. The Chrome OS software comes preinstalled and is streamlined for user comfort.
Read more:Best Chromebooks for 2022
With the 2022-23 school year getting underway as we reach mid-August, we've gone through and collected a list of the best deals on Chromebooks, with prices starting at $200. Many factors were considered in the compilation of this list, such as cloud storage, battery life, display size, keyboard quality, ease of web browsing, and whether it includes a headphone jack for music or lecture listening and classroom participation. If you want to snag a good deal on the best Chromebooks for the students in your life, look at our picks below. We regularly update this list, so check back for all your Chromebook needs.
Asus
This Asus model is on sale for only $200 right now and features a 14-inch display powered by an Intel Celeron processor and 4GB of RAM. Those are average components for a budget Chromebook, but it adds a bit more storage than usual with 64GB. It has a 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution display for a sharper picture and more workspace than you'd get with the 1,366x768-pixel resolution found on other low-end Chromebooks.
Sarah Tew/CNET
This Samsung Chromebook has a smaller display at 12.2 inches than the other models here, but the touchscreen can rotate 360 degrees into tablet mode so you can play Android games -- once homework is done, of course. The display boasts a sharp 1,920x1,200-pixel resolution and pen support for the included stylus. Inside, the system features an Intel Celeron processor, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
Read our Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 review.
Lenovo
This convertible Chromebook features a 15.6-inch touchscreen that can rotate into tablet mode, and is powered by an eighth-gen Intel Core i3 CPU. It's an older Core i3 than you get in the above Lenovo model, but more powerful than Intel Pentium and Celeron chips commonly found in Chromebooks. The C340 also offers 4GB of RAM and 64GB of flash storage, both average for the price.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Acer's midrange convertible Chromebook, the 14-inch Spin 514, boasts a slim and durable all-metal body and features an AMD Ryzen 3 processor. It's a good middle ground between smaller, 11.6-inch models that might cramp your computing style and larger, 15.6-inch models that you might not want to lug across campus each day. This AMD-based model is on sale right now at Best Buy, but you should know that an Intel model is expected soon that will feature the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard, better video-conferencing capabilities and a more compact enclosure.
Read our Acer Chromebook Spin 514 review.
Lenovo
Did you know that you can get an OLED display on a Chromebook? Lenovo's two-in-one Chromebook Duet 5 is proof that such a thing is possible. It features a detachable, 13.5-inch OLED display with a full-HD resolution powered by an eight-core Qualcomm Snapdragon and 8GB of RAM. It also supplies a 128GB SSD, which is rather spacious for a Chromebook. It's on sale at Best Buy right now with a sizable $120 discount.
Josh Goldman/CNET
This HP Chromebook x360 is a two-in-one convertible powered by a Core i3 chip and a generous 8GB of RAM. It also has a 128GB of eMMC storage, which is bigger than you get with most Chromebooks at this price. The 14-inch display is a widescreen, which means more scrolling through web pages and documents but better for watching movies and viewing two windows side by side. It's $330 off right now at Best Buy.
Josh Goldman/CNET
This Samsung two-in-one Chromebook features an all-metal chassis, which is a step up in both looks and durability from the usual plastic Chromebook fare. It boasts a 13.3-inch, AMOLED touchscreen powered by a 10th-gen Core i3 CPU and 8GB of RAM. It also supplies 128GB of solid-state storage.
When Local Newspapers Fold, Polarization Rises. Here's What You Can Do
When Local Newspapers Fold, Polarization Rises. Here's What You Can Do
Russia's invasion of Ukraine, rising energy costs and our ongoing struggles with the coronavirus pandemic take up a lot of our attention these days. But there's more going on a lot closer to home -- you just might not know it, because your local newspaper is gone.
More than a quarter of hometown newspapers have disappeared in the last century, leaving about 70 million Americans with little or no way to stay informed about their city and county governments, schools or businesses. As the country heads toward the 2022 midterm elections, Americans are increasingly turning to friends and social media to stay informed -- which isn't always trustworthy, as we learned during the 2016 election when around 44% of Americans were exposed to disinformation and misinformation through untrustworthy websites.
"The state of local news in America is dire," said Tim Franklin, senior associate dean of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism and head of the Medill Local News Initiative.
Local journalism isn't just a nice idea. Community newspapers report some of the most important stories in our country. That includes the Boston Globe's 2002 series exposing the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston's sex abuse of minors, Sara Ganim and The Patriot-News' coverage revealing Penn State sex abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky and the Charleston Gazette-Mail's 2017 expose on opioids flooding into West Virginia.
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But for every Pulitzer Prize-winning local journalism story, there are countless more that have served as chroniclers of their communities and watchdogs of the people in power. And when they aren't there, research from the Brookings Institute found there's generally more government waste and fraud.
"When you have less local news, there's various effects, some of which you'd find predictable: lower voting turnout, more corruption, more waste," said Steven Walden, president and co-founder of Report For America, a nonprofit that funds young reporters to work in understaffed newsrooms throughout the US. "There's also evidence that you have more polarization and misinformation."
The journalism industry has been struggling to adapt. Advertising, once a vital part of the newspaper world, has shifted to online. Meanwhile, profit-hungry newspaper owners have chosen to lay off staff and reduce the quality of their products.
Nonprofit organizations have stepped up to support newsrooms in several ways, but ultimately, they live or die by their communities. Many local papers and radio stations depend on individual donations to fund reporting that would never be done by larger publications, covering civic meetings and investigating local issues that lead to exposés which fix injustices. Even simply signing up for and reading local news draws people closer to issues that affect them -- and reinforces what publications do.
"Most of these stories weren't big but they mattered immensely to the residents in a community larger outlets didn't regularly cover," said Greg Yee, now a reporter at the Los Angeles Times, speaking about his year writing for the Farmington Daily Times in Farmington, New Mexico. (Full disclosure: Yee is a former colleague of this article's author.) Stories that stick out from that time include a mobile home park cut off from natural gas in winter and a new gas station opening in a Navajo Nation community, the only fuel access in 30 miles, that significantly improved locals' quality of life.
"A good local news organization is a problem solver: it identifies problems and helps a community come together to solve it," said Penelope Abernathy, visiting professor at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, who heads a site dedicated to mapping news deserts, areas with one or zero local papers. "And a good news organization shows you how you are related to people you may not know you're related to in another part of the county, region or state."
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Long, withering decline
Journalism jobs have been shrinking for decades, driven by declining newspaper circulation and the rise in digital advertising. The news industry's advertising and subscription businesses have roughly halved over the past decade. Much of that money's shifted to Google, Facebook and Amazon, which together now hold 64% of the US online advertising market.
For newspapers, that shift in spending is catastrophic. In the decade after the great recession in 2009, the Pew Research Center found newspaper newsroom employment in the US had dropped by more than half, to about 35,000 workers.
Ironically, the news industry has more readers than ever before – upwards of 10 times as many, according to Danielle Coffey, vice president and general council of the News Media Alliance.
"We don't have a broken product. It's being consumed at exponential rates," she said. "The source of the problem is the revenue problem."
It wasn't always this way.
The founding fathers believed so strongly in newspapers as a public good that they set up government subsidies for postal rates, reducing the cost of distributing the news – which at the time, was delivered on horseback.
In the 1960s and '70s, though, publicly traded paper owners began fixating on profits. To impress shareholders, news organizations conglomerated into big chains that gobbled up local papers into regional networks, said Amanda Lotz, professor of the Digital Media Research Centre at Queensland University.
"The financialization pressure really moves [newspapers] away from the balance between a commercial and public service enterprise of providing news to a community," Lotz said.
Rounds of acquisitions resulted in the gutting of editorial budgets and staff. With fewer reporters, newspapers started relying on national stories published by wire services, a trend that created "ghost papers" that had little or no local content. Meanwhile, the internet became an easy substitution for things online that had until then been exclusive to the paper, like weather, sports scores, classifieds and even news.
Venture capitalists and other financial firms began buying up newspapers in the 1980s but rapidly accelerated in the last two decades, growing to own over 23% of US newsrooms today while wringing out profits with more layoffs.
"Those losses put more strain on already stretched newsrooms and the publications ended up churning through staff," said Yee, who worked for four years at a pair of newspapers owned by hedge fund Alden Global Capital. "All of that translates into worse, inconsistent coverage of the communities they're trying to serve."
As a result, from 2004 until the start of the pandemic in 2020, the US lost a quarter (around 2100) of its newspapers, according to a report from the University of North Carolina's Hussman School of Journalism and Media. By the end of last year, another hundred were gone, Poynter reported, expanding news deserts that are mostly located in financially-impacted rural areas in the country's interior.
Some papers have tried to rely more heavily on subscriptions, while transitioning to mainly digital publishing. Some success stories include the Chattanooga Times Free Press, which has been operating since 1869. Last September, it switched to a daily digital edition and a single print edition on Sunday from a daily print edition. The publication spent $6.1 million to give all its monthly subscribers iPads and train them one-on-one how to use them to access their daily paper, and it's retained subscribers through the transition.
"There are some real success stories in this transition. If you can lower your paper costs and your distribution costs and if you can attract enough digital subscribers, you can support a local newsroom on that. But many local news organizations are still getting a significant chunk of their revenue from print advertising," Medill's Franklin said.
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Legislative fix, maybe
One way the news industry could regain revenue and profit is to seek compensation from big tech platforms. After all, advocates say, Facebook, Google, Twitter make money selling ads next to links, videos and photos published and shared freely to their networks.
Legislators in Australia were the first to pass a law in February 2021 requiring Google and Facebook to negotiate with publishers for compensation to use their work, while France followed with its own legislation shortly thereafter. The latter locked horns with Google before finally securing legal assurance that the search giant would pay local media outlets when they appear in search results. Critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation lament that the Australian and French laws ensured deals for big media publishers at the expense of smaller ones, but that hasn't stopped Canada and the UK from gearing up to pass their own versions.
A version of that idea in the US, called the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, was proposed in March, 2021 by Senators Amy Klobuchar, Rand Paul, Cory Booker, and Lindsey Graham -- a rare bipartisan effort. The bill would allow news organizations to collectively bargain with tech companies for compensation, but hasn't moved out of committee yet.
Another idea to fund journalism Is the Local Journalism Sustainability Act introduced a year ago in the House by Representatives Ann Kirkpatrick and Dan Newhouse. That bill, if it were to become law, would give newsrooms around $50,000 annually in tax breaks to hire reporters. Small businesses, meanwhile, would receive $5,000 for the first year to advertise in local papers, and Americans would get a $250 stipend to pay for news subscriptions. It's unlikely to pass, though, in part because of partisan bickering over other spending plans on Capitol Hill.
"We need to make sure these publications can sustain themselves through this crisis and beyond, and I believe the credits in this bill make significant progress in providing a pathway to that sustainability," Rep. Kirkpatrick said when announcing the bill.
Nonprofit newsrooms
Some news organizations are finding funding beyond ads and subscriptions. Nonprofit foundations and philanthropic organizations are funneling grants and other aid money to newsrooms, including a new wave of nonprofit publications, like ProPublica, which run mostly on foundation and individual donations.
The American Journalism Project is a self-described venture philanthropy firm that to date has raised $90 million to back 32 local nonprofit newsrooms. Founded in 2019, it's also helped launch four more, taking the startup incubation model and applying it to digital newsrooms.
The organization focuses on both funding newsrooms and guiding them toward self-sustainability by diversifying their revenue streams, said Sarabeth Berman, CEO of the American Journalism Project. Newsrooms they've helped grow by around 67% in their first year and are projected to double their revenue in three years.
"Will local news only be nonprofit? No. Is nonprofit news vital for the future of an informed citizenry? We think so," Berman said.
Report For America, founded in 2017, describes itself as a service organization, which helps pair young reporters fresh out of college with legacy newsrooms. The organization financially supports the reporter by paying half their salary (up to $25,000) the first year, then a third (up to $20,000) the following year. After that, it's up to the publication to decide whether to hire them permanently.
"If you're not in New York or Boston or Washington, some of these news organizations have trouble getting people to go out to smaller towns," said Report For America's Waldman. "We have a very significant recruiting operation and are able to create a sort of self-selected group of people who are really passionate about local."
Report For America has grown its graduating class to 130 reporters this year, up from its first class of 13 in 2018 -- to date, over 560 reporters have gone through the program and partnered with local newsrooms. They include Laura Roche of the Charlotte News & Observer writing about the fraught debate over museums returning the unethically sourced remains of Black people, Sierra Clark of the Traverse City Record-Eagle writing about Melissa Isaac and many others in her Anishinaabek Neighbors series, and Brandon Drenon of the Indianapolis Star writing about the NAACP and others criticizing Indiana schools for failing Black students.
Report for America also connects newsrooms with donors in their area in an effort to get the community more involved in funding its local news again.
"Our goal is to actually help change the local business models in a way that they can sustain that," Waldman said.
The nonprofit Knight Foundation pledged to give $300 million to news organizations in 2019, some of which will go to both the American Journalism Project and Report For America, among other nonprofits that in turn support local newsrooms -- efforts that can be seen city by city on this interactive map. The flow of financial support is important for local newsrooms that operate on nonprofit and for-profit models, which are both valuable to their communities, said Jim Brady, vice president of the Knight Foundation's journalism program.
"Nonprofits tend to be more investigative or enterprise in nature, and the for-profits tend to provide more information on how consumers can live their daily lives. So we think both must be part of the answer to how local news can thrive," Brady said.
An infographic from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media's project website, The Expanding News Desert, headed by Penelope Abernathy.
UNC Hussman
What to do if you don't have local journalism
News experts have advice for what to do if you live in a news desert, with little or no coverage. First on the list: Stop thinking that social media posts are an informative replacement for reporting. Social media can help people know what's going on, but it's rife with bias and misinformation.
"There's a proliferation of misinformation and disinformation that goes unchecked because there's no local journalist checking on the facts. [Social media is] a place where unvetted gossip can get spread," Franklin said.
People need to learn to spot misinformation that's spread on social media by publications that look like they're trustworthy but aren't. Both the World Health Organization and the Poynter Institute have their own free online courses to learn how to fact-check posts yourself -- not just to spot fake news, but also to understand the agenda behind why they're spreading in the first place.
In the voids left by local papers, citizen journalists and bloggers have stepped up to provide their communities with informative coverage, but they lack the oversight and vetting a newsroom provides. For lack of better options, a citizen reporter could start a site on Substack and write about local events, Franklin suggested.
The best thing to do is to reach out to regional papers the next town over and request coverage. You can find your nearest local or regional paper on Newspapers.com or NewspaperMap.com. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a station finder site too, and if you're a fan of National Public Radio, you can sign up to become a member of your local station in order to help support it. It isn't a perfect solution for an existing newsroom to stretch to cover another area, but is far better than starting a new local publication from scratch.
But if your community decides to launch a new publication, organizing it as a nonprofit newsroom is a successful way to go. They rely on donations -- foundation support and individual giving account for a combined 83% of nonprofit revenue, according to the Institute of Nonprofit Newsrooms' 2021 Index. And that model is working: 83 of the over 400 nonprofit newsrooms affiliated with INN are less than five years old.
Then there's nonprofit newsroom Berkeleyside, which hosted the so-called first 'direct public offering' where it solicited a combined $1 million in funding from 355 of its readers (an average of $2,816 per person) in 2018 to get started. These are technically securities, but sold directly to its readers, and the publication continues to publish today. It's one of many ways newsrooms are innovating new ownership structures to stay solvent.
"We need to get more support from communities, from local community foundations, from national media foundations and from high net-worth individuals to help make local news sustainable in all areas of the country," Brady said.
Correction, June 28: The original version of this story incorrectly stated how many reporters were in Report For America's first graduating class. Its first graduating class of reporters was in 2018 and had 13 members.
